云中美人雾里山—— 序为《黄山神韵》摄影集

黄山形胜，驰名中外。峰峦叠峙、奇峰峭拔，溪壑纵横、巍峨奇特，云蒸霞蔚、气势恢宏。七十二峰各显异彩，大小主次相得益彰。主峰雄踞、群峰环顾，布局严谨、错落有致，劲松插云、苍劲多姿，云海幻变、神秘莫测，妙趣天成、气象万千，构成了绝世无双的黄山胜境。无数文人、墨客和游人为之赞美，为之讴歌。徐霞客曾写下：“登黄山天下无山，观止矣！”又流传着“五岳归来不看山，黄山归来不看岳”的千古名句。众多艺林高手，情系黄山，谱写了脍炙人口的传世名篇。这里，哺育了“新安画派”、“黄山画派”这样一批艺坛群体，蕴育着像渐江、石涛、黄宾虹等一批艺术大师。当代艺术巨匠刘海粟、傅抱石、张大千、潘天寿、李可染、赖少其等，均多次亲历其境、目染其景、心领其神，写下了不朽名篇。张大千旅居巴西时，怀念祖国，于1954年写下：“三作黄山径顶行，年来烟雨谙晴明，平生几度秋风履，尘满苔痕梦中情。”以抒怀念故地之情。可见黄山感人至深。

我的同窗好友刘传炎先生，情系黄山，毕生与之为伴，心诚志挚，不懈地观察、体验、探索、认识，以其广阔的视野，独特的视角和艺术语言，如痴如醉地爱慕并追寻着黄山美的真谛。以其特有的审美情趣，用相机去摄取黄山灵秀的风光秀色。堪称硕果累累，今辑册《黄山神韵》问世，可喜可贺！

刘勰在《文心雕龙》中讲：“登山则情满于山，观海则意溢于海。”说明艺术创作首要的条件是“情”和“意”。我的老同学刘传炎从20世纪50年代就决心以黄山为题材，从事艺术创作半个多世纪，数十年如一日，以山为伴，情同亲人，对黄山的魂魄有着深入的了解，故能对它的丰富多彩，大胆吸收和运用绘画的理论、技法、立意和情趣，在摄影作品中显现出诗情画意，这是他的作品与众不同之处。如《伟峰晓生烟》、《万壑云烟》，都含有浓郁的中国水墨画的气韵和意境，从章法墨色到线条等皆运用得淋漓尽致，将黄山凝重、浑厚、虚实相生的境界通过单纯黑白效果，跃然纸上，宛似一幅泼墨写意山水。又如《北海苍劲》一作，取山之一角，让观者能联想到山势之险峻、峰峦之奇特，予人以无限遐想。《云海壮山河》以广阔的视野，滚滚的云浪，表现出山河广袤浩瀚，磅礴之势。《春泛仙女峰》、《一峰独秀》，则又是另一种风格，在云淡风清的烟霭中，“寥寥几笔”勾画出山峰之清秀素雅：以少胜多而引人入胜。

宋代米芾画山，人称“米氏云山”，意思是说米氏之所以捕捉到了灵山之神韵在乎其绘画之“山”者“云山”也。摄影、绘画虽门类不同，但传达给观者的美感是相同的。他紧紧地抓住云的变化，烘托出黄山之伟、之奇、之美。其作品中所表现云雾之山，大多显露峰尖朦胧、奇石隐现，或是崖的局部，皆让人感受到的仍是雄伟矗立、气势宏大的伟峻之峰，波澜壮阔的恢宏场面。作品中的云雾松石和霞光，无不显露出美的异彩。王国维说：“言气质，言神韵，不如言境界。有境界，本也。”我观刘传炎摄影作品，能感受到他摄影艺术所体现的境界。其摄影之所以有境界，在于画面传达给观者的宁静，“宁静致远”；也在于其悠远的空间，“空灵”。宋代苏东坡曾有“静故了群动，空故纳万景”之句。

如果说自然中黄山之美在于它秀峰叠峙，危崖突石，幽壑纵横之间层雾积云穿行其中，使得它气韵生动。刘传炎摄影之美就在于他除了将此美景摄住外，更将云之色——白，留住了，计白当黑，既是黄山之云又是构成画面的要素，包含黄山而胜之，意境全出。画家潘天寿云：“画事以得墨韵神情为难。”而传炎的摄影作品中能看出画面的韵味，这是对美的感悟。

传炎作品的另一个突出之处，在于画面中有一股“清气”。“何必丝与竹，山水有清音。”“沧浪之水清兮，可以濯吾缨。”佛家讲清净，道家讲清澄，儒家讲清明。一个“清”字，凝聚了中国文化的平淡天真的诗化性悟。从传炎的作品中看到的意境，有飘逸、有荒寒、有绮丽，但最根本的一个特征，是清莹透明的美。是作者对大自然中明净、清澄之美有着一种生命般的默契。是从作品中透射出作者“光明洞彻”的性情，是属于大自然生命中的美质。

晚明黄汝亨给姚之素的《黄山记》写小引曾说：“我辈看名山，如看美人，颦笑不同情，修约不同体，坐卧徒倚不同境，其状千变。”说明同一景色，而意境迥异，何况融万趣于神思的黄山更是丰富多彩。不同的作者，可以驱山走海，取江山无尽，收千里风光于一卷，千岩万壑，层峦叠嶂，令人俯仰其间，赞天地之宏伟，惊造化之雄奇。有的取景一角，有显有露，虚无之中，显现其神，令人见之倾倒。

今见传炎老同学的影集问世，为之振奋。蜚声中外的黄山仙境，在他摄影之中更加妖娆，其无与伦比的天姿神态更为动人，令人陶醉。阅读《黄山神韵》悦目赏心，令我大有重游黄山之兴奋和愿望。

传炎已是“红树间疏黄”的古稀之年，能留下我们这一代人的业绩，值得称颂。现代摄影艺术已是大发展、大普及的年代，科学之突飞猛进，极大地丰富了摄影器材和新技术的发展，尤其数码技术的应用，必然要促进摄影事业新的兴盛，后来者定会居上。祝愿老同学佳作层出不穷！是为序。

肖 峰

2006年5月于西湖桂雨山居

本文原是作者为刘传炎《黄山神韵》影集所作序文。

肖峰，当代著名油画家，中国美术家协会副主席，全国政协委员，原浙江美术学院院长（现中国美术学院）。1995年荣获法国“对人类科学文化有突出贡献勋章”，1999年获“俄罗斯普希金勋章”。

Mountain in The Fogs, Beauty in the Clouds Preface for THE VERVE OF HUANG SHAN photograph collection

Huang Shan is a very remarkable place of interest which is world widely known for her all kinds of special peaks, clouds, valleys and plants. She has her seventy-two peaks each makes its own picture. This natural art gallery has attracted many men of letters and artists:Xu Xiake, the famous Chinese geographer of the Ming Dynasty, once said “Huang Shan makes the other mountains look pale”, and“Having visited the Five Mounts, you lose your interest in other mountains and having visited Huang Shan. you lose interest in the Five Mounts. ” This mountain has also nursed the Xin’an School and Huang Shan School of the traditional Chinese painting, and masters like Jian Jiang, Huang Binhong and Shi Tao. At present artistic celebrities like Liu Haisu, Fu Baoshi, Zhang Daqian, Pan Tianshou, Li Keran and Lai Shaoqi also like to visit Huang Shan and have left priceless works. When Zhang Daqian moved to Brazil the leaving produces in him the home sick sensation. He wrote that “I topped Huang Shan for three times, sometimes in sunshine or sometimes in rain, I ’ve been so many places, in my dream it’s only there. ’’

Liu Chuanyan and me were once schoolmates and have been friends all these years. I knew his deep love for Huang Shan and for art. He has been always hold his warm heart for artistic creation and spent several decades of his lifetime with Huang Shan. I’d like to congratulate him on the publication of his artistic photos collection THE VERVE OF HUANG SHAN.

Liu Xie once wrote in his great art theory book WEN XIN DIAO LONG:“Never climb a mountain without enthusiasm,never enjoy an ocean without inspiration. ” That means when it comes to creation, you need excitement for it. My friend Liu Chuanyan has decided to devote his lifetime to Huang Shan since the 50th and for almost these fifty years he never gave up study in Huang Shan. So today we can see from his works he find the unique beauty of Huang Shan and add much conventional Chinese painting element in his photographic creation. For example, in the photos of “Peaks in Morning Clouds” and “Valleys in the Clouds”, the wash-like light in black and white mountain curves and the sense of the fullness has the feature of the Chinese traditional painting. And in another work ‘‘The Northern Sea’’ he chose to shoot only a corner of the mountain, which gives the readers room of imagination about the further beauty inside the valleys. “Ocean of the Clouds” records the greatness wide view of the whole mountain in the white, while ‘‘Virgin Peak in Spring’’ and‘‘Lonely Beauty” possess another style with the concision of the 1ines which show the essence of the objects rather than dense colors or complex lines.

In Song Dynasty there was an artist called Mi Fu who was known for his “Mi’s Cloud Mountain”. He liked to paint Huang Shan in the clouds under different kinds of weathers. Huang Shan in his paintings are usually dimly clouded with slightly the cliff or rocks exposed in a magnificent panorama in light and shadow. Although the painting and the photography are not exactly the same, as artistic creation they share some common rules that is to delivering the sense of peacefulness. Wang Guowei wrote: “Nothing is more important than having a wide range of scope, as of understanding and perception for an artist, because that’s where the creation comes from. ’’ This compass, as far as I ’m concerned, is the essence of all Liu Chuanyan’s creative works. The tranquility inside comes from the sense of the etherealness given to the readers by the works. The traditional Chinese artists have always appreciated the etherealness. In Song dynasty Su Dongpo wrote that “one in still can feel the moves, and the empty picture can have all the views”.

Huang Shan has her unique beauty. The secret hidden in Liu’s works to reveal the beauty is the use of the color of white. White is the color of the clouds. He uses the color as a supplement and the background to the whole picture. Famous painter Pan Tianshou once pointed out that the most difficult thing in painting was the use of the color. In this aspect we can see Liu Chuanyan’s extraordinary taste in art.

Another point we should value is the limpidity in his works. Like the old sayings that “With no need of having musicians nature has its own clean music’’ and ‘‘How wonderfully fair the ocean water is and I'd like to be cleaned in it”. The Buddhism and the Taoism, which are the main parts of the Chinese philosophy, both emphasize limpidity in their theories. We can see this kind of innocent modesty in the photos, the beauty of limpidity. Of course it comes from the photographer’s personal taste of beauty. Like his personality, his works are simple, full and internally rich.

In the late Ming Dynasty, in the preface Huang Ruheng wrote for Yao Zhisu’s HUANG SHAN, he wrote: “We enjoy the charm of the mountain is just like we see a beautiful lady, the smile and frowning, the dresses and the behaviors are always different. ’’ He pointed out that for the same mountain it appears various views. And according to different artists, the same Huang Shan can be recorded in thousands kinds of beauties.

Today I feel so heart stirring seeing the publication of the works collection of my old schoolmate. It’s great fun to read his photos and it reminds me how much Huang Shan attracted me.

Chuanyan is already in his seventies. I’m so glad to see the harvest of our generation. Nowadays the photography makes progress rapidly, especially the digital technology is simulative to the development of the camera equipments. The following generations must exceed us. I sincerely hope that my old schoolmate will provide us with more shots of the beautiful mountain Huang Shan.

Xiao Feng

In Xi Lake, Gui Yu Mount house

May, 2006

(From a poem of Army Commander Ye Tjng’s)