Born in the early 1960s, Liping Zheng stands out from the many gifted artists in today’s Chinese painting circle. His work, since the mid-1990s, has brought a new vibrancy to traditional Chinese painting. Although he never enrolled in art school and was busy with his demanding management affairs, his sense-writing flower-bird painting demonstrated a uniquely remarkable talent and accomplishment.   The secret of his success is an unmistakable mastery of the cultural essence of traditional Chinese painting. He frees himself from the constraint of the figuration school of realism art which has dominated art school education in China since the early twentieth century, especially since 1949. This allows him to proceed directly into “the holy land of the spirit essence of Buddha Tathagata.” Zheng began his study of the traditional masters with the spirit of time progression, adapting their philosophy, and developing their practice in their explorations. Consequently, he embarked on the lofty task of pursuing a more sophisticated platform, devoting his effort in the direction opposite to the then dominating realism art. This was why he achieved excellence even in the early days of his journey as an artist.
 
The cultural essence of traditional Chinese painting rests on a foundation of Chinese literati philosophy embedded in classic Chinese literati painting. In ancient China, there were both professional painters and literati painters. The former painted for a living focusing more on skill. In most cases, they lacked significant cultural accomplishments. They often worked under constraints from their patrons which prevented them from exercising many creative liberties. The literati were raised and educated to become achievers and devote themselves to society while embodying lofty ideologies. For them, painting is merely a noble and sophisticated hobby through which they would express their cultural accomplishment, talent, and vision through their philosophy, emotion, feelings, and passion. Existing methodologies do not usually restrict them. As a result, successful literati painters with high cultural accomplishment and talent, developed new boundaries of beauty in traditional Chinese painting.
 
I knew Liping Zheng in 1996 when he held his first solo exhibition in the China Art Museum (Beijing). Four years later, he had his second solo exhibition in the same venue. During that time, he was a government official in the municipalities of Nanshan, Shenzhen, and then Yunfu, in Guangdong.  The hustle and bustle of administration affairs never hindered his passion to express himself with his brush. He devoted all his spare time to his art creation. At that time, he mainly adopted the methodology of “making our own way through learning from history,” which has been the tradition developed by historic masters. In his art works, the poem is the soul, calligraphy is the bone. In terms of the way he paints, he bravely “opens” and confidently “echoes” his expressions of feeling and passion without any constraint. This creates a wonderful straightforward means of expression with his ink and brush. This is the essence of the spirit of “sense-writing.” This reminds me of the famous Buddhist statement from Shitao, which     extolled the talent of the historic art master Zhuda in titling Zhu’s painting: “Those who came from the main entrance cannot be real precious ones.” The great achievement in the art journey of Liping Zheng is that he is a true accomplished literati artist, without methodological constraint, as compared to those from the “main entrance.”
Since then, we met occasionally. I often see publications announcing his new artwork and even his Christmas cards in the Holy Month of every year. Both have enhanced my understanding of his art. I’ve had my comment published with his art: Liping’s painting is rich in spiritual essence with his vitality. His brush stroke is passionate, and his ink is carefree. He magically integrates the essence of both figuration and abstraction, pursuing his sense of beauty from and beyond objects he painted, melding his soul with the world around him. He focuses on the technique of calligraphy, emphasizes poetic grace, and prioritizes moral character in his art creation.  Whatever he painted, he would be nourished by these historic masters, not under constraint from them. In particular, he successfully digests the spiritual essence of Wu Changshuo, and Huang Binghong, and is nurtured by Nature to develop his own methodology and sense of beauty.  His art journey is based on the interaction of his soul and the subjective world around him. He expresses his passion and understanding of the world through his brush, which is the cultural essence of traditional Chinese sense-writing painting. 
Aside from the points I have mentioned regarding the spirit of sense-writing, there are three more, I strongly believe, that demonstrate the connection and heritage of Liping’s art from traditional literati painting. First, he has been advocating and practicing “self-accomplishment before skill.” He focuses highly on broadening his mind and vision, developing his personal accomplishment and the cultural component of his works. Second, he has been emphasizing the quality of his brush stroke and the use of ink as the lifeline of his art. This is reflected in his publication On the Appreciation of Traditional Chinese Painting. Lastly, he devoted significant attention to the study of historic masters to sharpen his eye and enhance his skill. This also brings him nourishment from history.
Liping Zheng was previously a successful bureaucrat with a spirit of innovation and reform. He has an outstanding academic background with a PhD in economics. He earned his MBA at Harvard with a full scholarship in his early years. He published An Economics Analysis of Corruption to unmask rent-seeking, which was a pioneer influential study in China at that time.  About ten years ago, perhaps because of his genetic thirst for freedom, he quit politics and returned to his professional life as a principal urban development specialist at the Asian Development Bank in Manila.  Transferring to Manila, he became even more passionate in his art creation. We visited him in Manila this year, and had an opportunity to review many of his recent works. We also had a retreat in Sonya’s Garden, which is one of his favorite places, in the Manila area, for sketching. We are deeply impressed by the significant progress in his art journey.
Before transferring to Manila, Liping’s painting journey can be divided into the Nanshan and Yunfu Periods. In the Nanshan Period, he mainly focused on studying historic masters and learning through his highly sensitive artistic feelings. He also devoted time to allow for extensive experience sharing with friends in his art circle. He studied the great masters of the twentieth century such as Wu Changshuo, Qi Baishi, Pan Tianshou, and also Xu Wei, Zhu Da from a more ancient art period. The stroke of his brush and the way he uses ink is extremely brave and confident with an overwhelming broadened feeling which unveils the vitality and prosperity of his works.  Through the Yunfu Period, he studied not only Huang Binhong’s art works but also his painting theory, entitled, Painting Theory of Huang Binhong. He always catches the special feeling of objects and scenery during his field visits, even while traveling inside his car, melding the feeling of Nature’s beauty into his works. His style is characterized with richness in three dimensions: easiness, calm, and ethereal.
 
With his new professional life in Manila, he has fortunately escaped from the hectic and taxing administration routine. His new physical and mental environment, characterized by a tranquil environment with abundant fauna in a sunny and colorful landscape, and the tropic oceanic climate, creates new emotions leading to a further understanding of Chinese culture in a cross-cultural background. The colorful Philippines stimulates his feelings and expands his experiences of beauty. During this period, he sharpened his sketching and enhanced his study of historic masters. By studying the work of Zhu Qizhan, one of the few twentieth century artists who have successfully integrated the skill and sense of beauty of Western oil painting with traditional Chinese painting, Liping has learned to master his skill and sense of beauty using a rich palette.  He has also effectively studied Dong Qichan and Wang Yuanqi, the classic mainstream artists who have experienced consistent criticism since the early 20^th century, and did not focus on the flower-and-bird topic.  Liping, inspired by art theory study, has also been inspired by Dong and Wang’s feeling of “raw elegance”, that is “light while rich, solid, clear and fresh” and “seeking surprising beauty from peaceful and calm expression.” His diligent efforts provide significant momentum in his art exploration and expands the boundary of beauty in his works.
 
During this period, Liping’s art works can be categorized into two types. The first is whole-scenery with luxuriant plants and flowers, mainly in a large dimension. This work is characterized by richness in space arrangement. Its three dimensions, with vivid and abundant plants and flowers, dance under the sunshine. In contrast to traditional whole-scenery painting, they have a wider and deeper sense of beauty, such as can be seen in his works Interlude of Memories (2010), Blossoming to the Sky (2011), Sunshine in Luzon (2011), Jade (2016) and, Vivid Fragrance (2017). Appreciating these works evokes the feeling of a fully blossoming tropical garden in Southeast Asia.
The second category is “zooming-in” without a definite format. These works are created through different artistic combinations of several traditional structures, such as “branched flower,” “clustered flowers” and “potted flower.”  This “zooming-in” provides an opportunity to appreciate detailed beauty up close with a diverse and vivid feeling.  Some are vigorous and rich with rugged beauty while others are peaceful, fresh, and elegant. They are either romantic and untrammeled, or splendid and brilliant with exaggerated rich and heavy color, or full of fresh and ethereal charm with “one branch and half leaf.” No matter what style he uses in his expression, all his works are filled with uplifting vitality and the spiritual influence of humanity. This is well-reflected in his works, Returning Spring (2012), Above the Entrance (2012), Red Cloud (2015), Belle (2016), and Endless Spring (2017).
Analyzing his two kinds of works carefully, we find that he is striding forward confidently with his vision based on the achievement of his two early periods. His works have three prominent characters. First,  he fully embeds his passion and his love of Nature in his sketching. Sketching his flower-and-bird painting means expressing the soul of objects in a traditional literati way, which is in sharp contrast with the sketching of merely objectively depicting objects in general, in the dominating realism style of the modern school of art. The former is always a creative  way to reach far beyond while the latter only applies to both objective and figuration. Liping successfully integrates traditional sketching with art creation, cultivating his art creation with sketching. He paints with great passion and expresses his special feeling and his fervent love for Nature, which embeds the soul to his works. In the Returning Spring (2012), he arranges a wild apricot tree blossoming in front of a pristine green mountain, creating the feeling of “width and depth.” Sad Buffalo (2016) leaves out parts of the animal to accentuate the suspicion of the old buffalo from its skeptical eyes, which shows Liping’s doubt regarding the propaganda about the economy and his sense of humor.
With inspiration from traditional sketching, his works are characterized by highly-extractive sense-writing, which is far from the “vague and general” effect of some vulgar traditional sense-writing works criticized by Zheng Banqiao. Adopting the painting skills of his predecessors, he enriches this artistic language through sketching and the observation of Nature. He expresses his distinctive emotion and wisdom inspired by the passionate landscape and objects on his tropical island. This is partially demonstrated in the interesting titles of his art works, such as Blossoming to the Sky (2011), Seeking Sunshine in Luzon (2011), Romantic Cherry Blossom (2012), Dancing in Paradise (2012), Fairy Plum Blossom (2016), Sapphire (2016), Endless Spring (2017), Winning (2016, cock fighting), and Flying Dragon (2016).
His second character is that he creates his unprecedented technique with his own bottom line. Unprecedented means that he breaks through the conventional methodology. Predicated on an unyielding sense-writing and literati language of brush-and-ink, he successfully establishes his own language of expression through restructuring traditional methodology and absorbing its literati essence based on his distinct sense of beauty. This is the wisdom of Zen Buddhism of “Bone from father, while flesh from mother.” Liping distinguishes himself from others, from ancient history to modern times, through the way he uses his brush and ink, color, and the special arrangement of three dimensions. At first glance, his works look very casual presenting a feeling of “disregard, or the lack of restraint from existing methodology.” Examining his works more deeply, we conclude that he is very successful in establishing his own means of expression through integrating the essence of other artists. You cannot feel that he has any fixed methodology or any constraint from history. However, every detail of his expression is sensible and with great passion, which significantly enriches the language he uses to express himself with his brush.
To enrich his expression, he also adopts methodology from landscape painting. While he is well known as a flower-and-bird painting artist, Liping’s achievement in landscape painting is also remarkable. In his new work, Sailing in Spring River (2016), he successfully integrates the techniques of Huang Binhong and Zhu Qizhan. This work is full of rugged elegance while incorporating fluid beauty with the richness of color and ink, leaving free and ample room for flight and imagination. His elegance is embedded in the rugged stroke of his brush; the great charm is from the beauty of “the feeling of uncarved.” In terms of his stroke, the way he handles his brush is very relaxed, which creates an enchanting fluid beauty from his rugged stroke, with continuing feeling from discontinuous lines, embellished moisture from dryness, and straightness from curvatures. He makes full use of different types of inks, called “seven-inks” and gives great attention to the interaction and supplement between ink and color, the infiltration of water, ink, color, and used-water.  The application of used-water and light ink dot as a background for his works always creates a feeling of overwhelming, free, and ample room for flight and imagination. Everything described above enhances his expression of sense-writing.
Liping is particularly good in “color-accumulation.” He always expresses a strong feeling of light by accumulating heavy and rich colors in the upper parts and bright ones in the lower, in picturesque disorder. He creates a feeling of “against-the-ray,” making it appear as though the strong light is from behind the flower cluster. This is an innovation in use of color through extending the traditional skill of ink-accumulation. His works, such as Holly Land (2015), Joyful Autumn (2015), and Red Cloud (2015), etc., create an embellished visual effect of sunny and fresh, with elegant moisture, resulting in an exquisite and vivid feeling combined with an overwhelming invitation for imagination.
The third character is about his boundaries of beauty. It includes both subjective feeling and objective beauty, which are closely related to each other. Regarding the expansion of the boundary of beauty in sense-writing, Liping Zheng has been seeking diversification of beauty without any fixed style. His works cover a vast variety of feeling from vigorous and rich in three-dimensions with rugged beauty, that is fresh and elegant, to romantic and flowing with unrestrained charm.  Yet, he always successfully accommodates diversified beauty in one work, while different works have their own pursuit. This leads to the magical integration and contrast of different kinds of beauty, which range between rugged and unconstrained, tranquil, and peaceful - between rich in three dimensions and dissipating - between heavy-colored and relaxed, ease, light expression - and between raw and dainty. With creation, his works are full not only of magnificence but with implicit charm in rhyme, not only colorful but truly ethereal. It gives the beholder a feeling of both the sparkle and translucence of a ruby and sapphire under sunshine and the faintly discernable in light mist and breeze, which creates a magical sense far beyond the objects themselves.
Liping insists that the development of traditional Chinese painting should be based on a deep understanding of the traditional language of brush-and-ink. Development means new painting of objects in a diversified manner, focusing on other ways of expression and expanding the boundaries of beauty derived from the traditional quality of ink-and-brush. Since he transferred to Southeast Asia, he has been continuously exploring this direction while focusing on his art philosophy. He proceeds with his understanding of space, form, and the quality of brush-and-ink without intentional effort, yet opening new boundaries of beauty. With his refined quality of brush-and-ink, he avoids sliding into the murky figuration school of realism art. He maintains a distance between the conventional way of expression and the conventional sense of beauty, nourished by passions derived from his sketching. He sensitively grasps the moment of being “emotionally-touched” by Nature, which makes his ink and color shine with his soul. He has never been in a hurry to extend any effort to build his personal style or format.  Instead, he proceeds in his own direction to explore his sense of beauty in an unruffled way. I strongly believe that this artist, Liping Zheng, who is still young, will surely have even more splendid achievements as a consequence of his continued efforts and explorations.