Heart Sutra

Li Wenbin gained his fame in his childhood, and has been engaged in calligraphy for more than three decades. His works are very popular in Sichuan, are favored and collected by collectors throughout China, and have even been spread to Japan, the United States, and Europe. He learned calligraphy from the famous contemporary Sichuan calligrapher Bai Shuyun, and formed his own style later. In recent ten years, all his calligraphy exhibitions have been very successful, and nearly sold out all the works.

Distinctly different from the works of his previous exhibitions focusing on poetry and songs, on this exhibition are extracts from a variety of sutras, such as the Heart Sutra, the Diamond Sutra, the Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch, and the Avatamsaka Sutra.

He said that the transition from poetry and songs to sutras is but a beginning of change in the content of his future creation. In recent years, he began to reflect on his calligraphy career, but he found that although he had participated in various exhibitions and held several exclusive exhibitions, a systematic presentation of traditional Chinese culture was absent, or if there is any, it is fragmentary.

On reflection, he realized that he should not only present his calligraphy but also traditional Chinese culture systematically. In his opinion, in times when traditional culture is rather declining, more people will be interested in traditional culture and benefit from it due to their love for calligraphy if traditional culture is presented widely and systematically via calligraphy.

Therefore, Mr. Li is planning to systematically present Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, and so on in his future exhibitions. The reason why he started with Buddhism is that he has always had great admiration for Buddhism, and got to know many eminent monks. He has benefited a lot from Buddhism and the eminent monks. For example, his works have been greatly influenced by the teachings from the sutra that one should not be obsessed with things, from which he learned to jump out of the box and strive to pursue greater progress and the harmony of his mind and his writing, instead of following suit and settling down.

Furthermore, together on exhibition are an array of calligraphy works on pottery created on an exclusive trip to Yunnan several months ago. These works, all bearing Mr. Li’s calligraphy, were carved, filled, and fired with elaboration by famous local pottery artists, and each piece is unique. These calligraphy works on pottery are tea wares: tea pots, tea cups, tea bowls, and tea boxes. In his opinion, the combination of calligraphy and useful and valuable pottery exposes people to sutras while using and appreciating these tea wares.

Mr. Li admitted that he had benefited enormously from this systematic copying of sutras: while he was writing, the words were engraved in his mind, things which used to trouble him just vanished, leaving him in peace and quiet. Probably this is the charm of classics. According to Mr. Li, the heritage of Buddhist classics is extraordinary, and copying them with writing brush makes a great difference.

As for Mr. Li, this is meaningful writing. Would our collectors, viewers find something meaningful?

                                           Baishui, Chengdu, November, 2017