中国的古典名著《西游记》，以唐朝的玄藏去西天取佛经为素材，描绘了唐僧与三个动物化身的徒弟孙悟空、猪八戒、沙和尚一路过关斩妖的故事，其中给猪八戒的绰号是“呆子”。为什么偏偏把“呆子”的绰号给并不呆板的猪八戒呢？这里有一个价值的判断，贯穿了中国人对猪的一些看法。事实上，在中国人的眼里，猪一直是懒惰、愚蠢的象征，骂人的脏话中就常有猪的形象，比如像猪一样懒，像猪一样蠢等等。可见，猪在过去中国人的心目中并不是什么受欢迎的动物。
张继生以猪的形象来确立他的绘画语言，我不清楚他的思想初衷。但据他自己介绍，是因为偶尔在一本杂志上看到猪了的形象，觉得好玩，于是便产生了想画的冲动。如果说是好玩使张继生看上了猪的形象，那么，绝不是因为猪本身有什么好玩之处，而是张继生赋予的一种内涵。艺术家总有着一双发现的眼睛，能从表面的形式中看出精神的内容。事实上，张继生表现猪的形象并不是简单地刻画猪，而是以猪来拟人，揶揄人的某些荒诞。正如他曾以画人物肖像的手法描绘过一段时期猪的肖像一样。猪，作为一个并不怎么上相的动物，恰恰提供了张继生一个看人的角度。通过这个角度，张继生不仅看出了好玩，而且也从好玩中得到了某种思想包袱的解脱。
的确，相对于人的世界而言，猪的世界要简单得多，也自然得多。它们不仅没有人类社会的尔虞我诈，也没有那么多的文化束缚，更不会因为文化的差异而引起反目与纷争。正是这样一些不同，使张继生从猪的身上看到了好玩，看到了文明在某些时候的困境。他后来的作品，把猪作为一个旅游观光者的身份确立起来，一会儿去了纽约的自由女神像，一会儿到了巴黎的埃非尔铁塔，一会儿又回了北京的故宫，等等。诸如此类，无非都是想借着猪的无拘无束来打破某种文化的障碍，摄取自由自在的心境。
它者是自己的镜子。早在古希腊的哲学源头，人们便确立了这样一个认识的尺度。事实上，人类在认识自己的历程中，一直都在参照于其它事物，包括各种各样的动物。中国自古就有十二生肖的比拟。以动物来拟人，其实，也是人对包括自己在内的动物世界的一种发现，当然也就离不开人的主观意识与时代要求。最近，互联网上有一份调查很有意思，有人把《西游记》中几个动物化身的主人翁排列出来，让读者依次挑选出最喜欢和最不喜欢的秩序。不想，喜欢的最多提名是猪八戒，而不喜欢的最多提名却是孙悟空。由此可见，人的认识也是随着环境的变化所不断改变的。对于生活在今天文明秩序下的现代人而言，猪八戒的慵懒与滑稽的确能够成为一种肉体的放松与思想的解脱……从这里，我也就似乎明白了张继生在绘画中表现猪的意图，大概与互联网上的那份调查同出一辙吧。
2006.8.8于通州
Liberate Heavy Body of Human
----On Zhang Jisheng’s Paintings
By Yang Wai
Pilgrimage to the West, a classic novel of China, tells a story that Monk Xuanzang in the Tang Dynasty and his 3 disciples - Monkey King, Pig Bajie and Friar Sand, passed tests and killed demons on their way to pilgrimage, during which Pig Bajie was nicknamed as “idiot”. Why, since Pig Bajie was not foolish at all? There is a Chinese value judgment. In the eyes of the Chinese, pig is the symbol of laziness and stupidity, and one is insulted when assessed “as lazy as a pig” or “as stupid as a pig”, etc. Traditionally, pigs are unwelcome to the Chinese.
Zhang Jisheng uses pigs as his language of painting. I have no clue of his original intent. But he himself said that he had seen a certain pig in a magazine and found it funny, so he wanted to paint it. Fun made Zhang turn to pig? No, it is not about the pig itself, but a meaning given by Zhang. Artists always have eyes of seeing through forms to spirits. In fact, Zhang paints not pig but people, or pig in people. He has for a time painted portraits of pigs in the same way as painting people’s. The far-away-from-pretty pigs gave him a perspective of seeing people, in which he found fun AND relief from some burdens on mind.
Really, pigs’ world is much more simple and natural than people’s. There is not that much cheating on each other or so many cultural binds as in human society. Pigs never quarrel or fight for cultural differences. Such gaps between human and pig may be where Zhang found fun and civilization dilemma of certain times. His later paintings made pigs tourists visiting Goddess of Freedom in New York, Eiffel Tower in Paris, or the Imperial Palace back in Beijing, etc.. Unconstraint pigs were meant to break some cultural barriers and gain footloose mood.
Others mirror one’s self. That is a self-knowledge way originating from Ancient Greece philosophy. Humans are always referring to other things, animals included, to know ourselves. China has its Twelve Zodiacs, a trope of people. That is also a finding about human and one’s inner world of animals, mirroring human awareness and the era’s
requirements.
By the way, there was a funny survey over Internet. Navigators were asked to rank main roles (or animals) in Pilgrimage to the West from the favorable to the least favorable. Can you imagine it? Pig Bajie won most votes as the favorable, and Monkey King was opposite. It is clear that the judgment of people changes with the environment. For modern people living in today’s civilization and order, laziness and humor of Pig Bajie can give relaxation in body and freedom in mind. I guess the intent of Zhang in his pig paintings might be the same as that of the survey.
At Tongzhou, Beijing
On August 8, 2006