The Mission of Real-Name Landscape Painting: Beginning with the Sunlight of Longtan Waterside

Long Xuming，Chair, City Photography League (CPL)

It is said that nearly two billion yuan were spent to “build” Chengdu’s Longtan Waterside,
yet today it stands deserted, with few visitors passing through its gates.
From a business perspective, it seems to be a failed case.
But for painters, it is undoubtedly a fully equipped “painting base” built for you with enormous investment.

After sketching from Baiyun Temple in Xinjin to Wuhou Shrine in Chengdu on the thirtieth of last month,
the sun shone brightly again in Chengdu on February 1.
I had not planned to go out and intended to sit at my desk to write,
but urged on by the radiant sunlight, my heart simply could not settle down.
By noon, I made a firm decision: go.

Where to go and paint then became a major problem.
To be safe, I decided to make another trip to Longtan Waterside.
After all, there is far too much there worth painting,
and perhaps something would be “sunlit” into inspiration.

Getting off at Weiling, the station exit leads directly to the entrance of the waterside.
Taking advantage of the good sunlight, I took photos upon entering.
Then I pulled out my sketchbook and made two drawings first.
This way, the sketchbook whose cover clearly states “Activated on February 1, 2026”
would truly contain drawings from that very day, would it not?
So that future readers, upon seeing this later-numbered sketchbook,
would not say, “Even the Hall Master speaks falsely.”

I have always disdained falsehood.
No fabrication, no self-proclamation, no breach of trust—
these are the “three no’s” I have rejected throughout my life.
Keeping one’s word means taking responsibility for what one says and does.
The responsibility I value most is absolute responsibility
for my own goals and the results of my actions.
What do I want to do? What do I want to accomplish?
I hold firmly, for life, to that single word: trust.

Since the early 1980s, I used the standard practices of all painting genres and categories
to complete works in every Eastern and Western medium represented in provincial exhibitions,
participating in all specialized shows.
In 1984, I obtained membership in what was then called
the Sichuan Branch of the Chinese Artists Association.

The reason for participating in provincial exhibitions using all painting techniques
was to test my own understanding of painting genres
and to master the “tactical” level of techniques and skills across different schools.
By absorbing all these methods in the previous century,
I laid a solid foundation for the creation of “Real-Name Landscape Painting” in this century—
which was “released” in 2011 when it received national intellectual property protection
from the People’s Republic of China.

To act knowing that something can be done
is the confidence with which I have struggled all my life
to resolve the phenomenon that Chinese landscape painting, for two or three thousand years,
has never achieved real-name correspondence.
Thus, I rigorously practiced my own solitary cultivation of “Alliance Leader Skill,”
using two methods within a single painting—central perspective and scattered perspective—
so that all people in the world who look at paintings
can see clearly, with their own pupils,
the green mountains and clear waters presented on Chinese xuan paper,
without needing to guess the painter’s inner thoughts during creation.

This goal was gradually set by myself from childhood, when I first began to paint:
to paint differently from others,
and not to “duplicate” the works of predecessors.
Therefore, I had no teacher in the past, and I have no students now.

This is an arduous task.
Thus, I entrusted all the difficulties of founding a school entirely to myself.
Is there not a famous saying:
“When Heaven is about to place a great responsibility upon someone,
it first exhausts their muscles and bones and starves their body?”
If you choose to do what no one has dared to do for thousands of years,
who else should bear this suffering if not yourself?

Therefore, I face all overwhelming difficulties with calm acceptance.
I possess a seal carved thirty or forty years ago reading
“Attempting to ride a bicycle for eighty years.”
Throughout my life, I have insisted on not seeking luxury homes,
nor pursuing upgrades to luxury homes;
likewise, I own no luxury cars and do not aspire to change them.

To me, those things are external possessions,
having nothing whatsoever to do with accomplishing great undertakings
or completing a grand mission.

This perseverance is why I have insisted on never changing
my birthplace or place of residence throughout my life.
This steadfastness—“responding to all change with constancy”—
eliminates countless distractions unrelated to painting or meaningful work
that would otherwise hinder creation.

This indifference to worldly affairs and refusal to contend with the world
is the fundamental reason why “Real-Name Landscape Painting”
was able, decades later, to emerge in due time
from the less-than-twenty-square-meter “Iron Armor Hall,”
forged through perseverance.

In terms of major responsibility,
we at CPL have achieved the world record for the longest period—forty years—
of free distribution of Photography News.
This is something that costs a great deal of money.
Generation after generation of Photography News contributors
would rather go hungry
than abandon decades of perseverance to bring this record to fruition in the East.

This may well be something
that even wealthy people in the West could not imagine,
and even if they did, could not accomplish.

Small matters require trust;
to accomplish great matters requires even more trust,
because what you are dealing with are human affairs.

For those who break trust,
the untrustworthy always believe they have gained an advantage,
yet they never understand one outcome:
the first victim of dishonesty is oneself.

The creation of “Real-Name Landscape Painting”
is the mission and responsibility
for which I have willingly endured hardship throughout my life.

Over two or three thousand years,
why has Chinese landscape painting never produced
a “real-name landscape” that corresponds directly to actual mountains and rivers?
It is certainly not because our predecessors were unintelligent;
literati were exceptionally clever.

Take Tang Bohu, for example.
In his era, he could devise the scheme of selling himself into servitude
to pursue the admired and well-known Qiuxiang—
would you dare say he was not clever?

The absence of real-name landscapes for thousands of years
was due to insufficient historical conditions at the time—
there were no airplanes in the sky,
no automobiles on the ground,
and no cameras in hand.

Now everything exists.
Therefore, bringing real-name landscapes into the world
has become a historical responsibility
that all Eastern and Western “landscape painters” of this era
must collectively bear.
This is historical responsibility—no trivial matter.

Unfortunately, certain vested-interest groups today
have established even more rules than our ancestors,
allowing no one to cross the line.
According to their unchanging “traditions,”
they speak only of “innovation” while avoiding “creation.”

Art-selling enterprises frequently publish painter rankings to mislead the public,
ignoring the true value of the artwork itself,
and instead insisting on price as the standard.

Everyone knows that “auctioning” oneself
is itself an unspoken rule.
Thus, under layers of encirclement and beckoning利益,
landscape painters have lost the motivation
to found schools and advance with aspiration.

Including my painter friends,
many artists, consciously or unconsciously,
have flocked en masse toward “money above all else.”

I rigorously practice the “Alliance Leader Skill”
that most painters do not practice or are unwilling to practice,
enduring great hardship,
in order to refine my understanding at the highest level,
and to work together with fellow CPL members
to undertake large-scale public welfare initiatives worldwide.

For example, we have successfully provided
more than 12,800 farmers
with free portrait photography, on-site printing, framing, and gifting—
the largest initiative of its kind globally.

Before mastering art, one must first cultivate character,
only then can one truly stand firmly on the ground.

Did not our ancestors long ago leave us with this saying:

Good character leads to high artistic quality.