Keep Devoted—Reading Lao Pu’s Vegetable-and-Fruit Painting

Pursuit of learning is not difficult, keeping a simple heart is!  To keep a simple heart is to keep a purified and devoted mind. It seems easy to keep restrained. However, human have numerous desires. Usually, more restrained you try to keep, more fierce your desires get. Thus, it is difficult to keep a purified heart. From Lao Pu’s paintings we can see learning is his only pursuit and he does keep a simple heart.  When I met him for the first time, I saw him keep a smile, talk rigorously and behave decently.  Later I read his works and saw his refined brushwork. Then I had great respect for him. There is also a story in his art name. Lao Pu , literally means Old Gardener. In the ancient, a student of Confucius requested to learn farming and planting vegetables. Confucius told him, I am not as good as experienced farmer and gardener”. By saying this, Confucius didn’t mean he despised farmer and gardener but meant different teachers taught different things. Now “Lao Pu” just tells his heart will.  His vegetable-and-fruit paintings Vegetable Garden Series  are expressions of his simple heart.