The mountains and waters in the land of Min are like a painting, the streams pouring out into the abyss, the fog wrapping the pines like a robe. Is it not like the air in its myriad forms,ever flowing, ever changing?

The movements of the body and the currents of the mind are all atmospheric cores for the art of lacquer, like a clear spring flowing from the mountain, or shadows following the body. There is still a future for this art form, and a long, glorious tradition behind it, and its essence can be found in the land of Min.

Jinling （now Nanjing）is my home, but Min, and its capital, is my paradise. Having lived and created here for over twenty years, there are a few reasons I stay. First is the water. I love going to ZuohaiPond, where I can sit in stillness and observe the waves of anxiety in my heart. Second is Mount Meifeng, where clean air and solitude abound.

The Fuzhou Lacquer Center, where I am based today, carries on Jin’an（now Fuzhou） housand year traditions in lacquer. Here, lacquer is my Tao, my vessel for cultivation, the object of creation. Here I have found peace and contentment. It is said that the right place can foster profound cultivation, and that the proper understanding of a material can open our eyes to the ways of the heavens.

For me, lacquer is like the shape of air , the undulations of the mountains and rivers on the microscopic level, the fusion of the myriad forms of the landscape. It is the passage of time and labors across the heavens and the earth, of infinite empathy. Why, then, is this shape not a fundamental reference in life? Why do we not embrace all things like the lacquer embraces its core? The way of lacquer is an Eastern approach to inner harmony, and a spiritual embodiment of the Tao.