吴冠中相信万物有魂。

　　“魂寓何处？”画家自问。旧中国最后一批留法，新中国第一批回国，时逢天翻地覆，路有两条：小路娱人，大路撼人。震撼画家的是苦难。彩旗和锣鼓掩盖了苦难，古典传统水墨“百花争艳”，现实主义油彩“真实作伪”，立身其间，只得横站。《晨渡》、《桑园》、《北国》、《送丧》，胎死腹中。画家改弦易辙，背着画具，入僻壤边陲，画水彩风景，歌颂山河，挟杂长歌当哭的抑郁。风景小画印成了明信片，海外同窗兜头泼来冷水：“那只是风光，是旅行写生，写游记。”

　　吴冠中深以“游记式”为贬辞，在泰山顶上，轮转写生风里成长风里老的五大夫松，依然吐不出胸中块磊，画家悚然自问：中华民族数千年不散之魂，是什么？

　　1973年，吴冠中从农村调回，参与创作北京饭店的大型壁画《长江万里图》。《我负丹青》一书中，吴冠中写道： “又遇上好运气。北京饭店约黄永玉、袁运甫、祝大年和我共同绘制巨幅壁画《长江万里图》”，“那图由设计师奚小彭总负责，绘制者有袁运甫、祝大年、黄永玉和我，袁运甫联系各方面的工作，稿子酝酿很久，待到需去长江收集资料，我们从上海溯江上重庆，一路写生，真是美差。”

　　回忆往事，画家畅快的心情，溢于笔端。祸兮福兮，不得由己。二十年余年间，流风暴雨挟袭，画家既不肯困于具象的藩篱，又不愿束于抽象的羁绊，找寻东西相融，传统与时代交合的航道。今朝壮游大江，投宿两岸，绘万里景象，捕江山之魂，画家如何不畅快。

　　《我负丹青》一书中，吴冠中笔调快活地描述了匆匆数月的写生片断：“在黄山住的日子较久，日晒风吹，只顾作画，衣履邋遢，下山来就像一群要饭的，”“ 山城万县面临长江，江畔码头舟多人忙，生活气息十分浓厚，是最惹画家动心的生动场景”。

　　水陆兼程，投宿两岸，画家胸中块磊消解于滔滔江水，履之所至，纵览江山，渐于心手相忘之际，心物相应之时，雪域青松、天府梯田、巫峡女神、黄山云雾、金陵大桥、水乡粉墙、滨江灯火，一一魂入画中。

　　唐宋直延民国，代有画家图绘长江，以油彩绘之全景，吴冠中第一人。

　　吴冠中谈及《长江万里图》的创作，曾自述道：“我作长江，整体从意象立意，局部从具象入手，此亦我70年代创作之基本手法。江流入画图，江流又出画图，是长江流域，是中华大地，不局限一条河流的两岸风物，这样，也发挥了造型艺术中形式构成之基本要素，非沿江地段之拼合而已。”

　　《万里长江图》从诞生之日起，注定名垂画史。岭南画派首倡、徐悲鸿、林风眠率以亲身探索的“中西融合”，《长江万里图》在真正意义上贯通了中西界域；在造神与造鬼的政治急涡中，《长江万里图》超越了时代笔墨和主题；横站具象与抽象的崖畔五十年，《长江万里图》奠定了“风筝不断线”的基石。然而，最重要的是，《万里长江图》令人叹服地寓长江万里之魂于一卷，徐徐展开，中华民族之魂沛然翻腾。

　　雄奇之作成于乱世。《我负丹青》记述：创作组“到重庆时得知北京已开始“批黑画”，我们被召提前返京，抛入“批黑画”的旋涡中去，长江壁画也告流产。批判无妨，我们辛辛苦苦画来的一批画稿竟是难得的，后来各人都创作出不少佳作。我为历史博物馆和人大会堂画的油画三峡、为北京站画的迎客松和苏州园林，都来源于那批素材。“
30年间，很少有人知道《长江万里图》存于世上。（春元）

　　2006年1月18日，国内各大媒体报道：“30年来，《1974•长江》与吴冠中玩了一个失踪游戏，吴冠中已经遗忘的时刻，意外现身于家中一个柜子底层，油彩已经浸透纸背，板结了。它的重现，吴冠中感觉“抢救了一个躺在摇篮里30年的婴儿。” 《1974•长江》6月于世纪坛展出，10月，捐赠故宫博物院。

　　沸沸扬扬的新闻、展览和捐赠，并未结束传奇的故事。当年北京饭店《长江万里图》壁画总设计师奚小彭收藏的吴冠中创作的油画《长江万里图》最初的综合性定稿，再次引起美术界和藏界的极度关注。经翰海拍卖公司多方斡旋，继《1974•长江》之后，中国当代画史秘藏时间最长的油画巨制，进入艺术品收藏市场。

　　《长江万里图》总长509、高22.5公分，纸上油画，卷首有吴冠中的补题：“一九七一年至七二年间，偕小彭、运甫、大年、永玉诸兄，为北京饭店合作《长江万里图》巨幅壁画。初稿成，正值批黑画，计划流产，仅留此综合性成稿，小彭兄冒批判之风险，珍藏此稿，今日重睹手迹，亦惊喜、亦感叹！一九九０年七月八日 北京红庙北里六号楼 吴冠中识。”

　　经美术家、美术史家细致鉴识，发现《1974•长江》遗有炭笔痕迹，表明此画应该是底稿或初稿。《万里长江图》纯以油彩绘画，不见炭笔遗痕，景色描绘与色彩，细润精雅，盎然而自然地充满了不求形似求生韵的词心和逸气，显然是吴冠中卷首所题的“综合性成稿”。

　　《长江万里图》的选材、绘画语言、风格和形象，在吴冠中此后绘画创作中，成熟丰富地落定为重要题材和基本笔墨形式，所以《长江万里图》是吴冠中绘画风格的奠基作，也是吴冠中的画魂。

　　Wu Guanzhong -Ten Thousand Kilometers of Yangtze River - Oil Painting Roll
In 1973, returning from the countryside, Wu Guanzhong participated in the creation of Ten Thousand Kilometers of Yangtze River, large fresco in Beijing Hotel. In his book, What I Owe to Painting, Wu Guanzhong said, “I was so fortunate. Beijing Hotel asked Huang Yongyu, Yuan Yunpu, Zhu Danian and I to paint the large fresco Ten Thousand Kilometers of Yangtze River... designer Xi Xiaopeng was in charge of the whole project. Yuan Yunpu, Zhu Danian, Huang Yongyu and I painted it. Yuan Yunpu was responsible for contacting the different parties. We had studied the drawing for a long time and needed to travel to the Yangtze River and see the scenery for ourselves. We went on a sketching trip from Shanghai to Chongqing, along the river. What a nice esthetical errand!”

　　Recalling the past, we can sense the artist’s happiness through his writing. Fortune or misfortune, both cannot be controlled by human. During the two decades, things changed rapidly. The artist does not want to be confined by the representation, nor be fettered by the abstract. He looks for a route where East and West fuse, where tradition and epoch merge. Now, they traveled along the river, lived on the bank, painted the grand landscape, and captured the spirit of the mountain and the river. How could the artist not feel happy?

　　In What I Owe to Painting, Wu Guanzhong excitedly describes his months’ of sketching experience, “We have lived on Huangshan for a long time. Tanned by the sun and blown by the wind, we just focus on our painting. Dirty and poorly dressed, we looked like beggars coming down from the mountain. Wan County faces the Yangtze River. There are many boats and people on the dock, full of the life spirit, which is a most touching scene for the artists.”

　　When Wu Guanzhong mentioned the creation of Ten Thousand Kilometers of Yangtze River, he said, “When I painted the Yangtze River, I set the image as a whole, and painted the details from the images. This is also the basic creation technique I employed in the 1970s. The river flows into the painting and flows out of it. It is the area of Yangtze River, is the land of China, which is not limited to the landscape along the river. So it also displays the basic elements of composition in plastic arts, which is not just the simple combination of scenes along the river.”

　　Great work was created in the trouble times. As What I Owe to Painting records, the creation group “was informed that Beijing started to criticize ‘Dark Paintings’ when they arrived Chongqing. We were asked to go back to Beijing ahead of schedule, and were involved in the whirlpool of ‘Dark Paintings’. So the fresco of Yangtze River project was also abandoned. It does not matter for us to be criticized. But the drawings we spent our efforts to paint are precious. Later, each one has created some great works. The oil paintings Three Gorges for the History Museum and the Great Hall of the People, Welcome Pine Tree and Suzhou Garden for Beijing Station that I painted are all from those materials and drawings.”

　　Over the last 30 years, few are aware of the existence of Ten Thousand Kilometers of Yangtze River.

　　On January 18th, 2006, local media reported, “for three decades, 1974 - Yangtze River has played hide and seek with Wu Guanzhong. It suddenly appeared at the bottom of a closet in his house when he almost forgot about the painting. The paint has saturated the paper. The reappearance of the painting made Wu Guanzhong feel like ‘rescuing an infant lying in the cradle for 30 years’. 1974 - Yangtze River was exhibited in Millennium Monument in June, and in October, and was donated to the Beijing Palace Museum.”

　　There are boisterous news, exhibitions, donations, and the legendary tale continues. The original comprehensive drawing Wu Guanzhong did for Ten Thousand Kilometers of Yangtze River, which was collected by Xi Xiaopeng, Chief Designer of fresco Ten Thousand Kilometers of Yangtze River for the Beijing Hotel, once again arouses great attention from the art world and art collectors. Through mediations by Hanhai Auction Company, since 1974 - Yangtze River, another oil painting masterpiece, which is under secret collection for longest time in the history of contemporary Chinese painting, entered the market of art collection.

　　Ten Thousand Kilometers of Yangtze River, 509cm long, 22.5cm tall, is oil on paper, it features Wu Guanzhong’s supplementary epigraphy at its beginning, “Between 1971 and 1972, I collaborated with Xiao Peng, Da Nian, and Yong Yu to create a large-scale mural titled Ten Thousand Kilometers of Yangtze River for the Beijing Hotel. The first draft for this piece was completed right before movement of “Judging Black Painting”. The commission project was called off, and only this draft remains. Xiao Peng risked persecution during the Revolution and kept this draft in hiding. To see this piece again today is a delightful surprise but with a tinge of sadness! July 8th, 1990, No 6 North Li Red Temple, Beijing, Wu Guanzhong”.

　　Through close appraisal by fine artists and art historians, 1974 - Yangtze River is found to have traces of charcoal pencil, which indicates that it should be a manuscript, or first draft. Ten Thousand Kilometers of Yangtze River is purely an oil painting without traces of charcoal pencil. Its description of landscape and coloring are delicate and elegant, naturally infused with lyrical charm and leisure. This is clearly the comprehensive final draft as mentioned in Wu Guanzhong’s epigraphy.

　　The subject, artistic language, style and image in Ten Thousand Kilometers of Yangtze River have maturely and richly set as important subject and basic method in Wu’s later painting creation. Therefore, Ten Thousand Kilometers of Yangtze River is a fundamental painting of Wu Guanzhong’s painting style as well as the soul of his paintings. (Wang Chunyuan)