Illustrated:

Sunlight Rock, a scenic pot on Gulang Islet of Xiamen area, was named after the giant rock erecting 92.7 meters high at this site. This islet is further famed by legend as a place where the national hero Koxinga in the 17th century once deployed his troops. In the course of over 300 years, Sunlight Rock has been sanctified and regarded as a Xiamen landmark. Literati and writers have come and given ode to it, as did Wu Guanzhong, a maestro painter in China, leave his footprints here.

Wu's painting experience on Gulang Islet is mentioned in a number of his biographies. He came to Gulang Islet in late 1970s and stayed at the guesthouse of a local art school. This oil painting experience turned out to be a total failure when Wu found himself besieged by curious teachers and students. Success finally came a few years later when he worked on the same topic again, this time in water and ink. Feeling that "Skills should be a slave servant to arts, yet they are often restrained by tools and materials available. I am now exploring the spirit of Shitou's 'The Way of A Painting'with my arts practice,"he found that difficult problems for an oil painting often could be easily solved with water and ink, and vice versa. This experience has inspired his decision to focus on ink and color paintings since the 1980s. Wu believes that oil paintings and water and ink paintings are just like the two blades of scissors; they are not of the same length and should be used in a way that tailors to circumstances, but they allow the artist to create all sorts of beautiful apparel.

"Sunlight Rock"is yet another exquisite garment made by the artist in 1980s. This ink and color painting features a structure of lines, with inks in various, distinct shades that indicate the shapes and shadows of rocks, the trees with entangled roots, and the low-lying pavilion, each further enhancing the high-rising Sunlight Rock. The wave-like color threads spreading on the rocks represent crawling tree roots as well as the painter's lines of thoughts in a simple composition that creates ample room for imagination in a lieu of tranquility. Instead of rendering a physical description of the scenery, Wu is guiding the viewer's perspective with his own feelings in this artwork, of which the physical and the abstract are juxtaposed and woven into richly fluid sentiments that merit an up-close appreciation.