Born in Kunming, Yunnan Province in southwest China, Zhong joined the People's Liberation Army at age 18 after graduating from high school, and was stationed in the Dai Autonomous Prefecture of Xishuangbanna, in the extreme south of Yunnan, bordering both Myanmar and Laos. This area is noted for the distinct cultures of its ethnic groups. "So I am very familiar with life along the southwestern border," Zhong told Beijing Review.

An amateur artist 

In his second year of enlistment, the young soldier drew a picture just to participate in the art exhibition hosted by the military area command where he served. Unexpectedly, this small move caused a big wave at the exhibition and was highly praised by the then chairman of Yunnan Artists Association. Encouraged, he continued to paint and went on to become a well-known "warrior-painter" in the local area, and later was appointed art editor of the military area command's newspaper. Since then, he has created many paintings, depicting the army and the people defending and developing the border areas together.

The many years of living in China's southwest border region enabled him to create images reflecting the life of Yunnan's ethnic groups and primitive local tribes. When his representative paintings Entering the Awa Mountain and Awa Mountain Tribe were exhibited overseas, Zhong was hailed by the American art world as "China's Paul Gauguin (1848–1903)," a French Post-Impressionist artist, world-famous for his paintings created in Tahiti. Zhong was invited by the University of Hawaii and the University of Georgia in the United States to teach a Chinese painting class there.

Over years of artistic creation, Zhong has gradually honed his own artistic style, one unadorned and solemn, majestic and heroic. "Instead of simple visual beauty, my works seek to express artistic conception and emotion. I want to really touch people's hearts with my works," Zhong told Beijing Review. "In my opinion, an artwork is the externalization of the creator's emotions. In other words, art is a way of expressing one's unique views on society and life. It is in the process of expression that one's own personal style forms. However, the personal style and the brushwork one refines should still evolve with the times," he explained, adding, "for example, I mainly paint Chinese paintings. Chinese paintings, especially freehand ink paintings and literati paintings, are the products of more than 3,000 years of farming culture and small peasant economy. Today, we are industrialized and even digitalized, so the brushwork should develop accordingly. How can I reflect the zeitgeist of the contemporary Chinese nation? How can I combine self-expression and eulogizing the times? These are the questions I contemplate when I paint."

His brushes have long faithfully recorded his surroundings—military life, the primitive tribes, the natural environment and the great rivers and mountains of the motherland.

Zhong's distinctive artistic style and understanding of artworks have won him ever more appreciation. He has been invited to paint for important venues such as the Ziguang Pavilion in Zhongnanhai, the Bayi Building of the Central Military Commission, the Foreign Affairs Hall of China's Ministry of National Defense and the Great Hall of the People. But even after reaching these heights of acclaim, he did not stop experimenting with art. Finally, he found a theme that could embody all his painting content and techniques—the history of the voyages of Chinese explorer Zheng He (1371–1433) to Southeast Asia, South Asia, West Asia and East Africa, a great tale in the history of world navigation that promoted civilizational exchange.

A true warrior 

When creating the painting Zheng He's Voyages to the Western Oceans, Zhong specifically chose the original Chinese ancient long scroll painting method, supported by Western perspective, anatomy and chromatics. After 13 years of painstaking effort, the artist completed this masterpiece at the age of 81.

The painting is 500 meters long and 1.2 meters wide, consisting of three volumes and 18 chapters, with over 300 scenes and more than 17,000 characters with clear facial expressions, which panoramically reproduces the scene of Zheng's voyage more than 600 years ago. According to Zhong, the painting has achieved artistic breakthroughs in length, volume, time, scene and figure, and is currently the richest and longest painting in the world.

"It was not my original intention to make any breakthrough to become 'unprecedented.' The volume of this theme is so big. Existing painting techniques of both the East and the West could not reproduce the scenes as accurately as possible, so I had to overcome one difficulty after another," he said.

"For example, I managed to connect all the chapters so that the overall visual effect is not abrupt; and reasonably arrange a large number of people, vehicles, boats, and various plants and animals on one canvas," he added.

Before Zhong even started sketching, he spent several years studying literatures about Zheng and his voyages. Following in the explorer's historical footsteps, he visited and investigated many countries and regions along the sea route. To improve the accuracy of the painting content, he also consulted experts at home and abroad to research this period of history. "It took me four years to write the manuscript, another four years to prepare more durable materials, two years to draw the small draft, and seven years to draw the large draft; all in all, it took me nine to 10 years to complete this painting. So, to say it took 13 years is an understatement," Zhong told Beijing Review.

Now in his 80s, Zhong still paints every day. He has even begun to explore and innovate painting materials to enrich the expressiveness of Chinese painting and make it more modern to better reflect the contemporary era.

"I still carry forward the words the army once taught me: Life goes on, the fight goes on; life goes on, creation goes on; life goes on, innovation goes on; life goes on, the ascent goes on," Zhong said.

（Print Edition Title: The Master's Piece）

Copyedited by Elsbeth van Paridon

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