Two years ago, a heavy snowstorm in early winter brought down quite a few ancient trees inside the Grand Confucius Temple in Qufu, Shandong Province.

Before the temple staff had time to throw away all the broken branches, some people arrived and took some away.

Before long the hands of a wood sculpture and a touch of polish had transformed one of the centuries-old branches into a work of art now on display in a room filled with the serene melodies of the classical guqin music, passed down from the Confucian era.

It is said that a Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) artist made one which he called "Branch Holding a Cloud." Legend had it that anybody who sat on it would become a fairy.

"I call mine a 'Leisure Branch...' I don't want to become a fairy," quipped Wang Yaxiong, as he sat, musing aloud on his wood sculpture.

An exhibition, running until Thursday at the Academy of Art and Design at Tsinghua University in Beijing, features a number of interesting pieces Wang has made.

Beside the wood sculpture is a square table with a traditional Chinese ink-stone as the whole table top: an altar table in the shape of an irregular triangle over which hangs a wooden horizontal board inscribed with the forceful and stylistic calligraphy: Yi Piao Yin Zhai, which translates roughly as "a hut with a gourdful of water."

Books bound in the classical style, engraved seals of bamboo, stone and wood, teaspoons and ink sets are also on show.

And all came into being at the hands of Wang who has sawed, chiselled, carved, engraved, pasted, bound, polished or oiled.

Like the branch from Confucius's Temple, all the materials Wang works with have been discarded, broken by man or nature.

Take for example, the sturdy bench in the center of the show room which was built from thrown-away beams from torn-down old houses in the city center. All his wood workings, from benches to tables, are fashioned in the classical Chinese mortise and tenon structure, without a single nail.

"I pick up the materials for making the seals from hillsides or along mountain paths when I go on outings," Wang explained. "They seem to be calling me to bring them home."

In Wang's hands rubbish is "miraculously" transformed into works of art, said Qiao Shiguang, a professor of art at the academy and one of the country's leading lacquer artists.

"Moreover, he is able to achieve, in his work, a perfect harmony between art and craft, materials and spirit, tradition and modernity," Qiao said.

Above all, "he has injected in his work some essence of classical Chinese culture," Huang Miaozi, a leading Chinese artist, remarked.

Amidst the critical acclaim, Wang, 44, said he is still far from being an artist. "I am only an art lover, a collector," he said.

Although he started to learn the disciplined art of calligraphy from his father when still a child, he was pretty unruly in his teenage years. His father, Wang Tingqian, worked at a printing house.

"My father used a big stick to guard the door and made me and my two brothers learn carpentry," he recalled.

The fine carpentry he learned from his father later earned him the trust of some leading Chinese calligraphers and artists, with whom Wang began to study calligraphy, seal cutting, painting and art theory.

"I've met the best art teachers," he recalled.

Conventional art teachers require students to copy the works of great masters.

But Huang Miaozi, one of Wang's mentors, "asked me to read, and to open my mind's eye to the world of classical art," recalled Wang.

Given a free reign he was able to retain his own free spirit.

Between 1989 and 1995, he studied art in Japan, where he learned more about the world and studied with some of the best art professors.

Since returning home, Wang has continued reading, and traveling the country.

"An ancient Chinese saying goes that the learned must read tens of thousands of volumes of books and trek tens of thousands of li on the road," said Wang.

Much of his inspiration comes from visiting relic sites and grottoes, where he tries to immerse himself in history.

And he is fortunate in having a very supportive wife, Wang Yanhua, a fashion designer.

Besides reading and working on his art pieces, he also loves to cook.

"It is part of an artistic breeding, since Chinese cuisine is an inseparable part of classical Chinese culture," he explained.

Indeed, some of the leading ancient Chinese scholars were known for their mastery in the kitchen.

Su Shi (1036-1101), a great poet and statesman of the Song Dynasty (960-1279), created Dongpo marinated pork leg, which has remained on restaurant menus to this day.

In keeping with the artists of old, Wang has his own recipe for cooking marinated pork, a traditional Chinese dish. He selects cuts with equally lean-fat parts which he simmers in pure bean soy sauce, a myriad of spices and the best erguotou -- a local brand of hard liquor -- in an iron pot.

This is served with boiled spinach pieces, dressed with a mixture of sesame butter, vinegar, sesame oil, salt and mustard on a white plate. Even at the dinner table Wang's artistic eye is at work. "Won't the contrast between the white and green be inviting for your palate?" he asks rhetorically.

"I've heard Yaxiong say that he feels sharp pains in his hands when he has a lot of work to do," said Chen Xiaolin, a leading oil painter and art teacher.

But pain or not, people who know Wang's work all marvel at the dexterity of his hands and testify to his hard work.

"He is a very strict teacher," said Yang Li, a student of Wang's graphic design and book-binding class at the academy.

And he teaches the way he learnt.

Learning by doing

"We had thought Wang would demonstrate graphic design with a computer, we were wrong," said Yang.

Instead, he took his students to Lu Xun Museum and the Museum of May 4th Movement to study the artifacts there.

"He asked us to use scissors, glue and paper clippings, and paste up our own designs on paper," she said.

In three sessions, Yang and her classmates had also learnt how to hand-bind books in both traditional Western and Chinese styles.

"These days many youngsters seek the halos of Master's or PhD's, but I believe we must encourage students not only to work on their essays and theses, but also to work with their hands," said Professor Qiao. "We cannot afford to turn out 'artists' who can only talk art."

(China Daily April 27, 2005)