"Artistic creation in Chinese calligraphy is based on the extreme respect to the traditional rules. Different from paintings, as the latter shares a process by learning from mother nature, while calligraphy can only be learnt from those ancient Chinese writing works which were kept generation by generation. [...] In my opinion, the Ivarsson pipes are representing the laws of high-end pipe making, and it's the law of purity. The value of artistic creation is that, under that law, you can express yourself; in other words, it is where we start to pursue the art in the form of "dancing in shackles and chains". I would say that, at this point, again, the pipe making and my artistic creation share something in common, and once again, it attracted me so irresistibly."

Let us say for the sake of conversation that you are a person who has achieved great success and security as an artist, your name famous to a truly vast population. What would you do next?

A retiring sort, readily contented in their own efforts, might at that point settle on their laurels and live out a life with little further challenges; but then how likely is it that sort of person would have earned such a place in society? Let us specify: this high demand and great accomplishment would be in a form of art that required said accomplishment within a known structure and according to fixed standards. The singing of operas rather than the floweriness of rhetorical speech, the painting of photorealistic portraits or landscapes rather than the construction of faddish abstractions, for example.

Xu Hai has no external motivation to make pipes. He is already greatly famous in China for his work in the traditional forms of calligraphy, seal making, and painting. This widespread and high regard in those arts also means that along with social status, financial security is a non-issue. As not only a working artist but furthermore a teacher and researcher at the China Central Academy of Fine Arts, if anything external matters taken alone should have given the man motives of time and energy against such an endeavor.

There is a very strong motive for Xu Hai to take up pipemaking and the tasks of learning and refining skills in this unique (and let us face it, unusual) art and trade, but the motive is wholly an internal one.

In 2012 Sykes wrote, regarding Nanna Ivarsson's creation of her first seven day set, "There's something about a brilliant, artistic mind and temperament that causes these folks to expect slightly more of themselves than is immediately possible; it's what drives the discovery of new techniques, acquisition or invention of new tools and mediums, and of course the evolution and refinement of their own skills." In Xu Hai we find a passion for pursuing excellence and creativity within the challenges manifested by the "shackles and chains" that define an art form, meeting a passion for pipes, and engendering a passion then for making pipes that would achieve excellence.

"There is an old Chinese proverb saying that it is better to aim my spear at the moon and probably strike an eagle than to aim my spear at the eagle and strike only a rock. Therefore, my benchmark must be the best in the field from which I can learn," Xu Hai has said. True to his word, he has aimed very high in terms of mentors. In the traditional arts of calligraphy, seal making, and painting (which he has pursued through bachelors, masters, and doctorate levels) his teacher is one of the most respected in China; in pipemaking he is primarily a student of the Ivarsson tradition, first and foremost through Lars Ivarsson, followed by Nanna Ivarsson and Jess Chonowitsch, though his admiration and pursuit of learning has also extended to others such as the self-taught Poul Ilsted.

As distant as the traditional Chinese arts of calligraphy, seal making, and painting may seem from pipemaking, from the first two at least Xu Hai has found themes that continue in the craft of shaping briar and vulcanite into an aesthetically pleasing and functional smoking instrument. As noted in the opening quote, most fundamentally there is the common matter of working within constraints; in the traditions of calligraphy for example the order in which certain brush-strokes are applied in forming a certain character is of great importance, while in the Ivarsson tradition of pipe design it was Sixten himself who set down the maxim that a pipe, however beautiful it may look, must first and foremost serve exceptionally well as a pipe — an instrument for enjoying a good smoke. That affects every aspect of a pipe's nature and construction, determining a shape adapted to the human hand, an arrangement of chamber, draft-hole, and stem conducive to proper function. Every beautifying element, then, must agree with these constraints.

In seal making, Xu Hai notes, the great constraint is the nature of creating through "subtraction", just as one shapes a briar pipe or its stem. Material must be removed and it can be removed only once; after that if the beautiful shape you intended to accomplish was not achieved, it is gone. As it goes for cutting and carving stone to leave what remains able to produce a seal presenting beautiful lines and structures in a character of the Chinese written language, so it goes for cutting, sanding, and filing wood and vulcanite to produce a pipe of beautiful character that will provide an enjoyable smoking experience. In the "subtractive" art there is no going back on a particular cut, pass of the sanding wheel, or stroke of the file, working in mediums where the only do-over is a start again from scratch, if you are to achieve the original ideal.

For examples of the ideal, Xu Hai doesn't have to look far. He has, merely, to look to his own collection, a very rare sort of menagerie built up over the years, consisting of briar after briar by the greats: Lars and Nanna, Ilsted, Micke, Chonowitsch to name a few. These are pipes that are art and they are pipes made to be enjoyed as pipes, as smoking instruments. They are also physical representations of the ideals Xu Hai aims for.

While expressing a desire to hear how others interpret his work, Xu Hai when pressed to describe his style in his own words speaks in terms of a decisive quality; primal, strong, refining shapes towards simplicity, an eschewing of the "fancy" in favor of "pursuit of pureness". These are the very qualities he sees realized, first and foremost, in the Ivarsson tradition.

To view Xu Hai's most recent work, you need only visit his page on the site to see that ideal realized in the form of beautiful, expertly crafted artisanal pipes. Are you fan of Hai's work? Feel free to share your experiences with us in the comments section below.

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