The French philosopher Blaise Pascal pointed out in Pensées that “Man is only a reed, the weakest in nature, but he is a thinking reed (un roseau pensant).” Compared with the infinite universe, humanity is close to insignificance, like a reed that is weak and pathetic. Nevertheless, like the weak, insignificant reed, humankind can encompass the universe through thinking. As far as Xiao was concerned, his art achievement manifested greatness in thinking, having the whole universe in thinking. In the art history of Taiwan, Xiao Ru-Song was a thinking reed. The pictures he constructed are filled with contents of philosophical thinking in depth.

Xiao was the first domestic painter that presented watercolor in such a diverse fashion. He elevated watercolor to the thickness as that of oil paint and enriched the depth of field, overflowing with stability, profundity, and serenity in the spiritual level. His works, either portrait, still life or landscape, demonstrate a high degree of philosophical thinking, seeking the highly unified effect of colors, forms, emotions, and experiences of objects. He witnessed the Second World War and the desolation afterward, including the disturbance of freedom in shackles. Hence, the artist elevated the solemn educational spirit in the early days into a quality of purity. Also, he refined the passion in the pursuit of life and art into color symbols and formal metaphors, which ultimately evolved into complex space-time dialectic works of mind reflection.