Li Shutong, as an artist and infatuated person, is also a master of Hongyi, a monk and a great virtue. There is a problem hidden in these two identities.
Supposedly, it is normal for scholars to despise each other. An artist, one school says yes, and that school doesn't. However, Li Shutong is different. From the Republic of China to the contemporary literary masters, they all pay homage to him: aesthetician Zhu Guangqian, painter Qi Gong and writer Ye Shengtao all admire his artistic attainments; Is Zhang Ailing proud enough? She also said, "At least outside the temple wall of Master Hongyi, I am so humble."
There are many artists who escaped into an empty door in history. Generally speaking, they were shocking when they became monks, such as Shi Tao, a painter in the late Ming Dynasty, and Su, a poet in modern times. Their words and deeds were grotesque or wild. But Master Hongyi is different. He showed the world and monks: what is true asceticism and what is strict discipline? A monk said that few of the millions of monks in the country are as strict as him.
The two names, Li Shutong and Hongyi, seem to represent two completely different identities, with a distinct turning point and a coherent spirit. Simply put, it is to do things seriously. When he was secular, he was a "first-class handsome boy" in old Shanghai and an artist who devoted himself wholeheartedly. He is the bravest and most diligent monk after becoming a monk. We can't fully understand his life, especially the realm he finally entered. But we have seen: in reality, someone really took this road clearly. I think the world's admiration for him comes from this.
His life and practice, modern art and Buddhism are not the most important, what matters is his thoroughness, frankness and seriousness.
In Feng Zikai's words: "A person's life can be divided into three layers. One is material life, the other is spiritual life, and the third is soul life. Our master Hong Yi went to the ground one by one. His desire for life is very strong. His life must be thorough. In his early years, he was filial to his mother and loved his wife, and lived on the first floor. Middle-aged people concentrate on studying art and give full play to their various talents, that is, move to the second floor. A strong' desire for survival' could not satisfy him to this extent, so he climbed to the third floor to become a monk, cultivate pure land and learn precepts. "
In the first half of his life, he pushed the sensitivity and richness of his personal feelings to the extreme; In the second half of his life, he excluded individual desires from his perception, integrated his heart into the world of ten parties and cared for everyone in the world. Even everything: For example, when he saw several boxes of bees kept in Cao An Temple poisoned and died, he had to cross the line in the right way. The mouse bit the Buddha statue in the temple, so he fed it to the mouse twice a day, wishing these mice "get a person early, or even get a Bodhi certificate soon". Then, the joys and sorrows he felt when he died may no longer be his own emotions, but all the joys and sorrows that lingered in the world.