Zhu Da (1626? About 1705), a painter in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, was a master of Chinese painting. His real name is Zhu Tongtuo, his courtesy name is Xuege, his nicknames include Badashanren, Geshan, Renwu, Daolang, etc. He is Han nationality and a native of Nanchang, Jiangxi. He is the ninth grandson of Zhu Quan, the seventeenth son of Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang. After the fall of the Ming Dynasty, he shaved his hair and became a monk. Later he converted to Taoism and lived in Qingyunpu Taoist Temple in Nanchang. He is good at calligraphy and painting. He mainly uses freehand ink painting of flowers and birds, with exaggerated and strange images. His pen and ink are condensed and solemn, and his style is majestic and timeless. Dong Qichang, a master of landscape painting, uses concise brushwork, a sense of tranquility, and a sense of sparseness. Good at calligraphy and poetry.
His works often use symbolic techniques to express his feelings, such as fish, ducks, birds, etc., all of which have their eyes turned to the sky, full of stubbornness. The characteristics of the pen and ink are characterized by laissez-faire, vigorous, round, elegant, and elegant. No matter whether they are large-scale paintings or small pieces, they have a simple, smooth, bright, and healthy style. The composition and structure are unconventional and seek to be complete despite incompleteness. Existing works include "Tsinghua University with Water and Wood", "Lotus and Waterbirds", etc.
Name Definition
Bada Shanren, his common surname is Zhu, his real name is Zhonggui, and his last name is Dai. He is the ninth grandson of Zhu Dianxi, the king of Rongzhuang, Yiyang, Jiangxi in the Ming Dynasty. He was born in the fourth year of Qi tomorrow (1624 AD) and died in the 44th year of Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty (1705) at the age of eighty-one. A child with a negative nature and extreme wisdom will be responsible for all the karma of life early. When the Ming Dynasty died, he was weak and pretended to be mute. At the age of thirty-nine, he fled to Gengxiangyuan in Fengxinshan, Jiangxi Province, where he studied under Master Hongmin Ying. He became a monk and became a monk. In all four corners, I am the big one, but there is no one who is bigger than me?; He also said that his signature was written in cursive script with continuous strokes. Looking at it, the two characters "Ba Da" have similar characters to "cry" and "laugh", and the two characters "shanren" have similar characters, and they can be read together. All of them, like crying and laughing, all have a vague sense of cynicism. Other nicknames include Xuege, Geshan, Geshanlu, Donkeywu, Donkeyhan, Renwu, Ren'an, Shide, Heyuan, Luoyuan, Huangzhuyuan, Shunian, Shuji, Bahuan, etc. And enough. After living in the mountain for twenty years, he was called a master and had more than a hundred scholars. Later, the Qing government issued an imperial edict to promote Erxue Hongci, and Linchuan ordered Hu Yitang to hear his name and welcome him into the official residence. Unwilling to accept the post, he pretended to be mad and returned to Nanchang. Naturally, he often wears a cloth hat and a long robe, wandering around the market, wearing high-heeled shoes and fluttering his sleeves. The children follow him and laugh, but they don't pay attention and stay silent to others. In his later years, he retired to seclusion, memorized the cloud music, and built a Huange thatched cottage to live in. After his death, he was buried in Zhongzhuang, Xinjian County. Jiangyin Shao Changheng wrote "Biography of Bada Shanren". According to the art literature of Wang Aijun of Junyouhui, Shanren is good at calligraphy and painting, and is also good at poetry. He specializes in painting landscapes, flowers, birds, and bamboos. He can paint them all without mud and out of the way. The landscapes are not very scratchy, and the artistic conception is profound. The flowers, birds, bamboos, and trees are stained with ink, and the images are unique. They all use the ancient ink-breaking method, and they are better with simplicity. The writing is full of passion, the ink is full of interest, vigorous and round, and full of elegance. The pine lotus stone is considered to be a divine product, and the reed, wild goose, duck, and the flying wings of the diving fish are all inspired by living things, and are unmatched by others. His calligraphy was first learned from Dong Qichang, who later came to the Wei and Jin Dynasties. It is elegant and loose, and has won the charm of Zhong Wang. The wild grass is especially strange and majestic; the poem was originally collected in a collection, but unfortunately it has not been circulated. The surviving inscriptions and postscripts are like auspicious pieces of jade, which are quaint and elegant and can be recited. The mountain man has a slight complexion, a plump face and a short moustache. He likes to drink but has a shallow amount of wine. Poor mountain monks and butchers in the market are invited to drink wine, and they often drink. After drinking, they often get drunk and runny eyes. With paper and pen, I hold my hand in hand to draw, and the ink is dripping. I drink wine inadvertently, and sometimes I make clouds and mountains, sometimes I make bamboos and stones, and I don't care about them. Therefore, those who asked for his paintings were often drunk, and many bought them from the disciples of Tu Gu, a mountain monk. If a nobleman exchanged a few pieces of gold for a piece of wood and stone, Qi would not give it, because of his temperament. In addition, he was a man of great ambition, generous in singing, and high in moral integrity. He was a descendant of the Ming Dynasty throughout his life. He suffered from the overthrow of the country and the loss of the country. He was filled with grief and anger, and had no way to vent his frustrations, so he lived in seclusion. Pretending to be crazy and pretending to be mute, crying and laughing over a glass of wine, playing with pen and ink, to pass away the post-catastrophic life. People are mad and do not know the sorrow in their hearts, so they turn to calligraphy and painting. What Zhengxi people call the exchange of blood and tears, the sublimation of emotions, It is so touching and profound that a mountain man wrote a poem about his own landscapes: "There are not many ink spots but many tears. The mountains and rivers are still the same as before." The flowing water flows across the branches, rocks, and twig trees, leaving the literary forest to ponder carefully. ?It is a reflection of the integration of his life and art.
Main Achievements
There is a poem on painting at the Eighth National Congress that says: "There are not many ink spots but many tears, and the mountains and rivers are still the same as before." In the troubled times, the coconut trees were forked, and the literary forest was left to copy them carefully. ?This first sentence? There are not many ink dots and there are too many tears?', Master said to himself, the most concise and concise statement of the artistic characteristics of his painting and the thoughts and emotions contained in it. Only by following this clue he prompted can we truly understand and understand Admire this painter's great works of art.
The pain of obscurity
Due to his special life experience and the background of the times, Bada's paintings cannot express his feelings directly like other painters, but through his obscure and difficult paintings. It is represented by ink-painting poems and weird deformation paintings. For example, the fish and birds he painted, with only a few strokes, either elongate their bodies or shrink into a ball, which seems to be true and false. Especially the pair of eyes, which are sometimes oval-shaped, are not the eyes of the fish and birds we see in life. The eyes of fish and birds in life are round, and the eyeballs do not move in the center. The eyes of Bada's fish and birds can move, and sometimes they will roll their eyes and stare at people. The rocks he painted were not like those painted by ordinary painters. They were round, big at the top and small at the bottom, top-heavy. He could place them wherever he wanted, regardless of whether they were stable or not. The trees he painted have old dry branches and only a few coconut branches and a few leaves. There are tens of thousands of trees in the forest and there is no one like this. The landscapes, mountains, and bare trees he painted were swaying, desolate, and desolate. If such a place existed, I don't think anyone would want to settle here.
Also, the poems, signatures and seals on his paintings are also strange. For example, he called himself "Bada Shanren", and many people have explained it. Scholars still have different disputes. He has a seal with the inscription . Some people say it is composed of the four characters "Bada Shanren". Some people are more cautious and call it "a clog-shaped seal" because it is shaped like a clog. As for the poems on his paintings, many of the sentences are even more difficult to understand.
However, the Eighth Congress of the Communist Party of China clearly tells us: "In troubled times, we are left to fork coconut trees to ponder carefully." He also said: "I want to see someone interpret the picture." He really hopes that people can understand the meaning of his paintings. Therefore, through careful research, many scholars have gleaned a lot of true information from his paintings and words. For example, he has a painting script, which for a long time people have called it a turtle-shaped painting script because its shape is particularly like a turtle. Only later did I find out that it turned out to be composed of the words "March 19th". This happened to be the day when the last emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Chongzhen, committed suicide, marking the demise of the Ming Dynasty. So this painting also represents the commemoration of the death of the country.
In the 21st year of Kangxi's reign, he once painted an "Ancient Plum Blossom Picture". The trunk of the tree has been hollowed out, its roots exposed, a few bare branches of coconut trees, and a few sparsely decorated flowers, as if it has been weathered. What life looks like after a thunder and lightning disaster. There are three poems inscribed on it, the first of which reads: "Distribute plum blossoms to Wu Taoist, and you will have a blind date in Zhai Zhai." From the south to the south of the mountains, to the north of the mountains, you have to burn fish to sweep away the dust. "Plum Blossom Taoist" refers to the painter Wu Zhen of the Yuan Dynasty, who called himself "Plum Blossom Taoist". The words in the box were obviously deliberately cut out by collectors at that time or later to avoid the disaster of text inquisition. It is not difficult to guess that this character is either "Hu" or "Lu". The founder of the Qing Dynasty used the Manchu people to dominate the Central Plains, and these two words were the most taboo. In order to sweep away the "Hu dust" in the north and south of the Nanshan Mountain, Zhu Da very clearly expressed his thoughts of anti-Qing and restoration of the country. The second poem reads: ?The end of the world is no longer the end of the world. There was no time when the earth was thin and the sky was fat. In the plum blossom painting, I think about the figures, just like the monk picking up the weeds. ?Two allusions are used in the poem. One is Zheng Sixiao, a painter who was a survivor in the early Yuan Dynasty. After the fall of the Southern Song Dynasty, he lived in seclusion under Wu. He painted orchids and dew roots but not the slopes. When people asked why, he replied: ?The land had been robbed by others. , Don’t you know? Second, after the Yin Dynasty destroyed Yin, the Yin survivors Boyi and Shuqi were too ashamed to eat Zhou millet. They lived in seclusion in Shouyang Mountain to pick weeds and ate until they starved to death. It turns out that the "Ancient Plum Blossom Picture" of the Eighth National Congress, with exposed roots and no sloping soil, was modeled after Zheng Sixiao's painting of orchids, implying that the land was robbed by the Qing Dynasty. The reason why he, a descendant of the Ming Dynasty clan, became a monk is just like Boyi, Uncle Qi Caiwei refused to submit to the new dynasty like Shouyangshan. The country was destroyed, the family was destroyed, and there was no hope of restoring the country, which forced him to shed a thousand tears.
The eight major poems on paintings are the key to unlocking the meaning of his paintings. However, they are mysterious and difficult to understand, and many scholars have worked hard to decipher them. For example, "Jiazi Flowers and Birds" written in the 23rd year of Emperor Kangxi's reign (now in the Princeton University Museum, USA), on the seventh page, there is a picture of a starling standing on a dead branch, with a poem that reads: "The kingfisher calls brother, and calls round brother for change." . The starlings talk about three Guo, and there are few partridges flying south. ?The meaning of this poem, Professor Jao Tsung-i of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, after quoting scriptures and interpreting it, concluded: ?This poem and painting is a mockery of?? After the death of Guo? (specify), loyal ministers were as ambitious as partridges to cherish the south, which is rare. ?That is to say, in addition to the general emotional expression of the destruction of the country and the family, the works of the Eighth Congress sometimes also have specific references.
"Melon Moon Picture" is also a work of reference. After writing the poem, he recorded: "I have already moistened what I painted on the 15th night of August." Facing the full moon in the sky and eating moon cakes with every household in the world, his heart was touched. So what did he get? The poem on the painting said: "Looking at the cake, the moon is full and the watermelon is on the table." All of them pointed to the mooncakes, the time when the melons are ripe in the Year of the Donkey. ?Some people say that the Eighth National Congress is looking forward to this day based on the folk tale that the custom of eating mooncakes comes from the anti-Qing rebels passing on uprising signals. But what year do we have to wait for (the year of the donkey)? The year of the donkey and the month of the horse? This is a common saying, which means there is no fixed time. If this is the case, then the Bada's thoughts are not just the lingering pain of the country's demise.
The peak of freehand ink painting
Bada is good at freehand ink painting and is an epoch-making figure. In freehand ink painting, there is a distinction between those who are good at landscapes and those who are good at flowers and birds. The eight majors are good at both. His landscape paintings were closely studied by Dong Qichang and far away from Dong Yuan, Ju Ran, Guo Xi, Mi Fu, Huang Gongwang and Ni Zan. For example, in the "Album of Calligraphy and Painting" (collected by the Shanghai Museum) written in the 41st year of Kangxi's reign, *** painted six landscape sketches. It can be seen that he was deeply influenced by Dong Qichang. The roundness of his long strokes has the influence of Dong, Ju and Huang Gongwang. The traces and ink techniques refer to Mi's Yunshan, and the combination of certain trees and stones is obviously taken from Ni Zan. However, when we appreciate these works, we strongly feel Zhu Da's personality. The above-mentioned laws of the ancients are just what he picked up to serve himself. Those mountains, rocks, trees, grass, as well as thatched pavilions, houses, etc., are written carelessly, seemingly carelessly, picked up casually, and the dry and wet shades, density and reality, distance and height, the brushstrokes are beyond the rules, and the artistic conception is complete. Within the law. This state of lawlessness is a high degree of combination of emotion and skill, which brings artistic creation into a kingdom of freedom.
Compared with landscape paintings, Bada's flower and bird paintings are more typical of his style and personality. "Zhuanqi Sketches" written in the 16th year of Shunzhi (collected by the National Palace Museum in Taipei) and "Ink Flower Scroll" painted in the 5th year of Kangxi (collected by the National Palace Museum in Beijing) are the early works of the Bada, from which you can see his freehand ink painting of flowers and birds. His creation was deeply influenced by Shen Zhou, Chen Chun, and Xu Wei. His brushwork is relatively square and firm, and his subject matter and layout do not deviate from the stereotypes of his predecessors. However, the arrogant spirit and eclectic bold tailoring shown in the paintings, such as It does not seek the completeness of the object, but it already indicates his future development.
The most outstanding feature of the Eight Flowers and Birds Paintings is "Shao", in his words, "Integrity". Less, firstly, there are fewer objects depicted; secondly, there are fewer pens used to shape the objects. For example, in the "Book of Flowers, Fruits, Birds and Insects" written in the 31st year of Kangxi's reign, one painting of "Involvement" only painted one petal, and only seven or eight strokes were needed to complete a painting. In Bada, every fish, bird, chick, tree, flower, fruit, even without a single stroke and only a seal, can form a complete picture. It can be said that So little that nothing can be less. The predecessors said: "Cherish ink like gold", and also said: "A little is better than a lot". Only the Eighth Congress can truly achieve this. It can be said that it is unprecedented and difficult to succeed.
Few, maybe some people can achieve it, but few but not thin, few but not poor, few but not monotonous, few but flavorful, few but interesting, and giving readers an infinite thought through being few. Space, this is difficult for anyone to achieve, but the Eighth Congress has the above requirements. There is a lot to write about here. The first is his skill in using pen and ink. His brush strokes change from square to round, and the combination of saturated ink and brush strokes gives people a rich and rich feeling with just one stroke. He was the first painter to take full advantage of the characteristics of raw rice paper to enhance artistic expression. Raw rice paper has strong water absorption capacity and can easily cause ink to spread (bleed). This was originally a disadvantage, but Bada turned it into an advantage. It not only opened up a broad prospect for ink freehand painting, but also created people's interest in ink freehand painting. The new concept has made an everlasting contribution.
The second is image creation. The shapes of the eight flowers and birds are not simple deformations, but a close combination of shape and interest, skill and meaning, so we will not feel thin and lonely when appreciating them. The third is his layout, which pays special attention to the placement of some objects in the two-dimensional space. The trick is to make full use of the white space, which is what the predecessors called "planning white when black". At the same time, the role of balance, symmetry, density, virtuality, and reality in the layout of the inscription, signature, and seal was fully mobilized.
He is not like ordinary painters who first draw the painting and then inscribe and stamp it at the appropriate location. Instead, he has an overall planning and vision so that every point plays a decisive role in the layout, no more, no less, no more. Luxury, no frugality. For example, "Flowers and Birds Landscape Album" (collected by the Shanghai Museum) painted in the 33rd year of Kangxi's reign, the first painting only depicts a chick. The chicken is placed on the lower right side of the picture. The center of gravity of this position divides the picture into four large spaces. Each space is different in size, balanced and varied. Since the head of the chicken is facing left, the title poem is placed in the second large space on the right, which makes the empty background suddenly come alive, visually breaking the balance and enriching the content. The depiction of the chicken is vivid and expressive, and the movements are like a child just learning to walk, with a very cute stumbling motion. The chicken is wary of the front with its big eyes, especially the three curls behind the eyes, which are like radio waves, as if there is some sound coming from the front, making the chicken frightened. We can understand this little chick as it has just hatched out of its eggshell, showing surprise and vigilance towards the world; it can also be understood as being lost in the group, unable to find its mother, feeling lonely and scared. How to understand it is up to people's imagination. Wings, so sometimes painting less can actually increase the capacity for thought.
Less is not an end but a means. Otherwise, the less the better, and art will go down another evil path. Less is relative. For example, "Birds Bathing in Willows" painted in the 42nd year of Kangxi's reign (collected by the Palace Museum in Beijing) is "too much" compared to the above-mentioned works, but compared with the works of ordinary painters dealing with similar themes, it is less. Much less. For example, his treatment of willow branches, which takes up about twelve strokes, occupies the entire upper space of the painting, not only expresses the quality of the old trunk and new branches of the willow, but also expresses the force of the branches facing the wind. In the spring breeze, the myna is washing its feathers and about to fly. This small scene of life shows unlimited business. "Flowers on the River" (collected by Tianjin Art Museum), painted in the 16th year of Kangxi's reign, is the only long-form masterpiece among Bada's lifetime works. It is also the one with the most pen and ink and the most complex layout, but he still embodies the principle of less. For example, there are no more than thirty strokes in the lotus clump when the book is opened. The number of strokes is reduced but the meaning is complex, making it fascinating as soon as the book is opened.
The Eight Great Masters are inherited from the ancients and inspired by those who come later. The old man Baishi once wrote a poem: "Qingteng (Xu Wei) was born in the snow (Bada Shanren) in a far-off mortal world, but Mr. Suo (Wu Changshuo) had extraordinary talents in those days." I used to be Jiuquan as a lackey, and I came under the influence of three families. ?This is how it fell. Today, with the exchange of Eastern and Western cultures, more and more people appreciate and understand his art.