Zhao Shuru
Zhao Shuru (1874-1945) was born in Yin County, Zhejiang Province (now Ningbo, Zhejiang Province). His original name was Runxiang, with the courtesy names Xianchen and Shuru. Later he changed his name to Shi_ and Renchang. In his later years, he called himself Ernu Laoren and lived as Shuru. In the late Qing Dynasty, Zhu Sheng served as Tongzhi of Fujian Province. After the Republic of China, he lived in seclusion in Shanghai. He was proficient in inscriptions, calligraphy, calligraphy, flowers, Cordyceps, pommel and horse feathers, and was especially good at painting horses. He can be called "Zhao Meng in modern times".
Chinese name: Zhao Shuru
Alias: Original name Runxiang, courtesy name Xianchen, Shuru, Shi_
Nationality: Chinese
Birthplace: Yinxian, Zhejiang (now Ningbo, Zhejiang)
Birthdate: 1874
Death date: 1945
Occupation: Calligraphy, painting and seal engraver
< p>Main achievements: Especially good at painting horses, he can be called "Zhao Meng_ in modern times"Representative works: "Ernu Jingshe Seal Pu", "Han Seal Fen Yun Supplement", "Mr. Zhao Shuru's Ink Book" 》etc.
Character profile
Zhao Shuru (1874-1945), whose original name was Xianchen, was also renamed Shi_, his first name was Renchang, later he was changed to Shuru, and later Ernu. Old man, the name of the restaurant is Ernu Jingshe. A native of Yinxian County, Zhejiang Province.
Biography of the character
Hobby of calligraphy and painting
Zhao Shuru has been fond of calligraphy and painting since he was 5 years old, especially painting horses. He is known as a child prodigy. In 1881, Zhao Shuru painted a painting. Zhao Shuru was 8 years old. His father held a banquet for guests during the Spring Festival. Among the guests was an elder, Uncle Lin Ying. He heard that his uncle could draw horses at a young age and asked him to come out and perform in public. . Uncle and Ru took the order and quickly painted a picture of a magnificent galloping horse. The guests in the audience were very surprised and admired the painting. Uncle Lin Ying admired Zhao Shuru very much, and the next day he invited a matchmaker to Zhao's house to arrange a match and betroth his daughter to Shuru. Zhao Shuru married the daughter of the Lin family at the age of 17, and the couple loved each other. Painting a horse will bring you a lovely wife. This is a story by Zhao Shuru.
Zhao Shuru’s artistic attainments also benefited from the Lin family. His father-in-law, Uncle Lin Ying, was very fond of epigraphy, calligraphy and painting, and had a very rich collection. The two sons-in-law and Weng shared the same goals. Zhao Shuru looked at the collection of exquisite works at his father-in-law's house, devoted himself to studying the monuments of the Tang, Song, Yuan and Ming dynasties, and studied epigraphy, calligraphy and painting. Within three years, he had achieved remarkable results.
Good at painting horses
Zhao Shuru is good at painting horses. He mainly inherited the painting methods of Li Gonglin of the Song Dynasty and Zhao Meng_ of the Yuan Dynasty, and also drew on the Western painting methods of Lang Shining, a court painter in the early Qing Dynasty. Gradually formed his own style. Zhao Shuru painted no more than a hundred frames in his life, so he was not very prolific. However, his paintings were few but exquisite, and he was known as "one horse with ten golden heads". In Shanghai in the 1930s, Zhao Shuru's pommel horses, Wu Hufan's landscapes, Feng Chaoran's figures, and Wu Taiqiu's flowers were known as the "Four Special Skills".
The landscapes, flowers and caterpillars painted by Zhao Shuru are also full of interest, paying attention to form and not falling into stereotypes. People at that time commented on Zhao Shuru's paintings: "Looking at the dragon's sleep in the water, the landscape is absolutely like the Yuanxian, and the flowers and birds are the style of the Song Dynasty. The rich spirit is condensed into the hair." Zhao Shuru's more famous paintings include "Three Horses", "High Willow Drinking Horse Picture", "Guanshan Travel Picture", "Tongyin Gaoshi Picture", "New Silkworms on Foil Picture", "Ma Si Fang Sketches", "Five Horses Picture", "Tianma Picture Scroll", etc. Nowadays, his works are rare treasures and can be found in various private collections.
What is even more commendable is Zhao Shuru's seal cutting. He combines the strengths of Zhejiang and Anhui schools, got the essence of his predecessor Zhao Zhiqian, and studied ancient epigraphy, forming a new family, creating a elegant and tranquil atmosphere. People praise it as the best in two hundred years.
Active in the seal world
When Zhao Shuru was active in the maritime seal world, it was when Wu Changshuo's reputation was at its peak. Sha Menghai said in "Sha Cun Seal": "After three hundred years of continuous changes, it was as violent as Wu Yuelao (Wu Changshuo) and peaceful as Zhao Shulao (Zhao Shuru). It can be described as thrilling and unprecedented."< /p>
Zhao Shuru also has profound knowledge of the history of seal cutting. When writing a preface to a seal friend's seal book, he always writes down the relevant knowledge and his own insightful insights. For example, the origin of seal cutting, the origin of seals, the collection of seal books, etc., he can recount its chronological history to teach future generations. Zhao Shuru's calligraphy
Since the age of 51, Zhao Shuru has gotten up at dawn every New Year's Day, burning incense and sitting in meditation, and then carved a chronological seal. This continued without interruption for 22 years before his death. When he was 68 years old, he published six volumes of "Ernu Jingshe Seal Pu", which contains 300 self-engraved buttons, which can be regarded as a representative work. It is understood that Zhao Shuru carved about a thousand seals in his lifetime.
Representative ones include: "Puleilu", "Special Health Medicine", "Zhaodulou" and "Tingtaoxuan" seals in Chinese and white characters; "Yunyi Bookstore", "Anhe Room", "Anhe Room" and "Yunyi Bookstore", "Anhe Room" and "Tingtaoxuan" in Zhu imitated the Song and Yuan seals. Seals such as "Po Tie Zhai", "Seven Sisters, Eight Sisters and Nine Brothers", and "Moon Shang" are all excellent works.
An all-rounder in calligraphy and painting
Zhao Shuru is an all-rounder and knows all about epigraphy, stone, calligraphy and painting. Zhao's calligraphy is eclectic, and the small seal couplets and banners written are round and round, which is lovely. He usually instructs his students and nephews to copy the paintings and calligraphy from historical sites, so that they should be similar in form and have their own charm. Zhao Shuru did not write many articles, and his poems were even rarer. However, there were occasional quatrains and poems in the scrolls, which were quite leisurely and elegant.
In addition, Zhao Shuru is also an excellent collector of antiquities. His study is called "Ernu Jingshe". "Ernu" refers to the two crossbow machines of Yanxi and Wei Jingyao of the Han Dynasty. It is a crossbow left by the Shu Han Dynasty and is an ancient cultural relic collected by the Zhao family. Because he has a rich collection and deep experience, his discernment is also very strong. His appraisal is highly praised by famous experts at home and abroad.
Good mentor and helpful friend
Because he was born in a family of officials, Zhao Shuru also served as several minor officials in the 10 years after he was 28 years old. But Zhao Shuru had an indifferent temperament, which can be seen from his interest in epigraphy, calligraphy and painting, and officialdom was not what he was keen on. After the age of 38, Zhao Shuru disappeared from the officialdom and moved to Shanghai with his family, where he enjoyed dancing, writing, and ink, and made a living by seal cutting, calligraphy, and painting. During this period, he made many friends, such as Zhang Daqian of Sichuan, Gao Zhenxiao of Yinxian and other famous figures at that time. They were all happy to associate with him and respected him as a leader in epigraphy.
In 1912, Zhao Shuru edited six volumes of "Han Yin Fen Yun Supplement". This period was his golden age in art. There is an endless stream of people from all over the country who come to ask for ink marks and seals, and people who come to ask for advice or become apprentices also come one after another. Among them are Chen Julai from Pinghu, Fang Jiekan from Yongjia, Pan Zixie from Wuxian, etc., who have been deeply studied by their teachers. The famous calligrapher Sha Menghai also respected Zhao Shuru as his teacher. According to "Records of the Fellow Disciples of the Zhao Family", Zhao Shuru had about 60 disciples.
In terms of teaching students, Zhao Shuru does not agree with students simply inheriting the teacher’s experience, but advocates that students establish the focus of research based on their own talents and qualities. Many of his students have become talented, which proves that Zhao Shuru's education method is very successful. Looking back at the seal world in the 20th century, Sha Menghai, Fang Jiekan, Chen Julai, and Ye Luyuan, who all came from Zhao Shuru's sect, are unique in their respective achievements and artistic styles. Chen Julai's achievements in seal cutting are even better than his predecessors.
When Zhao Shuru turned 60 and 70 years old, his relatives, friends and disciples launched two birthday celebration activities. These two birthday celebrations were not only birthday celebration banquets, but also large gatherings of many celebrities in the art world. In 1942 and 1944, Zhao Shuru led his students to hold the "Zhao Shuru Fellow Sect's Painting and Calligraphy Exhibition" in Shanghai, which was a major event in the art world.
In 1945, at the age of 72, Zhao Shuru contracted a cold and deteriorated into pneumonia. The medicine was ineffective and he passed away at home on March 17 of that year.
Artistic Achievements
The name of Zhao Shuruzhai Hall is Ernu Jingshe. He has been interested in calligraphy and painting since he was five years old, especially painting horses. He is known as a child prodigy. When he was ten years old, he was invited to paint a horse in public, so the horse showed its splendor and all the viewers were amazed. Later, he was recruited as his son-in-law by the Lin family of Fujian County, who had a rich collection of epigraphy, calligraphy and painting. Zhao Shuru's paintings lived in the Yue family. He looked at the exquisite works collected by the Lin family and studied them with great concentration, especially focusing on bronzes and ancient seals. Zhao Shuru was an all-rounder. He was good at landscapes, figures, flowers, and horses. He also had his own talent in calligraphy and seal carving. He was particularly accomplished in Yuan and Zhu Wen of the Song and Yuan Dynasties. He is also an outstanding educator with more than 50 disciples. Famous calligraphers, painters and seal carvers in the modern art world such as Chen Julai, Ye Luyuan, Fang Jiekan, Zhang Lu'an, Xu Bangda, etc. are all his students. He learned calligraphy from Zhao Zhiqian and Zhao Meng, and the latter took the longest to learn it. Seal cutting is practiced by various schools, taking into account the strengths of Zhejiang and Anhui schools, and strives to assume the Qin and Han dynasties. Learning from Zhao Zhiqian is especially beneficial. He made important contributions to the research and development of Yuanzhu inscriptions in Song and Yuan Dynasties. His works include "Ernu Jingshe Seal Pu", "Han Seal Fen Yun Supplement", etc.
Zhao Shuru’s father, Zhao Youchen, was a member of the Imperial Academy of Xianfeng. He was a disciple of Emperor Tongzhi, and he rose to the rank of Minister of Taichang Temple. His family had a rich collection; his uncle, Lin Shoutu, was also a major collector in central Fujian. Zhao Shuru had been influenced by calligraphy and painting since he was a child. Quite spiritual. After 1911, he settled in Tilanqiao, Shanghai, where he wrote calligraphy and painting and became a master of the sea. When Zhao Shuru became famous for his painting skills, many people learned from him. At that time, there were three most prosperous peach and plum families in the sea. One was the disciples of Changshuo's family in Foulu; the other was the disciples of Li Ruiqing and Zeng Xi who had established the same sect;
There are seventy-two disciples of the Zhao family, with the famous seal carver Chen Julai being the oldest and Pan Junnuo the last. Others such as Fang Jiekan, Zhi Ci'an, Ge Xianglan, Sha Menghai, Xu Bangda, Zhang Lu_, Zhang Xuefu, Ye Yuanlu, Li Guoxiang and others can pass on his legacy and become leaders in the art world. (It shows that he is also a great educator) At that time, the country was just opening, there were many factions, and the art world was diverse. Zhao's painting thought was based on the ancient style of writing and sealing, and he came up with the idea that "the style of painting should also be retro", so he took a high-level path to Linquan, and achieved great success in painting. At this time, the way of art was no longer "one road in Huashan". The diversified changes made it impossible for Zhao's paintings to dominate in his era (when Daxing followed the traditional freehand painting style of Shitao and Baguai) of brilliance.
Artistic Features
In calligraphy, Zhao Shuru is good at both cursive, seal and official script. The regular script written by Zhao Mengxu and Zhao Zhiqian is quiet and beautiful; the seal script is inspired by Li Si and Li Yangbing, with smooth and round turns; the official script blends the two Han Dynasties and has a graceful and elegant style. He was also good at seal engraving. He followed the Qin and Han dynasties and studied in the Song and Yuan Dynasties. He was good at craftsmanship, neither sluggish nor rigid. His swordsmanship was mainly punching. His attainments were very profound. People at the time praised him as "Yu and Liang" together with Wu Changshuo. The engraved "worry about things first, enjoy things later" is a precise and rigorous work, with the spirit being solemn, complex but not chaotic. It produces a natural and harmonious effect on the overall layout. It is rigorously conceived and loved by people. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, he was as famous as Wu Changshuo, and together with Huang Shiling, Qi Baishi and Wang Fuchang, he founded "the five major seal schools of the Republic of China".
Late life
In his later years, Zhao Shuru received two crossbow machines from the Yanxi period of the Eastern Han Dynasty and the Jingyao period of the Shu Han Dynasty, so he called himself the Ernu old man and named his house the Ernu Jingshe , and wrote "Ernu Jingshe Seal Pu". Zhao Shuru died of pneumonia in Shanghai on April 18, 1945 at the age of seventy-one. There are "Mr. Zhao Shuru's Ink Book" handed down from generation to generation.