"I don't think price is the most important thing. Everybody likes it. For calligraphers, it is meaningful to promote culture. If you always think about money, ordinary people can't afford it. How can culture be promoted? "
On one occasion, Xiji students of Ningxia University held a personal calligraphy exhibition in Yinchuan Xita Culture, and invited Hu Shihao to participate. The general thought it was not easy for poor students to hold calligraphy exhibitions, so he readily agreed. When he arrived at the scene, the organizer told him to stay in Mo Bao, but once he picked up the pen, he couldn't put it down. "From 8 o'clock in the morning to noon 12 o'clock, people came to ask for words one after another, one just finished writing, the other covered with rice paper and wrote more than 80 pieces." There is also an episode: the general writes upstairs, and the college students stamp downstairs, and each stamp is received by 50 yuan. General Hu was not only angry when he learned about it, but also felt that the child had a good brain: "If there is really a word 50 yuan, more than 80 words have more than 4,000 yuan, which is enough for the cost of this calligraphy exhibition, I will help the poor."
Over the past 20 years, he has written more than 20,000 letters to painters and collected more than 400,000 paintings, including more than 4,000 excellent ones, and learned a lot from artists.
General Hu said: "As a common people, I wrote to them for painting. Whether to give it or not is their business, and whether it is mine or not. If you want calligraphy and painting, you have to put down your airs. Educated people are the most uncomfortable. As long as you ask for it sincerely, people will always give it. " It is precisely because of this general's "modest and gentle" gentleman demeanor that he won the hearts of many famous painters and painters, and everyone gave him his works in succession.
"A painter gave me 32 works that he was proud of, including those created by 1973 and 1974. The other party said in the letter that this is the' sword of a strong man'. Another painter gave me his landscape works created abroad, which is a great thing, because people won't do it if they don't trust you. "
There are many such things, but the reason is the same, because the general holds out a sincerity.
In Hu Shihao's living room, there is an oil painting, in which the general is dressed in military uniform, serious and powerful. This painting embodies the author's six years of hard work. In 2000, a foreign painter was very excited after seeing General Hu Shihao's painting and calligraphy collection, so he drew a portrait of the general according to the photos. In 2003, the painter who had never met before came to Ningxia with his portrait, hoping to express his respect to the general in person. Unexpectedly, after the two met, the painter "slipped his tongue"-the image of the general in his eyes is too different from the past, because behind the majesty of the general is more of an artist's temperament. So, the painter re-conceived, and three years later, on September 5, 2006, the portrait was finally completed.
Regarding his portfolio, Hu Shihao said, "Everything is a story."