Xu Beihong and Tian Han are two very influential contemporary artists. One is a famous painter and the other is a famous playwright and poet. Xu Beihong is a native of Yixing, Jiangsu Province. He once served as the dean of the School of Art of Peking University and the president of the Peking Art College. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, he served as the dean of the Central Academy of Fine Arts and the chairman of the China Artists Association. Tian Han has been engaged in literature and art throughout his life and has created a large number of plays, operas, movie scripts, opera scripts, lyrics, old and new style poems and other works. He wrote "March of the Volunteers", which was composed by Nie Er and sung throughout the country. It was designated as the national anthem of the Republic of China. Because of their similar interests and artistic views, Xu Beihong and Tian Han fell in love with each other. As early as the 1920s, the two knew each other and forged a lifelong friendship.
Friendship began in Nanguo Society
In Shanghai in the 1920s, many progressive people gathered in the literary and art circles. Writers, poets, painters, sculptors, etc. came here one after another. Engage in new literary and artistic activities. Tian Han admired Xu Beihong's works and artistic attainments very much, and specially recommended Xu Beihong to people in Shanghai's literary and art circles.
The friendship between Tian Han, Xu Beihong, and Ouyang Yuqian is very sincere, and they have the same artistic views: art should eliminate the old and stereotyped, break the low taste of conformity and kitsch, and establish innovative art. Therefore, in the process of pursuing this revolutionary art movement, they were very close and in harmony. At that time, Nanjing National Central University contacted Xu Beihong and hired him as a professor in the art department with a fixed income of 300 French currency per month. He accepted, but put forward one condition: his family would still live in Shanghai, he would not give up his teaching position at Nanguo Art College, and he would go to Nanjing half of the month so that he could travel back and forth. "CUHK" immediately agreed.
Because the Nanguo Art Institute was a relatively progressive organization at the time, it was under surveillance by the Kuomintang government, and spies and thugs often went to make trouble. Xu Beihong was often stopped by his wife Jiang Biwei from attending classes. Jiang Biwei made trouble at the Nanguo Art College several times, which made Xu Beihong very embarrassed. In order to take the overall situation into consideration, Xu Beihong had to leave the college, which made Tian Han very sad. But the deep fighting friendship they forged in Nanguo Society has not changed.
Xu Beihongyi rescued Tian Han
In early 1935, Tian Han was suddenly arrested by the Kuomintang government and escorted to Nanjing. In prison, Tian Han wrote a poem: "I shed tears all my life, but today I am a prisoner of Chu. An left ten fingers with threads, and he will pay them for the future. A charming child likes to be good at calligraphy, so why not be a thief? ***Pillow. The wind and clouds in the sky are evil. Holding the iron threshold in your hand makes people sad."
When the news came, it was like a bolt from the blue. Xu Beihong rushed to Tian Han's house. Tian's mother cried bitterly when she saw Xu Beihong. Tian Han's wife Lin Weizhong, who lost her voice, also cried and told him about the past few days when she carried her children and food on her back to visit Tian Han in prison. After hearing this, Xu Beihong was filled with grief and indignation. He helped Tian's mother sit down, patiently comforted them, and told them with tears that he would do his best to rescue Tian Han.
In order to rescue Tian Han, Xu Beihong couldn't swallow his tea and food, and ran around, but to no avail. However, news that Tian Han was seriously ill in prison kept coming, which made him even more anxious and uneasy.
In the end, Xu Beihong had to seek help from his old classmate Zhang Daofan, who had become the deputy director of the Central Propaganda Department of the Kuomintang. In fact, Zhang Daofan already knew about this. The Central Command kidnapped Tian Han from Shanghai. Could he not report it to him, the executive director of the Three People's Principles Comrades Association?
Zhang Daofan listened quietly to Xu's introduction and sighed: "Brother Beihong, I have told you long ago that you don't have to worry about these things." Xu Beihong interrupted him: "You know, Tian Han's scriptwriting skills are amazing! He has written a lot of works and has published several books. He is a rare talent in the drama industry!" After Xu Beihong's repeated pleas, Zhang Daofan had no choice but to agree, "For the sake of an old friend, let's talk about it. Love, give it a try.”
Zhang Daofan inquired about the details, and the Central Unification Secret Service reported that it was just that Tian Han had a very active artistic life, but no information could be found about whether Tian Han himself was related to the Communist Party.
A few days later, Zhang Daofan came to Xu Beihong's house again and said to Xu Beihong: "After my intercession, they required two reputable people to act as guarantees before they could let him come out for treatment.
"This is easy to handle." "Xu Beihong turned around and contacted Zong Baihua. Xu Beihong and Zong Baihua acted as guarantees. In late July 1935, Tian Han was released on medical parole for suffering from back gangrene and was finally released on bail. After Tian Han was released from prison, Xu Beihong took Tian Han's family to him. Jiang Biwei was very angry about this and said: "You have taken a lot of risks to protect Tian Han, and now you are raising him at home, taking care of his food and clothing, can you afford it?" I really don’t understand, what benefit does this do to our family? This family was destroyed by you like this..." Xu Beihong was very angry after hearing this: "How can you say such a thing? Tian Han has been my best friend for many years, how could I ignore him? When I was wandering in Shanghai, without the help of Huang Zhenzhi and others, how could I be where I am today? Now that our lives are a little better, we forget about our friends in trouble. It is unethical to do so. "After that, Xu Beihong and Jiang Biwei drifted apart, and their relationship continued to deteriorate.
At this time, the movie "Children of the Storm" had been released in Nanjing, and the majestic singing of "March of the Volunteers" was already familiar to the public. Xu Beihong was very excited when he heard this song. He praised this war song of the Chinese nation composed by Tian Han and Nie Er: "The dying sick man has a strong breath. In the depressed nation, there is Tian Han's voice, and its sound is fierce and majestic. When you hear his rhythm, you should know that this person will never die and his nation will never perish."
Tian Han's artistic criticism of Xu Beihong
Tian Han paid great attention to Xu Beihong and once wrote an article about Xu Beihong. During the interaction between the two, Tian Han, as a member of the Communist Party of China and a leader of the party’s cultural work, had a great influence on Xu Beihong.
1930. In 2006, Tian Han published an article "Our Criticism of Ourselves" in "Nanguo Monthly", unceremoniously targeting his close friend Xu Beihong: "The establishment of Nanguo Art Academy should be thanked for the assistance of Mr. Xu Beihong, in addition to the efforts of the students. First, Beihong was invited to give a speech during his tenure at Shanghai University of Arts. Beihong praised his "theory of form and beauty" but paid little attention to the new ideological trends in art. ..." "But an unfortunate situation has been waiting for us. Mr. Xu Beihong, who promised to fight to the end, had arranged to leave our front while we were fighting for his "glory". This is because Mr. Beihong seems to have no intention of fighting for the art of the emerging class. He only sympathizes with what I personally call "spirit", and is somewhat moved by sensitive and studious young people. Therefore, his motivation for participating is more emotional than sane. Once his feelings change, he will naturally have to leave our front. "
Tian Han put a "bourgeois" hat on Xu Beihong in his article, saying: "If Beihong was lucky enough to be born in Europe at the end of the Renaissance, he would have become a prince and aristocrat like the Rubens. A loyal painter. Unfortunately, he was born in modern times when capitalism was developed. Therefore, although he "opposed all the academic tricks invented by Europe and the United States in the past thirty years", he unconsciously became a bourgeois painter, which at least softened his will to seek truth and common ground. He lost his ability to recognize reality clearly, so although he had a fiery sense of justice, he did not dare to speak out for the suffering people. "Although Beihong also advertises Realism, he is actually an Idealist. He is intoxicated in the sweet illusion of the bourgeoisie. In his paintings, it is difficult to see the Chinese people who are actually suffering, and some are just products of his ideals or fantasies. But in this intensely uneasy society, can his mind remain unwavering? In his large painting "Tian Heng" and small paintings "Qin Qiong Selling Horses" and "Three Heroes of the Fengchen", you can feel a kind of "melancholy", although this "melancholy" is petty bourgeois in nature. , but in his prime, we have to say that there is an opportunity for change in his art. "Therefore, a person like him who was tempered by a miserable life did not become a proletarian painter, but became a bourgeois painter unknowingly and unintentionally." "
In 1934, Tian Han wrote another article, specifically commenting on Xu Beihong's paintings with the theme of "horses". Tian Han said in the article: "Around 1927, I personally I saw that Mr. Beihong had painted many horses. ... Beihong's Horse writes about his little Bourgeois aristocracy.
He criticized the "horses" painted by Xu Beihong as being out of touch with reality and the reality of the Anti-Japanese War. "What Mr. Beihong can do after returning to China is still painting his horses, but it cannot still be the kind of behavior that attempts to transcend reality." He should paint the cruel restraints and the angry horses neighing in rebellion. He should paint the anti-Japanese men among the white mountains and black waters, under the Great Wall, and those anti-Japanese men who made the enemy proud. Charge into battle, and the war horses still struggling in the bloody battlefield under the bombs of planes! ”
Tian Han was a member of the “Left-wing” Writers Union and a leader of the Communist Party of China in cultural work at the time. It was inappropriate for him to put such excessive demands on Xu Beihong, a non-party person. He criticized Xu Beihong mercilessly. The strange thing is that we did not see Xu Beihong's rebuttal, and the brotherhood between Xu Beihong and Tian Han was not affected by this, and their fighting friendship did not end.
Tian Han admired Xu Beihong's national integrity and courage to pursue the truth during the Anti-Japanese War and the War of Liberation. In 1941, Chiang Kai-shek launched the "Southern Anhui Campaign" that shocked China and foreign countries. Incident", the progressive teachers and students of the National Central University hated Chiang Kai-shek's perverse actions and criticized him verbally and in writing. Xu Beihong, who taught in the Art Department of the National Central University, was extremely angry. After returning to the China Academy of Art he founded in Panxi, he painted with grief and indignation I painted a picture of "Angry Cat", in which a small tiger-like tomcat stands on a boulder, with its ears erect and a pair of round eyes shining like light bulbs angrily. The cat's whiskers are as straight as sharp cones. Gritting his teeth, he opened his mouth slightly and faced the outside of the paper like a mouse hunter. There was no inscription on the picture, only the four small characters with profound meaning of "Renwu Dahan" were written on it, and it was stamped with Beihong's name. Soon Tian Han came to visit. Hong showed him this painting, and Tian Han was full of praise. He immediately recited a poem and wrote it in the upper right corner of the painting with strong calligraphy: "I have been carrying a rag robe with me, and it can be chewed all night long. ** *The rats are so arrogant, no wonder Beihong wrote about the angry cat. "The poem praises Xu Beihong's sense of justice with a clear sense of love and hate.