Getting to know one more accomplished friend is equivalent to expanding a new space in your life and opening up a new perspective on the world.
Deng Shiru was a famous calligrapher in the Qing Dynasty. His development was helped and recommended by Liu Yong.
Deng Shiru's name was Deng Wanbai, and his courtesy name was Shiru. He was a native of Jixianguan, Huaining County, Anhui Province. Although he grew up in a rural area and had little knowledge, he was good at carving stones and was very good at imitating Han seals. Before reaching adulthood, due to family difficulties, he traveled around to make a living by imprinting for others. When he was living in Shouzhou, Liang Gao, a native of Haozhou, was giving lectures at Shouchun Academy, and he was also famous for his Gong Li Yong calligraphy. Deng Shiru carved stone seals for the students in the courtyard and copied their homework in small real scripts. Liang Gao was very surprised when he saw it and said: "Although this man is not familiar with the calligraphy of the ancients, his writing style is rich and powerful. Even I can't do it." level. If his potential is fully utilized, he can be compared with the famous masters of hundreds of years." So he prepared a suitcase for Deng Shiru and recommended him to his good friend Mei E's house in Jiangning. The Mei'e family is an aristocratic family. It has been a prominent family in Jiangdong since the Northern Song Dynasty. It has given birth to more than ten famous people. The family has a rich collection of calligraphy and paintings. In addition, Duke Wen Mu was specially favored by Emperor Kangxi, and he has a lot of collections in the inner palace. Almost all since the Qin and Han Dynasties. There are collections of name paintings.
After Deng Shiru came to his home, Mei admired it very much. She brought all the collections in his home for him to appreciate, and also provided him with food, clothing, pen and ink expenses, so that Shi Ru read it carefully and studied its essence. Understand the difference between elegance and vulgarity in calligraphy and painting. He especially likes stone drum inscriptions, Li Si's "Yishan Stele", Taishan Stone Carvings, Han Dynasty's "Kai Mu Stone Que", "Dunhuang Prefect Stele", "Su Jianguo Mountain" and "Huang Xiang Tianfa Divine Prophecy Stele", Li Yangbing's " "Chenghuang Temple Stele", "Three Tombs", etc., each of which has been copied in more than a hundred copies. He also suffered from the incompleteness of the seal script, so he wrote twenty copies of "Shuowen Jiezi" by hand. The work was completed within half a year. We also collected bells and tripods, tiles from the Qin and Han dynasties, and tablet foreheads from three generations to observe the style of his writing and gain insights into his purpose.
Deng Shiru was very diligent in his studies. He would get up before dawn every morning and grind a large basin of ink until he finished using it late at night before going to bed, no matter whether it was cold or hot. Five years later, when the seal script was almost mastered, he studied Han Dynasty script and copied "Shi Chen's Back and Back Stele", "Huashan Stele", "White Stone", "Shenjun", "Zhang Qian", "Pan Xiaoguan" and "Kong Xian". ", "Shou Zen", and "Dashi" each have fifty copies. Completed in three years.
One year, Deng Shiru came to She County and sold seal cuttings in the market. At that time, Zhang Huangyan, editor of the Hanlin Academy, was teaching apprentices at Jinbang's house. He was also good at seal script. When he saw Shi Rushu, he admired it very much and said to Jinbang, "I am lucky to see Cai's original work again today." Jinbang asked why, and Zhang Huangyan asked. Tell me why. Jinbang then went to the deserted temple where Shi Ru lived in the rain with Zhang Huangyan to visit him and invited him to his home. The Jin family has a very magnificent temple, and the couplets are all carved in stone. They are carefully written for the gold list, and they think they are perfect. But when I saw Shi Ru's book, I wanted to ask a worker to polish it off. Since the stone carvings were too solid to be polished and polished, they removed the stone couplets and asked Shi Ru to rewrite them and rebuild the family temple. This shows how much he admired them.
Deng Shiru was an upright man. When he lived in Jixian Pass, he got a wild crane. Shi Ru loved it very much and kept it in a nearby temple. A prefect discovered a wild crane while visiting an ancient temple. He liked it very much and took it away.
Shi Ru was very dissatisfied and immediately wrote to the prefect to demand it, with fierce words. The prefect did not care about it and returned the wild crane to Zhao intact. Shi Ru once wrote a poem to record the year:
The spring and Autumn period returns to the Yamen, and the years are like water flowing eastward.
Two leisure activities in the morning and evening, letting go of cranes and fishing in clear skies.
The ancient paintings are leisurely in the hills and valleys, and the green pines entertain the guests.
When Xiang Ping volunteered, he was old and his eyebrows were seven feet tall.
It is said that after the death of Shiru in the early Jiaqing period, the crane also disappeared.
Deng Shiru later met Cao Wenqi, the Minister of Household Affairs, and was greatly appreciated by Cao Wenqi. In the autumn of the fifty-fourth year of Qianlong's reign, Cao Wenqian went to Beijing to attend the 80th birthday celebration of Emperor Qianlong the following year and forcefully invited Shi Ru to join him in the capital, but Shi Ru insisted on going alone. He wore a straw hat, straw sandals, and rode an old donkey. He waited for Cao Wenqi to leave before setting off on the road, so as not to walk with Cao Wenqi. Unexpectedly, Cao Wenqian and his party were delayed due to floods in Shandong, and met Deng Shiru in Kaixian. At that time, the governor of Shandong was leading officials of all sizes to greet Cao Wenwen in the suburbs.
Deng Shiru rode an old donkey through the gate and was scolded by the gatekeeper. He was seen by Cao Wenqian who was sitting at the table. He quickly invited him to the seat and said to everyone present: "This is Mr. Deng, a famous scholar from Jiangnan. His four-body calligraphy They are all of the highest rank in the country."
Everyone was shocked and asked to prepare chariots for him. Cao Wenzhen said: "I wronged Mr. Deng and asked him to go north to the capital with me, but he refused to go with me. I hope you can fulfill his wish." So he led everyone to the camp gate.
When he first came to the capital, Weng Fanggang was the most famous seal script writer in the capital and was called the master. However, Deng Shiru did not visit him alone. Therefore, Weng Fanggang did not like Shi Ru and criticized him a lot. Only Liu Yong and Lu Xixiong Wait for a few people to appreciate him and become good friends. Liu Yong was full of praise for Shi Ru's calligraphy, saying:
"There has been no such work for hundreds of years!" Deng Shiru's calligraphy was recognized by Liu Yong, a master of calligraphy, and established his position and position in the calligraphy world. The role cannot be underestimated. Due to Weng Fanggang's exclusion, Deng Shiru could no longer stay in the capital. During this period, Liu Yong tried to mediate but failed. Soon, Liu Yong wrote a special letter to recommend Deng Shiru to his friend Hubei Governor Bi Yuan. Later, Deng Shiru became Bi Yuan's staff.
Bi Yuan is Liu Yong's old friend. His names were Qiufan, Lingyanshanren, etc., and he was a native of Zhenyang, Jiangsu. In the 35th year of Qianlong's reign, he won the first prize in the cabinet examination and served as an official compiler, Taoist priest, chief envoy, and governor of Shaanxi. As governor of Henan, he took charge of the management of the Yellow River and the Huaihe River. In the 53rd year of Qianlong's reign, he was promoted to governor of Huguang.
Bi Yuanzhong was a subordinate of Liu Tongxun before he became a Jinshi, so he had known Liu Yong for a long time. When Liu Yong was appointed as the inspector-general of Shaanxi, Bi Yuan was the chief envoy. Soon he was promoted to governor of Shaanxi and became Liu Yong's superior, so they had a close relationship with him.
In the 54th year of Qianlong's reign, Liu Yong recommended his new friend Deng Shiru to serve as the then governor of Huguang, Bi Yuan, who paid close attention to Deng Shiru.
Bi Qiufan was also a romantic and talented man who lived a luxurious life. He maintained a theater troupe at home and sang in his free time.
One day, a guest was sitting with him watching a play. Seeing that he was leisurely and contented, he told him: "Bi Gong seems to be too extravagant, right?" Unexpectedly, Bi laughed and said: "I once wrote an inscription The posthumous portrait of Wen Tianxiang said: "If you have a good reputation, you will never be loyal to prostitutes." This means that as long as there is no damage to the moral aspects, even if there are small deficiencies, it is understandable." In other words, even if Xiang is famous. Doesn’t Wen Tianxiang, the world’s national hero, also have lustful habits? What does it mean if I pay attention to some luxury enjoyment? So I still go my own way.
Bi Yuan is very good at recruiting talents and is also very interesting. When he was the governor of Shaanxi, most of the guests in the audience were lustful. Because Bi Yuan had a group of wives and concubines, and they were all good at singing, dancing and extremely beautiful, so everyone liked to run to the inner palace without anything to do, so as to enjoy singing and laughing parties. Bi Yuan was jealous, but it was not convenient for him to express it openly.
One day, taking advantage of the opportunity of everyone being present, Bi Yuan suddenly sent an order: "Quickly go and send an order to the general of the Chinese Army to ask for five hundred shotgun soldiers and five hundred archers each to enter the Yamen to serve!" They were all confused and asked what happened.
Bi Yuan pretended to be nonchalant and said: "It's nothing serious. It's just that there are too many rabbits in the office recently, which makes people upset, so I want to beat them all out."
Hunting Rabbits As soon as it was said, it was naturally a metaphor for "rabbits don't eat grass beside their nests." Those present quickly understood what it was referring to, but some dared to laugh and some did not.
Cao Renhu, a native of Jiading, was cousin to Bi Yuan. At that time, he resigned due to filial piety to his parents. He was serving as the mountain chief of Guanzhong Academy and lived in Bi Yuan's governor's office. One morning not long ago, Bi Yuan accidentally went to Cao Renhu's room to look for Cao Renhu. At this time, Cao Renhu was still sleeping soundly, and the door was not opened, but he saw a couplet posted on the door:
" Renhu's new residence, Xianglin's old battlefield." It means that this is Cao Renhu’s new residence, and it was once the place where Qilin had sex. Judging from the handwriting, it should be the work of Qian Xianzhi, a friend of the screenwriter. He was probably dissatisfied with being compared to a rabbit eating grass on the edge of the nest, so he used it as a joke. Bi Yuan had no choice but to laugh it off.
A year later, Bi Yuan was changed to the governor of Henan and lived in Kaifeng City, but a group of guests still did not change their habit of spying on the beauties in the inner palace. So Bi Yuan used the joke of "hunting rabbits" to ridicule them.
Unexpectedly, this time, some of the guests had already made preparations. Before Bi Yuan could finish telling the "story", a guest stood up and pretended to be serious and said, "This is a big deal!" Bi Yuan asked hurriedly, " Why?" The guest said, "This is King Xiao's rabbit garden, and public anger is hard to offend!" After hearing this, Bi Yuan laughed and had no choice but to let it go.
When Bi Yuan was the governor of Huguang, there were many virtuous corporals and famous people in Wuzhong. They had fat horses, fresh clothes and delicious food, and were free and easy. However, only Deng Shiru walked in commoners and was very frugal, so Bi Yuan particularly valued Deng Shiru. When Deng was about to return, Bi Yuan tried his best to persuade him to stay. After being unable to retain him, he said with great regret: "Mr. Deng is a piece of Qingliangsan in my curtain. He is leaving today, and my curtain is suddenly inferior." In order to give Deng Shiru To raise funds for the purchase of land and houses, he hosted a banquet for salt merchants and asked everyone to celebrate Deng Shiru's birthday. As a result, Deng had enough money to buy a house and build a house, and invited a master to teach his son and nephew. Then he will travel north and south of the Yangtze River. Wherever he goes, he must look for the deeds of sages and ancient people. After returning from the trip, he used the money in his pocket to help the poor people of the three tribes. The remaining money asked people to make coffins, and those who were too poor to be buried could use them at will.