On the "World Museum Day" not long ago, the Guizhou Provincial Museum exhibited its collection of Guizhou's famous calligraphy and painting treasures from the Qing Dynasty for the public. Among them, Sun Qingyan's running script was written for the eldest brother of Da'an Junmen—— Du Fu's poem "Autumn Rising" is particularly eye-catching. With skillful writing skills, the author expresses his affectionate feelings between the lines through this seven-character poem. Appreciating the poems and calligraphy makes me feel the preciousness of the works.
Who are Sun Qingyan and Dayan? What's the relationship? Why write Du's poems as gifts?
In fact, behind the work lies a piece of Guizhou’s literary history.
(1)
The author of the calligraphy work, Sun Qingyan (1818-1884), whose courtesy name was Zhuya, was from Chenggong, Yunnan. He was a famous calligrapher and painter famous in Yunnan and Guizhou during the Daoguang, Xianfeng, Tongzhi and Guangxu years of the late Qing Dynasty. His bamboo paintings are particularly outstanding, so people in the world love to call him his grandson Zhuya. Its entry is included in the "Dictionary of Ancient Chinese Painters" edited by Hu Gumu.
This work was written for the eldest brother of Da’an’s military family, who was Zhao Dechang. He was born in Langdai, Guizhou. During the Xianfeng and Tongzhi years of the Qing Dynasty, Zhao Dechang made great achievements in leading troops to quell chaos. He was an official and became the "acting admiral of Guizhou". That was the highest military officer in Guizhou at that time.
One is a literary scholar, the other is a martial arts general. It is the historical events that connect them.
During the Xianfeng period, the ethnic minorities in Guizhou were affected by the Taiping Rebellion and started to rise up one after another. In order to quell civil strife, the imperial court recruited military service everywhere. At this time, Zhao Dechang, who was "unworthy of his family's livelihood", defected to the Yunnan Army General Chen Degong who was transferred from Yunnan to quell the uprising of ethnic minorities in his hometown, and he began his martial arts career. Because Zhao was "brave and good at fighting, and had repeatedly made military exploits", when Hengchun, the governor of Yunnan and Guizhou, impeached Chen Decong and was eager to hire people, Zhao Dechang was asked to fill the post of "counseling general". Immediately, the situation in Yunnan became critical, and Hengchun ordered Zhao to lead 300 cavalry to escort him back to Yunnan. After Zhao Dechang arrived in Yunnan, he used the power of the governor to recruit talents everywhere. At this time, under his command were Zhao Deguang and Zhao Dexin, who became his brothers who charged into battle for him. Wen had a group of Yunnan literati and celebrities, including Sun Qingyan, a calligrapher and painter who was already famous in Kunming.
Sun Qingyan was born into a scholarly family. Under the influence of his family, he "had a strong reputation" because of his "weak crown". After getting married, with the support of his wife, he still "specialized in literature and art with his brothers." In the seventh year of Xianfeng's reign, the rebel army surrounded Kunming. As a junior student receiving a salary from the imperial court, Sun Qingyan resolutely joined the army and joined Zhao Jun's family to "help manage documents".
Zhao and Sun walked together like this. In the ninth year of Xianfeng's reign, Hengchun saw that he could not deal with the situation and committed suicide. After Zhao Dechang lost his support, he requested to return to Guizhou because the affairs in Guizhou were not settled, and he was granted. Sun Qingyan also left his homeland and came to Guizhou with the army.
(2)
After Zhao and Sun got acquainted, they became a relationship of mutual dependence and utilization. Zhao Dechang was originally a martial artist. After getting acquainted with a group of literati such as Sun Qingyan, he began to develop some elegance. In his spare time, he learned poetry and writing by "learning steps according to rhymes, following sounds and beats", and "following the same gourd". Later, Zhao Dechang left behind his handwritten copy "Ying Cao in the Pillow Ge Room", which was his achievement in poetry. As for writing, it was difficult to show his skill in a short time.
In the tenth year of Xianfeng (1860), the situation in Guiyang was critical. Liu Yuanhao, the newly appointed governor of Guizhou, went to the provincial capital. "There were thieves for dozens of miles in the northeast." Therefore, "Zhao Dechang was used to control the armies in nearby provinces." "Zhao De used him so seriously, and his military disciples were willing to fight to the death, switching from defense to offense, repelling the rebels in one fell swoop, recovering Xiu Wen, and the provincial capital was preserved. As a result, Zhao was promoted to the commander-in-chief of Anyi Town and became famous from then on. When Zhao Dechang was in the provincial capital, in order to pursue his great cause, he spared no effort to show that he was a commander capable of both military and literary skills. Whenever he visited nearby scenic spots, he simply used Sun Qingyan's writing style and named it after himself. Therefore, what we see today is the "tiger" character in Qianling Mountain, Guiyang, the "dragon" character in Dongshan, the cliff stone carvings of "Qianyang Banbi" in Xiangbao Mountain, as well as the stele inscriptions of Dongshan's poem "Revisiting Dongshan", Tuyunguan's "New Repair to Be Loyal" The four inscriptions including "The Story of the Tower" are all signed with the name of Zhao Dechang or Da'an.
Regarding this issue, although there is no record in the chronicles, only rumors, the author used computer technology to compare the above engraved handwriting signed by Zhao Dechang with the handwriting of Zhao Dechang now stored in the Provincial Library. The handwriting of the manuscript "Zhen Ge Shi Yin Cao" was compared, compared and analyzed with the handwriting of more than a dozen calligraphy works and paintings by Sun Qingyan now collected in the Provincial Museum. The conclusion is that the above cliffs and stele inscriptions were signed by Zhao. , all written by Sun Qingyan! There is another supporting evidence for this conclusion: in the "Continuation of Anshun Prefecture Chronicles" in the Republic of China.
It is recorded in "Records of Places of Interest and Monuments" that the inscriptions and couplets of some places of interest in Anshun are all "written by Zhao and Sun". (The author has published this result in an article). Zhao Dechang directly used Sun Qingyan's calligraphy to replace himself, making up for his "literary" weakness. In front of the world, Zhao Dechang is indeed a man of extraordinary civility and martial arts. Therefore, in the third year of Tongzhi, Zhao Dechang was promoted to "acting admiral of Guizhou".
What should Sun Qingyan rely on Zhao Dechang? After Sun followed Zhao into Guizhou, he had no relatives. At this time, wind and smoke were everywhere in Guizhou. In a cruel situation, if you were not careful, you could be killed. In this case, Sun Qingyan had no choice but to rely on his superiors. This is also the fact. In the first year of Tongzhi (1862), "Xingyi County fell, and the high officials tasked Dechang with handling the affairs, and Dechang asked Sun Qingyan to take charge of government affairs." In the fourth year of Tongzhi, he "struggled to protect the prefect of Duyun". It can be said that Sun Qingyan relied on Zhao Dechang's support in his official career. Not only that, after Sun Qingyan's family moved to Guizhou, Zhao settled them in the relatively safe hometown of Langdai, and then betrothed his second daughter to Sun Qingyan's nephew Sun Huang, forming a marriage relationship between the two families. Mrs. Sun Qingyan was buried in Langdai after her death. Sun Qingyan died in Guiyang in 1884. According to his will, his descendants returned him to Langdai for burial. It can be said that their relationship has become as close as brothers.
(3)
After knowing the relationship between Zhao and Sun, it is not difficult to understand why Sun Qingyan wrote Du poetry as a gift to Zhao Dechang. After Zhao became the Admiral of Guizhou, his life was not easy. On the one hand, the mutual strife and exclusion in the officialdom made the Admiral useless and he was always fighting on the front line. On the other hand, the struggles of ethnic minorities were rising one after another, like wildfire. The Zhao family's army was trapped in a long and bitter battle with no success. In the seventh year of Tongzhi, Zhao Deguang, Zhao's sworn brother, was ambushed and killed in Ludi, Qingzhen. Zhao Dechang was "so angry that he became sick and asked to give up." After Zhao Dechang was dismissed, he returned to Langdai, only to be plagued by illness to the end.
After Zhao left officialdom, Sun Qingyan served as the prefect of Anshun. After the uprising of the ethnic minorities in Guizhou subsided, he also quit officialdom and settled in Guiyang, where he entertained himself with calligraphy and painting. However, every time I think about the situation of Zhao Dechang who is far away in Langdai, I can't help but feel emotional. Therefore, at the beginning of the winter of the Jiaxu year (1874), Sun Qingyan borrowed the theme of the past and hurting the present from the song "Autumn Xing", which was similar to the form of "Sao", to express his sentiments for Zhao Dechang. The author uses the sentence "Beautiful women pick up the green spring to ask each other, and the immortal couple moves on in the same boat at night" to express their sincere friendship. He once displayed his career as a painter to the imperial court, but now he only has the misfortune of living in a miserable state with his head hanging down in pain.
Sun Qingyan used this poem to express his nostalgia for Zhao Dechang at that time.
? (The text quotes excerpts from "General Records of Guizhou. Records of Previous Events" and "General Records of Guizhou. Records of Officials")
?
p>