His painting style is unique, which is called "home-based", the characters are thin and handsome, the so-called "show bones and clear images" and the lines are smooth, which is called "spring silkworm spinning silk". He is the author of three works on painting: On Painting, Wei Jinsheng Praises Painting, and The Story of Painting Yuntai Mountain, and puts forward vivid theories of "describing the spirit with form" and "everything is blocked".
[Edit this paragraph] Biography
Gu Kaizhi was (partly) a painter, painting theorist and poet in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. In the early years of Yixi in the Eastern Jin Dynasty (405-4 18), Ren Tong was a regular servant, knowledgeable, versatile and good at writing and painting. Immersed in art, tireless, known as "talent, painting, infatuation". Painting is taught by teachers and health association, and he is good at making Buddha statues, figures, landscapes, animals and birds. They are particularly good at making the finishing point, claiming that "four-body beauty has nothing to do with beauty and vivid portrayal, and is being banned." Its brushwork, such as silkworms spinning silk, is easy at first glance, but it has six methods on closer inspection; Color decoration is rich in color, not dizzy, subtle, unpredictable and erratic. Xing Ningzhong made a "Vimola statue" on the wall of Jiankangwa Coffin Temple, with a clear face and carried away expression, which made a sensation. Taste Pei Kai's portrait, add three points to your cheek, and you will feel refreshed. It creatively made a statue for Xie Kun and spread it among the rocks. It said to itself, "This child should be put in a ravine." . It's wonderful to draw portraits of the emperor one after another. In the Tang Dynasty, Zhang Huaiguan spoke highly of his paintings, saying, "Zhang Sengyou gets his flesh, Lu Tanwei gets his bones, and Gu Kaizhi gets his spirit." History calls Cao Buxing, Gu Kaizhi, Lu Tanwei and Zhang Sengyou "four great masters in the Six Dynasties".
[Edit this paragraph] Painting characteristics
Gu Kaizhi's figure painting, with women's benevolence and wisdom, emphasizes vividness and pays attention to the finishing touch. Believe that vivid portrayal is being blocked (of eyes). Its handwriting is tight and continuous, such as silkworms spinning silk, like floating spring clouds, flowing water moving on the ground, all of which are natural, commonly known as Gao Gu You Si Miao. Decorate with a little color, no need for algae decoration. He is good at examining and refining themes and characters with wise eyes, so his paintings have certain ideological depth and are intriguing. Gu Kaizhi is the most outstanding painter among literati painters since Zhang Heng and Cai Yong in the Eastern Han Dynasty. He summed up the experience of folk painting and scholar-bureaucrat painting since the Han and Wei Dynasties, which made the traditional painting take a big step forward. Xie An, a contemporary, spoke highly of him, saying that "Gu Changkang's paintings were born with nothing". For Gu Kaizhi's painting art, Sheikh only put it in the third class in painting, and his evaluation was not high, which resulted in the injustice of Yao Zui and even Li Simiao in the later Tang Dynasty. He thinks it is "high and low" and arbitrarily suppresses it, so the cohabitation between Gu Kaizhi and Lu Tanwei should be "top grade". The Tang Dynasty commented: "The beauty of human beings, the flesh of Zhang, the bones of Lu, the spirit of the ancient, the ancient is the most." This comment has a great influence on later generations, and it has almost become a conclusion.
[Edit this paragraph] Remaining works
Gu Kaizhi's works include 3 volumes of Enlightenment and 20 volumes of Collected Works, all of which have been lost. Due to the records in Zhang Yanyuan's Notes on Famous Paintings of Past Dynasties, his painting theory preserved three pieces of Wei Jinsheng's Painting Praise, On Painting and Painting Yuntai Mountain. Its central component is: vivid theory, describing God in form and wonderful thinking. "Vivid" means paying attention to the expression of mental state. He thinks "Waving Five Strings" is very detailed and difficult to master, but it is easier to express mental state and inner activities than "Looking at Hong Fei". In painting theory, the concept of "writing spirit with form" is clearly put forward, with the aim of achieving both form and spirit. "Imagination" is the process of painter's meditation, experience and even conception, that is, imaginative thinking. "Miao" is to grasp the inner essence of the object skillfully. The idea of "moving the mind to a wonderful place" should realize the unity of subject and object, and realize the ideological blending among the author, the object of expression and the reader. These arguments are the pioneers of Sheikh's Six Laws. It has a great influence on the later creation of Chinese painting and the development of painting aesthetics.
[Edit this paragraph] Painting works
There are many paintings, including Sima Xuan, Xie An, Liu Laozhi, Wang Anqi, Ruanxiu, Ruanxian, Emperor Wu of Jin, Sima Xuan and Wang Wei, Guiyang Wang Meiren, Hangchuan, Tiger and Leopard, etc. Luohe map
Gu Kaizhi's original works have not been preserved. According to legend, there are manuscripts of Gu Kaizhi's works, such as A History of Women, A Picture of Luoshen and A Picture of Women's Benevolence and Wisdom. A history of women, a light-colored silk manuscript, is now in the British Museum in London, England, and most people think it is a copy of the Tang Dynasty. The content is based on Zhang Hua's article Women's History Proverbs in the Western Jin Dynasty. Originally divided into 12 paragraphs, each paragraph has a proverb article. The existing nine paragraphs, from "Xuanxiong's visit to the door" to "Women's History Secretary's Proverbs Dare to Speak Ordinary Discipline", are reliable material basis for understanding Gu Kaizhi's painting style. In addition, the Palace Museum also has a copy of the Song Dynasty, the artistic level is not as good as the former, but there are two more copies of Wei Nv, which is also of research value. Luo Shen Tu is a pale silk book. There are five kinds of replicas of the Song Dynasty, which are collected in the Palace Museum, the National Palace Museum in Taipei, the Liaoning Provincial Museum and the friel Art Museum in the United States. The content is based on Cao Zhi's Ode to Luoshen in the Three Kingdoms period. Some people think that the maternal age of this volume is earlier than that of Gu Kaizhi, or it is related to the "Luoshen Fu Tu" written by Si Mashao in East Jin Mingdi. The picture scroll takes the rich landscape as the background, showing various plots of characters, portraying characters and vivid will. The layout of the idea is particularly strange. Luo Shen and Cao Zhi appeared many times in a complete picture, forming a story development process from beginning to end. The picture is harmonious and unified, and there is no sign of comic book description. The landscape part in the picture has certain reference value for understanding the characteristics of landscape painting in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. The silk book "Women's Benevolence and Wisdom" is also collected in the Palace Museum. The content is to describe the part of "Biography of Benevolence and Wisdom", Volume III of "Biography of Ancient Lienv". This biography is only 10, which is probably copied by people in the Southern Song Dynasty. The lines of this picture scroll are stiff, which seems to be inconsistent with Gu Kaizhi's painting "Like a Silkworm Spinning Silk" in the literature.
[Edit this paragraph] Anecdotes
Gu Kaizhi, a great painter in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, has three unique skills: talent, painting and infatuation. (See Notes on Shi Shuo Xin Yu Literature)
Among these three stunts, "idiot" is the most important.
According to Women's History, Gu Kaizhi was "funny and loved by everyone". Others make fun of him because Gu Kaizhi is a "hip-hop" and he can stand jokes.
Gu Kaizhi was alone in the moonlight. Neighbor Xie Zhan was still listening to novelty at first and kept clapping. Gu Kaizhi is very proud, but Xie Zhan is going to bed, and he can't bear to spoil his fun. He asked the servant who hit him on the leg to praise him for himself. Gu Kaizhi felt different, singing alone until dawn.
This is Gu Kaizhi's "true delusion". Because Gu Kaizhi has always been conceited about his talent, although he is famous for his paintings in history, his literary talent is very good and he deserves the title of "writer".
But Gu Kaizhi's "idiots" can't all be "true idiots", and some of them are very fake, that is, "fake idiots".
Gu Kaizhi is superstitious about cicada slough. There is a leaf covering the cicada's hiding place, so the birds can't see it. This leaf is called "cicada leaf". If people cover themselves with cicadas, others can't see them. One day, Huan Xuan gave Gu Kaizhi a willow leaf, saying it was a "cicada leaf". Gu Kaizhi, as happy as a child, blocked himself with willow leaves and asked Huan Xuan if he could see him. Huan Xuan deliberately peed on him. He thought Huan Xuan didn't see it, so he peed on him, so he treasured this willow leaf.
Keep your eyes open and point to1100,000.
Gu Kaizhi once drew a fan for someone. Ruan Ji and Ji Kang from the Seven Sages of Bamboo Forest were painted on the fan, but they didn't have eyes, so he returned the fan to others. The owner of the fan asked him why he didn't draw eyes. He replied solemnly, "How can you draw eyes?" The person who clicks will talk and become a living person. "
There is also a story about Gu Kaizhi's finishing touch: In the second year of Xingning (364), the Jiankang (Nanjing) crock temple was to be built, and the monks collected money from the Beijing literati, but the response was not very enthusiastic. Seeing that the construction plan ended in vain, Gu Kaizhi generously pledged one million yuan. Gu Kaizhi is not rich. Where did he get a million dollars? No one believes that he can do it, but seeing how full he is, he seems to have a plan. Gu Kaizhi asked the monk to paint a wall in the temple white and let him paint inside. He closed the door for more than a month and painted a "statue of a layman in Vimalakīrti". The painting is almost finished except for his eyes. On the day of preparing for the finishing touch, Gu Kaizhi asked the monks to open the city gate and let the people visit, and stipulated that people who came to watch on the first day would donate100000, 50000 on the second day and 50000 for free on the third day. On the first day, many people flocked to the crock temple to watch Gu Kaizhi "shine". Gu Kaizhi made the finishing point in public, saying it was amazing. Only one thing, the whole portrait is alive. People heard the news, and soon,1100,000 yuan was collected. This Vimalakīrti mural became his masterpiece.
Cover up eye diseases with flying white
Gu Kaizhi is too clever. On one occasion, he painted a portrait of Yin Zhong Kan. Mr. Yin has an eye disease and doesn't paint well. He doesn't want to appear in the painting. Gu Kaizhi reassured me that he would be satisfied. How to draw? Gu Kaizhi painted with the technique of "flying white". Bai Fei refers to the white strokes, which seem to be written with dry pen. Gu Kaizhi handled Yin Zhongkan's eyes with Bai Fei's clever technique, which was both vivid and beautiful, and it was amazing.
[Edit this paragraph] Character evaluation
Gu Kaizhi is knowledgeable and talented. He is good at poetry and calligraphy, especially at painting. Statues of workers, Buddha statues, animals, landscapes, etc. At that time, it was called "talent, painting and stupidity". His painter Fawei has changed again. His paintings are full of colors, slightly embellished with rich colors, and do not seek halo decoration. The handwriting is meticulous and firm, such as silkworms spinning and spring clouds fluttering. Historically, Cao Buxing, Gu Kaizhi, Lu Tanwei and Zhang Sengyou were collectively called "four outstanding figures in the Six Dynasties". He is proficient in painting theory, and his arguments such as "thinking wonderfully" and "writing spirit with form" have great influence on the development of Chinese painting. There are many of his paintings, including Sima Xuan's The King of Chu, The Statue of Xie An, The Statue of Liu Laozhi, The Statue of Heng Xuan, The Picture of a Immortal Fairy, etc., all of which are recorded in Liang Taiqing Mu. There are nine paintings in Xuanhe Painting Spectrum, such as Yu Xia's Water Control Map and Spring Dragons Out of Sting Map. Among them, The Proverbs of Women's History handed down from generation to generation is an early manuscript, which is now in the British Museum in London, England. Another biography of Gu, Fu Tu of Luo Shen, was written by Song people and is now in the Palace Museum. His painting theories include On Painting, On Wei Jinsheng's Painting, Painting Yuntai Mountain, etc.