Hui Zong was brilliant and had a soft spot for calligraphy and painting since he was a child. By the time he was 16 or 17 years old, he had become a famous artist. Before he ascended the throne, he had frequent contacts with Xu Junshou, imperial clan, Huang Tingjian, Wu and others. These people were accomplished painters and painters at that time, which had an important influence on Hui Zong's artistic achievements. It is not difficult to imagine that the stone known as "good calligraphy and painting, seeking fame with power" has a high evaluation.
After Hui Zong ascended the throne, he collected many famous paintings of past dynasties, copied them constantly, and made great progress in his skills, becoming a well-deserved master of painting. His paintings are mainly sketches, which are famous for their delicacy and realism. He observes life in detail and is especially good at flowers and birds. Deng Chun, a poet in the Song Dynasty, praised his paintings as "the highest beauty in ancient and modern times" in Painting for the Year. This view is objective and fair.
There are many existing paintings by Hui Zong, two of which are representative works: one is a silk edition of "Furong Golden Rooster" depicting the dynamics of flowers and birds. Lotus held down the golden pheasant, but the golden pheasant was staring at the flying butterfly. The three scenes are connected together to form a very interesting overall effect. The Palace Museum produced 10 simulation products, each worth more than 500,000 yuan. The second is "Sketching Rare Birds", which is Hui Zong's most famous work, without any controversy. This is Hui Zong's mature work. The work itself has high artistic, cultural relics and collection value. This painting was auctioned for more than 25 million RMB in 2002.
Hui Zong is not only good at painting, but also has high attainments in calligraphy. On the basis of learning from Xue Qi, Xue Yao and Chu Suiliang, his calligraphy is eclectic and unique, which can be called "skinny". His writing style is thin, hard and straight, and his font is slender and symmetrical. He is especially good at regular script and cursive script, and cursive script is also unique. His interest is natural and free, like a storm, like stormy waves, better than regular script. "Thin Man" and Li Yu's "Jin Cuodao" bring out the best in each other, which is a dazzling double gem in the history of China calligraphy. There are many thin gold calligraphy works in Hui Zong that have been handed down to this day, including the cursive script "Thousand Characters", which was written by Zheng He two years ago, when Zhao Ji was 4 1 year old. His writing style is unrestrained, fluent, ups and downs, and it is quite spectacular in one go, no less than that of Zhang Xu and Huai Su, the cursive writers in the Tang Dynasty. This is a rare treasure. It says 14: "Swallow feathers spin in cold water, but wet flowers fall in the mud". Its brushwork is euphemistic and beautiful, as coherent as a dragon and snake, and it is also a precious historical relic.
Hui Zong not only created a large number of fine paintings and calligraphy, but also actively promoted the development of culture and art in the Northern Song Dynasty. Among them, the attention paid to Hanlin Painting and Calligraphy Institute is commendable. Since the early Song Dynasty, people working in painting and calligraphy institutes have always had a low status compared with other departments, and even their clothes are different from those of their peers in other departments. Hui Zong not only established and improved the rules and regulations of the academy, but also improved the political status of the academy accordingly. In the third year of Chongning, he ordered the establishment of a painting academy dedicated to cultivating painting talents, which was later merged into Hanlin Painting and Calligraphy Institute. Painting majors are divided into Buddhism, figures, landscapes, birds and animals, flowers and trees, house wood and other subjects. They teach Wan Fan's seven-character poems and explain Chinese characters, erya, dialects and other courses. The Academy of Painting also has strict examinations. Hui Zong personally put forward propositions in the form of ancient poems every time, such as "selling restaurants by the bamboo lock bridge" and "ste"
Hui Zong was very happy after hearing this. He not only gave the boy a red coat, but also said yes again and again. Others were confused, so he asked Hui Zong for advice. Hui Zong pointed out that few people can draw roses well, because stamens and leaves are completely different with the seasons and changes in the morning and evening. The Chinese rose in this painting blooms at noon in spring. Its stamens and leaves are not bad at all. I really appreciate it． The painter next to me was moved by Hui Zong's incisive analysis and judgment on this painting.
On another occasion, Hui Zong came to the palace to watch litchi trees. He just saw a peacock flying under the tree, and Hui Zong immediately called a painter to draw it. Painters have described them brilliantly from different angles, and some of them show peacocks climbing on vines. Hui Zong said: "This is not right." Everyone looked at each other and wondered why. A few days later, Hui Zong called the painter again, but they still didn't know why. Hui Zong said, "Peacock raises his left leg first!" At this time, the painters suddenly realized that this also reflected Hui Zong's meticulous observation of life from one side.
Thanks to Hui Zong's unremitting efforts, the Academy of Painting and painting research have made great achievements. On the one hand, a large number of outstanding painters such as Zhang Xiyan, Meng Yingzhi and Zhao Xuan have been trained. On the other hand, it created a new realm of painting in the Northern Song Dynasty and became a milestone in the history of painting in China. Academic circles have a reputation that "Northern Song Dynasty painting is actually the most perfect painting in China", which is directly related to Hui Zong's love and attention to art and the creation of a good cultural atmosphere.
During the reign of Hui Zongshi in Hui Zong, he not only treated the Painting Academy with courtesy, but also extensively collected ancient epigraphy and calligraphy and treasured books. At the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, after the Jin people captured Bianjing, they robbed Cheng of his concubines, and he didn't feel any emotion. He was "stunned" when asked about his collection of paintings and calligraphy. Therefore, Hui Zong attached great importance to calligraphy and painting. During the Xuannian period, Hui Zong organized the calligraphy and painting ink collected by the Imperial Palace into four volumes: Hua Cheng, Xia and Xuanhe Shupu, and engraved the famous Xuanhe Shupu. These are of inestimable significance for enriching painting theory and preserving China traditional culture.
There are many emperors in China who like to collect calligraphy and paintings and participate in their creators, but no one like Xu Huixin has integrated his personal pursuit of art into the cultural life of the whole society so extensively and deeply. Zhao Gou, the first emperor of the Southern Song Dynasty, didn't give much praise to governing the country, but perhaps influenced by his father, Zhao Gou loved calligraphy since childhood and eventually became an outstanding calligrapher in the Song Dynasty. Father and son like Xu Huixin and Zhao Gou, both emperors and great calligraphers, are rare in the history of China and even the world. Therefore, Hui Zong's way of governing the country is irrelevant or even useless, but from the perspective of cultural history, he enjoys an indisputable lofty position in the history of China's calligraphy and painting.