Shi Tao, whose real name is Zhu, was born in 164 1 and died in 17 18. He was the tenth grandson of King Zanyi of Jingjiang in Ming Dynasty. Once a monk, his real name was helping the poor, and he was Yuanji, also known as Shi Tao, Qing Xiang, an old man, a bitter gourd monk and a blind venerable person. Orchid bamboo is good at flowers and fruits, and it is also a part-time worker, especially good at mountains and rivers, and its painting name is extremely prosperous. His paintings advocate "searching for all the strange peaks", with novel composition, vigorous brushwork and bold brushwork, which won the interest of Yuan people, and its spirit is beyond that of contemporary literati. Handed down from generation to generation are the drizzle pine map of Shanghai Museum, the plum and bamboo clear map, and the Jiao Ju map of the Palace Museum.
A drizzle and a loose picture is also quite outstanding in Shi Tao's handed down works. The picture of drizzling pine and cypress is painted on paper, with a length of 100 cm and a width of 42 cm. It was created by Shi Tao when he was about 45 years old. During this period, his personal style gradually formed, and his works pursued vigorous and dense, heavy and extraordinary growth. However, this picture of a drizzle and a pine tree is clear, elegant, delicate and accurate, which is different from other works in terms of techniques. Li, Ni Zan and He all have strong personal characteristics, showing dignity in beauty and elegance.
The calligraphy charm of "drizzling pine and cypress" is still quite strong. Rocks and trees are outlined with ink pens, and the lines are decisive and clean. The whole work is only slightly touched in a few places, and the picture is polished with light ochre and cyan, which is elegant and chic.
It is also ingenious in the layout of the scenery. A wooden bridge connects two mountains. An old man with a hood walks slowly on the bridge with crutches bent, depicting his calmness in his old age. Halfway up the hill, there was a man sitting by the window as if waiting for someone. This situation inevitably leads us to guess that the old man with crutches is likely to visit a friend who lives in seclusion in the mountains. In this pleasant autumn, it will be a pleasant thing to visit old friends in the quiet mountains and green waters.
There are many trees in the painting, or twisted and staggered, or tall and straight, with different shapes, lively and interesting. In the early autumn evening after the drizzle, the silent valley was cleaned up. The mountains are greener, the streams are clearer, and the vegetation in the mountains is more lush, showing great vitality. The picture is refreshing, as if the mountain wind is blowing head-on, which makes the viewer relaxed and happy.
Shi Tao is a master of expressing nature. He took nature as his teacher, never followed the formation of the ancients, nor did he mystify himself for the sake of being unconventional. He inherited the strengths of his predecessors, drew nutrition from the real landscape, captured inspiration, and borrowed the past to open up the present. He once put forward the slogan "I am for myself, I am for myself". This self-centered, creative attitude, this pragmatic and far-sighted attitude is extremely rare.
In the upper right corner of the picture frame, there is such a text description: "I have been splashing ink for decades and have never spoken lightly." The mountains and rivers are deep and the shade is close at hand. It's not easy to feel rich and poor. I give it to you as a gift. There is a saying in the taste:' The drizzle is raining and the smoke is wet, and the ink marks are loose and bald'. Can you enjoy it? In the summer of Ding Mao, Zi Laowen published a song "Rib Paper" and ordered him to paint. In the storm, he became familiar with the lower houses of China and Tibet. From this passage, we can know that in the year of Ding Mao, Shi Tao was in Yangzhou. The "lower house of China and Tibet" may be the famous temple "Tianning Temple" in Yangzhou at that time. According to the records of Yangzhou Painting Academy, there are Huayan Hall, Tibetan Sutra Hall and East and West Xiadian in the temple site, because there is an old story that a Brahman with a venerable Bodhi translated Huayan Sutra here. The "purple old man" mentioned in this article should be Shi Tao's good friend Zhuo Ziren (Erkang). He and Shi Tao are friends of the famous poetry club "Chunjiang Society", and Kong, the author of Peach Blossom Fan, once asked Shi Tao for paintings through him. Shi Tao created this painting at Zhuo Erkan's request because Purple Old Man published a rare piece of paper, which stimulated Shi Tao's creative interest.
According to records, in order to paint his own characteristics, Shi Tao often stays in the wind at night, looking for Qifeng and integrating into art. In a sense, becoming a monk in a temple is his concrete measure to get close to mountains and rivers.
As far as "A drizzle and a scattered painting" is concerned, vivid brushstrokes and inexhaustible interesting words have opened Shi Tao's own artistic world, which is exactly his creative spirit admired by later generations.