Huizong was talented and had a soft spot for painting and calligraphy since he was a child. By the time he was sixteen or seventeen, he had become a well-known artist. Before he ascended the throne, Huizong often interacted with Wang Shen, a captain of Xu, Zhao Danian, Huang Tingjian, Wu Yuanyu and others. These people were accomplished masters of calligraphy and painting at that time, which had an important influence on Huizong's artistic accomplishment. It is not difficult to imagine that Huizong was highly praised for his "ability to write and draw, and his name was important when he was in power".
after Huizong acceded to the throne, he collected many famous books and paintings of past dynasties, copied them endlessly, and made great progress in his skills, becoming a well-deserved master of painting. His paintings pay attention to sketching, and are famous for their exquisiteness and vividness. His observation of life is meticulous, especially in flowers and birds. Deng Chun, a Song Dynasty poet, praised his paintings as "the beauty of the past and the present" in Painting Following, which is objective and fair.
There are many paintings of Huizong, and there are two masterpieces: One is the picture of the golden pheasant with hibiscus, a silk copy, which describes the dynamics of flowers and birds. The golden pheasant is kept low by hibiscus, but the golden pheasant is watching the flying butterfly. The three scenes are connected together, which constitutes an overall effect of great interest. The Palace Museum has produced 1 simulation products, each with a price as high as 5, yuan. The second is "Sketching Rare Birds", which is a well-known masterpiece of Huizong's works without any controversy, and it is a work of Huizong's mature creation. The art, cultural relics and collection value of the work itself are very high. This painting was taken away in 22 for more than 25 million RMB.
Huizong is not only good at painting, but also has high attainments in calligraphy. On the basis of learning from Xue Ji, Xue Yao and Chu Suiliang, his calligraphy is inclusive and has its own style, which is called "Shoujinti". His brushwork is thin, hard and straight, and the font is slender and well-proportioned. He is especially good at regular script and cursive script. Crazy grass is also unique, natural and free and easy, like a storm, like stormy waves, which is better than regular script. "Shoujin Style" and Li Yu's "Jin Cuodao" complement each other, which is a dazzling double gem in the history of China calligraphy. There are many Shoujin calligraphy works in Huizong, and the representative works are: The cursive script "Thousand Characters", written in Zhenghe two years, when Zhao Ji was 41 years old.
Its brushwork is unrestrained and smooth, ups and downs, and it is quite spectacular in one go, which is no less than Zhang Xu and Huai Su, the sages of cursive script in the Tang Dynasty. It is a rare treasure. "Seven-character Poem of Wan Fan" has 14 words written on it, which are "the swallow's feathers turn cold when it is swept by water, and the pieces of mud are wet and heavy". Its brushwork is tactfully beautiful and coherent, and it is also a precious historical relic.
Huizong 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, it is commendable to attach importance to Hanlin Painting and Calligraphy Institute. Since the early Song Dynasty, people who worked in painting and calligraphy institutes had a low status compared with other departments, and even their costumes were different from those of the same officials in other departments. Huizong 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 (114), Huizong ordered the establishment of painting science to train painting talents, which was later incorporated into Hanlin Painting and Calligraphy Institute. Painting majors are divided into Buddhism, figures, landscapes, birds and animals, flowers and bamboos, house wood and other subjects, and teach courses such as Shuowen Jiezi, Erya, Dialect and Interpretation of Names. The Academy of Painting also has a rigorous examination, and every time Huizong personally propositioned with ancient poems, such as "selling restaurants by the bamboo lock bridge", "stepping on flowers to get rid of horseshoe fragrance" and "the green branches are a little red", and so on, which are exquisite and unique, quite attractive and imaginative.
Huizong often visited the Painting Academy for guidance. According to "Painting Following", during the reign of Xuanhe, Emperor Huizong built the Longde Palace, and the experts in the special painting academy painted the walls and screens of the Longde Palace on the spot. After the painting, Huizong went to check, but only one "Chinese rose with oblique branches" caught his attention. He asked whose work it was, and his entourage told him that it was made by a teenager who had just entered the painting academy.
Huizong was very happy to hear this. He not only gave the boy a red dress, but also repeatedly said it was good. Others were puzzled, so he asked Huizong for advice. Huizong pointed out that few people can draw the rose well, because with the changes of four seasons and morning and evening, the stamens and leaves are completely different. In this painting, the rose blooms at noon in spring, and the stamens and leaves are not bad at all, so I will give it a generous reward. The painter nearby listened to Huizong's penetrating analytical anatomy and highly appreciative judgment on this painting, and he couldn't help but admire it.
On another occasion, Xuanzhong in the palace and the litchi tree in front of the temple bore fruit, and Huizong came to watch it. Just as a peacock flew under the tree, Huizong was so happy that he immediately called a painter to paint it. Painters painted wonderful pictures from different angles. Some of them showed peacocks climbing the rattan pier. Huizong said, "It's not right." Everyone looked at each other, wondering why. A few days later, Huizong called the painters to ask again, but they still didn't know why. Huizong said, "Peacock lifts its left leg first!" " At this time, the painters suddenly woke up, which also reflected the delicacy of Huizong's observation of life from one side.
Thanks to Huizong's unremitting efforts, the Academy of Painting and Painting Studies 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 good reputation as "the painting of the Northern Song Dynasty is actually the most perfect painting in China", which is directly related to Huizong's passion for and attention to art and the creation of a good cultural atmosphere.
Huizong's poem "Summer" During his reign, Huizong not only treated the Academy of Painting with courtesy, but also extensively collected ancient epigraphy and calligraphy, cherishing the collection. At the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, after the Jin people captured Bianjing, they took away Huizong's rides and concubines, but he never changed his mind. When he asked for the paintings and calligraphy in his collection, he was "stunned". It can be seen that the most important thing for Huizong is painting and calligraphy. During the reign of Xuanhe, Huizong had the ink of calligraphy and painting collected in the imperial palace compiled into books such as Xuanhe Shupu, Xuanhe Huapu, Xuanhe Bo Gu Tu, and carved the famous Daguan Post. These are of inestimable significance to enriching painting theory and preserving China traditional culture.
There are many emperors in China who like to collect calligraphy and painting and participate in the creation, but no one like Zhao Ji 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 have much to praise in 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.
Zhao Ji and Zhao Gou are both emperors and great calligraphers, and they are probably rare in the history of China and even the world. Therefore, Huizong's rule of the country is not to the purpose, or even useless, but from the perspective of cultural history, he enjoys an indisputable lofty position in the history of calligraphy and painting in China.