Wang Shizhen once said in Ming Dynasty: "Literati painting started from Dongpo and ended in Song Xuekai". This sentence clearly shows Zhao Mengfu's position in China's art history. He has an omnipotent artistic talent. He is good at figures, landscapes, cattle and horses, bamboo stones, flowers and birds, etc. He is also proficient in calligraphy, poetry and seal cutting. He is a versatile artist and a leader who links the past with the future.
Zhao Mengfu (1254- 1322) was born in Song Xue, a Taoist priest in Song Xue, a Taoist priest in Water Mirror Palace, and a native of Goulpeau. He is a middle-aged Mengfu native, Han nationality, from Xing Wu (now Huzhou, Zhejiang). Famous painter in Yuan Dynasty, one of the four masters of regular script (Ou Yangxun, Yan Zhenqing, Liu Gongquan and Zhao Mengfu). Zhao Mengfu is well-read, good at poetry and prose, familiar with economy, industrial calligraphy, fine painting, good at epigraphy, fluent in temperament and appreciation. In particular, calligraphy and painting achieved the highest achievements in the Yuan Dynasty, creating a new style of painting, which was called "the crown of Yuan people". Good at seal cutting, official script, authentic works, calligraphy and cursive script, especially regular script and running script.
Zhao Mengfu is a great calligrapher and painter. He experienced a complicated and embarrassing life, but at the same time he left many excellent works. Zhao Mengfu is a key figure in the history of painting. His landscape paintings, wood and stone paintings, flower paintings and bamboo and horse paintings are particularly exquisite. Yang Zai, a former historian, said that Meng Ke's talent was hidden by calligraphy and painting, and those who knew his calligraphy and painting didn't know his articles, and those who knew his articles didn't know his economics. People think they know what they are talking about. Zi Yong, a Yi nationality, is famous for his calligraphy and painting.
Zhao Mengfu's landscape, taking the method of Dong Yuan and Li Cheng, the method of figures, pommel horse master Li and Tang people, also works with ink bamboo and flowers and birds, all of which are good at painting stones with flying white method and writing bamboo with calligraphy style. It broke through the Southern Song Dynasty Painting Academy and broke the "unification" of Ma Xia. The flowers and birds he painted became a model for the future. The paintings he left behind include Heavy Han Map, Shuangsong Plain Map, Quehua Autumn Color Map, Showing Stone Trees Map, Drinking Horses in Autumn Suburb, Red Ocean Map and so on. The characteristics of his "The Man Riding a Map" are that the characters are harmonious, calm and charming.
What needs to be pointed out in particular is that Zhao Mengfu's landscape paintings not only combine hook and shadow, painter and ink, pen and ink, imitation and innovation, but also combine chivalrous atmosphere with rambling literati atmosphere, changing "sightseeing landscape" into "lyric landscape"; Moreover, creation and freehand brushwork, poeticization and calligraphy are adjusted and unified in painting, which lays a solid foundation for the emergence of a style of literati painting that expresses seclusion with poeticization and calligraphy, that is, "four masters in Yuan Dynasty" (Huang, Wang Meng, Ni Zan and Zhenwu). These theories and practices pushed Zhao Mengfu to the position of master of Kaiyuan painting.
Let's briefly talk about the works and Zhao Mengfu.
This is a painting of "showing the stone and cherishing the forest", which can be regarded as a masterpiece of literati painting. After the scroll, there is a poem with the inscription: "Stone white is like a fly, wood white is like a pen, so writing bamboo should also have eight skills." . If anyone can know this, you will know that painting and calligraphy are the same. "This is the inscription of a painting by Zhao Mengfu, which extends his important painting theory-calligraphy to landscape painting. He has profound attainments in calligraphy, such as regular script, line writing, cursive script and official script. He formed his own style on the basis of learning from ancient masters, and was later called "Zhao Ti". Ke advocated painting with calligraphy, and Zhao Mengfu applied it to the creation of landscape paintings for bamboo stones, which found a law for the creation of landscape paintings by contemporary and later literati. He emphasized the "emphasis on brushwork" in calligraphy to break through the painting standard of "emphasis on ink" in the Southern Song Dynasty painting school, and used the aesthetic interest of calligraphy to emphasize outline and neglect rendering to impact the gorgeous and exquisite painting style of the college. On the one hand, the joint point of this poem is to advocate the painting method of "painting with books" Literally, it means that painting stones should use the "flying white" in calligraphy, painting trees is like writing Da Zhuan, and freehand bamboo should master the eight methods of calligraphy; On the other hand, it emphasizes the aesthetic synaesthesia of "painting and calligraphy are interlinked": when we realize the above reasons, we can realize that painting and calligraphy are interlinked.
Zhao Mengfu not only clearly put forward the unique artistic concept of "painting with books" in theory, but also broke the boundary between painting and calligraphy in practice and techniques, which brought immeasurable painting vitality to literati painting and made it logical that later "literati painting" became the main school of Chinese painting.
Zhao Mengfu's theory of landscape painting played a role in connecting the past with the future and creating in an all-round way in the early Yuan Dynasty. The creation of another of his works, Que Hua Qiu Cai Tu, is inseparable from the painting theory he advocated. He advocated "ancient meaning" in artistic creation, borrowed the ancient to open up the present and pursued the ancient meaning. He wants to learn from the fine traditions of the ancients, not the painting style of the ancients, and demands to change the neat and delicate style of the Southern Song Dynasty, adopt the methods of Tang, Five Dynasties and Northern Song Dynasty, emphasize verve, stress bone technique and pursue nature. He not only hit the nail on the head, but also has the meaning of "asking the ancients to change the system" in painting theory.
In the color picture of Quehuaqiu, the leaves are mostly dotted, and the pen is loose and flexible, mainly cyan. In the picture, Huashan Mountain is light cyan, Queshan Mountain is cyan and ink, trees are dark cyan, and reeds are dyed dark green first, then light cyan. The houses and livestock on the plain are ochre, and the fishermen on the shore and on the boat are all dressed in pink. The color of the picture is fresh and bright, and some beating notes are added to the main theme of autumn in the north. The color picture of Quehuaqiu is unique in color application. It skillfully combines ink painting with green landscape color, and emphasizes that the main color of green reflects Zhao Mengfu's thought of advocating ancient style and attaching importance to tradition. Zhao Mengfu's admiration for ancient meaning is closely related to his admiration for Wang Wei. He once said: "Wang Mo can paint poems, and poets are fascinated by painting. For hundreds of years since Wei, Jin and Tang Dynasties, you are the only one. It is a painter's way, and the pottery melts and washes, and there are not many others. "
Zhao Mengfu once mentioned in his postscript that "my painting is like simplicity", among which "simplicity" is an important painting theory advocated by him and an important feature of literati's freehand brushwork in landscape painting in Yuan Dynasty, which directly influenced Yuan Sijia, especially Wang Meng, the grandson of Zhao Mengfu. "Simplicity" is a high-grade aesthetic pursuit, which contains simple and frank cultural implications. "Quehua Autumn Color Map" has exquisite composition, flexible brushwork and natural colors. It practices its "frank" painting theory from all aspects of creation and embodies its unique style. Dong Qichang in the Ming Dynasty said in his later inscription: "The map of Xing Wu is both right and Beiyuan, with the ambition of the Tang Dynasty to remove its fiber, and the hero of the Northern Song Dynasty to remove its rigor." It not only expresses admiration for Wang Wei, but also highlights his inheritance and innovation.
Ode to Luoshen
There are also many books handed down from ancient times in Zhao Mengfu, such as Thousand-Character Works, Ode to Luoshen, Biography of Ji An, Danba Monument, Poem of Return, Thirteen Postscripts of Lanting, Ode to the Red Wall, Tao Te Ching and Tomb Inscription of Qiu E, etc. He is the author of Notes on Shangshu and Collected Works of Song Xuezhai (12). Written by Zhao Mengfu, there are notes on Shangshu, Qinyuan and Paradise, the beauty of which is that Lvlv is not passed on. Poetry and prose are beautiful and wonderful, which makes people want to float out of the dust. Seal cutting, brush, division, official script, truth, line and cursive script are the highest in ancient and modern times, hence the name of the world. There are monks in Tianzhu, and Wan Li came to ask for their books, which is a treasure of the country. Zhao Mengfu's calligraphy became popular because of familiarity, which is Dong Qichang's evaluation.
The above is Zhao Mengfu's masterpiece. His "painting with books, painting and calligraphy are interlinked" not only shows the distinctive characteristics of literati painting and the relationship between painting and calligraphy, but also shows the ultimate goal of painting and calligraphy in the spiritual realm, that is, people's mental outlook and spiritual sustenance. It is precisely because of this profound connotation that calligraphy and painting have essentially carried China's excellent ideology and culture for thousands of years, and are unique in the history of China art. Under the all-round opening state of today's historical tradition and reality, they still have the aesthetic taste in line with the times, which is worth learning and developing for China's art. The "ancient meaning" advocated by him is also his most famous painting theory. Gao's inscription "Lin Qiu Plain Map" said: "Painting is expensive and has ancient meaning. Without it, it is useless. Today, people know the slender and rich colors of pens, so they are experts themselves. I don't know if the ancient meaning is damage, and all diseases are brought, which is impressive! My painting looks simple, but people who know it know that it is near ancient times, so it is better; This can be said to those who know, not to those who don't know. " He also has an important position and far-reaching influence in the history of calligraphy art in China. He believes: "There are two ways to learn calligraphy, one is brushwork, and the other is font. Exquisite brushwork, although good and evil; The shape is wonderful, although it is still cooked. Learning books can solve this, and then you can tell books. " "It is good to learn books while pondering over ancient books and know what it means to use a pen." All these can give us important enlightenment.
References:
[1] This poem is taken from Li Fushun. China art history [M]. Beijing: Higher Education Press, 2008.
[2] Zhou. Overview of Chinese painting [M]. Nanjing: Jiangsu Fine Arts Publishing House, 2005.
[3] Shi, editor: China Art History Painting Volume, Shijiazhuang: Hebei People's Publishing House, 2006 edition, P626-627.
[5] Zhao Mengfu's "Song Xuezhai Anthology" * continued.
[6] Li. Zhao Mengfu. Hebei Education Press, 2004 Edition: 44.
[7] Huang Yun. History of China's Calligraphy-Yuan Ming Volume. Jiangsu Education Press, 200 1. Annual edition: 20~34.