-Cheng Sui's artistic achievements
Sun Changkang
I was attracted by Cheng Sui's paintings. He used a dry pen to achieve the effect of others' wet pen, which is an artistic height that ordinary painters can't reach.
Cheng Sui (165 ~ 1691) was a seal engraver and painter in late Ming and early Qing Dynasty in China. The word Mu Qian, also known as rotten people, is called Dirty Area, Qingxi and Dirty Road flyover, calling himself Jiangdong Buyi, a native of Shexian County, Anhui Province. Cheng Sui is honest and upright, with a good quality, easy to make good friends, and knowledgeable and versatile.
Cheng Sui is good at epigraphy, and he knows all about poetry, calligraphy and painting. He is good at official script in calligraphy, and painting landscape paintings has his own unique personal style.
The works he painted with a thirsty pen and scorched ink show a gloomy and ancient style. Jiao Mo technique is a common brush and ink usage in Chinese painting creation. In the works of some China literati and painters in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties, the technique of dry pen Jiao Mo was well used. It is also during this period that Jiao Mo, as an important creative technique of Chinese painting, developed greatly and matured day by day. Cheng Sui painted with the technique of dry pen and Jiao Mo, and it was almost impossible to render. Jiao Mo's dry pen "dry autumn wind" is reflected in the artistic effect of "moistening with spring rain" on paper, which is moist in dryness, firm in softness, dignified in pen and ink, and heavy in simplicity. This is rare. No wonder, modern Huang Binhong commented on his paintings "outstanding in ancient and modern times". Huang Yujiu, a painter, became a self-contained painter after middle age. He only used thirsty pens and dry pens, because there were hills and valleys in his chest, and his bones were rich and moist. He experienced wind and frost, became more exquisite, cultivated subtly, supported the haze and created the sacred fruit of his soul.
Cheng Sui was one of the few creative and unique painters in Qing dynasty. Cheng Sui painted few pictures in his life, especially few handed down works. Nevertheless, several frames in his surviving works have a unique form, which is enough to constitute the unique features of Cheng Sui's landscape painting series. The difficulty in pursuing the interest of Gu Zhuo and desolation lies in pushing Yuan people's thirsty brushwork to the extreme. Appreciating and savoring this unique brushwork interest will make people feel calm and diluted.
Cheng Sui is knowledgeable and versatile, and he has high attainments in poetry, calligraphy, seal cutting, etc. He had close contacts with Li Yu, a famous drama theorist in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties, and Zhu Yizun, a great scholar. He was highly valued by Huang Daozhou, a calligrapher in the late Ming Dynasty, and became a lifelong friend with Gong Xian, a painter. Cheng Sui's life depended on seal cutting, and his seal cutting was recognized as independent, which played a role in connecting the past with the future and created a new situation of Huizhou School. With Cheng Sui's profound cultivation and special state of mind, it should be in common sense to achieve the inner mastery of painting and seal cutting. Reading the composition of Cheng Sui's landscape paintings is like appreciating the wonderful seal of one side, which is divided into four parts: big and white, big and sparse, big and red, and has a golden stone flavor. Its overall form is very simple and very strong. In calligraphy, his running script, official script and seal script are all excellent; Poems and essays are strange, and there are poems such as Xiao Ran Yin. Cheng Sui had a great influence on later generations, and the magnificent Huang Binhong won the beauty of his pen and ink.
Look at today's painting world. Some people are fascinated by Jiao Mo, thinking that painting in black is Jiao Mo. Looking at Cheng Sui's works has a lot of inspiration for us to know Jiao Mo. Although the pen is used, the artistic effect is delicate and clear. This is what the high standard of artistic realm requires. Otherwise, it would be meaningless to paint Jiao Mo dry and tasteless. In the past, Cheng Sui's artistic achievements were rarely introduced. Now it is time to return him to his true colors and give him his due position.