"Early Spring" was written by Guo Xi of the Northern Song Dynasty. It was painted in the fifth year of Xining (1072), the reign of Emperor Shenzong of the Song Dynasty. It is on silk, with light colors, and is 158.3cm long and 108.1cm wide. It is now in the collection of the National Palace Museum in Taipei. Looking back for nearly a thousand years, after wandering through time and space, we finally found a place to live, and later generations were lucky enough to see its appearance. This painting can be described as majestic and majestic. It adopts a high, far, and flat composition, gathering mountains, forests, water, houses, people, etc. Many elements express the weather and scenery of the mountains and valleys in the north and the people living in the mountains and forests in the early spring.
Speaking of the passage of time and space, this painting passed into the hands of Qianlong. He lived in the palace and was immediately attracted by the mountain scenery in early spring, so he wrote a poem on it: "The trees around the rock leaf stream are freezing, and the pavilions are fairyland." "On the top floor. Without the decoration among willows and peaches, the spring mountain is as steamy as early as possible." The calligraphy is delicate and the meaning is refined, which reveals the early spring scene in the painting vividly. The poetry and painting complement each other. It can be said to be a dialogue between close friends across time and space.
Let’s first look at the mountains and rocks. The main peak in the distant view stands tall. “The mountain is majestic and is the master of the mountains.” The abyss and cliffs are stacked up, and the valleys at the bottom are far-reaching and continuous. The left and right peaks in the near distance are almost symmetrical, and the forest branches are Coiled, the foreground is flat and distant, and the water and rocks are scattered at random. The colors gradually increase in intensity from far to near, and the dry and wet ink colors highlight the texture of the rocks at different locations. The virtual and solid are combined, and the overall opening and closing is measured and mixed with momentum, full of interest.
Guo Xi had profound painting skills. His son later compiled his painting remarks and wrote "Linquan Gaozhi", which systematically recorded Guo Xi's experience in creating landscape paintings and artistic insights, which is very precious. Ancient painters have always paid attention to observing nature, that is, observing nature, adding creative artistic thinking to aesthetic observation, so that they can "list it all in their hearts" when creating. Therefore, he said: "The mist of real landscapes is different in four seasons." Mountains in spring are as light as a smile, mountains in summer are green as drops, mountains in autumn are clear as makeup, mountains in winter are pale and sleepy... The mountains look like this up close, and they look like this from a few miles away... Every distance changes, so the mountain shape changes step by step. "Look at this picture of a mountain in early spring. The peaks are clearly differentiated, with different distances, shapes, and colors. "One mountain has the mood of hundreds of mountains." The mountain atmosphere is hazy, containing a kind of vitality that is about to sprout all things.
The outlines of mountains and rocks are drawn with zigzag lines, and then the brush and ink are swept to show the effect of dry and wet shades. This painting method is called "chaotic clouds (cun)". Guo Xi's brushwork is not like the Northern School. The landscape is so hard, but not as soft as the southern style landscape. It seems to be a fusion of the two, and the whole is free and round.
Looking at trees and water again, Guo Xi believes that "mountains have water as their blood, vegetation as their hair, and smoke and clouds as their spirit. Therefore, mountains are alive with water, blooming with vegetation, and beautiful with smoke and clouds." , look at the trees scattered on the rocks in the picture, the cliffs hanging in the distance, and the straight and powerful ones nearby, showing a kind of tenacity that has survived the cold winter and is about to be resurrected. "The long pine trees are the surface of all the trees." The branches have not yet sprouted, and there is no pink and willow green background. It is a kind of mystery of "the color of grass looks far away but is not seen up close". The contour lines of the tree trunks are changeable, and I lightly touch them with ink. The knots are still visible, and the branches are vertical and horizontal, especially the shape of the crab claw branches, which makes the painting interesting. The use of cirrus clouds and crab claw branches follows the characteristics of Li Cheng's school in the early Song Dynasty, but it has a more rounded feel. Therefore, the trees in early spring in the painting have the mood of cold spring, seemingly dry, but in fact there is vitality inside the branches. is germinating.
What complements the trees is the shape of water. Guo Xi left the lower part of the picture blank. The wooden boats on the left, the fishermen on the right, and the flowing stream in the middle right all indicate the melting of ice and snow. Confucius also said "The benevolent enjoy the mountains, and the wise enjoy the water." The heaviness of the mountains perfectly matches the agility of the water. The hazy water vapor and the dense mountain air are brewing the recovery of all things on the earth. It is like an early spring scene.
Finally, let’s take a look at the characters in the painting. Guo Xi believes that landscape paintings “have things that are feasible, things that are promising, things that can be traveled, and things that can be lived in.” That is to say, the best landscape paintings are those that can be lived in. Although it is exaggerated, it also reveals the highest direction of landscape painting creation, which is to soothe people's tired souls. Therefore, Guo Xi set up several groups of characters in this early spring painting to make the painting more rustic and shorten the psychological distance between the painting and the viewer. Guo Xi's brushwork is really exquisite. Compared with the mountains and ravines, the proportions of the characters are very small, but when you zoom in, the characters are full of movement and lifelike.
First of all, there is a small boat tied to the river bank in the lower left corner. A mother is holding her baby on the bank and looking back at the porter. The child next to her is following the cheerful puppy in front of her. A heartwarming scene of getting ready to go home. Secondly, in the lower right part of the picture, two fishermen are working hard for a living.
There is also a group of marching pedestrians set up in the mountains in the middle left. Looking along the upper right side of their march, there are several pavilions faintly visible on the other side of the mountain. Over there is Qianlong. The "pavilion and fairyland" that the emperor said, should they go there? Is it a pure and peaceful paradise? On the hilltop to the right of the pavilion stands a pavilion for passers-by to rest and enjoy the landscape in early spring.
To sum up, in the face of the overall picture, let’s look at what Emperor Qianlong said: “The mountains in spring are like steam.” Is it very vivid? Mountains, rocks, trees, water, houses, etc. are all densely packed together. In the budding life, "steaming" is a kind of rising from bottom to top, which is the exuberance of the revival of all things and the coming of spring. From this "Early Spring Picture", do you feel the beauty of life? Although people are small, But they are the protagonists. They love this nature and agility. They have a direction in their hearts when traveling, whether they are working or traveling. It is estimated that Su Shi also appreciated this "Early Spring Picture" and once said, "The jade hall conceals the spring leisurely during the day, and Guo Xi paints the spring mountains in it." In fact, Guo Xi understood that "the reason why gentlemen love landscapes" is to "please people's satisfaction", so In his painting theory, he has always advocated that people need to maintain a "heart of forest and spring", because a delicate and soft heart will allow you to realize that even a small climate change can bring emotions~