Bamboo, born in a natural situation, has a straight heart; Dry clouds, evergreen all the year round, are deeply loved by the broad masses of the people, and are also favored by literati in past dynasties. Regarding the image of bamboo, the earliest people's paintings appeared in the form of meticulous double cross coloring, which showed people's love for bamboo. Representative painters include Wang Wei, Xiao Xielu, Li Bai, Huang Quan, Cui Bai, Wu and others. According to legend, Li Furen, the wife of Guo Chongtao, the Western Shu of the Five Dynasties, sat alone in Nanxuan, and saw the bamboo shadows dancing outside the porch, reflected on the window paper, and traced them with a pen, creating the method of ink painting bamboo. Huang, a poet in the Song Dynasty, said: "Wu Daozi (a painter in the Tang Dynasty, who has a reputation as a painter) painted bamboo without a painter, which is very similar." In the Yuan Dynasty, Zhang Tugong wrote Zhu Mo Shu, saying, "One person loves, shows the emperor clearly, and later passes on Xiao Yue, and is proud of watching bamboo shadows, so he writes Mo Jun." It can be seen that ink bamboo paintings have existed since the Tang Dynasty, not since the Five Dynasties. From sketching and coloring to ink painting and painting, it is a changing process from folk painting to literati freehand brushwork. Throughout the past dynasties, master of bamboo painting, Wen Tong (word and Ke, once the satrap of Huzhou, known as Wen Huzhou in the world) was the first to be promoted in the Song Dynasty. Painting bamboo leaves is divided into yin and yang, "with deep ink as the surface and light ink as the back". He is the cousin of Su Dongpo, a great calligrapher. He is also a good friend who knows poetry and calligraphy. Su Shi commented that Wen Tong painted bamboo "poems are inexhaustible, but turned into paintings as books". Wen Tong painted bamboo and asked Su Shi for an inscription many times. "The topic of Wenhua Su" became a beautiful talk in the history of painting bamboo. This is not a simple combination of poetry and painting and a tacit understanding with friends, but also a new generation of literati poetry and painting. Speaking of painting bamboo, Su Dongpo admired Wen Tong deeply. "Things are in the north, life is in the north". Su Shi himself has an amazing theory of painting. He concluded that "painting bamboo must be done first, and then die soon" (Su Shi: freehand brushwork). This sentence is the origin of the idiom "there is a plan", and it also shows that the consistency between painting art and natural laws has always influenced the development of painting in later generations. Due to the outstanding contributions of Wen Tong and Su Shi in bamboo painting, Huzhou Bamboo School has always dominated the painting world. In the Yuan Dynasty, Li Jue learned from Wentong and "heard all the legends of Huzhou"; Famous bamboo painters such as Ke, Zhenwu and Guan Daosheng in Yuan Dynasty, Xia Fang in Ming Dynasty were all influenced by it. Another important figure in the history of bamboo painting is Zheng Xie in Qing Dynasty. This person is one of the eight eccentrics in Yangzhou, with a gentle word and a name of Banqiao. He is good at painting ink bamboo all his life, collecting truth, grass, official seal and printing in one furnace, and creating six and a half books by himself. "Think during the day and at night", every painting should be titled. If "paving the road with stones", it is patchwork. It is natural for Banqiao to draw bamboo. Before each painting, he had "a plan in mind", but "the bamboo in his mind is not what he sees, the bamboo in his hand is not the bamboo in his heart". Advocate "no grid before painting, no grid after painting". Emphasize that "the idea is to write first, and the rules are also; Those who deliberately stay out of the law will also become machines. It comes down in one continuous line with Su Shi's "having a well-thought-out plan" and has further developed.
The masters of bamboo painting in past dynasties were both poets and calligraphers. They express their feelings with poems and express their thoughts directly. Emphasize "writing with a pen" to write instead of painting, bamboo stems use seal script, bamboo joints use official script, bamboo branches use cursive script, and bamboo leaves use regular script. As Banqiao titled "Zhu Lan Album" said: "Knowing painting and calligraphy, Zhu Lan is like a grasshopper." This is also a remarkable feature of freehand brushwork literati painting. As the subject of literati painting, bamboo embodies the emotional color and spiritual realm of painters and painters everywhere. It is only the artist's skill to express the wind, sunshine, rain and dew, spring, summer, autumn and winter of bamboo. A kind of vegetation that does not blossom and bear little change has been painted for thousands of years. Mainly, each work has its own theme, which reflects the painter's feelings. It can not only show that there is a knot before the excavation, but also draw "the inferiority of Lingyun". The work is not as touching as the author's sentiment. Mr. Banqiao's bamboo painting is not a top master, and it is "more meticulous and less scattered". But the poetic "Banqiao Painting Style" is impressive. There is nothing wrong with his bamboo sticks, but the title is "throwing black gauze is not an official, and the sleeves are cool;" Writing about taking a thin bamboo as a fishing rod on the autumn wind river fully embodies the painter's lofty state of mind of not cooperating with the court and being willing to retire. On the topic of "painting two poles and repairing bamboo", it shows the unfair psychology of Mr. Banqiao. The topic of "Ya Zhai Lie Listening to Bamboo" in the bamboo forest is suspected to be the voice of the people's sufferings. Some small officials in Caozhou County always care about their feelings. Through the "bamboo sound" in this painting, the author's parents always care about people's sufferings. Of course, inscribing poems on works can sublimate the realm, but inappropriate inscriptions and vulgar words can also hurt the picture, just like blindly learning to walk in Handan.
There are other ways to draw bamboo besides ink painting. Song painted bamboo, virtual valley painted green bamboo, painted purple bamboo, Xie Chu painted snow bamboo, and Yan Hong painted square bamboo, each with his own merits. Bamboo is one of the "four gentlemen" in Chinese painting, and it is a symbol of upward care and noble morality. Scholars are lofty and elegant, and often compare with each other. Painting pays equal attention to figures and painting. Although it has the limitations of its times, it still has positive factors of healthy progress.