Plum, Orchid, Bamboo and Chrysanthemum
The "Four Gentlemen" is a traditional theme of Chinese painting. It is a general term for the four flower themes of plum, orchid, bamboo and chrysanthemum. . Together with orchid, it is called the "Four Friends". In the Ming Dynasty, Huang Fengchi compiled "Four Scores of Plum, Bamboo, Orchid and Chrysanthemum". From then on, plum, orchid, bamboo and chrysanthemum were called the "Four Kings". The painter uses "Four Gentlemen" to flaunt the noble character of the gentleman.
Zheng Banqiao, one of the "Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou" in the Qing Dynasty, was good at painting such subjects, among which bamboo and orchid were the most wonderful. In the late Ming Dynasty, Zheng Sixiao was good at painting orchids, and the orchids had no roots, which symbolized the rootless worry of broken rivers and mountains.
Let’s talk about plum first. We know that plum blossoms are more cold-resistant and bloom very early. They can bloom in early spring. Together with pine and bamboo, they are known as the "Three Friends of the Cold". People paint plum blossoms mainly to express their arrogance in enduring cold and frost. Snow’s unique personality. So, when did plum blossoms begin to appear in paintings?
According to the history of painting, there were already people painting plum blossoms in the Northern and Southern Dynasties. By the Northern Song Dynasty, plum blossom painting had become a trend. The most famous one is Monk Zhongren, who created the ink plum blossom painting. Use ink to express it. It is said that he once saw the moonlight reflecting the shadow of plum blossoms on the window paper, and was inspired to create the ink plum blossoms dyed with thick and white ink. After that, another painter Yang Buzhi further developed this painting method on this basis. Create a double hook method to draw plum blossoms, making them pure, elegant and wild. Since the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, more plum blossoms have been used in paintings. The biggest master of plum painting in the Yuan Dynasty should be Wang Mian, who called himself the Master of the Plum Blossom House. His ink plum paintings changed from the sparse and indifferent style of the Song Dynasty people, and replaced them with dense flowers and dense stamens, giving people a warm, vigorous and upward feeling. Wang Mian's surviving masterpiece is his "Picture of Plum Blossoms". He used pure ink and light and wild brushwork to vividly convey the pure and proud plum blossoms and express the aloof and proud feelings of the literati.
There are countless plum painters in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, such as Liu Shiru, Shi Tao, Jin Nong, Wang Shishen, etc. In terms of style, they generally inherited the sparse and cold paintings of the Song people and the dense and dense paintings of the Yuan people. wind.
However, not everyone can draw plum blossoms well. Plum painters must also have the character of a plum blossom painter. Some people call it "plum blossom spirit bone", a noble character. Sentiment and a clean and self-sufficient character, as the saying goes: "To paint plum blossoms, you must have the spirit and bones of plum blossoms, and people are as clear as plum blossoms."
Look at orchids again. When people paint orchids, they usually express a kind of fragrant and noble sentiment.
For example, Qu Yuan, a poet from the Chu State, praised orchids in a poem such as "Autumn orchids are clear, green leaves are purple stems, and the hall is full of beauties." But orchids entered painting later than plum blossoms, probably starting in the Tang Dynasty. In the Song Dynasty, more and more people painted orchids. It is said that Su Shi once painted orchids, and the flowers were mixed with thorns, which meant that a gentleman can tolerate villains. In the early Southern Song Dynasty, people often painted orchids to express a kind of integrity that would not follow the world after the fall of the Song Dynasty. At that time, Zhao Mengjian and Zheng Sixiao were both called the masters of Molan.
In the Yuan Dynasty, Zheng Suonan's paintings of orchids were the most famous and had the clearest meaning. It is said that when he sat, he always faced the south to show his nostalgia for the previous dynasty and to be ashamed of being a second official of the Yuan Dynasty. The orchids he painted never painted the roots, as if they were floating in the air. The reason for this in the world, he replied: "The land has been divided." How can I be willing to touch the ground if someone takes it away?" Therefore, to appreciate paintings, one must also understand the historical background. Among the people of the Qing Dynasty who painted orchids, Zheng Banqiao, one of the "Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou", was the most famous. Zheng Banqiao is a person who pays attention to learning from nature. He has painted pot orchids. But he was especially fond of painting wild orchids in the mountains. For this reason, he planted dozens of pots of orchids by himself, and often transplanted them to the shade of wild rocks after three springs, so that they could grow in the coming year. In its upright state, you can smell its rich and pure fragrance, so you can get the pure and beautiful essence of mountain orchid, "the leaves are warm, the flowers are warm and the climate is strong".
The use of bamboo in paintings, roughly equivalent to orchids, also began in the Tang Dynasty. Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, painters Wang Wei and Wu Daozi all liked to paint bamboo. It is said that in the Five Dynasties, Mrs. Li also created the ink bamboo method. Legend has it that she often sat on the bedside at night and saw the shadow of bamboo dancing on the window paper, so she copied the method along the window paper and created this method. In the Song Dynasty, Su Shi developed the method of painting bamboo, abandoning the double-hook coloring method of previous painters, and painted branches and leaves with ink, with dark ink for the leaf surface and light ink for the leaf back. In the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, famous bamboo painters emerged in large numbers. As long as they were landscape or flower-and-bird painters, they all painted bamboo, and they began to emphasize the overall momentum of bamboo. However, among many painters, Zheng Banqiao's bamboo paintings are also regarded as unique.
Zheng Banqiao once wrote about his experience of painting bamboo: "In the clear autumn in Jiangguan, when I look at bamboo in the morning, the smoke, light, sun, shadow, and dew are all floating among the sparse branches and dense leaves. I feel so excited. There is a meaning of painting. In fact, the bamboo in the heart is not the bamboo in the eye. Therefore, when the ink is rubbed and the paper is put down, the bamboo in the hand is not the bamboo in the heart. In short, the intention lies in the pen, which is the rule. Those who are outside the law, this is the opportunity. It's so easy to paint alone!" Therefore, we can get inspiration from the various natural scenes of bamboo and stimulate emotions. Through the "bamboo in the eyes", we can express it with the help of pen and ink. It becomes "bamboo in the hand" or "bamboo in the painting". Zheng Banqiao's works are mostly extant and widely circulated. Since the Qing Dynasty, they have been admired by experts all over the world and have become treasures that "people compete for treasures".
Chrysanthemums entered painting later, probably starting from the Five Dynasties. Compared with plum blossoms, orchids and bamboos, there are relatively fewer works depicting chrysanthemums. According to the history of painting, both Xu Xi and Huang Quan of the Five Dynasties painted chrysanthemums, while very few people in the Song Dynasty painted chrysanthemums. Su Mingyuan and Ke Jiusi also had works by Ju in the Yuan Dynasty.
Not many people painted chrysanthemums in the Ming and Qing dynasties. Currently, an "Ammonite Picture" by Chen Chun, the most famous painter of the Wumen School of Ming Dynasty, is hidden in the Capital Museum. This is a treasure among the relatively few chrysanthemum works.
The inclusion of plums, orchids, bamboos and chrysanthemums in paintings enriches the art themes and expands the aesthetic field. Not only are they rich in formal beauty, but they can also be reminiscent of human character, so it is convenient for literati to give full play to their pen and ink taste. , and it is convenient for literati to express their emotions through the metaphor of objects. Therefore, the style of describing the "Four Gentlemen" continues to this day.