Zheng Banqiao (1693-1765), formerly known as Zheng Xie, also known as Kerou, also known as Li'an, also known as Banqiao, was known as Mr. Banqiao. He was a native of Xinghua, Jiangsu, and his ancestral home was Suzhou. He was a scholar of Kangxi, a scholar in the tenth year of Yongzheng, and a Jinshi in the first year of Qianlong (1736). He was the magistrate of Fan County and Weixian County in Shandong Province. He had outstanding political achievements. He later lived in Yangzhou and made a living by selling paintings. He was an important representative of the "Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou".
Zheng Banqiao only painted orchids, bamboos and stones throughout his life. He called himself "the orchid that never fades in all seasons, the evergreen bamboo with a hundred knots, the unbeatable stone through the ages, and the unchanging person through the ages." His poetry, calligraphy and painting are known as the "Three Wonders" in the world. He is a relatively representative literati painter in the Qing Dynasty. His representative works include "Building Bamboos and New Bamboos", "Clear Lights", "Orchid and Bamboo Fragrance", "Gan Valley and Chrysanthemum Spring", "Crossing Orchids and Thorns", etc. He is the author of "Collection of Zheng Banqiao".
Three Wonders of Poetry, Calligraphy and Painting
The Art of Calligraphy
Zheng Banqiao's calligraphy uses official script mixed with regular regular script. He calls himself "Six and a Half Calligraphy" and is known as "Banqiao Style". ". Zheng Banqiao's calligraphy art, which mostly uses orchids, grass, bamboo and stone, is his soul, is unique in the history of Chinese calligraphy.
It can be inferred from "Ouyang Xiu's Ode to Qiu Sheng in Xiaokai" written when he was 23 years old and "Zhi Shi in Xiaokai Fan" written when he was 30 that Banqiao learned calligraphy from Ouyang Xun in his early years. The font is neat and elegant, but a little restrained: this is related to the neat and elegant Guange style that was prevalent in the calligraphy world at that time, and it was used as the standard font for imperial examinations. In this regard, Zheng Banqiao once said: "If your regular script is too uniform, it will damage your soul if you work hard for a long time." After he became a Jinshi at the age of 40, he rarely wrote anymore. Zheng Banqiao's calligraphy is most praised for his "six-and-a-half-point script", which is a unique "Banqiao style" that combines "Han Bafen" (a kind of official script) with regular script, running script and cursive script.
"Six and a half" calligraphy is Zheng Banqiao's joking name for his original calligraphy. In the official script, there is a kind of "eight-point script" with many strokes. The so-called "six-and-a-half-point script" is roughly the official script, but mixed with other calligraphy styles such as regular script, running script, seal script, and cursive script. The scroll of "Poems of Cao Cao in Running Script" (as in the collection of Yangzhou Museum) can be regarded as a representative work of the "six and a half" style. This piece is written about Cao Cao's poem "Viewing the Sea". The format is very large, with an average of more than 10 square centimeters per room. The font has a strong official style, with both seal and regular script. The shape is flat and long, and the posture is mainly square with a slight swing. Down. The simplicity and expansion are similar to the majestic style of Cao's poems. Zheng Banqiao once praised his calligraphy in the poem "Gift to Pan Tonggang": "My pen is filled with clouds and smoke, sweeping away the clouds and covering the blue sky. I write numbers in one line and two lines, and the stars are arranged in the south and north."
Zheng Banqiao The composition of calligraphy works is also very unique. He can intersperse the size, length, square and circle, fatness and thinness, and density, like "a street paved with random stones", with rules contained in the indulgence. It seems to be a casual stroke, but when viewed as a whole, it produces a jumping and lively rhythm. For example, the banner of "On Running Script" was painted in the 27th year of Qianlong's reign. He was already seventy years old and is a masterpiece in his later years. The general idea is that Su Dongpo liked to use Xuancheng Zhuge's Qifeng pen, and he wrote very well. Later, when he switched to other pens, the palm of his hand did not respond. Banqiao himself likes to use Taizhou Deng's sheep's hair brush, which makes his writing graceful and flying, which is always satisfactory. So he compared Taizhou Deng's Yanghao to Zhuge Qifeng in Xuancheng, and finally said: "How dare I imitate Dongpo? But when writing with a pen, they like fat rather than thin, which is also the meaning of slope." The whole work ends with the words. The strokes are large and small, thick and thin, and the postures are smooth and oblique. The stippling, lifting and pressing are like music to the ears. Birds fly in the air and fish swim in the water. They reveal the strength of the bones in an arbitrary rhythm. And charm: He Shaoji, a native of the Qing Dynasty, said that his calligraphy is "particularly interesting because of orchid and bamboo." From the composition, structure and strokes of this piece of crystal work, we can't tell whether he has the spirit of orchid, bamboo, orchid in his "robust, strange and graceful ancient shapes".
Painting Art
Zheng Banqiao was born in a scholarly family. He was a scholar in the last years of Kangxi, a scholar in the tenth year of Yongzheng, and a Jinshi in the first year of Qianlong. From the age of fifty, he served successively as a scholar in Fan County, Shandong Province, and The magistrate of Weixian County lasted for twelve years. The idea of ??"achieving ambition and benefiting the people" led him to take measures such as "opening warehouses to provide loans" and "donating money instead of losing money" to the common people who suffered from years of famine during his official career. This aroused the dissatisfaction of corrupt officials, evil tyrants and evil gentry. Demoted. After that, he made a living by selling paintings. Zheng Banqiao experienced ups and downs in his life, experienced ups and downs, and saw through the harshness of the world. He dared to incorporate all of this into his works. Zheng Banqiao's poems on paintings have broken away from the traditional stereotype of simply using poems to compose paintings or painting to compose poems. Every painting he paints must be inscribed with a poem, and the title must be good, achieving "the image of a painting like a painting" and "the meaning of poetry is difficult to paint" , reflecting poetry and painting, infinitely expanding the breadth of the picture. Zheng Banqiao's painting poems are concerned with real life and have profound ideological content. He uses words like guns and swords to criticize the current ills, just as he said in "Orchid, Bamboo and Stone Pictures" : "There must be words that shake the heavens and earth, words that shock lightning and thunder, words that shout at gods and curse ghosts, and paintings that are unprecedented and unprecedented. They are definitely not in the ordinary path."
①Slim Bamboo Painting: Zheng Banqiao's bamboo painting, "looks like Po Gong, there are many but not chaotic, few are not sparse, free from the habits of the times, and the beauty is unparalleled." "Portraits of Scholars in the Qing Dynasty" says that he spent two-thirds of his life painting portraits of bamboos. He once wrote in a poem: "For forty years, I painted bamboo branches. During the day, I wrote about my thoughts at night. All the redundant and complex work was done, leaving a thin and thin body." , the time of painting is the time of maturity.” Later he said: "Whenever I paint bamboo, I have no teacher. I mostly learn from paper windows, pink walls, sunlight, moonlight and shadow." Through observation and the practice of artistic creation, he refined the theory of "bamboo in the eye", "bamboo in the heart" and "bamboo in the hand".
"Bamboo in the eyes" is the real scene of nature, the observation of nature and the experience of painting from it; "bamboo in the heart" is the conception during artistic creation; "bamboo in the hand" is the realization of artistic creation. He organically integrates subjectivity and objectivity, phenomenon and imagination, reality and art, creating a realm of learning from nature but being higher than nature.
Natural bamboo exists objectively. The bamboo in the artist's eyes is already different from the natural bamboo, and then it needs to be processed and subjectively processed to form the bamboo in his mind. This is what is called The intention begins with the pen, and when it falls on the paper, it is transformed into the bamboo in the hand. The "bamboo in the hand" refers to a "second nature" created by the painter. The bamboo in the heart and the bamboo in the hand are both the bamboo in the eye. Sublimation, in a nutshell, means that the painter takes the objective image seen with the eyes, processes it with the brain's imagery, and finally materializes it into a typical artistic image through technical processing. It is the process of artistic creation.
When Zheng Banqiao was the magistrate of Weixian County, Shandong Province, he once painted a painting "The Painted Bamboo in the Weixian County Office Presents the Nian Bo Bao Dazhong Chengkuo". The bamboo in the painting is no longer a "reappearance of natural bamboo" ", this poem title is no longer a poem title that comes out of nowhere. Through paintings and poems, people are reminded of Banqiao's character. As a county magistrate, the sound of rustling bamboo in the Yazhai reminds people of the hardship of the people. The rapid sound shows that he has the people in his heart and his emotional chain is tied to the people. At this time, the image of the bamboo leaves in the painting expanded. Zheng Banqiao opened a warehouse to provide relief, and scenes of relieving the victims emerged in people's minds one after another. The "frozen moment" turned into an infinite story in the minds of the audience. Like a highly infectious novel or film, it is gripping and thought-provoking. A few strokes of bamboo leaves and a few concise lines of poetry make people feel the profound thoughts and deep affection contained in the work. There are also a few paintings made before and after Zheng Banqiao left Weixian after he was demoted, with three donkeys and a cart of books, and his sleeves were blown away by the breeze. One of the bamboo paintings has the title: "Throw away the black gauze and not become an official. With cold sleeves, he wrote about a thin branch of bamboo, "Bamboo Fishing Rod on the River in the Autumn Wind". He used bamboo to express his calm state of mind of abandoning his official position to serve the people, being indifferent to fame and fortune, and enjoying life. The second painting of "Bamboo and Stone" has three or two thin branches. The bamboo stood upright from the cracks in the rocks, tenacious and unyielding in the wind. Zheng Banqiao used bamboo to express his free and open-minded mind, expressing his character of bravely facing reality and never succumbing to setbacks. Bamboo is known as Personified, at this time, "poems are invisible paintings, and paintings are tangible poems." Similar ones include "Ink Bamboo Picture" and "Bamboo Picture". These ink bamboo pictures all use bamboo to express his increasing freedom and ease after being demoted. Most of Zheng Banqiao's bamboo paintings and poems were based on the relationship between bamboo and the objects to express his aspirations. He expressed his feelings of "lying in the Yazhai listening to the rustling bamboos, which are suspected to be the sounds of folk suffering", showing that "the roots are originally in the chaotic rocks. The tenacity of "no matter how the wind blows from east to west" expresses the integrity and spirit of "writing a thin bamboo, throwing away the black gauze and not becoming an official". All the bamboo's noble and bright integrity, steadfastness and integrity, elegance and heroic charm are all expressed by him. Incisively and vividly. This is exactly what makes Zheng Banqiao's works different from traditional flower and bird paintings and from his predecessors. Most of the traditional orchids and bamboos are presented as appreciative and entertaining themes. The pictures mainly pursue the truth and beauty of natural images, the high and low painting skills, and the proficiency and elegance of the use of pen and ink. However, in Zheng Banqiao's paintings, in addition to achieving these In addition to technical skills, painting poems also give this subject new ideological content and profound artistic conception, so that flower and bird paintings can also be ideological and lyrical, giving people a profound feeling.
② Peak and Stone Pictures
Zheng Banqiao’s bamboo paintings are unique, and so are his stone paintings. No matter how ruthless the stones in nature are, they come alive in his paintings, such as the stones in "Picture of Pillars and Stones". This is also a common subject in previous paintings, but it is rarely expressed as the main image. However, Zheng Banqiao uniquely painted an isolated peak rock in the center of the painting, but it has the spirit of soaring into the sky, surrounded by nothingness and no background. Four sentences of seven-character poems are included in the painting: "Who is alone with the desolate house? A pillar and stone reach the sky, straight and straight is Tao Yuanliang. How can five buckets break my waist?" The poem punctuates the title of the painting, and suddenly combines the stone with the character. , it can be said that "the painting is not enough but the inscription is sufficient, the painting is silent but the poetry has the sound. Poetry and painting use each other, opening up countless ways for future generations." Banqiao uses the strong stone to praise Tao Yuanming. Banqiao praised his upright and noble personality, and at the same time seemed to mean to reveal his own similar experiences and magnanimity. The stones in the painting represent human figures, which contain upright and majestic qualities. It makes people feel that the painting of stones here is more meaningful than the painting of people, and can reveal deeper meanings.
③Orchid pictures: Zheng Banqiao also has many paintings with orchids as the theme, which also show some new content. They use the title of the poem to express his views on various things. For example, some borrowed the characteristics of orchids to express the idea of ??being a person without being arrogant in victory, not discouraged in defeat, and maintaining a normal mentality. They wrote poems saying: "Orchids are related to bamboo trees. They are always among the green mountains and green waters. If the frost and snow do not wither, the spring will not be beautiful. "The orchid reminds people that a person should be as quiet, lasting and fragrant as an orchid, without being impetuous or trying to be glamorous." The painting is so close that it expands infinitely and has a profound artistic conception. Another example: Some use the natural phenomenon of clusters of orchids sandwiched with some thorns to express the gentleman's magnanimous temperament of being tolerant of villains. The poem "Blue Stones in a Cluster of Thorns" says: "If you don't allow thorns to grow into orchids, the demons of heretics will look at them coldly. When you see fish and dragons mixed together, you will know how vast the Buddha Dharma is." The title of another "Blue Stones in a Cluster of Thorns" reads: "The whole painting is filled with gentlemen, what will end up with thorns? A gentleman can accommodate villains, but without villains he cannot become a gentleman. Therefore, the orchid among the thorns will have more luxuriant flowers."
"Banqiao's unique ingenuity is to intersperse a few thorns among the orchids. The orchids and thorns coexist in the painting, which expresses the magnanimity of meeting villains, being open-minded and living in harmony, and "going through hardships, you can become a hero." Readers of paintings also benefit a lot from this. The more they read, the more they realize that simple plants have profound artistic conception and endless fun. Looking at the orchids, bamboos and rocks painted by Zheng Banqiao and carefully studying the poems on the paintings, it is not difficult to see that he likes to paint orchids. The reason for the bamboo and stone is as he said: "The orchid that never fades at any time, the evergreen bamboo with a hundred knots, the undefeated stone, the unchangeable man", and "they are the four beauties", "There are orchids, bamboos and stones. In his eyes, orchid, bamboo and stone can represent a person's unyielding character, integrity, selflessness, perseverance, bright mind, noble character, etc. Therefore, every word and sentence of his poems can express his ambition. , the artistic conception is far-reaching.
④Poems on paintings: In addition to being ideological and lyrical in content, poems on paintings are also more artistic and interesting in form. It embodies the artistic taste of "the same source of calligraphy and painting" and "the same brushwork". However, the inscriptions and postscripts of traditional painters are mostly placed in the blank spaces of the paintings to balance the paintings. However, the inscriptions of "Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou" are no longer traditional. The conventions of Chinese painting and "literati painting" in inscriptions and poems, especially Zheng Banqiao's blending of calligraphy and painting, have become unique and special ways of expressing images, and they are inseparable from each other, such as "Blue Stone Picture". Zheng Banqiao ingeniously combined the poems in the form of calligraphy, real cursive and seal scripts into one, large and small, tilted this way and that, like "a street paved with stones", and inscribed them on the stone wall, replacing the chaffing method required for painting stones, creating a rhythmic beauty. , beautiful rhythm, and perfectly expresses the three-dimensional sense and texture beauty of the stone. It is more interesting than simply using the chamfering method to express the three-dimensional sense. This has become an indispensable expression method, which not only deeply reveals the characteristics of orchids, but also implies noble people. The artistic conception of the work, and the artistic beauty of the calligraphy art instead of the chamfering method, allow people to enjoy the artistic conception of the painting and poetry, as well as the formal beauty of the calligraphy art, and be immersed in the poetry and painting. In the paintings of Lanzhushi, the forms of his poems are varied, unconventional, eclectic, and naturally interesting. When the calligraphy is good and the style is appropriate, the painting will also be more colorful. The so-called "appropriate style" refers to the reality of the picture. , to conceive, and pay attention to the formal beauty of the composition, so he will inscribe the poem long on the side, short on the top and bottom, vertical, horizontal, or oblique, or run through orchids and bamboos, vine leaves. In between, I write inscriptions intermittently and look at their shapes, which are uneven and dense. They are both books and inscriptions, paintings and poems, poems and paintings. Appreciating the poems inscribed in each painting is not only a wonderful reproduction of calligraphy, but also a masterpiece. It is a comprehensive art in which calligraphy and painting complement each other. The title of the book and the picture are organically blended together to form a unified poetic and painting style, giving people a comprehensive and perfect artistic enjoyment.