Looking at the philosophy of Chinese painting from Qi Baishi's "Picture of High Standing Pines and Cypresses"
In the spring auction of 2011, Qi Baishi's work "Picture of High Standing Pines and Cypresses·Four-Character Couplet in Seal Script" underwent intense competition After the competition, it was sold for a sky-high price of 425 million, which has undoubtedly become a milestone in the Chinese painting and calligraphy art market. Most scholars and collectors agree that this is the embodiment of the philosophical value of Chinese painting... Although there are calls to confirm that this is Chinese art. The market bubble is reflected. However, judging from the interests and orientations of collectors, investors, and artists, this man is a generalist in painting, calligraphy, seal cutting, and poetry. Through Qi Baishi's works, we can see the transformation and development of Chinese painting in modern times, which is a developing and changing cultural product. Its inner part is the basic spirit of Chinese culture, and its outer parts are its related elements such as shape, color, structure, and expression methods. The Chinese view the world and the universe with a poetic vision. This spirit of life has had a profound impact on painting and culture. Under the influence of this life spirit, China's unique painting concepts and philosophical thoughts were formed, and the condensation of this concept and philosophical thoughts created the soul of Chinese painting - philosophy. Among them, the most core content is the four aspects of "form and spirit", "meaning and image", "qi and rhyme", and "principle and law": 1. "Shape" and "spirit" are one of the core categories of Chinese painting one. Qi Baishi advocated that "the beauty of art lies between similarity and dissimilarity". He adopted the painting masters Xu Wei, Zhu Da, Shi Tao, Wu Changshuo, etc., and formed a unique freehand style, with red flowers and ink leaves, especially melons, fruits, vegetables, flowers and birds. Insects and fish are unique craftsmanship, including figures, landscapes and landscapes. They were famous for a while and enjoyed the reputation of "Southern Wu and Northern Qi" during the reign of Wu Changshuo. Qi Baishi's "Tall Pines and Cypresses" was created in 1946. It is already his mature work. The pine eagle is Qi Baishi's favorite and one of the most familiar painting themes for viewers. "Eagle" means "hero", strong and powerful, and "pine eagle" "There is a metaphor for longevity and a metaphor for evergreen foundation." It can be said that Qi Baishi's works inherit all the characteristics of literati paintings, eliminating the complexity and retaining the essence. They are unified in form and spirit, and unified in things and self. They are the painter's "familiar heart" that has been refined and transformed into images in the heart "making knowledge into hands." ". The creation of artistic images and the painter's feeling of the inner life and breath of objects. The "theory of form and spirit" mentioned in Chinese painting art is exactly what philosophy talks about, and of course it is also the development of the literary spirit of painting. Literati paintings tend to emphasize spirit over form, emphasizing the unity of form and spirit; transforming form, quality, and function into spirit, quality, form, and function. That is to say, it has the spirit of representation itself, and gradually develops from "taking spirit" to "expressing meaning", and from "spiritual likeness" to "meaning"; "meaning" is a higher aesthetic level than "spirit". This is the development trajectory of Chinese painting expression and creation. The materialized form of the aesthetic consciousness of Chinese painting art should be said to be freehand brushwork. "Freehand brushwork" is the painting concept of Chinese painting. It is necessary to have a complete and comprehensive understanding of the "freehand brushwork" of Chinese painting. Freehand brushwork cannot be limited to the form of pen and ink, otherwise it would be too narrow. The focus of freehand brushwork lies in "imagery". 2. Appreciate this painting "Pipes and Cypresses Standing High". The protagonist is a goshawk standing on a pine branch. It stands proudly and independently. Its main feathers and tail feathers are highlighted with thick and burnt ink. The primary and secondary are clear, the layers are clear, and it is vigorous. The feathers were folded, and the eagle's talons clung to the tree trunk powerfully. The eagle's beak and eyes are outlined with burnt ink. This goshawk's gaze is like a torch, looking into the distance with piercing energy. Looking again, the eagle is standing sideways, full of energy, with its head slightly turned, looking majestically at the vast land, waiting for opportunities to move, highlighting the image's sense of power and vitality. From this realistic pen and ink goshawk, we can see Qi Baishi's meticulous observation of life and the source of reality in depicting the details of the image. It can be seen that the painter's brush is as big as a rafter, and he writes about pines and cypresses in seal script. Although the metal and stone are bold, the shapes of pines and cypresses are the same, and one pine and one cypress are painted on the screen. "Pine and cypress" symbolizes longevity, and has a unique and upright style in the painting. It has long escaped the function of "birthday celebration", but uses the metaphor of "evergreen foundation" to express the hope for a beautiful vision of a dead tree that has experienced war and spring. In the process of painting creation, Chinese painting is limited by materials, and this limitation precisely promotes the painter's own subjective thoughts and pursuits, and uses pen and ink to write what is in his heart. It can be seen that the ideological theme of Chinese painting "transforms the imaginary into the real" has the characteristics of "unexpected". Chinese painting opposes "experience and experience" and pursues not the unshakable truth, but the artistic perception of "one ink makes a thousand things, one speck of dust catastrophes". 3. Judging from Qi Baishi's works, "qi" is expressed in the use of brushes as "strength" - the vigor of the pine. That is to say, when painting pine, you must pay attention to the strength of the qi and the content of the brush. The pine branches extend from outside the screen from the upper right, and the pine trunk also penetrates from the upper right of the screen. The expression is outside the painting, allowing the viewer to expand their imagination and express the majesty and tallness of the pine tree. The pine tree is in front, and then painted with light ink. Lao La uses a pen to make the layers clear. The branches are upright and slanted to the right, and then inserted diagonally down from the top. The pine needles are written in thick ink, which shows the power of the pen and the tenacity of the pine needles; the cypress tree is behind , the ink color is thicker and the posture is more curved. The internal and external ups and downs of the pen shape the "rhyme". The "qi" that emphasizes "vivid charm" refers to the "spiritual essence" of the origin of life, and has the same meaning as "god". From the perspective of the aesthetic system of Chinese painting, it pays attention to the inner spirit of aesthetics and pursues the unity of form, expression, emotion and object, such as "qi" and "rhyme". "Qi" is originally a philosophical concept with complex connotations. This concept existed as early as the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. It expresses the movement and changes of all things in nature, the generation of human beings, and their spiritual phenomena.
The mutual influence between "Qi" and philosophy and culture has made "Qi" an aesthetic category accepted by the public in the art of painting. "Qi" determines the spiritual quality of the work, and the spirit of the work is the materialized form of the painter's creative spirit. The connection between "qi" and "rhyme" in Chinese painting is mainly reflected in the desire to create, the management of images and the entire process of ink painting. "Qi" and spirit are unified. "Rhyme" is both an artistic method and an aesthetic realm. If you want to study the "rhyme" in Chinese painting brush and ink, you must understand the use of brush and ink. The modeling method of Chinese painting is line, which can express shape, quality, movement, momentum and other aspects of line. Looking at the "Picture of Standing Pines and Cypresses", the ink color itself has rich changes and charm. It can be seen that the charm of ink is mostly generated from the changes of ink color. In order to obtain the "rhyme" in the painting, Qi Baishi made great efforts in his brush and ink attainments. Aesthetic character: "Essays are simple". 4. As far as the aesthetic ideological system of Chinese painting is concerned, it can generally be divided into two categories: rationalism - Confucianism; and irrationalism - Taoism. In terms of artistic creation, Confucianism attaches great importance to the social function of painting, while Taoism emphasizes more on "pleasant temperament" in painting. Looking at the poem inscribed on the painting, it is obvious that it was created for the painting, and it also serves the birthday theme of the painting. The poem says: "The pine branches are drooping and shade the grass, the cypress trees are high with light clouds, the sky is clear and the scenery is beautiful, and the eagles are hunting for eight thousand springs." In traditional Chinese culture, pine trees and cypress trees coincide with longevity. "Eight Thousand Spring" also highlights the meaning of birthday wishes. In the painting, the pines and cypresses are held high into the clouds, standing tall and proud, with a goshawk on top, and their eyes are like torches, which implies that the leader (Chiang Kai-shek) has a heroic spirit. The "qianqiancao" in the poem refers to the common people in the world, and the "pine branches hanging in the shade" means that the people are under the shade of the leader. "The sky is clear and bright" means that after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, the politics will be clear, the situation will be great, and leaders can do a lot. The poem expresses the painter Qi Baishi's simple political demands and wishes as an ordinary citizen. He hopes that under the leadership of Chiang Kai-shek after the eight-year Anti-Japanese War, the common people can live a stable and peaceful life. From this perspective, this is the embodiment of Confucianism. The style of poetry and calligraphy are all typical of Qi Baishi, and Qi Baishi accompanied the painting with a giant seal script couplet: "Longevity in life, peace in the world." It was also the expression of ordinary people's simple political aspirations at that time, their expectations for the peaceful development of the country, and their expectations for a better life. Qi Baishi's calligraphy has its own style and adopts a wide range of methods, especially seal script. Old Man Baishi's seal script has unique characters, majestic and powerful, and he pursues the charm of metal and stone as his aesthetic destination. Therefore, the pen he uses is different from the ancients who used the center pen in the seal script, but uses the center and side pen, just like he used in seal cutting. The straight-to-the-point approach. The brush used in his paintings also has such brushwork. Some people question the pen used by the flanker in this couplet as a forgery, but they really don’t know the origin of the calligraphy and the pen used. From a Taoist perspective, heaven is nature and humans are part of nature. Break down these barriers imposed on the human body, liberate human nature, return to nature again, and achieve a spiritual state of "all things and I are one". Only with this kind of understanding can the work be perfect.
A correct understanding and application of the philosophy of Chinese painting can allow us to go further and further on the road of pursuing art. Even if we cannot all become artists, at least we can cultivate good artistic sentiments. and an aesthetic eye to become a high-quality art lover. If you want to continue to make great progress in the profession, you must enrich your own connotation, because Chinese painting does not exist alone, it requires profound cultural heritage to nourish it.
My thesis outline should be almost ready if you cut it down.