First, the connotation of "artistic life"
The artistic life of Li Shutong and Feng Zikai can't be simply summarized as a life of dealing with art or engaging in artistic creation. It refers to a kind of ideological realm in which master and apprentice are integrated, and it is the organic unity of art and life-filling personality and soul with beautiful artistic spirit, making life full of artistic beauty and meaningful poetic realm.
Ji Chuan and Kojiro once commented that Feng Zikai was "the artist with the most artistic temperament in modern China", not because he was versatile, could play the piano, shoot cartoons and write essays. "What I like is his frankness as an artist, his rich love for everything, and his temperament and strength." It can be seen that compared with Feng Zikai's outstanding artistic talent, his artistic life is more worthy of our future generations' admiration and admiration.
At that time, there was always a dispute between "art for life" and "art for life", but Feng Zikai did not struggle between the two, but put forward a completely different proposition: "We don't welcome" art for life "or" art for life ". We demand "artistic life" and "the art of living".
1. Art should pay attention to reality-"The Art of Life"
Feng Zikai advocates that art should pay attention to reality and reflect people's living conditions in reality. Painting, music, literature, etc. As long as it is art, it is related to life. All art should originate from life and reflect it. Under the guidance of this artistic view, Feng Zikai's artistic creation is based on real life. His prose, cartoons and music creation all show a strong flavor of life in the overall artistic style, and his works mostly reflect life and are mainly realistic. For example, comic works such as sick cars, high rebellion, chaotic bears and flower girls. Describe the daily life of ordinary people and reflect the true face of social reality. His creative idea is "humanization of art" advocated by him, that is, art is closely related to human life and reflects the reality of life.
2. Take care of life with an artistic attitude-"artistic life"
Feng Zikai pursues "the artistry of life". In his own words, the definition of "artistic life" is: "The spirit of art is embodied and expressed in all thoughts and actions. At this time, art is not needed, because the whole life has become a work of art. "
Feng Zikai believes that only by embodying the spirit of art can we create real works of art, beautify life and create great works of art "life". Apply art to life, treat people with an attitude towards art, look at everything in the world with an artistic eye, and pursue an artistic life path.
Second, "protecting students"-artistic practice "the artistry of life"
Feng Zikai believes that art includes "skill" and "morality". "Skill" refers to the skills, methods and means of artistic creation, while "virtue" refers to people's love of beauty, broad-minded fragrance and perfect personality.
Professor Feng Zikai is most concerned about three aspects: artistic heart, art and art education. For the "artistic heart", he thinks it is "extensive sympathy" and a realm of "the integration of all things". In Feng Zikai's mind, children occupy a great weight. He believes that children's hearts are pure and transparent, and most of them are compassionate. Only with the growth of age and the change of environment, they pursue fame and fortune more and gradually lose that compassion. In Feng Zikai's view, artists should have compassion, not only for sentient human beings, but also for all heartless things in the world. For the immortality of art, first of all, the creator should have compassion and all sentient beings. Only when literary and artistic creators have this kind of compassion and personality cultivation of all beings will their works be recognized by people and will last forever.
After the Anti-Japanese War, "compassion" became the core of Feng Zikai's artistic creation. His collaboration with Li Shutong's "Nursing Students" well confirms his "compassion theory" and is an artistic practice under the guidance of "compassion theory". What is "the heart of all beings"? That is, a person not only has himself in mind, but also thinks for others and the people; Not only do you know your own heart, but you can also understand the hearts of others, and you can push this "heart of all beings" and "compassion" to everything.
The artistic creation of nursing students not only includes the edification of personality cultivation, but also is full of religious persuasion and redemption. This paper attempts to instill the spirit of Buddhism into people's hearts through art, so as to realize the organic integration of art and religious spirit.
The original intention of Li Shutong's "forbidding killing and protecting students" comes from the "equality of all beings" in Buddhism, with the focus on all beings. On the basis of "protecting students", Feng Zikai put forward the idea of "protecting students and caring for their hearts". He believes that "protecting students" means "protecting the heart". Caring for life and discouraging killing can cultivate "benevolence" of people's hearts and induce "peace" of the world. Therefore, what we care about is not animals, fish and insects themselves, but our own hearts. In other words, saving animals, fish and insects is the means, and advocating kindness and peace is the purpose.
Third, "knowledge before literature"-the personality cultivation of Li Shutong and Feng Zikai.
Li Shutong is Feng Zikai's art teacher and Thaksin's religious mentor. As a teacher, Li Shutong not only takes himself seriously and sets an example, but also pays special attention to cultivating students' moral cultivation. In teaching practice, Li Shutong strongly advocated the moral proposition of "literature after the prophet" and asked students to establish the values and outlook on life of "prophet".
In those days, Feng Zikai was educated by Liu's biography. He explained that "after the prophet": "after the prophet", translated into vernacular, which probably means: "Pay attention to personality cultivation first, then pay attention to literary research", more specifically, "To be a good literary artist, you must first be a good person".
Li Shutong's thought had a far-reaching influence on Feng Zikai. Feng Zikai believes: "Real art must have both" goodness "and" ingenuity ". Good and unfortunate, of course, can't make art, smart and bad can't be competent for art, good and smart, smart and good, just become art, he pointed out in the article "Art and Artists": "Art takes personality first, technology second." It can be seen that in Feng Zikai's view, if an artist does not have noble moral sentiments, but has all human weaknesses, such as arrogance, shallowness and cruelty, then even if he holds 1000 exhibitions, he is only a formal artist, but does not have the essence of a real artist. Conversely, if a person does not engage in artistic creation, but has an artistic heart, then he can also be called an artist. The humanistic thought of "personality first, technology second" is Feng Zikai's positive interpretation of the artistry of life.
Feng Zikai is called an artist, but he is also a Buddhist layman. His strong religious feelings are influenced not only by traditional culture, but also by his teacher Li Shutong. Li Shutong escaped into the empty net at 19 18. When people wondered whether Li Shutong's sudden escape into an empty net was stimulated, Feng Zikai used the metaphor of "three floors" to explain why Li Shutong became a monk. In his view, human life can be divided into three levels: first, material life, second, spiritual life and third, soul life. Material life is food and clothing, spiritual life is academic literature and art, and soul life is religion. Life is such a three-story building. Many people can reach the first and second floors, but only those who have a strong desire for life and great strength will resolutely climb to the third floor because they are dissatisfied with the second floor. This is a religious man. Most of them are very serious, and it is not enough to satisfy their material and spiritual desires. They must also explore the truth of life and investigate the source of soul and the root of the universe. Feng Zikai thinks that his teacher, Mr. Li Shutong, is such a person.
Under the influence of Li Shutong, Feng Zikai firmly believed that spiritual life could completely replace material life and provide a solid foundation for life. Feng Zikai, through his profound understanding of the characteristics and spirit of art, advocated that art should be regarded as a practical and effective way to improve personality cultivation and life realm. He believes that life should be an artistic life, that is, facing life with artistic spirit; Art should be the art of human biochemistry, that is, based on reality, pay attention to reality and realize the human biochemistry of art.