Not long after I entered Beijing in 1949, I inquired about the situation of the old man Baishi. Knowing that he was still alive, I wanted to visit this old painter.I made an appointment with two comrades, Shakov and Jiang Feng, accompanied by Comrade Li Keran to see him. He lives at No. 13, Kuache Hutong, Xicheng.In the small room at the entrance lived a little old man without a beard. Later I heard that he was a young eunuch of the Qing imperial family who guarded the door for him. At that time, the three of us were all cultural takeover members of the Beijing Military Control Commission. We were wearing military uniforms with armbands on our arms. When the three of us went to see him, it was inevitable that the old man would feel strange.Introduced by Li Keran, he received us.I immediately stepped forward and said: "When I was eighteen years old, I read four albums of the old man, and I was very impressed. I haven't had the chance to see you for many years, so I came to visit you today."

He asked, "Where did you see my painting?" I said: "In 1928, it has been 21 years, in Hangzhou West Lake Art Academy." He asked, "Who is the dean of the Art Academy?" I said, "Lin Fengmian." "He likes my paintings," he said. Only in this way did he know that the visitor was from the art world, and he was much closer to him. He immediately asked the nurse to grind the ink, put on his sleeves, and took out a few pieces of paper for us to draw.He gave each of the three of us an ink painting and a two-foot piano strip.The painting for me is four shrimps, translucent, with two small fishes painted on them.Title:

"Mr. Ai Qing is eighty-nine years old Baishi", the seal is "Baishi Weng", and the other side is "Pleasure to what I can". We were so glad, and said goodbye to him with gratitude. I was the military representative who took over the Central Academy of Fine Arts.I heard that the old man Baishi is a professor, and he comes to the school once a month to draw a picture for the students to demonstrate.Some students proposed to stop his salary. I said: "It is a great contribution for such an old artist to paint a picture once a month. The Japanese came, but he did not starve to death. The Kuomintang came, and he did not starve to death. The Communist Party came, how could he starve to death What about it?" Moreover, Xu Beihong, the dean of the Academy of Fine Arts, valued him very much and collected a lot of his paintings, so of course such a proposal would not be adopted.

The old man has been diligent all his life. He was a carpenter, learned to carve, and later learned to paint.He has been painting for more than half a century, and his skills are refined. He is also a person who loves innovation, and his paintings cover a wide range of subjects: landscapes, figures, flowers, birds, insects and fish.I didn't see him copying others.He has keen observation skills and a particularly strong memory, which can accurately capture images.He has a pair of microscope eyes, and the insects he drew in his early years are full of details. I saw the moth he drew, lying on the ground; covered in white powder, with two tentacles on the head, and the bees he drew, the wings seem to have a buzzing sound The wings of dragonflies in Cicadas are like tulle; the grasshoppers he painted are bright red and green, very similar to post-impressionist oil paintings.

He paints cockscombs and peonies, but his painting method is different from others. The big red flowers are painted with thick strokes, and the leaves are only a few points in black ink; he paints loofahs and nest melons; Residual lotus, it looks very messy, but it is very imposing. There is a picture of sunflowers that he drew.question: "Qi Baishi's painting of the eighth year of his residence in the capital", and the seal "Mu Jushi".Title poem: "The thatched eaves are short and long, and the leaves are thin when the rain blows and the wind shakes. The drought is still thinking of the sun and the sun, and the heart should turn to the sun and the east. Baishishan Weng Deng is dim and titled."Seal "White Stone Weng".

There is a piece of persimmon, with thick branches and big leaves, and the fruit is ocher red. It is written "Yidingmao, the eleventh year of Jinghua in the old residence of Xingziwu", and the seal is "wooden man". He also painted landscapes, but I didn't see him painting many mountains and rivers.Most of them are easy to see on weekdays.One of his landscape paintings was titled: "I used my own brush and ink to write landscapes, but people are still confused, and I also think so. Baishishan Weng and Title". Seal "Baishishan Weng". Later, in the blank space of the painting, write "This picture has no date, it was written by Yu 20 years ago, and I will write it again today. Eighty-eight white stones", and the seal is "Qi Da".

The truth is that he doesn't want to paint what others have painted. I bought a two-foot ink painting of a small pine forest he painted in Shanghai Duoyunxuan. I showed it to Xu Linlu at the Heping Bookstore. Xu thought it was a fake. I asked him to go to Baishi’s house together and hang it up for Baishi. Look.I said, "I bought this painting from Shanghai. He said it was fake, but I said it was real. Take a look..." After he saw it, he said, "No one else could paint this painting." Signed by Qi Baishi, The seal is "Bai Shi Weng". I bought another eight-foot large painting of a pine tree without leaves and bearing pine cones, with a poem written on it: "The pine needles are all gone and the worms are still thin, and the pine nuts are green like moss after the remaining years. God is safe." Pity this tree, rain, wind, thunder and lightning come together. Grandpa tasted the words, first in the summer of Gengwu, the pine around the old house in Xingtang used to eat its leaves. One day, there was a heavy storm, thunder and lightning, and the insects were all extinct. Since Dingsi, borrowed The pine behind the mountain pavilion, the appetite of insects is dry. The thunderstorm of Gengwu in Ande is unattainable. I painted this and inscribed it in the first month of Xinyouchun. Three hundred stone seals. The rich man passed the gate of the capital five times. ".Seal "White Stone Weng".

After seeing it, he said, "This is a fake painting." But I smiled and said, "I drove it out overnight last night." He knew he couldn't fool me, so he said, "I'll exchange two paintings for this one of yours." I said, "You just take two." Give me ten paintings, and I won't change them." He knew it was a compliment to his paintings. This painting was made when he was in his seventies.He took a magnifying glass to look at it very carefully and said, "I was so dedicated to painting when I was young." One picture shows nine sparrows flying around.Title:

"When the leaves fall, the vines are chaotic, and the weather is cold and the birds are singing. The old man wants to sing, and the wind blows his clothes. There has never been a province of dry vines and cold, and he made new paintings and poems.The old man borrowing the mountain is not a lazy generation. The viewer is Lao He Lang." The seal is "Qi Da". After watching the painting, he asked me: "Who is Lao He Lang? " I said, "I was just going to ask you." He said, "I can't remember." This painting was drawn by him in his early years, and there is a big seal "甑屋".

I have seen him paint chicks many times, which are fluffy and cute; I have also seen his paintings of ospreys, which are green in water and very vivid. He appreciates his art very much. Once, when he was drawing a shrimp, he drew a long and thin beard on the paper with a pen, and said to me: "I am so old, but I can still draw like this." line." He hung up three paintings for me to see, and asked me: "Which one do you think is better?" I asked him: "What's this for?" he said, "You know." I have accompanied foreign guests to visit him many times. Once, he was very upset. I asked him why, and he said that the foreign guests did not praise him after seeing his paintings.I said: "He praised, but you don't understand." He said that what he wanted was for the foreign guests to show their thumbs up.How innocent he is!

When he was ninety-three years old, the State Council celebrated his birthday and made a movie. He took a photo with Premier Zhou Enlai, and he was very happy.The next day, I drew a few pictures as a thank you gift, signed them with red paper, and delivered them to the homes of several related people in person.He gave me a two-foot-long colored painting of a basket of lychees and a loquat. This is the second painting he gave me, with the title: "Mr. Ai Qing Qi Huang Baishi is ninety-three years old", the seal is "Qi Da", and in the lower corner is a large seal "People still have regrets". His original Runge paintings cost 4 yuan per foot for ordinary paintings, but I bought his paintings for 10 yuan per foot, and doubled the fine brushwork grass insects, landscapes, and figures. Every time, I invited him to a restaurant for a meal, and then drove him home. .He loves to eat prawns, and it is said that he can eat up to six of them.He has a very strong stomach. He only bites the peanuts into two pieces, and then swallows them. He doesn't smoke, and he can drink one or two glasses of white wine with each meal. One day, I received two stamps he had engraved on Chairman Mao, both Yin Wen and Yang Wen were Mao Zedong (he didn't know that Chairman Mao's nickname was Runzhi).I asked Chairman Mao's secretary to forward the seal.Chairman Mao gave him a banquet in return, accompanied by Guo Moruo. He has many disciples, it is said that even Mei Lanfang knelt and kowtowed, the most outstanding one is Li Keran.Li Yuan studied painting at the West Lake Academy of Art, and has a good foundation in sketching. During the Anti-Japanese War, he painted several paintings of soldiers being nailed to the wall by the Japanese army.Li worked as a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts and worshiped old Baishi as his teacher.Li has a picture of a lying buffalo. The back and spine of the buffalo is drawn with a brushstroke. It looks very imposing. A child with a bare back is holding a birdcage. The bird in the cage is singing. The cow turns its head to listen to the sound... The old man Baishi looked at a painting and inscribed: "Thinking handmade is worthy of being a master after Qianjiajian. Eighty-seven-year-old Baishi Jiahai".Seal "Baishi Inscription". One day, I went to see him, and he took a note and asked me: "Who is this man? His poems are not bad, and he can speak with an accent." I took it and saw that it was written by Liu Yazi. The poem roughly said: "You are twelve years older than me, so you should be my teacher."I was very surprised and said: "You don't even know Liu Yazi, he is a member of the Central People's Government." He said: "I don't hear the affairs of the world, and I don't even know such a big man." Feel a little ashamed. I bought a small banner from the eunuch who guarded the door, which read: "Xingziwu, home mountain, day and night of leisurely travel. Suddenly forget the way back home, follow the hooves of the cows." The seal is "Azhi", and the other is "My year is eighty."I especially like his poems, which are rich in life and have a kind of simple beauty.In the early years, some people said that his poems were written in Xue pan style, which is really unfair. I went to see him a few times, and I was always accompanied by Li Keran. This time I heard that he moved to a female disciple's house—a general's house in an uprising.Seeing Li Keran, he suddenly asked, "What's your surname?" Li Keran immediately knew that he was upset, so he said, "I've been busy recently, so I didn't come to see the teacher." He turned to me and said, "Mr. , I thought I could draw a few strokes..." Li Keran immediately said: "Mr. Ai went abroad recently and didn't come to see the teacher." Only then did he calm down his resentment.He said that someone came from Hong Kong recently and asked him to go to Hong Kong.I said, "What are you doing in Hong Kong? Many people there fled from the mainland... What if you died on the way to Hong Kong?" He said, "Someone from Hong Kong asked for my own Runge, I can go to Hong Kong to sell paintings." He didn't know that someone had tricked him into selling fake paintings in Hong Kong. Soon, he moved back to No. 12 Kuache Hutong. I want him to draw a picture that he has never drawn, and I said: "Draw me an album, a picture that has never been drawn before." He readily agreed, the nurse made arrangements, and he went to the drawing table to draw I drew an ink painting: when a frog jumped into the water, one of its hind legs was caught in the grass, and there were three tadpoles swimming in front of the frog, which further showed the anxiety that the frog couldn't get rid of.He said happily: "This, I have never drawn." I'm glad too.He asked me what money to ask.I said: "Just write the question, I'm your student." He wrote: "Qingye my younger brother Huang Shitong studied painting in Beijing when he was ninety-three years old and wrote about Qi Baishi." One day, I saw it in Lunchizhai. I bought an album, and the first one of the album was drawn by old man Baishi: a plate was full of cherries, five questions fell under the plate, and the plate was on a small wooden shelf.I want to buy this painting.The owner of the shop said: "If you want to buy it, buy the whole book." I didn't like other paintings. I just wanted this one. I saw your drawing of cherries by Lunchizhai just now, it’s really good.” He asked, “How is it like?” I told him about the painting, and he immediately said, “I’ll draw you one.” He said in a Zhang painted it on a two-foot-long qin bar, but the color was not as bright as Lunchizhai's. He said: "There is no more western magenta." After finishing the painting, he wrote two lines of poems in large characters: "If you teach a good person to speak and talk, you will always lose your soul." He is obviously old. I invited him to Quyuan for dinner, drove him back to the cross-car alley, and then ran to Lunchizhai. The album was bought at a high price.Signed "Qi Baishi" and sealed "Wooden Man". Later, I showed the painting to Wu Zuoren, and he said that he had seen this painting in a certain year's exhibition, and it was the most prominent painting in the whole exhibition. Once, he asked me to write his biography.I feel that I know too little about him. He is over ninety years old, and I have only known him for the past seven or eight years. Moreover, I have already read his chronicle, so I said, "Don't you already have your chronicle?" I'm talking about the Chronicle of Qi Baishi, co-written by Hu Shi, Deng Guangming, and Li Jinxi, and published by the Commercial Press.He was silent. Later I asked someone why he was dissatisfied with his chronology. It is said that the chronology wrote his "Crossing Haifa". In 1937, when he was seventy-five years old, the fortune teller said that he had a bad year, so he added two years. After that, I seldom went to see him, and he became less and less talkative. The last time I went to see him, he was lying on the reclining chair dying, I went up and held his hand and asked him: "Do you still recognize me?" He gave me a weak look and said softly: "I have A friend, his name is Ai Qing." He seldom spoke, so I said, "I will come to see you." But he said, "If you come again, I will not be here anymore." How long.Unexpectedly, this farewell became a forever farewell-the ensuing movement sent me to the Great Northern Wilderness. He was ninety-seven years old when he died.Ninety-five years old actually. December 1983 (From "Guangming Daily" on January 21, 1984)