Chapter 21 Chapter 20 The Art of Painting

Su Dongpo's genius and spirituality gave birth to a new type of traditional Chinese painting, especially suitable for expressing the charm of the brush.Su Dongpo's most important pastime is "playing with ink", through which his great and innovative artistic impulse can be freely developed, and it will also bring eternal influence to Chinese art.Su Dongpo not only created the famous "ink bamboo"; he also invented a new type of traditional Chinese painting "scholar painting".He and his descendant Mi Fu jointly explored new painting methods, which later became the most unique and representative style of Chinese painting.The southern school of painting emphasizes expressing the concept of unity with rapid and rhythmic brushstrokes. It was established by Wu Daozi and Wang Wei as early as the eighth century-it formed a strong contrast with the northern school Li Sixun's painting method of finely painting gold borders and adding red and green. Compared.However, the freehand "scholar painting" was not really established until the Song Dynasty. This school focused on graceful vitality and the main concepts of the painters, but it contained the mysteries of certain artistic principles and techniques that modern painters pay attention to.

We are fortunate to see the origin of "scholar painting" in Su Dongpo's life from the art reviews left by Su Dongpo, Mi Fu and Huang Tingjian.Scholars are poets, calligraphers, and painters.First of all, we need to know that Chinese calligraphy and painting are the same thing, and the techniques, methods, spirit and principles of criticism are exactly the same.Without understanding the aesthetic principles of Chinese calligraphy, it is impossible to understand the origin of Southern Chinese painting.Because the ancestors of the Southern School—Su Tungpo was one of them—were deeply influenced by Chinese poetry, good at using the brush, and mastered all the principles of calligraphy, composition, and rhythm.Calligraphy provides the technical and aesthetic principles of Chinese painting, and poetry constitutes the spirit of Chinese painting, emphasizing the realm and atmosphere, and loving all the smells, colors and sounds of nature.

Long before the birth of Su Dongpo, China had a rich artistic tradition, including calligraphy and painting.Su Dongpo admired Wu Daozi since he was a child. During his years in Huangzhou, he spent a lot of time improving his painting skills.Now his poet and painter friends are gathered in the capital, and this atmosphere can quite stimulate his creativity in poetry and art.Just as a good chess player's life changes when he finds another good chess player in the same city, Su Dongpo's life is different now.After all, he is a scholar, not a politician. As a literati, his main job is to use pen, ink and paper.His students are all university scholars and often visit his home.Mi Fu later became the most outstanding painter in the Song Dynasty. Once he fell in love with the rhythm of stones so much that he fell down under a rock and called "father-in-law" repeatedly.Everyone called him "Midian".Mi Fu, Su Dongpo and Li Gonglin, the three famous Song Dynasty masters, are often together today.

They met at each other's homes, drinking, joking, and composing poetry, often half-drunk.At this time, Su Dongpo, Mi Fu or Li Gonglin would walk to the table, where the pen, ink and paper are all ready.One person draws, writes or composes poems, while others watch and boo, and write poems as prefaces. The environment and atmosphere are very ideal.The main materials of poetry, calligraphy and painting are two liquids: wine and ink; they have the best wine, the best famous ink, the best brush and the most precious paper.A good calligrapher finds a particularly precious piece of paper as a good violinist finds a Stradiva—he simply cannot resist it.Su Dongpo liked Chengxintang's paper the most, Xuancheng's Zhuge brush or mouse whisker brush, and ink made by Li Tingbang.When a scholar completes a painting, it is customary to ask others to write a few book reviews in turn, or write down the jokes that were recited at that time.Sometimes Su Dongpo and Li Gonglin (the name of Li Longmian is more familiar to Western art collectors) jointly painted a work, Dongpo painted stones, Gonglin painted cypress trees, and Ziyou and Huang Tingjian wrote poems as narratives.

There was a grand event in the history of Chinese art. Sixteen scholars gathered in the residence of Wang Shen's son-in-law.This is the great "Xiyuanhui", which was painted by Li Longmian and described in detail by Mi Fu.Present were the three major painters of the Song Dynasty, Su Dongpo, Mi Fu, Li Longmian, Dongpo's younger brother and the four scholars of Sumen.Stone tables are listed under tall cedars and giant bamboos.There is a waterfall on the top that flows into the big river, and flowers and bamboos grow on both sides.Wang Shen's two concubines stood behind the table in high buns and hair accessories.Su Dongpo, wearing a yellow robe and black hat, was leaning on the table to write, Wang Shen sat nearby and looked at him, and at another table, Li Longmian was writing a poem by Tao Qian, and Ziyou, Huang Tingjian, Zhang Lei, and Chao Buzhi all sat around the table And stand.Mi Fu raised his head and carved letters on a nearby rock.Qin Guan sat on the root of the tree and listened to someone playing the piano, while other people scattered in all directions, kneeling and standing, with different postures.Those people include monks and scholars.

It is generally recognized that Su Dongpo was inspired after drinking and could make the most beautiful calligraphy and paintings.Thinking about the bright rhythm required by Chinese calligraphy and painting, I believe this statement is true.In the third year of Yuanyou (1088), when he served as the chief examiner, he and his painter friends Li Gonglin, Huang Tingjian, Zhang Lei and other accompanying examiners were banned for more than seven or eight weeks, and no one was allowed to contact the outside world until the examination papers were revised.In their spare time, Li Gonglin entertained himself by painting horses, and Huang Tingjian wrote some gloomy and terrifying ghost poems, and they exchanged rumors of Taoism and immortals.Referring to Dongpo, Huang Tingjian once wrote: "Dongpo Layman spares no expense in books, but he can't beg for them. Anyone who begs for books will criticize them seriously, or they will not answer a word in the end. Yuanyou Zhongsuo Trial Ritual Department, every time I come to see The paper on the case, no matter the fine or rough, the book is all over. Sexual wedding, but only four or five are drunk, and lie down without saying goodbye. Snoring like thunder, Shaoyan wakes up, and writing is like wind and rain. Even though there are jokes It means that you are truly a god among immortals."

Su Dongpo criticized his own calligraphy and painting, saying: "Although my books are not very good, they come from new ideas. They don't follow the ancients. It's a pleasure." During his lifetime, Su Dongpo had several portraits drawn, the most famous of which are the two painted by Cheng Huaili and the famous artist Li Gonglin.In Li's portrait, Su Dongpo is sitting on a stone with a long walking stick on his knees.Huang Tingjian said that this painting captures Su Dongpo's slightly drunken expression.He sits reclining relaxedly in this posture, thinking about the ebb and flow of the material world, but he enjoys the endless charm of nature in front of him.He seems to stand up at any time, dip a brush in ink, and write out the emotions in his chest, either writing beautiful poems or waving the beautiful rhythm of calligraphy and painting.

Once Du Jixian (Du Jie) brought a piece of high-quality paper and asked Dongpo to inscribe it, but he made many comments on the layout of the copybook.Dongpo joked, "Do you think I'm selling vegetables?" In March of the second year of Yuanyou (1087), Kang Shimeng had already published copies of several copybooks of the Su brothers.His friends are also eager to collect his copybooks.One night friends searched his house for his old suitcases.Someone found Dongpo's handwriting on a roll of torn paper.After inspection, it was found that he wrote the "Huangniban Ci" half drunk during his exile in Huangzhou.In some places, the handwriting is so vague that even Su Dongpo could not recognize it as his own masterpiece.Zhang Leilin gave a copy to Su Dongpo, and kept the original copy himself.A few days later, Su Dongpo received a letter from Wang Shen's son-in-law, which said: "I have never tired of buying books for my son, and recently I have bought two papers with three brushes. If you have a recent painting, please leave it to me. Don't bother me too much." Silk too."

Su Dongpo has a copy of the original "Xilou Calligraphy", which was engraved on a stone after his death and made into a rubbing copy, which has been preserved to this day.These copies are as intimate as the eyes of a friend next door.One letter thanked Mrs. Su for the comb from a friend, and the other said that he would send a jar of bacon. Thinking of Chinese calligraphy as a kind of abstract painting may best explain its characteristics.The problems of Chinese calligraphy and abstract painting are actually very similar.In judging the quality of Chinese calligraphy, critics ignore the meaning of the words and regard them as abstract compositions.It is an abstract painting because it does not depict any discernible objects, unlike normal painting.Chinese characters are made up of lines, and the combination of lines is ever-changing. Calligraphy is to combine these characters perfectly, and it must be matched with other fonts on the same line and on the same page.Chinese characters are composed of the most complex components, which inevitably present all compositional problems, including axis, outline, organization, contrast, balance, proportion, etc., with particular emphasis on the unified concept of the whole.

The problem of all art is a problem of rhythm, whether painting, sculpture or music.Since beauty is movement, every form has an implicit rhythm.Even the architecture is the same, the Gothic cathedral seems to be contemplative.Aesthetically, you can even use personal adjectives such as "rush", "sweep", "rude", etc. These are the concepts of rhythm.The basic concept of rhythm in Chinese art is established by calligraphy.Chinese critics do not pay attention to static proportions or harmony when appreciating calligraphy, but secretly trace the artist's movements from the first stroke to the last stroke, so that seeing the whole piece in this way is like watching a dance on paper.Therefore, the approach of this kind of abstract painting is different from that of western abstract painting.Its basic theory is that the sense of beauty is the sense of movement, and this basic concept of rhythm will become the main principle of Chinese painting in the future.

This notion of rhythmic beauty of movement changed the way all technologists thought about line, mass, surface, composition and material.If it is a beauty of mechanics rather than of statics, and everything is a balanced straight line drawing, like an engineer's blueprint, then it is not worth considering.The artist on the contrary must look for the twisted and uneven lines of the branches, and only because of the twists and turns can they show life and movement.It is easy to see life and movement in this uneven line, in which sensitive pressure, rest and sweep, and occasional clatter of branches are carefully preserved.It can be said that there is a basic principle in Chinese painting and calligraphy, unless necessary - such as painting desks and tea tables - do not use balanced lines.The concept of composition has also changed.Chinese artists are never satisfied with static arrangements and contrasts between lines and surfaces, because these lines and surfaces are dead.Therefore, the painter emphasizes the active lines, which is a big difference between Chinese painting techniques and other paintings. In order to cultivate the foundation of living lines, calligraphers turned to observe nature.Natural lines always evoke movement, and the variations are endless.The Greyhound, which is good at running, is strong and smooth, and has its own beauty; while the Irish puppy (犭 Geng) is hairy and short, with another flavor.We can appreciate the dexterity of the deer, and at the same time admire the powerful muscles of the lion's paw.The fawn is graceful, not only because of the symmetry of outline, but also because it reminds one of leaping, and the lion's paw is graceful because it reminds one of leaping, and it is this function of leaping and leaping that gives the lines a living harmony.If we pursue this kind of rhythmic beauty, we can appreciate the huge body of an elephant, the twisted tension of a small snake, or even the skinny and clumsy movements of a giraffe.So the rhythm of nature is always full of function, only because the lines and contours are the result of the growth process and have a certain function.With the help of natural and rich rhythms, we can exercise our appreciation to the extreme.It is this natural rhythm that Chinese calligraphers try to imitate when they move their brushes, and only the most sensitive brushes can imitate it.Some strokes are steady and round, reminiscent of the power of a lion's paw;Some want to express a bright and refreshing feeling. The font has shoulders, waist, and brackets, just like a perfect woman, or as Chinese critics say, "like a beautiful woman with flowers on her temples".Some want to imitate the inimitable elegance of withered vines, forming gentle and stable small rolls at the end, balanced by a few thin leaves.Don't forget that dead vines are perfectly balanced, because the angle and shape of the end bends depends on the overall weight of the vine—depending on which side the stem supports and the residual leaves are on. Su Dongpo said that his friend Wen Tongjiu failed to learn calligraphy. One day he was walking on the mountain road and saw two snakes fighting, so he realized the trick.Inspired by the rhythm of the two snakes, he incorporated their sinuous movements into the calligraphic style.Another calligrapher once saw a woodcutter and a village girl meet on a narrow road, and thus understood the secret of rhythm.Both of them hesitated for a while, wanting to make their way, but in the end, both of them were at a loss as to who should stop and wait for the other to pass.The back-and-forth movement of the two figures creates a tension, shock and recoil that is said to have given the calligrapher his first understanding of the principles of calligraphy. When it comes to painting, the widely recognized Impressionist Chinese painting produced by this chaotic yet harmonious line beauty, the painter only wants to use the main rhythm to record a certain impression in his mind, and does not copy what is in front of him.The fewer details in the picture, of course, the easier it is to express or convey this rhythm.Therefore, Su Dongpo's concentrated description of a few clumps of bamboo and a few huge stones becomes a complete picture.This rhythm alone compels one to remove all matter and objects unnecessary in the concept of unity.Perhaps more extreme examples of Impressionist art can be seen in Bada Shanren's fish and birds or Shi Tao's orchids.Regardless of painting fish, chicken or bird, Bada Shanren's paintings can be said to use the fewest lines and the least amount of ink to express the most charm.A great artist only spends a few minutes splashing ink quickly to complete a picture of a fish, horse or portrait; either success or failure, in case of failure, he crumpled the paper into a ball, threw it into the wastebasket, and started from scratch. Saving brushes is the main reason for the naturalness of Chinese painting.But saving pen and focusing on big goals has other consequences as well.Su Dongpo's moonlight painting of bamboo leaves has two effects.One is to remove unnecessary objects, which can stimulate the viewer's imagination, and the other is to make people feel that whether these clusters of bamboo leaves are resting quietly in the moonlit night, or violently shaking in the wind and rain, the simple rhythm in them is always worth admiring.The intention and motivation of drawing a few pruning bamboos, a curve, and a few rough stones is exactly the same as that of a calligrapher writing a word.As long as the state of mind is expressed and impressions are written on paper, the artist is satisfied.In this way, he can convey that satisfaction and joy to those who read calligraphy and painting. This kind of literati painting is also called "freehand painting", which is equivalent to impressionism. The word "yi" is difficult to translate; it represents everything the painter wants to express; we have to use "intent", "concept", "impression" or "state of mind" to describe it.It makes sense to use "conceptualism" to explain this school of painting, because this kind of thinking emphasizes the unified concept, and the concept is the only goal of the artist's tracing. The central problem of ancient and modern Chinese and foreign art is the same.Impressionism can be said to be a revolution in realistic painting, which proposed a new goal of art by expressing the subjective impression of the painter.Su Dongpo has two lines of poems that fully demonstrate the spirit of this reform. "When discussing paintings, they are similar in shape, and they are adjacent to children." Su Dongpo commented on a young freehand brushwork painter Song Zifang. Mo, without a little handsome hair, looks tired after a few feet. Han Jie (Song Zifang) is also a real scholar's painting." In this regard, Song Dynasty painters took a big step forward; they painted not only to express the author's impression or concept, but also to express the inner mechanism.Simply put, Song Dynasty painters painted the spirit of objects rather than their appearance, and Song Dynasty philosophers were called "Confucianists".Influenced by Buddhist metaphysics, Confucianism no longer pays attention to rules, political and social forms, but instead studies the problems of the mind and the universe.With the help of impressionistic mysticism and metaphysics, they began to talk about Li, the principles of nature and human nature, the "laws of nature" or the "inner spirit of things."Chinese people don't like abstract metaphysics, so the philosophers of the Song Dynasty seldom delved into the laws of nature when they talked about "reason", but completely believed in the power, spirit or truth contained in the form of objects; nature is a living spirit, and painters should grasp that in their works. An invisible inner spirit.When an artist paints an autumn forest, he should not describe the gorgeous colors of the leaves, but should record the invisible "autumn" or "autumn thinking". The change of natural yin prosperity and yang decline.Su Dongpo taught his son to write poems to describe the personality of a flower, so that sentences written about peonies would never be seen as lilacs or plum blossoms.The characteristic of peony is graceful and luxurious, while plum blossom is lonely and hidden.This quality must be grasped by the painter's eye and imagination.In order to paint a fish, the painter must understand the "nature" of the fish, and in order to understand the fish's nature, he must imagine himself swimming in the water, sharing the fish's response to tide, wind and rain, light and food.Only when a painter understands the joy of a salmon jumping on the beach and knows how excited it is, can he try to paint a salmon.Otherwise he shouldn't have drawn the fish, no matter how accurately the scales, fins and eyelids were drawn, the picture would still be dead. Of course we should also observe the details.Su Dongpo once wrote down an interesting incident.There is a Sichuan collector who owns more than a hundred famous paintings, and he likes Dai Song and a picture of a bullfight the most.One day when he was drying a painting in the yard, a shepherd boy happened to pass by; he looked at the painting for a second, shook his head and laughed.Someone asked him why he was smiling, and he said, "A bull in a fight should have its tail hanging between its legs. In this painting, the ox's tail is standing upright!" Su Dongpo also looked down on Huang Quan, a famous bird painter, because he was not good at observing the habits of birds.But observation and precision are not enough to constitute true art.A painter must use his intuitive insights to truly develop a general love for the birds and beasts of nature.Su Dongpo wrote a poem about a picture of a crane that he painted, perhaps best expressing his insight into the inner spirit of objects.He said that a crane saw people coming in the swamp, and decided to fly before spreading its wings.But when no one is coming, its posture is completely relaxed.It is this inner spirit that Su Dongpo wants to paint. Talking about the description of the inner spirit rather than the outer body, Su Dongpo said: All paintings unconsciously reflect a thought.Traditional Chinese painting unknowingly shows the concept of the unity of nature and man, the unity of life in the universe, and the concept that human beings are just insignificant passers-by.From this point of view, the so-called freehand Chinese painting, whether it depicts a stick of pruning bamboo, a group of strange rocks, misty rain in the mountains or snowflakes on the river, is an expression of pan-divine love.Su Dongpo painted a picture of bamboo and stone on the wall of a friend’s house, and wrote a poem as a record. His poem can most clearly describe the painter’s attitude of unity of things and me: