Chapter 171 elegant

When Liang Qichao was 13 years old, after seeing a pair of couplets written by Tao Junxuan in Wei Tikai at Sanjun Temple in Yuexiu Mountain, Guangzhou, he was reluctant to leave for a long time.From then on, he became very interested in the art of calligraphy, and often took calligraphy by Linchi as a daily lesson to concentrate on learning calligraphy. In 1897, Liang Qichao was invited to be the head teacher of Chinese at the Current Affairs School in Changsha, Hunan Province. Tan Sitong introduced himself to Tang Caichang, who had been "friends for 20 years", and Liang Qichao met.Tang Cai often presented them with chrysanthemum inkstones. Tan Sitong wrote an inscription on the inkstones: "Empty flowers have no real appearance, and they can be trusted by making chrysanthemum verses. Let the public study the Buddha dust as a gift, and the stones of the two monarchs will be handed over to me to testify." At the right time, Hunan Xuezheng Jiangbiao went to Liang Qichao's residence to bid farewell the day before he left Hunan. Seeing the inkstone and inscription, he happily carved it overnight.This chrysanthemum inkstone has become a historical witness of the deep friendship of the four reformers.

Later, Tan Sitong shed blood in the Reform Movement of 1898, Tang Caichang died in the "King of Forces", Jiang Biaokong died young with blood in his heart. "The giver, the inscription, and the engraver are all dead."The chrysanthemum inkstone was lost when Liang Qichao was forced into exile.Nostalgic for the old thoughts, Liang Qichao often looked sad. He also wrote in "The Collection of Drinking Ice Room·Poetry Talk": "When the Eighth Century left the country, all the books and old manuscripts in the collection were lost, and there was nothing to miss. For several years There is only one chrysanthemum inkstone that enters and exits the dream soul....The inscriptions, inscriptions, and engravings of those who donated it today are all gone. But this inkstone flew back to the sea of ​​dust, and there is no news. I am afraid that there may not be a time for merger in this life, and I am sad to think. "

In 1898, after the failure of the "Hundred Movement Reform Movement", Liang Qichao fled to Japan.When fleeing, he still did not forget to bring his beloved inscriptions.During his 14 years in exile in China, Liang Qichao's interest in calligraphy has not diminished in the slightest.In Liang Qichao's "Shuangtao Pavilion Diary", he described in detail his study life overseas and his hard work in the pool, including the content, quantity, progress and experience of the pool every day. In 1911, Liang Qichao said in the postscript "Zhang Menglong Stele": "I have lived in Japan for 14 years. I was aggressive and unscrupulous. During the period of Gengxu and Xinhai, I was quite affectionate and gentle. I visited all the steles, and all my works are in one bag. This is hereby The Wutou reported the white, but the words came to an end. The affairs of the world are prosperous, and there is no leisure time to engage in the skills of carving insects. I have spent a lot of time and written it into this volume. The last four papers are on the verge of the eve before the line. It's a drunken work."

Liang Qichao studied calligraphy all his life. On July 14, 1916, Liang wrote in "Letter to Liang Sishun": "Only learning books is better than before, and I am more diligent. I use up 20 papers every day. I have already finished the banknotes. The square banknotes are a little enough. Converge this heart and ear." Liang Qichao's calligraphy, which was born out of the dignified square style of the Northern Wei Dynasty stele, is very innovative and has been praised by Shiliu.He had to have his servants grind the ink every day, and the ink from the next night was poured out and used, and the inferior paper was refused to be used.

In March 1926, Liang Qichao was admitted to Peking Union Medical College Hospital due to hematuria.On March 10 before the operation, he wrote in "Letter to Children": "The most interesting thing about my letter is that I wrote it while sitting on the hospital bed and using the hospital's eating plate as a table. I invented this It is a tool, and it can be clinically posted on the bed in a few days." At Chen Shizeng's memorial service, Liang Qichao saw that among the posthumous works on display, there was a seal script couplet by Jiang Baishi: "Singing fans are light like flying flowers, tall willows are drooping in the shade, spring is getting far away and Tingzhou is green; The lotus is falling into powder, and the heart is swaying and the moon is silent." He sighed deeply about the beauty of his collection.Affected by this, he often collected words into couplets and sent them to relatives and friends.He once sent Hu Shi a couplet as: "Hu Dieer, in late spring, it is ordinary leisure again; the plane tree, the third watch rain, I don't know how many autumn sounds."

Liang Qichao once sent Xu Zhimo a collection of couplets: "Linliu Ke Nai Qinglong, beside the fourth bridge, Huanzhu passed Huanbi; this means flying in life, under the shadow of begonias, playing the flute until dawn." Liang is quite fond of this couplet. Confident, he wrote in the "Appendix to Poems in the Ice Drinking Room": "The most proud thing I have collected is a couplet given to Xu Zhimo... This couplet can see Zhimo's character very well, and he also remembers his story. Swimming with Tagore in the West Lake, don't have a heart. And try to write poems under the crabapple flowers and make a trip to the sky."

Later, more and more people asked Liang Qichao for calligraphy, so Liang simply set a profit rule and sold calligraphy publicly, often earning two to three thousand silver dollars a month. Liang Qichao has no special interest in antiques, but there is often a large and long rosewood box on his desk, which contains Gu Yanwu’s hand scrolls, and the special glass box in his outer living room houses the Egyptian pyramids and the ancient city of Pompeii in Italy. masonry. Liang Qichao loved to listen to operas. Before taking a nap every day, he asked his family to turn on the large floor-standing phonograph that was cranked by hand and listen to a few Beijing operas by Tan Xinpei, Yang Xiaolou, Mei Lanfang and others. There was no radio at that time, which was already the most advanced Enjoyed it.

When the world's number one violin master Chrisler came to perform in China, President Li Yuanhong reserved a box, brought his wives, concubines and family members to join him, and presented the musician with a large basket of flowers.It was Liang Qichao who came to the stage to give an introductory speech. Liang Qichao dedicated his life to collecting rubbings of inscriptions.Ji Yaping compiled the catalog of rubbings in Liang Qichao's collection, which records that Liang Qichao collected 1,284 rubbings of rubbings in the past dynasties, with a complete range of calligraphy styles and inscriptions.Of the unearthed and well-known Chinese inscriptions and epitaphs, the number of rubbings of inscriptions and epitaphs collected by Liang Qichao alone has reached half of them.After Liang Qichao's death, his family donated nearly 1,300 rubbings of stele inscriptions collected by him during his lifetime to the Beijing Library.

Liang Qichao once collected a frame of "Beijing Customs Map" that Chen Shizeng cherished very much during his lifetime, and regarded it as a treasure; he also spent a lot of money to buy "Chunhua Pavilion Tie", which has inscriptions from Song, Ming and Qing Dynasties. He thought Song Tuo was delighted Afterwards, Fang's family identified it as a forgery, and Liang Qichao was very upset when he learned that he had been deceived.