Chapter 48 Good at calligraphy and painting, creating "thin gold body"

Emperor Huizong won Cai Jing, the "minister of the arm and arm", and planned to restore his father Shenzong's New Deal ambitiously.But because of his "frivolity", he couldn't do the diligence of the former, so he had to let go of the big topic of making the country rich and the army strong, and devoted himself to the superficial work of "making rituals and making fun".I am afraid that from the point of view of his artist's mind, this is more creative, and it is much more interesting than the boring financial management and military management.So the "Mingtang" was built for sacrifices and teachings, which was large in scale and employed tens of thousands of craftsmen every day.He also used copper to cast the Jiuding, which symbolizes the unification of Kyushu, decorated it with gold, and built nine halls to place it, called Jiucheng Palace, and personally wrote "Jiuding Ji".The Dasheng Mansion, a music organization, was established to create Dasheng music, the "grace music" that reflects the new look of the government.All these things brought him a great sense of satisfaction, enough to call himself a sage king.

Huizong concentrated on his great cause of "making rites and making music", and did not forget his beloved calligraphy and painting.He was good at calligraphy and painting.Both regular script and cursive script are well written, and the self-created "thin gold body" is even more elegant and healthy, with a unique style. Even people who don't know calligraphy can see that it is really good calligraphy.He is also very conceited about this, often calling himself "one man in the world".His paintings are even more famous, especially flower and bird paintings, known as "divine products".There used to be a legend: A woman in a family was fascinated by a vixen, and she sought many mages to eliminate the demon, but to no avail.Later, the family obtained a scroll of eagles painted by Song Huizong, which was hung on the wall of the main room.The fox said to the woman, your eagle has scorching eyes and is very afraid of people. Fortunately, there is an iron chain around its neck.The family saw that there was indeed an iron chain on the painted eagle's neck, so the family painted the iron chain with paint.That night, there was a rushing sound in the main room, followed by a scream.When I saw it the next day, the vixen had been pecked to death.Although this kind of story is absurd, it can be seen that Huizong's paintings are indeed good at fine brushwork, lifelike and extraordinary.

However, now that he is the emperor, he is not only satisfied with his own smearing of this calligraphy and painting.On the one hand, he expanded the collection of paintings and calligraphy in Bifu, and classified these collections into two books, "Xuanhe Shupu" and "Xuanhe Huapu", which are important works for the study of Chinese art history.On the other hand, this calligraphy and painting was linked to the imperial examination of "the best in learning is an official", and the study of calligraphy and painting was established.For the outstanding ones, rewards will be given to officials.The entrance examination for painting is also very unique.I often use a poem as the title to see who can best express the artistic conception in it.For example, there is a question about "Bamboo Suoxi Bridge sells restaurants". Most people only see the word "restaurant", so they take the hotel as the main body and draw some bamboo streams around it.But one of them drew a dense bamboo forest, surrounded by a gurgling stream, but picked out a wine curtain at the top of the bamboo, and just hit the word "lock", so he won the first prize.What Huizong liked was the delicate and delicate style of painting, and the school of painting also admired realism and emphasized observation.For example, in the famous painting "Surfing the River During the Qingming Festival", even a small sparrow is stepping on a few roof tiles, which is unmistakable.

Although Huizong followed the Confucian classics to "make rites and make music", what he was really interested in was Taoism. For this reason, he even gave himself the honorary title of "the leader of Taoism and the emperor of Taoism".He adores Taoism and is interested in academic theory. He once wrote notes on Lao Tzu, which is one of the famous "Five Notes on Chongning", which is still preserved in "Tao Zang"; .Lin Lingsu, his favorite Taoist priest, turned out to be a top-notch figure. When he met the emperor, he flattered him. He said that the emperor was the eldest son of the Jade Emperor. Immortal Zuo Yuan, the favorite concubine Liu Niangniang is Jiuhua Yuzhen Concubine An, who made the emperor dizzy and delighted, so he was immediately named "Mr. Tongzhen Daling", awarded a gold medal, and allowed him to enter at any time , and built a Tongzhen Palace for him to live in.If there is something good in the top, it will be bad in the bottom, so auspicious things like Ramu, Jiahe, Ganoderma lucidum, and Kirin flocked out.Thinking about it, it is impossible for God to give birth to so many in just a few years, and naturally many of them are fake.Someone presented the emperor with a toad with a ganoderma lucidum growing on its back. The ganoderma and the toad are originally auspicious things, but they are even more rare when they grow together.The emperor was also happy. He put it in a water basin and offered it on the Golden Temple. After being soaked in water for a few days, the sticky things fell off.Emperor Longyan was furious, and demoted that unlucky sycophant far away.

Emperor Huizong was a playful person, and he was not satisfied with just "making rituals and having fun" and writing and drawing.Although he has done something like "Shenxiao Yuqing Longevity Emperor", the things in the sky are too imaginary, and they can't compare with the prosperity of the world, so the overhaul of the palace has become the meaning of the topic.First, the Yanfu Palace was repaired. Yanfu Palace was the place where the emperor held banquets. It was originally small in scale.The new Yanfu Palace has seven main halls, with fifteen pavilions in the east and west. In the palace, water is diverted into canals, and stones are stacked into mountains, where various rare birds and animals are raised.Every time he came to various festivals, he summoned all officials, held banquets, performed various music and dances, and various dramas, etc., trying every means to enjoy himself.

In the seventh year of Zhenghe (1117), the Taoist priest Liu Hunkang suggested filling in the terrain in the northeast of the imperial city, saying that it would be a blessing to have children.So Huizong happily found an excuse to build again.In December of that year, he ordered people to start building a large garden-style palace outside Jinglong Gate.There is an artificial main peak in the garden, built in imitation of Phoenix Mountain in Hangzhou, with a height of 90 feet, named Longevity Mountain, and later renamed Gen Yue, so named because of the position of "Gen" in the Eight Diagrams.In his own words in "Yuzhi Genyue Ji", it is "thousands of miles to the southeast, the majestic Yandang on the Tiantai, the phoenix and Lufu, the vastness of the two rivers and the Three Gorges, the vastness of the clouds and dreams, the four directions are far and different, and each is good at its own beauty. If this mountain is all-encompassing, it will also be stunning.” Many palaces and towers were built in Gen Yue, and many kinds of trees were planted.Strange flowers and rocks, rare birds and animals, decorate it like a fairyland on earth.It took six years to build Genyue, and it was not completed until the fourth year of Xuanhe (1122). "It's really created by heaven and earth, and it's not what human beings can do." It was the largest garden in the world at that time.

However, for the emperor, just playing by himself is too boring. He also wants to "have fun with the people". He also wants to dress up the capital of the Great Song Dynasty, Bianliang, Tokyo.The city walls and streets of Bianjing were once planned crookedly and crookedly by Song Taizu out of national defense considerations.Naturally, Huizong's artist disliked the ugly appearance of the city, so under his own planning, the streets were built horizontally and vertically, and the city walls were neatly arranged.He couldn't tolerate beggars and refugees in the city, so he established "Anjifang", "Nursing Home", "Sales Bureau", "Louze Garden" and other charitable and medical institutions to settle them.As for the Lantern Festival, the most grand festival at that time, he was even more unwilling to miss it.According to the practice of the Northern Song Dynasty, the Lantern Festival was to light up the lanterns for three days and three nights. Huizong was not satisfied and changed it to five days and five nights.Moreover, preparations have been made since the winter solstice, and on the day of the Lantern Festival, there are even more lights and festoons, and a Mount Ao is set up, decorated with various lanterns and a banner saying "Have fun with the people".Sometimes when the emperor was in a good mood, he would give each of the people who came to watch the lantern a glass of wine with a gold cup.There was a woman who loved the golden cup, so she hid it secretly, but was discovered by the guards, and she was caught in front of the emperor. Watching the cranes descending on the sheng and singing, the mandarin ducks are lost. The sky is getting dawn, and I am grateful for the emperor's kindness. I spread the news that I will bestow wine on my face, and I will be punished by my uncle when I return home. I will steal the gold cup as a certificate." The emperor saw that she was really a talented woman. Ah, as soon as I was happy, I gave her the golden cup.

During the more than 20 years of Huizong's reign, the prosperity of Bianjing reached its peak.Perhaps for Huizong, this Tokyo Bianliang was his greatest artwork. His artistic talent was fully displayed here, making Bianjing the most prosperous city in the world at that time.This prosperity and splendor, even after nearly a thousand years of smoke and dust, are still brilliantly displayed in "Along the River During the Qingming Festival".A Western sinologist once said that he would rather be a gatekeeper in Bianjing at that time than be the emperor of the Roman Empire.When we read "Tokyo Menghualu", we are often amazed by the exquisite and elegant life in it.However, behind this splendid prosperity is an astonishing price - the emptiness of the treasury, the corruption of the bureaucracy, the displacement of the people, and the collapse of a dynasty.Huizong himself will soon taste this bitter fruit.