Chapter 11 Transcript of Huang Yongyu Yuelu Academy Speech 5

River embankment finishing Chinese Painting and Foreign Painting I respect both Chinese painting and foreign painting.Most of the time I paint Chinese paintings.Sometimes I also paint foreign paintings. Many years ago, a friend came to me angrily and told me that a painter said your paintings were not Chinese paintings, and he was very angry. I said you tell him, and if he says my painting is a Chinese painting, I will sue him. (applause) Because it doesn't matter whether it is a Chinese painting or not, the important thing is that you have to draw decently.Painting is not a taxonomy, it doesn't matter whether it is Chinese painting or not.

The one from the old lady in Mawangdui, Changsha, is more than two thousand years old. There are many beautiful colors in the painting, drawn with a very delicate brush. The weaving of silk and the dyeing of pigments were all done by craftsmen at that time. In 868 AD, at the end of the Tang Dynasty, we found a woodcut of a Buddha statue in the Diamond Sutra, which was already carved very well, and we only found this one. So now we say woodcuts are from AD 868. Of course it didn't start in 868. If it started in 868, how could elementary school students carve it so well? I've had it for a long time, but I can't find the material.

Sometimes I like to look at these arts from a side door and make some comparisons.When did foreign painters start to paint movements and dynamics? When did Chinese paintings express dynamism?I said that our Chinese paintings expressed dynamism much earlier than foreign paintings. Although foreign art may be earlier than ours, such as Egyptian art, which was very mature and solemn five or six thousand years ago, why not express movement? Everyone's actions are stupid.From classicism to romanticism, there is little movement in the performance. For example, riding a horse is like a steel horse on a monument. It is fixed and there is no feeling of movement.

Our Chinese paintings are very good at expressing dynamism. We can use lines to express it, as in the Han and Tang Dynasties. The dynamic field of view is very large, and the picture is very rich. For example, when a foreigner draws an animal, [demonstration] expresses the shape very cleverly, but he rarely expresses his spirit and his movement. In our Chinese Han Dynasty [demonstration: drawing dragons] the dynamics are fully expressed. There are also paintings of flowing clouds and flames, which are very common in Dunhuang paintings, and they also have a sense of movement along with dragons.

From the Middle East to Europe, everything they paint is frozen there, without any sense of movement. Of course, it is not "moving" in foreign paintings, which is also a very elegant arrangement, and the knowledge is very profound. Architecturally, this arrangement is more dignified.But the image that our China can "move" is very important and precious to me. Another example is the horse on the bricks of Han Dynasty [demonstration: draw a horse], that kind of galloping movement is not found in foreign countries. Foreign art is very solemn and has its necessity in many aspects.

For example, Danner talked about an excavated Greek statue in "Philosophy of Art". In hell, poisonous snakes and wild animals are biting him, why doesn't he cry very hard? Danner said that art has a sense of moderation, which should be controlled to a certain extent and not overdone. This is art.If it is too much, it will affect the art. The same is true of our Peking Opera.The pain and laughter in Beijing opera are programmed. Smiling very pretentiously, crying is just covering your face with your sleeves and crying.Not really laughing, not really crying. The same goes for Italian opera.His crying is expressed by sound and music, not real crying.

So I sometimes watch other people's performances and sing a very sad song, Crying with snot and tears, I don’t want to watch it, crying is very unartistic, what art is there in real tears and snot! To use art to express that little emotion.Therefore, Chinese Peking Opera has one thing in common with Italian opera. This commonality is regular. Just like our Yangshao culture is the same as the Mayan culture of Mexico, it has been passed down for thousands of years, and finally they are the same. Not sure who taught whom, just like inventing scissors or pants, you can't figure it out.

I just talked miscellaneously.Calling it a cultural walk is actually an irresponsible way of saying it, because I don't have a system in the first place. Here I will talk about painting first, and I will talk about literature later. (applause) [break]