Chapter 9 The third quarter

Among the many scholar painters in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, Gu Kaizhi is the most famous and has paintings. Gu Kaizhi (approximately 345-409 A.D.), born in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, with the style name Changkang and small style name Hutou, had held some idle and powerless official positions and had close contacts with powerful scholars.He was brilliant, good at poetry and painting. At that time, people said that he had three skills: excellent painting, excellent talent, and infatuation. Outstanding talent refers to Gu Kaizhi's literary talent and his ability to write good articles.Once, when he came back from a trip to Kuaiji Mountain in Zhejiang, someone asked him how the scenery was there.He opened his mouth and answered: "Thousands of rocks compete for beauty, and thousands of valleys compete for flow; the grass and trees are hazy, like clouds and clouds." It shows his quick thinking.According to records, he also wrote some beautiful poems, but unfortunately they have been lost.

Such a smart person, why do you say he is crazy?It turned out that in that politically unpredictable era, sometimes a wrong sentence would risk decapitation.The clever Gu Kaizhi often pretends to be demented, on the one hand to show the detachment of a scholar, and at the same time to avoid unexpected disasters.For example, he once sealed a cabinet of precious paintings with Huan Xuan, who was in charge of the military aircraft.Later, Huan Xuan stole all the paintings, sealed them as they were, and returned them to Gu Kaizhi.Gu opened the cupboard and saw that there was nothing there. Not only was he not angry, but he laughed and said: "The wonderful painting is magical, and the changes fly away, just like a person ascending to the fairy." In fact, he also knew the whereabouts of the painting, but he didn't want to offend it. Huan Xuan, who is extremely powerful and wields the power of life and death, pretends to be confused and laughs at himself.

The so-called outstanding painting refers to Gu Kaizhi's extremely high achievements in painting.According to the history of painting, he became famous at the age of 20 when he painted the statue of Vimalakirti at the Watan Temple in Jiangning (now Nanjing).When the tile coffin temple was first built, people from all walks of life were invited to donate money to the temple.At that time, the literati donated no more than 100,000 yuan, but Gu Kaizhi claimed to donate 1 million yuan.Everyone knows that he is poor and thinks he is bragging.Gu Kaizhi asked the presiding monk to prepare a white wall for him, saying that he wanted to paint a portrait of Vimalakirti, so he closed the door and thanked the guests. After a month, the portrait was completed, but the eyes were not painted.Gu Kaizhi said to the abbot and monk, I will have my eyes painted, please open the temple for three days, those who come to see my eye painting on the first day will donate 100,000 yuan, those who come to see my eyes on the second day will donate 50,000 yuan, and those who come to watch on the third day There is no limit to how much money you can donate.Gu Kaizhi "Painting people have been painting for several years without blinking their eyes. People asked why, and the answer was that Si Ti Yan Chi [yan chi Yan Chi] was originally dead. It is about the beauty, vivid portrayal, and it is in A Du." "Famous Paintings" Volume 5) Therefore, this time when I heard that Gu Kaizhi wanted to paint his eyes, all the dignitaries, scholars and common people in Jiangning came to watch.On the first day, there were huge crowds of people, "Er got a million dollars", and for three days in a row, the audience flocked to praise it.The portrait of Vimalakirti created by Gu Kaizhi has "the face of Qing Lei [lei Lei] showing illness, and the appearance of hiding and forgetting to speak", which depicts the aesthetic ideal of the scholar-bureaucrats in the Southern Dynasty, and even became a model for later generations to paint Vimalakirti.He also painted many portraits and historical stories.Xie An, a great politician of the same generation, praised his painting art as "unprecedented since the common people".

Gu Kaizhi's works that have been handed down to the present include "The Picture of Luoshen Fu", "The Picture of the Proverbs of Women's History", and "The Picture of the Wisdom of Women".Although they are all copies of people from the Tang and Song Dynasties, their basic features can still be seen. "The Admonitions of Female History" (now in the British Museum, London, UK) and "The Wisdom of Women" (now in the Palace Museum, Beijing) are historical figure paintings with the content of feudal female virtues, which contain the meaning of "exhortation". "Luo Shen Fu Tu" depicts a beautiful and moving tragic story.

It is a famous Fu by Cao Zhi, a great writer of Han and Wei Dynasties.The whole novel uses romanticism to describe a beautiful story of a man who fell in love with God, but finally separated with hatred because of the separation between man and God.Some scholars believe that this Fu was written by Cao Zhi in memory of his former lover Zhen.Zhen Shi was originally in love with Cao Zhi, but Cao Cao matched her with Cao Zhi's brother Cao Pi. "Planting is not flat, thinking day and night, waste sleep and food."Zhen Shi was also unhappy in the palace, and later died young because of slander.After Zhen's death, Cao Pi gave Cao Zhi her jade thread gold belt pillow, "Zhi cried without knowing it."On the way back to the fiefdom, he rested in Luoshui, and in a trance, he saw the God of Luoshui transformed by Zhen's family come to meet him and express his heartfelt feelings.Cao Zhi couldn't hold back his grief and joy, so he did it.Some scholars also believe that this is Cao Zhi's way to express his painful feelings of political frustration.The mood of this Fu is melancholy and tactful, and the diction is clear and beautiful. Many artists of later generations often use it as a motif to re-create music, opera, poetry and painting.Gu Kaizhi's "Luo Shen Fu Picture" is a large-scale painting based on that.There are five volumes of copies of this picture.Two volumes are in the Palace Museum in Beijing, one in the Palace Museum in Taipei, one in the Liaoning Museum, and one in the Freer Museum of Art in the United States.

The long scroll we introduced is 27.1 centimeters long and 572.8 centimeters long. It is a Song Dynasty copy and is now in the Palace Museum in Beijing.This picture begins to depict Cao Zhi walking along the shore of Luoshui accompanied by his attendants.At this time, the setting sun was setting in the west, and the twilight was dim.The dragon Ruiniao flew from the sky.Suddenly a beautiful woman appeared on the surface of the water, "as graceful as a frightened bird, as graceful as a dragon swimming", looking back and staring with affection.Then it depicts Cao Zhi meeting, playing and parting with the goddess.The goddess flew away in a dragon chariot, still in love with each other, looking back at each other.Next, it describes Cao Zhi feeling lost, "wonderful and sleepless at night", reluctantly looking back at Luochuan when dawn sets off.

This long scroll has the continuity of the plots, but each plot is not completely separated. It is an organically connected overall composition, not an illustration of the original text.The painter created a touching artistic conception with bright colors, vivid characters and wonderful environment.Especially the mood of the characters is portrayed more delicately and vividly: Cao Zhi's surprised and excited state when he first saw Luoshen, the "lingbo microsteps" and "difficult to advance and stop, if the Goddess looks at the prime minister" when she looks back at the prime minister. The appearance of going as if returning" is very touching.The fetishes such as salmon, jade luan, and whale salamander are grotesque and extraordinary, exaggerating the seemingly real and illusory, confusing and confusing situations; in the last painting, Cao Zhi is sitting in the carriage and still twisting his body, looking back, vividly expressing "wandering but unable to The mood of "Go" is endless aftertaste.It also seems to bring the viewer into the sad but beautiful memory.

Using lines to shape images and express emotions is a major feature of traditional Chinese painting.Its formation has gone through a long process in the history of Chinese painting.From the silk paintings of Chu tombs in the Warring States period and the silk paintings of Mawangdui in the Western Han Dynasty, it is not difficult to see that lines have become the main modeling means, but they are mainly the outlines of images.In the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, in addition to its modeling function, its line drawing has a greater expressiveness.The history of painting commented that Gu Kaizhi's line drawing is like "spring silkworm spinning silk", which is even, thin, continuous and round.It is also said that it is like "spring clouds floating in the sky, flowing water running on the ground", natural and smooth, not artificial.Zhang Yanyuan, a famous art historian in the Tang Dynasty, said that Gu's lines are "tight and continuous, the cycle is too short, the style is easy and easy, the wind tends to be electric, the meaning is kept first, and the painting is full of meaning", forming a "trace with simple meaning". Light and elegant" painting style.Although the "Luo Shen Fu Picture" we saw was a copy of Song Dynasty, the original style is still vaguely discernible.He doesn't use folded lines, nor do he use thick and variable lines, but uses uniform, thin, round and smooth lines, which further strengthens the implicit and erratic feeling of the picture.Gu Kaizhi's line drawing has amazed many future generations of painters.