Chapter 24 Section 5: Ancient and magnificent figure paintings

Although figure paintings in the Ming Dynasty were not as popular as landscape paintings and flower-and-bird paintings, some creative painters also appeared.Such as Ding Yunpeng, Chen Hongshou, Cui Zizhong, Zeng Jing and so on in the late Ming Dynasty.Among them, Chen Hongshou's figure paintings are the most distinctive. Chen Hongshou (1598-1652 A.D.) was born in Zhuji, Zhejiang, with the style name Zhanghou and the name Laolian.Born in a bureaucratic family, he was good at poetry and painting since childhood. When he was 14 years old, his works were put on the market, and people rushed to buy them.It can be seen that he is a precocious painter.When the Ming Dynasty fell and the Qing soldiers entered the east of Zhejiang Province, he was unfortunately captured. He was so righteous that even with a knife on his neck, he did not draw a picture for the Qing soldiers.Later, he avoided living in Yunmen Temple and once shaved his hair to become a monk, expressing his attitude of not compromising with the rulers of the Qing Dynasty.He once painted "Returning to Return", using the story of Tao Yuanming's failure to bend his waist for five buckets of rice, to persuade his old friend Zhou Lianggong not to be an official in the Qing Dynasty.In his later years, he sold paintings for a living in Shaoxing, Hangzhou and other places.The poem often reveals the hatred of subjugation and cynicism.

Most of Chen Hongshou's figure paintings are based on historical stories, and often have the deep meaning of borrowing the past to describe the present and expressing his feelings.The characters in his works are exaggerated, slender, short and fat, strange and grotesque, with a unique charm.For example, "Qu Zi Xing Yin Tu" is an illustration made by Chen Hongshou for Xiao Shan Laiqinzhi's "Chu Ci Shu Zhu" when he was 19 years old.In the picture, the river is vast, and there are weeds, trees, and rocks on the bank.The great poet Qu Yuan, wearing a tall cloud-cut crown on his head and a long sword of Luli on his body, strolled along the riverside full of worry and indignation.From the perspective of composition, the figure is in the center, but occupies a small area.The scenery is simple, leaving a large area of ​​blank space in the picture, making people feel that Qu Yuan is like a lone crane wandering in the boundless river and sky.The characters are simple and slightly exaggerated.The portrayal of the protagonist's face is particularly vivid: melancholy and lonely.It accurately expresses Qu Yuan's vast mind and endless worries.In addition to figure painting, Chen Hongshou is also good at painting landscapes, flowers, lake stones, neat and elegant, full of decorative personality.In short, Chen Hongshou's painting style had a great influence on the late Qing painters Ren Xiong, Ren Xun, Ren Yi and even many modern painters.His works include "Lotus and Stone Picture", "Yaji Picture Scroll", "Returning to Come Picture Scroll", "Nvxian Picture", "Water Margin Leaves", "Bogu Leaf", "Illustration of West Chamber" and so on.