Quit your job, grab your backpack, and run off into the distance.
This kind of life that urban people yearn for is not new, and some people have done it 800 years ago. Unlike today's boss, the boss who was fired at that time was a bit powerful, it was the fourth emperor of the Southern Song Dynasty, Song Ningzong Zhao Kuo, and this bold and free man was called Liang Kai.
Sparse willow jackdaw figure Liang Kai Collection of the Palace Museum in Beijing
In the historical records, there are not many records about Liang Kai, we only know that he was a painter in the Southern Song Dynasty Court Painting Academy, and was given the highest level of gold belt by the emperor, with a high reputation.
Maybe it's enough of the bitterness of painting under the emperor's "edict", maybe it's the relationship between colleagues is not very harmonious, maybe it's the restless heart in the heart... In short, he hung the gold belt in the courtyard, and without warning, he left.
People at the time were very puzzled by this kind of resignation of romantic literature and art, and they all called him "Liang Crazy".
Of course, Liang Kai is not crazy, and it is most appropriate to use the sentence in Tang Yin's "Peach Blossom Anthem" that "others laugh at me for being too crazy, and I laugh at others who can't see through it". After leaving his post, he drank and met with friends, consulted Zen enlightenment, and became close friends with monks such as Ju Jian and Zhi Yu. Artistically, without the royal regulations on painting content, Liang Kai moved to a more free realm, and he used the least amount of brush and ink to create the most expressive "reduced brush figure painting", and the later Xu Wei, Bada Shanren and Qi Baishi were all affected by it.
Taibai Xing yin tu Liang Kai Collection of the Tokyo National Museum of Japan
The "Li Bai Xing Yin Tu" hidden in the Tokyo National Museum in Japan is impressive, and Liang Kai uses only a few ink marks to outline the image of Li Bai: a square forehead, straight hair, a slightly upturned beard, a slightly tilted jaw and hands behind his back, and Shi Xian's open-minded and straightforward personality is clear at a glance.
The whole painting, no single stroke is superfluous, extremely simple, but extremely vivid.
Splash Ink Immortal Figure Liang Kai Collection of the National Palace Museum in Taipei
The Yuan Dynasty painter Xia Wenyan once mentioned Liang Kai in the "Illustrated Treasure Book", saying that he was "drunk and self-happy", so the "Splash Ink Immortal Figure" may be his drunken work - the whole picture is smeared with a large brush, only slightly sketched on the face, and the facial features are closely gathered together, revealing some drunkenness.
In the painting, the immortals have exposed breasts, wide clothes and large belly, and a cute and cute and unpredictable funny appearance, and under the otherworldly appearance, it is very likely that Liang Kai is a true portrayal of his heart.
This painting, which is lyrically written like splashing ink, was once commented by the painters of the time as "coarse and evil without ancient law", but under close inspection, it is not only "random", Liang Kai's ink drop is simple and magical, natural and elegant, which is amazing.
Part of the "Splash Ink Immortal Figure"
Like Muxi, whose age is similar, Liang Kai's paintings were not the mainstream during the Southern Song Dynasty, and the more detailed depictions of the academy were the most popular.
During the Kamakura period in Japan, trade between Japan and the Song Dynasty flourished, and around the 13th century, there were several records of Japanese ships arriving in China. In the commodity trade, a large number of Chinese ceramics, fabrics and paintings were introduced to Japan, and the "beauty" displayed by these objects became the aspirations and pursuits of the Japanese power. Most of Liang Kai's paintings flowed into Japan at the end of the Southern Song Dynasty and had a huge impact on the development of Japanese art history.
In addition, Chinese Zen Buddhism in the Kamakura period swept Japan as the mainstream of new Buddhism, which also increased Japan's admiration for the works of Liang Kai and Makiki. As the famous Japanese scholar Daisuke Suzuki once clearly pointed out the intrinsic connection between Zen and ink painting: "The principle of ink painting is actually triggered by the zen experience. The characteristics of oriental ink painting, such as simplicity, dilution, flow, enlightenment, perfection, etc., are almost without exception organically related to Zen. ”
Among Liang Kai's works, there are two works that directly express Zen theory, namely "Bamboo Diagram of The Six Ancestors " ( Zhuó ) " and "Six Ancestors Tearing Scripture Diagram".
Liuzu Bamboo Diagram Liang Kai Collection of the Tokyo National Museum of Japan
The Six Ancestors are the six ancestors of Zen Buddhism, Huineng, the ancestor of the Southern Sect, according to the Lord Epiphany. Southern Zen emphasizes that the Buddha is in the human heart, drinking water and carrying firewood, all can realize the Tao, and all religious rituals are worthless.
The "Bamboo Cut" reduces the Six Patriarchs to an ordinary woodcutter who is entering the Path from the most common source of life. The process of inquiry into the bamboo shooters cutting off the side branches on the bamboo poles is like the Confucian "lattice object". Liang Kai was not a pure Buddhist or Taoist, and the three schools of Confucianism and Taoism had an influence on him, as can be seen in the Six Ancestors Cutting Bamboo Diagram.
Liuzu TearIng Scripture Drawing Liang Kai Collection of the Mitsui Memorial Museum of Art, Japan
The pen in the "Six Ancestors Cutting Bamboo Diagram" is sharper, so some people have regarded the "tearing scripture map" as the wild and uninhibited of the six ancestors, and this interpretation is obviously not to the point.
The Diamond Sutra is an important Buddhist classic, advocating that "everything that has a way, such as a dream bubble, such as dew and electricity, should be viewed as such", but when people interpret the Diamond Sutra, they always go out of their way, which is contrary to what is shown in the sutra. Liang Kai's painting "Six Ancestors Tearing Scripture Diagram" is exactly the Six Ancestors of "One Hundred Taboos" and is also the one who completely broke the attachment.
In fact, the Zen-filled "reduced stroke painting" is just a way of painting for Liang Kai, and before returning to the cloth, what he was best at was the "fine stroke" in the style of the painting academy. Liang Kai studied under Jia Shigu, whose teacher was the Northern Song Dynasty painting master Li Gonglin, who painted many far-reaching landscape paintings on the basis of the FaDu of the pre-Fa Dynasty, including the Snow Landscape Map.
Snow Landscape Painting Liang Kai Collection of the Tokyo National Museum of Japan
The painting was introduced to Japan relatively late, during the Ming Dynasty in the mid-14th century, when it was first collected by the Ashikaga shogunate, then by the Sakai and Mitsui families, and finally by the Tokyo National Museum in 1948 and designated as a national treasure by the Agency for Cultural Affairs in 1951.
In the painting, with the snow-covered mountains as the background, two travelers riding in the harsh winter cold and two old trees with twists and turns, all show Liang Kai's meticulous depiction ability. The Tokyo National Museum wrote in its introduction: "The work shows the huge landscape space unique to the desert against the background of the snowy mountains, and the tiny presences such as donkey riders and geese are also delicately expressed, which can be described as a masterpiece that shows that Liang Kai is also good at precision painting." ”
Deyama Shakyatu Liang Kai Collection of the Tokyo National Museum of Japan
"Out of the Mountain Shakya Diagram" is also the work of Liang Kai when he was in office, which can be read from the "Imperial Front Picture".
The painting depicts Shakya walking out of the mountains after a long period of asceticism, and although the mountain environment is cold, the eyes of the characters are not moved by the environment, and it can be seen that through practice, he has achieved spiritual transcendence.
"Imperial Front"
Part of "Out of the Mountain Shakya Map"
Another interesting work of Liang Kai is "Picking Ears", which shows the humorous and cheerful side of Liang Kai's personality:
Ear picking diagram Liang Kai
In the overall atmosphere of the Southern Song Dynasty, Liang Kai chose to stay away from the regime, give up fame and fortune, and lose the shackles of the world, but he got the Zen freedom of the pen.
A pot of wine, a stone of ink, the world is clear in the heart and not broken, this is Liang Kai.
By the way, when forwarding, don't forget to block your boss, if you don't want to fire him for a while.