A generation of landscape painting masters died drunk in the guest house...
Zhao Chunqiu
Chinese has always attached great importance to pragmatism, in the long feudal society, "learning to become a literary and martial art, selling with the imperial family" is the only criterion for realizing the value of life, from the early Tang Dynasty Yang Jiong's heroic ambition of "preferring to be a centurion, winning as a scholar", to the Qing Dynasty poet Huang Jingren, who never met in his life, "Nine out of ten people are white-eyed, and one hundred useless is a scholar", conveying the embarrassment and embarrassment of the status of "shusheng". In order to obtain a meritorious name, how many students are poor, some people are lucky to get their wishes, some people are unfortunately frustrated in the official field, among these frustrated people, some people can watch the open to become a hermit, and some people, but it is difficult to let go, depressed, with poetry and wine to dispel sorrows, wild songs and drinking, and even died young, the last five generations of the song and the beginning of the Song Dynasty, the most famous and outstanding (not one of them) painter Li Chengcheng is so.
Li Cheng's ancestors were the imperial clan of the Tang Dynasty, his grandfather Li Ding served as a guozi sacrificial wine (this is equivalent to the president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences) in the last years of the Tang Dynasty, Suzhou Thorn History (equivalent to the current provincial and ministerial official), his father Li Yu was a Qingzhou governor (roughly equivalent to the current county magistrate level), Li Cheng was born in 919 AD, the Li Tang Dynasty has been destroyed for more than ten years, and the Li family has long been in the family. The so-called hundred-footed insect is dead but not stiff, this declining family of noble scholars and doctors gave Li Cheng a good upbringing, he has been reading books since childhood, familiar with the history of the Bible, loves poetry, is good at playing the piano and chess, likes to drink alcohol, and is famous for painting landscapes.
Li Cheng,"Song Qiao PingYuan Chart Axis"
Li Cheng lived most of his life in this period, known in history as the "Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms", and in just a few short decades, "the banner of the great king of the city" was changed, with frequent regimes, warlords fighting, officials and eunuchs fighting each other, and the people's lives were like grass. Like a traditional Confucian intellectual, he was eager to show his talents, established his life in the society, and helped the world, but in such a chaotic world that advocated force, he had great ambitions but no way to serve the country, and during the Fifth Dynasty Zhou, his good friend Wang Pu, a privy councilor, was ready to introduce him to the Later Zhou Emperor at that time, but the report was not handed in, and Wang Pu unfortunately died. Later, later, the Later Zhou Dynasty was replaced by the Zhao and Song Dynasties, and Li Chengcheng had no chance, "depressed and unmotivated", so he indulged in poetry and wine.
Li Cheng, "Maolin Yuanxiu Map"
Long-term discouragement, the mood is naturally depressed and depressed. Therefore, you can only seek pleasure in painting, relief in wine, comfort in the sound of the piano... Under his affection, he formed his own unique style of snow scenery and cold forest in painting creation. He painted landscapes, not to gain fame and fortune but to entertain himself, "My Confucians have rough knowledge, love landscapes, and make pens suitable for their ears, how can they run to the door of haoshi and be with their craftsmanship!" This artistic concept also brings creative freedom to his landscape paintings: not limited to the law, free to create, to express what he sees and what he is interested in.
Li Cheng, "Cold Forest Plain Field Map"
Although he was eager to exert his political ambitions, he was very high-minded, his character was upright, and he was never inclined to inflame the situation. There was a magnate surnamed Sun who admired his painting name very much and wrote a letter inviting him to perform, And Li Cheng received the letter and said very angrily: I Li Cheng is a scholar, although I love art and painting, but that is only my own hobby. I'm not going to play with you guys! ("Since ancient times, the four peoples have not mixed with each other, and I am a Confucian, although I am entertaining, I am just comfortable.") Why should people be imprisoned in the Qili Hotel, study and suck Dan powder, and be listed with the painting history? The reason why this Dai Kui shattered the piano also! ”）
After the surname Sun was rejected, he was very unwilling, so he secretly bought Li Cheng's hometown friends with a lot of money and got several paintings of Li Cheng. Soon after, this man invited him again with humility and courtesy, and Li Cheng had no choice but to reluctantly go, only to see that the paintings he had made before were hanging in this person's room, and he was furious and threw up his sleeves and left. Since then, the princes and nobles have carried letters and sent money to plead for paintings, but he has ignored them all.
Li Cheng, "Qunfeng Xueji Map"
In the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, Li Cheng's friend Wei Rong served as the governor of Chen Prefecture (陳州, in present-day Huaiyang County, Zhoukou City) and sent someone to invite Li Cheng to go. Li Cheng was very happy and led the whole family to migrate from Qingzhou to Chenzhou. After arriving in Chenzhou, Li Cheng, who suffered from severe alcohol dependence, still "drank heavily every day", drank and sang bitterly, and finally died of drunkenness in the guest house in 967 AD, at the age of 49.
During his lifetime, he diligently sought but never received an official and a half-job, but after his death, he was stained with the light of his children and grandchildren, and received two gifts of official titles, the first time was because his son Li Jue became a doctor of the state and a simen member wailang and gave the official Guanglu Temple, and the second time was because his grandson Li Youguan was given the title of prince of the punishment department Langzhong.
Li Cheng, "Little Cold Forest Diagram"
As a frustrated literati, Li Cheng failed to realize his dream of becoming a man and ruling the world, while Li Cheng, as a talented artist, left an outstanding contribution and great influence on Chinese landscape painting. Li Cheng landscape painting from Jing Hao, Guan Tong, on the basis of Jing, Guan with pen and ink combined with the needs of artistic expression, in the exploration of the formation of their own style, the Northern Song Dynasty painting circle of all those who make landscape painting or talk about landscape painting, must be listed as "ancient and modern first", the Northern Song Dynasty is the comprehensive maturity and peak period of Chinese landscape painting, when the landscape painting circle representative painters Guo Xi, Zhai Yuanshen, Yan Wengui, Yan Su, Xu Daoning, Song Di, Wang Jie, Li Zong chengdu teachers to him.
As the literary theorist Chen Chuanxi commented, "Almost all of the landscape paintings of the Northern Song Dynasty originated from Li Cheng's lineage, and he reached the level of unity and exaltation in people's minds, in the advocacy of rulers, and in their actual role." Not only the Song Dynasty, his works have been revered by successive generations of landscape painters, and to this day, many landscape painters are still learning to copy his paintings.
Li Cheng, Wang Xiao Read the stele stone map
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