What was shanghai like in ancient times? What kind of house to live in, what language to speak, and what kind of food to eat?
At the "Ten Thousand Years of Changchun: Special Exhibition of Calligraphy and Painting Art in Shanghai Dynasties" opened at the Shanghai Museum today, 146 pieces (groups) of calligraphy and painting works selected from the Three Kingdoms period to modern and contemporary times span more than 1,000 years, of which more than 70% of the works are debuted in public for the first time. From these calligraphy and painting works, visitors can get a glimpse of the development of Shanghai.
"Calligraphy and painting are an important carrier for inheriting the ideas and bones of Chinese literati." Ling Lizhong, director of the Calligraphy and Painting Research Department of the Shanghai Museum, said that when it comes to calligraphy and painting works in Jiangnan culture, many people's first reaction is the Wumen School. However, from these calligraphy and painting works in this exhibition, it can be seen that as a vein of Jiangnan culture, the Shanghai School of Painting and the Wumen School of Painting actually influence each other, and the Jiangnan culture gives birth to the Culture of the Shanghai School, and on this basis, the Red Culture is derived.
It is reported that the "Ten Thousand Years of Changchun: Special Exhibition of Calligraphy and Painting Art in Shanghai Dynasties" will be re-exhibited on August 9, of which Lu Cambodia's "Five Words and Lanting Poetry Scrolls" will be exhibited until July 1.
Since ancient times, Shanghai has had frequent exchanges with various places
Among the exhibits, a Ming Dynasty Zhang Bi cursive work "Cursive On The North and South Accent Pages" records the content of which is quite interesting. The calligrapher, who was good at poetry and cursive writing, wrote a discussion on the issue of the accents of the north and the south at that time: "The northern people did not have the right tone", "If Jiangxi, Fujian, and Guangdong could not rhyme with the right rhyme", "The sound of Henan was the most correct", and so on. In the view of experts, on the one hand, such calligraphy works reflect the evolution of the languages of the north and south in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, which is of great value for the study of the phonology of the Shanghai dialect; on the other hand, it can also glimpse the population flow from the south to the north of Shanghai at that time.
Zhang Bi cursive "Beiyin"
The economic and cultural exchanges between Shanghai and the whole country and even the world have become more and more developed with the advancement of time. The exhibit also includes a group of original manuscript pages of the Qing Dynasty Wu Youru's Dianshizhai Pictorial, which records the grand performance of the Italian circus in Shanghai in 1884. From the painting page, you can see the grand situation of the circus elephant performance in that year, and even record how the circus transports lions and tigers and other beasts of prey.
The original manuscript page of the Dianshizhai Pictorial records the scene of the Italian circus performing in Shanghai in 1884
In the history of modern Chinese art, Shanghai art plays a pivotal role. Shanghai fine arts mainly inherit the traditional remnants of Jiangnan literati calligraphy and painting, and open up a new pattern of modern Chinese art in the 20th century, which is an important part of the transformation of ancient Chinese calligraphy and painting into modern art. From the maritime painting school that gradually developed and grew after the opening of Shanghai in 1843, to the Western painting movement centered on Shanghai in the early twentieth century, to the revolutionary art and anti-war art that flourished in the 1930s and 1940s, Shanghai fine arts have always played a leading role in the national art circle. In a sense, the prosperous scene of the modern Shanghai art circle is the embodiment and epitome of The Shanghai school culture, and its spirit of openness, innovation and tolerance has become an important part of Shanghai's urban character.
One of the only two foreigners in the exhibition, a crimson-red painting, is written by the famous Indian poet Tagore. This painting is the image of a mountain that Tagore became interested in Chinese landscape painting and first tried to use a brush to simply draw. Next to the painting is an inscription by Lu Xiaoman when he was 56 years old, saying that the painting was "Tagore's second visit to China in 1927." However, Tagore's visits to China were in 1924 and 1929, respectively, and the record should be that Lu Xiaoman's memory was wrong.
Tagore drew the mountain with a brush for the first time, and the text next to it is Lu Xiaoman's record
Shanghai is the place where all kinds of advanced ideas in modern times converge, and it is on this basis that the Communist Party of China was born. The exhibition also exhibits calligraphy works by Chen Duxiu, Huang Yanpei and others. Chen Duxiu once advocated the art revolution in the magazine "New Youth", "to improve Chinese painting, we must not adopt the realistic spirit of Foreign painting." It is in the midst of such frequent exchanges and collisions that Shanghai has bred a red culture and become the birthplace of the party.
Chen Duxiu's calligraphy works
Urban change: from Dianshan Lake to Huangpu River
Yunshan is fading, the huts are looming, and in the exhibition is a "Farewell Map of Dianhu Lake" by Li Sheng, a painter of the Yuan Dynasty, which records the scenery on the shore of Dianshan Lake at that time. This is the earliest masterpiece that has been seen to depict Qingpu Dianshan Lake. Some experts believe that the significance of its painting history is like the volume of "Fuchun Mountain Jutu".
This painting was painted in the sixth year of Zhizheng (1346) and was a farewell poem for the departure of a friend. Li Sheng was a native of Haoliang, Shandong, who later settled on the shore of Dianshan Lake in Shanghai, where he also built a grass hall. This painting shows that in the last years of the Yuan Dynasty, a group of literati had gathered around Dianshan Lake. "Since ancient times, Suzhou has been a place where soldiers and families must fight, and at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, wars were frequent, and a group of literati migrated to live by The Dianshan Lake in Shanghai." Ling Lizhong said that Shanghai gradually became the center of literati painting creation at the end of the Yuan Dynasty.
Li Sheng's "Farewell Map of Dianhu Lake" (partial)
In this exhibition, the Yuan Dynasty calligrapher Yang Weizhen's "Xingshu Zhenjing An Collection of Fortune Volumes" is also evidence of this migration. Yang Weizhen was a jinshi, who was an official for seventeen years, and at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the southeastern military rebellion, he went to Wuyue, and then moved to Songjiang, Shanghai. This volume was written in his later years for the Zhenjing'an in Gaoxing Town, Pudong New Area, but the Zhenjing'an no longer exists, leaving only an ancient ginkgo tree on the site.
The exhibition exhibits the volume "Qushui Garden Map" by Wen Jia, the son of Wen Zhengming, painting the scenery of The Qushui Garden of Dong Yiyang in Shanghai, which is located at No. 148 Lincang Road, Minhang. Dong Yiyang is the uncle of Dong Qichang, and the exhibition of Dong Qichang's "Eight Views of Yanwu" records the scenery of Sheshan at that time.
Dong Qichang's Sheshan
"The Volume of Qushui Garden Map is one of the empirical evidences of the migration of Shanghai's urban humanities to the two sides of the Huangpu River since the beginning of the Ming Dynasty." Ling Lizhong said that from the "Farewell Map of Dianhu Lake" to the "Map of Qushui Garden", the road map of Shanghai's urban human migration is outlined, which is almost synchronous with the change and formation of Shanghai's geographical ecological environment in the early Ming Dynasty, especially the Huangpu River. In many Ming Dynasty paintings in this exhibition, it can be seen that boats are on the river, islands are connected, and buildings stand on the island: "Nowadays, the road name with 'Hama', in ancient times, it is likely to be a river, and such a living environment is the scenery seen by the ancients." Xu Guangqi's calligraphy works, using silk as the carrier, show the level of urban development at that time.
Part of "Qushui Garden Map"
Shanghai culture is not a "small fishing village"
At the entrance of this exhibition, the Ming Dynasty painter Ma Yu's "Qidian Guanfeng Picture Scroll" is used as a decoration, and the original work is also presented in the exhibition. In the eyes of some professionals, this painting is "rigorous in pen and ink, condensed in line, and has the style of the Wumen School of painting."
When it comes to the representatives of painting in Jiangnan culture, many people's first reaction is the Wumen School, and Shen Zhou, the founder of the Youtui School, is the most. However, Ling Lizhong revealed: "Ma Yu is actually Shen Zhou's grandfather' generation. Born in Jiading, Shanghai, Ma Yu was the son of the famous court painter Ma Shi in the early Ming Dynasty, who moved to Suzhou in his later years to associate with Shen Zhou's grandson III, and Shen Zhou's painting style was actually influenced by Ma Yu. However, because of the very few surviving works, even some professionals do not know its name.
Part of the "Qidian Guanfeng Map"
"The Maritime School and the Wumen School actually influence each other." Ling Lizhong said that among the painters of the late Yuan and early Ming dynasties who had an impact on the Wumen school, there were many Shanghai artists, such as Tao Zongyi, who lived in Shanghai for a long time, who was called "the source of the Wumen school" by Dong Qichang; Zhang Zhong, one of the "two giants of the Yuan Dynasty", reformed the two Song dynasties with "ink flowers and ink birds"... Dong Qichang was deeply influenced by the "Wumen School" and led the trend of later generations, "After the Song and Yuan Dynasties, literati painting gradually became the mainstream. A history of literati painting can be said to be half related to Shanghai. ”
This exhibition systematically sorts out and studies the history of Shanghai painting, and is considered by the industry to constitute the "Maritime Trilogy" of the special research series of calligraphy and painting together with the "Wuhufan Calligraphy and Painting Collection Special Exhibition" in 2015 and the "Danqing Bao raft: Dong Qichang Calligraphy and Painting Art Exhibition" in 2018. Ling Lizhong sighed: "The archaeology of Qinglong Town proves that Shanghai in ancient times was not a 'small fishing village'; this exhibition also proves that Shanghai painting is not a 'small fishing village'. It can be seen from this that the maritime context of thousands of years has always been driven by inheritance and innovation, and has been at the head of the tide since ancient times. ”
Column Editor-in-Chief: Shi Chenlu Text Editor: Jian Gongbo
Source: Author: Jian Gongbo