The Qianlong Emperor's long life was fond of calligraphy and painting art and cultural relics and antiques, and during his reign, he not only stored the world's famous calligraphy and paintings, cultural relics and antiques, and rare treasures in the palace, but also was the emperor who left the most poems and ink in Chinese history.
The Qianlong Emperor Hongli, one of the longest-reigning emperors in Chinese history, ascended the throne at the age of twenty-five, reigned for a total of sixty years (reigned from 1736 to 1795 AD), and abdicated as emperor for three years, at the age of eighty-nine. During the reign of Emperor Gaozong of the Qing Dynasty, the Qing Dynasty was strong and powerful, and the Qianlong Emperor frequently succeeded in using troops on the border, because of the ten martial arts (two Ping Dzungar, must return to the ministry, and then sweep Jinchuan, one Jing Taiwan, one into Burma, one fu Annam, two victories Gorkha) and in his later years he called himself "Ten Perfect Old Man"; and because he lived long, he sealed the words "Guxi Tianzi" and "Eight Zheng Qi Nian" on his own seals, he even hoped to live to be ninety years old, and indeed began to let the Ministry of Internal Affairs make a seal of "Nine Has One Heart".
The Qianlong Emperor's long life was fond of calligraphy and painting art and cultural relics and antiques, and during his reign, he not only stored the world's famous calligraphy and paintings, cultural relics and antiques, and rare treasures in the palace, but also was the emperor who left the most poems and ink in Chinese history. If only from the perspective of painting art, the paintings of the Qianlong Emperor cannot be of much value. But there is not only one criterion for evaluating the value of things, but can be multifaceted. China has always had the saying that "books are heavy on people", that is, when people see a painting or calligraphy work, they must understand who the painter is, and the degree of respect for it depends on the importance of the person's identity and status. These are what we usually call "celebrity calligraphy and painting", focusing on "celebrities" rather than "calligraphy and painting". Qianlong Gui was the emperor of the "Ninth Five-Year Plan", and his calligraphy and painting works attracted attention and became a hot spot for collection, which is a natural thing.
Among the emperors of China, there are also several people who are good at painting and calligraphy, such as the Northern Song Dynasty Emperor Huizong Zhao (reigned 1101-1125 AD), whose "thin gold body" calligraphy is very distinctive, his paintings, work is gorgeous, he and the painters of the same painting academy created the peak of painting in the "Xuanhe" era. For example, several emperors of the Ming Dynasty could also paint, and compared with the court painters at that time, the painting art was indeed not inferior. However, Emperor Huizong of Song was a brother-in-law, so that he eventually became a prisoner of the Jurchens of the Jin Dynasty with his son, and died in the Five Kingdoms City (present-day Yilan County, Heilongjiang); several emperors of the Ming Dynasty also ignored the government for a long time, and their reputation and achievements were very poor. Then comparing the Qianlong Emperor with the above emperors, it seems that he still has some advantages. The Qianlong Emperor was not a "king of the subjugated country", and he did his best to deal with government affairs, and he still wanted to ask questions about everything. For the people of that time, they preferred to have such an emperor, nor did they want an emperor who was proficient in painting but ruled the world into a mess and fish and flesh. Therefore, we should not be too demanding of the artistic quality of the Qianlong Emperor's paintings.
This volume of "Songzhu MeilanTu" was painted when the Qianlong Emperor was about to write the ancient Law Book Masters. The four pages depict four symbolic plants of pine, bamboo, plum and orchid.
The first painting is a song picture, on which the painter inscribes "Zhengan", and the right painting is written with the characters of Yan Zhenqing of the Tang Dynasty; the second painting is a bamboo drawing, the painting is inscribed with "Jiejie", and the right painting is written with the words of Cai Xiang of the Song Dynasty; the third painting is a plum blossom picture, on the canvas the painter inscribes "Ruizhu", and the right painting is written with the words of Su Shi of the Song Dynasty; the fourth painting orchid, on the canvas, the painter inscribes "Xian Pei", and the right painting is written with the words of the Song Dynasty Mi Fu. The characters written beforehand are quite provenance, and the accompanying paintings seem to have the characteristics of the Qianlong Emperor himself, maintaining a jerky taste. On the last page of the album, the book "Ding Ugly Summer Pond Shangju Writing", "Ding Ugly" is the twenty-second year of Qianlong (1757 AD), which belongs to the inkblot of the Qianlong Emperor in his middle age (forty-seven years old). "Chishangju" is a scenic spot in the "Panshan Palace" in Jixian County, the east of the Qing Dynasty, and no longer exists.
The characters and paintings in this volume are all on paper, and the words and paintings are 24 in length. 5 cm, width 24. 7 cm. The album has Qianlong's collection mark on the seam: "Guxi Tianzi", "Treasure of the Eight Signs of Immortality", "Reading is Lou", "Baoji Three Compilations", "Shiqu Baodi Collection", etc.; on the empty pages before and after the album pages also contain the "Five Blessings and Five Dynasties Hall Ancient Rare Heavenly Treasure", "Eight Signs of Immortal Treasure", "Ningshou Palace Treasure", "Taishang Emperor Treasure" and other marks, among which the "Ningshou Palace Treasure" seal, under close inspection, it is not covered by seals, but by hand, according to Mr. Guo Fuxiang, who specializes in the study of the seal of the Emperor of the Qing Palace, There are also examples of similar situations, and the seals on the volume of the "Yuan Xi Kai Yan Tu" painted by Zhang Tingyan and Zhou Kun, which have been seen in the market in recent years, are also depicted by hand; the so-called "Portrait of Confucius Disciples" painted by Yan Liben in the market also has the phenomenon of hand-painted seals from the Qianlong period, which is not an isolated case. This situation seems to be because when the emperor wrote and drew the drawing, the seal was not in hand, but was temporarily copied by hand. There is also a possibility, that is, when stamping, the force is not uniform enough, some places the color is clearer, and some places have different colors, so someone needs to process and make up some printing mud, thus revealing the traces of artificial processing, as if it is painted.
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