Neimei: The aesthetic qualities of Chinese painting from Huang Binhong

Compared with Western painting, Chinese painting has a unique aesthetic taste and artistic expression. This quality of Chinese painting is related to the unique concept, wisdom, temperament and charm of Chinese culture. However, in the current fast-paced social life, the public's acceptance of Chinese painting has emerged such as the solidification of aesthetic concepts and the narrowing of reading space. On the one hand, with the rapid development of the times, people's life rhythm is tense, and there is no time for aesthetic activities. On the other hand, the spiritual qualities of leisure, nature, detachment and other spiritual qualities contained in the traditional Chinese culture and art represented by Chinese painting can provide a certain poetic way to alleviate people's anxiety.

Therefore, re-exploring the aesthetic value and significance of Chinese painting and further opening up the aesthetic space of Chinese painting is an important topic in the current establishment of a public aesthetic space. We may wish to take the "natural view" advocated by Huang Binhong and its related painting theory as an example to explore a way to reconstruct the aesthetic space of Chinese painting.

Since Kang Youwei put forward the "theory of the decline of Chinese painting" and some scholars refuted it, the concept of Chinese painting has undergone a series of changes, the most important of which is the questioning of the spiritual core of Chinese painting. In this process, Huang Binhong once proposed the concept of "inner beauty" to defend the characteristics of Chinese painting. He believes that "the xianjinshi of the Qing Dynasty is sheng, the seal is divided, the stele is precise, the calligraphy and painting are connected, and the predecessors are driven up, and the true inner beauty is also" This points out that painting should have a sense of subtlety and simplicity, that is, to create an inner beauty that is deeply hidden in the heart, rather than a superficial beauty that directly appeals to the senses. Huang Binhong's "inner beauty" comes from nature, and at the same time transcends the general natural form and enters a deep state of "freedom". From another point of view, Huang Binhong's "inner beauty" refers to the beauty of personality and artistic personality, which is more contained in the charm and style adhered to by traditional literati paintings.

In the 1930s and 1940s, the traditional literati gradually faded out of the cultural stage, and some painters began to set their sights on Western painting. Huang Binhong insisted on studying the traditional painting method of Chinese painting and put forward the theory of "inner beauty". On the one hand, "inner beauty" points to the painting itself, including concepts, techniques and other levels; On the other hand, Huang Binhong intends to establish a distinct national cultural character through the theory of "inner beauty", and to more deeply construct a subtle and simple and deep national cultural character in the absorption of the charm and style of traditional literati painting, which also has strong reference significance for the current development of Chinese painting.

Huang Binhong's Chinese paintings are full of "natural methods". For example, "Qingcheng Sitting on the Rain Chart Axis" fully absorbs the artistic concept of "teaching nature", the painting takes the moment when the rain dries on the wall as the core, and sincerely shows the natural landscape encountered when traveling to Qingcheng Mountain by concentrating on the techniques of splashing ink, dry ink and scorched ink. Although the painting does not have much ink, and it is dry and moist, in the profound blend of color and ink, it highlights the sense of smoke and rain, and truly achieves "ink does not hinder color, color does not hinder ink". In this painting, the ink color of the wet place of the rain is very thick, and the mountain roads and eaves that have not yet wet use the method of leaving blank, which shows the concept of melting the landscape and sending love to nature, and also echoes the title of the painting - "Sitting in the rain in the Qingcheng Mountains, the forest is misty, and the map returns". The Autumn Color Map of Mt. Zhilu also uses the "Law of Nature". During his reclusive residence in Zhilu Mountain, the Ming Dynasty painter Lu Zhi left the famous "Map of Zhilu Mountain" because he felt the beauty of the natural mountain stones of Zhilu Mountain. Huang Binhong created the "Autumn Color Map of Zhilu Mountain" with a magnificent and thick brushwork, and engaged in dialogue with Lu Zhi in time and space, especially the exchange of spiritual level. Compared with the aforementioned "Qingcheng Sitting on the Rain Chart Axis", Huang Binhong's painting is no longer limited to the depiction of the hazy feeling of smoke and rain, but focuses the pen and ink on a specific season - autumn colors, which is intended to present the autumn of nature, and reaches the inner autumn through the depiction of natural landscapes, further interpreting the concept of "inner beauty" advocated by him. In "Night Mountain Map", Huang Binhong regards the landscape he sees as a unified whole, and takes nature as a comparison of the human soul. This painting concentrates on Huang Binhong's refinement and integration of all natural things, especially his contemplation of the object of Yeshan Mountain. This contains both the experience of life and the context of art, giving people a deep feeling of being based in nature.

It can be seen that Huang Binhong's theory of "inner beauty" and the sense of nature and leisure contained in his works are a major feature of traditional Chinese painting. At present, the public as an aesthetic subject often shows a "passive" state and utilitarian mentality, without establishing the initiative of aesthetic reading and the liveliness of the aesthetic subject.

The cultivation of aesthetic taste is an important way to enhance aesthetic initiative and daily sense of life ritual. Chinese paintings, represented by Huang Binhong's works of splashing ink on nature and melting landscapes, can provide an entry point for the improvement of the public's aesthetic taste. The creation of Chinese painters represented by Huang Binhong attaches importance to the expression of individual feelings and the cultivation of integrity. For example, Huang Binhong highly admired the "Qi Zhen Zhuxian" represented by Zou Zhilin, Fu Shan, Xu Fang, Gong Xian, etc., most of whom lived in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, and clearly reflected the interest and temperament of traditional literati in their landscape paintings.

Paying attention to cultivating an artistic lifestyle is a tradition of the literati, and Chinese painting is an important way for traditional Chinese literati to cultivate their poetic life. On the one hand, Chinese painting pursues the expression of the personality of the literati, and pays attention to the cultivation of personal character and will; On the other hand, due to the profound influence of the concept of nature in which nature and man are united, Chinese literati are accustomed to seeking ways to solve the difficulties of life and alleviate the anxieties of life in all natural things, and are accustomed to getting rid of the worldly fetters by being close to the spiritual realm of nature.

This habit of attaching importance to nature and being close to nature is not indispensable to alleviating the anxiety caused by people's tense lives. Of course, the author does not advocate a leisurely life that is completely detached from the world and loves the landscape, but intends to remind the public to get the purification of the soul in the edification of art and in the transcendent, diluted and natural literary and artistic creations of the ancients.

Of course, the pen and ink interest of Chinese painting represented by Huang Binhong cannot be penetrated in one day, and its painting theory and innovative courage cannot be learned in a day. But we can draw daily wisdom and the philosophy of survival from the natural law he advocates and the way of nature presented in his works. We can taste the beauty of natural landscapes and cultivate our own sentiments to seek the improvement of aesthetic taste. More importantly, it can activate our aesthetic awareness and continuously improve our sense of aesthetic acquisition.

(Author: Yang Yang, Lecturer, College of Literature, Liaoning University)