The Paper's reporter Huang Song
"Yushan Yaji" is the largest, longest-lasting and most creative collection of poetry in the history of the Yuan Dynasty, and is cited as a good story in the literary circles of previous dynasties along with the "Lanting Yaji" of the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the "Xiyuan Yaji" of the Northern Song Dynasty. The "Outline of the Four Libraries" praises the "Yushan Yaji" as "literary style and style, illuminating the first generation".
Since November 19th, the "'Literary Style' - Yushan Yaji Special Exhibition" was held at the Liu Haisu Art Museum in Shanghai, more than 600 years ago, gu Ying, the owner of the collection, "Ancient Tree Empty Pavilion", as well as the Yuan Dynasty's "Pine Stone Map", "Xishan Chunji Map", "Qingju Pavilion Map" and other paintings, ten ancient books and rare books since the Tang Dynasty and the garden paintings of current painters, together restore the "Literary Style" at the end of the Yuan Dynasty.
Exhibition site
"'Literary Style'-Yushan Yaji Special Exhibition" originated on November 12, 2020, the Kunshan Municipal People's Government held the "2020 Kunshan Integration into Shanghai Promotion Conference" in Shanghai, and Liu Haisu Art Museum signed a cultural and tourism cooperation project with Kunshan Houbeiren Art Museum. "Yushan Yaji" was born in Kunshan Bacheng at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the exhibition consists of four sections: interpretation, characters, inheritance and scenic spots, through the introduction of characters related to the "Yushan Yaji" and the presentation of exhibits such as calligraphy and paintings, documents, poems, classics and furniture, the cultural value of the "Yushan Yaji" and its contribution to the formation and development of Jiangnan culture are expounded.
"Yushan Yaji" and Gu Ying
The literati's collection activities have always existed along with the literati, calligraphy, painting and poetry, and also have their own development history and context. The records in the history books about the activities of the literati and doctors began probably in the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, and since then until the Ming and Qing dynasties and even modern times, the number of literati gatherings to sing and sing and write poems has been increasing.
The exhibition starts from the most famous collections in history, starting with replicas of several ancient famous paintings such as Qiu Ying's "West Garden Yajitu", and introduces the theme of "Yushan Yaji" at the end of the Yuan Dynasty by the National Palace Museum in Taipei.
Qing Hualun "Yushan Yajitu" (reproduction exhibition)
The owner and convener of the "Yushan Yaji" is Gu Ying, a giant rich man in Wuzhong. He was born in a family of eunuchs, and when his grandfather was serving in the Yuan court, he settled in Jiexi, Kunshan. Because of the importance that the rulers attached to commerce and trade at that time, the morale of the Yuan Dynasty no longer regarded shangjia as a bad custom. Gu Ying was sixteen years old and floated in the sea of commerce, and when she returned to Kunshan less than ten years later, she had become one of the few rich people in Suzhou.
After that, Gu Ying broke away from the business world and used most of her life's energy to engage in Art Collection activities. He modeled on Wang Weichuanzhuang in Kunshan and borrowed Du Fu's poems to build the "Yushan Caotang" for Yao Bian, which not only had the victory of the garden pond pavilion, but also the ancient books and paintings and Ding Yi treasures collected by the owner at a large expense, thus making this caotang the most ideal place for the literati to enjoy and rest.
The exhibition site shows the literati of the late Yuan Dynasty who participated in the "Yushan Caotang"
In the following years, Gu Ying relied on her strong financial resources to invite celebrities from all over the world and held more than 100 art gatherings. Judging from the clearly recorded time, the Yushan Yaji generally lasted for nearly ten years from the eighth year of Zhizheng (1348) to the nineteenth year of Zhizheng (1359), and the largest number was held more than twenty times in one year. The people who participated in the collection included local literati, as well as people from the north and south who had passed through Wuzhong because of their wanderings, study tours, and eunuchs; there were mongolians, Semu people, and Buddhist monks; there were poets, calligraphers, painters, and opera singers, almost including well-known people from the late Yuan Dynasty. They either drink and write poetry, or taste antiques, or splash ink, or talk about fame and reason, or send love to landscapes, or watch songs and dances, all of which are very happy, which can be described as the joy of a very secular life.
Exhibition hall scene, Gu Ying's "Ancient Tree Empty Pavilion"
In the exhibition, the prospect of Gu Ying's "Ancient Tree Empty Pavilion" (Wenhai Lou collection of Celebrity Culture Village in Yangcheng Lake, Kunshan City) is quite in the style of Ni Zhan's composition, and the distant waterfall draws on the traces of song paintings of mountains and rivers, or can reveal gu Ying's identification with the interaction, or the popular painting style at that time. Ke Jiusi, Zhang Yi, Huang Gongwang, Ni Zhan, Yang Weizhen, Gu Ying, Yu Li, Zhang Tianying, Zhang Tian, etc. were all guests of the Yaji seat. Celebrity gatherings must have poems and songs, so they have left precious written records, and only the master Gu Ying has compiled and written "Yushan Famous Places", "Yushan Pu Manuscript", "Yushan Yi Manuscript", etc., which can not only understand the grand situation of the Yaji in that year, but also can glimpse the complex mentality of that generation of literati in the last days.
Ming Anon.
"Yushan Yaji" and Yuan Dynasty History and Calligraphy
The wealth of Kunshan at the end of the Yuan Dynasty was also related to the transportation of sea routes. It is precisely because of the economic prosperity of western Zhejiang that a number of rich people such as Gu Ying have been born, many of whom have become associated with culture, built gardens, collected antiques, and held elegant collections, which has become a temporary trend. Such as Wuxi Ni Zhan, Pu Yang clan, Songjiang Cao Zhibai, Xia Wenyan, etc., so the emergence of "Yushan Yaji" is not accidental.
The hosts of the collection also like to make friends with painters and collect antique calligraphy and paintings, and they themselves have a high degree of calligraphy and painting and literary accomplishment. For example, Ni Zhan not only participated in other people's art collections, but his own Qingju Pavilion was also a gathering place for friends. After Ke Jiusi retired to Suzhou in his later years, he often went to the local literati banquets, and he was both a frequent visitor to Yushan and often visited Ni Zhan's Qingju Pavilion.
Yuan Zhang Yu 《清閟阁》
Qingjue Pavilion is a place where Ni Zhan collects books and plays with texts and poetry paintings, ni Zhanjie's habit can be seen from the allusion of "washing tong", and only a few people such as Yang Weizhen and Zhang Yu can go to Qingjue Pavilion to enjoy and play. In the exhibition, there is a painting by Zhang Yu", "Qingjue Pavilion" (liu haisu Art Museum collection), reminiscent of Ni Zhan's own "Qingjue Pavilion Axis", between the pavilions and pavilions shows the Yuan Dynasty literati transcendent. Several ancient trees, ancient maoting pavilions, the artistic conception of the picture and the brush used in the painting show a quiet, solemn and calm artistic conception.
《Xishan Chunji Map》
The exhibition exhibits two works by Ni Zhan in the museum collection, although whether it is the authentic work of Ni Zhan or still needs to be examined, but the picture is quiet and elegant, solemn and calm, which can still show the situation represented by Ni Zhan. Among them, there are many inscriptions in "Pine Stone Diagram", which is relatively rare in Ni Zhan's works, but the interaction between Ni Zhan, Zhang Yu and others can be seen on it, and the middle scene of Qingjue Pavilion can also be seen from their inscription poems.
Turquoise Diagram
The exhibition also exhibits several works on the theme of the Ming and Qing dynasties, including Wang Fei's "Youbi Ting Ya Collection" of the Qing Dynasty, which Chinese people to taste tea, survey books, guanyi, and worship stones, and paintings of this kind of theme have naturally become part of the "Ya" cultural activities, which are the means for literati and doctors to entertain themselves, pin their emotions, and highlight their cultural taste.
Qing Wang Fei "Youbi TingYa Collection"
Ming Anon. "Mountain Pavilion YaJitu"
In addition to paintings, many poems created in the "Yushan Yaji" Yaji activities, most of which are based on garden attractions, have become an important part of the history of Yuan poetry. Kunshan, where the "Yushan Yaji" is located, is also the birthplace of Kunqu opera, and the opera music on the Yaji promotes the formation of the Kunshan cavity of the Yuan Dynasty.
In the Ming Dynasty, Gu Ying, the owner of the Yushan Caotang, was ordered to migrate. In the second year of Hongwu (1369), Gu Yingke died in Fengyang, Anhui, and the "Yushan Yaji" has since dissipated. In fact, as early as the Mid-Autumn Festival in 1360, Gu Ying gathered friends to hold a shocking gathering in front of the tomb that Gu Ying built for herself. In the Ya collection, in addition to the poetry and painting, Gu Ying expressed that life is inevitable after all, rather than waiting for the old crying sacrifice in front of the grave after death, Mo Ruo drank poems with his friends before he died.
At the exhibition site, artists from all over the world are specially invited to create works with the theme of gardens.
Hou Beiren's "Yushan Caotang YajiTu" Chinese painting
In addition to the review of the historical "Yushan Yaji", the exhibition also has ancient and modern, in another exhibition hall, artists from all over the world are invited to create 43 pieces of Chinese paintings, oil paintings, prints, and watercolors with garden themes, and the poetry and paintings are exhibited in combination, and the ancient books and documents on display at the same time also show the continuation of Kunshan's cultural context.
Literature at the exhibition site
Exhibition site, relevant literature
On the day of the exhibition, the organizer also held a special seminar activity. Xu Huiquan, vice chairman of the Jiangsu Provincial Federation of Literary and Art Circles and vice chairman of the Jiangsu Provincial Artists Association, Ruan Jun, deputy director of the First Memorial Hall of the Communist Party of China, Bao Weihua, director of Liu Haisu Art Museum, Jin Wenyi, deputy director of Liu Haisu Art Museum, Zhao Zongkuo, honorary director of Houbeiren Art Museum in Kunshan City, Liu Jiuzhou, editor-in-chief of "The Complete Works of Song Paintings" and "Complete Collections of Yuan Paintings", Gu Cunyan, editor-in-chief of The Paper's News Art, Shu Shijun, art critic, Fu Rongrong, doctoral supervisor of the School of Art and Media of East China University of Science and Technology, Huang Wei, research librarian of Shanghai Library, Shao Jie, associate professor of Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts, Curator Yin Rong, Suzhou Artists Association Chairman Chen Weibing, Kunshan industrialist Shen Gang, writer Yang Shousong and other participants participated in the discussion, from literature, art and other perspectives on how to explore, publicize and integrate the valuable resources of Yushan Yaji into Shanghai, and further promote the inheritance and dissemination of Jiangnan culture.
The scene of the symposium
Guest talks
Note: The exhibition is co-sponsored by Shanghai Liu Haisu Art Museum, Kunshan Houbeiren Art Museum, Suzhou Art Museum and Suzhou Academy of Fine Arts, and will last until December 8.
Editor-in-Charge: Lu Linhan
Proofreader: Yan Zhang