The famous calligraphy and painting collection of the 20th century is Zhang Liangyu
Zhang Heng
One in the sea of desire involuntarily,
Ups and downs of people.
His whole life,
It can be summed up in one sentence:
Half-life hiding, half-life gambling.
Zhang Liangyu (1915~1963) MingHeng, the word onion jade, also the word Xiyi. Zhejiang Wuxing people. Famous modern appraiser, collector, calligrapher. Famous for collecting and appraising famous paintings of the Tang and Song dynasties, he is also the first generation of calligraphy and painting appraisal masters in New China after liberation, who served as an appraisal committee member of the Palace Museum and the deputy director of the Cultural Relics Department of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, and was known as the greatest art connoisseur of China in the 20th century.
In the antique pile, practice the golden eye of fire
Zhang Liangyu's ability to become a master of calligraphy and painting collection and appraisal at the level of a taidou is inseparable from the incomparable superior conditions he possesses.
Nanxun Town, Huzhou, Zhejiang, is a magical treasure land. Here first gathered the largest group of silk merchants in modern China, and the "Four Elephants of Nanxun" appeared that were rich and invincible. Later, these merchant families gradually became "rich" and "noble", and the custom of reading books and collecting antique calligraphy and paintings prevailed.
There is a folk song in Nanxun: "The silver of the Liu family, the talent of the Zhang family, the face of the Pang family, the house of the Gu family." Once the richest man in China, the Zhang family is home to generations of collectors. The origins of the Zhang family can be traced back to Zhang Songxian, the high ancestor of Zhang Onionyu. After the defeat of the Chinese Opium War, the "Ji LiSi" produced by Nanxun sold well in foreign countries. Zhang Songxian saw the opportunity and started the export business of Ji Lisi and became a huge rich. How rich are you, you ask? So tell you so! In 1842, China lost the Opium War, and according to the Treaty of Nanking, China had to pay 21 million silver dollars to the British government, and the assets of the Zhang family at that time were worth about 10 million silver dollars, which could be described as a rich country.
Zhang Songxian's eldest grandson is Zhang Shiming, and Zhang Shiming's fourth son is Zhang Naihua, Zhang Naihua's father, Zhang Naihua not only inherited his grandfather's characteristics of loving the ancient, but also mastered the study of version catalogs. Unfortunately, in 1918, Zhang Naihua accidentally drowned on the way from Shanghai to Hangzhou, at the age of 26, when his only son Zhang Liangyu was only 4 years old. After Zhang Naihua's death, his grandfather Zhang Shiming was particularly fond of Zhang Liangyu's grandson and took him with him all day. At that time, the friends of the Zhang family either came to appreciate Zhang Naihua's newly acquired calligraphy and paintings and ancient book versions, or came to appreciate them together with rare books and secret treasures. Zhang Liangyu soaked in the antique pile all day long, edifying day and night, and his grandfather personally pointed out at the side, and his kung fu of practicing words, reading, and painting was naturally extraordinary. At the age of 20, he was already a poet, a book, a chess and a painter, and he could do anything. In such a superior living environment, Zhang Liangyu "appreciates calligraphy and painting, has unique talent, is brilliant, and has cultivated a keen eye."
Zhang Xuan's "Tang Hou Xing Congtu" (partial) Zhang Liangyu Old Collection
Inherit a huge inheritance, pay "tuition" to play collectibles
After the death of his beloved grandfather, Zhang Liangyu's heart was full of loneliness and loneliness. And the solidity of the family foundation and the depth of the family heritage have also cultivated the purity and arrogance in his bones. After the expiration of the three-year filial piety period, the Zhang family began to distribute property. Five rooms are divided into families, each receiving two million yuan. In addition, the elders remembered the early death of Zhang Naihua in the fourth room, and only Zhang Liangyu was behind him, and specially distributed this "big fat meat" of the land in the Shanghai Great World to him, so that he could sit in the rent and ensure that his life would be worry-free. Zhang Liangyu, the generous brother of the prince, spends money like a waterfall, and his expenditure mainly has two major ways: one is to collect and achieve him; the other is to gamble and squeeze him dry. Zhang Liangyu's original collection was a batch of calligraphy and paintings passed down to him by his grandfather. After my grandfather died, I relied on my own "palm eyes". He began to buy paintings and often went to people's homes and paid a lot of "tuition". The antique devils on Guangdong Road in Shanghai saw that he was so young and had money in his hands, so they deceived him with fakes. After he understood the truth, he never complained about others, of course, he never conceded defeat, the so-called "losing money can not lose people."
So he worked hard, worked hard, bought and sold, and made friends. Things are clustered in groups, and people are grouped. Zhang Liangyu's friends in the collection circle at that time could be described as star-studded: there were Wu Hufan, Zhang Daqian, Han Shenxian, Chen Dingshan, Sun Bangrui, Wang Boyuan, Huang Baoxi, Xu Siyuan, Xu Botao, Xu Junqing and others, as well as all kinds of colors, fish and dragons, officials, merchants, compradors, antique dealers and helpers, who formed the top circle of cultural relics, calligraphy and painting collection and trading.
In addition, Zhang Liangyu is not afraid to pay the "tuition fee", the real goods and fakes are compared, "all the thoughts" plus "massive banknotes", and finally practiced the real kung fu of the torch.
Yan Zhenqing's Zhushan sentence
As a teenager, he stepped into the ranks of first-class collectors
In 1934, Zhang Liangyu was 20 years old, and at the age of weak crown, he was hired as an appraisal committee member by the Palace Museum, which was really unprecedented and probably no one came after. Wu Hufan was quite critical of many connoisseurs of his contemporaries, but favored Zhang Onionyu. He once wrote in the "Diary of the Ugly Man": "The onion jade year is only twenty-six, and the collection of law books is the private Jia Guan in the sea, and the self-book imitation yuanren is also the best, and the handsome talent of the Xun youth is also." Indeed, with his extraordinary talent, deep financial resources, profound attainments and rich experience, the young and invincible young master Stepped into the ranks of first-class collectors with his head held high. In 1938, he was 24 years old, when Pang Laichen was 74 years old, Wu Hufan was 44 years old, Zhang Daqian was 39 years old, and Wang Jiqian was 31 years old. Among the five major collectors of Haipai, he is too "tender". However, at that time, his "YunHui Zhai" in his apartment in Shanghai, together with Pang Laichen's "Virtual Zhai", Wu Hufan's "Meijing Bookstore", and Zhang Daqian's "Dafeng Hall", formed the "Four Famous Zhai" collected by Haipai.
Zhang Liangyu's wife, Gu Mei, remembers that in 1940, she and Zhang Liangyu went to Beijing, and when they watched a play in the theater, the two elders in the back row were talking, "I heard that Zhang Liangyu from Shanghai came to Beijing." He also said, "Mr. Zhang is so proficient in ancient paintings that he must be in his early fifties." Gu Mei couldn't help but laugh darkly after listening to it, and Zhang Liangyu sat in front of them, only 26 years old at the time.
Gambling is like fate, and the loser is stubborn
Unfortunately, Zhang Has a bad hobby: gambling.
In Zhang's diary, there are records about gambling almost every day. Even when his beloved wife Gu Mei was hospitalized and had a child by caesarean section, after he went to the hospital to visit, he went to gamble, which was simply a gambling addiction!
Because of gambling, he first let him lose the property under his name one by one. The property is sold out, and the gambling addiction still can't be quit, which will affect his calligraphy and paintings. He was a man who "loved calligraphy and painting into the marrow" and sold his treasures, and he often became sad: "Although the clouds and smoke pass through my eyes, I can't help myself." Everything sold in the remainder, or different from the relatives, is also a lot of feelings. ”
What a pity and hateful! It was so difficult to give up, he still couldn't resist the seduction of the gambling demon.
Zhang Liangyu is both addicted to gambling and stubborn, never accepting defeat, and almost every day must gamble. His legendary story in the casino is still talked about to this day, and he lost half a street of Huaihai Road in one breath, and his eyelids did not blink. Some people collude, secretly cheating and out of the ordinary. In just a few years, the young and vigorous Zhang Liangyu lost his family and was destitute.
It is said that the protagonist of the manipulation is Tan Jing, a Cantonese, with a chubby round face, always with a thick smile, giving people the impression of sincerity and honesty. Since childhood, he has had close contacts with Zhang Liangyu, which is the so-called "friendship of the neck". Zu Shang is one of the thirteen elements in Guangzhou, who once opened tan tongxing construction factory on Hankou Road and became a rich man on the beach.
The first on the right is Tan Jing
As the saying goes, "call a friend in front of your face, poison your hand behind your back", Tan Jing is such a person who is only rich, sees profit and forgets righteousness, has two sides and three knives, and is fierce and fierce. Whenever Zhang Onionyu lost, he always took the initiative to appear in time, bringing a large amount of cash silver, which made Zhang Onionyu grateful, but afterwards he forced his Tibetan paintings to settle the account. Zhang Liangyu's collection of precious calligraphy and paintings such as Zhang Xuan's "Tang Hou Xing Cong" in the Tang Dynasty, Ni Zhan's "Map of The Forest of Yu Mountain" in the Yuan Dynasty, and Zhao Yuan's "Qingchuan Sending Guest Map" in the Yuan Dynasty were thus claimed by Tan Jing as existing.
Gradually, Zhang Liangyu's calligraphy, paintings and properties have been lost, leaving only the land of Shanghai Great World and the residence of No. 119 Wukang Road. At this moment, Tan Jing planned the final blow to him. On the cold night of Chinese New Year's Eve in 1947, Tan Jing colluded with several people and gambled with Zhang Liangyu for an all-nighter. In the end, the title deeds of the great world were collected by him and flew away. Zhang Liangyu was alone in the cold wind of the early morning by the Huangpu River, in pain, wandering for several hours, still did not have the courage to jump.
The next day, someone came to the door to ask for debts, and Zhang Liangyu had to mortgage the house on Wukang Road, and the whole family moved to the wet alley on Shimen Road.
On the eve of liberation in 1949, Zhang Liangyu, a former rich man, was already a family full of disciples and destitute, relying only on loans and relatives to get by. At this time, he only had a few things left in his hand: Yan Zhenqing's "Zhushan Tang Lian sentence", Ouyang Xiu's "Zhao Ai Ti", and Qian Shunju's "Eight Flowers Diagram" at the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty.
On the eve of liberation in 1949, most of the Zhang family and their former local friends were preparing to move overseas or to Hong Kong and other places, but Zhang Could not even afford a ferry ticket.
Zhang Heng and his wife
Reverse life to meet nobles, and change your face from then on
Just as Zhang Liangyu was sitting in a troubled and anxious city, a good news came from Beijing. His friend Zheng Zhenduo (a well-known art historian and collector, one of the founders of the China Association for the Promotion of Democracy, who had been engaged in left-wing cultural work in Shanghai for a long time and later served as the director of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage) called him to ask him to come out of the mountains and become the deputy director of the cultural management department of the newly formed State Administration of Cultural Heritage. The two met in 1938. At that time, Zheng Zhenduo was a professor at several universities, and when he had the opportunity, he asked Zhang Onyu for advice on ancient books and calligraphy and paintings. Later, Zheng Zhenduo rescued the ancient books and rare books in the occupied areas, and Zhang Liangyu paid for and mobilized his own contacts and actively helped each other.
This invitation made Zhang Liangyu see the dawn of realizing his own value, and he resolutely broke away from the gang of wine and meat friends in Shanghai, regardless of the poor living conditions in Beijing's hutongs, and gladly came to Beijing to take office. His true inner energy was finally unleashed, and he was spiritually enriched. After taking office, his first job was to restore and enrich the Forbidden City Painting Museum, and to collect and identify collections from the people. Zhang Onion Yugan is so handy, he has been soaked in calligraphy and painting all his life, there are too many things that have passed the eye, and many of the most important collections of calligraphy and paintings in China have been seen by himself.
When Zhang Lianyu went to work at the State Administration of Cultural Heritage in Beijing in 1950, he first ate and lived in Zheng Zhenduo's house. After the whole family moved in in 1951, the bureau settled them in the north house of Nanluoguxiang Hutong, and from then on, Zhang Liangyu completely bid farewell to the fox friends in Shanghai.
After arriving in Nanluoguxiang, the Zhang family is characterized by many friends, as long as it is a Sunday, the home must be a guest. Sometimes it's around one or two pieces of calligraphy and painting, sometimes it's a communication of situations, sometimes it's just a conversation. Because Zhang Onyu is knowledgeable and easy-going, everyone feels very interesting with him. Qi Gong, Wang Shixiang, Xu Bangda, Zhang Boju, Xie Zhiliu, Huang Yongyu, Huang Ji, etc., are all regular visitors here.
Qi Gong lived in Black Sesame Hutong, only a few minutes away from the Zhang family's Nanluogu Lane, so he came to the Zhang family after dinner for three days. Wang Shixiang lives in Fangcao Garden, far from the Zhang family, always comes by bicycle, because he can cook a good dish, so he has any delicious dishes, so he invites Zhang Onionyu's family to his home to taste. Every year in the New Year, he is always the first to come to visit the New Year, early in the morning of the New Year's Day, everyone has not yet gotten up, he is outside the door with a voice called "New Year's Day"...
Zhang Heng's family
God returned to his heart in peace, and his writings shone brightly
"How to Identify Calligraphy and Painting"
In 1962, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage set up a "three-person calligraphy and painting appraisal team" attended by Zhang Liangyu, Xie Zhiliu and Liu Jiu'an, with Zhang Liangyu as the leader of the group, and successively went to Tianjin, Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning provinces and cities to identify more than 100,000 pieces of calligraphy and paintings. Zhang Also summarized the six auxiliary methods for calligraphy and painting identification, which focus on seals, paper silk, inscriptions, collection seals, bibliographies, and decorations. It should be said that these identification methods are not Zhang Onionyu's unique skills, in fact, these identification methods are also familiar to antique dealers, but Zhang Onionyu can conduct in-depth research on each method, and he knows it very well, and when he brings together these various identification methods, this forms a powerful weapon. Xie Zhiliu, Qi Gong, Xu Bangda are representatives of the three major systems of contemporary calligraphy and painting appraisal, Xie Zhiliu is mainly "Wangqi", mainly focusing on the charm of calligraphy and painting, the level of pen and ink; Qi Gong is known for "academic" appraisal, following the literature theory and bibliography; Xu Bangda is famous for identifying "technology", emphasizing the materials, binding, style recognition, and seals of calligraphy and painting. Zhang Liangyu, on the other hand, is a master of the collection, and the so-called three major schools of appraisal are all derived from his appraisal ideas.
Exquisite calligraphy, witness history
While working in Beijing, Zhang Liangyu's exquisite calligraphy also played an important role. In a book on Dunhuang murals published at the beginning of the liberation period, there is a preface written by Mr. Zheng Zhenduo, and the brush characters are written by Zhang Onyu. After the book was published, Mao Zedong also got a copy, and when he saw that the brush characters in the preface were written so well, he remembered it, thinking that it was Zheng Zhenduo's character. Later, when the Tibet Peace Liberation Pact was signed, Mao Zedong proposed that Zheng Zhenduo be allowed to copy the official text. After Zheng Zhenduo was informed, he learned that the chairman had misunderstood, so he asked Zhang Liangyu to enter Zhongnanhai to carry out the task. Zhang Liangyu specially prepared pen and ink for this purpose and went to Zhongnanhai to seriously complete the task. At that time, the brush and yantai he used to write did not let it out of Zhongnanhai, and it was later displayed in the China History Museum along with the original copy of the Peace Convention. Once, Zhang Liangyu accompanied the guests to visit the museum, and unexpectedly found that his pen and ink were also displayed in the glass cabinet, and he was very happy, and everyone knew the origin of this matter.
The time was running out and he died young
Zhang Liangyu was determined to summarize his appreciation experience and experience, and to make a comprehensive collation of the important calligraphy and paintings handed down through the ages. Beginning in 1960, he counted Chinese New Year's Eve night and night, first listing the table of contents, and then introducing them one by one, planning to write two or three million words. At that time, it was a difficult period of three years, and even decent manuscript paper was not easy to find, and only paper as rough as straw paper could be used, while Zhang Onionyu's fly-headed xiaokai was not sloppy.
Unfortunately, this grand plan could not be fully realized, and in 1963, the 49-year-old Zhang Liangyu died of lung cancer.
To this day, more than 50 years later, Zhang Liangyu's fame and his ideas and methods of calligraphy and painting appreciation still strongly affect our times.