Wen Zhengming and his time

Wen Zhengming, known as Hengshan, was born in the sixth year of Emperor Mingxian's Chenghua (1470), a native of Changzhou (present-day Suzhou, Jiangsu), known for his poetry and calligraphy, and was listed first among the "Four Talents of Wuzhong" (poetry) and "Wumen Four Masters" (painting), and was a representative figure in the field of literature and art in the middle of the Ming Dynasty. As a famous literati and calligrapher of the Ariake generation, he was profound in liberal arts and highly respected, and the leader Wu Chinese for more than thirty years, and died in Jiaqing in the thirty-eighth year (1559), at the age of ninety. However, in the works of opera and literature, his image is mostly hidden after the equally famous Wuzhong talents Tang Bohu and Zhu Zhishan, and his life has always been doubtful in history. There is a Mr. Zhou Daozhen in Wuxi, who has studied Wen Zhengming's calligraphy since he was a teenager, "bowed down to Only Heng Mountain in his lifetime", accumulated more than 60 years of merit, and the ink proofreading of manuscripts has not been calculated, and he has published academic monographs such as "Wen Zhengming Collection", "Tang Yin Collection", "Wenzheng Next Year's Spectrum", "Shuyunguan Thehui Examination" and so on. Therefore, the "Wenzheng Ming Biography" written by Mr. Zhou can be called a "small book for everyone" in the field of character biography.

There are many commendable deeds in Wen Zhengming's life, but after reading the "Biography of Wen Zhengming", what is profound is the bitterness and happiness of Mr. Hengshan.

From time to time, some people ridicule Wen Zhengming as a "fallen talent", which is both a fact and a bitter side of Wen Zhengming's life. Wen Zhengming lost his mother at the age of seven, and immediately raised him in the family of his grandmother in China, and after the death of his father Wen Lin at the age of thirty, he obeyed the arrangement of his stepmother Wu and lived with his brother. Life was once embarrassing, to the point of borrowing money from his friend Chen Key to open the pot (with the poem "Send Chen Yi Ke Begging Rice"), and at the age of forty-two, Yu Yu saw that Zhengming was still poor in old clothes and plotted to take advantage of the opportunity to support him. According to Mr. Zhou Daozhen's research, Wen Lin has three sons and a daughter, but the Wen Zhengming brothers do not have the same sincere feelings as Su Shi and Su Rui brothers, and Zheng Ming scrupulously abides by his brother's way, and does not worry about everything, but is probably just barely maintained. In his career, although his father and uncle were all born into the military, Wen Zhengming was trapped in the imperial examination for thirty years, and all eight township examinations were lost, and he was always only a life. Later, he was recommended by Li Yunsi of the Ministry of Works to be awarded the post of waiting for the Hanlin Academy, and after taking office in Beijing, he was secretly ridiculed by his colleagues because of the "academic problem", and it coincided with the political turmoil period when the Jiajing Emperor used the "Great Gift Discussion" to make trouble, Wen Zhengming became more and more depressed, homesick, and wrote a poem that "it is difficult to feel that the officials are tasteless, and it is difficult to retreat". Fortunately, no one cares about him as a "doctor of calligraphy and painting", and when his three-year term of office expires, he sends his career out of Beijing without any nostalgia. After returning home, the 58-year-old Wen Zhizhao was already famous all over the world, he "leisurely traveled in the forest springs, Han Mo entertained himself", and did not have to worry about it financially, "building a room in Shedong, a study room in the famous jade, and two trees in the court" (Wen Jia's "First King's Strategy") However, at this time, Wen Zhengming's teachers and admired predecessors such as Wang Jun, many of whom had become ancient, and Zhu Yunming, Tang Yin, and so on who had made good friends died in the past few years of his residence in the capital, the "Ten Friends of Dongzhuang" was incomplete, and the "Four Talents of Wu Zhong" was only one, and the lonely Wen Zhengming became one of the more than thirty years of presiding over "Wu Zhongfengya". Idler".

However, compared with xu Wei, a talented son of Jiangnan in his later generation, Wen Zhengming was much luckier. When Zheng Ming was 23 years old, he married Wu Yu's third daughter, Wu Shi, and they loved each other all their lives, and Lady Wu handled all the household chores of the Wen family. Wen Zhengming also also respected this woman who brought him the warmth of a long-lost family, did not take concubines or prostitutes, and left a beautiful talk of "life without color", which was very rare in the social environment at that time. In the letterhead that has been preserved to this day, Wen Zhengming reported to his wife one by one about the people and things he encountered on his travels, and instructed him to "take care of family affairs and self-reliance, and I don't need to remember them." However, it is necessary to save energy and labor, take medicine diligently, and rest your body. "The end of the payment" signed ming in Huai'an Zhou Zhongshu, the three misses watched. ("To Wife Wu", "Wenzheng Ming Collection (Revised Edition)") Read it, cover up and laugh.

Wen Zhengming was stunted when he was young, and he spoke late (if he was not wise), and it is difficult to say that it has nothing to do with his youth. Fortunately, his father Wenlin cared about his studies, and found three famous scholars from his hometown as teachers, Zhengming studied with Wu Kuan, Wu Kuan, the champion of the eighth year of Chenghua (1472), and was also a loyal elder, with high moral articles and reputation, he admired Zhengming's talent and diligence, and often recommended him among the secretaries of state. Wen Zhengming "was less clumsy in books, so he deliberately learned", so he paid homage to Zhu Yunming's father-in-law Li Yingzhen as a teacher to improve calligraphy, Li Yingzhen's name Fan'an, and calligraphy is as famous as his Geng Zhi seriousness (sexual rigidity is difficult to approach), Zheng Ming "holds the disciple etiquette but be respectful", Li Yingzhen taught him the brushwork one by one, and later his son-in-law Zhu Yunming and his disciple Wen Zhengming's calligraphy achievements were all blue. Zheng Ming also learned painting from Shen Zhou of the "Ming Four Families", who was known for his danqing and had a deep cultivation of poetry, literature and books, which had the longest time and deepest emotions for the master-apprentice relationship. Until his later years, Wen Zhengming still remembered his Wu, Li and Shen masters, and befriended their descendants for generations and interacted with each other from time to time. In addition to these three tutors and the wen family's old friends are all the objects of Zhengming's consultation, making him more and more refined, liberal and versatile. Wen Zhengming's association with these noble people made him pursue the Confucian Tao, "ordinary life rules", did not contaminate the attitude of "cynicism" and "cynicism", and also avoided many disasters, compared with his friend Tang Yin, he resisted the temptation of Zhu Chenhao, the king of Ning, and refused to give poetry to the powerful minister Yan Song in his old age, these deeds are extremely far-sighted in the eyes of posterity.

Suzhou, where commercial activities flourished in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, led to the pursuit of spiritual enjoyment by the gentry of Jiangnan to culture and art. Mr. Hengshan, with his elegant style and gentle and down-to-earth personality, was admired by the local people, and the squires and wealthy merchants from all over the world came to make friends. After his retirement, Wen Zhengming, as the central figure of Suzhou Wenyuan, was active in the lower Yangtze River region, "so the four parties asked for it, and the public followed suit, and did not get tired of it." In the more than thirty years after his "retirement", he took over the lead and carved the book Le ti, which promoted the cultural prosperity of this rich land, and formed the peak of the Wumen school of painting with Wen Zhengming and his children as the core. These people flock to buy Zhengming's ink treasure at a high price from his relatives and friends, so Wen Zhengming's calligraphy and paintings are also circulated overseas, in 2020, at the Tokyo National Museum and Calligraphy Museum in Japan, there is a special group exhibition called "Wen Zhengming and His Era" to commemorate the 550th anniversary of Wen Zhengming's birth, which can be described as pouring out the Collection of Wen Zhengming in Japan, although it was affected by the new crown epidemic at that time, but the special exhibition of Wen Zhengming as a special exhibition of Yan Zhenqing in 2019, its significance is self-evident.

Such a story is recorded in the "Biography of Wen Zhengming", which can glimpse the popularity of Wen Zhengming in Gusu. During the Jiajing period, there was a young man who was known as "Wen Ru Jia Yi, the characters are like Chung and Wang", he won the Jinshi but did not intend to become an official, he wanted to worship Wen Zhengming of the same village as a teacher, someone advised him, you have already won the official, why do you still go to worship the master? Don't you know that some people now just praise the calligraphy and paintings of the Taoist Dynasty? The young man said, "You are wrong, calligraphy and painting are only an easy side for everyone to see, and the virtues and learning of the bones are all worthy of my good study." (Rebbe Lang ZhongluShi specially resigned from the official to pay homage to the entrance, and his friends laughed, and Lu Shi Zhengse said, "Mr. Wen hid Daoye with art.") This young man's name was Lu Shidao, and he later became the most disciple of the True Transmission of Wen Zhengming.

There are also many celebrities who have paid tribute to Wen Zhengming, and the author selects their deeds and counts their lives, which is of great documentary value. There are still some anecdotes that are mixed with truth and falsity, or transcribed from other people's old works, which are more difficult to discern, and the author records them one by one for reference.

The author, Mr. Zhou Daozhen, exhausted his research efforts to gather his armpits into qiu, visited the life trajectory of those amazing calligraphers and painters in Suzhou in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, collected the calligraphy and painting books they handed down, and enjoyed being afraid of hard work. From countless relevant people and materials, the historical fragments hidden under wen Zhengming's fame have been excavated, so that the real fragments that are silent in the long river of history can be revived and reproduced one by one. Reading the words in the book, it is as if to see that in winter, "Zhengming always wears a red velvet dress, wears a hat with a rolled-brimmed roof on his head, and sits under a white paper screen that covers the wind." There was a stove in the house, and I talked casually with the visitors. The guests always heard that it was late..." Or when he was young, he traveled with Tang Yin and others to the stone lake, and his friends teased him, summoning the prostitute hidden in the boat to come out and pour wine, and was startled by the "zhengming lost his voice and shouted, almost fell into the water, and finally got a boat to escape back to the shore", rigorous and interesting. This book can be described as the best compilation and annotation of "Wen Zhengming and his time", a book from the main history, the city gossip, notes and paintings, restore a colorful Mr. Hengshan's works, to help readers span five hundred years, understand a Ming Dynasty scholar who grew up and lived in the rich Jiangnan, see how he went from an ordinary official eunuch to a Jiangnan celebrity who was both unique in calligraphy and painting, and opened the key to exploring the artistic world of WenzhengMing calligraphy and painting, and systematically and three-dimensionally understand." Wen Zheng clarifies the personality and value of his books and paintings." And listen to him tell the story of the communication and his friends.

More than 480 years ago, Wen Zhengming planted a wisteria in the Humble Administrator's Garden created by his friend Wang Xianchen, this "Wen Teng" has experienced wind and frost, and is still vigorous and healthy, standing in front of the Woqiu Hall of the Suzhou Museum, every year Su Bo will carefully collect a batch of "Wen Teng" seeds, so that they follow the audience at home and abroad to the world. I also hope that this "Wenzheng Ming Biography" will be like a seed, passing on the "context" and continuing.