Text/Lin Haizhong
When we study Chinese painting, we must first know sheikh's "six laws", which are the general outline of the whole painting. All the learning is from the six methods, of which "Qi Rhyme" ranks first and "Bone Method Pen" ranks second. So we started Chinese painting from brush and ink, which is very interesting, and it is different from the current art education. At present, China's art education is based on modeling, and the basis of modeling corresponds to the "pictogram of the object" according to the "six laws", which is the next level. Later, I also slowly began to think about how pen and ink were, and these thoughts I had in the process of learning were actually entered by Dong Qichang.
Dong Qichang's "Antique Album" is selected from the collection of the Palace Museum
At first, I felt very inexplicable when I read what Dong Qichang wrote, and it was "Shifu painting" and so on. But if you understand the history of art, you know that Zhao Mengfu and Qian Xuan have a discussion about "Jia Jia Painting" and "Shifu Painting". Further ahead, Zhao Mengfu talked about "ancient meaning", which belonged to the "qi rhyme" part. Chinese things are too difficult, the reason why we say "can be the way for the knower, not with the unknown", because we started from the image, the ability to draw is very good, but not very good at reading. People who study the history of ideas, they are very good at writing, but they don't know much about images, so they don't involve material in the history of art. I think there are only a very few people who have the ability to study both images and words. Dong Qichang said that Wang Wei was the ancestor of literati painting, so what is literati painting? In fact, all the discussion revolves around this issue. What is literati painting, that is, what is Chinese painting, in fact, why do we paint this thing? Dong Qichang made this issue clear. He spoke of Wang Wei, saying that Wang Wei was the ancestor of literati painting. Su Dongpo, like Wang Wei, is proficient in text and images, emphasizing that "there are paintings in books and poems in paintings." Later, Zhao Mengfu proposed to "enter the painting with books", that is, the brushwork in the "Six Laws" of our Chinese painting. This is not complete, I think from the sheikh's "six laws" to Zhao Mengfu's "calligraphy and painting homology", "ancient meaning" and "Shifu painting", are all summaries of the predecessors, to Dong Qichang once again made a summary, so that he constantly explained Chinese painting clearly, and constantly explained what the study of Chinese painting is all about, why he paints Chinese painting, and where it is high.
Dong Qichang Xishan Yanxia Scroll Shanghai Museum Collection
Dong Qichang also said that when painting, when we came down, all the Qiankun had already been decided, and you had no way to change it, that is, your "qi rhyme" had been determined. So how to change the "qi rhyme", that is, how to change the most "metaphysical" part? The method he gave was to "read ten thousand books and travel thousands of miles", which I think is very remarkable. In addition, Dong Qichang also studies how Chinese painting can change your temperament, and so on. Therefore, I think that a lot of my understanding of Chinese painting comes from Dong Qichang's thoughts and practices.
Dong Qichang Guanshan Xueji Picture Scroll Collection of the Palace Museum
Dong Qichang's paintings are particularly delicate, the tools and materials he uses are very good, the ink is so black, the layers are so delicate, and every place is a world. If you go to understand the production process of ink, good ink has a lot of exquisiteness, in order to produce such a good work. In the past hundred years, I prefer Pu Xinhu's paintings, because I think he has the conditions to see good works. So when I saw that this "Complete Collection of Dong Qichang's Calligraphy and Paintings" was printed almost exactly like the original, I was particularly excited. You can see Dong Qichang's ink stroke down, it has a kind of grainy feeling, from coarse to fine, grinding out of the feeling, you can appreciate. And the ink he used was so dark, which showed the level of ink making technology at that time, and we didn't have such a good ink now. I now use the best ink to grind it, and write out that one is not black enough, and the other looks wooden and has no aura. But his ink seemed to have an aura. The Palace Museum has produced several complete sets of collections, and I am very concerned about them, including the "Complete Collection of Calligraphy and Paintings of the Four Monks in the Forbidden City", especially the paintings of the disabled, which have not been seen much before, but when I get a look at the album, the pen and ink inside are so delicate. The main source of the brush and ink is Dong Qichang. After Dong Qichang until the Qing Dynasty, the richness of pen and ink exceeded that of the Song and Yuan people, and I did not understand this statement very well before, and I did not have this feeling, until I had this kind of condition now, when I saw the original work and saw such a good publication, I would have this feeling. Huang Binhong said that some painters in his hometown have more ink than Song Yuanren, and I used to think how this is possible? But if you see those original works, understand the ink making process in Anhui, and see the effect presented on specific materials, you will believe that this is really the case, and the Song and Yuan people really have something to do. One of the advantages of our modernity is that images can be viewed in combination with words, which were previously separated. Many collectors collect works that are not visible to the general public, so many people can only do research through words. Now, on the other hand, we are really lucky to be able to understand something through the comparison of words and images. From this point of view, I think this is a very good era, really should be an era of talent.
(The author is deputy director and professor of the Calligraphy and Painting Appraisal Center of China Academy of Art)
Dong Qichang Detailed Song Fa Landscape Atlas Shanghai Museum Collection
Source: Xinhua Net