In the 20th century, there were many famous calligraphers and seal engravers in the Hai school, and Mr. Gao Shixiong (1921-2019) was one of the representatives.
Tall bears are tall, have a straight nose, look like Russians, and someone laughs and calls "Ivanov", he will respond haha; sometimes he will hold your hand to hold your hand hard, with a childlike face. Japanese friends thought he looked like Picasso and called him the "Picasso Brothers". Because of his hobby of photography since childhood, coupled with a "mixed-race" face, he later made a cameo role as a foreign photographer in the movie "Thousands of Rivers and Mountains Are Always Love".
Gao Shixiong's father, Gao Zhenxiao, guangxu jiachen (1904) jinshi, was taught the editor of the Hanlin Academy, known as "Gao Taishi". After entering the Republic of China, he made a living by teaching books in the museum, and his character was highly learned and clean, and he was deeply prosperous and clear-sighted. Gaoshi Xiong Young Bingting training, hard reading ancient books, studying calligraphy, like to engrave. Since I met everyone Zhao Shuru and Wang Fu'an, the book carving was solid and solid, and I entered the room; I got to know Zhang Lu'an, Qin Kangxiang, Wei Tingrong, etc., admired the collection, was knowledgeable and excellent, and had a unique style of strict and deep study. After 1941, at the behest of his father, he wrote and engraved some income by appointment to assist the family. In 1947, at the age of 27, Takashi Bear became a member of the Xiling Printing Society. In 1954, the elder entered the Wiener Electrical Machinery Factory to work, and after the factory was merged into the Shanghai Film Machinery Factory, the elder also worked as a telecommunications worker and a sand turner. He is optimistic and kind, knows how to live, and can also carve bamboo, play cameras, engage in photography, play guitar, dance, expand his talents, and find and enjoy the interest of art.
In 1979, he worked as an editor of calligraphy magazine in Shanghai Calligraphy and Painting Publishing House, and retired two years later, but continued to play a role for the magazine. He devoted himself to everything, personally writing invitations, courtesy envelopes and texts, writing award certificates, etc., and the traditional brush writing and ink showed a clean and elegant cultural atmosphere, which was loved by everyone. The editorial department of "Calligraphy" magazine has held many national mass calligraphy, seal engraving and other manuscript evaluation activities, he used scissors to open envelopes, read manuscripts, register and classify the primary selection, for the judges to vote by secret ballot and explore rookie talents. I remember that he found Su Juxian, who was nearly a hundred years old and wrote the Second King, with his eyesight, and his books were awarded the first prize by experts, and later became a librarian of the Shanghai Municipal Research Museum of Culture and History, and the old mayor Wang Daohan also made a special trip to Zhoupu to visit this old Xiucai in the late Qing Dynasty. Due to his outstanding performance, Gao Lao, like his father, also became a librarian of the Shanghai Municipal Museum of Literature and History, an honorary vice president of the Xiling Printing Society, a representative inheritor of the printing clay making technique of the national intangible cultural heritage project (Shanghai Lu'an Printing Clay), and one of the two winners of the "Chinese Calligraphy Lanting Award and Lifetime Achievement Award" of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles in Shanghai.
Speaking of Lu'an Seal Clay, it is necessary to mention its founder Zhang Lu'an (1901-1962), a famous collection expert, seal engraver, and poet. At that time, he provided the tall bear with a carving knife, printing clay and a seal score, and also set up a desk in the study for the young tall bear to use, and the relationship between the two was between teachers and friends. The Fudan University Library's solitary copy of the "Lu An Poetry Manuscript" contains an old style poem written by Zhang Shi inviting Gao Shixiong to the dance hall and "banging, banging" (dancing) together. Before his death, Zhang Lu'an had asked Togao Xiong to pass on the "Lu'an Seal Mud" that he had worked hard to transform into. The elder has been calling for it for many years. After unremitting efforts, Lu'an Yin Clay was finally selected as the second batch of national intangible cultural heritage projects in June 2008. Four years later, Elder Gao gave the "Secret Recipe No. 49 of Lu'an Yin Clay" to Professor Zhang Yongmin, the heir of Zhang Lu'an, and donated it to the Cultural Relics and Historical Museum of the Jing'an District Cultural Bureau. Elder Gao said that this was the treasure of the Zhang family, and he only kept it on his behalf and should be donated by the Zhang family. He also donated 50,000 yuan on the spot to promote the transmission, development and talent training of Lu'an printing clay making skills. Afterwards, Elder Gao told me that the great event promised to Zhang Lu'an had finally been completed, and people were suddenly relaxed and could rest assured.
As for the aforementioned Wei Tingrong, he is a giant merchant and collector in Shanghai. On the day of the Mid-Autumn Festival in 1943, in Wei Tingrong's private residence, Rongyuan, Wu Hufan, Mei Lanfang, Zhou Xinfang, Zheng Wuchang, Wang Yachen, Zhang Naiyan, and twenty other fifty-year-old patriotic celebrities risked their lives to secretly assemble, called the "Jia Wu Tong Geng Qianling Association", to express their determination and national integrity not to forget that they were born in 1894 and swore not to cooperate with the Japanese and the pseudo. Many years later, when Elder Gao learned that many people were pursuing the calligraphy and painting items collected by Wei, he persuaded Wei Tingrong to transfer the treasured Deng Shi such as the famous cursive calligraphy "The Sea is the Dragon World, the Cloud is the Crane's Hometown" Wuyan Lian, etc. to the Xiling Printing Society. Wei Shi finally felt that the collection was the best plan, and resolutely expressed his willingness to donate when he invited people from Hangzhou to Shanghai at the International Hotel. Elder Gao did not publicize this matter, and in recent years, he has seen books such as "Xiling Hongxue - Yu Chongjin's Teachers and Friends and Personal Works", and there are texts that have been posthumously recorded.
The elderly man has no shelf, is easy-going and sincere, and has great affinity. In 2016, when I was assisting the grandson of Zhang Naiyan, president of the Central University of the Republic of China and a patriot, to sort out the old documents, I saw the tripartite seal carved by The Elder Gao for Zhang, and my eyes lit up. One of them, "Zhang Naiyan" Bai Wen and "Junmou" Zhu Wen, are tooth seals, and the other "Zhang Naiyan" Four Spirits Bai Wen Stone Chapter has been broken after suffering, leaving only half of the printed surface. His family knew that I had worked with senior colleagues and expected the senior elder to engrave the signature, so I said I could only try it. When they came to the door together to send the senior elder to see, he said excitedly: "This is my young moment, and it is a pleasure to see me again today." "He was hospitalized and returned home shortly after, requiring a wheelchair. But despite the weakness of his lower limbs, he said that his hand was still strong, so he leaned toward the small square table, and on the rice paper that was larger than the stone chapter, he arranged the short sentences I had drawn up with a brush, and then transcribed them in small letters with fly heads on the side of the print. After a break, he played the knife to make up for the side paragraph: "In October, I occasionally saw the old works of seventy years ago, and if I saw the deceased, I gladly made up for it, and the bear was ninety-six years old." "This is the first and last time I have seen the old engraved print. He wrote with a pen, carved with a knife, careful and serious, admirable and touching.
In his old age, he is still full of vitality and looks forward to beauty. I have asked me several times to tell his fellow traveler, Li Lu, the former editor-in-chief of the Calligraphy and Painting Society, that they would go to Chongming together, travel around by bicycle, and invite some elderly people over 90 years old to accompany them. It is also said that if you take a leisurely sightseeing in the city and photograph the new beauty of Shanghai's great development in the past forty years, you will definitely have a big harvest; if you publish a book, even the title of the book is thought out: "Shencheng is everywhere flying flowers"!
After winning the honorary title of "Lifetime Achievement Calligrapher of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles" in 2018, Elder Gao said calmly: "I never thought I would win the prize, it was really unexpected, I just did what I should do." "I don't have much ability now, but fortunately I can still write, so in my lifetime, I can continue to struggle."
Art is man-made, and the environment is created by the heart. The books and prints of the elderly are as natural, frank, peaceful, unpretentious, interesting, high-spirited and energetic as the character. He has successively written the "Catalogue of Seals Collected by Zhang Lu'an", "Style Bear Seal Manuscript", "Seal Engraving Scene", "Tea Classic Printing Spectrum", "Xiaokai Lu Yu Tea Classic" and so on. Confucius Ziyun: "The wise move, the benevolent are quiet; the wise are happy, and the benevolent are long-lived." "Gao Lao Zhi Ren has both, the combination of dynamic and static, both happy and longevity, should be called perfect." His life, the years of Hanmo, the works are rich, the brilliance is shining, and the merit will last forever.
This article commemorates the centenary of the birth of Mr. Takashi Bear.
Author: Mao Ziliang
Editor: Wu Dongkun