| Zhao Mengde
Liu Songnian, a great painter of the Song Dynasty, used the atmosphere of the Song dynasty to speculate about the picture of Li Shimin, the king of qin in the early Tang Dynasty, with eighteen scholars. This painting, known as the Eighteenth Bachelor's Drawing, is exquisitely laid out in a grand and delicate layout, hiding what kind of state of mind the painter has. From the fundamental starting point, this painter of the Song Dynasty is to interpret the weather of the early Tang Dynasty from the perspective of the Great Song Dynasty, full of deep yearning and admiration, and the inclusive and magnificent popularity of the Early Tang Dynasty is exactly what the Song Dynasty lacks, which pins on the author's many regrets.
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The Eighteen Scholars' Chart is obviously a strong talent team of high-level intellectuals around Li Shimin, the king of Qin in the early Tang Dynasty, who built first-class soft power around Li Shimin's side, providing a solid guarantee for him to compete for the position of prince in the future.
Because of the importance attached to talents, Li Shimin, the King of Qin, paid special attention to them, and Coupled with Li Shimin's all-round talent in literature and martial arts, driven by his personal charm, he attracted a large number of outstanding talents and thus gathered around him in the form of staff.
In this painting, he proposed the establishment of a literary museum in the capital Chang'an, collecting talents from all over the world, of which eighteen people are the most famous, who are also the bachelors of the literary museum and take turns on duty.
Therefore, at that time, the Court Studio of the Tang Dynasty had already created around this theme, and produced the "Eighteen Scholars of the Qin Dynasty", which portrayed the overall spiritual outlook of these people.
After Li Shimin ascended the throne, in order to record this beautiful past affectionately, he once again asked Yan Liben to draw eighteen bachelors' charts, showing that when he was the king of Qin, he emphasized the importance of talents and highlighted his personality charm, and commended these people who could surround him very early, and all belonged to people with foresight. As a result, the theme of "Eighteen Bachelors" gradually blew open like a spring equinox and scattered flowers everywhere, and in the Song Dynasty, Liu Songnian re-painted this theme, and injected many Song Dynasty character styles, reflecting another picture color.
No matter how it changes, the characters in the painting have not changed at all. These eighteen scholars, Li Shimin, the King of Qin, came from all walks of life, and even the disparity between nobles and lowly people was extremely large, some were the royal family of the Li family, some were former Sui Dynasty courtiers, there were also well-known scribes in the sea, and even death row prisoners in prison. According to relevant scholars, these eighteen are: Fang Xuanling, Du Ruhan, Yu Shinan and so on. In a sense, Li Shimin obviously has traces of admiring Wang Xizhi's Lanting Shenghui, but relatively speaking, the order of respect and inferiority is more stringent. From the right side of the picture, the owner of the first table is the most honorable, he is sitting precariously smiling, four people are sitting around the table, seems to be thinking about some problems, next to the tea service staff, and the clinging fan servants. The next three tables are also about the same, all of them are sitting at the table with different looks, and below them is a group of small squatters serving tea and pouring water, making the picture look lively and quiet. The characters here are prominent, and how to compare with history can completely recognize who is the master.
The Eighteenth Bachelor of the Early Tang Dynasty until the Song Dynasty was still a relatively lively art topic Many literati were more enthusiastic about holding such activities, so it belonged to wang Xizhi's Shanyin gathering fashion. It is worth noting that these people such as Fang Xuanling and Du Ruyi later became important prime ministers of Li Shimin, successfully promoting the rule of Zhenguan, and then yu Shinan, who was a historian of the Southern Dynasty and the apprentice of the calligrapher and painter Gu Yewang, although his life was bumpy and wandering, he was competed for by various heroes at that time, quite hot, when he arrived at Li Shimin's door, he was already an old man in his 60s, but he had just started his real life.
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Therefore, this painting also shows the prosperity of the early Tang Dynasty, just like the Spring of the Tang Dynasty, everything is brewing, and then spit out a lot of emerald green.
Liu Songnian peeked at the weather of the early Tang Dynasty with the pen and ink of the Song Dynasty, and undoubtedly expressed some of his expectations.
As we all know, the Song Dynasty was an era of better living environment for literati Various top artists emerged in an endless stream, but the empire continued to weaken, and in Liu Songnian's intentions, it was implied that the Song Dynasty also longed for such an outstanding figure as Li Shimin.
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Historically, in dynasties, every king has been quite troubled in choosing people, and for Li Shimin, this kind of thing does not seem to be very difficult. From the beginning of registration, he has reserved a large number of first-class talents of all kinds, and after he ascended the throne, these people undoubtedly played a huge role. When he first ascended the throne, he said: "Man cannot do both." We often abandon our weaknesses and take advantage of our strengths. Therefore, being able to familiarize himself with the talents of his eighteen bachelors is the greatest characteristic of Li Shimin's employment.
In the process of employing people, Tang Taizong followed the principle of "giving up the short for the long" and was very successful, and his appointment of Fang Xuanling, Du Ruyi, Dai Ji and others was an example of giving up the short for the long. Fang and Du's shortcomings were that they were not good at managing prisons and handling chores, and their strengths were that they were resourceful and good at judging, and Tang Taizong used his strengths to avoid his weaknesses and gave full play to his talents. Shi Zai Xuanling "does not seek to prepare people, does not use the long grid, and can be collected as long as he can, and there is no separation." Commentators call it good looks. ”
Du Ruyi gave full play to his advantages of "cutting through the flow", cooperated with Fang Xuanling, and jointly took charge of the government, "As for the scale, the canonical relics, they were all determined by the two, and they were even praised at that time, then called Fang and Du Yan." Dai's shortcomings were "no scholarship" and no understanding of classical history, and Tang Taizong did not allow him to hold the position of Rulin of the Academy. Based on his strengths of loyalty and impartiality, he was once appointed as the Young Secretary of Dali. Dai was able to do things, did not stay in the case, dared to violate Yan law enforcement, and was able to save Emperor Taizong's sentencing negligence, so that Emperor Taizong issued a praise that "the law has been lost, the public can be corrected, and there is no worry about it."
Therefore, the Eighteenth Bachelor's Chart is a talent team map of the Early Tang Dynasty, which is the greatest soft power to boost the Sheng Tang Dynasty, and has also become a classic picture that the literati of the Song Dynasty will never forget, so when Liu Songnian is full of affectionate ink splashing, it is bound to be full of affectionate yearning for the top salons of the past.