During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Lin Fengmian (1900-1991) lived alone in a dilapidated warehouse in the Giant Buddha Section on the south bank of Chongqing, painting for several years without asking about the world. It was the dilapidated room, the old white wooden table, the kitchen knives, the cutting boards, the oil bottles, the washing boards that transformed the painter. The Great Buddha Duan not only gave Lin Feng the space and time to sleep, but also sublimated the spirit. Later, it was reported that several of his thickly dressed modern girls during the years of the Great Buddha period showed that his modern ink figures had been revealed. Bashan night rain, one side of the water and soil to support the other side, the big Buddha section has become the birthplace of the "wind sleeping body", but also illuminated the new journey of modern Chinese art.
In 1978, Lin Fengmian painted in the top floor apartment of The Chinese Overseas Chinese Goods Company in Nathan Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong.
Lin Fengmian's "Independence" ink painting Collection of China Art Palace
An ordinary place, but connected with a person, will always haunt the heart. This is the residence of Lin Fengmian in Chongqing during the period - the South Bank Of the Finger Stone Buddha Section.
Lin Fengmian first arrived in Chongqing and rented a house to live in the city center. His student Zhao Chunxiang wrote a "Record of The Meeting of Mr. Lin Fengmian", indicating "February 29", which was published in the Anti-Japanese War Pictorial (Vol. 2, No. 3, 1940, p. 67).
As for the Marblestone Buddha Section, in addition to the sporadic and brief written records of Students such as Li Keyan, Wu Guanzhong, Su Tianci, and Tan Xuesheng, there is a more detailed introduction to the Anonymous Clan, which has become the only book of Lin Fengmian's Big Buddha Duan Ukiyo-e. More than half a century later, this is really a place to go and dare not go, so it is placed on the last stop on the road of pursuit. What else can the Great Buddha Duan leave behind?
Arriving in Chongqing, he met with local historians Long Hong and Mr. Liao Ke respectively, hoping to get guidance. They have worked Lin Fengmian's research, and there are also research papers, especially the co-authored Lin Fengmian's Hermitage in Chongqing Questioning is quite influential, but when asked about the South Bank Marblehead Stone Buddha section where Lin Fengmian lived, they have not been there, it may be that the research direction is different, focusing on the excavation of archival data, and the fieldwork does not go hand in hand.
Turning back to the almighty network, I opened the map, first locating the south bank of the finger stone, and then pointing to the big Buddha segment. After the map was enlarged, the nameless people visited Longmen Hao, Xuantan Temple, Wugui Stone, and other place names that Lin Fengmian passed through at that time, one by one. Of course, there is no need to hire a horse to drive like the nameless, it takes more than two hours to walk. According to the navigation, the author took the light rail across the river. The south bank slope is steep and high, and the green trees are already lined with tall buildings. At Shangxinjie Station, change to a taxi, pass through the busy neighborhood, the marbles flashed by the street sign, and the car stopped at the main street of the Big Buddha section.
The detailed residential address of the Big Buddha Duan, Lin Fengmian himself wrote in his own handwriting, also has two different types: one is the Big Buddha Duan No. 61 Attached No. 8; the other is the Big Buddha Duan Backstreet No. 68. The times are changing, the city is changing, and the road name door number can only be a reference.
Asked on the street, the response was disappointing: either did not know or said that it had been demolished. Continue to the depths of the main street of the Big Buddha Section, vegetable and fruit stalls, grocery stalls are everywhere, umbrella sheds are full of umbrella sheds, broken windows and doors are oblique, messy, and there are many people carrying baskets, as if they have entered the urban-rural combination zone. The simple tea shop is still there, if you sit down, you may hear some terroir anecdotes, but the right thing has not yet landed, how can you stop your feet? For the Big Buddha section, the author may be an uninvited guest.
Entrance to the back alley of the Big Buddha section
While walking and looking, where to go, inadvertently, on the wall of an alley, a small road sign that is about to fall: "Big Buddha Section Back Alley", impressively into the eye. It was originally a street, now it is an alley? Stunned, I went in. The alley is so narrow that you can reach both sides of the wall with your arms outstretched. The house is varied, but the same dilapidated, it can be said, everywhere is a dangerous house. There are no few steps to turn, to turn around, and to pick up the steps, a little dizzy. There were no pedestrians, so I had to carefully check the house number and check the house. First no. 7, then No. 60, No. 64, No. 67, no. 61 and No. 68 are missing. Suspicion is wrong, the back alley is not a backstreet. Just like the headless flies, when the group turned, a big sister in her sixties (almost like a special guide sent by Lin Fengmian) appeared.
The eldest sister said that she was born here, born and raised, like her old residents, there is no second family in this area. The alley has only 88 house numbers, and the numbers are staggered and the order is chaotic. However, the terrain has not changed, the house has been rebuilt, and the foundation of the house is still the same. This is a shantytown that has long been demolished but has not yet been started.
Where's the luck? Such an encounter.
The author says that seventy years ago a painter lived here.
She asked, why didn't he come?
The author replied that he had died, and if he had lived, he would have been one hundred and fifteen years old.
It seems that asking for a house number is of little significance, and a large target should be set.
The author asks, is there a warehouse here?
She actually pointed to the wall behind her and said that inside was the warehouse of the toothpaste factory.
The author asks again: Is the wall old?
When she was a child, she said, she saw a fence, and the houses inside had been moved.
The eldest sister of the original residents of the back street of the Big Buddha section
This is the only large site in the back alley of the Big Buddha section, and there is a history of the warehouse, which has aroused great concern from the author. Walk slowly around the wall, the foundation of the wall is made of boulders, and the seams are exquisite. The abandoned wall and door are open, and the stone wall outside the green brick doorpost is extraordinary, and it can also be secretly combined with the warehouse of the "Ministry of Military Affairs". There is no door number on the wall pillar, the yard has been chaotic, near the door is a brick house with a leaking roof and no door, and a door number is nailed to the door frame, which is actually "68-1 back alley of the Big Buddha Section". Then the whole wall gate yard should be No. 68, only the streets have been changed to alleys, and the rest are completely on the right. According to the anonymous account, this location is the gatehouse and the "Forest Mansion". Standing under the big tree in the courtyard, looking out at the doorpost, the uneven steps, winding down, can lead all the way to the riverside dock. The ships moored there, the men and women who worked, all entered the picture of Lin Fengmian.
The burrow at the entrance of the warehouse courtyard "68-1 back alley of the Big Buddha Section"
Look inside and outside the warehouse yard
I am very grateful to this eldest sister for her enlightenment, and ask her to take photos next to the old trees and old mills, and the background is the original site of the Warehouse of the Big Buddha Section. If the author is the only visitor to the "Lin Mansion" in the Big Buddha Section, the eldest sister should remember the first merit. When she was born, Lin Fengmian must have left, but her father was Lin Fengmian's neighbor. At that time, in the corner of the path, Lin Fengmian either gave way to each other or said hello, which was very common. Lin Fengmian's grounding, "human-like", may be frozen in these moments.
Thousands of miles of searching, in this courtyard similar to the scavengers, there is no Lin Fengmian's hand to touch, and there is no Lin Fengmian footprints to scrutinize, and there is no relics of Lin Fengmian that can be identified, some are just clicking and clicking, leaving behind the vicissitudes of the Big Buddha Duan warehouse. It's not too late, it hasn't been demolished, it's not gone, it's gone. With these photos, it is still very different from not having these photos. This ramp, this wall door, the stacked stones, the overgrown moss, the Big Buddha Warehouse are real historical sites, but the stage is still there, and the protagonist has receded.
Why did Lin Fengmian live in isolation and choose the south bank?
Tan Xuesheng has a description in "The Real Artist - Lin Fengmian" in "Through the Dust of History": "When I first met Mr. Lin in 1941, he had left school and abandoned his wife and daughter, and lived alone in a simple house in Marblehead Stone on the south bank of Chongqing for two years. It is already quite difficult to run the alarm every day, draw when you come back, and take care of your own life. Later, Even Zhao Yunxiu (1915-2001), who was able to talk to him and run alarms, was a sculptor from Taishan, Guangdong. Graduated from the National Hangzhou Art College in the early 1940s, and later followed Liu Kaiqu as an assistant) The senior and I both left Marblestone, his house was taken back by the landlord, and moved to the Big Buddha section farther away from the town, living in an abandoned warehouse in the barren mountains, he could only face an old man who looked at the warehouse every day, without a common language. In order to save time painting, he had to walk to town once a week to buy enough meat and vegetable steamed buns to solve the week's diet. Later, when Lao Zhao visited Mr. Lin again, he saw that he was in such a harsh environment and asked him why he did not try to improve his life, but he replied indifferently: During the Anti-Japanese War, the government had difficulties, and everyone lived a hard life, such as the famous Mr. Lao She, who ate only one plate of green vegetables every day, and after eating, he used boiling water to drink as soup, and smoked only two dimes and a pack of prodigy brand cigarettes. ”
In 1936, Lin Fengmian led the teachers of the Hangzhou National Art College on an outing to chaoshan mountain and hanged the tomb of Wu Changshuo (Lin Fengmian in the front row from left, wife Alice, daughter Tina) Lin Fengmian (about 1930s)
Zhao Yunxiu was teaching art at the Marblestone Police Academy at the time, and was making a bronze statue of the chairman of the committee, and was the closest student to Lin Fengmian. Choosing to live in Marbles Stone is the relationship between Zhao Yunxiu and is very likely, but so far I have not read the relevant written records of Zhao Yunxiu to corroborate it. However, if you first live in the marble stone and then move to the Big Buddha Section, you can still sit solid.
Lin Fengmian' autobiography, written by Lin Fengmian in the Shanghai Detention Center on December 8, 1971, said: "I went to Chongqing from Shanghai via Haiphong, Hanoi, and Kunming in early 1939, and after arriving in Chongqing, Chen Bui introduced me to be a member of the Design Committee of the Political Department of the puppet government. I went to the accounting department of the ministry every month to receive a salary, and I did not do any work against the war. I remember that in 1943, the Political Department abolished the design committee, and I was introduced by Chen Lifu to the pseudo-Central Propaganda Department to take up the post of propaganda committee, and went to the ministry every month to get a salary, and the Propaganda Department had an art department to engage in film and drama work. ”
Form filled out by Lin Fengmian in 1945
Li Keyan wrote in "A Real Artist": "Originally in the third hall of the Political Department led by Premier Zhou and Guo Moruo, there was a design committee below, and Lin Fengmian and Lao She were among the design committees. There is a monthly living allowance of 200 yuan. Later, the third hall was cancelled, and the two hundred yuan was gone, so Mr. Lin's life was very hard. ”
During the Great Buddha period, the great bureaucrat Liu Jianqun visited Lin Feng to sleep here, and was very surprised, saying: "Living in this kind of place, you are either an idiot or a person who has attained enlightenment." Mr. Lin, you are enlightened. But Lin Fengmian's interpretation is more realistic: I am not an idiot, nor am I enlightened. I'm just a "person". It was the dilapidated room, the old white wooden table, the kitchen knives, the cutting boards, the oil bottles, the washing boards, that made me truly "human" . The Great Buddha Duan not only gave Lin Feng the space and time to sleep, but also sublimated the spirit.
Painting by Lin Fengmian
Lin Fengmian's paintings bear a striking resemblance to the topographical houses of the Great Buddha Section
Lin Fengmian's residence in the Great Buddha Duan, whether it is the relationship between Zhao Yunxiu and Zhao Yunxiu, cannot be verified now. After all, Lin Fengmian is still a celebrity, and he has imperial food to eat, so he will not be exhausted and cornered. Settling in the Great Buddha Segment is not so much a self-redemption from the position of principal as a choice to live in simplicity, which may be more appropriate. Lin Fengmian's personality, at this time will not like the scene of Shapingba, quite natural. Due to some kind of chance, from the Finger Stone to the Great Buddha Section, it is also logical. The warehouse is empty, you can live for free or rent at a low price, simple and harmless, frugal and quiet, just in the middle of the forest wind sleep.
The Chongqing period has a whole chapter in the "Biography of Lin Fengmian", which is the stage of Lin Fengmian's life with a lot of speculation. Artistic innovation can be gradual, or it may be opened, where is the breakthrough point? So far, researchers have not yet made a solid and detailed argument. But here is the collection of nature and humanities, East and West, ink and color, lines and brushstrokes, accidental and inevitable collision and fermentation, can not be denied. The seed of the fusion of East and West fell here, nurturing and nourishing, breaking the ground and sprouting. Bashan night rain, rivers to the east, one side of the water and soil to support the other side, but also illuminated the new journey of modern Chinese art, the Big Buddha section is honored to become the "wind sleeping body" of the breeding place. According to the Yue people's "Painter Lin Fengmian" ("Cultural News", November 18, 1944, 3rd edition), the record of the interview with the Big Buddha, seeing lin Fengmian's several modern girls in thick clothes, it is clear that modern ink figures have been revealed. The holy place does not need to be retouched, the ruins are still there, the breath is there, the paintings are there, the spirit is eternal, and everything else can be put into broad associations.
Lin Fengmian's Ink Painting of "Playing Ruan Shi Nu" Collection of China Art Palace
Lin Fengmian's "Piper Girl" ink painting Collection of China Art Palace
Step down the steps and return to the noisy city.
Chongqing's real estate industry has been changing with each passing day since the reform and opening up. In recent years, the development has paid more attention to cultural platforming. In the Shapingba area, the publicity of cultural celebrities is overwhelming, Xu Beihong, Zhang Daqian, Fu Baoshi and Feng Zikai are all contributing to the residual heat of real estate, while the Big Buddha Section is still a forgotten corner, and Lin Fengmian is still in hiding. Will the Big Buddha Duan build a "Forest Mansion"? Marginalization and controversy are mostly the fate of Lin Fengmian, and the big Buddha Duan Jing is good.
Many more years have passed, and I am still chanting the Great Buddha. Now the back alley of the Big Buddha section has been razed to the ground, and the tall buildings have been raised, which is very likely. Do not have the luxury of transforming the ruins of the warehouse into the Lin Fengmian Memorial Hall, if there is a heart of people's men to be merciful, save a section of the broken wall, embedded in a sign, which reads: "The painter Lin Fengmian once lived here", which can also be comforted.
(This article was originally titled "Visiting the Great Buddha" and was slightly revised.) ）