"Gentlemen meet friends with literature." The origin of the literati can be traced back to the style of raising soldiers in the Spring and Autumn And Warring States periods. At that time, the princes and nobles invited a large number of guests to feast and drink, and in the bronze ware and tomb murals, there were also themes such as feasting and drinking songs and dances, which could be regarded as the prototype of the literati Yajitu. In the "Book of Poetry, Xiao Ya", there are also scenes of feasting and singing such as "wine and purpose" and "I have guests, drums and drums and pianos".
Since ancient times, literati collections have always relied on the leisurely atmosphere of poetry, calligraphy, painting and song blowing. That is, the so-called "every time you drink the popularity, silk and bamboo play together, drink and ear heat, and give poetry to the back". During the Qin, Han, Wei and Jin dynasties, the palace banquet garden collections such as feasting and drinking and the elegant collection activities of landscape tourism and appreciation were all close to the landscape gardens. During the Sui and Tang dynasties, private literature would appear a lot, and the so-called "yahui spirit, piano and book match", all of which had the realm of poetry and painting. Based on the concept of reverence, the literati of the Song Dynasty pursued the literati and refinement of daily life, and stereotyped the daily life of poetry and wine, talking about literature and painting, and feasting on tea as a life paradigm, and the literary and elegant collection of the literati group is the plural collection of this life paradigm.
After the middle of the Ming Dynasty, social life tended to be leisure and entertainment. People are more pursuing the joy of landscape and water, the so-called "happy heart entertainment is better than the landscape garden". Literati collections are even more popular in the picturesque Jiangnan region. In the case of confucian scholars and calligraphers recorded in the Ming Confucian Studies Case, for example, more than two-thirds were born or mainly active in Jiangnan, distinguishing them from other classes by focusing on "taste". In modern Times, Jiangnan Literati Yaji is not only the old custom of the literati to feast and drink and sing in order to alleviate the pressure of the imperial examination, but also a relaxed phonological training, and it is also the expectation of the literati to pursue "external adaptation and internal harmony". Through the art collection, they realized the communication paradigm of talking about the tao, feeling the lyrics of the time, and seeking the same qi, and found the ideal spiritual home of "Shiyin".
This may have a mentality similar to that of the French sociologist Bourdieu who said that it is "conspicuous" or "conspicuous consumption", but it is more of an overall display of strength, confidence and cultural resources.
The landscape painting between the grass hall and the small building
Why do people love the mountains and forests? The Southern Dynasty painter Zong Bing, in the "Preface to Painting Landscapes", explained the reason: "The quality of the mountains is interesting and the spirit is interesting... The landscape is beautiful in shape, and the benevolent is happy. "Renshan Zhishui is enough to clear the taste and open his arms." The scholars and masters in the court often cherished the heart of Lin Quan, and after the Wei and Jin Dynasties, private gardens came into being, becoming a transition and support between aesthetic ideals and real life.
According to the ancient Chinese Buddhist history book "Luoyang JialanJi", "Gaotai Fangxie, built by family; flowers and ponds, gardens and gardens." "The place where the literati in the Shanshui Garden will meet is no longer just a place for feasting and drinking, but also allows the scholar to enter and be born without having to inhabit the hidden cave." From Northern Qi Yuxin's "Small Garden Endowment", it can be seen that the private garden at that time was influenced by the artistic conception of landscape painting, and the so-called "vertical painting of three inches, when the height of a thousand people; horizontal ink is several feet, the body is hundreds of miles", which has become a reference for the art of garden space.
In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, there was a rise in garden construction fever, and Jiangnan City was full of famous gardens. Some scholars have roughly calculated that at that time, there were nearly 300 private gardens built in Suzhou Province, and more than 100 in Songjiang Province. Behind each garden is a literati social network. For example, in the Humble Administrator's Garden in Suzhou, the builder invited Wen Zhengming, one of the four wumen families, to participate in the design. As a miniature view of the natural landscape, the garden provided a place for the literati group at that time to live in the elegant collection, Wen Zhengming wrote: "The dust is not frightening and lonely, and it is very clear and considerable." "In it, you can enjoy the realm of pure thoughts and chase the traces of the garden, so as to cultivate the mind and forget the form, and swim in the art." More literati arranged mountains, stones, flowers and plants outside their study halls according to local conditions, creating a miniature landscape landscape. If you don't even have such conditions, there are more miniature indoor garden models - bonsai, using homogeneous stones to simulate mountains and rivers, borrowing the miniature scenery of "one punch for a hundred, a thousand miles and a moment" to pin the thoughts of the rivers and lakes and the meaning of forest springs.
Southern Song Dynasty Ma Yuan's "West Garden Yaji Atlas" part
The phenomenon of "city dwelling" prevailed in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, and people wanted to enjoy the convenience of urban life. However, if you have leisure, gathering and traveling is of course the most willing way for The Jiangnan literati in Leshan to love water, and the circle of literati exchanges has also expanded with the expansion of the scope of activities. The Lanting Collection initiated by Wang Xizhi in the Eastern Jin Dynasty embodied the origin of the scholar's landscape aesthetics, and thus promoted the emergence of landscape culture, Xie Lingyun's landscape poems, Zong Bing's and Wang Wei's landscape paintings, Gu Kaizhi's landscape paintings, Biao Bing's thousand autumns. The earliest creator of the Lanting diagram was Li Gonglin of the Northern Song Dynasty, but unfortunately the work has not been passed down. Existing works with this motif are emerging in an endless stream.
The literati of the Ming Dynasty city residence pursued the Lanting Meeting, yearning for the truly quiet and peaceful rural atmosphere, Chang Ya gathered in the suburbs by the mountains and rivers, and conditionally purchased villas in the countryside, built grass halls, small buildings, etc., and sought natural wild interests. This is also expressed in the pen of literati painters, creating a humanistic atmosphere of its own pattern. Wen Zhengming's "Huxi Caotang Map" reflects this situation. One of his city friends built a grass hall in Anjihu Creek to remember the ancestral house. Only to see the upper layer of the picture is stacked with greenery, high wood shade, clear waves, sails lined up, Xiege Caotang is staggered in it, a plain and innocent Jiangnan scene. There is also Wen Zhengming's "Huishan Tea Party Map", which depicts him and his friends Cai Yu and Wang Pet visiting Wuxi Huishan and tasting tea and poetry at the Erquan Pavilion. The picture is stacked with mountains and stones, covered with pines and cypresses, and people are either sitting under the spring pavilion or making tea in a row, which reminds people of the scene of "green field wind and smoke, hiraizumi grass and trees, and Higashiyama song and wine". Shen Zhou's famous work "Wei Yuan Ya Ji Tu" creates a kind of Xiao Leisure atmosphere of Lin Quan Ya Ji, depicting people sitting on the ground in the Mao Pavilion, composing poems and composing, playing the piano and singing, highlighting the wild interest advocated by the literati. The trinity of poems, books and paintings in "Wei Yuan Ya Ji Tu" conveys the thoughts of Wu Chinese people who love the pictures of Tiankai and the worldly Lin Quan.
The poetic feelings triggered by the Lanting Collection
The most famous Jiangnan literati collection is, of course, the aforementioned Lanting Collection. Wang Xizhi gathered a group of celebrities and family members to hold the first Lanting Art Collection at Lanting pavilion in Huijishanyin (present-day Shaoxing, Zhejiang), ten kilometers southwest. 42 people participated in this elegant collection, and after the gathering, a total of 37 poems composed by 26 people were collected, and the poems were collected into the "Lanting Collection", with Wang Xizhi and Sun Qi as the preface. This collection also gave birth to the world's first line of books, "Orchid Pavilion Preface", which left a model reference for future generations of poetry and elegant collections.
Ming Wanli Lanting Scroll Tokyo National Museum (detail)
In the Ming Dynasty, the Jiangnan literati Yaji paid tribute to the Lanting Yaji, often gathering between the mountains and rivers, mountaineering was full of love in the mountains, and viewing the sea meant overflowing in the sea. "Huishan Tea Party Diagram" has Cai Yu's "Huishan Tea Party Sequence" as the introduction, describing the tea party scene. There are 14 poems by Cai Yu Xiaozhen, 8 poems by Tang Zhen Xiaokai, and 9 poems by Wang Pet Xiaokai. Shen Zhou inscribed a painting on the "Wei Garden YaJitu": "Disturbing the middle of the city, why not tie the knot." "6 friends left ink marks on the painting. In this painting, Wei Chang, the owner of the "Wei Chang Garden Villa", where all the friends gathered, inscribed on the painting: "Drunken and prosperous, Jing Xuan first gave a poem, the princes and the princes, ishida also made a drawing, wrote a poem on it." Between the puffs, there is a glow. And predictably to use this poem and painting to "pass on the descendants of the descendants, and not forget the elegant clouds of the princes."
Born in Bacheng, Kunshan, Yushan Yaji is the most unprecedented Jiangnan cultural event in the history of the Yuan Dynasty. Suzhou celebrity Gu Ying built the Yushan Caotang on the shore of Yangcheng Lake, and invited the literati to recite poems and inscriptions, calligraphy and painting tastings, which lasted for 20 years, and participated in more than 300 writers and artists. As the most neat collection of poetry in the history of Chinese literature, the Yushan Yaji has produced more than 5,000 poems before and after, which is praised by the "Outline of the Four Libraries" as "literary style and style, illuminating the first generation". This marked the convergence of the elegant customs of the cultural people of the Yuan Dynasty from the bookstore to the city well, and had a continuous impact on the literature and art of the Ming and Qing dynasties.
Between the mountains and rivers, the literati and inkers are free and scattered physically and mentally, and there are more acts of breaking the norm. One of the art collections was actually held in front of the tomb that Gu Ying built for himself, which can be described as shocking and vulgar, and the brain hole is wide open. According to records, there were about 12 people participating in the collection at that time, and in addition to the usual poetry and painting, Gu Ying also made a special public dialogue. He believes that life is inevitable after all, rather than waiting for his death to cry in front of the grave, Mo Ruo and his friends drank poems between the mountains and wilderness, showing the master's maverick style and philosophy.
According to the German philosopher Habermas, if the desires of life and the acquisition of the necessities of life occur within the scope of the private sphere, then the public sphere provides a broad space for individuality; if the former is still a little shy, then the latter is proud. Gu Ying, who made a generous statement in the face of the wind, must have been touched by herself.
A contemporary extension of tracing the footsteps of our ancestors
Si Shi and Si People, Miao Yi is not to be found, and different forms of Yaji patterns have become the most concentrated embodiment and retention of literati Yaji in the history of painting. Scholar Wang Jin and others believe that the large number of popular Yajitu has left a true portrayal for each Yaji, and the documentary pictures and texts have greatly enhanced the spread and influence of the activities, so that the viewers have a huge empathy and imitation mentality, making the Yaji, a niche social activity that was originally popular within the elite group, become a symbol of elegant life in the cognition of the vast number of intellectual groups.
Extending to the present, these words or scrolls that have been handed down to this day really make people feel admired and admired. For contemporary people, this is a "vassal style" activity that follows in the footsteps of the ancients, but for the ancients, it is their habitual way of life every day when the sun rises and the moon sets. For example, in 2021, the "Literary Style - Yushan Yaji Special Exhibition" co-sponsored by Liu Haisu Art Museum, Kunshan Houbeiren Art Museum, Suzhou Art Museum and Suzhou Academy of Fine Arts is a "restart" that continues the elegant past of Jiangnan literati. The exhibition is composed of four parts: interpretation, characters, inheritance and scenic spots, which further expounds the cultural value of Yushan Yaji and its contribution to the formation and development of Jiangnan culture. The exhibition launched the fine paintings of the Yuan and Ming dynasties and exhibited 10 rare books of ancient books of various eras, and gave birth to various related collection activities as a distant tribute to the sages of the present.
Qing Hualun "Yushan Yajitu"
In the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, the painters Hongren and Jiang Zhu admired the style of the Jiangnan literati, and the ensemble of the harp in Huangshan is said to have caused the fairy ape to cry. Four hundred years of smoke and smoke, recently I had the honor to go with the Shanghai Kunqu Study Society, to trace the footsteps of ancestors, to Huangshan Yaji to sing songs. The congregation of people to their best, the painter Ink Cat remembered the "West Garden Elegant Collection", and created the "Huangshan Singing Qutu" according to this, counting five people in ten, or standing or standing, calmly scattered, sparing the ancient style. I filled in the lyrics for the Yaji of the day, "Golden Wisp Song Huangshan Singing Song": "Where have we met?" All over the Huangshan Mountains, re-follow the old path, and smell the warblers and swallows. At the place where the immortal ape roared, the Qushe gong began to feast. More in line with the sound of the creek splashing. How many red mud into the past, a peach blossom fan in the common seat. The song has not stopped, and the twilight clouds have changed. The clouds are not like ordinary courtyards. And lingering, outside the dawn pavilion, rain filament wind flakes. Who comforts the drifting zero people, the flute plays a thousand words. Miscellaneous songs, loose waves and pharynxes. The pavilion will sing stronger than the wine, and when drunk, the valley stars will be like thunder. The end is just right, and the grinding is long. Subsequently, I asked the seal engraver Teacher Wang Hongding to engrave the seal of "Golden Wisp Song", and asked Teacher Lu Kang to copy the words and frame the painting into a hand scroll to complete the presentation of the final "Elegant Collection on Paper".
In the current hurried world, the ideal of "wind and flowers and snow moon" is gradually drifting away, as an elegant life paradigm and cultural phenomenon, the literati collection with diverse forms and pure meaning may be worthy of repeated admiration, emulation and study by future generations. "Today's weather is good, blowing and sounding bombs." At certain moments, let us slow down and steal half a day's leisure in the sound of string songs and poetry and wine.
Five Generations Zhou Wenji Liulitang Character Diagram (Partial)