Dong Bangda, a native of Fuyang, Zhejiang, had a dual identity - a high-ranking official during the Qianlong period and a famous painter at that time.
Dong Bangda was born into poverty, walked the road of the imperial examination in a down-to-earth manner, and finally entered the high school, and walked in a peaceful and prosperous manner, and the official zhishang shu.
As a courtier, he was busy with official duties on weekdays, and painting could only be regarded as a "side job", but his landscape paintings had profound achievements.
It is said that he had a crush on Cao Xueqin, who was also good at painting, and even wrote a preface to the latter's work.
One is a court eunuch, the other is a fallen literati, will the lives of Dong Bangda and Cao Xueqin really intersect?
In 1973, the late famous red scholar Mr. Wu Enyu wrote an article pointing out that in addition to "Dream of the Red Chamber", Cao Xueqin also had another work, "Waste Art Collection".
The Collected Manuscripts of the Waste Art Collection is divided into eight volumes, each of which deals with a craft used by the disabled to earn a living, and there are drawings in it. The preface to the second volume of the "Southern Harrier and Northern Iris Examination Work" was the red man of the imperial court at that time, Dong Bangda.
The Southern Harrier and the Northern Iris are a book about kite making.
Cao Xueqin had a friend named Yu Jinglian, who was injured in one leg when he was a soldier in his early years, became a cripple, and was poor.
The year is approaching, Yu Jinglian's family has not been able to open the pot for three days, the children are crying, the wife is complaining, and I don't know how to spend this year. In desperation, he had to borrow money from his old friend Cao Xueqin.
However, Cao Xueqin, whose family road was down, was not rich in hand, and the two big men could not help but sigh.
During the conversation, Yu Jinglian inadvertently mentioned to Cao Xueqin that the money for the brother of the prince in the capital to buy a kite was enough for his family's livelihood for several months.
Cao Xueqin has always liked to tie kites, and when she heard this, she casually tied a few kites to Yu Jinglian and asked him to sell them.
Said that if you can't sell it, then you can find a way to help your old friend for the New Year. Yu Jinglian took the kite and left.
Finally on the day of the Chinese New Year's Eve, I heard a voice coming from outside the house, Cao Xueqin hurried to the door of the small courtyard to look at it, only to see Jing Lian leading a donkey, full of seasonal vegetables and wine, and thanking his old friend while entering the door.
It turned out that the kite that Cao Xueqin had tied for him had long been sold out at a high price, and the two families rejoiced and celebrated the New Year, and Cao Xueqin also had an epiphany, determined to spread the craft of kite tying, so he wrote the "Southern Harrier and Northern Iris Examination Work History", which has a kite map and a song production recipe.
Cao's kite craft is a traditional folk kite art in Beijing, which was studied and produced by Kong Xiangze according to the principle of kite lifting, pasting, painting and painting, that is, the four arts of tie, paste, painting and putting, recorded in the second volume of Cao Xueqin's manuscript "Waste Art Zhai Collection", "Southern Harrier and Northern Iris Examination Gongzhi". Cao's kite craft was inscribed on the National Intangible Heritage List.
Whether it is widowhood and loneliness, or old, weak, sick and disabled, as long as you have hands and do it according to the requirements in the book, you can make a kite to raise yourself.
Regarding the process of Dong Bangda writing the preface for Cao Xueqin, Mr. Wu Enyu wrote it like this.
On the twenty-fourth day of the twenty-third month of Qianlong (1758), Dun Min, a scholar of the Qing Dynasty, specially invited several friends, including Cao Xueqin, to gather together in order to identify ancient paintings.
At the same time, he also specially invited Dong Bangda to attend the party. After all, Dong Shangshu not only has a good painting skill, but also presides over the Royal Painting Academy, which can be described as a fellow with everyone.
Early this morning, Dong Bangda's carriage came to Dun Min's house.
Cao Xueqin and Dun Min, who had been waiting there for a long time, greeted them out of the gate together, and after Dong Bangda got out of the car, he took Dun Min in one hand and Cao Xueqin in the other, and said that he smiled and walked up the steps.
After Dong Bangda entered the second door, he saw the large and small colorful kites in the corridor and indoors, and recognized that this was Cao Xueqin's craftsmanship at a glance, not only greatly appreciated, but also smiled and said that he would see if Cao Xueqin's kite flying technology was as good as his kite-tying technology.
At the party, Cao Xueqin specially cooked a fish dish, and Dong Bangda ate it.
Dun Min told Dong Bangda that he had eaten the "Old Clam Huaizhu" made by Cao Xueqin, and that dish was unparalleled.
Dong Bangda couldn't help but laugh when he heard it: "Xueqin is really a strange person in the world!" 'There is only one stone in the world, and Zi Jian has eight buckets alone', Yu gave Xueqin with this word, which is the most appropriate! ”
After the meal, everyone talked about poetry and painting, and read Cao Xueqin's "Southern Harrier and Northern Iris Examination Work Zhi", and Cao Xueqin also told Dong Bangda the original intention of writing the book.
Dong Shangshu listened to the praise: "A good piece of the heart of the living people in the world, how many people can know the Qin Garden (XueQin)!" ”
After the party, he took the initiative to ask Cao Xueqin to allow him to take home the "Southern Harrier and Northern Iris Examination Work History" so that he could write a preface to him after reading it carefully.
Then he did practice and completed the preface to the book.
These things were recorded by Guo Min afterwards in the book "Bottle Lake Mao Zhai Ji Sheng".
Although the whole story is full of the warmth of the literati without class, because only half of the transcription of the appendix to the second volume of the "Waste Art Collection" "Bottle Lake Mao Zhai JiSheng" can be found in China, and there is no other physical evidence, the great controversy over the authenticity of the "Waste Art Zhai Collection" has become a public case in the red academic circles in a few decades.
The above public case of the red academic circles naturally leads to this question: Did Dong Bangda write a preface to Cao Xueqin? Or have the two ever intersected?
Dong Bangda was born in the thirty-eighth year of the Kangxi Dynasty (1699), served as an official in the imperial court for decades, and in the thirty-fourth year of Qianlong (1738), he returned to his hometown after returning to his hometown, and was buried here after his death.
Dong Bangda is both a high-ranking official and a famous painter, and can be described as a well-known celebrity in Fuyang.
However, until the publication of Mr. Wu Enyu's article, Fuyang had never had any paper materials or oral legends about Dong Bangda's interaction with Cao Xueqin.
This can't help but make people wonder whether dong shangshu wrote a preface to Cao Xueqin really existed.
Perhaps, we can find more clues about this topic in the local literature and history books in Fuyang.
The Fuyang Archives preserves the "Fuchun Yiqiao Long Dong Clan Genealogy", which contains the most reliable and authoritative record of Dong Bangda, this genealogy has the old genealogy repaired by Xin Youyi (1921) in the tenth year of the Republic of China and the new genealogy continued in the year of the Republic of China (2005), but after going through the old and new genealogies, there is no trace of Dong Bangda's interaction with Cao Xueqin.
So, is there any record of this in the "Fuyang County Chronicle" as a local chronicle?
The Chronicle of Fuyang County is edited by Jiang Jingshi, completed in the 31st year of Guangxu, and edited by Wang Wenzhi, published by Zhejiang People's Publishing House in August 1993.
Designed by Wang Shu, dean of the School of Architecture of the China Academy of Art, the Gongwang Art Museum in Fuyang has held a special exhibition of calligraphy and paintings of "Junsheng Chenxian" Qianlong and Dong Jia's father and son, exhibiting dozens of works by Dong Bangda and Dong Chen.
Considering the years when Dong Bangda and Cao Xueqin lived, Guangxu Benli was more likely to find relevant clues.
After careful reading, the book does have biographical materials of Dong Bangda, and also records several anecdotes of Dong Bangda, but there is also no record of Dong Bangda's interaction with Cao Xueqin.
In Fuyang, the earliest text of Dong Bangda's interaction with Cao Xueqin was the article "Shang Shu Painter Dong Bangda" on the "Fuyang Style" compiled and printed by the Fuyang Broadcasting Bureau in December 1980, which mentioned that Dong Bangda wrote a preface for Cao Xueqin and invited him to enter the Royal Academy of Painting.
In December 2013, Xiling Printing Press published "Danqing Chuanxiangye - Qing Dong Bangda and Dong Yu's Fine Collection of Calligraphy and Paintings", which also mentioned the meeting between Dong Bangda and Cao Xueqin at Dun Min's home.
However, these materials are all late, and most of them are transcriptions or rewrites of Professor Wu's statements, which cannot be empirical.
But then again, many valuable materials, although not found in historical collections, have been passed down through word of mouth in the form of folk oral literature.
So, in Fuyang folk, is there a legend about Dong Bangda's interaction with Cao Xueqin?
However, after a circle of interviews and inquiries, there are not a few anecdotes and anecdotes about Dong Bangda in Fuyang, that is, there is no legend of Dong Bangda's interaction with Cao Xueqin.
Famous local historians in Fuyang also said that before the 1980s, there was no local information about Dong Bangda's interaction with Cao Xueqin.
If Dong Bangda and Cao Xueqin really have no contact, then why would someone want to pull them together? Moreover, their interaction has become a beautiful conversation?
I am afraid that this has to start from the situation of two people.
When he was a child, Cao Xueqin learned a lot of skills such as gold stones, painting, and literature, but he did not learn the basic means of livelihood, and his life was bleak after he was backward in the family road, especially in his later years.
His friend Duncheng wrote two poems describing Cao Xueqin's downfall: "Full of basil and old age, the family eats porridge and wine on credit";
In order to make a living, Cao Xueqin has done a lot of trades, and selling paintings is one of them. "Looking for a poet to stay in the monk's house, selling paintings to pay for the restaurant" is his friend Tun Min's feelings about him.
Cao Xueqin's situation is very similar to Dong Bangda's experience in his youth.
Dong Bangda grew up reading and writing with his grandfather, went to school at the age of seven, and could write articles at the age of eleven.
However, because the family was poor, often using rice bran and wheat skin to fill the hunger, this year encountered natural disasters, but also could not open the pot, Dong Bangda had to drop out of school to help his father farm.
He used his spare time to study hard, and when he was seventeen years old, he passed the examination for xiucai. In the next ten years, he traveled to Qiantang, Huyuan and other places to teach and read a lot of books.
In the first year of Yongzheng (1723), when he entered Beijing to take the exam, he only had eight coins on his body, and he suffered a lot along the way.
Finally arrived in the capital, Dong Bangda lived in the Wulin Guild Hall, preparing to take the exam.
After staying for a while, Dong Bangda ran out of travel funds.
Because there is no money to pay for meals, the people in the guild hall feel that Dong Bangda eats and drinks here and is very contemptuous.
Dong Bangda couldn't stand the cold words of those people, so he pawned the clothes for money, but before long, the clothes were also pawned, and the guild could no longer accommodate him.
Thanks to an old lady surnamed Liu at that time, looking at Dong Bangda's face, she thought that he was not the kind of person who had been poor for a long time, and there would definitely be a Tengda day in the future, so she temporarily lent her extra house to Dong Bangda to live in.
During the period of borrowing, the old lady treated Dong Bangda very kindly.
Dong Bangda, who finally did not have to live on the street, was grateful, worked hard day and night, studied seriously, in order to make progress, and repay the old lady's kindness in the next day.
Finally, the results of the second year's imperial examination were announced, and Dong Bangda achieved a good result of the first place, and since then he has taught his official students, which has solved the problem of livelihood.
Later, Dong Bangda was favored by Shangshu Li Tingyi of the Punishment Department, and after the latter's recommendation, he walked on the Hubu Qipin Xiaojing official.
The so-called walking, according to the Qing Dynasty system, refers to institutions without full-time officials or non-full-time official positions.
In 1733, Dong Bangda passed the examination for the middle of the jinshi, taught the Hanlin Academy to edit, and finally began the smooth sailing of the future career. And his painting skills were also appreciated by the Qianlong Emperor.
Before Qianlong toured the south, all his impressions and knowledge of Jiangnan were built on relevant books or descriptions of others.
A year before the southern tour, Qianlong saw the "Ten Views of the West Lake" drawn by Dong Bangda, which greatly aroused YouXing, and also specially inscribed the painting, and decided that when he toured the south next spring, he must personally feel the beauty of the long-heard West Lake, and print the realm and painting.
Dong Bangda's "Ten Views of the West Lake" (partial). The Qianlong Emperor never personally visited Jiangnan before his southern tour, and all his impressions and knowledge of Jiangnan were based on relevant books or descriptions of others. This "Ten Views of the West Lake" is an example of the various Jiangnan tourism information provided to Qianlong by the ministers on the eve of the departure of the southern tour. After seeing the painting, Qianlong was full of expectations for Hangzhou's West Lake.
Dong Bangda in the main history can be described as bitter first and then sweet, and in folk tales, when it comes to the first half of his life, he is even more depressed.
One of the stories goes like this —
One year, Dong Bangda was a teacher in Tonglu, and it coincided with the opening of the guanwang temple in the old Zhuangzhuang, and the employer's family all went to the temple to worship, leaving only Dong Bangda to look after the family.
When the employer returned, he found that there was a chicken missing, so he suspected that Dong Bangda had stolen it, and Dong Bangda could not wash his innocence, so he had to go to the temple to ask the truth (divination and ask whether it was true or false), and as a result, three times in a row, the bodhisattva said it was true.
Dong Bangda could not explain, was ashamed, panicked and opened the temple door, but accidentally fell. Seeing dong bangda so panicked, the employer believed that he stole it.
Dong Bangda, who was indisputable, did not quit in anger and actively prepared for the exam to win the shame of fame and glory.
The gentle and elegant mr. teaching, and the image of stealing chickens and dogs, are more than 18,000 miles apart, but they are suspected of being thieves, which shows dong Bangda's poverty and helplessness in those years.
It also laid the groundwork for Tung Bang Daken to lend a helping hand to the poor and depraved.
After Dong Bangda became a state civil servant, he basically spent time in the imperial palace, but he was very concerned about the suffering of the people and sympathized with the vulnerable people.
One year, Dong Bangda was appointed as the canonical examiner in Jiangxi and presided over the examination.
According to the theory, he did not have to worry about anything outside the examination hall, but after Dong Bangda learned that the local South River was flooded and the people were affected, he personally walked to the river to check the disaster situation, carefully inspected the disaster situation, and after returning to Beijing, he asked the emperor Chen Song for the local disaster relief.
Zhang Yang and Dong Bangda of Xincheng Guangling Township (present-day Dongqiao Town, Fuyang District, Hangzhou) were fellow jinshi and had a close personal relationship. Dong Bangda admired Zhang Yang very much, and when he saw that he was pregnant with talent, he sponsored him many times.
Dong Bangda not only valued talents himself, but also hoped that the emperor would do the same.
Legend has it that once, the Forbidden City was newly completed into a palace, and the emperor ordered Dong Bangda to write a large plaque at the main entrance.
Dong Bangda wanted Qianlong to pay more attention to talents, so he wrote down five big characters of "Tianzi Is Heavy and Heroic", which were far-reaching in intention and bold handwriting, and everyone praised them.
All this, coupled with cao Xueqin's painting selling career in her later years and Dong Bangda's identity as a great painter, has a certain intersection, perhaps, this is the fundamental reason why the smart people of that year connected them together!
Ji Xiaolan, who had been wearing dong bangdar for nine years, said the famous saying that "there must be nothing in the right, and there may be something in the matter".
From the perspective of subjective wishes, we all hope that the good story of Dong Cao meeting and knowing each other is also "there must be nothing, and everything may be there".
The two great literati who have left a name in the history of Youth consult with each other and feel sorry for each other, revealing a kind of human temperature.
But even if the lives of the two never intersect, Cao Xueqin is famous for hundreds of years with "Dream of the Red Chamber", and Dong Bangda is glorious for his painting art, and their respective brilliance will not be inferior by half a point.
Producer | First of all, Hongming
Edit | Yu Xin
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