Reveal your true self
——Reading Sheng Xinfu's "Explanation of Doubts in Calligraphy and Painting" No. 7
Text/Ding Weiju
Opening the first page of "Explanation of Doubts in Calligraphy and Painting", mr. Sheng's personal book "Revealing The True Self" suddenly appeared in front of me, which shocked me and could not help but sigh "Another person Cao Dewangye!" "Cao Dewang is almost well known to women and children in China, the creator of the listed company "Yaohua Glass", a patriotic entrepreneur, I call Mr. Sheng Xinfu the "Cao Dewang" of the art world, not that they are all born in poverty, but that he, like Mr. Cao Dewang, has the responsibility of "nation", a broad mind, as he said: "It is appropriate to do things that are beneficial to mankind", the grandeur of his calligraphy and painting, the strength of his pen and ink, and the zhang zhang calligraphy and painting all reveal his true feelings of "erudite ancients, relaxing the heart muscle, writing themselves" ("Bogu Relax and Write Yourself").
"Revealing His True Self" is the theoretical cornerstone of his creative practice.
▲ "Calligraphy and Painting Interpretation of Doubts" Pen and Ink Codex No. 83
Mr. Sheng believes that "true feelings" are the driving force behind the creation of excellent works of art. He said: "Great artists, mostly emotional". He believes that works of art can be divided into two types: "emotional" and "rational". He took "cursive writing" and "freehand painting" as examples, saying that when the passion comes, it is free to wield and occasionally produce good works"; on the contrary, in the "rational state, there is no need to cross the thunder pool, there must be no waste paintings" (calligraphy and painting codex eighty-three), the so-called "no waste paintings" is a euphemism, and when the mystery is broken, it is also said that "no good works" are also said.
▲ "Calligraphy and Painting Interpretation of Doubts" Pen and Ink Codex No. 88
This situation is innumerable in the creation of literature and art in ancient and modern China and abroad. In the history of literature, there are quite certain conclusions, such as the Russian Chernishev's novel "What to Do", which is a social picture constructed according to his democratic ideas, which may be attributed to the work under the "state of reason", which is undoubtedly positive and progressive in terms of its ideological content, but it is not a "masterpiece". His achievements in literary creation must not be comparable to his contemporaries in Anna. Karenina," author of War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy is comparable.
Another category, as Mr. Sheng said, is the "emotional" type, out of "passion" under the creation, such as Qu Yuan's "the king of the disease does not listen to the deaf, the obscuration of the hall of the Mingye, the evil song of the public also, the Fangzheng is not tolerated, so the sorrow and contemplation and composed "Leaving the Troubles". That is to say, "Leaving sorrow" was created under the fainting of the bitter king and the ignorance of the officialdom, with the "love" of "sorrow and ghostly thoughts", and Lu Xun mentioned it together with the "History" and called it a "masterpiece"! And Lu Xun himself, under the "love" of "mourning his misfortune and angering him", created the image of Ah Q, who laid the cornerstone of modern literature on the mainland, while the literary giant Ba Jin wrote his debut work "Destruction" in anger for "declaring the death penalty of an unreasonable system" after receiving the letter of his eldest brother's death.
▲"Lines", inner page
Literature and calligraphy and painting are both art, and their reasoning is also driven by "feelings". As Chen Xuan of the Yuan Dynasty said in the "Hanlin Essentials": "Joy is qi and the word is comfortable, anger is thick and dangerous, mourning is depressed and the word is tight, and music is calm and beautiful", and also said: "If there is a heavy and light feeling, then the word Shu and the danger are also deep and shallow, and the changes are endless", the ancient art theorists on the mainland are not inferior to Western scholars at all! This is also enough to prove that Mr. Sheng's judgment that "all artists are emotional" and that "masterpieces" are created under "passion" is undoubtedly correct.
Mr. Sheng's emphasis on the role of emotional factors in creation is not out of thin air, but determined by the essential characteristics of human aesthetics. People have emotions, but no one regards the crying and laughter of babies as works of art, that is to say, the venting of people's general moods and sorrows cannot be regarded as art, and only when the flower of "aesthetic pleasure" is opened, can it bear the fruit of art.
Gift of the Great Tide 180x96cm
So what is "aesthetic emotion"? The great Russian revolutionary Plekhanov incisively expounded the process of the emergence of "aesthetic emotions" from the original art of primitive man, the hunting map, when he said: "When the victorious product of the hunt begins to evoke pleasant sensations in its appearance, and has nothing to do with the conscious thought of the strength or dexterity of the hunter it decorates, it becomes the object of aesthetic pleasure, and thus its color and form have a great and independent significance" (Faith without Address, Art and Social Life) p. 137) This passage indicates two elements of aesthetic emotion:
First, the "aesthetic pleasure" that causes it is its "appearance" - "its color and form also have a great and independent meaning", in other words, the object of our aesthetic is the concrete "appearance" of things, and if we leave the external form of the aesthetic object, the aesthetic "pleasure" does not exist. In the article "On "Just Right"" has been reached, I will not repeat it here;
Second, the key is that people's "aesthetic pleasure" is "completely unrelated to the conscious thought of the strength or dexterity of the person it is decorated with", that is, it becomes an "aesthetic object" when it is "completely unrelated" to the purpose and behavior of the hunter's hunting. It can be said that the artist rejects the purposefulness of "utilitarianism" in the process of aesthetic creation, at least without "conscious thought". This is in line with Mr. Sheng's advocacy that "smart people do not sell, and artists do not know how to do business" (Ninety of the Codex of Calligraphy and Painting). If an artist is full of "Mr. Fang", how can he "be full of joy and sorrow, and let it go... Free and romantic, dashing and natural, forget your troubles, write yourself" (Pen and Ink Notes No. 88) and enjoy the "joy" of "art"? It may be assumed that the hunter's emotions still linger on the "desire" of hunting and hunger or the "satisfaction" of the delicious taste of the tongue, although there will also be some kind of emotional "impulse" and "pleasure", which is only utilitarian, to satisfy physical desires, and by no means the "aesthetic pleasure" of artistic creation, just as the "crying" of infant hunger will not be appreciated as Beethoven's "Pastoral Symphony".
Autumn water 66x45cm
Mr. Sheng's "Fish Gong" has a special affection with "Fish". I believe that when Mr. Sheng created "fish", he would never be inspired by the delicious impulse of the "fish", otherwise he would not be an artist and become a gourmet; and in the same way, if the person who appreciates the painting has only a little pleasure of "delicious on the tip of the tongue" for the "fish" in the painting, then he must not be able to enjoy the "aesthetic feelings" of the "fish" expressed by Mr. Sheng in the painting - "the wind sways the leaves, and the boats graze the flowers." The boat circle is dotted, and the room is leisurely every year. ”
This "looks like a scene of the rivers and lakes, all of which are double catfish inscriptions", Mr. Sheng said: "The boat is like a picturesque person, or has some thoughts, or has some intentions." The "boat" here is the author, and his "thoughts" and "intentions" are the "dreams" of our nation that have "been surplus (fish) every year" for thousands of years. Mr. Sheng said: "The Chinese people speak auspicious language and blessings" and "Every year there is more than (fish), which is the dream of the people." Mr. Sheng shoulders the "sustenance of the people" and "inspires people to realize their dreams" with the art form of "ink culture" unique to our nation. This is the "true feeling" between Mr. Sheng and the "fish", that is, the core of Mr. Sheng's ink painting and painting holding high the banner of "revealing the true self"!
To this end, Mr. Sheng's "revealing his true self" is to reveal his true feelings of "benefiting mankind" and "inspiring people to realize their dreams" in ink paintings and calligraphy, rather than the bad wind in today's art world - "indiscriminate feelings". To "reveal the true self", we must put the cultivation of the mind in the first place, and Mr. Sheng's motto is: "Cultivating the heart, cultivating the nature, establishing the product, and the determination are the basic conditions for the writer and the painter, and it is also the cultivation of a lifetime." (Pen and Ink Codex 26)
The first draft was revised in the early morning of December 15, 2021, and revised in the early morning of the 17th on the 16th
(Author: Ding Weiju, 84 years old, graduated from the Department of Chinese of Hangzhou University in 1963, senior teacher of middle school Chinese)
Mr. Huang Youyan Fishing Platform Grass 77x46cm
Old sentence Ink Jiangnan Cursive 77x47cm
Book Title: Calligraphy and Painting Explain doubts
By Sheng Xinfu
Xiling Printing Press
"Explanation of Doubts in Calligraphy and Painting" is Mr. Sheng Xinfu's traditional codex form, one problem at a time. Set the methods of thousands of years of ancient sages to solve the difficulties of today's people in learning books. It is an encyclopedia of doubts for learning calligraphy and painting. All the problems are basically answered. From beginner calligraphers and painters to high-level researchers, they will benefit from it.
This book starts from the more than 100 doubts of inheriting calligraphy and painting, takes the times as the foothold, takes the ancient sage classics as the basic theory, and takes the author's more than 60 years of reading history and calligraphy and painting practice as the foundation. It objectively analyzes and interprets the root causes and development possibilities in today's calligraphy and painting art. Quote the scriptures and convince people with reason. Sort out a practical and feasible path of artistic inheritance.
The book "Explanation of Doubts in Calligraphy and Painting" is a bilingual version of Chinese and Japanese. Japanese calligraphy and Chinese calligraphy are of the same origin and have commonalities, and the bilingual version is conducive to discussing the future of calligraphy, mutual benefit and complementarity, and common development; it is conducive to the internationalization of Chinese calligraphy and painting, and is conducive to the global sharing of Chinese culture.
On December 31, 2021, Sheng Xinfu signed an autograph for readers at Xiling Printing Press
A corner of Yugong Academy, Daixi Villa