Ni Zhan's "Zizhi Mountain House Map" in the Collection of the National Palace museum in Taipei
Traditional Chinese painting has thirteen disciplines, which can be divided into three categories: people, landscapes, flowers and birds.
Since the Two Song Dynasties, this classification has appeared in some places that are incompatible with the development of painting. The basis of classification is mainly the subject matter of painting, that is, the form of objects that appear in painting, while Chinese painting gradually took transcending form as the goal after the Two Song Dynasties, and "on painting in form, see neighboring children" became the basic view of the painting world.
Just as we can't put Wang Wei "wood end hibiscus flowers, red calyxes in the mountains." The streams were silent, and they opened and fell" "In the autumn rain, shallow stones slipped. Jumping waves splash themselves, egrets are shocked" and other small poems are said to be landscape poems, and it is also difficult for us to call Ni Zhan's cold mountain dead wood works" "landscape paintings", and it is difficult to call the Bada Shan people flower and bird painters.
If we regard Wang Wei's small poems as "landscape poems" or "writing landscape poems", then we can say that such poems are not enough. The description is so simple, the content is so monotonous, so monotonous that its content can be summed up in just one sentence: some hibiscus flowers bloom in the mountains and fall again; an egret flies in the autumn rain and plays with the autumn water. What is the charm of such a poem? Is such a poem still poetry?
Yuan Ni Zhan "Fishing Village Autumn Ji Chart Axis"
The same goes for painting. For example, landscape painting is translated as landscape in English, and the term mainly refers to landscape paintings that express mountain forests, courtyards, and rural scenery in the West, and it is too inappropriate to translate Chinese landscape paintings, especially the so-called landscape paintings like Yunlin.
In the eyes of those painters who aspire to break free of the fence, painters do not paint a thing to represent it. Landscapes, flowers, birds, etc., which are the constituent factors of form, are only borrowed forms to express spiritual feelings. If you look at the cloud forest and only stay on the sparse trees and empty pavilions, you will not get the cloud forest; if you look at the Eight Greats and distinguish what kind of fish, birds, and flowers he painted, you will not be able to understand the Eight Greats. For example, this small bird of the Eight Greats is one of the flowers, fruits, birds and insects hidden by Wang Fangyu, and the outline of the bird is outlined with a light pen, as if there is none, and it shows the non-stick and non-sticky idea of the Zen family's "bird trace point high in the sky". In this sense, the landscapes, flowers, birds, etc. in the painting are not real beings, flowers are not flowers, birds are not birds, mountains are not mountains, and water is not water. Drawing a thing is not a thing.
Zhu Yun Flower and bird diagram
Su Dongpo once drew bamboo with a zhu pen at the Royal Painting Academy, and his friend smiled and asked him: "Where in the world is there red bamboo?" Dongpo said, "Is there ink-colored bamboo in the world?" Why do people paint ink bamboo? Dongpo's earth-shattering question contains rich content: where is the similarity of form in painting; where the object that appears in the painting is a specific material object--it is not an "object" to be observed, but a statement of the painter's mind; where the painter wants to establish a visual spatial form, he is creating a world for the mind, a small universe that can be assured.
Northern Song Dynasty Wen Tong "Ink Bamboo Diagram"
Dongpo said: "The painting of the spectators is like reading the world's horses, taking what they want." The core content of the literati consciousness he advocated was to "seek outside of Li Huang". Dongpo's close friend Wen painted a bamboo branch, protruding from the side, it was such a branch of bamboo, but the peers at that time thought that there was a tanluan show, no wind and movement, and the cold had the breath of 100,000 husbands. If you treat it as a physical world, such a world is monotonous to the point of pity. It is no wonder that some researchers and collectors in the West always feel that they cannot grasp the reality of such paintings and cannot understand the significance of such a treatment. There is a similar situation in today's Chinese art market, looking at the size of the painting and whether the painting in the picture is full and rich, which is very different from the pursuit of traditional Chinese painting.
In the Song Dynasty, a painter painted plum blossoms and inscribed a poem:
"Evoking raw incense comes and goes on, so it should not be seen as a plum blossom."
A landscape painter in the Yuan Dynasty reminds the viewer:
"The mountains and waters are endless, so we should not look at the landscape."
When Su Shi commented on Zhang Xu's calligraphy, he said:
"When the people of the world saw that Goode had seen the peach blossoms, they contended for the peach blossoms, and they ate the peach blossoms as rice, and ate this meal for fifty years, but did not negotiate. Just as Zhang Changshi saw that Danfu and the princess were fighting for the road, and he got the method of cursive writing, if he wanted to learn Zhang Changshi, he would force him to do it. ”
The Zen monk Lingyun of the Tang Dynasty asked his teacher Fengshan, who was seeking bitterly and had a rare understanding, and once he came out of the mountain, he suddenly saw the peach blossoms blooming outside, bright and bright, suddenly enlightened, and wrote a poem to remember:
"Thirty years of searching for swordsmen, a few flowers and a few branches. Since the first sight of peach blossoms, until now there is no doubt. ”
Before enlightenment, the peach blossoms were still the same, because of the dust calendar, it was difficult to see the real machine. After enlightenment, the peach blossoms brightened for a moment, and the true nature was revealed. In Su Shi's view, art is the same, just like the lingyun enlightened peach blossom, which has little to do with the peach blossom, if you stare at the peach blossom to think, you must never get started.
Ma Yuan Landscape Drawings Collection of the British Museum
In Chinese philosophy, there is a special concept called "illusion". It has a deep influence on Chinese painting. The Qing painter Dai Xi even said: "Buddhists cultivate the Pure Land to start with delusions; painters also cultivate the Pure Land, and enter with illusions." "Not from the real place, but from the illusion." This introduction from the illusion is really a major cause of painting, and it is a key to understanding the inner secrets of Chinese painting.
Illusion is not what we call hallucination today, hallucination mainly refers to the false sensation of human sensory organs, is a psychological phenomenon (Gombrich said that the artistic illusion belongs to this), and the "illusion" in Chinese philosophy and artistic concept is a question about whether existence is real.
The Tang Dynasty Zen master Nan Quan (who was Zhao Zhou's teacher) said: "When people look at a flower like a dream. "A splendid flower, which did not exist before, now has; although it exists now, it will not exist in the future, and everything in the world is changing." For such a being, if you regard it as an object of viewing, it has no trace in the blink of an eye, it is just an illusion; you want to treat it as a material existence that you want to possess, and eventually you cannot avoid empty-handedness; you must regard it as an emotional dependence, attach yourself to it, stick to it, and eventually you will inevitably end up in two vast fields that do not see each other.
It is in this sense that a flower is like a dream to man. Chinese philosophy has two concepts, one is change, the other is change, although the meaning is close, but there are essential differences. In the view of Taoist Zen philosophy, change is a depiction of the appearance of things, and change is a judgment of the true meaning of the world, precisely because the world is changing, so it is illusory and unreal.
Chinese painting starts from the illusion, in fact, it is to search for the true meaning of life through the appearance of the world, the inspiration of life behind the circulation of the world, and the inner cause that moves the soul of the artist.
Ming Xu Wei", Ink Peony Diagram, ink and pencil on paper, 109.2×33cm, Collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing
Xu Wei painted ink peony, with the inscription poem Cloud: "Ink game wife Zen, long punched by the ginseng people." The rouge under the nose is not stained, and there is really no way to learn to paint the peony edge. "Wife Zen, for the Zen family's head, refers to the Zen master when he receives the scholar, blindly explaining, mother-in-law mother, ding-dong continuously. Zen gate emphasizes the direct enlightenment of the present moment without words, and the wife Zen has the meaning of not being able to meditate. Qingteng means that my intention in painting peonies is not peonies, although it may fall into the nagging wife Zen, but there is no way, I have the right to use it as an illusion to express my understanding of the world. My ink play, the colorful peony into an inky black world, in fact, the real water is fragranceless, that is the nature of the world, in this sense, I really do not have the fate of painting peonies - because the peonies I paint, in fact, are not peonies, you did not see that ink stain is my tears - peonies are just an illusion.
In the Ming Dynasty, Xu Wei had a banana stone peony figure axis
Xu Wei has "Banana Stone Peony Scroll", which is now in the Shanghai Museum. This figure is rendered in ink, divided into layers, not outlined, the ink is not glued, and there is a lot of fun. The picture shows plantains, ingots and peony flowers. This is an extremely emotional work with inscriptions and several rules, recording the process of a crazy painting. The first question says:
"Jiao Mo Yingzhou stone, banana bush anchovy wood." The tip of the pen is Yin Qiqi, and the peony blooms in late summer. The calves in the pool of heaven. ”
Also known:
"Painting has been, floating white five, drunk, wild song bamboo branches a slur, the book is on its left." Peony Snow Open in person, Basho Snow Wang Wei is good. The frost rabbit is a little sharp, swinging the spring wind surface by the canal. There are small words next to it: "Taste and see the peony in the snow two." ”
In the lower right is the title cloud:
"Du Zhenyan said: I am suffering from the creation of children."
Qing Dynasty Jin Nong Momei
Life is like a drama, there seems to be a ruthless hand behind the world, turning clouds and rain, turning things upside down. Counting human affairs, unsatisfactory things, there is no one in ten that is not swallowed by impermanence, the so-called "creation of children's true illusionists, change people's eyes as bright daylight."
In his drunkenness, Qingteng realized the fact that he was "suffering for the children of creation", jumped out of the upside-down world, was not fascinated by illusion, and liberated himself from the spirit in a state of sobriety. The inscription poem says that "Peony Snow Opens In Person, Basho Snow In Wang Wei is Good", which leads Wang Wei's creation to a more absurd point. There can be no peonies or plantains in the snow, but Qingteng said that he personally saw two peonies in the snow, and these nonsense reversed the chronological order and subverted the rules, all in order to highlight the "illusion" of existence and tell the hardships of being bound by various phases.
Ming Xu Wei Piece stone double tong diagram
Aoto Youshi said: "The old man's game is inky", he said that his painting is "ink play"--not a game of pen and ink skills, but in the ink, showing a drama that is out of the world - the human world is such an absurd drama. Life is like a fantasy, and I paint ink plays. Xu Wei expresses an upside-down life through a chaotic rhythm of timing. The world that people see, experience, and feel in their hearts, although vivid, seems to be true, but it is actually illusory. People's attachment to this illusory world is an inverted view.
Ming Xu Wei Lotus Mandarin Duck
Watching Qingteng's ink drama made me think of a passage of Xue Xiangling's singing in "Suolin Bag": "I only say that the iron rich and noble are destined for a lifetime, and who knows that the number of lives is clear in an instant... This is also a lesson from God: he taught me to collect residual hatred, avoid pampering, and rehabilitate, change my temperament, rest in love with the water, return to the bitter sea, and realize Lan Yin early. "Aoto's paintings have a feeling similar to the understanding of life expressed in this singing.
Qing Jinnong Ink Opera Atlas
Jin Nong once painted "Lotus Flower in the Snow" and inscribed:
"Lotus flowers in the snow, those who have no paintings in the world, do it with their own will."
The lotus flower in the snow is originally a Zen language. He also paid special attention to Wang Wei's snow plantains, saying:
"Ci Shi Yun: The banana tree is not bad in its own body." Life is brittle, and we should take this as a warning. Autumn soaring has been sent, autumn lin is cotton, to the painting of how to take it. Wang Right Cheng Snow in a shaft, has allegorical ears. ”
He also said:
"Wang Youcheng snow in the banana, for the painting garden strange composition, the banana is the shang soaring decay, how can it ling dong without withering." The right man is deep in Zen, so there is a painting to illustrate the body of shamen, and to ensure its solidity at four o'clock. ”
Plantains are fragile, there is no lotus in the snow, and paintings plantains and lotuses in the snow express the idea of not being confused by illusion.
Ming Chen Chun Ink flowers and birds
For the idea of "starting from the illusionary realm", Chen Baiyang's body taste was quite profound. He talked many times about the importance of what his teacher Shen Zhou said, "The viewer should ask me to be outside of Danqing" and "be outside the skeleton." He said that since he was a child, he was often frustrated that he could not trace the ancients, painting and painting, he did not want to paint, reveled in the ancients' brush and ink, the pursuit of the realism of objects, what does it mean? It is in this confusion that he gradually changed from Danqing to ink, from metaphysical to cursive, from galloping vertical and horizontal to light and peaceful, illusioning appearances, and pursuing the sustenance of the soul.
The Ink Flower Fishing Boat Album of Baiyang in the Forbidden City of Beijing, painting plum, bamboo, orchid, okra, daffodil, camellia, thorn hazel,, pine branch and Hanxi fishing boat, a total of ten sections. The first nine paintings are all flowers and trees, but the last one is painted on the Han River, clear flow veins, a small boat wandering in the middle, and the previous content seems to be incongruous. Bai Yang bundled them into a book and had its own considerations. On the last page, he has an inscription that says: "There are several kinds of ink flowers in the snow, and there is a sudden excitement on the lake, but it is continued by a fishing boat, and it must be known that it is the same as the phantom ear." ”
Ink Flower Fishing Boat Album
This is a post-snow ink play, accompanied by heavy snow, he paints with his own will, for bamboo, for plums, for a little flower, for the green pine in the snow, a little bit of the country, a little bit of mountains and forests, tumbling and flowing under his pen, he paints, paints, means to fly, the external image is more and more blurred, the restraints of the tangible world are gradually liberated, he suddenly thinks of a small boat, taking him far away, away to the far side, to the empty world. From this, he concluded that all tangible beings are "illusions", flowers and trees are illusions, boats are illusions, all existences are illusions, not non-existence, but all streamers and shadows, all are links in the process of constant change, life and death, there is no way to determine, all are illusory, although there is no. As the Buddhists say, "Taking pictures from each other becomes illusory."
Qing Jinnong's "Li Fo Tu Axis" silk color 91.6 × 57.2cm Collection of the Palace Museum
Many artists in Baiyang, Qingteng, Dongxin, Dongpo, Yunlin, and even Many Chinese artists regard form as an illusion and deny the reality of form. The dead wood and strange stones on the eastern slope, the sparse forest pavilions in the cloud forest, the lotus flowers in the snow of the green vines, and so on, these forms are all illusions, a non-deterministic stimulus that indicates the existence of existence, and they show that the existence of the world is not judged by your senses through irregular and aesthetic ways of existence, and all attachment to objects is meaningless. For example, the lonely forest of the cloud forest, their existence means that they do not exist, or that they are not real. It is impossible for us to obtain the true meaning of his paintings from the specific spatial structure and color characteristics of the shulin pavilion.
Yuan Ni Zhan "Six Gentlemen Diagram Axis"
Life is like an illusion, life is a dream. Where can the sudden waves last, and how can the dew that comes at night stay for a long time? By asking where Feihong is going, I don't know where I am from my life. Falling flowers like rain evokes the sigh of Shaohua's imminent death; the autumn wind is depressed, which leads to the lamentation of eternal life. Just as the so-called heaven and earth exist in my way, the mountains and forests are older and closer. Open your blue eyes and look at the phantoms. Such an illusion in Chinese paintings has a sense of life of enlightenment.
Qing Dynasty Zheng Xie Youlan Tu
Since Chinese painters recognize the characteristics of existence and illusion, why do they still paint such a virtual and unreal thing? It reflects the unique wisdom of Chinese artists. Just like the rockery in the Chinese garden, the name "rockery" means the mountain of unreality, which is the "mountain" of "fake". The rockery is not as "true" as the real mountain, but in the eyes of Chinese artists, the real landscape is not as "true" as the rockery, because the rockery embodies the spirit of the mountain, reflects the feeling of people, and reflects people's unique reference to the life of the universe. The rockery can make "rhyme people's eyes, cloud guests' homelike hearts", ruthless and hateful, and when the moon is clear and the wind is clear, a good rockery brings people an indescribable feeling. In this sense, the rockery is the "real" mountain.
Ming Dong Qichang's "Spring Light Cloud Shadow Map"
Wang Shizhen's "Records of the Garden of The Mountains" says, "The eyes of the world are true and the skillful people of the mountains seem to be false." The one who looks at the false is like the truth" is exactly what it means. When Dong Qichang talked about landscape painting, he also talked about such a line of thinking. He said: "In the strange theory of paths, painting is not as good as landscapes. With the subtlety of pen and ink, the landscape is by no means picturesque. "Landscape painting is higher than the specific landscape lies in the subtlety of pen and ink, pen and ink is not a pure form, but a language that expresses the mind, and the artist uses the mind to illuminate the landscape and express it with fake pen and ink." Pure landscapes are external objects, beings that have nothing to do with the human mind. Landscape painting, on the other hand, is a light song of the soul, a world in which the brilliance of human life shines, of course, it is higher than ordinary existence.
Qing Dynasty Yun Shouping Momei
In the Chinese concept of art, there is the idea that illusion is real. The Vimalaya Sutra says, "A Buddha is an defilement, and a defilement is a Buddha." The Heart Sutra says, "There is no dirt and no purity." Mahayana Buddhism tells people that it is not to be free from defilements, to be free from delusion, but to be illusory and true, that is, to be pure, and a pure lotus flower blooms in the muddy water. Such ideas have a deep influence on Chinese painting, and the introduction of Chinese painting from the illusion is not obsessed with the illusion, but the pursuit of the meaning of life in the illusion.
Yuan Ni Zhan Wangshan map on the bank of the river
Collection of the National Palace Museum in Taipei
Ni Yunlin's late trumpet is like a phantom resident, also known as a phantom Xia resident. His number seems to reveal this. For him, the hue world is just an "illusion", so his paintings fall into the dead woods of the cold forest. But that doesn't mean he has a quirk of hating prosperity and hating beauty. Ming Li Rihua said it well:
"Although the painting of the cloud forest is a lonely scene, it has the color of smoke."
The "phantom xia" of the yunlin forest has a glow in the place of no xia, a true place where there is no truth, and a spring color where there is no spring color. Yunlin wrote in the poem "Painting mountains for Fang Gui":
"When Maharaja painted the mountain, he saw the mountain and did not see the painting. Pine snow is self-entangled, and birds are idle. I was new to wielding, and everything I saw was like a painting. Outings and city tours, things return to the paintings. In order to ask Master Fang, which is false and which is true? The ink pool is dripping, meaning my boundless spring. ”
With his personal experience in learning painting, Yunlin put forward the idea of "which is false and which is true", which is exactly the idea that Chinese painting is illusion and reality.
The introduction of Chinese painting from the illusion is to pursue the light of life in the illusory form.
Source: Yueya Calligraphy and Painting