laitimes

Dong Qichang's book is subtle

Ming Dong Qichang, "Landscape and Water", 31.7×97.5cm

Dong Qichang of the late Ming Dynasty has a scroll of cursive poems, which is now in the National Museum of Tokyo, Japan. This volume is a collection of lines and grasses. The first ten paragraphs of the poem are small lines, he always likes the delicate and lubricated paper and light ink center, the handwriting is free and beautiful, gentle and elegant, a school of gentle and sparse scholarly atmosphere, just as the so-called "intentional into the wind, with unintentional attitude, naïve and messy, and the structure is senran, often there are books that are not complete, the pen is not satisfactory, the dragon and snake cloud objects, flying fingers, this book is the best." "Among Dong Qichang's heirloom works, the largest number of xingshu is also the style that has the greatest influence on later generations, and the Qing Dynasty calligraphers and painters Wang Shimin, Shen Xiao, Cha Sheng, Zhang Zhao, etc. are all benefited by it. Looking at Dong Qichang's small books, there are floating clouds scattered, the freshness and subtlety of the new Tong Chu introduction, the pen flies between the fingers and wrists, but the meaning swims in the vast and boundless heart. Although the countless people behind him chased after him, they lost every cent, afraid that it was a difficult word.

The last paragraph of the "Xingcao Poetry Volume" is a paragraph of clouds: "In March, in the clouds of Su Zhiyun hidden mountain rain, there is nothing wrong at home." Fan Erfu, Wu Boming, and Zhao Mansheng shared the temple. Try the table on tea. Grind Koryo ink and try to write a scribbled book. None of them are incoherent. This is sprinkled with forty-eight "chaotic books", "eclectic", breathtaking, grass but not crazy, fluent and cheerful, and full of ink play. The long handwriting is strong and flexible, straight and euphemistic, like dancing in the air, floating and unrestrained; and like a wisp of smoke in the mountain forest, if it is far away, if it is looming. This paragraph and the first half of the beads are combined, one real and one virtual, one static and one moving, turning and multiplying and generating each other, at the end of a "times" word such as a dead vine old branch, the pen tip flipped and rolled, instantly jumped off the paper, and took a piece of text that was absolutely agitated. As he said in the "Chibi Fu" of Ba Su Dongpo: "In a word, there must be put and received, and there must be spiritual support." ”

Dong Qichang's book is subtle

Dong Qichang is one of the selected volumes of the Book

Dong Qichang was born in 1555 in Huating, Matsue. At that time, the prosperous Jiangnan literati were born, and the elegant and exquisite artistic taste deeply affected people's lives, and the Zhuzhishan and Wenzhengming of the Wumen School of painting in the early years shook Suzhou, making Suzhou once a major place for literati calligraphy and painting. According to legend, the appearance of Dong Qichang moved the central position of calligraphy and painting to Songjiang, and it is conceivable that he had a great influence in the world.

Dong Qichang's book is subtle

Dong Qichang Selected Volumes 2

Dong Qichang did not have a prominent family background like Zhu Zhishan and Wen Zhengming, but he was wise and worked hard in his studies, which made him less famous and knowledgeable. At the age of 35, he was admitted to the entrance examination, and then was selected to enter the Hanlin Academy and began his career journey. At the age of 45, he served as the "lecturer" of the emperor's eldest son, at the age of 49 he was appointed deputy envoy of Huguang Tixue, at the age of 67 he was appointed as the secretary of the Taichang Temple and a bachelor of service, at the age of 69 he was appointed as the Shangshu of the Nanjing Libu, and at the age of 76 he was promoted to the position of the Shangshu of the Rebbe and the head of the Hanlin Academy. At this time, he gained an unparalleled political status in the Ming Dynasty as a calligrapher and painter. The Kangxi Emperor of the Qing Dynasty was very fond of Dong Qichang's calligraphy, one was similar in purpose, and the other was to create a cultural atmosphere in the Qing Dynasty, he had this evaluation of Dong Qichang: "Huating Dong Qichang calligraphy, the heavens are very different. Its high-quality and rounded style is popular in the ink room, which is beyond the reach of all families. Every time you are inadvertent, the abundance of gods is unique, such as the slight clouds curling up, the breeze blowing, especially the natural fun. ”

Dong Qichang's book is subtle

Dong Qichang Selected Third Volume of the Book of Books

In the forty years since he entered the army, he has made friends from all walks of life, and he has navigated such a prominent political position, and he has always evaded and maintained a distance in the struggles that have come and gone, and most of the time he has even stayed away from power and lived an idle half-hidden and half-life.

He has also been a Confucian and Zen scholar throughout his life, and he has revealed this kind of heart in his calligraphy and painting works and theoretical works "Essays on painting Zen Room". He said in the "Essay on painting the Zen Room": "How many clever men, only by that humble and trivial situation of the cabinet all their lives, if you want to be a leader, you must let go of this heart, make it to the void, if the sky, if the sea is wide, and make it extremely happy, if you have once lit the spring, if Uncle Mao looks at the lotus, sprinkling and falling, all the past phases are now and the future is the future, never worry about it, to the great entry, is the person who is responsible for the universe, what is the carving of insects and the end of the skill." The mind like the sea and the sky can "take on the universe", and the infinite expansion of the heart can transcend the desires of the world, without any concerns, and always be at ease. In his essay "Zen Yue" chapter, he recorded such an understanding: "Yu Shi ginseng bamboo castor words, long time has not been contracted. One day, lying in the boat, Nian Xiang severely attacked the bamboo karma, knocked the zhangbu fan bamboo in the boat with his hand, and glimpsed the province, and since then there has been no doubt. Once upon a time, the old monk's tongue, a thousand scriptures, penetrated the eyes. It was May of the year of the Yi unitary, and the boat was also passing through Wutang. In the autumn of that year, when he returned from Jinling for the first time, he suddenly appeared in the realm of the third world, and his consciousness was not good, and if he returned for two and a half days, he knew that the cloud of the "University" was absent-minded, blind, and deaf, and it was the realm of enlightenment, which could not be confused. From this, it can be seen that Dong Qichang has a profound Zen experience.

Dong Qichang's book is subtle

Dong Qichang Selected Fourth Book

Most of the real artists benefit from erudition, but also from the ideological realm from the ordinary, so their victory is not the technical level, but the victory of the spiritual realm. The painstaking mechanics of "studying books in the pond, and exhausting the ink in the pool" is certainly valuable, but "it is not Zhang Zhi who dedicates it, it is not easy to talk about it." "Must" read thousands of books and travel thousands of miles. "Use the sage texts to cultivate the mind, use the mountains and rivers and hills to calm the dry mind, and cultivate "the dust in the chest, and the natural hills and valleys camp." "Cultivate a peaceful appearance, and gain the interest of Gao Mai with a light and fading ink." Since the Song Dynasty literati painting, heavy rhyme, heavy cultivation, and light mold are the artistic realm pursued by scholars, and this view is also reflected in Dong Qichang's book theory: "Zhao (Wen Min) books are vulgar because they are familiar, and my books are beautiful because they are born." Zhao Shu has no intentions, and my books are often careless. He believes that the essence of calligraphy is raw, light, and clumsy, and calligraphy must be matured, astringent, and heavy, and familiar with it is easy to get vulgar, and the custom is the taboo of calligraphy and painting, and sweet, skillful, slippery, and pretentious is banal and superficial disguised under the gorgeous appearance, and must be "spontaneous and arbitrary." To achieve "new ideas in the law, sending magic reasons to the extravagant, the so-called ease of play, luck into the wind." Can "self-proclaimed Dharma eyes", can "see me", can transcend the figurative text, and get the artistic conception of "radiant spirit" and "true essence".

Swipe left and right to explore the larger image

Dong Qichang's book is subtle
Dong Qichang's book is subtle
Dong Qichang's book is subtle

Many people divide Dong Qichang's calligraphy career into three stages, 50-year-old former Shi Erwang, 70-year-old former Shi Huaisu, Yan Zhenqing, Mi Fu, after 70 years old, self-contained, pen dry ink, simple and subtle. In particular, this "light" word has always run through his spirit, and this realm probably makes this "Haojie" of the glorious world feel extremely comfortable. He likes a passage by Su Dongpo: "The gesture is magnificent, the words are brilliant, the age is becoming more and more mature, it is to create blandness, it is actually bland, and it is brilliant." He thinks that he has not yet scored ten, "if you can learn and can hear", as long as you learn, you can still achieve it. Su Dongpo once had an ink painting "Dead Wood Strange Stone Map", black and white dry and vigorous tree trunks, rugged strange stones, only this constitutes the picture, Xiao Ser lonely. This dead wood has the meaning of "outer dry and middle anointing", as if it contains the agar of life, and when the earth springs back, new branches and leaves will be born, and so on, year after year. The beauty of dead wood is the beauty of the true color, the coldness after the prosperity is exhausted and the calm after the fire is exhausted; it is the blandness after the aging and maturity, and it is the truth of the world and the earth. Dong Qichang's consciousness of the plain, but also hidden in the mountains and forests, is the sheer dust of the shadow, is beyond the name of the world and then to understand the universe of the true of the soul of the good.

- END -

Read on