With the opening of Shanghai, Western art genres and traditional Chinese painting and calligraphy have gone hand in hand and penetrated into each other, constituting a modern visual culture. At the same time, the modern education system represented by Shanghai Meichuan has established the mainstream cultivation method of visual talents.
2022 is the 110th anniversary of the establishment of Shanghai Meizhuan, based on the special relationship between Shanghai and China's modern visual culture, Shanghai Liu Haisu Art Museum launched a series of lectures on "Modern Visual Culture", Chen Zishan, Chen Jianhua, Gu Zheng and other 15 experts and scholars will tell the development of modern visual culture in Shanghai from their respective research fields.
Chen Zishan, a professor at the Department of Chinese of East China Normal University, brought "Illustrations of Haipai Literary Works", from Lu Xun, Yu Dafu, Ba Jin, to Zhang Ailing to contemporary writers, Chen Zishan told how modern literature is integrated with visual culture. This issue of The Paper, Art Review presents a transcript of the lecture.
Chen Zishan, professor of the Department of Chinese of East China Normal University, talks about "Illustrations of Haipai Literary Works"
After the New Culture Movement of the 20th century, a large number of new literary works were published, but for about a decade, these published monographs of novels, poems, and essays were rarely illustrated, which was strange to me. Because the Chinese cultural tradition has a saying of "left map right history". In the late Qing Dynasty, "Dianshizhai Pictorial" and "Feiyingge Pictorial" were all written and illustrated, and cooperated with each other. However, in new literary works, there are few artistic creations that really correspond to them. It was not until the late 1920s that this phenomenon began to change.
Cover of The Three Heroes of the Wind and Dust
The Beginning of New Literary Illustration: Hu Shanyuan, Yu Dafu, Lu Xun
In November 1927, the Shanghai Commercial Press published Hu Shanyuan's play "Three Heroes of wind and dust", which was listed as the "third type of the Misha Society series". Founded in Shanghai, the Misha Society, although small in scale, was an early new literary society, and Hu Shanyuan was one of the core figures. Lu Xun once considered the Messa Society to be "a group of literature for literature", and Hu Shanyuan's novel is the "most prominent" in the works of the Misa Society. "Three Heroes of wind and dust" is a script, and the title is a bit of a martial arts novel, but it should still belong to the scope of new literature. The script has four vivid illustrations that stand out.
Illustration of the inner page of The Three Heroes of the Wind and Dust
The author was the painter Hong Ye at that time, and Shi Jingcun later wrote "Painter Hong Ye" to commemorate this "loyal artist" who died young. The Three Heroes of the Wind and Dust illustration is an illustration of an earlier new literary work as we know it now, although with some traces of illustrations of martial arts novels.
In January 1928, shanghai Beixin Bookstore published Yu Dafu's novella "Lost Sheep", which was certainly not Yu Dafu's best work, but it sold well at the time and was constantly reprinted in a short period of time. The title page of the book features an illustration of a figure by Ye Dingluo, who is what Yu Dafu calls "a young writer of the Creation Society." The "Creation Society" is a literary group established in the early days of the "May Fourth" new literary movement, among which Guo Moruo, Yu Dafu, Cheng Fangwu and other elders of the Creation Society all studied in Japan; the latter group of young people who joined were called "little guys of the Creation Society", and Ye Dingluo was one of them. He admired Yu Dafu more, and his creation was also influenced by Yu Dafu, plus he studied art, so he gave Yu Dafu's "Lost Sheep" a neat picture. This is also the first illustrated novel by Yu Dafu, the picture is vivid and vivid, and the cover of the book is very simple.
Illustration from Uddhav's novel Lost Sheep.
Cover of Lost Sheep
Half a year after the publication of "Lost Sheep" (September 1928), the Unknown Society published a collection of Lu Xun's essays, "Chao Hua Xi Shi", which is Lu Xun's memories of his youth, recalling his teachers (such as Mr. Fujino), good friends (such as Fan Ainong), and "From the Hundred Grass Garden to the Sanwei Book House" is also collected.
There is a very long afterword to chao hua xi shi, which discusses the filial piety advocated by Chinese dynasties. There is already a "Twenty-Four Filial Pieties" about "Filial Piety", but his students and friends have provided a lot of graphic materials about filial piety, so Lu Xun cut from the newly obtained information to further discuss and criticize the teachings on "filial piety" in the Chinese feudal tradition. He started with a copy of the "Two Hundred and Forty Filial Pieties" and mentioned a painting of Wu Youru's "Cao'e Toujiang Tu" in the "Later Twenty-Four Filial Pieties", which Lu Xun used as the first illustration of the afterword; he also put in the "Picture of Lao Laizi's Drama And Entertainment", the "Living Impermanence" portrait in the "Jade Calendar to treasure money" and the "impermanent" portrait in the "Tale of the Jade Calendar Banknote". Therefore, the afterword to "Chao Hua Xi Shi" is the first article with four illustrations attached to one article after the New Literary Movement. This is an interesting phenomenon, Lu Xun probably felt that the text analysis alone was not vivid enough, and he needed to further analyze the problems of "filial piety" in feudal society through images.
The illustrations in the collections of modern writers such as Lu Xun, Yu Dafu, and Hu Shanyuan in the late 1920s all hoped to further argue their works and propositions through visual impact, which shows that after the Late Qing Pictorial, which was known for its developed visual culture, writers of new literature also began to pay attention to illustrations.
Fei Xinmei and Cao Hanmei created the "Home" comic strip respectively
Entering the 1930s, the first thing to mention is Barkin's novel Home, which was first serialized in The Times in 1931 and was originally titled Riptide. In May 1933, enlightened books published the first single edition of "Home".
Ba Jin's "Home" and Lu Xun's "Blessing" and "A Q Zheng Biography" have been adapted into dramas, movies, television, stage plays, etc. many times, and at the level of art creation, "Home" was first adapted into a comic strip.
Manyo Shoten publishes the cover of the comic strip "Home"
Manyo Shoten publishes the inner pages of the comic strip "Home"
In August 1941, Manyo Shoten published the comic strip "Home", and Ba Jin's novel was adapted into 146 comic strips by Fei Xinmei (enamelled) and Qian Junzao (text description). According to Mr. Qian Junzao's "Afterword", their adaptation was approved and supported by Mr. Ba Jin, but at the time of publication, Ba Jin had already left Shanghai for the rear area, so he did not see it at the first time. This version of the comic strip is also the first adapted comic strip of "Home" that can be seen now.
Fei Xinmei (e-painting) and Qian Junzao (text description) collaborated, and Manyo Bookstore published the character modeling in the comic strip "Home"
Fei Xinmei (e.g.) and Qian Junkui (text description) collaborated, and Manyo Shoten published the inner pages of the comic strip "Home"
In addition to the collaborative adaptation of Qian Junkui and Fei Xinmei, Cao Hanmei (Zhang Meiyu) also has an adapted version. Cao Hanmei's representative work was "The Whole Picture of plum in a golden bottle" published twice in 1936 and 1942, after which Cao Hanmei focused her attention from classical novels to new literature, adapting "Home" in the form of comic strips. From classical novel illustrations to new literary comic strips, it is a kind of advancement. Cao Hanmei's "Home" was serialized in the Shanghai tabloid Poster from July 1942 to February 1943, when the serial advertisement called it a "wonderful painting in the world" and evaluated Cao Hanmei's comic strip "Home" with adjectives such as "novel picture and radiance".
Cao Hanmei's comic strip "Home"
The two comic strip styles are distinctly different. Fei Xin and Qian Junzao's collaborative version has the charm of Chinese painting, ink rendering, soft lines, especially the last painting is obviously a landscape painting. Cao Hanmei's lines are more vigorous and rigid, and the straight lines are more outlined, which can be seen to be influenced by ancient Chinese embroidery and the more popular decorative arts at that time. Both styles have their own advantages. Unfortunately, Cao Hanmei's version was not published, and the old book of Fei Xin I Qian Junzao's version has limited surviving. However, this is an exploration and attempt to combine this popular form of comic strip with new literature, and it also has certain significance for current research.
Zhang Ailing's pioneering: she illustrated her own text works
In the 1940s, a very familiar name appeared: Zhang Ailing. She also brought a new paradigm – the author himself directly involved in the illustration of his own work. She combined painting with her own literary creations, illustrating her novels and essays.
Zhang Ailing has loved to draw since she was a child, and when she graduated from St. Mary's Girls' High School in 1937, she filled out a form, and in the "Best" column, she filled out not writing, but painting. Moreover, Zhang Ailing's first published work is not a literary creation, but a cartoon. According to her own account, a cartoon from her middle school years was submitted to an English-language newspaper in Shanghai, the Damei Evening News, and the painting was adopted, and she also received 5 yuan for the manuscript fee, and she went to buy two lipsticks with the manuscript fee. Unfortunately, so far, we have not found this cartoon. If one day, Zhang Ailing's first published work can be "unearthed", it will be a major discovery.
In 1939, Zhang Ailing entered the Faculty of Literature of the University of Hong Kong; in 1942, she returned to Shanghai due to the outbreak of the Pacific War, and dropped out of St. John's University for a short period of time. She chose a path she thought she should take—to make a living out of literature.
But her literary journey began differently from that of ordinary Chinese writers, and she first submitted articles to 20th Century, an English-language magazine in Shanghai, and wrote film reviews in English. She then wrote an introduction to the changes in Chinese life and clothing in English, and she herself drew 12 illustrations for this English article, explaining the costumes worn by different dynasties in China. The Chinese edition of this article was the "Changing Clothes" that was later included in the "Rumors", and Zhang Ailing began to provide illustrations for her own works.
Illustration of the original English edition of Zhang Ailing's "Changing Clothes"
After writing for an English magazine for a while, she officially moved to Chinese writing and began writing novels. "Agarwood Crumbs: First Burning Incense" and "Agarwood Crumbs: Second Burning Incense" were serialized in "Violet" edited by Zhou Shuangjuan, and then began to write novels and essays for a series of literary magazines in Shanghai (such as Magazine, Tiandi, etc.). In August 1944, he published his first collection of short stories, Legend, which included 10 works, including "Golden Trivia", "Love in the Fallen City", "Agarwood Crumbs: First Incense", "Agarwood Crumbs: Second Incense", "Flower Wither", and "Blockade".
Except for "First Incense", "Second Incense", and "Blockade", which have no illustrations, the other 7 articles are all illustrated when they are published in the magazine. For example, "Golden Trivia" Zhang Ailing with four illustrations, in addition to the hero and heroine and supporting roles, a pair of shoes worn by the novel characters have vivid illustrations, which shows his talent in painting, and it is an innovation for the writer to draw illustrations for his own works from Zhang Ailing.
Zhang Ailing's illustration of Cao Qiqiao in The Golden Lock
But strangely, when these articles were published in the magazine, Zhang Ailing drew illustrations with great interest, but the illustrations were not included in the published monographs. The reason for this is not clear to us, perhaps because of the printing conditions at that time, or the original manuscript was not properly preserved. But in any case, this is the period when Zhang Ailing's literature and art creation are most closely integrated, and it is also the period closest to her relationship with visual culture.
In November 1946, Legend published an updated edition of five novels, including "Red Rose and White Rose", "Mercy", "Hongluan Xi", and "Osmanthus Steaming A Little Sorrowful Autumn", of which "Red Rose and White Rose" was originally published with five illustrations. Zhang Ailing wants to tell the reader through illustrations about the image of the hero and heroine in her heart and the style of the scene. Writers visualize the literary images they create through illustrations. Of course, from the reader's point of view, he may think that the Cao Qiqiao in his heart is not the image in the painting, but at least the author gives a hint of imagination.
In "Red Roses and White Roses", Tong Zhenbao, Wang Jiaorui and Ai Xu mother and daughter
Not only the novel, Zhang Ailing also illustrated her own prose, which is more difficult. In December 1944, she published her first collection of essays, Rumors, in which 22 pages were illustrated (18 full pages, 4 half pages) and divided into many topics. For example, "University Scene" (two sets of illustrations), "Foreigner" (three sets of illustrations), "Hong Kong" (one set of illustrations), "Good Woman" (one set of illustrations), "Poor Worm" (a set of illustrations). These illustrations are completely different from the illustrations of the novels included in "Legend", in "Rumors", she uses an exaggerated comic style from the perspective of prose, these illustrations are satirical, ridiculous, very vivid and interesting, and form an indispensable part of "Rumors".
Illustration of Zhang Ailing's prose collection "Rumors"
Regarding the illustrations, Zhang Ailing has her own saying. In March 1944, she attended a meeting of female writers in Shanghai to discuss her relationship with Chinese and foreign literature, and also talked about illustration, Zhang Ailing expressed it this way: "Ordinary ordinary illustrations, striving for beauty, are like advertising paintings", here it can be seen that Zhang Ailing is wary of advertising paintings. "Striving to be ugly doesn't necessarily become a comic. But to be able to attract the reader's attention is to achieve part of the purpose." It can be said that many of the illustrations in "Rumors" achieve this purpose.
Zhang Ailing designed the cover for her own collection "Rumors"
Zhang Ailing believes that the drawing of illustrations should be determined according to the specific situation, can not blindly "strive for its beauty" or "strive for its ugliness", look at Zhang Ailing's illustrations, whether it is a novel or prose illustrations, are very unique and vivid, and with her words to form a dialogue relationship, mirroring each other, complementing each other, mutual interpretation, complementing each other, mutual promotion, reading her words and then looking at her paintings may have new understanding and feelings.
As an illustrator, Zhang Ailing looks forward to the reader's participation in the interpretation of her work through text and illustrations, and she has pioneered a way of processing the interaction between words and images.
After Zhang Ailing, there are also students who learn From Zhang Ailing. One of them was named "Oriental Flying Grasshopper" (Li Junwei), and "Spiderfly" was taken from the Book of Poetry, which means "rainbow". "Oriental Flying Apex" is a man, only two years younger than Zhang Ailing, they have studied at St. John's University, their creations are obviously influenced by Zhang Ailing, some people call him Zhang Ailing's protégé. So at that time, a commentator said that some people said that Zhang Ailing's article was the new Mandarin Duck Butterfly Sect, because she had another trivial and delicate feeling, and the later imitators were most like the Oriental Flying Spider, which was simply Zhang Ailing's protégé, and the small actions in Zhang Pai's article were all imitated.
Young Li Junwei
The Oriental Cockroach loves literature and movies. He wrote many novels and film reviews. He also illustrated his own works. In August 1948, he published "Gentleman and Lady Diagram" in Shanghai Zhengfeng Culture Publishing House, which contained seven novels and five with illustrations, of which he himself drew illustrations of "Spring Sorrow" and "River Transmission". The other three were painted by his sister. Although the illustration style is not the same as Zhang Ailing's, it also paints the image of young men and women in the city at that time.
Illustration from the Oriental Scorpion's novel Sadness Bi
Zhang Ailing created a new style of combining modern literature and visual culture, but not only Zhang Ailing and Oriental Cockroaches, but also the writer Duanmu Hongliang, who has illustrated Xiao Hong's novels. Moreover, at that time, Shanghai formed a publishing fashion, and many literary magazines adopted novels with illustrations to help readers better understand the works.
In June 1941, When he was in Hong Kong, Heliang Duanmu drew an illustration for Xiao Hong's novel "March in a Small Town".
If this way continues to this day, we can mention the Shanghai writer Jin Yucheng, who published the only novel "Blossoms", in fact, "Blossoms" was originally published without illustrations, but Jin Yucheng liked to draw, and after reprinting, he himself gave illustrations to "Flowers", and the more he painted, the more he painted.
How to combine literary works with visual arts, in fact, there are many ways, such as adapting novels into screenplays, adapting them into comprehensive arts such as movies and television, and the writers' own participation methods are also diverse. We study the Shanghai school and the relationship between the interaction between the shanghai literary process and the visual arts and visual culture, and this perspective of text and illustration cannot be ignored. Here I am just a preliminary combing, I hope that you can further explore, discuss, study, and expound this perspective more fully and comprehensively.
Note: This article is based on the lecture and reviewed by Chen Zishan. As one of the series of activities of Shanghai Liu Haisu Art Museum to commemorate the 110th anniversary of the establishment of Shanghai Art College, "Haisu Lecture Hall × Modern Visual Culture" will be continuously updated on the official WeChat account of Liu Haisu Art Museum and the official account of Station B.