When Qi Baishi was fifty-four years old, he came to Beijing for the second time to avoid military turmoil in his hometown and sell paintings with engraving to make a living. He painted a fan for two dollars in silver, half cheaper than the average painter, but although few people came to him to paint. Although it is common to find people who engrave his seals, their income is very small, and it is difficult to maintain their livelihood. He wrote in the poem: "Before the work is picked up, the brush is picked up, and the painting is not worth much now"; "Cold as snow, You Yan is not valuable".
Author: Qi Baishi
Name: "Multi-Life"
Collection of Qingweilou Fine Arts Museum
In the face of these difficulties, Qi Baishi did not bow his head, he wrote in the poem: "Laughing down on this man is really me, the more no one knows the more peaceful"; "The carving insect is easy to know, and the hundred years of public discussion have their own period". There are two main reasons for the situation that Qi Baishi's paintings are rarely favored by people: first, when he was in his fifties, he was intoxicated with the Bada Shanren, although the pen and ink were good, but there was a cold and easy, and the wealth was insufficient; the second was that the large-scale freehand painters at that time, such as Wu Changshuo, Wang Yiting, Chen Banding, Yao Hua, Chen Shizeng, etc., painted rich and noble, set up colorful, and had a golden stone flavor, and indulged in pen indulgence. This is probably the background of Qi Baishi's change of law in the years of decay.
Name: Morning Glory
Since Qi Baishi met Chen Shizeng at the age of fifty-four, the two had become friends with Mo Rebellion. Chen Shi once inscribed in Qi Baishi's "Borrowing Mountain Map": "Painting me self-painting from ancient times, why should I bow my head and ask for the same group." In the poem, Qi Baishi is persuaded to jump out of the ancient fence and change the style of painting. Qi Baishi listened to Master Chen's advice and once said: "My friend Shi once advised him to reform, and if he believed in it, he would abandon it. This should be counted as the objective reason for Qi Baishi's "decay method". When Qi Baishi was fifty-five years old, he once wrote: "Yu received a view of the "HuangJing Lady Album" from Huang Jingren yesterday, and he knew that Yu's paintings were too similar and had no transcendent interest, and decided to change greatly from today. People want to scold it, but don't listen to it. People want to be praised, and Yu don't like it. In the painting for Fang Shuzhang, he wrote: "Yu has been painting for decades and has not claimed his own intentions. From then on, it was decided to change greatly, not to be known, that is, to starve to death in Jinghua, jun and so on, do not pity, but Yu may be able to ask himself when he is happy. Qi Baishi himself also believes that it is necessary to change the style of painting, which is the subjective reason for Qi Baishi's "decay and change method". External factors play a role through internal factors, so Qi Baishi "sweeps away all the tires is always difficult to do, and the door begins to change after ten years", and began a "decay method" of about ten years.
Name: Bamboo Chicken Diagram
Speaking of Qi Baishi's "decay and change method" when he was about sixty years old, it should be mentioned that he had changed several times before he was sixty years old, and there were still changes after sixty years old, and every time he changed, there was a leap and a sublimation. Qi Baishi once said: "People like to change, not only the officials in the world act, but also Yu Painting." After the age of twenty, Yu likes to paint characters, will paint beautiful people with thirty joys, like to paint landscapes after thirty, and like to paint flowers, birds, grasses and insects after forty.
Or in a year, I like to paint plums, where four paintings are not far from plum blossoms. Or in a year, I like to paint peonies, and all four paintings do not leave the peonies. This year, I like to paint old red and jade hairpin flowers, and all four paintings cannot be separated from here. So changeable, fortunately Yu Gan is a good citizen. "Qi Baishi's early paintings were fickle, and so was his late period. When he was eighty-eight years old, he also wrote: "This year, Another year, eighty-eight, his brush has been slightly removed from the old style?" "It is precisely because of the change that the crabs, shrimps, etc. painted by Qi Baishi in the late period are more mature.
Title: "Double Title Plum Blossom"
The significance of Qi Baishi's "decay and change method" is greater than that of the early and late changes, and he swept away the figures of Shi Tao, Xu Qingteng and other people in the early Eight Great Mountain People, becoming his own face, and at the same time laying the foundation for late painting, which was an important turning point. Although Qi Baishi absorbed the characteristics of Wu Changshuo's paintings in the transformation, it was not a copy of Wu Changshuo.
Although Qi Baishi was not as good as Wu Changshuo's "release", he was better than Wu Changshuo in terms of elegant and popular appreciation, and became another accomplished painter after Zhao Zhiqian and Wu Changshuo. Some commentators have said that if Qi Baishi had only lived to be sixty years old, history would not have recorded his glittering name, and I feel the same way. If there is no "decay and change method", if there is no other life, painting a lifetime, and changing a lifetime, there will be no Qi Baishi painting art. Qi Baishi's painting style before and after the "decay method" is completely different, which provides a reliable basis for us to identify the age of Qi Baishi's works.
Source: "Qi Baishi Calligraphy and Painting Appraisal"
Editor: Shi Cong
Review: Yang Xiangxiong
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