Qi Baishi (1864-1957) was a versatile artist, with fruits and vegetables being a particularly skilled subject, and gourds being the most common subjects in his fruits and vegetables. In his lifetime, Qi Baishi created hundreds of gourd-themed paintings. In his artistic career, although the gourd is only a trivial small subject of painting, in terms of its artistic connotation and artistic characteristics, it has its own different interests in its painting. This article is small and big, combing through nearly 100 gourd painting works handed down by Qi Baishi, discussing the history of the evolution of gourd painting, the characteristics of Qi Baishi gourd painting and its position in his artistic career, and understanding Qi Baishi's artistic achievements from different angles.
First, the evolution of gourd-themed painting
The earliest painting of the gourd theme can be traced back to the Song and Yuan dynasties. At this time, the gourd is mostly attached to the figure painting. For example, if you want to explain, goshi or xingletu, there are many gourds as accessories. At this time, the function of the gourd is mostly a container or a magic instrument, and it is a supporting role of the picture, which is not enough to climb the hall of elegance, such as Ma Yuan's "Xiaoxue Mountain Trip" (taipei national palace museum collection) there is a donkey riding a pack with a gourd on its back, Li Song's "City Shoulder Baby Play" (Taipei National Palace Museum collection) as a toy gourd and so on. Gourds as accessories can also be seen from time to time in Li Gonglin's figure paintings. From this, we can see the transmutation of early gourd paintings as a marginal painting family. Among the painters of the Ming Dynasty, most of the people who painted with gourds were figure painters, and there were also a few landscape painters. As far as the author's experience is concerned, there are dai jin, Zhang Chong, Huang Ji, Liu Jun, and Wan Bangzhi. In addition, there are also some famous painters.
Ming Liu Jun, "Liu Hai Drama Toad", 98x139cm, National Art Museum of China
Dai Jin and Liu Jun's paintings are themed with bangs playing toads. Dai Jin (1388-1462) painted the "Two Immortals" (Guangdong Provincial Museum collection), featuring bangs and iron abduction Li. Liu Hai was dressed in rags, holding a large toad in his hand, hanging two gourds around his waist, and walking barefoot and iron crutched Li in the mountains; Liu Jun's painting was "Liu Hai Playing Toad" (national art museum of China). Bangs hold a golden toad in their hands, hang a gourd on their right shoulder, and walk on the rough waters. The bangs painted in the former have the atmosphere of wildness, and the latter has the atmosphere of wealth. Regardless of whether they are wild or rich, Liu Hai is in a humble state, happy in the heavens and the earth, showing an open-minded and detached attitude.
Dai Jin was the leader of the "Zhejiang School", known for his landscape and water, and was also good at characters, "the miscellaneous paintings of god figures are not bad", the painting style is rough and quite wild; Liu Jun once enshrined the inner court between Chenghua and Hongzhi, and the official Jinyi were all commanded, "the landscape figures are capable of quality". The painting style is neat and delicate, especially influenced by the paintings of the Southern Song Dynasty, with a royal atmosphere. Dai Jin's work has no money knowledge, only three seals: one is Zhu Wenchang's square seal "Eastern Wu", one is Zhu Wenfang's "Jing'an", one is Bai Wenfang's "Appreciation and Writing Fun"; Liu Jun only signs the poor money "Liu Jun". Both are professional painters, representing the "Zhejiang School" and the courtyard painting style in the early and middle Ming Dynasties. The gourds painted by the two men are all big waist gourds, which are beautiful and practical. The story of the golden toad played by Liu Hai is a household name in the folk, and Liu Hai is revered as an auspicious god who can bring money and heirs to people in the Eight Immortals. Therefore, when he appears, he is always accompanied by a gourd, which means to drive away evil spirits and nafu. The gourd is the standard accessory of bangs, both a magic vessel and a container, but it is also a symbol of auspiciousness. Therefore, in his portraits, he always did not abandon it, becoming a magic object second only to the golden toad.
Ming Zhang Chong "Scattered Immortal Figure", 55.5x129.5cm Guangdong Provincial Museum Collection
The same gourd accessory also appears in the figure paintings of Ming Dynasty painters Huang Jun and Zhang Chong. The gourd depicted in Huang Ji's "Diagram of the Sword" (collected by the Palace Museum) is a vermilion gourd, cinnabar has the meaning of exorcising evil spirits, and there is a wisp of green smoke floating into the gourd in the painting, and it is obvious that the gourd here is a magic weapon, which has the function of lowering the demon Voldemort. Huang Ji was a court painter in the early and middle Ming Dynasty, guanzhi Renzhidian Jinyi Zhenfu, the picture is recognized as: "Renzhidian Jinyi Town Fu Sanshan Huangji Writing", "Kemei" and "Nijin Qingguang" two seals; Zhang Chong's "Scattered Immortal Figures" (Guangdong Provincial Museum Collection) depicted gourds are also hung around the waist, from the author's inscription poem can see the identity of the master of the painting of the immortal: "Early phi inner scenery love Xuanxuan, so to the Xianguan with a feather coat." The Gurudwara ascended to the Purple Mansion in the middle of the night, and the lesson was covered by the clear day. The cave side used to say that the green cow degree, Ding Nei now see the purple snow flying. The first week of the flower armor is still more turned, and the eternal life should be a real opportunity. "The gourd is also a magic object of immortals, with several spots on it, indicating that it has a certain age. The "Continuation of the Illustrated Treasure Book" said that its characters were "elegant in coloring, and the authentic transmission of the characters, and they were not bad, and people competed for it at the time", and from this picture's color and style, it can be seen that this comment is very reasonable.
The gourd depicted in the "Drunken Picture Scroll" (Guangdong Provincial Museum Collection) by the painter of the Academy of Paintings, wan Bangzhi, is placed haphazardly on the ground like other coats of coats such as guqin, wine urns, scrolls, Go, books, etc., and the coats are drunk, and only the bookboy carries the wine jug around the crowd. The gourd or wine vessel here, like the above-mentioned magic vessel, is an indispensable and important accessory for the owner of the painting.
Qing Jinnong's "Album of Flowers and Fruits", collection of the National Museum of China
Gourd paintings can also occasionally be seen in the works of some famous painters in the Ming Dynasty, such as "Yuqiao XueguiTu" and "Village Girl CailanTu" (both hidden in the Palace Museum). The former depicts a fisherman and a woodcutter walking on a small mountain bridge in the snow, with the fisherman carrying fishing gear on his shoulder and the woodcutter carrying a branch on his back, while a gourd hangs next to the branch; the latter depicts a village girl picking orchids in the mountains, with two gourds hanging from his waist. The gourds depicted in both paintings are container functions. Judging from the painting style, the former uses a rough pen, and the mountain stones and tree trunks seem to have the wind of the "Zhejiang School", which should be the works of the early and middle Ming Dynasty; the latter is also written with a work belt, which seems to be done by professional painters.
Of course, there are many paintings of the Ming Dynasty with gourds as the theme, which will not be repeated. It is worth noting that in the gourd paintings that appeared in the early and middle Ming Dynasty, the painters were mostly dedicated to the inner court or mostly professional painters. The gourds they paint are realistic. Among the literati painters of that time, the shadow of the gourd could hardly be found. This shows that the painting of the gourd theme, because of its unique auspicious meaning, exorcism and practical function, is more accepted by ordinary people and professional painters, and the literati paintings that specifically reflect the painter's pen and ink interest and the literati sentiments seem to have no interest in the gourd subject matter. Obviously, this is very different from the literati painting world since the Qing Dynasty.
Qi Baishi, "The Strange Statue of Li Tie", 40x77.5cm, 1931, Beijing Academy of Painting
Since the Fall of the Qing Dynasty, gourds belong to the family of vegetables and fruits in flower and bird paintings, such as the gourd appears in Jinnong's "Flower and Fruit Map" album (national museum of China collection), and other vegetables and fruits, flowers such as loquat, eggplant, watermelon, radish, daffodils, persimmons, pomegranates, etc. have become the protagonists of the picture. However, at the same time, many painters still use gourds as accessories, such as Huang Shen's "Three Acid Diagrams", "Li Tie's Flower Drawings" (tianjin Academy of Fine Arts), Li Yu's "Li Xian Illusion" fan (national museum of China collection), Ju Lian's "Life Star Diagram" and so on.
Qi Baishi", Double Gourd, 35x66.5cm, Beijing Academy of Painting
In the late Qing Dynasty, painters represented by Wu Changshuo and Qi Baishi brought the painting of gourd themes to the extreme. They not only depicted the gourd as a painting ontology, but also gave the gourd multiple cultural connotations, which made a very niche painting subject rise into the room, causing the attention of art historians.
Since the twentieth century, the painters who have painted gourds include Lu Hui, Zhao Shuru, Chen Shizeng, Wang Zhen, Chen Shuren, Yu Jianhua, Li Kuchan, Tang Yun, Shen Zicheng, Zhu Qizhan, Liu Haisu, Song Shengyu, Chen Dayu, Qian Juntao, Xu Linlu, Huang Xianwu, Wang Geyi, Li Daoxi, Cheng Shifa, Zhao Shaoang, Ding Yanyong, Qiao Mu, Li Xiongcai, Qi Gong, Su Baozhen, Fang Zhaolu, Li Kuizheng, Yang Shanshen, Xie Zhiguang, Lou Shibai, Liang Qi, Fang Jizhong, Cui Zifan, Feng Qiyong, Rao Zongyi and others. However, in terms of the proportion of gourds in the artistic career of his painters and the number of works passed down through his generations, there is no one other than Qi Baishi.
Second, the type of Qi Baishi gourd painting
The gourd has become a natural artifact of wine because of its large belly and small mouth, and even more because of its harmonic sound "Fulu" and "Protector", its branches are called "vine", "vine" and "wandai" harmonic, "vine belt" and "wandai" harmonic sound, "Fulu" and "wandai", is the "Fulu Shou" complete, thus becoming an auspicious treasure; at the same time, from the traditional feng shui, the gourd mouth is narrow and fat, the gas collected, easy to enter and exit, so it is a method to drive away evil and dissolve various unfavorable feng shui. In the cultural meaning of the gourd, it carries countless connotations in traditional culture and carries a good wish. More importantly, in the subject matter of Chinese painting, the gourd can show a state of open-mindedness, tolerance, wantonness and vividness. And Qi Baishi's paintings, whether it is the subject of painting or the painting technique, can be said to have an indissoluble relationship with the gourd. The gourd theme is more popular with the audience and is appreciated by the elegant and popular, so as a professional painter who is grounded in the ground, and a flower and bird painter who often paints with the themes appreciated by the general public, Qi Baishi naturally has a special love for the gourd theme.
Qi Baishi's "Hulu Tu", 34× 64.5cm, Collection of Beijing Academy of Painting
In Qi Baishi's paintings on flowers, vegetables and fruits, the gourd theme appeared late. The earliest gourd that appears in Qi Baishi's paintings today is the "Portrait of Li Tie" (beijing painting academy collection) in 1913. This picture is also the same as the figure painting painted by painters in the Ming and Qing dynasties, and the gourd is only an accessory to the character, not the protagonist. The real creation of the gourd as the main body of painting was after the decline of Qi Baishi. Since then, gourd paintings have been created intermittently, until their return to the mountain. According to incomplete statistics, there are at least nearly 100 existing Qi Baishi gourd paintings, and although they do not occupy the mainstream in terms of their number, they are an indispensable highlight in their flower and bird paintings. In comparison with other painters, Qi Baishi can be described as the master of gourd painting. Even his private master Wu Changshuo is slightly inferior in number and subject matter.
In terms of quantity and painting techniques, Qi Baishi's gourd paintings can be roughly divided into three categories: one is a color painting with a gourd as the theme, mostly depicting gourd leaves with large pieces of accumulated ink, and then painting gourds with garcinia or goose yellow, or supplementing the gourd with praying mantises, dragonflies or other grass worms, and large leaves are often connected by random vines. The Qi Baishi gourd paintings that are seen the most now belong to this category; one is white painting or pure ink, only the outline of the gourd is outlined with light ink, and then accompanied by a short inscription, or supplemented by a large piece of ink leaf, such works are relatively rare, accounting for about 10% of their gourd paintings; the other is in the figure painting, the gourd is an accessory, quite similar to the gourd painted by the Ming Dynasty, and more than one figure is painted as a magic instrument or container hanging on the body, such as the "Iron Abduction Immortal Figure" (collected by the Kyoto National Museum in Japan), "Luohan Tu" and so on. There are very few such works, and I have only seen a few of them. Because the third category of works is still essentially a figure painting, it is not discussed in this article.
Third, the artistic characteristics of Qi Baishi gourd painting
Qi Baishi's gourd paintings are mostly freehand. These paintings, adhering to his consistent painting style, that is, using the wanton ink splashing method and rendering gourd leaves and gourds with large color blocks, are representatives of the painting style after the decay of the year. The gourd he paints, in addition to the picture itself, conveys the author's sentiments, such as the inscription in the picture of "Double Gourd" (Beijing Painting Academy Collection): "People laugh at me, I also laugh at people", which is the same as the inscription "People scold me, I also scold people" in its common figure paintings, all of which show dissatisfaction and ridicule of the world in a relaxed and witty brushstroke. Another piece of "Hulu" is inscribed: "The head is large and small, the appearance is realistic, and it is willing that people must be recognized, and it is not a gentleman's body", which also conveys the charm of the gourd's personality.
Qi Baishi "Gourd", 19.5x55cm, Collection of Beijing Academy of Painting
Qi Baishi gently expressed his painting concept through the gourd, and inscribed a small poem in the painting, and his gourd painting was further elevated into the room, such as the title "Hulu Tu" (Beijing Painting Academy Collection) Yun: "Dan Qinggong is not in the fine coarse, the big tu Fang knows that it hinders the drawing." The tender grass and delicate flowers are sold out, and whoever looks for me to buy gourds. This creative mode, which not only expresses artistic ideas in paintings, but also shows the taste of literati, is the same as Xu Wei, the Ming Dynasty painter whom Qi Baishi loved. Interestingly, Xu Wei also painted a large freehand gourd, which is one of the passages in his volume "Miscellaneous Paintings of Flowers" (the collection of Hiroko Izumiya, Japan). Xu Wei inscribed on it: "There is nothing in the world, there is no three ambiguities, and I always joke about painting flowers." The vines are long and the broad arms are ready to wither, and the three-in-one firewood is not drunk. The gourd is still invincible, and can be arranged as if it were created. Do not seek the shape of survival rhyme, the root dial is my five fingers cut. Nonsense? The branches are cut to the leaves; Jun Mo chai, the ink color is dripping twice. It is also an expression of his concept of splashing ink and capitalization, "not seeking to resemble survival rhyme" and Qi Baishi's "Dan Qinggong is not in the fine coarse, the big tu fang knows that it hinders the drawing" has the same magic.
Qi Baishi's large-scale freehand flowers are taught by Xu Wei, Bada Shanren, and Wu Changshuo, and from the extremely niche marginal subject of gourd, we can see the traces of Xu Wei' method. As a professional painter with a great interest in life, the paintings of gourd themes are also like Qi Baishi's other paintings, which are interesting and elegant. Although many gourd paintings have many similarities in composition, techniques, etc., Qi Baishi is better at writing poems or short sentences in paintings to increase its cultural added value, so that the seemingly cookie-cutter gourd paintings can come alive and give them a different visual impact. For example, in "Painting the Gourd", the inscription seven words and poems: "After the disaster, the body is frightened, and the boredom is more changeable but it is not difficult." I am bent on learning the gourd recipe, laughing at the world for no reason", showing the open-mindedness after the disaster; another "Painting the Gourd" is re-inscribed with seven poems: "The wind turns the ink leaves in a chaotic manner, and the gourd on the shelf hangs on its back." Everything is not as good as it is, how difficult it is in Kyushu is novel", but in addition to depicting the various forms of the gourd, pointing out that the chaos of the situation lies in unrealistic changes, resulting in "how difficult it is in Kyushu". The word "yiban" is most common in Wu Changshuo's gourd paintings, which is synonymous with "painting scoops according to gourds". Qi Baishi followed this method, making "everything is not as good as it is" become his classic famous sentence, which was widely used by posterity. At the age of eighty-nine, his white painting "Hulu Tu" (beijing painting academy collection), still self-titled: "Every year is the same", indicating that the word "according to the same" has almost always run through his artistic transmutation.
In another painting, "Painting a Gourd", Qi Baishi re-inscribed a poem: "Paint yellow and smear green and look at it repeatedly, and the years are usually full of sweat." Several want to change and finally shrink their hands, it is difficult to give up the truth to blame this life", expressing that its painted gourd intends to seek "truth" and not to seek "strange", even if the years and years are ordinary, after all, it will not "change". This is the same as the seven-word poem he inscribed on another painting of "Hulu": "There is no fantasy worker strange, rough and light depiction." Strange killing of heavenly craftsmanship, not renewing the appearance and Ping Weng" can be described as echoing each other, adhering to its consistent artistic concept; and in another painting" (Beijing Academy of Painting), it is inscribed: "Far away from the western mountains, the sunset is oblique, and the famous garden is lonely in spring." The flowers are lying on the ground and no one appreciates them, let alone the gourd's old melons", and its artistic conception is very similar to Xu Wei's "Ink Grape Poetry", "The soul of the half-life has become a man, the independent study is roaring in the evening wind; the pearl at the bottom of the pen has nowhere to sell, and it is idle and thrown in the wild vines", and there is a kind of resentment that the talent does not meet. The difference is that in Qi Baishi's pen, most of them express their inner twists and turns through black humor, and their pictures are festive, which is very different from the coldness revealed in Xu Wei's pictures. Qi Baishi's large freehand gourds are mostly matched by large ink leaves of different shades and shades and various forms of weeping vines. In terms of hanging vines alone, Qi Baishi has painted countless independent works with the theme of "vines". In his poetry collection or painting inscription, he also mentions painting vines many times, such as the poem "Painting Vines": "Qingteng Spirit Dances Good Thoughts, And Hundreds of Somos are confused." Where did This method of Bai Shi come from, the flying snake was chaotic and frightened away from the grass mang", said that he painted the vine master Chengqing Teng (Xu Wei), and realized from the form of the snake that he painted the vine Samadhi. He also inscribed in a painting of "Vines and Roses": "Painting vines is not like wood, but only the old man of green vines can get it." Yu San passed through the capital gate, liked to paint vines, and unknown viewers were like", here it is said that the source of painting vines comes from Xu Wei.
Another example is the poem "Spring Vine": "The west wind came to the garden pavilion yesterday, and the fallen leaves were one foot deep before the steps." And the joy of heaven can be repeated, and blow the spring color on the dry vines." Others, such as "Inscription Painting Vine", "Autumn Vine", "Old Vine", "Painting Vine Flower", "The Vines are Blooming in The Age of Self-Generation, Yu Avoids Chaos and Leaves Home", etc., all have paintings in the poems, poems in the paintings, and the poems and paintings complement each other. The vines that serve as a foil and embellishment of the picture are mainly gourds that set off a strong sense of vision. Qi Baishi wrote in a poem entitled "The gourd frame is not neat, the old monk of the Stone Stirrup Nunnery laughs, and the joke answers": "Three years of closing the west of the Buddhist hall, it is most appropriate to insist that the rest of the year is lazy." Feel free to plant the melon, and the bracket is high or low", according to which it can be seen that the matching of the "lead vine" has become the best choice for Qi Baishi's gourd not to abandon.
Qi Baishi's "Hulu Tu", 34× 67.5cm, Beijing Academy of Painting
In Qi Baishi gourd paintings, in order to make the various vines and roses show different postures, he generally distinguishes them directly from five shades of ink, and some are reflected in purple, ochre or light green. Although the vines he painted have stylized tendencies, the pictures are still not similar due to the ever-changing location of the gourds he is paired with, accompanied by different inscriptions. On this point, Qi Baishi himself said in an inscription in a "Gourd Diagram" (beijing painting academy collection): "The guest is Yu Yue: The paintings of the jun are all weeping vines, and it is inevitable that they are similar. Yu Yue: The vine does not hang, there is no posture, although the hanging is slightly the same, the changes are endless, the guest thinks it is", just "hanging" and different, the changes are endless; in another "Hulu Diagram" (Beijing Painting Academy Collection), Qi Baishi re-titled: "Painting the vine is better to hang, the fence is the most difficult and elegant, so Yu does not quit the same picture." Although Qi Baishi calls himself "ten thousand similarities", in fact, due to the differences in layout, vines, gourds, inscriptions, seals and even paper types, he has effectively avoided the similarity of the pictures. In Qi Baishi's view, "Tiangong" will not be the same, as long as you follow the "Tiangong" to paint, it will naturally have its own form.
Qi Baishi's vines and roses, some surround the gourd, ink is interesting, and some are flowing with the wind, echoing with the gourd. At the end of the pen, it is often more flying white, such as the cursive writing of the dragon flying phoenix dance, smooth and vigorous. These vines become the link between the ink leaf and the gourd. Even the picked gourds are accompanied by dead vines, so that the picture is not boring and single. The vines set off the Qi Baishi gourd, so it has more vitality. In addition to the vines, Qi Baishi often embellished in gourd paintings with grass worms or finches such as praying mantises, grasshoppers, celestial cows, locusts, dragonflies, bees, butterflies, etc., and most of them are exquisite and delicate strokes, which makes the gourd painting work and writing combined, which not only enriches the visual sense of the picture, but also makes the gourd return to the original ecological environment of "Tiangong", giving people a sense of freshness and agility.
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