Huang Ji (March 1925 – April 1997), courtesy name Yingzhai , was born in Liangjiazhuang, Li County, Hebei Province, and was a representative of the Chang'an School of Painting.
Since childhood, he has loved painting and become a self-taught talent, a master of Chinese painting art, a social activist, and a collector.
Author: Huang Ji
Name: Camel Maiden
Collection of Qingweilou Fine Arts Museum
In Huang Xuan's artistic career, God did not give him any special care. Huang Ji's original surname was Liang, and Huang Ji was the pen name he gave himself, his original name was Liang Jintang (梁金堂), the character Yingzhai (英斋). Born in 1925 in Li County, Hebei Province, it is a deserted village, because his father was in his forties to get this son, took the milk name "Old Fool" to seek peace, "Huang Ji" is his pen name in junior high school.
Huang Ji has loved painting since childhood, and he has shown artistic talent since he was a child, and his grandfather was the head of the township drama class, so when he was a child, he often painted "drama people", no one taught, all by his own liking. He can distinguish and draw the faces of the characters in the play, and he also paints animals, and he also has to paint a few villains when he writes letters to his father.
Due to the bombing of Xi'an by Japanese aircraft, Huang Ji fled with his mother and sister to Baoji and studied at the Huigong Middle School run by the Baoji Spinning Factory. In a sports competition organized by the school, he won a pennant with the words "Yan huang zhi guan" written on it, and after being explained by the Chinese teacher, he took the name Huang Ji and determined to be a promising descendant of Yan Huang. After only one year of junior high school, he dropped out of school due to the death of his father,In order to learn painting, he left his hometown and went to Xi'an to live a wandering life.
Author: Huang Ji
Name: Ink Bamboo
Collection of Qingweilou Fine Arts Museum
In 1943, he studied Chinese painting with the famous northwest painter Zhao Wangyun, who was a great painter in the northwest at that time. In 1949, he joined the Chinese People's Liberation Army, worked as an art editor in the army, and from then on often sketched in Gansu, Shaanxi, Qinghai, Xinjiang and other regions.
During the Cultural Revolution, when he went to the countryside in Xinjiang, Huang Was locked up in a "cowshed" and released a donkey for three years. Watching donkeys for a long time, releasing donkeys, contacting donkeys, being with donkeys, taking donkeys as friends, and talking to donkeys made him and donkeys indissoluble.
During this period, Huang Ji painted a large number of donkey sketches, and Huang Ji painted donkeys, which can be said to have drawn the essence, qi, and spirit of the donkey to the extent of pure fire and divine immersion. Even his teacher Zhao Wangyun praised the donkey he painted, saying, "The donkey painted by Huang Guan can kick dead people!" ”
In 1969, Huang was reformed in the carpentry workshop of the Military Museum, where he fed donkeys and grinded tofu and provided it to the residents of the nearby family area. At that time, Huang Guan and his family were separated from all parties, his wife Zheng Wenhui and his 3 children were undergoing labor reform at the Xinyang Cadre School in Henan Province, Huang Guan suffered from painful mental torture, and he did not expect that the donkey he had painted had become his closest partner in real life at this time.
He treated the donkey like his own relatives and friends, getting up every day before dawn to feed the donkey hay, then making tofu and pulling it with a donkey cart to sell, and then pulling the hay after selling the tofu. Sometimes when he was tired of work, Huang Ji stopped by to drink a few sips of wine in a tavern to relieve his fatigue. The donkey also felt sorry for him, and every time he walked to the side of the tavern, he automatically stopped and did not leave, and did not wait for Huang Ji to drink a few sips of wine before leaving. And the donkey himself admitted that Huang Ji was confused and asleep in the car after drinking, the car did not have to be driven, the donkey pulled itself back home, accurately hit the rut on the door frame and then waited for Huang Ji to wake up and unload the car.
Later, the state part restored normal production and living order, and Huang Returned to the unit to work in the bank and left his beloved little donkey. One day, Huang Ji rode a bicycle past the place where the donkeys were originally fed, and suddenly heard someone shouting, "The donkey is shocked, be careful!" Then the crowd was chaotic, and Huang Ji also jumped out of the car in a hurry and flashed on the side of the road, only to see a donkey dragging a scooter to run over, and everyone was at a loss, and they did not expect that the donkey actually ran to Huang Ji and stopped motionless.
At this time, Huang Guan recognized that this donkey was his "best friend" who had suffered together in the past, and it turned out that the donkey had seen Huang Guan in a long distance, so he rushed over desperately, and Huang Ji held the donkey's head affectionately for a long time, and his eyes were full of tears.
Author: Huang Ji
Name: Smile often
Collection of Qingweilou Fine Arts Museum
During the Cultural Revolution, he tearfully burned a basket of sketches, and was forced to put aside his pen by forced labor reform, resulting in only more than 500 sketches passed down. After the end of the "Cultural Revolution", his physical condition has been not good, and in 1977, his condition deteriorated, resulting in paralysis, but he insisted on creating with passion, and painted a 20-meter-long "Hundred Donkeys" on his sickbed as a state gift to The Emperor of Japan when Comrade Deng Xiaoping visited Japan.
Huang Guan's art circle has many friends, after painting donkeys became famous, the "donkey price" has soared, in fact, Huang Guan's paintings of characters and other subjects are extremely profound, and friends more names want donkeys, and Huang Guan responds to them one by one.
However, there are more and more painters, Huang Ji can't socialize, he is tired and sick, and he claims to owe a lot of "donkey debt" to his friends. One is Huang Zongjiang, in the fifties, Huang Ji just came to Beijing from Xi'an at the invitation of Xu Beihong, Zong Jiang rewarded his donkey painting well, hoping to get one, Huang Xuan gladly promised, but unexpectedly dragged on for thirty years.
When it comes to his own experience, Huang Ji never talks about the suffering he has suffered. He is almost an "old athlete" of previous sports, especially the nickname of "donkey dealer" during the Cultural Revolution, which is almost a household name, but he said: "There is no suffering to talk about, since it is the past, why mention it!" People should look forward, do more things with kung fu, draw more dot paintings, do whatever they can, don't complain about the sky, don't be special, fight wars, sell fame and reputation boring."
Yanhuang Art Museum has done a lot of work in protecting and promoting national art, promoting the development of art education and strengthening international cultural exchanges, and Huang's artistic path, spirit of governance and persistent pursuit of promoting the development of national culture have had a far-reaching impact at home and abroad.
On April 23, 1997, the famous artist Huang Ji passed away. On the journey of life, he has a long way from Youyan, into Guanzhong, out of Qinchuan, and in Xinjiang, and he experiences a kind of stoicism and tenacity.
Looking up, looking up at the sky and sighing, the zhiyin next to him was actually a donkey with a snort.
Editor: Wen Shuijing
Review: Yang Xiangxiong
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