Zhou Chen' "Map of displaced persons" vol
Those familiar with the history of Chinese art should know that the first rise of ancient painting was figure painting, and then gradually developed various painting sub-disciplines such as landscape painting, flower and bird painting, etc. Since then, in the long trend of art history, landscape has gradually become the mainstream of these three kinds of painting, occupying a dominant position and continuing to this day.
In the rich and profound history of Chinese art, there is also a kind of genre painting that is relatively niche and depicts the life of "small people in the city". What is custom? "Zhou Li" Yun: "Those who are transformed on the top know the wind, and those who learn from the bottom know the customs." Ban Gu wrote in the "Book of Han and Geography": "The five constants of the people's letters, and the rigidity and slowness, the voice height is different, the wind of the water and soil, so it is called the wind; the choice between likes and dislikes, the movement and the death of the often, according to the desires of the monarch, so it is called the custom." That is to say, the habits formed by different natural environments are called "wind", and the habits formed by the differences in social environment are called "customs". Customs and customs are actually integrated into the body, which is the result of the simultaneous interaction of nature and society and the cultivation of human beings. Due to the different geographical environments and social conditions in which they are located, their respective historical inheritances are different. Customs and habits will also be different.
The concept of genre painting is recorded in the painting history of the Fifth Dynasty of the Tang Dynasty, such as so-and-so's painting "Customs Tianjia Jinghou" so-and-so "can be on Tianjia customs", and so on. Under normal circumstances, genre painting has a broad sense and a narrow sense, and genre painting in the narrow sense refers to painting that takes an objective perspective and takes the life scenes and daily life emotions of ordinary people as the content, which does not carry political, religious or ethical value judgments.
Genre painting distinguishes it from paintings that use virtual worlds such as religion and mythology as objects of expression with their strong realism. Well-known works in the history of painting include Han Yu's "Tianjia Customs Map" of the Tang Dynasty, Li Qun's "Meng Shu Juding" of the Fifth Dynasty, Zhang Zeduan's "Map of the Upper River of the Qingming Dynasty" of the Northern Song Dynasty, Zuo Jian's "Map of the Welcoming Women of the Nong Family" of the Southern Song Dynasty, Zhu Guangpu's "Map of Murata's Happy Affairs", And Li Song's "Map of Cargo Lang".
In the Song Dynasty, works with the theme of urban and rural life were continuously presented, and many painters tried to transform the creation of figure painting from the previous functional state of mainly serving the court, the upper class and religion, and then into a new trend of serving the secular aesthetic tastes. The reason for this is that from the ancient aristocratic door valve system to the Song Dynasty was completely disintegrated, the Song Dynasty built a pure civilian society, as Mr. Qian Mu said: "On the changes in China's ancient and modern society, the most important thing is in the Song Dynasty. Before the Song Dynasty, it can be roughly called ancient China, and after the Song Dynasty, it is the Future Generations of China. Before the Qin Dynasty, it was a feudal aristocratic society. Below the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Shi clan mendi arose. The Southern and Northern Dynasties of the Wei and Jin Dynasties were set in the Sui and Tang Dynasties, and all belonged to the Mendi society, which can be called the aristocratic society in disguise in ancient times. Below the Song Dynasty, it began as a purely civilian society. Except for the Mongol foreign tribes, which were privileged classes, those who rose to the political level were all uprooted by Baiyi Xiucai, and there was no remnant of the ancient feudal aristocracy and the Mendi tradition. Therefore, as far as the Song Dynasty is concerned, the political economy and social life have not changed compared with the previous generations. "Second, the prosperity of urban industry and commerce in the Song Dynasty was the material basis for the rapid development of painting, and the flourishing popular literature and art of the citizens directly stimulated and promoted the prosperity of genre painting.
Zhou Chen,"Map of displaced persons" part
For a long time, the tradition of genre painting is to have a strong realism. The realism of genre painting is not simply "imitation", but is characterized by three characteristics: unique custom connotations; the aesthetic needs of popularization; and the recording of social and historical situations. And Zhou Chen's "Map of displaced people" is one of the rare works.
The emergence of "The Map of Displaced Persons" comes from Zhou Chen's own factors on the one hand. As a "painter", Zhou Chen had a deep understanding of the low-level people, familiar with the social situation of the surrounding common people, as shown in the picture Zhou Chen inscription: "In the autumn and July of the eleventh year of Zhengde Bingzi (1516), there was nothing to do at the idle window, and even if he saw the attitude of the city's Taoists, he took advantage of the convenience of the pen and yan, and wrote with a rate of figures, although there was no foot view, it could also help the police to encourage the worldly clouds." Eastern Postal Zhou Chen. On the other hand, the environment in which he is located gives him the motivation and source of his creation. Suzhou in the Ming Dynasty was one of the largest cities at that time, with a prosperous economy, attracting the influx of people from all walks of life, and the city of Suzhou at that time was home to displaced people from all over the world due to suffering, and for Zhou Chen, this commonplace scene of displaced people eventually contributed to his creative impulse.
Zhou Chen,"Map of displaced persons" part
Zhou Chen's "Map of displaced people", also known as "Begging Chart", the original picture is an album, depicting a total of twenty-four people, the latter divided into two, framed into hand scrolls, each volume of twelve people. In addition to Zhou Chen's own inscriptions in the previous volume, there are also inscriptions by Zhang Fengyi, Huang Jishui, Wen Jia and Deng Eryu, which are limited in space and will not be repeated.
This painting is not so much a genre painting as a portrait of the Wu people in the Ming Dynasty. Zhou Chen used his exquisite painting skills and delicate brushwork to portray the miserable crowd in his eyes for us. At first glance, the picture seems to give people a strange and rude feeling, there is no beauty to speak of, not a pleasing work of most people. However, looking at this painting and reading it carefully, all of them marvel at the author's smooth and not sloppy painting method, and the demeanor, props, and characteristics are all shown in detail, which should be carefully paid attention to on weekdays, so that we can do it and transfer the gods, and it is precisely because of Zhou Chen's original intention of realism that year that we can see the sadness and true feelings of the displaced people in that year.
Zhou Chen,"Map of displaced persons" part
The characters in the painting are independent of each other, and although there is no specific background, we can still clearly distinguish the identity, age, occupation and physical condition of the characters in the painting. The picture arranges the characters to be opposite, and between the opposite two people, there are contrasts and similarities between the dynamics, types, objects and clothes of the characters. As shown above, the two opposite people are displaced people who sell art for a living, one is a monkey artist, the other is a rat artist, both of them are all ragged, leaning forward, carrying a bamboo basket behind them, the bamboo basket contains all the belongings - the props used for selling art, the two hold the bunting flag for selling art, and the right hand holds a copper ring to lead the monkey, and one person holds a wooden frame with squirrels in his hand, so that the mirror-like composition, which is originally independent of each other, dissolves the abrupt feeling of the whole work. The two opposite people exchanged glances, body or words with each other, poured out, and lamented.
Zhou Chen,"Map of displaced persons" part
Another example is the beggar in the picture above, which is a pair of beggars walking forward with sticks. From the broken bowl in the hands of the two, it can be seen that this is a homeless person who makes a living by begging, the beggar on the left is shaped like a withered mallet, weak and small, like a skeleton, with messy hair, a hungry face, presumably ill-clothed for a long time, carrying a small bundle of firewood behind him, it seems that someone hit him hard, fell to the ground and fell apart, the bones are sharply raised, the ribs are visible, the skin and flesh are cut off, only the bones are fragmented, and the walking feels panicked. He slowly lowered his feet, raised his steps, and lowered his feet, with bulging eyes full of white eyes, slightly tilting his head, holding a broken bowl for begging in his left hand, and carrying a stick in his right hand, which was obviously a characteristic of a blind man. The beggar on the right is stronger than the one on the left, but this is not normally strong, his swollen abdomen, puffy and puffy by hunger, full of unattended, messy hair, thick beard, pale and unfocused face, ragged clothes, a large wooden cane in his left arm, a tree trunk in his right hand, walking barefoot with difficulty, walking on the endless painful begging road.
Zhou Chen,"Map of displaced persons" part
Perhaps Zhou Chen's achievements in landscape painting are too outstanding, and most of his comments on his paintings focus on landscapes, saying that he has a stable pattern and a strict weather, but he lacks a long-term interest. There are few comments on Zhou Chen's character paintings, and only in the "Ming Painting Record" they are said to be: "Part-time workers, ancient and strange postures, dense and scattered, each with its own polar attitude." "On this picture, we can find that Zhou Chen observes carefully, depicts deeply, and the characters are fine in the process of character creation, and this realistic ability is by no means within reach of a day's work, presumably Zhou Chen often has such a sketching practice. As a professional painter, the creation of "Displaced People's Figures" is a kind of actual recording, but also provides a way to sketch and practice the creation of figure paintings, and he himself knows that he can "warn the world", but he seems to have no intention of making more additional meaning.