Enlightenment
Qi Gong "Linqing Bada Shanren Vegetables and Fruits" (Partial) 1952
Qi Gong, "The Little Copper Camel Pavilion", 1983
Wang Xuetao, "Toad"
◎ Black Selection Ming
Exhibition: Jianjing - a special exhibition to commemorate the 110th anniversary of mr. Qi Gong's birth
Duration: 2022.7.22-8.5
Venue: Guardian Art Center
Perhaps because of the work relationship, there have always been curious people who ask me "how is the calligraphy of Qi Gong", and I only answer "yes" or "do not understand". Because this is not something that can be said clearly in three words. This year marks the 110th anniversary of Mr. Kai Kung's birth, and Guardian Art Center has held the "Jianjing - Special Exhibition commemorating the 110th Birthday of Mr. Kai Kung", which can be said to be very low-key compared with several other exhibitions held at the same location at the same time. But come to think of it, this is exactly what Mr. Qi Gong has always had, and it is also a valid reason to discuss Qi Gong calligraphy – especially when it comes to certain issues about "traditional culture" at the moment.
The word qigong
But this topic has been talking about for some years. When I was in middle school, there seemed to be a period of "hard pen calligraphy fever" in society. One day I bought a copy of "Chinese Pen Calligraphy" from the post office, and the title inscription is also a pen character, but it feels very different from the "famous artist" style I usually see, and the money is Mr. Qi Gong. Our Chinese teacher was very accomplished in ancient Chinese, and he looked at it for a while, and somehow said with satisfaction: "The older generation of learned people write like this..."
Later, when I was a graduate student, Mr. Liu Ning, who taught us literary and art theory, lived downstairs from Mr. Qi Gong, so he was able to get close to the legendary "Little Red Chamber". But it is not really a mansion, but it is more spacious than other faculty houses, and the surrounding area is cleaner. We happened to have a graduate student at the "Institute of Ancient Books" in the same dormitory, and when I heard me express my excitement at seeing the "calligrapher Qigong", I couldn't help but "snort", as if the joke was that the French did not know Napoleon, and the Americans did not know Washington. His general idea is that Mr. Qi is an expert, a classical philologist, an expert in ancient literature, and people have never thought of themselves as "calligraphers", and they write well and are the duty of cultural people.
It should be said that at that time, this was a necessary inspiration for young people, but while identifying with the "first nature of culture", there were several problems that remained unresolved, that is, the relationship between writing, calligraphy, art, and traditional culture. If Mr. Qi Gong's first impression of everyone is that of a "calligrapher", then what he himself thinks is actually another matter. But when we mention the calligrapher Qi Gong, can we go inside the calligraphy and look at it instead of his name, the inscription on the plaque, or even the "Qi Gong Body" in the computer?
Mr. Qi Gong may have been the last master of calligraphy in the "pre-modern" sense. "Pre-modern" is not historical time in a linear sense, for example, today's artists can also be Renaissance figures. Then, in the "pre-modern" sense, calligraphy is first associated with "writing", which refers to both the visual and content of writing.
In the sense of ideography, no pinyin script is the so-called "calligraphy" of Chinese calligraphy, although many ancient languages and scripts pay great attention to the visual beauty of shape (line), but one thing is common, that is, the recognition of the sacredness of writing. Knowledge is power—writing is the only way to power. The ancient calligraphers we know of were mostly officials, and the other part was the "celebrities" who disdained to be officials —but they first had the capital to not go down the road. Wang Xizhi, Song Sijia, and Zhao Mengfu, which one is not a high-ranking official? Writing, including the article (thought text) and the way the article is presented, these two are inseparable, there is no knowledge, thought, insight in the article, it is impossible to be an official; If you don't write well, you can't be an official, and the two are one and the same. This is why in the era of the imperial examination, if the writing was "not good-looking", it was impossible to mix in the social circle of literati doctors. The "good look" here first refers to the visual "sense of order", only on the basis of the establishment of "order", there is room to exert "artistic personality", so is the Tang Kai with strict law, so is the Song people of "Shangyi", do not believe that you see "Mi Yi" of "Elegy to the Empress", that rule, where dare to have a little "epileptic" look? Perhaps this can be called a kind of "Confucian classic text centrism", perhaps explaining why the "pavilion style" became the mainstream later, especially after the Shen Du of the Ming Dynasty. This is a fact – the "tradition" of calligraphy is first of all writtenness, and writing comes from the "learning" of the Four Books and Five Classics. First of all, writing well and neatly is the basic requirement of the reader, and that's it.
Although Mr. Qi Gong lost his father at a young age, as a royal concubine, he did receive the best traditional education possible in that era, which played a key role in the establishment of his artistic style. There is royal education, including great artists with profound cultural attainments such as Pu Xinxuan and Pu Xuezhai and royal relatives, as well as university scholars like Chen Yuan who followed Dr. Sun Yat-sen's Xinhai Revolution. But in terms of calligraphy and painting, he continued the royal tradition - this is impeccable in itself, only in the imperial palace can see what the best Chinese painting and calligraphy are like, and can master the core method of using the pen at the initial, very young stage, which is a luxury for the common people.
Royal traditions meant to be very different from folk styles. In fact, the atmosphere of calligraphy in society at that time was the "epigraphy" launched by Kang Youwei, but he overcorrected, it was right to learn from the folk, but what was learned should be a part of the living and vitality, while the learning objects advocated by Kang Youwei had a lot of "rough clothes", misleading many people who studied calligraphy, but from a longer-term point of view, this kind of facing the folk also expanded the vision of calligraphy in fact. The key here is that Mr. Qi Gong continued the most traditional part of the "thesis" without suspense. Someone once criticized Mr. Qi Gong for a "pavilion style", he laughed and said, "Where do I have a pavilion style to write well", here Mr. Qigong is not humble and modest, the pavilion body to write well, you have to make a lot of effort. The first is the content of the writing, that is, the text itself cannot be wrong, in today's words, the "ancient literary skills" must definitely withstand criticism; Secondly, with the pen, the mastery of the structure of the text should be almost impeccable. This also explains a problem, some opinions think that Mr. Qi Gong "will not hang the wrist", "can not write large characters", "dot painting thin and enlarged is not good", these are all misunderstandings, as long as you look at a few large characters in the exhibition, you can know, "the wrist is low or high", Mr. Qi Gong's pen strength is by no means comparable to ordinary writers, such as the word "Luan", mixed with the meaning of flying white, such as "Luan across the crane", the momentum is shocking.
Enlighten the heart
Of course, just writing neatly and without flaws is far from enough for the spiritual pursuit of the literati doctor, so we have found a more ideal history of Chinese calligraphy in the works of the ancients that seem to be unintentional, especially in the codex, and in the "Xiaosan" of the Jin people. It should be noted that the Wei and Jin dynasties were quite special in Chinese history, a kind of clan door valve system, a "noble family" society, not a "great empire", which helped artists to develop their own personality. This particularity also made "Wei jin demeanor" a yearning of later generations of literati and doctors. Literati doctors have many methods of spiritual breathing, spiritual exits, piano, chess, poetry, calligraphy and painting are all means, in these practices, they often take the spiritual path of Taoists and Buddhists, "alone with the heavens and the earth."
The nobles of the Qing Dynasty were no exception, and the Ninth Emperor Zuyongzheng, Mr. Qi Gong, also dressed up as a "hermit" and left behind various "xingle diagrams". But this system is actually only accessible to a few people because it requires a high level of literacy. As described in "Dream of the Red Chamber", an important part of the social collection of aristocratic children is to compose poetry. The aristocrats of the entire Qing Dynasty were familiar with Tang poetry. Whether the poem is well written or not is very important. But the poetry here, unlike modern poetry, in addition to being rhythmic and innovative, but also mobilizing a considerable knowledge reserve, it requires a fairly solid "classical" reserve, and it cannot pretend to be difficult. We can feel the aesthetic orientation of Tang poetry in Mr. Qi Gong's "On the Book of Absolute Sentences", and it is for this reason.
Another important "spiritual outlet" is Dharma for Mr. Qigong. He had already received a high monk empowerment at the Lama Temple at the age of three, and had maintained a lifelong meditation on the Dharma, and he was always very calm when talking about his beliefs. We may have witnessed Mr. Qi Gong's ink treasure in many temples, which is his "offering". As for the writings related to the Buddhist scriptures in ordinary times, there are countless more, and he also frankly dropped the "Upasai Qigong". Upasai means layman. There are many wonderful works related to this exhibition, and Buddhism has infiltrated his life. In the exhibits, there is a toad painted by Wang Xuetao, and there is also a "Double Frog Diagram" painted by Chen Peiqiu, which is related to Qi Gong's preference for "frogs", he has a "toad Zen" printing side, often printed on the work, because "the toad has no more skills, only this jump". It seems to be a humble word, but it actually hides Zen meaning. According to Mr. Qi Gong himself, the greatest gain he received from studying Buddhism was "compassion for compassion." This has to be explained in the Dharma. Compassion is not what it means in the popular context. Kindness, which means "to give love", means "to give my love to you"; Compassion, which is "pulling out suffering," refers to the rescue of sentient beings from the sea of samsaric suffering. Compassion is not blind "pity", it must be combined with wisdom, that is, "wisdom and compassion and double luck". To be "lenient with others," or to be understood as "without principles," actually needs to proceed from the perspective of the Dharma. This insight may also explain the fact that mr. Li's words rarely have strong emotional fluctuations, even when approaching works that are known for their ups and downs—all of which become a kind of tranquility of his own. The first task in studying Buddhism is to "subdue one's mind." This is obviously the reason why from the standpoint that art is to promote individuality will feel that the words of Qi Gong are boring. But as the Song Dynasty Shao Yong wrote in the poem:
When the moon reaches the center of heaven, when the wind comes to the surface of the water. Generally clear meaning, it is expected to be less known.
However, we cannot avoid the fact that Mr. Qi Gong is not reproducible in his inheritance of tradition. His own study of tradition is something that no one else can learn. For example, we have no reason to ask professors in the department of Chinese to write a beautiful pen today, nor to ask professors of classical literature to write a decent ancient text--writing has long lost the function of "Taoism", and the modern division of labor transformation has long since turned to the era of "calligraphers". What kind of "all mankind" vision should be in this era, and how to selectively draw nourishment from "tradition" is a more realistic task.