"Seeking Humor on Paper: The Beauty of the Twenty-Four Solar Terms in Chinese Painting"
Hu Yan
Grand View | Published by China Finance and Economic Publishing House
The magnolia flowers in the mountains bloom with bright red calyxes, and the water's edge is empty. In such a world, flowers bloom and fall. This is the realm depicted by the poet Wang Wei in "Xinyiwu". The poetic plot of Chinese painters, starting from Wang Wei in the Tang Dynasty. Later generations of painters continued the poet's way of expression, trying to spit out thousands of verses with pen and ink.
Mountains are still time; Water is the flow of time in space. The problem of time and space in Chinese painting leads to an infinitely profound philosophy on the one hand, and on the other hand, it is derived from the daily beauty as far as the eye can see.
When Chinese painting meets the twenty-four solar terms, nature and humanity are intertwined, and the complex fusion of the concept of the unity of heaven and man stirs up endless ripples.
>> selected readings
Reed Chronicles - Bian Shoumin's "Lu Yan Tu"
In the white dew season, the word Haoshi Xin abandoned the disease to live quite comfortably, he walked leisurely in his lake manor, watching the green vegetables in the countryside grow vigorously and fully. Nearby, the turquoise and transparent stream, the fish are happy. After a short career as a horseman, Xin abandoned the disease and lived the life of a hermit. Although reluctant, but can also be at ease with the encounter. The content of his daily life is to plant and cultivate the hoe in the land in the early morning with the breeze of the bamboo forest, so busy that he sweats slightly, and then rests. Brewing a cup of tea, reclining on the bed in front of the window to read, because the spirit was too relaxed, some slightly drunk, like going to sleep. Listen to the cool autumn breeze turn the pages of the book, rattling and sounding. From time to time, there were visitors, such as friends Hong Mai, Zhu Xi, Chen Liang, liu guo, sitting and talking, through a few glasses of wine, listening to the wind and rain. Such a life is really satisfying.
Yes, this is really the Xin abandonment disease of the "autumn soldiers on the battlefield", there are words to prove it.
"Xing Xiangzi Mountain Resident": "White dew garden vegetables." Clearwater Brook Fish. Mr. Laugh, net fishing and hoeing. The small window is high, and the wind shows the books. Look at the North Mountain Shift, Pangu Sequence, and The River Map.
Rice green blade. Barefoot and long beard. When the guests come, the wine is sold out. Listen to the wind and listen to the rain, I love my house. Laughing ben has no heart, just thin, this Junshu. ”
Xin abandoned the disease just after the year of confusion, and the young rich and powerful were deposed, and he changed into Xin Jiaxuan and began a hermit life that lasted for more than ten years. His pen is white dew, which has been passed down through the ages.
Bailu is one of the most beautiful festivals in Chinese.
The weather is getting cooler and the dew condenses the grass and trees. The "Seventy-Two Waiting Solutions of the Moon Order" says: "The moisture of the water and soil condenses into dew, the autumn is golden, the golden is white, the white is the color of dew, and the qi is cold." ”
In the early morning, I went to the grass to look for dew, but when I saw the neighbor's fence climbing the purple morning glory, they sucked up the water one by one, excitedly leaned back, and blew the horn of youth, as if to say: "It's a cool autumn!" At night, the moon gradually became clearer, and the wanderers brewed homesickness in the night.
Bai Lu is a festival that comes out of the poem. "The leaves are pale, and the white dew is frost." The so-called Iraqis are on the water side. "The atmosphere is somewhat poignant. Therefore, Teresa Teng's "On the Side of the Water" changed the lyrics to: "Green grass, white fog." There is a beautiful person, on the water side. "But how can green grass be compared to crabapples?"
Crab leaves are reeds. The poet said that the reed is a kind of thinking grass.
Think of the poet essayist Reed Bank. Reed Shore - Great Shore, an inconspicuous grass, decorates the earth with affection. The deeper the tone, the taller the figure. His "Things on earth", which I read as Chinese edition of Walden, is full of a deep love for nature and all things. In classical, simple, and humble language, he narrated the things on the earth at a slow pace, as if confiding his own heart. It has been more than two decades since Reed Bank passed away, but it is increasingly remembered by readers.
Reeds are indeed a thinking grass. This kind of grass is often included in paintings.
You see, the leaves of the reeds are like the belly and tip of the brush. Those who have silver whiskers in one hand and brushes in the other, only need to lick lightly on the rice paper, and a reed leaf will become. Bian Shoumin, one of the "Eight Monsters of Yangzhou" in the Qing Dynasty, was extremely well painted with reeds. The reeds in his writing, like a wind coming, fluttering and sounding, are stronger than orchids, more wild than plum blossoms, and they have reached a fascinating level. The thick and light leaves, coupled with the flying white of the dry pen, can best create the image of the sky. Crab leaves are green, and the autumn conditions are smelly, that is, in a reed pond.
Pen and ink are symbols of a certain personality. Bian Shoumin is known as "Bian Lu Yan", and he paints lu geese, which has also reached the state of divine enlightenment. Zheng Banqiao praised him for "painting geese to see the sound of geese, and the sound of reeds".
Bian Shoumin paints reed geese, and there are many interesting stories. He was full of talent, Kangxi forty-three years of talent, but then seven township examinations all failed. One day in the thirteenth year of Yongzheng (1735), the fifty-two-year-old Bian Shoumin's poem was flourishing, and he wrote a poem entitled "The Phoenix Stage Remembers blowing the flute and writing the book house between the camp reeds": "The wasteland on the edge of the city, the space on the edge of the house, the surrounding look at the crab leaves." Like the Furong River, shallow Nagisa Flat Sand. This place is full of houses, the door is open, diagonally opposite the fisherman. Weeping Yangli, a few chrysanthemums, half-cut fences..."
This poem is about building your own house. In order to paint the reed geese, he built a house next to the reed pond, called the Reed Book House, in order to observe the movement of the reed geese day and night. The Reed Book House is actually quite simple, located in the wasteland on the edge of the city, in the middle of the water, with a side bridge to communicate with the land. After its completion, it achieved a good story in the painting world, and dozens of famous painters came to write poems. For example, Jin Nong, the representative figure of the "Eight Monsters of Yangzhou", said: "Three points of water, one point of the house." The sound of reeds, autumn rain foot. There are people in the middle, who are charming and lonely. When the chanting, the vicissitudes of the waves..."
Bian Shoumin is indeed "charming and lonely", and probably thoughtful people like to be alone. But his spiritual life was quite fulfilling, and when he was excited, he kept writing poems - "Remembering Jiangnan Reeds" Yun:
The reeds are good, and the west window of Mingpu is open. On both sides of the strait, the reeds invaded the wide water, and the purple and green hung in the slanting sun for half a day. Crescent to the cloister.
Reeds are good, preferably new eyes. After the temple, the spring rain is full, and the city head sails the shadow of the sunset. People lean against the female wall line.
The reeds are good, and the early summer is the most caring. Shallow water half lotus leaves out, deep reeds around the waterfowl song. The sound of frogs after the rain.
Such a poem makes people suspect that Bian Shoumin regards himself as a reed goose. In this world, the reeds are the best. The reed geese in Bian Shoumin's pen are people, not birds. He took Hou Yan, who traveled from the south to the north, as his friend, and gave lu yan his own encounters, life arias and sorrows. For example, in the "Autumn Beach Habitat Map", the world is hot and cold, and the couple is closely dependent on each other to avoid the pain of loneliness and helplessness. Human feelings are sinister, and we cannot but always beware of traps and nets. The inscription of the painting is: "Jiangcun rice ripe horizontal sand, Sai Yan south to Wanli home." One night the west wind blows continuously, and the frost day and moon lie white reed flowers. "The reeds are only the temporary habitat of the reed geese, and where is the long-term destination of life...
Whenever the reeds are flying and the geese are chirping in autumn, Bian Shoumin sneaks into the reed beachhead and carefully observes and carefully speculates on the appearance of the reed geese in the morning and evening. Accumulated kung fu, on the rice paper, there are clear stream swimming, clear beach quiet set, Ling Fei holding high, SunZhu Guifei, reeds xiuling, lone geese mourning, flocks of geese perching and drinking, etc., so many kinds of geese, and several branches of reeds contrast. The reeds stand on the beach, or the wind blows sideways, or the beach is pressed, and each picture is not repeated. He does not tire of painting, and the viewer does not tire of seeing.
There are many viewers who sing with Bian Shoumin. A group of literati who were on the edge of their careers, a group of talented and maverick painters, feasted on the mountains, drank wine, and often held gatherings in the "Reed Book House" of The Bian Shou people. While admiring the beauty of the reed pond in late autumn, they also enjoyed the on-site creation of "Side Reed Goose".
Bian Shoumin's friend Cheng Jinfang has been in the Reed House for a long time. He described the scene of Bian Shoumin's painting in that year: "When the four seekers flocked to the pavilion, they sat in the pavilion, boiled tea and burned incense, supervised the boy to grind the large pill ink, injected the Yan pond, studied the Yellow Indigo Chalk of Zaoyan Dan, stretched out the paper with a brush, and did whatever they wanted." Geese clap and follow the song, skimming the eaves back to fly, shadows and paintings are chaotic, hagi wind is depressed, and if the pen is driving, it is also the sound of the pen. The contract between the eyes and the heart, the deed between painting and the god, and the treasure of the deceased. ”
Most of Bian Shoumin's reed geese use the boneless painting method, but also have a work pen. My feeling, daring to use the boneless painting method, is that the painter is familiar with the painting object to the bone, and then he can "enter the way by technique", remove the bone, leaving the plump flesh. Otherwise, it is easy to be "discouraged and lazy" decadent. In the history of painting, the first person to paint the big goose should be Cui Bai of the Northern Song Dynasty, but the paintings of Bian Shoumin are more popular.
In Beijing, I saw Lu Yan on the shore of an artificial lake in the Olympic Forest Park. In late autumn, near the evening, four reed geese are sleeping. They look very cute, standing on one foot, their necks crooked to the side of the tourist, their hard mouth shells deeply inserted into the feathers, motionless, like an old monk sitting in meditation. It is said that this action is for warmth. The black and white gray feathers have been washed clean and fresh in the lake water, and the agate red feet are quite stylish. I feel like my long-lost deceased people, because of the paintings of Bian Shoumin.
That day, I wandered by the lake for a long time, clinging to a few reed geese. I went home and looked at the photos, zoomed in partially, and found that the geese that were "zazen" did not seem to be asleep, and were quietly aiming at me with their eyes! Suddenly I thought of the sleeping duck written by the Bada Shanren, which looked humble, but in fact, the city government was very deep.
(Source: Visual China)
Maybe it's a long-term immersion in Chinese pen and ink, or maybe it's growing up in the countryside, and I also like reed ponds. The reed pond in the hometown is a paradise for childhood. Once, fishing near the reeds, he cut the yellow reed leaves in late autumn and tied them into bundles and spread them under the kang mat of grandma's house. In winter, there is a fire, and the grass smells all over the house.
In Beijing, I often look for reed ponds. This time, go to the West Sea.
The West Sea is part of the ShichaHai Sea. The three water surfaces of the Front Sea, The Back Sea and the West Sea are called the "Back Three Seas".
Pulling open the curtains of midsummer, the autumn light suddenly appeared, and the weather of the imperial capital gradually appeared. The West Sea was as clean as the endless sky. The Xihai Wetland Park is facing the water, the water lilies are opening densely, and the slender reeds are clumped and clumpy, casual and comfortable. The water in autumn is very clear.
All the way through the reeds. In the face of this kind of civilian grass, I can always give birth to a lot of imagination. For example, what is hidden in it, how many fish are making their home in it, and perhaps, there are wild ducks giving birth to babies in the deepest depths... Just thinking, a kingfisher flew out of it.
The temperament of the reed pond is indeed related to "Hiding". Bian Shoumin's identity, like a half-hermit, lives in seclusion and hides his talents outside his political path. It is also reminiscent of the contemporary writer Sun Li's "Chronicle of Baiyangdian", playing devils in the reeds. The villagers hid in the reeds, and hide-and-seek generally made the ghosts dizzy and won in one fell swoop. Bai Yangdian is fascinated by Sun Li's writings.
"The moon rises, the yard is very cool, very clean, and the broken reeds of the day are moist and moist, just right to weave the mat. The woman sat in the middle of the courtyard, her fingers wrapped around the silky and slender reed eyebrows, which were thin and thin, jumping in her arms.
Women weave the mat. Soon underneath her body, it was made into a large piece. She sat like she was sitting on a white snow, and it was like sitting on a white cloud. She sometimes looked at Yodori, which was also a silver-white world. A thin, transparent mist is formed on the surface of the water, and the wind blows through, with the fragrance of fresh lotus leaves and lotus flowers. ”
Go out early in the morning, look at the flowers and see the reeds, envy the bian shou people all the way, and pace until noon.
Autumn returns to the earth, and time turns to the most beautiful scale, suitable for whimsy. I imagined that the weather was getting cooler, the reed bookstore of the Bianshou people, and at night, the reed geese knocked on the door with orange-red hard mouth shells, tuk tuks, and came in to avoid the cold.
Author: Hu Yan
Edit: Jin Jiuchao