Wu Chengen's "Journey to the West" brought a monkey who stood tall into every Chinese's childhood.
In fact, monkeys have always been very important in mainland culture, and ancient people only chose twelve animals as "zodiac signs", and there were monkeys. The monkey is homonymous with "hou", so it is also given an auspicious meaning in Chinese paintings and appears many times.
But you know what? Before the Song Dynasty, there were no monkey paintings.
And the reason why Yi Yuanji of the Song Dynasty was famous for monkey paintings was because he met a person who allowed him to become the second oldest in ten thousand years, Zhao Chang.
Because he was not willing to be subordinate, he finally had this Song Dynasty monkey painting master created by the left side of the door.
"Three Ape Heron Hunting"
A court painter who was poisoned because the monkey painted too well
Yi Yuanji, a famous flower and bird painter during the Northern Song Dynasty, is also the first monkey painting master in the history of Chinese painting. He took a unique approach, specializing in ape painting, and his paintings of apes and monkeys were natural. But he was poisoned for his achievements.
Yi Yuanji, Zi Qingzhi, a native of Changsha, Hunan Province, is gifted and sensitive. When I first learned flowers, birds, grass insects and fruits, I saw Zhao Chang's paintings when I was a child, and I knew that as long as Zhao Chang could not paint famous in his life, only by opening up painting subjects that no one had ever touched on before could it be possible to open up a new world and become famous in the art world.
So he took a different path and began to turn to ape painting.
In order to realize this dream, he traveled far from home, spent several months, traveled to the Xiangchu area, visited ancient searches, and went deep into the Wanshou Mountain several times to look for traces in the haunts of wild beasts such as roe apes and elk, and carefully observed these beasts up close, and secretly remembered them one by one, so that the magic of the heart transmission and sightings could be written on the end of the pen, and the apes drawn were lifelike and jumped on the paper.
After years of careful speculation and sketching, and careful conception, Yi Yuanji's paintings of flowers, birds, insects, fish, apes and monkeys and deer, all come to life, vivid, leaping on the paper, deeply appreciated by the times, Yi Yuanji's paintings, especially the apes are particularly vivid and realistic, and the apes he painted present a "natural wild posture", vivid and realistic.
"Ape Deer Diagram"
He also became famous because of this, was called into the palace to paint, from a lowly status folk painter to a hundredfold court painter, Yi Yuanji had such an opportunity to display his talents, not only full of confidence, but also inspired great creative enthusiasm, he was ordered to paint the large screen behind the imperial throne in the filial piety hall, divided into three fans, the middle one painted with a pigeon, Taihu stone and peony, and the left and right two doors painted with several peacocks. The chic composition, the exquisite layout, and the magical brushes were all subtle and quickly became famous.
Soon after, Yi Yuanji was ordered to paint the "Hundred Apes Diagram" in the west wing of the Kaixian Hall, but after only a dozen paintings, he suddenly died of illness. As for the cause of his death, Mi Fu recorded in the "History of Painting" that when Yi Yuanji painted murals for the filial piety hall, "the people of the painting academy were jealous of his ability, and only made him paint apes and monkeys, but he was actually a human donkey."
Although Yi Yuanji unfortunately died early, he was energetic and diligent in cultivation, and created a large number of paintings in a short life, only "Xuanhe Picture Score" wrote a total of 245 Yi Yuanji, of which 40 are ape paintings, which is one of the painters with the most works listed in the book.
Unfortunately, less than a hundred years after Yi Yuanji's death, Jin soldiers invaded the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty, the imperial palace was burned, and most of the Yi's works hidden in the inner palace of the palace were reduced to ashes, and very few have been handed down to this day and recognized by most experts.
"Ape Fruit Picking Diagram"
Combining the two styles of painting, Xu Xi is lighter than Huang Quan
Yi Yuanji was very different from ordinary court painters in his painting style, and his paintings revealed a unique "wild taste", so Mi Fu called him "Xu Xihou alone".
"Huang Quan is rich, Xu Xiye Yi", two schools of painting, each showing their strengths, twin peaks confrontation, endless fighting. For a long time, the Huang faction prevailed in the courtyard of Later Shu, and the Xu faction was high outside the courtyard of the Southern Tang.
Because the Huang family had the advantage of court painters, the painting style of "Huang family wealth" was once in a strong position, and the court flower and bird paintings during this period were almost only the "rich" painting style of the Huang family, while the "wild Yi" painting style of Xu's all the way had to be ready to prepare in a latent form and secretly compete with the Huang faction.
It was not until the Southern Song Dynasty that the painting styles of the Huang and Xu schools tended to merge, and Yi Yuanji was an important figure in changing the situation of the competition between the two schools of painting.
Yi Yuanji is good at learning from everyone's strengths, and has used it for his own use, not only inheriting the fine tradition of "life drawing" in flower and bird painting, but also reconciling the two styles of Huang and Xu.
"Mountain Ape Wild Diagram"
Therefore, his paintings are different from Xu Xi's works and Huang Quan's works, but draw on the strengths of the two, both like Huang and Xu, and not Huang and Xu, which are self-contained and unique, and Huang Xu can accept both, so they can play a good role in harmonizing the painting styles of Huang and Xu
Yi Yuanji broke through the restrictions of the hook and filling method of the Huang family system in pen and ink, and applied light colors and thin compresses, although it has Xu Xi's wild interest, but the color is brighter than Xu Xi and lighter than Huang Quan.
Shen Kuo of the Song Dynasty once described Xu Xi's flower and bird paintings: "With ink pen, special grass, a little danpowder, the spirit is full of spirit, and it has a vivid meaning." This method of painting disdains fine brush sketching and filling in colors, and the ink writing flowers and plants is feathery and slightly varied, which is sometimes called "falling ink flowers". Mi Fu called a similar brushwork in Yi Yuanji's ape diagram "Yi Color Pen".
These characteristics can be seen in Yi Yuanji's works.
"Peach Bamboo Pigeon Diagram"
Integrate emotions into the painting, no boneless painting and light and rich
The apes painted by Yi Yuanji are either smart and playful, or funny, or cute, or affectionate, which is refreshing.
Yi Yuanji loves apes and monkeys, has a soft spot for apes, and uses the "life drawing method" to create a large number of excellent ape paintings, and integrates human emotions into the ape world when painting, so that the painting presents a natural and natural humanized realm, leading the viewer to detach physically and mentally, return to nature, and have endless fun. As:
"Monkey Cat Diagram"
The painting depicts a macaque tied to a rope, two small tabby cats, passing by here together, that knowing that in an instant, the monkey took one of them, the other was fleeing, looking back alertly, beware of the macaque attacking again, this sophisticated macaque was proud and overjoyed after the victory. The panic and vigilance of the kitten, the composure and cheerfulness of the macaque, all the details are meticulously portrayed and expressive.
In terms of drawing method, the eye sockets, nose wings, lips and teeth, and toes and claws of the two little tanukis in the picture are outlined with fine lines, and the hairs of the whole body are depicted one by one with more slender lines, so that the coat color is clearly defined.
The same drawing method is used for the big macaque, through different directions of hair lines and delicate hair color changes, so that the body sitting cross-legged is full of movement, furry fur, dense and not messy, cute, very want to touch with hands.
"Loquat Ape Monkey Diagram"
In the painting is a "close-up" of two black apes living leisurely. One of the two black apes hangs from a drooping branch, and the other sits firmly on a stout trunk. The black ape hanging on the branch raised his long arms, holding the branch with both hands, as if he was swinging, and could swing out at any time, while looking back at another black ape sitting on the trunk and leisurely watching, his eyes were facing each other, with affection, and the two emotions were intertwined, and the affection was lingering.
The loquat tree on the picture only draws a few branches obliquely, and the trunk comes out diagonally from the lower right to the left, which seems to have been broken, but following the picture, we find traces of the loquat tree, and one branch soars out of the upper left corner, and then hangs down from the upper right. These branches, the pen is not connected, but the intention is connected, there is a scene outside the scene, and there is a painting outside the picture. This kind of seemingly nothing, intermittent, virtual and real composition gives the viewer a larger and broader imagination.
"Gathering Ape Diagram"
The ink depicts the climbing, drinking and frolicking of apes in the autumn and winter seasons. There are more than 30 black and white apes painted in total, either hanging on tree branches, or playing in the water by the clear spring, or sleeping in caves, some like mother and son relying on each other, some like husband and wife blind dates, some playing and playing, some stopping and roaring, joy, anger and sorrow, spirituality emerges, and the beauty of human nature is depicted, and the humanized emotions of apes are portrayed into three points, showing them vividly.
The painting method is still painted with ink as boneless, and the edges are fluffy, although the ink color is more used than the color, but there is also a proper transition between the inks, giving people a light and rich feeling. Dry, wet, thick and light ink penetrate each other, and the simple contains changes, and the plain is vivid.
Epilogue:
In the history of mainland painting, there are many painters who specialize in painting certain things, such as Chen Hong and Han Gan in the Tang Dynasty, who are famous for painting horses, especially Han Gan's "White Picture of the Night" is even more famous.
There is also Han Yu, a well-known cow portrait painter, whose work "Five Ox Figures" is also well-known and has brought far-reaching influence to future generations.
And ape painters, before the Song Dynasty, this field was almost blank. The emergence of Yi Yuanji fills this gap. Although he is not as famous as Huang Xiao, Xu Xi and others, he has also made outstanding contributions and achievements, especially broadening the scope of flower and bird painting, which can be called the "holy hand of the ape".
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