Summer! It means the hottest time of the year has arrived. In the sweltering heat mode, the ancients did not have air conditioning, usually holding a fan in their hands and slowly shaking.
In the summer, the ancients held the fan, but not only looked at its practical function of cooling and cooling down, but also the elegant thing of the literati. In particular, they love folding fans, let alone summer, and even shake them a few times in the cold winter months.
Ming Lanying's "Ancient Maple Frost Map"
Ming Luzhi "Cuibi River Wave Map"
After thousands of years of development, the fan surface has gradually become a medium of artistic creation and a symbol of culture and art, in which the paintings in the books can be seen in the artistic style of calligraphy and painting. Or to cool the dust, or to give to friends, or to send love to the fans, as a "pocket elegant thing" is a set of practical and artistic as one of the objects.
Qing Chen Hongshou "Imitation of Yun Dongyi Historical Meaning"
Qing He Chong "Flowers and Birds"
The ancients had wide robes and large sleeves, a folding fan was hidden in it, and when the gods were idle, they slowly unfolded, and the pen and ink poetry that came to the face was a wisp of oriental charm and a school of celebrities. Or you can write poems and paint on the fan, express your intentions, not only to appreciate yourself, but also to give answers to friends to save mutual friendship.
Qing Puhua", "Distant Mountains Like Yun"
Qing Puhua's "Poetry of the Western Mountains"
Fan painting has a very long history. The "Book of Jin and the Biography of Wang Xi" records the story of Wang Xizhi as an old woman's inscription fan; Zhang Yanyuan's "Records of Famous Paintings of Past Dynasties" says that Liang Xiao Ben "once painted landscapes on the fan, which can be known within a thousand miles". Thus, there was a tradition of fan-to-face inscriptions at least around 1700.
Qing Qiandu "Song Shadow Rafting Map"
Qing Sheng's "Songling Idle Residence Map"
In the Song Dynasty, Tuan Fan painting reached its peak, and court painters even painted fans into the wind, leaving a large number of exquisite fan paintings and calligraphy works, and the shape of the fan also appeared banana-shaped. One of the characteristics of these fan works is that the artistic function is far greater than the practicality, wild grass and flowers, insects, poultry and fish, rivers, lakes and seas... The bread is everywhere, and the ingenuity between the square inches is unique, which tests the painter's grasp of space and the proficiency of the technique.
Song Zhao Tuo,"Pipa Mountain Bird Picture Page"
Song Gongji,"Jade Rabbit Picture Page"
During the Ming and Qing dynasties, folding fans became the main carrier of fan painting and calligraphy. In the Ming Dynasty in the 15th century, folding fans were widely used by all levels of society, and literati painters also favored painting on the mountain surface, becoming the pets of literati and scholars, and had the title of "pocket-bearing elegant things".
Huang Binhong's "Jiangting Smoke and Rain Map"
Pan Tianshou "Mo Ju"
At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the folding fan was loved by the Ming royal family, and both Ming Chengzu and Ming Xuanzong favored it, and Xuanzong also created a large folding fan painting - "Landscape Figure". Shen Zhou, Wen Zhengming, Tang Yin, and Qiu Ying, known as the "Four Houses of Wumen", have a large number of folding fan fan calligraphy and paintings passed down, and they will also inscribe poems after painting, so the style of folding fan calligraphy and painting has flourished, forming a unique form of calligraphy and painting art since the Ming and Qing dynasties. By the Qing Dynasty, fans, painting fans, appreciation fans, and Tibetan fans entered their heyday, and shops specializing in selling calligraphy and painting fans appeared.
Qi Baishi and Zhang Daqian's "Flower and Grass Immortals, Plum Bamboo Double Qing" fan page
However, because the folding fan is different from the general form of calligraphy and painting, it can be carried with it, so it symbolizes the character and temperament of the owner, and is a kind of cognition of the self. Tang Yin, one of the "Four Families of Wumen", had a rough career and lived in poverty in his later years, and his fan page "Okra Diagram" shows the image of three okra growing tenaciously from mountain stones, and self-titled: "Leaf cut green jade Rui Shu jin, micro-base mediumless to Shanglin." The frost of the late years shakes off together, and this does not change to the yang heart. Combining this special fan-faced painting form with the sentimental words of the chant, we can see Tang Yin's perception and sorrow for the encounters in life. Therefore, it can be said that the fan is a symbolic symbol of the literati self.
Wu Changshuo's "Ju You Huang Hua Xingshu Poems Two Poems" into a fan
There are two kinds of fans, one is a fan with a complete fan bone; the other is a fan page, which mainly includes two kinds of folding fan page and tuan fan fan page. As far as the collection value is concerned, because there are many exquisite materials and carvings of the fan, and the difficulty of painting in the fan is very high, even if the same artist's calligraphy and painting at the same level, the price of the fan will be much higher than that of the ordinary fan page.
Qi Baishi "September Crab Is Yellow"
In addition to the fan surface, the literati are also very particular about the fan bone, in addition to the variety of materials, including Xiangfei bamboo, sandalwood, ivory, etc., but also pay attention to the carving process on the fan bone. Take the Painting Fan of Yang Dazhang's QingQianlong Period "Imitation of Qiu Ying's Brush Intention Pavilion" in the Qianlong Period of the National Palace in Taipei as an example, this handle painting fan is Yang Dazhang's imitation of the Ming Dynasty Qiu Ying's brushwork, painting the palace pavilion, the brushwork is delicate, and the mountain stone is painted on the gold note with green heavy colors, which is gorgeous. The other side of the folding fan is Qianlong Fifty-first Year (1786) "Imperial Pen Endowment is Unspeakably Hopeless", the golden note clip of the book fan is attached to the fan bone, highlighting the fan bone inlaid with flowers, plants, characters and other patterns, and also serves as a row spacer, which is extremely exquisitely designed and produced.
Wu Hufan and Zhang Hairuo's "Deep Mountain Visits to the Dao, Xiao Kai< Jiang Xing > Poems" into fans
The fan bone yin carved the folded branch Meilan, carved by Jin Xigao
Qing Yang Dazhang's "Imitation of Qiu Ying's Pen Intention Pavilion" became a fan
On the back is Qianlong's "Imperial Pen Endowed with Undesirable"
From ceremonial supplies to daily necessities to works of art, the development of fans has gone through a long process. Whether it is a tuan fan or a folding fan, the landscape and water, the entertainment of flowers and birds, and the poetry and poetry are all condensed in this silk, accommodating the thousands of forms of nature, becoming a microcosm of a corner of the world, giving people the artistic feeling and infinite reverie of "seeing the big in the small". This not only carries the original ingenuity of the authors, but also has been passed down as a symbol of their personal culture to this day.
Zhang Daqian's "Kuang Lu Tu • Xingshu Self-Composed Lyrics" became a fan
Text Source:
[1] Kong Xiali, "Art in a Square Circle," Fine Arts Daily, June 26, 2021.
[2] Li Baoxing: "Turning on the air conditioner is too hot, do you know how the ancients escaped the heat?" Art Business, August 3, 2020.
The image comes from the Internet.
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Produced/China American Network
Production/New Media Division of China American Network
Editor/Li Sijia