Chen Heng Ke character master Zeng, with the word line. Regarding his contributions to the history of Chinese art, Chen Chiyu, a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts of Tsinghua University, said in "The Significance of Chen Shizeng's Theory of Progress in Chinese Painting": "Chen Shizeng (1876-1923) was an outstanding painter and art historian in the history of modern Chinese art, and he made outstanding achievements in the study of poetry, calligraphy, seal carving, flower and bird painting, figure painting, landscape painting, and the history and theory of Chinese painting, especially in the study of Chinese painting creation and painting theory, which had a profound impact. ”
Chen Hengke has made many contributions to the history of Chinese art, not only in artistic creation, but also in art theory, but also in terms of art theory, but unfortunately, such an artistic genius died young, at the age of 48 due to illness. Therefore, Chen Chiyu lamented in the text: "Chen Shizeng's main creation and art research and art education and art activities are mainly in his forties, while the creative activities and changes of Qi Baishi and Huang Binhong are mainly after the age of sixty, if Chen Shizeng lived for another forty years like Qi and Huang to live to be more than ninety years old, both in painting creation and art history research, the achievements will be huge, and he will become a 20th century Chinese art hero like his brother Chen Yinke, the tutor of the Tsinghua Institute of Traditional Chinese Studies. ”
Chen Hengke was born into a family, and although his grandfather Chen Baozhen was only a person, because of his super talent, he was promoted to the governor of Hunan, and during this appointment, he advocated a new policy with Huang Zunxian and Tan Si, and was praised by the Guangxu Emperor for this. Chen Baozhen was once a subordinate of Zeng Guofan, and his talents were also appreciated by Zeng, and then he followed Xi Baotian on his southern expedition to the north, and because of his outstanding achievements, he was promoted all the way.
Chen Shizeng's "Flowing Springs in the Middle of the Mountain" is collected by Tianjin People's Fine Arts Publishing House
Chen Baozhen had two sons, the eldest son Chen Sanli and the second son Chen Sanwei. Chen Sanli was a gongsheng of the twelfth year of Guangxu, and later became a jinshi in the later supplementary hall, during which time he participated in the Qiang Society. In the twenty-first year of Guangxu, Chen Sanli gave up his position as the head of the bureaucracy and went to Hunan to assist his father in implementing the New Deal, and because of his superior ability, Chen Sanli, together with Tan Sitong, Xu Renzhu and Tao Jucun, was known as the "Fourth Prince of The Restoration". In the twenty-fourth year of Guangxu, the Penghu Reform Law failed, and Chen Baozhen and Chen Sanli were immediately dismissed from their posts by the imperial court and never used. Chen Sanli was also a famous poet in the late Qing Dynasty, and his influence in poetics even exceeded that of his achievements in the cause of restoration.
Chen Sanli had five sons, of which the eldest son Chen Hengke and the third son Chen Yinge were the most famous in later generations. In the twenty-eighth year of Guangxu, when Chen Hengke was 27 years old, he took his 12-year-old third brother Chen Yinke with the international students sent by the Qing government to study in Japan at his own expense. After arriving in Japan, Chen Hengke studied at The Hongbun Academy in Tokyo, and two years later transferred to the Japan Higher Normal College to study natural history, studying in Japan for eight years. At this stage, he became acquainted with Li Shutong, who studied oil painting at an art school. Before coming to Japan, Chen Hengke had studied Chinese painting and had a certain foundation in art, and his interaction with Li Shutong made him have a further understanding of the knowledge and techniques of oil painting and watercolor painting.
In the second year of the Qing Dynasty, Chen Hengke returned to China and worked as a teacher in a normal school, teaching mainly in natural history and painting, and was later invited by the Ministry of Education to serve as a picture editor, so he came to Beijing. He participated in some painting clubs in Beijing and gradually developed close contacts with the painting circles in Beijing. In May 1921, Chen Hengke, Together with Jin Cheng and Zhou Zhaoxiang, founded the Chinese Painting Research Society, and the following year he and Jin Cheng went to Tokyo, Japan, where he held the second Sino-Japanese painting joint exhibition.
Chen Shizeng,"Beijing Customs Map", volume 26
Before Chen Hengke went to Japan, he saw Qi Baishi's works in a painting shop in Liulichang and admired Qi Baishi's painting style, so he met Qi Baishi through friends and persuaded Qi to change the painting style, which prompted Qi Baishi's innovation in his later years and the new technique of painting safflower ink leaves. Then, Chen Hengke took Qi Baishi's paintings to Japan to participate in the group exhibition, which made Qi Baishi famous in one fell swoop. In the spring of 1922, Chen Hengke and Jin Cheng once again went to Tokyo to hold the third Sino-Japanese painting joint exhibition, this time bringing paintings by Wu Changshuo, Wang Mengbai, Chen Banding, Qi Baishi and others, which made these painters more influential in Japan.
In 1917, Qi Baishi came to Beijing, and he was 55 years old. Regarding the reasons and conditions of Qi Laijing, Hu Shi's "Qi Baishi Chronology" said: "Ding Wei, avoiding the chaos in the countryside, sneaked into Beijing. Fan Fanshan, the old poet, Xia Wuyi, the carver, and Guo Baosun, the painter, met. Huang borrowed the Fayuan Temple to live in the house, selling paintings and seal engravings for his business. However, Qi Baishi, who had just arrived in The Capital, did not open a sales channel, and in the "Self-Description of the Old Man of Baishi", he said that his painting style was "a cold and easy way for the Bada Shan people, not loved by the people of Beijing", when the fan he painted was only marked with a low price of two yuan, but even so, few people bought it, and it was precisely because of meeting Chen Hengke that he gradually changed this dilemma. In the "Self-Description of the Old Man of Shiraishi", it is written: "He pointed out many places for my paintings, and I listened to his words and gradually changed. He also humbly adopted my simple view, I have two poems of "I will not advance without a king, and I will retreat without a king", which can outline the friendship between the two of us. ”
Chen Hengke does have guidance on Qi Baishi in terms of painting skills, and Qi Baishi will also make his own suggestions to Chen Hengke, which makes Chen Hengke's painting technique also improve, and the relationship between the two can be regarded as mutual help and friends. The "Self-Description of the Old Man of Baishi" also wrote: "Shi once advised me to come up with new ideas and work around, and I listened to his words and created a faction of safflower ink leaves. I painted plum blossoms, originally taking the Fa Song Dynasty Yang Supplement (no blame). Fellow villager Yin Hebo (Jin Yang), who is the most famous in Hunan painting mei, he is the Yang Supplement of learning, and I also refer to his brushwork. The master once said: Gongbi painting plum, laborious is not good-looking. I listened to him again and changed the way I painted. Fellow villager Yi Weiru (Zong Kui), who was a member of the House of Representatives, asked me to draw a tuan fan, showed Lin Qinnan, greatly appreciated it, and said: 'Southern Wu and Northern Qi can be compared.' Comparing Wu Changshuo with me, our writing style is somewhat the same. ”
Chen Shizeng, "Beijing Customs Map", album No. 27
From these records, it can be seen that Chen Hengke not only has the vision of discovering artists, but also can guide the other party to become more perfect in technique. For Wang Mengbai, Chen Hengke also gave great help. If you look at the master, Wang Mengbai and Chen Hengke are also considered to be the same door, because they have both studied under Wu Changshuo, and Chen Hengke is also one of the most accomplished of Wu Changshuo's disciples. Chen Hengke also had great respect for his teacher, and he had a hall name called "Dyeing Warehouse Room", which was originally wu Changshuo's alias "Cangshi". After Chen Hengke took up his post in Beijing, Wang Mengbai also came to Beijing to sell paintings for a living, but his painting name is little known in Beijing, and the paintings cannot be sold. Pan Yuanruo said in "The Dream White Painter": "When Mr. Lai Jingye came to Beijing, he intended to paint in the factory, runge ruler one yuan, fan also one yuan, the owner of his non-famous painter, only accepted his runge, refused to hang his painting, thinking that no one cared, Mr. Was particularly annoyed." Later, when he met Shi Zeng, he was surprised that his paintings were rare in modern times, because of his praise, and intervened in the American School (the predecessor of the Art Academy) by the reputation of the bird. ”
Similar to the process of discovering Qi Baishi, during Wang Mengbai's most difficult period, his paintings were accidentally seen by Chen Hengke, who greatly appreciated Wang Mengbai's works, praised Wang Mengbai's painting skills everywhere, and also introduced Wang Mengbai to the Academy of Fine Arts, so that Wang Mengbai's paintings were gradually known to the world. In the subsequent exchanges, Chen Hengke also cooperated with Wang Mengbai at some painting meetings to let more people know about Wang Mengbai. The Diary of Yu Shaosong recorded on June 15, 1919:
Today's painting meeting was held, and the visitors were Tang Dingshi, Chen Shizeng, Lin Zaiping, Hu Zixian, Yang Jinsu, Wang Mengbai, Liu Jingxian, and Liao Yunduan. Dingshi and Jingxian each painted a piece of paper, mengbai and shi had cooperated with no less than ten paintings, and the paintings were all things that others did not paint, such as snakes, turtles, pigs, etc., all of which were very peculiar. Disperse from 8:00 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Cover in recent years the painting club is incomparably cheerful.
Chen Shizeng "Reading and Painting" in the collection of the Palace Museum in Beijing
In an elegant collection, Chen Hengke can cooperate with Wang Mengbai on more than a dozen paintings, which shows that the two are very tacit in painting. What is even more peculiar is that the animals they paint are not the subjects that ordinary people often make, which shows that the two are also different from ordinary people in their painting ideas. Yao Hua wrote in "Luo Yanfeng Ji Shou Su and Mr. Tao Qianqian Rhyming Again" that on December 19, 1922, in order to commemorate the 885th anniversary of Dongpo's birth, some painters in Beijing held a collection of Luo Yuan. At this gathering, Wang and Chen cooperated again: "Wang Mengbai wrote a pig, the teacher once supplemented it with bamboo, and used Dongpo 'rather eat no meat than live without bamboo' thing, and the most strange idea." "With such a harmonic tone to allude to Su Dongpo's poems, such paintings are amazing.
For a time in the early years of the Republic of China, the entire social atmosphere was inclined to social change, and there was also such a voice in the painting world. Founded in 1915, "Youth" magazine, later renamed "New Youth", became the public opinion base of the new cultural movement, some radicals strongly called for abandoning traditional Chinese studies and learning Western culture, "Youth" published an article written by Wang Shuqian "New and Old Problems" on the inaugural issue, which said: "The so-called new, that is, the culture of the foreign West; the so-called old people have no other, that is, the culture inherent in China is also ... The two are fundamentally contradictory, and there is absolutely no room for reconciliation and compromise. ”
This either-or concept was quite influential in society at that time. On December 15, 1917, Lü Zheng, who had studied painting in Japan in his early years, wrote a letter to Chen Duxiu, the organizer of "New Youth". Chen Duxiu was very happy after receiving this letter, and published it the following year on the first issue of the 6th volume of "New Youth" on January 15. Lü Zheng wrote in this letter: "Stealing today's poetry and opera should be reformed. Juxtaposed with the two in the fine arts of art, (all objects and images are sent to the place of beauty, are art Art, of which painting, architecture, sculpture three, must have a certain form in the space, can be called fine art, this common difference is also. Many people in our country are ignorant of this, trying to take all craftsmanship as art, and calling space, time, and art as fine art, which can be said; even those who have pictures and fine arts as words really do not know what to do. Especially the revolution". This passage talks about the lack of Chinese art in three-dimensional space, and Lü Zheng believes that reform should be carried out here:
The reform of literature and art in our country today is similar to the meaning of that year, and the decline and disadvantage of art is even worse. Gu said at the end of painting: those who have studied painting since the past, non-literati are painters, elegant and vulgar, and hengren cannot know the so-called beauty. In recent years, Western painting has lost to the East, and the school has learned to practice; the theory of aesthetic education has gradually spread, but it is a layman's profit, meticulous, in vain, attacking the skin of Western painting, and changing into vulgarity, in order to cater to the lustful hearts of the mediocre people. To this day, the painter of speech can hardly push the merchant to use the lady painting as a sign, and those who claim to be painters are almost all able to make such unreasonable paintings. (The painter of the sea, only this kind of painting can be a coincidence; but his face is not different from yin and yang, and his limbs are not called the whole, but he abounds.) Cover fine anatomy, purely non-known also. As for the title of the painting. All from the idea of causing flesh, Yukan sighed. At best, it is extremely necessary to make the beauty of the eternal man lose its righteousness, and change its thoughts into despicable and dirty.
Chen Shizeng", "Suddenly Seeing a Thousand Sails", collected by Tianjin People's Fine Arts Publishing House
In this letter, Lü Zheng said that some paintings in the early years of the Republic of China only copied the skin of Western painting and thus became vulgar, which was to cater to the common people and at the same time make Chinese painting lack artistry. Therefore, Chen Chiyu objectively said in the article: "Lü Zheng's article is affirmative of traditional Chinese art, criticizing only the kitsch art at that time rather than literati paintings, Chen Duxiu received Lü Zheng's manuscript and played on the topic." It must be pointed out that Lü Zheng is, after all, an aesthetician, and his overall view of Chinese art is relatively accurate and cannot be confused with Chen Duxiu. ”
However, at that time, Chen Duxiu wanted to use this to promote the revolution in the art world, so he published an article entitled "Art Revolution - Answering Lu Zheng" in the same issue of "New Youth". Chen Duxiu wrote in this article: "If you want to improve Chinese painting, you must first change the life of Wang Painting. Because of the improvement of Chinese painting, it is impossible not to adopt the spirit of realism of Western painting. What is the reason for this? For example, writers must use realism in order to be able to use the techniques of the ancients to exert their own genius and make their own articles, not the articles of the ancients. Painters must also use realism to be able to exert their genius. Paint your own paintings, do not fall behind the ancients. ”
Chen Shizeng", "Mo He", collection of Yangzhou Museum
Chen Duxiu proposed a way to improve Chinese painting, believing that the technique of the "Four Kings" school of painting should first be abandoned, and then he recounted the decline of Chinese painting since the Song Dynasty: "In The Southern and Northern Song Dynasties and the early Yuan Dynasty, the work of depicting and depicting the flowers and trees of the figures and animals is still a bit similar to realism. Since the bachelors despised the painting of the Academy, they concentrated on freehand and did not still have portraits; this kind of atmosphere, one advocated by Ni and Huang at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, and then advocated by Wen and Shen in the Ming Dynasty, and the Three Kings of the Qing Dynasty have intensified their efforts; people say that Wang Shigu's paintings are the culmination of Chinese paintings, and I say that Wang Shigu's paintings are the total end of the Chinese evil paintings of Ni, Huang, Wen, and Shen. ...... Such an authentic painting school, such an idol worshipped in society, if not defeated, is actually the biggest obstacle to the import of realism and the improvement of Chinese painting. ”
According to Chen Duxiu's point of view, Chinese painting has become a bad painting by the Republic of China period, and he even believes that Ni Zhan, Huang Gongwang, and Wen Zhengming are also evil paintings, and Wang Shigu is the leading figure of this school of evil painting, and it is necessary to overthrow such a style of painting, so his concept has far exceeded What Lü Zheng said. At that time, such a voice was not only Chen Duxiu's family, Xu Beihong also believed that Chinese painting techniques should be abandoned to learn Western realism techniques. In June 1920, Xu Beihong published his article "On the Improvement of Chinese Painting" again in the Peking University Painting Magazine, and he mentioned the regression of Chinese painting at the beginning of this article:
The decadence of Chinese painting has now been extremely bad! Where world civilization has not degenerated, the painting of china alone is today fifty steps back than twenty years ago, five hundred steps back three hundred years ago, four hundred steps back five hundred years ago, seven hundred steps ago, eight hundred steps a thousand years ago, and the nation's stagnation is also regrettable! Why did he make painting so decadent? It is known that it is conservative; it is known that it has lost its status as academic independence. Painting solid art also, and to learn. No matter what achievements it should have in the twentieth century, it is a great shame to regard the ancestors of a thousand years ago as if they did not arrest them. However, my grass is already there!