Text / Deng Qi
Moderator's Message: [Historiography] In 1939, Liu Linlin first combed and studied ancient Chinese furniture in the eighth chapter of Fu Kaisen's "Overview of Chinese Art", "Furniture", analyzed its ideas and methods, and analyzed its furniture outlook and cultural standpoint, which filled the knowledge pedigree of Chinese furniture research. Through diaries, poems and other documents, Deng Qi explores the differences and changes in Xu Shichang's attitudes towards Qiu Ying, Shen Zhou, Wang Hui, Dong Qichang and other calligraphers and painters in his later years, and analyzes Xu Shichang's painting evaluation and psychological causes. Li Cheng talked about the changes in the art creation and personal creative direction of Northeast China through the specific work of Zhang Ding from 1946 to 1948 after he arrived in Harbin, such as the "Turning Peasant New Year Painting Movement" and the "Turning Peasant New Year Painting Symposium", and summarized the collision and mutual achievement of personal encounters and practical opportunities in specific historical situations. (Xu Ling)
Abstract:Based on the published diary of Xu Shichang, this paper analyzes the differences and changes in Xu Shichang's attitudes towards Qiu Ying, Shen Zhou, Wang Hui, Dong Qichang and other calligraphers and painters in his later years, and explores the evaluation and psychological causes of Xu Shichang's paintings.
Keywords: Xu Shichang, Qiu Ying, Shen Zhou, Wang Hui, Dong Qichang
One
In terms of the historical figures who left their personal diaries, Xu Shichang's diary records are also worthy of the first ranking, so his diary is also a reliable source for understanding his people.
In October 1916, Xu Shichang (1855-1939) wrote in his diary: "...... Wang Xiaotao sent Shen Shitian's "Yellow Mountain Map" and Qiu Shizhou's "Spring Night Banquet Peach and Plum Garden", which were exhibited and read, and the price was too high. [1] This record is intriguing. You must know that although Xu Shichang was young and poor, he was a very popular minister in the late Qing Dynasty, and he was also the secretary of state at that time, and he was not short of money accumulated for more than ten years. In his diary, he also spent a lot of money to buy antiquities and calligraphy, and his personal collection was very rich, and even in November 1912, he visited the mountains with his friends, and because of the beautiful scenery, he loved it, so he bought Xizhai Mountain, which had six tenants attached to the villa. is such a generous and wealthy eunuch, how much does he think the price of the two paintings of Shen Zhou and Qiu Ying this time is too high?
Wang Xiaotao may be the owner of a calligraphy and painting antiquities shop, and there is no information to be examined. Xu Shichang felt that there could be a variety of reasons why the price was too high, either Wang Xiaotao inflated the price, or the painting itself was not worth asking for because of the problem. Obviously, for the paintings of Shen Zhou or Qiu Ying, Xu Shichang has his own value judgment criteria. The specific reason can only be analyzed from the existing materials. Let's first focus on "Qiu Shizhou's "Spring Night Banquet Peach and Plum Garden".
Qiu Ying, who is listed with Shen Zhou in the four families of Wumen, can now find two versions of his Peach and Plum Garden at the Spring Night Banquet, one is the Peach and Plum Garden (fig. 1) from the collection of Chion-in in Kyoto, Japan, and the other is the Peach and Plum Garden (Fig. 2) from the collection of the National Palace Museum in Taipei. The version in the collection of Zhi'en Temple, the distant mountains, temples, city walls, figures, and gardens are advanced layer by layer, and four people sit around the table, each with its own form, and there are maids serving on the side, and there are two high lamps on the side. The peach and plum are in full bloom all around, the branches are stretched, scrambling to be the first, especially the vitality, and the main tree is especially thick and lush. There are three servants under the tree on the right in front, a child holding a lantern in front of the Taihu Lake stone, and a child among the flowers and trees on the right. Behind the tree is the fence, the green trees in the wall are dense, mixed with long pine spring flowers, slightly exposed roof ridge. There is a moat under the wall, and the water flows lightly. [2] The composition of the version in the collection of the National Palace Museum in Taipei is relatively simple, with peach and plum blossoms blooming in the courtyard, under the pine trees, five people drinking around a stone table, three children serving on their sides, and a gorgeous mat on the ground not far away, on which antiquities and cultural toys are placed. Both works vividly express the beauty of the garden and the joy of feasting, and the peach and plum blooming with special meanings depict the unbridled feelings of the poet and his brothers to show their talents, which is both elegant and elegant. Both paintings are based on Li Bai's "Preface to the Spring Night Banquet in the Peach and Plum Garden" [3], depicting the scene of the four Li Bai brothers holding a banquet in the peach and plum garden on a spring night, drinking and writing poems:
Fig.1 [Ming] Qiu Ying (biography), Taoli Garden, ink and color on silk, 206.4×120.1 cm, Collection of Chion-in, Kyoto, Japan
Fig.2 [Ming] Qiu Ying (biography), Spring Night Banquet, Taoli Garden, ink and color on silk, 29.8×124 cm, Collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei
Those who are husband of heaven and earth are the adversaries of all things, and those who are in time are also passers-by of a hundred generations. And floating like a dream, for the joy of geometry? The ancients traveled at night with candles, and there was a good thing. The situation of Yangchun summoned me to smoke the scene, and the large piece of fake me to the article. The peach blossom garden, the joy of the family. The group of seasons is handsome, all of them are Huilian, and we sing songs, and we are ashamed of recreation. The reward is not over, and the talk is clear. Open a feast to sit on the flowers, fly the feathers and get drunk with the moon. If there is no good song, how can he Shen Yahuai? If the poem is not successful, the penalty will depend on the number of wine in the Golden Valley.
Judging from Li Baishi, it is obvious that Xu Shichang is "soft". Xu Shichang is the eldest son in the family, his father died early, the family was poor when he was young, relying on his mother's hard work to survive, as he grew older, he treated his brother Xu Shiguang as a brother and father, and several cousins also often corresponded and had a close relationship. Xu Shichang is delicate and affectionate, and he himself is good at painting happy paintings, Qiu Ying's painting should be able to hook up his empathy. However, an inquiry into the collection and trading of Qiu Ying's works in the Qing Dynasty reveals that fakes are flooding the market. The Qing Dynasty painter and connoisseur Xie Lansheng (1769-1831) inscribed "Qiu Shi's Father Linli Xi's Ancient Landscape Scroll" in the year of Daoguang Bingxu (1826) of the Qing Dynasty, saying: "There are no more fakes in paintings than Qiu Shi's father, and those who paint in the good world can imitate them with their paintings, so there is no one true in the hundred volumes." Try to think about the painting is both fine, the real father years are not eternal, a lifetime can make a few paintings and full of the market......? Two days after the Mid-Autumn Festival in Daoguang Bingxu, Xie Lan of the South China Sea gave birth. Another painter, Yang Tianbi, also said in Daoguang Jiawu Nian (1834) "The Character of Qiu Shi's Father": "There are very few authentic paintings of Qiu Shizhou, and there are many fakes of Hengshan trekkers...... The reason why the real father is more important than that time, and the same name as Wen, Shen, and Tang, is that he is deeply committed to the ancients, and it is really handy. Daoguang Jiawu April, Baixia Yang Tianbi Ji. [4] Xu Shichang has been immersed in the calligraphy and painting collection circle for many years, and should know that Qiu Ying's works have been fabulous for a while—as mentioned above, the two paintings are rumored to be "Qiu Shizhou's "Spring Night Banquet Peach and Plum Garden", no matter which version it is, it can be regarded as a fine picture of Qiu Ying's style of character banquet, but the content of the two paintings seems to be very different, and neither of them has been recorded in the version of "Qinghe Calligraphy and Painting Boat" that circulated in the late Qing Dynasty [5], and even the Zhi'en Yuan collection version has similar compositions that have been passed down as Qiu Zuo's version. Xu Shichang did not judge the feud as a genuine fake in his diary, but only asked about the price, as the author guessed, there may be two possibilities for the situation at the time: one is that this theme of "brotherly friendship" really makes him love, and the other is that even if it is a fake, it is still a collector's place.
Shen Zhou's works, Xu Shichang has a treasure, namely "Ishida Fuchun Mountain Residence Map", for which he also made an introduction and stamped three pieces (fig. 3), and in the "Shuizhu Village People Collection" [6] published in 1918, there is a cloud: "The old Qiushan pen gesture is different, and Ishida Zishou is also a picture." [7] In the poem, he affirmed that Shen Zhou's paintings were self-contained. Shen Zhou's paintings were also many fakes in the Qing Dynasty, so if he did not record them here as elsewhere in his diary, he "did not dare to determine their authenticity...... As soon as you read it, you will be ordered to take it away" [8], then the possibility of being abandoned because the issue of authenticity and fakeness is not worth asking for is not there, is it inevitable or an "accident" to give up Shen Zuo and Qiu Zuo this time?
Fig.3 [Ming] Shen Zhou (biography) "Imitation of Huang Gongwang Fuchun Mountain Residence" is first introduced in the collection of the Palace Museum
Two
In Xu Shichang's diary, he gave up buying paintings twice because he "asked too much for a price", but he showed a different attitude on both occasions. Another time was seen on December 18, 1915: "Yesterday, Wusheng sent Wang Shigu to draw a scroll, and Shigu painted a picture album of Longmian Mountain Residence for Tongcheng Xiangguo [9], with Gao Jiangcun and Wang Yuyang. I plan to keep it for a few days and then return it, but I can't buy it because the price is too high. [10] The two abandonments were due to "too high a price", but the reluctance to "exhibit once" and "plan to stay for a few days" is still different. First of all, the "Wusheng" who sent the painting in 1915 was a close friend of Xu Shichang's cloth friend, and the famous collector Xu Fang at that time, there were also Gao Shiqi and Wang Shizhen on the painting, which shows that it is very likely to be genuine. Moreover, the picture was made by Wang Hui for "Tongcheng Xiangguo", which may be of special significance to Xu Shichang, who called himself Donghai and reached the level of Xiangguo. Finally, in terms of style, Xu Shichang at that time had a clear preference for Wang Hui's painting style, and on October 20, 1915, he said in his diary: "...... Jiang Ying was born to send 12 paintings of landscapes, the pen and ink are beautiful and old, and the domestic painters are unrivaled for a while, and they are also treasured. He also painted three handles of the fan, and painted the West Garden to play with the picture, all of which are masterpieces. Yu has the most Yingsheng paintings in the collection, and the fan has more than 20 pages, and it is still increasing year after year. Yu Ku loves Yingsheng painting, Yingsheng alias Daxiong Shanmin, is seventy years old and Haoxing does not reduce the year, and it is also a strange person. [11] Jiang Yingsheng (1847-1919), known as Yun, known as Yingsheng, alias Daxiong Shanmin, was a native of Huaining, Anhui Province. In the seventeenth year of Guangxu (1891), he was the head of the Ministry of Rites and Rites, and Xu Shichang had known each other in 1900, and Xu praised him at that time: "When I went out to visit Jiang Yingsheng, I saw that he had painted a lot recently, and his real name was also a hand." [12] In 1930, Huang Binhong said in "Critics of Painters in Recent Decades": "Chen Xifan and Jiang Yingsheng are both left Qinghui and right foothills. [13] Gai refers to Jiang Yun's landscape painting style as one vein of the four kings. Therefore, Xu Shichang may also have a blue eye for Wang Hui's paintings. Compared with the "plan to keep it for a few days and then return it", the reaction of only "exhibiting it once" in the face of Shen Zhouqiuying's work is a little cold. 〔14〕
In the poem "Poems on the Journey to the West Mountain" (composed in 1918), which is included in the "Shuizhu Village People Collection", Xu Shichang refers to Jingguan, Li Tang, Huang Gongwang, Shen Zhou, Dong Qichang, and Wang Shimin: "...... The floors are built to see the West Mountain, and the heart and the white clouds return day by day. Clean up the endless places of streams and mountains, and pay Jingguan with thousands of autumn colors. In the past, the wat climbed the stairs together, and the wine and poetry were collected for the first time. Looking back at the country, after shaking, he couldn't bear to ask Li Yingqiu. The old Akiyama's gestures are different, and Ishida's self-life is also a picture. The fragrance and ink are wonderful to smokers, and a generation of sectarians is indispensable. [15] Xu Shichang is more recognized by Shen Zhou than Shen Zhou in this poem, and Dong Qichang seems to be more recognized by Xu Shichang, saying that Wang Shimin learned the subtlety of his pen and ink. This point is still expressed by Xu Shichang in the "Taicang School of Painting" in the "Haixi Thatched Cottage Collection" collected in 1932: "Regardless of the old surname Wang of Wuyi, Taicang painting is fragrant." Who cleans up the remnants of the mountains and rivers, and has been good at it for three hundred years. [16] "Taicang" refers to the Loudong painting school, "Xiangguang" is still Dong Qichang, and "Wuyi Wang's surname" refers to the generation of the four kings. Xu Shichang expressed the relationship between the Four Kings and Dong Qichang in his mind in both poems. Xu's admiration for Dong Qichang is not necessarily purely because of his painting skills, or because of his advocacy and other reasons, but he has traced the origin of the Four Kings twice before and after, and has not mentioned that the Four Kings have inherited from Shen Zhou - other materials have not been seen, so it is reasonable that he "expressed" that he was "only" keen on the Four Kings of Jiang Yun and "calmly" gave up Shen Zhou's "Yellow Mountain Map". However, in the heart of Xu Shichang in 1918, Shen Zhou's status may not be as good as Dong Qichang's, and in Xu Shichang's heart in 1932, Dong Qichang's status was still extremely high - this is also the consistent cognition of the old and young in the Beijing-Tianjin area at the end of the Qing Dynasty - but it faintly presents another kind of "calmness": the poems in 1932 seem to objectively describe a popular aesthetic trend and its leader, as if he has galloped briskly from the pursuit team, The shouting position walked to the edge of the line and became an appreciative observer.
Compared with this relatively objective comment, Xu Shichang's mentality towards Shen Zhou is different. In Xu Shichang's later years, there was no change in his attitude towards Qiu Ying's paintings—Xu's poetry diary did not record Qiu Ying's related content at all, but "Shen Zhou" appeared many times, and his attitude towards it was very different from the past, and "Shen Zhou" at this time appeared in Xu's leisurely poetry: "The mountains and clouds wait for the rain, and the streams produce smoke by themselves." You will have to be leisurely and come to find Shen Shitian. [17] The "leisurely" in the poem is one of Xu Shichang's positioning of his ideal life in his later years, shortly after the abdication of the Qing Emperor in 1912, he resigned from the government and began to build Shuizhu Village in Weihui's hometown in Henan Province to express his yearning for a quiet and secluded life in the mountains and forests. The juxtaposition of "Shen Shitian" here and leisurely landscapes clearly represents Xu Shichang's cognition of Shen Zhou's paintings, and summarizes them as an image that conforms to his own aesthetic pursuit of hidden landscapes.
This is an interesting change in attitude, and the use of "Shen Zhou" to represent this kind of leisurely imagery did not appear in the previous text. This poem was collected in Xu Shichang's 1936 engraved "Haixi Thatched Cottage Inscription Poem", which can be said to be his work in his later years. On August 7, 1936, Xu Shichang recorded in his diary: "About the eighth brother, the tenth brother, and the nephew of Xu came here to see the long scroll of the cursive "Lengyan Sutra" in the Yellow Valley collected by Yu, and also to see the long scroll of "Fuchun Mountain Map" and the large and small volumes of flowers in Yu's place, and had lunch here. [19] Sadly, there is still no trace of this long scroll of his copy, but there is a long poem with an inscription for reference:
The inscription is a picture of Fuchun Mountain
Living on the seashore without leaving home, the day is covered with pictures and books. The god of the heart is the past, and the lonely place can be poor in the world. Emei is too white and high, and Kunlun is alone in the sky. Taihang goes straight down to the Central Plains, and the Yellow River is not clear, who can laugh. Looking west to Taihua East Dengdai, independent Sumen a long howl. Exit the customs management to lead the doctor Wu Lu, 100,000 bears to guard the border. Songshan Xingshan is also strange, and the autumn wind eagle falcon avoids wild burning. There are snakes in Changshan that can't be stung, and Hengshan hears apes crying every night. Songgaote out of the town, towering still exists in the Zhongyue Temple. The arch is supplemented by the end of the capital, and the two rooms are too strong and too little. There are five southern Putuo in the north, and the curse bowl lotus blooms four times. The traces of Da Ling still exist, and the mountains of Quehua are hanging in autumn. Yuanming did not enter the Huiyuan Society, and Lushan was empty and ridiculed. Wuyi Zhang Le will be immortals, and Fengguan Luansheng will pass on ancient tunes. Whoever washes his hair sees the jade girl basin, and Wazun can also be used to drink and chew. Dongting Wanwei has a rich collection of books, and the words shine brightly. The abbot of Penglai pointed to Gu Jian, and Chiwen should have a Dan edict. The vast land is full of smoke and dust, and there are mountains to be fished in. The peaks and mountains overlap and the smoke and water are deep, and I try my drawings and poems. I have a picture of Ishida Fuchun, which is like a treasure hidden stone canal. The spring and autumn breeze is clear and beautiful, and the morning and evening exhibitions play several volumes of Shu. Wu Aya is strong in three zhang, and the longitudinal pen is swaying according to the former model. The smoke and clouds are ethereal at the bottom of the wrist, and the ink is still thick. Yang Qiu Laozi is about to come out, and his name will remain in the rivers and lakes through the ages. Where is the Han family palace now, Qingshan is a smoke and wave disciple. Tucheng looked at Tianyu, who had helped the Dao vein. The mysteries of the white stone can be glimpsed here, and I am also amazed by it.
Ishida imitated the big idiot Fuchun Mountain Map, and Yu copied Ishida Tucheng, and then made this poem title, for his daily book collector, and increased the wealth of the spring map for a period of research also. 〔20〕
This poem is sprinkled with hundreds of words, reading it is like visiting the world's famous mountains and rivers, and Xu Shichang's feeling of "watching" the treasures of the big idiot through the "Ishida Fuchun Mountain Residence Map" is vividly expressed, and the feeling of leisurely lying down is obvious. At the end of the poem, "Baishi" is Shen Zhou's evening number "Baishi Weng", Xu Shichang praised his "mysterious can peek into this" for the big idiot, and said that he faced Shen Zuo "I am also amazed here", which shows that he thinks that Shen Zhou will come to this painting, and he must have comprehended the artistic conception expressed in Huang Gongwang's "Fuchun Mountain Residence Map" like himself, so he has a sense of sympathy. This is different from the positioning of Dong Qichang in his mind, which is why he used Shen Zhou as a symbol of leisurely travel, and wrote a poem like "Come to find Shen Shitian" like a close friend traveling together.
Three
Or from the change of Xu Shichang's attitude towards Shen Zhou, it can be seen that his mentality of living in Tianjin has quietly changed. This change is even more evident in Xu Shichang's diary after living in Tianjin in 1922. Creating calligraphy and painting couplets, chatting with relatives and friends, and compiling collections are the main contents of his life in Tianjin. The creation of calligraphy and painting, the appreciation of antiquities, and the expression of nostalgia were the ways that Xu Shichang had at the beginning of his entry into the officialdom, but his life after 1922 should be very different from the previous feelings when he retired to "Shuizhu Village" from 1916 to 1918. In the preface to the 1918 edition of Shuizhu Village People, Xu Shichang's friend Ke Shaoxian wrote from the perspective of his own Qing relics: "Since the republic was created, the East China Sea Xianggong was admired by the people at home and abroad to serve as the affairs of the world, and then went away with the Tao. [21] It can be seen that although Xu Shichang came out of the Beiyang government, in the eyes of some of the remnants of Beijing and Tianjin, he was "admired" by the Beiyang people, because of his ability to govern the world and old friendship, not because of the "Tao Harmony", and this "Dao" should refer to "the proposition of the Beiyang warlord group". But was Xu Shichang really at odds with this "Tao" at that time?
Between 1915 and 1918, Xu Shichang also wrote in the long poem "Six Songs of He Yuanming's Return to the Garden and Pastoral Residence": "The group is not honored, and the book is laborious. [22] The "group ribbon" is "the ribbon on the official seal", and from the analysis of the content of this poem, it is more likely that it was written when he returned to Weihui Shuizhu Village in 1916 after his resignation as secretary of state was approved—if so, then from the perspective of time, Wang Xiaotao also sent the works of Qiu Ying and Shen Zhou at this time, and at the beginning of October, not long before Wang came, when Xu Shichang passed his birthday, Zhou Zhaoxiang and others came to Shuizhu Village from Beijing....... "The 13th day of September is the 62nd birthday of the teacher, and it is the victory of the past and the visit to Sumen. On the eleventh night, taking advantage of the Jinghan slow train, the car was crowded, half for the birthday guests. Yu is paid right, and the two bones Dong Ke hide in the same room, and talk about the antiquities unearthed in Shaanxi and Luo...... On the twelfth, he did not arrive at Luwangfen Station. The teacher and the prime minister came to the ...... with seven cars" [23] Zhou's record shows that Xu Shichang was very well connected in the Beijing-Tianjin area at this time, Xu Shichang talked with them very happily, and also gave a poem "Jian Zhou Yang'an Xiao Qianzhong" to commemorate this incident, which shows his love for him. I don't know if the "bone Dongke" that Zhou Zhaoxiang saw on the road was looking for Xu Shichang, but Wu Shixiang, who went to celebrate his birthday a day earlier than them, "was actually a special envoy to persuade driving" [24]. Xu Shichang and Wu talked several times in a few days about the dispute between Li Yuanhong and Duan Qirui's mansion, until Wu and Zhou Zhaoxiang set off together to return to Beijing. Xu Shichang probably did not agree to participate in the mediation at that time, until he was invited by the Li faction several times, and Xu repeatedly stated that he would never enter the political circles, and then did his best—"talking a lot in one day, and being very tired" [25]. It can be seen that from July to October 1916, he was still engulfed in the sea of Beijing, Tianjin and Huan Hai, and it was not until April 1918 that Xu returned to Henan again to "retreat". So why did this "retreat" in 1916 fail to completely break away from the political circles of Beiyang? It may be consistent with the reasons why some scholars believe that Xu sued Li Yuanhong for insisting on not entering the political circles: "There are roughly two reasons why Xu did not enter the political circles: 1. Xu Shichang's prestige in the Beiyang faction is second only to Yuan Shikai, and it is difficult for Xu to rank below others after Yuan's death, such as Liu Yifen's evaluation of Xu's 'There is only one Yuan family in his mind, and Yuan will not think about the second person when he dies'. In 1917, when the Overseer Army rebelled against Lebanon, Ni Sichong said, 'Donghai is not unwilling to go out of the mountains, but it will never be a second person'. 2. At that time, when the Beiyang faction had a strong sense of crisis, Xu had a sense of Beiyang because of his status as a Beiyang veteran and would not help Li. [26] It is conceivable that although Xu Shichang had "retreated" when he saw Qiu and Shen in 1916, he may have retreated into advance, and he was still deeply concerned about the interests of the Beiyang Group in his heart, which was different from his resignation in 1912 and returned to Wei Hui's hometown, lamenting that "the house and garden have remained the same for more than ten years, and the personnel have been wrong, and I have been sorry for a long time" [27] After building "Shuizhu Village", he planned to be a "relict old" and a retreat, and the "retreat" in 1916 may be a kind of identity to cover up attitudes, and it is a temporary retreat. From the abdication of the Qing Emperor to his election as president in 1918, although Xu Shichang always mentioned "returning" in his poems, his body has been wandering between "temples" and "rivers and lakes", either sympathetic or helpless, and has never truly gained inner peace. To be precise, Xu Shichang's pastoral life during this period was not "returning to the garden", but "retreating from the garden", which was the "retreat" opposite to "advance" in the hearts of scholars, and he should have already faced this state of mind, so he called his own name "Returning to the Farmland" [28], this "retreat" is not the "way back" facing the "landscape and pastoral", but the "retreat" facing the "temple", which is a kind of helpless self-consolation-"the hero regresses and the immortal" [29].
From the perspective of referent, "retreat" emphasizes the cause field of the action, Yu Xu is the "officialdom", and "return" emphasizes the direction of the action - "landscape and pastoral". Xu Yin, who emphasized "retreating," was already clear, so when did Xu Yin, who showed the meaning of "returning" from Shen Zhou, come out? If the meaning of "retreating" in the "retreat hall" is simple, and it is only a withdrawal from the temple, then in the preface of the 1928 "Inscription Poem on Retreating from the Garden," Xu Shichang mentioned another "retreat" and a new "return" when he lived in Tianjin. The villagers chanted among them, and the guests talked about poetry and reading paintings, and they did not return to Shuizhu Village for nearly ten years. [30] Among them, the "retreat" of "retreat" may have a new meaning, but it may also be a kind of inheritance, and Xu Shichang has not yet seen a clear explanation, so it is not regarded. However, regarding the "return to the cloud building" of this "return", Xu Shichang once engraved the poem "Guiyun Building" in the "Haixi Thatched Cottage Collection" in 1931 to explain the meaning of its name: "The clouds that go out of Xiu make rain, and the clouds that return to Xiu bravely retreat to Tibet." On the first floor, the wind and moon are clear, and the 10,000-axis books are crazy. It is said that the Tao can help the world, and it is used to being cold from the intellectual. A Qiu and a ravine, ordinary things, the people of the world and forget. [31] "Returning to Xiu's Cloud" can be speculated to be Xu Shichang's self-comparison of his situation, at this time he added the precedent "Yong" to "retreat", which is rare in Xu's poems, and is itself a kind of decoration of praise and righteousness. "Guiyun Building" should be the name of the building after Xu Shichang moved into the new residence on No. 20 Road [32] in the British Concession of Tianjin on September 10, 1922, three months after his resignation as president. From this perhaps earlier poem in Volume 1 [33], it can be seen that the meaning of "returning" in Xu Shichang's pen is no longer thin on the "rewarding aspirations" after getting rid of worldly things, and "returning" to the "scenery of landscape and pastoral life" that he described in six poems, but has a delicate process of psychological activities, especially from "the Tao can help the world, from the intellectuality is accustomed to the cold", we can taste some of the unfinished loss and helplessness of his ambitions, until the final "Si Shi Si people and forget", this kind of "forgetting" and "reward" Compared with the more metaphysical, he has already guided himself to the birth and tranquility of the "landscape and pastoral world" - at this time he already thinks that "one Qiu and one gully" does not need to be described too much, "ordinary things" - this is also the difference in the overall tone between his "Haixi Thatched Cottage Collection" and "Shuizhu Village People Collection" of that year.
Four
When Xu Shichang's "return" appeared, his state of mind had been silent in the "Guiyun Building", so how did the "retreat" of the previous "heroic retreat" be calmed down to achieve this state of mind of "returning"? Regarding the "retreat" of new ideas, Xu Xian, who has Yujin, said in "Guiyun Lou Collection": "The name and body should retreat, and the heart is empty. [34] I will not speculate about which "name" is "famous", but from the expression, we know that Xu Shichang may have felt that he had achieved some "fame" and should "retreat" and seek "forgiveness". Later, in the "Haixi Thatched Cottage Collection", Xu wrote: "The two fishermen of Weibin Yanse have different provenances. If you take on the world's affairs, you will be a hero if you retire after success. [35] "Weibin" is Jiang Shang at the end of the Shang Dynasty, and "Yan Se" is Yan Guang of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Xu Shichang compares the two together, thinking that the two have different purposes of hidden fishing, and he is obviously inclined to Jiang Ziya's "fishing" in his mentality, thinking that "hidden fishing" can be regarded as a way to "enter the WTO" rather than stop at the belief of "being born". Come to think of it, this is also his "ideal" state, and his poems often use "fisherman" and "fisherman" to compare themselves. Xu's self-comparison echoes the traditional literati's idea of retreat, which is one of the traditional purposive choices for "hidden", but compared with Pu Xinji, the equally famous "representative of the Qing Dynasty" in the Beijing-Tianjin calligraphy and painting circles, the "hidden" in the mouths of the two reveals different moods. Pu Xinji was born in 1896, 41 years after Xu Shichang, but because of his origins[36], the "hidden" in Pu's poems is not free and easy, and there is still a sense of discomfort with reality behind it—"The abdication of the Qing emperor is not comparable to the old things of the previous dynasty—ending the thousand-year-old imperial system in a peaceful way is the terminator of the political legitimacy of the former (literati)." This makes the remnants of the late Qing Dynasty the most special group of remnants in all dynasties, like weightless political orphans, facing an embarrassing situation where they can no longer obtain a 'self-consistent identity' with their 'existing experience'. [37] So did Xu Shichang also have this kind of situation? On the surface, there are traces that he did have a close history with the Qing relics, and on the surface, the Qing court "attracted their loyalty in a material way" [38]. In the preface to the foregoing, this kind of "loyalty" is written in ink, and Xu's diary and memoirs about him are also full of such nicks. Some scholars in later generations have confused the premise that the traditional literati and the old politicians in the early Republic of China were in different categories, and made the judgment that Xu Shichang was in the opposition because the political ideas displayed by his traditional literati thinking did not meet the needs of the current situation. In "The Fisherman", Xu does present another kind of expectation of the traditional literati after the "hidden"—with the purpose of looking forward to "success", but unlike the sorrow of Pu Xinji and others who "had no choice but to be born and have no way to enter the WTO", this straightforward purpose can be positive, and even the meaning of "persuading people to join the WTO" does not carry the discomfort that the "remnants" loyal to the Qing court should have in the current situation.
Since Xu Shichang believes that he should actively join the WTO, has he achieved the "retirement after success" that he admires? In addition, he also has a poem called "Retirement after Success": "A boat with five lakes in spring, and the West is bright in the mirror." In the Spring and Autumn Period of Wu Yue, Ouyi was overbearing. The river flows day and night, and Qiangwu has become a swamp. If a good bow is not hidden, there will be no birds in the sky. If you succeed, you will retire, and the way of heaven is clear. The surname Yi is involved in the party, and his mind is ethereal. A small test of the hand, still out of the watch. So far, over the stream, the smoke and the moon are windy. [39] "Ou Yizi" is the Spring and Autumn Fan Li [40], Xu believes that he is "successful and retired", and believes that he took the initiative to "hide the good bow" after "success", this decision is very in line with the "way of heaven", in the heart of Xu Shichang, who went to the field for nearly ten years in 1931 and believed in Taoism, he may compare his "voluntary resignation" with it, combined with Xu's previous "brave retirement" and "fame", and even how similar to Fan Li's secluded life in the pen seems to have an answer.
Regardless of the evaluation of Xu Shichang's life of "the wisdom of later generations", it can be seen in these two "retreat" poems that Xu does not see despair about the new national system in his expression of his own "hidden", and this kind of non-despair is just another mood and appeal that is different from the Qing relics group who have to stop at the representation of "high sleeping" - he is indeed the same part of the traditional literati generally hope to further realize their ambitions by retreating after "hidden", and the current situation has indeed given Xu Ke the opportunity to "enter the WTO" after "hidden". To a certain extent, Xu also admits in the poem that this opportunity helped him fulfill his long-cherished wish of "success"—even if there is a fly in the ointment, there are still some regrets that "the Tao can help the world, and the intellectuality is accustomed to the cold"—which is different from the "no way to enter the WTO" encountered by the remnants represented by Pu Xinji. Therefore, in the strict sense of the word, Xu Shichang is not a "remnant" of the Qing court in the political realm, but at most a "remnant" under the control of the traditional literati mode of thinking. Compared with the helpless "retreat" of "heroic regression" in 1918, it can be seen that Xu Shichang, who has been in the field for nearly ten years from the highest position, has shown a change in the connotation of "retreat" and the mentality of viewing, which is developed together with the state of mind of "returning", which is the premise of "returning", and it is also another curtain call ceremony for some Beiyang literati relics represented by him to gradually withdraw from the political stage.
Looking back at that time, although Xu Shichang in 1916 had gone into hiding, he did not yet have the psychological basis for discovering "Shen Zhou" - his influence on the Beiyang regime was still there, and he had a lot of right to speak: "In recent years, the Beiyang faction has repeatedly divided the splits, and Xu Donghai has used his words to dislike it, and if it breaks down, it will be taken advantage of by the southerners, but the Donghai faction may still support it." (March 29, 1918)" [41] It can be circumstantially proved that Xu Shichang at that time was indeed one of the cores of the "Tao" mentioned in the preface of Ke Shaoxian above, and it seems no longer surprising that Xu Shichang, who was unwilling to be a "fairy" at ease, "despised Shen Zhou" - because he may have admired the Four Kings of Xiangguang more at that time, and the root of his admiration may also be related to the mainstream aesthetics of the eunuch group at that time - Xu at that time was always looking for all possibilities for the "advancement" of him and his colleagues. And in 1922, when Xu Shichang chose to resign and go to live in Jinmen, he should have realized that his right to speak gradually disappeared in the south and north. However, when "Successful Retirement" was written, I believe that Xu's heart had come to an end due to his political career, and he had found enough psychological comfort for himself and was completely calm - this was the peace of embarking on the place of life and deciding not to "join the WTO" for the rest of his life. At this time, he found "Shen Zhou" again, it is likely that because of his own calm and leisurely need the acquaintance and recognition of a "close friend", in order to avoid loneliness - when Xu Nian was approaching old age, the best friends who used to be able to sing poems and books were almost gone, and Zhou Zhaoxiang, who often came to visit him and commented on calligraphy and painting with him, and his tenth brother Xu Shizhang and others were more like junior friends in his eyes - fortunately, at this time, Shen Zhou had already sent him "Fuchun Mountain", and he looked at it in his inner tranquility, and realized the wonders of "Fuchun Mountain Residence", and also "discovered" Shen Zhou's "Fascination" is similar to him, and under the dislocation of time and space, he has a bosom friend and friendship with "Shen Zhou".
Exegesis:
[1] Xu Shichang, Wu Siou's Diary of Xu Shichang (Volume 2), Beijing Publishing House, 2018, p. 460.
[2] Zhang Yanyan, "The Beauty of Fusion-Qiu Ying's Spring Night Banquet Peach and Plum Garden", Beauty and the Times (II), No. 4, 2013.
(3) One is "Spring Night Banquet from the Peach Garden Preface".
[4] Zhu Wanzhang, "The Collection and Influence of Qiu Ying's Works in the Ming and Qing Dynasties", Journal of Fine Arts, No. 5, 2016.
(5) Liu Yi and Kong Qingmao, "A Review of the Version of Qinghe Calligraphy and Painting Boat", Journal of Nanjing University of the Arts (Art and Design), No. 6, 2020.
[6] Xu Shichang published eight collections of poems during his lifetime, and according to the statistics made by Cui Jianli in the article "Narrative of Xu Shichang's Poetry Collection", the time span of Xu's poetry collection is as follows: "Returning Farmland Hall Collection" contains 480 poems composed between 1887 and 1914, "Shuizhu Estate People Collection" contains 1,020 poems composed from 1915 to the spring of 1918, "Guiyunlou Collection" mainly includes 1,110 poems written between 1922 and 1927, and "Guiyunlou Inscription Poems" A total of 293 inscription poems composed between 1922 and 1924 are collected; the Inscription Poems of the Retreat from the Garden mainly includes 463 inscription poems written between 1924 and October 1928; the collection of 1,884 poems written between 1928 and the spring of 1931 is the largest collection of poems in Xu Shichang's eight poems; and the Inscription Poems of the Haixi Thatched Cottage is selected for an unknown time range, and the complete collection contains a total of 936 inscription poems. Selected Poems of the People of Shui Zhu Estate is the only poetry anthology of Xu Shichang, with a total of 1,796 selected poems, which was published in the autumn of 1931.
[7] "A Journey to the West Mountain", excerpted from Xu Shichang's Shuizhu Village People's Collection, Vol. 7, self-printed, 1918, p. 7.
[8] Xu Shichang, Wu Siou, Xu Shichang's Diary (Volume 4), p. 156.
[9] The reference here should not be the well-known "Tongcheng Xiangguo" Zhang Tingyu, but Zhang Ying, the father of Zhang Tingyu. Zhang Ying (1637-1708), the name Dunfu, the number Lepu, was born in Tongcheng, Anhui Province.
[10] Ibid. [1], p. 421.
[11] Ibid. [1], p. 415.
[12] Xu Shichang, Wu Siou, Xu Shichang's Diary (Volume 1), p. 451.
[13] Lu Fusheng and Cao Jinyan, eds., Huang Binhong's Anthology, Calligraphy and Painting (I), Shanghai Painting and Calligraphy Publishing House, 1999, p. 479.
[14] Looking at Xu Shichang's diary, one can summarize a characteristic, that is, in addition to the people and things related to the political career, the more affairs and events that touch his heart, whether they are sad or happy, the more ink falls.
[15] Ibid. [7].
[16] Xu Shichang, Haixi Thatched Cottage Collection, Vol. 8, 1932, p. 12.
[17] "Inscriptions", from Xu Shichang, "Haixi Thatched Cottage Inscription Poems", Vol. 3, 1936, p. 6.
[18] Xu Shichang, Shui Zhu Estate People's Collection, vol. 2, 1918, p. 6.
[19] Ibid. [8], p. 311.
[20] Xu Shichang, "Haixi Thatched Cottage Inscription Poems", vol. 3, 1936, p. 1.
[21] "Ke Shaoxian's Preface", from Xu Shichang's Shuizhu Village People's Collection, 1918, p. 1.
[22] Xu Shichang, Shuizhu Village People's Collection, Vol. 7, 1918, p. 12.
[23] Zhou Zhaoxiang, "Liulichang Miscellaneous Notes" (I), Beijing United Publishing Company, 2017 edition, p. 221.
[24] "What Xu Donghai Heard When He Came to Beijing", Morning Bell, October 7, 1916, p. 2.
[25] Ibid. [1], p. 463.
[26] Liu Huijun and Zhang Wenjie, "Xu Shichang and the 1916 Dispute between the Government and the Yuan", Historical Monthly, No. 11, 2020.
[27] Ibid. [1], p. 293.
[28] "Returning farmland" was first seen in "Historical Records of Wu Taibo's Family", "Zixu retreated and cultivated in the wild". Some scholars say that Xu Shichang's "Returning Farmland Hall" was named after going to the wild in 1922, but in fact, in 1914, Xu Shichang had already engraved the "Returning Farmland Hall Political Book", and in the same year, he also engraved the poetry collection "Returning Farmland Hall Collection".
[29] "The Abandoned House", from Xu Shichang's Shuizhu Village People's Collection, Vol. 8, 1918, p. 12.
[30] Xu Shichang, Poems on the Inscription of Retreat from the Garden, 1928, preface.
[31] Xu Shichang, Haixi Thatched Cottage Collection, Vol. 1, 1931, p. 14.
[32] He Peixin, Annals of Shuizhu Village, 1949, p. 167.
[33] The content of Xu Shichang's poetry collections is often arranged in chronological order.
[34] "Instant Affairs", from Xu Shichang, Guiyunlou Collection, Vol. 3, 1927, p. 6.
[35] Xu Shichang, "Angler", from Xu Shichang, Haixi Thatched Cottage Collection, Vol. 12, 1931, p. 1.
[36] Pu Xinji (1896-1963), Manchu, formerly known as Aixin Jueluo Puru, the first word Zhongheng, changed the word Xinji, self-named Emperor Xi, Xishan Yishi, a native of Beijing, a famous calligrapher, painter and collector. He is the grandson of Prince Qinggong Yixun. In addition to studying literature in Prince Gong's Mansion at an early age, Pu Xinji also received the cultivation of "piano, chess, calligraphy, painting, poetry, and hop aesthetics" in Da Nei. After the Xinhai Revolution, he lived in seclusion in Xishan Jietai Temple in Beijing for more than ten years, and then moved to the Summer Palace, specializing in painting. In 1924, he moved back to the Cui Jin Garden in Prince Gong's Mansion to live, got involved in the society, and began to correspond with famous painters such as Zhang Daqian. He later moved to Taiwan.
[37] Pu Xinji's "Nine Days": "On the ninth day, I climbed high and looked at it, and the sound went deep. The wind is urging a short scene, and the cold leaves are ringing in the empty forest. The maple is chaotic and rainy, and the autumn is terrifying. The ancients were like a knot, lying high and scattered. Excerpted from Pu Ru's "Xishan Collection", Volume 3, Mao Xiaoqing's "Pu Ru Collection", Zhejiang People's Fine Arts Publishing House, 2015 edition, p. 99. This view is quoted from Hang Chunxiao's article "The Birth and Entry of the Late Qing Dynasty Relics: Psychoanalysis Centered on Pu Xinji", in which he explains that the word "high sleep" is not only "leisurely and peaceful", but also means "seclusion". This article was published in Art Observation, No. 10, 2020.
[38] Hang Chunxiao, "The Birth and Accession of the Late Qing Dynasty Relics: A Psychoanalysis Centered on Pu Xinji", Art Observation, No. 10, 2020.
[39] Xu Shichang, Haixi Thatched Cottage Collection, Vol. 5, 1931, p. 10.
[40] Fan Li appeared more than once in Xu Shichang's poetry collection, and in 1927, there was a poem "Autumn Qing" in the "Guiyunlou Poetry Collection": "If you want to visit Yizi, the flat boat is full of howling songs. It's just that at this time, Xu has not yet revealed his specific evaluation of Fan Li's retreat.
[41] He Baozhen, Xu Yanping, "He Baozhen's Diary", Phoenix Publishing House, 2014, p. 449.
Deng Qi is a Ph.D. candidate at China Academy of Art
(This article was originally published in Art Observation, Issue 2, 2024)