Recently, a cursive handscroll under the name of Huang Tingjian appeared in the Japanese market, and the auction company estimated it at 20,000 yuan, and finally sold it for nearly 300 million yuan, shocking the East Asian art circle.
After the auction, the official account of ancient books and other self-media in the art industry forwarded the news one after another. In just a few days, all kinds of gods and goddesses have different opinions.
Broadly combing, there are two schools of thought.
Cursive "Commentary Volume" prefaces
First, the serious faction. He believed that the lot was the original work of Wong Ting-kin and cheered for the auction result.
In the current sluggish market environment, once an authentic masterpiece is released and sold at a high price, it is good news for all art practitioners.
The first wave of information was reported that the collector was a collector surnamed Ma. This undoubtedly further adds to the legend and entertainment of this event.
It is rumored that in the autumn of 2019, the collector surnamed Ma once bid for Su Shi's "Wood and Stone Map" for 400 million Hong Kong dollars. Su Shi, Huang Tingjian, Mi Fu, Cai Xiang, as the four masters of calligraphy in the Song Dynasty, its status in the history of Chinese calligraphy is the existence of God, with Su, and there is no reason to be yellow?
Detail of the cursive "Commentary Volume".
Second, the hypocrites. It is believed that this work is far from Wong Ting-kin's work and is a fake.
At present, three or five art self-media authors have spoken out, listing the evidence as a fake, but most of them are vague and the chain of evidence is not strong enough.
Faced with this phenomenon, the author has considered whether to write an argumentative essay several times. The author knows that among the many teachers and friends who are silent, many people already have the answer in their hearts, and the reasons for everyone's silence are different. Some people feel that this matter has nothing to do with them and choose to remain silent; some people may be friends of Mr. Ma or his think tank, and it is inconvenient for them to speak out.
Detail of the cursive "Commentary Volume".
As a connoisseur with an interest in the history of Chinese calligraphy, it is undoubtedly a very meaningful thing to consolidate my academic skills through meaningful case studies. This is the original intention of the author to publish this article.
After deciding to write this article, the author spent two or three days collecting calligraphy materials about Huang Tingjian, and at the same time made a preliminary study of the bibliographic materials and inscriptions on the back of the collection.
The following is the author's conclusion and chain of evidence.
The author believes that this volume is not an authentic work by Huang Tingjian, but an imitation between the Ming and Qing dynasties.
Chain of Evidence 1: Identification of Huang Tingjian's work itself
The main part of the work in this volume is Huang Tingjian's cursive script, and there is a line of self-writing at the end of the volume. The cursive part belongs to the style of "Lian Po Lin Xiangru Biography", "Zhushang Seat Post" and "Li Baiyi's Old Tour", that is, Su Shi's joking "dead snake hanging tree" style. On the whole, there are many similarities with the style of the Yellow Book, but the difference is that the writing is not smooth enough, and the sense of sluggishness is obvious, because it is a silk copy, it is denied only on this point, and the evidence is insufficient.
In the identification process, if we encounter a familiar author, most of the time we can make a correct judgment by grasping the overall style, but when we encounter a less familiar author, we often encounter a bottleneck, in this case, we cannot make a conclusion based on the overall style alone, and we need to work on some links.
The easiest way to do this is to find out the characters that the author has repeatedly used in classic works for comparison, such as "zhi", "one", "also", "no", and so on. Due to the difference between the cursive part of this volume and the above standard parts, and the probability of random changes in cursive symbols, we do not do a comparative study. To put it simply, the right to let go of the cursive part and continue to study later.
In the process of identifying this volume, Huang Tingjian's inscription played a key role.
The content at the end of the volume is: Wushen in April of the ninth year of Yuan You, the book was given to Jiang Shuzhen in Gaocheng. Valley Road people. The text is fifteen characters, written in line, and signed "Valley Daoren" at the end, a total of nineteen characters.
The inscription at the end of this volume is "Valley Dao Man", which is not common. Although Huang Tingjian is known as "Valley Daoren", his classic works only have several signatures such as "Lu Zhi", "Fu Weng", and "Valley Old Man". This is the only one that falls into the "Valley Daoren" section (see picture below).
Another important part of judging that this part is a fake is the comparison of several commonly used words.
Among these nineteen characters, "Yuanyou", "Year and Month", and "Valley" are all commonly used words. The author chooses the words "Yuan", "You", and "Gu" to compare them with Huang Tingjian's surviving classics, and finds that his writing habits are completely different.
The third stroke of the character "Yuan" in this volume (upper left) is completely different from the rest of the classic works.
The relative position between the first horizontal pen (left) and the left side of the character "You" on the right side of the character "You" in this volume is very different from that of the standard part (right).
The structure of the "human" part in the middle of the word "valley" in this volume (left) is very different from the rest of the standard parts
In addition to this, the author also found differences in other writing habits. For example, the "nine" character skimming pen, the vertical pen in the middle of the word "Shen", the grass head of the character "Jiang", and the vertical pen in the middle of the character "mountain" all start with a garlic-shaped pen, which is also very different from Huang Tingjian's calligraphy style of spear and halberd.
The pause at the beginning of the pen does not match the style of Huang Tingjian's spear and halberd
Above, seven of the nineteen characters are different from the conventional penmanship, and the difference is not small. In addition to the comparison of the above local details, from the overall style, there is also a gap between the calligraphy skills of the inscription part of the volume and the calligraphy level of Huang Ting.
From this, it is preliminarily concluded that the work in this volume is not the original work of Huang Tingjian.
Chain of Evidence 2: Post-paper inscription and verification
The back paper of this volume has inscriptions by Yu Ji of the Yuan Dynasty, Song Lian of the late Yuan Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty, Xu Lin, Zhu Yunming, Xie Chengju, Shen Zhou in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, and Weng Binsun and others in the late Qing Dynasty.
After researching them one by one, the author has come to the following conclusions: Yu Ji and Song Lian's calligraphy is absolutely fake; Xu Lin, Zhu Yunming, Xie Chengju, and Shen Zhou's calligraphy is highly imitated, and Weng Bin's Sun inscription is authentic.
Let's start with Yu Jibai (pictured above). As we all know, Yu Ji was a well-known poet and Confucian master in the middle of the Yuan Dynasty, and his calligraphy was known for its bookish style. The works now in the Palace Museum in Beijing include the book "Baiyun Master Post" and the regular script "Jichen Post", the former is turned and moved, up and down, learning the five generations of Yang Ning style, the latter is a small regular script, influenced by the style of the Southern Song Dynasty, dignified and beautiful. The paper inscription at the back of this volume is twisted and pinched, the words are independent, neither into a line, nor into a column, between the upper and lower words, there is no connection, at a glance, it is known as a low-level imitation of the skill of the person who is not able to do it.
Yu Jibai (right) compared with the collection of the Palace Museum in Beijing (left).
Next, there is Song Lian's inscription (above). This is even more outrageous.
Comparison of Song Lian's inscription in this volume (right) with the collection of the Palace Museum in Beijing (left).
Song Liangui is a generation of Wenzong in the late Yuan Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty, and is a master-level existence in the fields of thought, literature and art. This style of writing is cowardly, there is no skill at all, and there is no doubt that it is a fake. On the other hand, the Beijing Palace Museum has Song Liankai's book Baxian Yushu's "Du Gongbu Xingci Zhaoling Poem Volume", the pen is calm, and the strength penetrates the back of the paper, which is not the same as this volume. One truth and one fake, the answer is instant!
Comparison of Song Lian Ba's volume (right) with Baxian Yushu's "Du Gongbu Xingci Zhaoling Poetry Volume" (left).
Zhu Yunming's calligraphy inscription (below) has the following peculiarities:
First, the Department of Records deliberately erased the right side of the word "Hong" in "Hongzhi".
Second, it is relatively rare to sign "Su people wish Yunming", and "Su people" is relatively rare. "Wumen" or "Gusu" is a more commonly used expression.
Zhu Yunming Bawang Zongdao Tibetan "Shu Su Ti", directly signed "Zhu Yunming".
Third, although the calligraphy has the shadow of Zhu Yunming's style calligraphy, it is quite a lot of carving, unnatural, compared with the Bawang Sect's Taoist "Shu Su Ti" (above), the top and bottom are not coherent, like the pen of imitation.
Zhu Yunming is inscribed in this volume
Next, let's talk about Xu Lin's calligraphy.
Xu Lin is good at jade seals, and the first part of the seal book is basically in line with his style, but the first word in the signature is missing, which is estimated to be the word "big", which should be "Xu Lin after the Ming Dynasty"; It is not common to add a dynasty in front of "Houxue", and the word "Hou" in "Houxue" is not used in traditional Chinese, which is also doubtful.
Xu Lin's calligraphy is very close to Xie Chengju's style in the inscription on the back paper, and it is suspected that it was forged by the same person (below).
Finally, let's talk about Shen Zhou's calligraphy inscriptions.
In the author's opinion, this is the highest degree of simulation in the back paper, its breath and calligraphy style and the author's mind of Shen Zhou calligraphy is very close, no wonder there are teachers and friends on the Internet to say that this is Shen Zhou's authentic handwriting. There is no error in the content of the literature and history described by him. It is basically the same as Shen Zhouba's and Huang Tingjian's "Li Bai's Memories of the Old Cursive Scroll", which is basically the same as the style of the book.
Compared with Shen Zhouba, Huang Tingjian, and Li Baiyi's old travel scrolls (bottom), the style of writing in this volume is similar
Another reason why this part is difficult to judge is that the handwriting I see from various art self-media is blurry. I didn't see the original, and the picture information was also blurry, so I had to reluctantly make it difficult. Judging by common sense and logic, it should also belong to imitations with a high degree of similarity. If it is genuine, then Shen Zhou himself is suspected of counterfeiting Huang Tingjian, and the problem is big.
Finally, the inscription of Weng Binsun (below) at the end of the Qing Dynasty, although the author does not have a standard room to refer to, it feels that it conforms to the style of calligraphy in the late Qing Dynasty and should be authentic.
Chain of Evidence 3: Research on Bibliographies
Some art self-media have listed five or six descriptions of the Ming and Qing dynasties, which seem to be conclusive, but after research, the author found that most of them are far-fetched.
First, Yu Fengqing, a Ming scholar, recorded in the "Continuation of Calligraphy and Painting Inscriptions": "Yu Wansheng was fortunate to have received no less than a few kinds of real scrolls in his life...... The above are all written on paper, only this is a silk book, two feet high, the word and a hundred lines are strange, where more than a thousand words, the wonderful preparation of the questions also, this volume is now returned to the Tian Lai Pavilion, Yuan Bian. ”
According to the record of Xiang Yuanbian in this bibliography, the height of Huang Tingjian's handscroll in his collection is "two feet", according to the measurement standards of the Ming and Qing dynasties, the two feet are about 62-63 centimeters, and the height of this handscroll is only 50 centimeters.
Second, Wu Qizhen's "Records of Calligraphy and Painting" in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, and a volume of "Ode to the Qing Palace" in the Yellow Valley.
...... The inscription in regular script reads eleven characters and says: "Wushen in the ninth year of Yuan You, is the book of Uncle Jiang." Although it is the same person in the previous paragraph, it is very different from the content of Huang Tingjian's inscription at the end of this volume. The content of this volume of Huang Tingjian's self-trespass is: Wushen in April of the ninth year of Yuan You, and the book was given to Jiang Shuzhen in Gaocheng. Valley Road people. The inscription that Wu Qizhen saw was identified as an eleven-character regular script, and this volume was a nineteen-character line, so it can be seen that the handscroll seen by Wu was not this volume.
Third, Bian Yongyu recorded in the 11th volume of the "Examination of Shigutang Calligraphy and Painting" that after Shen Zhou's words, there was Xiang Yuanbian's "Wailu" dialect, but "Xie Chengju" was not mentioned; Therefore, the author cannot be sure that Bian Yongyu's book is this volume.
Fourth, Sun Yuehui only recorded Yu Ji, Song Lian, Zhu Yunming, and Shen Zhousi in the "Imperial Peiwenzhai Calligraphy and Painting Spectrum", and the rest were not mentioned, and there are also discrepancies with this volume.
Fifth, Anqi's "Moyuan Huiguan" recorded: ""Ode to the Qing Palace", cursive, silk, true, there are Yuan and Ming people. The language is sloppy, and it is not possible to determine whether it is this volume.
Finally, the contents of Xu Shichang's bibliography (text omitted) indicate that he did play with this volume, and unfortunately, the great president did not know that he was playing with a fake.
In a strict sense, none of the above Ming and Qing dynasty writings is 100% consistent with this volume. As for Xu Shichang's collection records, they are of little significance for identification.
Finally, let's talk about seals.
At this point, some readers may still be unsatisfied and feel that the author has neglected the research of seals. Seals include the author's seal and the connoisseur's seal.
The author's attitude towards seal verification is that if you are very familiar with an artist's work, or if you are very sure of the work you are appraising, you don't have to worry about seals. It is entirely possible that there are fake stamps on the real works that have been painted by later generations; on the contrary, why can't the fake works be stamped with a real stamp owned by the artist's relatives or students? This is also the reason why the old gentlemen regard the seal examination as an auxiliary basis in the process of painting and calligraphy appraisal instead of the main basis.
Of course, it is also very interesting to study seals, and for those ancient works, we can dig out the various characters throughout the history of connoisseurship through various clues.
Wang Gongwang is an overseas Chinese in the United States, a writer, and a collector of calligraphy and painting. He has lived in South America, Europe, North America and other places, and now lives in Los Angeles.