The birth and development of any art is deeply related to the artist's life experience, values and beliefs, and aesthetic orientation, and there will be no art form that exists separately from its historical and cultural categories and social environment. The same is true of Lin Sanzhi's calligraphy art. Lin Sanzhi is a generation of calligraphers who grew up in a rich traditional culture, especially in Anhui, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and other places in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River with unique poetry, calligraphy and painting traditions, Tongcheng School ancient literature, Buddhist culture, Zen culture, for Lin Sanzhi's calligraphy art provides a strong cultural foundation. The emergence of "Zen Qi", a unique aesthetic quality in Lin Sanzhi's calligraphy art, is a distinctive classic case. Compared with ordinary calligraphers, Lin Sanzhi's calligraphy has a "Zen atmosphere" that brings a unique cultural charm and aesthetic temperament to his calligraphy art.
The image of Lin San
Lin Sanzhi's calligraphy art has a deep connection with Buddhist culture, especially Zen culture, which is obviously related to Lin Sanzhi's life experience. When he was a child, Lin Sanzhi had burned incense and worshiped Buddha with his family, his uncle-in-law Tang Yihe's whole family believed in Buddhism, and his cousins both became monks in the Guanyin Pavilion in Hexian County, which had a very profound impact on Lin Sanzhi's psychology and thoughts. Lin Sanzhi's wife, Sheng Decui, is a tribute to Shengjia Mountain in He County, and there is a Hanshan Master Temple in her hometown, one of the four great monks in the late Ming Dynasty, and Lin Sanzhi must be no stranger. In 1943, at the age of 46, Lin Sanzhi took refuge in Master Juecheng in He County, and had further contact with Buddhism. Until his later years, he was fascinated by the lives and experiences of Master Hongyi and Master Yinguang, and visited the temples and temples where these two masters once lived in Xi many times. Lin San also visited many temples in his life, such as Fenglin Temple, Xiyin Temple, Jile Temple, Hanshan Temple, Zhun Ti Nunnery, Jizang Wang Temple, Jiming Temple, Qixia Temple, Tushi Temple, Huiji Temple, Yunyan Temple, Lingyan Temple, Shaolin Temple, White Horse Temple, Daci'en Temple, Jingye Temple, Mida Temple, Wuyou Temple, Baoguo Temple, Wannian Temple, Thousand Buddha Nunnery, Huazang Temple, Guangji Temple...... He traveled or wrote poems, hoping that he could also live a quiet meditation life as a monk in a temple, from which he could comprehend the profound wisdom and wisdom of Buddhism, and present this life concept and aesthetic situation in his calligraphy art.
Born to become a Buddha 75cm×20cm Lin Sanzhi Art Collection
Lin Sanzhi has repeatedly talked about that he should be a monk practicing in the deep mountains, and he has a deep understanding of Buddhism and good concentration, so that he can appear like the aesthetic realm of calligraphy. He was deeply immersed in Buddhism and Zen culture, and became one of the most important ways to take the Dharma and express his calligraphy art. Lin Sanzhi has long lived in the Jiangnan area, which has a long tradition of Buddhist culture and a strong Buddhist cultural atmosphere, and his spirit has been deeply infected by the long-term influence of Buddhist culture. He continued to read Buddhist scriptures, sit in meditation and boxing, thus forming a very lofty and clear divine atmosphere, so that his calligraphy art has a deeper spiritual atmosphere and aesthetic imagery. This is further reflected in his calligraphy and poetry. Lin Sanzhi once wrote "Shoumin is really worldly, thank you for your ascension to heaven", "Born to become a Buddha Xie Lingyun, the middle period of the world's bosom friend", "After reading the forty-two chapters of the scriptures, love is heavy and the night is frightened." It is not a mantra verse, and the poem "Drinking the heart hurts the heart", and the last pen of "being born to become a Buddha" was still written before his death, all of which are related to Buddhist culture.
Bugyo 1985 69cm×27cm
Lin Sanzhi believes that "life is Zen, Zen is life" and "talking about art is not about things, but about exploring life", and only by understanding the value and meaning of life can we have the life of calligraphy art. Therefore, he said that art must understand the truth of life, the meaning and value of life, in order to have creative development, blindly attached to a certain family and try to break through, there is no way out. "Books are the crystallization of the feelings of the predecessors at that time and place, and they are not all the same as me here and now. Copying is not creating", "Artistic Enlightenment is to go in, to know its mysteries; Enlightenment is to create, with my face. Participation is the means, and enlightenment is the goal. In the process of participation, there is a gradual realization, a small amount of accumulation, and a leap, which is an epiphany. After enlightenment, we must continue to participate, the more we participate, the more we understand, the more we understand, the more we understand, and the realm is higher than others, which is for the sake of enlightenment. Enlightenment is mutually reinforcing and mutually reinforcing. Ginseng is to eat mulberry leaves, and enlightenment is to spit out good silk. If you don't participate in it, you can't spin it out if there is no leaf in your belly" "Calligraphy comes from the root of wisdom, and you should understand the source of the heart from the depths. Tianji splashed a pool of water, and every bit of it became a house leakage" "Who understands the true source of calligraphy, and dots of house leakage." I have an understanding in this, every time I find the soul from the depths", they advocate more understanding, comprehension, and seek the objects, themes and aesthetic elements of calligraphy creation from everything in the world, daily life, and self-heart, and this calligraphy creation idea and its aesthetic experience obviously come from the ideological concepts and methods established by Zen culture. Lin Sanzhi advocated that the creation of calligraphy should pay attention to enlightenment, practice, awareness, and feeling, constantly improve the knowledge and understanding of calligraphy, have their own unique feelings and experiences of pen and ink, and write their own spiritual interests.
The word is a heart painting, 26cm×90cm, Lin Sanzhi Memorial Museum
It is with in-depth research and thinking on Buddhist culture and Zen culture that Lin Sanzhi has laid a solid cultural foundation for the formation of the aesthetic characteristics of calligraphy and Zen, so he said with emotion, "I am the predecessor Yang Fengzi, who has been aborted several times. Now he has entered the world of sampa and written the hue of the world." Lin Sanzhi constantly "introduced Zen into the book", creating an extraordinary aesthetic realm of calligraphy. His calligraphy reveals the atmosphere of ethereal spirit, high ease, blandness, simplicity, life and death, astringency, gathering and dispersion, and the aesthetic imagery is extremely rich and profound, like a dream, with a spiritual realm as crystal as ice and snow, which is obviously deeply related to Buddhist culture, especially Zen culture. Many people have repeatedly lamented that they can't read his calligraphy, which is related to the inability to know, understand, and feel his profound Buddhist cultural heritage. The reason why Lin Sanzhi has a deep sense of loneliness, so much so that he introduced Zhao Puchu, Shao Zihui, and Gao Ershi as his bosom friends, is related to his rich inner cultural mood and ideological experience. The art of calligraphy is a reflection of the calligrapher's inner state of mind and an abstract expression of his own emotions. The rich and profound Zen culture has brought a different aesthetic atmosphere to Lin Sanzhi's calligraphy art.
Golden Dome 59cm×228cm Lin Sanzhi Art Museum is the treasure of the town hall
The Jiangnan Buddhist culture and Zen culture have deeply immersed Lin Sanzhi's spiritual world, creating his inner aesthetic state of mind after being purified by Zen culture, and only then can he have such a Zen calligraphy spirit and calligraphy aesthetic image. Lin Sanzhi constantly broke free from the influence and entanglement of the world, transcended the constraints of the real world on him, and wandered outside the world, which contributed to the fact that his calligraphy art has the atmosphere of Buddhist culture and Zen culture. The open-minded, straightforward, sincere, simple and majestic spiritual feelings presented in Lin Sanzhi's calligraphy art purify people's inner impetuousness and restlessness, and exist as a channel, platform and form to connect the traditional spirit and modern culture.
Reading the Venerable Master's Poetry Collection Eight Poems, 1974, 22.5cm×200cm, Collection of Song Yulin
(Zhao Qibin)
Selected references:
1. Lin Sanzhi, "Poetry on the River" [M].Shijiazhuang, Hebei: Huashan Literature and Art Publishing House, 1993
2. Zhao Puchu, Qi Gong, eds., Lin Sanzhi Calligraphy Collection[M].Suzhou, Jiangsu: Gu Wu Xuan Publishing House, 1997
3. Jiangsu Cultural and Historical Materials Committee, ed., "Lin Sanzhi Jiangsu Cultural and Historical Materials No. 113" [M].Nanjing, Jiangsu, 1998
4. Lin Changgeng, "Lin Sanzhi"[M].Tianjin: Baihua Literature and Art Publishing House, 2007
5. Editor-in-chief of Lin Sanzhi Research Association, "Lin Sanzhi Research" first series[M].Nanjing, Jiangsu: Southeast University Press, 1994
6. Editor-in-chief of Lin Sanzhi Research Association, "Commemorating the 110th Anniversary of Lin Sanzhi's Birth" (Lin Sanzhi Research II) [M].Anhui Hefei: Anhui Fine Arts Publishing House, 2008
7. Southeast Culture Supplement, "Gao Ershi Research"[M].Nanjing, Jiangsu, 1997
8. Wang Luxiang, ed., The Complete Works of Chinese Famous Painters Huang Binhong[M].Hebei:Hebei Education Press,2000
9. Shao Chuan, ed., "Lin Sanzhi Annals"[M].Nanjing, Jiangsu: Jiangsu Phoenix Literature and Art Publishing House, 2016
10. Ji Fukun, ed., Compendium of Chinese Books [M], Nanjing, Jiangsu: Jiangsu Phoenix Fine Arts Publishing House, 2019