400 years ago "Living Home" | Li Rihua's artistic life

Text | Yang Ziqiang

Now there is a popular word, called "life home", which refers to the kind of wise people who are devoted to the joy of life, live a calm, elegant, and artistic atmosphere. Obviously, Li Rihua, a calligrapher, painter and connoisseur known as a "naturalist" during the Wanli period, was a typical "lifer" 400 years ago - although there was no such term at that time.

From the web

Li Rihua (1565-1635), the word Junshi, the number nine suspicions, alias Zhu Lazy, Zhai name Wei Shui Xuan, etc. Li Rihua's fame was far greater in those days than now, and when Qian Qianyi, a generation of Wenzong, talked about "elegant people at home", he took Dong Qichang, Wang Weijian, and Li Rihua as representatives, and said that among these three people, "Junshi should be the vocation of the profession." The "job will" is the official who holds the banner, similar to the "standard-bearer" as it is said now, and the implication is that Li Rihua is slightly better than the famous Dong Qichang.

Unlike most literati, Li Rihua spent most of his life at home. He began to step into the officialdom in the twentieth year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty (1592), and officially returned to his hometown in the second year of Chongzhen (1629), in the past 40 years, although he was an official, he spent most of his time in his hometown.

Of course, this does not prevent him from becoming the Shaoqing of Taifu Temple, which is also a middle and high-level official position. Judging from Li Rihua's "Weishuixuan Diary", in addition to reading and writing books, Li Rihua's daily life is basically to appreciate calligraphy and painting, travel, enjoy flowers, taste tea, chat, and interact with monks and Taoists. As a famous literati in the world, his lifestyle was not only due to his personal temperament and hobbies, but also a fashion in the late Ming Dynasty. In this sense, Li Rihua is actually a sample of the life of a Jiangnan literati in the late Ming Dynasty.

Li Rihua said in an article that when he was a baby, his father held him on his lap and "dictated "University", and he began to read ancient books at the age of 7, and the articles he wrote at the age of 12 amazed Su Ru, and he was a prodigy. To be honest, the memories of ordinary celebrities are unreliable and very watery, but Li Rihua's words are still somewhat reliable.

Later generations said that Li Rihua had "two more", one was that he had many works, and the other was that he had many aliases.

His works include "Tian Zhi Tang Collection", "Li Cong Tan", "Calligraphy and Painting Imagination Record", "Zi Tao Xuan Miscellaneous", "Wei Shui Xuan Diary", "Liuyan Zhai Notes", "Mr. Mei Xu's Farewell Record", "Tian Zhi Tang Poems", etc., which are full of grandeur. There are also many names, and the famous ones in the light room include Weishuixuan, Tianzhitang, Liuyanzhai, Zitaoxuan, etc. There are many books, which shows that he has a high level of talent, and there are many aliases, which shows that he lives a leisurely life. These two seemingly contradictory things have to be concentrated on one person, who has to be a genius who studied "University" as a child.

Li Rihua's "lifer" attitude can be seen from his tea drinking. In ancient times, tea drinking was often regarded as a sign of literati life, and the elaborate red tape was amazing. For example, Ni Zhan, a great painter whom Li Rihua admires very much, asked the servants to pick up the spring water for making tea from the mountains, and only used a bucket in the front, and the bucket in the back can only be used to wash his feet, because he was afraid that the servants would occasionally fart on the road and pollute the spring water.

Although Li Rihua's attention to tea is not so perverted, since he named the study "Weishuixuan", his requirements for tea are naturally harsh. It is essential to use spring water to make tea. Even when he went to Hangzhou to accompany his son to take the imperial examination, he specially asked the servants to fetch water from Geling and send it to the inn. Friends are also very interested, and the gifts given to him are often several jars of Huishan spring water, which is known as the "second spring in the world", or the famous Yingyu Lake water.

Li Rihua also organized a few like-minded friends to jointly hire people to deliver Huishan spring water once a month. The price of the spring water transported 200 miles away is very expensive, and the freight of each jar of water is 3 cents of silver, 3-4 cents of silver for each jar of water, and 3-4 cents of silver for the lid of the jar. That is to say, a jar of Huishan spring water always costs six or seven cents of silver. At that time, the average worker's salary was 3 cents of silver a day, and the annual income of street vendors was about 20 taels of silver, that is to say, the working people could barely drink half a jar of Huishan spring water a day, and the income of the hawkers was only one jar of Huishan spring water a day, which shows that Li Rihua has high requirements for tea.

Li Rihua also has a lot of research on tea culture, and all the world-famous teas can be seen in the "Weishuixuan Diary". Li Rihua tasted famous tea all over and was well-informed, and he wrote a volume of "Bamboo Lazy Tea Heng", which was to appreciate and evaluate the famous tea and water in various places, which became a valuable material in the history of tea culture. For example, there are no mountains in Jiaxing, and there are very few people who grow tea in history, but Li Rihua has a clause in "Weishuixuan Diary": "In the past, the white ramie Chen Weng was called Wuzhou, and tea was planted at the foot of the front fence of the thatched pavilion. The winner of the Qing Dynasty has a wonderful charm. ”

Like many scholars and doctors in the late Ming Dynasty, Li Rihua was also fond of traveling. From his diary, it can be seen that a frequent topic of conversation between Li Rihua and his friends is travel. In his "Diary of Wei Shui Xuan", there are often records of him visiting where and with whom on a certain day, which shows the importance of tourism in his life. From these accounts, we can also get a rough idea of the time of year when he traveled.

In the eight years recorded in his diary, there were 34 days of travel in the 37th year of Wanli (1609), 29 days in the 38th year of Wanli, 28 days in the 39th year of Wanli, 58 days in the 40th year of Wanli, 33 days in the 41st year of Wanli, and 53 days in 10,000 days. It can be seen from here that Li Rihua always travels thirty or fifty days a year, which was relatively frequent at that time.

Li Rihua also likes to make friends with monks and Taoist priests, discuss scriptures and meanings, learn calligraphy and painting, or drink, drink tea, and chat. Hangzhou's Zhaoqing Temple is a famous cultural temple, Li Rihua always has to go several times a year, sometimes even live for a month or two, in the Zhaoqing Temple to meet friends, exchange calligraphy and painting. Jiaxing Stone Buddha Temple is also a place where Li Rihua often goes, and the monks of the Stone Buddha Temple such as Daoguang, Shouqian, Yunchong, Bingjian, Guxin, Yunsong, Cihang and so on have become friends. Li Rihua also wrote a lot of poems in the Stone Buddha Temple, such as "The old house in the mountains spread new words, and the bridge collapsed by the water last night", "A bright moon basks plum blossoms", "Bamboo knocks pine nuts fall, and springs burst stone marks wear", etc., which were passed down as famous sentences at that time.

The study is the spiritual sustenance of the literati, and Li Rihua's study taste is simply unbelievable in the eyes of modern people, and he has developed the study life into a delicate art. Li Rihua once made a list, listing what he thought should be placed in the study, a total of 23 kinds, you might as well list a few: Jin, Tang ink, Tang, Five Dynasties, former Song Dynasty paintings, Sui, Tang, Song ancient posts, Su, Huang, Mi, Cai handwriting, Yuan paintings, Xian Yu, Yu, Zhao handwriting, Southern Song Dynasty horses, Xia paintings, Han and Qin before Yi Ding Dancui glow, Tang Yan, guqin, sword Zhuoran famous, five dynasties, Song fine edition books, old pine thin, Pucao is as fine as a needle and gets a good pot, fine tea method, white porcelain secret color pottery regardless of ancient and modern.

This kind of study can probably only be a dream, but only a "naturalist" like Li Rihua will emphasize the artistic atmosphere of the study so much. Li Rihua even set a series of "elegant rules" for the guests who came to his study. He said that the rare books on the shelves are okay to read, but they can't be read casually. The four treasures of the study on the desk, it is okay to play with them, but if you turn them upside down, you will be "very unhappy". The famous calligraphy and paintings in the study room are okay to watch and evaluate, but if you ask where they come from and how valuable they are, they are "very unhappy".

It is okay to ask the master to write a poem and a painting, but if the owner is asked to write or paint something, or asks for a few months or days before the completion of the painting, or even takes the painting and calligraphy to give to the powerful, then it is absolutely impossible to agree. Li Rihua's study is permeated with the elegant, graceful, leisurely, delicate, delicate and subtle aesthetic taste of the Jiangnan literati, and because of this, Li Rihua seems to be inseparable from the study for a day. He deliberately built a painting boat, which has all kinds of piano, chess, calligraphy and paintings, and when he travels, he meets friends, paints, and recites poems on the boat, and the painting boat is actually a portable study.

Li Rihua's "lifer" attitude permeates all aspects, and even if it is very ordinary, he can find the interest in art. When he has nothing to do, he can "sit in Meiyin Xuan and listen to the birds, which is very comfortable". He can stop with his friends to watch the sunset when he passes through Caulihuajing by boat, "suddenly changing, extremely beautiful, and the gold leaves in the five colors are dressed".

He can moor the painting boat next to the Yanyu Building on the winter day when the tourists are extinct, and feel the different scene of "the river ice fragment touches the boat, the sunset shoots like broken jade, the willows on the shore are thousands of trees, and the cold stripes pierce the sky". He can taste Fenhu crabs with friends in Xia Hudang and enjoy the night view of the lake, "the moonlight is picturesque, there is water everywhere, the reeds are sluggish, and the real water is also on the side." In Li Rihua's diary, you can often see such descriptions, and this kind of eye-catching taste is probably not something that modern people in a hurry can understand.

Li Rihua's attitude towards life as a "lifer" actually represents an ideal state of Jiangnan literati in the late Ming Dynasty, that is, he not only maintains relative independence and freedom from the government and society, but also has a high status and influence in the mainstream society, and at the same time intervenes and influences the society with his own status. This way of life has had a profound impact on the cultural people of the Ming and Qing dynasties and even the Republic of China, and is a sample of the artistic life of the literati, which has a unique significance in cultural history.

[From Jiaxing Literary and Historical Memory.Jiaxing Volume]

--to be continued