Classical stone appreciation, once led the world to appreciate stone, has become a fashion and literati art of ancient high society, with classic significance and humanistic spirit, and has endured for a long time, and there are still many fans at home and abroad.
The so-called classical stone appreciation is both a style and a classic. Interestingly, in the Western world, whether it is a (Chinese) classical or ancient stone viewing, the English word is "Scholars' Rocks" (or Schorlars' Stones), which means "literati stone". This is a very interesting translation. Because whether it is classical stone appreciation or ancient stone appreciation (especially classical stone appreciation), it is an art that reflects the concept of ancient literati and doctors. At the same time, it complements and influences the concept of literati painting, and is a sister art with a correspondence or even a comparison.
The so-called "literati painting" usually refers to freehand painting, which corresponds to gongbi painting. Traditional "literati painting" did not develop to the point of pursuing "dissimilarity". From the perspective of the history of art development, abstract art ("not like") is generally considered to be a higher stage or inevitable result of the development of figurative art.
And the "literati stone" pursues exactly "not like". Although "literati stone" also has the similar requirements of thin wrinkles and leakage, cloud heads and rain feet, it is not a mockery of an objective object, but an abstract form of refinement and aesthetics. This collection and appreciation of "literati stones" with abstract expressionist overtones is a transcendence of ancient literati artistic creation (including discovery and processing), and is also an important and unique contribution to the history of world art.
Classical stone appreciation has been declining in modern times, because it is increasingly inconsistent with the aesthetic tastes of modern and contemporary people. It was not until after the reform and opening up, due to the revival of the wind of playing with strange stones, classical stones such as Lingbi Stone and Yingshi re-entered the sight of modern people.
Especially in the West, in 1985, almost when the new stone appreciation representative species Guangxi Hongshui River ChongShi had just begun to appear, the China House Gallery and the China Institute in America in New York held the first-ever exhibition on the theme of classical Chinese stone appreciation.
With its extraordinary image and incomprehensible meaning, classical stone appreciation has attracted heated discussion in the Western art academic circles and the pursuit of the collection community, and thus began to have many fans in the mainstream Western society. This "literati stone" collection fever continues to this day.
The main reason why classical stone appreciation is widely recognized in mainstream Western society is that they regard it as an abstract sculptural art, and abstract art dominates modern and contemporary Western art.
In March 1996, Richard Rosenblum, a famous American collector of "literati stones", held a Chinese elegant stone exhibition at the Asia Society in New York (later toured the Phoenix Art Museum and the Harvard University Art Museum, and his "literati stone" collection is still exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York), an English monograph that brings together his "literati stone" collection and the research results of Western scholars, "Worlds Within Worlds". ), published in 1997 by the Museum of Fine Arts, Harvard University.
Rosenbroom notes: "[The literati] is very much like modern abstract sculpture. I used to wonder why modern encyclopedic libraries and modern art centers had striven to embrace and embrace all art, so thoroughly and inexplicably shutting out the stone? ”
When it comes to "literati stone", I think there should be two concepts in the narrow and broad senses. In a narrow sense, all the stones that take thin leakage and wrinkles as the main modeling structure and abstract aesthetics as the purpose, that is, the so-called classical stones, can be collectively referred to as "literati stones". In a broad sense, any stone that conforms to the feelings of the literati and the aesthetics of the literati can be called "literati stones".
Chen Shizeng's "The Value of Literati Painting" has this insight into literati painting: "Literati painting is the most important spirit, not expensive form, so the form is lacking and the spirit is beautiful, it is still a literati painting." In the literati paintings, there are also ugly and absurd rates, the so-called Ning Pu Wuhua, Ning Humble No Qiao, Ning Ugly, No Demon Good; Ning Huang Rate, no Neat work. Pure innocence, no false modification, is enough to exert personality, cheer up the spirit of independence, and strive to make a soft and beautiful posture, grease and powder, in order to ensure its character that can be viewed from a distance and cannot be seen closely. ”
Art is connected, especially with stone viewing and painting. If the thin wrinkles and clouds and rain feet that classical stone appreciation focuses on can also be regarded as a kind of "order", it may be a kind of skin, just to cater to some ear eaters. In addition to the thin wrinkles leaking out, in fact, there should be Qing Stubborn and Clumsy, as well as Cangxiong Xiuling, and QiYouya Silence... In short, it seems that it can be summarized like this: the meaning and the ancient meeting, do not seek to resemble the shape, the big pu is not finished, and the poetry is picturesque.
I think this is the core spirit of classical stone appreciation. Stone is the oldest thing on earth, and Wen Zhenheng, a connoisseur of the Literati of the Ming Dynasty, has the feeling that "stone makes people ancient" ("Chronicle of Long Things").
However, the "ancient" here can not be simply linked to the age or time, it mainly refers to an ancient meaning, which contains a kind of idyllic and tranquil, out-of-the-ordinary aesthetic mood, implying that the poetic life of the peach blossom source that the ancient literati yearn for (the so-called "slow life" of today's people) is an orientation that escapes fame and fortune and transcends the existence and value of life beyond reality.
That is to say, when we face a stone, in addition to bringing pleasure to people, it will also trigger a meditative state, and the ancient literati (elegant life) will swim with each other, then, it is similar to the literati stone.
Understanding the meaning and ancient meeting can actually make us completely free from the expression of stone appreciation. As long as there is an ancient meaning, a stone that can make people think of the ancient humor should be called a literati stone.
Although, the form of the literati stone is also important, sometimes even the form determines the content. The style of classical stone appreciation (modeling stone is the mainstream, including patterned stone), typical of the traditional cloud head rain foot type of mountain, belongs to the "not similar" image, especially the leaky holes and nests, fascinating, easy to make people a kind of meditation. In addition, there are also mountain-shaped landscape stones of the Yanshan class. The Song Dynasty poet Tang Geng's so-called "mountains are as quiet as ancient times, and the days are as long as small years" ("Drunken Sleep"), which tells a kind of time and space travel between deep mountains and "taikoo", and on the mountain-shaped landscape stones, it is still possible to find many such stones that fit the ancient meaning and make people reverie.
It is worth mentioning that although the mountain landscape stone can also be regarded as a kind of pictogram, it is different from the general object, it is more of a general expression, just like freehand landscape painting, it belongs to the form of "between the like and the unlike", with a certain symbolic meaning.
Thin, wrinkled, leaky, transparent, it should be said that it is highly summarized and reflects the characteristics of the form and structure of classical stone appreciation, in fact, it is an anti-formal beauty, is an artistic ugliness. "Ugly" can be said to be a qualitative and highly generalized character of the four words of thin, wrinkled, leaky and transparent.
The thinness, wrinkles, leakage, and leakage of classical stone appreciation are the focus and core. For example, the British modern sculpture master Henry Moore has created many abstract sculptures with holes (also known as "Moore's holes"), including boldly digging holes in the human body structure, breaking the western traditional inherent concept of "sculpture is an entity surrounded by space", so that space becomes part of the entity, the modeling language is simple and generalized, full of rhythm, rhythm and tension, some are very close to the natural shape, in fact, it is affected by the holes of the Taihu Stone. He argues: "The mystery of space is the same as the caves that have incredible power at the back of mountains and cliffs. "Precisely because of the life-revealing meaning of the hole, the hole has the same stylistic significance as an entity."
Rosen bloom also believes that the life of the Chinese "literati stone" is generated from within, and the leaky Taihu stone is a hole in the hole, which makes people feel that there is a heaven and earth in the heavens and the earth, creating an infinite space in the finite, representing a new philosophical concept. The title of "Worlds Within Worlds" is derived from this. His sculptural art creations were also greatly inspired by it.
The sense of transparency advocated by classical stone appreciation is actually a kind of mutilated beauty, which breaks the concept that stone is an entity. Imperfection and fulfillment (Mencius said: "Fullness is beauty"), the two complement each other, transform each other, without imperfection, there is no fullness. This should be derived from Lao Tzu's aesthetic concepts and simple dialectics, such as Dacheng Ruofeng, Dazhi Ruoyi, Daqiao Ruoyi, and Daqi Ruocheng.
From a formal point of view, the sense of leakage of classical stone appreciation is mostly manifested as holes, which is somewhat similar to the blank space created by calligraphy and painting. This is similar to the traditional literary and artistic creation methods, which are embodied in garden architecture as winding paths, ventilation and leakage of the moon, paying attention to the layout of calligraphy and painting, counting white and black, and the so-called "not writing a word and doing everything in literary creation" is to emphasize the void and leave the imagination.
This is also in line with the Song Dynasty's aesthetic emphasis on simplicity and advocating the style of meaning. The specious form of classical stone appreciation characterized by a sense of transparency, the structure between virtual reality, gives people great imagination and has become an enduring classic style.
It can be said that the "literati stone" is a carrier, which embodies the speculative identification of ancient literati doctors for some concepts of Lao Zhuang philosophy, and is actually an art of concepts.
Judging from the origin of indoor (case) offering stones, it is also closely related to the aesthetics of the literati. The "Yanshan" (which is said to have been created by the Southern Tang Dynasty Li Hou Lord) appeared between the Tang and Song Dynasties, on the one hand, the object of playing with stones was transferred from the courtyard to the case, on the other hand, the playing stones were included in the scope of play in the literary room, and later the odd stones were included in the list of literary play.
It is worth mentioning that in the Ming and Qing dynasties, although the name of Yanshan appeared from time to time, the reality of Yanshan was almost indistinct. In general, as long as it is a mountain-shaped landscape stone, and it is naturally stable, whether there is a Yan pond or not, it can be called Yanshan - it seems to be a kind of vassal elegance.
The emergence of Yanshan also played a subversive role in the change of the style of the traditional writing style. Wen Zhenheng of the Ming Dynasty once pointed out (Volume 7 of the Chronicle of Long Things): "Although the pen grid is an ancient system, it is used both Yanshan, such as Lingbi and Yingshi, and the peaks and peaks are undulating and do not show the axe chisel, which can be abolished." The original "ancient system" of the so-called pen grid (pen holder), according to the Southern Song Dynasty Zhao Xihu's "Dongtian Qinglu Pen Grid Discernment", "ivory and ebony are small cases, the face is a hole in the four tricks, the bottom is like a seat, washing the pen, upside down on the case, the water flows downwards, and does not damage the heart of the pen." That is, it is a balustrade frame style. Until the natural creation of Yanshan came out, it directly subverted the stereotype of pen style. This is because the shape of Yanshan itself is like a peak, which is very suitable for setting a pen, which can be described as a dual use.
Bishan generally has two forms, one is a more geometric and regular shape, usually there are twin peaks, three peaks, five peaks, nine peaks and even group peaks, of which three peaks, five peaks shape mostly, should be with the symbolism of three mountains and five mountains. One is a deliberate imitation of the natural Yanshan shape of the author, which began to appear roughly in the middle and late Ming Dynasty.
Yanshan and Shanzi belong to two completely different kinds of imagery. If it is said that Shanzi belongs to abstract and anti-formal beauty, then Yanshan is biased towards figurative and heavy formal beauty, which is the reproduction of a certain real landscape in nature, or a comprehensive summary of some real landscape, which has certain similar requirements for its potential and quality, and is consistent with formal aesthetic principles such as balance, rhythm, rhythm, golden section, etc., which has also become a universal language.
For example, Japanese stone viewing originated from Middle-earth, but they did not popularize the skinny and leaky shanzi, but accepted the landscape stones of the Yanshan class, and then carried it forward and established the theory of water stone. The term "water stone", as a rough term for landscape stone and landscape stone, was only fixed and common in the late Meiji period to the Taisho period, and appeared in books and periodicals in 1903. According to its relevant definition, water stone refers to those stones that are suitable for placement in the case, which should mainly be able to express the beauty of the natural landscape of mountains and rivers, and can be water-fed (in the form of pot stones as the main form). Obviously, the source of the water stone is at the end of Yanshan Mountain.
To this day, the Yanshan-style landscape stone is still the mainstream style in the stone appreciation world, and like the skinny and leaky mountain with cloudy and rainy feet, it profoundly affects calligraphy and painting and other artistic fields.
This article is Yu Ying's speech at the Zibo Wenshi Forum on April 30.