Zhao Mengfu calligraphy to identify forgeries
Due to the profound artistic attainment of Zhao Mengfu's calligraphy and the status of "five dynasties of glory, full of fame and four seas", there are many people who pretend to be fakes, according to the Ming Dynasty Deng Wei record: Before Ming Jiajing, there were more than 400 imitations of Zhao Mengfu's calligraphy and paintings in eastern Zhejiang and western Zhejiang. How to identify the authenticity of Zhao Mengfu's calligraphy? The following four points are what we should pay attention to.
First, the penmanship. It is necessary to firmly grasp the method of Zhao Mengfu's calligraphy with a pen, Zhao Mengfu calligraphy, in the early years (about forty years old) patriarchal Song Gaozong Zhao Shuo, and studied very hard, "mysterious understanding of the eight laws, pay attention to the ancient elegance." "Every piece of paper, the book must be discarded", "I can write ten thousand words a day". Emperor Gaozong's calligraphy is found in the works of the Liaoning Provincial Museum, including the cursive "Luoshenfu" volume collected by the Liaoning Provincial Museum and the "Hou Chibi Fu" scroll in the Palace Museum, both of which should be Gaozong's later years. In terms of calligraphy, the former has a smooth penmanship and a wise and eternal legacy; the latter's penmanship is more vigorous and elegant. And Zhao's early book style is very similar to this style of writing. In addition, similar to Gaozong's book, there are also inscriptions in the Tianjin Art Museum's "Zhongxing Ruiying Tu" and Ma Hezhi's "Mao Shitu" in the right inscription, which are the styles of Gaozong's calligraphy, which Zhao Mengfu learned in his early years. Zhao Mengfuzhong and his later years of writing style, patriarchal wang Xizhi, Wang Xianzhi, and Li Beihai and Liu Gongquan and other families, and the study of the second king was the most effective. He studied the ancient law without being bound by the Chen law, and could harmonize with the strengths of each family, and later became a self-contained. His calligraphy, with a round turn of the pen, rigorous structure, elegant and dancing, has a high artistic achievement, and is favored by the majority of calligraphy enthusiasts, who call his book Zhao Body. And the person who is a counterfeiter knows it but does not know why it is so, and the imitation of the Zhao character is only a superficial resemblance, while the inner temperament, "god-like", cannot be learned. Because of each person's personality, temperament and the way and method of writing and writing, the height, erection, oblique side, cantilever, hanging elbow, hanging wrist, and light, heavy, slow, urgent, etc., the writer has different habits and methods, and it is unlikely that the counterfeiter wants to fully learn in the short term, and there are always some flaws to attack.
2. Contributions. Zhao Mengfu's signature is very distinctive, and the three words "Zhao Mengfu" are written in different ways. For example, the last stroke of the "walking" word on the side of the "Zhao" character is generally written as a pen with "three twists and turns". The writing of the "Meng" character has changed in the early, middle and late periods, and the "Meng" character in the early years is the appearance of "Meng" and the lower dish, and the "Meng" character in the middle and late years does not have a check mark on the upper part of the "Son" character. The character 頫 is written in a seal script, and never in letters or lishu. His name is "Water Spirit Palace Daoist" instead of "Crystal Palace Daoist", such as "Crystal Palace Daoist", he must be false. Zhao's signatures are all flat-headed models, and the beginning of each line is neatly and uniformly, and there is no format of a few words higher or lower. In addition, he is very particular about signing money, and he will sign whatever kind of painting or calligraphy he does. For example, he painted landscape paintings, signed the three characters of "Zhao Mengfu" (except for special circumstances), painted centaur diagrams and bamboo and stone diagrams, and signed the two characters of "Zi Ang", and all of them were written in line. However, these habits and characteristics must not be rigidly applied when appraisal, and they must be flexibly mastered in order to make themselves invincible.
3. Seal. Zhao Mengfu's seals have thirteen or four sides, such as "Zhao Mengfu", "Tianshui Zhao", "Songxuezhai Calligraphy and Painting Seal", "Zhao", "Zijing", "Zhao", "Tianshui County Book Seal", "Daya", "Zhao Ziang", "Chenghuai Guan Dao", "Zhao Mengfu Seal", "Song Xuezhai", "Shuijinggong Daoist" and so on. Zhao Mengpao's seal is very exquisite, the ink in front, the general plutonium "Zhao" character print, the following plutonium "Daya", "Song Xuezhai" print, to give people to worship shou calligraphy and painting works, generally plutonium "Zi Ang" print. Weng Fanggang, a famous calligrapher of the Qing Dynasty, said: "Zhao Ziang" seal, the printing frame on a horizontal, concave down for the true, such as "concave" shape, on the contrary is false. However, from the perspective of the works passed down from generation to generation, it is not exactly the same, and there are discrepancies. For example, tianjin art museum "Luoshen Futu", this seal is not concave, but flat. More precisely, there is a question of age here. According to records, this seal is made of copper, and when it is first engraved, the upper horizontal of the printing frame is flat. Yuan Dade did not go down until five years (1301). If Dade had a concave "Zhao Ziang" seal five years ago, this work must be fake. The "Zhao Zi Ang" seal written in The Fourth Year of Dade Zhao Mengfu's "Luoshen Fu Xingkai" and the "Zhao Zi Ang" print in the "Xidao Map" jointly painted by Chen Lin and Zhao Mengfu in the fifth year of Dade are flat and without defects. And the seal of "Zhao Ziang" written in the "Water Village Map" in the sixth year of Dade has been uneven, and the "concave" has gone down. Therefore, half of Weng Fanggang's words are correct, and the other half is not clear.
4. Be a hypocrite. There are many counterfeiters of Zhao Mengfu's calligraphy and paintings, and there are many contemporaries who have forged yu he and Sheng Mao, but there are still many who have not seen the record. Yu He (俞和), also spelled Zizhong , was a native of Hangzhou, Zhejiang. He was born in the eleventh year of Yuan Dade (1307) and died in the fifteenth year of Ming Hongwu (1382) at the age of seventy-six. The "Tomb in Yuzi" says that he "came out of a piece of paper, and the drama was printed with Wen Min to understand it, and no one could be a real fake." Judging from the calligraphy of Yu He passed down from generation to generation, it is indeed very similar to Zhao Mengfu, but the pen is harder, slightly less flexible and harmonious, and the artistic level is lower than that of Zhao. The surviving Yu He forgeries include Zhao Mengfu's "Imperial Elephant Rush Book". The question of Sheng Mao's Zhao Meng's paintings can be found in the inscription of Wei Jiuding's "Diagram of the Autumn Boat of Jiang Feng" (not recorded here). Sheng Mao Zizhao, a native of Lin'an (present-day Hangzhou), was good at painting figures, landscapes, flowers and birds, he first learned Chen Lin, and then changed his method, and his skills were profound, so the history of painting called his paintings "exquisite and more than enough, especially too clever". Sheng Mao's paintings of the pseudo-Zhao Mengfu include "Dragon King Li Fo Tu", "Gao Yi Tu", "Xianzhuang Tu" and so on. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, those who made zhao meng calligraphy and paintings were now Zhan Qian, Chen Qian, Jin Chun, and others. Zhan Xian, also known as He, the character 僖和, also the word Zhonghe, the number of the Iron Crown Daoist. A native of Siming (present-day Hangzhou). At the beginning of the Hongzhi Dynasty, he was a scholar of Wang Xizhi and Zhao Mengfu, with strong penmanship and a famous Gongqing, who was a master of pseudo-Zhao Mengfu calligraphy and painting and Wu Zhen Mozhu in the middle of the Ming Dynasty. He "always fell with his son, but the wise man could not discern it." But his penmanship is frivolous, less varied, and less phonological. The Zhao characters he wrote mostly used flanking, while Zhao Mengfu himself used more centers. Zhan Xian's pseudo-Zhao written, and the view is clear, there are Zhao Mengfu's "Xingshu Axis" (Shanxi Provincial Museum collection), Zhao Mengfu's "Xingshu Chibi Fu" (Tianjin Cultural Bureau Cultural Relics Department collection), Zhao Mengfu's "Xingshu Yongyi Folk Poems" volume (Wuxi City Museum collection).
Chen Qian, a native of the Ming Dynasty, was a native of Gusu (present-day Suzhou, Jiangsu). Ju Jingshi, can write books, specialize in imitating Zhao Mengfu, Hua charming and lovely. When dyed ancient paper is forged as the Book of Zhao, it is impossible to distinguish. Painting also learns Zhao, boasting of being considerate, and commentators say that learning Zhao painting is "up to six or seven points wonderful".
Jin Chun (1449-1501), a Ming Dynasty native, was a native of Jinling (present-day Nanjing). Less intelligent, good chanting, good calligraphy and painting, the twelfth and third years of the year can be a big book. Zhao Mengfu in the early fa, Zhang Yu in the evening. There is no blame for painting Mei Xueyang, he is also an expert in making Zhao Mengfu calligraphy and painting. Because Jin Chun's calligraphy is very similar to the Book of Zhao, many of Jin Chun's characters, even if they are not intended to be forged, have been dug up by posterity and added the three words "Zhao Mengfu" to deceive the world.
Due to the great changes in Zhao Mengfu's calligraphy in the early and early periods, coupled with the fact that there are many people who have forged zhao's calligraphy and paintings in the same era and later generations, it has brought us many difficulties in the identification of Zhao's calligraphy and painting, and in the history of identification, there is no shortage of examples of the authentic handwriting mistakenly defined as a forgery, or the falsehood of the false handwriting, and there is no shortage of examples of the Palace Museum's collection of Zhao Mengfu's "Two-Body Thousand-Character Document". This volume is on paper, pen and ink, 24 in length. 6 cm, width 10. 4 cm, for the true and grass two-body book, Beijing Palace Museum collection. The penmanship of this book is round and tender, the knot body is long and loose, the paper and ink habits are slightly inferior, and the representative works of Zhao Mengfu in the general mature period are different, but carefully pondered, there is still the wind bone of Zhao Mengfu's calligraphy circle turned to Daoli, the last page of the "Wuxing Zhao Mengfu Book", the book has "Zhao Ziang", "Song Xuezhai" two Zhu Fangjunzhen, the cover has the inscription of "Zhao Wenmin Gongzhen Grass Thousand Character Text" written by "Shi Xuejushi". In addition, the album also contains "Ding Baijia", "Several Times a Day", "Wen WuLang Duoshou", "Huangfu Villager", "Tongyin Book House" and other appreciation seals. However, the royal collection marks of Yuan, Ming, and Qingneifu are not found in the book. Kao "Tongyin Bookhouse" is the name of the Qing Dynasty painter Zhang Kun, who wrote Lanzhou, a native of Shanyin (present-day Shaoxing, Zhejiang), who painted landscapes, flowers, and figures.
Also known as "Shi Xuejushi" is the number of Xu Zonghao, a famous calligrapher and painter in the late Qing Dynasty. Xu Zonghao (1880-1957), a native of Suzhou, lived in Beijing for a long time, and was good at painting landscapes, orchids, bamboo and pine trees, as well as calligraphy and seal carving. As for the other two seals of the book, "Ding Baijia" and "Wen Wulang Duoshou", there is no record, to be examined.
On the other paper, Xu Zonghao's inscription reads: "This book is not written in the years, looking at its penmanship, the wind and charm are victorious, when it is a book of the prosperous year, the knot body is also elegant... Shi Chinese New Year's Eve 8 years old", and the book was highly praised. Xu Shi is a late Qing Dynasty calligrapher and collector, with a certain level of appreciation, which should be a pertinent evaluation. Due to the fatigue of paper and ink, the calligraphy style of this volume is different from the late works of Zhao Mengshun, and the text does not avoid the Song Dynasty, such as the shen character, coupled with the royal collection seals of wuyuan, Ming, and Qingnei provinces, it was once suspected to be a forgery, and was hidden in the library as an important material of Zhao Mengfu's calligraphy for examination.
Now it seems that the reason for using the above points to deny the "Zhao Mengfu Two-Body Thousand Texts" is not sufficient or untenable. The first paper and ink breath cannot be used as the main basis for identifying calligraphy and painting, and the main basis should be penmanship; second, Zhao Mengfu's style of writing does change sooner or later; third, as for the problem of avoidance, because the Yuan Dynasty is a dynasty established by the Mongols, the writing is generally not evaded, so it cannot be used as a basis for identifying authenticity. For the sake of prudence, we asked Mr. Qi Gong for an appraisal in November 1981, and he said: "This piece began to look tender, such as the word 'xun' and the word '詠', which was the taste of Zhao Mengfu when he was in his forties. "Zhao Lufu studied Song Gaozong (Zhao Shuo) when he was young. This book has the flavor of Gaozong. But the knot of the word is not good enough, such as the word 'also'. The Shanghai Museum also has a thousand-character album of Zhao Mengfu in two bodies, which is the same as this one. The next day, after looking carefully, he said: "It seems that there is a stroke, but it is not a stroke, it is a missing ink, and the words are not tight." The paper was chalk paper, which was a roll at the time, and after modification, there were numbers in the paper, such as twenty, twenty-one, twenty-four, etc., and the Shanghai Museum also had a similar booklet. "The conclusion is true and not good. This piece was also identified by Mr. Xu Bangda and Mr. Liu Jiu'an and agreed to be authentic.
Due to its age, Zhao Mengfu studied the early works of Emperor Gaozong of song and Zhao Shushu, and not many have been passed down. This book was written before the age of forty-five, although it was not as exquisite as Zhao Mengfu's calligraphy in his later years, it was still worthy of being a work of "grand age", which was rare and valuable. According to the opinions of experts, this book should be promoted to a national first-class cultural relic, which is suitable for future generations. (Anon.)
<h1>Further reading:</h1>
In the Yuan Dynasty, Zhao Mengfu's "Records of the Guanyin Temple" original stele rubbing
Zhao Mengfu's "Records of the Temple of Guanyin"
The original text of the Guanyin Temple:
The temple has been in place for many years, leaking wind and rain, and it is crushing. Over Fu asked Nan, more abbots. Mountain Master Zuhui sat on the throne, sharply rose up, and appointed himself to the Gurudwara. He was clothed with gold millet, struggled with his labor, and donated his mantle to serve him. Jizhou Mu Rong Shuai, Xian Leshan persuasion. Withdraw the old camp new, Dong Long Yu Zhuang, DanJab algae, dazzling, like a small white flower, the granite is now purple and gold. The palace is closed to the sun, and the clouds are empty. The warrior girl celebrated, and the claws were admired. Never before, So Hugh. Master Hui please write it down in Yu, Yu told you, Master knows Guan Shiyin, so why is it famous? The sounds of the world can be heard, but they cannot be observed and viewed. He dwells in the clouds, looks at his sound, and is liberated. Bandits look at the sound, look at the heart. The Dharma realm is idealistic and the heart is taken care of. When there is a person who is outside the sound, it is a famous meritorious tibetan, and it should be viewed as such. Shihu Haizun Su, Sui Ding Huiming, teach the Lord to be a mountain. The Pavilion Ofagaki, the Lieshu Jiamu, the Group Portrait Xuanhuo, the Hundred Wastes and Repairs, the Matter of The Great, the Book of Extraordinary Victory. Yu Wu's contempt, Song Jizheng was here, and he was revered for a long time. The Great Spirit resounded one, and after fifteen years, it returned, and it was thirty years old. If Yu Pumen has a long-term relationship, although he is not sensitive, he must remember how dare he resign. In the seventh year of Yanyou, hanlin bachelor zhizhi and xiuguo shi Zhao Mengfu book. (where 300 words)
Translation:
After only a year or so, the hall (Guanyin Hall) was leaking through wind and rain, and it was in a precarious situation, and it was about to be overwhelmed. Even if you pass there, no one cares, and the abbot of the temple changes several times. After Shanshi Zuhui became the abbot of the temple, on a whim, he personally visited the devotees to raise funds, worked hard, and donated his mantle to fund this (referring to the rebuilding of the Guanyin Hall). At the right time, the magistrates were happy to do good deeds and exhort alms. So the old hall was demolished and a new building was built. The new hall is tall and magnificent, decorated with algae and algae, refreshing, like a small white flower, and the granite is now purple and gold (this sentence is not understood, so it is according to the original text). On the day of the completion of the Guanyin Hall, the aroma filled the air, and good men and women gathered to celebrate, clapping their hands in admiration, and there had never been such a thing. Master Hui asked me to write a note for it, and I said to him: Why does the master know why Guanyin is known to the world? The mournful voices of sentient beings suffering and suffering can be heard. Ordinary people can only hear, and bodhisattvas can observe with their hearts. Why is it that in scripture there is: "Look at its sound and be liberated?" "It's not to hear with your ears, but to see with your heart." If you can gain something without being influenced by external sounds, this is called a bodhisattva, and you should know it like this. The master was a well-known monk, who had received the wisdom and light of the Buddha very early on, and asked him to come to the abbot of the mountain temple here, repair the temple, build a wall around the wall, and plant trees, so that the group statues were bright and bright, and restored the previous weather. This is particularly important, more so than the Dharma sutras. I was a despised person in Wu Xing, and I only became an official here at the end of the Song Dynasty, and I have been converting to Buddhism for a long time. The Master's Dharma was profound and had a great influence, and he came back fifteen years later, and it has been thirty years now, as if I had been related to Buddhism in my previous life. Although I am not intelligent, how can I resign from this note? In the seventh year of Yanyou, hanlin bachelor zhizhi and xiuguo shi Zhao Mengfu book.