Wen Qiqiu's views were the fuse of academic controversy

■ Wen Qiqiu 《Pumpkin Diagram》

■ Li Xiangqun (Vice Chairman of Guangdong Calligraphy Critics Association)

Wen Qiqiu is the leading figure of the Chinese Painting Research Society, although he is not the protagonist of this controversy, but he takes "learning to paint first and then working later, and painting regardless of the intention, it must make people feel that the painting intention is not exhausted and cannot add or subtract a stroke, so the pen is extremely cautious" as an artistic proposition, insisting on learning the Song and Yuan painting tradition as the basis, diverging with the new school of creation, opposing the creative ideas, and regarding the second high school and one Chen as the "wild fox Zen", these views that are different from the second high school and the first Chen are the fuse that triggers an academic controversy.

In modern times, the West has gradually learned from the East, and Western culture has had an unprecedented impact on traditional Chinese culture. After the Opium War, the Qing government began to realize the problems of the traditional education system. In 1872, the study abroad system was established, which was the cradle of advanced intellectuals, and qualified students went abroad to study, and after returning, they became the main force in the dissemination of Western art. In the early Days of the People's Republic, old and new cultural concepts collided, and the phenomenon of water and soil dissatisfaction gradually appeared in Western painting and eastern painting.

In 1925, Wen Qiqiu, Together with Pan Jingwu, Li Yaoping, Zhao Haogong, Tie Chan and others, organized the Chinese Painting Research Society at the Liurong Temple, with the purpose of studying and revitalizing Chinese painting. Founded in the early 20th century, the Lingnan School advocates advocating the revolution of art and the establishment of modern Chinese painting.

The purposes and learning backgrounds of the two major schools of painting are different, and it is inevitable that there will be differences in creative ideas.

In 1926, the Guangdong Chinese Painting Research Association and the Lingnan School of Painting conducted an academic debate, the representative of the Society Huang Banruo and the Lingnan School of Painting master Gao Jianfu's student Fang Ren in the newspaper a pen war, opened the prelude to the 40-year-long debate around the innovation of Chinese painting, this debate is long, the complexity of the front, the breadth of the scope, is rare in the history of Chinese art. The founders of the Lingnan School, the Gao brothers, and the students Fang Rending and Su Wunong all had the background of studying in Japan, and were greatly influenced by the Japanese painting style, advocating the innovation of Chinese painting and the transformation of Chinese painting with Western painting. This is not only a local regional flow and a dispute over artistic concepts, its emergence is closely related to the collision of ancient and modern Chinese and Western ideas in the Chinese art world at that time, and to this day, it still has a far-reaching impact on the development of Chinese art.

The main points of disagreement in this debate are: the reasons for the decline of Chinese painting in recent times, the value judgment of traditional literati painting, the existence or absence of traditional sketching, plagiarism and creation, the inheritance and innovation of traditional culture, and the integration and reference of oriental painting. On the one hand, they relied on the popular saying of "cultural differences between the East and the West" at that time, emphasizing the uniqueness of Chinese paintings in order to resist the trend of "Westernization"; On the other hand, the rise of Western modernist art is taken as an example, trying to prove that the concept of "eastern superiority and western inferiority" in culture and art or Western modern art has "existed in ancient times" in China.

Wen Qiqiu (1862-1941) was born into a family of Wang and calligraphy collectors. The characters Youju, Ju Shuo, Shishan people, Shunde people. His ancestors Wen Rushui and Wen Rushu were all famous calligraphers and painters and collectors, and his father, Wen Zishao, was one of the cadres of the foreign affairs movement, responsible for handling the affairs of shipbuilding, founding the Guangdong Uniform Bureau and serving as the general office. Later, he was appointed as the "General Commissar of the Lushun Machinery Bureau", and he followed his father north to the Bohai Sea, joined the navy Ding Ruchang as a staff member, assisted in naval affairs, and offered advice.

Wen Qiqiu has loved calligraphy and painting since he was a child, and in his early years, he studied the flowers, birds, fish and insects of Yun Nantian under the flower and bird painter Xu Juquan, and the landscape studied the Song and Yuan dynasties, and the character Fa Liu ru layman. On the eve of the Sino-Japanese Naval Battle, because the offer of ideas to fight against the Japanese ships was not adopted, and failed to realize its political ambitions, he resigned and returned to the south, re-reasoned the painting, and entered the fifties, taking many methods, going deep into the Song and Yuan Dynasties, and striving for chemical industry. Shanshui likes to make green curtains and long scrolls and imitation Shitao landscape sketches, flower and fruit works attach importance to sketching, like to make Lingnan jiaguo, pure boneless method, simple composition, thick pen and ink.

If the void zhai hides the fan surface of his "Pumpkin Diagram" (as shown in the picture), the paper, 16 cm in length and 47 cm in width, is attached to the Book Department: "Gengshu Daxia is The Brother of Zhefu Ren, and the Brother Wen Qiqiu is made in Yushim", and the lower plutonium: "Young Ju" Zhu Wenyin is a piece. "Gengji" is a work made in 1910, when he was forty-eight years old. The composition of the fan is semi-arc-shaped, with the shape of the method, composed of pumpkins, flowers, green leaves, bamboo frames, Teng, pure boneless method, transparent brushwork, clear color, light and elegant style, really the charm of Nantian. The "Zhefu" is Cai Shou (1879-1941) and a member of the Guangdong Chinese Painting Research Society, along with Wen Qiqiu. Originally named Xun, renamed Youshou, the word Qibi, Tetsuo. People from Shunde, Guangdong. The word "Zhefu" is taken from the meaning of "Zhefu Chengcheng" in the Book of Poetry, so it is called Chengchengzi. During the Republic of China period, he was a famous poet, calligraphy and painting seal engraver, expert in natural books and golden stone tablets, who served as the chief writer of "Heavenly Desolation" and "Journal of National Essence", director of the Guangzhou Municipal Library, and editor of the National History Museum, and settled in Nanjing in his later years, where he served as a researcher of calligraphy and painting and gold stone antiquities at the Antiquities Preservation Institute of Nanjing Museum, and a member of the Nanshe and Zhenshe Society. He is the author of "Inlin Gossip" and other works.