Consumption Daily Network News (reporter Yuan Jiashan) Wang Xizhi's "Orchid Pavilion Preface" has always been regarded as a thousand-year-old calligraphy masterpiece, because the authentic product accompanied the burial of Tang Taizong Zhao's mausoleum, and the facsimiles of the past generations have become heirloom treasures. However, this thousand-year-old ink treasure, known as a national treasure, has an indissoluble relationship with Sui County, Henan, a small county in northern China.
Siboben's Orchid Pavilion Preface
Sui County, in the Ming Dynasty, was called Suizhou, because it was once the residence of Suiyang Wei, also known as Suiyang, and was successively subordinate to Kaifeng Province and Guide Province. The area is much larger than the current Sui County, under the jurisdiction of two counties, the governor is Zheng Wupin, roughly equivalent to today's sub-municipal units.
Xi Boben's "Orchid Pavilion Preface", which is the "Preface to the Linlan Pavilion" collected by the Wuxi Museum, was secretly hidden in Suizhou, Henan for a long time in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. This "Orchid Pavilion Preface" on paper, 24.5 centimeters in length and 65.5 centimeters in width, belongs to the "Orchid Pavilion Preface" series of thesis. Comparing the Zhao Mengfu Xingshu "Linding Wulanting Preface Scroll" (silk) and Yu He's "Xingshu Linding Wulanting Preamble Scroll" (on paper) collected by the Palace Museum in Beijing, it can be found that their overall appearance and penmanship structure are very similar, and experts have inferred that Xi Boben's "Lanting Preface" belongs to the "Dingwu Ben" series.
Through the retrieval of more than 70 seals left by the "Orchid Pavilion Preface", these successive seals not only witness the fate of this national treasure work, but also clearly record its circulation process and trajectory. Among them, the largest number of seals left is the Ming Dynasty great collector Xiang Yuanbian, with 21 pieces. Since the Xiang clan, this "Orchid Pavilion Preface" has been handed over to the Ming Dynasty Suiyang Yuan clan connoisseurs Yuan Shu (1600-1645) and Yuan Fucheng (1617-1680) father and son, and their collection seals have been left on the works: "Shi ■", "Yuan Bo Ying Zhen Zhen Zhen Seal", "Yuan Shu Zhi Seal", "Suiyang Yuan Shu Seal Letter", "Yuan Bo Ying Treasure Calligraphy and Painting Seal Letter", "Qiao Gong" (half seal) (the above is Yuan ShuYin), "Fu Cheng", "Yuan Fu Cheng Seal", "Ming Yuan Fu Cheng Treasure Reward" (the above is Yuan Fu Cheng Seal). What is surprising is that there are no other collection seals for this work from the Suiyang Yuan father and son until the Daoguang period of the Qing Dynasty, indicating that this work stayed in Suixian for more than two hundred years, and then flowed from the Suiyang Yuan clan into the hands of Wang Yangdu and Wu Yun. The "Henan Tongzhi Sui County Interview Draft" was once known as the "Backyard Library" of the Suiyang Yuan Clan, that is, the Ming and Qing Dynasties Yuan's Library.
At the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, the Suiyang Yuan Clan Collection centered on the collector Yuan Shu, and there are records that can be examined at least four generations later. Yuan Shu has a huge collection of rich people, and is a national-level master of calligraphy and painting and collection appreciation in the late Ming Dynasty. So far, the Shanghai Library's collection of "Song Tuo Chunhua Ge Ti" (Quanzhou Ben), the Beijing Palace Museum's "Song Gui Tang Ti" and "Xiao Xiang Tu", the Metropolitan Museum of Art's "Creek Bank Map", the Boston Museum of Art's "Roselle FuTu", the Taipei National Palace Museum's "Xiao Yi Earn Lan Ting Tu" and many other treasures are from the Collection of Yuan's family in Suiyang, Henan. Among them, the Suiyang Yuan's "Song Tuo Chunhua Ge Ti" in the Shanghai Library has a large number of ink marks preserved by Wang Xizhi and Wang Xianzhi, which is known as the ancestor of the Tianxia Fa Ti because of the excellent version, which has been collected by Yuan Keli, Yuan Shu and Yuan Fucheng for three generations, which has a high cultural relics value and version research value, and is the best rare book in the currently stored "Song Tuo Chunhua Ge Ti". In order to preserve and disseminate, at the beginning of 2017, the Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House and the Shanghai Library jointly issued 200 sets of rare editions and distributed them to important national cultural and museum collection units.
Shanghai Library Collection "Song Tuo Chunhua Ge Ti" Suiyang Yuan Seal (partial)
Wang Shimin, a famous collector in the early Qing Dynasty, praised in the "Inscription of The Smoker", "Inscribed Self-Painting Guan Junjun Yuan Huanzhong": "Huan Weng Junjun (Yuan Shu alias), both work plate and rich collection. Li Yingqiu was the ancestor of the scholars, and the Minang Palace was the ancestor of the Jingjian, so the famous deeds of Jing, Guan, Dong, and Juzhen returned to his home. Zhang Geng recorded in the Ji Chuan style calligraphy and painting work "Records of Painting of the National Dynasty" that "Shu Erudite is good at ancient learning, fine appreciation, family wealth collection, gong calligraphy and painting, recommended by Dong Zongbo of Huating and Wang Juesi of Mengjin." "To be able to make giants like Dong Qichang and Wang Duo compete for respect, it is enough to imagine the high status of Suizhou in Henan at that time in the history of Chinese painting and calligraphy collection."
Ming Yuan Shuxing book fan (part) Collection of the Palace Museum in Beijing
Yuan Shu was the son of Yuan Keli of the Ming Dynasty, and Yuan Keli was the same as Dong Qichang, and was Wang Duo's mentor. The most cherished "Four Source Hall" famous paintings in Dong Qichang's life belonged to Yuan Shu. After the death of Dong Qichang, the works of the Jing, Guan, Dong, and Huge Families of the Five Dynasties of the Southern Tang Dynasty were collected in Suizhou, Henan, which attracted the famous masters of the Holy Hand from the south to the north, and there are clear records of Dong Qichang, Wang Duo, Huang Daozhou, Ni Yuanlu, Liu Lishun, Wang Jian, Qi Biaojia, etc. All had frequent exchanges with the Suizhou Yuan family, and the chancellor Kong Zhenyun and Sun Chengzong also sang and harmonized with the Feizhang poems of the father and son of the Suizhou Yuan family.
Harvard University, Usa, "National Dynasty Paintings: The Biography of Yuan Shu"
It is worth mentioning that after the Ming and Later Jin had a feud, Yuan Keli oversaw liaohai to severely damage the Houjin army, and used anti-plots against Nurhaci's son-in-law Liu Aita, which seriously subverted the myth of the Qing Emperor's so-called victory in hundreds of battles. Yuan Shu also transported grain for the Ming army of Ning Yuan, and eventually died of hunger strike in Nanjing. Yuan's father and son were severely sealed by the Manchu Qing "literal prison" for 200 years, and it was rare to hear about the destruction of documents until the end of the Qing Dynasty. Lu Shihua's "Records of Calligraphy and Paintings Seen by Wu Yue" was almost destroyed and hunted down because it included two articles involving Yuan Keli's "Jiehuan Yuan Gongxing" and Yue Fei's "Records of the Jingzhong Ancestral Hall of King Jingzhong of Song Zhongwu Yue". Alongside the former Song Yue Fei, it is evident that Yuan Keli was one of the manchu hatreds.
The Shanghai Library holds the "Chunhua Pavilion" Yuan Keli "Fu Guotang" seal
In the middle and late Qing Dynasty, the Suiyang Yuan family was in decline, and the cultural relics collected in Sui County, Henan Province, gradually dispersed to the end of the world. At present, the known flow is Bian Yongyu, An Qi, Liang Qingbiao, Song Jie, Wu Yun and other collectors.
As can be seen from the atlases of calligraphy and painting collections in previous dynasties, the relationship between Suixian and The Book Saint Wang Xizhi, in addition to Xi Boben's "Orchid Pavilion Preface", there is also Wang Xizhi's "Song Tuo Sacred Order" which is also a collection of Suiyang Yuan's family, and Dong Qichang was once a writer. The "Preface to the Tang G Lan Pavilion" engraved by Ming Xiang Yuan bian is also a collection of Suiyang Yuan's family, and Zhang Zhao has a clear record in the "Tianjia Zhai Calligraphy and Painting Inscription , Bao Xiangzi Jing carved Lan Ting Ti". Wang Xizhi's position in the history of Chinese calligraphy is well known, the pieces of paper are treasures, and his ink treasures are so deeply related to the cultural relics of a small northern county that it seems inconceivable today, and the vicissitudes of the past life of this small northern county have gradually been drowned by the years.
Jin Yunchang, a connoisseur of the Palace Museum, ranked Suiyang Yuan Shuxing's works first in the list of contents in his book "The Collection of the Palace Museum and The Compilation of Calligraphy (Ming)". Yan Xiaojun, a researcher at the Shanghai Museum, has long been engaged in the special research on the relationship between Dong Qichang and Suiyang Yuan's communication and the transfer of cultural relics, and he wrote in the article "Art Appreciation Activities in Dong Qichang's Painting Zen Room": "It is a pity that the gold inscriptions and jade in the collection of the Yuan Mansion are all paid for. The ming dynasty has gone, and The Dancheng Boya of the Yuan father and son will always shine on The Khan Qing. ”
There are two works of Suiyang Yuan's calligraphy and paintings in the Boston Museum of Art, one of which is the "Futu of Luoshen" co-created by Yuan Shu and Wang Ding, which is a cultural relic donated to the museum by Mr. Weng Wange, a descendant of Weng Tonggong, free of charge in 2018. During the epidemic this year, Mr. Yuan Zhongwei and Mr. Yuan Junming, members of the Suiyang Shangshu Yuan clan, have been exchanging letters and telegrams with the staff of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts on the other side of the ocean in order to verify the collection of cultural relics and pass on traces.
Not long ago, Mr. Fang Ming, former director of the Museum of Chinese Min University and an expert in collection collections, accompanied by Yuan Shuijian, chairman of the Suixian Collectors Association, and Mr. Yuan Zhihua, brand director of "People of the Times", personally inspected the tomb of Yuan Shu in suixian County in the Ming Dynasty, and praised the national integrity of a generation of collectors Yuan Shu who preferred to die during the period of heaven and earth collapse in the late Ming Dynasty and the early Qing Dynasty, and his outstanding contributions to inheriting precious cultural heritage.
Xu Yongfeng, president of the Suishui Aquatic Culture Research Association of the China Yin Merchants Association and deputy director of the Suixian Former Radio, Film, Television, Culture and Tourism Bureau, told reporters that Yuan Keli was a heavy minister and a famous anti-Qing general who had a deep influence in the DPRK at the end of the Ming Dynasty. Wang Xizhi's inkblot "Orchid Pavilion Preface" has been circulated in an orderly and long history, leaving a very brilliant page in the history of Suizhou's cultural relics collection.
Zhu Shao, member of the Standing Committee of the Suixian County CPC Committee and director of the Propaganda Department, introduced to reporters: Suixian is a famous historical and cultural city at the provincial level, with profound cultural heritage and rich cultural relics resources. In recent years, the county party committee and county government are committed to building a famous historical and cultural city brand building and cultural strong county project, with the strong support of the cultural relics department at the higher level, will continue to increase investment in the restoration and improvement of the former residence of Yuan Keli in suixian County in the Ming Dynasty and the surrounding environment, and the cultural relics collection of Suiyang Yuan's cultural relics all over the world will also become a historical business card that sings the magnificent culture of Sui County in eastern Henan.