Gong Xian's composition processing method,
Another embarrassing conundrum for him:
The management of the hilly mound is handy,
It can really be described as "a tree and a stone, in which there are hills and ravines",
The large picture of the old cloth posture is a bit stretched and inadequate.
Liu Haisu commented on Gong Xian: "He hated the new dynasty, and he could not get rid of the qing court's rule, let alone damage the new regime; he missed the old dynasty, and the emperor had no moral government towards him." Whether a Han or Manchu landlord is in power, he cannot escape the fate of poverty and poverty, he cannot escape the pain of his heart, and he does not change his ethics to cater to the old officials and the new upstarts. In the face of national contradictions, he could only stand on the side of the Very Dark and Decadent Ming Dynasty, which was not beneficial to him, out of great righteousness. [1] However, the memories left by the Ming Dynasty to Gong Xian were embarrassing, even humiliating: political corruption, national weakness, disasters, civil unrest, military defeat, imperial martyrdom, and court subversion. On the contrary, the Qing Dynasty won the world immediately but did not rule the world immediately, and all aspects of society quickly recovered in a relatively relaxed atmosphere. For the current situation, Gong Xian knew that he was "helpless to spend", and all his attempts and efforts were reduced to a dying struggle, at this time, he adopted a cold-eyed, indifferent attitude towards life, "We think that passive avoidance, in his own opinion of a positive attitude towards life, there is no other way" [2]. In fact, this kind of embarrassment and contradiction in life attitude, way of thinking, aesthetic taste, etc. caused by psychological imbalance was more or less reflected in the scholars of the Ming and Qing dynasties, and Gong Xian was no exception.
The feud between Gong Xian and the Fushe disciples is one of the manifestations of this embarrassing contradiction. Gong Xian had a long history of contacts with Fushe Shizi, but he was also friendly and respectful to Ma Shiying, one of the most hated enemies of the Fushe, and the powerful traitor Ma Shiying, whom fushe shizi called a traitor and a misguided country, and also became a close friend of Yang Wenxiao (Ma Shiying was Yang Wenxiao's wife and brother). Gong Xian's 1674 inscription "Yunfeng Tu" clearly states that he "loved the two Guizhous in his later years" (Ma Shiying and Yang Wenqiu were both from Guizhou), which is enough to show that he had "deep affection" for these two. Gong Xian was inclined to restore the society in political ideology, but he never joined the Social League, so some scholars had differences in their views on Gong Xian, some understood, and some rejected, which made Gong Xian, who was "not deeply aware of things", in a very embarrassing situation in the whirlpool of sharp and complicated political struggle at that time, and it was difficult to deal with it in the end, so he had to do as Zhou Lianggong said: "In the early years of the past half a thousand years, he was tired of the miscellaneous things in Baimen (Nanjing) and moved to Guangling (Yangzhou). [3] However, when King Zhu Yousong of Fu became emperor in 1644, when Ruan Dacheng and Ma Shiying came to power and wantonly hunted down and killed Fushe's disciples, Gong Xian had to go north to Shandong to temporarily avoid disaster, and then fell into a dilemma.
Gong Xiangong's poetry, in the poems he creates, is sad, dazed, sad, gloomy, and desolate, and the situation of birth is its norm, while the pleasant emotions are only temporary and occasional. This obviously has a lot to do with the fact that he was ostracized and even hated by the fushe disciples in his treatment of the relationship between the fushe and the "two Guizhous". However, Gong Xian did not shy away from the world, and even had a strong plot of joining the world, he advocated studying the history of the scriptures, applying what he had learned, believing that the "Six Classics and Histories" were "the most awake and fast books under the heavens" [4], emphasizing the importance of "learning from Youdengshi and taking up regent duties". These views of Gong Xian are also consistent with the proposition advocated by the Fu Society to "divide the five classics of the five classics", advocating the history of melting the scriptures, emphasizing "the study of the application of the poor scriptures" and "the study of the application of the classics", and the concern and study of social issues. The conflict between emotions and ideals, and the embarrassing performance of ideas and concepts and behaviors are important reasons for Gong Xian's embarrassing life.
Not only that, Gong Xian also faced various embarrassments in painting creation.
In the early Qing Dynasty, there were many schools of painting. The first to bear the brunt of this is of course the so-called "mainstream art circle" represented by the "Four Kings", Wu and Yun. Among them, it is divided into the "Loudong Faction", "Yushan Faction", "Changzhou Faction", etc., which are strong in strength, large in power, large in number, and last for a long time. Secondly, the "Xin'an Painting School" composed of Wanjiang, Wang Zhirui, Sun Yi, and Cha Shibiao, the "Xuancheng Painting School" represented by Mei Qing, the "Gusu Painting School" headed by Xiao Yuncong, and some individual painters who were mainly remnants, such as Shixi, Bada Shanren, Cheng Zhengyi, Cheng Yi, and Dai Benxiao, were highly respected for their outstanding painting skills, special status, and remarkable demeanor. At this time, Jinling, the former capital of the former dynasty, was a very politically sensitive place and a gathering place for many remnants. The "Eight Houses of Jinling", which was brewed and developed in this land of golden powder where the tigers are entrenched in the dragon pan and the humanities gathered, should be outstanding people in the painting world, but the artistic achievements of painters in Changshu, Taicang, Suzhou, Yangzhou and Anhui around Jinling are generally higher than those of the "Eight Houses of Jinling" [5], which is an indisputable fact. To be fair, in addition to Gong Xian's artistic achievements in the "Eight Houses of Jinling", the artistic achievements of the other seven are similar to those of other painters in jinling in the same period, although they have small achievements, but they are among the second and third-rate, and they are despised by the strong "mainstream art circle". When the Jinling family formed the painting style, they avoided the so-called "Nanzong" painting style, and the name of it was restored to the tradition of the Five Dynasties and the Northern Song Dynasty, but they chose the main elements of the Southern Song Dynasty's "Li, Liu, Ma, Xia" and the Ming Dynasty Zhejiang School of painting, the pen and ink were hard and sharp, the vertical and horizontal were unrestrained, Chen Chen attacked each other, did not seek change, was greatly frustrated and lacked innovation, the picture was dry and domineering, and the lack of elegance and quietness.
As for Gong Xian, although he was able to paint from the clouds in the "Endless Scrolls of Xishan", it was not until Ding Wei (1667) in the sixth year of the Qing Kangxi Dynasty (1667), when he was 50 years old, after building a half-acre garden under the Qingliang Mountain in Jinling, that he began to sell paintings, books, and apprentices. Prior to this, although he had contacts and contacts with many painters, such as Dong Qichang, Li Liufang, Yun Xiang, Zou Zhilin, Cheng Zhengxuan, Yang Wenxiao, Wei Zhihuang, Jia Yan, Hongren, etc., most of whom were famous for a while, however, during this period, Gong Xian traveled to Andh nanjing, Hai'an, Yangzhou and other places as a literati, poet, and teacher. As for painting, it is only a hobby, although it is involved, but the main energy is not here, so gong Xian's paintings from 1630 to 1667 do not survive much, and a large number of paintings of high artistic standards are mostly created after he was 48 years old, that is, after returning to Nanjing from Yangzhou. Based on this, although Gong Xian rarely met Dong Qichang and received his personal teaching, the painting system also belonged to the category of "mainstream art circle", however, because of Gong Xian's choice of self-role, he was always in an awkward position in the early Qing Dynasty painting world: when he wanted to be a literati, he could not seek fame; when he wanted to be a painter, painters from all over the world, painters of various identities, painters with teachers, painters with factions... Painters of all kinds and schools filled the painting world. Gong Xian, who has recently learned of his destiny, still wants to "ask for a piece of the pie" here, how easy it is to talk about it, and the result is that it is neither accepted by the "mainstream art circle" nor included in other local painting schools, but has to rely on buying words, paintings and apprentices for a living, so that his livelihood is almost a professional painter's social role.
However, Gong Xian is not a "professional painter" in the pure sense.
The first is the method of taking the teacher. In 1674, when he was 56 years old, Gong Xian wrote in a long poem after the Yunfeng Scrolls that he "reported to the family gate": "Shanshui Dongyuan is called the originator, Fan Kuan monk Giant Rope Qiwu; Fuyou Yingqiu and Guo Xi, branch factions are renovated; Xiangyang Mifu is even more different, qi can eat cattle like a tiger; friends pass on the Fa Gao Shangshu, after all, the three people are different portals; later the only Ni Huang Wang, Meng Duan Ishitian resists the ancient world; the Wen family father and son Tang Xieyuan, Shao Zhen duo fake Hugh frivolous insults; Wu Yan and see Dong Huating, Er Li Yun Zou You promised; in his later years, he loved the two Guizhous, and his pen and ink could sing and dance I don't know anything about this Tao, forty spring and autumn are like bitterness; friends draw clouds and peaks, and lotus flowers compete to vomit; and all teachers dare not forget, because one of the books is titled Fu. In the text, Gong Xian lists 23 famous masters who taught the Fa from the Fifth Dynasty to the end of the Ming Dynasty, all of whom are in the "Nanzong" painting system. Not only that, from the sentence "I said and saw Dong Huating", it can be seen that Gong Xian learned to paint dong Qichang. There is a pair of titles in the book "Landscape" by Gong Xian, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, USA: "Paintings do not have to be far away from the ancients, and recently such as Dong Huating, the pen and ink are super easy, but also cute." This work is similar to that of Longyou, and Yu Shaoshi and Longyou were the same teacher as Huating. According to Mr. Zhang Zining's research, Gong Xian was instructed by Dong Qichang at about the age of 14 [6], and he thought that as Yang Wenxiao recorded in the "Collection of Xunmeitang", Gong Xian "brushed up one ink, raised his face in his ears, and was very happy." It was taught by Dong Qichang himself, which was the dream of many people who studied painting, and Gong Xian was the "lucky one". It goes without saying that Gong Xian's painting style should be authentic and pure "Nanzong painting", as well as authentic and standard "literati painting".
The second is the concept of painting. In his later years, Gong Xian wrote in "On painting and manga": "Why should painting have morale? Painter, poetry. Poets, outside of the text. Writers, the rest of the Word. If you don't learn the Tao, you have no roots. Not accustomed to writing, poetry is unsettled. Can't poetry, painting is unreasonable. [7] In a few words, it is necessary to have "morale" in paintings, to melt philosophy and literary poetry in one furnace, not to paint as paintings, but to the after-pleasure and pastime of the literati. As a literati painter, you need to have a complete personality, learning, thought, morality and talent, and you also need to have "morale", that is, the spirit of taking the initiative to persevere in action for your goals, which is almost the spiritual characteristic of "literati painting". Gong Xian's paintings in the last year of his life (1689, at the age of 71) of the "Shi Dong Ju Shan Shui" axis (collection of the Honolulu Academy of Fine Arts in Hawaii, USA) have clouds: "Painting must be zongzong rational Song and Yuan, and then scattered into yipin." Although there are several sparse strokes, six of them are salty, there is a literary atmosphere, there is a book style, it is a knowledgeable person's spare skills, not a chaotic head□, and the experts are also laughed at. In his later years, Mengduan and Qinan took Ni and Huang as their games, and Dong and Ju as their roots. I'm sorry! I'm sorry! After all, this is done because of the intention of the pen. He emphasized his ultimate pursuit of "Yipin" and emphasized the "spiritual" factor of writing and purifying the body and mind. The standard and characteristics of "Yipin" are "sparse number of pens, of which six methods are salty, there is a literary atmosphere, and there is a book grid", and it is necessary to "play" pen and ink and transcend tradition. Overlapping use of "My Master! I'm sorry! "It is enough to see Gong Xian's spirit of being old and diligent.
Whether from the appearance of the work or the concept of creation, Gong Xian should be a "literati painter" in the pure sense, however, Gong Xian's situation is much more complicated than that of the "literati painter". Literati painters need to have an independent personality, freedom and original spirit, and the key is to create on the basis of "indifferent to fame and fortune", not for their own utilitarian interests. "Art" became an ideal way of life and expected to "perfect the Tao with art", that is, the relationship between Gong Xian's so-called "painting" and "Tao". Therefore, it is necessary for literati painters not to regard painting as a specialized profession like folk painters and painters of painting academies, and to take this as the main means of livelihood. But Gong Xian could not do it, and in the last twenty years of Gong Xian's life, his painting state has been hovering between "craftsman painting" and "literati painting".
Not only that, Gong Xian's so-called "sparse number of brushes" is the same as Ni Zhan's "Yi pen cursive" meaning, referring to the "literati painting" advocating sparse, simple, natural aesthetic taste, the painter needs to be in a natural and suitable state, eclectic, unrestrained, brush swinging, handy, so as to express the chest, that is, Gong Xian's so-called "game". Imagine that the Song Dynasty has fallen, and literati painting has really risen, starting from Zhao Mengfu and the "Yuan Four Families" in the Yuan Dynasty, experiencing the "Songjiang School" represented by the Wumen families and Dong Qichang, until the "Four Kings", Wu, Yun, and even the "Four Monks of the Qing Dynasty", all of them are free to send and hand, using free lines as the main means of modeling, relying on various forms of lines, using different pen techniques to shape the image and convey feelings. Looking at Gong Xian, what we see is a different look. The appearance of Gong Xian's early paintings is thirsty pen, stick figure, and shaojiao, known as "White Gong", which meets the aesthetic standards of "literati painting". After middle age, Gong Xian's paintings gradually changed from "white" to "gray", from "gray" to "black", although it was still the main means of modeling with lines, however, his emphasis on the sense of mountain stone blockage, his love for the textured painting effect, and the depiction of "smoke trees" were tireless and meticulous, and he also used a long inscription in "Painting Theory" to describe the method of painting thick leaves. In the "Gong Banqian Landscape Apprentice Painting Draft", on the basis of summarizing his painting techniques, he highly stylized it, with various point leaves and sandwich leaf painting methods, the first stroke, the second stroke, the third stroke... Outline the first, second, third stroke of the mountain stone... As a result, the creation of landscape painting has become a combination of "tree method + mountain stone method + point scene method", with order and steps. He taught the stylized ontology of Chinese painting to his students, and trapped himself in the stylization he had constructed. He used a rigorous and neat ink accumulation method to dye layer by layer in an orderly and step-by-step manner. He has clouds in the "Paintings of Chai Zhang" and "Gong BanQian Landscape Lesson Paintings": "If a thick tree has a black point at the beginning, it will be freewheeling, and if it is painted, it will be shallow and deepened." "Gong painting", not "Gong pen painting", refers to the rigorous and neat creation, which has become the most important stylistic feature of Gong Xian's paintings, and has also become an inherent image in the hearts of the world, so Qu An's inscription poem calls his paintings "Gongbi Mijiashan, which means my heart will". These are very different from the "literati painting" of gong Xian's "game" of teaching the Fa.
In terms of specific painting methods, Gong Xian also faced a lot of embarrassment.
Let's first look at the so-called "pen". Gong Xian called it "brushwork", which refers to the use of the pen by the center forward, and he has many discussions in the "Chai Zhang's Painting Theory" and "Gong Banqian's Apprentice Manuscript": "The pen is from ancient times" [9]; "The pen should be the center forward first, only the center forward can learn from everyone, if the bias is biased and can not be seen in the contemporary era, the situation is passed on later?" The center is Tibetan, and the Tibetan front is ancient, which is no different from calligraphy" [10]; "The pen center is round, and the pen circle is thick and thick" [11]. "Center-forward pen" is the basis for using the pen, only the center uses the pen, and the square ability is to the end. Zhongfeng is the most important brushwork in Chinese calligraphy and painting, and it is also the most valuable brushwork, and the zhongfeng pen has an irreplaceable position in the practice of calligraphy and painting creation, which has almost become the consensus of ancient and modern calligraphers and painters. The pen used by the center is mainly reflected in the drawing method of the line and the quality of the line. In the creation of landscape painting, there are lines everywhere in the picture, and the most adequate use of lines should be the lines of the mountain stone method. So, what about the falun gong in Gong Xian's paintings? He said in "Half a Thousand Lessons": "Phi Ma is positive, the solution is secondary, and the watercress is generous, and the ability to see it." The large and small axes were used by the ancients to split them, and now they are in the north. Cirrus clouds are similar to the solution, and the cattle hairs are too fine to be taken. [12] It can be seen here that Gong Xian, in many landscape painting methods, only recognized Phi Ma Zhen, Xie Suo Zhen and Douban Zhen. There is no need to say more about Phi Ma Chuan, Xie Suo Fu is commonly used by Zhao Mengfu and Wang Meng, as for Douban Qi, the history of painting traces back to the five generations of Guan Tong, in fact, the five generations of landscape painting method has not yet been fully established, there is no clear form of the law. It is also said that it is related to rice dots, as the name suggests, the falling ink resembles watercress, which is obviously different from rice dots, and the two ends of watercress are much wider than the rice dots, so the dots and dots are still different. Moreover, Gong Xian also made a footnote for Douban: "It is generous and skillful." "Although douban is not classified as an outlier in the traditional landscape painting methods, it has never been enshrined as authentic. However, Gong Xian raised the Douban Zhen to the same status as the Phi Ma Zhen and the Unlock Zhen. Of course, Gong Xian's view of "big and small axe splitting" still follows the mainstream view of the Ming and Qing dynasties: "Now into the north" [13]. However, in his later years, Gong Xian said in another apprentice draft, "Gong Banqian Apprentice Painting Manuscript": "Only Phi Hemp, Douban, and Small Axe Are Serious." rest...... All are outside the door. "The "unsoiling" was removed and the "small axe split" was added, and the unsound essence was dissolved from the Phi Ma Chuan, which was not much different from the Phi Ma Zhen. After the Ming Dynasty Zhejiang School, the axe splitting has become a crude, carved, unpretentious and unethical representative, which has been refuted by the "mainstream art circle". Gong Xian's view was still relatively bold in the painting circles of the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, and if he did not pay attention to it, he would be classified as an evil door and a crooked path. Why does Gong Xian have such a dangerous view? Take a closer look at Gong Xian's paintings of his maturity, and you can get the answer from his pictures.
Watercress and small axe splitting have a common feature, but also the most typical feature, that is, you must use the method of flanking and pencil to complete. The form of Gong Xian's mature mountain stone method is composed of the flanking paved and written, supplemented by strips of watercress, and the elongated small axe with a sense of line. Not only that, the dye that forms the "black gong" is also written layer by layer by layer by the flanker, stacked on top of each other. In addition, the lines outlined in Gong Xian's paintings outside the mountain stone are also used interchangeably between the center and the flank. The general method adopted is that the left and right horizontal pens are mostly center forwards, and the up and down vertical pens are mostly flanks. Vertical moss dots at tree roots, rocky slopes, etc., are also written from the top down. Even the point leaf method of some trees is also a side edge paving pen. Therefore, in Gong Xian's paintings, the flanking edge can be seen everywhere with a pen, so it is also natural to classify the watercress and small axe cracks as "serious". In this way, Gong Xian has some reservations about the problem of the center's pen in his creation. Gong Xian admired Shen Zhou very much, and Shen Zhou used his pen to pave the way. The traces of Shen Zhou's painting style being influenced by the Zhejiang School in his later years became more and more obvious, and the use of the pen was the use of a flanking pen with a point jump from top to bottom on the mountain stone method, almost a small axe split. I think Gong Xian should be clear, but he knows it and doesn't say it.
Qin Zuyong said in "Tong Yin on Painting" that Gong Xian's paintings were "too thick and heavy, and there was no interest in qing and elegance in the thick", and in the "Records of Paintings of the National Dynasty", Gong Xian's paintings were "insufficient in rhyme". Indeed, Gong Xian's "Black Gong" style in his later years gave people the feeling of being a bit deep and deep and old, however, "Black Gong" was not blindly "black", nor did it lack "the fun of being clean and beautiful". Dong Qichang has long discussed in the "Essay on Painting the Zen Room": "To paint Yunlin, you must use a side pen, there are light and heavy, you must not use a round pen, and its best point is that the pen is sharp." The Courtyard of the Song Dynasty all used round wrinkles, and the North Garden was slightly longitudinal, so it was a small change. Ni Yunlin, Huang Zijiu, and Wang Shuming all started from beiyuan, so they all have side pens, especially Yunlin. Dong Qichang is an eye-catching person, and he breaks the pen to close the point. In fact, Wu Zhen also used a flanking in the "Yuan Sijia" [14]. Gong Xian's paintings often have a flanking pen, whether it is the outline of the mountain stone, the pen, the branches of the trees, the needles, etc., are mostly used by the center and the flank, and the flanking pen has what Dong Qichang called "beautiful cliffs". The flanking edge is paved with a pen, and the layers are dyed, although the ink is thick, it is loose and layered, which makes a large number of pens, moss points, and dot leaves appear to have changes and postures. However, these wonderful points of laying out the side of the pen, Gong Xian could not say clearly. The position of the center forward's pen in Chinese painting is unshakable, because the center's pen also contains the middle way of being impartial in the world, and the center forward uses the pen to carry the zhengda light, the dignity, the integrity and subtlety, the regularity and thickness... The additional "burden", many extra-painting additions make the center's pen more and more unshakable, so the embarrassed Gong Xian can only say one set and do one set.
After Gong Xian's "Gong Ye Relics of Landscape and Water AuthenticIties" (collected by the Palace Museum), Cha Shibiao has an inscription: "In the past, people were cloudy, qiu gullies sought all the heavens and the earth, pen and ink sought heaven and earth, and the wild relics of this book, the written and ink of the hills and ravines are not human paths, but open up big articles." "For Gong Xian's paintings, the hills and brush and ink are highly evaluated. In addition to pen and ink, Gong Xian discussed "hills and ravines" more: "Those who are hilly, the general name of the position, the location is appropriate, but it will be strange and safe, and it is not strange and noble." Safe and not strange, mediocre hands also, strange and uneasy, raw hands also. ...... The more curious the more secure, this painting is on top of the product. "Although the hills and ravines are at the end of the painting, I am afraid that the pen and ink are true and the hills and ravines are constant, and there is no way to attract the pleasure of lying down." "Occasionally write a forest of trees, very ordinary, why not?" At this time, Bento put aside the pen and tried his best to figure it out, and he would think about the hill and the hill of the head, and then continue to complete, otherwise he would have spent this paper. [15] It can be seen from this that Gong Xian attaches great importance to the arrangement of hills and ravines, or the arrangement of hills and ravines, that is, the location of operations, and believes that the arrangement of hills and ravines is related to the success or failure of the entire picture. There are many hills and ravines in the eyes, there are hills and ravines in the chest, and only under the pen can the hills and ravines be arranged, which is the common sense of Chinese painting creation, so Shi Tao advocates "searching for the Qifeng to make a draft". However, Gong Xian traveled mainly on both sides of the Jiangsu section of the Yangtze River, and he basically spent his childhood and youth in Nanjing, leaving Nanjing several times after middle age, but not far away, such as Yangzhou, Nantong and other places, and returning to Nanjing in his later years. There are also studies that say that Gong Xian has briefly visited Anhui, Shandong and other places. Even so, it can be said that Gong Xian's travels are far from reaching the realm of "walking thousands of miles" as Dong Qichang said, nor is it far from achieving what he calls "the source of the creation of the poor heart, the change of the mountains and rivers of the wood". What he saw with his eyes and what he had in his chest were mostly the plains of Jiangnan and Jiangbei and the hills and mountains of Nanjing, which were relatively gentle and monotonous. However, we can see from the many paintings that Gong Xian has survived to this day, and his mound patterns are very rich, far more than the Jiangnan landscape, which includes both fertile fields and flat domains, as well as lofty mountains and rocky peaks. For the lack of hills in his chest, the main countermeasures taken by Gong Xian are:
First, find inspiration from the paintings of the ancients. The previous article discussed that Gong Xian inherited the "Douban Wrinkle" and "Small Axe Splitting" these flanking brushes, which shows that he has studied the Beizong painting method, then, the common "corner corner method" in Beizong painting, that is, the so-called "one corner and half side" composition method, Gong Xian should not be unfamiliar. This composition method gives the author great creative initiative, only selects the scene he wants to represent when composing the picture, and boldly discards other parts that have nothing to do with the main idea or have little to do with it. Gong Xian's paintings, especially the composition of small pictures, often have such "corner methods".
Second, on the basis of the "corner corner" and "cropping" methods in the ancient people's drawings, painstakingly managed the composition of the picture, the so-called "put aside the pen and try to figure it out, think of a hill and ravine, and then continue to be completed." Therefore, gong Xian in the composition of the picture processing, more than one slope and a valley, showing the local scene of the mountain range, or intercepting a part of the landscape for depiction, this is Gong Xian's painting, either only see the mountain peak, or only the water's edge, or do not rely on the world and the ground only exist in the middle... This composition method seems to treat the picture as a frame, and the content of the picture is limited to the scenery seen in the carefully selected frame.
Third, the painter Shen Zhou, whom Gong Xian admired, also provided a reference for Gong Xian. Shen Zhou used the composition method of painting the roots of the water trail on the top, the gentle slope of the flat slope on the bottom, and the empty water surface in the middle in some long scrolls depicting the landscape of Jiangnan. This cut "Pingyuan method" was enlightening to Gong Xian.
Fourth, it was influenced by Western painting. Contemporary scholars have discussed the influence of Gong Xian's painting creation on Western painting, especially Western printmaking, but they have focused on the issue of Gong Xian's creation of landscapes with deep space by alternating light and dark, in short, the question of whether the appearance of "Black Gong" was influenced by Western printmaking [16]. Gong said that the public is reasonable, the mother said that the mother is reasonable, we are not entangled in this, here is only a brief description of the composition of Gong Xian's picture. The Suzhou Museum has a twelve-page "Gong Xian Ink Pen Landscape Album" that opens and writes about the scenery of jiangnan villages, which is composed of five rows of horizontal scenery, from near to far: a row of thatched huts, a drainage, and a row of distant shores separated by two rows of barren willows. Similar compositional paintings like this are also in the collection of the Shanghai Museum, where Gong Xian's 1657 "Landscape Album" has a opening, and seven miscellaneous trees connect the distant near shore with the distant mountains, which is as unique as the scenery we see through the car window; for example, the Palace Museum, Gong Xian's 1675 "Landscape Album" has a opening, and the face is full of staggered weeping willow branches, through which the willow branches have blinded hillsides; the same is true in the "Willow Wind Flake Sail Map", through the large willow branches to see the stone walls and sails in the river. Gong Xian's painting composition, which I call "frame-type space composition method", is obviously far away from the traditional "three distances" method, but it is closer to the Western focus perspective method composition. Therefore, it is inferred that Gong Xian's painting creation should have been influenced by Western painting, whether it was prints or drawings.
After Gong Xian's painstaking management in composition, the bland landscape has become a precipitous, deep and obscure, ups and downs, depression and setbacks, and a good structure that makes people shine.
However, the problem arises again, gong Xian's composition processing method has brought him another embarrassing problem: the operation of the small hilly is handy, it can really be described as "one wood and one stone, which has its own hills and ravines", while the large picture of Chen Bushi is a bit stretched and inadequate. Gong Xian knew that it was quite difficult for him to arrange a large-scale picture, so he basically avoided talking about the law of large composition in the manuscripts of the disciples, and he also said: "If you are a big hill, if you don't read books to nourish your qi, you will close your house for decades, and you are not allowed to write easily." He "cunningly" gave the actual composition method to the "retreat". In general, Gong Xian's small hills and ravines, that is, the overall brilliance and artistic achievements of small-scale landscape paintings (including albums, fans, etc.) are higher than his large-scale landscape paintings. In the small picture, Gong Xian divides the space of the picture and then combines the blocks. He processed the ordinary scenery he saw in his eyes through his own trade-offs, or only took a corner, or intercepted a section, or a full of mountains, or a lone sail in the sand, creating a surprising and reasonable composition. He paid attention to this kind of picture composition method in his early years, and repeatedly trained and applied it, making the "frame cutting space composition method" another major feature of Gong Xian's painting art in addition to the "Black Gong" style of Yunshan Tobacco Tree. Furthermore, Gong Xian applied this kind of "frame-cutting spatial composition method" on this small picture to the creation of long scrolls of landscapes, cutting off the sky and the earth, so that any selected picture section can be independently framed. For example, Gong Xian's self-title in the back of the volume "Endless Map of Xishan" (the collection of the Palace Museum): "Gengzhongchun, Yu even got a piece of Songku paper, wanted to make a scroll, afraid of its difficulty in putting it away; if you want to make a book, you can't make the water far away from the mountains long, because of the order to decorate it, use the book style to paint like a volume, count twelve frames before and after, and each frame stops together; Guan Bi Stretchzhi, combined with twelve frames and has a stop together, so-called folding volume can also be said, so-called the general book can also be." However, the position of the middle idea should be unreasonable, and it must be close to each other and be close. "There are twelve pages before and after this volume, each with its own beginning and end, which can be admired independently or stretched into a volume, and the scenery is connected and integrated. In fact, Gong Xian used this form of "book style and painting like a scroll" in the volume of "Thousand Rocks and Ten Thousand Valleys" (collected by the Nanjing Museum) painted at the age of 56 as early as the twelfth year of the Qing Dynasty (1673). He first focused on the in-depth portrayal of a section of local hills and ravines with typical meaning, and then connected the small hills and ravines that he had played with one by one, as if stringing pearls together, both the overall mountain ups and downs and the momentum, and the local wonderful and exquisite sections. Compared with small-scale works, Gong Xian's large-scale landscape paintings have a slight sense of patchwork, many peaks have obvious traces of piling, the overall sense is weak, and the pen and ink program is also slightly rigid and carved, the lines are stiff, and the ink is thick, such as the "Yueyang LouTu" collected by the Nanjing Museum, and the "Landscape Picture Screen for Xi Weng" collected by the Palace Museum, etc., which are far from the roundness and transparency and moderate nature of small landscapes [17].
Gong Xian once said: "You must not learn from the ancients, and you must not be unsuitable with the ancients." Learning from the ancients was deceived by the ancients. I often want to deceive the ancients, but the ancients must not be deceived. For a long time, and then see the way of the ancients, the situation can not be inconsistent with the ancients also. [18] Learning and not learning, cheating and being deceived, merging and not merging, these dual categories of Chinese painting are inherently embarrassing paradoxes, and it is precisely with this kind of seemingly irreconcilable embarrassment that Gong Xian's painting art has been achieved by chance. I think that the greatest respect for the former sage is to seek truth from facts, to return its original appearance, Gong Xian should have embarrassment, no need for posterity to whitewash him, or let him be embarrassed.
exegesis:
[1] [2] "Gong Xian Research Collection" (Part II), "Preface", page 2, Jiangsu Fine Arts Publishing House, June 1989, first edition.
[3] Reading The Picture Book (Vol. 2) The Biography of Gong Xian.
[4] Gong Xian, "With Zhang Shiqing".
[5] The reference to the "Eight Houses of Jinling" comes from Zhou Lianggong, headed by Chen Zhuo, without Gong Xian. As for Gong Xian's appearance in the "Eight Houses of Jinling", it was added by Zhang Geng in the "National Dynasty Painting Catalogue" more than half a century later. For details, see Chen Chuanxi, History of Chinese Landscape Painting, p. 893, Jiangsu Fine Arts Publishing House, June 1988 edition. Gong Xian established the appearance of "White Gong" before he was forty years old, and if he was only satisfied with this, then he was at best a second- and third-rate painter, who would surely be overwhelmed by the "Four Kings", "Four Monks", or the Anhui Families, and like the painters who were active in the Jinling region at that time, they would become "unlearnable".
[6] Reprinted from "Gong Xian's Research", Duoyun, vol. 63, Shanghai Calligraphy and Painting Publishing House, June 2005 edition, p. 272.
[7] "RongBaozhai Painting Notation", "Ancient Part I", "Qing Gongxian Painting Apprentice Painting Manuscript", Rongbaozhai Publishing House, December 1995 edition, p. 43.
[8] Hong Huizhen, "Comparison of Chinese and Western Paintings", Hebei Education Publishing House, June 2000, page 256.
[Qing] Gong Xian's self-titled landscape atlas (the first opening) ink and ink on paper, 1688, collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, USA
[Qing] Gong Xian's self-titled landscape atlas (the first opening) 27.7cm×41cm ink and pencil on paper, 1684-1689, Shanghai Museum collection
[9] [10] "Chai Zhang's Painting Theory", Yu Jianhua, "Chinese Calligraphy and Painting Treatise", People's Fine Arts Publishing House, March 2000 edition, p. 790. [11] "Gong Banqian Lesson Manuscript", Yu Jianhua, "Chinese Calligraphy and Painting", People's Fine Arts Publishing House, March 2000 edition, page 799. [12] "Half a Thousand Lessons on Painting", see Yu Jianhua,"Compilation of Chinese Calligraphy and Painting", People's Fine Arts Publishing House, March 2000 edition, p. 800.
[13] Gong Xian accepted the mainstream view of "chongnan and degrading the north" in the Ming and Qing dynasties, and he also said in the "Gong Xian's Apprentice Painting Manuscript": "Thin leaf trees are round with pens, and if they are flat, they are the northern school." The Northern Sect indulges the old and does not enter the appreciation. "The people who use the law of the law stop three or four ... The Great Axe is the Northern Sect and is never used. ”
[14] See the Book of Wu Zhen's Bamboo Notation in the National Palace Museum in Taipei, where the mountain stone method is swept sideways with a pen, and several are large axe splitting methods.
[15] Tuesday study "One Corner Compilation" volume B.
[16] Regarding the "Black Gong" type of ink accumulation method, researchers say that Gong Xian's "Black Gong" ink accumulation method was influenced by the Mi Fu painting method. According to Gong Xian's inscription in the "Cloud Mountain Map": "When the weak crown is weak, I see the Mi's Cloud Mountain Map, which is thrilling, and it is a divine object." "What is Mi Fu's painting like?" Nowadays, there are no reliable paintings, and it can only be inferred from the paintings copied by Mi Youren and other descendants, as well as from the descriptions of texts. However, the approximate pictorial form of the rice painting is clear. In Mijiayun Mountain, the peaks are mostly treated as approximate isosceles triangles, and from the peak to the mountainside are heavy ink accumulation points, emptying the mountain roots, and the mountain stones do not have a strong sense of line. The painting method of the tobacco tree is: thick black branches, thick ink spots, and dry leaves are uniform. In contrast, Gong Xian's "Black Gong" ink accumulation method, Gong Xian's "Half a Thousand Lessons of Apprentice Painting", has a discussion: "The underside is not on the top, and the yin is divided into the yang." Brilliant black is yin, not brilliant is yang. The sun shines on the sun, and the ridge stone surface also. Shade of shady grass and trees, mountain hollow stones also. "It can be seen that it is exactly the opposite of Mijiayun Mountain, and the upper part of the mountain stone is white and the lower part is black. The painting method of the smoke tree is: the trunk and branches are double-hooked with lines, the leaves are thick and black, there is a bit of leaf method, there is a leaf clipping method, the leaves are solid and the trunk is empty. In this way, Gong Xian's mountain stone painting method and tree method are completely different from the Mijiayun Mountain painting method. I think that one of the inspirations for Gong Xian's "Black Gong" ink accumulation method came from the expression method of snow scenes in Chinese paintings. The treatment of the snow scene method is that because of the snow in the high places, the upper part is empty, and there is no snow in the low place, but the lower part is actually the lower part. Moreover, Gong Xian's snow scenes are never treated according to the traditional snow scene painting method, but mostly use light ink lines to outline the mountains and stones and trees, and the picture is ethereal and empty. Hence the argument.
[17] Not all of Gong Xian's large-format landscape works are unsatisfactory, but there are also wonderful works. Gong Xian's large-format landscape works can be roughly divided into two categories: one is to depict the mountains in the north or Anhui and other places, mainly to depict the steep or lofty mountains, mostly using far-reaching or high-distance method composition, the overall picture is realistic; the other is to depict the Zeguo water town in the Jiangnan region, the fertile plain domain, the hills and undulating, mostly using the Pingyuan method composition, the overall picture is near virtual. In these two categories, the former has a clear sense of piling and carving, and the latter often has excellent works, such as the Shanghai Museum's collection of "Mu Ye Dan Huang Tu", which is such a representative.
[18] The Taizhou Museum has an inscription on Gong Xian in the "Album of The Early Qing Dynasty".
Text | Pang Ou
Source | Chinese Painting and Calligraphy
Declare | Graphic source network, designed to share and disseminate, the copyright belongs to the original author! The original text only represents the views of the original author himself, and does not represent the views or positions of the Book Art Commune. If you have any questions about the content, copyright or other matters of your work, please contact the Book Arts Commune within 30 days of the publication of your work.
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Exhibited in January 2020
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