"At that time, only the Tao was commonplace"
Sun Danyan
Ancient celebrity codexes with both historical and artistic value are increasingly entering people's field of vision. Those ordinary codexes, which were "only common at that time", have aroused the interest, attention and love of today's audiences and collectors.
Letters, which were originally tools for transmitting information in ancient times, later became carriers of thoughts and feelings, and became documents and works of art for people to appreciate and study in the current electronic age. It is small and large, staining the wind and clouds and detritus of the times, reflecting the sweetness and bitterness of life; it is shallow and deep, saying nothing more than the people around it and the things in front of it, but it may be the rise and fall of an era, the beginning and end of an ups and downs. Now there are not many people to write letters, telephone WeChat, thousands of miles away, cloud and water are not separated, is a great progress in science and technology, a great convenience of communication. The era of slow carriage and horse is gone, lamenting that there is no need, but nostalgia may as well be. If you are occasionally interested, you can write a book to express the concern between relatives about "family letters to ten thousand gold"; pour out the feelings of "strange flowers blooming, can slowly return" between partners; and freely describe the thoughts of "this night my heart, the king knows". The clouds disperse and reunite, and the fish and geese return even more, which is not worthy of the thousand-year-old humor.
Not long ago, Zhao Mengfu's early book "The Second Scroll with Guo Youzhi" was sold for 267 million yuan after a long auction of more than an hour, and Du Fu's sentence of "family letter to ten thousand gold" can no longer be said to be an exaggerated rhetorical technique at this time. At the same auction, Fu Shan's Eighteen Books to Wei Yi'ao sold for 13.8 million yuan. In another auction before, including Xu Youzhen, Li Dongyang, Wen Zhengming, Zhu Yunming, including more than 60 Mingren rulers of nearly Belden, the auction price was as high as 51.75 million yuan.
In recent years, the "Wumen Shuzat Exhibition" held by the Shanghai Museum and other public art institutions and libraries have also launched thematic exhibitions of ancient celebrities. Recently, the Shanghai Museum also launched an online exhibition "Leaving Me Double Carp - An Exhibition of Calligraphy and Paintings of Ming Dynasty Calligraphers and Painters in the Collection" at the time of the "epidemic". These unique exhibitions of books and books provoke the audience to trace their roots, through the codex to fully understand the writers and their times, and pick up the history and art of Yoshimitsu from these ancient celebrity codex piles.
The Codex is also a letter
The codex is also a letter, the reason why it is called "Za", because in ancient times when paper was not yet popular, the commonly used writing material was cut into a narrow strip of bamboo or wood chips, bamboo pieces called "Jane", wood chips called "Za" or "Mu", so it is also called Shu Jian, Shu Za. There are several different specifications of these wooden mutes, but most of them are three inches wide and about a foot long, hence the name of the ruler. At that time, a letter, usually two pieces of wood, when writing a letter, first wrote the words to be said on the wooden muc below, then stamped another piece of wood on it, wrote the names of the recipient and the sender, and finally tied the two pieces of wood from the middle with a rope to be strong - this rope is called "reeling", and later said "three mutes", "silent", the source is here. In order to prevent the letter from being opened by others, a piece of green clay is sealed in the place where the rope is knotted, and the seal is stamped, that is, the mud is sealed. In this way, the messenger can be delivered. Later, light paper gradually became the main writing material, "牋" and "note" is a small and luxurious paper, but ordinary people can not afford to use, "want to send color notes and rulers" really need to be born like Yan Shu.
Letters written on small silk, drapery and other silk fabrics are called rulers, and there is a popular "Drinking Horse Great Wall Cave Line" in Hanle Province: "Green riverside grass, long thinking about the distance." ...... The guest came from afar and left me a double carp. Hu'er cooks carp, and there is a ruler book. Long kneeling to read a plain book, the book is like this. The upper words add food, the lower words look like memories", Le fu poetry is romantic and simple, in fact, it is very realistic. "Double carp" is not a real fish, it is a wooden letter sleeve that contains letters is often carved into the shape of a carp, and "cooking carp" is not a dissection of the abdomen and scraping scales, but the meaning of opening the envelope and taking out the letter. Interestingly, this meaning has been misinterpreted since ancient times. "Drinking Horse Great Wall Cave Line" is included in the "Zhaoming Wenxuan", when Tang Kaiyuan, there were Five people, Lü Yanji, Liu Liang, Zhang Qiao, Lü Xiang, and Li Zhouhan who annotated the "Anthology of Literature", and Liu Lu also had selected notes at the end of the Yuan and early Ming Dynasties, which are two more famous annotated books, when they talk about this poem, they all think that the ancients really hid the letters in the belly of the fish, which also reminded them of the Chen Sheng uprising at the end of the Qin Dynasty, and put the book written "King Chen Sheng" in the belly of the fish to intimidate everyone. No wonder Yang Shen, the first talent of the Ming Dynasty, wanted to ridicule them as idiotic dreams.
However, how chic and romantic it is that the fish's belly collection of books follows the flowing water and the pulse is thousands of miles, and the poets do not mind imagining it as real. Liu Yuxi", "Xiang Xiang looks forward to Huai shui, and the double carp should not be rare", has a little hesitant pity; Bai Juyi's "it is difficult to send the pisces after the farewell, and the tide has not reached Xiangcheng recently", which is mixed with a hint of sad relief; Cen Shan", "The pisces do not send, outside the county is the Yellow River", is full of hope; always Li Bai has always been the heroic and noble style of the immortals, "Hankou Pisces white brocade scales, so that the chuanzhi su bao lover" as if the fish in the water also obeyed his dispatches.
The letters are also called fish geese, and the source of "fish" is romantic poetry, but the source of "goose" is serious history. According to the Book of Han, Li Guangsu Jianchuan attached to Su Wu's biography, Su Wu sent an envoy to the Xiongnu and was detained for more than ten years, and the Han Dynasty made peace with the Xiongnu. Emperor Zhao of Han demanded the release of Su Wu and other emissaries, while the Xiongnu lied that they were dead. Later, Chang Hui, a subordinate official who was detained with Su Wu, sought an opportunity to meet the Envoy of the Han Dynasty and taught him to say to Shan Yu: "Tianzi shot a hunt in the Shanglin Garden, and shot a big goose, with a book tied to his feet, which said that Su Wu and others were in the North Sea. The Han envoy rebuked Shan Yu according to his words, and Shan Yu was shocked and apologized, so he released Su Wu and returned to Han. It turned out that the so-called "Book of Hongyan Transmission" was a diplomatic ploy.
Zhang Ailing said in "The Book of Golden Locks": "Young people think that the moon thirty years ago should be a red and yellow wet halo the size of copper coins, like a tear on the letterhead of Duo Yunxuan, old and confused. "Duo Yun Xuan is a famous paper shop and one of the most important art auction companies in the south today, and Duo Yun is another chic name for the letters. In the Tang Dynasty, Wei Zhi, the Duke of Gaoguo, was elegant and elegant, writing letters on colorful letterhead, the content of which was written by the concubine according to his meaning, he only signed it at the back, and wrote the word "陟" like five clouds, which was popular for a while, called "Wuyun Body of Gong Gong", and later referred to as "Duoyun".
The history of epistles is long, and it is said that the earliest letters into writing exist in oracle bones
The word "letter" follows people and words, and people speak for faith, and in the era when there was no word, the message was passed on by word of mouth, and with words, the letter became a letter.
The history of epistles is long and long. It is said that the earliest letters into writing exist in the oracle bones, and the earliest family letters are the two pieces of wood left by the two Qin soldiers in the Yunmeng Sleeping Tiger Di Qin Jian. The "Secretary" of the Wenxin Carved Dragon says: "Han Lai's pen is full of words", Sima Qian's "Book of Baoren An", Dongfang Shuo's "Book of Gongsun Hong", Yang Yun's "Book of Baosun Huizong", Yang Xiong's "Book of Reply to Liu Xin", "The spirit of the qi is strong, each contains special qualities", and "the shaft is like a ruler, or the heart is raised". This "inch of heart" gives the ruler a more distant and deep realm in addition to the function of transmitting information.
In the Wei and Jin dynasties, the more famous religions were taught and left to nature, and the aura of freedom was sprinkled everywhere. People do not talk about studying and discussing politics alone in their letters, but also can describe their minds, narrate their feelings, participate in xuanyu, and remember long trips... Mood and sorrow, ruthlessness can not be proclaimed to the ruler, wind and snow, no scenery can not be spread on the end of the pen, at this point, the letter is finally no longer a simple application of style, but has become a literary style with independent status and special style.
China has a history of calligraphy with ink marks, which began in the Western Jin Dynasty, and the earliest inkblot, "Ping Fu Ti", happened to be a letter written by Lu Ji to a friend. In fact, in addition to the Han and Wei inscriptions, the early history of Chinese calligraphy was almost composed of Xinzha, in addition to the "Ping Fu Ti", which also included most of the works of Wang Xi's wang Xianzhi's father and son, and the Eastern Jin Dynasty Wang Xun's "Boyuan Ti"... After the Song Dynasty, there were more.
From this hand, the letter is a very private thing, reflecting the situation of one place, a momentary event, a person's feelings, not necessarily comprehensive, but true enough. Because of this, it has unique value in history and art. In historical terms, it is like a drop of water in the ocean, although the ocean is composed of water droplets, but each drop of water is a supplement and evidence of the ocean; in art, it is a chic side, in addition to the calligraphy works sitting on the edge, showing the most casual and free state of writing, alluding to the highest realm of Chinese art "from the heart to do not exceed the rules".
Wei Jin Gaogu, Song and Yuan zhenyi, in terms of quantity, the Ming and Qing dynasties have preserved more books, and for today's researchers, there are more opportunities for contact. Compared with the Qing Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty's calligraphy retains more of a simple meaning, which is both in form and content.
According to the Mingren books that the author has contacted, most of them are simple in style, concise in content, and rarely in a series of articles, but the words are clean, the calligraphy is exquisite, each has its own face, each has its own wonderful points, they are like small and wonderful gems, tempered by time and time, when you observe from the right angle, they will emit a strange light, for you to see a corner of history. For example, the Shanghai Museum has the Ming Dynasty Donglin Yang Lian, Zhou Shunchang, Wei Dazhong, Miao Changming, Zhou Zongjian Five Gentlemen's Codex, of which Yang Lian is particularly impressive:
"The People of Chang'an avenged The Second Wei to repay the favor, and they did not do anything wrong, and they could not find anything to do, but they even pinched Mr. Gongwuyou, which was ridiculous!" Not only did he fabricate a book, zhao shufu into the interior to call the soldiers to the side of the Qing emperor, angering the emperor, but also pointed out that shufu asked Yang Xiong and others to be a disciple of the handwritten letter, and tried to divide Yang Xiong to score eighty thousand. A few days ago, when Wang Wenyan was tortured, he was prepared with five poisons, and he used iron shoes to force him to die, and he was resurrected from the dead. Yang Shi was not sticky, Xiong Shi brother originally had a sparse, and Xiong Ji hated each other,...... Now that he is sitting on a bribe to get out, taking Shufu's rescue of the bear as evidence, in fact, Shufu brother has not exchanged a book with him, and he has made it up in the air, and he is not afraid of ghosts and gods? Smell it to make a laugh. ”
I don't know who Wrote this letter to, but I think it is a close friend, and the letter deals with major events that caused a sensation in the government and the public in the late Ming Dynasty. "Erwei" is Wei Zhongxian, and the so-called revenge refers to Yang Lian's letter to impeach Wei Zhongxian for twenty-four major crimes in the fourth year of the Apocalypse (1624), which caused an uproar, shook the government and the opposition, and also became the fuse for the later Donglin Party members to suffer great disasters, and wei Zhongxian hated Yang Lian from then on. The incident of "recruiting Shu Shu to assist in the interior" refers to the fact that Sun Chengzong, the governor of Jiliao, dismissed Yang Lian, Zhao Nanxing, Gao Panlong, and others in the fourth year of the Apocalypse because of Wei Zhongxian's monopoly on power, and feared that it would be difficult to reach the book, he wanted to enter the court in the name of He Shou to impeach Wei Zhongxian. When Wei Guangwei, who was attached to the eunuch party, learned of this, he informed Wei Zhongxian that Sun Chengzong intended to kill him on the grounds that he was on the side of the Qing Emperor, and finally Wei Zhongxian begged Emperor Xizong to order him to return to Liaodong. Later, Xiong Tingbi was imprisoned, and Sun wanted to save Xiong. These things had nothing to do with Yang Lian, and at the end of the letter Yang Zichen and Sun Chengzong never exchanged letters, but the castration party counted it on Yang Lian's head, so Yang angrily repeatedly wrote that "there is no Mr. GongWuyou" and "The overhead pinch is so far". "Yang Xiong", also known as Yang Hao and Xiong Tingbi, served two successively as Liaodong Jingluo, and due to the disastrous defeats in the battles of Salhu and Quang Ninh, they had already deposed officials and imprisoned in the forty-seventh year of the Wanli Calendar (1619) and the second year of the Heavenly Revelation (1622), and were killed in the second year of Chongzhen (1629) and the fifth year of the Heavenly Revelation (1625). Wei Zhongxian remembered that he hated Yang Lian, and wanted to frame his guilt by accepting bribes from Xiong Tingbi after he was imprisoned, and there were various records about the number of bribes, some said 20,000 taels, some said 40,000 taels, and the letter made it clear that there were originally 80,000 of them. And the evidence of Yang Lian's bribery, Wei Zhongxian once tried to get it from Wang Wenyan's mouth. Wang Wenyan was an outlier in the Donglin Party, he was not a yushiyan official, but a prison official, clever, good at planning, using eunuchs, and attaching himself to Donglin. In January of the fifth year of the Apocalypse (1625), Wang Wenyan was arrested and imprisoned, and the person responsible for interrogating him was Xu Xianchun, one of the infamous Jinyi Wei commanders and one of the "Five Biao" of Dongchang. Xu Xianchun was known for his fierceness, "torturing Wang Wenyan" As for "five poisons are available", the so-called five poisons are five kinds of torture, including sticks and shackles, in addition to which "iron shoes" are also used. The so-called iron shoes, that is, red shoes, are about the punishment of putting red iron shoes on the feet of prisoners, and according to the Qing Dynasty's "Miscellaneous Records of the Xiaoting Pavilion", this kind of torture is the invention of Jinyi Wei Zhenfusi. Wang Wenyan died in early May of the same year, and until his death there was not a single word of confession, the "History of Ming" said that he was "suffering from five poisons and did not admit it", did not mention "iron shoes", and Fang knew that the East Factory was so fierce that Shi could not bear the book. Yang Lian's letter did not mention Wang Wenyan's death, so he wrote this letter between January and early May of the fifth year of the Apocalypse, judging from the punishment wang received, shortly before his death, or in April, when Yang Lian had been dismissed from his post by Wei Zhongxian, and soon after, Yang Lian would also be thrown into the Jinyi Guard Prison, and the various tortures he mentioned in this letter would be applied to him, and it would only be a few months before he reached the end of his life, and the history of the late Ming Dynasty was about to reveal the bloodiest scene. In response to all kinds of false accusations imposed on him, Yang Lian questioned "alone and not afraid of ghosts and gods", and then lightly ended the correspondence with "attaching a smell to a laugh". Between the lines, there is anger, there is disdain, there is ridicule, there is contempt, and there is no retreat and fear.
No matter how heavy the history can be, the book can carry what a beautiful wind and moon
No matter how heavy the history can be, the book can carry what a beautiful wind and moon. The literati of the Ming Dynasty filled all aspects of life with elegance to the greatest extent, and the same was true when writing letters, especially if the letters were written by calligraphers and painters, which could give people a sense of beauty from form to content at the same time.
The great Ming Dynasty painter Wen Zhengming liked to use green or green dyed paper to write letters, and the slightly bright tone of the paper lined his regular and elegant cursive writing more and more handsome. He had not seen a friend named "Mr. Qinshan" for a long time, and he sent his recently new poem with a guqin to express his nostalgia. Sweeping the floor and burning incense to Xi Yanqing, Xiao Ran's room will be welcomed." Sit and move the shadows between the flowers in the daytime, and sleep with the sound of spring birds and bamboo. The heart may be far away from the human situation, and the Tao is deeply aware of the lightness of the world. But he could not pity Lian Xizi, and could make the grass in front of the window grow on its own. The poem describes that he enjoys a life of seclusion and seclusion, and cannot have the Confucian ambition of loving all things like Zhou Lianxi. The poem, which was auctioned at Beijing Poly Auction House and was once a catalogue of Shiqu Baodi, is titled "Jing Yin" and is also included in Wen Zhengming's Futian Collection. Probably the literati of Wumen gave people this idyllic and indisputable feeling, and later many bibliographic books attributed this poem to Shen Zhou's name, and Yu Fengqing's "Inscription on Continuing Calligraphy and Painting" even noted that it was Shen Zhou's eighty-one-year-old work. The calligraphy and painting bibliographies of the Ming and Qing dynasties have many cases of hearing and copying, and errors are inevitable, and this correspondence inkblot also solves the problem of the attribution of a poem for us.
Li Yingzhen of the Ming Dynasty, who was famous for his calligraphy, often exchanged letters with his peers and friends and the chief of the examination, Chu Wei, when he was serving as Shangbao Siqing in Nanjing. Most of them are a few words, and what they say is nothing more than an invitation to give gifts and other idle things, "Shaojian has been invited to listen to Yingxuan sit less, arch", "At night please say goodbye to Tongbo, Jingla Taichang and Wu Jingfu accompany each other, don't come", "Dolphin hooves, porridge rice to see the intention, fortunately, "Qi Shi number combined to offer", some of which are obviously used in the same set of paper, ginger yellow, with lotus, plum blossoms, pine trees, landscapes and other colored arsenic patterns. In the Ming Dynasty, the process was mostly dyeing and flowering. The pattern of the flowers is very simple, the lines are sparse, the style is simple, the paper is made on the paper and the paper has a faint color difference, simple and light, there is no risk of domination, and there is a wonderful icing on the cake. Li Yingzhen's calligraphy Ouyang inquired and had Cai Xiang's brushwork, dot painting opening, body stretching, there is a very graceful posture, and the writing of the letter is usually much more casual and relaxed than other formal so-called "calligraphy works", so it is more comfortable and elegant, sometimes upright and stable, such as the right way; sometimes the horizontal fingers are oblique, such as talking and laughing, through a piece of paper, the author's speech and laughter seem to be in front of the eyes.
Cai Yu, one of the "Ten Talents of Wumen" in the Ming Dynasty, wrote a letter to two proud protégés, Wang Shou and Wang Pet, saying that the peonies and peonies in the garden at home were well opened, and asked them to write a poem on this topic, and tomorrow they would come to the house together to exchange reviews. Cai Yu's Taixin peony and Yulou Chun are both treasures in flowers. Taixin peony is lotus peony, the flower is complex color, the inner layer of the flower bud, the outer layer of petals, shaped like a lotus platform, dignified and beautiful. Yulou Chun is a famous product in the white peony, which was born in Luoyang during the Yuanfeng period of the Song Dynasty, and was dedicated to Wen Yanbo, the Duke of Yanlu, and was named Yulou Chun. Cai Yu's poetry and calligraphy are all praised, but his career is bumpy, and he was taught Hanlin Kongmu by Guozisheng, and he returned to his hometown to live in seclusion after only three years. His student Wang Kunzhong, his elder brother Wang Shoushiwen was also famous, and achieved the official position of deputy capital Yushi, while his more talented younger brother Wang Yu, Who also died early, never took the meritorious name, and died at the age of forty. Cai Yu's life was not good, the property left by his father and grandfather was already abandoned when it reached him, the situation of wang pet was even worse, and many of the letters he left behind were borrowed from people. However, since life is a splendid robe full of lice, why not happily talk about lice, and the most elegant and noble life is not to live a gentle and noble life in any situation? Therefore, none of this can dilute the joy brought to them by a few flowers.
Judging from the letters alone, the lives of Wumen calligraphers and painters in the Ming Dynasty were interesting everywhere. Wang Pet's family letter to his brother, in front of which he was still thinking about the Tian Fu lawsuit, and then he was looking forward to building several study rooms and a terrace surrounded by bamboo; Zhu Yunming did not want to be alone against the wind and rain during the Chongyang Festival, so he invited friends to drink and eat; Peng Nian wrote a letter to apologize because "yesterday he was intoxicated, so he was drunk, and he was old and ugly"; Shao Mi invited people to meet at night after the heavy rain, because "tonight the moon is set to be good, and he has looked forward to talking about new poems in this play"; Wen Peng and Qian Yu have similar interests, and in frequent correspondence exchanges, they sometimes invite him to try new tea. Sometimes he discussed with him the newly seen ancient paintings", "Recently, Gu Xuangu obtained Guo Xi's high head scroll, about six feet long, followed by Feng Haisu, Zhao Ziang, Yu Bosheng, Liu Daochuan, and Ke Jiusibao. I also got a volume of "West Garden Collection", which is extremely quaint, although it is not a dragon sleep, but it is also a Song ren pen. Kenshan also got the monk Juran "Jiangshan Evening Xing" small horizontal scroll, elegant and lovely, although untitled, and there are seals and trumpets, when it is the Song Neifu costume, it is also cute also", now it should be a surprising thing, at that time it could be discussed like this, then the day was so daily, but now it is deliberately pursued, looking back, it is true that "at that time, only the Tao was common".
(The author is an associate researcher at Shanghai Museum)