As the most important means of transportation in ancient times, the importance of horses in ancient social life is self-evident, whether it is the legend of King Yanzhao buying horse bones for thousands of dollars, or the story of Bole Soma, it is a household name. At the same time, since ancient times, Chinese culture has had a tradition of using horses as a metaphor for talents. Whether it is Han Yu's "Horse Saying" or Gong Zizhen's "Self-Hai Miscellaneous Poems", "Ten Thousand Horses Are Sad", they all use horses to refer to talents. Therefore, kurama-themed works have always attracted much attention in the history of ancient art, Cao Ba, Han Gan in the Tang Dynasty and Li Gonglin in the Song Dynasty all belong to the master of horse painting, and the first person to paint horses in the Yuan Dynasty is none other than Zhao Mengfu.
Turning the horse-drawing skills of the master
There is a famous legend about Zhao Mengfu painting horses, which is that his wife Guan Sheng once watched Zhao Mengfu rolling on the floor of the room from the window, and it turned out that he was imitating the movements of horses. It is said that shi Nai'an, the author of "Water Margin", in order to write the paragraph "Wusong Fighting Tiger", was also a person jumping around in the house, imitating the action of the tiger swooping down. It is not impossible for the writer to imagine the picture in this way, but it is not necessarily credible for the painter to represent the animal image in this way. If Zhao Mengfu wants to reproduce the wonderful moments of the horse rolling, the nature he should pay most attention to is the habits of horses in reality, of course, it is inseparable from the careful study of ancient works. According to my opinion, the shape of this "rolling dust horse" is likely to refer to the rolling horse in the opening part of Gu Kaizhi's "Roselle", and the shape of the two horses is similar.
Gu Kaizhi's "Roselle Endowment" and Zhao Mengfu's "Rolling Dust Horse"
For his kurama art, Zhao Mengfu is quite confident, he once said: "Yu has been good at painting horses since childhood, and he claims to be quite full of materiality." Friend Guo Youzhi gave Yu Shiyun a taste: "The world but xie bi long sleep, that confidant out of Cao Hanshang." 'Cao Hangu is too promised, so that the dragon sleeps unharmed, when it is with it and exorcises the ears. ”
Three previous horse masters are mentioned here. Longmian refers to Li Gonglin of the Song Dynasty, longmian, whose masterpiece is "Five Horse Diagrams", which embodies the ultimate beauty of the art of Chinese line drawing.
Cao Han refers to the Tang Dynasty horse painting masters Cao Ba and Han Gan. Cao Ba was a painter during the Tang Xuanzong period, and his representative works are said to have "Nine Horse Diagrams" and "Qima Tu", which were obviously seen in the era when Zhao Mengfu lived, but unfortunately his authentic handwriting has been lost today, and we can also glimpse Cao Ba's superb horse painting art through Du Fu's "Danqing Introduction": "Danqing does not know that the old man is coming, and the wealth is like a floating cloud." ...... The edict is that the general whisks silk, and the craftsman is in the middle of the misery. The Nine True Dragons of Sishu came out and washed the ancient mortal horses. ”
Zhao Mengfu's "Man Riding Map"
In Zhao Mengfu's masterpiece "Man Riding Map", he once had such an inscription: "Yu loved to draw horses since he was a child, and when he came to see the three volumes of Han Gan's true works, he first got his intentions." This sentence illustrates two problems, one is that Zhao Mengfu likes to draw horses since childhood, which laid a solid foundation for him to become a master of horse painting in the Yuan Dynasty. Second, because of serendipity, Zhao Mengfu was able to see Han Gan's three volumes of authentic works, which made his horse painting art "satisfactory". Han Gan here is a Master of Horse Painting in the Tang Dynasty and a disciple of Cao Ba, and his heirloom works include "Mu Ma Tu" and "Illuminating the Night White". Today we see that the white-fronted black horse in Zhao Mengfu's "Bathing Horse Diagram" is quite similar to Han Gan's "Wrangling Horse Diagram", which seems to indicate that his horse paintings have a close relationship with Han Gan. This kind of black horse is the ancient famous black horse, and the Western Chu king Xiang Yu rides this kind of horse, which is the horse ridden by Zhang Fei in the Three Kingdoms period, Wei Chigong, a famous general in the late Sui and early Tang dynasties, and Hu Yanzhuo in the "Water Margin". Not only that, Xu Beihong also painted this breed of horse in his "Jiufanggao", from which it is not difficult to see the same artistic source.
Han Gan's "Mu Ma Tu" Zhao Mengfu's "Bath Horse Map" Xu Beihong's "Jiufang Gao"
As a highly creative painting master, Zhao Mengfu's shape must benefit from meticulous observation and profound sketching skills, and in his "Notes on Zhao Family Law", he once had a subtle summary of horse painting skills: "The front foot of the horse is not eyebrow, the back foot is opposite to the shoulder; the ink is far away, the color discerns the spirit; the horse looks at the gods, and the action looks at the asana." At the same time, as an artist who strongly advocates retro, his work is undoubtedly influenced by the ancient masters. Therefore, there should be no doubt that he drew endless creative inspiration from the works of ancient horse painters.
In "Man Riding Map", he once had such an inscription: "Painting is difficult, and it is especially difficult to read painting." I am good at drawing horses, and I can cover the sky. So I did my best. If this figure is present, it is worthy of the Tang Dynasty. The world has the knowledge, Xu Qu has eyes. "The picture shows a Tang Dynasty official dressed in a whip riding a horse, with an extraordinary appearance, and is likely to be a self-written portrait of Zhao Mengfu. The passage itself reflects his high degree of confidence in his Kurama art. The Tang Dynasty dress of the characters in the picture reflects his retro style and love for Han culture.
Breathtaking art of conceiving
Although the horse shape with both form and spirit is the premise of the success of horse painting, the exquisite composition is an important guarantee for the achievement of masterpieces. If it is said that in terms of the modeling ability of horses, Zhao Mengfu is inseparable from the previous masters, but in the overall conception of gunma works, Zhao Mengfu has undoubtedly reached a height that has never been seen before. This is particularly prominent in his masterpiece "Autumn Suburb Drinking Horse Map".
Zhao Mengfu's "Autumn Suburb Drinking Horse Diagram", silk, color, 23.6 cm in length and 59 cm in width, is now in the Palace Museum in Beijing. The upper right of this painting is written from the book "Autumn Suburb Drinking Horse Figure" with five characters, and the upper left is signed "Huangqing First Year November, Zi Ang". According to this, it can be seen that this picture was made by Zhao Mengfu when he was 59 years old.
"Autumn Suburb Drinking Horse Map" is undoubtedly the most prestigious masterpiece of Zhao Mengfu's kurama works, which itself embodies Zhao Mengfu's precise modeling ability and shows his ingenious conceptual skills.
There are 1 person and 10 horses in the picture, and how to organically integrate them into the picture poses a huge challenge to the painter's ability to organize the picture. With his chic ideas, Zhao Mengfu provides us with an example of the principle of diversity and unity. From the perspective of the whole picture, the author obviously borrowed from the way of conceiving the small scenery of the landscape. He raises the horizon through a bird's-eye view, allowing the viewer to see the scene in front of them from the big picture. At the same time, when expressing the close-up scene, he adopted a heads-up angle, and even let the horses in the painting communicate with the viewer.
He subtly divides the picture vertically through the upward lines of the trunks of the miscellaneous trees in different scenes, and at the same time creates a right-to-left line and a lateral movement trend through the overall movement of the lakeshore and the horse, and divides the picture twice. In this way, the picture forms a kind of interweaving of longitude and latitude, which not only has the width of the field of vision but also ensures the depth of the picture, so that the viewer has an immersive feeling.
The four pairs of horses in the Autumn Suburb Drinking Horse Map
The red Wrangler in the picture is brightly colored, becoming the visual focus and in a position to control the overall situation of the picture. Looking at the ten horses, in addition to the maroon horse ridden by the wrangler and the flower horse behind the maple tree, the remaining eight horses are combined in pairs, each group reflects the perfect echo relationship. Let's first look at the three groups in the foreground, from right to left, the first group of two horses seems to be whispering, the second group drinks side by side by the lake, the shape is the same, but the difference is reflected through different shades of color, and the third group of horses in the lake, although standing together, one looks down and one looks back, and is full of changes in unity. Looking at the two horses chasing in the distance, it also shows the beauty of change.
Considering that the picture presents a layout of left virtual and right reality, Zhao Mengfu used a darker color when drawing the galloping horse in the upper left corner, which not only achieved the balance of the picture, but also formed a certain echo with the dark horse on the right side of the picture, so that the picture presented a seamless artistic effect.
Intriguing graphic allegory
If "Autumn Suburb Drinking Horse Diagram" shows a breathtaking art of conception, then "Bathing Horse Diagram" shows Zhao Mengfu's wonderful modeling ability and intriguing picture meaning.
Zhao Mengfu "Bath Horse Diagram"
In "Bath Horse Diagram", the author focuses on the core theme of "Bath Horse", taking the river and the two banks as the stage, and creates 9 Xiguan and 14 horses for us, these horses have different postures and beautiful images, reflecting Zhao Mengfu's superb modeling ability. Some horses have finished bathing and rested under the tree with their masters; some horses have just arrived and are about to enter the river with their masters; some horses have just finished washing and are about to go ashore; some horses take their masters deeper into the river; some horses are bowing their heads and drinking water; some are leisurely waiting for their masters to scoop water on themselves... It is worth noting that the black horse standing in the center of the picture, that is, the black horse we have mentioned above, is extraordinarily cared for by the two Xi officials, which seems to imply its extraordinarily honorable status.
Centered on the river, the author subtly divides the people and horses on the picture, with the horses in the river and on the left bank being official breeders, while the five horses on the right bank are all free bodies. We all know that in ancient times, there was a tradition of comparing talents with horses, and if we regard the official horses as talents serving the imperial court, then the five free horses on the right bank can be regarded as talents in the opposition. These five horses, along with the maroon horses that had just been led into the water by Xi Guan, who had ridden the flower horse, could be divided into four categories:
One is the relict and independent white horse on the far right of the picture. As we all know, white symbolizes noble character, and this white horse looks back at the black horse standing in the river channel and is carefully cared for by two Xi officials, and judging from the shape it is about to walk out of the picture, it seems to maintain its white and loyal nature, refusing to cooperate with the ruler.
The second type is the flower horse in the middle, whose two front hooves have stepped into the water, which seems to be testing the depth of the river and seems to show envy for the horses in the river.
The third category is the maroon horse in front of the temptation's left, which has just obediently put on its rut and followed into the river with a bamboo ruyi pinned to his waist, which we can regard as an intellectual who has just submitted to the "Great Yuan".
The fourth category was three horses on the riverbank in the distance, which also seemed to be watching from afar.
There was a refusal to clean himself, a temptation to be shallow and shallow, a submissive obedience, and a wait-and-see, and at this point, Zhao Mengfu vividly described the mentality of the opposition intellectuals at that time.
It should be noted that the five horses on the right bank, except for the white horses, all look a little weak. Relatively speaking, the horses that were taken care of were fat and strong. This may imply that the supreme ruler of the Yuan Dynasty gave preferential treatment to Han intellectuals. Zhao Mengfu seems to be showing his praise for the intellectual policy of the Yuan government in this way, and on the other hand, he is also issuing an invitation to Han intellectuals to serve the imperial court. Of course, through the shape of the unruly white horse, we can also understand it as respect for intellectuals who insist on integrity.
If you are careful enough, it is easy to see that these two trees on the right bank are the plane tree and the national locust common in traditional Chinese painting, and they have a unique symbolic meaning in Chinese culture.
Let's start with sycamore. Since ancient times, there have been sycamores to attract phoenixes, "phoenixes are not sycamores do not inhabit", people use this metaphor to choose the lord and do things. These horses on the right bank are lying right under the leafy sycamore, perhaps not accidentally, whether it is an olive branch that Zhao Mengfu threw at the wild intellectuals: "Good birds choose trees to roost, and wise subjects choose the Lord, and it is time to go out of the mountain." ”
Let's talk about the national locust. In ancient times, the national locust was a symbol of the position of the three dukes zaifu, and in ancient Chinese, the locust officials were connected. For example, Huai Ding, figurative of the three dukes, also refers to the ruling ministers; Huai Qing, refers to the three dukes and nine secretaries. It goes without saying that Zhao Mengfu is hinting at this that if you serve the imperial court, it will not be difficult for you to serve the three princes and nine secretaries.
In short, in the special period of the Yuan Dynasty when the Mongol nobility ruled the Central Plains, Zhao Mengfu's horses not only had wonderful and vivid shapes, but also had rich symbolic meanings, which are worthy of our careful consideration.
Text/Xiqiao Buyue Writer Scholar Masterpiece "Very Lu Xun"
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