Appreciating calligraphy, people appreciate not only the beauty of Chinese character forms, the beauty of line writing, but also the emotion between the lines of the words, and the warmth of the words. The exhibition "On the Six Books: The Multiple Emotional Expressions of Chinese Characters" held at the Liu Haisu Art Museum interprets the emotional expression of literati calligraphy with the ink treasure of Chinese literati calligraphy over the past century. Among the exhibits, Chen Duxiu's ink treasure inscribed with Liu Haisu in prison is particularly eye-catching, reflecting Chen Duxiu's little-known interaction with Liu Haisu.
Chen Duxiu was the initiator, initiator and main standard-bearer of the New Culture Movement and one of the main founders of the Communist Party of China; Liu Haisu was the pioneer of painting and the founder of modern Chinese art. They admired each other, respected each other, and forged deep friendships during the turbulent years of history. Liu Haisu and Chen Duxiu first met in 1921. At the beginning of this year, Liu Haisu was invited by Mr. Cai Yuanpei, then president of Peking University, to go north to give a lecture. Soon, Cai Yuanpei was admitted to a German-sponsored hospital due to illness, and Liu Haisu went to visit after hearing the news, not wanting to meet Chen Duxiu, who also came to visit Cai Yuanpei in the ward. At that time, Chen Duxiu was becoming famous throughout the country as the leader of the May Fourth Movement and the editor-in-chief of the magazine "New Youth", while Liu Haisu was sensational in China for founding a special art school in Shanghai and editing the magazine "Fine Arts". They saw it as they were. After that, because chen Duxiu was engaged in revolution, he often went to Shanghai to arrange and carry out political activities, and whenever he had time, he always went to Liu Haisu to reminisce about the past, and because of the close exchanges, their friendship deepened.
One of the ink treasures on display this time is a couplet made by Chen Duxiu in 1932 to visit liu Haisu in prison, and the book has "Walk without shame and be calm, and be in a difficult and angry", the upper paragraph is "Mr. Haisu Yajiao", and the lower paragraph is "Duxiu". At that time, Liu Haisu returned to Shanghai after returning from his trip to Europe, and when he heard that Chen Duxiu had been arrested by the Kuomintang government and imprisoned in Nanjing First Prison, he was very worried in his heart, and despite the fatigue of his journey, he decided to go to Nanjing alone to visit Chen Duxiu, who was imprisoned. After many years of absence, they were reunited in prison, and they greeted each other and expressed their opinions. Chen Duxiu spoke highly of Liu Haisu's "model storm", and Liu Haisu expressed his admiration for Chen Duxiu's efforts for New China over the years. When parting, Liu Haisu took out the pen, ink and rice paper that had been prepared and asked Chen Duxiu to take a souvenir, and Chen Duxiu then shook it impromptu and left this calligraphy behind. Chen Duxiu's calligraphy is unbridled and outstanding, and the title of the early "Guide" magazine was written by him, and this pair of couplets is more infiltrated with the optimism of difficult circumstances, and was later exhibited for the first time on Liu Haisu's 100th birthday.
In fact, a painting by Liu Haisu in the "Huangshan Lonely Pine Map" also has Chen Duxiu's inscription in prison, which has become a vivid footnote to their friendship. In 1935, Liu Haisu returned from his sketching of "Three On The Yellow Mountains" and went to visit Chen Duxiu in prison again, bringing his newly created "Huangshan Lonely Pine Map" with his friends to enjoy. Liu Haisu wrote in the inscription of the painting: "Yi Hai visited Huangshan Mountain in November and encountered rain at Wenshu Monastery. It was so cold that the fire was still not warm, and the night was even colder, so that I could not sleep. There are more than ten pine plants in front of the courtyard, all of which are strange and ancient. Liu Haisu wrote one of them with a pen and paper that could not bear the burden of calligraphy and painting. After Chen Duxiu carefully admired Liu Haisu's painting, which seemed to be recounting thoughts and worries, he touched the scenery and wrote with a stroke of his pen: "Huangshan Lonely Mountain, not lonely and lonely, lonely and not lonely; lonely and not lonely, each has its own situation, each has its own map." In order to avoid suspicion, he added a note under the poem: "This non-reconciling compromise is also between loneliness and not loneliness." Titled Mr. Haisu. Solo show. Liu Haisu got this poem, and he cherished "Huangshan Lonely Pine Map" even more. In addition, Shen Enfu and Cai Yuanpei also left ink treasures on this work. Therefore, this "Huangshan Lone pine map" has become a unique treasure in the history of art.
Author: Fan Xin
Editor: Lu Shuwen