Emperor Tang Ming had two beloved "Hu Breed" horses, named Jade Flower Horse and Illuminated Night White. The great painter Cao Ba of the Tang Dynasty painted these two horses, and now we can only read from Du Fu's two poems,"Wei Satire Records of General Cao's Painting of Horses" and "DanqingYin Gifting General Cao Ba", and the real handwriting can no longer be seen.
Around 1935, the "White Picture of the Night" painted by Cao Ba's disciple Han Gan appeared in the Beijing cultural relics market. This national treasure-level Famous Painting of the Tang Dynasty was collected in the hands of Pu Xinshe and transferred to the British collector David through the hands of antique calligraphers Ye Shuzhong and Xiao Huchen.
David received Tang Hangan's "White Picture of the Night", which was exhibited in a courtyard behind Laijin Yuxuan in Zhongshan Park, Beijing, and the ticket was a silver dollar, which attracted many people from the circles of calligraphy and painting and cultural relics. The only 89-year-old Fan Qizhou, who witnessed this painting, is still alive today.
This famous Painting of the Tang Dynasty in China has gone through several twists and turns, transferred from the British to the Japanese, and finally collected in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the United States. Xu Bangda, a famous calligraphy and painting expert in China, went to the United States to appreciate this painting and determined it to be the authentic handiwork of Han Gan.
Since 1935, there have been many legends about Han Gan's "White Picture of the Night" in Beijing's cultural relics circles, and they are still circulating today;
Sweat blood horses are produced in the Western Regions of Dawan. Located in the Fergana Basin of the former Central Asia of the Soviet Union, Dawanguo has more than seventy small towns, and its residents are engaged in agriculture and animal husbandry, where grapes, alfalfa are abundant, especially famous for sweat and blood horses. In 139 BC, after Zhang Qian passed through the Western Regions, the exchanges between the State of Dawan and the Western Han Dynasty in China gradually pre-purple. In the third year of the first three years of emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty (102 BC), Dawan descended to the Han Dynasty, and further strengthened economic and cultural exchanges with the Chinese Yuan. During the Western Jin Dynasty, Dawan still sent envoys to offer sweat and blood horses to the Sima royal family. During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, dawan was called Broken Lona.
Emperor Xuanzong of Tang changed the name of the state of Dawan to Ningyuan in the third year of Tianbao (744), and made emperor Xuanzong's chambermaid Princess Heyi, and married the king of Ningyuan. King Ningyuan offered sweat and blood horses to Emperor Xuanzong, Li Longji put the horses in the imperial horse pen to breed, and also named the two beloved sweat and blood horses Jade Flower and Zhao Ye Bai, summoned the painter Cao Ba to paint these two horses, and du Fu's two poems added color to the inscription, which is still widely circulated today, attracting people's attention and love.
In Du Fu's poems, the night white and the jade flower are white
Du Fu's "Wei Irony Record Of General Guan Cao's Painting of Horses" says: "Since the beginning of the country, kurama has been painted, and the gods have mysteriously counted the king of Jiangdu. The general has been named for thirty years, and the human world has seen the real huang. Emperor Zeng Maoxian shone in the night, and the Dragon Pond flew thunderbolts on the tenth day. Inner House Yin Red Onyx Plate, Jie Yu Passed on the Edict of Talent. The pan-given general bowed to the dancer and flew in love with a light and delicate qi. Gui Qi Quan Men got the handwriting, and the barrier was radiant. In the past, Taizong's fist was weak, and recently the Guo family lion flower. Today's new map has two horses, and the compound makes the acquaintance sigh for a long time. This is all a battle horse, ten thousand enemies, and the desert is deserted by the wind and sand. The other seven horses are also extraordinary, like smoke and snow in the cold air..." (The poem reads, "In the past, Emperor Taizong's fist was weak," using only the name of a horse.) Emperor Taizong of Tang had six horses, and after his death, he erected a stone sculpture of six horses on zhaoling, called "zhaoling six horses": Shivachi, Qingmu, Teller, White-hoofed Wu, Salu Purple, and Weak Fist Hair. Among them, the two reliefs of weak fist hair and salu purple were stolen in 1914, and were sold to the United States by Zhao Hefang of Liulichang Yanguzhai and overseas antique dealer Lu Qinzhai and are now in the Museum of the University of Pennsylvania) Du Fu also wrote in the poem "DanqingYin And Gift cao general hegemony": "... The first emperor Tianma Jade Flower, the painting work is different like a mountain. It is the day that brings the red mound to the ground, and the wind grows. The edict is that the general whisks silk, and the craftsman is in dismal operation. The Nine True Dragons of Sishu came out and washed the ancient mortal horses. The jade flowers were on the imperial bed, and the bed was facing each other in front of the court. The Supreme One smiles and urges gold, and the servants are all sad. The disciple Han Gan entered the room early and was also able to draw horses and poor faces. But painting flesh does not paint bones, and endures to make the qi wither. The general paints a god, and occasionally Jasper also takes a picture.
The poet praised Han Gan for painting horses "with no end of god" Du Fu in "Danqing Yin Gift Cao General Hegemony" that Han Gan painted horses too fat,
In fact, Han Gan painted according to the true form of the horse. At that time, the horses raised in the stables were sweat and blood horse breeds, also known as "Hu breeds", which were specially fed and used by anyone except the emperor or with his permission, and the horses raised were thick and fat. Therefore, the Song Dynasty Zhang Qi has the sentence "Han Sheng Danqing writes the stables of heaven, and there is no thinness in the Ten Thousand Dragons" in the "Han Gan Ma Tu Ma Hou Foot", and Du Fu said in "Painting Ma Zan" that Han Gan's painting of horses "has a god at all".
Han Gan, a painter of the Tang Dynasty, was an official of the Xuanzong Dynasty, Taifu Temple, who initially took Cao Ba as his teacher and later became a school of his own. When Han Gan was young, his family was poor, and he worked as a domestic worker in a hotel and delivered liquor to a liquor store. With the sponsorship of the poet and painter Wang Wei, he studied painting for more than ten years, and was good at painting bodhisattvas, ghosts, figures, flowers and bamboo, and painting horses. During the Tianbao period of the Tang Dynasty, Emperor Xuanzong summoned him to the palace and ordered him to learn from Chen Hong, but he did not obey: "The subject has his own teacher, and the horse of His Majesty's inner stable is also a subject master." "He attaches great importance to sketching and has his own style. Historically, China's connoisseurs and collectors have said that the Tang Dynasty painting horses were outstanding by Cao Ba and Han Gan.
During the Republic of China, Liulichang identified three masters of ancient calligraphy and painting: Wan Xiaozhu, Xiao Huchen and Zhang Zhiping, who were recognized by the cultural relics appraisal community and collectors. Xiao Huchen compared Cao Ba and Han Gan, saying, "Cao and Han's vests are in the world!" He also said, "Cao Ba's paintings of jade flowers and illuminated night whites only see Du Fu's poems, not their true handwriting, while Han Gan's "Illuminated Night White Map" I opened my eyes on PuXin's mansion, and the image of the horse was strong and majestic, and several sketches were sketched, as if the real horse jumped on silk, and could walk alone at that time." ”
Illuminate the night white map
How did David buy "The White Picture of the Night"?
The British collector David Depingsu has studied Chinese culture and has a rich collection of Chinese cultural relics. When he learned that Han Gan's "White Picture of the Night" in the Tang Dynasty was in the hands of the famous Chinese painter and royal aristocrat Pu Xinshe, he wanted to get it. David knew the Chinese antique dealer Ye Shuzhong and entrusted Ye to find it on his behalf. Ye Shuzhong is a "golden stone", is not good at calligraphy and painting, and does not have much contact with people in the field of calligraphy and painting. Around 1935, Ye Shuzhong asked Xiao Huchen, the manager of the Liuli Factory Bo Yunzhai to ask Pu Xinshe for a transfer.
Xiao Huchen is famous in the world of calligraphy and painting and appraisal, and is friends with the famous contemporary painters Jin Gongbei, Zhang Daqian, Pu Xinhu and so on. It also happened that at this time, Pu Xinshe's family was waiting for money to be used, so HeAi transferred Han Gan's "White Picture of the Night" to David at a cost of 10,000 silver dollars.
David was very happy to receive this rare treasure, and held a banquet to congratulate him, antique dealers Ye Shuzhong and Xiao Huchen attended the guests, and the guests and hosts were very happy. David consulted with people in the Beijing calligraphy and painting circles and borrowed a courtyard behind the Yuxuan In the park, where the board of directors of Zhongshan Park is located, to exhibit Tang Hangan's "White Picture of the Night" for calligraphy and painting lovers and cultural relics circles in Beijing to see. The ticket is a silver dollar, which is similar to the ticket price of Mei Lanfang's play, but there are many people who come to enjoy it. After the exhibition, David brought the painting back to England.
Sweat blood BMW