Yuan Zhao Mengfu Return and Sequence (Partial) 26× 239cm Collection of Shanghai Museum
The formation of Wu culture and Zhao Mengfu's calligraphy
Xiang Mu once commented that Zhao Mengfu's calligraphy is gentle and elegant, and usually this kind of "Yanmei" is mistaken by most people as the "Erwang" style of calligraphy, and even "Zhao Body" has become a symbol or synonym for calligraphy. There has never been a style of calligraphy that is so elegant and popular, and calligraphers have become the mainstream when they are alive, and have led future generations for hundreds of years. Even today, we can still feel the strong influence brought by Zhao Mengfu.
Zhao Mengfu's calligraphy is widely accepted by the public, because of its affinity, just like the beautiful and poetic feeling brought by the Jiangnan landscape, which is both court and public, and his elegant calligraphy art not only makes the imperial court appreciate and praise the scholars, but also wins widespread public admiration and support.
From the Tang and Song dynasties, Jiangnan became a paradise in people's minds. After the Jingkang Revolution, the scholars and literati in the north moved south on a large scale, including bureaucrats, aristocrats, and ordinary commoners, and Wudi gradually began to become the center of economy and culture. At the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty, most of the intellectuals in the Jiangnan region missed the previous dynasty and refused to cooperate with the new dynasty, such as a group of talented literati such as Zheng Sixiao, preferring to put a small pattern and devote themselves to literary and artistic creation, only to "regardless of the rise and fall of the Six Dynasties, a bottle and open to the picture", often gathered together, drinking poetry and singing, composing poetry and writing poetry and books. The hierarchical system made the status of intellectuals unprecedentedly degraded, and the society of the Yuan Dynasty was permeated with a depressed and dull mood among the literati. Originally taking the title of the gold list of the imperial examination as the goal of pursuing life, at this time the body and mind suffered a heavy blow, even if the scholar was able to become an official, he was often in a contradictory mentality, no longer had the pride and passion of the Tang people, or the Song people's wanton state of mind.
Zhao Mengfu's softness, on the one hand, is Zhao Mengfu's unique creation, on the other hand, it is a compromise made to the Yuan Dynasty. The rulers of the Yuan Dynasty did not have such a profound understanding of the culture of the Han people, and Zhao Mengfu's concept of "appreciating the common customs and customs" was very much in line with the needs of the rule, and naturally became the best candidate for the Yuan Court's "beauty of algae decoration and Taiping" and became an officially recognized calligrapher. This was often regarded as "soft" in the bones in later generations, and the Qing dynasty Feng Ban said: "Zhao Shu is seiko, directly approaching the right army, but the qi and bones are inferior to the Song people, and they can't stand it." In fact, this is not entirely the case, more precisely, the Book of Zhao is a "refined" innovation of the court style that evolved from the Southern Song Dynasty. Zhao Shu "returned" to the Erwang style, but could not copy the free and free of the Wang Shu, but replaced the "Xiao Shan Jian Yuan" of Wei Jinfeng's bones with "Yanmei Elegance", making a new interpretation of the Wang Shu.
Wu culture is accumulated in every person in its hidden form, they are stimulated by the Wudi Jiangnan landscape, directly or indirectly infiltrated by the folk culture and spirit, thus creating a new culture. Zhao Mengfu's spirit is pinned on it, and naturally has the realm of Jiangnan elegance and tranquility. The exquisite elegance and calmness of Wu culture have reached the realm of "harmony" between simplicity and elegance, gentleness and strength. Zhao Mengfu is good at organically combining his personality and regional cultural characteristics, skillfully integrating the palace culture with the local Wu culture, and creating a book style that suits his personality and has universal aesthetic significance.
Zhao Mengfu's cursive writing is mainly taken from the Fa Wang Xizhi, while Xiao Kai takes the Fa Wang to give more, he uses the concept of "ancient meaning", traces the "ancient quality", and then develops in the direction of "Jinyan", in fact, it also shows the refinement and neutralization of Wu culture. In the end, he turned the cold, hall-level Wang Xizhi into a vivid, gentle and elegant "socialized and popular" Wang Xizhi, creating a typical style with mainstream ideological requirements and in line with the characteristics of the world's appreciation, and the subsequent Wu school of the Ming Dynasty was further developed on this basis in a sense.
The significance of the era of Zhao body calligraphy lies in the ingenious transformation of Wang Xizhi, who is difficult for the world to understand, while simplifying the rich use of pens and ups and downs, while lowering the threshold for the world to know and learn calligraphy. Zhao Mengfu's inheritance of Erwang's calligraphy well handles the relationship between historical classics and the inheritance of the times, mainstream culture and his own personality, and expresses it in a language that can be understood by the royal family, scholars and the public.
Zhao Mengfu's calligraphy was flattering to Yan, and after the middle of the Yuan Dynasty, it swept the government and the opposition, and it can be said that the entire Yuan Dynasty was shrouded in Zhao Mengfu's concept and style. Under his guidance, the Ming Dynasty gave rise to the Wumen School. They inherit the excellent tradition, pay attention to the exquisite sense of calligraphy and the beauty of form, advocate fresh elegance, study the shape of the brushwork, and at the same time teach the ancient style of the Jin Dynasty and the Tang Dynasty without being bound by it, pay attention to expressing personal feelings, and have a pivotal position in ming dynasty calligraphy. Wang Shizhen of the Ming Dynasty once said in the "Yiyuan Ziyan": "The calligraphy of the world belongs to Wu Wu", and later generations of calligraphy historians have taken Wumen calligraphy as the peak of the Ming Dynasty. In fact, Wumen calligraphy is in the same vein as Zhao Mengfu's calligraphy in terms of artistic style.
Yuan Yang Weizhen Zhenjing An Fundraising Scroll (Partial) Shanghai Museum Collection
The breakthrough of Yang Weizhen under the Yue culture
Yang Weizhen was deeply influenced by Zhao Mengfu in his early years, but he was able to get rid of the shackles of Zhao Shu and make new ideas, which was the achievement of the Yue culture he was rooted in. The genes of Yue culture are deeply buried in his body, and compared with Zhao Mengfu's elegance, Yang Weizhen shows extreme rebellion and shows unprecedented "fierceness". His calligraphy was not widely understood at that time as in the Zhao Mengfu group, and Sun of the Qing Dynasty also said that "I am afraid that the non-calligraphers should borrow poetry to pass on", and Gu Fu of the same era also said: "But poetry is valued by future generations, and his books are also heavy ears." ”
If we want to understand Yang Weizhen's strong artistic personality, we need to think through the surface of the calligraphy form and go deep into the differences in the regional culture of Wuyue behind it to think and place it in the grand time and space to understand.
Yue culture is both somber and exalted, both majestic and delicate, both graceful and bold, originating from the myth and legend of "Dayu Zhishui". Since ancient times, YueDi has advocated Dayu's spirit of "taking self-suffering as the extreme" and "taking the form of laboring the world", and the successor to this spiritual archetype is yue wang Gou jian, who endures humiliation and burdens, eats coarse grain, sleeps in the stable, serves hard labor, does not get angry for three years, and bravely undertakes the heavy task of revenge and restoration; Wang Chong of the Eastern Han Dynasty was the first thinker to express the spirit of Yue culture, and in the face of the Wei wei doctrine popular by the feudal autocratic dynasty, he boldly put forward the realistic critical spirit of "jealousy and falsehood", and even dared to "ask Holes" and "stab Meng"; as a descendant of the Yue people, Ji Kang, as a descendant of the Yue people, In his youth, he appeared as an indecent person...
Whenever the nation-state is in danger, a number of images of indomitable and sacrificing their lives for righteousness will always emerge in Vietnam, such as Lu You resisting the Jin Dynasty and reviving the Song Dynasty, fang Xiaoru in the Ming Dynasty who did not obey Zhu Di's usurpation of the throne, and Lu Xun used his writing as a weapon to pursue his own liberation and strive for democracy and freedom. From Lu You in the Song Dynasty to Lu Xun in the late Qing Dynasty, from Cai Yuanpei to Zhu Kezhen, what has always been consistent is the spirit of patriotic dedication and indignation, which is the strong support given by the Yue culture behind it.
Yue people have always been known for their distinctive personalities such as shangwu and Geng zhi, this kind of single-handed characteristics have always existed among the people of Yuedi, the more culture emphasizes personality, seemingly individual, in fact, the cultural factors behind them are the same, when we look back at Yang Weizhen's calligraphy will not appear so abrupt, this strong regional culture has deeply marked Yang Weizhen's life with the brand of Yuedi.
Yang Weizhen traveled widely, got acquainted with Zhao Mengfu in his early years, under the banner of the Yuan Dynasty retro, learned ancient law, made great achievements in European characters, and got inspiration from Zhang Yu and finally became his own way, we can see Zhao Mengfu's shadow from Xianyu Shu and Zhang Yu, but only in Yang Weizhen can not see a single bit in Yang Weizhen, from Yang Weizhen's life course can see the bravery and toughness of the people,He paid attention to the Confucian way of governing the country all his life, actively entered the army several times, was a clean official, full of ambition but arrogant and conceited. In the face of repeated dismissals, experienced the change of dynasties and the scourge of war, the fierce collision between the heart and the real society, alluding to the experience and tribulations of life, so Yang Weizhen's works, the overall sense is extremely strong, like a large freehand painting, to win with momentum, without considering the gains and losses bit by bit, such a pattern determines the height of his calligraphy, forced by his position in the literary world, so that people at the time neither understand his art nor dare to speculate, but most people will think that this is wild fox Zen, and disdainful. His works were so lonely and cold at that time, but they also stubbornly showed resilience and rigidity, made the precursor of the times, dared to break all the shackles, and today we can still see the arrogance that transcends time and space.
Every time a new change in calligraphy is conceived, it is an era of great change in ideological conflict and cultural integration. Cai Yong said that calligraphy is the general trend of the world "caused by nature", and Huang Tingjian said: "To study books, we must have morality in our hearts, and we must widely study with the wisdom of sages, and books are precious." "Chinese calligraphy art is an experience of life, an art that reflects life and pursues spiritual meaning, expresses the subjective spirit of the author, carries the feelings of home and country, and pins on personal open-minded feelings." Only by injecting a strong sense of the Chinese national community into our calligraphy creation can we achieve the artistic realm of "theosophical". (This article was originally published in the Fine Arts Newspaper, the author Zhou Yang, the author of the article is the research results of the special topic of "Yuan Dynasty Calligraphy" of the School of Chinese Painting and Calligraphy Art of the China Academy of Art, with abridgements)
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