Fang Shishu (1692-1751), the character Xunyuan, nickname Huanshan, small character lion, late trumpet small lion Daoist. Jiangdu Shaobo, later lived in Yangzhou, a famous painter in the Qing Dynasty.
When Fang Shishu was a child, he studied at the Baihua Building at home, and in addition to liking to draw, his compositions were also very strange. His uncle was amazed when he read the article: "Lions are difficult to fight. However, he repeatedly lost in the imperial examination, and had to play The Game of Han Mojian.
Fang Shishu learned to paint through a process of wandering. At the beginning, it was self-taught without a teacher, in his own words: "When I was ten years old, I first got a pen in ignorance, and the walls of the pillar were painted black." Fifteen people know the landscape, and know that there is no boat on the other side. Loneliness and deep sorrow see the Buddha's difficulties, and there is less specialization in following the rules. "Because his biological father and eldest brother have passed away one after another, the family has fallen in the middle of the road, and he cannot be self-sufficient, so that when he was married at the age of 18, he was still a hundred ways to piece together a gift." However, although his family was poor and his career was hopeless, he was able to struggle out of the predicament and insist on learning to paint.
Fang Shishu paintings
In order to live, Fang Shishu had to go into business, mainly based on salt, but in the end it was poor management, "all that was left behind". In this case, he had to go to Yangzhou to visit the salt merchant Wang Lingwen's house in order to get funding. Wang Lingwen was very generous and paid a huge amount of money to invite Huang Zungu to sit in the seat. Since Fang Shishu received personal instructions and instructions from this "Lou Dong Sect" master, the brush strokes are loose, the qi rhyme is relaxed, the ink is the bone, the color is light, and there is a calm and dignified effect, which can really be described as "easy but not wild, simple but not clumsy", and has since entered the right track. Fang Shishu did not blindly follow the rules, but went in and out between the famous families of the Song and Yuan Dynasties, Huang Gongwang and Wang Meng of the Yuanzong Dynasty, Shen Zhou of the Ming Dynasty, and the close masters Wang Yi and Wang Yuanqi, hunting Jinghua, so that the paintings were sensitive and clean, and the momentum was ups and downs, establishing a mellow and clean style, so it had the reputation of "out of the orchid", which was called the first landscape after Wang Yuanqi.
In addition to paintings, Fang Shishu also works poems, especially five words. His poems are discarded and single-handedly praised as "like a spring breeze passing through the water, without a trace". He himself has a private seal that he "accidentally picked up", indicating that his poems often come to an epiphany. He was on a par with Li He, Hu Qiheng, Tang Jianzhong, and Yao Shiyu of Yangzhou at that time, and was called the "Top Five Gentlemen" at the time, and was famous in yangzhou poetry circles for a while. Yangzhou's most prestigious Ma's "Xiaolinglong Mountain Pavilion", Cheng's "Xiaoyuan", Zhang's "Rangpu", and Yu's "Wanshi Garden" held literary meetings, all of which had fang Shishu's figure. The famous Yangzhou scholar Lu Jianzeng's "Red Bridge Repair" of a thousand people, Ma Yuelu's "Nine Days of Xing'an Literary Banquet", Zhang Shike and Lu Linghui's "HanJiang Yaji", He Junzhao's "East Garden Inscription" and so on all invited Fang Shishu as guests. However, "those who know his talents are sorry for his name and are covered by Danqing." (Headline number: Jiangdu Shiyan Original works Reprinted please indicate the source)
Fang Shishu's calligraphy is also very famous, Jin Nong said in the "Winter Heart Seal Knowledge" that he was "named after Wucheng in calligraphy, with a strict structure of the line, pure learning Si Weng (author's note: Dong Qichang)", and his heirloom works include "Bamboo Branch Words" and so on.
Fang Shishu is not an official who has once entered the army, nor is he a Yishi who has traveled to the mountains and wilderness, but a businessman who has once been a salt merchant, because of his profound cultivation in poetry, books, literature, etc., making his paintings more "elegant and elegant, if there are scrolls overflowing in the ink, the pen has reached the place where the ancients do not care", which is the orthodox literati painting method. In his paintings, there are both depictions of the garden of Yangzhou and those that reflect Gao Shi's interests. In his later years, he was particularly accomplished and wonderful, and became a painter of his own independent school independent of the "Eight Monsters". His paintings "Jiangshan JiashengTu" and "Bamboo Forest Quxie Wutong Autumn Moon" were also collected by the Qing Palace and recorded in the "Shiqu Baodi", and also had the appreciation seals of "The Treasure of The Qianlong Imperial Pavilion" and "the Treasure of the Xuantong Imperial Pavilion".
Fang Shishu is a casual life, likes to travel, and gets along with friends sincerely. Every time the wind is clear and the song is sung, then "the hair is talked and laughed, the wind god is scattered, and if the gods and immortals are among the people, they will not be tired all day and night." However, if a famous public secretary admired his name and invited him to the scene, he either refused, or "extended out", and sometimes even "returned". Many people rushed to order his paintings, as ink treasures, and he was never forced. When he didn't need money, he never cared if he didn't paint even if he was given a gift. When money is urgently needed, it is painted with it. Because of the high value of his paintings, there are many counterfeits on the market, and he is not angry after seeing them, but he dismissively says: This is not enough to mess with the truth, I really want to teach them how to paint my paintings.
Fang Shishu was "originally quite sparing", but because he was not good at managing production, he often gained as soon as he got it, that is, the fate of the hand dispersed, but "the value was empty and pleasant". After getting sick, he died five days later. (Headline number: Jiangdu Shiyan Original works Reprinted please indicate the source)
Shiren commented: "When Fang Jun was young, he danced on the ears of Qiu Ma's children. It is the Creator who makes him poor and prospers his talents. Unfortunately, it could not be passed on for others, so it became 'Guangling Scattered'. Woe to you! ”
Fang Shishu is the author of 4 volumes of the Huanshan Collection and 2 volumes of Notes of Tianyong'an.
(Zhu Yuqi)