Whether the "Splash ink immortal figure" hidden in the National Palace Museum in Taipei is the work of Liang Kai of the Southern Song Dynasty has been debated endlessly since ancient times, and some scholars have informally questioned whether the map can be a Ming Dynasty painting. A representative scholar is Toda Akiyuki: he believes that Liang Kai once painted works of a similar style, while the Splash Ink Immortal Tu is a facsimile of Liang Kai's style; Kohara Hiroshi also said that this is not Liang Kai's original handwriting, but from the pen of an amateur painter.
Liang Kai out of the mountain Shakya tu
Liang Kai was a painter of the Southern Song Dynasty, and his main activities were in the three dynasties of Xiaozong, Guangzong and Ningzong. It is said that when he served in the Southern Song Dynasty Imperial Court Painting Academy, Song Ningzong Zhao Kuo gave him a gold belt, but he refused to accept it, and hung the gold belt on the tree and left.
Liang Kai has two almost completely different painting styles, one is the "fine brush", which takes the method Wu Daozi and Li Gonglin, and learns from Jia Shigu, which is the secret method; the other is the "subtraction" method, inheriting the simplicity of the five generations of Shi Ke, sweeping with a few strokes, which has a profound impact on the development of stick figure freehand painting in later generations. Liang Kai's greatest contribution to the history of Chinese art was the creation of "reduced brush" figure painting, golden wrong knife painting bamboo, and splashed ink abstract painting of figures. Liang Kai's achievements in art can be divided into two parts: one is the "exquisite brush" in the academy, which makes the courtyard people "have no respect"; the other is the extensive brushstroke style after the liberation of the academy, which is his main achievement in art history, with innovative artistic value and far-reaching influence. Liang Kai depicts characters and landscapes in a highly concentrated and generalized way, especially the "Splash ink immortal figure", the character image is strange, such as ink splashed paper, which was a new creation at that time.
Splash Ink Immortal Diagram
"Splash Ink Immortal Figure", on paper, 48.7 in length, 27 cm in width, ink. There is a Qianlong imperial inscription poem on it: "The land line does not know the name and surname, and is like a drunkard in Gaoyang." It should be a Qiongtai Xian feast, and the sleeves are still blurred. ”
The picture of the "Splash ink immortal" is a drunken immortal who does not wear clothes. The full picture is extremely simple, showing only some small outlines in the part, while the clothes that account for most of the picture are swept by the folds with a thick brush dipped in ink, and the ink color is moist and moist, and the texture is extremely strong. This kind of thick brush sweep, simple and intentional, ink color vivid and smooth painting method, for Liang Kai did not have before, and in the Southern Song Dynasty painting from fine to simple trend is also the only one, posterity called it "splash ink", becoming a model for future generations of painters to pursue the freehand.
Liang Kai's splashed ink is a "dipping ink method" in the thick pen full of thick, light ink that has not yet been completely mixed, and the vertical rubbing is quickly applied to the painting in order, so that the thick and light ink color left behind naturally penetrates, like ink spilling, but leaving the trajectory of the pen. Strictly speaking, Liang Kai's splashing ink is caused by the use of a pen, which has the meaning of splashing ink, and there is no splashing of ink. Liang Kai's "reduced strokes" seems simple, but in fact, the author's artistic accomplishment requirements are extremely high, it requires the painter to be able to keenly capture the essence of the objective object, with refined pen and ink that can no longer be less, fully express the object's temperament, which also pours out the painter's emotions.
The achievement of this painting lies in Liang Kai's creative development of the freehand painting technique of ink Chinese painting since the Tang and Song dynasties. Yan Hui of the Yuan Dynasty, Xu Wei of the Ming Dynasty, and Huang Shen of the Qing Dynasty were more or less inspired by him.
Qianlong imperial inscription poem
For the "Splash Ink Immortal Figure", to determine the age and author of the "Splash Ink Immortal Figure", in the absence of peripheral information, the era background of the painting and the analysis of pen and ink can play a certain auxiliary role.
1. The zen essence is Liang Kai's painting method
Liang Kai is wild by nature, drunk and self-indulgent, and describes himself as "Liang Madman", but he is also deeply familiar with Zen theory, and the themes of his works are also mostly buddhist, ghost, and ancient masters.
2. Background of the times
Liang Kai's era was an era of literati freehand, advocating game hanmo, and advocating the standard of yipin. Under the impetus of this artistic trend, Liang Kai gave up the exquisite painting style and advocated the freehand painting style of subjective emotional expression, thus creating a large freehand character painting style with reduced brush strokes and splashed ink.
3. Liang Kai's ink painting method set a precedent for Zen painting
"Splashing Ink Immortal Diagram" depicts a drunken immortal image with a highly concentrated and concise technique, using a large pen dipped in ink, a few strokes, such as ink splashing paper, and letter pen. This painting is extremely vivid, can be called a god's concentration, and reaches the extreme of ink painting.
4. Records of Liang Kai and the Splash Ink Immortal Diagram in the literature
Liang Kai Eight High Monks Picture Scroll (Partial) Shanghai Museum Collection
Xia Wenyan described Liang Kai's "reduced pen" painting in the "Illustrated Treasure Book": "When the people of the courtyard saw his exquisite brushwork, they were all reverent, but those who passed it on to the world were sloppy, called the subtraction of the pen. Liang Kai's painting career is recorded in the Coral Net and the Illustrated Treasure Book. The "Splash Ink Immortal Figure" was also collected by the Qianlong and Jiaqing dynasties, and the Shiqu Baodi Continuation is recorded. According to the "Notes on the Identification of Muyan Zhai Calligraphy and Painting", "This painting is the second painting in the volume of "Famous Paintings". ...... There are many paintings in Japan today, and the old Chinese do not emphasize this, so only this painting is also transmitted. ”
Original author: Zhang Houming Article source: "Collector" April 2017 issue "Southern Song Dynasty Liang Kai Splash Ink Immortal Figure Appreciation" (Due to space limitations, the original text has been deleted)
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