Recently, China Guardian 2021 autumn auction has issued auction announcements, Chinese calligraphy and painting section is still blooming Zhang Daqian's late years of ink splashing style, but in addition, also see a large thousand "raw goods", the painting in the "Yellow Crane Mountain Qiao Xiashan High Hidden Map", the announcement tweet out of the elegant common appreciation, easy to understand, another title: "To Li Qiujun Xiashan High Hidden Map". (Hereinafter referred to as "To Li Qiujun")
Figure 1 to Li Qiujun Xia Shan Gao Yin Zhang Daqian 161×63 cm Coloring vertical axis on paper 1947 (49 years old)
Publisher: 1. Zhang Daqian's Academic Papers/ p151 "Wang Meng's Pen Power can carry the Ding for 600 years with Daqian - Daqian and Wang Meng" / Taipei Museum of History, 1989
2. Cover of "Nongshen New Year Calligraphy and Painting Exhibition" / Photo Editor 1 / Hong Kong Collection Guzhai / 1992
Exhibition: "Nongshen New Year Calligraphy and Painting Exhibition" / Hong Kong Jigu Zhai / 1992-1
Photo: China Guardian
In order to facilitate the understanding of the actual aesthetic significance of the work, the author consults the relevant materials, peels off the shell layer by layer, and explores the creation secret of the ontology with the reader from a pure visual point of view, that is, the question of how to view the work. This painting is Zhang Daqian's 1947 49-year-old copy of the Yuan Dynasty Wang Meng's "Xiashan Gaoyin" painted in 1365, after 582, Wang Meng painted this painting at the age of 57, given to a friend named "Yanming", located in Suzhou Apartment; Zhang Daqian painted this painting in Shanghai, to Li Qiujun, a confidant of hongyan, the two painters did not travel through time and space, but both witnessed friendship for human feelings. Regarding the two important figures in this painting collection, Li Qiujun and the owner of the Who Immortal Museum, the story will be sorted out at the end of the article.
Figure 2 Xia Shan Gao Yin Figure Yuan Dynasty Wang Meng 149 ×63.5cm Silk Color Vertical Axis 1365 (57 years old) The Palace Museum, Beijing Photo/Network
Zhang Daqian's middle-aged painting "Yellow Crane Mountain Qiao XiaShan High Hidden Map" is at a medium and high level. What is medium, the problem of the visual image level of the paintings that are present has been completed, and in the traditional aesthetics, it belongs to the category of "tangible", from the specific shape, the layout of each object is complete, the shape is depicted moderately, and it is "copied" again in accordance with the original business position concept, which is in the second and third years of study requirements in the class education. However, although Zhang Daqian created this peak work of Wang Meng from the perspective of copying and learning, he still made many changes in the shape of his paintings, and did not completely follow the fictional world in Wang Meng's ideal.
Looking at the activities of the characters in the painting, Wang Meng painted 6 people, 1 crane and 1 puppy, divided into 3 groups of spaces to outline the plot, which are related to each other and relatively independent. On the right side, a coat of arms on the bed, holding a feather fan, next to a boy holding a basin of water, making a posture of waiting to serve the master, at this time the master and servant were suddenly attracted by the crane behavior of another boy outside the courtyard, the child of the crane and the crane spread their arms together with the crane, guiding the crane to unfold the "white crane bright wings", this time and space behavior suddenly pulled us back to the life of the ancients, mysterious and interesting; to the left, across the river, a small boat with a canopy loomed in the bushes, this "viewpoint" has several places, showing Wang Meng's rational and absolute spatial concept Although blocked by the woods, but through the mottled foliage, or reflect the possible stories in the hidden space, the trend up, walking in the mountain a middle-aged man in official clothes, holding an edict, I don't know whether to recruit a high priest or come to the mountain; the far left draws a mountain farmhouse, the woman sits in the house, the husband holds the bathtub in his hand to the outside of the painting, a puppy in the middle lies quietly in the courtyard, erects his ears, and turns his head to the direction of the official entering the mountain, as if hearing that the guests are coming. Whether we understand the life of the ancients or not, but hearing such an indisputable scene of paradise, we probably envy the height of the ancients' thinking, Wang Meng painted a lot of ideal worlds of seclusion in the mountains at the peak of his creation. In the face of this blueprint of this dream, Zhang Daqian changed his appearance, and as a whole, he briefly sketched the storyline in the original painting.
Figure 3 Xia Shan Gao Yin Three characters depict Wang Meng
There are only 3 characters in Zhang Daqian's paintings. In the house on the right, the master plays the piano, and a waiter is set up next to it; the official who comes from afar is replaced by a hermit who walks with a staff; a figure is blurred at the door of the hut on the left, I don't know whether it is a standing woman or a porch decoration; as for the boy tuning the crane and the daily life of the peasant couple, there are no more. Why did Zhang Daqian sketch the character sketch? First, the ancient life of 500 years ago and the current society are completely two forms, the resonance of ancient and modern literati may not be all in tune, the details, today's people do not have the need to blindly follow, you can understand Zhang Daqian in the details of the informalities; there is also an explanation, all those who have painted Chinese paintings, especially when copying the works of the ancients, the character additions are the last to brew the pen, there is no full preparation for the unity of the heart, it will not be easy to write, the characters outline the original few lines, very refined, drawing a wrong stroke hurts the whole masterpiece, If he can't reach both form and god, he will let go of pen and ink, so Zhang Daqian is suspected of "dispelling difficulties". Perhaps the reader feels that the second analysis is somewhat sharp, the non-painter has not personally experienced, and the painter naturally knows it. But this is also in line with Zhang Daqian's learning logic, studying the advantages of each master again, working hard at the big essence, and taking more hands in the small places, without consuming energy.
Figure 4 to Li Qiujun Xiashan Gao Yin Figure Local 2 characters depict Zhang Daqian
Since the "essence" is mentioned, then we all know that Wang Meng is famous for his "secret body", and Zhang Daqian has really achieved the kung fu of Wang Meng's secret body by studying Wang Meng? No, Zhang Daqian still saved his strength, and it is not strange that Fu Lei was never optimistic about Daqian Shanshui, and his comments were full of pejorative meaning, believing that he was a "speculator". However, this article does not make it clear right and wrong in the past text entanglements, let's see how far Zhang Daqian's study work is from Wang Meng's original work. Wang Meng's "Xiashan Gaoyin" Yuanshan can best reflect the characteristics of the "dense" of the thread, comparing the specificity of the two people's pen and ink, Wang Meng's "secret": light, sparse, writing, Zhang Daqian's "dense": thick, dense, dyeing. Wang Meng writes secrets without seeking secrets, sees sparseness and indifference in the secrets, repeatedly accumulates unsounds, and forms a visual dense mass, in fact, the middle core is still written out; Zhang Daqianyuanshan uses ink more thickly, and the weight is full, the dye is larger than writing, and the lack of Wang Meng's slackness and breathability, compared with it, it can be seen that Wang Meng's pen and ink is "dense" and Zhang Daqian is "dense". If you don't look at the original work and don't understand Wang Meng's painting style, you can't taste the growth of Zhang Daqian's middle-aged pen and ink, so it is not too much to say "medium".
Figure 5 Comparison of Wang Mengyuan Mountain's "secret body" with Zhang Daqian's "secret body"
Why is it middle and upper class? Because Zhang Daqian even if he did not completely "copy", he still integrated into his own appearance, reflecting the Zhang family's face in the color setting. Zhang Daqian went to Japan with his brother to learn dyeing and weaving techniques in his early years, and had a deep understanding of dyeing, and when he was a child, his mother and sister painted flowers and birds, planting the seeds of artistic enlightenment for him, and in the 1940s, he went to Dunhuang to copy 3 years of heavy color, these 3 experiences are enough to explain his keenness and love for color. Even in his later years, when he changed the law, he still took his best skill, so that the large amount of ink in the auction market today knocked out a high price, and everything with color was more expensive than pure ink.
What is the shortcoming of this painting? Since Zhang Daqian copied Wang Meng's work, we still have to find the code in the original work, perhaps some people think that the style of painting is a personal act, accepting the face of each family is the principle of tolerance that art should have, and the ancients are absolutely too harsh and not close to human feelings, and this remarkist does not understand the "imitation" thing, and does not refute it. The biggest regret of the middle-aged landscape is that the depth is not enough, of course, this depth is compared with the real master, he learned the tradition during this period, absorbing various moves from the ancients of the past, browsing all the unique secret books, this is like Jin Yong's young Yang Guo, who ate a hundred meals in the early years because of bad fate, every time he played against the master, there were many tricks, but he played a few more sets of moves to go downwind, and even when the bull-nosed Golden Wheel King talked about him, he also admitted in his heart. Fortunately, this kind of person is extremely smart, but he can't beat the other party, but he can always turn the danger into a disaster, and find the trick to go as the best strategy. Zhang Daqian was arrested by bandits as a clerk when he was young, thanks to his good handwriting, in and out of the bandits' nest and robbery caves, in order to save his life, he had to pretend to follow, and later rescued by the second brother, Zhang Daqian relied on wisdom to save himself, not the courage of ordinary people. However, whether it is for martial artists or painters, the final face is still the real skill, you need to have your own face, in order to become a "family", otherwise you are an ordinary craftsman, there is no art history and literature height, can not enter the authentic, nor can it be called a master.
Figure 6 Comparison between Wang Meng's painting and Zhang Daqian's painting
We look at the middle scene of "To Li Qiujun" and the middle scene of Wang Meng's painting, which is a bit cruel in comparison. Zhang Daqian not only has a waste of pen and ink, but also patience is not enough, when there is not enough depth, he is eager to go to the "high place", it can be understood that Wang Meng is a three-dimensional right angle from the side, while Zhang Daqian is a three-dimensional arc, Wang Meng Kung Fu hits into the depths, flowing out of the clearest spring water, Zhang Daqian has a lack of strength, and what flows out is the river. This metaphor is not pretty, but it is easy to understand. The stream of Wang Meng's middle scene is written, the blank shape is natural, Zhang Daqian's technique is more, and the shape of the mountain spring is deliberately depicted; the former is naturalistic, with the strong body feeling of the stone to set off the flexibility of the mountain spring, rigid and soft, the latter pen and ink are glued together, there is no pure rational spirit of naturalism in the knowledge of the grid, the three-dimensional sense of the stone is not completed, the gushing spring water does not land, and it is not the realm of the still water in Wang Meng's painting; this is the tenacity of study, in the past people compared Zhang Daqian to the Ming Dynasty Qiuying, But Zhang Daqian did not have Qiu Ying's extreme patience, and it might take Qiu Ying a few days to complete a painting, and It would take several months for Qiu Ying to paint a painting. Not only the large medium scene shows this problem, but each small space can appreciate this comparison of depth and lightness, and the large number of ink colors is used, trying to add more elements and styles, but also losing the most authentic things. Chinese painting speaks of yin and yang in the depths, which is the level of thought, and pure vision alone cannot reach that realm.
This work was completed in 1947, shortly after the end of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, when he was very discerning, he paid a lot of money to acquire a batch of Song Dynasty landscapes, and he studied authentic landscapes from the north school, at the end of the 40s, when he sketched in the southwest region, the painting style was also the majesty of the north school, but it was integrated into the beauty and danger of the southwest region, which was the temperament in Zhang Daqian's bones, following his lifelong creation. But on the whole, the 40s and 50s are the ancient period of daqian learning, and some works even have mud and ancient hints, and the method of using pen and ink is not rigorous, but sketching has its own novelty. As for the extreme ability of later generations to deliberately exaggerate his "fake paintings", I think Daqian himself is not willing to admit it, and even said that his "fake Shitao" concealed the sky and crossed the sea and deceived the appraisal master Huang Binhong, which is pure nonsense. Huang Binhong is a person who pays attention to the law of the courtyard all his life, writing articles, paintings and even making ink are justified, it can be said that people who are too rational, they have also done calligraphy and painting appraisal work in the Forbidden City, how can they not distinguish the depth, it is a joke. In the 60s, Zhang Daqian traveled all over the famous mountains and rivers, coupled with the capital of the early efforts, he had the feeling of painting, and he thought that he must innovate to complete his painting mission in this life. A lifetime of life, aside from the mundane, painters with ideals have a lifelong mission to represent mountains and rivers.
Figure 7 Yang Fan, the owner of the Who Immortal Pavilion in his youth, in front of Zhang Daqian's work Photo/Network
China Guardian announced in the tweet about the circulation process of this painting, Li Qiujun as Zhang Daqian's pink confidant, and provided him with a Shanghai studio to create freely, the depth of emotion, became a good legend. The handwritten article of Yang Fan, the famous director of Taiwan's Who Xian Guan, added a legendary color to this work, one to witness the authenticity of the painting, and the other to add bricks and tiles to the world's understanding of Zhang Daqian's life experience, including the seal engraver Chen Julai, Chinese professor Tai Jingnong, the philosopher Zhuang Muling and other people, all participated in the footnotes of the Daqian art world, and made humanistic contributions to the understanding of the masters today.