Zen Writer's Pen and Ink - From Muxi and Kierkegaard to the contemporary Zen art of interpretation and advancement
(Serial one)
Wen, Cao Xi Frog
The acquaintance with the Master of Tongjin was a public auction in January 2015, it has been six years so far, at that time I did not know that there was a Tongjin Master in the world, but I accidentally found that this painter's work had a fairy wind Dao bone from the bamboo forest, the pen and ink were good, and a Danqing Detian was repaired, without the slightest greasy and vulgar play. With the further follow-up and investigation of the painter, it is known that he is a rare contemporary Zen painting monk who has slept in the art of meditation and abided by the precepts, which indeed deserves the attention and research of the academic community.
Since the outbreak of the new crown epidemic has been raging and mutating, the world has begun to split, the bustling modern Babel Tower has become a ghost town with charms in an instant, the fast track of modern culture and postmodern society has been pressed the pause button in an instant, each side has set up a card for a while, to pass the customs must be answered, what is the essence of the Tao, what is the current problem? The Song Dynasty religious painter Muxi and the European religious philosopher Kierkegaard, these two historical figures seem to float on the side of the road, like senior passers-by A and passer-by B, and the contemporary religious and artistic dual identity of the Tongjin master asked in the modern street market, trying to find what is the existence, freedom, situation, and pursuit of people?
Self-portrait of the artist Muxi (part of "LaoZi Tu", which is a statue of Laozi created by Muxi based on his own old age image)
Muxi Six Persimmon Diagram (It is said that there are only two kinds of people in the world, one is the person who has seen the "Six Persimmon Diagram", and the other is the person who has not seen the "Six Persimmon Diagram")
Western philosophy is inseparable from religion, when I was still in Shanxi, I read a lot of philosophical masterpieces, and Kierkegaard was later read in Beijing, when I was still a graduate student in the Philosophy Department of Renmin University, I remember that it was the end of the 90s of the last century, the country just published his "Fear and Trembling", I gave my spare time to the DuPont Research Institute senior academician, superconducting physicist Shen Zhiyuan in the United States to buy Chinese social science books in China, as soon as I saw his books on the shelves in the Sanlian Bookstore, I would read it myself. At the end of the year, it was sent to the United States to Mr. Shen. Mr. Shen often introduced him to my scientist friends in China and introduced me to a scientist reading club at the Institute of natural Science History of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, where I was invited to give a lecture on the theory of coaxing. Knowing Muxi's name, it is later to read the "Painting Quotations" that Xu Xiaohu and Wang Jiqian have a dialogue with, and Xu Xiaohu has a special chapter in that book, "Bada Shanren, Muxi". Wang Jiqian was deeply influenced by mainstream art history and had reservations about Muxi, but Xu Xiaohu had worked in Japan for several years and wrote "History of Japanese Art", and she had more respect for Muxi, and in the "Painting Quotations", she deliberately put the Bada Shanren and Muxi together in a chapter, that is, to take the Bada Shan people recognized by the mainstream of Chinese art to carry Muxi. Of course, Muxi has been widely recognized in the Chinese art world, and because of this, he is also living on the Internet today, and has become a "turtle" with the same master, and a foreign friend of Kierkegaard, who often sees them in my circle of friends.
Philosopher Kierkegaard
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Tongjin Master is commonly known as Zhao, the number Hualing, and comes to the master of the Zen Jingsha. Born in Jilin in 1976, he was admitted to the Academy of Fine Arts of the Central University for Nationalities in 1998, lived in Tanzhu Temple from 2002 to 2006, ordained in 2014, and received full ordination at Kaifu Zen Temple in Hefei, Anhui Province in August 2016. As an artist of a religious nature, he has successfully held more than ten painting exhibitions so far, and Tianjin people have made a public release of "Chinese Contemporary Masters Painting Collection, Shi Tongjin", which is commonly known as Da Hong Pao in the art world.
"Chinese Contemporary Masters Painting Collection, Shi Tongjin" book and box
This introduction, from the "Collection of Paintings of Contemporary Chinese Contemporary Masters and Shi Tongjin", is an official introduction abbreviation of Master Shi Tongjin so far. The collection published in August 2019 is 8 folio, with a gilded title, a red cover of a collection hard box, a black hard shell inner cover of a bronzed font and a cardboard outer cover, and the main text is equipped with 8 open copper plate paper printing portrait photography of famous artists, which is the treatment enjoyed by domestic general calligraphy and painting masters. The inner page of the main text of the calligraphy and painting is preceded by Mr. Shen Ming, vice president of the Anhui Jianghuai Calligraphy and Painting Institute and an art critic, on the Zhuo Chapter on the appreciation of Master Tongjin's painting "Lyrical Rhyme Without Dust", summarizing several comments on Master Tongjin's Danqing achievements:
(1) Be able to absorb the spirit of the pen and ink of the ancient Chinese sages with their hearts, and use calligraphy as picturesque and paintings with the atmosphere of books.
(2) Poetry, calligraphy and painting are integrated and unique.
(3) The shape is natural, and the artistic conception and charm are good.
(4) The "Zen flavor" is extremely strong, and the "literati painting style is full".
Shen Ming's art criticism profession is in place, concise and concise, and it is the best praise for a professional painter who has insisted on decades of pen and ink without embellishment, which is breathtaking.
The main part of "Chinese Contemporary Masters Painting Collection , Shi Tongjin" is composed of three parts: "Landscape Series", "Flower and Bird Series" and "Character Series", the brush and ink, patterns, techniques, etc. of these works have the shadows of Muxi, Ni Yunlin, Xu Wei and Bada Shanren, especially Muxi is the spiritual teacher of his artistic soul, the tribute to his contemporary art and the god of muse, which can be clearly seen from the works in the collection. At first glance, he also has a "Six Persimmon Diagram", which is a tribute to Muxi, but a closer look is the "Six Orange Diagram", because there are two fruits with several tiny leaves, which clearly have the meaning of "small lotus shows sharp horns" and "young phoenix qing in the old phoenix sound", with the pen has become old and spicy and more ethereal and fresh, through the essence of the art of Buddhist philosophy. Of course, Muxi's "Six Persimmon Diagrams" cannot be learned, it is indeed unprecedented, modern, and really advanced. The "Shanshui Series" has more than half of the whole book, the "Flower and Bird Series" has about a quarter of the whole book, and the "Character Series" only accounts for about one-fifth of the whole book, which can be glimpsed that the whole leopard can be glimpsed, and the mage spends most of his time in the love of landscapes, a quarter of the time for flowers and birds, only one-fifth of the time for shaping people, of course, his paintings have seen through, landscapes, flowers and birds are actually full of buddha images, Buddha is in the landscape, and the landscape is the other shore. In addition to the world of the Buddha, the master is actually reluctant to negotiate with people, and his search on the Internet is only a few dozen, he cannot be regarded as an active netizen, and he has no interest in the so-called circle that some people are talking about. In this collection of works, his Zen poems, sayings, and seals are also very important organic components, especially the religious, contemporary, and philosophical aspects of Zen poetry texts have unique cultural significance.
Inner page of "Collection of Contemporary Chinese Masters: Interpretation of Tongjin"
There is an episode here, and before writing this, around the end of May, I had a written interview outline for the Master, and the Master promised to complete that interview with me, and those outlines were my usual routine preparations for the study of artists. I knew it might not be in line with his monastic habits, but I still stuck to my habits, and sure enough... Although he had promised it with his mouth, I urged it several times but there was no follow-up, in fact, there was no result, this was the result, I knew that he had thought carefully about this issue, and finally decided to give up this interview for the time being, but this was also a fusion of the mundane and the net world between me and the subject of the study, and it was an artistic act that happened to me and the mage in their respective situations. If you interview Muxi and interview Kierkegaard, you may also encounter some problems, and maybe you will argue or even tear up in the group at the moment, there are many such things on the Internet. Muxi was also an activist at that time, and it seems that he was still being chased across provinces, and he was officially blocked and banned, the same as the previous President of the United States Trump on Twitter. Kierkegaard also has several bad "internet incidents", "his "Pirates" incident" has been on the hot search, and his marriage is a scandal.
"Picard" is a weekly magazine founded by a young Danish poet, the political tendency is a liberal stance, often using ridicule and satire to attack authoritarian conservative and backward social phenomena, it is said that the style is not very high, but the newspaper circulation is quite large, but also a lot of Internet celebrity fans. One day, the "Pirates" suddenly found a potential alliance, and sent an article praising Kierkegaard, but Kierkegaard disliked the "Pirates" for fear of lowering his taste, not only did not cooperate, but also satirized the "Pirates" style is too low. Who knows that this stabbed the honeycomb, he does not know the irrational bottomlessness of the brain powder, the whole year "Pirate Newspaper" has been stalking and stalking to attack Kierkegaard, thoroughly made personal flesh, tried his best to ridicule the bottomless ability, and even made his physical defects, clothing, family property, living habits, etc. all articles, but also with fashionable cartoons, for a time Kierkegaard did not have a single friend to top. Kierkegaard has always been poor at socializing, opposing gangs, especially the lonely personality, naturally often falling alone, and the hacker network that is fictitious has been violent again and again. According to himself, Kierkegaard's friend only had an umbrella that he carried with him every day.
Artist Shi Tongjin
In a fit of rage, Kierkegaard turned off his mobile phone, blacked out his "friends", "cleared zero", insisted on self-isolation, completely closed his door, played with his internal cycle with God, his marriage and love were described by him as a "sacrifice" to God, and then studied the existential philosophy pioneered by him, and wrote a bunch of books, including what I said "Fear and Trembling". From this point of view, Master Tongjin's enthusiasm for landscapes is also prescient, and the huge abstract oil painting he created horizontally can be seen that his heart is indeed very strong.
(To be continued, see you next Tuesday)
attach:
Zen Writer's Pen and Ink- Selected Pictures of Shi Tongjin's Art Research Archives (Part 1)
Shi Tongjin Art Research Archives
Planning Editor Xu Qiuming
Photo courtesy of Artist Studio