"Without this painting, history would be one less link."
Around 1947, Shen Congwen had 8 close observations of an ancient painting in half a year, and since then made such an evaluation of the painting.
This painting is the "You Chun Tu" now hidden in the Palace Museum in Beijing, which belongs to Zhan Ziqian.
Zhan Ziqian lived in the era of about 545-618, he experienced the change of several dynasties in Eastern Wei, Northern Qi, Northern Zhou, Sui, and served as the grand master of the chaoshan and the governor of the tent in the court of Emperor Wen of Sui.
At the beginning of the volume of "You Chun Tu", there is an inscription of Emperor Huizong of song, which was later owned by the southern Song Dynasty traitor Jia Xiangdao, after which the volume was included in the Inner House of the Ming Dynasty and qing Dynasty. In the late Qing Dynasty, the last emperor Puyi brought this painting to Changchun, the capital of the "puppet state of Manchukuo". After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, he was exiled to the antique market in Beijing.
After Zhang Boju saw this "You Chun Tu" from Ma Jichuan, a famous framer, he immediately reported to Ma Heng, the director of the Palace Museum at that time, and suggested that the painting be acquired by the Forbidden City, but Ma Heng refused to pay enough funds. Zhang Boju had no choice but to sell several of his private houses and his wife's jewelry, and finally bought the painting. Zhang Gongzi was quite proud of this, and renamed his residence "Zhan Chun Garden" and called himself "Spring Tour Master". In 1952, Mr. and Mrs. Zhang Boju transferred the painting to the Palace Museum in Beijing.
As for whether "You Chun Tu" is the true work of Zhan ZiQian, starting from Shen Congwen, there have been many doubts among researchers over the generations, including the following doubts:
1, since this painting has the inscription of Emperor Huizong of Song and is identified as the work of Zhan Ziqian, it is not recorded in the "Xuanhe Pictorial Spectrum" written at the behest of Emperor Huizong of Song.
2, among them, the men's clothing, women's sitting posture, etc. are inconsistent with the customs of the Sui Dynasty.
3, the architectural partridge is a typical Northern Song Dynasty owltail characteristic rather than the Sui Dynasty architectural style.
In 1978, Mr. Fu Xinian, an expert in calligraphy and painting, wrote an article entitled "Discussion on the Age of Zhan Zi Qian (You Chun Tu)", in which he examined the buildings and costumes painted in the picture, and believed that "You Chun Tu" was a replica of the Northern Song Dynasty and not the original work of Zhan Zi Qian. Since then, Xu Bangda, Yang Renkai, Chen Chuanxi and others have mostly agreed with this statement.
In any case, this "You Chun Tu" is undeniably the earliest masterpiece of mainland scroll landscape painting, and Zhan Ziqian is therefore considered to be the only Sui Dynasty painter on the mainland who has traces of painting, occupying an important position in the history of Chinese painting.
As we mentioned in the previous episode, the development of Chinese landscape painting has undergone major changes in the era of Zhan Ziqian, which is no longer part of the background of the character story painting, but independently becomes a major depiction theme.
Chen Yinke's elder brother, the Chinese art historian Chen Shi, once analyzed the background of this change for us from the perspective of social and intellectual history at that time, "The beginning of landscape painting is covered with the invasion of the Hu people in the north into the Central Plains, the Han people gradually going south, and the surrounding situation, so that the Han people opened the end of the landscape." The reason for this is actually the influence of Lao Zhuang's philosophy. Lao Zhuang zhixue advocates tranquility, loves nature, and sometimes comes into contact with the natural beauty of the southern landscape, which can inspire his ideas of landscape painting. ”
If you look at "You Chun Tu" as a Sui Dynasty version copied by posterity, its chapter arrangement in terms of composition does break through the painting style of previous painters, showing the form of undulating mountains and peaks turning, taking mountains and rivers and water systems as the main body, so that the figures, courtyards, ships, and attics in the painting are integrated into the landscape. These elements follow the appropriate proportions, and the overall landscape achieves a harmonious artistic conception in terms of size, height, distance and so on.
In terms of color, "You Chun Tu" takes turquoise as the main color, uses mud gold to express the mountain color, and the color of the leaves is not only filled and dyed, but also uses the way of dot color. Although we have not yet seen the emergence of the method on the mountain, these innovative methods have completely created a new pattern of painting, which is more mature in terms of expression and aesthetic orientation.
However, if our eyes are on this painting, which declares the independence of Chinese landscape painting, it is difficult to see the figure of bamboo.
After arriving in the Tang Dynasty, du Fu angrily scolded Zhu, and the closest major historical event in time was the "Xingshu" of Tang Xuanzong after the outbreak of the Anshi Rebellion, and the route for Xuanzong and his party to flee to Sichuan should be through Zhaohua in Lizhou, out of the sword gate, and through the Golden Bull Ancient Road into Sichuan. There are some places along the way that are the living range of our national treasure giant panda, and perhaps bamboo may be found in the paintings that have been handed down to record this event.
Illustration: Li Zhaodao (biography) Part of the Ming Emperor Xingshu Tu
At present, the most credible painting should be the "Ming Emperor Xingshu Tu" collected in the National Palace in Taipei and rumored to be Li Zhaodao, depicting Tang Xuanzong and his party walking through lofty mountains, winding stone paths and dangerous trellises, but in these dense vegetation, you can not see the figure of bamboo.
Li Zhaodao's father, Li Sixun, was later known as the "Ancestor of Nanzong" as the Great Li General, who was once the Duke of Longxi County, and was naturally no stranger to bamboo. Bamboo is still invisible in the works that currently belong to his name.
For example, in another painting of Li Sixun's "Jiangfan Pavilion Map", the Changsong Xiuling Ridge is covered with dense trees. The picture is a breakthrough in the composition style, depth of field and other aspects of Chinese landscape painting, but in the Jiangnan scenery depicted in it, it is still difficult to see the figure of bamboo.
Illustration: Li Sixun (biography) "Jiang Fan Lou Ge Tu" details
In addition, in the paintings that can be seen as facsimiles of Zhou Fang, Zhang Xuan and others, such as "Lady of the Hairpin Flower", "Tu tu of the tune of the piano sipping tea", "Lady Yu Chun tu of the lady of the country", etc., there is no image of bamboo.
You may have thought that the poet Wang Wei, who "sat alone in the fence, playing the piano and screaming for a long time", was also a painter, can we find some clues from his paintings?
Wang Wei's most important contribution to the history of Chinese painting is to push the status of ink painting to the first place, has he made any contributions to the formation of the ink bamboo technique we are discussing?
At present, there are not many works related to Wang Wei, or attributed to his name. The "Snow Creek Map" collected by the National Palace Museum in Taipei and the "Jianggan Xueji Picture Scroll" collected by the Japanese can be said to partially reflect Wang Wei's ink landscape, snow scenery, and river scenery techniques and his aesthetics.
However, there are few close-up shots of plants in these paintings, and there is no mention of how to paint bamboo in the theory of creation left by Wang Wei.
Despite this, we cannot be disappointed.
In his later years, Wang Wei settled his home in the foothills of the Zhongnan Mountains in the town of Yuanchuan in present-day Lantian County, Shaanxi Province, about 15 kilometers from the county seat.
Located in the eastern part of Zhongnan Mountain and the northern foothills of the Qinling Mountains, in Wang Wei's time, the water system was developed, the grass and trees were luxuriant, and springs and waterfalls could be seen everywhere, and around the Lake, there were several streams in the mountains that flowed into the lake. If you look down from a high mountain, the stream and the lake form a shape where the wheels and spokes are connected, and the ancients called the round frame on the outside of the wheel "辋", hence the name of the river.
Illustration: Wang Wei's "Diagram of the ChuanChuan" Tang Dynasty Facsimile Collection of Shengfu Temple in Japan
The twenty poems he sang and sang with Pei Di here were compiled into the "Collection of Yuanchuan", which Wang Wei described in the preface, and there were more than twenty scenic spots around the villa he purchased, two of which were bamboo, namely: Jinzhuling and Zhuliguan.
Wang Wei himself left the "Map of The River", which has been regarded as a model by later generations of painters, and many facsimiles have survived in the past.
The version closer to Wang Wei himself is a fragment of a Facsimile of the Tang Dynasty that is now in the collection of Seifuji Temple in Japan. The volume depicts the scenery of Ryoguchi-ryo. The manor house in the picture is surrounded by mountains and rivers, surrounded by trees, but there is no bamboo.
The Tang Dynasty facsimile of Seifuku-ji Temple in Japan currently exists only in this section. We can't see the king style, what the scenery depicted in Jinzhuling and Zhulikan is.
What is closer to the Tang dynasty facsimile is that it is said to be a facsimile of the early Song dynasty painter Guo Zhongshu. Comparing the landscape of the same section of the facsimile with the Yuankouzhuang, Guo Zhongshu follows the Tang compositional form, in which the layout of the mountains, trees, lakes, and houses is similar. Although it lacks the majestic atmosphere of the overall style in Tang paintings, the mountain stones and architecture are not as strong and tense as Tang paintings.
But comparing Guo Benzhong's scenery of Jinzhuling and Zhuliguan, we can at least get a glimpse of wang Wei's original treatment of bamboo: this way only arranges bamboo mechanically on the hillside, showing the objective state of a landscape. For the depiction of bamboo branches, bamboo branches, and bamboo leaves, double hook coloring, or dot dyeing is generally used, and its technique is not mature and rich. The overall landscape gives people the feeling that it does not deliberately highlight the noble qualities of the personification of the bamboo itself.
If you look at this volume of "Yuanchuan Tu" that is passed down as a facsimile of Guo Zhongshu, you will find that in the Wang (or Guo) style, bamboo is not much different from other ordinary flowers and trees. The painting and treatment of bamboo forests is the same as that of other types of trees, which together play a background role in creating the landscape.
In addition to some of the visible paintings mentioned above, are there some images about bamboo in the tomb murals and stone carvings of the Sui and Tang dynasties that have been excavated so far, which can support these views of the Tang people on bamboo? And I'll share it with you next time.
(Note: This article is the seventh episode of the Chinese art history series jointly produced by "Afternoon Taste" and "Captain Reading Painting", welcome to listen)
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