Chinese landscape painting has been at the top of the painting world since the early Song Dynasty of the Fifth Dynasty and the beginning of the Song Dynasty, and has occupied the mainstream position in the painting world for more than a thousand years. Looking through a history of Chinese landscape painting, it can be found that among the large number of surviving landscape painting inkblots, most of them are landscape paintings with snow scenes as the theme, and snow landscape painting can be said to constitute a beautiful landscape in the history of Chinese landscape painting. It not only occupies a considerable proportion in quantity, but also has reached a certain height in artistic achievements, especially the snow landscape painting shows unique ingenuity in the creation of the landscape, and the depth of its realm represents the achievements of traditional Chinese landscape painting to some extent. Under the influence of Chinese Taoist zen philosophical thought, literati landscape painters, with a broad and profound view of nature and life, follow the concept of the integration of technology and Taoism, create a value world that can not only embody the vitality of the universe but also present the reality of life, highlight the life wisdom and landscape spirit of Chinese literati, and make snow landscape painting have high aesthetic value and cultural connotation. This article attempts to explore the creation of a desolate and cold realm of the people's snow landscape paintings.
Xiao Peijin "Snow Pavilion Poetry" Color on paper 69×69 cm 2018
First, snow is the aesthetic object of snow landscape painting
Snow is a world of tranquility, a world of settling the mind. Snow is clean, pure and flawless, wet as jade, and in the snow it seems to be able to wash the mind and sweep away the dust; the snow is pure, like a cold and lonely beauty, giving people a psychological feeling of ice and jade, calm and lonely. Snow is an empty world, allowing people's spirits to swim freely, making people's hearts not fall into the ordinary, and a heart of transcendence and detachment is born spontaneously. Snow conveys the simple beauty with its whiteness, which is really a great beauty. Zhuangzi said: "Simplicity and the world can not compete with beauty." ”
Snow provides painters with an aesthetic sensation from the visual to the heart, while stimulating the painter's inspiration and creative impulses. Snow has become a symbol of the aesthetic imagery of literati landscape paintings and a stylized "prop" for expressing thoughts and emotions in the content of the subject matter. Therefore, snow is the matrix that forms the aesthetic imagery of snow landscape painting, and the painter's thoughts, emotions and thinking are based on the shape and color of snow. Ancient Chinese philosophy holds that the essence of all things is qi. The snow falls in the vast expanse, the heavens and the earth are cloudy, the snow is empty, and the snow is the qi, that is, the cosmic vitality. In summary, snow is an aesthetic object that breathes, has life, and has emotions.
Second, the combination of heart and material is the aesthetic psychological basis of landscape creation
Ancient Chinese traditional aesthetics believe that nature has life and emotion, and there is a saying in "Zhou Yi" that "the great virtue of heaven and earth is born". Therefore, the ancients isomorphized the universal laws of the natural universe and the laws of human society. Dong Zhongshu said: "Heaven also has the mood of anger and the heart of mourning, which is complementary to people, and is similar to each other. "Heaven and man have the same feelings of joy and sorrow, so heaven and man can attain unity." In the eyes of the painter, heaven and earth contain feelings, and every flower and grass has its own life sentiment. Lu Ji's "Wen Fu" introduces the ideas of the unity of heaven and man and the induction of mind and matter into the field of aesthetics and artistic creation from the perspective of aesthetics and art. "Sad leaves fall in the autumn, joy and soft strips in the spring", the fallen leaves and soft strips have the emotional meaning of sadness and joy, which may trigger the viewer's feelings. Turning scenery into emotion is an artistic law generated by the artistic conception of landscape painting, so the creation of the environment is inseparable from the mutual induction of the scenery and the human psychology. The cold winter snow is endless, making people think seriously and deeply, and the cold environment is easy to make people pay attention to their inner world, because of their cold, they have worries about their own living situation and their fate. The concept of mind-object induction was raised to a higher level of aesthetics by Guo Xi of the Song Dynasty, who said in "Lin Quan Gao Zhi": "The smoke of the true landscape and water is different at four times. Spring Mountain is light and smiling, Summer Mountain is green and like drops, Autumn Mountain is clear and like makeup, Winter Mountain is bleak and sleepy. Guo Xi emphasized the different shapes of the mountains in the four seasons and the different correspondence of human psychology. He understands the fit of heart and matter based on the analysis of the differences in the appearance characteristics and emotional meanings of natural scenes in the four seasons, so that the emotional correspondence between the subject and the object of creation is established.
Kandinsky said: "White is like a silent silence for our mental effects. "White is not the silence of death, but a calm that breeds hope. This is very much in line with the aesthetic consciousness of ancient Chinese landscape paintings that are still empty and empty. Literati landscape paintings often use blank space to express the otherworldly, idyllic and tranquil mentality, and the blank space is not dead silence, but full of the rhythm of inner life, which is also the feeling of life presented by snow in the landscape painting of snow and the natural aesthetic image that brings wisdom to people. Zhuangzi emphasized the philosophy of life in which heaven and earth live side by side with me, and all things are one with me. The reason why landscape itself has aesthetic value is that it contains emotions in itself, so that people can produce an aesthetic realm of "heart and material travel".
Since ancient times, most literati have used a vast scenery space to express the inner world of desolation and loneliness, such as Liu Changqing's "Autumn Pavilion youzuo" cloud: "Hanzhu a lonely goose, the sunset of thousands of mountains." "The cold loneliness is originally an inner experience associated with the sense of emptiness, and the sense of emptiness strengthens the inner loneliness, so there is a correspondence between the inner experience of the cold and lonely and the spatial form of the empty scene; and the snow scene is precisely because the snow falls in the vast, large area of the blank space and forms an empty scene, providing the basis for the painter to create an aesthetic image.
Third, the desolate realm is a world of values that presents the reality of life
Under the influence of Taoist Zen philosophical thought, Chinese landscape painting made Wang Wei advocate "ink painting first" to the Five Dynasties period, and gradually occupied the mainstream position of landscape painting. As the originator of literati painting, Wang Wei not only pioneered ink painting, but also excelled at snow landscape painting and was known for his desolate and cold realm. It can be said that the ancients' pursuit of the desolate and cold realm appeared with the rise of ink landscape painting, which is also the characteristic of Chinese landscape painting formed under the concept of the integration of Chinese philosophy and technology. Literati landscape painting has swept away the imitation of the appearance of the world and tends to express the world in the five colors of ink and ink with few colors, indicating that the aesthetic positioning of landscape painting is not to paint a picture for people to see, but to present a world that makes people experience and feel life and make people think, that is, a world full of philosophical thoughts, which is also the value and meaning of the existence of literati landscape painting. Literati are looking for channels of thought and emotion, and naturally choose the corresponding subject matter content and pen and ink form language to express. In the confrontation with nature, the ancients took the snow scenery as the theme of the literati's program to create a desolate and cold realm, which is where their wisdom lies. Throughout the history of Chinese landscape painting, from the Sheng Tang Dynasty, the Middle Tang Dynasty to the Northern Song Dynasty, the literati have always attached importance to the creation of the "desolate and cold" realm. If the snow landscape paintings created by Li Cheng, Fan Kuan and Guo Xi of the Northern School of Painting are related to the region where they live and their living experiences, then Dong Yuan of the Southern School of Painting, who lives in the natural environment of Shaoxue in Jiangnan, is also obsessed with the creation of snow landscape paintings, which has to make people think about the reasons for it. In the eyes of the literati, snow is no longer simply an object of beauty, it has already had the function of symbolism and metaphor, and has become a stylized "prop" for the literati landscape and landscape creation, and a symbol of the aesthetic imagery of the landscape. Therefore, successive generations of literati have tirelessly created a landscape with snow, and it can be said that snow is the image of literati landscape painters to express their emotions. Wang Wei once wrote "Basho in the Snow", which shows a profound and intriguing artistic conception.
Literati landscape painting is a painting of sexual spirit and a painting of thought, of which "thinking" is its important characteristic and its soul. Jing Hao mentions "thinking" in the "Book of Brushwork", requiring the painter to take the truth of things through "thinking". Huang Gongwang also said: "Painting, but the meaning." The key to landscape painting is not in the landscape, and in the "meaning", the landscape painting without the "meaning" is not the "real" landscape. Obviously, this is to emphasize the importance of the ideological content behind the visuals of landscape paintings. Dai Xi said: "Painting is not only perceptible, but also thought-provoking. "Landscape painting should not only convey the feeling of life, but also rise from the feeling of life to "thinkable" and inspire people's lives. Yun Nantian said more clearly: "Autumn is sad and can make people think." Whoever writes autumn will have a sad and thoughtful meaning, and then he will be able to do it. Otherwise, it is better to listen to the chill and crickets. It can be said that it is a deep understanding of the three ambiguities of "thinking". The desolate realm of snow landscape painting reflects its own value and significance, just like the power and life reflection brought by tragedy in literary works.
The barren ancient wood, a cold river, to create such a realm to lead people from the worldly prosperity to an otherworldly, spotless quiet place, let people be quiet. In the desolate and cold realm, the cold atmosphere has to make people shift from their attention to the outside world to their own inner world life. Winter snow has a sense of loss after prosperity, everything is depressed, bleak as sleep, it seems that life has withered, but it also contains infinite vitality and life wisdom, inspiring people's life care and eternal life thinking. In the desolate realm, a living being comes alone to the west wind, deeply feels and thinks about the current situation of real society; in the desolate realm, people gradually transcend specific sadness and lamentations, transcend the bitterness of individual life, and transcend their own gains and losses.
Fourth, the aesthetic characteristics that are completely untraceable
Hun is the ideal realm pursued by literati landscape painting, and successive generations of landscape painters have all worked a hun character. Fan Kuan's landscape paintings are known for their majesty and breadth; Huang Gongwang has pursued a "hun" character all his life, and his paintings have "thick meaning, Huazi qi"; Huang Binhong has devoted his life to "hun thick Huazi" to pursue the realm of great beauty. Hun, as an aesthetic feature of landscape painting, embodies the essence of the Chinese landscape spirit. The first product in the "Twenty-Four Poems" is "Xionghun", which emphasizes a realm of indistinguishable between heaven and man, and pursues the chaotic state of the universe's initial chaotic state. Hun is a realm of indifference, and the unity of unity is man's grasp of the universe as a whole, and Hun presents a mysterious world that comes and goes without a trace.
The characteristics of the desolate and hazy landscape painting of snow landscape painting are manifested in the form of no trace. The painting is in the form of simple and ethereal, virtual and real brush and ink, presenting aesthetic imagery that is both true and illusory. The untraceable feature does not mean that the picture is blurry, like smoke and rain, but the spatial structure created by pen and ink implies rhythm, rhythm and the form of large area blanks, resulting in a feeling of light coming out from the bottom of the painting. Light through the dark universe can illuminate and settle people's confused hearts, thus transmitting a kind of life value and humanistic care. The desolate and cold realm of the snow landscape painting emphasizes that there is no trace, and the weather brought by the light in the painting is like a silver bowl filled with snow, which is a feeling of anti-virtuality.
Huang Gongwang's "Nine Peaks Snow Ji Tu" is a deep and untraceable aesthetic characteristics of the classic landscape painting. In the creation of the realm, it shows a world of ice and jade, the first day after the snow, the warm jade peaks are bathed in the embrace of snow, and the background color of the silk will be shrouded in the cold ice and snow of the whole picture, showing the depressed atmosphere of the snowy mountains and cold forests in mid-winter. The deep weather is solemn and quiet, so that the whole picture is transparent, jade and ice clear, just like an ice crystal palace, not like all in the world, but without losing the sense of intimacy. Such a realm is really a mysterious world, which strengthens the aesthetic interest of the realm itself, giving people an immersive life experience that transcends mortal dust.
Fifth, the self-completeness of the creative subject's mental source
The way chinese literati snow landscape painting creates a realm is to create a realm because of the heart. The painter's thoughts and emotions are in line with the morphological characteristics of the snow scene, and the unique pen and ink language is used to form aesthetic imagery, and a "made" word tells the subjective meaning of the realm generation. The creation of the landscape realm stems from the ideological character and cultivation of the creative subject, as Guo Ruoxuan said: "Since the character of the person is already high, the qi rhyme has to be high; the qi rhyme is already high, and the vividness has to be reached." Therefore, the creation of the desolate and cold realm of snow landscape painting puts forward higher requirements for the source of the painter's heart. First of all, the creative subject should be clear. Empty the dust and distractions in the heart, the heart is like a mirror, the heart is light, as Zong Bing's emphasis on "washing the heart and nourishing the body", cultivating a simple heart, can be clear and contemplative. Yun Nantian said: "Wash away the dust, and be alone." "Only when the heart is clear and empty can we integrate everything in the world into our chest, can we create a snow scene in the summer scenery we face, and paint the spring trees full of eyes into a cold forest, so as to realize the true sense of the creation of the mind." Second, it is necessary to read books to nourish one's spirit, enhance one's knowledge, broaden one's mind, get rid of the "vulgar" atmosphere, and improve the realm of life. Reading books can improve the penetration of cognition of things to understand the nature of the world, cultivate a magnificent atmosphere, get rid of the tacky atmosphere, and only then can personal emotions rise to the common emotions and destiny of human beings to think. Finally, we must continue to enrich our own life experience. Only by experiencing and feeling life in life and society can we integrate the true disposition into the realm, and at the same time, we must also remain lonely, endure loneliness, and cultivate our own ideological realm in loneliness.
(Source: China Painting and Calligraphy)