Zeng Yandong "Debut Puppet"
In the history of Chinese culture, there are many people who have left a history with a wild and uninhibited reputation, and the famous ones such as Qu Yuan, Li Bai, Xu Wei, etc., are all legendary figures whose famous allusions are still being recited thousands of years later. In the Qing Dynasty, there was also a person with a distinct personality, calligraphy and painting articles, and his artistic style influenced many famous modern painters, that is, the "Seven Taoists" Zeng Yandong, who was known as the "forgotten pioneer of comics".
Zeng Yandong (1750-1830 later), the character Qingzhan, the word seven ru, the number seven ru residents, the seven Taoists, ancestral home of Jiaxiang, Shandong, is the 67th grandson of Zengzi. QingQianlong Nongzi (1792) raised a person. The Seven Taoists are uninhibited, working on poems and paintings. Painting especially good characters, the style of the city, the variety of life are all in its structure, lifting weights as lightly, and winning with the wild freehand style of pen and ink in terms of skills. In the modern art world, there are many painters who have been influenced by the Seven Taoists, especially in the field of figure painting, such as Wu Changshuo, Wang Zhen and Feng Zikai. He is also the author of the literary notes novel collection "Little Bean Shed" and the poetry collection "Dumb Verses", "Ancient Rong Miscellaneous", "Seven Daoist Poetry Transcripts", miscellaneous notes "Richang Essay", "Seven Ruyi Inscription Painting Sketches", "Wucheng Ancient Artifact Illustrations" and so on.
Zeng Yandong has a frank personality, a bumpy life, and bad luck. Most of the time spent in his life was spent on the way to the kejushi. Nearly the year of destiny, Fang was recommended by others to serve as a local county commander in Hubei. At the age of sixty-three, he quarreled with his superiors because of the judgment of the case, and he insisted that "this official can go to the case without moving", and finally he was demoted and dismissed and exiled to Wenzhou. In the tenth year of Daoguang (1830), the guest died in Wenzhou. His most famous book is the collection of literary notes and novels ,小豆棚), written in the 60th year of qianlong in the Qing Dynasty (1795), along with Yuan Ming's Zi Bu Shu and Ji Yun's Notes on Reading Wei Caotang. In terms of style, Zeng's "Little Bean Shed" was deeply influenced by Pu Songling's "Liaozhai Zhiyi". After the "Hu Man" text in "Little Bean Shed", Zeng Shi has a small comment: "(This article) is a scene of "Liaozhai Shui Mangcao" that is stripped out. It can be seen that there is a reference between "Little Bean Shed" and Pu Songling's "Liaozhai Zhiyi".
Zeng Yandong's life has suffered many hardships, and in the text of "Little Bean Shed", he exudes a kind of resentment and depression. The whole work depicts in detail the corruption of politics, the darkness of the officialdom, the brutality of the officials, the rampage of the hooligans in the countryside, and the indifference of the general public. The era in which Gein Zeng Yandong lived had entered the late Qianlong period, the fortunes of the country had turned from prosperity to decline, various maladies in feudal society were emerging in an endless stream, social contradictions continued to intensify, and the serious corruption of the political power had begun to sprout and collapse.
Compared with the novel works, Zeng Yandong's painting art has a more far-reaching influence, Zeng Yandong's personality is lonely and stubborn, and his artistic creation is brave to innovate and set a unique style. The traditional poems, books, paintings and prints are re-integrated, and the concise freehand painting style, straightforward and clear poetry, and the vigorous and handsome book style are combined to achieve the realm of natural perfection. In his creation, he has a unique observation angle, describing the world, portraying sentient beings, and striving to break through paths, especially the portrayal of characters, which is cleverly conceived and has profound meanings. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, ren Xiong, Feng Zikai, Qi Baishi and others were influenced by it, and their "reduced brush" drawing method can be called the first to create a modern Chinese comic. The modern maritime painter Cheng Shifa once held a grudge against him, and inscribed in a character album by Zeng Yandong: "The Seven Daoists are the descendants of Qingteng (Xu Wei), and the poetry and lyrics are victorious, and from the calligraphy and painting, they are contrary to the world and appear to be in a turbulent atmosphere." Yu Yue: It is a great pity that the near people are not heavy. "It expresses the feeling of admiration for Tsang's painting art."
Zeng Yandong's creation is similar to the "Eight Monsters of Yangzhou" of that year, but it is more wild and spontaneous. The landscape figures, flowers, birds, fish and birds are painted in stick figures, and a temperament letter pen is sprinkled, with a unique perspective, using a comical drawing technique, depicting the sentient beings in the city, the world is all the same, the meaning is profound, and it is known as the representative figure of the Qing Dynasty stick figure. Ou Ya commented that his painting art was "wildly let go of it with a pen like a green vine and a banqiao".
Zeng Yandong is not only a calligrapher and painter, but more importantly, a theorist who summarizes the theory of artistic creation, and his book "Seven Painting Sketches" on "The theory of modern painting" is a summary of his painting theory. The so-called "present painting" person? It is a painting by Zeng Yandong based on the characters of the city in his own era, customs and customs, and real mountains and real waters. The works are reflections and expressions of real life, which is also extremely rare among literati painters. His "theory of modern painting" has "three realms": "There are three realms in my heart: the beginning is mixed, then it is different, and finally it is appropriate. The husband who is as usual, either without being mixed and then presenting his or her corrections, then has a gain, in order to create a realm. Translated into this text, the first is to be familiar with the real state of real life, the second is to find the "different" phase that others cannot see in the familiar life, and the third is to present the "different" phase that they see in a form of expression that is pleasing to the eye, this painting theory promotes the boundary painting theory represented by zhang Zeduan's "Qingming On the River Map" in the Song Dynasty, and raises the realist form of expression to the same artistic height as the "literati freehand", and this painting theory finally achieves qi Baishi, the most famous art master in the history of modern art.
Zeng Yandong was in a difficult life but lived a long life of eight ranks, and there is a saying about his number "Seven Ru" that has been widely circulated, the so-called "Seven Ru", taking "flowers, wine, piano, chess, poetry and paintings" is not as good as his heart, but throughout his life, he is faced with the daily "chai rice oil salt sauce vinegar tea" Everything is not satisfactory. Zeng Yandong laughed at himself in the "Ancient Rong Miscellaneous And Folding Gui Ling": the bitter one is the old and the poor, the lonely and bitter, and the sad is the outlaw prisoner East Sea Widow. There is no way to live, no clothes to wear, no food to eat, cut off hair tattoos, and consume ou yue jing barbarians.
But on the other hand, Zeng Yandong also said in his "Essay on the Length of the Day": "What people can't do, I prefer to do, and what people can't subtract, I want to subtract." After watching his paintings and seal engravings, I have a deeper understanding and respect for his deviant, arrogant, and unique and indulgent attitude towards life. For the art of painting to explore and innovate, it proves that he is a truly advocating uninhibited life of the artist, it is his spontaneous temperament is doomed to him will not be shackled by the officialdom, by the secular life, with more discoveries of his artistic career, Zeng Yandong will surely shine with the brilliant light he deserves!
In the sixty years of Qianlong (1795), Zeng Yandong said in the preface to "Little Bean Shed", "Little Bean Shed", idle book also; I, busy people also. To write such a book, one must be idle, idle at the time of his suffering, idle in his situation, and then he can write idle ink with idle mood. I am busy with my career for Xiucai, clothing and food for the poor, for the curtain, for the guests, so I have to work hard and make a book of more than 100,000 words? That is, there are occasional idle times and idle situations, and can you sneak in and do this idle thing to the busy? But why do I have a book? I asked, and I didn't understand. I usually listen to people gossiping, or when I see mountains and rivers and monuments and strange people on my travels, I am busy memorizing them; or I am busy with the remaining manuscripts of Ichino historians, and I am busy rummaging through them. And when the carriages and horses are noisy, and the children are noisy, the letter is straight. No matter how busy you are, you will feel idle and idle. Gai can use the idleness of busyness, and idleness is dissolved from busyness; without him, your heart is idle. If the mind is idle, it will not be idle. All kinds of greed, anger, love, evil, lust, all kinds of inconceivable, and my heart is idle, and I do not adapt to it, and I have turned those idle feelings, gossip, idle things, idle people into a book of idleness in the hands of this busy person. Or there are those who say: "Seven ru, idle people also, idle people and then enjoy it." "Yu Wei wei no." Or is there a reckoner who says, "Seven is like idleness?" Husband and I have no time. Yu yiwei was no. From this self-prologue, we can see his attitude towards life.
If you need to participate in the exchange of ancient books, please reply to the [Rare Books and Ancient Books] public account message: group chat