Poetic and aesthetic realm in Chinese landscape painting
2022-03-28
Many people can't tell the similarities and differences between Chinese landscape painting and Western landscape painting. Although both paintings are landscapes, they have essential differences. For the time being, we will not talk about the differences in tools, materials and expression methods between the two. Only from the perspective of ideological expression, western landscape painting mainly shows the real scene and can play the role of decoration when hung, while Chinese landscape painting is endowed with more ideas and can not be simply understood as decorations. one When talking about how to appreciate a Chinese landscape painting, the word "sleeping Tour" is the most commonly used. It is said that Zong Bing of the northern and Southern Dynasties traveled in many ways in his prime. When he was old, he painted on the wall where he went in his life, hoping to achieve the effect of Chenghuai observing the Tao and lying down to travel. Although people often use Zong Bing's story to explain sleepwalking, the word may cause some people's misunderstanding that sleepwalking is an old man who can't play. Lying in bed and remembering the scenery he has visited personally, it feels like taking a nap by the fire and recalling his youth. In fact, this is not the case. Sleepwalking has little to do with the real landscape. It has a more detached spiritual pursuit. It is a spiritual activity of clarifying the mind and observing the Tao. We can appreciate this spiritual activity through the statement in the preface to Lanting by Wang Xizhi of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. After spending a good day with his friends, Wang Xizhi couldn't help lamenting that time is fleeting and life is short. Then he thought about the true meaning of life and the way he can decode it. He thought that life in the world "can be held in his arms and understood in a room; or because of his trust, he can be released from the rest of his life". He moved quietly, one inward and one outward, although the ways are different, However, they can achieve the state of "self-sufficiency quickly and not knowing that old age is coming" when they are "happy in what they meet". To examine the two ways mentioned by Wang Xizhi, one is to seek from the heart, and the other is to seek through observing the external world. When appreciating Chinese landscape painting, the sleeping tour is Wang Xizhi's so-called "taking all embraces and understanding words in one room", which is a process of living in a fighting room, appreciating all things, thinking about ancient and modern times and life through the landscape world constructed by the painter, and then improving his own spiritual realm. How can I do a sleepwalk? There are some external conditions to meet. The connoisseur should first steal a half day's leisure and make himself quiet from outside to the mainland. Literati and bureaucrats have always advocated the tradition of "leisure". For example, Su Shi in the Song Dynasty once said that "the wind and moon in the river and mountains are impermanent, and the leisure is the master". The collection of calligraphy and painting antiques has always been regarded as a way of life in line with "leisure", Zhao Xihu of the Southern Song Dynasty wrote in the clear record of Dongtian: "The world of life is like a gap between a white horse and a white horse, but the wind and rain are often sad. Only one tenth of the ears are free. If you know that you can enjoy it, another one or two percent of the ears are free. In the hundred one, you often enjoy sound and color. I don't know that we have a place of pleasure. When the eyes are beautiful, the ears are quiet. There are clear windows and incense burning in them. Good guests and jade stand against each other. Take pictures of the wonderful works of the ancients, use bird watching, seal script and cochlear script, strange peaks and distant water, touch the bell tripod, and see the Shang and Zhou dynasties in person. ”Shen Chunze's preface to the annals of long things in the Ming Dynasty takes the "idle business" of collecting antiques as a way to measure his character and talent: "the man advertises the forest gully, tastes wine and tea, collects the location map history, and belongs to the cup and Dang. It is idle business in the world and a long thing in the body. The person who tastes people, who views the rhyme and emotion here." "Leisure" is explained in Gao Lian's "Yan Xianqing appreciation notes" of the Ming Dynasty: "the heart has no work of galloping and hunting, and the body has no battle of holding the arm. It avoids vulgarity and escapes from fame, and lives in peace in time, which is called leisure in the world. The idle bandits live in meat and have nothing to do. How precious is it for a gentleman to have leisure and play with Ailanthus? Who knows that leisure can nourish the nature, delight the heart, enjoy life and peace of life, and enjoy their leisure." Let yourself get out of the busy affairs and be quiet, so that you can enter the world of landscape painting. Secondly, the study should be small, that is, the so-called "fighting room". If you have been to Sanxi hall, the famous study of Emperor Qianlong in the Palace Museum, you will have an intuitive feeling of this "fighting room". In such a large Forbidden City, the Sanxi hall transformed from xinuan Pavilion of Yangxin hall is only eight square meters in size. It is conceivable that Qianlong stole half a day's leisure from his busy government affairs and sat on his couch in this small and elegant room to appreciate calligraphy and painting. In the Sanxi hall, the couplet hanging on the wall "embracing the ancient and modern, trusting the body and mind", seems to be an annotation to the word sleeping tour. Thirdly, the exhibition also pays attention to Chinese landscape painting. In addition to such a large barrier as Guo Xi's painting of early spring and fan Kuan's painting of traveling in Xi and Shan, the paintings handed down before the song and Yuan Dynasties are more small and exquisite long volumes, which are more suitable for appreciation in the fighting room. When appreciating such a long scroll, you can roll it up while unfolding it. The view is always about a foot long, which gives people the impression of "changing scenery step by step", and you can taste every tree, every rock and every stream. After the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the works with large vertical shafts increased rapidly and were used to hang on the wall. Appreciating these works requires the hanging height of the works and the distance between the viewer and the works. By choosing the appropriate height and distance, the viewer can enter the landscape world created by the painter according to his setting. Of course, in addition to enjoying it alone, you can also invite one or two experts to watch it together. Zhou Quan of the Ming Dynasty wrote to invite Zhou Lianggong to an appointment to enjoy the paintings. In his letter, he wrote: "the room is not very quiet, but it is not dry or wet. It is quite suitable to sit and lie down. Although the paintings hung in the room are too old, they are the handwriting of Li Yingqiu. Dong Wenmin walked over and over three times, which is appreciated by those who know them. The wine is not very clear, but it has been brewing for three years, and drinking more does not make his lips crack. Although the master is old, he is not tired, and can enjoy the guests at night." Such an invitation is fascinating. Unlike today, most of the excellent works of calligraphy and painting in ancient times were displayed in museums and art galleries. At that time, only a few people were lucky to collect and play with these excellent works. At the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, the famous work of Huang Gongwang, a painter of the Yuan Dynasty, was collected by Wu Wenqing. Zou Zhilin wrote admiringly in his postscript: "ask your fate, but deal with it for decades, put it on the pillow to get up; eat and drink on the right side of Chen's seat. Fatigue is refreshing, boredom is joy, and drunkenness is awakening." When Wu Wenqing was dying, he wanted to be buried with the painting and asked his family to burn the painting. Fortunately, his nephew rescued him from the fire. A volume of "Fuchun Mountain Residence" was robbed and divided into two sections. So far, it has been collected in Zhejiang Provincial Museum and Taipei National Palace Museum. Nowadays, we live in an era where we can easily see some excellent works of Chinese landscape painting. Some ancient classic paintings can be seen in major museums and art galleries. The authentic works under the high-definition printed picture album are first-class, and the high-definition pictures on the Internet are also tiny. This is far from being compared with us. two Some people want to ask, even if I meet the above external conditions, it is still difficult to achieve the effect of sleeping tour when appreciating Chinese landscape painting. What should I do? Chinese landscape painting has some main themes, which convey roughly the same meaning. For works with similar themes, painters are also similar in the selection of expression methods and the construction of pictures. They convey a certain artistic conception through similar symbols. Understanding these themes, viewers and painters can complete the most basic spiritual communication. Such common themes include seclusion, farewell, birthday, elegant gathering, waiting for ferry, travel, etc. We choose two themes of seclusion and farewell to illustrate. Seclusion is one of the most common themes in Chinese landscape painting. Tao Yuanming's "Peach Blossom Garden" in the Jin Dynasty has become an image that scholars of all dynasties yearn for living in seclusion. The living state of "I don't know there is a Han Dynasty, regardless of the Wei and Jin Dynasties" is what many people yearn for. For thousands of years, I don't know how many people have had the idea of seclusion. Unfortunately, they can't afford to live in seclusion in troubled times; Tired of cumbersome mundane affairs, I can't help whispering "farewell to the past" in my heart; If you are not understood by the world, you will sometimes have the impulse to "laugh up and go out" in your heart, and want to go on a trip that you can say to go; There is no way to "reach the Emperor Yao and Shun", so I want to become famous through a hidden way and take a tortuous road... For various reasons, seclusion has become a theme often expressed in poetry, calligraphy and painting. The painting of Qing Bian living in seclusion by Wang Meng of the Yuan Dynasty is one of the representative works of this kind of theme. Wang Meng was the grandson of Zhao Mengfu, a famous calligrapher and painter in the Yuan Dynasty. He lived in seclusion or official life. In this painting, the dense mountains surround an inward world at the top left of the picture, which is a secluded world and the other side of the ideal. At the same time, the world isolated by mountains at the bottom right of the picture symbolizes the external real world, which is the shore of reality. When appreciating this work, the viewer is set by the painter as a person standing on this bank. His eyes will gradually cross the depths of the dense forest and through the continuous mountains along the clues set by the painter, and finally find a world on the other side with a unique hole. Such an appreciation is a sleeping tour, which is not only an exchange between the viewer and the painter, but also a spiritual dialogue between the connoisseur and himself. Judging from the creation time of this painting, it was in the midst of war and was unlikely to present such a quiet atmosphere, but Wang Meng created an ideal landscape world through his own brush. Farewell is also one of the most common themes in Chinese landscape painting. In life, parting is an eternal topic. "Outside the long Pavilion, beside the ancient road, the grass is green. The evening wind blows the willows, the sound of flute remains, and the sunset is outside the mountain." Since ancient times, how many poems have written the feeling of parting, and how many paintings have expressed the feeling of being reluctant to leave. In the 31st year of Kangxi's reign in the Qing Dynasty (1692), when Zhu Yi Zun left Beijing, Wang Hui distinguished himself with a landscape painted by himself. Zhu YIZUN wrote a poem: "Wang Lang met once in five years and wrote that don't think about the clouds. It's like shooting mountains on a windy moon night and listening to the pines of the six dynasties at the autumn window." The distance between the two places caused by separation connects them through a landscape painting. Wang Yuanqi, a painter in the Qing Dynasty, once painted a painting in imitation of Gao Kegong, a painter in the Yuan Dynasty, and gave it to his ancestors who he called Songlai. Wang Yuanqi wrote in the title paragraph: "the elder Songlai will draw a side painting for the tour of Chu and write it into Xi's bag. The night rain in Xiaoxiang is just related to the landscape of Hunan. The Fangshan method is more interesting to see the people of Yuan Dynasty." It can be seen that the paintings given by Wang Yuanqi to the elder not only make the other party feel his farewell through the night rain in Xiaoxiang in content, but also make a careful choice in painting method. Chinese landscape paintings such as farewell also have relatively fixed procedures. Usually, we will first see the characters in the foreground of the picture, who are standing on the shore of farewell; Secondly, we will be led to the far shore by the painter in the direction of the separated people. Often, this shore symbolizes the present, while the other shore symbolizes the future. For example, Shen Zhou's "farewell to the Jingjiang River" is one of the representative works of parting theme. This painting was given by Wu Yuanren, who was going to Sichuan Province. The picture depicts people bowing to their friends while others. However, the painter did not focus on depicting the characters, but used a lot of pen and ink to create a world on this side and the other side. The lush trees covered the sadness of parting, allowing the viewer to enter the landscape world created by the painter to understand the distance and the future. In the painting, the other side is not
Edit：Yuanqi Tang Responsible editor：Xiao Yu
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