Zheng Banqiao only painted orchids, bamboos and stones in his life, which is known as "orchids that never fade in four seasons, bamboos that never fall for a hundred days, and invincible stones that never change". His poems, paintings and calligraphy, known as the "three wonders" in the world, are more representative literati painters in the Qing Dynasty. Representative works include Zhuxiu Novelty, Guangqing Liu Zhao, Zhu Lan Fang Xin, Gangu Juquan, Cong Lan Ci, and Zheng Banqiao Collection.
Three musts of poetry, painting and calligraphy
Art of calligraphy
Zheng Banqiao's calligraphy, which is a mixture of official script and running script, calls itself "six and a half books" and is called "Banqiao Book". Most of his paintings are bluegrass and bamboo stones, and Zheng Banqiao's calligraphy art with bluegrass and bamboo as its soul is unique in the history of China's calligraphy.
Judging from his 23-year-old Ode to Autumn Songs by Ouyang Xiu and his 30-year-old Poem of Xiao Zhuan, Banqiao learned books from Ou Yangxun in his early years. Its font is neat and beautiful, but slightly stiff: this is related to the neat and charming pavilion style prevailing in the book world at that time, and it is the standard font for selecting candidates in the imperial examination. In this regard, Zheng Banqiao once said: "The flies stop too evenly, fearing that the book will damage the spirit." After becoming a scholar at the age of 40, I seldom write again. Zheng Banqiao's calligraphy is most praised as "six methods and half a book", that is, "Banqiao style" with "eight-part essay" (a kind of official script) as its unique style.
"Six and a half minutes" is a ridiculous title given by Zheng Banqiao for his original calligraphy. There is a kind of "eight-point script" with more strokes in official script, that is, the so-called "six-thirty", which refers to official script in general, but is mixed with other regular scripts such as Kai, Xing, Zhuan and Cao. The Poem Axis of Cao Cao's Running Script (now in Yangzhou Museum) is a masterpiece of "six and a half" style. This poem about Cao Cao's "looking at the sea" has a large format, with an average of more than 10 square centimeter per room. Fonts are quite rich, including seal characters and kai characters. The shape is flat and long, and the house is mainly square, slightly downward. Simple and broad, just like Cao Shixiong's broad style. Zheng Banqiao once praised his calligraphy in a poem "To Pan Tonggang": "I paint clouds by Cao Cao, sweeping the sky. A line of two lines of book characters, Nanxun Beidou rows of stars. "
The composition of Zheng Banqiao's calligraphy works is also very distinctive. He can insert size, length, Fiona Fang, size and density, such as "paving the road with stones", which contains rules in vertical placement. It seems to follow the flow of the pen, but the holistic view produces a sense of rhythm of jumping and agility. For example, it was written in the twenty-seventh year of Qianlong, and he was seventy years old, which was his masterpiece in his later years. Su Dongpo likes to use the Qifeng pen of Xuancheng Zhuge, which is very satisfying to write. Later, when he changed another pen, his palm didn't correspond. Banqiao himself likes to use Taizhou Deng's sheep hair, and it is satisfactory to write it tactfully. So he compared Taizhou Deng's wool to Zhuge Qifeng in Xuancheng, and finally said, "How dare you imitate Dongpo?" Moreover, writing a book with a pen loves fat rather than thin, and it also means slope. "The whole work is characterized by big summary, thick and thin pen, oblique posture, stippling and lifting pressure, which makes it like the joy in the ear, the bird in the air and the fish in the water, expressing strength and spirit with arbitrary rhythm: how can people say that his words are" blue and bamboo, especially interesting "? From the composition, structure and strokes of this crystal, we can't see his "quaint and graceful" Zhu Lan Lou God.
Painter's style
Zheng Banqiao was born in a scholarly family, a scholar in the last years of Kangxi, a juren in the tenth year of Yongzheng, and a scholar in the first year of Qianlong. At the age of fifty, he served as the magistrate of Fan County and Wei County in Shandong Province for twelve years. The idea of "benefiting the people with ambition" led him to take measures such as "opening warehouses to help the people, famine year after year" and "donating base without losing money", which aroused the dissatisfaction of corrupt officials and evil gentry and was relegated. After that, he made a living by selling paintings. Zheng Banqiao's life has experienced ups and downs, and he has seen through the coldness of the world. He dared to incorporate all this into his works. Zheng Banqiao's poems on paintings have got rid of the traditional mode of painting with poems or painting with poems. Every painting he draws should be inscribed with a poem, and the title must be excellent, so as to achieve the purpose of "picturesque image" and "poetic attack on painting" Poetry and painting infinitely embody and expand the breadth of the picture. Zheng Banqiao's poems on paintings pay attention to real life and have profound ideological content. His criticism is like a gun and a sword.
① Thin and healthy bamboo painting: Zheng Banqiao painted bamboo, "like a slope man, with more chaos and less sparse, out of habit, the beauty is unparalleled". The Scholars in Qing Dynasty said that he spent two-thirds of his time writing vivid bamboo pictures. He once wrote a poem: "For forty years, he painted bamboo branches, and he wrote thoughts during the day and night, which made him redundant and thin. He painted them as soon as he was born." Later, he said: "There is nothing to learn where I draw bamboo, and there are more middle ears than paper windows and powder walls." Through observation and artistic creation practice, he refined the theories of "having bamboo in his eyes", "having bamboo in his chest" and "having bamboo in his hands". "Bamboo in the eyes" is a natural scenery, an observation of nature and an experience of painting; "Bamboo in the chest" is the conception of artistic creation; "Bamboo in hand" is the realization of artistic creation. He organically combined subjectivity and objectivity, phenomenon and imagination, truth and art, and created a realm of learning from nature and being superior to nature.
Bamboo in nature exists objectively. Bamboo in the eyes of painters is different from bamboo in nature, and then it needs to be processed and subjectively treated to form a bamboo in mind. This is what the painter said. When it falls on paper, it will become a bamboo in his hand. "Bamboo in the hand" refers to a kind of "second nature" created by the painter. Whether it is bamboo in the chest or bamboo in the hand, it is the sublimation of bamboo in his eyes. In a word, it is what the painter sees.
When Zheng Banqiao was the magistrate of a county in wei county, Shandong Province, he painted "Painting Bamboo in wei county for 30 Years". The bamboo in the painting is no longer the "reappearance" of natural bamboo. This poem is no longer a poem without feelings. Through painting and poetry, people think of Banqiao's character. As a magistrate, he remembered the sufferings of the people from the rustling bamboo in Yazhai, which showed that he had people in his heart. At this time, the image of bamboo leaves in the painting has expanded, and the scene of Zheng Banqiao opening a warehouse to help the victims has emerged in people's minds. The "frozen moment" has become an infinite story in the audience's mind, like an infectious novel or movie, which is gripping and thought-provoking. A few strokes of bamboo leaves and a few concise poems make people feel the profound thoughts and affection contained in the works. There are also some photos of Zheng Banqiao leaving wei county after he was demoted, three donkeys, a car full of books, and remain uncorrupted, walking before and after. There is a bamboo painting that says: "If you lose a black veil, you will not be an official, but your pocket is cold. Write a thin bamboo and get a bamboo fishing rod in the autumn wind. " With bamboo, he can express his calm mentality of abandoning his official position for the people, being indifferent to fame and fortune and enjoying life. The other is ". Zheng Banqiao expressed his free and easy, open-minded mind with bamboo, and expressed his character of bravely facing reality and never giving in to setbacks. Bamboo is personified. At this time, "poetry is an invisible painting, and painting is a visible poem." Similarly, there are "Zhu Mo Map" and "Bamboo Map". These maps of Zhu Mo are all based on bamboo to show that he has become more and more free and easy after being relegated. Most of the bamboo paintings and poems painted by Zheng Banqiao take feeling bamboo as the theme, expressing the feelings of "listening to the rustling bamboo in Yazhai, suspecting that it is the voice of the people's sufferings", showing the perseverance of "taking root in the rocks and letting the east, west, north and south wind" and expressing the integrity and spirit of "writing a thin bamboo and throwing away the black veil". This is where Zheng Banqiao's works are different from traditional flower-and-bird paintings and their predecessors. Traditional Giurlando takes viewing and entertainment as its theme, and its pictures mainly pursue the truth and beauty of natural images, the level of painting skills, and the skillful and elegant use of pen and ink. However, in Zheng Banqiao's works, painting poems not only achieve these skills and techniques, but also endow this theme with new ideological content and profound artistic conception, so that flower-and-bird paintings can also be ideological and lyrical, giving people a profound feeling.
② Peak stone map
Zheng Banqiao's bamboo paintings are unique, and so are his stone paintings. No matter how heartless nature is, the stones in his works are alive, such as the stones in the Column Map, which is also a common theme in previous paintings, but it is rarely shown as the main image. But Zheng Banqiao painted an isolated peak stone in the middle of the painting, but it has the spirit of soaring into the sky, and there is no background around it. Draw four seven-character poems: "Who is lonely and lonely, a pillar of heaven, straight, Tao Liangyuan, five fights break my waist." Poetry debunks the topic of painting, and combines stones and characters at once, which can be described as "painting is insufficient and the topic is more than enough, painting is silent and poetry is vocal." Poetry and painting serve each other and open countless ways for future generations. "Zheng Banqiao praised Tao Yuanming with a firm stone. Banqiao praised his upright character and noble character, but at the same time he seemed to reveal his own experience and tolerance. The stone in the painting represents the image of the characters, and contains the characteristics of integrity and momentum, which makes people feel that painting stones here is more meaningful and can reveal profound meanings than painting people.
(3) Orchid paintings: There are many paintings with orchids as the theme in Zheng Banqiao, and some new contents are also shown, which are expressed by poems with themes, implying views on various things. For example, some people borrow the characteristics of orchids, showing that they are not arrogant in victory, unyielding in failure and holding a normal mind. The poem said: "Orchids are related to bamboo books, always between green mountains and green waters. Frost and snow do not fade, spring is unknown, and people laugh red and purple." Orchids are accompanied by people, and people should be as quiet, lasting and fragrant as orchids, neither floating nor impetuous, nor striving for beauty. Paintings that are close at hand have unlimited development and far-reaching artistic conception. Another example is: some borrow a clump of orchids with some thorns in the middle to express the magnanimity of a gentleman who can tolerate villains. The poem "Stone Map of Thorns and Orchids" says: "Don't let thorns turn into orchids. Outsiders look at it coldly, and when they see the mixed fish and dragons, they know that Buddhism is vast and long. " Another picture, "The Bluethorn Stone Map", said, "All pictures are gentlemen, and then what happens when you stab?" ? Mr. Gai can tolerate villains, and without villains, he can't be a gentleman. Therefore, orchids among thorns make flowers flourish. "Banqiao is unique, and several piercings are inserted between orchids. Painting orchids and thorns coexist, expressing the magnanimous mind of "being a hero after tempering" when encountering villains, and being open-minded and living in harmony, and readers also benefit a lot. The more I read, the more I feel that simple plants have far-reaching artistic conception and endless fun. Looking at the Lanzhushi painted by Zheng Banqiao, we can easily see the reason why he likes to paint Lanzhushi. As he said, "Orchids that never fade in the four seasons, bamboos that last forever, invincible stones, unchanging people" and "are also for the sake of four beauties". There are orchids, bamboos, stones, knots, incense and bones. In his eyes, the blue bamboo stone can represent people's loyalty, selflessness, perseverance, bright heart and noble character, so every word of his poems has far-reaching artistic conception.
④ Painting: The paintings in his works are not only ideological and lyrical in content, but also more artistic and interesting in form. Painting and poetry can fully reflect the artistic interest of "painting and calligraphy are of the same origin" and "painting method is the same", while the traditional painter's inscription and postscript mostly focuses on the blank space of painting and plays a balance role with the picture. However, the inscription and postscript of "Eight Eccentrics in Yangzhou" has been divorced from the inscription and postscript of traditional Chinese painting and literati painting, especially the combination of Zheng Banqiao's calligraphy and painting. For example, in "Shi Lan Map", Zheng Banqiao skillfully combined poetry with calligraphy and authentic Cao Li seal, and the size was strewn at random, just like "paving the road with stones" on a stone wall, which replaced the method of painting stones, resulting in the beauty of rhythm and rhythm, which just showed the three-dimensional sense and texture beauty of stones in the field, which was better than the method of painting stones alone. This has become an indispensable expression method, which not only profoundly reveals the characteristics of orchids, but also implies the artistic beauty of noble character, which has the artistic beauty of calligraphy instead of calligraphy. People can not only appreciate the artistic beauty of painting and poetry, but also appreciate the formal beauty of calligraphy art and immerse themselves in poetry. In addition, in many of Lan Zhushi's paintings, his poems are diverse, unconventional and eclectic, which naturally becomes interesting, makes a good book fit the line, and adds a lot of color to the paintings. The so-called decent style is to conceive according to the actual picture and pay attention to the formal beauty of composition. Therefore, he will write poems on the side, up and down, vertically and horizontally, or between orchids and vines, and observe its shape intermittently, uneven and dense. It is a book, a title, a painting, a poem, a poem and a painting. Appreciating the poems inscribed in each painting is not only a wonderful reproduction of calligraphy, but also a comprehensive art that makes calligraphy and painting set each other off. The book title and the picture are organically integrated, which constitutes a unified poetry and gives people a comprehensive and perfect artistic enjoyment.