Yue, from Manchu, 1902, from Jiaxing, Zhejiang. According to Yue's genealogy, he is the 28th grandson of Yue Fei and a descendant of literary historians. After this noble family, he comes from the Han family. He was poor and dropped out of school. I became an apprentice at the age of thirteen and studied painting after work. His teacher is Zhong Xiaomou, a painter of the Yuan-Han School in Jiaxing. In the later Ming Dynasty, Zhou Zhimian was followed by Zhang Xiong, Zhu and Wang Li, especially Zhang Xiong. Zhang Xiong was one of the pioneers of early Shanghai painters. He has lived in Shanghai for the longest time. He is "famous, and salty is the highest in Shanghai". Although Yue's painting career did not leave Jiaxing, he was deeply influenced by Shanghai painters in the neighborhood, pursuing both refined and popular tastes, preferring bright colors, full composition, festive and auspicious. In the old society, painters had to cater to buyers' preferences when selling paintings, otherwise they would starve, let alone support their families. Yue, who was born in poverty, certainly understood why. Over time, he formed his own sweet and vulgar folk painting style. Sweet and vulgar painting style is a derogatory term in the eyes of many experts, but don't forget that for a professional painter who sells paintings for a living, this is his way of survival and the foundation of survival. On the subject of painting, Yue Lao is also an all-rounder who is good at landscapes, flowers and birds, and figures. This is also a necessary housekeeping skill for professional painters in the old society. He can only be good at painting, but he can't help painting, so as to meet all kinds of buyers. Comparatively speaking, Yue Lao is good at flowers and birds, especially at painting plum and tile. Wang Bomin, a famous art historian, commented: "His figure paintings are full of gods, flowers and birds are interesting, and landscape paintings are also beautiful." Compared with ordinary folk professional painters with low educational level, Yue Lao can teach himself poetry besides painting. Jiaxing is not only known as a master of painting and calligraphy in the south of the Yangtze River (far from it, according to the list of painters and calligraphers compiled for nearly 300 years, there are as many as 2,000 in the Qing Dynasty), but there are also many literati in Jiaxing, and Yue is more comfortable learning poetry in the hometown of poetry and painting with such a strong cultural atmosphere. He learns poetry not from words, but from spoken English, and I write my own poems. He wrote in a poem about health preservation: get up early and have a good sleep. Seven minutes full, often running. Smile more and don't worry. Busy every day, never getting old. Walk 5,000 steps every day and sleep for six hours at night. Don't eat too much, and work and rest should be balanced. There is always joy in the heart and no complaints in the mouth. Patience can nourish happiness, and happiness can prolong life. Kinetic energy fitness, static energy nourishing the heart. Cigarettes and spirits, chronic poison. If you are short-lived, you can quit and increase your life. Life is a passer-by, don't take it too seriously.

This "Longevity Song" is clear, catchy and full of philosophy. What is commendable is that Yue Lao can also integrate poetry into his paintings, which makes his flower-and-bird paintings full of poetic meaning. Take this painting named Dimfragrance as an example. On the surface, it seems a bit irrelevant. The author of Dimfragrance is also an inscription by Yongmei. Generally, people who paint plums usually match them with ink plums (also known as Bai Mei) or green plums, while Yue does the opposite, showing them with bright palace powder (plum). Has it not lost the meaning of "Dimfragrance"? But wait a minute to criticize, Yue Lao's palace powder (plum) is still mixed with bamboo, which is painted with an empty pen. Mei is bright, bamboo is dark, Mei is near, and bamboo is far away. The word "Dimfragrance" comes from the name of Yongmei epigraph. Cann't you taste it from bamboo? What's more, putting plum and bamboo together and calling them "fragrant and clear" does not hinder the meaning of the word "Dimfragrance". From this point of view, Yue Lao named this painting "Zhu Mei Shuangqing" after Dimfragrance, which is not irrelevant or arty, but his good intention to appreciate elegant customs.