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A generation of Chinese painting master Qi Baishi painted story

A generation of Chinese painting master Qi Baishi painted story

By Elora HaysPublished about a year ago 6 min read
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Qi Zishi, a master of Chinese painting, was born in Xiangtan County, Hunan Province. He was born into a poor family and a carpenter. He learned poetry, engraving, and painting from teachers at the age of 27.

He has a poem said: "Hang a book without corners late, twenty-seven years began to have more than a teacher lamp without oil what harm, self-burning loose fire to read Tang poetry", it is a matter of study since childhood. Due to the difficulties of his family life, Qi Baishi only studied with his grandfather for less than one year. His knowledge and skills were all acquired by self-study.

Self-study also must follow the teacher. The first teacher named Hu Qinyuan, can draw meticulous brush flowers, birds, grass, and insects, and write Han Li, poetry can also write. Chen Shao-fan was the old master of the Hu family, and he was willing to teach Qi Zishi how to read. "I'm old. I'm afraid it's too late." At that time, Qi Baishi once thought that he was 27 years old, and I am afraid that he could not learn anything. Hu Qinyuan smiled and said to him, "You have read the Three-Character Classic: Su Laoquan, 27, became angry and read books. You are 27 years old, why not learn from Su Lao Quan?"

Learn from Su Lao Quan and work hard. This was Qi Zishi's goal. When he was thirty years old, he was very good at painting and became famous in his hometown.

Qi Baishi not only studied painting and poetry but also calligraphy and seal cutting. Once, in the home of the people who invited him to paint, he met a seal carving "master", he asked the "master" to carve a seal.

A few days later, he went to inquire about the finished carving and the "master" handed the engraved stone back to him and said he would grind it out again. When he looked at the stone, it was smooth, but since the master said, grind it. After grinding it and sending it to him, he dragged it out for several days, and when he inquired again, the "master" threw the stone at him, saying, "If you don't have a flat, take it back and grind it again." The fault was not that the stone was not smooth, but that the "master" looked down on people who were carpenters.

In anger, Qi Baishi took the stone back, took a pedicure knife, and carved it by himself. That night, he carved a seal, and it was still very young. This was the beginning of his study of imprint management. At that time, there was no money to buy printer J. For stones, he used castor oil mixed with stone yellow and Zhangdan to replace the printing mud. He used the stones of his hometown to make stone seals, grinding and carving them, and creating his style regardless of the traditional line ink. He recalled that year engraved the situation most said: "more than learning to print, after grinding, grinding and publication, the room into a deep, desire to move to the west......"

In his persistent efforts, he took "heavenly interest over people" as the goal and created boldly. At that time, someone praised: "from the stone seal, its knife straight down, long can be an inch, deep can be half a meter, the stone is not hard, immediately cracked, lightning, suddenly formed."

Qi Baishi's painting, materials, composition, brush, and ink have their characteristics, but in the beginning, he lacks his style. After the age of 40, Qi Baishi traveled to all parts of the North and south five times and left his footprints on the five famous mountains and rivers, Wuxia Dongting, Pearl River, and Yellow River. It played a significant role in broadening his vision and mind.

At the age of 50, Qi Baishi moved to Beijing. At the age of 57, the old and strong Qi Baishi announced that he would "reform": "I have been painting for several decades, but did not declare my intention. From then on, I decided to make a big change. I do not want people to know that I will starve Jinghua to death. Qi Baishi had extraordinary courage. He respected his teachers but did not follow them. The more skillful you become, the more you feel your limitations.

Qi Baishi "crossed the rubicon"! The essence of his reform is to free himself from the bondage of thought, which is only physical and not expressive.

Change is bound to meet resistance. The prejudices of the world, the conservative opinions, began to come upon him, calling him hungry. Qi Baishi believed that "after a hundred years, there will be public opinions", so there is no need to spend much time. He also borrowed the painting Ming Zhi, who painted a picture of lotus fish: a red hibiscus hanging upside down in the water, far away from the flower branches, swimming to a small fish, charming flowers shining in the water, swimming fish shadow. The Fleur was charming and stately, standing confidently erect, and sometimes stooping to steal that fussy shadow fish, Mr. Conservative. Today, when we appreciate the Baishi old man's masterpiece, how can we not sincerely admire his valuable reform spirit?

Qi Baishi's outstanding artistic creation has won high praise from the people of China and the world. He served as a deputy to the National People's Congress, chairman of the Chinese Artists Association, and an honorary professor at the Chinese Painting Academy and the Central Academy of Fine Arts. In 1955, he was awarded the International Peace Prize.

These achievements were achieved by his decades of diligent and unremitting efforts. Throughout his life, he kept his pen in hand and waved it away, only a few times in his life when he was seriously ill or in a bad mood.

Once, his mother died, and he was so sad. On another occasion, he stopped painting because he was in a bad mood. The next day, when he was painting, he inscribed: "Yesterday there was a strong wind and I did not paint. Now I make up for it. At the same time, engraved a side seal, Wen Yun: "crazy thinking long rope tie day".

Qi Baishi often said, "God rewards those who work hard." He also likes to quote Han Yu: "Practice makes perfect diligence." When talking about his growth history, Qi Baishi also said: "from carpenter to stone mason, then changed to the painter, until now, by selling paintings for a living, a little success, in a word, in a diligent word."

Anecdotes abound about Qi Zishi's painstaking painting: when he was ninety-one years old, the writer Lao She asked him to paint a picture to show that "a baby's voice is ten miles from a mountain spring." "Frog sound" is not easy to use in the picture to show, "frog sound ten miles" is even more difficult to ink, he made a point of "spring".

He thought about it for several days and finally came up with a masterpiece: On a four-foot-long vertical axis, a stream of water was rushing down the rocks, carrying a flock of moths, and there was a little brush on the top of the mountain. How wonderful the idea is that the audience seems to hear the croaking frogs from the vague distant mountains, the happy water, the black, and lively wax fresh image. It is a wonderful drawing sound, people daydream!

Push forward by diligence, and bring forth more diligence. It is hard to make an ordinary rural carpenter a master of traditional Chinese painting.

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Elora Hays

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