Riding the wind of rebirth

"Take a look at this." Weng Yijun took out a letter from under the desk and handed it to Zhou Zhi.

Zhou Zhi took it and opened it, and found that it was written in English. The content translated was: "Now is the time for me to pay tribute to Shanghai. I was born in Changshu, but I was born in Shanghai, so I feel very fortunate about this. I am in the mountains and forests of the northeastern United States, which seems like the end of the world. I can't help but miss the ancient books in my family that I have dreamed of leaving, but I am also indescribably happy that they have returned to their motherland."

"This is..." Zhou Zhi was a little surprised. After reading the content of the letter, it seemed that these books had already been given to Shanghai: "Is it already a done deal?"

"It hasn't been sent out yet." Weng Wange took the letter back. "The Shanghai Museum has been trying to get this part of the collection, but that was before I met you. Now I think your suggestion seems more appropriate. I also stayed at the Hangzhou Overseas Chinese Hotel when I returned to China last time. I know that the place is very large. After it is converted into a museum, it will be more than enough to accommodate this collection of books."

"It's just that it's a bit difficult to explain to Shanghai..." Zhou Zhi said with a bitter face: "Director Ma Chengyuan of the Shanghai Museum is not an outsider. I'm afraid he will scold me to death when I go back."

"Well, how about this..." Weng Wange asked Weng Yijun to take down three more painting boxes from the bookshelf: "There are three paintings here, namely Liang Kai's "White Ink Painting of Daojun" from the Song Dynasty, Shen Zhou's "Imitation of Dai Wenjin and Xie An's Dongshan" from the Ming Dynasty, and Wang Yuanqi's "Poems of Du Fu" from the Qing Dynasty. Can I ask you to donate them to the Shanghai Museum on my behalf to make up for it?"

"Is there any authentic Liang Kai painting handed down?" Zhou Zhi was shocked again: "Shen Zhou's blue-green landscape painting? Wang Yuanqi, the best landscape painter in the Qing Dynasty?"

"The painting is right in front of you. Why don't you open it and take a look and you'll know?" Weng Wange invited.

Of course you have to watch it. You can't miss the opportunity to improve your eyesight.

"Line Drawing of the Portrait of Taoist Master" is a fine line drawing ink painting on silk, which is divided into three major parts.

The middle part is the theme, in which the Taoist is meditating on a lotus. His image is dignified, meticulous and intricate, with fine and vigorous brushstrokes and a strong structure.

The right section shows the daily life and rituals of the Taoist temple: praying, studying scriptures, painting and sculpting statues, etc.

The left section is divided into two parts. The upper part is secular life, mostly scenes of releasing animals, giving relief and other good deeds.

The lower part depicts the image of hell, with the suffering of wind and the ghost officials handling affairs, as well as the scene of golden lotus blooming in the fire.

Although Zhou Zhi did not collect any works of Liang Kai, in fact this painting is the only one of Liang Kai's paintings that he knows of. However, he has two works by Song Dynasty painter Li Gonglin, one of which is "Xuanzong Farewell to Horses" which was collected and restored in Dayi, and the other is "Meeting at Bianqiao", one of the six scrolls in Prince Chun's Palace.

Judging from the brushwork, the figures in the painting are indeed the style of the later Li Gonglin school, but they are quite different from other figure paintings in the Southern Song Dynasty. This work is in the process of transition from Li Gonglin's complex brushwork to the simple brushwork of later generations.

The mountains, forests, springs and rocks in the picture are neither from the Northern Song Dynasty's Li Cheng and Fan Kuan's painting styles, nor from Dong Yuan's Jiangnan School of Painting. It is different from both the later Northern and Southern schools, and its neat form conforms to the characteristics of the Northern Song Dynasty.

Combined with other features, it can be basically concluded that this is an authentic work of Liang Kai.

However, it was not Zhou Zhi's turn to show off his knowledge, because on the back of the painting there was an inscription in small regular script by Zhao Mengfu, a famous calligrapher in the Yuan Dynasty, which detailed the origin of how he obtained the painting. This shows that it was already a work with a long history and was highly valued by collectors in the Yuan Dynasty.

There are many works of Zhao Mengfu's handwriting left in the world, which are easy to authenticate. With his endorsement here, there is no doubt that the painting is authentic.

This news is incredible, no less than the discovery of the works of the Four Masters of the Six Dynasties in Zhouzhi. Although the works of the Four Masters of the Six Dynasties were also discovered for the first time, three of the four pieces were copied by later generations. Although this painting by Liang Kai was copied later in time, it is a genuine authentic work.

Carefully closing the painting with a pilgrimage in mind, Zhou Zhi then took out the second painting, "Lin Dai Wenjin and Xie An Dongshan Tu" by Shen Zhou of the Ming Dynasty.

Zhou Zhi was already very familiar with Shen Zhou's works. The Shu University Museum has a "Landscape Painting in the Style of Ni Yunlin", which he restored personally. Shen Zhou's calligraphy was inspired by Huang Tingjian, which happened to be the same as Zhou Zhi's, so he paid special attention to it. There is a long article by Shen Zhou on the "Landscape Painting in the Style of Ni Yunlin" in the Shu University Museum, and Zhou Zhi took the opportunity to study it for a long time.

Later, I visited the Forbidden City and the National Museum, where I saw Shen Zhou's "A Solitary Tour on Solitary Hill" and "A High View of Mount Lushan".

The reason why I pay special attention to these two paintings is that their mounting techniques are very sophisticated, and the green and blue landscapes on the scrolls look like new works, which is incredible.

Zhou Zhi took the opportunity of repairing paintings for the two places to carefully study the pinnacle of Beijing's court repair and mounting techniques on paintings, and of course he also took the opportunity to appreciate the paintings themselves.

Because of these reasons, although Zhou Zhi did not collect Shen Zhou's paintings, he was very familiar with Shen Zhou. When he unfolded the scroll, it was like meeting an old acquaintance.

This painting shows the scene of Xie An traveling with his concubines in Dongshan, describing the idiom "rise again from the Dongshan", which refers to the story of Xie An resigning from his post and retiring to Dongshan, and later returning to his post and becoming prime minister.

There is also a self-inscription by Shen Zhou in the upper left corner of the picture, claiming that this work was copied from Dai Jin. However, the style of Dai Jin seen in Zhouzhi is completely different, still with a strong "Shen flavor". It is mainly an expression of Shen Zhou's own will, but one can also see the "spirit" of Dai's later works.

This painting contains both figures and landscapes. Whether it is the depiction of figures, the outline and filling of trees, or the texture and coloring of rocks, they are all extremely elaborate and gorgeous, reflecting Shen Zhou's serious attitude in deliberate depiction and his open-minded mind that is open to all schools of thought.

I don't know if it was influenced by Dai Jin's original work, but although this painting is in the style of Shen Zhou, it uses heavy blue and green and has rich colors. It is a unique piece among Shen Zhou's works.

However, there is no need to doubt its authenticity, because there are two seals on it, "Qinan" and "Shitian", which are Shen Zhou's commonly used seals. Regardless of the painting style, calligraphy, or seals, they are enough to prove that it is an authentic work.

However, Zhou Zhi could imagine that this painting would probably attract a lot of doubts after it was exhibited to the public. The most fundamental reason was that whether it was Shen Zhou or Dai Jin, only small green-blue was passed down, and no "large green-blue" was handed down.

On the contrary, in the late Ming Dynasty, green and blue landscape paintings with mainly outlines and heavy colors were more common.

With these doubts, the painting becomes interesting.

"Did George discover something?" Weng Wange asked.

"This painting is very interesting," said Zhou Zhi.

"Oh? What's interesting about that?"

"The futou and the flute." Zhou Zhi said, "The futou first appeared in the Tang Dynasty and was very popular in the Five Dynasties and Song Dynasty, but painters painted it on the heads of people in the Jin Dynasty."

"In addition, the red dragon-headed instrument held by the maid in the painting should be called a dragon flute. The earliest example can be found in the painting "Imitating Zhou Wenju's Palace Scene" by an anonymous painter in the Southern Song Dynasty. In it, a palace maid holds a dragon flute. The connection between the dragon head and the flute body is relatively straight, and the shape is not very twisted."

"The dragon flute also appears in Zhao Mengfu's Dongshan Silk and Bamboo Painting in the Palace Museum's collection, and the dragon head shape is very obvious."

"The beautiful lady also holds a red dragon flute, but the painter changed the flute head to a phoenix head. This is because the painter may have heard of the rules for this type of painting, but did not understand them thoroughly enough, and added his own imagination of court life." (End of this chapter)