Riding the wind of rebirth

Zhou Zhi's words were not just flattering. Although he already had enough good things in his hands, he did not have any of these three things. It would be a lie to say that he was not coveting them.

Moreover, these three paintings have important academic value. For example, Liang Kai's words contain many images of golden lotus in fire and evil spirits in hell. These are closely related to the study of ancient theology and the taboos and precepts of chanting the "Huangting Jing" in the Song Dynasty, and can fill some academic gaps.

Another example is Shen Zhou's paintings, "Comeback" and "Dongshan Feast", which have gradually become popular since the Tang Dynasty and reached their peak in the late Ming Dynasty. According to the "Xuanhe Painting Album", Cui Bai, a painter in the early Northern Song Dynasty, once painted "Xie An Dongshan Picture", and Zhu Xi of the Southern Song Dynasty also wrote an inscription for a "Xie Anshi Dongshan Picture"; Sun Chengze in the early Qing Dynasty once collected a green and blue "Liu Songnian Dongshan Silk and Bamboo Picture". According to Sun Chengze's description, the scenery in the painting has many similarities with Shen Zhou's "Imitation of Dai Jin's "Xie An Dongshan Picture"

Yu Ji, a famous scholar and bureaucrat in the Yuan Dynasty, wrote a poem titled "Xie An's Tour to Dongshan". Gong Xingzhi, a scholar in the Yuan Dynasty who lived a little later, also saw a painting of "Dongshan". The image of Xie An was "wearing a black hat and a green shirt". Among the paintings appreciated by Gu Ying at the famous "Yushan Elegant Gathering" in the late Yuan Dynasty, there was also a painting of "Dongshan".

The key to this theme is the combination of characters and landscapes, the conflict between the quiet and secluded interest in the mountains and the lively and extravagant feast of sound and color. Another charm is Xie An, who lived in seclusion and did not serve in the government, but lived a romantic and luxurious life. He was unrestrained, but he was not corrupt and decadent, but accumulated strength for his future rise. In his story, there is both seclusion and meritorious service; there are both beauties and green mountains; there are both singing and dancing and feasting, and there are also worries about worldly affairs.

Because of this, Xie An can be regarded as one of the models of the ideal life of literati. Of course, Zhou Zhi believes that it is more of an excuse for the shameless literati of later generations to pursue "similar in form but not in spirit" for the sake of pure comfort and enjoyment, but there is no doubt that this theme became popular among the literati who flattered and imitated each other.

Since this subject was created, it has been studied by painters of all dynasties. They would habitually copy the paintings of famous artists of the previous dynasty, and then their own works would become the objects of copying by later generations, thus creating a kind of inheritance relationship. This relationship has very important research value for studying the evolution of ancient Chinese green landscape paintings.

The "Du Fu Poetry Scroll" has been passed down in an orderly manner and is undoubtedly a genuine work of Wang Yuanqi. The most rare thing about it is the two types of characters, official script and running script, especially the running script, which has a lot of characters, enough for people to thoroughly study its calligraphy characteristics.

Wang Yuanqi was very famous and lived in a recent period, so there are many imitations of his works. There are also many imitations of his works that have been handed down.

This painting by Wang Yuanqi, which has the most text and the largest scroll, is enough to provide experts with a systematic standard for studying the characteristics of Wang Yuanqi's calligraphy and painting. It can then be used to compare other works and provide sufficient evidence for authenticity identification.

"Don't think about these three paintings, otherwise Brother Shangbo Ma will probably scold me too." Weng Wange interrupted Zhou Zhi's thoughts in time: "But you should have seen that the three paintings have been stored for too long and are in a somewhat aged state, so I would like to ask you to repair them and donate them."

"That's no problem." Zhou Zhi quickly nodded and agreed: "But I would like to ask for your opinion first."

"What's your opinion?"

Out of "professional habit", Zhou Zhi has just checked the defects of the three paintings and now has a clear idea: "All three paintings are on silk. The 'White Ink Painting of Daojun' is very similar to the 'Ruyilun Bodhisattva' by Cao Buxing, one of the Four Masters of the Six Dynasties, which I have restored. I want to use the same method as the 'Ruyilun Bodhisattva' at that time to remove the scroll, brocade railing, backing, and paper as much as possible, clean, repair, fill, and connect them separately, and then restore them using traditional methods to try to preserve all the information of the painting."

"The Du Fu Poems Scroll is relatively recent, so it is easier to repair. Many restoration materials are still in stock. Even if they are not, we have the technology to restore it in China, and it can basically be indistinguishable from the real thing. It is very simple to repair."

"There is basically no big difference in the restoration plans for these two paintings." Zhou Zhi is very confident when talking about his expertise: "The most important one is Shen Zhou's "Lian Dai Wenjin Xie An Dongshan Tu"."

"This painting was not well preserved in the early days, and it was not carefully cleaned during the Qing Dynasty restoration. The painting has been damaged until now, causing the painting to be somewhat dark and blurred. It is in urgent need of proper restoration." "There are two restoration plans for this painting. One is the new method of 'restoring the old as it was', which is to imitate the method of the Statue of Ruyilun Bodhisattva. The advantage is that it can preserve the style of the mounting at that time to the greatest extent, so that everyone can have a comprehensive understanding from the painting to the mounting."

"The downside is that the repair effect is definitely not the best, and it also needs to match the 'ancient flavor' of the mounting, and the picture cannot be cleaned too cleanly. The coordination between the two needs to be just right."

"This will also leave some hidden dangers on the painting and shorten the effective time of this repair."

"Another option is to use the traditional method of 'restoring the old as if it were new'. We will remove the painting from its mounting and conduct a comprehensive and meticulous cleaning. We will keep the mounting, scroll, backing, paper and other minor accessories if possible. If we cannot keep them, we will completely replace them with new high-quality antique materials."

"The disadvantage of this solution is obvious, that is, some peripheral, secondary original information, such as mounting materials, will inevitably be lost."

"The advantage is that the core of the painting will be restored to the greatest extent, the picture can be completely renewed, and the painting defects can be completely eradicated, achieving the effect of Shen Zhou's "Lushan Gaotu", the landscape scroll "Wei Yuan Ya Ji", and the "Landscape Painting in the Style of Ni Yunlin" in the collections of the Palace Museum and the National Museum of China."

"Is that so..." Weng Wange fell into thought.

The "Landscape Painting in the Style of Ni Yunlin" in the Shu University Museum was restored by Zhou Zhi. He has never seen it and does not know what the effect is, but the condition of "Lushan Gaotu" and "Weiyuan Yaji" is something that everyone who has studied Shen Zhou's paintings is proud of.

The effect of the mounting of the two pictures can be described by the poem of Liang Shizheng: "Shu brocade is decorated with gold and green, and Wu craftsmen gather broken gold." In addition, the most eye-catching green is used on the picture. Although the scroll is full of ancient charm, the color and brushwork are as vivid as if they were just painted, which is known as "divine work."

"Can it really achieve the effect of "Lushan Gaotu"? " Weng Wange asked again.

In fact, the "Landscape Painting in the Style of Ni Yunlin" restored by Zhou Zhi for the Shu University Museum has been highly praised by Mr. Wang and Mr. Qi, who believe that its effect is no less than that of the "Lushan High Picture".

However, Zhou Zhi was still young at the time and did not have enough experience in restoration, mainly because he had not seen many ancient masterpieces.

Under that circumstance, he dared to make harsh attacks on the masterpieces of the Four Masters of Ming Dynasty and the founder of the Wumen School of Painting. Although nothing went wrong, when the two elders found out about it later, they were also shocked and broke out in sweat. They still criticized Zhou Zhi harshly.

Zhou Zhi certainly wouldn't tell Weng Wange about this dark history, lest he give him the impression of being impetuous and daring. He just nodded at him and said, "You can definitely reach that level." (End of this chapter)