Since childhood, I like to draw Zhou Yu
Nineties out of the collection
A winter morning, in accordance with the address previously provided by a friend, the reporter came to the southwestern corner of the courtyard of the Beiyuan Hotel. Unremarkable building, some simple tin small green door, let the reporter suspected that is not looking for the wrong door. Hesitantly ring the doorbell, without a moment the door opened, a face full of kindly smile of the old man, told reporters that she is Mr. Lou's wife, surnamed Wang. And soon after seeing Lou Shi Bai is also the same smile, although it is 89 years old, but in addition to the ear some not so good, the old man's body is still very strong, eyebrows are white, the end of the eyebrow there are a few extraordinarily long, and the hair echoes into interest.
Talking about the "Lou Shi Bai works collection" of the cause of the publication, today has been a master of painting Lou Shi Bai still modestly said, is to commemorate the 140th anniversary of the birth of Mr. Qi Baishi, teacher to report achievements. Interview day, Lou Shi Bai rarely mentioned himself, and "Qi Baishi" has become the highest frequency of the three words. Talking about how to embark on the road of painting, with Lou Shi Bai's own words is not to know Mr. Qi Baishi before, for painting is a kind of natural love. Childhood memories, his father often buy books to read, buy paintings to appreciate, buy old posters to study ...... these invisible cultivate Lou Shibai's love of painting and calligraphy. From the age of seven or eight, Lou Shibai began to graffiti on the walls, concrete. Every time you come back from watching Peking Opera with adults, you also always have to draw the characters in the play, such as Zhao Zilong and Zhou Yu.
Painting under the door of the white stone
Mending cracks to see the love of teachers and students
14-year-old with Qi Baishi learning to paint, 16 years old formally worshipped the teacher, followed Qi Baishi for 25 years, and eventually became a closed disciple. So far, talking about and master Qi Baishi's acquaintance, Lou Shibai is still like a family treasure: "one day in the summer of 1932, when in the Hsiangshan Salesian Hospital as an engineer father, in the long-distance bus to go to work, to see the front seat sitting in the front seat of a bearded elder and a middle-aged woman, with two children. The old man spoke a mouthful of Hunan accent, my father could not help but listen to the accent and he climbed up, only to learn that the old man is the famous Qi Baishi, to send the two children to study at the Salesian Hospital in Fragrant Hills. Later, we learned that they do not live far away from each other, they often communicate with each other. Once, to visit the door of Qi Baishi saw me imitating his brush and ink painting fan, praise, put forward two families 'easy to teach', accept me as a disciple. So, one day before the autumn in 1934, my mother bought two boxes of dried fruits and two pieces of clothing, and my father wrote a disciple post with the names of my grandchildren and grandchildren on large red paper, and led me to the old man's house in Qi to perform a simple bowing ceremony."
In the interview, Lou Shibai took out a picture called "Mending Cracks" to show the reporter, the work depicts an old woman mending clothes in the courtyard. Lou Shibai said: "the last century 20s and 30s, the same spring garden is the capital's famous restaurant, squirrel Mandarin fish do a great job, many literati often come. Once, Mr. Baishi took me to the same spring garden, under the yellow car, because of the rush to help the teacher, the car accidentally cut my shirt, because of the family's poverty, so very distressed. But Mr. Qi Baishi in order to make me happy, into the Tongchunyuan asked for a pen and paper, waving the brush and made a piece left me as a souvenir."
Changed his name to Shao-Huai, No. Shi Bai
No fake paintings of Qi Baishi
In 1937, Qi Baishi Lou Shi Bai's original name Lou Shao-Huai changed to Shao-Huai, No. Shi Bai, and engraved a side of the "Shi Bai" seal to send him. "Shao Huai" from the Confucius language: "the old man, the young man, the friends of the letter." The meaning of "Shi Bai" is mainly to urge him to learn and improve. As qi baishi's favorite disciple, lou shi bai for the teacher's brushwork is naturally very familiar. But Lou Shi Bai life adhere to the principle of learning, copying the teacher, but never make a teacher of fake paintings, although their own copy of the work of a few can be real.
"At that time, the teacher Baishi's paintings in the market is very popular, every day there are many people come to buy paintings. One day, I took a few completed paintings to ask the teacher to look at, the teacher looked after it on the table, coincidentally, Liulichang Lun Chi Zhai Mr. Tian Yi came, but mistakenly thought that this is Mr. Baishi's, and repeatedly asked to take away two. The teacher then chose one of the "reed frogs", personally inscribed: "Shaohuai disciples can mess with my real, but not forgeries, my disciples of the gentleman also."
Farm feeding ducks also painted ducks
Painting maple leaves with red acrylic
The reporter saw in the "Lou Shi Bai works", castor, ducks, deer and even ostriches, penguins have become the object of Lou Shi Bai depicted. It is reported that these subjects are not involved in Qi Baishi. Lou Shi Bai's wife to the reporter "complained": "the 1960s, Lou Shi Bai was put on the farm to feed the ducks, come back at night and keep drawing ducks, the home of the 'ducks' is simply overwhelming, I'm a little tired of him. A friend to the home to see also ate a shock, jokingly said waiting for Lou Shibai paper ducks in the future to give you for the 'Quanjude' roast duck it. I did not expect so many years past, his paintings can really change tens of thousands of roast duck."
Lou Shibai said: "1957 Bai Shi Shi died, I began to create the attempt, that year to the countryside to experience life, found that castor is a treasure, associated with the good character of mankind, and then began to use this as a theme for creative work. This painting is my first painting to leave the model of my predecessor. But the change is on the basis of inheritance, not empty. For example, when Qi Baishi painted chickens, the paper was full of chickens, with very little background. My paintings nowadays will add some background to give the chickens a concrete environment, so that the mood will be different. In terms of color, I use ink as the basis, mixed with watercolor and gouache, I painted Vancouver's maple leaves for the first time using red acrylic paint: I painted bees also made an exception to use fluorescent colors, to find a new sense of color."
Why flock to learn Western painting
Picasso once studied white stone
When the reporter mentioned in recent years, the media, the public's preference for Western painting, as well as the art market, Chinese painting, Western oil painting price disparity, Lou Shibai a little agitated: "Now the habit of the bad, a swarm of learning from the West, the words must be called Picasso, as if the entire painting industry in the 20th century only one. Nowadays, the habit is not good to learn from the West in a swarm, saying Picasso as if there is only one Picasso in the whole painting world in the 20th century. In fact, Picasso, the hottest Western painter in the 20th century, also copied Qi Baishi's paintings. When Picasso met with Zhang Daqian, he showed Zhang Daqian the copied works and said, 'Art is in the East', and he didn't understand why so many Chinese painters had to go to Paris to learn painting. Picasso had very deep realistic skills, and many of his early works were realistic, and it was only in his later years that he began to deform and change his painting style. Many of our young people learning to paint has not yet started to rush, in the name of convergence with the world to engage in abstraction, deformation, thinking that the more you do not understand the more profound, the more distorted the more fashionable."
The reporter asked Lou Shibai what his regimen was, and he smiled like a child in his nineties and said, "Painting and walking." He told the reporter, painting can make the brain focus, the body is also good, it is tantamount to practicing qigong. Walking has two meanings, one is walking, the other is traveling. He walks almost every day after dinner, visits his family in Canada every year, and went to Xinjiang last year to play a trip, and he doesn't find it hard to take the train at all.
2, Qi old knowledge of painting on the false and true
The beginning of things
China's master of Chinese painting, old Mr. Qi Baishi, once went to the south of Beijing to do business. This trip did not matter, but it led to a story.
Also coincidentally, in the street stalls, someone selling Qi Baishi's paintings, a look, all fake paintings. So damage to the reputation of the old Qi, so he was very angry, they snapped and asked: "Why are you posing as my name here to sell fake paintings to cheat people?"
Eloquent paintings seller
Paintings seller frowned, calculated, smiled a little, solemnly replied a set of words, Qi Lao heard how? Surprisingly, he was so angry that he closed his mouth. So, a set of eloquent mouth in the end spit out what is it? Please think for five minutes and post your guesses.
Zhang Haibo - he said: "My family is very poor, with an old mother, wife and children, and the occasional disaster year, there is nothing to live on. In order to make ends meet, I came up with this business. For the sake of my wife and children, you will be generous, do not publicize, save our lives." Qi Lao heard this, very sympathetic, so the anger subsided.
Su Kang--This kind of speech can dispel the anger, but it is not enough to make Qi Lao "shut his mouth". The fact that he was speechless shows that the seller of the paintings used creative thinking to come up with some reasoning in the midst of the dilemma of "total disrespect". I think, he can say: "your old man's paintings so noble, even if you spend 25 hours a day to create, our poor countryside people still can not see, can not afford to buy. Simply put, we have never even heard of your name. I will copy your paintings and sell them at a cheap price. The rich people here can buy them and take them home, and those who don't have money can come to my stall to have a look and feast their eyes on them. In this way, your paintings can make many working people enjoy the beauty, and your name will always exist in their hearts. So, is what I am doing harming you or helping you?"
Chen Qianqian - Zhang Haibo was talking about a low stance, Su Kang was talking about a medium stance, and I think there is another kind of high stance. The painting seller said, "You said it is a fake painting, good, it is a fake painting, fake in the sense that it is not painted by your own hand, but it is signed with your name, that's all. But you should know that the most important thing is not these, the key is, my fake paintings than your real painting is inferior? How much? Well, please take a close look at each of my paintings and each stroke in the painting. If you can find out something that is a little bit different from what you drew with your own hands, you are willing to fight and punish, I am at your disposal." At this, Qi Lao hurriedly bent down and scrutinized them one by one. As a result, according to his half a century of experience makes him sure: not "difficult to distinguish the authenticity", not "to fake the real", not even "exquisite", is simply his own hand painted! The old man sighed inwardly. Qi Lao sighed inwardly, "Even my own family heir could not reach such a state. It can be said that the fake is not fake ah!"
Xu Yang - I think, and super-high posture. I heard the seller of the painting say, "Please take a look at my painting first, then it's not too late to theorize." Qi old man took the painting to take a look, suddenly surprised, Qi old man is thinking, the painting seller said: "Your painting has reached the peak of your art, which is admirable. But you know, art has no limit. As you can see, my paintings have made up for every flaw in your originals, and have always been faithful to your originals, without missing any flaws. You can't hide this from me. You have now seen it at a glance, and only you can estimate how difficult it was."
Min Rui - the seller of the painting would add: "My painting is superior to yours, and the price is almost equal to nothing compared to yours. So, should I still be blamed?"
Liu Chang - the painting seller will also add: "Today's fact, should be an old saying: 'the blue is better than the blue', for this, you will not be angry!"
Zhuchi - the painting seller's superb painting level was honed on the basis of not having known his teacher. It can be seen that he is extremely revered to Qi Lao. Consequently, in the face of the long-admired master is not going to say words that are out of respect. Min Rui, Liu Chang's supplement, should be converted to Qi Lao's point of view, by Qi Lao said. Sellers of paintings to add is the experience of his growth: "I was 5 years old, I happened to see the master of the double shrimp painting, shrimp live water is clear, so that I feel magical and mysterious, and from then on the hobby of painting also. The years of confusion, to this only. 50 has passed, Fang got Mr. true words: "I sincerely hope that the disciple beyond themselves. Piety is power, therefore, have today's work."
Zhang Yue - ultra-high posture said super painting master, such a master how to set up stalls?
Painting seller said
If the discussion continues, there will be many more novel ideas. So, exactly what did the painting seller say at that time? He said, "Mr. Qi, you don't know how to make sense! It's true that these are all fake paintings. You have to understand, there is no great painter who has not been faked by others. The more people who make fakes, the more famous he is; a nobody, who does not make his fake paintings, besides, I sell these paintings cheaply. People with money still buy your real paintings, why are you angry? These words actually make the old Mr. Qi's anger is completely eliminated, closed his mouth. "
The unexpected ending
Listening to his words is not as good as looking at his paintings. Old Mr. Qi picked up a painting from the ground and said, "Let me see how well you paint." Yes, how well did he paint? How did the argument end? Think about it for 5 minutes and continue to post your speculations.
WANG YAN - Qi Lao took a look at a painting, smearing and smearing, very inferior. So he said, "You deceive the world, cheat people of their money, but also eloquent, nonsense defense. Quickly put away the stall, no more selling in the future, otherwise, I will sue you."
Liu Han - it won't. The paintings are so shitty that no one asks for them, and the sellers don't have a profit to make, so they won't sell them. In fact, it is like this: "Qi Lao took a look and already understood in his heart that the painting level of this seller is too poor, broken. But the painting is fine, and there is the original creation of the framework and every detail of the careful treatment as a basis, therefore, the beauty still jumps off the paper. So, he was warned: "If you are really interested in painting, you should start from the basics and hone your skills. In the future, shall not do this kind of unseemly hook."
Xiong Tingting - these statements, are based on the sale of paintings still have a certain level of painting, a little level of painting, who will take the risk of posing difficult it? So, without seeing their paintings, do not know their people. Only listen to his words, words like a traitor. For a moment, Qi Lao was bluffed by him. Only a look at the painting, unpleasant to the eye, is really a blasphemy to Qi Lao art. Qi Lao anger, grabbed his hand, said angrily: go, and I went to face the official. As a result, the seller of fake paintings sat in jail.
Jai Xingyu - a big painter, the eternal beauty of the chest, see his paintings have some color, thought, goodness of heart, want to accept him as their studio staff. On the one hand, we can cut off his ugly business, and slowly cultivate his beautiful morals and temperament; on the other hand, we can make him get a fixed income to support his family. Thinking of this, Qi asked, "Will you be my helper?" The painting seller froze, not believing his ears. Seeing this, Qi Lao repeated the original words again. When the man heard it clearly, he hastily fell on both knees, threw himself on the ground, and said repeatedly, "Thank you for your great kindness. In the past, I only knew that your paintings were beautiful, but today I realize that your heart is even more beautiful." Qi Lao helped him up, as if his old body, a new arm was born, suddenly felt a lot of added strength.
Feng Jie - everyone thinks in favor. In fact, the thief, the seller of paintings to see Qi Lao picked up the painting to see, they know that it is not good, entangled in the legal responsibility, can be difficult to escape. Thirty-six plans to go for the best plan. When Qi Lao was not prepared, he ran away. He knew that Qi Lao was old and couldn't catch him, and he was lucky to avoid going to jail. Qi Lao wanted to fulfill him, full of good intentions have been, see him run, quickly greeted him back. By this time, the seller of paintings had already run away. As a result, the seller of paintings feel lucky, Qi Lao feel uneasy. This is exactly, the real fake white stone, south of the city encounter, unhappy parting, the intention is difficult to fulfill.
The real result of the matter is like this: Qi Lao looked at the painting and said: "It's still a bit interesting. Let's do it this way, I'll take you as a disciple." Upon hearing this, the man got down and kowtowed to Old Mr. Qi.
Enlightenment
The story of Qi Baishi's acceptance of his disciple and its related discussion enlightens us in many ways.
1. Unique Unique or Unique
Uniqueness is the spirit and life of art. Imitation, plagiarism, and repetition have always been the enemy of artistic creation. Unique at the top of the creative thinking divergent thinking on the uniqueness of the performance of more than problem-solving novel and vulgar new insights.
Whitehead even accepted the seller of fake paintings who tarnished his reputation as a disciple, behind this unique way of dealing with the problem, it is his unique thinking. Writing is a kind of thinking and emotionally very active creative labor, both through observation to obtain materials, but also through the need to imagine to enrich the material, through association to conceptualize the material. Imagination, association, creation, is the trilogy of thinking.
At the same time, we should also realize that the art of painting is the art of imagination. Mr. Qi not only put the high imagination ability in the works, in this short story, we also see the flash of light, the act of accepting the apprentice has a rich imagination connotation. In the moment of his acceptance of the apprentice, the wings of imagination fly both to the distant past experiences of the seller of paintings and to the possible future course of the new apprentice's development.
3. Mr. Li Kuchan, he was passionate about art. He was a painter of birds and flowers, a true disciple of Qi Baishi. He was also a famous ticket holder, specializing in brass hammers. He believed that the arts were interconnected: he found the rhythm of the brushwork in the figure of the steel fork; when he lifted his brush and dyed it, he spilled out the traces of the euphemistic meandering of the singing voice. But he still can't figure out how to inspire the Chinese people's political consciousness with this flower and bird painting.
Mr. Li Kuchan was Mr. Qi Baishi's favorite disciple, Mr. Qi praised him in this way:
Yu disciples hundreds of people, people also learn my hand, Ying also take my heart, Ying also over me, Ying also invincible, in the coming days, if Ying is not to enjoy the great name, heaven and earth is no ghosts and gods carry on! Mr. Li Kuchan a teacher of a student's praise, nothing more. I should add: Mr. Li Kuchan was also called Li Ying at that time. Later, Mr. Ai Qing recalled that Mao Zedong paid considerable attention to his hometown, Xiangtan elder Mr. Qi Baishi. It was probably because Mr. Qi was still an honorary professor at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, and he was too shy to immediately smash the rice bowls of those flower and bird painters who were really useless to the new society or the new regime. It is said that Mr. Li Kuchan once lost his teaching post. He once wrote to Mao Zedong himself that the young Mr. Li had studied at Peking University, where he was attached to the French Work-Study Association, and had been a fellow student of Mao Zedong for several months.
Originally, he and Mao Runzhi intended to go to France for work-study, but the French authorities, in view of the "complexity of the character flow" of these students, in fact a group of peasant revolutionaries like Mao Zedong, fearing that it would affect the stability of the situation in France, decided that all work-study students would not be given visas.
It's true that history can't be rewritten to turn back the clock. If Mao Zedong had gone to France to study, he might have been able to listen to Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping after the founding of the country. But who knows the mysteries of history? And who knew what was in store for him?
At that time, Mr. Li Kuchan took the strength of alcohol, waved his pen to the year Mao Runzhi: Now my thing, Chiang Kai-shek does not care, I have to find you ......
Just when the founding of the country, the human condition is still very strong, are still more like ordinary people, have not yet cultivated to become a special material made of the kind of people. After the former fellow students asked, Mr. Li Kuchan just barely kept this Central Academy of Fine Arts bowl.
April 15, 1950, the Central Academy of Fine Arts was thus established, Mr. Xu Beihong is the president, Comrade Jiang Feng is the vice president, Mr. Wu Zuoren is the provost. I think my father is a great revolutionary, that year the meaning of the phrase, is the meaning of the most crazy play at that time. In the eyes of a child, Laozi was the best in the world. I guess that's where the phrase "Laozi is the best in the world" came from. Then people started calling themselves Laozi for some reason, and those people were probably even more mixed up than I was, so what's the advantage of being Laozi? What's the benefit of being an old man? And you're the best in the world if you're an old man? Ridiculous, when the old man's suffering for a moment can not be said, wait until you have a son is the old man, only to know the taste of the old man. If Laozi means Mr. Li Er and says he is the best in the world, I can still accept it. It means that you think his philosophy is more to your liking, and that each has its own good points. You have the right to say so, he can also change this sentence to: Zhuangzi world first. He's got one thing going for him. He never mentioned to me that my father wore a yellow uniform to the Central Academy of Fine Arts. Later, after he became a civilian official in a muddle, he became a superior. So his subordinates are particularly enthusiastic about me, some people see me more confused than my father, they whispered to me, my father in the two acres and three quarters of land, high prestige, prominent position. Who wasn't happy to hear this at that time? In fact, we have all forgotten the philosophy of Laozi: blessing is the source of woe ah. Artists at the beginning of the founding of the country joined forces to create the "Korean People's Army Chinese People's Volunteer Army Long Live the Victory" also in 1951, these painters who came together to collaborate on a propaganda painting against the U.S. and aid to North Korea, which is their unprecedented cooperation under the new guidelines for the development of fine arts, the work is the "Korean People's Army Chinese People's Volunteer Army Long Live the Victory". The author is published as follows: Zhang Ding, Dong Xiwen, Li Ruinian, slip Tianyou, Li Keran, Li Kuchan, Huang Jun, Tian Shiguang, Zou Peizhu, Wu Guanzhong.
To Yan'an to the painter, painting this revolutionary propaganda painting is really familiar, but the original National Art College professors, this is really a new attempt and start. You think of these painters, originally not a kind of painting, not to mention a style.
Mr. Dong Xiwen is an oil painter, painting propaganda painting modelling is of course competent; slippery Mr. Tianyou and Ms. Zou Peizhu are sculptors, it is a bit of a stretch; to the landscape painter Mr. Li Keran has a duck on the shelf, but he has some character modeling of the base, the past has also drawn character sketches; Mr. Li Kuchan's speciality is the birds and flowers, he is accustomed to the eight mountains of the artistic language, do not put the American imperialism, but also to the Chinese painting of the Chinese painting, and the Chinese painting of the Chinese painting. Mr. Li Kuchan's speciality is painting flowers and birds, he is used to Bada Shanren's artistic language, not to dye the American imperialism into a black-eyed chicken even if; Mr. Huang Jun's speciality is the line drawing of heavy color figures, then at least he can outline the outline; Mr. Tian Shiguang's brushstrokes of flowers and birds can only be outlined; Mr. Wu Guanzhong's brain is clear at the time, it can't be swung to the propaganda paintings of the French school of pointillism; Mr. Li Ruinian is the painter who came back from Brussels, and he has to be as careful as Mr. Wu. Mr. Li Ruinian was an oil painter who came back from Brussels. When I look at this collectively created propaganda painting now, it seems that I can see how all the people of China were united in their hatred and enthusiasm. After these painters were collected, they had to take more than just a bath. In the words of Alexei Tolstoy on the title page of his novel, they had to be--
Soaked three times in blood, immersed three times in lye, and washed three times in water before they could be cleaned up. Hey, revolution is so hard. Then I heard that Yanjing University was soon canceled, and the city's Peking University merged, which is now Peking University. Tsinghua side of the life is just as bad, in that side of the bath water must be much hotter than this side. In the end, the faculty of the Central Academy of Fine Arts was still a group of relatively peaceful craftsmen in the eyes of the leaders of the new China, and compared with the PhDs who came back from overseas, they were still closer to the masses of workers and peasants.
If Mr. Mao Zedong hadn't followed up with the mass movement that turned the world upside down and let them paint so seriously, what kind of historical trajectory would these painters have left behind? What kind of journey would they have gone through? And where would they have gone in the end? I can't imagine.
At the same time, Mr. Xu Beihong and Mr. Li Hua, Mr. Ai Zhongxin, Mr. Xia Tongguang and other painters also collaborated on the propaganda painting, "And to give the war mongers a more serious blow and lesson". In wartime, the task of painters is to support the front line and educate the people. It is really inconceivable when you look at it that these two propaganda paintings were actually a masterpiece collaborated by these masters of art. This is indeed an unprecedented collaboration, absolutely. Hordes of free intellectuals, in the compounds of Tsinghua and Peking Universities, in various colleges and universities, in research and cultural units, were taking baths, adapting to today's water temperatures, and looking at Mr. Zhang Dongsun, who was the first one to be dragged out of his house, saying that he was guilty of espionage by communicating with a foreigner, but he would not be arrested, and would be kept under control in his house. It was wartime, and everyone bathed in hot water, slowly rubbing the sludge off themselves. Who dared to say a word? No one could believe Mr. Zhang Dongsun's self-defense, and no one was there to listen. The freelance artists of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, no matter where he came from, no matter what kind of paintings he painted, all of them really took a scalding bath. We were too young to see it, but we only heard the old people say that people at that time forced Mr. Wang Linyi, a sculptor who came back from France, to kneel on the stage of the Central Academy of Fine Arts with a shovel on his head, saying that he was an embezzler. His French wife, Wang Hene, sat calmly on the stage and waited for him to come home, no matter how long it took. When the shadows of the old trees were slanting, the two of them, the old couple, walked east along Dongdan Sanjie, crossed the intersection, and went back to the small courtyard in Qifenglou Hutong. Many of Beijing's hutongs have names you can playfully reverie.
This was a real eye-opener for the artists, who have lived in Beijing for a long time. It was a piece of cake for the group from Yan'an, but it was certainly one of the gentlest procedures necessary to fight the landlords in the land reform.
People say he embezzled the people's millet, the millet of the anti-Americanists, at a time when the enemy was at large. It was good that the campaign passed before he could commit suicide. Naturally the people concerned apologized again, people are misunderstood, but also all remain good comrades. This is another Yan'an movement late Wang Mazi mode, people also see see. Really high tactics, salvage the prestige of the party, not wrongly accused a good person. At the same time also let everyone understand the dictatorship of the proletariat so majestic, look at those who were shot old **** production party members Liu Qingshan, Zhang Zishan, founding ministers into a corrupt official, kill as usual, do not let go of any kind of bad people. Beijing Hutongs - rich Hutong nineteen in the Dongcheng District, Lao She's former residence (provided by Li Yuxiang) Whenever the New Year's Eve, Beijing's predominantly gray Hutongs will pick out brightly colored five-starred red flags, in the wind and sand unique to Beijing, flaunt.
4. Remembering the Whitehead Master
Liu Shudu
In 1927, introduced by Comrade Li Kuchan, I studied seal-carving with the old man Whitehead as my teacher. At that time, I was studying at the Beijing Women's Teacher's University, and I learned to carve seals in my spare time.
Mr. Baishi specialized in chisel seals of the Han Dynasty after he was sixty years old, and when he took me on as his pupil, he asked me to study the Han bricks first, and to build up my basic skills. Among the modern seal carvers, Mr. Bai Shi held Hugh Chang and Huang Mufu in high esteem, and wanted me to learn from them. I was told repeatedly that seal-carving had a long history in China, and that in order to learn it well, it was necessary to [learn from all], (and not stick to one family), and that since you had been my student, you should of course learn from me, but you should not learn from Qi Baishi by studying him to death. The teacher himself did exactly the same thing. Although he specialized in Han seals, he was not confined by them, but was able to step out of the box and innovate boldly in both seal script and knife skills.
I remember that I went to my teacher's house whenever I had time, and brought my own (homework)-carved seal tops to ask him to comment on them, and sometimes, when I saw him painting, I would leave the tops at his place, and write some comments when he was free. In this way, a long time, I have a lot of books on hand, the teacher has been corrected by the seal, these seals I have been treasured, but unfortunately after ten years of the Great Depression, only two books left. Now open these two books of the seal, reread the teacher fifty years ago, really a lot of feelings. Nearly one hundred of these seals, almost all of the teacher made a detailed critique, some affirmation, some praise, more criticism and guidance, and some of them even drew a special demonstration of seal characters. From the teacher's strong handwritten comments, you can see how careful and meticulous he was in correcting my (homework).
The teacher had a habit of making seals in the early morning or at night, so although I often went to his home, I was never able to see him make seals in person, which was of course a pity. A few years later, I finally found an opportunity to ask my teacher to seal the seal of Bai Shi's disciple for me on the spot, so that I could see with my own eyes how my teacher sealed the characters and used the knife, and was greatly inspired. Teacher in the margin of this seal engraved: Yu said: the sages teach people to learn literature still belongs to the remaining force, I am ashamed of carving small skills, coupled with the nature of the wild, that can be a teacher, life in the gold and stone as well. Shudu said: Yu Fei heard early (white stone disciple) seal, is engraved by the husband, please re-ratio. Yu can no longer but, published and remembered. I was very touched by this modest attitude. Later, the teacher also carved for me (thousand stone seal room) seal, these two seals I still keep.
After I graduated from college, I became a middle school teacher, and I still insisted on printing after work. In the middle of this period, I also carved two seals for Mr. Lu Xun. Mr. Baishi thought that my seal carving "has improved greatly over the past few years", and went out of his way to enthusiastically write for me many times to recommend "Confessions". At the end of 1931, I wanted to compile the seals I had carved in the past few years into a book, and Mr. Bai Shi, who was nearly seventy years old at that time, wrote a short preface for me with great enthusiasm. The text said: "from the spirit of the spirit of the skill belongs to the scholar, have not heard of women and can, that is, Ma Xianglan's painting of orchids, Mrs. tube of bamboo painting, a see know is a woman, want to think of boudoir want to drive the scholar is not easy ear. The disciple Liu Shudu's engraving, the first study of the ancients get Han method, often to print top to present Yu, seal law knife work without children's gas, take the long of the ancients, the short of the division law, especially for the boudoir special also." It should be noted that the teacher's evaluation of me, I actually did not do, is not ashamed to take responsibility for, but from here can not clearly see the teacher's sincere encouragement of the students and high expectations?
And now, I myself is over eighty years old, I have carved nearly a thousand seals in my life, if I have made a little achievement in seal carving, it is inseparable from the teacher's education and cultivation