Zhongxiang Chaihu Ma's generation Qixinghuayun?

Maple Tree Myna Meng Rong

In the history of our country, Wenzhou is the birthplace of landscape poetry, Southern Opera, Yongjia School and Oracle Bone Studies. After the Opium War in 1840, the Ma family in Wenzhou Bailifang began to rise. This Ma family calls the ancestor who moved to Wenzhou in the early Qing Dynasty "Yinhuang Gong", and it has been passed down to Ma Yuzhong for the seventh generation. Ma Yuzhong was awarded the title of Executor of the Yuan Dynasty in the eighth year of Daoguang reign of the Qing Dynasty (1828). Based on the calculation of "three hundred years of calligraphy and painting heirs", Ma Yuzhong and his brother Ma Jiongzhong are exactly 150 years apart. They are not only the result of the cultural accumulation of several generations after the Ma family arrived in Wenzhou, but also the figures who inherit the calligraphy and painting heirlooms. Judging from the few remaining calligraphy works of Ma Jiongzhong, he wrote the "Holy Religion Preface" by Youjun Shenqian, and his writing was smooth and smooth. His unique skills showed the temperament of a talented man. Such calligraphy, in the impetuous style of art, In modern times, it is difficult for calligraphers to write.

The Ma family who are truly famous for their calligraphy and painting are the brothers Ma Mengrong and Ma Gongyu. In terms of pedigree, they are the eleventh generation of the Ma family, and they have inherited calligraphy and painting for more than 200 years.

Ma Mengrong and Ma Gongyu’s father, Ma Shouluo (Zhu Mei), has been engaged in the postal industry since his youth. At the same time, he also paid attention to teaching students in accordance with their aptitude and encouraged their children to learn advanced Western culture. Under the influence of this enlightened family atmosphere, brothers Ma Mengrong and Ma Gongyu graduated from the new Wenzhou Academy (now Wenzhou Middle School in Zhejiang Province) on the eve of the 1911 Revolution and were promoted to Zhejiang Higher Education School (now Zhejiang University). Literacy, and through systematic new education, they are the first batch of Wenzhou intellectuals and cultural elites to accept Western cultural knowledge at a relatively comprehensive and high level. Their investment has undoubtedly injected fresh and vibrant blood into the development of Wenzhou calligraphy and painting.

The era when Ma Mengrong was engaged in artistic creation was the period after the late Qing Dynasty when freehand flower-and-bird painting, especially Shanghai-style flower-and-bird painting, flourished. Wu Changshuo, the master of the Shanghai style of flowers and birds, adopted the freehand painting style of Fa Qingteng, Bada and Shi Tao. His brushwork was dignified and unrestrained, and his colors were rich and colorful. This became the masterpiece of a generation, just like the sun setting in the sky, dimming the stars. But Ma Mengrong did not follow suit. He knew that the reason why Wu Changshuo was so brilliant was that he was making use of his own strengths and breaking new ground. Therefore, he used his own unique brisk and elegant pen and ink, bright and bright tones, and his skill in depicting the images of flowers, birds, grass and insects to dye the paintings with stippling. For example, "Maple Leaf Myna Picture" and "Autumn Willow Singing Cicada Picture" have completely surpassed Naishi's painting style and expanded his own personal artistic space. His paintings of chrysanthemums and crabs are most praised by the painting circle and are known as "horse chrysanthemums and crabs", and he often combines the two together. Among the thousands of purples and reds, there are crabs with different shades of ink, bright red and bright and rich. The black ink blocks form a strong contrast, which is similar to the Shanghai style, but also creates a new realm.

When Ma Gongyu was young, two calligraphy styles were popular among the upper echelons of the calligraphy circles: Zhao Zhiqian's fusion of facial expressions in Wei stele running script, and Wu Changshuo's deformed stone drum script. Judging from the extant works such as "Nanxi Fenglin Village Poems" and "A Gift to Lishang Eight-Character Couplet", Ma Gongyu's works of Zong Zhao and Wu at that time were close to lifelike, and they were all written with smooth and vigorous pen and ink, and they were in control. The calligraphy style at the forefront of the times is quite profound. However, Wu Changshuo lived in Shanghai in his later years and had his disciple Cheng Lin. They adhered to the teachings of his master and were all alike, and the Wu style prevailed. As a result, the good Wu Changshuo was used in a conventional way. In the ten-mile foreign market, the wind of snobbery and competition is pervasive. The vigorous and dark Wei stele running script like Zhao Zhiqian can hardly satisfy the arty needs of the philistines. After he arrived in Shanghai, he gradually downplayed the Wu style deformed stone drum inscriptions and the Zhao style and Wei stele running scripts that he was usually good at, in order to distance himself from the current customs. He worked hard to find an elegant and vulgar way to appreciate calligraphy that would not degrade his taste or become kitsch. wind. In the following forty years of his artistic career, he mainly used the regular script of Fa Zhong and Wang, the seal script of Zong Shang, "Shi Song Gui", "Qin Zhao Edition" and "Ode to the Stone Gate", tracing the original appearance of "Shi Gu Wen", and gradually settled on the mellow style. The main tone is simplicity, elegance, cleanliness and beauty, supplemented by a calm, broad and neat style.

In the past hundred years, Bailifang Ma family’s leading position in Wenzhou culture is very eye-catching. Modern society requires people to be literate, and having high-level culture is becoming an important part of modern family construction. A modern society is unimaginable without thousands of families with modern culture. In this sense, there are too few families like the Ma family that have passed down their culture from generation to generation. Building a modern society requires more families with modern culture. It is also hoped that in the process of building modernization, more families can be nurtured with high-level culture passed down from generation to generation.

——This article is excerpted from the special topic "Research on Ma's Kunzhong" in the 62nd issue of "Xiling Art Cong", "Inspiration from Wenzhou Ma's Calligraphy and Painting and Family Cultural Inheritance", written by Zhang Ruyuan

Source: Hangzhou Daily

Editor Zhou Zhanglong

Editor Wang Ning