Silent Poems Intoning a Thousand Autumns - ’s and its Appraisal

Ding Xiyuan 丁羲元 Researcher Shanghai Fine Arts Museum

People usually refer to “Xu Wei and Chen Chun” but according to their chronological position in Xu Wei’s calligraphy and in ink had a profound influence on later generations, includ- the history of art it should logically be “Chen Chun and Xu Wei”. However, a linguistic association ing the art movements centred round Yangzhou as well as many great artists of the Shanghai School Chinese people make between the two artists’ style names and an idiomatic expression in the Chi- in the late , including Ren Bonian and . His influence has continued nese language has resulted in Xu Wei’s name assuming priority. Artistically, Xu Wei’s work is not as into the contemporary era, inspiring such artists as . Zheng Banqiao, Qi Baishi and others laboured or precise as that of Chen Chun but his influence surpasses that of Chen. Both artists were all accepted the title “servile followers of Xu Wei” as an honour. Qi Baishi even bore with pride the outstandingly talented in the realm of painting. title “Xu Wei’s scattered seed”.

The period, in which Xu Wei and Chen Chun lived coincided with the flourishing of Renaissance The course of Xu Wei’s life and the dark mood of his painting were unique for his time. It result- art in Europe, and, as in Europe, great masters came to the fore one after the other. Concurrently, it ed in a remarkable talent that was without peer in his generation and that later generations would was in the mid- that the artistic climate in China began to rapidly evolve and a period strive for but be unable to attain. His temperament and spirit, fired by mental illness, caused him to of significant transformative fermentation occurred. This happened roughly between the time of the enter into an “undifferentiated realm” when painting. He is the only artist in Chinese history that Four Masters of the Ming Dynasty (Shen Zhou, Wen Zhengming, Tang Yin and Chou Ying) and the can be compared to the impressionist artist Van Gogh. Perhaps Xu Wei should be called “China’s Van arrival of Dong Qichang. Gogh”. Or should that be the other way round? Why not say that Van Gogh was the West’s Xu Wei?

Xu Wei was a brilliant artist. His unhindered brush filled the paper with energetic strokes. He In Chinese history, Xu Wei and Chen Chun are associated with each other. In the late Ming and broke the constraints of time and space with his strange and unsophisticated conceptions. The ink, early Qing, Ba Da and Shi Tao were also associated in this way. Some people say that Shi Tao was not undulating and rippling, communicates the impression of colour. His calligraphic style is free and as good as Ba Da, while others say Shi Tao was better than Ba Da. Today, Xu Wei and Chen Chun are straightforward. Its rhythmic feeling and speed even exceed the “casual brush sketching” of Yuan viewed as superior to Ba Da and Shi Tao. Their works are more unique and more deeply express the Dynasty painters of the ilk of Ni Zan. Xu Wei’s strokes are more “galloping” as he seeks to describe artists’ lives. For this reason, they ultimately retain deeper meaning. the depression buried within his bosom. Xu Wei once wrote, “The peony in ink reveals the spirit” and “paintings are silent poems that recount a thousand autumns”. His graceful work marks ’s progression from fine brushwork to mixed fine and freehand brushwork (known as slight freehand style) and on to ink great freehand style. Its period feel is palpable.

Xu Wei only truly favoured ink. His ink strokes, free of inhibition, scattered and flowing, make his grapes drip, his houses totter on the brink of collapse, and his human figures solitary beings get- ting around on wobbly donkeys. All his subjects, without exception, deeply convey the melancholy in his heart, a personification of the subject and the artist’s own disillusionment expressed in ink. This was a step forward in the history of art. His calligraphy is like a hanging vine, swaying free and unrestrained in the breeze.

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