Thoughts on reading Qi Baishi's self-reported composition

At present, many people who study Qi Baishi, including the so-called disciples of Qi Baishi, often evaluate Qi Baishi in a teasing and joking way, lacking respect for the master and serious academic spirit, and like to look for interesting things in lace, intentionally or unintentionally discrediting and weakening Qi Baishi's spiritual pursuit and artistic accomplishment. After reading the book "Qi Baishi's Self-Report", I realized that many of the statements I heard were false, and some of them were misinformed, which caused serious damage to Qi Baishi's reputation.

Qi Baishi

One of the misinformation: Qi Baishi began to learn painting at the age of 60.

There is a saying in the art world that Qi Baishi was a carpenter before the age of 60, and began to paint after the age of 60. The fact is that Qi Baishi began to copy the portrait of Leigong, the doorman of his neighbor's house, at the age of five. Later, he went to a private school and often used a red picture as a picture book, mainly drawing pigs, horses, cows and sheep he saw as models. His practice has been reprimanded by private school teachers many times, saying that he is "just playing, not doing business." Qi Baishi began to learn joinery at the age of sixteen, mainly carving and painting gold on buildings and furniture. It was at this time that Qi Baishi really embarked on the road of learning painting. Twenty-year-old Qi Baishi began to teach himself Mustard Garden, and creatively applied the paintings of Mustard Garden to wood carving, which was welcomed by customers. Qi Baishi, 26, still focuses on carving flowers. After the carving work is finished, the customer always asks him to stay and draw some pictures to decorate the facade. From then on, Qi Baishi began to earn painting income, which means that Qi Baishi started selling paintings at the age of 26. At the age of 27, Hu Qinyuan, a famous local teacher, officially started his painting career, threw away carpenter's tools and turned to be a painter. From then on, he made a living by painting.

Myth 2: Qi Baishi became famous because of Xu Beihong's support.

In fact, Qi Baishi's fame is mainly attributed to Chen Shiceng and Lin Fengmian, while Xu Beihong only renewed Qi Baishi's professorship in the Art School. 19 17, Qi Baishi went to Beijing to make a living in order to escape the war and bandits' looting, and met Chen Shiceng in Nanzhipu of Beijing Liulichang. At that time, Chen Shiceng was a famous painter in Beijing, a leading figure in painting, and a teacher of Beijing Normal School. Qi Baishi has just arrived in Beijing, a stranger, a poor family and no basis for studying abroad. His experience of making a living as a labor carpenter has become a joke in the industry. At that time, people paid more attention to the imperial examination and the painting identity in the who's who. At first, Qi Baishi learned the painting method of the Eight Great Men, and his painting style was rough and disliked by Beijingers. The price of this painting is very low and it is not easy to sell. One day, Chen Shiceng went to the Pharaoh Temple in Beijing where Qi Baishi lived, spoke highly of Qi Baishi's seal cutting, and pointed out some shortcomings of his artistic works, encouraging Qi Baishi to create his own style instead of indulging in secularism. And wrote a poem for it, praising Qi Baishi's elegant painting style, but the layman doesn't understand, don't bow their heads and try to blend in. Most importantly, in order to help the troubled Qi Baishi, Chen Shiceng went to Japan on 1922 to participate in the Sino-Japanese joint exhibition held at the Fu Ying Art Museum in Tokyo. He deliberately brought Qi Baishi's flower-and-bird paintings to the exhibition and sold them all. The price of paintings ranged from 100 to 20 silver dollars, which was about 100 times the domestic price of Qi Baishi at that time. Moreover, the Japanese filmed a documentary about the painting process and living conditions for Chen Shiceng and Qi Baishi, which was shown in Tokyo Art Institute, and the response was good, playing the role of flowering inside the wall and fragrant outside the wall. Painters in Beijing Liulichang also began to be optimistic about the prospects of Qi Baishi's paintings, and began to order paintings one after another, ready to do a speculative business. Since then, Qi Baishi has become an instant hit in Beijing, and the painting business is booming. Qi Baishi is one of the famous artists because Chen Shiceng praised his paintings to everyone and planned an exhibition. Qi Baishi is also more grateful to Chen Shiceng. Qi Baishi once said: "I will never forget him (Chen Shiceng); No one knows what I painted except Chen Shiceng. " Chen Shiceng and Qi Baishi are both from Hunan, so they have become fellow villagers and like-minded friends.

1927, 65-year-old Qi Baishi was invited by Lin Fengmian, president of Beijing Academy of Art (now the predecessor of Central Academy of Fine Arts) to become a professor. Because Qi Baishi thought he was a hillbilly, he became a professor in a foreign school for fear that students would laugh at him and look down on him. At first, he never agreed. At the repeated invitation of Lin Fengmian and his friends, he agreed. Therefore, it is not always said that Qi Baishi was invited by Xu Beihong to become a professor at the Central Academy of Fine Arts. Of course, after the founding of New China, Xu Beihong provided a lot of help when Qi Baishi won the title of People's Artist and became the representative of the first National People's Congress.

The third misinformation: Qi Baishi's integrity and character

When people in the art world talk about Qi Baishi, what they relish most is not the quality of his works and the depth of his skill, but the jokes about how stingy he is, how stingy he is, and how he cares about decorating expenses. Most jokes come from people who call themselves disciples of Qi Baishi. In fact, judging from the book "Qi Baishi's Self-Report", this is not the case at all.

First of all, talk about Qi Baishi's character. Qi Baishi lived by selling paintings all his life. He didn't curry favor with any power class, nor did he get close to being an official. Although he had several opportunities to be an official, he flatly refused. In that era when selling officials and buying officials were rampant, it was valuable to be a pure artist. During the Japanese imperialist occupation of Beijing, Qi Baishi refused to sell his paintings to Japanese soldiers and Japanese speculators, which was in sharp contrast with many traitors who took refuge in foreigners and fawned on the invaders at that time, showing his lofty patriotic feelings. How can he say that he has forgotten his righteousness? After the founding of the People's Republic of China, China was elected as the chairman of the Artists Association and the deputy to the National People's Congress, but it was also a group organization. Without salary, he still makes a living by painting and supports his family.

In Qi Baishi's self-report, there is a passage about a friend who advised him to go to Japan to sell paintings to earn money, saying, "I have lived in Beijing for almost nine years! The income from selling paintings in China in recent years is enough for me to live, no less than when I first arrived in Beijing. I am hungry now. I have food to eat and coal to burn when I am cold. Life is about contentment, and you can get it by sticking it on your mouth. Why do you need so much money? This shows that Qi Baishi is not a greedy person. Another thing, after Qi Baishi's father died, he asked his good friend Christine to write a tombstone for his parents. According to Christine's travelling expenses at that time, he gave Christine more than 120 yuan, which shows that Qi Baishi is not a person who likes to take advantage of petty gains. Although Christine and I are very good friends, we still respect the fruits of our friends' labor.

197 After the July 7th Incident, Qi Baishi didn't want to attend any festivals and dinners organized by the Japanese and Puppet. He is too lazy to talk nonsense with the Japanese puppet government. Instead, he simply posted a note on the gate and wrote twelve big words: "Old Baishi has a heart attack and stops receiving visitors." Qi Baishi thinks it is very appropriate to use the word "heart disease". Later, he put up a sign on the door, which read: "Don't sell paintings to officials, stealing paintings is unlucky." Later, he declared that "paintings will never be reduced in price, restaurants will never eat them, and photos will never be taken." It can be seen that Qi Baishi has a clear distinction between right and wrong and sacrificed small profits for justice economically. It is by no means what some people say, how much Qi Baishi cares about petty profits.

194, 83-year-old Qi Baishi saw the destruction of the country. In the face of people who often make trouble under the guise of buying paintings, he resolutely put up four big words "Stop selling paintings" at the gate, which is how difficult it is for a person who sells paintings for a living. After I stopped selling paintings, I asked my friends who cared about Qi Baishi's daily life. Qi Baishi replied, "If you live a long life, you will be ashamed to be a thief; if you are ugly, you will be hungry in Chang 'an. "This means that I am old and would rather be frozen and hungry than flatter the Japanese puppet traitors. It shows Qi Baishi's lofty sentiments. Although I don't sell paintings anymore. (fsir) But I still draw pictures every day and distribute them to my children for preservation. Many of these paintings are masterpieces that satirize Japanese puppet traitors. Taking mice and crabs as the theme, it shows that Japanese imperialism steals things like mice and crabs and runs amok. Someone advised Qi Baishi to protect himself. Qi Baishi replied, "There is nothing to be afraid of, because there was war in the old days, and there is nothing to be afraid of. "In order to win over Qi Baishi, the Japanese puppet traitors wanted him to return to the Japanese Academy of Fine Arts to teach, but Qi Baishi flatly refused, which reflected Qi Baishi's patriotic spirit at the time of national disaster.

Myth 4: Qi Baishi had five or six marriages.

The most legendary story from the media is Qi Baishi's marriage. It is said that Qi Baishi was married five times, and some said that he was married six times, which is seriously inconsistent with the facts. Qi Baishi only had two marriages in his life. The first time I got married, I was also a child bride, Chen Chunjun, and the other was that I became a concubine first and then a stepwife. 1874 Qi Baishi was twelve years old. At that time, the custom was that there were few people working at home, and boys were going to get married when they were very young. Because the girl's family is large and poor, in order to reduce the burden of eating and drinking, she thinks that her daughter will always get married. Therefore, many family girls go to their husband's house after urinating, and wait until both men and women become adults before they live together. This is the so-called child bride. Qi Baishi also married his original wife Chen Chunjun in this year. Later, Qi Baishi went to Beijing. Chen Chunjun didn't come to Beijing to live with Qi Baishi because he was reluctant to part with the property and land of his hometown in Hunan and his in-laws who needed support. However, Chen Chunjun chose Hu Baozhu, a Sichuan girl aged 18, as a concubine to take care of Qi Baishi's life, which was nothing new at that time. Chen Chunjun died on 1940 at the age of 79. 194 1 year, one year after Chen Chunjun's death, Qi Baishi, witnessed by more than 20 people, established Hu Baozhu as his second wife. Hu Baozhu died in 194 at the age of 42 and Qi Baishi at the age of 83. Then, at 1944, I introduced a lady named, whose daily life with Gu Baishi is not husband and wife. This is the explanation of marriage in Qi Baishi's self-report, which should be a relatively real situation.

Myth 5: The Age of Qi Baishi

Qi Baishi's anachronism Qi Baishi claimed to be a centenarian, but actually died in 197 at the age of 95. In the process of studying Qi Baishi's resume, Hu Shi found that Qi Baishi was two years older after he was seventy-five. Hu Shi is rigorous in his studies. After discovering the problem, he asked Qi Baishi face to face and got a very vague answer. So, Hu Shi asked Qi Baishi's good friend again, and finally found that Qi Baishi had listened to a fortune teller's words, saying that Qi Baishi was seventy-five years old, which might be a bad sign. In this way, Qi Baishi said at the age of 75 that he was two years older and avoided the age of 75. This two-year-old is superstitious and also reveals Qi Baishi's simplicity and loveliness.

It is said that Picasso praised Qi Baishi in front of Zhang Daqian. The white-bearded and fluttering old man eulogized the beautiful images of animals, plants and people in nature with a childlike innocence, expanding the theme space of Chinese painting. Its people and art are admirable.