Zhang Daqian's Story of Painting Shrimp

On one occasion, Xu Beihong hosted a banquet for Qi Baishi and Zhang Daqian at home. That day, Mrs. Liao Wenjing cooked in person and treated her warmly. The food was cooked to the taste of the old man, and Qi Baishi liked it very much. So after dinner, Qi Baishi drew three lotus leaves in ink and two lotus flowers in ochre, and gave them to Liao as a thank you. At Liao's request, Zhang Daqian wanted to draw some shrimps on this map and play in the water under the lotus. But Zhang Daqian was painting when he suddenly felt that someone was secretly pulling his sleeve. Looking back, he saw Qi Baishi. Qi Baishi pulled Zhang Daqian aside and said softly, "Mr. Daqian, the shrimp has only six knots!" " Regardless of the size, its body has only six segments, and it can't be drawn more or less. "

When Zhang Daqian took a closer look, he found that he was just getting carried away, only pursuing beauty, but ignoring the truth of life. The number of knots on shrimp is either too much or too little. Although he still doesn't know how many knots there are on the shrimp, he believes that Qi Baishi is right, so he draws more waterlines and aquatic plants on the painting to cover up the inaccurate knots on the shrimp.

Back to the hotel, Zhang Daqian immediately bought live shrimp, poured it into a basin and observed it carefully. He caught the shrimp himself and made several paragraphs in detail. Sure enough, no matter how big or small, there are only six pieces of shrimp. Zhang Daqian admired him very much, and he was ashamed and grateful when he remembered the scene just now.

From then on, Zhang Daqian never rashly put pen to paper unless he had a thorough understanding of the object of painting. He once said: painting requires understanding physics, understanding things and observing things. This is a subtle realm. For example, to draw a mountain, we need to understand the different climate and soil quality in the north and south, so the trees born are very different; Picturesque flowers, sunny and sunny, sunny should have a tall and straight posture, sunny should have a weak posture. Tall and weak, their posture is naturally different, from reason to emotion, from emotion to ecology, from state to emotion, which is a natural truth. Another example is that cranes and herons sleep on one foot. It would be a joke if we only knew cranes and herons and used their gestures to draw other birds!