Zheng Zhen

Zheng Zhen

Zheng Zhen (1622-1693) was a calligrapher in Qing Dynasty. Ru word, the number of gukou, Jiangsu Shangyuan (now Nanjing) people. He was born in Putian, Fujian Province, and his grandfather moved to Jinling (now Nanjing, Jiangsu Province) in the Ming Dynasty. He was the second son of Zheng Zhiyan, a famous doctor. He was well-known for his family medicine. He practiced medicine as a profession. He never became an official, worked in calligraphy, was good at literature and art, and was good at collecting inscriptions, especially in Han Dynasty.

Profile

When he was young, Zheng Zhen was determined to study Li and Han Dynasty steles for more than 30 years. In order to visit Han Dynasty steles in Hebei and Shandong, he devoted all his family's resources to the collection of rubbings. There are four cupboards in his family. Kong Shangren said in zhenggukou Lishu song: "Han Dynasty stele knot remote gukou Weng, cross the river search to argue the truth. Stele Pavilion freezing rain take pillow sleep, discerning spirit pick marrow sigh chirp", is the portrayal of Zheng Zhen love stele like crazy. Zheng Zhen was good at clerical script, but also good at cursive script and seal cutting. At the beginning, he learned from Song Jue, and then changed to Han stele, mainly including Shi Chen stele and Cao Quan stele, especially the latter. The characters in the book are similar in size, thick and thin, dense but full of changes, colorful and regular, which not only maintains the characteristics of caoquanbei, but also has elegant and strange new ideas, which is called "Caoli" by the world.

If the writing style is dull or inflexible, the use of heavy and heavy characters is not standardized. Compared with Wang Shimin, Zheng Zhen's official script is a little closer to the Han people and full of ancient flavor. All of these created a new way for Li calligraphy, which became the realm pursued by the tablet school after the Qianlong and Jiaqing dynasties. Later generations called him "Er Zheng" together with Zheng Banqiao who wrote "six and a half books". Bao Shichen's guochaoshupin listed it as "yipinshang" together with Jinnong's Lishu. Later generations called it the first person of Lishu in Qing Dynasty. Zheng Zhen wrote caoquanbei with cursive style. His calligraphy is elegant and elegant, which opened the way of advocating Stele Study in Qing Dynasty. Zheng Zhen was the most important calligrapher in the early Qing Dynasty who participated in the activities of visiting steles and studied steles of Han Dynasty. His official script was sought after by famous scholars at that time. He advocated the study of Han stele, which played an important role in the revival of the study of Han stele. He said: "writing is the most difficult thing to do. If you have a pen in your hand, you will be defeated if you run less." The clerical script is elegant, empty and vivid. The book traces handed down from generation to generation mainly include Yang Maoyuan's poems about Fuma, Lu Tong's poems about Xinyue, Huanxi's poems and lingbaoyao. Liang Zhen's "on calligraphy" said: "Zheng Zhen eight points of calligraphy, Han, between the reference grass method, for a time master." According to Qian Yong's Lu Yuan Cong Hua, "gukou began to study Han stele, and then discussed it from Zhu Zhulong (Yi Zun) generation, while the study of Han Li revived."

Achievement impact

rise

The rise of textual research on bronze and stone in Qing Dynasty ended the dominant position of calligraphy for nearly a thousand years, and injected new vitality into the weak calligraphy world. The history of calligraphy opened a new chapter, and entered the era of taking zhuanli as the mainstream calligraphy style. Three hundred years of the creation of official script in Qing Dynasty, there are many famous writers and talents, which is another peak after Han Dynasty, represented by Zheng Zhen, Jinnong, Deng Shiru and Yi bingshou. Zheng Zhen Guang studied Han Dynasty stele, and Cao Quan stele was its basic posture and style. On this basis, some characteristics of Xing Cao, Xia Cheng stele and other Han Dynasty steles were incorporated. In his later years, he formed a style of Li Shu art, which was characterized by flying freely and high spirited. With a sudden rise, he set up the first banner of the revival of stele learning, which was the first peak of Li Shu creation in the 300 years of Qing Dynasty.

Artistic thought

Zheng Zhen's calligraphy style and artistic thought had a great influence on later generations, especially on the representatives of Yangzhou painting school, such as Gao fenghan, Jin Nong, Gao Xiang and Zheng Banqiao. It is no exaggeration to say that Zheng Zhen's Lishu creation influenced his later one century. According to Fang Shuo of the Qing Dynasty's zhenjingtai inscriptions and postscripts. CaoShi's inscriptions and postscripts, it is said: "at the beginning of the Republic of China, zhenggukou mountain people were proficient in this style, enough to be famous. When it changes shape, you can feel the ancient interest. As for Lian Bian's big book, the ink and brush have turned into smoke and cloud. " "Shichen stele postscript" says: "in this dynasty, there were many people who learned this style, and their talent and academic ability were all excellent, so they were promoted to Zheng Ruqi, the same city Deng Nanbo. Your weapon, Ge Pai Shen, is composed of Cao Quan Bei, so it is composed and dances It can be seen that Zheng gukou is partial to the Han Dynasty stele "Cao Quan" and "Shi Chen", he can change step by step, into smoke. He was calm and dancing, but he summed up Zheng Zhen's style of floating like a rising immortal and clanging like the sublimation of music. They are all good examples of learning from the ancients and being able to digest their own flesh and blood. However, it is not easy to achieve in one move. In his Lifa Suoyan, Zhang said: "write with dignity and courtesy. Write with respect. Do not dare to write lightly. Do it slowly and cautiously." This of course refers to the foundation of calligraphy, to have a bit of accumulation, hard work. The most important thing is to be sincere and respectful.

Pay homage to teachers

Zhu YIZUN (1629-1709), a famous scholar who also wrote Li Shu, showed great appreciation for Zheng Zhen. He not only regarded Zheng as his teacher, but also regarded him as the first scholar in the dynasty. Yan ruojuan (1636-1704) regarded him as a "sage" in the calligraphy circle, and listed him with Gu Yanwu (1613-1682) and Huang Zongxi (1610-1695). In a letter to Dai Tangqi, Yan ruoxian said: "in this dynasty, the twelve sages are Qian Muzhai, Feng Dingyuan, Huang Nanlei, LV Wancun, Wei Shuzi, Wang tiaowen, Zhu Xigui, Gu Liangfen, Gu Ningren, Du Yuhuang, Cheng zishang, Zheng Ruqi, and there are fourteen more people named Yu Jiayan and Huang Longshi. It is a rare phenomenon in the history of calligraphy to sing a calligrapher's Lishu or to regard a living Lishu as a saint. Zheng Zhen's Lishu, which is characterized by strong writing and freehand brushwork, has a considerable influence on the calligraphers at the same time and later. According to statistics, there are about ten calligraphers who inherit its features. Therefore, he became a benchmark for later generations to talk about Li Shu in the early Qing Dynasty. Interestingly, Zheng Zhen, who enjoyed a great reputation at that time, was severely criticized and even ridiculed by Chen Yixi (1648-1709), Yang Bin (1650-1720), Wang Shu (1668-1743) and Qian Yong (1759-1844) from the late Kangxi period. This experience shows that the early and later aesthetic and technical pursuits are quite different from those of advocating stele learning. Through the case of Zheng Zhen, we can see the evolution of the concept of stele learning in Qing Dynasty.

To practice medicine as a profession

Zheng Zhen had never been an official in his whole life. He inherited his family education and practiced medicine. His medical skills were quite famous in the local area. Until his later years, he still "socialized with doctors". There was a time when Li Yu (1610-1680) wrote a poem to satirize the idea of escaping from fame because of the disease in yingmen. As a gift to Zheng Ruqi, it was quoted that: "scholars of Ruqi can also write poems and books, and they are sincere in friendship. They are famous for Qihuang skill. The disease in yingmen and the car does not stop. They think they are suffering and they want to escape from fame, so they are encouraged by poetry." Although Zheng Zhen was a man of cloth clothes, he lived in the old capital and was good at accepting them. Therefore, whether he knew it or not, he knew that there was Mr. gukou in Baixia. He made friends not by practicing medicine, but by his official script. Combined with the literature and handed down works, we can find a glimpse of the readers. For example, after the death of Jiang Gu (1607-1673), who lived in Suzhou after the Ding revolution, Yu Ying wrote a biography, which was written by Zheng Zhen. Zhou Lianggong (1612-1672), who lived in Nanjing, said that he "studied calligraphy from gukou". Zeng Qian and Zheng Zhen wrote prefaces or inscriptions for the books such as Lai Gutang yinpu, Guang Jin Shi Yun Fu and Zi Qian. Wang Hongzhuan (1622-1702), who lives in Shaanxi Province, directly asked in a letter to Zheng Zhen that "if my younger brother asks for something, I will feel it when I look for it". His couplet of duheting was also written by Zheng.

Zhejiang scholar Zhu YIZUN's "exposure Pavilion" is also full of plaques and couplets written by Zheng Zhen. Kong Shangren (1648-1718), who used to work in Yangzhou, and Kangxi Jisi (1689), spent the Mid Autumn Festival with Zheng Zhen. It was the night that Zheng Zhen spent freely for him and got no less than ten papers. Kong lamented that "this joy is only for the servant to enjoy.". Among the more than 80 official documents handed down by Zheng Zhen, there are some well-known recipients of "records", such as Cao Zhenji (1634-1698), Zhang Zhen (1632-1712), Jiang Yujie and fan Qi (1616 -?) , Yan photosensitive (1640-1686), Jin Zhijing, etc. It is worth noting that a considerable number of Zheng Zhen's friends were scholars of epigraphy, such as Gu Yanwu, Zhu YIZUN, Cao Rong and Wang Hong. The development of epigraphy in the early Qing Dynasty was closely related to the revitalization of Lishu.

Uptake pathway

On the one hand, the literati got their works from Zheng Zhen through various ways; on the other hand, they often wrote postscripts for Zheng Zhen's official script, competing to attract attention. Zhou Lianggong, Wang Huang (1593-1676), Liu Tiren (1612-1677), Yan photosensitive, Wang Wan (1624-1691) and Tang Yansheng (1616-1692) all expressed their respect for Zheng Zhen Lishu in their inscriptions and postscripts. For example, Wang Wan Ba and Zheng Zhen's Hanli nine kinds of brochures says: "eight points are directly in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the pen is round and vigorous, deep ancient, breaking the habit of square since the Tang Dynasty, which is really a treasure of the world." Zhou Lianggong wrote a postscript to Zheng Zhen's lincaoquan collection of ritual vessels: "Mr. Zheng gukou came out to restore the true and pure spirit of the ancients, which makes people know the ancient method a little bit." In their works, Zheng Zhen seems to be the first person to climb the two capitals. It is believed that these famous literati were sincere in their praise of Zheng Zhen's official script. Zheng Zhen studied Han Dynasty steles and pursued the momentum of flying, which drew a gap with the stereotype represented by Wen Zhengming (1470-1559) in Ming Dynasty. Therefore, he became a benchmark of Lishu in the early Qing Dynasty. When people discuss the achievements of other Lishu scholars, they will consciously or unconsciously compare him with Zheng Zhen. Qian Yong once spared no effort to give

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