Former residence of Qi Baishi

Former residence of Qi Baishi

Qi Baishi (1863-1957), born in Xiangtan County, Hunan Province, is a master of Chinese painting. He is an outstanding painter, calligrapher and seal cutter in the history of Chinese modern art culture. He once served as professor of Beijing National Academy of Arts, Honorary Professor of Central Academy of fine arts, honorary president of Beijing Academy of painting and chairman of China Artists Association. Its original name was Chunzhi, and its name was Weiqing. Later, it was changed to Huang, Linsheng, Baishi, the owner of jieshanyin hall, Jiping old man, etc. He worked as a carpenter when he was young. He is good at poetry, calligraphy, painting and printing. The Ministry of culture awarded the title of "people's artist" in 1953, won the international peace prize in 1955, and was listed as a world cultural celebrity in 1963. Qibaishi tomb is located in the southwest of Weigong Village, Haidian Township, Haidian District. The inscription is written by Li kuchan.

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Introduction to former residence

Located in the middle of yu'er Hutong, it is adjacent to NanLuoGu Lane in the East.

It is said that this house was the house of a minister in charge of the interior in the middle and late Qing Dynasty, which was later divided and sold. After the founding of new China, it was purchased by the Ministry of culture as the residence of the painter Qi Baishi. As the old man missed his old residence in Xicheng, he moved back to Xicheng after living here for a short time, and this place was changed into Qi Baishi Memorial Hall (established before his death). During the cultural revolution, the memorial hall was abolished and changed into Beijing Painting Academy. Now it is the seat of Chinese Painting Department of Beijing Academy of painting and Beijing Artists Association.

The courtyard was built in the middle and late Qing Dynasty. Courtyard 13 is only a part of the original courtyard, which is a relatively complete single courtyard. Facing south, there is a gate (not the original gate) and two inverted rooms. There are three houses in the south, the north, the East and the west of the courtyard, all of which are built on the hard top of the hill with tile and ridge roofs, and the porches are in front of them. There is a sparrow in the corridor, a piece of bad luck in the corridor, and a stool and railing under it. The houses are connected by corner corridors. There are three East and three West ear rooms in the north room, and three shunshan daozuo rooms in the west of the south room. There are exquisite brick carvings at the Longtou of each room, calligraphy and seal carvings at the walking horse board of each corridor, and wooden couplets on the wooden partition fan of the Ming room in the north room. The west wall on the south side of the West ear room is decorated with a brick carving of "Ziqi Donglai".

The brick and wood carvings of this courtyard are of great value. It was announced as a cultural relic protection unit in Dongcheng District on January 21, 1986.

Former residence information

Address: No.13, kuache Hutong, Qicai Hutong, Xicheng District

Nature: key protected cultural relics in Beijing.

The former residence faces east in the west, with an area of 204 square meters. It is a house with a courtyard. Qi Baishi lived here from the age of 50 until his death. The three North houses are the "white stone painting houses" of that year. Because there are iron fences in front of the houses, they are also called iron fence houses. Under the eaves of the north house, there is a horizontal tablet of "white stone painting house" carved by Qi Baishi, which is 3.3 meters long and 0.84 meters high. The big characters are still visible. The gate of the former residence opens to the East. It is a courtyard with East, West and North houses, covering an area of more than 600 square meters. The three rooms in the north are Qi Baishi's studio, bedroom and dining room. After the July 7th incident in 1937, Qi Baishi, who made a living by selling paintings, refused to ask for paintings from the leaders of the Japanese puppet regime and refused to sell them, showing his lofty national integrity. According to the famous painter Qi Liangchi, the fourth son of Qi Baishi, who lives in his former residence, Qi Baishi painted more than 20000 paintings in his former residence. When the Japanese invaders invaded Peiping, he drew the picture of rats to satirize the Japanese invaders; in order to attack the corruption of the old bureaucrats, he drew the picture of the tumbler and the picture of crabs with the title "see how long you've been running wild". After the founding of new China, he painted "long live the motherland"; when resisting U.S. aggression and aiding Korea, he painted peace pigeons to participate in the charity sale, expressing his deep feelings for the motherland. After Qi Baishi died, his sons, daughters, grandchildren and other descendants lived in his former residence. There is no cross car lane outside the gate. The lane to the North has been blocked. There is only one lane in the south, and there is only one single family in this lane. For the sake of safety, the former residence was closed day and night. When I made an appointment for an interview, Qi Liangchi repeatedly told me to call when I arrived so that I could open the door for you, otherwise it would be very difficult to call.

Qi Liangchi, who inherited his father's painting, calligraphy, printing and poetry, is 80 years old. He is the president of Beijing Qi Baishi Art Research Association and the assistant president of calligraphy and Painting Research Association. When asked what his father left behind in his former residence, he said it was his father's thrifty life. Qi Baishi doesn't waste the wrapping paper outside the rice paper for painting. He sketches on the paper, and many of the paper become treasures. He once wrote on a painting of Ma Gu Xian Shou on paper: "those who have the ability can get good manuscripts.". The author asked about Qi Baishi's 12 children and their descendants' inheritance of his art. Qi Liangchi said that there are four inheritors in his children's generation, namely, Qi Liangji, his third son, Qi Liangzhi, his youngest son, Qi liangmo and himself; and Qi Zhanyi, his grandson, and Qi BINGSHU, his granddaughter. According to Qi Liangchi, the "Beijing Qibaishi Modern Art Center" organized by the Beijing Academy of painting has received the attention and support of the leaders of the Beijing Municipal Party committee and is currently located on Chang'an Street.

Visiting former residence

Beijing, on the west side of the bustling Xidan business district, beside the high-rise buildings, behind the noisy market, an old courtyard house, in the modern atmosphere, is guarding a simple and ancient style. This is the former residence of Qi Baishi, a great calligrapher and painter. Walking into the former residence, the three north main rooms in the courtyard are "white stone painting house". The old man wrote: after Yu was 50 years old, he came to Beijing to avoid his hometown. He was still cold hearted and bought a house to sell paintings in the west of the city. The house was surrounded by iron bars. At the age of 90, he still lives on his own. Fortunately, his paintings are called by the people all over the world. His house has been written "white stone painting house" by himself, leaving no descendants. He is one of the most famous paintings in the world. The former residence of Baishi old man is well preserved.

Hard work

Qi Baishi was born in a poor farmer's family. As a child, he was only in a private school for half a year. Then he dropped out of school and did all kinds of work at home, such as cutting firewood, herding cattle and farming. At the age of 12, he studied carpentry, at the age of 15, he learned to carve. At the age of 20, he became a skilled sculptor. During this period, he got a painting biography of mustard seed garden, copied it repeatedly, and learned some basic painting techniques. Later, he got to know the local literati and worked hard in painting, poetry, calligraphy and seal cutting. He once made a living by painting portraits, selling paintings and engraving. When he was middle-aged, he traveled from his hometown to the north and south of the river, visited famous mountains and rivers, learned from nature and materials, and made a lot of sketches from life. With the expansion of his horizons, he developed his skills and created more poems, books, paintings and prints. He has entered the ranks of literati painters from folk painters. At the age of 59, he made great efforts to climb to the peak of literati painting. He fell in love with Xu Wei's, Bada's and Shitao's freehand brushwork. He thought that they had reached a wonderful state by painting horizontally and wiping vertically. He even said, "if you don't want to spend 300 years before you live, or if you want to polish ink and paper for you, you won't accept it. If you don't go outside the door, you will be hungry and you won't go. It's also a pleasure."

In 1917, the southern warlords scuffled. Qi Baishi avoided chaos and came to Beiping from Hunan. He hung up bills, sold paintings, engraved and made a living in the South paper shop of Liulichang. However, few people appreciate the earthy cloth painter. Qi Baishi, who had been neglected, realized that he only knew how to follow the footsteps of the ancients, and he was determined to make a big change. He said, "Yu has been painting for decades, but he didn't mean it. From then on, I decided to make a big change. If I didn't want to be known, I would starve to death in Beijing. If I didn't feel pity for the public, I might be able to ask myself what's on my mind. " In order to open up a new way of art, Qi Baishi has come to the point of breaking the bridge. He accepted the advice of his good friend Chen Shizeng, drew on the painting techniques of Xu Wei, Zhu Da, Shi Tao and Wu Changshuo of Ming and Qing Dynasties, combined traditional freehand painting with folk painting, combined folk painting with literati painting, boldly created, and realized the "old age reform", forming a unique new mountain with dignified brushwork, peculiar artistic conception, simple composition, brilliant color The style of water painting has reached the peak of traditional Chinese painting. He summed up his own creative experience, that is, "the beauty lies in the difference between resemblance and dissimilarity, too much resemblance is kitsch, not deception." Qi Baishi, together with Xu Beihong and Zhang Daqian, became the three masters of modern Chinese painting, and together with the famous painter Fu Baoshi, he was known as the "north and south two stones".

Stand out through the ages

During the war of resistance against Japan, Qi Baishi was in great danger. Although he lived his whole life in troubled times, he also expressed his inner resentment with practical actions and paintings in an extremely intelligent way. Qi Baishi resigned his teaching post and lived in a small room. Many Japanese came to his home to buy paintings, but he refused to buy them. He stuck a note on his door saying, "old man Baishi is suffering from heart attack and stops seeing customers.". When Japan's defeat began to appear, he drew a "sunset picture" to show "optimism". The painting shows "sunset" with the setting sun. The title says: "let's dry the wine, wash our feet and go to bed. Don't worry about the setting sun outside his door. Baishishan Weng wrote a new sentence My heart is full of new hope. Later, after the victory of the Anti Japanese War and the surrender of Japan, he wrote another poem: "it's hard for Mo Tao to live a long time. Peace can see it in his eyes." The joy is on the paper. Old man Baishi has experienced the disasters brought about by warlords, bureaucrats and Japanese aggressors, and he hates them very much, especially the Japanese puppet bureaucrats. All of them refused to come to ask for paintings. "Paintings are not sold to officials, for fear of ominous theft", "no more price reduction, no more restaurants, no more photography.". Later, he stopped selling paintings. And the poem "longevity is not death, shame is a thief, worthy of Chang'an as a hungry gourmet" shows that the heart, would rather starve than flatter the villains.

During the Anti Japanese War, he drew a lot of "tumbler pictures", sketched and smeared, and made them simple and clear

Chinese PinYin : Qi Bai Shi Gu Ju