Shi Tao

Shi Tao

Shi Tao (1642-1708) was a famous painter in the Qing Dynasty. He was originally named ruoji. He was born in Guilin, Guangxi. He had many nicknames, such as dadizi, Qingxiang old man, balsam pear monk and blind master. His nicknames included Yuanji and Yuanji. The son of Zhu HENGJIA, king of Jingjiang in Ming Dynasty. Together with Hongren, kuncan and Zhuda, they are called "four monks in the early Qing Dynasty".

Shi Tao is a very important figure in the history of Chinese painting. He is not only an explorer and innovator of painting practice, but also an art theorist.

He became a monk when he was a child. He lived in Guangjiao temple in Jingtingshan, Xuancheng, Anhui Province. In the latter half of his life, he traveled to sell paintings. In his early years, he imitated the song and Yuan Dynasties, his painting style was sparse and clear, and in his later years, he used his brush freely, his ink method was incisive, his style was changeable, and he was especially good at album sketches; the flowers were natural and meaningful, innocent and refreshing; the characters were simple and unique. He is good at calligraphy and poetry. Existing works include Shi Tao Luo Han Bai Kai album, a draft of searching all the strange peaks, a clear sound of mountains and rivers, and a picture of bamboo and stone. He is also the author of quotations from bitter gourd monk paintings. There are some famous sayings, such as "one painting theory", "search all the peaks to make a draft", "ink should follow the times" and so on.

(photo source: Shi Tao's photo of planting pines by himself < / I > < I > collection of Taipei Palace Museum) < / I > < I > collection

brief introduction

Shi Tao was born in 1642 and died in 1705 at the age of 70. Shi Tao was born in Guangxi. His father, Zhu HENGJIA, king of Jingjiang, hanged himself in emperor Chongzhen. After his death, he claimed to be a prison in Guilin, Guangxi. Because of his weak influence, he was captured by Ding kuichu and Qu Shifu and killed. Shi Tao was young at this time, and was entrusted to a eunuch. After he became a monk, he had many strange names. The name of the law is Yuanji, yizuoyuanji, also known as Daoji, with the word Shitao. Their nicknames include balsam pear monk, Lingding old man, Jishan monk and blind venerable, etc. Shi Tao once lived in Jingting mountain in Xuancheng, Anhui Province for about ten years and visited Huangshan Mountain many times. At that time, he toured with Shibanshan, Shi Runzhang, Meiqing, meigeng, wusugong, Jiangzhu and other famous poets and painters in Xuancheng, which was known as Huangshan school, and Shi Tao was a giant. During Emperor Kangxi's southern tour of the Qing Dynasty, Shi Tao took over two times in Nanjing and Yangzhou, and wrote poems to record his affairs. In the autumn of 1693, the 32nd year of Kangxi, Shi Tao returned to the South and settled in Yangzhou until his old age. Shi Tao's landscape painting is derived from sketching. It is full of vitality, philosophical thinking and emotion. It combines with each other. The painting is flexible and vivid, and has the charm of depression and heroism.

Life of the characters

Shi Tao is the tenth grandson of Zhu Zanyi, king of Jingjiang in Ming Dynasty, and the eldest son of Zhu HENGJIA. On the third day of August in 1645 (the first year of Hongguang in Ming Dynasty and the second year of Shunzhi in Qing Dynasty), his father Zhu HENGJIA, wearing a yellow robe, sat down in the south, claiming to be the governor of the state, and recorded 287 years of Hongwu. In April 1646, he was executed by Zhu Yujian, the emperor of shaozong. Zhu ruoji fled from Guilin to Quanzhou and became a monk in Xiangshan temple. He changed his name to Shi Tao.

Shi Tao traveled all over the world in his life. He lived in Jingting mountain and Huangshan Mountain in Xuancheng, Anhui Province for about 10 years, made friends with painters, and later came to Jiangning (Nanjing). In his later years, he abandoned the monk and returned to the secular life, and became a professional painter.

When Emperor Kangxi visited the South twice in 1684 and 1689, he took over Nanjing and Yangzhou twice, presented poems and paintings, and called himself "minister monk". Later, he went north to the capital to make friends with dignitaries and paint for them. But in the end, he was not allowed to enter and returned to Nanjing. Finally, he settled down in Yangzhou to make a living by selling paintings, and summarized and sorted out his experience and theory of painting practice for many years, which made his works more mature and colorful in his later years.

Shi Tao is the author of eighteen chapters of quotations from paintings.

Shi Tao is good at mountains and rivers. He often observes the natural scenery and advocates that "the brush and ink should follow the times". Landscape painters should "be born out of mountains and rivers", "search all the peaks to make a draft", and then "self-reliance". The landscapes, orchids and bamboos, flowers and fruits, and figures in the painting are new in style. The composition is good at changing. The brushwork is unrestrained, and the artistic conception is bold and novel, which is contrary to the trend of archaism at that time.

Shi Tao, originally surnamed Zhu and named ruoji, had a small name of a Chang. After cutting his hair, he changed his name to Yuanji, Chaoji and Yuanji, and called himself balsam pear monk. When you travel in Nanjing, you have to have a long pole. Because you call it the old man, you don't have a long pole. You have to have a blunt root, a mountain passenger, a mountain monk, a stone Taoist, and a branch Pavilion. There are many other names for him, such as dadizi, qingxiangyiren, qingxiangchenren, Jingjiang descendants, qingxianglaoren, Wanhao blind dignitaries, odd old people and so on.

He is the tenth grandson of King Zanyi of Jingjiang in Ming Dynasty. He was born in Guilin, Guangxi, and was born in Quanzhou, Guangxi. He was born in the ninth, fourteenth and fifteenth year of Chongzhen (1636, 1641 and 1642), and died in the 44th, 49th and 57th year of Kangxi (1705, 1710 and 1718). After the fall of Beijing, Zhu HENGJIA claimed to be a state supervisor and was executed by Zhu Yujian, the emperor of shaozong, in Fujing. Shi Shitao was a young man. He was taken away by the eunuch and became a monk. His name was Yuanji and his name was Shitao. He was also called dadizi, Qingxiang old man, balsam pear monk, blind Master, etc. He used to visit famous monks and nunneries as a teacher. He liked to roam. He visited Jingting mountain, Huangshan Mountain, Nanjing, Yangzhou and other places for many times. In his later years, he lived in Yangzhou. He not only suffered from the loss of his country and family, but also knelt down twice to welcome Emperor Kangxi. He had many contacts with the upper class of the Qing Dynasty, and his heart was full of contradictions.

Shi Tao is said to be born in the royal family. When Ming Dynasty died, he was just a child. His becoming a monk was more of a political gesture, which is different from Jian Jiang's "being lonely". Shi Tao's character is full of "dynamic" factors, so he was in Buddhism, but he wanted to go to the world. During Kangxi's tour to the south, Shi Tao took over twice and called long live in the mountains. He took the initiative to go to Beijing to make friends with high-ranking officials and dignitaries in an attempt to get ahead. However, the dignitaries only regarded him as a monk who could draw pictures, and they did not care about him, so he was on the verge of success or failure. As a result, he lived a life of contradiction between lofty self-esteem and unwilling to be quiet. Fortunately, he was extremely clever and skillfully expressed this contradiction in his paintings. Therefore, his works are full of movement and tension, which is the reason why he is different from ordinary people and his works show the extraordinary characteristics.

Shi Tao, a painter in the late Ming Dynasty and the early Qing Dynasty, is the most famous person in history. Shi Tao is a great master with pioneering spirit. He called himself the bitter gourd monk, and every meal was made of bitter gourd. He even offered balsam pear to his desk. His feelings for balsam pear are closely related to his experience and mood.

Shi Tao was born in the late Ming Dynasty. When he was four years old, his father was caught and killed by shaozong. Shi Tao was forced to flee to Quanzhou of Guangxi and became a monk in Xiangshan temple. Later, he wandered around Guangxi, Jiangxi, Anhui, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shaanxi, Hebei, and settled in Yangzhou in his later years. He created a large number of exquisite works with inner contradictions and hidden pain. The most respected is the unique style of his paintings, which is both dangerous and elegant, and the light bitter taste contained in his paintings. A charm very similar to balsam pear. The strange nickname that the world knows and makes people think: bitter gourd monk, blind venerable. What about balsam pear? Shi Tao's eyes are bright. How can he be called a blind Master? There are many versions of the legend. The more popular saying is: bitter gourd, green skin, red flesh, meaning the body in the Qing Dynasty, mind Zhu Ming; blind, blind also, meaning the loss of Ming Dynasty. There is no reason why the blind do not want to recover their sight.

Taking a comprehensive view of Shi Tao's paintings in his whole life, whether it's a giant painting or a chizhang sketch, it has a very distinctive personality and the flavor of the times, which is unforgettable. For example, his works can be divided into three periods according to the time sequence and the characteristics of his works. The first period is the period of learning traditional techniques, that is, Shi Tao's early years in Wuchang, just catching up with the period of imitating Dong Qichang's style. In the early Kangxi period, Dong Qichang's painting style and theory had an important impact on the Chinese painting world. The theory of "southern and Northern schools" was widely spread, and there was a clear tendency of "restraining the north and promoting the South". In terms of brush and ink, he strongly advocated "morale" and said: "scholars should use the method of cursive and odd characters in painting. From Shi Tao's early works, he was influenced by Dong Qichang's theory, but on the other hand, the personality characteristics embodied in Shi Tao's early works were naturally revealed in the brush and ink from the very beginning. He should not only inherit the tradition, but also take "nature as the teacher" and "I use my method". Shi Tao's talent is fully developed in the dialectical understanding of the relationship between the two.

In 1657, at the age of 16, Shi Tao showed his talent in painting art. The book of landscape characters and flowers of that year is one of the earliest works of Shi Tao. The picture on one page of this volume is: in the vast river water near the mountain, a boat is rippling one by one, and a figure sitting in the boat is reading Lisao. At the bottom of the picture is a poem: "the falling trees are cold, the autumn air is high, the waves are blowing, the boats are reading Lisao; at night, they are still going to the mountains, the lonely cranes are in the Liao Dynasty, and the pines are ringing in the sky. It can be seen from his works that the reason why Shi Tao achieved great attainments in landscape, characters, flowers, calligraphy, poetry and so on in his later period is inseparable from his solid foundation of comprehensively learning traditional techniques in his early years and widely involving various art categories of calligraphy and poetry. From the point of view of the characteristics of brush and ink, the brush in this book is relatively naive, simple and shows the quiet childish spirit that Shi Tao seldom had later. According to Shi Tao's painting of landscape characters at the age of 23 on the first day of Emperor Kangxi's reign (1664), great progress has been made both in the pursuit of artistic conception and in the skill of writing. In the performance of techniques, it has been compact in composition, concise in brush and ink, with unrestrained temperament and luxuriant personality of brush and ink. Line drawing is the basic technique of Chinese painting practice·

Chinese PinYin : Shi Tao