Mi Fu was a famous calligrapher and painter in the Northern Song Dynasty in history. He was a famous calligraphy and painting master in ancient my country. Below is an introduction to the painter Mi Fu that I collected and compiled. I hope it will be helpful to you.
A brief introduction to the painter Mi Fu
Mi Fu ***1051-1107***, a calligrapher and painter in the Northern Song Dynasty. His first name was Fu, with the courtesy name Yuanzhang. At that time, he was known as Xiangyang Manshi and Haiyue Waishi, and he was also known as Lumen Jushi. A famous calligrapher, calligraphy and painting theorist, connoisseur and collector in the Northern Song Dynasty. Mi Fu's ancestral home is Taiyuan, which is now Taiyuan, Shanxi, and later settled in Runzhou, which is now Zhenjiang, Jiangsu. He was called a doctor of calligraphy and painting, and promoted to a foreign minister in the Ministry of Rites. Mi Fu was not satisfied in officialdom. He "could not stand up to the world, so he had difficulty in serving as an official." Because of his clothing, behavior and obsession with calligraphy, painting and precious stones, he was regarded as crazy by the world, so he was also known as "Mi Dian".
Characteristics of Mi Fu's paintings
Mi Fu has a unique understanding of the distribution, structure and use of calligraphy. It is required to be "stable but not vulgar, dangerous but not strange, old but not dry, moist but not fat", which is probably what Jiang Kui wrote about "nothing droops, no shrinking, no direction, no gain". That is to say, it is required to achieve unity in the change, to integrate the opposite factors such as wrapping and hiding, fatness and thinness, sparseness and density, simplicity and complexity, that is, "the bones, muscles, skin and flesh, fat, luster, wind and spirit are all complete, just like a good scholar." . In terms of composition, we pay attention to the overall charm, take into account the perfection of details, and have a well-thought-out approach. During the writing process, we change according to the situation and show unique ingenuity.
The characteristic of Mi Fu's brushwork is mainly that he is good at forming an elegant and super-stepping momentum and a calm and happy style in the front, side, back, turning, and frustration. The strokes of characters tend to be quite heavy at the beginning and slightly lighter in the middle. When encountering a turning point, the strokes of the strokes will turn straight down. There are also many changes in the strokes. Sometimes the focus of the stroke is on the starting point, sometimes on the finishing point, and sometimes it is in the middle of the stroke. For longer horizontal strokes, there are twists and turns. The hook is also distinctive.
Mi Fu's calligraphy often includes sideways postures. When he wants to go left, he goes right, when he wants to rise, he suppresses it. This is all to increase the grace of jumping up and down, and the air of flying and flying, which is based on decades of ancient calligraphy. It is based on a strong foundation of calligraphy, so it is innocent and natural, without any artificiality. Those who learn Mifu, even if they are close to water and towers, will still be "hard and crazy". Since the Song and Yuan Dynasties, discussions on Mi Fu's calligraphy can be roughly divided into two attitudes: one is praising but not disparaging, and highly praised; the other is both praising and disparaging, with mostly praise elements. Those who hold the first attitude can be represented by Su Shi.
Mi Fu’s short story
Mi Fu loved playing with different stone inkstones throughout his life, sometimes to the point of obsession. According to "Liangxi Manzhi": When he was an official in Wuwei, Anhui, he heard that there was a strange stone by the Ruxu River. At that time, people were superstitious and thought it was a fairy stone, so they did not dare to tamper with it for fear of causing accidents. Mi Fu immediately sent someone to move him into his apartment, set up the altar table, put on the offerings, bowed to the strange stone, and muttered: I have wanted to see Brother Shi for twenty years, and it is too late to meet him. This matter was later spread, and because it was incompatible with official dignity, he was impeached and dismissed from office. However, Mi Fu did not always attach great importance to official rank, so he did not feel much regret, and later made the "Stone Worship Picture". The intention of making this picture may be to show to others an inner dissatisfaction. Li Dongyang said in "Huailu Hall Collection": "Nanzhou's strange rocks are not surprising, and scholars are intoxicated by curiosity. They have never touched the ground with their knees in their lives, and the stone industry is worthy of it." Here you can see Mi Fu's play Shi's devotion and unyielding character. It is very similar to Li Bai's sentiment of "I can destroy my eyebrows and bend my waist to serve the powerful, which makes me unhappy", and he pioneered the practice of playing with stones.
The incident of worshiping stones gave us a crazy Mi Fu, but in fact he was not really crazy, but truly wise and foolish. This can be seen from many of his examples. Mi Fu had great attainments in calligraphy. Huizong liked his calligraphy very much and often invited him to the palace to write. Once after he finished writing for the emperor, he liked the emperor's royal inkstone very much and said to Huizong: "The emperor's inkstone cannot be given to anyone." It is for the common people, but now the emperor’s inkstone has been used by me, and the ministers are inferior. Since this inkstone has been defiled by me, the emperor will give it to me.”
The emperor reluctantly said the good news to him. Mi Fu was afraid that the emperor would regret it, so he grabbed the inkstone and ran away. He didn't even have time to wash off the ink, so he was covered in ink. In addition, Mi Fu is also a person who cares about the country. His pretending to be stupid is not entirely to protect himself and benefit himself. This is the real "inside story" of his worship of stone. The stone is solid and brittle. Because of this quality, it appears in the painter's brush, and it is reasonable for it to be loved by the painter. But Mi Fu can go crazy. It is still doubtful to worship Shi as soon as he sees it, so why is it only recorded in Wuwei that he recognized Shi as his brother? "The Creator of Famous Paintings" says this: "After Mi Fu knew Wuwei's army, he was an upright official, but his His boss, Zhizhou, was a veteran in plundering people's wealth. He caused a lot of resentment among the local people. People nicknamed him Mian Mouse. Mi Fu looked down on this master Zhizhou very much and had no personal contact with him. However, according to the Song Dynasty, According to the rules, Mi Fu must go to the state government office every single day. This made Mi Fu very uncomfortable. After thinking about it, Mi Fu thought of a way. He also collected some strange stones and foreign objects. His scholar Qin Li put the stones and foreign objects on the table, put on his court clothes, and bowed to the stones several times. When Mi Fu bowed to the stones, he muttered: "I worship the stone of ignorance, because the stone is clean." Yes, I won’t worship your dirty-faced rat. "After Mi Fu worshiped the stone, he felt much better, and then went to the state government office to discuss matters. From here on, Mi Fu worshiped the stone every single day."
Mi Fu's painting achievements
As a famous painter in the Northern Song Dynasty, Mi Fu was in a mature era of literati painting. His painting subjects were very wide, such as figures, landscapes, turquoise, plum, etc. He painted everything from orchids, bamboos and chrysanthemums; Mi Fu made the greatest achievements in landscape painting, but he did not like the northern landscapes with towering peaks and overlapping mountains. What he appreciated more was the ever-changing "smoky clouds and mist scenes" and "innocent and plain" of the Jiangnan water towns. , a style of "not pretending to be clever"; therefore, what Mi Fu pursues in his artistic style is nature. The "Mishi Cloud Mountains" he created were all written in letters, hidden by mist and clouds.
Mi Fu's calligraphy ranks among the four calligraphers of the Song Dynasty, after Su Dongpo and Huang Tingjian, and before Cai Xiang. However, regardless of Su Dongpo's status as a literary master and Huang Tingjian's influence as the leader of the Jiangxi Poetry School, as far as calligraphy is concerned, Mi Fu has the most profound traditional skills, especially running script, which is superior to the two.
Dong Qichang of the Ming Dynasty said in his "Essays on Painting Zen Rooms": "When I tried to evaluate the rice character, I thought that the Song Dynasty was the best, after all, it came from Dongpo. That is to say, Mi Dian's book was more self-proclaimed, but it changed in his later years. "It's as cold as water." When asked about calligraphy by the emperor, Mi Fu claimed that he was a "brush calligrapher". He was modest but down to the essentials. "Brush calligraphy" reflected his swiftness and vigor with his pen. , enjoy yourself and do your best. His calligraphy works, ranging from poems and calligraphy to small rulers, inscriptions and postscripts, are characterized by joyful, dynamic, dynamic, vigorous and fresh. Judging from the nearly sixty existing handwritings of Mi Fu, the word "brush" vividly expresses the spirit of the word "rice". No wonder Su Dongpo said: "The calligraphy of Mi Fu is so enchanting." He also said, "Hai Yue lived his life." His calligraphy in seal script, official script, official script, cursive script, and Fengqiang Zhenma are both calm and joyful, and deserve to be compared with those of King Zhong. "Mi Fu's calligraphy had a profound influence, especially in the late Ming Dynasty, and there were many scholars, such as Wen Zhengming and Zhu Yunming. , Chen Chun, Xu Wei, Wang Juesi, Fu Shan and other great people also took a "Heart Sutra" from rice seeds, and this influence continues to this day. In addition to his extremely high level of calligraphy, Mi Fu also has many calligraphy commentaries. He is the author of "Book History", "Haiyue Quotations", "Baozhang Waiting for Visits", "Comments on Calligraphy", etc. It shows his outstanding courage
and sophisticated appreciation. He often ridiculed his predecessors, but he never followed the ancient sayings. He was valued by calligraphers of all ages, but there were also many exaggerations. He criticizes Yanliu, belittles Xusu, and is harsh and critical.
In addition to his extremely high level of calligraphy, Mi Fu also has many calligraphy commentaries. He is the author of "Book History", "Haiyue Quotations", "Baozhang Waiting for Visits", "Comments on Calligraphy", etc. Showing his outstanding courage and sophisticated appreciation, he often ridiculed his predecessors, but he never followed the ancient sayings. He was valued by calligraphers of the past dynasties. However, he also went too far, criticizing Yan Liu and belittling Xu Su. Harsh and critical.
Mi Fu's handed down ink writings mainly include "Tiaoxi Poetry Volume", "Shu Su Tie", "Fangyuan An Ji", "Tianma Fu", etc., and there are especially many short pieces of Hanzha.
Mi Fu is good at ink landscapes and is known as "Mi's Cloud Mountain", but Mi Fu's paintings do not exist in the world. But the only thing that can be seen so far is hardly a "rice painting" in the true sense - "Coral Pen Stand", which depicts a coral pen stand with the word "Golden Sitting" written on the left. Then add the rice dots and the inscription, and the Mi family landscape will emerge. Mi Fu uses painting as a substitute for writing, which is quite interesting.