Almighty painter

Chapter 511 Love City and the Zen of Painting Sect

After all, painting is not singing.

Not to mention the trick of turning into a goldfish or the juggling of spitting fireballs.

All writing and painting articles are more or less the elegant activities of literati and gentry, and are also tainted with the unique "tone" of literati and gentry.

Call it magnanimous or pretentious.

Anyway, in ancient times, everyone in the painting world had some "idol baggage" in their behavior.

In front of others, you have to put on some airs and a certain demeanor.

Don't talk about nobles and ministers.

Even in the old society, there were those poor scholars in Liulichang or those who failed in the old examination, nor the poor people who found it difficult to become an official and live in the capital.

When asking someone to draw plum blossoms, orchids, bamboos and chrysanthemums, write a couplet, and inscribe a fan.

According to the old rules, refined scholars must first bow their hands and say verbally, "Literati give each other a piece of paper."

Meaning, I didn’t come here to buy paintings.

Vulgar, too vulgar.

What we are talking about is not the business of hundreds of big boys and a few pennies, we are all scholars.

Therefore, we are talking about the friendship of that "piece of paper".

Just opening a restaurant with a down-and-out Eight Banners kid can't be called a restaurant. What's the point of doing business? If you call someone "the boss's boss", they will think you are pointing at your nose and cursing.

Our Mr. Beile has good intentions and opens a "private kitchen".

It's a treat.

I invite everyone to come to my home and have a taste. The money given is a gift given as a guest.

Feudal society often has two separate skins.

Yangchun Baixue is Yangchun Baixue, and lower-class people are lower-class people.

If the white snow is stained with the "rusticism" of traffickers and lackeys, it will be out of tune.

Great literati build their own gardens, and small groups of friends compete with each other on their pointillism skills. This is an elegant pleasure. Drinking whiskey and eating Shanghai-style Western food under the luxurious crystal chandelier of a hotel with the foreign senior class in Shanghai is called respectability. Being able to have a cup of coffee with Mr. Xu Shenru is called foreign style.

Instead, in the public hall, people were watching me draw like monkeys, and from time to time I was yelled at and commented on by traffickers and lackeys... Even with the spread of Western learning to the East, I heard that foreigners do have a drawing board. Open-air collecting, or the vast majority of art practitioners make a living by collecting money to paint for others.

But as a descendant of the painting sect.

This kind of thing was still a bit outrageous in the eyes of people at the time.

"Not elegant" and "unseemly".

and so.

When Cao Xuan's teacher actually accepted the invitation from the owner of Xinan Department Store on his behalf, the critics were so shocked that his gold-rimmed glasses broke all over the floor.

The editor of "Xian Shi", a well-known literary and entertainment newspaper at that time, used the humorous tone unique to the literary world along the southeast coast and joked: "I am painting, and the descendants of Cao Zhongtang are just like the singers who sell songs."

Of course, Cao Xuan, who was a child, didn't understand these details.

even.

He may not even be aware of the rights and wrongs of these outside world.

The fellow disciples said that this junior fellow student who appeared out of nowhere had "three faults".

No crying, no fuss, no joking.

Like a little monk practicing silent meditation.

When he was a child, Cao Xuan was really a so-called "innate painter".

If you only love one person, take a brush and a piece of charcoal and write and draw there.

For him, this is much more interesting than flying a kite or pushing a hoop.

But the night before Cao Xuan was about to come to Nanjing Road to paint, the master specifically called him to him and said this to him -

"Xuan'er, do you know? Shanghai is a very charming city. It is both stingy and tolerant. It is both stingy and generous. It can make a person successful in an instant, and it can also destroy a person with a raise of its hand. It As much limelight as it can make you, it can also make you appear more eye-catching."

“No matter which profession, as long as it is related to literature and art, there are people who have stolen the limelight here, such as Yu Dafu, Ding Wei, Li Yaotang (Ba Jin)... There are also famous celebrities who have made a name for themselves in other places. When they come here, they are like A pebble was thrown into the Huangpu River and was swallowed up by the waves in a blink of an eye. "

The teacher took a sip of tea, and his face showed some cunningness brewed over the years.

"I can see clearly that in the next hundred years, this place will be one of the art palaces of Eastern Xia, China and the West. If a painter wants to conquer Italy, he must first conquer Florence. If a painter wants to win the favor of the French, You have to win the favor of Parisians first.”

"And if you want to be my successor in the future, you can take over my mantle and become the successor of the unrestrained Nanzong School of Painting. You will be better than the old and leave your own mark in the history of the entire painting world." Page. Then Shanghai is the link you can’t get around.”

The artist scratched the tea cup with the cup lid.

"People in the capital are very motivated and want the best in everything - to support movie stars, they want to support the most fashionable movie stars. When eating, they want to eat crab noodle buns from Wang Jiahe and egg yolk fried rice from Yangzhou Restaurant. To eat steak, go to Dezhou University. On the second floor of the hotel. I just wanted to listen to Mei Lanfang’s play, and they immediately stopped liking it.”

"So even if they are chasing prodigies, people in Shanghai will only pursue the most prodigies. It's only fifty thousand yuan. Let's be honest in private. If we don't say it, it's just for disaster relief. Even if it's just fifty thousand yuan alone. , can buy the name of a great prodigy known throughout the southeast. "

"Business, it's a bargain!"

The old man smiled, but his expression became serious again.

"But the people in the Magic City have a sense of arrogance. They have no shortage of novelty gadgets when traveling from north to south. They have heard all the mysterious stories, and others have praised them for their great achievements. Shanghai The common people in the world are the most cunning and well-informed, so to speak, they are the most difficult to ‘serve’.”

"Everyone looks at you with wide eyes. They don't believe what the newspapers say, they don't believe what the critics say. They just believe what they see."

"Teacher, you spent 50,000 yuan to put your name into everyone's after-dinner conversations. The critics will be more or less willing to sell the teacher a face or two, but can you make this city really fall in love with you? The teacher can’t help you, the only one you can rely on is yourself.”

"This is a city where desires flow. You have to fall in love with this city with your heart first, and then the city will really love you with your heart."

"Teacher, what does it mean to be careful?"

The boy still had a sullen face, like a little monk, and asked dryly.

The old painter was amused by Cao Xuan's young and old-fashioned appearance, but he was very cute in contrast.

"All hearts are non-minds. This is called the heart. This is the name of Guanshiyin Bodhisattva."

The old painter stunned him, patted Cao Xuan on the head three times, then walked to the hotel room to sleep with his hands behind his back.

It's as enigmatic as in "Journey to the West", when Patriarch Bodhi hits his senior brother on the head.

……

Cao Xuan used the charcoal pen in his hand to outline the outline of the girl's clothes in front of him.

He raised his pen.

Unconsciously, he bit the exposed end of the willow charcoal stick, ignoring the noise outside, thinking about what the teacher said.

This is a portrait of a man and his female companion.

This is the 137th painting Cao Xuan painted in front of the Xin'an Department Store during this period. Every time Cao Xuan completes five works, he writes a small orthographic character with charcoal on the edge of the drawing board. Now he has written exactly twenty-seven and a half orthographic characters.

"All hearts are non-minds. This is called the heart. This is the name of Guanshiyin Bodhisattva."

He pondered over and over in his mind what this sentence meant.

Cao Xuan had been in poor health since he was born, and had suffered from pneumonia once. In addition, at that time, the newspaper reported that there was cholera in Weihaiwei, so the teacher was afraid that he would not live long.

In the past, people were superstitious, so they sent him to the Yuantong Zen Temple next to his residence, where he "sat down on the lotus treasure and let the Buddha look at it, and the little ghosts couldn't touch him."

So besides learning painting.

The textbooks for other children's enlightenment are often "Hundred Family Surnames", "Qianziwen", "Disciples' Regulations", "Cai Gen Tan" and so on.

But Cao Xuan learned the words among a group of novice monks, following the mysterious and magical stories in the Buddhist scriptures told by the old monk.

"All hearts are non-minds, which are called hearts." - This is a saying in the Diamond Sutra. Cao Xuan vaguely heard the bald abbot say that all the hearts of sentient beings are changing, are impermanent, and are not original. Heart.

It was originally mysterious and nagging.

The following meaningless sentence "Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva" makes it even more difficult to understand. The "Diamond Sutra" is not the "Avalokitesvara Heart Sutra", it is mainly a sutra explained by Sakyamuni Buddha.

He didn't understand what it meant.

"Xuan" - this is an important feature of Eastern Zen. Every word, every action, every move is Zen.

Finger Zen, Stick Drinking Zen, Mad Zen, there are many kinds... Just like in the famous stand-up comedy "Doufa" during the Republic of China, the master just stretches out his finger to represent "infinite Buddhas, one Buddha bows to you", and pats them casually The heart represents "Buddha sitting in the heart".

"Zen" and modern art as a whole actually have a very similar temperament.

The same Zen has hundreds of interpretations, thousands of interpretations, and ten thousand interpretations.

The solution that conforms to the teacher's wishes and can be regarded by the teacher as a true successor is the only solution that the teacher has in mind.

Like a guessing game on the lights.

Throughout Cao Xuan's long life.

He has never encountered a mystery that is so important, yet so difficult to understand and guess.

If an ordinary child correctly guesses the lantern fan, the prize will be several large hawthorn pills.

He guessed the riddle correctly.

The prize is the entire Millennium Painting Sect - this must be the most expensive lantern festival game in the world in history.

Cao Xuan wanted to know if his painting was good enough.

Have you met Master's expectations?

He was no longer a child, (although no one saw it that way except himself).

But at the age of six or seven, in poor families, it is indeed the age when they start to help parents share their worries and shoulder family responsibilities.

Jianghu has a strong industrial and commercial atmosphere, and children have become the head of the family early.

Since ancient times, there has been a saying that "when you are seven years old, throw it away". Many young people of the same age have begun to work as apprentices in shops, or even as bonded children in Japanese-owned cotton mills.

He followed his master and walked such a long way.

At least I have begun to gradually understand what significance being the other party's closed disciple has to the entire Southern Painting School, and I have also gradually begun to understand what significance the fifty thousand French currency has.

Master said it lightly.

But the floods in the south of the Yangtze River, the cholera in Weihaiwei, the fall of the Northeast... those who listened to the adults talking about it with frowns, saw what they saw.

Among the displaced refugees, the price of one hundred yuan is enough to sell their children.

Fifty thousand yuan, this is the salary of an ordinary dock worker for a hundred years.

One of his paintings.

Even twenty years later...can you really bear such a weight?
Cao Xuan, who is young and mature, has the calmness and sadness of an old monk despite his young age.

Master said.

People in Shanghai only look at the most popular kid in the world, and only admire the most amazing child prodigy in the world.

Look at it from this point of view.

He may have probably won the approval of the city beneath his feet.

Even though the clouds of war kept approaching, there was never a moment of true peace in the world, but during the so-called golden decade of the Republic of China from 1927 to 1937.

On the whole, the affluent Shanghai people are still very lively and love literature and art.

In front of Xin'an Department Store, he sells sketches for 20 yuan a piece. For ordinary painting sellers, this is naturally a sky-high price. Cao Wanwan said.

The price is still acceptable.

At least people in Shanghai recognize this price.

There is an endless stream of people queuing up every day, and even because of his small stature, he is easily blocked by others when he sits there.

There was a long-term worker at the dock who queued for an hour, not to buy a painting, but just to come over and take a look at what Cao Xuan looked like, and then take a look at what the legendary painting that could buy half a street of shop looked like, and finally Then touch Cao Xuan's head coldly, and feel the fairy spirit of the child prodigy.

Just leave satisfied.

But has he really won the city's sincere "love"?

I can't seem to explain this matter clearly.

After all, he is just a child, not Zhang Daqian.

Cao Xuan knows.

Of those who lined up to buy his paintings, 60% did it for the novel stories in the newspapers, and the remaining 3% were because his teacher first taught him, which combined Soviet-style sketching, European-style lines, meticulous painting techniques, and Shanghai-style comics. Thanks to Yi’s charcoal line drawings.

Even well-informed people from the city have rarely seen such a combination of Chinese and Western painting techniques.

So if you want to make a fresh picture, give it a shout.

Only then did Cao Shentong and Cao Wanwan get eight or nine points of recognition. The remaining part that belongs to his real painting skills did not account for one point?
he does not know.

It seems that this painting method can achieve similar effects if used by any senior brother.

After all, he is just a child. After all, he is not a fairy stone that was created at the beginning of the world. It was conceived by gathering the aura of heaven and earth for thousands of years. He has also seen the Monkey King in the world of birth, old age, sickness and death. After a second thought, he understood the mind of Patriarch Bodhi.

The teacher didn't have three lessons in the middle of the night to come over and teach him the secrets of his mind that could make the whole city fall in love with him. This question was really too difficult, and the weight of being the heir of the Painting Sect was too heavy.

Maybe it's not something a child of his age can solve or catch.

"Hey, are you listening to me? The Japanese are coming soon. Boy, do you have to paint this painting forever?"

At least Xiao Kai, who was opposite him, looked a little impatient, and obviously had no intention of falling in love with him.

(End of this chapter)