Zheng Sixiao's Orchid complex

"Strange stones and clusters of thorns keep company with Xiangzu. It is a pity that Nanweng painted orchids but not dirt. " This is a poem written by Wu Changshuo, a famous calligrapher and seal carver at the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, in an orchid painting signed "the Dao Man", expressing the author's earnest feelings of missing Zheng Sixiao, the remnant of the Southern Song Dynasty. Zheng Sixiao (1241-1318), formerly known as ①, was renamed Sixiao after the death of the Southern Song Dynasty. He called himself Jushan descendant, Jingding poet, Sanwai savage, Sanwai old man, etc., and was born in Dongdao Village, Toubao, Lianjiang County (now Tangli Village). Song Ningzong Jiading 13 years (1220), his father Zheng Zhen went to Fujian with his family and settled in Lin'an, the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty (now Hangzhou). In the second year of Song Lizong Baoyou (1254), his family moved to Suzhou. Sixiao was born in the first year of Chunyou in the Southern Song Dynasty (1241) by the West Lake in Hangzhou. He studied with his father from an early age and had a deep influence on his family. He knew how to maintain integrity from an early age. At the age of 14, he became a scholar in all directions. The post-etheric college students should be well-versed in the department of macro-ci and be granted to the head of the Jing Academy. He was "knowledgeable and multi-skilled, not based on grass" and "just introduced a sense of purpose". He was in troubled times and worried about the national situation. The national situation of Xianchun in the Southern Song Dynasty was as dangerous as an egg. In the five years of Xianchun (1269), Sixiao, as a student, offered advice to the imperial court to resist the enemy, but refused to accept it because of the rejection of those who were in power to "speak bluntly and break the new ban". After the death of the Song Dynasty, Zheng Sixiao lived in seclusion in Chengtian Temple in Suzhou and devoted himself to creation. In his 40-year miserable life for the rest of his life, he always maintained his national integrity, vowed not to be a second minister, not to be obedient to the people of the Yuan Dynasty and changed his name to "Sixiao", which meant "thinking of Zhao"; the word "Yinweng" meant that he did not forget his ancestors and homeland; the number "Suo Nan" also meant that "Nan" was his place to settle down and never face the Mongolians; he usually sat down to the south, and Fula would cry to the south when he was old. Vowing not to associate with northerners, hearing the northern language, he covered his ears and hurriedly left. The room plaque is entitled "the world of this acupoint", and the "ten" of the word "Ben" is added to the word "acupoint", that is, the word "Great Song". He wrote the Ten empty Classics of Great Unwork, and the word "empty" without "work" plus "ten" is also the word "Song", that is, the Great Song Classic. He particularly hated the bureaucrats of Shi Yuan and refused to communicate with them. Zhao Mengfu, a famous painter and calligrapher at that time, paid a visit. Sixiao "hated his patriarchal clan and replied to Yuan's employment", hated his lack of integrity, and always refused to meet him. As one of the "four gentlemen" in traditional Chinese painting, orchid is a regular guest of Chinese flower-and-bird painting. Although orchid is a kind of plant, for literati painters, orchid is a cultural symbol and a carrier of their expression. In the eyes of most ancient Chinese literati painters, orchid is vanilla, symbolizing an ideal, which can be used as an expression of the pursuit of ethics and virtue, as well as an object of beauty. The literati often draw this kind of painting to symbolize loftiness, preciseness, tenacity and erect. The earliest works of orchids can be traced back to Su Shi's "the Picture of Orchid and Bamboo Cangya" in the Northern Song Dynasty, and then appeared frequently in the pens of previous painters. In the late Song and early Yuan dynasties, there were two famous orchid painters in China, one was Zhao Mengjian (119991267 years ago), and the other was Zheng Sixiao. Both of them are famous for being good at drawing orchids and being loyal and unyielding. The ancients commented that "Zhao Mengjian painted orchids, Zheng Sixiao passed on the quality of orchids", so they were known as "orchid Zheng Zhao". The spring orchid picture they made is the oldest orchid picture we can see today. Since Zhao Mengjian and Zheng Sixiao, orchids have become a symbol of loyalty, nobility and cleanliness, and are loved by the Chinese people.

Among Zheng Sixiao's many paintings, very few exist in the world. Today, there are only four volumes of "Meran Pictures" written by Zheng Sixiao, all of which are paper and ink. Two of them are collected by gallery in Osaka, Japan and Yale University in the United States. This paper "Melan Picture" in the gallery collection in Osaka, Japan, is an ink freehand painting, 25.7cm in vertical and 42.4cm in horizontal, made during the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month in 1306. The two orchids in the picture are opposite to each other, holding a flower in the middle, with a short stem, but with a stretched posture, which shows its elegant and fragrant temperament and enduring vitality. This volume is all painted with scorched ink, the writing style is old and strong, just like a sword, showing an indomitable spirit. The right self-inscription of this painting reads: "I have always bowed my head and asked Emperor Xi who came to this village. Before painting, the nostrils were opened and the ancient fragrance was floating all over the sky." If you ask for something on the painting, you can't ask for it, but you can't ask for it. The old eyes are empty, and the breeze is everlasting. The idle chapter plays a "finishing point" on the inner meaning of this flower work and reflects the character of the painter. The note in the left picture: "make this volume on the 15th of the first lunar month." "C Wu" is AD 1306, when the Song Dynasty has been dead for 26 years, Si Xiao is nearly 70 years old, and he is already a remnant painter of the Southern Song Dynasty who lived in the Yuan Dynasty. The thoughts expressed in all the poems and paintings of Mo Lantu by Si Xiao are the portrayal of this deep emotion in his later years. According to Wuxi Collection, Zheng Sixiao lived in seclusion and became famous in Gusu. When a county magistrate asked Sixiao for orchid painting, Zheng Sixiao replied: "Orchid character is noble and pure, and only people with virtue and talent deserve to be associated with it." When the official heard the voice outside the string, he was so annoyed that he could not ask for a painting, so he took "taxes and corvee" as a threat, in a vain attempt to force him to make a picture of ink. Sixiao's iron bones were so strong that he was furious: "the head can be broken, but the blue can't be obtained!" The county magistrate had no choice but to release him. Zheng Sixiao's indomitable and upright spirit has been respected by the world since then.

Zheng Sixiao wrote a large number of ink orchids in his life, most of which had obscure twists and turns or open-minded and clear poems. Now hidden in the Art Gallery of Yale University in the United States, another frame of paper "Melan Picture", the picture of an orchid is a flower, the ink is light and elegant, the leaves are slender, thin and tough, proudly stretching leaves and spitting stamens, showing a cold and vulgar charm. The picture is entitled: "the fragrance of a country, the death of a country, Huai Bi Huai Wang, Yu Chu Youguang." So Nan. " This picture shows a long volume. The grief and indignation of the loss of the land, because words are difficult to catch up with it, is aptly expressed through a peculiar cluster of earless orchids, which can be described as an ingenious blend of Zheng Sixiao's artistic ingenuity and thoughts and feelings. Originally, the use of flowers and trees, such as the four gentlemen proud frost cold-resistant natural characteristics, as a basis for pleasure, to compare people's moral character and temperament, this is a long-standing idea of flower creation. To the Yuan Dynasty, due to the oppression of different ethnic groups, the application of this creative method was unprecedentedly developed. Painters often personified Meilan bamboo chrysanthemum to express their indescribable inner feelings. Zheng Sixiao, as a remnant painter of the Southern Song Dynasty, is good at using this technique. As he said in his poems, "all are dangerous and strange, so Gai lost his indignation", his soilless bare-rooted orchids, like his poems, bear the deep feelings of "thoughts of homeland" and "voice of national subjugation", indicating his resistance to alien rule. Cui Kui, a famous poet in the prosperous Tang Dynasty, said: "it has been the same since ancient times when it was difficult to serve the country." The thought of patriotism and the pain of patriotism are the most common and sacred feelings in the world. This patriotic pain can only be reflected in his every move, calligraphy and painting in the body of a literati. Zheng Sixiao also painted long, five-inch Mo Lan papers, naive, beyond the list, there is also a poem: "Pure gentleman, there is no villain, deep in the mountains, with the sky as spring." The orchids he made, soilless and rootless, floated in the air. According to the "remnant Records", he "fine ink orchid, since then, for whether to paint soil, the root has nothing to rely on." Everyone was surprised and puzzled, and the man asked him why, and replied, 'the land is taken by the people, so endure it?' " It can be seen that Zheng Sixiao's making of ink is by no means a pen-and-ink game in leisure. In painting, he tried to focus on the peculiar image of Mulan, to express his inner hardship about the fall of the Southern Song Dynasty, and to express his character and sentiment that he was in adversity and was never similar. Zheng Sixiao is good at craftsmanship painting all his life, especially fine ink orchid, and doubles as ink bamboo. In his creation, Yunsi is determined to take more of the natural characteristics of orchid, bamboo, flowers and trees, in order to place his quiet and noble sentiment, as well as his integrity that does not rise and fall with the rest of the world after the fall of Zong Bang. Sixiao's behavior of chanting Lan Shouzhi has also become a model for future generations. Ni Zan (1308-1374), one of the four great painters of the Yuan Dynasty, once boated Ruo Li and wandered among the rivers and lakes after the fall of the Yuan Dynasty. His poem entitled "the South Orchid of Zheng Suo" said: "the autumn wind and orchid has turned into grass, and the desolate spirit of the South has disappeared." Only the south heart does not change, tearspring and ink write 'Lisao'. " The works affectionately reproduce the unyielding image of Zheng Sixiao. In short, Zheng Sixiao's poetry and paintings, "its main style such as Lao du's deep grief and indignation", "bitter words flow out of the heart", read as bleak as the autumn wind, making people sad. His orchid complex shows the national integrity and patriotism in a specific historical period, and expresses the voices and aspirations of the people to a certain extent, which is undoubtedly commendable.

Note ①: there is no examination of Sixiao's juvenile name. According to the Shangzheng genealogy continued by Daoguang of the Qing Dynasty in Lianjiang County, there was a full text of Suonan Public Biography, in which Sixiao's original name Shaoyin was recorded.