Huang Gongwang (1269-1354), courtesy name Zijiu and nickname Yifeng, was a native of Changshu County, Jiangsu and Zhejiang Province (now Changshu City, Jiangsu Province). A famous painter of the Yuan Dynasty, the leader of the "Four Yuan Painters".

It is said that his real name was Lu Jian. He later adopted the Huang family from Pingyang County, Yongjia Prefecture (now Pingyang County, Wenzhou) as his son, and called himself "Pingyang Huang Gongwang". In his middle age, he worked as a clerk in the Metropolitan Procuratorate and converted to the Quanzhen religion. He was nicknamed the Great Crazy Taoist and made a living selling divination in Jiangsu and Zhejiang.

Good at painting landscapes, he learned from Dong Yuan and Ju Ran, and also studied Li Cheng's method, and was taught by Zhao Mengfu. The ink and wash paintings he made are sophisticated, simple and profound. He also applied light ocher on top of the ink, which is known as "Light Crimson Landscape".

In his later years, he used Cao Zan's brushstrokes in his paintings, which were majestic and vast. Together with Wu Zhen, Ni Zan and Wang Meng, he was known as one of the "Four Artists of the Yuan Dynasty". He is good at calligraphy and poetry, and wrote "Landscape Writing Tips", which is a talk about his experience in creating landscape paintings. His extant works include "Dwelling in Fuchun Mountain", "Nine Peaks with Snow", "Danya Jade Trees", "Tianchi Stone Wall", etc.

Huang Gongwang was born in the fifth year of Xianchun, Duzong of the Southern Song Dynasty (1269). "Children learn prodigy science", "talented and arrogant, few ambitions". When the Southern Song Dynasty fell, he was only 11 years old. As an adult, he did not have a strong rebellious mentality against the Yuan Dynasty regime. On the contrary, influenced by Confucianism's active participation in the world, he had an eager desire to participate in politics and lofty political ambitions, hoping to show his political ambitions. Use your skills to do a great job.

However, in the early days of the Yuan Dynasty, the aristocratic rulers did not adopt the employment system of selecting scholars through the imperial examination. Instead, they divided the people into four categories: Mongols, Semu people, Han people and Southerners. People of different classes have very different political statuses. The Mongolians have the highest status and have the highest power to rule; the Southerners, the Han people under the original rule of the Southern Song Dynasty, have the lowest status and almost no political power at all.

Huang Gongwang was from the south and could not be an official according to regulations. If he wanted to be an official, he had to start as a clerk. After a certain number of years, depending on his ability to do things, he would then decide whether he could become an official. Even if you are an official, you need someone to recommend you.

Probably because of his ability in work and his talent, around the fourth year of his reign (1311), he was appreciated by Zhang Lu, the political official of Pingzhang in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, and was appointed as a scribe. In May of the first year of Huangqing (1312), Zhang Lu was transferred to Pingzhang, Zhongshu Province, and Huang Gongwang followed him to Dadu (now Beijing).

But Zhang Lu was a corrupt official, but there are records in the history of the Yuan Dynasty. In the third year of Dade (1299), Zhang Lu was impeached by the imperial censor for accepting bribes, but he was pardoned by the emperor and was not pursued. In the first year of Yan (1314), the imperial court sent Zhang Lu to "manage the fields in the south of the Yangtze River." After Zhang arrived in the south of the Yangtze River, he "used things greedily, enriched the people, and cunning officials, and became involved in adultery." As a result, "people were in dire straits, and thieves arose." And "forcing nine people to death with Kuotian", the rulers of the Yuan Dynasty had to arrest Zhang Lu and imprison him in September of the second year of Yan (1315).

Because Huang Gongwang was Zhang's scribe, and many documents and accounts came from his hands, he was also implicated and imprisoned. He was 47 years old at the time. It was precisely at this time that the Yuan Dynasty held its first academic examination. His good friend Yang Zai was a Jinshi in this subject. Huang Gongwang, who was keen on fame and official career, lost this rare opportunity because he was imprisoned. , this was another heavy blow to him.

This incident was purely coincidental, but it had a huge impact on Huang Gongwang's thinking. He was "common with the three religions and knew all the arts" and had already studied the science of life. This blow This further strengthened his fatalistic thinking. After he was released from prison, he once sold divination for a living, which is recorded in many documents. I believe that he is also very honest when he is telling fortunes for others and is not cheating.

Huang Gongwang was nearly fifty years old when he was released from prison. During this period, Zijiu began his painting career again. On the one hand, he consulted with famous predecessors such as Zhao Meng, and on the other hand, he interacted with some wealthy painters such as Cao Zhibai, copying a large number of ancient famous sites to improve the "ancient meaning" of his paintings. He also often traveled abroad, visited the scenic spots in the south of the Yangtze River, and made friends. Celebrities from all walks of life, many of whom are famous hermits and masters of Buddhism and Taoism (see "Friends" for details).

In the process of selling divination, painting, making friends, and traveling, he gradually gained a clearer understanding of social reality, and his reputation in painting also grew. With the name of the painting, he was welcomed by many bureaucratic landowners who liked arty style, and gained the respect of other painters.

The social status and fame that he had struggled to achieve for half his life arrived when his official career was hopeless. This unexpected gain made Zijiu suddenly wake up. From then on, he gave up the idea of ??an official career and began a real hermit life. In the second year of Tianli (1329), he and Ni Zan worshiped Jin Yueyan (Pengtou) as their teacher and joined the Quanzhen Sect.

Zijiu was engaged in painting, and mainly painted landscapes. This may be because he joined the New Taoism. After he was released from prison, he basically lived a wandering life. This is one of the canons of the Quanzhen Sect. . Frequent travels among famous mountains and rivers provided him with rich materials and inspiration for creating landscape paintings, and also promoted the formation of his realistic landscape painting style. Most of his paintings were based on real landscapes he had seen.

In the fourteenth year of Zhizheng (1354), Huang Gongwang died in Hangzhou at the age of 86. He was buried in his hometown of Changshu. His tomb is still under the White Pigeon Peak (also known as the Eldest Peak) at the southwest foot of Yushan Mountain. There is a stone archway on the north side of the winding mountain road with the inscription "The tomb of Mr. Huang Dachi, a scholar of Yuan Dynasty".

Extended information:

In the seventh year of Zhizheng (1347), Huang Gongwang, who was getting older, returned to Fuchun Township, Fuyang County, Zhejiang Province, and his fellow disciple Wu Yongshi went with him. Huang Gongwang painted the scenery of Fuchun Mountain for Master Wuyong, and it was not completed until the 10th year of Zhizheng (1350). This is the "Dwelling in Fuchun Mountain".

Huang Gongwang was already 82 years old at that time, and it was his most important work handed down from generation to generation. The painting depicts the scenery of Huang's mountain residence in his later years, including the mountains and rivers of Chunming Village, Miaoshan, Daling and Fuchun River. In the painting, there are Potuo Beach, scattered houses, undulating hills, stacked mountains, and intertwined trees. The scenery is arranged in a dense and dense manner, and the ink colors are thick and light, dry and wet, and are extremely varied.

The hemp-cracking method is used to draw mountains and rocks. The brush strokes are fast and sometimes slow. The lines are long or short and are not arranged in parallel, so there are clever staggered combinations. The circulation of "Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains" was not very orderly. It was unknown who kept it for a while, and even multiple "Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains" appeared in the world at the same time, leaving many unsolved mysteries for future generations.

"Dwelling in Fuchun Mountain" was painted by Huang Gongwang for his fellow disciple Wuyongshi. Wuyongshi was naturally the first owner of this painting. He left the "Wuyongshi" mark on the picture. It is unknown who collected this painting after Wu Yongshi, and it was not until the Chenghua period (1465-1487) that the painting reappeared in the world.

At this time, it was sold to Shen Zhou, a calligrapher, painter, connoisseur, and founder of the "Wumen School" at a high price. So how did this painting spread from ten years later to the Chenghua period? If you know who the person who sold the painting to Shen Zhou got the "Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains" from, you can still know a little bit about it, but now No way to check.

Regarding the formation of this blank space, we can speculate that maybe this painting was collected in an orderly manner, but the person who collected it forgot to write a postscript on it, or someone wrote a postscript on it. This section of the title and postscript was deliberately destroyed. Why this inscription and postscript was destroyed is quite puzzling, and no reasonable explanation can be found. It has now become a mystery.

Baidu Encyclopedia - Huang Gongwang

Baidu Encyclopedia - Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains (an ink painting on paper created by Huang Gongwang in the Yuan Dynasty)