What is the potential of ancient brick collection? Borrow the past and open up the present? Wang Jian, the curator of this exhibition and former director of the Art Museum of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, said that the reason for advocating this exhibition is that ancient bricks have gradually attracted attention in the past 30 years, which has greatly affected the aesthetic taste of modern and contemporary calligraphy in China, but their functions are far from being brought into play. ? We put ancient brick characters in front, calligraphers and calligraphy in the back, hoping to play a vigilant role. For decades, we have overemphasized calligraphers and calligraphy art, and overemphasized individuality, but what is its source? Only by constantly tracing back to the source and constantly making new discoveries can we really find a rooted innovation, otherwise calligraphy art will become a rootless tree and a tool for fame and profit. Ancient brick writing is an important ancient writing, which was previously ignored by people. In the past, we only talked about paste learning and stele learning, but now a large number of ancient brick characters unearthed, both in image and expression, have greatly exceeded the capacity of paste learning and stele learning, which can provide more possibilities for modern and contemporary calligraphy. ? He said.
Luo Qi, a painter who participated in this exhibition, also said:? Chinese characters contain profound China aesthetics, and the richest transformation in Chinese characters may be in ancient bricks. Ancient brick writing has changed a lot and is very free. The simplest example is folk songs? Baifu? 、? Hundred years old? Can evolve into hundreds of forms. Many well-made ancient bricks, font style, shape and line changes, are simply beautiful to the extreme. Today's calligraphy and painting can be understood from ancient brick and tile characters. ?
Indeed, in the face of ancient brick writing, its historical charm is palpable, which is very valuable artistic nutrition for modern people.
As a collector of more than 10 thousand pieces of two or three thousand kinds of ancient bricks? Big house? Master, Xu Li told reporters, can the study of ancient bricks play an important role? Seriously make up for history? Function. He said:? Before we studied calligraphy, due to the lack of unearthed materials, it was inevitable that we would fall into a state of being in tune with others in the history of calligraphy. For example, what fonts were used in the pre-Qin, Qin and Han Dynasties and the Southern and Northern Dynasties formed a strong preconceived idea in our minds. Today, with a large number of ancient bricks and other cultural relics unearthed, we can have a more detailed and in-depth understanding. For example, a set of nine-brick fonts in Jingzhou area of Southern Dynasties and Song Dynasty exhibited this time are the same as those previously recognized in Beibei. According to Ruan Yuan's proposal in the middle of Qing Dynasty? Are books divided into north and south? In theory, many people think that there is no such vigorous and tough font in the south, and a large number of ancient bricks unearthed have a certain correction effect on the conclusion of calligraphy history. ?
The same is true of portrait bricks. Did Xu Li collect Shaanxi during the Song and Jin Dynasties? Twenty-four bricks of filial piety prove that these filial piety stories may have changed with the changes of the times. ? What do we know now? Twenty-four filial piety pictures? Generally, it is block printing in the middle and late Qing Dynasty. The last story is about Huang Tingjian in the Northern Song Dynasty. The image of this print was decided by Guo Shoujing in Yuan Dynasty. But before the Yuan Dynasty, there may be more than 30 stories about filial piety, which were later selected and edited. The jade bird image of the Queen Mother of the West is also different from the image on the ancient brick in the late Western Han Dynasty that we see in the literature today. ? Xu Li explained. Moreover, the simple composition, flying lines and vivid pictures of portrait bricks can inspire artists' endless creative inspiration.
Zhu Qingsheng, a professor in Peking University who has been studying Han painting for 20 years, also said that portrait brick is a kind of cultural relic bearing rich historical and cultural information, just like a historical documentary. Zhang Xinkuan, a collector in Qingdao, has collected more than 65,438+0,300 Han Dynasty portrait bricks, many of which are? Orphans? The lifelike dragons and phoenixes, exquisite costumes and grand hunting banquet scenes on the brick carvings give people a glimpse of the social and cultural life thousands of years ago.
History of ancient brick collection In fact, because the historical span of ancient bricks is very long? From pre-Qin to modern times, it has never stopped, and is widely used in the construction and decoration of palaces, temples and tombs. In Xu Li's view, ancient bricks are another carrier of civilization besides pottery, bamboo slips and paper.
Since epigraphy in Song Dynasty, ancient bricks have been paid attention by scholars. Ouyang Xiu and Zhao Mingcheng both studied ancient bricks in Han Dynasty. In the Southern Song Dynasty, Shi Hong wrote Xu Li, which recorded the brick writing in the early years of the Eastern Han Dynasty. During Daoguang period of Qing Dynasty, Ruan Yuan was appointed Governor of Liangjiang River. When he was repairing his official residence in Yangzhou, he found eight ancient bricks, which were later renamed the study? Eight brick pavilions? , and expand the brick text to send to friends to collect poetry inscriptions.
By the end of the Qing Dynasty, with the increase in the amount of ancient bricks unearthed, scholars in Jiangsu and Zhejiang began to record and study more intently. At that time, an ancient brick was sold for one or two pieces of silver. Like the great calligrapher Wu Changshuo, there are ancient bricks in his hometown, just on the edge of his seal? Imitation of Chinese brick writing? Waiting for the record.
? At that time, people also changed the broken ancient bricks of Han Dynasty or Jin Dynasty into brick inkstones, which became luxury stationery for learning. Now, these ancient brick inkstones used by famous Shanghai artists in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China have been auctioned for over one million yuan. Ordinary inkstones focus on materials and techniques, while ancient brick inkstones not only add profound cultural connotations, but also are very easy to use. Because the production technology of ancient bricks and tiles is very high, strict mud refining process is needed. For example, the special brick for the Forbidden City takes three years to make, which is very suitable for making inkstones. Of course, the ancient brick inkstone only appeared in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China. Since the Tang and Song Dynasties, ancient brick inkstones have been sought after by literati, but now there are no world-famous products, only relevant records. The earliest ancient brick inkstone that can be seen today was restructured in the Qing Dynasty. At present, this trend is slowly reviving, and some people begin to replace ancient bricks with inkstones. However, since the ancient brick guyan in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China was basically used by famous artists, it is naturally more valuable for collection. ? Xu Li introduced.
After the founding of New China, although many large-scale ancient bricks were found in the urban construction of Zhengzhou, they were all pulled by carts for packaging. The real climax of excavation is that after the reform and opening up, a large number of ancient bricks were discovered due to large-scale infrastructure construction and urbanization. At present, there are about tens of thousands of ancient bricks in folk collections. However, at first, ancient bricks were left out in the cold. It can even be said that before 20 10, most people in society knew nothing about the value of ancient bricks.