Food, fine wine and good art
■Baozijie (doctoral student at the School of Fine Arts, Northwest Normal University)
Food and fine wine have since ancient times embodies the Chinese people's yearning for a better life. Food, defined in the dictionary, is "delicious food". In addition to grain, it also contains edible and nutritious delicious substances such as fruits, dried fruits, vegetables, beverages, etc. And fine wine seems to have been intoxicating since its birth.
is closely related to the life of the present world, and food and wine are often visited by famous Chinese calligraphy works. During the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the peak of Chinese calligraphy had arrived, especially in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Wang Xizhi, the saint of calligraphy for thousands of years, was born, and his son Wang Xianzhi, who had the most profound influence on Chinese calligraphy. In the letters from the two kings to their friends, there is a situation where they send fruit to the other party. Since then, there have been famous calligraphy works on food and wine in the Tang, Five Dynasties and Northern Song Dynasty. I have tried to sort them out:
Starting from Wang Xizhi of the Eastern Jin Dynasty (303-361) to Mi Fu of the Northern Song Dynasty (1051-1107), about 800 years, there have been 18 famous calligraphy works on food and wine in the world. Among them, the largest number of dynasties were the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the Northern Song Dynasty, with 6 pieces each. The one who involves the most delicious food in a single author's book is Wang Xizhi, and the one who involves the most delicious wine is Su Shi. Among the calligraphy works, the most famous one is Yang Ningshi's "Jiuhua Tie" by the Five Dynasties. It is known as "Lanting in the Five Dynasties" and "the fifth line of calligraphy in the world". Because of its unique layout and writing form, it has been highly valued by calligraphers since its birth. The delicacies mentioned in this post include fruits, dried fruits, vegetables, meat, beverages, etc., and the wines include Dongting Chunse Wine, Zhongshan Pine Wine, Liangzhou Wine and Crispy Wine. In fact, Chinese people also have the saying that "medicine and food are of the same origin". Many foods are also traditional Chinese medicine, so sometimes the difference between medicine and food is not very obvious. Any food or medicine that is only used for treatment is not included in the statistical table, such as Wang Xizhi's "Take a Tie", Wang Xianzhi's "Duck Head Pills", Zhang Xu's "Take a Tie of Stomach Ache", Yan Zhenqing's "Take of Deer Candy" and so on. In addition, the food or wine that appears in some books does not specify the specific name and is not included in the statistics, such as Su Shi's "Cold Food Post" involving wild vegetables (there is a sentence "cooking cold vegetables in empty cooks" in this post. According to Su Shi's extremely depressed situation at that time, this dish has no beauty and cannot be considered as a delicacy, but can only be called food) and Wang Xizhi's "Lanting Preface" involving fine wine.
From the perspective of these calligraphy styles, except for "Jiuhua Tie" which is running regular script, the rest belongs to running script, cursive script or running cursive script. All of these fonts have the nature of line and cursive, which is not a coincidence, but because the expression of these calligraphy basically belongs to letters.
Huaisu Bitter Bamboo Post 25.1×12cm Collection of Shanghai Museum
/ Two Wangs and Delicious Food /
Oranges and pears appeared in the two Wangs of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. Among them, Wang Xizhi's "Fengju Post" has a total of 12 words: "Three hundred oranges are fur, but the frost has not fallen, so it is not much to get." Wang Xianzhi's "Sending Pear Post" has a total of 11 words: "Sending Pear Post is now 300, and the evening snow is not good." Interestingly, the Wang father and son gave each other 300 oranges and pears to their friends. In Wang Xizhi's "Huang Gan Tie", the tangerines given to his friend became 200: "It's not good to serve 200 yellow Gan. I think it's so good. I can't get it. I don't know if the former is the most important one?" Although the king's tangerines and tangerines have few words, he explains the quality of the fruit he gave. The orange post says, "The frost has not fallen, and it can't be obtained more." The orange post does not taste very sweet, so it is not picked too much; the orange post says, "It cannot be better." Both letters seem to be very humble.
What is particularly eye-catching is that there are many food-related posts in the King's cursive script "Seventeen Posts". Judging from the content of the letter, Wang Xizhi likes delicious fruits and dried fruits very much, and his main task after resigning from office in his later years was to plant fruit trees in the fields. This can be proved by literature: In the 11th year of Yonghe, that is, the third year after writing "Lanting Preface", Wang Xizhi said that he had abandoned his official position. "He moved from Wuxi to Jinting, building a bookstore, planting mulberry fruits, teaching his children, writing poetry, writing calligraphy and painting, and enjoying the entertainment of geese and fishing." Regarding the specific situation of fruit tree planting represented by "planting mulberry fruits", the few letters in "Seventeen Posts" can be seen in the few letters in "Seventeen Posts", among which "Water Tie" (Seventeen Posts" No. 27) clearly illustrates this point:
is said to be good at the foot of the foot, and this fruit is good, and it can be used to plant it.Both this kind of walnuts are born. I am very happy to plant fruits, but now I am in the field, so I only regard this as a matter, so I can go far. Those who give this son a big favor are great favors. The post
said that the letter you sent me said that the fruity tastes good, and asked to get the seeds and plant them yourself. The walnut tree you sent me before also survived. I like to plant fruit trees. Now I live in the countryside, and I only focus on this. It is a great favor for you to send me seeds so far! Regarding the seeds of delicious food, the most common appearances are in "Laiqin Tie" (No. 26 of "Seventeen Tie"): green plums, "Laiqin", cherries, and daily tengzi. It is best to have a large bag, but the most sealed ones will not grow.
means these four seeds. It is best to pack them in a cloth bag when sending them, otherwise if they are sealed in a box, they will not germinate after being planted. With such careful and thoughtful arrangements in the letter, it can be seen that Wang Xizhi's fruit tree planting activities in the countryside are by no means idle.
In "Seventeen Posts", according to the author's statistics, there are 3 specific food names that appear, namely "Zhanjue Post", "Water Tie" and "Laiqin Tie" (Seventeen Posts No. 24, 26, and 27), involving 5 kinds of food, all of which are dried fruits and fruits, walnuts appear twice, and Wang Xizhi also planted walnut trees. It seems that he must have a special preference for this thing.
/ Su Huang and Wine /
Su Shi is a famous foodie. During his career as an official career, "Ask you for your life, Huangzhou, Huizhou, Danzhou", he was optimistic by nature and ate wherever he went. Not only did he create foods such as "Dongpo Pork" that have been passed down to this day, but there were also many good stories about him and food. Similarly, Huang Tingjian, the leader of the "Four Bachelors of the Sumen", has many similarities with his masters in his career, calligraphy, poetry, food and wine.
Running script combined volumes "Dongting Spring Scenery Fu" and "Zhongshan Pine Wine" are both names of wine, and the things described are the same as the same category, so Su Shi himself combined these two fu together and said in the postscript of "Zhongshan Pine Wine Fu": "There are the same things and the writings, so it is recorded as a volume. On the 21st April of the first year of Shaosheng."
In the two fu, Su Shi explained the "secret recipe" for the production of two types of wine. Dongting spring wine uses yellow tangerines as the raw material, and the key to brewing Zhongshan pine wine lies in the use of pine resin: "Cook thin and used for mulberry and elm, make Zhongshan pine wine... Take it clearly in the plate, and produce fat and scatter in cooking. It is ripe with millet and wheat, and the sound of spring is noisy." The wine produced in this way "sweet and bitter taste are sweet and sigh at the uniqueness of the secluded posture." And "knowing that sweet and sour are easy to deteriorate, and laughing at the Pu grapes in Liangzhou." He believes that Liangzhou wine, which was once famous all over the world, is made of rotten and deteriorated grapes, and is not as good as Zhongshan pine wine.
The effect of these two kinds of wines was even more effective after drinking them. Su Shi was also using his literary talent. He was full of magical imagination in his beautiful words, creating a fantastic artistic conception, which made people yearn for these two kinds of wines:
I washed the cup and tasted it, and scattered the stubbornness of my waist and feet. After sucking the three rivers, swallowing the traitors of fish and dragons, and getting drunk and dreaming, it starts like a fashionable man, drumming the osmanthus bowing the mountain, and locking the Qiongguan in the forest house. The pine wind sanks, the spring slithers, the twilight gurgles, the chasing of Fan Li, the widows of Fuchai, the wine cup belongs to this cup in the West, and the sorrow of the deceased country. The dust of the rock socks flying, the bow of the dance sleeves falling out.
Su Shi first explained that the medicinal effect of Dongting Spring Wine is to dispel the stubborn disease of waist and leg paralysis, and then began to "travel the homeland" in his drunken dream, seeing the fish, dragon, gods and ghosts on the ground and the jade towers in the sky, and in the pine wind, he remembered Fan Li in the Spring and Autumn Period, recalling King Fuchai of Wu, and instructing the beautiful Xi Shi... Suddenly woke up from his dream, Su Shi completed this "sleepwalking" journey.
For the effect of Zhongshan pine wine after drinking, Su Shi used a technique similar to Dongting Spring Wine:
How much did you drink in the day, and you can escape when you realize that the punishment of heaven can be eliminated. He walked up with a cane and stopped the child from scratching. Looking at the distance of the west mountain, I want to wear my clothes and invite you to visit. The rushing deer crosses the peak, and the flying tills hanging on the wall. From then on, he entered the sea, with the vast clouds that were shaking the sky. He sent Ji Ruan's ties to the tyrants of the Eight Immortals. Some people ride a phoenix and ride a phoenix, and fight for a scoop and grab a scoop. The white lunar cloth is reversed and the palace brocade robe is dripped. I chased the Dongpo but couldn't reach it, so I went back to the bed and sipped the trash. The wind rinses on the teeth is enough to travel far away and continue to be free.
Su Shi said that you have to drink a few glasses of this wine every day. This wine has the effect of treating rheumatism. After drinking it, you can stand up and walk by yourself without crutches, and you don’t need children to massage him.
"Dongting Spring Scenery" and "Zhongshan Pine Wine" were indeed fascinating by Su Shi's writing. It was probably famous at that time. Su Shi himself felt that it had an exaggeration. Finally, he said in the fu: "I savored it and gave it to the young master, saying: "I savored it, I'm proud of it! My son deleted it for me."
Huang Tingjian's running script "Zhe Jiang Tie" is a paper book about fine wine and food. The letter said: Tingjian paused his head, and he inherited the ginger and ginkgo, which was extremely distant. Two pounds of Yongshu and one jujube in Qingzhou. He was ready to be diligent in his heart. He was not guilty of slight blaming, and Tingjian paused his head.
This is a letter to a friend. Although there are few words, it mentions many terms for food and wine. First, we mention "黑黑黑黑黑". This is a unique delicacy made with wine lees and ginger as raw materials. It is very common in the Song Dynasty and became a tribute in the Southern Song Dynasty. The local specialty tributes recorded in Fan Chengda's "Wujun Zhi Tu Gong" include: "White tangerines, tangerines, oranges, salty and sour fruits, seafood, fish belly, and ginger." Shandong has been one of the important areas for producing ginger since ancient times. After comparison with the "Qingzhou (now Qingzhou City, Shandong Province) dates that appear in the post, this 黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑黑The Song people wrote a poem "Ten poems about writing and writing scripts when they get up late due to illness", which says "Three cups of ginger, and one cup of tea in cypress candles." It can be seen that the wine in ginger can relieve the depression in my heart. How does ginger taste like? Mei Yaochen of the Song Dynasty praised it in the poem "Answer Liu Yuanfu's Send ginger". In addition to ginger, there is also the fine wine "Yongshu". Crisp refers to food made of cattle and goat milk, so crispy wine should be a kind of milk wine in ancient times. Mi Fu, who was also from the Song Dynasty, had a "Zhensu Tie". After investigation, "Zhensu" was found to be a crisp wine brewed in ancient Zhenzhou. "Yongsu" is most likely a crispy wine brewed in ancient Yongzhou (now Guanzhong area of Shaanxi Province). In addition, Yongshu wine not only appears in this post, but also appears in another poem in the valley, "Xie Jingshuhui, Dongshu, Yongshu, and Shui pear":
The jade man pity me for my long vegetables and will not taste it when I go to the kitchen. Qin ox is fat and greasy than snow, and Hanyuan pears are frosted.
This poem is just used as an explanation of the writing background of "Zhao Jiang Tie" and the proper noun "Yong Su": The sentence "Qin Cow is fatter and crispier than snow" means that "Yong Su" is produced by cows produced in Qin (Yongzhou), and the color is as white as snow. From this, it is inferred that this crispy wine is usually solid and needs to be heated and melted when drinking. Coincidentally, a kind of crisp wine that Su Shi once tasted was called "Dongpo crisp wine". It was tasted by Su Shi when he was passing through Sizhou (now Si County in northeastern Anhui Province). After drinking it, Su Shi wrote a poem "Showing the Envoys Send the Sakura in the Snow Eve of Sizhou" after drinking it. According to the folk customs of Sizhou, this wine is only consumed during the alternation of the new and old years at midnight every year on New Year's Eve to eliminate evil and eliminate evil, strengthen bones and strengthen body.
Both Su Huang and his disciples have a connection with crisp wine, especially in Huang Tingjian's "Zhe Jiang Tie", the delicious ginger and fine wine Yong Kuai are indeed a lifelong pleasure of "I have a pot of wine, which is enough to comfort the dust".
/ Where is the beauty /
Beautiful meaning refers to beautiful feelings, which can bring people a sense of beauty that makes people happy. An excellent work of art can bring a lot of beauty from different angles to the viewer, which is why art is attractive. Looking at these famous calligraphy works involving food and wine throughout the ages, we give viewers a sense of beauty:
calligraphy beauty. Since the main form of writing about food and wine has been passed down to this day is letters (or letters), they are written quickly and written casually, so they are mostly running and cursive. Compared with other "formal" works by calligraphers, this kind of letter calligraphy is more free and free, revealing the true nature of a calligrapher. For example, Liu Gongquan, a master of regular script in the Tang Dynasty, changed the common style of regular script with sharp and rigorous and meticulous brushstrokes and turned into running cursive scripts. The lines of calligraphy are round, the layout is relaxed, and the writing speed is fast. It not only gives the viewer a new visual freshness, but also gives the viewer a sense of ease that suddenly frees people from the square and dignified Tang Kai.Huang Tingjian's "Saut Jiang Tie" is a note from Huang Tingjian to reply to his friend, and it is made by hand. "From the beginning of the first line, you can see the brush and ink stretch freely, and it is more casual at the end. It can be said that your mind and hands are smooth, and you can reach the realm of transformation." It has reached the state of what his teacher Su Shi said, "If you don't want to be good, you will be good." This is the effect of doing whatever you want when writing a letter.
taste beautiful. The food and wine mentioned in the post often have a written description of its taste, ingredients and effects. This is a unique sensory experience when reading the post and reading the food and wine. "Xiare Tie" is the only cursive work of Yang Ning style in the world. The "spicy honey water" mentioned in the post is said to be a drink made of crispy cheese and honey. The post says that "summer heat is good and long, crispy honey water is to be put into a mat. If the milk is offered, crispy is not as good as it is." Although the text is short and damaged, it can still make people feel the coolness and cheese flavor of this water.
Mysterious Beauty. The practice and name of food and wine, accompanied by the process of human development, will inevitably change again and again. In our opinion today, those delicacies and wines that were once buried in history are strange and far away, such as the incoming birds, ginger, Yongshu wine, and some rare words listed in the statistical table. The people at that time had long disappeared from their personal experiences on these delicacies and wines. Only the handwriting in the book was left to the present, exuding a mysterious beauty.
beautiful words. The reason why many excellent calligraphy works are fascinating is not only because of their beauty in calligraphy, but also because of their beautiful writing. Wang Xizhi's "Lanting Preface" is itself a beautiful article rich in philosophy. In the calligraphy and posts discussed in this article, the style of the text is fu, and the text is beautiful, the rhythm is harmonious, and the beauty is very beautiful. This is the case with Su Shi's "Dongting Spring Scenery Fu", "Zhongshan Pine Wine Fu" and Huang Tingjian's "Bit Bamboo Fu".
circulates beauty. A famous calligraphy book that has been passed down from ancient times to the present needs to be protected and appreciated by countless collectors and connoisseurs. When they were exhibited in front of us today, the traces of re-mounted after several inscriptions and the seals of famous masters from all generations not only have precious historical value, but also convey a different sense of beauty. Taking Huaisu's "Bits and Bamboo Tie" as an example, the text is only two lines and 14 characters, but there are a large number of inscriptions and seals from all generations. The first place in front of the book is the four words "Drunk Monk Yihan" written by Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty. Later, there are Mi Youren of the Song Dynasty, Nie Zishu, the Minister of Works of the Ministry of Works, Xiang Yuanbian of the Ming Dynasty, and Li Zuoxian and Lu Runxiang of the Qing Dynasty. There is also a record of reinstallation in the Song Dynasty that "Baoqing's reinstallation was reinstalled on September 9, 1225" on the Song Dynasty. The seals include "Xuanhe", "Zhenghe", "Shaoxing", "Ouyang Xuanseal", "Seal of the Neifu Book", "Xiang Zijing Family Collection", "Molinshanren", "Yizhou Collection", "Seal of the Shiqi", "Eleven Sons of the Emperor", "Yong Yan Seal", "Zhengyi Book House Collection", "Saita Seal" and Qianlong Seals (such as "Qian", "Shenpian", "Imperial Book", "Shiqu Baoji", "Qianlong Imperial Treasure"). These inscriptions and marks stamped around the original post exudes the beauty of circulating.
Source: Art News
