The "old man" in the calligraphy and painting world who helped his daughter to forge - Zhu Zhongxuan, a calligrapher and painter in Taizhou during the Republic of China, and his seals

Zhu Zhongxuan (1883-1951) was named Yu, formerly known as Chongyu, and lived in Flagstaff Lane, East Street, Taizhou. Zhu Zhongxuan's seal was obtained from Lao Li, a book seller on Dongda Street before Taizhou was demolished. Looking at Zhu Zhongxuan's seal spectrum, one of the seals turned into "Lao Pao", which not only shows his calligraphy skills, but also looks like a portrayal of Zhu Zhongxuan himself.

"Laopao" probably refers to a person who has been in an industry for a long time, is good at it, and has senior qualifications. Among the calligraphers and painters in Taizhou during the Republic of China, Zhu Zhongxuan deserves the title of "Laopao" in terms of painting skills, qualifications, character, and feelings.

He is good at painting. In his early years, Zhu Zhongxuan was good at painting large portraits. The so-called large portraits are portraits of old people. It is said that the painting of Zhu Zhongxuan's large portraits was a masterpiece in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, and people in the capital asked him to paint. Zhu Zhongxuan once painted four large portraits for Huaiyin Shen Mansion and received 500 yuan in silver, which was a very heavy reward at the time. In Zhu Zhongxuan's seal book, there is a small sample of the portrait of the old man. It can be seen that the old lady has a serious expression and lifelike eyes, as if she is looking at the viewer, very expressive, which shows that Zhu Zhongxuan's painting skills are solid. Zhu Zhongxuan is good at painting flowers, grass and insects in fine brushwork. He studied under Li Shihu, Chen Xifan and Wu Lixian, and is known as an outstanding painter. Most of his paintings were based on nature. According to the memory of Cai Liquan (1919-1999), a Taizhou collector who studied calligraphy and painting under Zhu Zhongxuan in his early years, the old man planted flowers and plants in the courtyard, hid insects, and made various gestures on them, observing them morning and night. The interest comes from the heart, so the freehand paintings are incomparably elegant and exquisite.

He has seniority. As a professional painter, over the years, Zhu Zhongxuan not only made many friends in the field of calligraphy and painting, building up his popularity, but also brought out a group of calligraphers and painters with certain social influence. Zhi Zhensheng (1913-1987), a famous painter in Taizhou, was a former member of Jiangsu Artists Association and vice chairman of Taizhou Artists Association. He studied traditional Chinese painting under Zhu Zhongxuan at the age of sixteen. Sun Yan (1923-1995), a famous meticulous painter in modern Jiangsu painting circles, was fond of poetry and art since childhood. Later, he studied calligraphy and painting under Zhu Zhongxuan, and his painting skills have greatly improved since then. Chen Chunnian (1917-2012), a female painter from Shanghai, studied painting with Zhu Zhongxuan as her teacher when she was young.

He has good character. Cai Liquan's son-in-law Wang Weiyin told an anecdote about the painting forest in "Two or Three Anecdotes of the Famous Taizhou Painter Zhu Zhongxuan": Zhu Zhongxuan did not paint monkeys, because Xinghua painter Xu Zi also came to Taizhou to paint monkeys to avoid misunderstandings. Of course Xu Zijian knew Zhu Zhongxuan's intention of not painting monkeys, and he compensated him in time. One year, a visitor from Shanghai celebrated his birthday. Several bosses in Taizhou planned to ask Xu Zijian to draw a picture of the feudal lords of the Five Dynasties on a fan. They paid a heavy investment of five kilo meters. Jing, I can't, only Zhu Zhongxuan has one ear. Later, a certain boss spent another five kilograms to ask Zhu Zhongxuan to repaint the scenery. Zhu Zhongxuan understood Xu Zijian's intention, so he spent a month to complete it and presented it to Xu Zijie for viewing. Xu Zijian was so impressed that only Zhu could do it and praised Zhu as a master. Zhu Zhongxuan was kind-hearted, and Xu Zijian reciprocated his kindness.

He has feelings. His feelings are most prominently reflected in helping his daughter "make fake things." Cai Liquan once said that Zhu Zhongxuan helped his daughter to make fake paintings in order to promote the name of her daughter Zhu Yumei's paintings. Zhu Zhongxuan painted the characters or main scenes, and Zhu Yumei painted the colors, added the scene and then inscribed the title. Among Zhu Zhongxuan's seals, there are two small pictures of ladies, one is "Lady Playing the Qin" and the other is "Lady Leaning at the Window", both imitating Silla people. Neither of the two small paintings has an inscription, but judging from the writing style, it seems to be Zhu Yu Made by Mei.

There are two volumes of Zhu Zhongxuan's seal spectrum. One volume contains the complete set of seals of "The Humble Chamber Inscription" and is covered with more than 300 square meters of other seals. The other volume contains more than 400 square meters of seals, some of which are Zhu Zhongxuan's calligraphy and paintings. The inscriptions are printed with seals, some of which are free seals and some of which are carved for friends. They can be either red or white, round or square, and there is no particular pattern. The full text of the "Humble Room Inscription" is printed in a seal. Each sentence is printed in a different style and has its own interest. But what is more interesting are the many casual chapters in the seal book, just to name a few:

"Half a pond of autumn water and a mountain of mountains" seal shed: the words come from the poem "Mountain Residence and Friends Visiting" by the poet Li Dong of the Tang Dynasty "This sentence shows Zhu Zhongxuan's open-mindedness.

"Love is the most difficult to last, so many lovers will inevitably become unloving; nature has its own permanence, so willful people will never lose their nature." Yin Shei: This quote comes from Chen Jiru's "Little Window You Ji" in the Ming Dynasty, where love comes Deep down, his feelings become weak and his willfulness becomes less capricious, which seems to be a glimpse into Zhu Zhongxuan's temperament.

"The sound of a thousand lotus heralds the rain, and the shadows of a forest of bamboos separate the coolness." Yin Shei: The phrase comes from Lu You's "Autumn Xing" in the Song Dynasty. The original sentence is "The sound of a thousand lotus heralds the rain first, and the shadows of a forest of bamboos separate the shadows." Cool." In the seal, the word "Lin" is changed to "Ting". Perhaps it was summer, and Zhu Zhongxuan was sitting in his room, watching the bamboo shadows in the corner of the courtyard, listening to the sound of rain hitting lotus leaves in the lotus vat, enjoying the coolness and tranquility of the rain.

"I am too thin with self-pity poems and wine, and cannot cope with the beauty of spring." Yin Sheo: This quote comes from the Southern Song Dynasty poet Shi Dazu's "Xi Migrant Orioles·Moon Waves of Doubts", which writes that when he was young, he was addicted to poetry and wine, and he became old when he was old. When he was haggard and sad, did the meaning of the words arouse Zhu Zhongxuan's screams?

Walking among Zhu Zhongxuan’s seals, I gained a better understanding of his character.

Mr. Miao, the seal engraver, saw the more than ten square seals in the seal book and commented: "The Zhuwen seal has the flavor of gold and stone, and the white seal has the atmosphere of ancient times. Judging from the regular arrangement of the seals, You can see the tradition and standard of the seal maker's character. Some of them are printed in official script, which makes the viewer feel the profound calligraphy skills of the seal maker. "Some painting friends think that Zhu Zhongxuan's seal skills are average.

Many painters in the old days were good at calligraphy, painting, and printing. Zhu Zhongxuan was good at painting. With the help of two volumes of printing, it is really rare to get a glimpse of another side of the painter.