Xu Bangda's character story

Together with Xie, Xie and Xie, they are also known as the three masters of calligraphy and painting appraisal. He is an academic master in the field of art history and a famous painter and calligrapher at home and abroad.

His life runs through the development of cultural relics and museums in New China. The first-class paintings and calligraphy collected by major museums in China and the first, second and third-class paintings and calligraphy and reference works collected by the Palace Museum have all been appraised by Xu Bangda.

Xu Bangda regards calligraphy and painting as love will keep us alive, and appraisal is a test of skill and character. He often said, "Appraisal is a science, so we should seek truth from facts". Many people used to buy him off with a lot of money, hoping that he would confuse the real with the fake, but he flatly refused.

The afterglow of the sunset passed through the window screen, and the traces carved on his face by the years gradually faded away, and his eyes were as clear as children. This is the year of 20 10, and in a few days, July 7 will be his centenary birthday.

The festive moment has come, flowers have filled the whole room, and Xu Bangda is lying quietly. "Bonda, you are going to celebrate your100th birthday!" His wife Teng Fang leaned down from time to time and kissed his forehead. Xu Bangda could only follow her with his eyes, but because of the breathing operation, he lost his freedom of speech and action.

Every room is hung with Xu Bangda's calligraphy and painting, and the calligraphy is "quiet and far away", just like a portrayal of life. In the study, the picture scroll is spread out, and the thick felt on the book case is full of brush and ink, as if the owner had just splashed ink and talked about the past and the present.

"He is a national treasure."

Shout for Cheer and Ode to a Teacher are treasures of the Palace Museum. And these masterpieces, it is because of Xu Bangda's eye, just saw the dawn from the pile of old paper.

1950, Xu Bangda was transferred to the Cultural Relics Bureau of the Central Ministry of Culture (now National Cultural Heritage Administration) as the business secretary of the Cultural Relics Department. During this period, thousands of Gu Shuhua's works were appraised by experts such as Xu Bangda, and later handed over to the Palace Museum, which became the basic collection in Gu Shuhua's collection.

When New China was founded, the cultural relics in the Palace Museum were only one tenth of those in the Forbidden City. In order to enrich the painting collection of the Palace Museum as soon as possible, Xu Bangda and his colleagues visited more than 80% of the counties in China. The paintings of Zhao Mengfu, a famous painter in Yuan Dynasty, are rarely handed down from generation to generation, and the only remaining scrolls are collected by the royal family, among which the Water Town Map is one of them. /kloc-one day in 0/953, Xu Bangda stumbled upon a clue to the map of water towns and traced it to a place called Dalizigou in the northeast. He entrusted the local cultural relics agency to buy it on his behalf, and the state confirmed it and bought it back for collection. In this way, in just a few years, Xu Bangda excavated and rescued 3,700 paintings and calligraphy.

During the Cultural Revolution, Xu Bangda summed up many years' experience in appraising ancient paintings and calligraphy, and completed the first draft of his first book, An Introduction to Appraisal of Ancient Paintings and Calligraphy. After the Cultural Revolution, Xu Bangda returned to the Palace Museum. The first thing he thought of was to collect Gu Shuhua's works for the national examination. 1983, the State Council entrusted National Cultural Heritage Administration to identify the ancient paintings and calligraphy collected by cultural and artistic institutions all over the country. Xu Bangda and others have completed this important task for several years, and assumed the heavy responsibility of cultivating students who are backward. After 1980s, Xu Bangda visited Europe and North America for many times, inspected China's paintings and calligraphy lost overseas, and had academic exchanges with foreign experts.

Zheng, president of the Palace Museum, is called the "national treasure" of China's art. He organically combined literature research with images, systematically established the appraisal scale of ancient calligraphy and painting, and truly restored the development context of China's calligraphy and painting history. "More importantly, Xu Bangda was the first person to combine the identification of ancient calligraphy and painting with the study of science. As an ancient art researcher and an ancient painting and calligraphy appraiser in China, the two are mutually exclusive. " Li Wenru, vice president of the Palace Museum, said.

Nicknamed "Xu Banchi"

In the identification of ancient cultural relics in China, Gu Shuhua is considered to be the most difficult one. "Even in today's highly developed modern science and technology, we have not found a foolproof scientific means to identify calligraphy and painting works, and we can only rely on traditional methods and the experience and vision of connoisseurs." Li Wenru said.

In 1930s, Xu Bangda discovered that Fuchun Shan Jutu written by Emperor Qianlong was a fake. Fuchun is a famous work by Huang, a famous painter and calligrapher in Yuan Dynasty. During the Qianlong period, a painting "Fuchun Shan Jutu" was collected into the palace, and Qianlong greatly appreciated the painting. Surprisingly, this painting turned out to be a fake. Later, when the real painting entered the palace, Qianlong felt ashamed and wrote an inscription on the real painting to show falsehood and deliberately reverse right and wrong. In 1930s, Xu Bangda saw these two Fuchun Shan Jutu. After careful textual research, he overturned the conclusion and gave history a true face. There are many such discoveries, such as Guo's trip to the Western Hills, Huang's visit to Dai on a snowy night, and Yuan's golden rooster, all of which are treasures he found among old paper piles.

As a master of traditional identification methods, Xu Bangda has a pair of "discerning eyes of connoisseurs". Decades later, when Xu Bangda saw him again, he still remembered the paintings and calligraphy he saw decades ago. Some people think that this extraordinary memory is a gift, but he himself thinks that "it is only in his heart." Only by memorizing a large number of ancient documents, can Gu Shuhua's works be unforgettable and easily evaluated.

Xu Bangda divided Gu Shuhua's evaluation into two concepts: "seeing" and "testing". "Jian" means comparing many works with each other, detecting vision and inferring authenticity. "For a large number of paintings and calligraphy in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, learning is particularly important. But to achieve the accuracy of visual inspection, the viewer must see a lot. " Yang Xin, his disciple and former vice president of the Palace Museum, said. For paintings and calligraphy that are far away from the times or difficult to understand, it is necessary to collect relevant documents and other circumstantial materials extensively and carefully examine and verify them in order to distinguish right from wrong. "Mr. Xu is knowledgeable and knowledgeable. Every time he conducts textual research on a difficult work, he crawls around and analyzes it in detail, which is convincing. " Yang Xin said.

Decades later, when Xu Bangda saw him again, he still remembered the paintings and calligraphy he saw decades ago. At the age of 70, Xu Bangda looked at two hand scrolls, only from the two boxes containing them, he knew that the words and paintings were Dong Qichang's works, and the title and content were seen decades ago. On another occasion, when Mr. Yin Guanghua, an assistant, was helping Xu Bangda to sort out the book Textual Research on False and Incorrect Gu Shuhua, no matter which calligraphy postscript of the ancients was combined with a painter's painting, he could know whether it was someone's painting in the Song Dynasty or someone's painting in the Yuan Dynasty.

Even some calligraphy and painting scrolls have just opened half a foot, and they have already said everything related to this painting, so that people have nicknamed him "Xu Half a Foot". Once, a visitor slowly unfolded the picture scroll. As soon as I saw the tip of bamboo leaves, I blurted out, "Li!" The picture scroll was unfolded, and it was indeed made by Li, one of the "Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou".

Xu Bangda is not good at words, but when it comes to calligraphy and painting, he never stops talking. The chronicles, masterpieces and brushwork of famous painters and painters of past dynasties have long been familiar with their hearts. Xu Bangda's profound knowledge is like a history of ancient calligraphy and painting in China. All his works are always quoted by others, and the basis is listed one by one. On one occasion, Xu Bangda was in Jinling Hotel, and someone brought a fan embedded in a frame and asked him to identify it. This is a gilded landscape fan, signed by Zhang Hong for four years. After a pause, he said, "This was painted by Zhang (Zhang Hongzi). This is his early work. He is a long-lived painter who lived in his 90 s and lived between Wanli in the Ming Dynasty and Kangxi in the Qing Dynasty, spanning two dynasties. " "Ming Painting Record" says that he "works on landscapes, writes about Gu Zhuo, and uses ink to embellish". "

"Appraisal is a science." Xu Bangda once said. In his view, the appraisal of calligraphy and painting needs not only the wisdom of making the past serve the present, but also the character of seeking truth from facts. In the past, many people paid a lot of money to buy him off, hoping that he would confuse the real with the real and make huge profits, but he flatly refused. "Now the art market is mixed, and an important reason is that appraisers and researchers lack the character of seeking truth from facts and the spirit of upholding truth. At this point, Xu Bangda is particularly worth learning. " Li Wenru said.

"200 points to the bone"

According to Teng Fang's memory, "We often say that we love our bones, but Xu Bangda loves art so much that even dreams cannot be separated from calligraphy and painting."

In 1980s, the art market became increasingly active, and many Gu Shuhua masterpieces were sent to auction houses. Xu Bangda is worried that cultural relics and treasures will be "reasonably and legally" lost through auction. On one occasion, he learned that Shout and Ke by Shi Tao, one of the lost "Four Monks of Qing Dynasty", were going to be put on the market for auction, so he lobbied around and hoped that the state would contribute to the purchase of this treasure.

Just a few days ago, Teng Fang was going to meet Li Ruihuan, then chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, hoping that the government could do something for their "fighting room". Xu Bangda learned that she was begging and bowing to Teng Fang, and asked her to "not mention housing, only hope that the government can find a way to buy energy."

The next day, when I entered the door, I talked about Maihu and Ke: "In the early days of the founding of New China, the national economy was much more difficult than it is now, but he still allocated huge sums of money to buy back two of the three rare books collected by Sanxi Hall. Now our ability to rescue cultural relics is stronger. " Li Ruihuan immediately said that hula and canned food should be purchased by the state, and Xu Bangda's heart finally fell into his stomach. When leaving the door, he took Teng Fang and said excitedly, "I thank you for the Forbidden City!"

"Xu Bangda always said, there is no * * * production party, there is no Xu Bangda. He said this from the bottom of his heart. He devoted himself to the new China. He is deeply attached to it. " Teng Fang said, "I feel this more deeply today when his life is about to reach the peak of his centenary."

Xu Bangda is very interested in Wang Yuan.

On June 5th, 1982, Mr. Xu Bangda, a researcher at the Palace Museum and an authoritative expert on ancient painting appraisal, drove to the Shanxi Provincial Cultural Relics Store in Jiefang Road, Taiyuan City to appraise calligraphy and painting. He looked at every painting and calligraphy collection carefully for fear of missing a frame of masterpieces. When the female shopkeeper took out a picture wrapped in a newspaper from the warehouse, she gently opened it and saw a badly damaged silk painting. If you are not careful, your hand will break when you touch it. Xu Bangda slowly spread out carefully, and suddenly cried with excitement and surprise, "Ah! This is a painting by Wang Yuan, a famous painter in the Yuan Dynasty, and his works have been handed down rarely. " He's a little upset. He is afraid that he will go blind. He carefully examined the content, brushwork, ink color, inscription, seal and texture of the painting, turned it over and over again, and finally said with certainty, "This is Wang Yuan's painting. It's a national treasure, even rare in the Palace Museum. I suggest that it be sealed now and never seen by anyone again, because the texture is too brittle after a long time, and it will be damaged once it is seen. Please send someone to the Palace Museum to unveil the binding! " All the people present were excited and delighted by Xu Bangda's emotion, and were impressed by his serious and responsible spirit and superb appraisal skills. The staff in the shop said: "This painting was bought from ordinary people in the middle and late 1970s. Because of the serious damage, it has not been seriously identified and valued, nor has it been listed as a treasure to be uncovered and protected. Today, it is appraised as a masterpiece by Mr Xu. We must list it as a special collection and protect it carefully. " After years of silence, the treasures of painting in the Yuan Dynasty were finally discovered. Wang Yuan, whose word is like water, whose word is Lianxuan, is from Hangzhou. He was educated in Zhao Mengfu since childhood. Guo studied his landscapes in the Northern Song Dynasty, his characters with a pen in the Tang Dynasty, and his flowers and birds in the Five Dynasties. He is good at mastering and finding his own way. Yuanwangyuan, a picture of a golden pheasant with peach and bamboo, has a deep artistic conception and a calm brushwork. Peach and bamboo two hooks, lake stone brush. Although no color is added, the whole picture is full of colorful ink, full of secrets and radiant. The author combines landscape painting with flower-and-bird painting in painting; It not only has the delicacy of meticulous painting, but also has the charm of freehand painting, showing profound artistic skill. The inscription on the lower right of the screen reads: "If Qiantang Water was painted by a good friend of China in the winter of Zheng Zheng's third year." This painting has been listed as a special collection of Shanxi Provincial Museum and displayed to the world with its unique artistic charm.