Zhao Ji Xianglong Stone Scroll

[Picture of Zhao Ji’s Xianglong Stone]

The picture of the Xianglong Stone, painted by Zhao Ji, Emperor Huizong of the Northern Song Dynasty, is printed in silk and colored. 53.9 cm vertically and 127.8 cm horizontally
A standing the Taihu Lake Lake stone is painted on the front of the scroll, and several different grasses grow on the top of the stone. The stone of the Taihu Lake Lake is like a rolling dragon, and its appearance occupies the five aesthetic conditions necessary for a strange stone: thin, leaky, wrinkled, transparent, and ugly. Look at the stone carefully. There are two characters in regular script: “Xianglong”. Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty regarded the appearance of such strange stones and grasses as the auspicious omen of the great Song Dynasty, praised them as “very auspicious”, and made every effort to paint them. On the left is a thin gold inscription by Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty for the Xianglong Stone: “The Xianglong Stone stands in the south of the Green Lake and the west of the Fangzhou Bridge, and the opposite is better than the Yingya Stone. Its potential is stronger than the surge. If the dragon appears to be auspicious, it can’t be said to be wonderful. It can draw the elephantine by hand, and talk about it with four rhymes. The beauty is winding like a dragon, and it is quite like the Ruidu Dominant. The clouds are congealed and lustful to borrow from each other, and the water is moist and clear. It is often misty and suspicious of the vibration of the hyena, and every time it rains at night, it is afraid of flying in the air. Therefore, it is not easy to be poor to draw the melting skill with the colored pen 。” He signed the “imperial painting and calligraphy” and “one person in the world”, and stamped the “imperial book” and “Xuanhe palace treasure” with Zhu Wenyin. Mr. Xu Bangda believed that the seal was “poor, and the authenticity of the seal was to be verified” (Xu Bangda’s “Identification of the authenticity of ancient calligraphy and painting”), but the “Xianglong Stone Painting” volume was recognized as the authentic work of Huizong of the Song Dynasty. In addition to the thin gold body “imperial painting and calligraphy”, “one person in the world” inscription and the Zhu seal “imperial book” and the Shuanglong imperial seal, the calligraphic and painting style is also an important basis for identifying the authentic works of Huizong, that is, combining the calligraphic and painting history of the Zhao and Song families, especially the aesthetic thought of Huizong himself and the historical development of painting in the Northern Song Dynasty, to find the logical relationship between the styles, and combining the problems of celebrities at that time and later generations, To judge by combining various factors
At that time, the Emperor Huizong was particularly obsessed with the Taihu Lake Lake stones. In order to increase the mining and transportation efforts, Suzhou and Hangzhou Yingfeng Bureau was specially assigned to excavate lake stones around the Taihu Lake Lake. The stone workers dug stones in the water for a long time, which caused the skin of the limbs to fester. When transporting boulders, they even tore down the bridge and crossed the ship, wasting countless national resources. According to the shape of some lake stones, Huizong named them “Pan Gu Hou”, “Crouching Chi Sitting Lion”, “Golden Ao Jade Turtle” and other auspicious names. The “Xianglong Stone” in the painting may be one of them. The Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty carefully searched for flowers and stones and various auspicious objects in order to stabilize the court and pacify the people, and also provided him with materials for artistic creation. In the view of Song Huizong, who is full of Taoist immortal thoughts, the painting activity of depicting auspicious objects is not only a simple artistic creation, but also a unique form of praying for the well-being of the country and the nation and the best political tool to whitewash peace. The “Xianglong Stone Painting” volume is a reflection of this thought
For the first time in history, Huizong of the Song Dynasty achieved the complete unity of poetry, calligraphy and painting in artistic creation. In the “Xianglong Stone Painting” volume, Huizong’s painting poems are not at the end of the volume, but as a part of the composition of the picture, which must be the result of the author’s simultaneous operation of conception and composition, which has epoch-making significance in the history of Chinese painting. The composition of this volume is very simple, the color is quite exquisite, the style is elegant, and it has the typical artistic style of the Northern Song Dynasty academy painting. The artist used ink to render the holes in the Taihu Lake Lake stone layer by layer. The structure is clear, the ink is exquisite, extremely neat and elegant, and it may be a sketch. The volume bears the seal of “the treasure of the calendar” and other seals of the Yuan Dynasty, followed by the postscript of Chen Rentao and Wu Rongguang of the Qing Dynasty, and the description of “The Story of the Bitter Chou and the Summer”.