Fachang ink painting scroll

[Fa Chang Ink Painting from Life]

“Ink Painting from Life” volume, Southern Song Dynasty, Fa Chang painting, paper version, ink, 47.3 cm vertical, 814.1 cm horizontal
Many of the paintings of Fa Chang are based on the ordinary daily life of people, but they can only reveal the true meaning of life consciousness in the plain and naive. The flowers and fruits, birds, fish and shrimp, vegetables and fruits painted in this volume are simple and plain. They are casually placed together on the painting. It seems that they are the most common scenes closely related to our real life. However, the dense ink, the intricate arrangement and the magic of change in the volume are clearly and deeply embedded in Zen. Behind these ordinary images is a large blank without ink. This treatment of “knowing the white and keeping the black” and “counting the white and the black” makes the unrelated things in the picture relatively independent and can be combined into one. The painting is more complete and full of tension, giving the viewer an imaginary space, which is the so-called “everything without painting is a wonderful place”. The whole work is full of a quiet, introspective and indifferent inner spirit, which makes the viewer have a thoughtful feeling of “everything is contented in watching”. The painting of Muxi has a deep skill in sketching. This painting is also a combination of form and spirit, which is “similar to the shape category and gets its meaning” (Xiang Yuanbian’s language)
Shen Zhou wrote in the back of the volume: “Without color, you can splash ink at will, just like living. Looking back at the flow of Huang Quan and Shun Ju, the wind is falling.” There is no signature of the author in this picture, and Shen Zhou is determined to be “the real thing in Song Dynasty”. Mr. Xu Bangda believes that the word “animal husbandry” in Shen Zhou’s inscription and postscript has traces of digging and changing, which is “a painting like animal husbandry but not animal husbandry”.