Huang in history: at the age of 80, he became a master, and he accomplished nothing in the first half of his life!

In the second year of Yanyou (13 15), 36 years after the demise of the Song Dynasty, the Yuan Dynasty finally held its first imperial examination.

The Han scholars who are looking forward to serving the world are excited.

Huang, who is also ambitious, decided not to pursue "getting ahead" this year.

Huang Shi is 47 years old. He used to be a bookkeeper under Zhang Lu, a political official in Pingzhang and Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces. However, Zhang Lu was involved in "forcing nine people to die" and became a prisoner.

Since he was appreciated at the age of 23, Huang has been an official for more than 20 years, but in his 40 s, he has not given up this secretarial work, which shows that he has always had hope for being an official through a small official.

But this time in prison, he was completely calm.

After he was released from prison, the talented Huang did not choose the road of scientific research, but became a fortune teller, traveling around the world and painting.

Nearly 500 years old, others seem to have entered the Loess Age half-baked, but Huang has completely changed.

Because he learned to let go.

The road of life will not be carried forward only with the noise of people.

Huang changed from an "official" to an "idiot" and finally embarked on a road that few people walked between mountains and rivers.

▲ Huang (1269- 1354).

The most famous name on Huangjiang Lake is "Confused Taoist", and everyone knows that he was addicted to mountains and rivers in his later years. However, in the first half of his life, wasn't he an "idiot"?

Now he is obviously ill-timed and wants to go against the trend.

Huang was born in Changshu, Pingjiang (now Changshu, Suzhou) in 10, before the death of the Song Dynasty. But at that time, his name was not Lu Mingjian.

Born in troubled times, his childhood was unstable.

More than half a century ago, 1206, Temujin established the Mongolian khanate, and since then, it has expanded to the outside world and continued to go south. By 1235, after the Yuan army destroyed the gold, it began to concentrate its fire on the Southern Song Dynasty. By 127 1, Kublai Khan changed his country name to "Dayuan" and formally established the Yuan Dynasty. At this time, the Southern Song Dynasty was a spent force.

1275, Lu Jian was 6 years old, and the Yuan Army, which was constantly attacking south, finally came to Changzhou.

According to historical records, the battle in Changzhou was fierce, and the Yuan army "killed hundreds of people in Changzhou, fried them to get oil, threw them on the board, and launched them with rockets, which made their own fires". After the city was broken, there was a massacre. Changshu, not far from Changzhou, was not spared by the war.

History shows that Lu Jian lost his father when he was young. Maybe his father died in the war.

Four years later, the Southern Song Dynasty was completely destroyed after the Yashan Sea War. The separation that lasted for many years seems to have come to an end at this moment. 10-year-old orphan Lu Jian was also adopted to Yongjiahuang and started a new life.

In the past, Yongjia Huang was 90 years old. Since Huang has never had children, when he saw the children, he smiled and said, "Huang is already a child." It means, Huang Gong, I have been looking forward to having a baby for a long time!

Therefore, Lu Jian changed his name to Huang.

In this wealthy family, Huang received a good education, read widely and was brilliant. 1 1 years old to take the prodigy exam.

Maybe the old stepfather has expectations. Huang has been familiar with the four books and five classics since childhood, and is full of Confucian thoughts of "saving the world" and "less ambition".

However, this is a "difficult mode" of my life.

If in the Song Dynasty, it was common for a talented person like Huang to be an official. However, in the Yuan Dynasty, it was a very painful choice for Han literati, especially the adherents of the Southern Song Dynasty.

For hundreds of years, the imperial examination system, which made countless scholars at the bottom get rid of class and get ahead, was buried in the snow under the rule of the Yuan Dynasty.

Although the Yuan government was not in charge of the imperial examination, it recruited some famous scholars who had served, such as Tao Juyin of Jiaxing and Sun Tongfa of Tonglu. However, it is a typical mentality of the adherents of the Yuan Dynasty and the Southern Song Dynasty that such people stick to their integrity and refuse to be officials.

There are also some people who underestimate the change of dynasties and pay more attention to helping people, such as Zhao Mengfu after the Song Dynasty. However, this choice was considered to be "out of good faith" at that time, which was criticized and the parties were also very painful.

▲ Zhao Mengfu (1254- 1322).

Therefore, the first torment of Han literati choosing to be an official is the "dishonor" in their hearts; The second torment is to be prepared to sit on the bench for a long time when the imperial examination is suspended.

All this seems extremely difficult for Huang.

At this time, he was stupid and brave.

Huang grew up in Wudi, a place with profound cultural accumulation, and accumulated constantly, reaching the realm of "nine classics and nine streams are all familiar". He waited for the opportunity until he was in his twenties.

That year, West Lake in Huang You, I met a member of the Jiangsu and Zhejiang Provincial Political Consultative Conference.

After some conversation, Huang left an excellent impression. When Yan Xu took over as the low-cost visiting ambassador of western Zhejiang, he was hired as a bookkeeper and served as a similar secretary.

According to the records of the adherents of the Southern Song Dynasty, in the Yuan Dynasty, people were divided into ten classes, one official, two officials, three monks, four roads, five posts, six farmers, seven craftsmen, eight prostitutes, nine men and ten beggars.

It is indeed a good idea for Huang to be an official when he is appreciated by officials.

However, the unruly nature in his bones made him hastily end his first career as a small official.

It is said that Huang was reprimanded for wearing the cassock sent by a friend to dinner and resigned in a rage.

In any case, in 1299, Huang left his post as a bachelor of Hanlin.

At this time, Huang has reached the age of 30. Probably, standing still for six years made him have some doubts, so he returned to his hometown of Yushu, Changshu.

Facing the beautiful mountains and rivers in front of him, he raised his brush and decided to devote himself to painting.

There is a gap of about ten years in his life. During this period, he made a wide range of friends and waited for the next opportunity while painting.

Waiting at the age of 43, in Hangzhou, I know the politics of Jiangsu and Zhejiang Pingzhang. This man's name is Zhang Lu.

Huang once again turned to be a bookkeeper because of his talent.

In Huang's life, the most famous project he participated in was "Manager Field". This is to verify the tax by verifying the number of acres, so as to check whether each household has concealed or omitted.

However, Zhang Lu's eagerness for quick success and instant benefit and his lack of sympathy for the people's feelings led to the peasant uprising. Ben had already been convicted, and later he was taken to a book by other officials, saying that Zhang Lu's works caused death. Yuan Renzong put him in prison for investigation.

Huang used to work under Zhang Lu and was also involved in prison.

It was not a glorious thing to wait until you were in your forties to be a bookkeeper. This time, he was jailed, and his career was tainted, which made Huang disappointed with the rule of the Yuan government.

In the second year of his imprisonment, 13 15, the imperial examination was resumed in the Yuan Dynasty. Although the probability of being an official through the imperial examination is very low, according to the theory of success, there are still dreams. What if it comes true?

Huang has been retrograde for half his life and doesn't want to spend any more.

Heaven and earth are long and wonderful, so why bump into a road?

Don't influence future choices for the so-called sunk cost.

▲ "Shui Ge Quiet Map".

From being determined to be an official to choosing to be born, Huang completed an inner transformation and promotion.

"After returning to the field, he will be lonely, and he will float and float, floating in the world." He found the meaning of life between heaven and earth, mountains and rivers, pen and ink, paper and inkstone.

In the first two years after he was released from prison, he made a living by painting and selling divination in Songjiang area, and "wandered" for more than two years.

At the age of 50, I finally remembered something important to do.

He traveled across mountains and rivers to get to Zhao Mengfu, the owner of Xing Wu Songxue Village, and asked him for advice. When Huang was lucky enough to see the famous elder again and be taught by him, he was very excited and shouted in his poem: "I saw the public with my own eyes. I am a primary and secondary school student in Songxuezhai."

▲ "Fast Snow Sunny Map" (partial).

In the next few decades, Huang devoted himself to painting, and most of his works were created for his friends.

The person who paints the most is a man named Su Wei.

Although the difference between them is more than 30 years old, it does not affect communication at all. During the Tang and Song Dynasties, Huang was obsessed with painting, and there happened to be some rare treasures, such as Gu Kaizhi's Autumn River Peak Map and Wang Wei's Cold Forest Night Axis Map. I have never shown it to anyone, but because the other person is Huang, I am very generous and let him play. The two of them wrote poems and wrote poems.

In poetry and painting activities, dangerous elements are frank and unrestrained, and so is Huang. This is why Huang loves this friend so much.

Huang once wrote a poem when he painted the hidden picture of autumn mountain, saying, "It is a blessing to have a heart when you go out of town." The reason why he can quickly enter the role of a hermit is that his spiritual destination is not only picturesque landscapes, but also Taoism within reach.

The neo-Taoism, represented by Quanzhen religion, flourished in the Yuan Dynasty, with the aim of "integrating the three religions, understanding the heart and seeing the nature, and being independent of the truth".

Huang made many Taoist friends and got in touch with some Taoist thoughts in his early years. Only after the blow did we have a deeper understanding.

1329, Huang, who was over 60 years old, went to Shengjing Mountain with Ni Zan to learn from Jin Yueyan. He changed his name to other Taoist priests, and later to ascetic monks, Shu Jing and Dayuan.

Quanzhen religion advocates the ideas of "deep quietness and clear will, self-cultivation by virtue" and "ploughing, digging wells and self-reliance", which is in good agreement with Huang's spiritual demands. Therefore, he joined Quanzhen without hesitation and lived a life of "not vulgar, not immortal, half awake and half drunk".

At this time, although he was born, he still maintained his love for secular life, interacting with many people, learning painting skills, teaching students, and opening churches to convey sectarian ideas.

Gong Xing, a poet in Yuan Dynasty, once wrote poems in praise of Huang.

As the old man knows, there are poems in poetry and poems in painting.

Sunny windows smile at the dripping ink, winning people's madness.

This free and easy old painter has traveled to dozens of places in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, such as Yushan, Songjiang, Suzhou and Fuyang. In my later years, it's fun to make friends and enjoy the mountains and rivers!

In his later years, Ping Huang was as quiet as if he were not a "living person".

Ni Zan, a good friend, once said, "You can draw a big idiot, Lao Zi Huang, who has no love or hate with others." . Because it is calm enough and does not have too many worldly desires, it has left an immortal artistic treasure for future generations.

Most of Huang's most famous paintings were created after he returned from Taoism at the age of 70.

He claimed to be "lazy all his life and obsessed with mountains and rivers." His obsession is actually a calm that others can't understand.

Fuyang, where Huang lives, has a folklore of "Rain Rock".

According to legend, Huang walked in the forest near Lujia Village, Sanshan Town, Fuyang, wearing a hat and sandals, sitting alone on a strange stone and enjoying the scenery in the mountains.

However, it happened to rain heavily. In this case, most people ran to shelter from the rain, but Huang didn't. He was fascinated by the rain on the mountain in front of him. He has been sitting on the rock, motionless, until the rain stopped and the mountains cleared, before returning to his residence to change clothes. Since then, the villagers have called this stone "Rain Rock".

This legend is similar to that recorded in Notes of the Ming Dynasty: "Huang Zijiu only sits on barren hills and rocks, and the forest is deep and sparse, so people don't know what he did. He also lives in the sea, watching the rapids and waves. Although the wind and rain suddenly came, the water monster was sad and didn't smell it. "

If you don't have enough peace of mind, how can you treat the wind and rain as nothing?

About his mentality, the most intuitive performance is the world-famous Fuchun Shan Jutu.

In the seventh year (1347), Huang, 79, accompanied by a Taoist priest, went to the Fuchun River for sightseeing. It's no use asking Huang for pictures. He accepted it gladly, but a painting is four years.

Huang's paintings have never had anything to do with fame and fortune. In the past four years, he stopped and walked, took a brush tool with him, carefully observed and pondered the sketch records, and then drew a few strokes on the scroll with inspiration.

Why is Fuchun Shan Jutu called the first masterpiece in the history of landscape painting? It is because this painting not only shows people superb pen and ink skills, but also shows people the wonderful realm of harmonious coexistence between man and nature.

Only when the painter's heart is transparent and peaceful enough can he draw such a detailed and moving landscape.

▲ Fuchun Shan Jutu useless volume (partial).

No wonder countless people have been crazy about it since it was painted. Wu Wenqing left his last words before he died, and burned Fuchun Map for burial. After that, Gan Long, a madman with a seal, carried it with him, inscribed it crazily, and loved it endlessly (though for a fake).

Dong Qichang, the Amin dynasty, said: "I am happy to paint. Since Huang, I will open this door!" Huang Kai's painting school is purely for expressing feelings;

Painting has nothing to do with politics or religion, nor is it for the collective. It is important to have a "self" in painting.

On the other hand, the painter sees himself through the painter's self.

Huang devoted the rest of his life to painting. He is connected with heaven and earth, and records the most authentic human scenery with his eyes, brushes and mind.

In addition, he also wrote down the experience of painting for many years, "Writing Landscape Tactics", which left an extremely valuable artistic property for future generations.

Dai Yuan commented on Huang: "I'm worried about immortality. I don't like to bear stones at home. I am like a swordsman in Zhao Yan and a drunkard in Jin and Song Dynasties. As for wind and rain, I want to write a book with the help of a pen and learn from Qilu. This is an unusual painting history! "

This unusual man is 86 years old.

His longevity is inseparable from his inner openness and peace.

He incorporated his personal feelings into his paintings without trace. Because the heart is open-minded and loving enough, the scenery is pure and vivid enough. Judging from his talents and works, he deserves to be the first of the "Yuan Sijia".

When experiencing failures and setbacks, some people will be depressed into illness and will never recover; Some people can't kill Xiao Qiang. They firmly believe that there is another village.

Few people, like Huang, have chosen to let go.

Reject involution and stop clinging to worldly success.

On the basis of secular success, it has greater significance and higher value, which is worth pursuing.

As the American poet Huang wrote more than 500 years after his death:

I hesitated at a fork in the forest, and then

On the lonely road,

Since then, everything has been different.