Han Xizai night banquet

Han Xizai's "The Night Banquet" is a masterpiece in China's painting history and one of the top ten famous paintings handed down from generation to generation in China. It depicts the scene of Han Xizai's family feasting, playing and having fun in a long scroll. In order to avoid the suspicion of Li Yu, the ruler of the late Southern Tang Dynasty, Han Xizai took lewdness as his hiding place. He likes to swim with the guests at every banquet. This picture depicts the whole process of a banquet in Hanfu. This long scroll has accurate and smooth lines, exquisite workmanship and expressive force. Elegant color, layered and unique.

Han Xizai's Night Banquet was written by Gu, a great painter of the Five Dynasties. This picture scroll is not only a picture depicting private life, but more importantly, it reflects the customs of that particular era. Thanks to the author's careful observation, he never misses a detail, vividly portraying Han Xizai's life scene, and all the characters in the picture are lifelike. In this masterpiece, there are more than forty characters with different expressions, which appear repeatedly like montage, with outstanding personality and natural expressions. Han xizai's Night Banquet vividly reflects the life scene of the ruling class at that time from one aspect of life. With amazing observation and profound understanding of the protagonist's fate and thoughts, the painter created this masterpiece that deserves our eternal recollection.

The whole volume is divided into five sections. The first section is "Listening to Songs", which depicts Han Xizai and his guests listening to the pipa. The painter focused on the moment when the audience was concentrated at the beginning of the performance. The spirit and sight of each character in the painting are focused on the pipa girl's hand. From this pipa playing hand, it seems that there are wonderful and crisp notes, which shake the eardrums of the audience and capture their inner feelings. According to their different identities and ages, painters depict their different postures, personalities and expressions, showing the author's extraordinary painting skills. The second paragraph is "Watching Dance", which describes Han Xizai personally playing drums for a dancer. In this scene, a monk stretched out his finger as if he had just finished drumming, and his eyes were fixed on Han Xizai's drumming without looking at the maiko, showing an embarrassed expression, which was completely in line with the specific expression of this particular character. The third paragraph is "rest", which describes the rest scene in the middle of the banquet. Han Xizai, surrounded by the maids, lies on the back couch, washing his hands and talking to the maids, which is also a pause in the banquet plot shown in the whole picture. The fourth paragraph is "Qing Chui", which describes the scene of female poets playing wind music. Han Xizai is sitting cross-legged in a chair in casual clothes, talking to a maid. Female geisha who play music are arranged in a row, uneven and graceful, each with different dynamics, showing changes in unity, as if the picture is full of clear and pleasant music. The fifth paragraph is "Farewell", which describes the end of the banquet, some guests leave, and some reluctantly laugh and tease the prostitutes, ending the whole picture. A complete picture is interwoven with a warm, cold, lingering and gloomy atmosphere. Han Xizai's reluctance to life is implied in "eating, drinking and living", which in turn strengthens his persistence and yearning for life. The use of furniture such as screens and beds in the picture has special functions. On the one hand, separate the pictures so that each picture can be independent. On the other hand, the pictures are linked together to form a unified picture. In the characterization, it highlights the outstanding skill of the painter, especially the protagonist Han Xizai, who has five scenes, but the costumes, movements and expressions of each scene are different, but the shape and personality are the same. "Han Xizai's Night Banquet" has also reached a high level in painting with a pen. For example, Han Xizai's facial beard and eyebrows are in place, and his fluffy beard and hair seem to come from his skin. The lines of the characters' clothes are orderly and concise, very neat and free, and the lines outlined are like curved iron coils, which are both rigid and flexible. It is also unique in color application. In gorgeous colors, black and white are separated in large pieces, which plays the role of unifying the picture. People's costumes are bold, red and green, contrasting and echoing. Not many colors, but rich and unified. If you look closely, you can see that the embroidery pattern on the clothes is as fine as hair and extremely fine. All these show the outstanding achievements of China's traditional meticulous painting, which makes this work occupy an important position in the ancient art history of China.

It is said that this picture scroll was made by the court painter Gu Feng and his former teacher Li Yu. Han Xizai, the protagonist in this picture scroll, was born in Beihai in the Five Dynasties, and a scholar in Daoguang period in the later Tang Dynasty. He was famous for his writing and painting. Father was punished for something, so Han Xizai fled to Jiangnan and went to Nantang. At the beginning, Li Jing, the leader of the Southern Tang Dynasty, was highly prized. After Li Yu succeeded to the throne, the later Zhou Dynasty in the north threatened the security of the Southern Tang Dynasty. On the one hand, Li Yu made peace with the humiliation of the Northern Zhou Dynasty, on the other hand, he tried every means to suspect and frame officials from the North, and the struggle within the entire Southern Tang ruling group became increasingly fierce and precarious. In this environment, Han Xizai, an official living in higher vocational colleges, deliberately dressed up as a corrupt and muddled person in life to protect himself, so that Li Houzhu would not doubt that he was a man with political ambitions. But Li Yu still didn't trust him, so he sent Gu and Zhou Wenju from the Academy of Painting to his house to spy on Han Xizai's activities and ordered them to draw what they saw truthfully for him. Han Xizai, who is still smarter than a fool, certainly understands their purpose. Han Xizai deliberately gave a hearty performance in the form of not asking about current events, singing and dancing, and letting life slip by the wayside. With keen insight and amazing memory, Gu recited the process of Han Xizai's banquet at home, and immediately began to paint after returning. After seeing this painting, Li Yu spared Han Xizai and others for the time being, but a masterpiece handed down from generation to generation was handed down.

1990,1On February 20th, 990, China issued a set of five stamps for the five generations of Han Xizai banquets. It consists of five independent but interrelated pictures: listening to music, watching dance, resting, blowing and seeing off. Each painting is separated by a screen, showing the scene of Han Xizai's night banquet.