Among Shanghai painters, Pu Hua from Jiaxing is a legendary poet , calligrapher and painter, whose art can be called “the three masterpieces of poetry, calligraphy and painting”. Together with Xugu, Wu Changshuo, and Ren Bonian, they are collectively known as the “Four Heroes of the Shanghai School”. Looking at Pu Hua’s life, although he experienced ups and downs and underappreciated his talents, he eventually achieved outstanding achievements and was well-known in the painting circle, and made important contributions to the development and development of traditional Chinese painting. His personality spirit and calligraphy and painting works are precious cultural wealth left to future generations.

Life experience: His ancestors belonged to fallen people, and his parents sold “dumplings”

Pu Hua’s original name was Ying, his name was Xushan Yeshi, and he cultivated bamboo. . Born in 1832 in Xuezi Lane (now Yuzi Lane) in Jiaxing City. His ancestors belonged to the fallen people (called beggar households in the Ming Dynasty. According to legend, after the Yuan destroyed the Southern Song Dynasty, the prisoners and sinners were concentrated in Shaoxing and other places. For hundreds of years, they were regarded as untouchables and lowly people, and they were not allowed to intermarry with commoners, nor allowed them to marry. subject to imperial examinations). The fathers of the Puhua family set up shop in front of the Jiaxing City God Temple. poor family.

Education: a lifelong scholar, determined to pursue an official career

Pu Hua is talented and intelligent, and was deeply loved by his grandfather Yao Panshi, who funded him to study in a private school. Young Pu Hua showed a special interest in painting and often copied the portrait of Confucius enshrined in the classroom. Once, the teacher found a portrait of Confucius on the back of the textbook, and he mentioned to Pu Hua the ins and outs of the painting. When he learned that Pu Hua painted it, he was greatly surprised. Although this portrait is only the size of a palm, it has both spirit and shape, and it has a bit of flavor.

Mr. Pu Hua took out the portrait of Confucius painted by Pu Hua in the classroom and greatly appreciated it, which brought great encouragement to the young Pu Hua. After that, he became more enthusiastic about learning to draw, and from time to time he asked his father for drawing paper. In 1853, the twenty-one-year-old Pu Hua passed the examination for a scholar, and the whole family smiled and congratulated him. However, at this time, Pu Hua had no intention of becoming famous. Instead, he plunged into the study. In addition to reading various painting theories, he also practiced painting from time to time. As long as he can borrow copied paintings, he regards them as classics and carefully ponders them.

Love: After the death of his wife, he wandered around the rivers and lakes

Pu Hua got married at the age of 22. His wife, Miao Xiaohua, came from a scholarly family and was also good at calligraphy and painting. Miao Xiaohua wrote a poem: “Originally, I was a painter, and I was good at calcining powder and fat-adjusting.” Pu Hua replied: “It is very difficult to paint well. Eat cold.” Poetry is sung, the piano and serenity are harmonious, the husband and wife are affectionate, and they live together in poverty.

At that time, the scenery of Mount Xu outside Jiaxing was elegant. Friends who dance and play with ink, go to Xushan Yaxu. The young Pu Hua is interested, and he will also clip a few carefully copied paintings, and ask experts to comment, in order to make his paintings grow. His wife Miao Xiaohua, who is also good at painting and calligraphy, encourages Pu Hua, who is struggling, from time to time, hoping that he will make progress in painting and get ahead.

In the late spring and early summer of 1863, there was an elegant gathering in Xushan. I came here just to judge the ranking of Jiaxing painting circles that year. Pu Hua also came. The rules of the competition at the time were that the contestants would draw a flower fan within one hour, cover it with a blue calico, then unveil it together, and be judged by the examiner.

After a while, one end of each painting will come up. When the blue flower printed cloth was lifted, the bright flowers on the fan came to life, which attracted a colorful butterfly to stop and exclaimed: This painting is wonderful, it actually deceived the butterfly’s eyes, and this painting is the top one. Facing the surprised voices of the crowd, Pu Hua calmly looked at all beings with bright eyes. After a while, an incredible scene appeared – the examiner tried to open the blue print cloth several times, but he just didn’t know where to start. On the other hand, the people watching the excitement revealed the mystery; “The examiner has been fooled. This is a blue flower printed cloth drawn with a pen! How can you uncover it?”

Xu Shan is amazing for his paintings. Since then, Pu Hua has become famous in Jiaxing city. The story of him deceiving the examiner with the blue print cloth has become a story widely read by the urban and rural people of Jiaxing. Pu Hua was very grateful to Xu Shan who brought him good luck. Later, in order to commemorate this elegant event, he later called himself “Xu Shan Ye Shi” and also engraved a seal. When the painting comes out, it will be stamped with this seal.

In the autumn of 1863, when Pu Hua was 32 years old, his wife unfortunately died of illness. Pu Hua grieves endlessly, and in the mourning poems there are sentences like “a confidant for ten years, the poor and the lowly and the good are sad” and “how short the good reason is”, expressing his deep grief. In the second year, he ran away from home, and from then on, he sent love to calligraphy and painting, wandering around the world, and making his home everywhere.

Make a living: make friends and become famous in Japan

In the winter of 1864, Pu Hua first went to Ningbo, then to Taizhou, and once in Taiping, Haimen and other counties Be a staff. Because he was not good at socializing in officialdom, he was even more impatient and often wrote official copywriting. He couldn’t do it several times. In the end, he had to live in a temple and sell paintings for a living.

Pu Hua is informal, often sloppy, and often drunk, making his body oily, so Known as “Pop sloppy”. Seeing Pu Hua’s arrival, he even deliberately hides the paper. Because Pu Hua does not pay attention to the quality of the paper, he paints whenever he sees it, and sometimes he also paints on the window paper. People called him “Pu Sloppy”. However, people of insight at that time, especially his peers in the field of calligraphy and painting, had truly recognized his extraordinary pen and ink skills and said that his writing was strange.

In 1871, Pu Hua met Wu Changshuo in Suzhou. for forty years. Pu Hua was twelve years older than Wu Changshuo, and his artistic personality and artistic insights had a great influence on Wu Changshuo. Wu Changshuo also attaches great importance to Pu Hua’s art. According to the recollection of Wu Changshuo’s eldest grandson, Mr. Wu Changye, his grandfather often mentioned Pu Zuoying to them. He said: “My grandfather once told us: Pu Zuoying’s ink works must be taken seriously, and our family must treasure Pu Zuoying’s paintings and calligraphy.”

Although Pu Hua’s life is difficult, he is generous. As long as someone asked him for paintings and calligraphy, he never calculated the amount of the remuneration, he just agreed. Moreover, he likes to draw in public, using a thick pen dipped in large ink to create a large and large scale, and he can draw well at once. This is reflected in his popularity after he went to Japan. In 1881, when the spring flowers were blooming, Puhua traveled eastward to Japan and became famous in the Japanese painting circle.

In the winter of 1894, Pu Hua finally ended his wandering career and settled in Shanghai.

Behind: Outstanding Achievement and Reputation The art world

Although Pu Hua is poor, he regards money as dung. Whenever the Japanese begged him for paintings with a lot of money, and after getting the money, he would go to drink with friends, or go to redeem himself for a prostitute, anyway, until all the money was spent. And because he lived next to a brothel, he called the apartment “unstained cottage”. There were many prostitutes who learned to paint with him. Friends pulled him out of the brothel, and he turned his head three times and told these female disciples: “Don’t forget to copy and copy pictures.”

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Pu Hua in his later years was a master of pen and ink. You Xi’s paintings are large and huge, and they are magnificent. The bold and unrestrained painting styles of the Pu and Wu families made the delicate and inherited works greatly inferior, and it was like a new school of painting rising in the Shanghai painting circle. His reputation spread far and wide, and old friends from the countryside came to visit. Puhua warmly treated them as close relatives. As for the things of Ah Du, they are despised by them. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, there were many famines, so he and Gao Yongzhi initiated and organized the “Yuyuan Calligraphy and Painting Society” to sell calligraphy and paintings for charity.

In the summer of 1911, Pu Hua was drunk and lay at home because of drinking. Unexpectedly, his dentures fell off and fell into Throat, infarction and died at the age of 80. He was a handsome man who used up all his food. He relied on his good friends Wu Changshuo, He Xibo, Xu Xingzhou, etc. to take care of his funeral and transport the coffin back to Jiaxing, where he was buried at the Xili Bridge. The Epitaph of Pu Jun written by Wu Changshuo is still embedded on the wall of Jianting Pavilion in Yanyu Tower of Nanhu Lake.

Looking at Pu Hua’s life, although he experienced ups and downs and underappreciated his talents, he finally achieved outstanding achievements and was well-known in the painting circle, and made important contributions to the development and development of traditional Chinese painting. His personality spirit and calligraphy and painting works are precious cultural wealth left to future generations.

More Pu Hua’s painting and calligraphy works to appreciate

Calligraphy

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Painting