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Wen | Shi Lu Sheng

introduce

It's another Qingming Festival, with the bright moon in the sky, quiet inside. In this situation, remembering ancestors is a heartfelt spiritual theme in people's hearts. Nowadays, romantic stories are handed down from generation to generation. The significance of ancestor worship lies not only in remembering the lost family, but also in seeking spiritual guidance from them.

Everything in the world is predestined. Looking back on the past, over the years, my brothers have devoted themselves to the cause of collection, and now they have made small achievements and formed an indissoluble bond with collection. All this stems from the collection feelings handed down by ancestors. This is also the most precious spiritual legacy left by our ancestors to our brothers.

The Shi family in Bao Zhong Village, Bao Zhong Town, Wuping County, Fujian Province, where the author belongs, has been devoted to the collection and appreciation of ancient artifacts for generations since the 19th ancestor Shi Yinghui Gong (word Xiutang), the 20th ancestor Shi Bang Dian Gong, the 21st ancestor Shi Gong and the 22nd ancestor Shi Bai Xian Gong.

After hundreds of years and social changes, although most of the cultural relics accumulated by my ancestors for generations have been lost or damaged, a few are still lucky enough to survive in the world, including bronzes, porcelain, ancient furniture, ancient calligraphy and painting, etc.

Influenced by several generations of collectors, my brothers began to set foot in the field of collection from the 1980s.

From the initial tasting, crossing the river by feeling the stones, to the massive investment and in-depth appreciation, our collection practice has quickly shifted from the "sentimental" level of heirlooms to the "focused" collection stage.

Now there is a saying called "starting from the face value and being loyal to the character", which is used to describe the way of being a man. The same sentence pattern is used in the author's collection career, which can be described as "starting from feelings, being loyal to feelings and returning to concentration."

Looking back on my collection career, the author deeply feels it necessary to go back and look back on the collection footprints of several generations of my family.

On the occasion of universal ancestor worship, the author wrote this short article to remember the ancestors and their feelings and origins as collectors.

cause

In the fifty-fourth year of Qing Qianlong (1789), two famous scholars were produced in this year's imperial examination. One was Ruan Yuan, a native of Yangzhou Prefecture, Jiangsu Province, aged 25; The other is Yi Bingshou, a 35-year-old native of Ninghua County, Tingzhou Prefecture, Fujian Province. Both of them are scholars, and later they are famous for their accomplishments and achievements in epigraphy, calligraphy, painting and calligraphy, Confucian classics and history.

It is worth noting that one of the examiners of this year's exam is Tie Bao, the right assistant minister of the Ritual Department, one of the "four great writers of the Qing Dynasty".

Ruan Yuan and Yi Bingshou's literary and historical calligraphy talents in the imperial examination attracted Tie Bao's attention and appreciation, which laid the foundation for their future intersection.

At that time, the author's nineteenth ancestor Shi was a military attache in Shandong, and his rank was Wu.

As an intermediate military attache, Shi has nothing to do with Ruan Yuan, Yi Bingshou and other literati. But no one can imagine that a few years later, Shi, Ruan Yuan, Yi Bingshou and others came together because of the same artistic taste and hobby of collecting epigraphy. Of course, this is another story.

It is said that Ruan Yuan entered imperial academy as Jishi Shu after passing the Jinshi. This is a short-term position, and his main function is probably to learn and understand the common sense of responsibilities and norms as a courtier, and gain some preliminary experience from it.

The person in charge of teaching Jishi Shu is called a teaching officer. At that time, as a great teacher in Jishi Shu, one of them was the famous college student Xiao Shenyang. Because of this relationship, Ruan Yuan, as a newcomer, has a deep contact with Little Shenyang.

As we all know, in addition to the royal collectors, Xiao Shenyang is an unparalleled collector in the history of the Qing Dynasty.

Presumably, his love and appreciation of ancient bronzes, calligraphy and painting, Wan Wen and other collections infected or influenced Ruan Yuan to some extent, which made Ruan Yuan devote himself to "epigraphy" in his heavy career in the future.

From 1793 to 1795, Ruan Yuan was appointed as the prefect and studied politics in Shandong, that is, he was in charge of the education and imperial examination affairs in Shandong.

During this period, Ruan Yuan made extensive contact with collectors and epigraphists in Shandong and Yulu, and visited Shandong epigraphy and other cultural relics, which further aroused his keen interest in the history of cultural relics.

1794, Tie Bao, assistant minister of does, who was the examiner of Ruan Yuan imperial examination, was appointed as the Shandong examiner of this year's imperial examination after obtaining the provincial examination. After he arrived in Jinan, Ruan Yuan, as the prefect, naturally accompanied him all the way.

Tie Bao, who was born in the family of Manchu military attache, was not interested in martial arts at all, but had a special liking for the collection culture, epigraphy and traditional calligraphy and painting originated from Han culture, which made Ruan Yuan deeply moved.

That is, in this year, Ruan Yuan began to compile Zuo Shan Shi Ji, and discussed archaeological matters with Shandong Governor Bi Yuan. In a word, driven by Ruan Yuan, Shandong officialdom and even the people have set off the atmosphere of archaeology and collection, as well as the cultural trend of "epigraphy".

At that time, my 19th ancestor Gong Hui had been a military commander in Shandong for many years. It should be noted here that the title of "Riding Commandant with Martial Arts" in Qing Dynasty was formulated in the fifty-first year of Qianlong (1786).

Thus, Shi Gong was probably one of the earliest military attaché s in Qing Dynasty. It is worth noting that Wu later became a hereditary official position, which was quite stable and long-term.

Therefore, Shi's tenure in Shandong is much longer than Ruan Yuan's.

Perhaps it is influenced by the collection culture of Ruan Yuan, or maybe it is Stone who has this taste. Anyway, he later joined the ranks of excavating, collecting and appreciating ancient cultural relics.

At that time, Shi was in the last year of his retirement. According to the military laws and regulations of the Qing Dynasty, he gradually unloaded the complicated military affairs, giving him more energy to cultivate Yaji.

The historical collections at that time had almost no function of currency circulation. The number of antiques collected by collectors usually depends on their own efforts and energy, followed by financial resources.

Therefore, during his tenure in Shandong, Shi collected many cultural relics with high historical and cultural value with his elegant collection.

It is worth mentioning that in the late Qianlong period of Qing Dynasty, as a kindred spirit who deeply loved the collection culture and indulged in the "Jinshi" culture, Ruan Yuan, as a "learning platform", had close contacts with Shi, as a "military commander".

Ruan Yuan was in his early thirties, and his history was much bigger than that of Ruan Yuan, but the disparity in age did not prevent Ruan and Shi from forgetting each other.

Ruan Yuan and Shi visited each other based on the way of collecting wind or the elegance of stone and stone. They share their interest in collecting, learn the mysteries of antiquities together, exchange objects in their collections, and give each other poems and articles, which is even more common.

The friendship between Shi and Ruan Yuan's Ya Qu Ji has been praised as an eternal story in the Shi family to which I belong.

Shi's military attache career has come to an end. Soon after, he retired in his later years or returned to his hometown for illness (genealogy is not recorded). He lived in seclusion in his hometown, now Bao Zhong Village, Bao Zhong Town, Wuping County, Fujian Province, with the items he collected all his life.

Before he left, Ruan Yuan, as a gift from a scholar, wrote a large calligraphy work, Family Instructions of Zhu Wengong, and gave it to Shi. At the request of Shi, calligraphy works are written in the form of screens. In addition to copying the Family Instructions written by Zhu Bolu, a famous Neo-Confucianist in the early Qing Dynasty (also known as Zhu Wengong's Family Instructions), a famous couplet was written on both sides of the text: "Respecting the ancient times as Penglai, the pen is also a Lu Zhi book."

Shi regards this calligraphy work sent by Ruan Yuan as a treasure. After he retired and returned to his hometown, he set out to build this long screen (pictured) and engraved Ruan Yuan's calligraphy "Family Instructions of Zhu Wengong" on it as a treasure of family instructions. What is particularly rare is that this screen is still well preserved.

Edge turn

Yi Bingshou, who was admitted to the Jinshi in the same year as Ruan Yuan, was ten years older than Ruan Yuan. However, due to their considerable literary and historical talents and elegant taste in calligraphy and painting, they developed mutual appreciation.

But for a long time, their mutual admiration only stayed at the level of spiritual contact, only hearing their names and never touching them. It was not until later that they met in Yangzhou.

When Ruan Yuan was famous for his "study of epigraphy" in Shandong, and he interacted with epigraphy to explore and collect elegance, Yi Bingshou was still working in the Death Penalty Bureau.

Yi Bingshou has heard about Ruan Yuan's anecdotes in the fields of cultural relics archaeology, collection and epigraphy. Yi Bingshou, a native of Tingzhou, Fujian, was a complete stranger at that time.

In the fourth year of Jiaqing (1799), Yi Bingshou finally left Beijing and moved to another place. His new position is the magistrate of Huizhou, Guangdong.

At this time, Ruan Yuan was transferred from Shandong to Zhejiang, and was soon promoted to the governor of Zhejiang. It can be found that Ruan Yuan, who is ten years younger than Yi Bingshou, has a better career development and a higher rank than Yi Bingshou.

During the ten years of Jiaqing (1805), great changes have taken place in the work or life of Ruan Yuan and Yi Bingshou:

This year, Ruan Yuan's father died, and he died in Ruan Yuan's official residence in Hangchow. Before that, his father had been living with him in his place of work.

Although Ruan Yuan's father died in Hangzhou, Ruan Yuan returned to his hometown Yangzhou and lived at home for three years in accordance with the ethical practice that the deceased returned to the roots and abandoned his son.

When Yi Bingshou was appointed as the magistrate of Huizhou, he was dismissed for offending his immediate superior. At the time of "unemployment", Tie Bao, who was transferred to the governor of Liangjiang because of the flood in Yangzhou this year, strongly recommended Yi Bingshou to be a magistrate in Yangzhou out of appreciation and support.

It can be seen that Ruan Yuan and Yi Bingshou are common "mentors" or confidants, which have a great influence on the lives of Ruan Yuan and Yi Jinshi. This is beside the point.

The important thing is that Yi Bingshou and Ruan Yuan finally met in Yangzhou. At that time, Ruan Yuangui was a government official at the governor level. Now, because Ding You is at home, Yi Bingshou has become his official.

The story about Yi Bingshou's good management as a magistrate in Yangzhou is deeply loved by Yangzhou people. You can refer to the article "A man of great talent, self-reliance, and finally realize that" keeping a bow and speaking cautiously "is the true wisdom of life", which is not repeated here.

This paper focuses on the past when Yi Bingshou and Ruan Yuan met to promote the collection culture and epigraphy culture.

Yi Bingshou and Ruan Yuan entered the Jinshi in the same year and appreciated each other for many years. They have never had a chance to communicate positively before. Now in Yangzhou, it is natural to visit each other and further deepen our friendship.

Because they share the same imperial examination background, the same "tutor" is Tie Bao, and they have similar cultural interests in collecting classics and history, calligraphy and painting, epigraphy and bronzes. How many breezy nights, on the banks of the vast Yangtze River, Yi Bingshou and Ruan Yuan had a long talk and learned the elegance of collection culture together:

In the tenth year of Jiaqing (1805), Ruan Yuan built the Sui Wenxuan Building in Yangzhou, and Tie Bao, Governor of Liangjiang, inscribed the stone forehead of "Sui Wenxuan Building", which is now in the Gaomin Temple in Yangzhou. Yi Bingshou inscribed "Seven Records of Old Family Clans, Gu Xiang's Building Selection in Six Dynasties".

In the 11th year of Jiaqing (1806), in order to promote the development of Yangzhou local culture, Yi Bingshou specially invited Ruan Yuan and others on behalf of the government to discuss the compilation of Yangzhou Picture Scroll and Yangzhou Cui Wen.

In June of the same year, Yi Bingshou, the magistrate of Yangzhou, entrusted Ruan Yuan to engrave "Stone Drum and Ten Stones" in Fu Xue, Yangzhou. In October, Ruan Yuan's Collation of Thirteen Classics was printed.

In the same year, Ruan, together with Weng Fanggang, Yi Bingshou, and other famous scholars, proved that Liu Xu, the king of Li in the Western Han Dynasty, made palace stones, and Yi Bingshou shipped them to Fu Xue, Yangzhou.

In the 12th year of Jiaqing (1807), Ruan Yuan discovered Yang Di's mausoleum in Tang Lei, Yangzhou, personally set up a stone tablet, and asked Yi Bingshou, the magistrate of Yangzhou, to inscribe it.

Yi Bingshou and Ruan Yuan spent more than two years together in Yangzhou, which not only formed a profound friendship, but also made many contributions to the promotion of Yangzhou's local traditional culture and was cited as a historical story.

In the 12th year of Jiaqing (1807), Yi Bingshou was dismissed from Heku Road in Jiangsu and returned to his hometown in Ninghua, Fujian. Yi Bingshou and Ruan Yuan said goodbye. The acquaintance of the two came to an abrupt end.

The cultural "cooperation" between Yi Bingshou and Ruan Yuan in Yangzhou is really embarrassing, but their separation also leads to another kind of friendship between collectors or "Jinshi":

The author's 19th ancestor Shi died in his hometown as early as the seventh year of Jiaqing (1802), but his obsession with collecting culture and achievements in collecting ancient artifacts left a deep impression on Ruan Yuan, who came into contact with him earlier in Shandong. In addition, due to the inconvenient transportation in ancient times, Ruan Yuan did not know that Shi had passed away.

So, when Yi Bingshou said goodbye to Ruan Yuan, Ruan Yuan solemnly introduced his friend Shi Gong to Yi Bingshou and told him the address of Shi's hometown. After repeatedly asking Yi Bingshou to return to Fujian, he must visit Shi Yinghui, who is also from Tingzhou, Fujian.

Rara Xv

As we all know, after Yi Bingshou resigned from Yangzhou and returned to his hometown in Ninghua, Fujian, he never returned to the officialdom of the Qing Dynasty. First, he devoted himself to mourning my late father at home. Later, because I was absorbed in epigraphy, calligraphy and painting and other academic or cultural interests, and because I needed to stay at home with my mother, or I was tired of officialdom, I simply refused to go out to work again. Although the imperial court kept inviting him, Yi Bingshou was indifferent. His career is over.

For Yi Bingshou, it is certainly impossible to be far from home, but the closer to the ground, the better the short trip. During his stay at home, of course, he will walk around Ninghua and take the opportunity to explore the cultural relics history and "Jinshi" culture in various places.

In addition to these places, there is another place that Yi Bingshou never forgets, that is, Bao Zhong Village, Bao Zhong Town, Wuping County, Fujian Province, which is under the jurisdiction of Tingzhou Prefecture together with Ninghua, because this is the hometown of stone introduced to him by Ruan Yuan.

Ninghua County, Yi Bingshou's hometown, is now Wuping County, the hometown of Shi, but in the past hundred years, both places have been under the jurisdiction of Tingzhou Government.

Therefore, it is not difficult for Yi Bingshou to visit the hometown of Shi. Finally, one day, Yi Bingshou tidied up his mood and set foot on the road of finding stones.

As a four-pin official of the imperial court or a four-pin official who suspended his official duties, Yi Bingshou's travel was assisted by the Tingzhou government, and it was easy to find Bao Zhong Village in Wuping.

After Yi Bingshou came to Bao Zhong Village, Wuping County, he was surprised to learn that Shi had already passed away. Regrettably, to Yi Bingshou's relief, Shi Bangdian, the son of the author's twentieth ancestor Shi, warmly received him.

Shi Bangdian inherited his father's elegant collection, which not only preserved the ancient artifacts collected by Shi Yinghui, but also continuously expanded his collection.

As a direct descendant of Shi Gong of Wuping, the author wants to explain that Shi Bangdian's later official rank is the same as that of his father Shi Gong, and he is also a "military general"; His son is the 21st ancestor, Zhen Guoli, and then he is a "military commander". Three generations of continuous official worship originated from the hereditary system of military attache in the Qing court.

At that time, Shi Bangdian, who was also a "military commander", suspended all official duties and stayed at home for the deceased Shi Shouling, fulfilling his son's responsibility. Invisibly, it has a certain common language with Yi Bingshou, who was also in the "Ding You" period.

At the same time, Ruan Yuan and Yi Bingshou are famous in epigraphy, calligraphy, painting and calligraphy, and are regarded as cultural people. Because of the direct relationship between Shi and Ruan Yuan, and his indirect relationship with Yi Bingshou, in a sense, the stone family living in a small mountain village also has a prominent reputation.

All these made the Duke of Shibang deeply moved. He couldn't help spending all his money to treat Yi Bingshou warmly and "forced" Yi Bingshou to stay for a few days with the hospitality of Hakka people.

During this period, Shi Bangdian and Yi Bingshou forged a deep friendship, because Yi Bingshou was twenty years older than him. This relationship, which stems from the cultural exchange of collections, can also be called "forgetting the new year".

What is commendable is that Shi Bangdian's son, the 21st ancestor of the author, Shi Zhenli Gong, was only a teenager at that time, but he had amazing insight and strong interest in the field of literature and history behind the anthology.

Regarding the communication process between Yi Bingshou and his father Shi Bangdian Gong, Shi Gong followed suit and boldly intervened from time to time, trying to explain his views on book collection culture and epigraphy.

Yi Bingshou's visit can be said to have profoundly influenced Shi's inner world, and to a certain extent prompted him to decide to inherit the collector style formed by his grandfather Shi and his father Shi Bangdian in the future.

It is worth mentioning that my 22nd ancestor, Mr. Shi, later inherited the mantle from his father and devoted himself to collecting. Of course, this is another story, so I won't go into details.

It is said that Yi Bingshou said goodbye before returning to Ninghua, and left some photos of Yi for the Shi family at the request of Shi Bangdian Gong.

In fact, Yi Bingshou's paintings and calligraphy works include not only calligraphy objects, but also paintings. Among them, the related paintings are Yi Bingshou's later works at home. Later, when Shi Bangdian visited Yi Bingshou in Ninghua, Yi Bingshou presented these paintings to him.

In the autumn of the 16th year of Jiaqing (18 1 1), Yi Bingshou visited Huizhou, Guangdong Province, where he once worked, and was received by Huizhou people, which made him feel good and encouraged him to visit Guangdong again the next year.

In the 18th year of Jiaqing (18 13), Yi Bingshou visited Guangdong again. This time he not only went to Huizhou, but also went to Guangzhou, Zhongshan and Zhaoqing. Moreover, he also brought a colleague nearby, that is, Shi Bangdian, the twentieth ancestor of the author.

Shi Bangdian accompanied Yi Bingshou on his last visit to Guangdong. Along the way, the people paid homage to Yi Bingshou, a former Guangdong official, and Shi Bangdian, an outsider, was greatly moved. He is deeply grateful and honored to meet a scholar like Yi Bingshou.

In other words, during this trip, Yi Bingshou left many masterpieces of Mo Bao in Guangdong. One of the most famous is Yi Bingshou's official script Yunquan Mountain Pavilion written by Mo Bao in Guangzhou Baiyun Mountain.

The full text of Yi's Yunquan Mountain Pavilion is as follows: "Between Baiyun Springs, there are traces of Song and loyalty to the public. In the 17th year of Jiaqing, Xiangshan Huang Peifang, Panyu Zhang Weiping, Panyu, Yangchun Tan Jingzhao, Panyu Section and Nanhai Kong Jiguang restored their former sites, and Taoist priests Jiang, Xun and Dong expanded the scenic spots for 20 years. The following year, Yi Bingshou, a Fujian native, came to visit and remembered it. Ming said: Pangu is alone, and the mountain is open for me. If it is Yun Chun, the south is prosperous. The Seven-Son Poetry has been passed down for a hundred years. "

Yunquan Mountain Pavilion is an excellent calligraphy work according to China's calligraphy works in past dynasties. It is one of the most important calligraphy works in Yi Bingshou's life. Later, it was carved on the stone tablet of Qixingyan in Zhaoqing, Guangdong, and became one of the cultural landscapes of local celebrities in previous dynasties. At present, Guangdong Zhongshan Library has rubbings.

Shi Bangdian, the twentieth ancestor of the author, visited Guangdong with Yi Bingshou, so he was fortunate to witness the birth of such a calligraphy masterpiece as Yunquan Mountain Pavilion. This is also cited as an eternal story in my family.

In view of the above family history, I have been searching for the manuscript of Yunquan Mountain Pavilion in Yi Bingshou for many years, and finally learned its whereabouts and collected it.

End of movement

In the twentieth year of Jiaqing (18 15), Yi Bingshou finally left Ninghua and went to Beijing at the repeated invitation of friends from the imperial court and Beijing. When passing by Nanchang, Yi Bingshou made a special trip to visit his old friend Ruan Yuan, then Ruan Yuan was the governor of Jiangxi. This time, it was the last time they met.

Afterwards, Ruan Yuan wrote a poem "I, the prefect of Mo Qing, went to Nanchang from Fujian to bid farewell" to commemorate this meeting: "Three days in Hongdu, ten years in Huaihai." Hongdu, Nanchang also. Huaihai Ten Years Love refers to the friendship between Yi Bingshou and Ruan Yuan in Yangzhou ten years ago.

This situation is touching. During the dinner, they also mentioned their mutual friends Shi Xiutang and Shi Bangdian Gong and his son.

After bidding farewell to Ruan Yuan again, Yi Bingshou stayed in Yangzhou for three months. Revisiting the old place, too many past events and too strong nostalgia have all stopped Yi Bingshou's footsteps.

Yi Bingshou finally got the autumn chill in Yangzhou and died in the land of restless mood. His death shocked the people of Yangzhou and made him immortal in Yangzhou.

label

I have heard about the friendship between the author's grandfathers Shi and Shi Bangdian and Ruan Yuan and Yi Bingshou, respectively.

Out of love for the collection culture, reverence for historical figures such as Ruan Yuan and Yi Bingshou, and nostalgia for my immediate ancestors Shi, Shi Bangdian, Shi and Shi Baixian, the author has always wanted to write this collection of Shi Jia's books. I finally got what I wanted today, which is quite gratifying.