Wang Xingquan, 12 years old, has no interest in the academic topics discussed by scholars. Every Wednesday when Zhao Shenqiao gives a lecture, he slips away quietly and turns a deaf ear. However, once the literati told some classic fairy tales, he immediately put down his chores and listened carefully.
At the same time, Wang Xingquan studied English with Rao Mengkan, his father's close friend and crescent poet. The textbooks used are Greek and Roman myths. He felt that these myths were full of romantic and heroic beauty and were moved by them. Once, Rao Mengkan said to him with a serious expression: "Children, these myths are beautiful. In fact, China has a myth and a magnificent beauty, but it has been lost among the people. I hope that when you grow up, you can spend your whole life collecting, sorting out and studying the primitive myths of the Chinese nation. "
Since then, Wang Xingquan has studied with Rao Mengkan for eight years. Under the influence of Rao Mengkan, he began to immerse himself in the ancient books and records of China's myths and legends, such as Book of Records and Classic of Mountains and Seas, looking for clues. He has read A Dream of Red Mansions for 27 times, and he knows every poem by heart. Wang Xingquan once said: "There are many myths about the origin of the goddess of mending heaven in this book, which are magnificent and strange, and I have benefited a lot from them."
Gradually, "native culture" (native culture is local, not foreign culture; It originated from the inheritance of ancestors thousands of years ago, so the concept of "origin" became clearer and clearer in Wang Xingquan's mind. He realized: what kind of great spirit has kept the Chinese nation alive since ancient times? If you want to get the answer, you have to look for it from the myth of "origin"
Visiting Wan Li Road for 20 years.
1944, 14-year-old Wang Xingquan made a great wish: to collect those lost myths and legends among the people! He resolutely embarked on the road of folk search.
It's hard to imagine that you can easily travel all over China by faith alone, but Wang Xingquan did it. From Songhua River in the northeast to Emei Mountain in the southwest, he left his footprints. He was penniless, short of food and water, and in danger. He saved the day one by one. This also adds a bit of legend to Wang Xingquan's life.
In 1950s, Wang Xingquan bought a ticket with all his money and went to Tianshui, Gansu Province, the legendary hometown of Fuxi, to visit folk people. The locals told him that there are many old people who can tell fairy tales in Maijishan, which is more than 40 kilometers away from Tianshui, but there is no one along the way. It is best to bring more dry food.
Wang Xingquan filled the kettle with water, hungry, and set out against the vicious sun in the northwest. The road to Maiji Mountain is rugged, and many hills have to climb. Wang Xingquan's stomach cramped with hunger, so he had to climb the slope with both hands and feet. After walking more than 20 kilometers, he couldn't stand it, so he sat under a tree and drank water. After sitting for a long time, Wang Xingquan stood up and suddenly felt very dizzy and his body became soft. I don't know how long it took. When Wang Xingquan leisurely woke up, a strange face appeared in front of his eyes. On his way back to Maijishan, a farmer who went to Tianshui Fair found Wang Xingquan fainted by a tree, woke him up and gave him a steamed bun. Wang Xingquan wolfed down these life-saving dry food and followed the farmers to the village near Maijishan.
On another occasion, Wang Xingquan visited a remote mountainous area in Guizhou. Before dawn, he started from a hotel halfway up the mountain and wanted to reach the next village before dark. After walking for 12 hours, it was getting dark. He didn't eat or drink, and his voice was like a fire. Suddenly, his eyes lit up, and by moonlight, he found hoof prints on the road, and the area was muddy. He immediately fell to the ground and drank greedily. He also found a family along the hoofprint, but there was only a wooden bed and a rotten cotton wool in the family of the Shanmin couple. Wang Xingquan patted the dust and went straight to the bullpen behind the house. He lay down against the cow, covered with dry straw and fell asleep.
During the more than 20 years from 1944 to 1966, Wang Xingquan visited more than 700 scholars, storytellers, oracles, travelers, architects (including the famous architect Professor Liang Sicheng), eminent monks and Taoist priests. , made 3 million words of interview notes and collected nearly 300 fairy tales. Unfortunately, during the Cultural Revolution, Wang Xingquan's valuable materials on "primitive culture" were destroyed, which made him very sad, but those fairy tales remained in his mind forever.
Perseverance and diligence
From 65438 to 0989, Wang Xingquan was ready to start a "crazy" and "giant project"-to express the essence of China's "primitive culture" in the form of wood carving. This requires huge investment and a lot of energy. Wang Xingquan's daughter recalled: "At that time, the family was very opposed because life was too difficult." However, Wang Xingquan made a more amazing move: in order to devote himself to creation, he resigned as the president of Chengdu University of Arts and Crafts, which made the originally poor life more difficult and he had to borrow money to make a living. But then Wang Xingquan's insistence touched everyone, and his children tried to make money to support him in woodcarving.
1998, Wang Xingquan's nine-year painstaking work "Ancestor Legend" was completed. In the same year, it was exhibited in China Art Museum, causing a sensation. Artists, ordinary citizens and college students flocked to the museum and it was packed. Students from major universities in Beijing flocked to the art museum with a pot of water and some bread for one day. They appreciate them one by one, and then copy down all the words in the notebook word by word. There are 9/kloc-0 wooden reliefs on display, each with a length of 1.5m and a width of 1.35m, reflecting 45 gods.
Legend has it that the total exhibition line is over 380 meters, and the scale is extremely rare. Many news media such as People's Daily (overseas edition), Hong Kong Wen Wei Po, Taiwan Province World Journal reported this matter in detail, and attracted the attention of people in the United States, Japan and Taiwan Province Province of China. Tourists from Japan also tried their best to sneak cameras into the art museum, trying to remake the wooden reliefs one by one and bring them back to Japan. Fortunately, the staff stopped them in time. After the exhibition of wood reliefs, at the invitation of the United States, Australia and Taiwan Province Province of China, a roving exhibition of their works was held.
Go to Jinding on a snowy night.
From 65438 to 0945, he studied western painting with famous professors Li Youxing, Guo Gande, Shen and Bai in Sichuan Art Institute. He realized the morphological changes of Chinese characters from the magnificent mountains and rivers of the motherland, touched the "charm" of art from the aesthetic feeling of Chinese characters, and formed his own unique painting style.
His love for painting is to the extreme. 1972 New Year's Eve is a time for families to get together at home. Suddenly, Wang Xingquan became interested and took his friend Huang Kairu to sketch in Jinding, Emei Mountain. It snowed heavily in Emei Mountain, and the road was covered with hard ice. If you are not careful, you will slide off the cliff. Along the way, the two helped each other, trudged through the snow and finally reached Jinding. When the host of Jinding Huazang Temple saw these two "fanatics" who boarded Emei on a snowy New Year's Eve, he was amazed and quickly received them warmly. On that day, the whole Jinding was covered with heavy snow, lonely and empty, with only two tourists.
His paintings are bold and unrestrained, and so are paintings and people. He once said: "Zhang Daqian and other famous paintings can be copied, so there are fakes." No one can copy my painting! Not to mention a fake! "He is a madman in art, but he doesn't seek fame and fortune. He told his family that his works could not be used to sell money.
Wang Xingquan's paintings, poor and desolate, are famous all over the world, and are highly concerned and praised by people at home and abroad. 1975, his Journey to Liu Bei participated in Montpellier Art Exhibition, France, and was collected by the city. 198 1 year, he and his companions spent a year creating a large lacquer painting "Tong Tong Bai Gui", which was hung in the Sichuan Hall of the Great Hall of the People. ...
1June, 1999, President of Hilton Group invited Wang Xingquan to give a speech in Kansas City, Missouri, and exhibited his works in the local art hall. Wang Xingquan didn't want to go, but he thought he could take the opportunity to promote the "original culture" of the Chinese nation, so he took his wife to the United States to hold an art exhibition and give a speech. Unexpectedly, this trip caused a sensation, and Wang Xingquan also won the gold medal at the National Arts Festival (Kansas City).
When speaking in the United States, Wang Xingquan's son once told him that Americans have a strong self-esteem and should not say anything to "stimulate" them. Wang Xingquan ignored. In his speech, he said, "I see you Americans visiting the so-called historic site, a Jason Chung with a history of hundreds of years. There are thousands of such things in China! Although your science and technology are developed, your history and culture can't compare with China, which has a history of thousands of years! To understand China, you must understand China's "primitive culture" ... China's "primitive culture" has contributed immeasurably to mankind! " Nearly 600 people suddenly stood up and applauded.
"sell" paintings
According to Wang Xingquan's wife, Zeng Shuli, the exhibition lasted from June to 10. People come to buy paintings every day, but he doesn't sell them. An American waited from morning till night to buy Jingwei Reclamation and bid $8,000. Wang Xingquan said: "This American is so interested in Jingwei's reclamation, which embodies' primitive culture'. Ok, give it to him. " This is the only painting that Wang Xingquan "sold" in his life. A hermit can live a quiet and happy life.
After Wang Xingquan returned to Chengdu, he continued to live in seclusion, but the "influence" of American art exhibitions did not disappear. It is reported that an American young man came all the way to Chengdu and knocked on Wang Xingquan's door. He came here after seeing an art exhibition in Kansas City. He lived in Wang Xingquan's home for more than two months and became the last disciple of Wang Xingquan. Later, many Americans wanted to learn from him, but because his health was not optimistic at this time, Wang Xingquan didn't agree.
Aima
Wang Xingquan is a horse. He likes horses. When I was a child, my uncle told a story about a horse called Feifei, which moved him very much. In order to draw horses, he went to the military horse farm to study the habits of horses. Once, a cavalry went out to patrol and was injured by falling rocks. The injured horse returned to the racecourse with blood, and finally the soldier saved the horse but died. 1980, Wang Xingquan's novel "White Horse Flying" came out, and after it was published in October magazine in 1986, it aroused strong repercussions. This novel not only won four awards, such as the National Excellent Novelette Award, but also was made into a film and released nationwide. In addition, his other novel "The Sage of Lacquer" was also adapted into a TV series "A Love Story", which was broadcast nationwide.
On February 4th, 65438, Wang Xingquan died in Chengdu West District Hospital, ending his legendary life.