What are the Five Oxen?

The development of painting in the Tang Dynasty made the classification of painting more and more obvious, and most of the painters had their own specialties, such as Yan Liben's historical paintings, Wu Daozi's religious paintings, and Zhang Xuan and Zhou Fang's women's paintings, etc. During this period, there were also specialized paintings of cattle and horses. During this period, there were also specialized paintings of cows, horses and animals, and Han Gan was a master of horse painting. He was good at painting figures, ghosts and gods, and was especially good at painting horses, and his masterpiece is "Horse Ranching Picture".

Han Gan, a native of the Tang Dynasty, worked in a tavern as a teenager. When he was a young man, he worked in a tavern. The brothers Wang Wei and Wang Jin often went to the tavern to drink, and Han Gan often went to Wang Wei's place to ask for money for drinking, so he was familiar with Wang Wei's brothers. Once, he went to Wang Wei's house to collect money, Wang Wei was not at home, Han Gan was bored, so he picked up stones and drew figures and horses on the ground, and it so happened that Wang Wei came back and saw the painting on the ground, and he thought that Han Gan was very talented in painting, so he sponsored him to learn to paint every year. Han Gan then studied under Cao Ba, a famous painter at the time, and 10 years later, he became famous.

The founding emperors of the Tang Dynasty were all capable of fighting, and after the reign of the Yuan Dynasty, the world was stabilized and peaceful, and the wind of martial arts was more prevalent among the aristocrats, and polo and other sports were popular in the court. Therefore, they attach great importance to the saddle horse, Tang Xuanzong is more enthusiastic about this. His imperial stables have a large number of famous horses, he favored Western steeds, because these horses are strong, hair color peculiar, special looks, with thick hoof armor, ride on them like riding in a carriage as stable as the rhythm, such as "jade buckskin", "night white" and so on! BMW. Therefore, with the horse as a friend, for the horse God writing photos also became a momentary fashion in the Sheng Tang Dynasty.

During the Tianbao years of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, Han Gan was summoned to the court because he was good at painting. He stayed in the palace for about four or five years, and his achievements in horse painting surpassed those of his predecessors, and he was regarded as the only one of his kind by the people of the time. Yan Liben, a famous painter at that time, had a lot of masterpieces of horse painting, and his paintings of horses' muscles and sinews were very vivid, which made him famous for a while, however, no masterpieces of horse painting were known to the world. Ancient legacy of horse painting masterpieces when push "king mu eight steeds", also known as "eight steeds", rumored to be made by jin, painting is the king mu riding eight steeds to go to the queen mother of the west yaochi feast story. These eight horses are all painted in a very spiritual way, with the backbone of a dragon and the neck of an elephant, their bones are so clear that they are said to be able to travel 10,000 miles in a day, and some of them are even depicted as having wings, which make them more like dragons than like horses. From the morphology, Han Gan before, most of the painting of the horse is relatively thin, in terms of gestures, but also most of the restlessness, head lifting feet, for the potential to run, but fewer images of horses in a relaxed mood. Han Gan's saddle horse painting completely free from the image of the dragon, is the reality of the horse's portrait; Han Gan painting of the horse is basically fat and robust image of the Western horse, which is related to the Tang Xuanzong kept most of the imperial horses from the Western region; the horse's demeanor is no longer restless, and presents a peaceful and leisurely. It is said that Emperor Tang Xuanzong saw that the horses he painted did not resemble the style of his other teacher, Chen Ma-te, and asked him why, Han Gan replied: "I have my own teacher to paint horses. The imperial horses in the horse ring in the Emperor's palace are all my teachers." Emperor Xuanzong was very surprised, but see Han Gan painting are really his stables in the imperial horses, and completely painted the "Flying Dragon" horse beautiful form and "Jet Jade" horse peculiar charm, do not feel impressed. It is said that Han Gan is good at horse-recognition, the ability to recognize and appreciate the horse has reached the degree of horse-recognition experts Jufanggao, Bole. Han Gan's paintings of horses have been handed down to the world, including "Horse Ranching", "Shining Night White", "Presenting Horses" and "Divine Cypher". Among them, "Pastoral Horse Drawing" is recognized in the painting world as the authentic Han painting, but also the most influential and well-known.

Horse Ranching was originally one of the frames in the album "Famous Paintings and Treasures", which was inscribed with "Han Gan's authentic work, Ding Hai's royal brush" by Zhao Ji of Emperor Huizong of Song Dynasty on the left side. On the picture, the horse herder is riding a white horse and holding a black steed, with a gnarled bun and scarf, holding the reins and bridle in his hand, walking slowly. Shepherd two cheeks full of beard, tall, obviously is the appearance of Hu. Black, white two horses, and ride, from the modeling point of view, the two horses side fruitful and plump, belong to the western region famous horse, black horse with vermilion red pattern brocade saddle, white horse is the whole body white, with the white drawing method only hook line and do not thank the color. In the painting, the horse herder is in high spirits, the two horses are robust and relaxed, and the characters are sparsely clothed. The picture is concise and structured, and the brushwork is calm and the lines are strong and sharp. The uniqueness of Han Gan's paintings of horses lies in the fact that he painted them in a completely realistic style, using the horses in the imperial stables as his teachers and trying to figure them out day by day, which resulted in this superb work of art. Song Dong Wasser's "Guangchuan Painting Treasure" says, "It is said that Han Gan, whenever he made a horse, he must examine the time and day, face the direction, and then determine the shape, bone, and fur color." It is precisely because of his meticulous observation that his horses are so vivid and lifelike. In this regard, there is a public case in history, Du Fu did not like Han Gan's paintings, in the poem "Danqing cited the gift of General Cao Ba", he said: "Disciple Han Gan early into the room, but also able to paint the horse poor special phase, Gan only painted flesh not painted bone, bear to make the horse horse gas withered," that Han Gan's horse "painted flesh not painted bone," so that the horse's "painted flesh not painted bone He thought that Han Gan's horse "painted flesh but not bones," which made the horse's spirit wither away. Zhang Yanyuan, a painting theorist at the time, criticized Du Fu for not knowing how to paint, and in the Song Dynasty, Su Shi was even more critical of Du Fu's words, saying in "Inscription on Han Gan's Horse Ranching Picture," "All the workers have paper, pencil and vermilion lead, and Mr. Cao Ba's disciple, Han. Stable horse more meat people push round, meat in the painting bone qua especially difficult. The golden detained jade le embroidered Luo saddle, whip vertebrae engraved branding hurt the sky full. Not so close to nature ......", which said "flesh in the drawing of the bone to boast particularly difficult" clearly pointed out that Han Gan pen horse vivid.

Another masterpiece of Han Gan's, "Shining Night White Figure," depicts one of Emperor Xuanzong's favorite horses. In the picture, the white horse tethered to a horse post is neighing with its head up, hoofing its way to the gallop, with a vigorous expression, full of a sense of life and dynamism. The horse's physique is fat and robust, full of Tang Yun. According to expert testimony, the horse's head, neck, the front body for the real, while the latter half of the body for the later complementary pen, the horse's tail has not survived. After the picture, there is the South Tang Dynasty after the Lord Li Yu inscribed "Han Gan Zhaoyubai" five words, and there is the Tang Dynasty Zhang Yanyuan inscribed "Yanyuan" two words.

Today, Han Gan's works are indeed the pinnacle of saddle-horse paintings in the Tang Dynasty. He inherited from Cao Ba and other painters of the previous generation, but was able to create a unique style, which directly influenced the style of paintings in the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties. Therefore, he is a master of the art of the Tang Dynasty.

Han Hwang's Five Cattle Picture is also one of the best paintings of animals in the Tang Dynasty. Han Hwang (723-787), a politician and painter in the middle of the Tang Dynasty, served four generations from Emperor Xuanzong to Emperor Dezong, from local officials to feudal lords and prime ministers, and was a statesman who championed unification and opposed division and fragmentation. He served in important government positions such as section minister, and was later named Duke of Jin. Despite his high rank and high salary, Han Hwang lived a frugal life, changing his clothes and bedding only once every 10 years. He was very cultured, good at drumming, good at calligraphy and painting, with a fine hand in clerical script and the brushwork of Zhang Xu in cursive script. He was good at painting agricultural customs. His specialty was animal paintings of cows and sheep. At that time, Han Hwang was famous for his horse paintings and Han was famous for his cow paintings, and later people called them "Cow and Horse Two Han". Lu You of the Southern Song Dynasty once praised Han Hwang's paintings for their immersive quality: "Whenever I see village children herding cows in the wind, forest and tobacco, I feel like I'm in a picture and I want to resign from the government and return to my hometown."

Han Hwang's heirloom masterpiece, "The Five Cows," is said to be the result of a visit to the countryside, where he saw plowing cows feeding on grass, shepherd children playing freely, a plowing cow running with its head cocked in the distance, and a number of plowing cows bellowing, some turning back to lick their tongues, and some stooping down to look for grass, which made Han Hwang lose himself in thought. A month later, five cows of different shapes and sizes appeared on his paper.

The Five Cattle Picture was drawn on white linen paper, the earliest paper painting that can be seen today. Painting *** five cows, each cow's posture, direction are different, some tilt their heads to rub the itch, some stretch their necks and heads, some lick their tongues and look forward, some walk slowly, and some are staring ahead. Four of them were facing sideways, and one was facing forward in the center. Each cow fat and thin, sinews and bones depicted very clearly, although they are yellow cattle, but the color changes, fur is very rich texture, indicating that the artist's modeling ability is very strong. From the technical point of view, the artist used close-up composition, the center of a cow is facing the viewer. As the artist's perspective is very well handled, it appears realistic and natural. Look more closely, the look of each cow is depicted very simple and lovely, the center of the one appears to be calm and quiet, licking the tongue back to the head of the eyes lively, a little mischievous, rubbing the itch of the head of the peaceful and comfortable, walking slowly forward is more serious. The Five Cows fully demonstrates the painter's meticulous observation ability, and the whole picture, with its bold brushwork and slight gravity, shows the simple and fresh flavor of the countryside.

Five Cattle Drawing After the release of Han Hwang's Five Cattle Drawing, people marveled at the fact that the five cows he drew were not only similar in shape, but also different in form. Each has its own characteristics, different fat and thin, different colors of cows, subtle and simple brushwork, smooth and beautiful lines, good shape and spirit, and the best of the best, showing excellent brush and ink skills, which is a rare masterpiece of Tang Dynasty paintings. Although this painting is in the form of a long scroll, the cows painted are independent, except for a clump of thorns, there is no scenery. Its use of color is also very characteristic of the reality of the yellow cattle. Although many varieties, but not much change in hue, three yellow, two dark brown in the picture is basically the most typical hair color, although the whole painting with only two colors, giving people the feeling is colorful. Most of the later generations believed that these five cows were personified. The first four cows are all very relaxed and easy-going, while the last one is wearing a complex head, and compared with the previous four, there is obviously a color of hesitation. Researchers believe that these five oxen are a metaphor for the five Han Hwang brothers, and that the character of the ox, which is heavy and obedient, is used to express the feelings of the country and the king in the heart of the artist, which is a typical example of using an object to express emotions. It is also believed that the painting is meant to show the qualities of a deep, steady, hard-working, honest, stubborn, simple and diligent personality.

Ancient Chinese landscape paintings, bird and flower paintings, and figure paintings have more fine works in the world, but the only one who has used cows in his paintings and is so vivid is the Five Cows Picture, which was described by Zhao Mengfu, a great master of calligraphy and painting in the Yuan Dynasty, as a "magnificent and rare masterpiece". It can be seen that the value of this picture lies not only in the exquisite art of painting, but also in the uniqueness of its subject matter and the rarity of its transmission. This rare painting to the Song Dynasty, has been treasured by the court. After the war, the painting was collected by Zhao Mengfu. When the Forbidden City was looted by the Eight-Power Allied Forces, the painting was taken out of the country and was never heard of again.In the 1950s, when the painting was found to be in Hong Kong, Premier Zhou Enlai gave instructions to buy it back from Hong Kong at great expense. Then, the Palace Museum and spent a few years to restore it. A classic painting was able to return to its native land.