Gu Kaizhi was a famous painter in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, with the word Changkang and the nickname Tiger Head. He came from a scholarly Family and was a talented painter, good at poetry and calligraphy, and especially good at painting. His paintings are amazing in their composition and line, as well as in their painting. Gu Kaizhi’s personality was so distinctive and open-minded that he was known at the Time as having three great qualities, namely, great talent, great painting, and great obsession.
He was so open-minded that he jokingly said, “Paintings fly by spirit”.
According to legend, one spring, when Gu Kaizhi was going away, he sealed a kitchen cabinet of wonderful paintings with paper, inscribed them with words and sent them to his friend Heng Xuan’s house temporarily. Knowing that these paintings were Gu Kai-zhi’s most cherished ones, Heng Xuan opened the cabinet and stole all the paintings, then restored the closed place. When Gu Kai-zhi came to retrieve the paintings, he found that the paintings had disappeared from the cabinet, but Heng Xuan lied to Gu Kai-zhi that he had not opened the cabinet. Gu Kai-zhi didn’t suspect him and didn’t blame Heng Xuan, instead, he explained himself, “A good painting can pass through the spirit and change and go, also like a person’s ascension to immortality.” It means that a good painting can pass through the spirit, just like a person cultivates to become immortal, and transforms into an immortal and flies away. Its humor and open-mindedness are rare in the past and present.
The “eye-dotting” raises millions of money for the temple
Gu Kai-zhi’s paintings of figures pay special attention to their expression, but he did not paint the eyes for many years, which is a masterpiece. When he was asked about the reason for not painting the eyes, he replied, “It doesn’t matter much whether the body and limbs are well painted or not, but the key to convey the spirit lies in the eyes!” Therefore, the eyes of the characters in Gu Kaizhi’s paintings were sometimes left unpainted for years.
There is a wonderful story about Gu Kaizhi’s eyes: during the Xingning period of the Eastern Jin Dynasty (363-365 AD), Gu Kaizhi once painted the statue of Vimalakirti on the wall of the North Hall of the Wacohen Temple, with a “clear and frail appearance, forgetting to speak by a few words”, painting Vimalakirti’s sickly appearance and his special look of coping with people during his illness. After the painting was completed, the light above Vimalakirti’s head shone in all directions for more than a month, causing a great sensation at that time.
It is written in the “Record of the Temple of the Capital” that during the period of Xingning in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, when the Wajian Temple had just been built, the monks moved in and set up pujas, and the monks collected money from the scholars in the capital. His family had always been poor, so how could he get a million? People thought he was talking big, but Gu Kaizhi was confident. When it came time to pay, Gu Kai-zhi said to the monk, “Please choose a blank wall in your temple.” Then Gu Kai-zhi began to enter the temple to paint in seclusion for more than a month behind closed doors.
After a month or so, Gu Kai-zhi painted a huge portrait of Vimalakirti on this wall, and when he was about to paint his eyes, Gu Kai-zhi asked the monk to open the temple door for the public to visit. Gu Kai-zhi said to the monk, “When this painting is finished, for those who come to see it on the first day, please let him give 100,000 to the temple, 50,000 to those who come to see it on the second day, and donate as much as you want to see it on the third day.” By the time the doors were opened, the light from the head of the giant statue of Vimalakirti on the wall illuminated the entire temple. On the first day, many people flocked to Wajian Temple to see Gu Kai-zhi’s “eye-dotting”. Gu Kai-zhi’s brush was really a godsend, and with just one click, the whole statue came to Life. The crowds of people who came to see the alms clogged the temple gate and filled the temple, and within a short time, millions of money were raised.
The Greatest Talent, the Greatest Painting, and the Greatest Obsession
Gu Kai-zhi was a learned and versatile man who was good at poetry and painting, as well as calligraphy and painting.
From his childhood, Gu Kaizhi was diligent in reading and writing poems, and he wrote many poems, including “Wind Fugue”, “Guantao Fugue”, “Zheng Fugue”, “Poems for the Four Seasons” and “Preface to Huqiu Mountain”.
One day he went on a trip to Huiji in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. When he returned, he was asked how the scenery of Huiji was, and he replied, “A thousand rocks compete with each other, and ten thousand ravines compete with each other. The grass and trees are caged on it, as if clouds are steaming.” He described the beautiful scenery of Jiangnan as poetic and picturesque, which is rich in dynamic beauty. Later on, “a thousand rocks competing for beauty and ten thousand ravines competing for flow” became the mainstream of landscape painting themes in later times.
In terms of painting, Gu Kaizhi excelled in landscape painting and figure painting. The landscape paintings were natural on his paper, and the figure paintings were vivid under his brush. Xie An said to Gu Kaizhi, “Your calligraphy has not been seen to be as superb as yours since the beginning of mankind.” He also said, “Your paintings are lush and pale, unprecedented since the beginning of time.”
Gu Kaizhi did not like to stick to the rules, and was able to paint a different style with his own unique view. For example, he once painted Xie Kun between the crevices of the rocks, because he thought that Xie Kun had traveled through the mountains and water all his life, and this was the most evocative way to describe him.
Gu Kaizhi’s painting technique is as detailed as a silk worm spitting out silk, which is very natural and is commonly known as the “ancient silk wandering painting”. His paintings were described by later generations as “the first to be painted with the intention, and the painting is finished with the intention”; “the strokes are dense, as strong and continuous as the spring silkworms spitting silk”, and he and Lu Tanwei, a painter of the Southern Song Dynasty who studied under him, were called “Gu Lu” together. He was called “Gu Lu” together with Lu Tanwei, who studied under him in the Southern Song Dynasty, and was called “Dense Style”. Zhang Huaiguan of the Tang dynasty spoke highly of his paintings: “Zhang Singyao got his flesh, Lu Tanwei got his bones, and Gu Kaizhi got his spirit.”
The “Idiosyncratic” shows his true nature
Among the Three Perfections, “Idiosyncratic” refers to Gu Kaizhi’s frankness, humor, forgetfulness and intoxication in everything he did, so he was also famous for his idiocy. For example, when Gu Kai-zhi painted, he always forgot to eat and sleep, and would not stop until he finished his paintings. Gu Kai-zhi’s mother died not long after he was born, and since all the other children had mothers but he did not, he often missed his mother and pestered his father, asking, “Why don’t I have a mother? What does my mother look like?” His father patiently described her to him. With his father’s description, Gu Kaizhi drew the image of his mother again and again. After each drawing, he would ask his father if she looked like him, and he would always say that he still needed to work on it. Gu Kai-zhi tried again and again until his father’s eyes glowed and he said, “Yes, it looks like it”, then he put down his brush. The image of his mother stayed in his heart for a long time.
Huan Wen promoted him to be the counsellor of the Grand Secretary, and he was very close to him. After Huan Wen’s death, Gu Kai Zhi visited Huan Wen’s grave and wrote a poem, “When the mountain collapses and the sea is exhausted, what will the fish and birds do?” Someone asked him, “You thought so highly of Huan Gong that you could probably imagine crying for him!” Gu Kai-zhi replied, “The sound is like thunder breaking the mountain, and the tears are like pouring a river into the sea.” Gu Kai-zhi’s “obsession” was as delicate and sincere as his paintings!
Gu Kaizhi’s paintings have a unique personal style and color, and have an indelible historical status in the painting world. Because of his talent, frankness, humor and foolishness, his role in the historical stage of the Eastern Jin Dynasty is distinct and pure, which makes people applaud him; the Eastern Jin painting world would have no color without Gu Kaizhi!
Historical reference: The Book of Jin, The Old Facts of Shang Shu
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