The river surges, rushing eastward; the river roars loudly, nourishing civilization.
The surging Yangtze River flows out of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, through high mountain valleys, over steep ridges and dangerous rapids, through the water towns of the south of the Yangtze River, and finally into the sea from Shanghai. The sea embraces hundreds of rivers and forms its vastness. The "Cultural China Tour｜Cultural Yangtze River" launched by The Paper starts from Shanghai, goes up the river, walks along the Yangtze River, and tours the cultural veins of the Yangtze River.
This article records a visit to Mi Fu's relics in Zhenjiang.
Mi Fu (1051-1108), courtesy name Yuanzhang, also known as Xiangyang Manshi and Haiyue Waishi, was a calligrapher, painter, and collector appraiser in the Song Dynasty.
1. The Wonder of Xiaoxiang: Mijia Mountain
During spring and summer in the south of the Yangtze River, there are clouds, misty trees, fog and rain in the mountains, and the sky is hazy. In the Song Dynasty, Mi Fu and his son Mi Youren painted these scenes, "with a freehand brush, mostly using clouds and mist to illustrate the meaning, as long as the painting is realistic." This is the "Mi Family Landscape" in the history of Chinese calligraphy and painting.
The real blueprint of "Mi Family Landscape" is actually the landscape of Zhenjiang (also known as Jingkou or Runzhou) on the bank of the Yangtze River, and it is mostly in Beigushan and the southern suburbs. Especially in the mist and rain, there is a lingering charm of the Southern Dynasties, with mountains, rivers and trees, sometimes hidden and sometimes visible, sometimes bright and sometimes dark, and the smoke and clouds change. I still remember that 20 years ago, when I was in front of Mi Youren's "Xiaoxiang Wonders" at the "Calligraphy and Painting Classics" special exhibition co-organized by the Shanghai Museum and the Palace Museum, I read Mi Youren's inscription recalling that his father Mi lived in the Beigushan area, "My father lived in Zhenjiang for forty years, built a hermitage on the high hill east of the city, and named it after the sea and mountain", and suddenly I had the dream of building a house by the river when I was young. In addition to feeling emotional, I wrote a short essay on the exhibition:
Part of Mi Youren's "Xiaoxiang Wonders" (from the collection of the Palace Museum)
Part of the inscription on Mi Youren's "Xiaoxiang Wonders" (in the collection of the Palace Museum)
Reading Mi Youren's "Xiaoxiang Wonders Scroll" and looking at his paintings, it is like swimming in the Yuan River under the drizzle many years ago, or like the misty mountains and rivers of Huizhou or Jingkou. Mi Fu once said in "History of Painting": "Among the masters of landscape painting in ancient and modern times, there are few who can stand out. They are painted with a freehand brush, with many clouds and mists hidden in the background. Trees and rocks are not taken care of in detail, as long as the meaning is similar." - "I wrote it with a freehand brush", what a good saying. Xiaomi has completely inherited his father's style, including calligraphy. His writing and painting are freehand, without seeking resemblance to the form. In "Xiaoxiang Wonders Scroll", the mountains and rivers by the water are flat and distant, with clouds and mists hidden in the background, or rendered, or left blank. Below are clusters of trees, and people's houses are faintly visible. The mountaintops are dotted with layers of ink, with thick and thin strokes. Mi Youren wrote in his inscription: "My father lived in Zhenjiang for forty years and built a hermitage on a high hill east of the city, named after the sea and mountain. At that time, all the great men of the country wrote poems, and it is impossible to remember them all... This scroll is what I saw in the hermitage. It is mostly about the wonders of mountains and rivers, with thousands of changes, mostly in the morning, sunny, cloudy and rainy, and few people know about it. I am familiar with the wonders of Xiaoxiang in my life. Whenever I visit a good place, I always write down the true interest and make a long scroll to please the eyes, without waiting for being driven. Is this to please other people?"
The latter sentence especially reveals his true nature, which has the same meaning as Ni Zan's "My casual writing is just for my own amusement". It advocates naturalness and seeks true interest, the so-called "natural interest".
I also read the postscripts by Xue Xi and others, and reread the landscape, feeling even more filled with mist. Finally, I simply sat on a bench in the middle of the exhibition hall and watched from afar. I felt a little emotional when I thought about it - I don't know when I can "build a hermitage" among the mountains and rivers to watch their "sunny mornings and cloudy rains" and "ten thousand layers of changes". The east of Zhenjiang City that "Xiaomi" mentioned may no longer have such scenery - half of Beigushan Mountain is occupied by the shipyard, Jiaoshan Mountain is no longer in the middle of the river, and it is pulled by a cableway, which is very boring. What people miss are the small islands of Taihu Lake in the mist and rain, and the stilt houses between the mountains of Yuanshui River in western Hunan. However, building a house there is probably just an unattainable dream.
——Time flies by so fast. It has been 20 years since I read Mi Jia's landscape painting "Xiaoxiang Wonders". I haven't been to Zhenjiang for a long time. However, the landscape of Jingkou, which is deeply engraved with my youth, has always been lingering in my mind and has a special place in my memory. I think of the days when I rode my bike among the reeds on the river bank with Wuyou Wuyou, the time when I was wearing white clothes, the misty Nanshan, Fengcheshan, Baogaishan, Beigushan, Jiaoshan... and the evening rain and autumn when I looked at the Yangtze River from the roof of a high-rise building. All of them came to me in an instant, and seemed to be covered by a thin layer of mist.
When I was young, my impression of Mi Fu's relics in Jingkou, apart from the Mi character "Urban Forest" at the entrance of Nanshan Mountain and the famous Mi's calligraphy "The World's No. 1 River and Mountain" on Beigushan Mountain, was probably the Zhenjiang Shipyard that I saw when I looked out at the riverside from Beigushan Mountain. At that time, I thought it was the location of Mi Lao Haiyue Temple. Most of the riverside under Beigushan Mountain was occupied by this shipyard, with cranes standing in rows and rumbling all over the place, squeezing Beigushan Mountain into a small and cramped place. Of course, it had none of the poetic appeal of "Mi Family Landscape".
The cross-shaped "urban forest" at the entrance of Zhenjiang Nanshan
A few years ago, I heard that the shipyard that had been rooted at the foot of Beigushan Mountain for more than half a century had finally moved away. More than a dozen illegal docks were demolished with blasting, and the remaining factory area was transformed into a large riverside green space. This was certainly a happy thing, but unfortunately I have never been able to visit it again.
2. Mi Fu's Tomb on Huanghe Mountain
At the end of Jiachen year, I made an appointment with Rong Weng and Xu Jun, Zhao Heng and his wife, Yang Zhishui and his wife, Liu Tao and his wife, Lu Hao and others to visit Zhenjiang. The initiator Rong Weng took great care to arrange for us to stay at Nanshan Biyuyuan Hotel. The word "Biyu" comes from Mi Fu's "Running Script Hongxian Poetry Scroll" (the original work is collected in the Tokyo National Museum, Japan). It is Mi Fu's representative work of large characters in his later years. I saw the original more than ten years ago, especially the beginning "A clear sky brings clear and gentle air, and strong sails for a thousand miles in the green elm wind. The boat is full of calligraphy and paintings like the bright moon, and the flowers are graceful in the ten-day period." It is like a boat sailing on the water in a clear autumn day, completed in one go, with clear brushwork, majestic posture, and unrestrained demeanor. The ink is used in a variety of ways, which gives it a natural and pleasant feeling.
The word "Biyu" comes from Mi Fu's "Hongxian Poetry Scroll in Running Script"
Part of Mi Fu's "Hongxian Poetry Scroll in Running Script"
This poem is engraved in the lobby of the Biyuyuan Hotel. It is well made and after reading it, you will feel a refreshing feeling - after all, this is the Zhenjiang Nanshan that Mi Fu loved.
Mi Fu's tomb is not far from Biyuyuan, and it only takes five or six minutes to drive there. The tomb is on the hillside of Huanghe Mountain by the road.
It seemed like it had just rained, the ground was slightly wet, and the smoke of the Six Dynasties seemed to be in the air - it was indeed a good time to visit Mi Fu after the rain. There was a sign of Mi Fu's tomb on the side of the road, and on the bluestone stele was engraved "Shanhu Tie", the only surviving hinge of Mi Fu's calligraphy and painting. The steps were quite steep, with occasional traces of moss and a few wet bamboo branches and leaves. Lu Hao, who was walking in front, was worried about slipping, so he naturally supported Heng Gong, who was nearly 80 years old, and climbed the steps step by step.
Mi Fu Tomb Steps
First, there is a stone column, round on the top and square on the bottom, with cloud patterns carved on it, which is already mottled. The three characters "Mi Fu's Tomb" are engraved on the top, which seem to be the handwriting of Mr. Qi Gong from a distance. The couplets on the stone columns on both sides are: "A handful of soil is enough for thousands of years, the literature and history of Xiangyang Xuanhe pen, the talent of the jungle is several Wu, the official of the Song Dynasty Mijiashan."
Mi Fu's Tomb
Going further up, you will reach Mi Fu's tomb. The mound is round, like an ancient inkstone, and is covered with green grass, which looks lush after the rain. Behind the tomb are lush trees.
It is said that Mi Fu loved Helin Temple in the southern suburbs of Zhenjiang in his later years, and once expressed his wish to be the guardian of Helin Temple after his death. After Mi Fu's death, he was first buried in Changshan, southwest of Dantu. Later, because the cemetery was deserted, his descendants built a tomb at the northern foot of Huanghe Mountain in front of Helin Temple. This madman who lived in Zhenjiang for forty years finally left his madness and freedom forever in the mountains and waters of the southern suburbs of Jingkou that he loved with a round stone tomb like an inkstone.
The tombstone of Mi Fu's tomb is engraved with the words "Rebuilt in the spring of 1987, the tomb of Mi Fu Yuanzhang, the Yuanwailang of the Ministry of Rites in the Song Dynasty, respectfully inscribed by Qi Gong, a disciple of Manshu" . Only then did I remember that the three words "Mi Fu's Tomb" on the stone pillar were engraved by collecting the words of Qi Gong here.
There is a poem about Mi Fu in "Qi Gong's Hundred Quatrains on Calligraphy": "My calligraphy is full of ink, and the momentum of the rolling smoke and clouds is most amazing. What's more, the spirit is endless, and the Sichuan silk is as playful as black silk." Using "brushstrokes", "smoke and clouds" and "magical powers" to evaluate Mi Fu, Qi especially loved Mi Fu's works from his middle age, such as "Fangyuan Temple Notes", and believed that he "collected the ancients and was able to create his own style". He also praised "Shu Su Tie" and "Tiao Xi Poetry Scroll" mentioned in the poem, and believed that they were rich in spirit, shining like a light, and had the profound taste of the Jin Dynasty.
Recalling that Mr. Qi Gong spent his later years in Yangzhou, I once accompanied him for two days, visited Yangzhou gardens, paid homage to the tomb of Wang Zhong from the Qing Dynasty, and listened to his lectures on the Eight Eccentrics' calligraphy and painting, which benefited me greatly. Before leaving, Mr. Qi gave me books such as "Qi Gong's Hundred Quatrains on Calligraphy". Time flies, and it has been twenty years since Mr. Qi went west. I can't help but sigh.
Rong Weng Xu Jun was once the head of Zhonghua Book Company. He had a close relationship with Mr. Qi. Last year, he donated the calligraphy given to him by Mr. Qi and a number of famous people's works to the Yangzhong Museum in his hometown. He once said that Mr. Qi was the person who wrote the most inscriptions for books published by Zhonghua Book Company. "It can even be said that Mr. Qi's inscriptions are one of the symbols of the binding style of Zhonghua Book Company's books." Rong Weng's calligraphy style was also influenced by Mr. Qi. He follows the orthodox tradition of calligraphy and is elegant and gentle. In recent years, he has written many inscriptions for Zhonghua Book Company, which seems to have become one of the symbols of the binding style of books published by Zhonghua Book Company.
During the conversation and reminiscing, Mr. Heng, Mr. Shui and Mr. Liu Tao also seemed to talk about many anecdotes of Mr. Qi.
Afterwards, he paid homage to Mi Fu's tomb, walked around the tomb himself, and went down the mountain. The ruins of Helin Temple, which Mi Fu loved so much, were only a few steps away.
(III) Stealing a half day of leisure from busy life
Helin Temple was first built in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. It was damaged and restored many times in history. In the Song Dynasty, it was a gathering place for literati. In addition to Mi Fu, Dongpo, Zeng Gong, and Zhou Dunyi all lingered here. The most famous sentence here is actually a line - "Stealing half a day of leisure in this floating life", which comes from the Tang Dynasty poet Li She's "Inscription on the Wall of Helin Temple" (also known as "Inscription on the Monk's House of Helin Temple"):
In a dream all day long,
Suddenly I heard that spring was over, so I went up the mountain.
When I passed by a bamboo garden and met a monk,
Steal a half day of leisure from busy life.
At the call of Mr. Rong, the group took some time out from their busy schedules and gathered in Zhenjiang to visit the old traces of Lao Mi and Su Dongpo. It can truly be said that they "stole a little time of leisure from their busy lives."
The official script couplet on the archway in front of Helin Temple was written by a former vice chairman of the Chinese Calligraphers Association. The brush strokes are soft and hardly up to standard. Originally there were a few dilapidated houses here. They were renovated in the past few years. Either a new temple hall was built, or Su Gong Bamboo Courtyard, Mao Shu Temple, and Azalea Tower were rebuilt according to historical records. However, there was nothing to see here. I took a quick look at them and felt a little discouraged.
I didn't want to go further in, but what surprised me was that on the blue brick gable facing the back mountain of Dujuan Tower, there was a small, broken white stone stele. It was discovered during an archaeological excavation here ten years ago. There were four characters engraved on it, "Helin Zen Temple". Among them, the characters "鹤" and "寺" are both broken, but the ancient charm and Zen meaning are still there. I don't know whether it is from the Song Dynasty or the Ming Dynasty?
The broken white stone tablet of "Helin Zen Temple"
Seeing the real thing among the fake tripods is like seeing a celestial horse, which makes people feel spiritual. I would like to borrow Mi Fu's comment on the authenticity of the "Huangting Sutra" in "History of Calligraphy": "The fake "Huangting Sutra" is similar in form but lacks spirit, like an ordinary horse in a stable decorated with a golden saddle; the real one is like a celestial horse flying in the sky, and even the torn paper still produces wind and clouds."
Considering the common sight of building fake antiques and demolishing real historical sites, Zhenjiang's attention to ancient charm gives people some comfort.
4. Mountain and Water Habitat
Mi Fu's pseudonyms were Xiangyang Manshi and Haiyue Waishi, which actually recorded two most important places in his life, Xiangyang and Zhenjiang.
When he was in his teens, he moved to Zhenjiang with his parents from Xiangyang. After that, in addition to traveling and serving as an official, he lived in the mountains and rivers of Jingkou for a long time. The names of his study, whether Zhishuangxuan, Baojinzhai, Jingmingzhai or Haiyuean, were all in Zhenjiang.
In his famous letter to a friend, "Ganlu Tie" (also known as "Bi Ju Tie", collected by the National Palace Museum in Taipei), he described the location of his residence in Zhenjiang in detail, probably with a bit of boasting: "My residence is to the west of Dantu Office, with Huoxian Hall, Yangyue and Jiali Pavilion behind it, overlooking the wide water of the Grand Canal. To the east is the Moon Platform, and to the west is the West Mountain. Therefore, to the west of Baojin Zhai is Zhishuang Xuan. " The letter detailed that tung, willow, toon and fir were planted in front of the studio, which grew into a shade after ten years. Mi Fu called it "a one-acre residence". There are many strange rocks in the garden, especially the "eighty-one-hole" Lingbi stone. Mi Fu inscribed this stone "as big as a bowl, small enough to fit a finger" and placed it between the tung and fir, rubbing it day and night.
Ganlu Tie (also known as Biju Tie, collected by the National Palace Museum, Taipei)
Zhishuangzhai, located to the west of Baojinzhai, was where Mi Fu entertained guests and lived. He once wrote a poem: "Beigu is covered with light silk, and Xishan is in the plain. A day of mist and rain is good, but I don't love the frosty sky alone." You can see the scenery of Beigu Mountain and the sails on the Grand Canal through the window. Mi Fu discussed calligraphy and painting with Su Shi, Wang Anshi and others here. It is recorded that after Mi Fu exchanged the stone from Li Houzhu for Su Zhonggong's house, he expanded Zhishuangzhai and placed strange rocks and beautiful trees in the courtyard. Reading it is just like reading Zhang Dai's "Buerzhai" when he was young, which makes people yearn for it.
The old sites of Zhishuang Pavilion and Baojinzhai no longer exist, of course. However, according to Volume 12 of Zhishun Zhenjiang Chronicle, "there is a pavilion called Zhishuangzhai to the west of Qianqiu Bridge", it was located near Qianqiu Bridge Street near Daishikou. Now it has long been lost in the bustling city. Only the "Baojinzhai" has been built in the Mi Fu Calligraphy Park in the suburbs, displaying imitations of Mi's calligraphy. The elegance of the past can be vaguely felt among the shadows of stones and the sounds of bamboo.
Mi Fu's "Autumn Mountain Poem in Light Ink" is collected by the Palace Museum in Beijing
Mi Fu loved Beigushan Mountain. His other residence, Jingmingzhai, was located at the southern foot of Beigushan Mountain, hidden among the green pines and cypresses. Mi Fu described himself in "Jingmingzhaiji": "With the river stretching for thousands of miles, ten counties and hundreds of towns, the city surrounded by mountains, and the moat beside the water, only I am Dantu. " The residence is "in the middle of a well, halfway above the sky", so-called "looking east to Jingxian, and west to Qixia. The flat forests and hills are the area of Huaihai; the distant mountains are hidden, the border of Chusi". Mi Fu practiced Zen in his later years. In the fourth year of Yuanyou of Emperor Zhezong (1089), his friend Jiang Yingshu visited Mi Fu here and gave him a poem: "The figures of the Six Dynasties have all gone east, and there are many mountains and rivers in Beigu for thousands of years. I want to borrow the land of the abbot of Manjusri Temple to accommodate the sick Vimalakirti". Mi Fu liked this poem, so according to the suggestion of the abbot of Ganlu Temple, he named the residence "Jingming", which means "Jingming Jushi" in the "Vimalakirti Sutra".
Overlooking Jiaoshan from Beigu Mountain
Today, on the banks of the Beigushan River, the shipyard has indeed moved away, the gantry crane at the old dock has been transformed into a viewing platform, and the rusty tracks of the past have been transformed into a water pier, connecting the Dongwu Cultural Square, the Forest of Poetry Steles, etc.
On the top of the mountain, the iron tower of Ganlu Temple from the Song Dynasty still exists; on the east side of the temple, there are broken stele inscriptions on the cliff, with blurred handwriting, which shows the ancient style. On the west side of the mountain, there is the site of the ancient Dongwu Road. The couplet on the gate tower is the poem that Jiang Yingshu gave to Mi Fu: "All the figures of the Six Dynasties went east, while the mountains and rivers through the ages remain in the north."
I also wrote this sentence on a piece of paper I sketched at the foot of Beigushan Mountain, which feels particularly meaningful.
Sketching Gu Cunyan at the foot of Beigu Mountain
On the west side of Beigu Mountain, the site of the Dongwu Ancient Road
Mi Fu's pseudonym "Haiyue Waishi" naturally came from Haiyue Temple.
In the past, it was believed that the Haiyue Temple mentioned in Mi Youren's "Xiaoxiang Wonders" was on the riverside of Beigu Mountain. However, according to Zhenjiang literature and history researchers, Haiyue Temple is actually located at Qingyun Gate near the present Martyrs Cemetery in the south of Beigu Mountain. At the end of the Yuanfu period, Ganlu Temple was burned down, which is what Mi Fu wrote in his poem "Ganlu Temple Mourning the Ancients": "Gods guard the public tower, and heaven leaves Mi Lao Temple." Mi Fu later moved here and built a "Haiyue" residence, taking the heroic words "Heaven opens Haiyue". According to Ye Mengde's "Swallows in the Stone Forest", Mi Fu called the stone his brother all day long, wrote under the magnolia tree with hanging paper, and did not brush away the fallen flowers in the ink. He said, "I am satisfied with my mind and I am content, I let go of my pen and play with the air." The temple contains famous calligraphy works from the Jin and Tang dynasties and their inkstones and stone calligraphy works, and it is here that the "Mi family landscape" is truly created, with smoke and ink playing, and the mist and rain in the south of the Yangtze River seen by the eyes and ears are painted with ink and water.
Checking the map, the name "Qingyunmen" is still there. It is only four or five hundred meters away from Beigushan and can be reached on foot: cross two streets and turn a long slope, and you will see the Qingyunmen community - an ordinary old alley that cannot be more ordinary. It seems as if time has stood still. In an instant, I seem to be back to the days when I loved to wander in the ancient city when I was young. There are old people sitting there in silence, and there are women with permed hair and gold watches, with vulgar faces, talking loudly... There are also funeral clothing stores, salted goose stalls, grocery stores, etc. on the side of the alley. Unfortunately, they all seem to be very deserted and there are no customers.
Zhenjiang Qingyunmen Community
At the east end of the alley, there are a few motorcycles parked crookedly. At the end is the gate of the Martyrs' Cemetery. Huge stone tablets and tall trees can be seen in the distance.
Qingyunmen Community, where you can see the gate and stone tablet of Zhenjiang Martyrs Cemetery
From a geographical point of view, Qingyun Gate and the Martyrs Cemetery are located on the same high hill, close to Beigushan Mountain. Compare with what Mi Youren recorded: "My father lived in Zhenjiang for forty years and built a temple on the high hill east of the city, named 'Haiyue'." The famous Haiyue Temple in the history of Chinese calligraphy and painting must be in this area without a doubt.
Looking north from Qingyun Gate, there are tall buildings on the bank of Beigu Mountain, and the river is no longer in sight. The "mostly wonders of mountains and rivers, with thousands of changes, mostly in the morning and in the rain" that the Mi father and son saw in Haiyue Temple have long become a thing of the past.
Mi Fu's Four Studios in Jingkou are either buried in dust or transformed into symbols. However, his unrestrained and detached spirit as well as his pursuit of freedom have been integrated into the landscape of Jingkou for thousands of years and also solidified in the ink dots of the Mi family that have been passed down to this day.
March 2025 at Sanliu Bookstore
