The Song Dynasty’s "A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" exhibited in the Forbidden City last year has attracted wide attention from the society. At the same time, there are also some voices of doubt — — Some people think that the painting is a forgery from the aspects of the mismatch of the seals at the seams, the difference between Cai Jing’s inscription and the usual style, and the mismatch between Cai Jing’s inscription and the painting heart, and think that the author is not Wang Ximeng.
Recently, at the Peking University Humanities Forum "A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains Map Seminar", the research librarian of the Palace Museum, Yu Hui, announced for the first time the results of the recent inspection of the repair part, the essence of silk, the residual seal and the reasons for the damage of postscript in the Palace Museum through scientific and technological means. It is reported that this scale of testing is the first time in the Forbidden City for at least several decades.
Yu Jie introduced that the test used is a new portable instrument for detecting longitude and latitude lines. Because "A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains Map" is in a dormant period, only the first part of it was tested, and this huge scroll with a length of 11.9 meters was not completely opened. The Forbidden City plans to conduct a comprehensive inspection of the composition, origin and source of the picture pigments after the dormancy period expires.
In addition, computer experts in the Forbidden City said that the 900-million-pixel electronic picture of Wang Ximeng’s "A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" circulating in the society simply does not exist, and the Forbidden City has never taken such a pixel picture. Besides, at present, ordinary computers can’t open 900 million pixel electronic files, let alone mobile phones. Only a professional computer for publishing can have special configuration software to open 900 million pixels.
"A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" is not from the Song Dynasty?
Query: During the exhibition of A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains last year, even before, some people said that this painting was a forgery. Many news reports have used such headlines as "What you are waiting in line to see may be a fake national treasure".
Yu Jie: In Song Dynasty, double silks were used for painting. Double silk warp is double silk, every two silk are a group, and there is a gap of one silk between every two groups; Weft is monofilament, interwoven into double silk.
The Map of Snow River Returning to the City is generally recognized as the original work of Song Huizong. The pictures of Ruihe, You Chuntu, the wife of the State of Guo, Tingqin, Furong Jinji and Xuejiang Guiba are similar in age. After testing the latitude and longitude of the silks used in these works, it is found that if we apply the modern concept of product quality, although all of them are palace silks, Song Huizong’s "Snow River Returning to Ba" is first-class, "Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" is second-class, and the rest are third-class — — The density of "A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" is second only to Song Huizong’s silk; The materials of You Chuntu, the Lady of the State of Guo, Listening to the Qin, and Lotus Golden Rooster are lower than those of the Silk of A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains.
Without official title, Cai Jing’s inscription is fake?
Query: There is a half-invisible circular seal at the joint between "Gi" and "Xi" in "A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains", but there is no other half-circular seal on the painting next to the joint. In addition, there is a vague red inkpad mark on the edge of the seam of the painting, and the other half seal can’t be found either. Moreover, Cai Jing’s inscription did not include the official position and date information such as "The Grand View of Geng Yin’s Spring Festival, a surname of Lu Guo’s courtiers and ministers in Beijing".
Yu Jie: There are 39 seals in the Map of a Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains. After several generations’ efforts, all but the last two have been recognized. The newly recognized two seals, one on the top and one on the bottom, one is "Kangshou Temple Treasure" and the other is Kun Gua Seal. Kangshou Hall is the residence of Wu Huanghou, the emperor of Zhao Gou in the early Southern Song Dynasty. It is speculated that these two seals are related to Empress Wu.
In the early Southern Song Dynasty, Song Gaozong carried out a series of re-mounting of the paintings and calligraphy collected by the government, and invited some experts to identify them during the re-mounting. Song Huizong and Song Qinzong were captured, and Cai Jing was also criticized as a mistake, so these so-called "predecessors’ problems" were naturally torn down. However, Cai Jing’s postscript recorded some information about the painter and Song Huizong’s attitude. When these were cut off, the painting became a "headless case". Therefore, Wu Huanghou made up the postscript written by Cai Jing when re-mounting, but put it at the back of the painting. This treatment makes Cai Jing’s postscript less harsh — — It not only conforms to the situation that Cai Jing was rejected at that time, but also conforms to some skills in handling this painting at that time.
Cai Jing’s postscript and painting heart don’t match?
Query: Cai Jing’s inscription and postscript can’t connect with the painting heart in front. Ms. Cao Xingyuan, a famous art historian, pointed out that this inscription was cut from other places and put together in this painting to forge one’s origin.
Yu Jie: If you look at the picture and the postscript carefully, you will find that the damaged texture of the postscript is inconsistent with the damaged texture of the painting heart, and the damaged texture is not connected. But if you put this postscript in front, you will find that many broken textures can be connected — — It is not uncommon to have one connection, but two or more connections are inevitable. This shows that they were together at first.
How did Ximeng’s surname Wang come out?
Question: Cai Jing wrote in his inscription, "Ximeng was eighteen years old and used to study painting for a living," but he didn’t write his surname at all! Why should we call him "Wang Ximeng"?
Yu Jie: There are many arguments. What I am based on is the "Wang Ximeng’s Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" written by Liang Qingbiao, a collector in the early Qing Dynasty and Zaifu of Kangxi Dynasty, when he asked someone to mount it again.
What are the elements of the first title of traditional painting and calligraphy mounting outsourcing? At the very least, it is the name of the author, the name of the work, etc., and some auxiliary information will be left. For example, the outsourcing title of Tang Yin’s "Xishan Cottage Map" (collected by the British Museum) is worn out, but the "Xishan Cottage Map of Tang Yin" can be vaguely distinguished. The name of the first title of outsourcing must be written completely, especially for small and medium-sized famous painters. Some famous writers can’t write completely. For example, some of Wang Xizhi’s handwritten outsourcing titles are "Right Army" or "Xizhi", and they don’t write their surnames. As for the emperor’s works, out of taboo, sometimes they don’t write names, but write year numbers and temple numbers.
Based on this, it is speculated that when Liang Qingbiao was re-mounted, the Song sign on it was faintly visible, but it was very broken, and there was no way to repair it, and it was impossible to keep it. Therefore, it is natural for him to write the author’s name completely according to the content signed by Song.
As for the information about Wang Ximeng’s early death, to be honest, there is really no information in the literature. It is likely to appear on the label of the outsourcing head. In ancient times, most outsourcing first labels had the names of the writers and paintings on them, and there was still a long space below, which was reserved for adding some important information on them later. For example, the information of the first sign of Tang Yin’s "Xishan Caotang Map" was completed twice: the first time, "Tang Yin Xishan Caotang Map" was written, which was the name of the painting; The second time, because this picture was going out of the palace, it was given to Yu Minzhong, the assistant minister of the Ministry of Finance at that time, so he wrote, "Give the South Study to worship Yu Minzhong, the assistant minister of the Ministry of Finance".
At the end of 1950s, Xu Bangda, Mr. Liu Jiuan and other four people made an examination and approval of the first-class cultural relics in the Forbidden City, and agreed that "A Thousand Miles of Mountains and Rivers" was a masterpiece of landscape painting in the Northern Song Dynasty, with particularly fine colors and high artistic level. In 1960, the first appraisal team organized by National Cultural Heritage Administration went to the Forbidden City as the first stop to reexamine the first-class cultural relics in the Forbidden City. Zhang Heng and Qi Gong expressed their "approval" after the reexamination. In the 1980s, the second appraisal team composed of seven people re-identified the collection of the Forbidden City, including the Map of a Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains, and the conclusion was that there was no objection. Before the exhibition last year, the work was re-identified, and there was no objection to the postscript and the work itself. The appraisal of the three generations of experts was completely acceptable.
