Painting the Soul (short story) Zhang Baotong 2016.8.23

Ding Shaoguang is the world's most famous Chinese painter and the only Chinese artist selected for the "21st Century Prints", which has been listed in the list of 100 world art masters from the 14th century to the 20th century. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 From 1986 to 1996, he held more than 400 solo exhibitions in various countries around the world. At the 1991 Autumn Auction in Hong Kong, Ding Shaoguang's White Night sold for the highest price ever recorded by a living Chinese painter. However, all the paintings in his life were only one person. This person is the most beloved lover and wife.

Xishuangbanna is known as the "hometown of peacocks", Jinghong is a green peacock, and Olive Dam (Menghan) is a gorgeous and colorful peacock tail. The Lancang River winds its way from north to south, and at 530 meters above sea level, Olive Dam is the lowest dam in Xishuangbanna, and is full of dense green forests of coconut, betel nut, oil palm and palm trees. Those Dai Buddhist temples with unique Dai architectural style, as well as the bamboo houses, hidden in the green jungle and exotic flowers and plants, rare birds and beasts in the dense forest are living in harmony, new birds are flying, and a group of warblers are singing, showing a charming tropical natural scenery.

Legend has it that a long time ago, the Olive Dam was deserted and full of forests, and at that time, far away from here, there was a kingdom called "Mengmu Banaguan". The prince was hunted. One day, the prince took some young men up the mountain to hunt. Climb the mountains and drill into the forest, but only birds can be seen, and no animals can be seen. The sun had set, and a golden red deer suddenly jumped out of the edge of the forest. The prince hurriedly drew his bow and shot an arrow, which hit the red deer in the leg. At this time, the golden deer rushed into the bushes. The prince led the people to chase after him, climbed several mountains, crossed several rivers, and suddenly appeared in front of him a large flat dam, with ancient trees towering to the sky and dense bamboo forests. After the golden deer ran into the dam, it suddenly disappeared. People thought that the golden deer was hiding in the woods, so they called this dam "olive dam", that is, the dense forest where the golden deer hid. It was here that the prince founded a village and settled with the young hunters who followed him. The Olive Dam is the "peacock's tail" that opens the screen, and those beautiful and rich Dai villages are like the gorgeous and shining spots on the peacock's tail. The whole Olive Dam is a large natural garden in the tropics.

In the large natural garden of Olive Dam, the descendants of the prince and his retinue have lived here for many years. They listen to the mythical stories of the golden red deer and peacocks and live carefree in this beautiful land. In this place with the myths and legends of the golden red deer and the peacock, people advocate and yearn for the beautiful mythical stories, and also yearn for the mythical legend and beautiful love. However, this kind of story did happen here.

It was one afternoon in May 1962, and after the rain had passed, a huge rainbow hung in the sky above the mountains

The woods around Dayu Cottage are even denser and deeper, and lush. In the edge of this fractured basin between the valleys, the peaks are mounted, the hills are continuous, the rain is abundant, and the four seasons are like spring. Dense vegetation and woods cover the entire mountain, and small rivers and streams flow through them. The subtropical monsoon climate blows warmly through this beautiful place.

At dusk, the sun stopped at the top of the western mountain. After a tiring day, the peasants walked on the mountain paths and began to call their jobs home. At this time, the sun is no longer warm, and the mountain breeze begins to blow quietly from the side of the mountain and the river, making people feel the slightest coolness. The clear sound of the stream began to sing in a loud voice. Vast expanses of birds flew happily over the trees in the sunset. It's the most relaxing time of the day.

Ding Shaoguang returned to his residence barefoot along the crooked path from the farmland in the back mountain. His residence is an empty room in which a local rural production team works as a warehouse. It is about 134 square meters, and there is a large bed with a mosquito net, a wooden box for books and clothes, and a small square table. The table was filled with paper, pen and ink for drawing. The 23-year-old had just graduated from the Central Academy of Arts and Crafts and was assigned to the Yunnan Academy of Arts as an art teacher. If you want to say that he has a fate here, it is because he stayed here for more than half a year when he was an intern in his fourth year of college. At that time, the mainland was suffering from three years of famine due to natural disasters, and in Xishuangbanna, a paradise, Ding Shaoguang strongly felt that he was in another world in another village, and felt a life atmosphere that was completely different from that of the Central Plains. It was a pristine, natural and rustic beauty. This deep beauty attracts and beckons to him. Here he found a place to escape from the dust and return to nature, and also found his own place. Xishuangbanna has since become a place where Ding Shaoguang is haunted by his dreams.

However, he came here this time to be sent down. Because his father, Ding Junsheng, served in the Kuomintang government, he and his mother, Li Xiangjun, left Nanjing for Taiwan in December 1948, leaving Ding Shaoguang and three other siblings at his grandfather's house in Beijing. For this reason, Ding Shaoguang was sent here.

Perhaps he had a connection to this land in his life, and his university internship and this decentralization were all assigned here, and this is the place where his dreams linger. Therefore, he did not feel very pessimistic about this decentralization, on the contrary, he felt that this was a place where he could do a lot. Because as long as he paints, he can forget some of them and immerse him in dreamlike concentration.

As soon as he returned to the house, he picked up his easel and oil paint, and carried a backpack with pen and paper, and went to the Xiaohong River to paint the scenery under the sunset. He came out of the house and followed the path in front of the door towards the river. At this time, most of the sunset has already fallen under the mountain, and above the west mountain is a red glow, and ten thousand golden lights are flashing, which is very beautiful. Ding Shaoguang was very happy, so he walked briskly all the way downhill, trying to choose a better angle by the river to paint the gorgeous sunset and golden light. When he was about to descend from the terraced fields to the river, he was suddenly stunned by the scene in front of him.

Twenty or thirty meters away from him, on the meadow by the river, a young girl was bathing in the river. She first immersed her lower body in the river water, exposed her upper body to the water, and scrubbed her body. Her body was white, and her long black hair hung down from the water. In fact, the river water was already a little cold at this time, but the girl was not afraid of the cold. Ding Shaoguang was not surprised by this, as the Dai people often bathed by the river. Men come to the river to bathe in their free time at noon and in the afternoon. And only women come to the river to bathe when it is a little dark. However, the sky has not yet darkened, and the afterglow of the sun is returning to its light, so to speak, the sky is still very bright.

After a while, the girl came out of the river, and the ****'s body flashed a white light on the grass by the river. At this moment, the last rays of the setting sun fell on her smooth and delicate skin, and illuminated her face crimson. He couldn't help but sigh: What a picture of a beautiful woman taking a bath. Ding Shaoguang stood there dumbfounded, he had heard in the legend that fairies would find a quiet place to bathe in the mortal world, but he didn't want to let him bump into it, as if it was a godsend. He subconsciously picked up the brush, set up the drawing board, and brushed the brush, he wanted to use the brush to leave this dreamlike scene.

Because he happened to be squatting on the beveled edge of a terraced field. It was hard to see him from the river and he could see it from the other side. He barely thought about it, and began to draw according to a picture he had seen in the past from the Dai Songkran Festival. It was a beautiful Dai girl who held the basin above her head with both hands and splashed it down. In this way, the entire body part of the girl can be expressed in a more three-dimensional way.

He wrote quickly, with a few strokes, he outlined the girl's body lines, the girl is very beautiful, the **** waist and buttocks lines are very beautiful, especially her black hair is thick and dense, like a waterfall from the top of the head to the waist, showing the girl's energetic fitness and vitality.

Then, he began to paint with oil paint, and when he was done with the whole painting, he wrote "Beauty Out of the Bath" below, and the whole painting was finished. He looked at the painting again and thought it was really good. So, I was ready to put away my easel and go home to cook.

However, suddenly someone walked up to him and asked him, "Hey, who is allowing you to draw other people?"

Ding Shaoguang turned around and saw that it was the girl he was bathing in just now. At this time, the girl was slim and otherworldly, wearing a light red tight short blouse with a round neck and narrow sleeves and a brightly colored Dai tube skirt, with a fine silver belt tied around her waist, and her hair was neatly combed and draped on the side of her shoulder. Her face was charming and delicate, but she showed a straight face because of her anger, and her eyes were staring at him solemnly and seriously.

Under her stern gaze, he felt that he had done an extremely despicable and humiliating thing, and his face turned red all at once, and he was so embarrassed that he could not say a word, as if he was being caught red-handed as a thief.

When the girl saw that he was embarrassed like this, she pointed to the painting in his hand and said, "Go away, but leave the painting behind." ”

He looked at the painting in his hand again. The girl in the painting is lifelike, beautiful, and graceful like a fairy bathing. He liked this work so much that he was reluctant to let others take it. However, when he looked at the girl's angry appearance, he also felt that he was at a loss, because after all, he was secretly painting people, and he was painting people bathing naked. In desperation, he had no choice but to hand her the painting.

The girl picked up the painting, looked at it, and without further investigation of him, followed the path towards the village. (To be continued.) )