When I was twelve, I was transferred to work at the Hallym Painting Academy. There is no change in rank, but the main job is changed to wait for the edicts of the Academy to paint and listen to the officials of the Academy. However, the attendants of the Calligraphy and Art Bureau were very sympathetic to me, saying that this was actually a demotion, and that the painting academy was originally a low-level academy.

I also know that the status of the people in the Academy of Calligraphy and Painting is not high, although the officials of the fourth and fifth grades can also wear scarlet and purple like ordinary civil officials, but they are not allowed to wear fish. In the eyes of the world, the edicts of the Academy of Calligraphy and Painting belong to the "art enters", and the respect given is limited. The people in the academy are inferior to those in the academy, and every time the edict is established, the academy is the head, and the academy is second, only slightly better than the piano academy, chess, jade, and hundred crafts.

The serious edicts are like this, and the inner servants in them are naturally divided into new levels by everyone. It is also the Yellow Gate of the Inner Servant, but the Qin Academy is not as good as the Painting Academy, and the Painting Academy is not as good as the Academy.

At that time, the chief official of the Hanlin Painting and Calligraphy Bureau was Ren Shouzhong, the deputy governor of the Imperial Palace, and Zhang Chengzhao suggested to me: "You go and beg Mr. Zhang, ask him to talk to the queen, and let the queen order Ren Duzhi to keep you in the academy." ”

I'm noncommittal. He winked at me again and said with a smile: "Go and say, it's okay, Mr. Zhang is a celebrity in front of the queen, but if you have a word from him, you don't have to go to the painting academy." ”

I shook my head at him and rejected the offer. I do not doubt the fact that Mr. Zhang is deeply appreciated and trusted by the Queen, but I also know very well that it is not his style to make extraordinary demands on the Queen's attention to him, and the last time he spoke out to save me was only a very accidental circumstance, and I do not want to make him make an exception again. I never dared to expect, nor did I want to see someone pleading with someone for my sake.

The painters of the academy are divided into five classes, such as painting and learning, waiting for edicts, art studies, and offerings, and those who have not obtained the rank are painting students, and the paintings made are for the imperial court, or they are ordered to go to the temple and Taoist temple and other specific places to paint. It's a much quieter place. Every ten days, I have to take the paintings from the collection of the Secret Pavilion for the painters to taste and copy, and I will be a little tired on this day, but there are not many things on weekdays, most of the time I just have to stand on the side, listen to the officials of the art academy give lectures or watch the painters paint.

Among the painters, I especially like to watch the painting student Cui Bai paint. He was a native of Haoliang, he was in his twenties at the time, gifted and talented, free and easy, uninhibited, often alone, and attracted the attention of the officials of the academy, but there was a wisp of aura in his paintings that was rare in ordinary courtyard paintings, which I greatly admired.

One day in late autumn, Xiao fell in the courtyard of the painting courtyard, he was alone on the two jackdaws on the tree sketching, I stood behind him and looked quietly, he put down his pen and took a break and unintentionally looked back and found me, so he smiled and asked: "The nobles also love Danqing?" ”

I took a step back, bowed and said, "Huaiji is abrupt and stirs up Cui Gongzi Yaxing." ”

"Not really," Cui Bai said with a smile, "I'm just curious why the nobles don't go to see the paintings of the artists in the academy, but they always pay so much attention to the clumsy works." ”

I thought about it and said: "I remember that on the day when Huai Ji first entered the academy, I saw that all the painting students were copying Huang Juhuan's pictures of flowers and birds with the study of painting, except for Gongzi, who only looked out the window and painted birds on the branches in the courtyard. ”

Cui Bai waved his hand: "Huang's flower and bird workers are rich, I can't learn well in my life, so I simply write and doodle by myself." ”

I also smiled and said: "Cui Gongzi put pen to paper and thought about it, not fake the rope ruler, but straight and square, all in the law." Waiji has always been deeply admired. ”

"The nobles praise falsely." After saying that, Cui Bai slowly picked up the pen again, and suddenly asked me again before putting down the pen: "Could it be that there are still people in this painting academy who are still outside the law?" ”

Naturally, there is. But I only smiled indifferently and did not answer.

Xu himself also has an answer, Cui Bai did not ask any more questions, turned around with a smile of arrogance and continued to paint, a few strands of hair on his forehead that were never combed properly still hung down, with his pen movements fluttering on the side of his face from time to time, and his eyes were always focused on the painting, ignoring it.

From this we gradually became acquainted, from time to time we met to talk about painting and calligraphy, he saw my interest in Danqing, offered to teach me, I was very happy, we both had free time to learn painting with him.

One day he taught me to paint the spring forest mountain partridge with no bones, and the painting academy was passing by the studio where we were, and I was surprised to see that it was actually me who was painting, so I went inside to investigate. I immediately put away my pen and saluted him as usual. He didn't answer, but walked straight to me and looked intently at my painting.

Since the ancestors, the Hanlin Painting Institute of the National Dynasty has always respected the Huang Dynasty and Huang Juhuan father and son created the Huang style of painting, painting flowers and bamboo feathers first with charcoal, and then with very fine ink lines to outline the outline, and then repeatedly fill in the color, the picture is rich and beautiful, the purpose is strong. In this portrayal, I saw that the color of my painting was elegant, in which the mountain partridge was not completely outlined with ink lines, and the details of the feathers were mostly dyed with different shades of ink and ochre, which was very different from the Huang's courtyard painting, which was regarded as the standard of the painting academy, and immediately his face sank, and he said coldly to Cui Bai: "You taught him to paint like this?" ”

Cui Bai bowed his head and said leisurely: "Painting birds does not always have to outline the pile of colors, and occasionally mixed with boneless light ink dots, it is also quite wild." ”

The painting student suddenly took the case, and raised his voice: "You are a misguided child!" ”

Cui Bai was not afraid or annoyed, he just bowed to him solemnly and stood with his eyes down.

Painting was suppressing the anger and turned to me: "If you want to learn painting, you should be edicted in the academy and you can ask for advice on art. ”

I also bowed down to be respectfully taught. Hua Xuezheng glared at Cui Bai fiercely again before brushing his sleeves and going out.

When he walked away, Cui Bai looked at me sideways, and said with a deliberate straight face: "Noble people, please choose another good teacher, don't follow me, who doesn't learn and doesn't know how to go astray." ”

My answer was, "If Cui Gongzi leads me astray, then I don't want to follow the right path again in this life." ”

We smiled at each other, and then we became closer. At his suggestion, we stopped calling each other so politely, and he called me by my name, and I called him by his character "Zixi".

Painting students are becoming more and more disgusted with Cui Bai, repeatedly discussing his painting art to his colleagues, there are many derogatory connotations, Cui Bai is also frequently suppressed by the art academy, every time he competes, his paintings are rated as inferior, never presented for the opportunity to be viewed.

Cui Bai didn't care, he still did his own way according to his own style of sketching and painting, he didn't care about the professors of the officials of the academy, every time he gave a lecture, he was either absent or late, even if he sat in the hall, he did not listen carefully, often watched the scenery through the window, or simply fell asleep at the desk, and only after the officials of the academy finished speaking, he yawned, got up leisurely, and walked away under the angry gaze of the officials.

After the theory was finished, the painting was taking out the double-hook base prepared in advance, and made a picture of ink and wash autumn lotus, which was hung on the wall after the ink dried a little, for the painting students to taste.

It is indeed a masterpiece, the painting of the Mid-Autumn Lotus is elegant, although it is made of ink, but it paints the lotus pod and the leaves back to welcome the tide, and the clouds bring the rain. The painting students were full of praise, and immediately picked up their pens and began to copy.

The painting is brushing his beard with his hands, scanning the crowd, and being content. I didn't want to turn my eyes and find that Cui Bai didn't pay attention to it at all, sitting in the corner of the last column, and he looked like he was sleeping soundly at the desk.

The smile disappeared when the painting was learned, and the black face called: "Cui Bai! ”

Cui Bai seemed to be sleeping soundly, and he didn't mean to wake up. Seeing that the scene was getting more and more embarrassing, I approached him and leaned over and called softly: "Zixi." He frowned, slowly opened his worried eyes, first looked at me, and then stared at the painting in a daze for a long time, Fang Zhanyan smiled and said, "The adult class is over?" ”

"It's over," the painter said angrily, "but it must be boring, difficult to get into the ear, and it has a hypnotic effect." ”

Cui Bai smiled: "Where." I listened to it all the time when the adults were teaching, but then the adults painted, and all the students came to watch, and I was far away, and I saw that I couldn't squeeze in, so I decided to sleep for a while, and then I would appreciate it when the adults finished painting. ”

"Really?" The painter was glancing at him, and when he didn't look at him properly, he stood with his hands in his hands, looked out the window at the blue sky, and said, "Then in your opinion, how is this painting good?" ”

Cui Bai was still sitting, leaning back on the back of the chair lazily, looking sideways at the autumn lotus picture engraving on the opposite wall, and then bowed his head and said, "Very good, very good...... It's just a slight omission somewhere. ”

The painter couldn't help but be curious, and immediately asked, "Where is that?" ”

The corners of Cui Bai's lips rose: "Here." At the same time, he picked up the pen dipped in ink on the table, and suddenly threw it at the painting, and when his voice fell, the pen had touched the picture, and a slanted ink was drawn under a leaf of autumn lotus.

This move was too abrupt, and all the painting students exclaimed, glanced back at Cui Bai, and then turned to look at the painting Xuezheng and probed his face carefully.

Painting is so angry that it is difficult to speak, his fingers are white, trembling slightly: "You, you ......"

"Ahh The student accidentally touched the pen with ink for a while, and the adult forgave the sin. Cui Bai confessed on the wall, stood up with his sleeves outstretched, walked in front of the painting, and apologized again elegantly.

The painting was blue and white, turned around angrily, and raised his hand to tear the painting on the wall, thinking that he wanted to tear it apart to vent his anger.

Cui Bai stopped him and said with a smile: "My lord is angry." This painting is a masterpiece, so it would be a pity to tear it up with a single stroke. When students make mistakes, they will try to remedy them. ”

One of the painting students interjected and asked, "The painting has been stained by ink, how can I remedy it?" ”

Cui Bai hung the painting steadily, looked at it carefully, and said, "Since the painting is stained, adults don't want it anymore, and probably won't mind me adding a few more strokes?" ”

Do not wait for the painting to be allowed, he calmly selected the pen on his case, dipped in the inkstone, the left hand behind him, the right hand to carry the pen, from the beginning of the ink, or point, drag, chop, whisk, or turn, side, bias, drag, intermittent to adjust the ink, a little while, a white goose with a curved head to comb the feathers appeared vividly under the lotus leaf, the ink added by him was painted into a goose beak, the brushwork is natural, there is no trace of deliberate modification.

After painting, Cui Bai put down his pen and stepped back, and asked for correction with a smile. Everyone looked at it attentively, but saw that although he only painted a goose, he had already contained cohes, thick, heavy, light, clear and other ink and wash colors, and harmoniously blended, alive but not chaotic, and the ink technique seemed to be still above the painting study. The goose posture is elegant and light, and there is a sense of breaking out of the scroll, compared with it, the autumn Horton painted by the appropriate talent painting is losing its lustre, but it looks sluggish and dry.

And he didn't make a base before, but he came from a letter and stroke, which is naturally better than painting. Some people couldn't help but applaud, and only when they shouted did they take care of the painting and hurriedly silenced their mouths, but they still showed admiration.

The painter also stepped forward to take a closer look, and silently brushed his beard for a long time before he looked sideways at Cui Bai and commented: "The use of ink is acceptable, but adding this goose here makes the top of the picture suddenly cramped, and there is too much white space under it, which is out of order." ”

"Not bad, not bad," Cui Bai immediately agreed, and said with a smile: "I also think that the position of this stupid goose is too high, but it is better to pull it down." ”

Looking at his expression, everyone knew that his words were intended to ridicule the painting, and they all looked like they couldn't help laughing. Painting is chest heaving and rising, as if he may faint at any time, Xu is in front of the painting students and it is not good to have a wanton attack, in the end, only the shock sleeves, pointing out the door, said to Cui Bai: "Get out!" ”

After giving a slight salute to the painting school, Cui Bai stepped out of the door, the smile on his lips was not reduced, and he walked calmly.

I moved slightly, watching him go away. The pleasure brought by his frenzied behavior could not be offset by the regret in my heart, and I vaguely felt that the day when he would leave the academy would soon come.