Thousands of Miles

The next day, Ximeng moved to the document library voluntarily. Zhao Ji was so happy that he rushed over to visit him.

The library is mostly for sorting out documents and transcribing them. Ximeng didn’t have much work to do when he first arrived at the library. Besides, Zhao Ji didn’t ask anyone to arrange work for him, and he didn’t have any homework from the painting academy, so Ximeng spread it out on the table. My own white silk, which is more than three feet long and two feet wide, outlines the outline of the landscape with wolf hair dipped in light ink.

There are thousands of mountains and rivers in my heart, so why worry about not being able to paint thousands of miles of rivers and mountains on a square inch canvas.

However, just after a few strokes, Ximeng noticed that someone was walking towards him, and quickly put away the canvas and hid it in a drawer under the table.

"What is it? Take it out and have a look?" Zhao Ji laughed, "Even Master didn't show it."

"I will show it to Master when the time comes. Now is not the time." Ximeng smiled.

"Okay, okay, then I won't peek." Zhao Ji nodded and asked, "Are you still used to being here?"

"Yeah." Ximeng nodded, "It's relatively free here, so I have time to do my own things."

"Hahaha, what's important for you?" Zhao Ji smiled and pinched Ximeng's face.

"Master." Ximeng took out a bamboo flute from under the table and asked, "Is this the flower carved by Master?"

"Yes." Zhao Ji was secretly proud.

"Master corrected the sound very accurately, thank you Master." Ximeng said, ready to put the flute away.

"Hey, don't accept it." Zhao Ji took Ximeng's hand, "Blow a song for me."

"No." Ximeng shook his head and said, "Ximeng is embarrassed to blow the axe."

"It's all taught by Master, and if you lose it, you'll lose Master's face." Zhao Ji teased, "Why are you embarrassed?"

"Don't play." Ximeng shook his head, "There are so many musicians who can play for you."

"You, you." Zhao Ji shook his head with a smile, "You are the only one in Master's heart, no matter how well others play, they can't compare with you."

"It's not good to say it so nicely." Xi Meng hid the flute behind his back with a smile, but refused to play it for Zhao Ji.

"Hey, if you don't blow it, you don't blow it. What are you doing hiding it?" Zhao Ji took out a white jade tassel from his bosom, "I see that you don't have any ornaments on your flute. This is made for the teacher's spare time. Bring it here and give it to you as the teacher." Tied to the flute."

Xi Meng handed the flute to Zhao Ji, and Zhao Ji took the bamboo flute, tied the jade tassels he made on the flute, and handed it back to Xi Meng: "It's tied, here you are."

Ximeng took the bamboo flute, looked at the exquisite white jade tassels hanging on the flute tail, and smiled slightly.

"There is one more thing. It has been kept here for five years as a teacher, but I haven't given it to you." As long as he can see Xi Meng smiling, Zhao Ji will try his best to please him. He takes out a folding fan from his arms and puts it on Xi Meng. Meng hand, "Do you remember?"

Ximeng opened his folding fan, and on the blue sky, there were eighteen cranes with various postures.

"Master?" Xi Meng raised his head and looked at Zhao Ji in surprise. Isn't there only twelve?

"Every year, I will add another crane on it." Zhao Ji said with a smile, "Now there are 28 cranes in total. I hope Master can draw 38, 58, [-]... one more crane for Ximeng. ,Hahaha."

Ximeng smiled: "Master can draw so many cranes in different shapes, it's really amazing."

"Didn't you draw so many mountains of different shapes?" Zhao Ji raised his eyebrows, "How can you be better than you as a teacher?"

"Master?" Xi Meng looked at Zhao Ji suspiciously.Master likes flowers, birds and figures the most, and I don't seem to have painted any landscapes in front of him.If it is said that he painted landscapes, it was only two years after he left the palace, how did the master know?

Seeing that Ximeng was stunned, Zhao Ji took out a few scrolls from his sleeve with a smile and put them on the table: "Do you think you painted it?"

Ximeng spread out a picture scroll, which was the Bashan Shushui that he drew when he passed the Three Gorges; the second picture was the steep peak that he drew at the foot of Huashan Mountain;

But these paintings have already been sold to others.Xi Meng looked at Zhao Ji suspiciously, not knowing what to ask him.

"These are all bought by my teacher from officials from all over the world with a lot of money in the past two years." Zhao Ji wrapped up these scrolls like a treasure and hid them in his sleeves, "At that time, you were not around, so my teacher just wanted to know about you." If you look at these scrolls, you can know what you have painted, where you have been recently, and your painting skills have improved... But let alone, in the past two years, landscape painting has really improved a lot."

"Oh! You don't know how much Master missed you at that time." Zhao Ji sighed, and took Ximeng's hand, "Don't leave Master in the future. If you want to leave someday, just take Master with you. , Master will accompany you to wander the world."

"Master." Xi Meng touched Zhao Ji's hand and smiled, "Okay. Next time, I will take you with me."

"My boy, you really plan to go again!" Zhao Ji feigned anger, "If you go any further, your leg will be broken!"

"Eh? Didn't we agree to wander the world together?"

"This... depends on your performance."

Nearly two months passed in a blink of an eye, and the line draft of Ximeng's painting was ready.

As far as the eye can see, there are towering peaks and ridges, and the mist is vast.There may be flowing water flowing back and forth between the mountains, long bridges spanning the water, and the mountain residents come and go freely; or there may be large ships docked on the water, and the ships are full of goods to eat, and the viewers seem to be able to weigh the weight of the ships; or there are pavilions and pavilions. Standing in the mountains, three or two hermits put down the huts with wine and grass eaves... There is no corner of the three-foot silk that is not full of wit;

It was time to paint, Ximeng looked at the scroll in his hand repeatedly, and decided to use green as the general tone of the landscape.

The green is bright and not vulgar. If you can dye three feet of white silk into a green landscape, it will be a masterpiece that has never been seen before or since.

At this time, Ximeng naturally didn't realize that one day his name would be handed down to future generations along with the painting in front of him, shining through the ages.

What Ximeng thinks about now is how to draw.Now he only has this painting in his eyes, and this painting is as important as his life.

Painting without his life is impossible to paint, and his life without painting cannot find the meaning of existence.So his life and his paintings collided fiercely in that year.It was the explosion at that moment that burst out the most eternal meaning in a short life.

For 180 days and nights, the painter inquired about the meaning of life between the blending of water and ink, between the friction between the fine tip and silk, and between the layers of rendering of blue and green .

In the end he may or may not have an answer.

However, his life was poured into the green mountains and waters that were more than three feet long, and turned into an endless length.

At this time, Ximeng was just painting, and in his eyes, it had nothing to do with the present or future generations.It was only about his love, about his master.

The age of love, the painting that has been handed down for thousands of years.

Ximeng has accumulated many years of painting techniques, which are brought into full play in the three-foot-long scroll.

The mountains and hills stretch into the sky, the three rivers and the four seas are vast, boats and fishing, clouds, trees and birds, and even every inch of light and shade changes and textures of the rocks are all in the picture scroll.

When spring comes and autumn comes, yellow leaves are flying all over the courtyard, Ximeng decided to dye the sky thousands of miles away into a light ocher color, which conflicts and harmonizes with the clean and beautiful green mountains and rivers.

It was only the last rendering, and Ximeng made the last stroke, as if he had completed the mission of his life and even the entire era for thousands of years.

There will never be such a delicate and magnificent green landscape in the past, and there will be no more in the future.

This is destined to be a pinnacle in the history of painting.

Note: "A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains", one of China's top ten famous paintings handed down from generation to generation.51.5 cm in length and 1191.5 cm in width, printed on silk, green and green, unmarked, according to Cai Jing's inscription and postscript after the volume, it was written by Wang Ximeng of the Song Dynasty, and is now in the Palace Museum.