Because of the problem of the conversion of the lunar calendar and the solar calendar, Huang Binhong was actually born in 1864, and the time of his birth is the thirtieth son of the Chinese New Year's Eve according to the lunar calendar, so the elder initially gave him the name "Yuanji", and later changed his name to quality, and the character is simple. Huang Binhong's age is one year older than ours, and the Chinese tradition is that he is one year old, that is, he is one year old in the mother's womb, and his real age is 90 years old, and his own age is 93 years old. His ancestral home is Anhui, and he was born in Jinhua, Zhejiang. In 1907, he was accused of minting coins privately, so he went to Shanghai, where he stayed for thirty or forty years, which was a very important period in his life.
After Huang Binhong arrived in Shanghai, he worked as a professor or tutor of Chinese painting at Xinhua Art College, Shanghai Art School, Jinan University, and Chinese Painting Research Association. In June 1937, he was hired to go north to Beiping, where he became a professor at the Institute of Antiquities and served as a professor at the Beiping National Art School. At that time, the director of the Palace Museum was accused**, which involved calligraphy and painting, so Huang Binhong was invited to the Forbidden City as an appraisal committee member to appraise calligraphy and painting, which was also a very important period of his life, almost ten years.
Huang Binhong likes the mountains and rivers in the south very much, the dry weather in Beiping makes him often have nosebleeds, at that time the haze may not be so bad, but there are sandstorms, which makes Huang Binhong very uncomfortable, so he returned to the south in 1948 and went to the East China Branch of the ** Academy of Fine Arts, which is now the China Academy of Art as a professor. But in fact, this is just a false name, and he was ** ten years old at that time. At that time, his personal art was not favored by the mainstream academic circles at that time, and he was actually in a state of idleness. When he held exhibitions, his works were often left behind the door and were rarely seen, and his classes were not arranged at the school, except for the occasional visit by admirers.
Huang Binhong has written a lot in his life, and the Shanghai Publishing House has published six anthologies of Huang Binhong's writings, all of which are his research on Chinese art, mainly calligraphy, painting, seal carving, gold and stone characters, calligraphy theory, painting theory, and painting history. In the 20th century, there were not many artists like Huang Binhong who had such extensive education, and in addition to these, he was also proficient in cooking, tai chi, Go, and traditional Chinese medicine, which can be called a master of Chinese culture in the painting world.
Huang Binhong was a revolutionary in his early years, admired radical revolutionaries like Tan Sitong, and once joined progressive groups such as Nanshe and Huangshe that sympathized with the revolution and advocated progress, so Huang Binhong's life changed from a revolutionary to a cultural person. He has done many things in Shanghai, organizing the publication and editing of books on Chinese studies and fine arts, and teaching at art colleges.
In his middle and prime years, Huang Binhong emerged as a comprehensive activist, publisher, educator, and scholar. But after arriving in Beiping, as an artist of the older generation, he did not have the prosperous life of Qi Baishi at that time, nor did he run in social events like Xu Beihong, and at this time he turned himself into a scholar and an artist.
In a letter to his students, he once said that he had lived in the capital for ten years. It can be seen that although Huang Binhong, like Qi Baishi, has said that painting is the way of loneliness, Huang Binhong's loneliness was in his lifetime, and it was not ordinary loneliness. My teacher saw him take out his painting and give it to the visitor, but the visitor refused, saying that your painting is black, I can't understand it, Huang Binhong was very embarrassed, so he had to take the painting back again. At that time, Huang Binhong's art was not favored by fashion, but Huang Binhong said to his students, "Fifty years later, if you take out my paintings and frame them, people may be able to understand my paintings at that time." It can be seen that Huang Binhong's loneliness before his death is combined with his confidence in leaving a name for future generations.
Huang Binhong, Proposed Dong Ju Two Meters Careless Landscape, ink and color on paper.
Huang Binhong went to Sichuan when she was 69 years old and stayed for more than a year. During this period, he painted thousands of works. When he was in Qingcheng Mountain, he caught up with a majestic rain, and then was shocked by Qingcheng Mountain in the rain, which had a great impact on his creation. We say that an artist's creation needs an opportunity, and the landscape in the rain enlightens his feelings about the real landscape. Huang Binhong also likes to see the night mountain, the morning mountain, the dusk mountain, and the rain mountain in his life. A friend once saw him open the window in the middle of the night and gaze at the night mountain, which was an indispensable opportunity for the formation of his painting style.
In 1949, Huang Binhong became a member of the review committee of the first national art exhibition, and in 1950, he was added as a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and became a deputy to the People's Congress of Zhejiang Province. After suffering from cataracts in 1952, his vision was almost zero, and his vision was blurry, which had a great influence on his painting style in his later years. At the age of 90, the Zhejiang Branch of the China Artists Association and the East China Branch of the ** Academy of Fine Arts celebrated his 90th birthday and made an exhibition in Shanghai, this time mainly an exhibition of flowers and birds. The Cultural Bureau of the East China Administrative Committee awarded him the title of "Outstanding Painter of the Chinese People". He died of stomach cancer in Hangzhou in 1955 at the age of 90 and at the age of 92. Huang Binhong's life is basically the above experience, he has never ascended to the heights, like Xu Beihong, he has never been red and purple, like Qi Baishi. He used all his wealth to collect ancient artifacts, ancient seals, ancient calligraphy and paintings, but in daily life he was often stretched, not a particularly rich person, he was not good at management and speculation, in terms of winning social reputation, he could not be compared with Zhang Daqian, although both of them were called "Daqian", Huang Binhong was also called "Daqian". 
Huang Binhong, landscape, ink and color on paper.
Why is it difficult for Huang Binhong's paintings to be recognized?Because the cultural content of his paintings is too heavy, the aesthetic sense of history in his paintings is too desolate, and his paintings are not dressed up like the beautiful girls walking on the streets, nor are they as beautiful as the paintings of Zhang Daqian and Wu Hufan, so appreciating his paintings requires life experience, cultural accumulation, and aesthetic cultivation. Without one of these three aspects, I thought it was impossible to truly appreciate him. Or you will harbor a sense of mystery about his paintings, but it will be difficult to enter his world.
In my opinion, human art is the experience of life and the accumulation of culture. Without these two, there would be no great and deep art. Huang Binhong is a person with family and country feelings, and his father is a businessman who expects him to do business, but Huang Binhong has embarked on a cultural path. He proposed art to save the country in Shanghai, and even put forward a sentence called "art is a special health medicine", believing that art is beneficial to life and is the best nourishment, but after decades, such words are still not taken seriously by people, because he is not a person who ascends to the heights. But today's China's economy is rich and strong, Huang Binhong's words should attract our attention, in my opinion, although Huang Binhong's life to Confucianism, but his pursuit of Taoism has achieved his artistic realm.
The soul of an artist lies in the thoughts of literature, history and philosophy, and Huang Binhong's artistic aesthetic ideas fall on Taoism, and his painting theory and writings often mention Zhuangzi, which reveals his admiration and yearning for Taoism, especially Zhuangzi's thoughts, which are related to the spirit of his paintings. I think the best way to understand a person's paintings is to understand his life and attitude, and to understand his artistic footprints, so that we can reduce misreading when appreciating or appreciating his paintings. 
Huang Binhong, Early Entertainment North and South Two Sects, ink and color on paper.
Let's talk about the staging of Huang Binhong's art. Among the paintings we have seen so far, there are very few works of Huang Binhong before he came to Shanghai in 1907, but they certainly remain. There are some early works in Huang Binhong's catalogue that has been published so far, but there is no date for them. Huang Binhong is a very interesting person, and there are quite a few works in his paintings that have no year. Many of the works he finally donated to the Zhejiang Museum were not paid, and there was not even an inscription, and only one of the collection seals of the Zhejiang Museum was stamped on them. If there is a seal of Huang Binhong on it, it must have been stamped by his wife when he donated it, not by himself, which shows that his quest for art when he was alive was endless. As an exploratory and experimental painter, each of Huang Binhong's works or periods is in a state of exploration and practice.
Huang Binhong's works were not mature at the age of 40, and he was in the gestation period at this stage, spending a lot of time learning Xi from the ancients and figuring out the traditions of the ancients. However, in his own early style, he has revealed the end of the later mature period, and this clue is six words: "It is easy to be real, but it is difficult to be virtual", which is when he was studying in his early years, the enlightenment teacher instructed him, that is, it is easy to paint where there is an image, and it is difficult to paint without brush and ink without image, and when there is no blank cloth. It can be seen in the paintings of this period that he has already shown his ability in this regard, and the blank space of the mountain beam is already very beautiful. The Qing Dynasty painting theorist Di Chongguang said, "The magic lies in the coexistence of the virtual and the real, and the wonderful scenery becomes everywhere without painting." Virtuality and reality are born together, just like the Chinese Tai Chi thought, yin and yang are used together, yin and yang have yang, yang has yin, and yin and yang interact with each other. Huang Binhong's paintings are the most successful, concentrated and typical paintings that express the ideas of the I Ching and Taoism in ancient China. 
Huang Binhong at the time of creation.
In his later years, Huang Binhong would rely on his impression to re-title the works of 20 or 30 years ago, and when he was 80 years old, he might re-title the works of 50 years old, and when he was 90 years old, he would re-title the works of 60 years old. He doesn't care much about whether the work itself is perfect or not, he thinks about what artistic problems he wants to solve at this stage.
My teacher Li Keran is Huang Binhong's **, and Li Keran later studied in this way. Once, he personally told me that he was not good at painting the characters in the landscape for a while, although he could paint the characters very early, but he always couldn't paint the characters in the landscape, so he spent two years specializing in the figures. These are the exact words of Mr. Li Keran. I think this is the result of the subtle influence of Mr. Huang Binhong.
Some of the works painted by Huang Binhong when he learned Xi Song and Ming paintings should have been created by him around the age of 50, and they have a clear style of Beizong landscapes. Some people criticize Dong Qichang's classification for not being rigorous, but indeed his classification is very simple, that is, the landscapes of the Northern Sect are painted by professional painters, and the landscapes of the Southern Sect are painted by literati painters. The landscape color of the Northern Sect emphasizes the form and pays more attention to the reproduction;Nanzong's landscapes are freehand ink and wash and focus on expression.
Huang Binhong, small scene of the South Peak, ink and color on paper.
At the age of 50, Huang Binhong was still playing between the two sects of the north and the south, and focused on learning the painting of the Xi and the north sect. He used a small wolf pen at this time, you must know that Huang Binhong has used small brushes to draw big paintings all his life, and traditional painters like them will not paint large-scale works, so Huang Binhong's particularly large-scale works are rare, and fans and albums are more proficient.
In Huang Binhong's early delicate works, there are many brushstrokes and dotted lines. At this time, his sense of virtuality and reality has become stronger and stronger, and sometimes he uses the obvious painting method of Nanzong, which is based on calligraphy, which is more flexible in brushwork and more moisturizing in ink. In the early works, the grass and trees on the mountain are painted with long and short draped linen, called Alum Tou Mountain, Dong Yuan of the Five Dynasties and even Fan Kuan of the Northern Song Dynasty are in this style. At this time, he had not yet formed his own schematic style in composition, that is, the meaning of Tai Chi Yin and Yang was not obvious.
When we look at Huang Binhong's paintings, in addition to the appearance of ink painting, there is also light silk, which is light color, mainly using two colors, one is ochre, the other is cyan, generally no more than three. The color of our Chinese is different from the color of the Western color theory, and we are the philosophical color of the five elements yin and yang system. Ochre is used to represent the earth, and cyan is used to symbolize the sky, which together is heaven and earth. In ancient China, it was believed that the greatest yin and yang were heaven and earth, and the greatest yin and yang on the ground were mountains and water, mountains were yang, and water was yin. Huang Binhong painted shallow landscapes, rarely used the big green painting method in the early days, and occasionally painted a little small green, the so-called green is to outline the outline with ink and fill in the color, and mainly cyan and green. 
Huang Binhong, what I saw on the way to Qingcheng, ink and color on paper.
Art is composed of the visible world and the invisible world, and Huang Binhong's visible world is not beautiful in appearance, unworkmanlike and elegant, and it is easy to alienate the viewer. And when we pass through this barrier, we will find that what Huang Binhong wants to convey is the long-standing national spirit of the Chinese nation, that is, the temperament of the Chinese nation, which he himself summed up in four words: "Rich Huazi". He has a poem "Rich and rich to nourish my nation". He believes that the Chinese nation is a very ancient and wise nation, and this is his philosophy. He said that the land of China is beautiful without mountains, without water, and he loves this land and the culture born on this land.
How many paintings has Huang Binhong painted in his life?In fact, we can only make a rough estimate now. As far as I know, after his death, his wife Song Ruoying donated the works to the Zhejiang Museum, no matter the size, whether it is creation or sketching, there are about 5,000 pieces, and there are some other cultural relics, adding up to more than 10,000 pieces. I don't estimate that the total number of his works will exceed 10,000, which is only an approximate estimate. The works preserved in the Zhejiang Museum have a very good story, at that time, according to his will, these paintings were to be donated to the country, but at that time no one in Zhejiang wanted, his wife was very anxious, saying that these things are in my hands, what if they are broken or lost?I kept contacting the receiving unit. The Zhejiang Museum is said to have been reluctant to accept these things, and only reluctantly agreed after a direct inquiry from an art-loving leader. The sad thing is that after receiving it, the people at the Zhejiang Museum didn't even open the package, so they put it aside, and the package was not opened until 30 years after Huang Binhong's death, which is what happened to Huang Binhong.
Huang Binhong understands the Book of Changes, he seems to really have a fortune divination about fate, and when he was alive, he once said that people will be optimistic about my paintings in 50 years. As a result, he died in 1955, exactly 50 years later, in 2005, the Zhejiang Museum held an unprecedented large-scale exhibition and series of activities to commemorate Huang Binhong, thus establishing the academic status and market value of Huang Binhong's paintings. 