A Short Travelogue of the Bada Shanren Memorial Hall

In the late 1980s, when I was in high school, I saw a piece of humor in the “Nanchang Evening News”. It was about two tourists from other places exchanging their experiences of visiting Nanchang on the train. Person A asked, “Have you been to the Memorial Hall of Bada Shanren?” Person B replied, “Yes. But I walked around inside and still haven’t figured out which eight mountain people it is.” It was really amusing and left a deep impression.

Bada Shanren is not eight mountain people. It is an alias of Zhu Da. Zhu Da, the ninth-generation grandson of Zhu Quan, the sixteenth son of Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang of the Ming Dynasty, was born in 1626 in the sixth year of the Tianqi reign of the Ming Dynasty and died in 1705 in the forty-fourth year of the Kangxi reign of the Qing Dynasty. He is an outstanding painter in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties in China. After the fall of the Ming Dynasty, he became a monk with an unyielding attitude towards the Qing Dynasty. Later, he returned to secular life and built a humble cottage called “Wuge Thatched Cottage” on the outskirts of Nanchang. He lived in poverty and loneliness until he was 80 years old. He used many aliases. At the age of 59, the signature “Bada Shanren” came out and was used until his death. In 1985, Bada Shanren was named one of the top ten cultural celebrities in ancient China by UNESCO.

In 1959, the Memorial Hall of Bada Shanren was established in the original site of Qingyunpu. It is the first memorial hall for ancient painters in China, covering an area of about 15 mu. Qingyunpu was originally a Taoist Jingming sect 道场. There are three entrances, four courtyards, two buildings and one garden. There are many famous ancient trees in the garden. It has been a famous scenic spot in Nanchang since ancient times. Bada Shanren often created and met friends here during his lifetime. As a cultural celebrity in the history of Nanchang, he is the glory of later generations of Nanchang people.

As a ignorant teenager, at that time, I knew very little about Zhu Da’s life experience and the characteristics of his painting art. Only from the exhibited paintings of Zhu Da, I intuitively felt that the words “Bada Shanren” in the signature looked like both “laughing” and “crying”, and initially understood Zhu Da’s unrestrained nature and his helplessness, grief and anger towards the current situation.

Thirty-seven years later, during this year’s “May Day” holiday, I revisited the Memorial Hall of Bada Shanren.

The surrounding area of the memorial hall has been developed into Meihu Scenic Area. Many new antique buildings with upturned eaves and brackets have been added. Behind the Taoist courtyard, a new Zhenshang Tower with an abstract and simple style has also been built. There is an endless stream of tourists coming here, bustling and lively. The situation is incomparable to that 37 years ago. Of course, the indoor exhibitions are still the calligraphy and painting works of famous artists such as Zhu Da.

Bada Shanren is a combination of a remnant subject of the Ming Dynasty, a Zen master and a painter. His artistic thought integrates Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism. His artistic style is profound, ethereal, implicit and natural, expressing the lofty artistic conception pursued by Chinese painting and becoming a generation of artistic master.

However, most of us ordinary people are laymen in calligraphy and painting art and may not be able to appreciate the mysteries. In fact, as long as we grasp that Zhu Da’s painting style is unique, with simple ink usage, exaggerated shapes. Most of the birds stand on one foot. The eyes of fish and birds are a circle and a dot. The eyeball is against the eye socket, just like a person’s supercilious look. Undoubtedly, these image creations are portraits of the painter himself.

In Nanchang, not knowing that Tengwang is Li Yuanying and not having learned Wang Bo’s “Preface to Tengwang Pavilion” does not affect going to Tengwang Pavilion to climb high and look far and enjoy the scenery of Nanchang City on both sides of the Ganjiang River. But when going to the Memorial Hall of Bada Shanren, one must know that Bada Shanren is Zhu Da, a descendant of the royal family of the Ming Dynasty and a famous painter.

This time when I went to the Memorial Hall of Bada Shanren, a middle-aged couple took their child to see the statue of Zhu Da in front of the courtyard. As they passed by me, I heard the wife say, “Zhu—, with a big character on top and an ear character on the bottom. Is it pronounced da?” The husband checked on his mobile phone and replied, “It is pronounced da.” It’s not too late for them to figure out the pronunciation of “Da” after entering the hall.

If you go to the Memorial Hall of Bada Shanren and just casually stroll around the courtyard and walk around in a muddled way without even figuring out who Bada Shanren is, and even make the joke of “eight mountain people”, it will be extremely boring.