Just as Du Fu, a famous poet in Tang Dynasty, remarked, “To the West Bank of Sea, this Pavilion is for ages; In the City of Jinan, talented scholars are countless.” It is true. Jinan, which is worldly-renowned city of various springs, is the place where galaxy of talents gather and people attach importance to literature and morality while cherishing the way of educated life for generations. Li Qingzhao, a famous poet in North Song Dynasty, and her husband, Zhao Mingcheng, have left behind the legendary legacy in Chinese literature for thousand years because of their harmonious response to each other in poetry and engraving. Famous Family headed by Shan Yinggui, a talented female painter of Jinan, used the white writing brush to leave the scent of ink for over a centuries, which can be regarded as the remarkable spectacle in the art circle of Shandong.
Shan Yinggui, professor of Shandong University of Arts, used to be a board member of China Artists Association and president of Shandong Women Painters’ Association. She was born in an educator’s family and received very good family education. Her grandpa on the fatherly side, Shan Tinglan got the first place at the provincial civil service examination and won a successful place at the general examination in late Qing Dynasty. In his prime time, he was accredited with an official post. As he hated the dirty corruption of officialdom so much, he later decided to resign himself from the post and was devoted to education as his way of saving the country. In the period of Republic of China, he used to be headmaster of No. 6 Middle School of Heze and later a teacher at Shandong University. He Siyuan, Liu Daoyuan and Wang Xianjin were all his proud students. Shan Tinglan was conversant with calligraphy and retired to settle down in his hometown, Gaomi. He left many calligraphic works behind and exerted great influence on his folks because of his life philosophy of “being open to all the possibilities and tolerate them; being impervious to all the temptations and make no compromises with principles.” Zhang Buyue, Shan Yinggui’s grandpa on the motherly side, was a famous scholar of Confucius study in Jinan and used to be head of Shandong Normal Teaching Institute. He discovered the Buyue Spring, famous spring of Jinan, and wrote an essay in memorization besides giving the name, which becomes a memorable anecdote. Shan Yinggui’s father Shan Tong and her mother, Zhang Yiqing received very good Chinese traditional education and their students could be found everywhere.
The Novel Chinese New-Year painting Peace and Happiness and Chinese wash painting Contemporary Hero are the works that establish Shan Yinggui’s reputation in her earlier days. At that time, she just studied at the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA). Under meticulous guidance of Ye Qianyu, Jiang Zhaohe, Li Keran, Li Kuchan, Liu Lingcang etc, she soon emerged as a new star in fine arts of those days. Qin Shengzhou, her husband, is a famous painter of print in fine arts circle in Shandong. He was born in Zixi, Anhui Province and graduated from Eastern Branch Campus of CAFA, the present China Academy of Art. He was once a board member of China Engraving Artists’ Association, member of China Artists’ Association and Class-A national painter. In 1964, at the Exhibition of National Fine Arts for the celebration of the 15th anniversary of New China’s founding, his engraving paintings Coordinator and Side by Side were exhibited while three paintings of Shan Yinggui were chosen to be on display as well. It was this exhibition that became the match-maker for them who shared the similar inclinations, fell in love and got married. Henceforth, they went deep down to life and enjoyed a colorful life in arts. They have created lots of excellent works that can be handed down from generation to generation. Qin Shengzhou’s engraving paintings have been included in national shows and engraving shows for 11 times and won the 2nd Prize of national art exhibition twice. His works Weaving Grass Shoes was accepted into Hundred Years’ Review of Chinese Engraving Paintings and his other works were included into the Chinese Art Dictionary, the Volume of Engraving. Some of his works have been collected by museums both at home and abroad. Shan Yinggui has also made remarkable achievement as well. Many of her famous works, such as If Enemies Come from that Place, Primary School by the Lake, Wedding on Lake, Making Military Shoes, Happy Songs at Yi River, Joining the Army, Group Pictures of Women at Mountain Village, Spring Breeze, Poetry at Plateau, Wendu in August, Twisting Wool and Li Qingzhao fully display the well-grounded scholarship, marvelous painting skills and keen art touch of a people’s artist. She always remembers her revered teacher, Mr. Li Keran’s encouraging words as follows, “If an artist uses his or her brush to push the history of Chinese painting forward a little, it would be a significant contribution”. In her early days at CAFA, she was greatly affected and influenced by Jiang Zhaohe’s Album and Sketches of Vagabond, and the similar life stories but different life experiences enabled her to have a clear clue of creating the serial paintings Past Events gradually by using brush to link the tragic history with the cultural roots. When she reached the age of 60, her creative ideas became perfect day by day and she began to be concerned with ups and downs of Chinese nation and all the vicissitudes of the people. She came to focus her attention on the cultural solace at the deep layer of humanity in the new age and creates many masterpieces of excellent cultural main melody with her unstoppable passions of painting. When the nearly 3-meters wide painting of Fleeing, the Memory of Childhood was on display at Justice and Peace—Art Exhibition in Memory of 50th Anniversary of Victory of the World Anti-Fascist War jointly sponsored by the Ministry of Culture and China Artists Association, many viewers were enthralled and made a careful appreciation as the painting unveiled many viewers’ sadness and pain that were buried deep in heart and could not fade with the passage of time. “Painting should advance with the times”, this creation idea found the aesthetic catharsis in this giant work that reminded the new generations to remember this humiliating history, treasure the present peace and sympathize with the miserable. This painting was indeed worthy of the Special Honor awarded by the organization committee.
Influenced by the family, children of Shan Yinggui and Qin Shengzhou have made great achievement in their own causes. Qin Jing, their son, is an amiable and kind person, and an associate professor at Shandong University of Art and Design. Good at the engraving and oil paintings, he won wide praises in painting circle in Shandong with his works. Ren Haining, their daughter, is a graceful and dignified lady and vice president of Shandong Women Artists’ Association. Good at meticulous painting and heavy oil painting, she had her works selected to be exhibited at the 2nd Art Exhibition for National Youth and won the 1st prize at Shandong Youth Art Exhibition. In the golden fall of 2013, Shan Yinggui will have her eightieth birthday. She has contributed her life-long exquisite paintings to Shandong University of Arts, Shandong Fine Arts Museum, her ancestor’s hometown Gaomi and the mountainous region Yimeng. As the citation for her generosity, Shandong Fine Arts Museum has rewarded Shan with 1 million RMB, which is now planned by her son and daughter to set up Shan Yinggui Art Foundation in order to foster excellent students in Shandong and hold various scholastic exchanges. Over Shan’s three generations, the ink and painting are always around them, and the latest generation tries to excel the old one. Indifference to fame and vanity, gratitude for society, inheritance in traditional culture, positive attitude inspirations and pursuit of Chinese dream have become the eternal spirits in this cultural family for generations in Shandong.
