Lei Yue didn't look at the person who was speaking, but continued to look at the blue sky outside the door and said, "Why not?"
"The Lei family's Dragon Ascending Stone was given to our Lei family by the Dragon Clan. It is the protection of the Thunder Ancestor. How can we lose it to someone from another family? Why don't you go to the Dragon Palace and ask for an ordinary Dragon Ascending Stone to give to Fang Yun? I don't think he would dare to say anything. If he dares to make a fuss, use the Thunder Ancestor's relics and ask the Dragon Clan to forbid him from entering the Dragon Ascending Platform."
One person said unhappily, “Although the Dragon Clan and Thunder Ancestor have a deep bond, so deep that we don’t know how deep it is, but using Thunder Ancestor’s relics for a mere Dragon Ascension Stone is too disrespectful of Thunder Ancestor.”
"That's right, the relics of Lei Zu cannot be used casually. No matter how deep the affection is, it will eventually run out."
“What’s more, once the Lei Zu relic is moved, even a semi-saint can be killed. My Lei family has only used it twice in hundreds of years. Don’t move it for this matter!”
The man said: "I am not really going to use the Thunder Ancestor's relics, I am just spreading the word, I think the Dragon Clan will give me this face."
"Fang Yun has also published an imperial poem, which is of great help to the Dragon Clan. The Dragon Clan may not give him face. After the Qixi Festival, I went to the Dragon Palace to ask the Dragon Clan about their attitude towards Fang Yun. The princess firmly refused. It can be seen that the Dragon Clan does not think that the Whale King deserves to be punished for helping him kill my Lei family's children."
Everyone was silent.
Lei Yue said: "I didn't agree with you asking the great scholar Nangong Lengwen to suppress Fang Yun, but I didn't stop you from wanting to restore the Lei family's honor. In the final bet on the Lei family's Denglongshi, the Lei family is already riding a tiger and it seems that the chances of winning are quite high. We have to gamble, but it's hard to go against God's will, and the Lei family is humiliated. Now, who can solve the problem of my Lei family's reputation?"
Everyone in the Lei family looked at each other, and no one spoke.
"If you lose, you lose. It's not shameful. It's shameful if you can't afford to lose. Let's leave it at that. The Denglong Stone already belongs to Fang Yun. I will ask for another one."
Some members of the Lei family looked at each other with gloomy eyes.
After a long time, members of the Lei family walked out of the meeting hall one after another, and the four old men walked slowly together.
"My grandson died tragically because of Fang Yun. We can't afford to offend the Whale King. I don't want to do anything to Fang Yun, but he must go to the grave and confess his crime!"
"Although the situation was complicated at the time, the dead are the most important, and Fang Yun should plead guilty."
"Fang Yun is in the limelight now, and we can't openly take action. What should we do?"
"Not long after, there will be a Ten-Nation Competition involving ten nations plus the Confucius Academy. If he knows what's good for him and leaves Shangshe, I can't do anything to him. But since he has entered Shangshe, he must participate in the Ten-Nation Competition. This is my chance! I will personally go to Jing State and promise benefits to Jing State's Left Prime Minister Liu Shan. I won't ask for anything else. As long as Fang Yun dares to participate in the Ten-Nation Competition, I will definitely find a way to pin the blame for Jing State's defeat on him!"
"Jingguo has been defeated year after year. The Ten-Nation Competition tests the strength of multiple people in a country. Fang Yun may be able to hold on by himself at the beginning, but in the end he will definitely not be able to enter the top three, or even the top five. If this is used to slightly damage Fang Yun's literary reputation, it will be a safe method."
"That's right. I don't want to severely damage Fang Yun, I just want to ruin his literary reputation a little to comfort my grandson's soul in heaven! As for who will use this incident to pursue him relentlessly in the future, it has nothing to do with my Lei family. Moreover, we can add fuel to the fire at the beginning and praise Fang Yun highly, and once he falls heavily in the end, the effect will be better."
“Wonderful!”
"After the matter is done, he'd better know when to advance and retreat, and return my Lei family's Dragon Ascension Stone. Then my Lei family can give him a normal Dragon Ascension Stone. If he doesn't know when to advance and retreat, don't blame us."
"Except for the dragon clan, among the three clans of humans, monsters and barbarians, my Lei clan knows Denglongtai best. It won't hurt to punish him a little in Denglongtai."
Everyone walked away laughing.
Lingyan Pavilion, in front of the seventh pavilion.
The surroundings were still filled with white mist, and there was still a wooden pavilion in front, with the same three words written on the plaque on the pavilion.
Colorful poetry pavilion.
Two pieces of wood shining with golden light are suspended on one side of the Caishi Pavilion.
Fang Yun: Ten chips for moving mountains, ten chips for ink sword.
Fang Yun smiled slightly, his eyes continuing to focus on the three words "Cai Shi Ting".
The first of the five realms of painting is "poetic and picturesque", and painting has many aliases. Because the main colors of painting are red and blue, it is also called "Danqing". And a great poet and painter once said, "Painting is color poetry, and poetry is black and white painting", so "color poetry" has become another name for painting.
With the guidance of Zhao Hongzhuang, Fang Yun's painting skills have already touched the edge of the first level. Although he has not yet entered the first level, he is not far away.
Fang Yun has made all the necessary preparations for this Cai Shi Pavilion.
Fang Yun slowly stepped into the seventh pavilion.
When Fang Yun opened his eyes, he felt the world spinning around him. All kinds of scenes flashed wildly before his eyes: mountains, hills, fields, wilderness, desert, grassland, snow-capped mountains, streams, long rivers, rising sun, peacocks, parrots, leopards, markets, red-light districts, old women, young girls... and everything that could be drawn appeared quickly.
Fang Yun immediately closed his eyes, and after a long while, he opened his eyes and looked around.
To the north is a snow-covered plateau with no grass and eagles flying across the sky.
To the west is a bustling street with many shops, a constant stream of pedestrians, and all kinds of people.
To the east, there are towering mountains covered with green trees.
To the south are hilly pine forests, rocky streams, reed boats, and a peaceful and tranquil environment.
Fang Yun looked around carefully, and the scenery around him was the test question for the Cai Shi Pavilion.
The main reason why the Caishi Pavilion is ranked seventh is that it not only tests painting, but also poetry. Only when both poetry and painting are given equal importance can one get ten points. Even Gu Kaizhi, the number one painter at that time, did not get ten points. Instead, Tao Yuanming got ten points because Tao Yuanming was good at both poetry and painting.
Before entering the Lingyan Pavilion, when Fang Yun saw the three words "Cai Shi Ting", he naturally thought of the evaluation of Wang Wei by the poet Su Shi.
There is painting in poetry and poetry in painting.
Before obtaining the Qishu Tiandi, Fang Yun only knew that Wang Wei was a great poet of the Tang Dynasty. But after obtaining the Qishu Tiandi, Fang Yun realized that Wang Wei played a vital role in the painting of the ancient Chinese nation. Wang Wei was even regarded as the "ancestor of Southern School of Painting" by Dong Qichang, a master of calligraphy and painting in the Ming Dynasty.
If we only talk about the importance of both poetry and painting, in the entire Chinese history, only Su Shi's lyrics and paintings can be compared with Wang Wei's poetry and paintings. So when Fang Yun saw the three words "Cai Shi Ting", the first thing he thought of was Wang Wei. Before entering the Lingyan Pavilion, he made up his mind to learn Wang Wei's paintings. What's more, Wang Wei also had the famous "On Landscape" and "Precepts of Landscape" as well as the famous "Broken Ink Landscape".
In order to learn Wang Wei's poems and paintings well and gain a deeper understanding of Wang Wei's deeds, Fang Yun discovered an interesting thing, that is, the relationship between Wang Wei and Li Bai.
The two were born in the same year and died in the next year. They both appeared in Chang'an at the same time. There were many poets who were good friends with them, but they had almost no intersection. This was simply incredible in the Tang Dynasty with that kind of atmosphere.
The two had interactions with Meng Haoran, Wang Changling and Du Fu, and also had contacts with Princess Yuzhen. Li Bai was best at writing poems to send to his friends. Meng Haoran, Wang Changling, Du Fu, Gao Shi and many other poets have appeared in Li Bai's poems, but the famous Wang Wei did not.
The reason why the relationship between the two is like this is still unknown. Some people speculate that it is because of Princess Yuzhen, while others speculate that it is an unrecorded personal grudge.
In terms of the height of ancient poetry, Li Bai is superior to Wang Wei, but in terms of both poetry and painting, Wang Wei is even better.
Fang Yun did not choose what to paint immediately. Instead, he silently recited Wang Wei's "On Landscape" and "Precepts of Landscape" in his mind, and recalled Wang Wei's poems, and finally looked at the scenery around him again.
Fang Yun observed the snowfield, the bustling city, the mountains and the stream one by one, thought for a long time, and finally chose the stream.
The scenery in the other three directions disappeared, and then a table, pens, ink, paints and all the tools for painting and writing poetry appeared in front of Fang Yun.
Fang Yun closed his eyes and recalled the great landscape paintings of past dynasties. Then he chose a piece of white drawing paper of appropriate size, spread it on the table, and quickly began to paint the landscape.
Before entering the third realm, in the art of painting, detailed brushwork is emphasized over freehand brushwork, because detailed brushwork is more suitable for war paintings. After entering the third realm, both freehand brushwork and detailed brushwork are given equal importance.
Although Fang Yun pays more attention to detailed brushwork, he has not neglected the art of freehand brushwork. These days, he mainly asks Zhao Hongzhuang for advice on the freehand landscape painting method.
The reason why Wang Wei was praised by Dong Qichang as the "ancestor of Southern School of Painting" is that his "broken ink landscape" is a link between the past and the future, inheriting the rendering method before the Tang Dynasty, which later had a significant impact on literati painting, and the Southern School of Cunfa was particularly affected by it.
"Cun" is pronounced the same as "cun" and originally refers to cracked skin due to cold or wind. In landscape painting, "cun" is a painting technique used to express the surface of rocks, peaks and tree bark. "Cun" is a sign of the maturity of landscape painting.
Landscape paintings before the Sui and Tang Dynasties were "empty outlines without texture", while landscape paintings after the Tang Dynasty were "both texture and dyeing". It can even be said that the development and standardization of texture technique contributed to the development and peak of ancient landscape painting.
A landscape painting is incomplete without the brushstrokes.
After looking at the stream in front of him, Fang Yun knew that this painting should focus on "rock", "pine" and "water", and the others could be simple. The painting methods of these three are different, and if any one of them is painted well, the painter can be regarded as a master.
At the beginning, Fang Yun still followed the mainstream painting method of the Shengyuan Continent at that time, but when he painted the hills and stones in the water, his brushwork suddenly changed. He used the Southern School of Landscape Painting pioneered by Wang Wei, the hemp-fiber texture method and the raindrop texture method invented by Mi Fu.
Under the influence of talent, the stones in the painting are lifelike, as if they have broken through the paper, and are extremely heavy.
After using various systematic mountain and rock texture techniques that were not available in the Shengyuan Continent, Fang Yun's painting level increased at an unstoppable speed.
Before he finished painting the rocks, Fang Yun heard a strange sound of paper tearing in the Wen Palace, as if he had pierced through a layer of paper. Then the scenery in front of him and the painting he was drawing all became different. He had a deeper understanding of the scenery and the art of painting.
The first level of painting is poetic and picturesque.
Fang Yun smiled slightly. Although his painting skills were mediocre, just a few special brushstrokes were enough to reach the eighth level. However, he was still a little short of reaching the ninth level.
Therefore, when painting the stream, Fang Yun couldn't help but use some of the painting techniques used by the famous Southern Song artist Xia Gui in "A Thousand Miles of the Yangtze River". This painting has an important position in the history of painting, because the "water" in this painting and the "water" in previous landscape paintings have made a qualitative leap, and the posture of the water in the painting is fuller.
In the painting, the rocks move slightly, the water shimmers, and the flowing water even has a tendency to burst out of the paper. (To be continued...)