★ Tourist location: Suzhou Changshu Museum

Changshu, one of the birthplaces of Wu Culture, is also a famous historical and cultural city. Walking into the Changshu Museum, the first exhibition hall is the "Historical and Cultural City-Changshu" exhibition hall, from which we open the first page of understanding Changshu.

The Qiandi Lane site located in the northern suburbs has a total area of 80,000 square meters. It can be divided into three major cultural layers: Majiabang, Songze Culture and the Shang and Zhou Dynasties. A large number of pottery, stone tools, bronzes, etc. have been unearthed. More than 200 jade tools and pottery were unearthed at the Luodun Site in Liantang Town, and 14 Liangzhu Culture tombs were cleared, proving that the cultural traces of Changshu ancestors were still very profound.

During the pre-Qin period, Taibo and Zhongyong fled to Wu. Among them, Taibo was in Wuxi and Zhongyong was in Changshu, so Changshu became one of the birthplaces of Wu culture. Later, Yan Yan went north to study and became the only southern disciple of Confucius. He further spread Confucianism to the south and created a southeastern culture that influenced the Wuhui.

Changshu is located in a water town and has always paid attention to the construction of water conservancy. The production experience of northern expatriates, combined with localized realities, improved farming tools, and gradually formed a farming economy with local characteristics. By the Song and Yuan Dynasties, Changshu gradually became an important political, economic, military and cultural town in Jiangnan. Since the Song Dynasty, many naval troops have been set up. By the Yuan Dynasty, Changshu's county seat had begun to take shape.

Changshu during the Ming and Qing Dynasties was the peak of cultural development. Nearly 480 people from the city passed the Jinshi examination, and many of them became key members of the central government or major officials of the border. Many of these people come from the same family. For example, the Weng family, which was the master of the two dynasties, and the Jiang family, which was the champion of the top school. They are all well-known local aristocratic families. There are many schools in the art world. For example, in the field of painting, there is the Yushan Painting School, with Wang Hui as the representative figure; in the field of poetry, there is the Yushan Poetry School, with Qian Qianyi as the representative figure; in the field of guqin, there is the Yushan Qin School, with Yan Tianchi as the representative; in the field of seal cutting, there is the Yushan Seal School, with Lin Gao as the representative figure. According to incomplete statistics, Changshu had nearly a thousand painters from the Yuan Dynasty to modern times, making it an important town in the history of Chinese art. More famous figures include Huang Gongwang, Zhou Zhimian, Yang Jin, Tang Jun and others. The Yushan Painting School became the mainstream of the painting world in the Qing Dynasty and was praised as authentic in the painting world. The famous "Songxianguan Qin Manual" of the Yushan School was regarded as the authentic ancient sound, and later became the only Ming Dynasty piano score included in the "Siku Quan Shu". The Yushan Poetry School is also full of talents. Although Qian Qianyi's virtue was criticized by later generations, his literary attainments were regarded as equal to the Northern Fu Qing Zhu at that time. His Poetry School was even called the Southeast Wenzong. Representative figures include Feng Shu, Feng Ban, Qian Zeng, Wu Li and others.

In addition to the Yushan Qin School, Sword School, Poetry School, and Seal School, Yushan's books are also very good at dripping water piercing stones. Their origins can be traced back to the Tang Dynasty. Zhang Xu, the Cao Sage, was once a county magistrate of Changshu and left many anecdotes and poems. The ancient city also has relics of Xiinkanchi and Zuiwei Street. Although there is no name for the Yushan Calligraphy School, the writings and works of Feng Ban, Weng Zhenyi, Feng Wu and others all show that Changshu's calligraphy is also self-contained.

In addition to the graphic introduction, of course, there are also cultural relics displays. From the pottery and stone tools unearthed from the site to the jade and porcelain from the Ming and Qing Dynasties, we can sort out the context of historical development and the progress of craftsmanship.

The scale of the calligraphy and painting museum is not very large. It is surrounded by long axes or horizontal axes, and the glass cabinet in the middle displays fan paintings. I was stunned when I walked in, because the ancient Chinese writing rules were from left to right, but a calligraphy work of "Huguang Villa", signed on the right side, is obviously the writing rules of modern people. After reading the signature, I realized that he was really a modern person. Xie Zhiliu, a painter and ancient calligraphy and painting appraiser who was born and died from 1910 to 1997. His wife Chen Peiqiu also had a calligraphy work, which is a plaque of "Danzhai" signed on the left.

The heavyweight one should be regarded as a couplet by Weng Tonghe, the master of the two dynasties. Huo Qijia, the owner of the Tieqin and Bronze Sword Tower, also has a seven-character couplet on display.

There is also Xu Rong's "Picture of Visiting Friends in the Mountain Residence" in the Qing Dynasty, which has paintings and characters, integrating calligraphy and painting. It can be seen that he is also a writer and good at painting, and his pen and ink are beautiful. Yang Yisun's "Ice Heart Painting" in the Qing Dynasty is quite interesting. Plum blossoms are inserted in a jade pot, which probably means "a piece of ice heart in the jade pot."

Hua Yuan's "Celebrating the Birthday of Immortals" is very festive. The couplet on both sides is written with black characters on a red background. It is a work by Xiao Tuian. Both of them are from Changshu. Most of the works on display are authored by Changshu people. Hua Yuan and Xiao Tuian have many works, including not only long shafts and sketches, but also fan paintings.

What I like more is fan painting, including calligraphy and paintings. The card next to it indicates the author and the form of the work, as well as the material of the fan bones, and the author's brief introduction, which is very detailed. Unfortunately, there are a few works, and our appreciation ability is really limited, so we can only watch the excitement.

There are also many types of fan ribs, one of which is open-cut with ivory and is very exquisite. The whole body is ivory white, the fan is dark brown, the front is Tao Jian's painting "The Bee Dance among Flowers", and the back is an excerpt of Yu Zhongying's regular script "Yishan Collection". Well, I have to admit that I was attracted by the ivory open-cut fan bones.

Xiangfei bamboo was also a valuable bamboo variety in ancient times. Its color had the dark color of bamboo, and there were still traces of spots on the fan bones.

Some fan ribs are engraved with exquisite patterns, while others are engraved with the characters Shou. Even if there is no fan painting, it can still be regarded as an art treasure in itself? Therefore, in the introduction, the makers of the fan ribs were also listed.

You can also use black fan ribs and a golden fan. This fan is very eye-catching! However, when I saw Weng Tonghe, who signed the signature, I felt that this fan was not too ostentatious. After all, he was an emperor's teacher of the two dynasties. No matter how high-profile a famous artist acted, it would be impossible to overstate it.

In addition to folding fans, there are also group fans. It has a very simple shape. The fan is painted with black bamboo, and the very light pen and ink makes people feel pleasing to the eye.

There is a volume "Preface to Lin Lan Pavilion of Emperor Wenzong of the Yuan Dynasty". I thought it was a work by Emperor Wenzong of the Yuan Dynasty. There are many inscriptions and postscripts behind it, which obviously has been collected and evaluated by many people. However, after reading the introduction, I realized that this work is actually not the original work, but a drawing supplemented by Tao Yuanbai and Hua Yuan. There are indeed many people collecting, and they are all famous modern and contemporary artists.