Yi Wei Ba Han

Pan Tianshou (1897-1971), also known as Tianshou, as equally eminent as other three Chinese painters, Wu Changshuo, Qi Baishi, Huang Binhong, was born in NingHai, zhejiang Province, formerly known as Tianjin, Dayi, Bieshulantu, Xiu Lay Buddhist. Early in his art career, he called himself Shulan Taoist、Xin’alanruo Abbot, later as Dongyueyizhe,Yiweng,Long-lived person on the Leipotoufeng. Pan’s all-round development in the field of poem, calligraphy, and seal, formed his unique artistic features and achievements. Pan is skilled in freehand brushwork in traditional Chinese painting of flowers and birds and landscape, especially in the flower-and-bird paintings. The layout of his paintings is full of strength; his use of pen and ink is like inscriptions on bronze wares and stones, simple and powerful, with beautiful colors. He is also a master painter nurtured in the traditional culture while bears "modern consciousness" at the same time.The terms "yi wei ba han" and " painting style hale and hearty " originated from Mr. Pan’s an unofficial personal seals. Both Mr. Yu Rentian in his artical "the Art of Pan Tianshou", and Mr. Pan Gongkai in "the Wafted Memories—Memories on My Father" mentioned the two terms. Since 1980s when Mr. Pan was recognized as one of the masters of Chinese painting, studies on him flourished. "Yi wei ba han" has been the most characteristic term in defining Mr. Pan’s style. Despite the two scholars mentioned above, there are other scholars, among many of the scholars who studies Mr. Pan, discuss "yi wei ba han" in their papers. One is Mr. Cheng Feng of Southwest Institute for Nationalities. He studied "ba han"in his thesis "’ba han’and’modern’—Brief Discussion on Pan Tianshou’s Artistic Style". The other two scholars are Wang Zhaoda and Dong Xiaochun. In their joint thesis "qiang gu jing qi, "yi wei ba han"— Reflection on the edition of Collection of Pan Tianshou’s Calligraphy and Paintings, they studied this characteristic of Pan’s style. Many of the papers discussed Pan’s style from the perspective of personality, style, modern culture, etc. leaving other deeper levels untouched. However, if we put our study under the circumstances of New Cultural Movement of the early 20th century, discussing the formation and techniques of "yi wei ba han", and the historic significance of this style in the cultural reformation phenomenon, we could achieve deeper and concrete depiction of Pan’s paintings. Culture has its inevitability of development, the change of modern culture is not just about "revolution" of cognitive performance, but also the result of traditional culture adapting to the development of "revolution". Mr. Hang Chunxiao discussed this cultural phenomenon in "the Progressive Culture Improvement—a Review of the traditional painters in Beijing area in the early days of the Republic of China", "Yi wei ba han" is the gradual improvement of traditional culture embodied in painting.The study of the formation and artistic expression of "yi wei ba han" will be very enlightening and referential to the contemporary and future development of Chinese painting.