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Zheng Banqiao, one of the eight eccentrics in Yangzhou, lived in Suzhou before coming to Yangzhou. He opened a painting shop at the eastern end of Taohua Lane in Suzhou City, and made a living by selling paintings. At the western end of Taohua Lane, there is also a studio owned by Zijing Lu. Zijing Lu is good at drawing plum blossoms. He flaunted his plum blossom as "seeing the flowers moving from a distance and seeing the flowers nearby". This means that he paints like a real plum blossom.

Since Zheng Banqiao came to Suzhou, he painted some scales and landscapes of bamboo and Henaan, but he didn't paint plum blossoms. This plum blossom was painted by Zijing Lu, but Zheng Banqiao claimed to be inferior, so he knew nothing about it. Usually, if someone asks to draw plum blossoms, he always smiles modestly and says, "My plum blossoms are far worse than those drawn by Mr. Lu." Go, I'll take you to Teacher Lu to draw! "

Zheng Banqiao really led the buyer to find Zijing Lu at the west end of Taohua Lane, and asked him to sell a plum blossom picture and get some scattered money to support his family. Zijing Lu is a scholar, dragging his sick body with his parents, wife and children, and his life is quite difficult. He painted plums realistically and vividly, and every petal was lifelike. Zheng Banqiao always spoke highly of Zijing Lu's paintings in front of everyone, praising: "The plum blossoms painted by Mr. Lu, even if I study for another ten or eight years, may not be able to draw to this extent."

A senior official retired and went home. He is proficient in calligraphy and has high taste. Seeing that Zheng Banqiao's calligraphy and painting are the best, he came up with a painting title of "Plum Blossom Valley with Unique Fragrance" and offered a high price of 500 taels of silver. He personally came to Zheng Banqiao's studio and asked Zheng Banqiao to paint. Zheng Banqiao declined and said, "Mr. Shangshu, Mr. Zijing Lu is still a good painter when it comes to painting plums. Let's just say that the plum blossoms he painted can be worth fifty taels of silver, and the ones I painted are worth fifty taels of silver at most! "

Hearing this, the old minister asked Zijing Lu for money.

Days fly by day. Zheng Banqiao has lived in Suzhou for three years, and he will move to Yangzhou. When he left, Zijing Lu came to see him off. When the literati bid farewell, they should write poems as gifts. When painting friends leave, of course, they send each other in the color of the painter. This time, Zheng Banqiao gave Zijing Lu a plum blossom.

Zheng Banqiao spread out the paper, waved the pen, and the pen tilted to one side. From deep to shallow, he drew a plum tree trunk with white spots. When painting flowers, the ink depth should be appropriate, some light and some heavy, and the petals should be pointed out directly with light ink, and then the lower end of the petals should be infiltrated with Jiao Mo when the water is not dry. The plum blossoms drawn in this way are hearty, smooth in brushwork and high in spirit. Looking at the structure of the whole picture, only three or four plum blossoms are clearly drawn, and the rest are smeared. There is really an artistic conception of "striking a thousand trees and only seeing three or five flowers pleasing to the eye".

Zijing Lu looked at the plum blossom painted by Zheng Banqiao and kept his mouth open for quite a while. He was stupefied for a long time before muttering, "Brother Zheng has such superb plum painting skills, why didn't you teach me early?"

"I'm afraid that Brother Lu is modest and refuses to make plum blossom drawings again, so the reward for painting will be much less." Zheng Banqiao said quietly.

At this time, Zijing Lu suddenly realized and said gratefully, "Brother Zheng didn't paint plum blossoms to save food for his brother."