《重慶十七門》阿新筆繪重慶城門里門外的故事

文/本刊記者 楊一一

“I was astonished at my first sight of. I saw the fortresses, the gates,the ports and vessels, and merchants and porters.It feels just like a Chongqing version of. At that very moment, I made my mind to paint all the ancient gates of Chongqing.” Said Zhu Wenxin. City walls in ancient times served as defense mechanisms while gates were signatures of prosperity and openness.

“當我看到《重慶府渝城圖》，那一刻內心十分震撼，城廓樓門、碼頭船只，商幫挑夫，這就是重慶版的《清明上河圖》啊！也在那一刻，我萌生了要畫出老重慶的所有城門。”朱文新說，城墻在古代是城市防御的設施，城門則是盛世開放的象征。

Zhu Wenxin, a painter of the Ba-Yu Painting School of the Chongqing Chinese Poetry, Calligraphy and Painting Research Association, and a member of the Chongqing Cartoon Society.朱文新，重慶中國詩書畫研究會巴渝畫派畫家，重慶漫畫學會會員。

Seventeen Gates of Chongqing Folding Fans and Scrolls Selected as “Chongqing Gifts for Foreign Affairs” in 2020 and 2021《重慶十七門》折扇、手卷入選2020、2021“重慶好禮·外事禮品”

Rooftop Red Chilies《紅運頂照》

Huangge Sapling《黃葛苗》

, finished 150 years ago, the only copy is now exhibited in the French National Library. It vividly depicts the hustle and bustle of Chongqing people’s life and work including trade and exchanges in the late Qing Dynasty. In 2019, Zhu Xinwen fin shed, an ink and wash scroll 20 meters in length and 0.5 meters in width, presenting the functions of the seventeen gates of ancient Chongqing, including nine functioning and eight nonfunctioning gates, namely, Cuiweimen Gate,Dongshuimen Gate, Tai’anmen Gate, Taipingmen Gate, Renhemen Gate, Chuqimen Gate, Jinzimen Gate, Fenghuangmen Gate,Nanji Gate, Jintangmen Gate, Tongyuanmen Gate, Dingyuanmen Gate, Linjiangmen Gate, Hongyamen Gate, Qiansimen Gate, and Xishuimen Gate.

Zhu Wenxi, a Chongqing born-and-bred local, always speaks in a gentle manner. Thus, he calls himself “Ah Xin”.

In his childhood, Ah Xin lived in a stilted house nestled in the mountain at Heping Road in downtown Chongqing. The neighbors living upstairs would put some food in a pan and dry it outside the window on the roof of the neighbors downstairs. Kids were so energetic that they would run here and there to play with friends,and they would eat the dried sweet potatoes and candies given by the adults. Every day on the way to school via Tongyuan Gate, Ah Xin and his friends could always see Huangge Tree rooting in the cracks of the city wall and wonder where new twigs would be.

《重慶府渝城圖》繪制于150年前，是現在僅見于法國國家圖書館藏的孤本，渝城圖清晰地展示了清末時期重慶人生產生活、經貿流通的繁盛場景。2019年，一幅20米長、0.5米寬的《重慶十七門》中國畫長卷在朱文新筆下完成，老重慶“九開八閉”的十七座城門：朝天門、翠微門、東水門、太安門、太平門、人和門、儲奇門、金紫門、鳳凰門、南紀門、金湯門、通遠門、定遠門、臨江門、洪崖門、千廝門、西水門，與曾經賦予它們的功能在畫景中一一呈現。

朱文新，土生土長的重慶人，話語親切柔和，很自然地自稱“阿新”。

阿新小時家在市中心的和平路，住在依山而建的吊腳樓小院，樓上的鄰居會把自家的食物裝在簸箕里曬在窗外樓下鄰居家的屋頂上，小伙伴們爬坡上梯串門玩耍，會吃到大人順手給的薯干、糖果。阿新他們每天要經過通遠門去上學，順著城墻根，看著黃葛樹把根扎在墻縫里，想不出它又在哪里冒出新枝……

Scroll Seventeen Gates of Chongqing exhibited at the observation deck of the World Financial Center (WFC).《重慶十七門》長卷在環球金融中心（WFC）觀景臺展出。

Series of paintings titled Stilted Buildings.《吊腳樓》系列作品。

Ah Xin had some “famous” neighbors: Mr. Gao Qian,living across the door from Ah Xin’s house; Mr. Ye Yuzhong and Mr. Wu Shixin living upstairs; and Mr. Jiang Youqiao who came to visit from time to time. They are all prestigious calligraphers and Chinese painters who often discuss art, drawing skills, and composition. Ah Xin,being curious and well-behaved, would receive some paper and a paintbrush from them to do his own painting. They sometimes gave him guidance and instructions on painting as well. They are for sure the very first teachers of Ah Xin in his drawing journey.

這小院還有幾位“大名鼎鼎”的鄰居，住阿新家對門的高騫先生，住樓上的葉毓中先生、武世信先生，還有來串門的江友樵先生，都是有名的書法家、國畫家。他們談天論畫，捉筆勾描，也給旁邊好奇的不搗亂的阿新紙和筆，讓他自己畫畫，不時提點。阿新的繪畫由此啟蒙。

Years later, Ah Xin, despite the frequent changes in jobs from a civil servant to a businessman, could not let go of his passion for drawing. Since 1986, therefore, he has published on newspapers numerous comics full of humor, sarcasm, and science fiction. He is now a member of the Chongqing Comic Committee. Deep in his heart, what he would never forget is a carefree childhood brimmed with stilted houses, tile roofs, Huangge Trees, and friendly neighbors. So, he began to use his paintbrush to depict the old Chongqing in his heart, the staggered, thein the small courtyard where he once lived, thereproducing the custom of drying chili peppers on the roof, the smoky and misty, and thein the stone crack ...... Among them, theseries was collected by international friends from the United States, Germany, France,Spain, Australia, Canada, Finland, Russia, Korea, Japan, Malaysia, etc.

In this way, Ah Xin tells the stories of Chongqing city and its people to the world. And the stories of old Chongqing started when he saw a map.

若干年后，阿新當了公務員，后又離職經商，但對畫畫一直掛懷于心。從1986年開始，阿新的漫畫不斷在報紙上發表，多是幽默、諷刺、科幻等題材，他成為重慶漫畫學會的會員。但在阿新的心中，吊腳樓、瓦房頂、黃葛樹，無憂無慮的童年、溫情友愛的鄰里，才是他最懷念的。于是他開始用畫筆描繪心中的老重慶，錯落有致的《吊腳樓》，曾居住過的小院《搖籃》，瓦屋頂上曬辣椒的《紅運頂照》，煙雨朦朧的《嘉陵江畔》，還有石縫里的《黃葛苗》……其中，《吊腳樓》系列作品被來自美國、德國、法國、西班牙、澳大利亞、加拿大、芬蘭、俄羅斯、韓國、日本、馬來西亞等國的國際友人收藏。

Foreign visitors enjoying Old Chongqing folding fan.外國客人喜歡《老重慶》。

In November 2015 when then French President Francois Hollande visited Chongqing, he was presented with a gift of a reproduction ofandduring the reign of the Guangxu Emperor in the Qing Dynasty. Shortly thereafter,the France National Library opened to Chinese readers the, a rare map in the earlier period. This Map,composed of a cavalier perspective of the traditional Chinese painting, depicts in greater detail that Chongqing then had already been a major cultural and commercial city.

“There are seventeen city gates in Chongqing! Many of them are unknown even to me, a Chongqing local, so foreigners will know even less about the gates and stories of Chongqing”, said Ah Xin. He decided to recreate all the gates of Chongqing with his paintbrush.It took him four years to create the long scrollafter his careful information collection,field visit, and imagination

阿新就這樣把重慶人的故事、重慶城的故事講給了世界聽。而更老重慶的故事，則是在阿新目睹了一幅地圖開始。

2015年11月，時任法國總統奧朗德訪問重慶，獲贈清代光緒年制地圖《重慶府治全圖》和《增廣重慶地輿全圖》的復刻版禮物。此后不久，法國國家圖書館就向中國讀者開放了一幅罕見的更早時期地圖《重慶府渝城圖》，其采用傳統中國畫散點透視的構圖法，更為詳盡地描繪了當時的重慶城已然是一座文化、商業大城的模樣。

Ah Xin and his student Bo Zai doing on-site paintings in Tongyuanmen Gate.阿新與他的學員波仔在通遠門實地創作。

In December 2019, the long scrollwas exhibited at the observation deck on the 73floor of Chongqing’s landmark World Financial Center (WFC), attracting visitors from home and abroad. Thescroll painting from “” series was collected by Ban Ki-moon, the eighth Secretary-General of the United Nations, and thefolding fan was collected by Esko Aho, former Prime Minister of Finland.Meng Fei, an anchor of Jiangsu TV, who is also a Chongqing native,collectedand said: “Looking at Ah Xin’s work evokes so many memories of my hometown!”

Tongyuanmen Gate, the gate to the faraway. Standing for more than 600 years, it has witnessed the historical development of Chongqing city from a military stronghold in ancient times, to a living passage for the locals, then to a place for foreign tourists to visit in Chongqing. In the summer of 2022, it gained attention once again—the Chinese paintingcreated by a 7-year-old Chongqing boy, Bo Zai,won wide popularity on media platforms such as Xinhua News Agency and People’s Daily, with millions of views and likes. City gates, stilted houses, Huangge trees, and the shadows of people on the ink painting are spreading the story of Chongqing far and wide!

And it was indeed Ah Xin, who was the Chinese painting instructor of Bo Zai!

“重慶有十七個城門！很多連我一個重慶人都不知道，那外地人就更不了解重慶的城門和故事了。”阿新決定通過自己的畫筆再現重慶所有的城門。他查資料，走訪“實地”，想象構思，歷時4年，《重慶十七門》長卷創作完成。

2019年12月，《重慶十七門》長卷在重慶地標建筑環球金融中心（WFC）73樓的觀景臺展出，吸引了來自國內外游客的目光。《重慶十七門》之《朝天門》長卷被聯合國第八任秘書長潘基文收藏，《朝天門》折扇被芬蘭前總理埃斯科·阿霍收藏。同是重慶人的江蘇電視臺主持人孟非收藏了《通遠門》，他說：“看了阿新的畫，勾起了我對故鄉好多的回憶！”

通遠門，通向遠方之門。矗立600多年，從古代重慶的軍事要塞，到后來原住民的生活通道，再到外地游客來渝的尋訪地，見證了重慶城歷史發展的軌跡。2022年夏天，它再次引人注目—7歲重慶男孩波仔創作的中國畫《通遠門》，在新華社、人民網等媒體平臺推送，瀏覽量數百萬及點贊。城門，吊腳樓，黃葛樹，人影綽綽，水墨丹青，重慶故事正傳向遠方！

阿新，正是波仔的國畫指導老師！