A Chinese writer won the Hugo Award again. Who is the painter of "The Painter of Space and Time"?

On the evening of October 21, at the 81st World Science Fiction Convention held in Chengdu, Chinese writer Hai Yu won the 2023 Hugo Award for "Best Short or Novella" with "The Painter of Space and Time".

This year, there are five Chinese writers shortlisted for the Hugo Awards, including Jiang Bo's "Hanging on a Thread", Ren Qing's "Resurrection" (English version), Wang Kanyu's "Zhu Rong on Mars", Lu Ban's "White Cliff", and Hai Yu's "Time and Space Painter" was shortlisted for the "Best Short Novel". In addition, "Chinese Science Fiction Oral History (Volume 1)" was shortlisted for the "Best Related Work".

In "The Painter of Time and Space", a "ghost" appeared in the Palace Museum on a closed day. After the criminal police protagonist intervened in the investigation, he found that the incident might be related to an ancient painting from the Song Dynasty. "The Painter of Time and Space" adopts the writing style of a mystery novel, combining Chinese traditional culture, history, reasoning and science fiction, tracing the creation of a fictional famous painting and the story of the power struggle between the government and the opposition at that time.

It is reported that "The Painter of Time and Space" blends history and science fiction, telling the ins and outs behind the creation of "A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains", a famous Northern Song Dynasty painting, and also tells the story of the young painter who created this painting.

Hai Lu once revealed in an interview that the inspiration for "The Painter of Time and Space" came from another famous painting from the Song Dynasty, "The Skull Fantasy Picture", which has a strange style and is very different from traditional painting themes. When Hai Lu learned that "A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" and "The Skull Fantasy Picture" were both stored in the Palace Museum in Beijing, a story about the fusion of the two famous paintings in the Palace Museum came to his mind.

The painter of "A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains": a native of Jiangnan in the Northern Song Dynasty, an 18-year-old painting prodigy

This is the only work handed down from the Northern Song Dynasty painter Wang Ximeng. This painting depicts the beautiful mountains and rivers of our motherland. The rolling peaks and the vast and misty rivers are magnificent and magnificent.

The painting is concise and comprehensive in technique, brilliant in colors, and meticulous in brushwork, showing the majestic mountains and rivers of the motherland. It has always been regarded as a masterpiece of Song Dynasty green landscape .

The scenery in this painting is mostly the beautiful and graceful landscapes of the south. On this basis, some mountains also incorporate some characteristics of the northern landscapes.

The life scenes and tools used in production in the Jiangnan water town in the painting all reflect the artist's deep understanding of Jiangnan. Artistic creation should be based on life. Wang Ximeng, who was only 18 years old, created such a large painting, which must have a deep accumulation of life experience. Therefore, some experts speculate that Wang Ximeng may be from Jiangnan, but his specific place of origin is unknown.

Part of A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains (Source: The Palace Museum)

Comprehensive sources: Huanqiu.com, Guangming.com, the Palace Museum, etc.