《重庆十七门》阿新笔绘重庆城门里门外的故事

文/本刊记者 杨一一

“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.

“当我看到《重庆府渝城图》，那一刻内心十分震撼，城廓楼门、码头船只，商帮挑夫，这就是重庆版的《清明上河图》啊！也在那一刻，我萌生了要画出老重庆的所有城门。”朱文新说，城墙在古代是城市防御的设施，城门则是盛世开放的象征。

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，重庆中国诗书画研究会巴渝画派画家，重庆漫画学会会员。

Seventeen Gates of Chongqing Folding Fans and Scrolls Selected as “Chongqing Gifts for Foreign Affairs” in 2020 and 2021《重庆十七门》折扇、手卷入选2020、2021“重庆好礼·外事礼品”

Rooftop Red Chilies《红运顶照》

Huangge Sapling《黄葛苗》

, 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.

《重庆府渝城图》绘制于150年前，是现在仅见于法国国家图书馆藏的孤本，渝城图清晰地展示了清末时期重庆人生产生活、经贸流通的繁盛场景。2019年，一幅20米长、0.5米宽的《重庆十七门》中国画长卷在朱文新笔下完成，老重庆“九开八闭”的十七座城门：朝天门、翠微门、东水门、太安门、太平门、人和门、储奇门、金紫门、凤凰门、南纪门、金汤门、通远门、定远门、临江门、洪崖门、千厮门、西水门，与曾经赋予它们的功能在画景中一一呈现。

朱文新，土生土长的重庆人，话语亲切柔和，很自然地自称“阿新”。

阿新小时家在市中心的和平路，住在依山而建的吊脚楼小院，楼上的邻居会把自家的食物装在簸箕里晒在窗外楼下邻居家的屋顶上，小伙伴们爬坡上梯串门玩耍，会吃到大人顺手给的薯干、糖果。阿新他们每天要经过通远门去上学，顺着城墙根，看着黄葛树把根扎在墙缝里，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).《重庆十七门》长卷在环球金融中心（WFC）观景台展出。

Series of paintings titled Stilted Buildings.《吊脚楼》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.

这小院还有几位“大名鼎鼎”的邻居，住阿新家对门的高骞先生，住楼上的叶毓中先生、武世信先生，还有来串门的江友樵先生，都是有名的书法家、国画家。他们谈天论画，捉笔勾描，也给旁边好奇的不捣乱的阿新纸和笔，让他自己画画，不时提点。阿新的绘画由此启蒙。

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，阿新当了公务员，后又离职经商，但对画画一直挂怀于心。从1986年开始，阿新的漫画不断在报纸上发表，多是幽默、讽刺、科幻等题材，他成为重庆漫画学会的会员。但在阿新的心中，吊脚楼、瓦房顶、黄葛树，无忧无虑的童年、温情友爱的邻里，才是他最怀念的。于是他开始用画笔描绘心中的老重庆，错落有致的《吊脚楼》，曾居住过的小院《摇篮》，瓦屋顶上晒辣椒的《红运顶照》，烟雨朦胧的《嘉陵江畔》，还有石缝里的《黄葛苗》……其中，《吊脚楼》系列作品被来自美国、德国、法国、西班牙、澳大利亚、加拿大、芬兰、俄罗斯、韩国、日本、马来西亚等国的国际友人收藏。

Foreign visitors enjoying Old Chongqing folding fan.外国客人喜欢《老重庆》。

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

阿新就这样把重庆人的故事、重庆城的故事讲给了世界听。而更老重庆的故事，则是在阿新目睹了一幅地图开始。

2015年11月，时任法国总统奥朗德访问重庆，获赠清代光绪年制地图《重庆府治全图》和《增广重庆地舆全图》的复刻版礼物。此后不久，法国国家图书馆就向中国读者开放了一幅罕见的更早时期地图《重庆府渝城图》，其采用传统中国画散点透视的构图法，更为详尽地描绘了当时的重庆城已然是一座文化、商业大城的模样。

Ah Xin and his student Bo Zai doing on-site paintings in Tongyuanmen Gate.阿新与他的学员波仔在通远门实地创作。

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!

“重庆有十七个城门！很多连我一个重庆人都不知道，那外地人就更不了解重庆的城门和故事了。”阿新决定通过自己的画笔再现重庆所有的城门。他查资料，走访“实地”，想象构思，历时4年，《重庆十七门》长卷创作完成。

2019年12月，《重庆十七门》长卷在重庆地标建筑环球金融中心（WFC）73楼的观景台展出，吸引了来自国内外游客的目光。《重庆十七门》之《朝天门》长卷被联合国第八任秘书长潘基文收藏，《朝天门》折扇被芬兰前总理埃斯科·阿霍收藏。同是重庆人的江苏电视台主持人孟非收藏了《通远门》，他说：“看了阿新的画，勾起了我对故乡好多的回忆！”

通远门，通向远方之门。矗立600多年，从古代重庆的军事要塞，到后来原住民的生活通道，再到外地游客来渝的寻访地，见证了重庆城历史发展的轨迹。2022年夏天，它再次引人注目—7岁重庆男孩波仔创作的中国画《通远门》，在新华社、人民网等媒体平台推送，浏览量数百万及点赞。城门，吊脚楼，黄葛树，人影绰绰，水墨丹青，重庆故事正传向远方！

阿新，正是波仔的国画指导老师！