Ye Ming: Using the pen as a sword, he opened up a magnificent road for the inheritance of Manchu-Han calligraphy

Ye Ming: Using the pen as a sword, he opened up a magnificent road for the inheritance of Manchu-Han calligraphy

There are continuous mountains and endless grasslands on the edge of the city. Although the winter climate here is extremely cold and thousands of miles are frozen, Ye Ming still thinks it is beautiful. This is his hometown and the origin of the Manchus, the "nation on horseback".

Ye Ming, whose Manchu name is Yehenala Yulin, belongs to the Yehenala clan of the Bordered Blue Banner of the Manchus. His great-grandfather is the cousin of Empress Dowager Cixi. Therefore, he is the fifth great-great-grandson of Empress Dowager Cixi in the family tree, and Yehenala Yulin has also become Ye Ming's pen name in his calligraphy and painting works; Ye Ming is his Chinese name, and his parents hope that he will "learn and be enlightened" and have a brilliant life.

"My parents were very strict with me when I was young. In order to help me develop good habits and character, I asked a teacher to teach me calligraphy before I started school. When I was a little older, I began to study Manchu-Han calligraphy, Jurchen, Manchu seal characters and Manchu culture. It started with my parents' expectations, and later became my lifelong hobby." Ye Ming said in an interview.

Manchu was formed in 1599 AD. It is the national language of the Manchu, one of my country's ethnic minorities, and the official language of the last feudal dynasty in China. As the wheel of history rolls forward, this language has gradually become an "extremely endangered language". At present, there are less than 100 people in the world who master Manchu language.

As the founder of the world's largest Manchu cultural platform "Auspicious Manchu", Ye Ming has been passing on the national culture of the Manchu in his own way. "The word inheritance can be broken down into two parts: one is "transmission" and the other is "inheritance", which means that both dissemination and inheritance are ways of "inheritance". Not every Manchu studies Manchu like me, and perhaps they have no way to inherit and learn, but as a member of this nation, everyone has learned about some of the Manchu culture, history, and customs, and can spread it to more people, right?"

Decades of painstaking research on Manchu and Han calligraphy has earned Ye Ming many honors and attention. His works are diverse in style and profound in artistic conception, either splashing ink or writing in a dragon-like manner. In September 2020, Ye Ming became a member of the Chinese Calligraphers Association; in July 2022, he was hired as a visiting professor by the Academy of Fine Arts of Tsinghua University to teach the course "Manchu-Han Calligraphy Creation".

Ye Ming (Ye He Na La Yu Lin)'s Manchu-Han calligraphy work "Not Fighting, Not Showing, Not Revealing" was collected by the China Academy of Painting and Calligraphy in November 2019.

In January 2022, the Copyright Bureau of Guizhou Province of China issued a work registration certificate for this work.

Time flies. With the development of Internet information technology, Ye Ming's calligraphy works and Manchu cultural and creative works have also been recognized by more and more platforms and collectors online. Some cultural and creative products have even been sold to the United States, Australia, Japan, Hong Kong and other countries and regions. The number of views of the Douyin label "Ye He Na La Yu Lin" is close to 12 million.

The pure calligraphy and ink sing the prosperous times, and the wonderful pen touches the pleasant harmony.

Before the green and green, the ink and color are fragrant.

On February 2, 2022, the Manchu-Chinese work "Manxiang Xiaoguan" translated and written by Ye Ming was broadcast on CCTV2 of China Central Television; on October 15 of the same year, Ye Ming's work "Dragon" was broadcast on Beijing Satellite TV. Due to his influence in the field of Manchu calligraphy and cultural products, Ye Ming participated in the compilation of the book "Concise Manchu Language", which is one of the few Manchu teaching materials officially published in China after the establishment of the country. At the end of 2022, Ye Ming's Manchu-Han calligraphy work "National Unity as One Family" was exhibited in the Macao Special Administrative Region of China.

On June 6, 2023, Ye Ming, who was interviewed by Beijing TV, wore a special cultural and creative Manchu costume. The front of the T-shirt was painted with the Manchu "divine bird" Gypsophila, and the back was a rubbing of his Manchu calligraphy work, which means "white mountains and black waters, long history".

He told reporters: "The inheritance of Manchu culture cannot rely solely on us Manchus. There are also many Han compatriots and other ethnic minority compatriots who are interested in our national culture. These are the forces of inheritance that we can rely on. If everyone contributes to the inheritance of Manchu culture to the best of their ability, Manchu writing and culture can escape the "extremely endangered" situation. I hope that there will be more people who work for the inheritance of Manchu culture and unite more. This will also encourage more people to see that the hope of saving endangered national culture is not slim."

Looking back at the hometown, the weary traveler is far away, and the lone wild goose flies south and misses home.

Almost every work of Ye Ming contains a strong national sentiment. Although he has been running around for the inheritance of Manchu culture, he is very moved and proud when he sees the vast mountains and rivers and the ever-changing motherland.

"It is precisely because of the colorful but complementary cultural power of 56 ethnic groups that Chinese civilization has been able to continuously adapt to the needs of history and the times, and it still has vitality and vigor. If the Manchu language and culture disappear, it will be a great loss to the entire Chinese civilization. I sincerely hope that more people will participate in the cause of inheriting ethnic minority culture." Ye Ming said.

Author/Li Juyan