The Changes in Wang XiSan’s Studio Name Part 3 – One Bottle Studio (1968-1988) 从王习三的堂名变迁看历史——一壶斋（1968～1988年）

Improving the Village

In 1968, Wang had established his painting business in Yang Zhuang. However, Wang realized that it was impossible to for him to save the village from poverty. To reverse the situation, he would need to involvement all able men, women and children to help.

Wang decided to travel to Tian Jing to persuade factories owner to start-up in the village. He managed to convince a gelatin. a pin factory and some oil mills to set up businesses. With these, the manpower in the village was fully utilized. This brought rapid economic development to the village.

With the extra cash, villagers could improve infrastructure for irrigation and electricity.The could also purchased fertilizers and better farming equipment. These developments increased the financial status of the village. For the first time, the village leaders could distribute cash to the peasants.

Wang felt the sense of fulfillment when he saw tears rolling down the faces of poor farmers. Because of his contributions, Wang became a highly respected person. The village leaders gave him more freedom and time on his own. Wang took this chance to do research on various new techniques of painting and developed the modern brush for inside painting.

One Bottle Studio (一壶斋)

An old Tian Jin scholar named Gong Wang (龚望) heard about Wang successes in helping the poor. As an encouragement, he invited the famous calligrapher Yu Ming-shan (余明善) to write a banner for him on a piece of Song dynasty rice paper that he had kept for many years.

He selected a verse taken from a late Han Dynasty article He Guan Zhi (鹖冠子) as the encouragement verse for Wang: “When a boat capsized, a gourd bottle that keep you afloat is worth a thousand taels of Gold” (中河失船，一壶千金). In his opinion, he felt that when the time is right, Wang’s painted bottles will also be worth a thousand taels of Gold.

Wang Xi San took this verse as his lifetime motto. Subsequently, he changes his studio name to “One Bottle studio” (一壶斋) as a constant reminder to work hard and strive for the best.

 

Traitor of the Communist Party

Luck ran out very fast for Wang Xi San. A new initiative by the communist party to uproot capitalization swept over the nation in 1970. The new village leaders was not pleased with Wang Xi San because of the side businesses that he had brought in. Because of that, Yang Zhuang village was declared as “counter-revolutionary” and Wang was named as a traitor of the communist party. For eight months, Wang suffered all kinds of personality and physical tortures and he tried to commit suicide twice. During that horrifying period, the villagers were very sympathetic to him. However, they were powerless against the authorities. The only thing that they could do is to encourage him to live on.

Saved At Last

No evidences can be found and Wang cannot be convicted. In the meantime, since all businesses were put on hold, the village became poor again. This brought a lot of unhappiness between the new leadership team and the villagers and they were withdrawn soon after. This saved Wang Xi San and the villagers immediately restarted the factories and Wang painting studio.