本书由作者倪娜用英文撰写，图文并茂，全书配有齐白石生平黑白照片56张和绘画作品彩图37张，真实地再现了齐白石伟大的一生：出身世代贫农家庭，7岁因家境贫寒而辍学，13岁拜师学作木匠，15岁时学雕花并自学绘画，27岁拜师学画，攻读诗文和自学篆刻，53岁漂泊北京，开始了衰年变法，衍生红花墨叶一脉的齐派画风。
On January 1, 1864, a boy was born in a simple farmer’s house located in the east of Xingzhiwu Village. His arrival greatly excited the whole family. His grandfather Mr. Qi Wanbing (known as "Qi Shiyue," which can be translated into English as “Tenth Grandfather Qi”) named his first grandson “Qi Chunzhi” with “Chun” being his generational name in the middle. As with all newborn boys of that time, without exception, he was given a pet name “Azhi.”
In the middle of the 15th century, the ancestor of the Qi family migrated to Xiangtan from Dangshan County in Jiangsu Province. From that time onward, over the ensuing 400 years, the Qi family developed into a clan with many branches, all of which made their livelihood from the land.
With four strong limbs and a hulking physique, Grandpa Qi Wanbing was a burly man, accomplished at all manner of farming tasks in the paddy fields. Upright by nature, he was never afraid of using brute force nor did he mince his words.
These traits won him widespread respect.
Azhi’s grandmother, Qi Shiniang (“Tenth Grandmother Qi”), was a docile and amiable woman of few words. Every day, she was kept busy with housework, including tending to a family vegetable plot.
Qi Yide, Azhi’s father, was the only child of hisgrandparents. He was noted for his cowardice, preferring tosuffer a loss than take a stand against the injustices whichbefell him. Fortunately, he married a wife with a bright andfirm temperament, who was loquacious and would protect her husband by reasoning with and, if necessary, striking back at those who tried to cow him.
Azhi’s mother, Qi Zhoushi, was courteous to all. She taught her children to respect their seniors and set a shining example for them by taking good care of her mother- and father-in-law.
She was an excellent housekeeper, being able to make the best use of the meagre family income. She kept the household affairs in perfect order, and furnished the whole family with simple, but sufficient food and plain clothes made out of coarse cloth. Every day, she was occupied with cooking, washing, and weaving, without a moment of rest. She also grew vegetables, fed pigs, chickens and ducks for the family’s use.
Qi Zhoushi was born into a poor household too, which was to be found not far from Azhi’s home. To support his family, her father Mr. Zhou Yuruo ran a type of elementary school called a Mengguan. The it literally means "enlightening school.” This was a kind of private establishment, or Si’shu, popular in China for more that 2,000 years. The tutor in such an institution would teach his pupils to recognize Chinese characters by reading the Classical Chinese primers and then guide them through the works of Confucius.
At that time in the countryside of Xiangtan, after every rice harvest, all of the farming families would store a great quantity of threshed rice straw as fuel for their daily cooking. Usually, each bundle of rice straw still contained the odd stray grain of cereal. The attentive Qi Zhoushi would beat the remaining grains of rice off each bunch of straw using a cudgel before putting them into the fire hole of the stove. Every day, she could retrieve about 100 grams of rice. As the saying goes, “many a little makes a mickle.” Each month she could glean 3 kilos by this means.
After a certain period, she would use this collected rice to barter for cotton at market. She span the cotton and the hemp she had grown on the open ground surrounding their house into yarn, weaving it then into cotton and hemp cloth. With plant or mineral pigments, she would dye the cloth different hues, tailoring it into garments for each member of the family.
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