Take two sets of Zhenwu statues and the green dragon and white tiger statues as examples
Shen Wei
Thesis summary: This article is based on the royal background of the Taoist temples in Wudang Mountain in the Ming Dynasty As a premise, taking the two most famous existing Zhenwu cast statues and two pairs of green dragon and white tiger statues in Wudang Mountain as examples, through the retrieval of relevant documents and physical images, we analyze and demonstrate their manufacturing age or style origin, and focus on the academic circles The general understanding puts forward my personal revised opinions, namely: first, the Zhenwu statue in the Golden Temple of Wudang Mountain should be from the middle and early Ming Dynasty, not the same period as the construction of the building. Second, the two green dragon and white tiger statues should be from Made in the Ming Dynasty, not "Yuan Dynasty" or "Yuan Dynasty style". At the same time, this article combines the precepts and rituals in early Taoist literature and discusses some basic principles and laws related to Taoist statues, in order to deepen our understanding of the general and specific connotations of Taoist statue art in Wudang Mountain.
Keywords: Taoist statues, Zhu Di, Wudang Mountain, Zhenwu, Qinglong, White Tiger, Liu Yuan
Wudang Mountain, located in Jun County (now Danjiangkou, Hubei Province), is also known as Taihe Mountain. It has always been said to be the northern The place where the god Zhenwu (Xuanwu) attained enlightenment and "ascended". During the Zhenguan period of the Tang Dynasty, Taoist buildings were first built here, and were subsequently abandoned and rebuilt. During the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty (1403-1424), Zhu Di, the founder of the Ming Dynasty, used state power to plan and build 33 groups of Taoist temples and temples, and enshrined them. Wudang Mountain is known as the "Great Mountain", and as a result, Wudang Mountain has received the treatment and status of a royal dojo. Today, all the buildings under the mountain are in ruins, but most of the palaces and temples on the mountain are fortunately well preserved. As an important relic of the royal religious architecture of the Ming Dynasty and a unique example of its integration with the natural environment, Wudang Mountain It was listed as a "World Cultural Heritage" in 1994. As far as Taoist architecture is concerned, in the "Taoist Temples in National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units" attached to the "Complete Collection of Chinese Architectural Art·Taoist Architecture" published in 2002, only the ones marked as "World Cultural Heritage" There are two places in Wudang Mountain - the Golden Palace and the Zixiao Palace[1]. The author, era and connotation
Author: Shen Wei Release time: 2013-09-25 11:20:00
1. About the author of Boston's "Pictures of Emperors of the Past"< /p>
According to the existing materials, since the inscription in the Northern Song Dynasty in the Gengzi year of Fubi (1060, the fifth year of Jiayou), the creator of the Boston version of "Pictures of Emperors of All Dynasties" (Figure 1) has been attributed to the early Tang Dynasty Under the name of Yan Liben, subsequent records or inscriptions were followed, such as Li Guang (1078-1159), Zheng Qiao (1103-1162), Zhou Bida (1126-1204) in the Southern Song Dynasty, Wang Yun (1227-1304) in the Yuan Dynasty ), Sun Chengze (1592-1676), Shen Chu (1729-1799), Wu Xiu (1764-1827), Sun Xingyan (1753-1818), Li Enqing (about 1796-about 1859), Li Zuoxian (1807) in the Qing Dynasty —1876) and so on. However, some of the early inscriptions and postscripts did not follow Fu Bi's theory. For example, in the silk postscript of the Northern Song Dynasty, there is "Shaoxing Dingsi (1137) Li Zhong (there is a small character "二" on the lower right) Xiong Shubao Zhi", which is incompletely fragmented. The content of the continuation of the postscript seems to have some research, but it is only cautious to say that "it seems to be beyond the capabilities of ordinary painters."
Figure 1, (Biography) Yan Liben's "Pictures of Emperors of the Past Dynasties", silk, 51×531cm, collected by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. About the review of art literature centered on Wuhan area
Author: Shen Wei Release time: 2013-09-25 09:40:00
Since the second half of the 20th century, art history The study has become a humanities subject with the improvement of visual art theories and methods, and is involved in the restoration or reconstruction of the historical picture of human life. On the other hand, just as "all history is contemporary history" put forward by the British historian Collingwood in the middle of the last century, new historical research often examines and examines history with a new awareness of issues and values. Interpret past facts and experiences. As far as real experience is concerned, the new artistic practice results that are occurring and developing will directly affect people's judgment and choice of artistic traditions and heritage through current thinking inertia. For this reason, sorting out art history has become a challenging task due to the interaction between the objective conditions and subjective judgments of the research objects of artistic creation, especially in the study of contemporary art history.
Some thoughts on Chinese ink art
Author: Shen Wei Release time: 2013-09-25 09:30:00
“Applying color according to the type has been capable since ancient times, such as ink "The halo seal inspired the Tang Dynasty", this is what Jing Hao, a 10th-century landscape painter, said in "Brushwork Notes". According to art history documents, Zhang Yanyuan's "Records of Famous Paintings of the Past Dynasties" in the 9th century describes "breaking ink" and "splashing ink" in the mid-Tang Dynasty, and it is very likely that Wang Wei said in the 8th century that "among the painting methods, ink and wash are the best." The phrase ("Landscape Jue") shows that the concept of ink painting as opposed to the color painting style has a history of about 12 centuries.
From the perspective of the history of ink painting itself, the classic masters such as the "Four Yuan Dynasty Schools" headed by Huang Gongwang and their classic work styles have clearly formed since the 14th century, and have experienced uninterrupted expansion and evolution since then. Until it influenced modern and modern ink painting, this process took about seven hundred years.