1. Painting treasures famous both at home and abroad
China's painting art has a long history. Most of the paintings in ancient times were painted on walls or screens. During the Han and Tang Dynasties, portraits of heroes were painted on palaces to commend their contributions in founding the country. These palace paintings have long since disappeared today. However, the style of murals at that time can still be seen in the large number of portrait stones and portrait bricks from the Han Dynasty, as well as the tomb murals from the Han and Tang dynasties. They express the social life of the time in many aspects; not only depicting the hedonistic and corrupt life of the landlord class such as travel and banquets, but also the working people's production activities such as fishing and hunting, salt making, iron smelting, and mulberry picking, as well as pole lifting, jumping, etc. Maru and other wonderful acrobatic performances.
Historical stories, myths and legends, etc. are also the favorite themes of ancient painters. Gu Kaizhi, a famous painter in the Jin Dynasty, many of his works depict historical stories or literary works. For example, "Ode to the Goddess of Luo" is based on "Ode to the Goddess of Luo" written by the poet Cao Zhi during the Three Kingdoms period, using rich artistic imagination to depict the meeting of the poet and the Goddess of Luo in Luoshui. His paintings are like spring silkworms spinning silk. At first glance, they seem simple, but upon careful consideration, they all conform to the rules of painting. He attaches great importance to the dynamic portrayal of characters' expressions. He said: "The realistic portrayal is in the Adu (eyes)".
"Luo Shen Fu Tu"
The Tang and Song Dynasties were the most prosperous eras of Chinese painting. Wu Daozi, who lived in the prosperous Tang Dynasty, was revered as the "Sage of Painting" by later generations. He painted more than 300 murals and a large number of scroll paintings in his life. He was good at painting both figures and landscapes with flying brushstrokes. His painting style had a great influence on future generations. Li Gonglin was a versatile painter in the Song Dynasty. He was best at line drawing of figures and was also famous for his horse paintings. His works include "Uncoupled Picture", "Five Horse Picture", "Linweiyan Picture of Harvesting and Herding", etc. Among the surviving figure paintings, the most brilliant masterpiece is "Along the River During the Qingming Festival" by Zhang Zeduan of the Northern Song Dynasty. This painting depicts the prosperous scene of Bianliang (Kaifeng), the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty. The center of the picture is the Hongqiao outside the city. The bridge is bustling with traffic, and under the bridge, a huge canal boat is lowering its mast and preparing to cross the bridge. People were shouting and getting busy. There are also various shops, hotels, and government offices in the picture, and hundreds of people are bustling and busy. The author's meticulous observation of life, his high skill in arranging the picture structure and his serious creative attitude are all worth learning. "Uncle Boyi and Qi Caiwei" painted by Li Tang, a patriotic painter of the Southern Song Dynasty, reached a new level in character portrayal.
"Along the River During Qingming Festival"
Landscape painting emerged after the Wei and Jin Dynasties. In the Tang Dynasty, Li Sixun and Li Zhaodao father and son created the "Golden Landscape". Due to the use of minerals such as azurite and azurite, Pigments are used, and outlines are outlined with lacquer to create a resplendent effect on the picture. The painter Wang Wei advocated ink landscape painting, which is full of poetic and picturesque meaning, and is known as "painting in poetry, poetry in painting". During the Five Dynasties and the Song Dynasty, a large number of outstanding landscape painters emerged, including Jing Hao, Guan Tong, Dong Yuan, Ju Ran, Fan Kuan, Guo Xi, etc. At the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, the 18-year-old young painter Wang Ximeng created the long green landscape scroll "Thousands of Miles of Rivers and Mountains". This magnificent masterpiece, with meticulous and rigorous brushwork and magnificent colors, infinitely and affectionately praised the cruelty of the aristocrats who were suffering from the golden slave owners at that time. The ravaged motherland has great rivers and mountains. The paintings of Southern Song Dynasty painters Ma Yuan, Xia Gui and others depict the poetic scenery of Jiangnan. After the Yuan Dynasty, freehand landscapes in ink and wash became popular, and many painters had high literary accomplishments. They emphasized expressing their inner feelings and integrated poetry, calligraphy, and painting into their paintings. But later on, some people only imitated their predecessors, and their works became increasingly divorced from life. The painter Shi Tao of the Qing Dynasty proposed "searching all the strange peaks to make a draft", opposed to following the tradition and advocated creation, which injected new vitality into the development of landscape painting.
Flower and bird painting is another important type of traditional Chinese painting. It expresses the liveliness of flowers, birds and animals in nature and gives people a beautiful enjoyment. Ancient flower-and-bird painters attached great importance to observing life. For example, Yi Yuanji, a painter from the Song Dynasty, often went to deep mountains and dense forests for long periods of time to observe the real ecology of birds and animals in nature, so the animals in his paintings are very lifelike. Painters of past dynasties have left behind a large number of flower and bird paintings. Whether they are meticulous meticulous paintings or splash-ink freehand paintings, they are full of life and can inspire people's associations with life.
For example, old man Qi Baishi painted jumping frogs, floating fish and shrimps, and even various insects, birds and beasts. The vivid expressions and the unrestrained enthusiasm conveyed by the author through thick ink and heavy colors can not all inspire people to be vigorous and love life. Feelings!
2. An artistic wonder—Chinese calligraphy
Chinese calligraphy has a long history. With the development of society, in terms of calligraphy style, the trend is from complexity to simplicity, but the artistic techniques of calligraphy are ever-changing and diverse in style. After thousands of years of practice and creation, the rich treasures and excellent traditions of calligraphy art have been gathered.
Since ancient times, calligraphy styles can be roughly divided into oracle bone script, large seal script, small seal script, official script, regular script, running script and cursive script. These are words carved on animal bones. The structure, length, and size are slightly irregular, and the brushwork can be square or round, fat or thin. The money is sparse and sparse. It is extremely intricate, and its style may be majestic or vigorous, cheerful and full of ancient interest. A new system is formed from the origin of calligraphy.
After the Han and Wei dynasties, Chinese calligraphy truly became an art, and many famous calligraphers appeared. After years of hard study and practice, they have made many creations in the form of characters, expression methods, and the use of pen and ink. They are also able to combine the writing and ink with the calligrapher's own inner emotions, making this art reach a very high level. level.
"Preface to Lanting"
Wang Xizhi, known as the "Sage of Calligraphy" in the Jin Dynasty, learned calligraphy from the age of seven. Sometimes he practiced it with his fingers on clothes, sometimes under the moon Practice calligraphy with a hanging pen. After years of hard study and practice, his calligraphy art has reached a very high level. His calligraphy is as bright as spring clouds and as strong as curved iron. The graceful appearance is blended with the inner vigor. The famous "Lanting Preface" is his ink. Regrettably, it was originally lost for a long time, but the ones that are now circulated in the world are all copies. "Lanting Preface to the Plan" has 324 words, and there are 20 zigzag characters in the middle. However, these "zhi" characters are either structurally modified or written in different ways. The calligrapher Yan Zhenqing of the Tang Dynasty used skillful and clumsy techniques, which were simple and powerful; Liu Gongquan was graceful and graceful, sparse and bright; others such as Ouyang Xun, Yu Shinan, Suiliang and other calligraphers all created one thing in the world. The cursive calligraphy of Zhang Xu and Huai Su is as graceful as a giant, graceful as a swimming dragon, with continuous flying movements and unrestrained and enthusiastic writing style. Later, in the Song Dynasty, there were Su Shi, Huang Tingjian, Mi Shi, and Cai Xiang. Most of them were good at both sex and grass. They were either gentle and graceful, or plump and plump, or handsome and strong. They had various styles, and all had extremely high attainments. In the Yuan Dynasty, there was Zhao Meng, who was known as Zhao Ti because of his graceful and round shape. In the Ming Dynasty, there were Dong Qichang and others. From the Qing Dynasty to modern times, there are many people who have achieved great success.
3. Treasure house of Oriental art - the four major grottoes in my country
Around the fourth century AD, with the rise of Buddhism, Buddhist art also developed vigorously in our country. Hundreds of large and small grottoes scattered across the north and south have preserved countless exquisite ancient paintings and sculptures for us. They are precious treasures of oriental art.
The largest grotto group in my country is the Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes in Gansu Province. Starting from the second year of Jianyuan of the former Qin Dynasty (AD 366) until the Qing Dynasty, over 1,500 years, more than 480 caves were built densely on the 3-mile-long Mingsha Mountain wall. Each cave has painted statues and murals with Buddhist story themes. Speaking of Dunhuang murals, they not only have high painting skills, but also have an amazing number. If the murals of the Dunhuang Grottoes were connected side by side, they could form a large gallery more than 50 miles long. These murals are mainly from the Northern Wei Dynasty and the Tang Dynasty. The painting style of the Northern Wei Dynasty is rough and broad, and the content mainly describes the life story of Sakyamuni, the founder of Buddhism, and the story of "Buddha's life". A large number of popular themes in the Tang Dynasty were depicting various scenes of the fabricated Buddhist "Ultimate World", called "Pure Land Transformation". The Dunhuang Grottoes also preserve more than 2,000 painted Buddha statues, large and small, from various eras. The largest Buddha statue is 33 meters high. In addition, at the end of the 19th century, a large number of extremely valuable ancient scriptures, documents, paintings, etc. were discovered in a closed stone chamber of the Dunhuang Grottoes. This discovery shocked the world.
The Maijishan Grottoes in Tianshui County, Gansu Province is another large grotto. Since the fourth century AD, more than 200 caves have been built on this mountain in the past dynasties. They are all dug into the cliffs and connected by layers of plank roads. The Northern Dynasty painted Buddha statues in the Maijishan Grottoes are elegant, free and easy, and have a high artistic level. There are more than 7,000 existing ancient sculptures, as well as some murals and exquisite stone sculptures.
Datong City, Shanxi Province, was once the capital of the Northern Wei Dynasty established by the Xianbei people. In the second half of the 5th century AD, the magnificent Yungang Grottoes were excavated.
There are 53 main caves in existence, including majestic and solemn open-air Buddhas, as well as countless small Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, musicians, flying apsaras, etc. There are also pictures of Buddhist stories, which can be said to be "comic books" carved on stone. The ceilings and pillars are also carved with mythical animals and exquisite patterns. Entering the cave feels like you are in a mythical world.
At the end of the 5th century, the Northern Wei Dynasty moved its capital to Luoyang, Henan, and built a huge group of grottoes - Longmen Grottoes on Longmen on the bank of Yishui River. Later generations successively dug more than 2,000 caves and niches on the hard bluestone walls of Longmen Mountain and Xiangshan Mountain on the other side, and carved nearly 100,000 Buddha statues. The most outstanding masterpiece of Longmen Grottoes is a group of open-air stone sculptures from Fengxian Temple in the Tang Dynasty. It consists of the 13-meter-high Lusena Buddha and pairs of disciples, Bodhisattvas, kings, powerful men and donors. Lu Shena looked down at the people who came to worship with gentle and kind eyes. The expressions and temperaments of other statues were different. Longmen Grottoes also preserves more than 3,000 inscriptions, which are treasures in the art of calligraphy in my country.
4. Music in Ancient China
Our country’s music culture has a long and rich history. There are a large number of ancient music legends recorded and preserved in documents. Although there are some elements that are attached by later generations, they still allow us to understand the traces of the musical life of ancient people. The actual musical instruments discovered by archeology can fully illustrate the highly developed level of music culture at that time. In recent years, dozens of bone whistles have been unearthed at the Hemudu Cultural Site in Zhejiang. They were made by drilling holes into the limb bones of animals. They are the distant ancestors of flutes and flutes in later generations and date back about 7,000 years. A stone chime made from later times was unearthed at the Dongxiafeng site in Xia County, Shanxi Province. It can make a crisp and sweet sound when it is hung and struck. It dates back about 6,000 years. Taosun Xun in shapes of round, oval, fish and other shapes were discovered at Banpo Site in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, Jingcun Site in Wanquan County, Shanxi Province, and Huoshaogou Site in Yumen, Gansu Province. This is a wind instrument with one to three sound holes. . By playing and measuring them, we can get a glimpse of the germination and development of scales and modes in my country over the past four to five thousand years.
With the decline and turmoil of the country, the style and appearance of poetry in the late Tang Dynasty changed greatly. The poems of Du Mu and Li Shangyin have high artistic achievements, but they are quite sentimental. Some of the poems that indulge in sensuality also show the emptiness of the spirit. This tendency became more serious in the late Tang Dynasty. The poetic style of being poor in content and gorgeous in form almost pervades the entire poetry world. However, the poems of Pi Rixiu, Du Xunhe, and Lu Guimeng were able to reflect the profound social contradictions of the late Tang Dynasty with a realist critical edge.
There is also an ancient musical instrument that is familiar to people - chimes. According to records in "Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals", "Shan Hai Jing" and other books, it is said that the bell was made of hanging or drum extensions. Of course, this statement cannot be verified, but it shows that its history is very long. The earliest chime bells discovered so far are a group of three chimes unearthed in an ancient tomb in Pudu Village, Chang'an County, Shaanxi Province in 1954. They were made in the middle of the Western Zhou Dynasty. They are already melodic instruments composed of certain musical scales. In recent years, chime bells dating from the late Western Zhou Dynasty to the Warring States Period have been unearthed in Shaanxi, Henan, Anhui, Hubei, Sichuan, Shandong, Hebei and other places, and their number has gradually increased, consisting of 9, 11, 13, and 14 pieces. Some pitches are quite accurate and can form a complete pentatonic, hexatonic or heptatonic scale.
We take the chime bells unearthed from the Chu Tomb of the Warring States Period in Xinyang, Henan in 1957 and the chime bells unearthed from the tomb of Zeng Houyi in Suixian County, Hubei in 1978 as an example. There are 13 chimes unearthed from Chu tombs, each of which is engraved with exquisite patterns. The largest bell has 12 inscriptions on it. Based on its shape and inscription, archaeologists concluded that it was cast in the late Spring and Autumn Period or the early Warring States Period. This set of chimes is well preserved, with not only no scratches, but also no rust from years of corrosion. The bell body shines with a slightly black copper sheen. The largest one weighs 4.36 kilograms and is 30.2 centimeters high; the smallest one weighs 0.398 kilograms and is 12.93 centimeters high. They are placed on the bell frame in order of size, and the bell frame is 80.7 cm high. Ancient musicians sat or knelt on the ground and played. Today we can use it to measure centimeters. Ancient musicians sat or knelt on the ground and played. Today, we can use it to play complete hexatonic folk songs or accompaniment to song and dance.
The chime bells unearthed from the tomb of Zeng Houyi in Suixian County, Hubei Province are even more amazing: there are 64 pieces of them, hung in three layers on a copper-wood bell frame fully decorated with paintings. Is a bronze sword warrior. Their shape and weight are the smallest among the upper ones, the middle ones and the largest among the lower ones.
The smallest one weighs 2.4 kilograms and is 20.2 centimeters high; the largest one weighs 203.6 kilograms and is 153.4 centimeters high. Their total weight is over 2500 kg. The bell frame is usually 11.83 meters; the height is 2.73 meters. It’s very impressive and the scene is quite spectacular! The tomb was buried in 434 BC, more than 2,400 years ago. When unearthed, the bell frame also had playing tools: 6 T-shaped mallets and two painted long wooden sticks. Its excavation has attracted attention at home and abroad and is considered a major discovery in the history of world music.
Chimes
This set of chimes has very good musical performance and beautiful timbre. The main part of the melody played is the middle-level bell, which has 12 semitones and can be rotated. The total vocal range spans more than 5 octaves. Its scale structure is the same as the modern international C major 7-note scale. When it was exhibited at the Chinese History Museum in Beijing, it was played by six young men and women at the same time, and they could play music from ancient and modern times, both at home and abroad. Such as Japan's "Sakura", Chinese modern music "On the Prairie", "Chao Music" and "Chu Shang" adapted from ancient tunes. When played, the button bells and yong bells on the middle and upper floors are melodious and loud, while the yong bells on the lower floor are deep and grand. The rising and falling bells constitute beautiful music, which echoes in people's ears and is exciting. When foreign friends appreciated this set of precious cultural relics, they praised: "Only in China can you enjoy the music played by ancient instruments from 2000 years ago. This is a miracle in the history of world music."
With this set of chimes Also unearthed at the same time were stone chimes and bamboo and wooden musical instruments such as sheng, harp, panpipe, ten-stringed qin, zither, and drum, all of which were exquisitely made. There are inscriptions engraved on the chimes and chimes, which are precious materials for our study of ancient music theory. The excavation of musical instruments from the tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng revealed an underground music treasure house in front of us! It reflects the brilliant achievements made in my country's music theory and practice during the Warring States Period.
5. Exquisite arts and crafts
People often use beautiful words such as "exquisite", "ingenious", "seamless", "unique"... to describe China. of arts and crafts. Yes, our country's arts and crafts have a long and glorious historical tradition, and it has long been known as the "Land of Crafts". In the long historical process, our ancestors have utilized and transformed the gifts of nature. Whether it is stone, soil, bone, teeth, bamboo, wood, metal, or glass... they can all be created using local materials and applying techniques according to the materials. Arts and crafts works that meet people's material and cultural life needs.
Simuwu Ding
By the Shang Dynasty, our people had mastered metal craftsmanship - bronze smelting, alloying, molding and casting, etc., so civilization appeared in the world. bronze art. Archaeologists have provided us with tens of thousands of bronze artworks. When we visit museums and stand in front of these bronze handicrafts, we are often infected with a solemn and majestic aura. The honest and elegant shape and the meticulous, multi-layered relief-style flower decoration seem to have an attraction that makes people linger. This is the great creation of the handicraft slaves and the crystallization of their blood, sweat and life. The arts and crafts of China's feudal society are one of the important contents of the splendid culture of ancient my country. All areas of people's life, including clothing, food, housing, transportation, and use, have become areas for arts and crafts. The achievements are also multifaceted: the completion of the transition from pottery to porcelain; the popularization of traditional bronze crafts; the widespread use of emerging iron crafts application; the development of gold and silver joinery; the high technical achievements of lacquer craftsmanship; the full flowering of sculpture craftsmanship; the international reputation of silk weaving craftsmanship; etc. Here are a few examples:
In this era of great changes and great ambitions, another great singer emerged in the Southern Song Dynasty's poetry circle - Xin Qiji. He is not only about jade carving craftsmanship: it is said that more than 2,700 years ago, there was an experienced jade connoisseur named Bian He. One day, he found a stone in a deep mountain canyon. He concluded that this was a rare piece of jade, and if it could be cut open, it would surely be made into a rare jade carving handicraft. So he dedicated the jade to King Li. Don't you know that King Li listened to the mediocre opinion and said that this was just an ordinary stone. As a result, Bian He's contribution was not only not accepted, but according to the laws of the time, his left foot and right foot were amputated successively for the crime of "deceiving the emperor". This unfortunate and unfair experience made Bian He extremely sad. What made him sad was not that he had broken his foot, but that no one knew about this piece of jade. Later, when King Wen came to the throne, he ordered the jade workers to spend a lot of effort to cut the raw jade. Ah, the inner layer of the stone is indeed a shining treasure.
King Wen used this piece of jade to make an exquisite jade carving - Yubi, and named it "He's Bi". This is the story of "He's Bi is priceless" in the history of Chinese arts and crafts. Regarding silk weaving technology: Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty sent Zhang Qian as an envoy to the Western Regions to open up the "Silk Road". Through this passage, Chinese silk weaving craftsmanship spread from the east to the west, all the way to the east coast of the Mediterranean. The ancient Romans on the Mediterranean coast were very fond of silk fabrics from the Eastern "Serris (Silk) Kingdom". They spared no expense in precious gold, and passed through Persian merchants to exchange silk, weaving and embroidery with Eastern Seris (China). Why are silk fabrics from the Han Dynasty so attractive? Based on the physical materials unearthed in Xinjiang on the ancient Silk Road, especially the silk embroidery works unearthed in Mawangdui, Changsha, Hunan, it is not difficult to see that silk in the Han Dynasty is not only soft, shiny and smooth, easy to wear, but also has artistic effects. Many of the works have dense patterns and brilliant colors. Although they have been buried underground for two thousand years, they are still beautiful and moving clothes today.
In addition, the female poet Li Qingzhao also left us many popular masterpieces. Her life can be divided into early and late periods. Before crossing the river, she wrote many works that were full of love. After crossing the river, her style changed and she wrote many sad words, which not only reflected her personal misfortune, but also profoundly reflected the times. Unlucky.
About ceramic crafts: The Ming and Qing dynasties were the period with the highest technological achievements in the history of Chinese ceramic art, especially colored glazes and paintings, which not only had a wide variety of varieties, but also were truly ingenious in their craftsmanship. For example, celadon-glazed porcelain can be fired to produce a texture and color that is "like jade and ice", and it can also be fired to produce a porcelain color that is clear after rain. In the late 16th century AD, in a legendary opera by French writer Dufour, there was a shepherd named Seradon. He was dressed in beautiful blue clothes, leaving an unforgettable impression on people. It was at this time that Longquan celadon from Zhejiang Province, China, was introduced to France for the first time, and people couldn't put it down. The clear and translucent celadon glaze and the blue clothes of Sheratong both fascinated the beauty-loving French people. Therefore, people linked these two beautiful things together and humorously used the name "Seladon" to refer to and praise China's Longquan porcelain color.
Exquisite porcelain
The handicrafts created by our people are rich and colorful, both beautiful and practical, and are treasures in the history of human material culture.