When I first saw "Auspicious Crane Picture", I was directly attracted by the large area of ??blue sky on the right side. This "blue sky after rain" that Zhao Ji has pursued throughout his life is really eye-catching. However, has "Ruihe Tu" only relied on this legendary touch to survive for thousands of years? Let’s start from the left side of this work.
To be precise, this work is not just a painting, it consists of two parts. The maker first draws an ink line vertically on the left side of the center of the silk surface. The left side is used for inscriptions and the right side is used for painting. The characters on the left are the "thin gold style" that Huizong was proud of and created. It tells a strange event on the sixteenth day of the first lunar month in the second year of Zhenghe (1112 AD). This is also the content of the painting on the right. At the end of the inscription and postscript, it says "imperial" means that both the preface and the seven-character poem were written by Zhao Ji alone, "imperial painting" means that Zhao Ji completed the painting on the right alone, and "binshu" means that both the poems and the text were written by Zhao Ji himself. Finally, he signed the monogram "One World, One Person". In short, people in the Song Dynasty 900 years ago knew that important things should be said three times: everything in this work was done by Emperor Zhao Ji alone.
But why does Zhao Ji, who has been in power for twelve years, take this matter so seriously? He made it very clear in the preface and seven-character poem:
The text on the left is the key to understanding the picture on the right. Both the preface and the poem tell a story, and this story is called auspicious based on four basic factors. One, clouds. The preface of the poem refers to "clouds", and the poem refers to "caini". Secondly, the preface to the poem is called "Duanmen" and the poem is called "Guling", which means the roof of the palace building. The end gate of the Imperial Palace in the Northern Song Dynasty was the Xuande Gate, and its status was equivalent to the Meridian Gate of the Forbidden City in the Ming and Qing dynasties. Third, white cranes, the "group of cranes" in the preface of the poem, and the "fairy birds" in the poem, are flying on the Duanmen. Fourth, the viewer. This is not the viewing of one person, but the collective viewing of the common people in Tokyo, and they are looking up. This is the most important point. The so-called "auspiciousness" is the "certificate" given by God after seeing the emperor's wise rule, and this certificate must be seen by the majority of people and the common people. If it is not seen, it cannot be called "auspicious". This is what is written in the preface of the poem, "Everyone looks up and looks at it", "Everyone in the capital looks up and looks up".
What is worth recalling is that the entire auspicious development process was also watched by the people of Bianliang. "Everyone looked up and looked at it." What the people saw was the auspicious clouds rising from the "Duanmen", the connection point between the palace and the lives of the people in Tokyo, and then the cranes as an extra came belatedly. The crane group's performance made the people in the capital "all look up and look forward to it". At first, the number of spectators was described as "people", but later it was exaggerated to include every "citizen". At first, the viewer just "looked up" (looking up), but later the whole body moved - "Ji Shou" (kneeling down and looking up), which showed that the auspiciousness was fully seen and understood.
The ultimate beneficiary of this drama was of course Emperor Huizong Zhao Ji, but he did not mention whether he was present. But for him, it doesn't matter whether he is present or not. What is important is that his people have seen it. This is why the last line of the poem is "The reason is to look forward to the common people."
So is this painting a day scene or a night scene? I think the scene at night is more likely. The preface to the poem mentions that "the evening of the 16th day of the first lunar month of 1112 AD" refers to the evening of the 16th day of the first month of the Yuan Dynasty by Zheng He and Renchen. "Xi" here means night, similar to "Qixi Festival", rather than the sunset in the evening. According to the information from the Song Dynasty, the Lantern Festival was a grand festival at that time, and the whole people had a five-day holiday. According to "Tokyo Menghualu", after New Year's Day, Kaifeng Prefecture began to prepare for the large-scale Lantern Festival Lantern Festival, which was located on the Royal Street outside the palace gate, directly opposite Duanmen Xuande Tower. At that time, the imperial street was filled with all kinds of colorful lanterns, and there was a lot of people and gongs and drums. The emperor of the Northern Song Dynasty would visit Xuande Tower on the fifteenth night of the first lunar month for the people to pay their respects and enjoy themselves with the people. However, in the Huizong Dynasty, because Zhao Ji believed in Taoism and proclaimed himself "the Taoist Emperor", and the Shangyuan Festival was an important Taoist festival, Zhao Ji was very busy during the Shangyuan Festival. "Tokyo Menghua Lu" records that the emperor of the Huizong Dynasty would not show up at Xuande Tower until the 16th day of the first lunar month, because on the 14th day of the first lunar month he had to "drive to the Five Mountains to Yingxiangchi" and on the 15th day of the Lantern Festival, he had to go to the Royal Taoist Temple to "go to the Imperial Taoist Temple." Shangqing Palace" and returned to Da Nei very late. On the sixteenth day of the first lunar month, the emperor finally did not have to go out and celebrated the Lantern Festival with the people at night. The scene in "Ruihe Tu" takes place at this moment.
The most festive and important festival of the year is definitely when people all over the city flock to the Xuande building to see the face of the empire’s supreme ruler. But even if the emperor appears every year, there is no guarantee that the people will be there. I can squeeze into the bottom of Xuande Tower. It is conceivable that when many people lamented that they could not see the emperor or crowded under the Xuande Tower but still could not see the emperor, a strange scene appeared. This auspicious scene perfectly replaced the emperor's appearance. When the Imperial Street of Bianliang, the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty, was brightly lit and the people were led to shout "Long Live", auspicious clouds and cranes suddenly appeared in the night sky of Tokyo. It can be imagined how excited and surging the mood of the people at that time was, and how satisfied Zhao Ji was in his heart.
Unfortunately, we cannot find other written records in the existing documents that confirm that the auspicious event occurred in the capital of the Song Dynasty on the evening of the 16th day of the first lunar month 909 years ago. However, 15 years after this work was completed, the Jin people went south, and the Northern Song Dynasty, like the "Long Live" that resounded through Tokyo that night, suddenly disappeared.
Written in Pilinganjifang on November 19, 2021