Fu Sheng
Recently, the Cultural Protection Center of Anyue County, Sichuan Province, found a set of 22 rare Royal Bodhi Leaf Arhat paintings when sorting out the collection. The Bodhi Leaf Buddha painting that was awarded to An Yue during the Tongzhi Emperor period of the Qing Dynasty was given to Tao Shaoxu of Hanlin. There are 18 such works in the Forbidden City of Beijing, and the rest are collected in the National Palace Museum in Taipei, China, the Lingyin Temple in Hangzhou, the Anglo-American Museum, the Library, etc., no more than 20 volumes, and most of them are donated or acquired, and it is known that the royal gift is from the Qing Palace Ruyi Pavilion as the first set.
One of the royal Bodhi Leaf Arhat paintings found by the Anyue County Cultural Protection Center in Sichuan Province, when sorting out the collection, the Anyue Wenbao Center provided a picture
The millennial process of Bodhi leaf painting
The Bodhi tree is a large-leaf palm tree native to India, which was regarded as the tree of wisdom 2500 years ago because Shakyamuni preached under the Bodhi tree, and is called a sacred tree in Buddhism. The bodhi leaf is heart-shaped and has a delicate texture of the veins, which is a symbol of "great enlightenment". In ancient India, every monastery was planted with bodhi, the fallen leaves were regarded as holy relics by the monks, before the papermaking technology was popularized, the Indian monks made it together with the leaves of the bayonet tree, made into a Brahma clip (that is, overlapped with bay leaves, with two ends of the board, tied with rope) for writing scriptures, and later generations will be the Bodhi tree and the leaves of the bay leaf written and drawn Buddhist scriptures and images collectively called "Baye Sutra, Baye Painting".
"Journey to the West" in the Tang monks to take the scripture should also be the Baye Sutra, the last difficulty of the eighty-one difficulties in the novel: "Tongtian River encountered the weasel wet scripture book", the retrieved scripture was overturned by the turtle into the water to dry the plot is the author's misreading, such by the iron hairpin book of the Baye Sutra has the characteristics of waterproof and insect-proof, can be preserved for up to a thousand years. Xuanzang's self-written "Records of the Western Regions of the Tang Dynasty" has already written that "where you practice, study the dialect, engrave the mysteries, and the wonderful poor jinhui." So the words were female and yellow, feiying Tianzhu; Wen Chuan Beiye, Nie Gui Zhendan. ”
The earliest Bodhi tree in China was brought by the Indian monk Sanzang Master Of wisdom medicine in the first year of the Liangwu Emperor Tianjian (502), and was personally planted in the Wangyuan Temple (later renamed Guangxiao Temple) in Guangzhou.
During the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Bodhi Leaf and Baye Sutras were introduced to the capital Luoyang (present-day Luoyang) with Buddhism, and after the flourishing of papermaking, they were dedicated to Buddhism and circulated only among believers.
At the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, the four verses of the six ancestors of Zen Buddhism Huineng: "Bodhi has no tree, the mirror is not a platform, there is nothing originally, where to stir up dust" made the Bodhi tree famous in Middle-earth, some monks made the Bodhi leaf into a leaf vein painting book, painted The Holy Wu Daozi painted Buddha statues and bodhisattvas on it, and even more held the artistic value of this Buddhist sacred relic, which was collected by the White Horse Temple as the treasure of the town temple, setting off a nationwide wave of Bodhi leaf painting creation, and each temple invited painters to paint and write sutras on the Bodhi leaf, holding gifts to distinguished guests, and also collected by dignitaries and dignitaries. A painting in the hand is like declaring the mysterious truth under bodhichitta.
A Bodhi leaf painting takes at least a few months from material selection to completion. "Guangzhong Bodhi tree, take its leaves soaked in water, the leaf flesh is exhausted and the pulse exists alone, and the silk fabric (referring to the silk fabric such as light yarn) is not enough to be light", Zheng Gangzhong, a famous minister of the Southern Song Dynasty, once recorded the production method of Bodhi leaf painting, the Bodhi leaf without insect eyes, moderate size, mature leaf vein, after corrosion, drying, rinsing to make leaf veins, and then according to the natural shape, texture, stem vein, folds of the leaf, with traditional painting techniques to start drafting, coloring, more than 30 processes, before completion. Because of its texture like a yarn tent, folk are also known as yarn painting.
Bodhi leaf painting is divided into ink painting and painting, the content is based on Buddhist classics and figures, its technique is more skillful than traditional paper painting, wall painting, one is the limited area of painting, no more than 20 cm long, not more than 10 cm wide, the second is to follow the natural direction of the leaf vein, can achieve the "leaf in the painting, painting in the leaf, no painting outside the leaf is better than painting" Triple realm, is the top product. It is reported that the Ming Dynasty painter Ding Yunpeng's Bodhi leaf "Luohan Tu" is the most representative, "between the silk hair, and between the eyebrows" appears. It is for this reason that the Bodhi Leaf Album that occasionally appears in the contemporary auction market, the author of the dodo name "Ding Yunpeng" and the Qing Dynasty Ruyiguan painter "Ding Guanpeng" section.
In the Qing Dynasty, due to the love of the emperors for the theme of Luohan, the theme of Luohan painting flourished again. The Kangxi Emperor claimed to be an arhat, and the Qianlong Emperor was even more obsessed, he not only loved to paint arhats himself, but also included the luohan figures of the past dynasties hidden in the Forbidden City into the "Secret Hall Zhulin", and also ordered Ding Guanpeng, Yao Wenhan and other court painters to create a large number of arhat paintings, and examined the name and seat of the arhat, according to the "Tongwen Rhyme System" compiled by Zhang Jia Guoshi, the name of the arhat was re-established, and the seventeen and eighteen arhats were designated as descending dragon arhats and Fuhu arhats.
Ruyiguan painted arhats on Bodhi leaves, which originated from a special tribute presented to Qianlong by Yang Tingzhang, the governor of Liangguang, in the thirty-second year of Qianlong (1767), the album of the Prajnaparamita Heart Sutra written by Yang Tingzhang on 1,000 Bodhi leaves.
In the text, the origin, processing, characteristics, and presentation of bodhi leaves are mentioned: "There is a Guangxiao Temple in the northwest of the city of Guangzhou in central Guangdong,...... Today, the tree has been in place for thousands of years, and its leaves are soft and round. ...... The monks of the temple collected it, soaked in the cold spring for forty days, and the huan mao went to the water, the thin tendons were wrapped around, thinner than the wings of the cicadas, and the gifts were given to the distant people, which was better than the silk. It is contemplated that this tree comes from the Qi Ran and was planted in Aurora, so that the spiritual leaves spread the roots of goodness, like Bedo, proclaim the mysterious truth. I would like to cut it into a book and write a volume of the Prajnaparamita Sutra. It is accompanied by a thousand petals of leaves, and it is presented to the imperial view. ”
Qianlong, who was a firm believer in Buddhism, received this sacred relic, cherished it, and collected the scriptures in the Zhong Pu Palace, and after dealing with the government, he often took out the imperial records and gave birth to the wish to make a set of the same scriptures by hand. The following year (1768), Qianlong made a Bodhi leaf note according to the production procedures provided by Yang Tingzhang, on which he personally wrote the Prajnaparamita Heart Sutra, and ordered the Inner Court painter to carefully draw ink images such as Guanyin Dashi, frame them into a book, and use the imperial seal with a letter sleeve.
From this point on, Qianlong used the Bodhi leaf leaf transplanted from Hainan in the Yinghua Hall during the MingShen Sect to make a painting by the painter of ruyiguan, because the arhat did not enter nirvana, extending the life expectancy with divine power, since the ancient arhat was regarded as a symbol of divine power and longevity, and on the birthday of the empress dowager, he drew the Bodhi Leaf Arhat album as a birthday gift, which made the empress dowager very fond of it.
After that, the office regularly produced the Bodhi Leaf Painted Album for the Emperor's reward. Later, more such Bodhi leaf painted albums were rewarded, and folk calligraphers and painters also began to draw Bodhi leaf albums, and many folk painters entrusted them to imitate such albums under the name of famous court masters to raise the price.
Until the end of the Qing Dynasty, such works are still emerging in an endless stream, in addition to the temple collection, the folk also often give each other Arhat paintings to celebrate the birthday, tieling museum in 1987 in the market to acquire a set of 18 Bodhi Luohan ink album, the cover has "Fushou Boundless" four big characters, is the use of congratulations.
Anyue's secret collection of royal Arhat Bodhi leaf paintings
An Yue's set of 22 Bodhi Leaf Arhat paintings was given to An Yue during the Tongzhi Emperor's reign as a royal gift to Tao Shaoxu of Hanlin.
Tao Shaoxu, Zi Zanchen, a native of Anyue County, Sichuan. Kiyomichi Kōkōko (1844) was raised to the rank of Shigeru Kotashi (1844) and a member of the Kojiko clan (1850). Shu Jishi of the Tohanlin Academy successively served as Gaomi County and Zhi County of Licheng County in Shandong Province, and later promoted to zhizhou in Linqing Prefecture and the prefect of Jinan Prefecture. Shi Zaiqi is "familiar with the people's feelings, only to be prepared"
In the sixth year of Tongzhi (1867), the anti-Qing peasant armed forces attacked near Jinan, and the provincial city was under martial law. Day and night, he went out to inspect the city, and with kind words of condolences to the laborers, everyone was excited, his courage was multiplied, and the city defense was solid. The story of his diligence and love for the people is widely circulated, and he died in his office due to overwork and illness.
His family brought his beloved objects back to Anyue, and the descendants disassembled the originally bound Bodhi Arhat albums and framed them in glass photo frames, which were hung in the ancestral hall as heirlooms for viewing.
After 1951, these paintings were handed over to the Anyue County Cultural Center for safekeeping, and later transferred to the Anyue County Cultural Relics Administration Office (the predecessor of the current Anyue Cultural Protection Center). This is the only set of Orderly Paintings of the Qing Palace Bodhi Leaf Group besides the Forbidden City in Beijing.
This set of Arhat paintings is based on a green magnetic note, mounted on the Bodhi leaf, surrounded by yellow aya, except for 2 paintings of the Four Heavenly Kings and the Virtuous Fortune Boy Worship Guanyin and Protector Vedic Vedic, the remaining 18 pages are all Arhat figures.
In addition to one of the 18 Arhat paintings, which is a single statue of Fuhu Arhat, the remaining 17 paintings are all themed paintings, and the palm-sized leaf surfaces are painted by as many as 8 people and as few as 6 people, a total of 120 arhat figures, with different postures, different looks, and no hair, vivid. Mountain stone ancient wood, rare birds and animals, clouds and mist heavenly palace, a variety of magic tools dotted among them, the paintings are exquisite in pen and ink, gorgeous in color, highly decorative, and the mood is popular but imitates the ancient style. Mineral pigments are still bright over the centuries and are fairly well preserved.
Refers to the mirage in the collection of the Cultural Protection Center of Anyue County, Sichuan
Each painting depicts a group of luohan life or practice scenes, with themes such as "luohan crossing the sea", "de heavy descending dragon", "white ape offering fruit", "patching the back", "finger mirage", "flying in the sky", "Dao Gao Fu Hu", "mana taming lion", etc. According to the needs of the content, the different images of the arhat are combined and constructed to echo each other, and the bold collision of green landscapes and cold and warm tones with heavy brush strokes makes the picture both characteristic and ancient and interesting.
Compared with the image of the Arhat who took the lead in the previous dynasty, the image of the Arhat painted by this set of Bodhi leaves has been completely localized and secularized, except for a few Hu XiangFanxiang, the Arhats or the closed eyes and chanting, or whispering, or chanting, or meditating on things, or displaying their divine powers, as if the sentient beings in life are frozen in the leaves, containing the warmth of real life.
Supplementing the back of the cultural protection center of Anyue County, Sichuan Province
For example, in the picture of "Supplementing the Back", from left to right, the kneeling arhat, the holding arhat, the long-eyebrow arhat, the contemplative arhat, the back-scratching arhat and the supplementary arhat are drawn from left to right, an old pine with a straight middle leaf vein, and 7 arhats sit on the grass under the cliff, and the figures sit opposite each other. The four fingers of the robe Arhat picked up the needle and thread in his right hand, the left hand brace was sewn and repaired, and his eyes fell on the solemn-looking knee-hugging Arhat on the left side, holding the sutra arhat holding the red scripture in both hands and concentrating on only half of his face, holding the arhat on the side of the side looking at the distance, looking out at the painting. The long-eyebrow arhat in the middle twisted two eyebrows behind the tree to make a humorous gesture, and seemed to be lamenting that the practice had not yet achieved the right results until he was old, and the contemplative arhat on the side leaned on the pine tree without being disturbed, and the contemplative thoughts in the practice were like sleeping and hoarding, and the left hand of the arhat grabbed the itch, scratched his back, and his face revealed a sense of comfort that he had picked up the itch.
The author uses different facial colors to show the respective ages, personalities and cultivation behaviors of the arhats, the expressions of the characters are realistic and vivid, the personalities are distinct and harmonious, and they are completely a true portrayal of the daily life of living monks.
Although this plot is also found in the Bodhi leaf paintings hidden by other institutions, if you compare them carefully, there are huge differences between the composition, character sketching, color use and demeanor, and it can be seen that the skill of the painters of the RuyiGuan in the Qing Palace is very different from the painting style drawn by the folk general city painters in the early years of the late Qing Dynasty.
The global museum houses only 20 volumes
Bayeux Buddha paintings in the Tang and Song dynasties have long ceased to exist, and what they have collected today are all Qing Dynasty works, and such albums are limited, one is that bodhi leaves were only produced in guangzhou or the inner court of the Qing Palace at that time, which is not easy to obtain, second, the painting carrier is organic matter, and there are few well-preserved people, and the third is that such paintings are mostly hidden in the court, noble homes or monasteries.
Bodhi Leaf Arhat Paintings, Collection of the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, USA
Bodhi Leaf Arhat Paintings from the Metropolitan Museum of Art Collection
Bodhi Leaf Arhat Paintings from the British Library Collection
Bodhi Leaf Arhat Paintings from the National Library of Denmark
According to the author's incomplete statistics, there are currently 7 foreign collection institutions that have a Bodhi Leaf Arhat album or a single painting, namely the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, the Yale University Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the British Library, the Australian National Library, the Danish National Library and the National Museum of Kyoto, Japan. The Chinese Nationalities Library, Beijing Art Museum, Hebei University, Hunan Museum, Tieling Museum, etc. have collections, and famous temples such as Lingyin Temple, Wanshou Temple and Wutaishan Xiantong Temple have also been partially preserved, and the "Solemn Three Treasures" in Lingyin Temple are also 22.
Among them, there are 12 sets (pieces) of painted paintings and 7 sets (pieces) of white paintings known to be bodhi leaf paintings.
Bodhi Leaf Arhat Painting Collection of the Palace Museum
In Addition to the "Ming Dynasty Painting Baye Buddha Statue Album" collected by the Hunan Museum, which is the old collection of the Nanyue Hengshan Zhusheng Temple, the rest are mostly acquisitions, although the content is similar, but the standard is uneven. The National Palace Museum in Taipei contains 30 paintings in one volume, and the content is also 500 Luohan themes. According to the inscription, gao Shiqi painted it when he was in Ruyiguan, and has the handwriting of Zhang Taiyan in 1930, the Taoist "Jade Shu Jing" written by Nijin on the back page, and the album covered the book "The Complete Book of Bodhi Leaf Arhats". However, this album is not from the old collection of the Qing Palace, but was donated to entrepreneurs on the island in the 1980s. Looking at his costumes and painting styles, they are quite different from those hidden by the Forbidden City and Anyue in Beijing, and whether they are from the Qing Palace is debatable.
According to the Bodhi Leaf Album currently collected by institutions at home and abroad, such paintings are generally bound in butterfly albums, with the contents of one frame of eighteen arhats, and there is also a multi-figure five-hundred-arhat, and the leaves are the corresponding arhat inscriptions or scriptures, and there are also concave leaflets dug out according to the shape and size of the Bodhi leaf.
An Yue this set of Bodhi Leaf Arhat album should have sprinkled gold letters or sutras, poems to sign, and then add brocade binding, the original book or had inscriptions, seals and other objects, at that time the painters of the office, due to the low grade, the paintings produced, in addition to the chronology and the year number, generally did not fall into the name. Since it has long been divided into single pages and kept in frames, other information cannot be verified. According to the order of similar albums, the first and second openings should be the four heavenly kings, and the last one is the boy worshiping Guanyin and Veda.
The five generations of Martial Monks of An Yue arrived at Fu Sheng's photo
According to the Annatsu County Chronicle, bayeux scriptures were once hidden in many local monasteries, but they have long disappeared with the changes of the dynasty. Although this set of Bodhi Leaf Arhat albums hidden in Anyue is not from a local monastery, the most systematic and complete arhat statues in China from the early Tang Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty still exist in more than 400 local grottoes, such as the martial monk horn figure under the sixteen arhat niches in the five dynasties of YuanjueDong and the eighteen arhats of the Ming Dynasty in the Great Pan Ruodong Are treasures in the history of Arhat sculpture, plus this set of Qing Palace Arhat albums, which enriches and expands the material materials for studying the evolution of Chinese arhat themes.
Bodhi leaf painting is a special form in Chinese Buddhist art, is a worthy of study of the subject and carrier of Buddhist painting, has not yet received due attention, collation and research, whether in the art of painting, or religious culture and political rule have had a positive significance for many areas of Qing Dynasty society at that time, their artistic value, cultural relics value and historical value can not be ignored, but also the process of Buddhist sinification of artistic treasures.
Editor-in-Charge: Li Mei
Proofreader: Yan Zhang