Investigation and analysis of temple murals in ancient villages in Datong area
"Beauty and the Times (Medium)" 2011 No. 10 Article/ Wang Ce
Abstract: Mural painting has a very long history of development in China, and has formed its own unique style. Chinese murals are rich in content and have great influence, so they are called "the country of murals". This article mainly introduces the folk murals in the Datong area. There are many murals left in the Datong Liaojin period, but they are not well preserved, because they have been seriously damaged in the course of time. Murals mostly exist in small temples in ancient villages, and this article discusses the background and artistic expression of temple murals in ancient villages in Datong area.
1, mural
Mural painting is a form of expression of painting, with the general rules and elements of painting, such as composition, color, shape, line, etc. Therefore, the author of the mural must have a strong foundation in painting in order to create a good mural. In history, many mural creators have been masters of painting and folk painters with thick painting skills. Muralists can only draw very lively murals if they are often sketched, so that they will not be conceptualized. However, there is a big difference between murals and other paintings, because the murals are closely related to the building, the murals are painted in the building, with the building, the mural can be well protected; once the building collapses and destroys, the mural will inevitably not exist. At the same time, the murals can also express the meaning of the existence of the building, so what the building is used for, and what kind of impact its construction has on the people or things around it. Murals are an important symbol of architecture and can enhance the artistic atmosphere of the building. The content, form, and style of the murals painted by the painter must coincide with the function of the building to which he belongs. Murals and architecture are unified, and only when they are placed in the building can the reader appreciate its wonders. Since the diversity of the building reflects the different meanings, the form of the frescoes is also diverse.
Mural painting has a very long history of development in China and has formed its own unique style. Chinese murals are rich in content and have great influence, so they are called "the country of murals". Mural painting is the backbone of Chinese painting, and when Lu Xun commented on the fine tradition of Chinese painting, he particularly emphasized the need to learn the depth and strength of Chinese carving, the splendid and flowing lines of Buddha painting in Tang painting, and the meticulousness of Song painting. These are the traditions of frescoes. Later, from painting on the wall to painting on silk paper, it gradually formed what is called Chinese painting today. [1]
2. Folk murals
As a kind of folk art, folk murals are developed in life, and are a cultural expression that serves people's real lives, and the creation of folk murals is always around the consciousness and feelings of the people, as well as the production, living conditions and customs in the environment in which they live.
Most of the craftsmen who created these folk murals were mainly male peasants, citizens, and folk artists of craftsmen, who created folk art as a means of making a living. Through their generations, with the continuous changes in time and space, enriching and innovating their connotations, they have gradually created many works with regional characteristics. These works can reflect the local cultural atmosphere, that is, reflect the spirit and temperament of a nation. [2]
3. Background and artistic expression of temple murals in ancient villages in Datong area
(1) Background
This article mainly introduces the folk murals in the Datong area. The murals of the Datong Liaojin period have left a lot of folk behind, but they are not well preserved, mainly because they have been seriously damaged in the course of time. Most of the murals exist in small temples in ancient villages. In recent months, Zuoyun County, Datong City, has discovered many tribal sites from the Liaojin period during the third national census of cultural relics. Datong, as the capital of the Liao-Jin Dynasty, Xijing, was not only the political, economic and cultural center of the north, but also an important border military stronghold. The establishment of Xijing was the product of the contradiction between the Liao state and the Western Xia. Because Datong is located in the north of Shanxi Province, with an altitude of more than 1000 meters, it is located on the Loess Plateau, with undulating hills and ravines, it is a typical loess hilly area, bordering Inner Mongolia. The Datong region has a temperate continental climate with four distinct seasons, and due to the high terrain, the wind and sand are particularly large all year round, and the precipitation is small. According to historical records, there are many natural disasters in the Datong area, mainly drought, wind, snow, insect and other disasters. Coupled with the frequent wars and chaos for many years, the people's lives are in dire straits. Based on this background, the normal life of the local people is not guaranteed, and because the working people at the lowest level of society have no ability to resist, people usually have to pin their expectations on God's help. Therefore, the temples enshrined became their only spiritual sustenance.
The Mawang Temple in Xin Village, Santun Township, Zuoyun County, Datong City, was built by local villagers during the Liaojin Period, and according to the local people who visited it, the reason for building the Mawang Temple was closely related to local customs and the development of agriculture. At that time, people were ignorant and backward in their thinking that only the gods could bless them, and that the gods could rule over everything. In many places in China, mawang temples have been built, and many mawang temples will enshrine sculptures of ma wang ye and other gods, and in this ma wang temple, it is in the form of murals to shape the image of ma wang ye. At the same time, agricultural production on the development of murals, but also played a great role in promoting, most of the content of murals are used to describe the development of agriculture, in fact, folk murals for the people do not have any practical significance, because most of them do not understand art, they really focus on survival. However, for scholars who specialize in geography and folklore, it has a high historical value. [3] Through the study of the murals of MawangMiao in Xin Village, Santun Township, it can be truly understood that the local comprehensive culture in the Liaojin period, including time and space characteristics, production, life activities, language, regional characteristics, customs, costumes, systems, etc. The creation of murals not only directly expresses the original intention of the creators, but also indirectly conveys information other than the creation of murals.
(2) Artistic expressions
Located in the northwest of the village, the Temple of Mawang in Xincun is a temple dedicated to the legendary Taoist figure Ma Wangye. Because it was built by the lower classes of the people, the temple is about the same size as the houses where the ordinary people live, there are three huts, and the whole temple is made of wood, and the outer layer of the wooden structure is wrapped in thick adobe. The eaves are mostly bucket arch wooden frame structures, and are supported by four wooden columns. The beams under the eaves are also carved with flowers, birds, fish and insects of different shapes, and the left and right sides of the temple protrude from two walls of about 1 meter long at an angle of 90 degrees to the temple, and the flowers and birds carved from stones are used on them, which are very exquisitely made. The temple's murals are mainly painted on the loess layer, and the east, west and south walls of the three temples are full of murals, and the frescoes on the south wall are almost all peeled off, leaving only a small part of the edge. The murals are very rich in content and exquisitely painted. Most of the contents of the murals are gods worshipped by the people. The main temple is slightly larger than the east and west rooms, and the murals on the east and west walls cover the entire wall, about 3 meters high and 4.5 meters long, showing the activities of various figures in Taoist mythology. On the east wall, there are mainly scenes of various gods and immortals rushing to the heavenly court to worship, the overall composition is very rigorous, the fresco scene is grand, there are many figures, dense distribution, and different forms. The whole picture is dominated by white clouds, the costumes of the characters are mostly red, blue, and black, and the characters in the painting are either sideways, or looking up, or riding horses, or holding weapons, or playing musical instruments, and there is no similarity. The lines in the picture are basically short-term, the facial lines of the characters are rich, and the clothing lines are twisted and turned, which vividly shows the personality characteristics of each character.
The western wall depicts a scene of Ma Wangye leading the gods to surrender demons. Ma Wangye is a figure in Taoist mythology, with three eyes and four arms, which are recorded in the "Journey to the South" and "Journey to the North". In our daily life, people sometimes demonstrate with each other and say: "Who does not know that my Ma Wang Ye has three eyes", from which it can be seen that the legendary Ma Wang Ye is very powerful. Ma Wangye is also known as Huaguang, Huaguang The Great, and Huaguang Tianwang, and is one of the most powerful gods and immortals in Taoist mythology. According to the "Journey to the South", Hua Guang was born in danger by Princess Lingzhi who was chased by the Dragon King, and Hua Guang was adopted by the Akatsuki Daisen and learned the Strange Technique. In the process of saving his mother, Hua Guang eliminated many demons and eliminated harm for the people. Because of Hua Guang's bravery, the Jade Emperor made Hua Guang the "Heavenly King". However, Hua Guang did not want to be an official in the Heavenly Palace, so he returned to the human world to eliminate harm for the people. Therefore, out of their devotion to Ma Wangye, people will worship him in the folk to beg for a double harvest, a long life, smooth wind and rain, and abundant grain, so as to eliminate various disasters for the people. The overall murals are all based on floating clouds as the background, and the composition of the murals is orderly and dense and suitable. The whole picture features Ma Wangye as the main body, lined with retinues and soldiers. Ma Wangye was refreshed and majestic, holding a bow and arrow in both hands, holding a double knife in both hands, riding a royal horse, and glaring at the demons in front of him, and the demons in front of him were all panicked and frightened by Ma Wangye's momentum. Ma Wangye wears a red robe, the streamers and the decorations on the body are painted with stone blue and stone green flat, and the volume of the clothes and face is blended along the cloth lines and facial lines, making the characters more three-dimensional, and the whole picture is more dynamic.
The murals of the eastern and western temples are also mainly Based on Taoist content, including the Antarctic Immortal Emperor, the Eastern Taiwei, the Western Taiwei, the Southern Taiwei, the Northern Taiwei, the Creator Immortal, the Fuso Emperor, the Arctic Ziwei Emperor, and so on. The frescoes in these two rooms are different from the frescoes in the main temple, the painter divides the walls into two layers, each floor is divided into many grid-like pictures, the upper layer of each compartment is painted with some Taoist mythological stories, the lower layer is the above mentioned gods, and the top of each grid also indicates the story of the fresco and the names of the gods. The proportions of each character are similar to those of real people, and the lines are richly varied and densely combined, which properly reflects the spiritual outlook of each character. [4]
The colors of these murals are mainly red, stone blue, stone green, all of which are pure natural mineral pigments, although the age is very old, but the color of the picture is still very bright. From the picture analysis, most of the murals are mainly flat painted, and the parts are carefully rendered. The lines in the picture are smooth and changeable, especially the expression changes of the character's face, the beard and hair are portrayed very vividly and naturally, and the detailed rendering of the character's facial lines can highlight the character characteristics of the character, so that the character image appears more vivid, which can reflect the painter's deep understanding of the character image expressed. At the same time, the painter exaggerated the portrayal of the main characters in the composition of the murals, so that the main characters occupied most of the picture. The whole mural has a strong momentum and a strong shock.
4. Summary
The construction of these temples is inevitably related to the local geographical location and the social customs of the time, but more importantly, the reverence for ghosts and gods that exists in the ideology of the people in backward villages, all of which make the folk murals well inherited. But for farmers facing the loess with their backs to the sky, the concept of murals is not deeply understood in their minds at all, they just hope that these gods in the murals can help them solve the problems they encounter in survival.
In the course of historical changes, with the improvement of people's ideological understanding, the murals of worship have gradually faded in people's minds, and the Mawang Temple in the village has quietly withdrawn from people's vision. Through local inspections and visits to local residents, it was learned that Mawangmiao was later used as a granary by local villagers to hoard grain, so that it was spared during the Cultural Revolution. Today, the Temple of Mawang has been renovated to a certain extent by the local government, but this is far from enough to protect the folk murals. The inheritance of folk mural art is the responsibility of each of us, because it is a precious artistic wealth in our country, and it needs the attention of each of our young people who love art.