What does life mean to human beings? Is it a short journey, or a long effort? I think no one can explain. People in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods could not explain it, so the gods in the sky were born.
It came from Hunan and was found in an ancient tomb in Changsha, and for it, time has long since stood still, even if its body is mutilated by the movement of molecules. Mutilation, for the moon, is a different kind of beauty. However, for a painting, it is equivalent to the end of a beautiful life, even if we see it through the window, we will still feel admiration and awe.
It comes from the Chu kingdom, a place full of divine culture. In order to explain life, people created Shaosi Life; in order to explain why the sun existed, people created The Eastern Emperor Taiyi; in order to explain the arrival of the spring wind, people created Dongjun; in order to explain why people died and where they went after death, people painted this painting again.
The owner of the Chen Family Dashan Chu Tomb should be a person with some identity, at least he used the starting veil. We don't know his story anymore, but through this painting we seem to understand what he wants, and he wants to live better after reincarnation. As most chu people think, as long as the dust is removed, they will get eternal life. Even eternal life is so unrealistic for people. The so-called eternal life actually refers to the relative stillness of time, which seems to be useless, but in fact it is moving. It was as if the owner of the tomb had finished his journey of time, and we continued to toil and struggle to survive on the land.
There is a witch in the painting who summons the dragon and phoenix to guide the soul of the tomb owner to the sky. Wu is the most typical representative of Chu culture, the monarch controls the overall situation with witches, and the people seek blessings with witches. Even in the Chu kingdom, the power of the gods is infinite, but they still have relatively materialistic requirements for the gods. Some people long for grain abundance, some people long for the perfection of their children, and some people are eager to enter the Wuji Avenue.
Since ancient times, there have been many theories about the origin of human beings, the most worthy of belief is the combination of yin and yang. Physicists believe that matter originates from positive and negative ions; Taoist representatives believe that Taiji gives birth to two instruments, and yin and yang are the beginning of all things; and mythology has compiled many different ancestors for human beings, such as Adam and Eve, such as the Izanagi brothers and sisters, and then such as Fuxi Nuwa.
If it is said that the two great gods in the "Fuxi Nuwa Tu", the lower body is animal mimetic, intertwined, symbolizing the beginning of life. Then, the dragon and phoenix that rises in the air in the "Character Dragon and Phoenix Diagram" represents the song of "Summoning Souls" brought about by the distant departure of yin and yang.
Summoning souls, like setting up a king's room, the "Figures of Dragons and Phoenixes" records a special burial custom of the Chu state in the Warring States period. People used to draw the voice and smile of the deceased on the flag to wish the deceased an early ascension to the immortality after death.
However, in the end, the word "Summoning Souls" became Qu Yuan's funeral song, and the great poet could not save the Chu State, and could only return to Miluo with the old customs of the Chu State. Just as the tomb owner prayed in "Figures of the Dragon and Phoenix" could not really become immortals, only thin paintings silently advanced the time when Chinese used the brush.
As the longest-running painting in the mainland, "Figure Dragon and Phoenix" is definitely a treasure passed down from generation to generation. Its accurate shape, smooth lines and brilliant colors are worthy of being another physical evidence of the budding to maturity of Chinese painting art.