Today is the Lantern Festival, I wish everyone a happy holiday ~ ~ once the traditional festival, I can't help but turn over the "New Catalogue of Ancient Paintings", it just so happens that in the book, Teacher Huang Xiaofeng helped us see a Lantern Festival 800 years ago.
When you first look at this painting, you may not think of the Lantern Festival, but as the author tells you, you will slowly find that from a pair of shoes you can infer the identity of the characters in the painting, from the surrounding scenery you can infer the time in the painting, and more importantly, behind a painting actually carries a political vision that we cannot see through at a glance.
Of course, what makes us "jealous" the most is: "In the Southern Song Dynasty, almost every year during the Lantern Festival, the government had to follow the practice of the Northern Song Dynasty and hold a Lantern Festival outside the palace gate. Hundreds of officials generally have to take a holiday for three to five days, and ordinary people can also come to the gate of the palace to watch the Lantern Festival. "The happiness of the people in the painting can no longer be concealed.
Part of "Ta Ge Tu"
Lantern Festival in 1220:
"Ta Ge Tu" and the Imperial City Ruixiang
This article is excerpted from the "New Catalogue of Ancient Paintings" by Huang Xiaofeng, and the content has been abridged
One of the largest paintings under the name of the Southern Song Dynasty court painter Ma Yuan is the "Ta Ge Tu" in the Palace Museum in Beijing. People often see it as a painting that celebrates the imperial power of the Southern Song Dynasty, but there are few convincing interpretations of why the Southern Song emperor needed such a painting, what the specific meaning of the painting was, and why the painter created such a scene.
Ma Yuan "Ta Ge Tu" axis Silk color 192.5 cm×11 cm Palace Museum
The "Ta Ge Tu" is 192.5 cm in length and 111 cm in width, which can be regarded as a large silk book in the existing Landscape Paintings of the Southern Song Dynasty. The artist's drop is clearly visible in the stone block in the lower right corner of the picture, but it is slightly different from the drop on his other works. In addition to the painter's signature, there is also an inscription poem in the upper part of the picture, with the two seals of "Treasure of the Imperial Book" and "Gengchen", which are from the emperor Song Ningzong at that time. According to the seal of "Gengchen", it can be known that the inscription poem was written in the thirteenth year of The Song Ningzong Jiading (1220). The age of the painting should also be this year.
Heaven and earth
From the perspective of the picture structure, "Treading Song Map" is obviously divided into two parts. The lower part is the ridge (old work), the singing crowd, and the boulder. The upper part is a building surrounded by a towering stone mountain and pine forest. The two parts are almost separated by a cloud of white space. If it weren't for the willow tree in the lower part with a branch inserted into the upper part, we could have divided this work into two pieces. Why did the painter arrange the picture with such a "blunt" division?
We will see that the painter consciously creates a parallel relationship between the upper and lower parts. For example, on the left side of the upper part of the picture, there is a towering stone mountain that plunges straight into the clouds, and the left side of the lower part of the picture has a square thick boulder in the corresponding position; the upper right side of the picture has a towering distant mountain, and the lower part of the picture has a towering willow tree in the corresponding position; between the two mountains in the upper part of the picture is a void, surrounded by clouds and smoke, surrounded by pine trees, and the lower part of the picture is also surging clouds between the boulders and the lone willows, setting off a group of people singing on the field. The trees in the upper part of the picture are mainly pine trees, while the trees in the lower part of the picture are the other two "three friends of the year", plum and bamboo, and willow trees. This makes it necessary for us to re-examine the echo relationship between the upper and lower parts.
The center of the lower part of the picture is naturally a group of characters singing and clapping their hands on the field, who do not look like city people. In its center is an old man with white hair and a large patch on his right knee, a man on the far right, and a large patch on his left shoulder. Although the two of them wore two outstretched heads, so much so that some speculated that they were of the scribe class, ordinary heads could not simply distinguish between the noble and the lowly. Shen Kuo said in the "Mengxi Pen Talk": "The head of this dynasty has straight feet, round feet, cross feet, facing the sky, tailwind, and all the fifth class, only straight feet are noble and lowly. "The head in the painting is close to the straight foot.
What really reveals their rural farmer identity is the shoes they wear. The person on the far right wears a pair of open-toed, no-upper shoes, a simple pair of straw shoes with only a sole and a strap to secure the shoe. Everyone else's shoes have a helper. Among them, the old man and the middle-aged man on his right who clapped his hands wear the same style of shoes, and the upper of the shoes draws parallel diagonal lines, which also hints at a kind of straw shoes. Although in ancient times, there were also exquisite pu shoes woven with pu grass, which were expensive, such as the protagonist's pair of pu shoes for cooling in "Han Xizai's Night Feast", but most of the time, grass shoes are a symbol of simple life, and they are a must for rural people, hermit high priests, and high-ranking monks.
Although the old man in "Ta Ge Tu" can walk on his own, the state of dancing with his hands shows that alcohol has begun to work, and the wine gourd on the shoulder of the middle-aged man on the far right of the line clearly illustrates this. These six people, except for the open-chested village boy at the front of the line and the village woman wearing a floral skirt, were not drunk, and the old man and the three middle-aged villagers behind them were half drunk and half awake. They are not poor people, but happy farmers. More precisely, it is a happy village family with men and women, old and young.
There is no one in the upper part of the picture, and underneath the thin mountain is a looming pine forest. A magnificent complex of buildings is hidden among the pine trees, are they temples, royal palaces, royal palaces or official palaces? Looking closely, on the right side of the picture, a section of the city wall can be clearly seen on the edge of the cloud that envelops this pine forest, and the walls of the wall are clearly visible. Along the city wall from right to left, the wall disappears into the clouds, revealing a long corridor that winds all the way to the place connected to the mountain peak on the left of the painting, indicating that this is a complex of buildings built on the mountain, protected by the walls, and full of buildings on the top of the mountain.
For viewers of the Southern Song Dynasty, they should easily perceive that this building resembles the imperial palace of the Southern Song Dynasty at the foot of the Phoenix Mountain. This should be the scene from behind the royal palace, through the city wall. The tall pine trees that cover the palace in the painting are not only embellishments, but may also hint at the mountains of the Phoenix Mountain that lined the palace. Immediately behind the palace is the "Eight PanLing" on the Phoenix Mountain. The Yuan Dynasty painter Wang Mian once said in the poem "Eight Panling": "The road winds around the dangerous wall, and the wind is high and the pine is singing." ...... Tourists consult the customs, and residents refer to the old Capital. "It can be seen that there are many pine and cypress plants on the Bapan Ridge, and here you can overlook the Southern Song Dynasty Imperial Palace - of course, after the fall of the Southern Song Dynasty. Judging from the "Imperial City Map" in the "Xianchun Lin'an Zhi" compiled at the end of the Southern Song Dynasty, a large part of the foothills of the Phoenix Mountain was enclosed in the scope of the palace wall.
The Imperial City Map in the Xianchun Lin'an Zhi (Reprint of the Qing Dynasty)
In the "Ta Ge Tu", the corridor-style buildings in the imperial palace spiral upwards, all the way over the mountain, and you can see the towering pavilions hidden behind the stalagmite-shaped peaks. This is the tallest building at the rear of the entire imperial palace, and it may be the "Tiankai Picture Table" of the royal family. In the surviving Southern Song Dynasty court paintings, we can often see such cloister buildings built on the mountain. The most conspicuous of the complex is the magnificent building on the top of a hill with heavy eaves next to the tallest pine tree. In fact, this should hint at the most important building in the royal palace. On the map of Lin'an in the Southern Song Dynasty, if you draw an arrow obliquely from the west of The Eight Panling Mountains, the towering building pointed to is similar to the "Ta Ge Tu", if it is not a palace hall, then the most likely is the main gate of the palace "Li ZhengMen". On the map of the Xian Chun Lin'an Zhi, the Lizheng Gate is a hilltop building.
From this, we will suddenly find that the two parts of the picture that are completely separated actually correspond to different social hierarchies. The upper part is surrounded by clouds and mist, which is the palace, the residence of the Son of Heaven, and the "view of heaven". The lower part is the field, the wheat field and the villagers, who are the "human world", a few drunken and happy farmers, who are the representatives of the "people". The juxtaposition of "heaven and earth" is exactly the theme that the picture wants to express.
Changed Wang Anshi
In fact, the scene of heaven and earth that we have painstakingly distinguished from the picture is clearly stated in the inscription poem of Emperor Ningzong of Song in the upper part of the picture:
Suyu Qingqidian, Chaoyang Lidi City. In the prosperous years, people are happy to work, and they walk on the ridge and sing.
Four verses, the first two of which describe the emperor's palace, namely "Qidian" and "Imperial City". The last two sentences are written about the people, that is, the "happy karma" people who "walk on the ridge" and step on the song. The two parts of clarity were transferred to the painting by the court painters in a set of visual vocabulary. He uses the upper and lower parts to create a visual contrast, cleverly separated by clouds and mist. The clouds are not absolutely cut, but rather resembling a transition between two lenses. In the face of such a court painter with such a heart, I believe that the emperor will also be full of praise!
The four poems inscribed by Emperor Ningzong are not his own originals, but are from An Shi, the king of the Northern Song Dynasty. It is conceivable that Song Ningzong first selected the poems and then asked the painter to paint the poetry. The painter should have fully understood the meaning of the emperor, because his picture did not fully follow Wang Anshi's poetry, but made a key change - Wang Anshi's poem is called "Autumn Xing you feel", which is written about the scene of the autumn harvest season, and the picture is a spring light.
There is a plum tree and a willow tree in the lower part of the picture. Against the backdrop of the verdant bamboo, the curved plum branches are blooming with white and slightly pink new buds, and the old willow trees have just grown tender branches. Plums and willows are iconic trees in early spring, especially the Lantern Festival, as they are the most beautiful in this season. In the poems of the Lantern Chant, the juxtaposition of plum and willow can often be seen, such as Li Qingzhao's "Eternal Encounter": "The sunset melts gold, the twilight clouds merge, where are the people?" Dye willow smoke thick, blow plum flute complaints, how much do you know about spring? Lantern Festival, melting weather, is there no wind and rain in the second stage? Among the Lantern Festival seasonal headdresses of Women in the Southern Song Dynasty, the most important ones are called "Jade Plum" and "Snow Willow". Another symbol of spring is the flower inserted in the hat of the old man with the cane, and the flowers and white flowers are faintly visible.
The painting of Chunjing must have been instructed by Emperor Ningzong, because the emperor had precisely changed Wang Anshi's verses. The last sentence of Wang Anshi's original poem was "Song on the Ridge", and NingZong changed the last word to "The Song Line on the Ridge". Is there any purpose in changing "stepping on the song" to "stepping on the song line"?
"Line", or "song line", is a genre of poetry. During the Tang Dynasty, "Treading Song Line" gradually became a fixed poetic title, showing the celebration of spring, such as the Tang Dynasty poet Liu Yuxi's "Treading Song Line": "The spring river is flattened by the moon, and the girls on the embankment are even walking." After singing the new words, the red light reflects the partridge of the tree. Sometimes, "Treading Song Line" is directly written about the celebration of the Lantern Festival, such as the tang Dynasty Chen Tojie's "Treading Song Line" two songs: "Mandarin duck downstairs ten thousand flowers new, jade palace in front of the hundred plays Chen." Heavenly Correction Dragon Fire Tree, flying to Rui Feng scattered Fang Chun. "Immortals first spread the forbidden incense, and Ruiyun bloomed at night. The strings promote the harmonization of the pipe, and the danlian borrows the moonlight. The fire tree and silver flower described in Chen Fuyi's poem are the carnival scenes at the Lantern Festival. Emperor Ningzong's change of Wang Anshi's poem may have been intended to make people think of the "Treading Song Line" as the title of the song, thus turning the poetry of autumn scenery into a spring scenery painting.
If so, there seems to be only one reason: he asked his court painters to create this painting around the Lantern Festival in the early spring of the thirteenth year of Jiading (1220).
Rejoice with the people
The Spring Festival is the biggest festival of the year, and the celebration of the Spring Festival culminates in the Lantern Festival. In the Southern Song Dynasty, almost every year during the Lantern Festival, the government had to follow the practice of the Northern Song Dynasty and hold a Lantern Festival outside the palace gate. Hundreds of officials generally have to take a holiday for three to five days, and ordinary people can also come to the gate of the palace to watch the Lantern Festival. This is a system inherited from the Northern Song Dynasty, and its main purpose is "the son of heaven and the people enjoy together".
The scene of the palace and the scene of the rural people juxtaposed in the upper and lower parts of the picture are the perfect manifestation of the son of heaven and the people enjoying together. The people on the field celebrated the smooth wind and rain and the abundance of grain. We can see that there is a field under the field in the lower left corner of the picture, full of green crops. The crops of this longevity are not grass seedlings, but wheat. Wheat is used to grind flour and is the main food crop in the central and northern regions, while rice is mainly in the south. However, during the Southern Song Dynasty, due to the large number of Central Plains and northerners who were accustomed to eating noodles came to the south, the cultivation of wheat was also promoted in the south. The wheat in "Ta Ge Tu" grows happily in early spring and is winter wheat. Winter wheat is generally sown in late autumn or early winter and harvested in early summer. Grown in the warmer south, the temperature is not too low, and the wheat can overwinter safely.
Wind and rain are good, and the most important thing is rain. If it doesn't rain, the crops die; if it rains too much, floods occur frequently, flooding the farmland. The painter certainly knew this, so he painted a meandering stream in the painting. The stream came from the cloud that hung over the palace, and passing through the vigorous wheat fields could make the fields well irrigated. Mountain streams often rely on rain when it rains. Therefore, we also finally understand the potential meaning of the painter to draw a cloud in the middle of the picture. Clouds and rain are linked, and it rains properly to moisten the crops of the world. The cloud has long had the symbolic meaning of good government rule. The clouds that hold up the palace are also the clouds that descend ganlin. The existence of clouds also makes the sentence "Suyu Qingqidian" in the inscription poem of the picture expressed. Undoubtedly, the emperor's good rule was the reason for the birth of Ganlin.
If it is said that "Suyu Qingqidian" is drawn, then what about the "Chaoyang Lidi City" that seems to be more important? In addition to the emperor being a rainy and ganlin, isn't it also a rising sun and a red sun? Please see that in the farthest peak of the picture space, that is, the outline line of the distant mountain directly below the inscription poem "Happy Life in The Harvest Year", there is a faint layer of red, which contrasts with the slightly flowered mountain. This is the light reflected by the rising sun. At such an early moment, the happy farmer at the bottom of the picture must have walked home satisfied and drunk after a night of festive revelry. Walking on the field, listening to the gurgling stream, seeing the green crops, the old man could not help but dance, turning his head to greet the middle-aged man behind him- probably his son, and could not help but clap his hands and sing. Grandchildren and daughters-in-law (?) at the forefront When the song stops, the children can't help but want to dance. The last two, drunk and swaying, seemed to be confused for a moment. At this moment, they were walking in a perfect viewing place, but they were excited and joyful, and they sang with self-care, and did not look up at the imperial palace in Lin'an City in the distance, and the rising sun and clouds that were about to appear in the distant mountain sky. This landscape is left for the viewer to experience.
"Ta Ge Tu" is a deliberately managed political image, which fully conveys an ideal national and social scene, and the praise of imperial power can be described as the ultimate. What kind of emperor deserves such praise? Emperor Ningzong wrote a line of "Giving Wang Du Lifting" after the inscription of the picture, which shows that this painting is a royal gift to a "WangDu Lifting". It seems that Emperor Ningzong will not blush for the praise of the picture, but is very proud. Where did Emperor Ningzong's pride come from?
If the painting was indeed painted around the Lantern Festival in the early spring of the thirteenth year of Jiading, at this time, Emperor Ningzong was fifty-two years old and had reigned for twenty-six years. Since a few years ago, the Jurchen Jin Dynasty has continued to develop southward due to the oppression of the emerging Mongols, frequently attacking the border towns of the Southern Song Dynasty, and the two sides have attacked and defended each other, roughly fighting a draw. In the twelfth year of Jiading (1219), the year before the "Ta Ge Tu" was drawn, the Jin Dynasty and the Southern Song Dynasty fought a series of major battles, and the Southern Song army continued to report successfully. In particular, the Battle of Zaoyang in the Jin And Song Dynasties was very tragic. In February of the twelfth year of Jiading, the Jin Dynasty general Quan Yan could launch a large army to besiege Zaoyang in the Southern Song Dynasty, and after being repulsed, he besieged Zaoyang again in July, until he was defeated by the Song army in September. The Song army annihilated 30,000 enemy troops and won a great victory.
"Seated Statue of Song Ningzong" is colored on silk, 187 × 108.4 cm, now in the National Palace Museum in Taipei
Another piece of good news is that in September of the twelfth year of Jiading, the local warlord Zhang Lin in Shandong submitted to the Southern Song Dynasty, so that the Territory of the Southern Song Dynasty was nominally added to the "Jingdong Hebei Erfu Jiuzhou forty Counties". Although these warlords did not sincerely submit to the Southern Song Dynasty, when Emperor Ningzong learned of this news in December of the twelfth year of Jiading, his mood was probably difficult to calm down. The war with the Jin Dynasty was still not over when the "Ta Ge Tu" was drawn. Several great victories against the Jin Dynasty made the Southern Song army begin to have the idea of taking the initiative to attack the Jin Dynasty. After the defeat of the Jin army zaoyang, the Southern Song Dynasty's Jinghu system made Zhao Fang take the initiative to attack, and in December of the twelfth year of Jiading, he ordered Xu Guo, Meng Zongzheng, Hu Zaixing and other troops to command 60,000 troops to attack the two prefectures of Tang (present-day Tanghe, Henan) and Deng (present-day Dengzhou, Henan) under the Jin people. The war continued until the first month of the thirteenth year of Jiading, and although it was not able to break the city in the end, it still showed the combat effectiveness of the Southern Song Army.
These battles, which coincided almost at the same time as the drawing of the "Ta Ge Tu", are not sure whether they prompted Emperor Ningzong to order court painters to paint this painting showing the theme of "enjoying with the people". But at least, Emperor Ningzong, who would die four years later, after ruling this land and fighting the Jin people for more than twenty years, was full of expectations for such an ideal realm of perfect integration between heaven and earth. The Lantern Festival in 1220 was destined not to be ordinary.