After talking about Hubei, let's talk about Hunan.
Since ancient times, Hubei Hunan has not been separated in history, and the land of the two lakes also has a thousand-year history charm.
The Hunan Provincial Museum is also not inferior to Hubei Province, as a "national first-class museum", the Collection of Cultural Relics of Hunan Provincial Museum has reached more than 180,000 pieces, of which the cultural relics excavated from the Mawangdui Han Tomb in Changsha have characteristics.
Entering the Hunan Provincial Museum, the cultural relics unearthed at Mawangdui are a must-see project for everyone, for more than 2,000 years, more than 3,000 cultural relics full of historical heritage have hidden how many historical stories?
Uncle Shi came to the Hunan Provincial Museum, this time to introduce one of the national treasures of the Hunan Museum, which was also included in the "Catalogue of the First Batch of Cultural Relics Prohibited from Going Abroad (Border)".
Painting through the wonderland, "non-clothing" to attract the soul
Many cultural relics have been excavated from the Mawangdui tomb in the Western Han Dynasty, one of which is eye-catching, that is, the T-shaped painting excavated from the Mawangdui No. 1 Han Tomb.
The owner of this tomb is Xin Chai, the wife of Hou Licang, the chancellor of the Han Dynasty Changsha State, and her coffin is extremely solemn, with a total of four floors, of which the fourth layer of the coffin lid, when the archaeology staff found this painted painting.
Why is it called a "T-shaped painting"?
Mainly the shape of the whole painting is like the English letter ---- "T", which is called "non-clothing" in the subsequent excavations and discoveries, so it has "like clothes rather than clothes".
Instead of clothing, there are two possible ways to say it:
The first is to summon the soul, as early as the Warring States era of the Chu State, there was a popular custom of summoning the soul of the dead, "Summoning the Soul" once recorded ---- "Qin Bonqi wisps, Zheng Mianluo", when the Chu people used the wisps to make a banner, in the funeral, by a special person to walk in front of the procession, used to summon the soul to ascend to heaven.
The second is the ascension of the soul to heaven, in the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, when the ruling class believed in the art of huang lao, so it hoped that the dead could put on non-clothing and fly like birds to the sky.
(Soul flag in ancient painting funeral)
What is the historical value of this painting?
The T-shaped painting is 205 cm long, 92 cm wide at the top and 47.7 cm wide at the end, and is composed of 3 single layers of brown silk. Since it is used to summon spirits to guide the heavens, the content of the picture is naturally related to the myths and legends of the time.
The ancient Hunan belonged to Chu Land, and in the early Han Dynasty, the customs and beliefs of Chu Land were also inherited, and naturally the romantic fantasy of the Chu people was also inherited in literature and art.
(This picture shows the placement of the T-shaped painting in the Mawangdui Tomb)
The whole painting is mainly divided into three parts---- the celestial realm, the human realm and the earthly realm.
In the painting of the Celestial Realm section, just above the top sits a god with a human head and a snake body, and this god has many sayings, some people say candle dragon god, and some people think that it is a goddess who makes up the heavens.
On the left side of the serpent-headed god is a huge fuso tree with 9 suns hanging on it, including a large and round sun with a black bird in it, the legendary "Golden Wu".
And this black bird, some scholars believe that it may be the sunspot found by the ancients when observing the sun, which is also the earliest record of sunspots recognized in the world.
On the right side of the human head and snake body god is painted another round of crescent moon, on which there are toads, centennial ganoderma lucidum, jade rabbits, and there is a woman holding the moon under the moon, which is Chang'e.
Below the duo is the Gate of Heaven, which depicts the divine leopard and the door god guarding it.
The human world mainly depicts the scene of the tomb owner stepping on the 'Way to Heaven', the largest of which is the tomb owner Xin Chai, who is fat and plump, her head is leaning forward, her back is slightly hunched, and her movements are solemn and slow.
There were also escorts from small officials and attendants around him, who undertook the noble status of Lady Xin Chai.
At the lower end of the middle, there is also a painting of a jade bi hanging, the curtain of the colored curtain floating left and right, and the family members below it are blue in color, indicating that they are mourning the death of the old woman.
The earth boundary depicts a huge naked man, the legendary earth god --- carp, and two huge fish are painted under his feet.
According to legend, only the carp can stabilize the fish and prevent the earth from shaking, and at the same time, the mansion is also painted with a vicious-looking strange dog and an owl with wide eyes, in order to suppress the demons and ghosts under the mansion and not to disturb Mrs. Xin Chai's rest.
This painting full of romantic colors also allows us to appreciate the grand cosmology of the ancients more than 2,000 years ago, as well as the romantic and unrestrained aesthetics and ideas of the ancients.
At the same time, Gaidu's decorative style and realistic techniques make the whole painting full and not messy, showing the superb ancient painting technology, and it is a rare masterpiece in ancient painting works.