At the time of the spring equinox, the yellow and red intersect, a "point" word, which tells the boundaries of day and night, cold and summer, and yin and yang. The real spring has quietly arrived.
The spring equinox is a season of business, the waterside is new green, a hundred flowers are competing for beauty; the mountain atmosphere is good, and the birds are returning. But this bright spring scene can also arouse the melancholy of young girls, the so-called "spring mountain everywhere rules cry, but also when the spring heart is disturbed", just like the painting of "Beautiful Makeup Lady". For literati, traveling in the spring and sending love to the landscape is an indispensable way of life.
Spring equinox, one waits for begonias, two for pear blossoms, and three for magnolias. The messenger of the flowers in mid-spring should wait for the next order to bloom. The ancients summed up the twenty-four flower trade winds, the time began from the end of the small cold to the valley rain, each festival corresponds to three weather, each weather corresponds to a flower letter, eight festivals and twenty-four kinds of flower letters, is a flowering cycle.
Qing Dong Xuan's "Twenty-Four Flowers Trade Wind Chart" "Spring Equinox One Waiting Begonia"
The Qing Dynasty Dong Yu's work has "Twenty-Four Flowers Trade Wind Chart", which can be called the best in this genre. Begonias, pear blossoms and magnolias are also in the book. Under the painter's pen, begonias have both buds to be released and those who are fully blooming, interspersed with new green leaf buds. When not in bloom, the flower color is dark red dots, and when in bloom, the flower color is light pink. In the upper right corner of the page, the author has a poem titled "Linfeng Mao Jinyan Sanchun, Yuanna Fragrant Muscle FengYunXin." The manga is intended to be the north of the Taizhen Pavilion, and the drawing is light and light. "Although the begonias are beautiful, they are not vulgar, Su Dongpo especially loves begonias, and during his stay in Huangzhou, he repeatedly wrote poems to praise each other. One of them is: "The east wind is full of sogo, and the incense mist is empty of the moon corridor." I was afraid of going to sleep late at night, so I burned a high candle to illuminate the red makeup. "The poet created a psychedelic world of warm spring and fragrant fragrance, with high candles and dots of fire, so that the begonias that inhabit the silence can still smile in the dark night." Su Shi's love for flowers and pity for flowers can be glimpsed through this poem, both writing flowers and wanting to anthropomorphize. And from this poem, a moving picture is implicated.
Southern Song Dynasty Ma Lin's "Candlelight Night Tour"
The Southern Song Dynasty Ma Lin's "Candlelight Night Tour Map" is painted with this poem, painting under the night of the moon, the hexagonal pavilion with heavy eaves and sharp tips, and the winged veranda stretches in a roundabout way. The owner, who is sitting under the pavilion, is looking out of the house, admiring the flowers and trees illuminated by high candles. Look at the mountains in the distance, dyed with flower blue and light ink, and the mist between them shows the emptiness under the moonlight. If the begonia blossoms and the nongli are delicate, then the pear blossoms and magnolias that bloom in the second stage are a different style.
Qing Dong Xuan's "Twenty-Four Flowers Trade Wind Chart" "Spring Equinox Two Waiting Pear Blossoms", "Spring Equinox Three Waiting Mulan"
Returning to Dong Xuan's "Twenty-Four Flowers Trade Wind Map", the author said when he inscribed the pear blossom, "And the jade rain runs Yingzhou, and the flowing snow and spring are beautiful." The cocoon was lowered and Yaotai held out the crystal ball. "Pear blossoms are like snow, white and pure, crystal clear. However, under the pen of the painter Chen Hongshou, the pear blossom is less dexterous and more clumsy, especially with the curved branches, and the reckless atmosphere comes to the face. This is the unique thinking of Lao Lian (Chen Hongshou Lao Lian) on time and life, and the flowers and branches of Gao Guqi are not similar to the scenery in the eyes of mortals.
Ming Chen Hongshou "Pear Blossom Diagram"
If poets love to use snow to praise pear blossoms, then Mulan should use jade as an analogy. Magnolia flowers are "white and slightly blue in color, and the fragrance is like orchid", so it is also known as magnolia. A "bi" character not only subtly points out the color of the flowers, but also symbolizes the gentle jade character of Mulan. Wen Zhenheng's "Chronicle of Long Things" says: "Magnolia, it is advisable to plant the hall beforehand." For several plants, the flower time is like a jade garden Qionglin, which is the most victorious. Wen Zhenheng's great-grandfather Wen Zhengming once named his library "Yulan Hall" and engraved it with "Yulan Hall Seal", which shows his love for this flower.
In the poem of Hengshan (Wen Zhengming, Hengshan Resident), he compares Magnolia to a true fairy dressed in a neon feather coat, nicknamed new makeup, Su'e Qian. Once, he went to Wuxi to visit his friend Hua Yun, saw the magnolias blooming in his home, and made a "White Magnolia Map" to give away. In March of 1525, the magnolia test flowers in the court were lovely, and the drama pen wrote this, zhengming. "This magnolia, without a meticulous and restrained pen, is completely written on the scene, and the business is full of business."
Ming Wen Zhengming "Magnolia Diagram"
Although it is good to put a flower alone, it is inevitable that it is a little lonely, and the two or three spring colors are accompanied, and under the background of each other, they can highlight different temperaments. The three kinds of flower letters during the spring equinox are often combined in calligraphy and painting, such as wumen painter's "Begonia Magnolia Diagram", which is a combination of the two. What is even more ingenious is that this work was co-painted by Lu Zhi and Wang Guxiang, and the author dropped a cloud on the picture: "Bao shan Luzhi wrote a wooden pen and spent it in Xiqi zhai. Unitary King Gu Xiang supplemented begonias. At the same time, another kind of "hebi" has been achieved.
Ming Luzhi and Wang Guxiang,"Begonia Magnolia Diagram"
Regarding the spring equinox, Ouyang Xiu once had such a wonderful description: "When the South Garden is halfway through spring, the wind and smell the horses. Green plums are like bean willows like eyebrows, and day-long butterflies fly. "The breeze blows, the green plum willows, the flower dew and grass smoke, the butterflies fluttering, a beautiful scene of spring and sunshine." But even in such a beautiful season, it is not entirely joyful. The more beautiful the spring light is, the more sad the lady who has been in the deep palace for a long time, just like the spring color of the garden, it is difficult to hide this layer of sadness. Wang Xue's "Embroidered Li Xiaojing Diagram" and Su Hanchen's "Beautiful Makeup Lady Diagram" are often compared together to explore the life of the Song Dynasty beauties.
Northern Song Dynasty Wang Jie "Embroidered Li XiaoJing Diagram"
In "Embroidered Mirror Diagram", the lady is facing the mirror to pity herself, and behind her is a small landscape screen, placed on the collapsed end. If the mirror reflects the face of the lady, then who should reflect the landscape screen? Apparently, this is an absentee, and the king the woman in the painting is thinking and waiting for. Different from the former, the beautiful person in "Pretty Makeup Lady Picture" seems to want to sit in front of the mirror to make up, but the self-opening and self-falling of the spring flowers makes her can't help but be sad. Facing the lady is a huge screen painted with waves of water, which is another "mirror", but it reflects not the face, but the inner world of the woman.
Northern Song Dynasty Su Hanchen's "Beautiful Makeup Lady Picture"
Through the two mediums of one mirror and one screen, the picture has undergone multiple translations, revealing and implicitly conveying the feelings of mourning. This sentiment is further strengthened by the shape of the tuan fan. Ban Jieyu fell out of favor for Zhao Feiyan and lived in seclusion in Changxin Palace, but she wrote a self-inflicted wound and a poem for complaining, called "Tuan Fan Song". Among them, "Cut into acacia fans, clusters like the moon... The contrast between the abandonment of the donation and the love of the word "in the grace" can most arouse people's sentimentality. And painting the scene of this lady's wounded spring on top of the silk of the fan is even more superimposed on this layer of lonely state of mind.
However, the warm spring light does not only evoke the disturbing spring heart, there are still ladies who are not willing to live up to this beautiful scenery and Shaohua. Under the pen of the court painter Jin Tingbiao, a beautiful figure in a beautiful posture, facing the hairpin of the bronze mirror, next to her hanging jade hand, there are several freshly picked flowers, ready to decorate the bun together. And her palace is full of exquisite furniture, rich furnishings, the lower left corner of the close view of the miniature potted plants, the middle and far view of the vase, also decorated with carefully trimmed flowers, they all echo the theme of "hairpin flowers", but also let the spring color in the middle of the wanton spread.
Qing Jin Tingbiao "Lady Hairpin Flower Diagram"
The Tang Dynasty poet Liu Changqing once wrote in the "Spring Equinox", "The sun, the moon, the sun, the sun and the yin are both heavenly, and the birds do not quit the peach blossom cold." Today's chickens have always been erected, and Kawakami Yoshihito has put paper kites. And this last sentence refers to the two games of the spring equinox. In particular, the children who are "busy putting paper kites in the east wind" often appear in the painter's pen, full of childlike fun. On the pillow of the Cizhou kiln in the Jin Dynasty, the craftsman used a few strokes to outline the vivid image of "baby play". The same theme also appears under the pen of the old man of Shiraishi, the swallow-shaped kite swims freely and dances in the sky, and the word "innocence" inscribed by Shiraishi can especially convey the essence of this painting.
Gold Cizhou kiln Octagonal white ground black flower boy flying kite pattern
Qi Baishi "Five Children's Paper Iris Diagram"
If through the woman's perspective, you can enjoy the spring scenery in the courtyard and boudoir; accompany the child's figure, feel the spring light in the countryside; then chasing the footsteps of the literati, you can see the spring dawn of the lakes and mountains more extensively. And the spring tour is naturally also an indispensable activity during the spring equinox. Bai Juyi's "Spring Trip to Qiantang Lake" must be the most familiar, "Gushan Temple north Jia Ting West, the water surface is initially flat and cloudy feet are low." A few early warblers compete to warm the trees, and whose new swallows peck at the spring mud. The flowers are becoming more and more attractive to the eye, and asakusa can have no horseshoes. Favorite lake eastbound is insufficient, green poplar shade in the white sand embankment. A beautiful picture of spring light jumped out of the paper. This painting scene, viewed from Wu Li's "Lake Sky Spring Color Map", is most appropriate. This work uses light green colors to express the scenery of the lake embankment in the spring of Jiangnan. The surface of the lake is slightly rippled, the grass on the shore is green, the birds fly in the branches, and the white geese play in the water. As far as the eye can see, it is the comfort and tranquility of Spring and Jingming.
Qing Wu Calendar "Lake Sky Spring Color Map"
Such a beautiful scene, naturally to accompany friends, let go of the forest springs, travel through the mountains and rivers, in nature contains the Tao reflection, Cheng Huai taste image, taste the highest aesthetic realm. In Zhan Ziqian's "Spring Tour", the pedestrians who tread green are paired up, or shuttle through the mountains, or raft on the water, feeling the fun of feasting in a splendid spring scenery. The painter's work is made of green and heavy colors, interspersed with peach blossoms, surrounded by clouds, as if in a fairyland.
It's just that this beautiful spring light always makes people linger. In Qiu Ying's pen, a team of four masters and servants returned home with pleasure in the twilight. In the painting, a servant knocks on the door with a cane in front of him, the master walks behind him on horseback, and two other servants accompany him, one of whom carries a violin and the other who carries a wine scroll on his shoulder. Qiu Ying's "Spring Journey and Late Return" is more detailed and vivid than Dai Jin's painting axis of the same name, especially the creation of the twilight atmosphere, which reflects the exquisite skills of the painter. The slopes near the shore are heavier in graphite, taking the lead in drawing the viewer's attention below the frame, focusing on the returnees walking on the path. The characters in the painting are all outlined in fine brushstrokes, and the mood is natural and lifelike. They were about to cross the small bridge and turn to the gate wall covered by takagi to reach the end of the road. Seeing this, the "real" part of the picture will also end, and then step into the distant view of smoke and clouds. The trees across the pool have been obscured by fog, misty and confused. The farthest mountains are dyed with light ink, without any rubbing, leaving only a mountain shadow. From near and far, from bottom to top, in the contrast between thick and light, real and virtual, detailed and slight, the sentiment of spring travel and late return is skillfully conveyed by the painter.
Ming Qiuying's "Spring Tour late return"
Compared with the spring travels of the literati Coats, the farmer's home does not have some leisure. As the saying goes, "The spring equinox wheat rises, and the fat water must follow tightly." During the mild and rainy spring equinox, farming is also about to enter a busy phase. The ancestors divided the year into twenty-four solar terms based on the laws of nature, and one of its important roles was to serve as a time guide for agricultural activities. When the swallows return to the south and send the signal of the spring equinox, the farmer will usher in another year of hard work. The spring equinox is also a festival with great agricultural characteristics, which is not only the beginning of farming, but also contains the expectations and hopes of "harvest".
Historically, there is a type of image dedicated to farming and silkworm weaving, which was named by the ancients as "Cultivation and Weaving Map", and many copies have survived. Among them, the "Ploughing and Weaving Atlas" painted by the Qing Dynasty painter Jiao Bingzhen is a fine work in this type of subject, and it also has the role of "inheriting the upper and lower levels" in the process of handing over the collection. Through this magnificent masterpiece, we can further explore the past and present lives of the "Cultivation and Weaving Map".
In this image system, the ancestors of the Cultivating Weaving Map were drawn in the Song Dynasty, derived from an official named Lou Xuan. When he was serving as the county commander of Qian (present-day Lin'an City, Zhejiang Province), he was concerned about agricultural affairs, conducted in-depth investigations, and finally produced 45 "Cultivating and Weaving Pictures and Poems". Lou Xuan's nephew wrote in a trek for the map: "Emperor Gaozong was in a great cause, Shao Kai Zhongxing, in and out of the army, industrious and industrious, weathering the wind and rain, preparing for the people's troubles, especially the hearts of the people, not to mention other duties, the edict of heavy farming, and the diligence of ploughing the fields." When his uncle was lin'an in the subliminal order, he was a civil servant, remembering the suffering of the farmer's silkworm woman, and investigating the beginning and end, weaving two maps for cultivation. It describes the reasons and processes for the emergence of the "Cultivating and Weaving Picture Poem". As soon as this drama was born, many versions were formed in the Southern Song Dynasty, including the imitation and reconstruction of silk, as well as the reproduction and reproduction of stone carvings and prints, which showed its great influence and wide dissemination.
Southern Song Dynasty Liang Kai's "Cultivation and Weaving Map" Fragment (one of the facsimiles)
However, it is a pity that the original "Cultivating and Weaving Diagram Poem" produced by Lou Xuan has been scattered, and it is not possible to see it today. Fortunately, many wonderful facsimiles and engravings have been handed down, which is also a kind of compensation. The "Cultivation and Weaving Map", which was repainted by the Qing Dynasty court painter Jiao Bingzhen, is one of the masterpieces, and the reason and opportunity for remaking the map date back to the twenty-eighth year of the Kangxi Dynasty, when the emperor inspected Jiangnan. At that time, a Jiangnan scholar presented a fragment of Lou Xuan's "Cultivating weaving diagram poem" for him, and Kangxi was very grateful after reading it, and after returning to Beijing, he ordered the inner court to enshrine Jiao Bingzhen to redraw the "Cultivation and Weaving Diagram".
Qing Jiao Bingzhen's "Cultivating and Weaving Atlas" the first Kangxi inscription
This album is divided into two parts, "ploughing" and "weaving", just as the title reveals. At the beginning of the album is the inscription of the Kangxi Emperor, who wrote "A Plough of Apricot Rain" for the "Cultivation Map" and stamped the seal of "Kangxi Chenhan"; for the "Weaving Map" inscribed the four characters of "Three Paths Of Sangyun", stamped "Kangxi Chenhan" and "Baoling Taihe" two seals. The two inscriptions are "Imperial Letter of the Thirty-fifth Year of the Kangxi Dynasty in The Spring and February". Not only that, but the Kangxi Emperor also made a long preface to this set of albums, located after the inscription and before the beginning of the main text.
Qing Jiao Bingzhen's "Cultivation and Weaving Atlas" of the "Imperial Cultivation and Weaving Diagram Sequence"
It reads: "Be diligent in the morning and night, study governance, remember the foundation of the people, and take food and clothing as the sky." ...... The ancients said that when the clothes are worried about the cold of the weaver girl, and when the millet is eaten, the suffering of the farmer is remembered, and the sorrow is here, deep and cut. Twenty-three paintings each of the paintings and weaving drawings are made in each painting, and one chapter of poetry is made, and the book is written in the picture in order to chant his diligence. ...... The resurrection skeleton is circulated to show that the descendants are subordinate, and they know that the grain is difficult to eat, and the clothes are easy. This long article provides a lot of important information: First, the Kangxi Emperor was diligent in state affairs, worried about the people's livelihood, and grateful for the hard work of the peasants and silkworm women, so he ordered the painter to draw the "Cultivation and Weaving Map"; second, the atlas was painted with 23 "Cultivation Maps" and 23 "Weaving Maps", and each page had the emperor's imperial poems; third, the emperor not only ordered Jiao Bingzhen to draw this map, but also asked people to engrave plates so that they could be passed on to their descendants and subjects, warning that clothing and food would not be easy to come by.
The Kangxi Emperor's entry at the end of this long preface is "Kangxi Thirty-fifth Spring February Society Day Inscription and Book". Chunshe is an ancient day of worship to the gods of the land and pray for a good harvest of agricultural affairs, usually on the fifth day after the establishment of spring, and the time is exactly around the spring equinox. The time of writing of the inscription and the imperial drawing order can especially reflect the extraordinary significance of this volume. And because of the high participation of the Kangxi Emperor in the middle of it, this volume was also named the "Imperial Cultivation and Weaving Complete Map".
Qing Jiao Bingzhen's "Ploughing and Weaving Atlas" of "Ploughing the First Picture immersion"
This set of albums adopts the layout method of "right picture and left text", and the upper part of the picture has the original poems (five words) inscribed by Yan Yuxuan in Hanlin Academy, while the left half of the album contains the poems of Kangxi and Yongzheng (seven words and five words respectively), and there are also Yan Yu's singing and Kangxi's seven-word poems, all of which are inscribed by him. In the case of the first painting of "Dip", the picture on the right depicts a young man standing in a pond, trying to catch a jar of seeds handed by the old man with his hand and prepare to soak them in the pond. On the shore was a cane-wielding spectator, and behind him stood a woman and two children, also observing the farm. The poem of Lou Xuan above the picture reads: "The night rain in the xitou is enough, and the spring water outside the door is born." ...... A chicken sacrifices the hook and prays to Qiu Cheng. In particular, this last sentence implies that the domestic chickens raised in the picture are the animals used to hold sacrifices during the spring equinox, pinning on the farmer's beautiful vision of a good harvest in autumn.
Qing Jiao Bingzhen's "Cultivation and Weaving Atlas" "Weaving the First Picture of the Silkworm Bath"
Then he turned his attention to the first painting of the "Weaving Map", "Bathing Silkworm". At the center of the painting is a courtyard where women wash silkworms and talk freely. Outside the pavilion, the greenery is getting thicker, the spring flowers have bloomed, and there are new swallows circling on the roof. Lou Xuan's poems include the sentence "The breeze returns to the swallow day, the light rain bathes the silkworm day", and Yan Yuxuan in the second figure "Two Sleeps" also has a poem with "Double swallows enter the curtain and paint quietly in the spring, and then sleep is in mid-spring". Therefore, when the real spring comes, the matter of silkworm weaving is getting busier and busier.
After the completion of the creation of Kangxi's "Imperial Cultivation and Weaving Complete Map", it was further engraved and promulgated by the Inner Government, which became an important reward for the emperor to his subordinates, and its influence was quite far-reaching. After this masterpiece, the Yongzheng and Qianlong Emperors also sent people to draw the "Cultivation and Weaving Map" again. For example, Chen Ming, a court painter dedicated to the Yong and Qian dynasties, also had a complete set of albums. The Qianlong Emperor inscribed a saying on it, in which he pointed out the purpose of re-drawing: in the past, the holy ancestor was diligent in practicing politics and sympathetic to the people's teachings, and he did not dare to forget, so he "ordered the work to draw the previous map" and "every book was written on the top", so that it could be "seen day and night" in order to "never forget the first ambition".
Qing Leng's "Ploughing and Weaving Atlas" of "Dip", "Ploughing"
Therefore, many versions of the Cultivation and Weaving Map were also produced in the Qing Dynasty, further enriching this image system. This set of exquisite atlases recording farming and silkworm weaving not only has the aesthetic value of art, but also has the research value of agronomy and folklore, and has become a treasure for future generations to understand agricultural activities. The spring equinox, as the beginning of the album, has a special meaning and contains infinite hope.
When the swallows came, the busyness began, everything began again, and everything just began.