On March 21, 2022, the exhibition of calligraphy and painting "Huang Barberry Wen Huarun Two States - The Zen Ink World of Yin Yuan and His Teachers and Disciples" opened at the National Art Museum of China, which brought together more than 100 calligraphy and painting works by Zen masters such as Yin Yuan Zen Master and his teacher Fei Yin Tongrong, disciple Mu An Sex Yao, i.e. Fei Ruyi, Independence Yi and Donggao Xinyue, which is a concentrated display of The culture and art of Huang Barberry calligraphy and painting. The exhibition also exhibits 9 pieces of Ming Dynasty furniture restorations with the title of "Hidden Yuan" and 1 piece of Ming Dynasty furniture with the title of "Yellow Barberry". These Ming Dynasty furniture, which contains ancient and profound Zen meanings, has attracted widespread attention from all walks of life as soon as they were unveiled. To this end, Professor Shao Xiaofeng, Director of the Exhibition Department of the National Art Museum of China, Mr. Huang Fuhua, Master of Chinese Arts and Crafts, inheritor of the representative project of national intangible cultural heritage, "Big Country Craftsman" of the Second National Light Industry System, Chief Designer of Dongdu Furniture Restoration Project, and Professor Bai Qianyu, Vice President of Huang barberry College, conducted a wonderful dialogue on "Promoting the Tao with Instruments".
Why is furniture from more than 350 years ago named after "Hidden Yuan" or "Yellow Barberry"?
Bai Qianyu (Vice Dean and Professor of Huang Barberry College, Special Editor-in-Chief of The Special Journal of Yellow Barberry Studies): Before talking about these furniture, I would like to introduce you to two ancient books, which are the same books that record the sample drawings, sizes and uses of these furniture. These two books, one is the "Hidden Yuan Guan zi kao" published in the seventeenth year of Showa (1942), and the other is the "Yellow Barberry Crown Character Examination" published in the fourteenth year of Showa (1939). The editor and publisher of these two books is Zen Master Yamamoto Yuexin, and the distribution office is "Yellow Barberry Hall". The Yellow Barberry Hall is not in Nagasaki or Kyoto, but in Inuyasha Village, Aichi Prefecture. The publications of Huang Barberry Hall are all non-selling products, and most of the print volume is more than 100 volumes, and they are numbered, which is a highly valuable Yellow Barberry literature, but it is extremely rare. Through the preliminary research of the philologists of Huang Barberry College, a total of 59 kinds of publications have been found in Huang Barberry College, and there are 21 kinds of books in the literature room of Huang Barberry College, including "Hidden Yuan Guan Zi Examination" and "Huang Barberry Crown Character Examination". These two precious ancient books provided a first-hand basis for the restoration of the furniture.
Master Ding Ming, abbot of Wanfu Temple, Huang barberry Mountain, Fuqing, Fujian Province, and Mr. Huang Fuhua, a master of Chinese arts and crafts (second from the right), studied the furniture drawings with the project team
How many kinds of furniture did the Hidden Zen Master Dongdu Japan bring? How do the Japanese view this furniture?
Bai Qianyu: Judging from these two ancient books of the "Guanzi Examination", the yellow barberry furniture and Zen tools carried by the Hidden Yuan Zen master Dongdu and later sent from Fujian through maritime merchants are generally close to more than 20 kinds, and these furniture are both commonly used legal objects and daily needs. Fuqing Huangbeishan Wanfu Temple, Huangbei Academy and Sanfu Classical Furniture Company jointly formed a project team to study and research the furniture literature in these ancient books, and used one and a half years to restore ten representative pieces of them, perfectly presenting the style and appearance of the Ming Dynasty furniture of the Hidden Yuan Zen Master Dongdu. In Japan, 9 of these pieces of furniture are titled "Hidden Yuan" and 1 is titled "Huang Barberry", which is the heavy instrument of the Japanese Huang Barberry Sect's Dabenshan, which shows the great influence of the Hidden Zen Master on Japanese Buddhism and the guidance of the social lifestyle at that time.
Are these Ming Dynasty furniture brought to Japan by Zen masters famous in the history of furniture?
Shao Xiaofeng (Director, Professor, Doctoral Supervisor, Postdoctoral Supervisor of the Exhibition Department of the National Art Museum of China): This batch of Dongdu Japanese furniture has expanded our in-depth understanding of Ming Dynasty furniture in terms of specific expression style and form. There are several pieces of furniture with the shape structure and ornamentation, which also extends the content and field of Ming Dynasty furniture. In particular, they are combined with Zen thought to give a more concrete presentation of the relationship between furniture and religious furniture. Therefore, from the specific perspective of furniture, the path of Cultural and Artistic Exchanges between China and Japan can be further broadened.
Director Shao Xiaofeng
There are Buddhist symbols in furniture such as pot racks, offering tables, and literary chairs, does this have any special significance?
Shao Xiaofeng: Several of the "Hidden Yuan Furniture" exhibited in the "Huang Barberry WenHuarun Two States" exhibition are decorated with Buddhist figures and symbols such as cloud plates, swastikas, Falun, and net bottles, which are concrete embodiments of the influence of Buddhist thought on the jungle life of the Ming Dynasty, after all, these furniture accompanied senior monks such as Yin Yuan Zen master and their re-transmission disciples for many years. It is very natural that these Buddhist elements, motifs, and utensils are organically permeated in the utensils of life. In a certain sense, this batch of furniture is not only the embodiment of the actual art of living, but also a further presentation of the religious feelings of the senior monks.
Which of these ten pieces of furniture and magic tools is the most precious?
Shao Xiaofeng: Among these pieces of furniture, in terms of the evolution of furniture history, there are some pieces that are rare and meaningful. For example, the "hidden element table" in it should be classified as a warp case in today's furniture terminology. This head-to-head case is very unique, with a three-sided warp, which can be understood as a head-to-head case with an extra side added, or it can be understood as a four-sided fence case with one side deleted. Its shape is rare in the history of furniture, has a unique meaning, and should be closely related to the religious life of the time, and even with the special jungle furnishings of Japan, which is worthy of in-depth study.
On the left is the "Hidden Element Table"
For another example, the "Zhu Tu Yinyuan Table" (a kind of chen put incense burner) is also unique. In terms of shape, the furnace builds the ingenuity of two stacks, forming an organic and unified relationship between the layers. The three-curved legs of the upper and lower layers have different variations, and the upper layer tends to be squared and the lower layer tends to circle, which can be described as exquisite. Three differently shaped facets with three incense burners. It has enriched the shape, structure and ornamentation of the furnace since the Song Dynasty, which can be called unique design, natural undertaking and exquisite decoration.
In addition, the "Hidden Element Staff Frame" is also meaningful, it is like a small screen seat, in the middle of its upper and lower horizontal firs with holes through, placed Zen staff. I have done research on "shelves" in Chinese furniture, divided into dozens of categories, but there is no "staff frame" among them. This specific and exquisite "Hidden Yuan Staff Frame" makes Chinese furniture more than one shelf, and also enriches our understanding of the connotation, offering, symbolism and communication significance of Buddhist instruments such as Zen staffs.
Hidden pillar staff and staff holder
Is there an inheritance relationship between Ming Dynasty furniture and Song Dynasty furniture?
Shao Xiaofeng: I have studied Chinese Song Dynasty furniture for 20 years, and my humble book "Chinese Song Dynasty Furniture" (Southeast University Press, 1st edition, 2010) has won a series of important awards such as the Second China University Press Book Award and the First Prize of the Excellent Academic Book Award, and has now been printed for the fifth time and has been included in the Collection of the Harvard Library in the United States, which shows the degree of attention paid to Song Dynasty furniture at home and abroad.
Professor Shao Xiaofeng's "Chinese Song Dynasty Furniture"
This batch of Hidden Yuan furniture reflects some of the styles of furniture in the late Ming Dynasty, and is inextricably linked to Song Dynasty furniture. I have written a long paper "Song Dynasty Furniture: The Source of Ming-style Furniture" to discuss it, and I will not repeat it here.
Yinyuan furniture has the characteristics of simplicity and elegance in general, which directly inherits the basic characteristics of Song Dynasty furniture. In the Ming Dynasty, furniture technology was further developed, and production technology became increasingly perfect, making furniture an important cultural carrier integrating a variety of arts and technologies. For example, in this exhibition, the "Hidden Yuan Chair" donated by the Huangbeishan Wanfu Temple in Fuqing, Fujian Province, is the case. In today's furniture terminology, it can be classified as a "Nanguan hat chair" or "literary chair", that is, an armchair with no head on the head and armrests. It is simple in shape and compact in structure, the overall beard is painted in black, the back plate is decorated with gold lacquer hollow reliefs, gold paintings and gold lacquer carvings from top to bottom, and the joint stick is shaped into a seven-layer gold lacquer net bottle shape. The tube feet between the forefoots are two (only one transverse fir on the other three sides), and the dwarf between the two firs is shaped into a three-layer gold lacquer bottle shape, which is short and fat, which is particularly interesting. However, these partial decorations do not affect the connotation of its quiet form, elegance and introvertedness. On the whole, it not only has the characteristics of Simple and Capable Ming-style furniture, but also realizes the organic balance and harmony between structure and decoration, between simplicity and richness.
Hidden Element Armchair
Generally speaking, the ten pieces of "Hidden Element Furniture" carefully restored by the master this time have an important basis for originating from ancient Japanese literature, which is of far-reaching significance and has very exquisite production skills. Due to space limitations, I will only talk about it briefly above. Next, together with the team of Mr. Huang Fuhua, a master of Chinese arts and crafts, and Professor Bai Qianyu of Huang Barberry College, I will conduct a more systematic and in-depth study of these furniture for the benefit of readers.
Hidden armchair design drawings
What breakthroughs have been made in the Ming Dynasty furniture restoration project?
The chief designer of the Dongdu furniture restoration project is Mr. Huang Fuhua. Mr. Huang is a master of Chinese arts and crafts, the inheritor of the representative project of national intangible cultural heritage, and the second national light industry system "big country craftsman". Mr. Huang is also the deputy director of the China Ming and Qing Dynasty Furniture Professional Art Committee, one of the representative inheritors of the "Xianzuo" classical furniture making technology, the chairman of Sanfu Classical Furniture Company, and the vice president of the Arts and Crafts Research Institute of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.
Huang Fuhua: These Dongdu furniture have existed for nearly four hundred years. At the beginning of the restoration, we only have some literature and pictures as a reference, the recognition of the picture is not high, to restore the original appearance and details of the furniture, it is more difficult, you need to spend time to slowly deliberate. In this process, it is necessary to study the background of the times at that time, to understand the relevant background of the Hidden Yuan Zen Master, especially to examine the furniture style at that time.
On the basis of studying the cultural connotation of the historical level of the Yellow Barberry culture, combined with the precious historical picture records, we use high accuracy to restore the furniture. For the restored drawings, we have deliberated layer by layer, modified and adjusted many drafts, so that the details, style and charm of each piece of furniture are concretely presented. In the production and processing stage, we transformed and passed on the background and meaning of the restoration in detail to the master, guiding them to complete the production meticulously. It is particularly worth mentioning that several of the furniture with curved shapes, the shape of the pinch, the grasp of the proportion, must be just right, which can express the humanistic spirit represented by the furniture, as well as the transmission activities and lifestyle of that era.
What is the emphasis on the selection of materials for restored furniture?
Huang Fuhua: In terms of material selection, the first is to consider the primary and secondary relationships of each furniture, reasonably reason about the importance of each furniture, and use the color and texture of different raw materials to restore as much as possible. From the precious historical materials, we can perceive the texture of the original objects and use the most appropriate materials to show the beauty of Chinese furniture in that period. The materials used in the furniture are small-leaf rosewood, large-leaf rosewood, acid branch, Burmese yellow, Ivory Coastal sandalwood and other precious mahogany.
In the process of restoration, we inherit the "Xianzuo" furniture making skills, the exquisite tenon structure, the harmonious unity of "type, material, art and rhyme", which is reflected in every detail of each piece of furniture. Paintings of gold lacquer also reflect the ingenious fusion of chinese painting, carving and furniture making techniques. The structure is rigorous, the materials are exquisite, the style is elegant, and the content of culture and art makes these furniture have both practicality, ornamentation, artistry and collectibility.
"Crossing the sea is very wooden, and the heavens will be a big material", this is the poem of the Zen master Yinyuan. In Chinese philosophy, wood is a symbol of endless life and reincarnation. Looking at the long river of Chinese history, the existence of wood makes people integrate into the natural world, and wood is not only a member of people's lives, but also a symbol of spiritual quality. The Hidden Yuan Zen master Dongdu Fusang taught the Fa and brought a lot of Ming Dynasty furniture, which was not a general daily necessities, but a magic instrument of great significance in the propagation of the Dharma. The calligraphy and painting exhibition "Huang Barberry Wen Huarun Two States - The Zen Ink World of Yin Yuan and His Teachers and Disciples" is being exhibited at the National Art Museum of China, so please pay attention to it.