The mural is a long-standing decorative art of the ancient building wall courtyard of Sanfang And Qixiang, and also the bearer of the deep cultural context of the sanfang and qixiang. In the rescue protection and restoration that lasted for 10 years, the cultural protection workers not only saved a large number of precious murals that were on the verge of disappearing in 17 houses in Sanfang and Seven Lanes, but also studied and examined the cultural meaning of the murals. The protection and restoration project of the ancient building murals in Sanfang And Qixiang has also won the title of "2011 National Top Ten Cultural Relics Maintenance Project".
On the 18th, the International Day of Monuments and Sites, the "Gucuo Lecture Hall" opened by Fuzhou Mingcheng Protection and Development Co., Ltd. invited Yang Qiuying, a cultural relics expert from Shaanxi Province who presided over the restoration of the murals of Sanfang And Qixiang, to open a lecture on "Restoration and Interpretation of Murals of Sanfang and Qixiang Courtyards" online.
Murals combined with plaster sculptures in the Liu family compound.
After ten years of searching
Restoration of murals to restore cultural genes
After hundreds of years of vicissitudes, the murals and gray sculptures in the three lanes and seven lanes have been seriously damaged and have almost disappeared. Among them, 148 places with serious damage, totaling 600 square meters, are distributed in multiple courtyards, and the content is difficult to identify.
"The house that loses the mural is not the original appearance of the sanfang and seven lane houses." Yang Qiuying said that before the restoration, there were three major problems in the murals in Sanfang and Seven Alleys: the remains were scattered, fragile, and the paintings were seriously painted; the pictures were mutilated and fragmented and could not be interpreted; and the pictures fell off in large quantities and no longer existed.
Therefore, Yang Qiuying's team proposed to take the authenticity protection of cultural relics and the authenticity inheritance of cultural relics genes as breakthrough points. They first treated every remnant of each courtyard as a research topic; they used various technical means to rescue every fragment and the remains under each overlay, and then conducted in-depth research to find commonalities and regularities from scattered information.
At the same time, Yang Qiuying's team through a large number of field visits and research, looking for the elderly related to the house, to obtain information; to consult the historical background and information of the house; to investigate and learn from the remains of the surrounding ancient buildings and courtyards of the same period, etc., to obtain the basis for interpreting its traditional craftsmanship and cultural connotations, so as to accurately decipher the genetic code of the culture of the Sanfang And Qixiang Wall Courtyard.
Experts rescued a large number of vanishing murals in 17 important houses in Sanfang And Seven Lanes. After ten years of searching, more and more murals and gray sculptures have been protected in time. A large number of uninterpretable pictures have regained the return of cultural values through examination.
Murals on the lintels of the Ermei Bookstore.
Reflects auspicious culture
Refraction of value orientation
In Yang Qiuying's analysis, the murals of Sanfang and Qixiang not only reflect the auspicious culture of traditional Chinese houses, but also carry the content of the spiritual level of people living in the houses, and they are a vivid portrayal of the value orientation advocated in each house in the three lanes and seven lanes.
For example, the mural "Wuluntu" in the Liu Family Compound is the embodiment of the values advocated by a prominent family for generations, and reflects the significance of the Chongwen and re-education of the residential culture to the entire family. For another mural in the Liu family compound, "Liu Du Huile", experts have found that the most common wall eaves mural in Fuzhou is to paint the most famous historical story in the owner's surname, which is proud and plays a role in educating future generations. Both Liu Ling and Juniper were Ming generals, and "Liu Du Huile" in ancient times meant the exercise of the two armies.
In the three lanes and seven alleys, there are many murals such as these. For example, the "Fish and Dragon Change Map" of Wang Qi's former residence, the "Spring Garden Music Map" of the Water Pavilion Theatre, etc., reflect the family's humanistic feelings, philosophy of life, value orientation and historical trajectory.
These murals are not only rich in the unique cultural temperament of Sanfang and Qixiang, but also a rich cultural heritage left to future generations.
Two plum book house murals
Reflect Zheng He's voyage to the West
Ermei Bookstore is the home of Hanlin, Fuzhou, And Fengchi Academy, Shan Changlin Xingzhang, in the Qing Dynasty. In the protection and restoration of the murals, Yang Qiuying and others accidentally discovered a little-known story in the murals of the Ermei Book House, and brought out a history of the mansion related to the Hai Silk in the Ming Dynasty.
In a mural on the lintel of the Ermei Bookstore, experts found that there were several layers of murals on the lower floor of the original mural. Among them, the frescoes on the 4th floor depict 14 figures. Except for the ancient "envoy" figures, the rest are mostly monk figures. The temple in the picture is also exotic. The architectural and costume features of the figures indicate that the fresco depicts a scene of almsgiving that takes place in an exotic Brahma. This is highly consistent with the locations and characters in the "Zheng He Busch Ceylon Mountain Buddhist Temple Stele" preserved in sri Lanka, an indian ocean island country.
After nearly two years of research, Yang Qiuying consulted a large number of materials, compared the architecture, costumes, and historical events one by one, and combined with the fact that some people believe that the east fall of the Ermei Book House was built in the Ming Dynasty, the fuzhou people had the habit of recording major events on the wall, and Zheng He's western ocean service to open the ocean was staying in Fuzhou and leaving a large number of imprints, etc., that the mural of the Ermei Book House was highly consistent with the historical facts of Zheng He's western ocean and the "Zheng He Busch Ceylon Mountain Buddhist Temple Stele". "The murals in Sanfang and Seven Alleys reflect the influence of China's Maritime Silk Road on foreign religions and cultures, and also embody China's idea of 'valuing peace' since ancient times." Yang Qiuying said. (Reporter Guan Shu/Wen Correspondent Huang Leting/Photo)
(Fuzhou Evening News)