Yue Reading Weekly | Reading - Famous Artists and Painting Schools Emerge: Sheng Tang Weather

The different styles shown in the murals of the three tombs of Yi De, Zhang Huai and Yongtai are related to the emergence of the school of painting in the Tang Dynasty. Some of the influential painting schools from the early Tang Dynasty to the Sheng Tang Dynasty had their own followers, openly flaunting their patriarchal "certain family". Some sects can be traced back to previous masters such as Cao Buxing and Zhang Shengfa, while others began with contemporary masters such as Wu Daozi or Zhou Fang (active in the mid-to-late 8th century); Zhang Yanyuan therefore said that Tang Dynasty painting was "each with its own teachers, imitating each other". This situation also inevitably leads to competition between schools, studios, and artists, especially when several prestigious painters with different heritages paint in the same building. The artists present sometimes kept the techniques of their own sects secret; sometimes their rivalries led to antagonisms between regional factions; and some of the competitions turned into open art competitions and competitions.

According to the history of painting, the court and monasteries of the Tang Dynasty held open painting competitions, in which painters of different schools participated, often drawing the same subject to show their superiority. Two murals in Cave 172 of Dunhuang's Mogao Caves from the Tang Dynasty indicate that these records are not fictional. These two frescoes of the same size are painted on the opposite north and south walls of the cave, depicting the Guan Wu Wei Shou Jing in the same size and composition, but their very different painting styles and visual effects indicate that the two were painted by different painters. The image in the south wall fresco is light and soft; on the north wall, it is thick and rigorous.

From these two murals, we can also understand the true meaning of a contest between Li Sixun and Wu Daozi recorded in the Tang Dynasty classics. According to Zhu Jingxuan, during the Tianbao period (742-756), Tang Xuanzong "Kusi Shu Dao Jialing Landscape", so he summoned Wu Daozi and Li Sixun to create murals in the Datong Hall together. As a result, the three hundred miles of Shu Dao landscapes, "Li Sixun's achievements for several months, Wu Daozi's one-day traces, are extremely wonderful." Historically, this event could not have happened, because Li Sixun was more than fifty years older than Wu Daozi and had died before the Tianbao years. This account can therefore only be read as an allegory, in which Li Sixun and Wu Daozi represent two different painting traditions and schools, and the contest between the two reflects the differences and competitions between different artistic traditions, painting styles, and the social hierarchy of painters.

In the eyes of the people at that time, the style of Wu Daozi and Li Sixun represented the two bodies of "sparse and dense" in Tang Dynasty painting. Zhang Yanyuan classified this style as a premise for art criticism and appreciation, declaring that "if you know that the painting has a dense two-body, you can discuss the painting." From some archaeological discoveries of tomb murals, it can be seen that these two styles coexisted in the 7th and early 8th centuries; the secret style is found in the tombs of Princess Changle and Prince Yide, and the loose style is found in the tombs of ZhifengFengjie and Zhanghuai Prince. By the middle of the 8th century, the style of dense painting represented by Li Sixun's green landscape gradually lost its attractiveness and mainstream status due to its increasing ingenuity and prosperity. While admiring Li Pai's works, Zhang Yanyuan was also critical of Li Zhaodao's skillful and prosperous style; Zhu Jingxuan also said that his works were "very elaborate". At this moment, Wu Daozi, the master of the body, appeared and immediately became the focus of people's attention. Zhang Yanyuan described the scene when he painted: "The pen is only one or two, and the image has been fulfilled. Zhu Jingxuan believes that Wu Daozi's works are not limited to detailed depictions, their brushwork is smooth and full of changes and ups and downs, full of momentum and vitality, and when describing the authentic works of Wu Daozi he saw, he said: "There are several more walls, only ink vertical, and in modern times, it is impossible to add its paintings." Scholars have tried to corroborate these accounts with surviving paintings, with some believing that the Wei Mojie portrait in Cave 103 of dunhuang's Mogao Caves seems to reflect Wu Daozi's line-based style, while others believe that the stone carvings at the Quyang Beiyue Temple more typically reflect his flexible brushwork. Although this square stone carving was done by posterity, it has an inscription of "Wu Daozi Pen" on it, which should have its roots. The stone carving depicts a demon-like lux with powerful lines, carrying a long halberd on his shoulder and leaping in the air, which indeed reminds people of the figure at the bottom of Wu Daozi's pen in the record, "beard and cloud sideburns, several feet flying, hair roots out of flesh, and strength is more than enough."

This dynamic, expressive painting is not a product of the court. Towards the heyday of the Tang Dynasty, the taste of court painting became increasingly beautiful and elegant, with the themes of green landscapes, Qiluo maidens, flowers and birds, cordyceps, and kurama horses. Behind Wu Daozi are actually thousands of craftsmen and painters who have built Buddhist taoist temples, and he has also been revered by these professional painters as "painting saints" in Chinese history and enshrined as their protectors. Unlike Li Sixun, who was a relative of the emperor and the state, Wu Daozi came from a humble background and never stepped into his career. There is little historical record of his life, only that he was lonely and poor when he was young, and may not have received formal artistic training. Even if he was recruited into the court after he became famous, his duties were limited to teaching the palace and serving the crown prince. Public space outside the court was his real use. In Chang'an, he had his own workshop and a number of disciples, and when he painted murals for the temple, he often drew his own ink and then colored by the disciples. From Zhang Yanyuan's writings, it can be seen that the painters related to Wu Daozi at that time did not have close ties with the court, and most of their paintings were Daoist figures. According to the records of Wu Daozi painting more than 300 walls in the Buddhist temples and Taoist temples in Luoyang and Chang'an, it seems that it is not an exaggeration, according to the "Records of Famous Paintings of Past Dynasties", even after the "Huichang Annihilation of the Buddha" in 845, there are 21 monasteries in Luoyang and Chang'an that have Wu Daozi's paintings, accounting for one-third of the total number of monasteries in the two capitals. All of this evidence suggests that Wu Daozi spent his life working primarily on mural paintings, rather than making scroll paintings for private viewing. The 93 works recorded in his name in the Xuanhe Pictorial Notation are all Daoist paintings, and none of them are ornamental works. Some of these paintings may have been small samples prepared to depict large frescoes, while others may have been enshrined in small Buddhist halls. Since his main place of practice was in the Buddhist temple Taoist Temple, his painting art was inseparable from the mass market culture of the Tang Dynasty.

Many anecdotes and legends about Wu Daozi's artistic practice confirm this relationship with Ichijing culture. Literature often describes him as a street performer, who exhibits superhuman skills when painting in public, which is amazing. For example, he paints the heads of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas without measuring them in a regular way, but with a wave of them, making the viewer think that there is god helping. Zhang Yanyuan compared him to two skillful craftsmen in Zhuangzi's pen: one is the Xie Niu Ku Ding who "plays the knife and the middle tone"; the other is the yin smith who transports the axe into the wind and can cut the chalk on the nose without hurting the nose. According to Zhu Jingxuan's record, when Wu Daozi was painting in the temple, the citizens of Chang'an rushed to watch, including the elderly and young people, some scholars and some civilians, surrounded by a thick circle of human walls, reminiscent of the scene of the traditional temple fair. His religious paintings had a huge impact on the common people - Zhu Jingxuan quoted the old monk of Jingyun Temple as saying: "When Wu Sheng painted the hell of this temple in disguise, the people of Kyoto's slaughtering fishing gugu often saw it and feared sin and changed their professions. Folklore in turn casts a mystique over Wu Daozi and his works: he is either seen as the reincarnation of Zhang Shengxuan, or legend has it that he can learn about his past by reciting the Diamond Sutra; his paintings of flying dragons are said to be flying with scales and armor, and clouds and mist on rainy days. These legends are oral literature rather than official history. Li Sixun has biographies in both the old and new Books of Tang, and the second book says nothing about Wu Daozi's deeds, once again confirming the different social classes and cultural environments to which the two painters belonged.

Chinese Painting: Ancient to Tang Dynasty, by Wu Hong/Author, Century Wenjing, Shanghai People's Publishing House, 2022

【Please pay attention to us】

▲Long press the QR code above to pay attention to the evening newspaper micro-report ▲