Harmonious coexistence, beauty and beauty
——Written after the broadcast of "The Forbidden City and the Louvre" of "Encounter Civilization"
Author: Wang Xudong
One
In the Palace Museum, there is a Qianlong travel stationery box in the collection. The Qianlong Emperor loved to travel, and spent his life traveling south and north, enjoying splendid mountains and rivers. In order to facilitate his handling of government affairs and study when traveling, which not only met the special requirements of the northern nomads "traveling the country" system, but also reflected the Qing rulers' diligent pursuit of Confucian culture, the Qing Palace Internal Affairs Office designed and manufactured this travel stationery box. Its four corners are inlaid with yellow gilt copper corners to prevent bumps and wear during travel, and there are two rectangular wooden shelves with small boxes with layers, grids and slots in the box, which are used to store stationery, book lamps, hat racks, calligraphy and painting scrolls, chess and cards, etc., and there are also hidden mechanisms for placing subtle items. The most exquisite thing about this travel stationery box is that its outer wall, bottom and lid are connected with lotus leaves, and there are four movable table legs lying in the box groove, press the mechanism, move out these four movable table legs, fix the table legs, and then turn the wooden box over as a whole, the stationery box will become a movable desk about 40 centimeters high for the emperor to read during the journey.
Coincidentally, in the Louvre Museum in France, there is also a collection of Napoleonic travel suitcases, which are owned by the French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, that is, Napoleon I. This rectangular box made of mahogany contains 92 pieces of travel items, 78 of which are toiletries. Its central part is an oval tray with various ivory knives, and around the oval tray, several crystal bottles and cups of different shapes and sizes are placed as drinking utensils on the go. There is also a hidden mechanism in the lid of the box, and when you press the mechanism, a mirror appears for the owner of the box to dress up. This inconspicuous travel suitcase not only has an ingenious and complex internal structure, reflecting the ingenuity of designer Bionne, but also reveals the love of travel and the pursuit of fashion by its owner, Napoleon Bonaparte.
CCTV-4, a large-scale quarterly cultural program produced by CCTV-4, launched a program with the theme of "The Forbidden City and the Louvre". In this episode, these two suitcases of the two emperors of the 18th century and France are specially displayed. Born in 1711, the Qianlong Emperor ascended the throne in 1735 and died in 1799, making him the emperor who actually held state power for the longest time in Chinese history, creating a glorious Qianlong prosperous era, safeguarding national unity and ethnic unity, and further consolidating and laying the map of China. The "Qing History Manuscript Gaozong Benji" said that he "exerted himself to govern, opened up the frontier and expanded the world, made four expeditions without court, worked hard in writing, and was prosperous in Yusi". Born more than half a century after the Qianlong Emperor, Napoleon Bonaparte was born in 1769, crowned emperor on December 2, 1804, and died in 1821. During his reign, he turned the republic into an empire, promulgated the Napoleonic Code, perfected the world legal system, and laid down the social order of Western capitalist countries. These two emperors, at the two ends of the Eurasian continent, in different historical environments, have successively created the glorious history of their respective peoples. The small suitcase brings the vivid historical details closer to the audience, allowing the audience to feel the cordial and vivid daily life of the two emperors in addition to the cloudy and mighty history.
When Napoleon I rose, the Qianlong Emperor and his time were far away. Napoleon did not see the Qianlong Emperor's travel stationery box, and the Qianlong Emperor did not see Napoleon's travel suitcase. In 2008, the Palace Museum and the Louvre Museum jointly organized the exhibition "Louvre Napoleon I", a Napoleonic travel suitcase that came to the Forbidden City for the first time to meet Chinese audiences. These two travel suitcases for the emperor have similarities, and civilizations of different countries and regions of mankind have their own distinct personalities, but also have common commonalities - they all serve people's lives. Whether it is the exclusive property of the emperor or the folk art that serves the ordinary people, it is a beautiful presentation, the expression of emotions, and the enhancement of life, condensing human practice and thinking on beauty, and blooming with moving brilliance of life. Chinese Pay attention to "the metaphysical is called the way, and the metaphysical is called the instrument." "Behind the material beauty, the spiritual beauty of human beings is reflected. Therefore, when we look at such cultural relics, we should also look beyond the surface of their "beauty" to find the common dream and pursuit of a better life for mankind.
Two
Each episode of the program selects two representative and contrasting civilization carriers, such as guqin and piano, Chinese painting and oil painting, porcelain and glassware, Chinese food and Western food, tea and coffee, Beijing opera and opera, Chinese furniture and Western furniture, Chinese gardens and Western gardens, Chinese costumes and Western costumes, Chinese poetry and Western poetry, Chinese dance and Western ballet, etc., with unique vision and unique paths, not only showing the respective characteristics and advantages of Chinese and foreign civilizations. Moreover, it establishes a clever connection between Chinese and foreign civilizations, telling about their harmonious coexistence, beauty and beauty. Among all the themes, "The Forbidden City and the Louvre" is undoubtedly one of the most appropriate themes to reflect the exchanges and mutual learning between Chinese and foreign civilizations. The Forbidden City is a gathering place of excellent traditional Chinese culture, whether it is immovable cultural relics, that is, more than 1,000 buildings in the Forbidden City, or movable cultural relics, that is, the Palace Museum's collection of 25 categories and 69 sub-items, with a total of more than 1.86 million pieces (sets) of cultural relics, are all important carriers of Chinese civilization for 5,000 years. The Louvre Museum, also built on the basis of the Royal Palace, is a treasure trove of French and world art. This is a concise introduction in the "Forbidden City and the Louvre" of "Encountering Civilization".
The Forbidden City has gone through more than 600 years, and during this time, its connection with the world has never been broken. In some historical stages, it has even become an "outpost" for the exchange of Chinese and foreign civilizations. At the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, more and more envoys came to China and the Forbidden City, bringing with them Western science, technology, culture and art, and also spreading Chinese civilization to the West. The Palace Museum is the most distinctive museum in the world for collecting Western clocks, among which clocks from France, Britain, Switzerland and other countries represent the superb level of clock production and are historical witnesses of cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries at that time. Western missionaries, on the other hand, helped the Kangxi Emperor complete national geographic mapping and mapping projects such as the "Imperial Public Opinion Panorama" through his mastery of Western surveying and mapping techniques. Clocks and maps connect China to the world in two dimensions, time and space. The influence of foreign civilizations on Chinese civilization can be seen in the architectural decoration, furniture, paintings and other movable and immovable cultural relics of the Palace Museum. Moreover, the Palace Museum also has a collection of many foreign cultural relics, including ancient Buddha statues from India and Nepal from the 7th to 8th centuries AD, Western scientific instruments and clocks from the 17th to 20th centuries, paintings, books, porcelain, enamelware, metalware, lacquerware, weaving and embroidery from the Edo to Meiji periods in Japan. These foreign cultural relics are a testimony to China's friendly exchanges with foreign countries and the equal exchanges between Chinese civilization and world civilization.
These foreigners who came to China and even entered the court during the Ming and Qing dynasties also spread Chinese culture to the West through letters. These books, published in Europe in the 18th century, covered all aspects of China's territory, properties, science and technology, systems, customs, and history, and once caused a "China fever" in the West. It was through these "Oriental Shujian" that Westerners began to understand the wisdom and thought of the Chinese represented by the Analects and the Tao Te Ching, and found that in the far East, Chinese had created a great civilization. Correspondingly, architecture, gardens, furniture, clothing, painting, and ceramic art from Chinese civilization have also captivated Westerners. As early as 1670, Louis XIV built a "Chinese Palace" in Versailles, and the European enthusiasm for imitation of Chinese architecture continued for more than a century. In 1700, the Palace of Versailles in France welcomed the arrival of the new century with a Chinese-themed ball, all the princes and aristocrats attending the ball were disguised as Chinese, and Louis XIV of France also dressed himself as the Chinese emperor to express his admiration for Chinese culture.
Three
"Chinese civilization is an open system formed through continuous exchanges and mutual learning with other civilizations", reflecting "the self-confidence of inclusiveness and calmness". In the process of continuous development and progress, Chinese civilization has always maintained the study and reference of foreign civilizations. In the process of the development of human civilization, Chinese civilization and foreign civilizations are "other" to each other. Through each other, we see our own strengths and limitations, and constantly seek development and progress by learning from each other. Through continuous learning from foreign civilizations, the Chinese nation has achieved self-transcendence and constantly elevated Chinese civilization to a new level and new realm.
The Chinese nation has always believed that the common harmony of mankind is far greater than the barriers and differences between them. The pursuit of common interests and common values is the cornerstone of building a community with a shared future for mankind. Over the years, the Palace Museum has continued to "go global", holding cultural relics exhibitions in many countries around the world, and also introducing many foreign museum exhibitions. Especially since 2016, the Palace Museum and the Beijing Palace Cultural Relics Protection Foundation, with the strong support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Xinhua News Agency, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage and other units, have successfully hosted three sessions of the "World Forum on the Protection of Ancient Civilizations". In 2019, as a parallel scholar forum of the "Forum of Ancient Civilizations", the Palace Museum held the "Taihe • Forum on the Protection of Ancient World Civilizations and the Scholars Forum of the Third Forum of Ancient Civilizations Ministerial Conference", inviting important scholars in the field of cultural heritage from nine member countries of Bolivia, China, Egypt, Greece, Iran, Iraq, Italy, Peru and Armenia, as well as a number of observer countries and international organizations, to come to Beijing to jointly study and discuss ways to protect the heritage of human civilization and promote the sustainable development of heritage.
The large-scale quarterly cultural program "Encountering Civilization" produced by the Chinese Global Program Center of China Central Radio and Television has emerged in the context of such a new era, hoping that it will become an excellent TV program that shows China's open and inclusive mentality and reflects the inclusive development of Chinese and foreign civilizations in exchanges and mutual learning. (The author is a member of the Party Group of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the President of the Palace Museum)
Source: Guangming.com