laitimes

Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...

Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...

▲Jincheng Jade Emperor Temple 28 star statue

Another national treasure is on the Spring Festival Gala!

On the stage of the 2023 Shanxi Jincheng Spring Festival Gala,

Twenty-eight stars appeared.

Through the immersive sound and picture effects of the stage,

The ring-shaped screen is like a starry sky,

Highlights the complete appearance of the twenty-eight stars.

Twenty-eight actors on stage,

Each plays one of the stars,

Singing and dancing,

It reproduces the artistic and cultural connotations of the 28 stars.

Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...

▲ Twenty-eight stars in the 2023 Jincheng Spring Festival Gala program

Jade Emperor Temple of Zezhou Capital City, Jincheng,

Famous for the twenty-eight stars of Yuansu,

It is inferred to be the work of Liu Luan, the great sculptor of the Yuan Dynasty,

It is rare in the world and is a national treasure.

Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...

▲Jincheng Jade Emperor Temple

With a unique perspective,

Novel ideas,

Deciphering the hidden cultural code in the twenty-eight stars,

More than just an innovative act of cultural inheritance,

It is also an innovative move to activate and utilize cultural relics.

so

What are the images of the 28 stars?

What are their characteristics?

The next thing to launch is,

Article written by teacher Liu Jia of the Academy of Fine Arts of Shaanxi Normal University——

Jade Emperor Temple in Jincheng, Shanxi

The figurative features of the 28-juku statue

The 28 statues of the Jade Emperor Temple in Fucheng Village, Jincheng City, Shanxi Province are a relatively complete series of statues of the 28 Shudess in the Song and Yuan Dynasties. Its combination of animals and full-body star gods and vivid and realistic styling style have attracted academic attention. The 28 statues of the Jade Emperor Temple, whether it is the image characteristics of individual star gods or the overall arrangement of star gods, are very unique in the expression of similar themes in the existing contemporaneous period. Much of the research on this has focused on the discussion of whether the age of the Twenty-eight Su statues is Song or Yuan, and the speculation of the author of the statue under the influence of "Sanskrit" statues.

The problem in this article stems from the doubts that the sequence of statues seems to be very "messy" during the site inspection of the 28th hall of the Jade Emperor Temple. While attempting to restore the arrangement according to the four-square order of the astronomical map, its typed image features were discovered. After dividing into seven groups of image types, it was found that the statues that were different from the image characteristics in the group were all due to the fact that the position of the display should meet the needs of the overall temple viewing effect. The 28 statues in the north of Chengcun, Jincheng Fu, Shanxi, are typed star god statues that inherit certain characteristics of star god images and have the function of worshiping and worshiping religion.

01

The overall planning of the 28 statues of the Jade Emperor Temple

and the characteristics of the position arrangement

The 28 statues of the Jade Emperor Temple are located in the west corridor hall of the northernmost courtyard of the Jade Emperor Temple in Fucheng Village, Jincheng City, Shanxi Province. The west corridor hall opens three doors and five windows to the north, with eight rooms 23.56 meters long from north to south and 4.53 meters wide from east to west, and is opened up from west to east, with a total area of 106.73 square meters. The 28 statues of the Jade Emperor Temple are all in human shape, evenly and compactly sitting on the same connected high platform, most of them are sitting in a natural hanging posture, and the size is similar to that of a real person. Each statue has 28 symbols of animals and characters, and the animals sculpted, whether worms, rats, swallows, wu, ox, tiger, jiao, and dragon, are generally small in size, and form relatively independent combinations of episodic formations with star god statues.

The arrangement of the 28 statues of the Jade Emperor Temple is not arranged in the order of east, north, west and south of the traditional celestial map, but with the first sukujiao of the east as the center, first left and then right, in the order of east, north, west and south four sides and seven suku, unfolded to both sides. The result of this arrangement is that the eastern seven places occupy the center of the western corridor hall, followed by the north and west are divided on both sides, and the south and north ends of the window are the southern seven houses; The left hand side of the horned wood jiao is the even series of star statues behind it, and the right hand side is the arrangement of the odd series of star statues behind it. "The order in which the twenty-eight statues of the Jade Emperor Temple unfold to both sides with the horned wood jiao as the center, disrupting the traditional order of the four elephants corresponding to the four suku of the east, north, west and south of the celestial map. Whether the statues of the 28 Sushu Hall of the Jade Emperor Temple are observed from south to north, or viewed in groups of seven suku in four directions, the adjacent statues have no plot echo and are relatively independent modeling units.

The name of the twenty-eight suku first appeared on the lid of the lacquer box unearthed from the tomb of Zeng Marquis Yi in the early Warring States period, and the single-character name of the twenty-eight suku surrounds the central character "dou", and the two ends are painted with images of green dragons and white tigers. In the Han Dynasty Weishu "Shangshuwei Kao Lingyao", it is recorded that the twenty-eight suku were divided equally with four elephants and four palaces. In the ancient celestial phenomena, the four elephants of the green dragon, the white tiger, the vermilion bird and the Xuanwu were assigned to the east, west, south and north, and the combination of the seven stars in the east is the word "dragon" in the oracle bone. The two stars of the horn are the meaning of the dragon's horn, and the twenty-eight suku are based on the horned juku pointed to by the bucket handle as the starting accommodation. In the "Shiji Tianguan Shu", it is recorded that "Jiao carries the dragon horn, Hengyin Nandou, and the head of the pillow", Xia Nai believes that "it is possible that the horn juku was a single constellation used as a season (the beginning of the year), and later merged into the twenty-eight juku system to form its part, but it was given the first place due to its original importance". This is probably the reason why the twenty-eight statues of the Jade Emperor Temple are arranged around the horned wood jiao.

Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...

02

Twenty-eight images of the star gods and their characteristics

The image of the star god of the 28 stars in China has been a combination of people and animals since the Western Han Dynasty. It mostly appears in Han Dynasty tombs, mainly with tomb murals and portrait stones. After the Han Dynasty, the image of the star god was influenced by exotic cultures, mostly manifested as half-human, half-beast and god-shaped features with obvious exotic characteristics, and by the Sui and Tang dynasties of the Six Dynasties, the star god became a popular subject in paintings. The image of the 28-star god in the Osaka Municipal Museum's "Five-Star Twenty-Eight True Figures" is basically consistent with the records in Indian Buddhist texts. After the Tang Dynasty, the images of the blazing light Buddha popular with the prosperity of esotericism are mostly the image forms of the twenty-eight suku, jiuyao and twelve star gods around the blazing light Buddha. Since the Tang Dynasty, the image of the star god has gradually told others to the beast-shaped star god, and appears in the form of a full-body human, and the image is closer and closer to reality to show the characteristics of life, most of which have the image of the era such as wide robes and large sleeves. The murals on the north wall of the Sanqing Hall of the Yongle Palace in the Yuan Dynasty, the 28 Susu color sculptures of the Jade Emperor Temple in Shanxi, and the murals of the Taoist Temple of Water and Land in the Ming Dynasty all have similar characteristics of the era.

As a three-dimensional statue, the 28 statues of the Jade Emperor Temple are somewhat different from the artistic expression methods in the form of scrolls and murals drawn on the surface. The statues are all round sculptures (sculptures) completely detached from the back wall, all in a sitting position, and most of the legs are naturally drooping. This seated figure originated from the widespread use of the Hu bed in the Central Plains during the Tang Dynasty and even earlier, and first appeared in Buddhist statues. From the clothing characteristics of the star god image in the Song and Yuan Dynasties, the twenty-eight star god images in the murals of the Sanqing Hall of Yongle Palace are all right, the clothes of other female figures are left, and the men's clothes are right; The male and female figures in the statues of the Jin Temple and the Song Dynasty are all right. The clothes of the 28 statues of the Jade Emperor Temple are all left except for the round neck and the open image. And the twenty-eight star gods of the Yongle Palace are all male wats, and the twenty-eight statues of the Jade Emperor Temple have men and women, and there are civil officials and naked warriors.

Although scholars generally believe that the style of the 28 statues of the Jade Emperor Temple was influenced by the "Sanskrit" statues of sculptors of the Yuan Dynasty at the same time, and based on the more three-dimensional facial features such as the high nose of the statue, it is speculated that its creator was Liu Yuan (or Liu Luan), a disciple of the Nepalese sculptor Anigo. What is certain is that the twenty-eight star gods in the Jade Emperor Temple are very different from the twenty-eight star gods in the "Five Stars and Twenty-eight Gods" and the twenty-eight star gods in the murals of the Sanqing Hall of Yongle Palace and cannot correspond. Some scholars believe that the statues of the 28 Suzuku of the Jade Emperor Temple were not shaped according to the traditional illustrations because of the play of the craftsman's art. However, through observation, the image characteristics of the twenty-eight statues of the Jade Emperor Temple are regular.

Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...

03

Twenty-eight statues of the star gods in the Jade Emperor Temple

Types with wood, metal, earth, sun, moon, fire, water

Some scholars have noticed that there are nine female statues in the twenty-eight statues of the Jade Emperor Temple, and eight of them contain "gold" and "water" in their names. Through observation, the image of the statue with the same word in the middle of the name of the twenty-eight suku is basically similar: the tailed fire tiger, the fire monkey, the winged fire snake, etc. are all red skin and vertical hair style; Ox Golden Bull, Lou Golden Dog, Ghost Golden Sheep, etc. are all dignified women; Horned wood jiao, doumu liao, kui wood wolf, jingmu qiu, etc. are all the images of civil officials holding wats. This type of feature is roughly divided into seven groups: wood, metal, earth, sun, moon, fire and water, and each group has four similar types of figurative figures.

Chinese pre-Qin literature refers to the "five stars" as Taibai Star, Year Star, Chenxing, Glowing Star, and Fill Star (or Zhenxing). The use of metal, wood, water, fire and earth to correspond to the five stars comes from the concept of the five elements in ancient China, but the images of the five stars are closely influenced by exotic cultures. Daozang uses the theory of the five elements to incorporate the art of star destiny to capture disasters, and the "Secret Scripture of the Weighing Star Spiritual Platform" included in the "Orthodox Daozang Dongzhenbu" points out at the beginning of the chapter that it is necessary to "understand the different natures of the five elements", and combined with the five elements, it is proposed that "wood is strong, fire is fierce, earth is benevolent, gold is strict and resolute, and water is humble". Tang Dynasty Qu Tansida "Kaiyuan Zhanjing" recorded the stars and astrology from the Warring States to the Tang Dynasty, so far Indian astronomy and China's native five elements concept fused with each other, the metal, wood, water, fire and earth away from the astronomical concept of stars, but the humanistic perspective of astrology and religious functions, to create the twenty-eight star officials in the nature of metal, wood, water, fire and earth, the five planets are guarded by the twenty-eight astrological officials with different five element attributes, which is the so-called astrology. The Seven Yao with the Twenty-Eight Suku began in the Tang Dynasty's astrology, and there are records of the "Seven Yao" in the Tang Dynasty's "Book of Jin" and "Book of Sui". This kind of naming entered China through Chinese translations of Buddhist scriptures, astrological texts, etc., and gradually developed, and the twenty-eight suku arranged the star official attributes of each of the four directions in the order of wood, metal, earth, sun, moon, fire and water. Later, it was matched with twenty-eight specific animals, thus forming the three-character name structure of twenty-eight juku.

The esoteric astrology system from the Western Regions not only brought the divination method of the stars, but also brought the specific image of the star god. Jiang Xiaoyuan compared the statues of gods in the "True Form Map of Five Stars and Twenty-eight Stars" and the "Seven Stars and Stars Method", and believed that such star god images originated in India (even ancient Greece and Rome) and were the product of the same type of theory. The "Brahma Fire Luo Jiu Yao" handed down in Japan in the middle and late Tang Dynasty and the "Seven Dawn Calamities" written by the Brahmin monk Jin Juzha of the Western Tianzhu Kingdom, the star god god described in these two astrological texts is basically consistent with some of the star paintings in the "Five Stars and Twenty-eight True Shape Diagrams" made by Liang Lingzan. The shaping of the image of the 28 statues of the Jade Emperor Temple is typed with "wood, metal, earth, sun, moon, fire, and water", corresponding to the characteristics of the god shape of the seven yao in such scriptures and the image of the remaining twenty-eight statues, which shows the influence of some of the concept of the god form image in the seven groups of typification. The following is a grouping of such scriptures and texts to illustrate the image characteristics of the seven groups of star gods of wood, metal, earth, sun, moon, fire and water, as well as the specific modeling characteristics caused by the position of the statue:

1. "Wood" group.

Among the 28 statues of the Jade Emperor Temple, Kui Mu Wolf, Horned Mujiao, Doumu Liao, and Jingmu Li are "wood" statues, all of which are civil officials. Horned wood jiao, doumu liao, and well wood li all wear wats and crowns. The wat wearing a crown indicates his status as a straightforward and upright enforcer. This shape may be related to the five-element attribute concept of "wood curved and straight" in "Shangshu Hongfan". In addition, the image of the head of the beast of the zodiac that appeared in the tombs of the Tang Dynasty to the image of the full human form in the Song and Yuan Dynasties is also mostly the image of the full-body wat civil official, which is consistent with the evolution of the twenty-eight star gods, all of which are the image of the wat official with wide robes and large sleeves, which may be the image product under the influence of Buddhism.

Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...

Most of the statues in the Jade Emperor Temple continue the characteristics of the era of the image of the star god in the wide robe and big sleeves, and from the image characteristics of the iconic civil official "Zhiwat", there are a total of five statues of Zhiwat in the 28 star statues of the Jade Emperor Temple, in addition to the wooden group, there are Lou Jindog and Niu Jinniu. From south to north, Kui Mu Wolf, Niu Jinniu, Horned Mujiao, Doumu Liao, and Lou Jin Dog. Judging from the position of the statues, the image of the wat is only in a row of statues sitting west facing east, and is concentrated in the central area, with the horned wood jiao as the center, separated by two to three statues. This arrangement reflects the overall image design of the 28 Suku of the Jade Emperor Temple as a statue.

Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...

Because the 28th hall of the Jade Emperor Temple is too narrow and long, in order to strengthen the function of central worship, in addition to the wooden group statue has the characteristics of holding wat, and the three statues of Niu Jinniu and Lou Jinhou separated by three statues in the north and south with the horned wood jiao as the center, forming a more symmetrical formal design. The Doumu Li is also separated to the north by three statues of Lou Jindog, who is in the shape of a wat, while the Ox Taurus is only two statues to the south and is Kui Mu Wolf, which can only be grudgingly done in order to unify the wooden group. This explains why the Ioki is a wooden group, but because it is arranged in order in the northernmost corner, there is no wat.

Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...

The robes of the wooden statues are mainly blue and white. The Brahma Fire Luo Jiu Yao describes the "Jupiter" star god: "Years star, oriental wood spirit... His body is like a Qing Xiang. Wearing a tsing yi, wearing a crown, and holding a huaguo in his hand. "Seven Dawns of Calamity" cloud: "Mu Qi is like an old man, wearing a blue coat and a pig's crown." "Cyan is the color of the East. Wood is oriental, which may be the source of the concept of cyan in this group.

In addition, the horned wood jiao and the doumu lion are red-skinned and angry. The animal sculptures of the jiao and the badger are on the right side of the statue, and the horned wood jiao and the doumu lion head tilt to the north, echoing the animals. However, whether it is a horned wood moth with a stolen head or a doumu badger that is basically intact, it generally maintains the action of watching the animal. Kui Mu Wolf and Inoki Li are white-faced civil officials, and both Wolf and Li are squatting on the left side of the statue. The four statues are all holding wat boards, except for the horned wood jiao, whose body is pulled to the left up, his left arm is stretched up, and his left leg is bent to sit in a game, and the rest of the doumu liao, Kui Mu Wolf, and Jingmu Li are all sitting upright, naturally hanging their feet.

Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...

2. "Gold" group.

Among the 28 statues of the Jade Emperor Temple, the ghost golden sheep, the golden dragon, the ox golden bull, and the Lou Jingou group belong to the "gold" statues, all of which are white-skinned female figures with wide robes and dignified sleeves, and are mostly wearing red robes.

Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...

Ghost Golden Sheep sits with his left leg bent knees, and Kang Jinlong, Niu Jinniu, and Lou Jindog sit with their feet down. Lou Jin dog in a rolled-sleeve pose, with a dog on its left side looking back; The bull holds the wat, sitting upright in the front, and the cow is sculpted under the right sleeve. This group only has the golden dragon erect hair, which is more special.

Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...

The Brahma Fire Nine Yao describes the image of the "golden" star god: "(The god of Venus) is shaped like a goddess and holds a white rooster. "Taibai Star Western Gold Essence... Shaped like a woman. The head wears a crown and plays the strings in white clothes". The "Seven Dawns of Calamity" describes the "golden" star god: "The golden god is a woman, dressed in yellow, wearing a chicken crown on her head, and playing a lute in her hand. "In the blazing light Buddha picture of Cave 61 of the Mogao Grottoes, the god Venus is depicted as a woman holding (pipa). In the "True Diagram of the Twenty-Eight Stars of the Stars", Venus is the image of a woman riding a large bird and wearing a bird crown.

Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...

It can be seen that this kind of god of Venus, in the twenty-eight "golden" sex statues of the Jade Emperor Temple, inherits a unified female image, most of which wear crowns. Other characteristics do not correspond to specific descriptions in the text.

Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...

3. "Soil" group.

Among the 28 statues of the Jade Emperor Temple, the earth raccoon, the female earth bat, the stomach earth pheasant, and the willow earth liang group belong to the "soil" sex statues, most of them are male Taoist priests with wide robes and large sleeves. Among them, the female earth bat and the stomach earth pheasant are elderly Taoist priests with white hair and white whiskers. Among the twenty-eight statues of the Jade Emperor Temple, only the female earth bats and stomach earth pheasants in this group have obvious characteristics of elderly people with white hair and white whiskers.

Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...

The stomach pheasant, the willow soil rounder sits on the right and left legs, and the earth raccoon dog and the female earth bat all naturally sit with their feet down. The earth raccoon, the female earth bat, and the stomach earth pheasant are all white-skinned Taoist images, and only the willow earth roe is the image of red-skinned ghost grabbers.

Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...

The design of this image is still related to the position of the statue of Liu Tuliang. The 28 statues of the Jade Emperor Temple are mostly divided into white and red skin tones, and red skin and red hair are the basic characteristics of the "fire" group of statues, while the design of the image of the red skin of the Liu Tuli Liang, which belongs to the "soil" group, is because the position listed in it corresponds to the second winged fire snake at the south entrance, reflecting the overall viewing design effect of the 28 Suku Hall.

Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...

Dong Qi of the Northern Song Dynasty's "Guangchuan Painting" records that the Tang Dynasty painter Yan Liben painted the "Five Stars and Twenty-eight Su True Form Map", and Dong Qi commented on this picture: "The "Five Stars and Twenty-eight Suku True Form Map" in the secret pavilion, Tang Yan Liben painting. The five stars are unique to gold, fire and earth, twenty-eight survivors and thirteen, and the rest are lost... In the five drawings of the Tao-Tibetan tradition, gold is in the form of a woman, fire is in the shape of a child, wood is in the shape of an emperor, and the soil is in the shape of an old man, and this painting is shaped like a beautiful woman, with sideburns like wings, flying phoenixes and soaring oceans, and soil is a Taoist, I don't know what to do. According to Dong Qian's records, the popular portraits of star gods in the Tang and Song dynasties were similar to the image of the star gods in Indian astrology, and in statues such as the Jade Emperor Temple, this image concept was roughly followed.

Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...

4. "Day" group.

Among the 28 statues of the Jade Emperor Temple, the star and sun horse, the virtual day mouse, the house day rabbit, and the Pleiades chicken group belong to the "day" sex statues, except for the house day rabbit as a female image, the star sun horse, the virtual sun mouse, and the Pleiades chicken are all male.

Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...

In the action design, it also shows the characteristics of two pairs of correspondence, the right hand of the star horse is pushed sideways in front of the chest, and the left hand of the virtual sun mouse is pushed sideways in front of the chest. The chest bent arm side push is a common Taoist gesture. The star horse and the virtual sun rat wear blue-blue robes, and the waist and hanging belt decorations are the same color;

Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...

Fang Ri Rabbit and Pleiades Chicken hold a red disc in their right hand, the red background of the disc is painted with white animal figures, and the bottom of the disc has cirrus patterns. Fang Ri Rabbit and Pleiades Rooster are dressed in yellow robes.

Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...

The illustration of the image of the "sun" star god in "Brahma Fire Luo Jiuyao" is a frontal statue of a god riding a five-swallow chariot and holding a round wheel. The "Eleventh Great Lantern Instrument of the Shangqing Dynasty" mentions that "the sun emperor of the sun palace, the god of the sun palace... Embrace the black inside and drive the dragon outside". The shape design of "Huowu" is embodied in the statue of the stars in the Japanese group as holding a disc.

Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...

5. Month group.

Among the 28 statues of the Jade Emperor Temple, Bi Yuewu, Xin Yue Fox, Wei Yueyan and Zhang Yuelu are "moon" sex statues, all of which are middle-aged men. In the action design, it also shows the characteristics of two pairs corresponding to the same group of types.

Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...

Among them, Bi Yuewu and Xinyue Fox stretched their left arms up to the seat, raised their heads to the left and looked at the arm extension, and the overall center of gravity tilted to the upper left. The dynamics of Wei Yueyan and Zhang Yuelu are basically the same, each holding a disc on the side of his right hand and tilting his head slightly to the left. Bi Yuewu and Zhang Yuelu both sit with their feet hanging down, while Wei Yueyan and Xinyue Fox sit in a game, and the waist belt of the two statues is the same.

Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...

The illustration of the "moon" star god in "Brahma Fire Luo Jiuyao" is a frontal statue of a god riding a five-horse chariot and holding a round wheel. And in the "Seven Dawns of Calamity", it is recorded that the "moon" god form is "when drawing a god shape, the shape is like a heavenly daughter, wearing a green heavenly robe, and holding a sword".

Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...

Among the 28 statues of the Jade Emperor Temple, only the statues of the "Day" group and the "Moon" group hold discs. The discs are painted with different animal figures in different colors, which is indeed consistent with the characteristics of the "holding the wheel" described in the Brahma Fire Luo Jiuyao. In the image of the Blazing Light Buddha, the sun and moon gods are common in the hand holding the disc, and in the Blazing Light Buddha picture in Cave 61 of Mogao Grottoes, the sun and moon gods are holding round objects with both hands. This ritual of the characteristics of the star god is also expressed in the twenty-eight statues of the Jade Emperor Temple.

Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...

6. "Fire" group.

Among the 28 statues of the Jade Emperor Temple, the winged fire snake, the chamber fire pig, the tailed fire tiger, and the fire monkey group belong to the "fire" sex statues, all of which are erected King Kong warriors. Wide-mouthed round eyes, red skin and red hair, loose hair, shoulder ring streamers, there is a sense of soaring.

Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...

The room fire pig, the fire monkey, and the tailed fire tiger sit in a game, the room fire pig and the fire monkey look in the direction and the hair and streamers are all pointed to the upper left, the upper body is exposed, and there are streamers with oblique shoulders across the chest and abdomen. The house fire pig is dressed in a beast skirt, with a relief pig's mouth on the belt, and looks up at the pig on the beam with a knife. The winged fire snake and the tailed fire tiger look up and down to the right, and the belly armor has a circular coiled dragon pattern. The coiled dragon pattern of the winged fire snake's belly armor appears to be black, and the coiled dragon pattern of the tailed fire tiger's belly armor appears to be yellow on a white background.

Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...

"Fire" is often depicted in the Hindu star god as a red-clad god of war. "Brahma Fire Luo Jiu Yao" describes the image of the "fire" star god: "The southern glow star ... God is like an outer way. The first wears a donkey crown, and the blade of a four-handed weapon. The image of the "fire" star god is described in the Seven Dawns: "It is advisable to paint the fire itself to provide for its gods. He has red teeth and a donkey crown, a leopard skin skirt, and four arms with a bow in one hand, an arrow in the other, and a knife in the other. The "Eleventh Great Lantern Instrument of the Shangqing Dynasty" describes: "(Fire) both the sword and the halberd." It's like a lonely target. The horse passed away and flew away from the wind. ”

Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...

In addition, in the legends of various types of gods and monsters in China, there are many images of gods and monsters with red hair and spitting fire, flying Yasha. Similarly, the image of the red-skinned evil star god of Mars in Hinduism and the "fire" statue in the twenty-eight houses of the Jade Emperor Temple both show the characteristics of red fierce warriors.

Among the 28 statues, in addition to the four star gods of the "fire" nature, there is also the image of the golden dragon who is also angry and rushing to the crown, and the heart moon fox is a red-skinned image similar to "fire". This design is also for the overall viewing effect. The shape of vertical hair and crown has many more exaggerated shapes after the Song and Yuan dynasties. The 24 Heavenly Colored Sculptures of Gaoping Iron Buddha Temple in the Ming Dynasty, the "Fire Heaven" in the Twenty-Four Heavens Statue in the Daxiong Treasure Hall of Shanhua Temple in the Datong Liao Dynasty, Shanxi, and the 24 Heavens of the Blue Sky Water and Land Temple in Shaanxi all prominently express the vertical hair of Lux.

Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...

7. "Water" group.

Among the 28 statues of the Jade Emperor Temple, the water worm, the water ape, the water leopard, and the wall water mackerel belong to the "water" group type. The statues are similar to the "golden" group, and they are all white-skinned women with wide robes and large sleeves.

Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...

Among them, the water worm and the water ape face to the right, and the water leopard faces to the left. Samshui apes and Misui leopards sit with bent legs and knees, with a large range of movement; The water worm and the wall water worm all naturally sit on their feet and both do finger pinching movements. The water worm pinched the finger with his right hand and pinched the "worm", and the left hand pinched the finger on the chest.

Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...

The Brahma Fire Luo Jiu Yao describes the image of the "water" star god as "the name Beichen." A star, a drop star... Its god-like woman. wears an ape crown on his head and holds pen and paper". The "Eleventh Great Lantern Instrument of the Shangqing Dynasty" describes the image of the "water" star god: "Standing up the monkey and holding the inkstone, holding the scroll to smoke." "The Seven Hidden Calamities" describes the image of the "water" star god: "The water god woman wears a blue coat. With a monkey crown hand holding a scroll. "The star in the "Blazing Light Buddha Five Star Chart" is a woman's image, wearing an ape on her head and holding a pen.

Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...

In line with the four statues in the "gold" group, the four statues in the "water" group also retain the female image of a uniform crown. In terms of dynamics, the pairings correspond similarly.

Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...

04

The modeling characteristics of the statue of the twenty-eight star gods in the Jade Emperor Temple

From the typological analysis of the above seven groups of statues and the comparison of scriptures, it can be seen that the twenty-eight suku of the Jade Emperor Temple divides seven different groups of star god modeling types according to the general attributes of the seven yao, some of which are derived from the Buddhist astrology of the Tang and Song Dynasties and the god-shaped characteristics of the seven star gods recorded in Taoist texts, but more conceptualize this god-shaped image in a unified star god nature. For example, the civil servants of the "wood" group, the women wearing crowns in the "gold" and "water" groups, the elderly Taoist priests of the "earth" group, the red bundled warriors of the "fire" group, and the "sun" and "moon" holding discs, etc., all show the conceptual and labeled characteristics of wood, metal, earth, sun, moon, fire, and Mercury. However, in each group, there are also more special image designs that do not conform to the unified characteristics of this group, which are based on the overall design needs of the statue that meets the admiration function.

The shaping process of the 28 statues of the Jade Emperor Temple is likely to first list the four statues with the same nature according to the attributes of the seven yao, and then unify the seven groups of the twenty-eight statues according to the seven yao into a type with similar dynamic posture and uniform appearance. Then, with the horned wood jiao as the center, the rough shape of the statue is arranged in the order of left and then right, and it is arranged in order of north and south and sits on a unified table. Finally, according to the animals corresponding to each statue, the specific animal appears in each place and the specific image is designed. This explains why the adjacent statues are almost all dynamic and plot related, while the disconnected seven groups of four houses are similar in nature and dynamics.

We should also note that most animal designs only have the symbolic meaning of the identity of the star god, and the shape of the star god image has little plot connection with the animal in terms of shaping. Even if the image design of the room fire pig holding a knife angrily at the pig on the room beam, it is very likely that the position of the room fire pig is arranged first, and then the structure of the room beam at the top left of the statue is found, and then the pig is shaped on the beam to echo the star god's demeanor and eye direction. It can be seen that in the entire statue group of the twenty-eight juku, the dynamic design of the animal looking at the star god statue is significantly more than the dynamic of the star god statue looking at the animal, even if the star god has the general dynamic of looking at the animal, the performance of the shape and the echo of the eyes are not accurate enough. Therefore, the shaping process of the twenty-eight star gods is likely to first type the image dynamics of the star god statue, and then attach animals to identify the identity of the statue. This is a speculation on the creative process of image imaging from the perspective of modeling characteristics.

With the rise of the star god image from the Sui and Tang Dynasties to the Song and Yuan Dynasties, the astrological color of the Taoist statue ritual integrates multiple cultural factors and continues to develop, and the twenty-eight statues of the Jade Emperor Temple are roughly typed according to the star god image attributes of the "Sun and Moon Five Stars" and "Seven Yao", and show a certain artistic level of the star god statue group.

It is undeniable that the attributes of the 28 statues of the Jade Emperor Temple are the existence of worship and worship functions as religious sites, and have the common characteristics of religious statues of the same period. According to the structure of the hall, the star god statues are juxtaposed in a unified size, and the unified front faces the viewer, and the very narrow and long architectural structure of the 28 halls not only determines the viewer's close (within two meters) viewing, but also prolongs the time of worship (about 23.56 meters in length), and constantly strengthens the different types of adjacent statues from the perception. In addition, the statue of the star god is similar in size to the life-size and very vivid shape, and this kind of approaching viewing effect strengthens the overall solemn and majestic, and even some treacherous and terrifying religious atmosphere of god worship, which is a prominent expression of its characteristics as a statue. The original intention of this worship function is different from the celestial imagination of the tomb paintings, the scriptures of divine blessings, and the function of astrology. In order to complete the display of the 28 star statues in the west hall, the designer arranged the stars centered on the horned wood jiao in the star chart, in an attempt to explain the arrangement of the 28 stars in the series according to the four directions and seven juku, and use animals to identify and correspond to the identity of the star gods, so as to complete the complete symbolic meaning of the 28 juku.

As religious statues, the twenty-eight statues of the stars and gods attach great importance to the shaping of the head, face and facial features, emphasizing the subtle expression of the personality of the image, as well as conceptualization, typed clothing or dynamic image features, compared with the shaping of the opponent and feet, it is similar and vague, and lacks the specificity similar to the head and face. This does not rule out that the independent hand shape of some statues is therefore easily damaged, and it is impossible to glimpse the original level after restoration and reconstruction, but it can be seen from the integration of the feet and the overall shape of the body that there is no great possibility of restoration and reconstruction. Therefore, in the process of shaping the statue of the twenty-eight juku, it is very likely that the head, face, body, hands and feet have a division of labor. There is also a certain gap in the level of craftsmen who work in the division of labor.

Finally, the shape of individual star god statues is influenced by the structure of the west side hall where the twenty-eight juku are located, with the head facing the direction facing the visitor. The six statues facing the window in the south, the Shuishui Worm, the Winged Fire Serpent and the Star Sun Horse, and the Jimu Qi, Liu Tuli and Zhang Yuelu on the north window, are all facing the window in a dynamic way, which is obviously determined by the position where the statue is sitting. These are the shaping characteristics of the nature of the 28 statues of the Jade Emperor Temple as a place of religious worship.

Twenty-eight stars

Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...
Twenty-eight stars, the Spring Festival Gala debuts! You are the most beautiful stars in the night sky...

Thesis| Liu Jia

Originally published in Art, Issue 03, 2019

The original title | on the image characteristics of the twenty-eight statues of the Jade Emperor Temple in Jincheng, Shanxi

Pictured | Nanshan Offering Show network

Thank you

The copyright of graphics and text belongs to the original author or institution

| Shanxi Evening News all-media reporter Nan Lijiang

Review | Fang Tianji

Read on