The use of murals to express the Confucian concept of etiquette - the traditional feelings of the painter Wang Zheng

Confucian Lile Diagram (mural part) Wang Zheng

In the form of murals, how to express the traditional Confucian concept of etiquette? In Qufu, Shandong, the hometown of Confucius, the first Confucian saint, in order to inherit and promote confucian traditional culture, a Nishan University Hall and a series of other supporting facilities were built here. In the auditorium of Nishan University Hall, the reporter saw a large mural "Confucian Lile Diagram" created by the painter Wang Zheng.

The development of murals can be traced back to the Stone Age, and this form of "painting to the wall" has also been continued and developed in various ways in the modern public cultural space. Wang Zheng is such a painter, contemplating traditional culture, incorporating concepts into paintings, and bringing such murals into the eyes of modern people. In 2016, in the stage of contact with the matter of creation commission, Wang Zheng inspected the spatial environment of Nishan University Hall, began to read and study a large number of documents such as "Etiquette", "Ritual Ceremony" and "Zhou Li", prepared for the creation of murals, and in 2017, determined the concept of using five murals of "Enlightenment Ceremony", "Teacher Ceremony", "Crown Ceremony", "Wedding" and "Township Drinking Ceremony" to express the corresponding ceremonial content.

"The meticulous content of each theme, the composition of the content, the shaping of the image, and the organizational relationship between each other, all need to be understood and refined by myself from the ancient texts." Wang Zheng told reporters that for this reason, he drew a large number of drawings, especially the dynamic body structure of each character in the mural, first drawing a sketch on the sketchbook, and then creating a line draft on sketch paper, and also drawing some color drafts, "The color draft is mainly to explore the tone of color, the expression technique of character costumes and images." After more than a year of conceptual speculation and exploration attempts, Wang Zheng officially began to create in 2018, and by October 2019, he had completed the creation of "Enlightenment Ceremony", "Teacher Ceremony" and "Township Drinking Ceremony". He revealed that according to the plan, the creation of "Crown Ceremony" and "Wedding" will be completed in the spring of 2021, when the five works will form an overall aesthetic expression of ancient Confucian etiquette.

"Ritual is the ritualization and formal practice of traditional Chinese philosophical thought, the five murals have their own content scenarios, but also echo each other, and are embellished as a whole, that is, taking the "Enlightenment Ceremony" of the central government as the starting point, and then unfolding the "Teacher Ceremony", "Crown Ceremony", "Wedding Ceremony", "Township Drinking Ceremony", the composition emphasizes the characteristics of each painting, but the overall symmetrical form, thus forming a changing rhythm and the echo relationship of the image dynamic." Wang Zheng introduced that the entire mural takes the meaning of "three hundred poems", adopts the full composition method, and creates nearly 300 character images, which are shaped in the way of positive paintings, highlighting the connotations of "integrity", "modesty" and "kindness" in Chinese culture. In terms of expression techniques and color application, the traditional meaning is expressed in the way of "line modeling", highlighting the solemn sense and sense of ceremony of "etiquette", "to have the simple color and texture of the Spring and Autumn Period, and to have the splendor and magnificence in line with the theme of the times".

In addition to his status as a painter, Wang Zheng is also a scholar who has a deep study of Guizi culture, and has long studied murals in grottoes around the world. "The murals with such a complete expression of thematic content are not left over from ancient times, so they lack references and need to start from the most basic work. The shaping form and expression technique of the figure in the Spring and Autumn Period should coordinate the relationship between the whole and the details, the unity and change, and the tradition and modernity, and also test the painter's historical and cultural accomplishment and aesthetic innovation ability. Wang Zheng said frankly that in the process of creating "Confucian Lile Diagram", due to the characteristics of mural creation, it is also a test for the painter's personal will and endurance. But his previous experience of running around in the fields and squatting in the grottoes allowed him to practice the ability to quickly enter the creative state. He revealed that it is of great significance to use the form of murals to express, inherit and carry forward the Confucian ritual music culture, and he also hopes to continue to create a series of murals expressing traditional Chinese cultural thought after completing the "Confucian Ritual Music Diagram".

Author: Zheng Rongjian

Source: China Art News