Wen | Shi Hai Shi Bei Ren A
Editor|Shi Hai Shi Bei Ren A
●○Preface○●
Chongyang Palace is located in the north of Zuan Town, Hu County, Shaanxi Province, and was once the place where the ancestor of the Quanzhen Sect, Wang Chongyang, cultivated and was also the birthplace of the Quanzhen Sect. During the Yuan Dynasty, Chongyang Palace reached its peak, but it was damaged many times later, and the palace gradually decreased, until after the founding of the People's Republic of China, only three Qing Dynasty buildings, the Laojun Hall, the Lingguan Hall and the Ancestral Master Hall, remained.
Most of the original steles of Chongyang Palace were scattered on the site of the original palace, and in 1962 it was moved to the former site of the original Jade Emperor Hall, forming an area called "Chongyang Palace Stele Forest", which displays more than 80 stone carvings inside, many of which are written by famous people Zhao Meng, Han Chong, Wang Chongyang, and Yin Zhiping.
There are also some scattered inscriptions in Chongyang Palace. Among them, on the west gable wall in front of the ancestral master's hall is inlaid a Ming Dynasty line inscription, known as the "Tang Wu Daozi Opera Pen". The "Huxian Cultural Relics" recorded: "This stele is 57 centimeters high and 48 centimeters wide, and has been broken into four pieces, which were carved in line in the Ming Dynasty.
The stele depicts an ancient tree with green vines coiled around it. On the left is a painting of an immortal riding a donkey, followed by a fairy boy holding the reins. In the upper right corner is written "Tang Wu Daozi Play Pen", and in the upper left corner there is a date, according to the inscription is Ming Hongzhi Geng Shenchun March, Taiyuan Kong Dongzi reprinted this stele.
This stele is also included in the "Complete Collection of Chinese Art", which is described as: in the picture, the four wild are silent, Zhong Jinshi (馗) rides a stuffed donkey, covers his mouth with his sleeve, walks in the wind on the journey, behind the donkey hangs an upside-down ghost, and there is also a ghost walking with a book sword...
In addition, Kong Dongzi is the alias of the literati Lianlu at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, and no relevant materials have been found among the painters of the Ming Dynasty. "The stele is beautifully depicted, finely carved and smooth in stone, and locals call it "Zhong Kui's Ghost Hunting Map".
From the picture, an immortal riding a donkey, standing under a dead tree, on the stomach of the donkey hangs an upside-down ghost, the little ghost's eyes are empty, immobile, stiff as a dead body, obviously subdued by the immortal, and there is another imp behind him who is led by the reins.
●○ Revealing the original work of the "Zhong Kui" stele: analysis from three angles ○●
Zhong Kui's image first appeared in the Tang Dynasty, but the actual image of Zhong Kui before the Northern Song Dynasty is no longer verifiable.
The inscription on the "Zhong Kui" stele is "Ming Hongzhi Shenchun March, Taiyuan Kong Dongzi Republished", that is, 1500, it is a republished work, so there must be an original work. The original is probably dated between the Five Dynasties and the early Ming Dynasty. The following will be analyzed from the composition and layout of the inscription, carvings and tree stones, and animal figures.
First of all, from the overall layout and engraving of the stele, the Xi'an Forest of Steles Museum has a stele of the Northern Song Dynasty's "Five Types of Taoist Classics", and there is a line engraving at the beginning of the "Yellow Emperor's Yin Rune Sutra" of the stele. In this picture, there is a dead tree on the left side of the picture, and two people sitting opposite each other on the right side of the tree. This picture bears many similarities to the Zhong Kui stele.
The dead trees of the two are symmetrical relative to each other, and two figures are depicted under the trees. The lines are depicted naturally and smoothly. Although the story scenes depicted by the two are different, the overall composition is similar and can be regarded as a mirror layout.
Secondly, the Yangxian Cultural Center of Shaanxi Province has a stele of "Persuasion of Nongwen" from the Song Dynasty. The sunny side of the stele is engraved with Dai Song's "Cow Herding Diagram", on which are engraved four cows and two shepherd boys. The composition of the stele is also similar to that of the Bell Road: a dead tree is carved on the right and figures of people and animals are carved on the left and lower sides. The dead trees and green vines of both have the same characteristics.
The carving of these two steles is consistent with that of the Zhong Kui stele, and differs from the way of continuous long lines commonly found in Tang dynasty inscriptions or murals. They are all made up of short lines connected together.
Judging from the image of the tree and stone depicted in the inscription, the dead wood depicted in works such as Guo Xi's "Early Spring Map" and "Jishi Pingyuan Map" of the Northern Song Dynasty, as well as the mural of Prince Tang Jiegan, the "Gaoshi Map" of the Five Dynasties Weixian, the "Little Snow Map of the Fishing Village" selected by the King of the Northern Song Dynasty, Cui Bai's "Double Happiness Map", and Xu Daoning's "Fisher Father Map" and other works have similar characteristics.
These trunks are upright or slightly forward, the branches grow at 45 degrees as a whole, the dead branches are interspersed with simple cross overlap and there is very little, the green vine droops naturally, and the artistic conception is high, which is similar to the characteristics of the dead tree painting method in the "Zhong Kui" stele.
Through the above analysis, it can be revealed that the original work of the "Zhong Kui" stele: in terms of composition, carving, tree stones, animal figures, etc., it has many similarities with the inscriptions and paintings of the Northern Song Dynasty, suggesting that the original work may exist between the Five Dynasties and the early Ming Dynasty.
●○Look for the animal characters in the "Zhong Kui" stele○●
The image of riding a donkey, dead trees and boulders, and water ripple shapes can be found in the "First Snow Map of Jiangxing" by Zhao Gan of the Five Dynasties and the "Xishan Travel Map" by Fan Kuan of the Northern Song Dynasty.
In particular, in Fan Kuan's work, five donkeys are depicted, the rightmost one of which is similar to the donkey that Zhong Dao rides in the Zhong Kui stele, the only difference is that the donkey in the inscription is tilted forward because it travels downwind.
The two ghost images depicted in the stele can be found in tomb murals from the Liao Dynasty. For example, the five ghosts are painted above the south wall of the front chamber of Zhang Wenzao's tomb built in the ninth year of Liao'an (1093), and the two ghosts on the far left and right of the mural are similar to the two ghosts in the Zhongdao stele.
The rightmost imp has a protruding skull, baldness, and long straight hair around the brain, consistent with the imp accompanying the stele. The leftmost ghost in the mural has a prominent mouth, round eyes and pointed ears, and a long circle of straight hair on the top of the head, which is consistent with another imp hanging upside down from the belly of the donkey in the stele. Similar ghost images can also be found in the "Devil Falling Demon" picture of the murals of the east hall of Foguang Temple on Wutaishan Mountain, Shanxi, built in the late Tang Dynasty.
In the "Zhong Kui" stele, Zhong Kui wears a poof, the upper part of the poof, the prescription fold, and the back floating strap. According to Chen Maotong's study of the Chinese Clothing and Clothing System of the Past Dynasties, this poofing style was popular in the Tang Dynasty. Zhong Kui's belt has an otter tail on the left rear of the belt, and there may be decorations on the belt, which was common in the Tang and Song dynasties.
Through the comparison and study of these images, we can have a deeper understanding of the origin and origin of the animal figures in the Zhong Kui stele.
The "Zhong Kui" stele shows obvious similarities with many Song steles in terms of layout, composition, painting and engraving. The image of the tree and stone depicted in the stele has obvious common characteristics with the scroll paintings of the Northern Song Dynasty. The appearance of the image of riding a donkey dates back to the fifth dynasty, and is more similar to the works of the Northern Song period.
The shapes of the two ghosts can be found in the murals of the Tang Dynasty, while in the Northern Song Dynasty they are closer to the images in the stele. As for Zhong Kui's way of wearing, it belongs to the style of the Tang and Song Dynasties. Therefore, the original image of the stele may have appeared in the Northern Song Dynasty, while inheriting many pictorial features from the Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties.
According to the "Records of Famous Paintings of the Past Dynasties", the statue of Zhong Kui was first written by Wu Daozi, and Zhang Yanyuan's "Records of Famous Paintings of the Past Dynasties" in the Tang Dynasty mentioned that Wu Daozi painted the heirloom works of the "Ming Emperor's Seal Map" and "Ten Finger Bell".
Since then, the image of Zhong Kui has formed the inheritance and development of "Zhong Kui" in successive generations. The Northern Song Dynasty Guo Ruoxi's "Pictures See Wenzhi" records that Wu Daozi painted Zhong Kui's style, including a blue shirt, kick feet, one-eyed, belt, and scarf head, and used his left hand to catch ghosts and his right hand to kill his ghost eyes.
Zhong Kui's images were widely spread and developed from the Tang Dynasty to the Song Dynasty, and new themes were derived, such as Zhong Kui's drunkenness, Zhong Kui's travels, Zhong Dao's marriage, etc. Taiwanese scholar Zheng Zunren comprehensively sorted out the development of Zhong Kui's images in the book "Zhong Dao Studies", and we screened and supplemented them on its basis.
For example, in the fifth generation painter Shi Ke's "A Hundred Ghost Plays", Zhong Kui and his wife put wine on the case, surrounded by dozens of ghosts. In Sun Zhiwei's "Snow Bell Kui Map", Zhong Dao wears tattered clothes and carries a ghost lotus on his shoulder, walking in the snow forest.
Dong Yuan's "Hanlin Zhong Kui Map" and "Snow Bell Road Map", Zhou Wenzhi's "Zhong Kui's Little Sister Map" and other works further enrich Zhong Kui's images. Among them, "Zhongshan Travel Map" is the earliest physical material of the Belldo image that can be seen so far. Wang Zhenpeng's "Zhong Dao Married Sister" in the Yuan Dynasty and Zhong Kui in the Ming and Qing dynasties are more colorful, such as Dai Jin's "Zhong Dao Night Tour Map" and so on.
It can be seen that the images of Zhong Kui in the Tang and Song dynasties have undergone tremendous development and innovation. From the terrifying scenes of Zhong Kui's ghost hunting and summoning in the Tang Dynasty, the content of the picture gradually developed into a diversified and multi-plot work of the Song Dynasty.
Although the theme of Zhong Kui after the Tang Dynasty gradually increased, and the plot of the picture became rich, it still contained the two basic elements of Zhong Kui and Little Ghost, and Zhong Dao's wearing style was basically the same, and the image of Little Ghost remained similar in previous works. All other changes are artistic creations based on these basic characteristics.
Although the life years of later painters are far from those of the Tang Dynasty, these basic characteristics have not changed much, and their creations are all based on the "Zhong Kui sample".
As the Northern Song Dynasty's "Xuanhe Picture Score" said: "Although there are many painters in modern times according to Zhong Kui, considering that at the beginning, it was said that because of the Ming Emperor's illness, he dreamed that Zhong Kui danced in front of him to drive away malaria, and the people sketched according to this image, so the world began to have Zhongdao." Although in later times the attitude was roughly the same, with only minor differences, only the artists decorated it somewhat. "
This shows that Zhong Kui samples were diverse in the process of dissemination and development, starting with Wu Daozi's paintings and developing into carriers of many forms, which may include the Zhong Kui style inscribed in stone lines originally created by Wu Daozi and has an innate connection with the "Wu family style".
The sleeves of Zhong Kui in the stele are fluttering, with obvious characteristics of "Wu with the wind", and the style is similar to Wu Daozi's "Picture of the Heavenly King of Sending Sons", in which "the beard is cloudy, the hair roots are flesh, and the strength is more than strong". The face of the little ghost is ugly, the muscle lines are exaggerated and powerful, and the overall characteristics are consistent with the image of the evil ghost in "Daozi Mobao Soushan Tu". Therefore, the stele continues the painting style of the Wu family and belongs to the works of the Wu family-like system of the Northern Song Dynasty.
In addition, in addition to painting, Zhong Kui's samples are also circulated in the form of New Year paintings and prints. Shen Kuo's "Mengxi Pen Talks, Supplementary Pen Talks" recorded: "In the fifth year of Xining, the emperor ordered the painter to copy the engraving plate and give it to the auxiliary ministers of the two provinces.
On New Year's Eve that year, he sent people into the palace to make offerings and give Zhong Kui an image. Deng Chun's "Painting Succession" also recorded: "Chengzong Dao, Chang'an mural Wu Pen, all imitate the stone carvings above, or turn from carving stones to paintings." "
These two accounts reflect the diversity of Zhong Kui's style in the process of dissemination and development, that is, starting with Wu Daozi's paintings, and then developing into various forms of media. These may include Zhong Kui-style inscriptions of steles, originally influenced by Wu Daozi and inherently associated with the "Wu family".
To sum up, the "Zhong Kui" stele continues the painting style of Wu Daozi in the Tang and Song Dynasties, and belongs to the works of the Wu family-like system of the Northern Song Dynasty. During the Tang and Song dynasties, Zhong Kui's images underwent extensive development and innovation, and gradually formed the "Zhong Kui-like" inheritance from Wu Daozi.
The content of the paintings is rich and diverse, and the painters based their artistic creations on Zhong Kui and Little Ghost, thus forming a colorful theme of Zhong Kui. In later works, although the plot and expression have changed, the basic elements and Jongdo's wearing style are basically the same, and these changes are based on these basic characteristics of artistic creation.
●○Epilogue○●
The fact that Wu Daozi painted Zhong Kui for the first time led to later paintings often being appended with the title "Wu Daozi", which is obviously a misunderstanding. Some scholars' research believes that this phenomenon is mainly due to the fact that later generations habitually regarded Wu Daozi as a symbol representing the achievements of painting of religious figures of the Tang Dynasty.
This phenomenon also reflects the admiration and recognition of the art and culture of the Tang Dynasty by later generations. At the same time, in the process of continuous inheritance of Wu family in the Tang and Song Dynasties, it showed its strong influence and vitality.
Although Wu Daozi was not the creator of Zhong Kui's images in the Tang Dynasty, his pre-eminent position and influence in the field of painting during the Tang and Song dynasties made it inclined for future generations to associate Zhong Kui's images with him. This misconception may stem from people's pursuit of religious painting in the Tang Dynasty, viewing Wu Daozi as a symbol representing the artistic achievements of this period.
This phenomenon reminds us to be cautious about the interpretation and attribution of history and art by future generations. Although Wu Daozi was an outstanding painter, he was not the original author of the images of Zhong Kui in the Tang Dynasty. However, Wu Jiazhang showed its strong influence and vitality in the inheritance and development of the Tang and Song dynasties, and became the basic model of Zhong Kui's images.
●○References○●
[1] Pictorial [M]. Tang Yao, People's Art Publishing House. 2016
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[5] Wu Daozi Wang Wei [M]. By Hong Huizhen, Hebei Education Press. 2004