Female terracotta figurines wearing long-sleeved dance clothes and pedaling drums, graceful and luxurious neon clothes and feather dance figurines, and juggling figurines integrating music, dance and juggling...... The history of ancient Chinese music and dance is frozen in a terracotta figurine across time. Recently, Wang Qian, a master of art and art from Shaanxi, sent 105 sets and 353 replicas of ancient Chinese music and dance terracotta figurines to Beijing that she spent five years reproducing since 2015, and Wang Qian, who is about to turn 80 years old, decided to donate these works to the Beijing Dance Academy free of charge, to complete herself, but also to fulfill the last wish of her late father, Wang Ziyun, a pioneer of Chinese art archaeology.
Restoration of "Neon Clothes and Feather Warriors" according to out-of-print photos
Before her retirement, Wang Qian was an associate researcher at the Forest of Steles Museum in Xi'an, where she was engaged in the reproduction of ancient terracotta figurines and the theoretical research of ancient sculptures for a long time. She has participated in the reproduction of the original Great Qin Warriors, and has also produced 8 pieces of "Tang Dynasty Polo Figurines", which caused a sensation in the world at the ancient Chinese sports exhibition of the Los Angeles Olympics. In 2015, 70-year-old Wang Qian had been retired for many years, but she knew in her heart that there was still something to be done.
Wang Qian's father, Wang Ziyun, left Wang Qian a lot of cultural relics and photos, many of which are related to ancient music and dance figurines. "One of them was in 1942, when my father led a delegation of art and cultural relics from the northwest to discover the Tang Dynasty's 'neon clothes and feather warriors' in a cave in Luoyang, Henan, he was very shocked, but there were no better cultural relics protection conditions at that time, so he could only take pictures and preserve them first." Wang Qian regretted that many years later, when her father went to look for these cultural relics, he found that they had been destroyed in the war, and the photos in her father's hands were out of print.
Wang Ziyun handed these photos to Wang Qian before his death and said to her: "You must make it." Wang Qian remembered this sentence for the rest of her life, so she started the restoration of the music and dance figurines in her ancient years. Although I don't have a good enough physical condition, I have loved dancing since I was a child, and I have a dance complex in my heart. Her love for the art of dance, her father's entrustment, and her strong sense of responsibility drove her to restore these figurines that had been destroyed, lost overseas, or scattered all over the country. Wang Qian said.
Restore the spirit of different times through music and dance figurines
In 2015, 70-year-old Wang Qian rented a few hundred square meters of farmhouse near Xi'an as a studio out of her own pocket, and began the restoration of the music and dance figurines with her students. From mud making, shaping, molding, pressing mud tires, to kiln firing, coloring, and aging, all processes have Wang Qian's guidance and participation.
The most difficult part of restoring cultural relics is shaping. Wang Qian recruited students from the sculpture department from the Academy of Fine Arts to shape together, and for these students, it was a piece of cake to give them photos and let them complete their creations, but when they did it well, they found that it was not the case. Wang Qian said that the students of the sculpture department study Western art, and the modeling aesthetics are full of "foreign flavor", which is always not like ancient Chinese cultural relics. Wang Qian took them to major museums to observe ancient cultural relics of various eras, and explained the characteristics of cultural relics in different periods countless times, and what different times are behind them.
"Grasping the characteristics of the times and restoring the spiritual outlook of the time is the most important thing to reproduce the terracotta figurines." Wang Qian took the music and dance figurines of the Han Dynasty and the Tang Dynasty as an example, "If we take the history of the development of the Chinese nation as a person's life, the Han Dynasty happened to be in the teenage period, and the works at that time were vigorous and uplifting, with great vitality and vitality, incomparably flamboyant and incomparably wild." Wang Qian made a gesture of raising her hand, "Its dance is very different from the neon dress and feather dance of the Tang Dynasty, the neon dress and feather dance is a light song and man dance, but the dance of the Han Dynasty is a wild song and dance, and it restores the appearance of the times of that era." ”
After five years of hard work, Wang Qian and her team finally completed the reproduction of ancient Chinese music and dance terracotta figurines. These musical and dance figurines outline the development and evolution of ancient music and dance from the Warring States period to the Qin, Han Dynasty, Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, Sui, Tang, Song, Yuan, and Ming dynasties for more than 2,000 years, providing image, objective and accurate information for the study of ancient Chinese music and dance.
Free donation in anticipation of this batch of terracotta figurines "dancing"
Not long ago, these figurines were shipped from Xi'an to Beijing. Looking at more than 300 clay figurines packed into boxes and carefully loaded onto the car, Wang Qian's eyes were full of tears. These terracotta figurines made by her own hands are like her own children, recording the results of her work in her ancient years, and also embodying her father's earnest entrustment, it is certain that she is reluctant to let them go, but Wang Qian said firmly, "These terracotta figurines should go to the places where they are most worthwhile." ”
In fact, a long time ago, Wang Qian's copy of the music and dance figurines has attracted much attention, some collectors said they wanted to buy, some museums said they wanted to collect, and some people said that even if they could only collect one of them, it would be very good. Wang Qian didn't agree, "These music and dance figurines must be gathered together on a large scale in order to play their due role." Finally, she found the most suitable "home" for her children, the Beijing Dance Academy, and donated them to the school for generations of students to observe and study, hoping to continue the glory of ancient Chinese music and dance through their dance performances.
Batu, Secretary of the Party Committee of Beijing Dance Academy, said that this year marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of the school, and this batch of music and dance figurines across time and space is a very precious gift for the school, and they will be used for research and teaching. At the same time, Wang Qian was also hired as a distinguished professor at the Beijing Dance Academy.
On the day of the donation ceremony, the masterpieces of the terracotta figurines completed by Wang Qian and her father were exhibited in a small area in the school, and the young dance students saw the vivid Han and Tang Dynasty music and dance figurines up close, and couldn't help but stretch their bodies in front of it and make corresponding dance moves. Seeing this scene, Wang Qian smiled very happily.