Get a closer look at the Chinese artifacts at the British Museum
The British Museum's explanation of the Chinese Pavilion, perhaps this explanation, will make you feel a lot.
The Chinese have created one of the most extensive and sustained civilizations that is unique in the world. Their language, whether spoken or written, has remained almost unchanged for nearly four thousand years, linking this vast country together, and closely connecting the past with the present, and conveying a unified culture that it is unparalleled in any other country in the world.
Chinese has created the most extensive and sustainable civilization unique in the world. Their language, whether oral or written, has remained virtually unchanged for nearly four thousand years, tying together this vast nation and tying the past with the present, conveying a unified culture unparalleled by any other country in the world.
In contrast, China is one of the most geographically diverse regions. Mountains, grasslands, and deserts are the borders, and the large plains surrounded by wide rivers nurture a dense population. They are always attached to this land, and they show their superb skills with high-quality material products.
On the contrary, China is also one of the regions with great geographical diversity. Mountains, grasslands, deserts, and great plains surrounded by wide rivers nurture dense populations that are always attached to the land and who show their skill with high-quality material products.
Inspite of the vast size of the country, and the periodic eruptions of social unrest within or invasion from outside, China’s rulers have always sought a single, strong, unified state administered by an educated elite. The bonds of society have been held in place by language, codes of law, custom and ceremony, as well as by the wide distribution of the products of the arts and manufacturing.
Despite the country's vast size and constant internal and external strife, China's rulers have always been able to explore a unique, powerful, and unified way of governing the country by relying on outstanding talents in society. Language and culture, laws and regulations, customs and customs, and the extensive exchange of art and manufactured products properly link this society.
UNESCO data shows that As many as 1.64 million cultural relics have been lost in China, which are collected by 47 museums around the world. The British Museum is the museum with the largest collection of lost cultural relics in China, with a current collection of 23,000 Chinese cultural relics and about 2,000 long-term displays. The museum's collection of Chinese cultural relics encompasses the entire category of Chinese art, spanning the entire history of China, including engravings, calligraphy and painting, jade, bronze, pottery, ornaments, etc.
Nine-tenths of these 23,000 rare treasures of Chinese history are stored in 10 collection rooms, and unless special permission is obtained, the average tourist will not have the opportunity to meet.
1. Cloisonné porcelain altar
From the Ming Dynasty of China, during the Xuande period (1426-1435 AD), Chinese craftsmen of the Ming Dynasty adopted the cloisonné making technique of Byzantine craftsmen and improved this technique in the early 15th century. Through the inscription on the neck of the porcelain altar, it can be seen that this porcelain altar was built by the imperial craftsmen for the Xuande Emperor. The blue and white porcelain produced by the craftsmen of Jingdezhen in the Ming Dynasty has the same shape and decoration as the porcelain produced by the royal factory. It is likely that the Xuande Emperor ordered the use of such porcelain altars in the Forbidden City. Brightly colored cloisonné porcelain made a deep impression on people in the court. Today, there are only two covered cloisonné porcelain altars like this in the world, one in the British Museum and the other in a private collection. The production of cloisonné porcelain is time-consuming and costly. The craftsman used wire to outline the robust dragon and cloud pattern on the bronze vessel, and then filled it with glass paste. The six-character logo marked with the cloisonné craft is a feature of Xuande porcelain. It is said that the valuation is hundreds of millions of yuan, but it is placed at the bottom of a three-tier shelf.
Along the edge of this jar, there are two internal and external repetitions of "Daming Xuande Year System" and "Imperial Supervision", and the inside of the jar is repeatedly engraved, indicating that this jar is exclusive to the Xuande Emperor. Mr. Ma Weidu once mentioned this cloisonné jar on television, saying: "Westerners think that cloisonné is the special representative of Chinese culture ... and think that if there is no cloisonné in an antique store, it is not called an antique shop." "In addition to the Forbidden City, there are only three museums in China that have a cloisonné collection, mainly the Forbidden City, followed by a batch of Tibet Museums, and a little Nanjing Museum, and the rest of the museums do not have these things, why not collect?" In the past, they all went abroad.
2. Murals of the Three Bodhisattvas
Most people believe that this mural was stolen from Dunhuang.
The three bodhisattvas on the painting are flying in skirts, with kind faces, dignified images, plump postures, and different appearances.
The whole painting has smooth lines and a delicate painting style.
Despite its age, you can still see the brilliant colors of that year.
Clear cut marks divide the picture into 12 pieces.
However, after reading the instructions, I knew that it had nothing to do with Dunhuang, but came from Qingliang Temple in Xingtang County, Hebei Province.
Qingliang Temple in Xingtang County was built during the jin dading (1162 AD) and was once the largest temple under Mount Wutai. The murals of the Three Bodhisattvas were painted by monks from a temple on Mount Wutai, first painted during the Ming Yongle period (1424) and later painted in the Ming Dynasty (1437 and 1468), which lasted for more than 40 years. At that time, Qingliang Temple was large in scale, and there were murals in each hall, and its figure paintings were delicate and realistic, lifelike; its landscape paintings were majestic and spectacular, and there was a sense of immersion at a glance.
The Three Bodhisattvas are the main paintings painted on the north wall of the apse. This mural does not represent the top mural art in China, it was written because of the difficulty of transportation at that time, and because my hometown is Shanxi. In the autumn and winter of 1926, the British, in collusion with the then county government, bought the murals of the Three Bodhisattvas. Later, after several wars during the Japanese invasion of China, Qingliang Temple was destroyed to the ground, and all the remaining murals were destroyed. The front of the murals are: Mingcai Porcelain Daoist, Liao Sancai Arhat, and Mingcai Porcelain Maitreya Buddha.
3. Three-colored Arhat statue
From Yi County, Hebei Province, China's Liao Dynasty, one of the three colored Arhat statues;
In the early years, it was identified as a Tang Dynasty work, with a total of 16 figures.
At least three were destroyed in the early 20th century during the theft and export process, and only 11 have survived so far.
The dating of these three-colored Arhat statues has also undergone several changes. Because the Statue of Luohan uses white pottery tires, the texture is tight, and the whole body is glazed with three colors, which is similar to the Tang Sancai, so it was originally considered to be a Tang Dynasty object.
After a series of studies, experts have put forward a variety of different opinions on the age of the Luohan statue, from the Northern Song Dynasty to the Liao and Jin Dynasties, and some people even think that these statues may have been made in the Ming Dynasty. Until the end of the 1960s, the academic consensus was basically that it should be 950-1050 years old.
In 1996, Richard Smithies dated the statue to 836-1222 and the base 892-1260 by performing a thermal emission test on the Rohan in the Museum of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Therefore, he speculated that the age of the Statue of Luohan was between the 12th and 13th centuries, corresponding to the Liaojin period.
Later, Stuart Fleming, the restorer of the statue, corrected this discontinuity. In his October 1997 letter to museum director Jennifer White, he argued that Smith's experiment underestimated the impact of the environment. Because of the sheer size of these arhats themselves, the carcass has a counter-effect on γ radiation. Therefore, he prefers that the age of the statue of Arhat is around 1210 (i.e., between 1110 and 1310).
In short, the statue of the Eight Buddhas and the Liao Sculpture in the British Museum is not only a supreme treasure of ancient Chinese realistic art, but also a vivid portrayal of the high monks and masters. The pair of hands of the Knot Meditation Seal are particularly well shaped, and in terms of artistic achievements, they can be called painting and plastic.
During his studies at the University of Pennsylvania, Mr. Liang Sicheng once personally admired the Three Colored Luohan Statues in Yi County. In his History of Chinese Sculpture, Liang Sicheng wrote: "Its appearance is like a real face, and its clothes are also very realistic. ...... or graceful,...... Or frown as a earnest gesture, all of which have their own personalities, and are not in vain images of empty and illusory gods. Its miraculous portrait can be compared with Roman statues. Portraits are also caused by careful observation of the usual mood. Not only the appearance, that is, the structure of its body, the draping of its clothes, is mainly realistic; its third observation is subtle, so it becomes a faithful performance, no less than the most exquisite works of the Italian Renaissance. ”
In the view of Liao Dynasty artists, arhats should not only enjoy the Dharma joy brought by wisdom alone, but also should be "quasi- bodhisattvas" who undertake the Dharma, cross themselves, and make unremitting efforts.
The arhat, who is the highest fruit of Hinayana Buddhism, has attained the attainment of the result of being able to break away from the six reincarnations and enter the blissful world of enjoying all pleasures without suffering, and it is the responsibility of the bodhisattvas who are self-conscious and aware of the sentient beings, but the eight Buddhas are these three-colored arhats who are mostly frowning and meditating--both reflecting on the sufferings of this world and having compassion for all sentient beings. In his vision, money, power, status, enjoyment, grudges, wars, and even eternal love, all the values and concepts in these worlds are disintegrating.
What a miraculous work this is, a statue of the Eight Buddhas who can seize the merits of creation, for the devout monks and lay believers, it is worth thousands of scrolls of Buddhist scriptures carrying religious wisdom!
These sculptures, which represent the highest achievements of realism since the Liao Dynasty, can be called religious art works that cannot be reached by later generations, and all of them are scattered in foreign countries, and unfortunately, the country has long disappeared.
Attached: Chinese Liao Dynasty Sancai Luohan statues overseas collections
1. 1 statue from the Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA (head plastic)
2. 1 statue (disabled) in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art, USA
3-4, 2 statues in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA
5. 1 statue from the Nelson-Yakins Museum of Art in Kansas City, USA
6. The Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology of the University of Pennsylvania, USA
7. 1 statue from the Royal Ontario Museum of Canada
8. The British Museum in London, England, has 1 statue in its collection
9. 1 statue in the collection of the Asian Art Museum in Paris, France
10. 1 old collection of Japanese private collector Kojiro Matsukata (Ming Dynasty)
11. The Hermitage Museum (Hermitage) in St. Petersburg, Russia 1 statue (only the bust remains now) was once in Berlin
4. Facsimile of Gu Kaizhi's "Female History Proverbs" of the Eastern Jin Dynasty
Once hidden in China's Yuanmingyuan and the earliest surviving Chinese silk painting "Female History Zhentu", it is one of the earliest works of China's earliest professional painters that can still be seen, and it has a milestone significance in the history of Chinese art, and has always been a treasure collected by the imperial courts of successive dynasties. There are only two facsimiles left in the world, one of which is copied by the Song Dynasty, which is collected by the Palace Museum in Beijing, and the pen color is not the best, but there are 2 more fan ji and Wei Nu.
The other is a facsimile of this from the British Museum. It was originally hidden by the Qing Palace, a favorite object of the Qianlong Emperor's desk, hidden in the Yuanmingyuan. In 1860, when the Anglo-French army invaded Beijing, British Lieutenant Ji Yong obtained it from China and took it abroad. In 1903, it was collected by the British Museum for 25 pounds, becoming the most important oriental cultural relics of the museum, and it is not an exaggeration to call it the "treasure of the town hall", due to the lack of knowledge of the British side, it was framed according to the japanese painting method, and it was intercepted into three sections, and the slag phenomenon appeared. This scroll is only exhibited twice a year, and usually try to prevent light and light to prevent fading.
Gu Kaizhi's "Female History Zhentu" of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the whole volume is 348.2cm long, 24 .8CM high, the original 12 paragraphs, due to the age, only 9 paragraphs exist, silk paintings. The work is mainly based on Zhang Hua's "Female History", the story of "Feng Yuan" of the Han Dynasty who took the bear to protect the Han Yuan Emperor. There are stories of Ban Jieyu refusing to join the Hancheng Emperor in order to prevent The Cheng Emperor from coveting women and misleading the government.
The first paragraph is the story of the Han Yuan Emperor leading the palace people to watch the fighting beasts, the harem beauty is present, a black bear suddenly jumps out of the fence to directly approach the Han Yuan Emperor, and Feng Jieyu protects the lord with her body.
The second paragraph is the story of Ban Jieyu's resignation and the hancheng emperor.com.
The third paragraph depicts a lofty mountain, and the cousin king "reveres the dust accumulation".
The fourth paragraph depicts two women grooming in a mirror.
The fifth segment is a bed with a drapery hanging from it, with a few in front of the bed.
The sixth paragraph depicts a husband and wife sitting side by side, opposite a woman holding a child. There are many characters in the whole section, with different expressions and colorful colors.
The seventh paragraph depicts a man and a woman, referring to "joy can not be read, pet can not be specialized."
The eighth paragraph depicts a woman sitting upright, slightly bowing her head as if contemplating something.
The ninth paragraph shows the image of three women. The female historian standing alone, with a pen in her right hand and a book in her left hand, was annotating something. Opposite the two women, one looked back at the other woman and formed a confrontation, talking about something. This is exactly "female history proverbs, dare to sue Shu Ji".
Although the work contains moral creeds that women should abide by, the depiction of daily life such as makeup and makeup of upper-class women is like spring silkworm spitting silk, and the form and spirit are both good. The gossamer drawing technique he employs makes the picture elegant, serene, yet bright and lively. The lines in the picture are gentle and even, and the characters' belts are flowing and the image is vivid. The wide skirts of the female historians are slender and flowing, and each one is equipped with different shapes and colorful streamers, showing a fluttering, graceful and luxurious style. It truly and vividly reproduces the delicacy and conservatism of the aristocratic women at that time, and no matter the posture, manners, and costumes are in line with their identity and personality.
The characters in "Female Shi Zhentu" are graceful, the details are exquisitely depicted, the brushwork is delicate and continuous, and the color is beautiful and beautiful. The relationship between the landscape and the characters in the painting is that the people are greater than the mountains, and the mountains and stones are not hooked, reflecting the style of early landscape painting.
5. Other Chinese Pavilions
Above: Tang Yin, 1470-1523, Painting of Lao Tzu Riding a Bull;
Above: 1489, Lacquerware, The Orchid House Gathering;
Above: Zhu Bang, 1522-1566, Portraits of Officials Hanging in Front of the Forbidden City;
Above: The largest silk embroidery in China, 8th century, 2.5 meters high, Sakyamuni Buddha and Two Disciples;
Above: Chinese porcelain is numerous, through several dynasties, the beauty is dazzling;
Other fine works include the "Green Landscape Map" by Li Sixun, the ancestor of the "Northern Sect" and the Painter of the Tang Dynasty, the "Map of Maolin Diling" by Ju Ran, a representative figure of the Five Dynasties Jiangnan School, Fan Kuan's "Visiting Friends with the Qin" by Fan Kuan, one of the three famous masters of landscape painting in the Northern Song Dynasty, the "Huayan Disguised Map" by the famous Painter Li Gonglin of the Northern Song Dynasty, and the "Ink Bamboo Map" by Su Shi, one of the eight great masters of the Tang and Song Dynasties. In addition, there are shang dynasty bronze double sheep zun, Western Zhou Kanghou bronze gui, Xing Hou Gui, Han Dynasty jade carving dragon, Tang Dynasty topaz sitting dog, "Yongle Canon" 10 volumes and so on.
Engels said that museums are the eyes of the city.
A philosopher said, "If there were only three days left in my life, I would spend one day visiting the British Museum." "Every museum is a volume of materialized history, traveling in the museum, you can cross the barrier of time and space, overlook the ups and downs of history, you can cross the boundary between material and spiritual, and explore the bits and pieces of civilization."
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