Author: Luo Mingduan
Graphic lines are the soul of Chinese painting, monochrome line painting is called white drawing, white drawing is one of the traditional Chinese painting methods, in the history of Chinese art, there are Gu Kaizhi of the Jin Dynasty, Wu Daozi of the Tang Dynasty, Li Gonglin of the Song Dynasty, etc., are all masters of white painting, the most famous of which is the Tang Dynasty court painter Wu Daozi.
Wu Daozi is talented and intelligent, an all-rounder in the painting world, and his creative content is exquisite, and he is good at painting ghosts, gods, characters, birds and beasts, landscapes, pavilions, etc. Wu Daozi was also revered by posterity as the ancestor of landscape painting, and it is said that Wu Daozi, inspired by the landscape beauty of Sichuan, the country of Tianfu, created the simple and far-reaching "sparse body" landscape painting method, changing the status of landscape scenery as a vassal of the background of the characters and pavilions, becoming an independent painting genre. The heyday of Wu Daozi's creation was during the Kaiyuan and Tianbao years of the Tang Dynasty, when he painted more than 300 murals for the temples of Chang'an and Luoyang, and created a large number of paintings and scroll paintings. Wu Daozi with his miraculous painting skills, amazing works, by the future generations of respected as "painting saint", this title is not royal canonization, but social worship passed down from generation to generation, nor is it a vain name, a large number of his works have been handed down by the royal and folk collection, deeply admired by successive generations of painters, no one has surpassed for more than a thousand years. Wu Daozi's works in the Northern Song Dynasty Emperor Zhao Tuo (Song Huizong) compiled the "Xuanhe Painting Spectrum", recorded that there are 93 pieces of Wu Daozi paintings in the royal collection, most of which are Buddhist and Taoist immortal statues, which is related to Wu Daozi's status as a royal painter, serving the royal painting to promote religious culture, specializing in painting the standard statues of the gods and immortals, or designing paintings for temple murals and court decorations, Wu Daozi of course also created other theme works, such as heaven and hell ghost stories, historical figures, landscape landscapes, etc., because of the long age, social turmoil, Most of Wu Daozi's works have been lost, and some of the painting names have not been handed down.
According to relevant information, Wu Daozi's works include "Eighty-Seven Immortal Scrolls", "Heavenly King Sending Sons", "Confucius Xingjiao Statue", "Ming Emperor Receiving Seals", "Han Guangwu Emperor Burning Clothes Map", "Zhu Yun Folding Sill Diagram", "Golden Bridge Diagram", "Bodhisattva", "Xi Hou", "Ghost Bo" and so on.
The character portraits include "Emperor Wu of Liang", "Statue of Guan Gong", "Statue of Kong", "Statue of Confucius According to Several Seats", "Statue of Si Kou", "Statue of Zhongyou", "Portrait of Chen Xilie", "Statue of Li Linfu", "Statue of Yang Guozhong", "Daozi Mobao", "Shaolin Guanyin", "Yixing Master Zhen", "Xuanyuan Zhen", "Yan Zi Tu", "Hundred Zi Tu" and so on.
Religious paintings include "Daxiong True Icon", "Great Protector Deity", "BaojiBingaro Buddha Statue", "Baye Rulai Painting", "Tota Heavenly King Figure", "Peacock Ming King Statue", "Hell Disguised Figure", "Ten Finger Bell Kui Tu", "Yunxing Yushi", "Vimal Jai Statue", "All Nations Xianning" and so on. In addition, in the Song Dynasty's "Xuanhe Pictorial Notation", there are dozens of scroll paintings of Wu Daozi's immortal statues.
Landscape scenery and so on include "Jialing River And Water Three Hundred Mile Map", "River and Sea Rushing Map", "Huaqing Palace Map", "Double Forest Map", "Nanyue Map", "Donkey Map", "Deer Map" and so on.
In addition, the mural painting of Cave 103 of Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes, "Wei Mo Jing Changing Map", is believed to be the painting style of Wu Daozi's works, and the relics that have been lost overseas include "Daozi Ink Treasure" and "Valley Map".
There are hundreds of relics of various kinds of works, such as authentic works, drawings, inscriptions, inscriptions, calligraphy, etc., but the authentic whereabouts of many of the above works are unknown.
The various remains of Wu Daozi, which are exemplified by the above information, obviously do not reflect the latest discoveries of contemporary folk collections, such as the author's previous articles, which examine the authenticity of the "Eighty-Seven Immortal Scrolls" newly discovered in the folk collection, and break the view that the authentic works have not existed. The folk collection "Eighty-Seven Immortal Scrolls" is a giant painting of paper scrolls (Figure 1 is a full picture, and Figures 2 and 3 are enlarged parts of the red circle of the previous picture). Why is this work called a giant painting? Unfolding the scroll with a scale of 1150 centimeters in length, a core of about 800 centimeters and a width of 75 centimeters, it is a huge painting, the heavens and the earth are vast, the immortals are arrayed, the spirit is flying, the clouds are fluttering, and the momentum is magnificent, which is much larger than the "Eighty-Seven Immortal Scrolls" (292 centimeters long and 30 centimeters wide) collected by the master of the painting world Xu Beihong. The picture layout, character modeling, clothing scenes, etc. of the two "Eighty-Seven Immortal Scrolls" are completely the same, but the quality of the picture scrolls is incomparable, and the folk collection of paintings is authentic, with Wu Daozi's signature seal, Song Huizong's first painting name, and the imperial collection and celebrity appreciation seal of the past. Xu Beihong's collection of paintings is a modelless, wordless and printless, and is a miniature rubbing powder copy (that is, a craftsman construction painting manuscript) with the folk collection picture book as the original. The author knows that there are many people in the collection circle who collect Wu Daozi's works, and how many Wu Daozi authentic works are in the folk collection is a mystery to be revealed.
Of course, folk collection is a mixture of fish and dragons, the existence of genuine fakes is not the basis for denying the existence of authentic works, it is common to have the publication of high opinions by so-called experts, saying that a certain work of art is extinct, a certain piece is an orphan product, a certain piece of existence is only a few pieces, etc., these statements are mostly for a certain interest platform, creating scarcity to raise prices, misleading the public. There are also several identical ancient masterpieces that appear, pointing out that this one is true, that piece is imitation, it sounds like it makes sense, but it is actually unfounded nonsense.
In ancient times, there was no technical means to reproduce calligraphy and painting, and the reproduction of calligraphy and painting was that the author himself created several more pieces, so there were many identical works (except for fakes), which was evidenced by the records of classical literature. For example, the Song Dynasty's "Xuanhe Pictorial Notation" records that Wu Daozi painted "Great Protector Deity" with fourteen pieces, Li Gonglin painted "Protector Deity" with five pieces, and Wu Daozi's "Protector God Statue" has four pieces. It is not surprising that folk collections have found many identical pieces, such as works by famous people such as Wu Daozi and Li Gonglin. There are people in society who believe in certain nonsense, and the mindset is that it is impossible to have more than one of the same works, or that one is true and the rest is false. Experts won't tell you that the few things that exist are unfounded. Ancient painting and calligraphy circles are the same as contemporary times, good works are more than one piece of creation, whether it is a royal painter, or a professional painter who paints for a living, for proud works, good selling calligraphy and paintings, of course, will create multiple pieces, or for royal collection, or sell more to support the family, how can you think of painting only one in this life? The pursuit of works is a post-incident of getting rid of their hands in social dissemination, creating scarce appreciation is a matter of hundreds of years, where there is a deliberate creation of gems, only to create a piece of inheritance. What experts say violates basic common sense, I don't know how many identical works the ancients painted, how do you know that there is only one in existence? This is not nonsense and what it is.
In the following works, the folk collection of Wu Daozi white paintings are authentic fragments, most of which are precious pictures that are not publicly available, providing readers with appreciation and appreciation of Wu Daozi's wonderful painting art.
The first part: "Palace Music and Dance Diagram" fragment (Figure 4-8), the source of the fragment was originally titled "Trick Music Diagram" and "Palace Music Diagram". In ancient times, there was no image preservation technology to record the luxurious scene of court music and dance, only to ask the painter to draw it, from the name of "Trick Music Diagram" and "Palace Music Diagram", it can be seen that this picture is Wu Daozi's artistic creation depicting the royal court music and dance performance. The face shape, hair ornaments, costumes and instrumental music of the female figures in the picture are in line with the social fashion aesthetics of the Tang Dynasty women who are slightly fat, and the dance movements are exaggerated and quite characteristic of the Western Hu dance style. The author has seen other white paintings like "Trick Le Tu" and "Gong Le Tu", the title is to write "Dunhuang Feitian Map", in fact, it is not, the flying art image originated from Indian Buddhist culture, introduced into China to integrate the "Western Dance" and "Taoist Yuren" and other cultural factors, forming a flying image of flying in the sky with flying ribbons and flowing dresses, this artistic image existed as early as the Tang Dynasty, whether It was Wu Daozi who painted the Flying Sky mural or designed the Flying Sky Pattern Drawing, which is to absorb and apply the artistic creation results of the predecessors. The court music and dance diagram and the flying figure may have similar figure shapes and dance movements, but the two are not the same thing.
The second part: "monk Gao Shi Tu" fragment (Figure 9-13), the Tang Dynasty is a vast territory, economic development of the era, but also the flourishing period of religious culture, the implementation of the door open, foreign exchanges, the western religious culture with the Silk Road and maritime trade routes into China, at the same time, the royal need to use religious ideas to educate the people, maintain rule, society flourished Buddhism, Taoism and other religious culture, especially Buddhism is very developed, the peak stage of the country has more than 5,000 large monasteries, more than 300,000 monks and nuns, treasure thousands of Buddhist scriptures, There were also some foreign monks from the Western Regions who gave lectures and preached, and some were honored by the royal family as national teachers. The grand scene of religion is reflected in the creation of literature and art, calligraphy and painting are popular in copying scriptures and writing monuments, painting Buddhas and painting gods, and Wu Daozi is of course a royal painter to serve religious culture and create works with religious themes. Wu Daozi's images of monks and masters are some practicing meditation alone, some are traveling in all directions to worship the immortals, some are exorbitant from the world, some are enlightened to do good deeds and help, and the hearts of each character are sincere, kind and kind-eyed, comfortable and self-satisfied, happy to forget worries, when gazing at the works of the ancients with awe, it seems that they can transcend the ordinary world, have an epiphany of life, dispel worries, wake up and refresh their minds, and sense the artistic charm of ancient paintings.
The third part: "Immortal Demon Beast Diagram" fragment (Figure 14-17), Wu Daozi created a large number of Buddhist and Taoist immortal diagrams, Buddhism and Taoism have a complex immortal system, many people know what the name of the immortal is, but they can't figure out which immortal system belongs. For example, the three officials are called the Emperor of the Three Officials, the Four Heavenly Kings, the Five Dou Xingjun, the Eight Immortals and the Thirty-Six Heavenly Generals, which belong to the Taoist immortal system. The Buddhist immortal system is mainly divided into three levels: Buddha, Bodhisattva, and Arhat, such as Shakyamuni Buddha, Guanyin Bodhisattva, and Eighteen Arhats. The Buddhist and Taoist immortal systems have up to thousands of great gods. The Xuanhe Pictorial Notation records that the song dynasty court collected hundreds of portraits of wu Daozi's immortals, including the statue of The Burning Light Buddha, the statue of Ahmed Buddha, the statue of Vishnu Buddha, the statue of the Bodhisattva of The Sandalwood, the statue of the God of Goodness, the statue of the God of Goodness, the statue of the King of Wenxuan Luolong, the statue of the Dragon of The Great Dragon, the statue of the Dragon of The Dragon of The Great, the statue of the King of the Dragon of the Deserta, the statue of the King of the Dragon of the Desert, the statue of the Southern Twins, the statue of the Northern Miaosheng Rulai, and so on. Not to mention painting immortals, it is not easy to remember the names of these difficult to read gods. Wu Daozi is well aware of the immortal system, the name of the immortals, the meritorious cultivation of the immortals, etc., although there are pre-artificial portrait drawings, but to paint the faces of the immortals accurately, grasp the characteristics of the statues, and draw the temperament and charm, the painter needs to work hard to recreate. Painting gods is Wu Daozi's most skilled painting subject, creating a number of works such as Heavenly King Diagram, Immortal Diagram, Luohan Diagram, etc., including white paintings and color paintings. In Wu Daozi's pen, only a few strokes are outlined, the face characteristics of the gods, the heavenly generals, and the magic beasts are drawn, the shape is extremely artistically exaggerated, and then the costumes, armor or the hair of the demon beasts are depicted in complex lines, and the fine points can clearly distinguish the scales of the armor, the roots of the hair, the dancing claws of the teeth, the face is vicious, or the dancing movement of the clothes belt, showing the vivid and flexible movement of the characters.
Wu Daozi's painting art was highly respected before his death, and his reputation was far and wide, it is rumored that Wu Daozi painted a huge mural against tradition, first painting the feet and then painting the head, deeply familiar with the structure of the human body proportions, painting with ease, and the eyeballs of the gods who are known for painting will turn, often causing hundreds of people to watch and paint. Wu Daozi is revered as a "painting saint" by the world, and there are many disciples who seek teachers and worship him, and the art of painting is endlessly inherited, and the famous painters of the Five Dynasties and the Northern Song Dynasty, such as Gao Wenjin, Wang Wan, and Wu Zongyuan, are all wu Daozi's lineage. Wang Wanxue was a painter who had no money to worship his teacher, and often went to the Laozi Temple in Beiqi Mountain (Luoyang) to observe the murals painted by Wu Daozi and obtain his relics and cultivate them into positive results. Li Gonglin, a great painter of the Song Dynasty, was recognized by later generations as the best white painting learner, known as "the first song painting", and was second only to Wu Daozi's master of white painting.
It should also be noted that this article lists dozens of immortal figures in Wu Daozi's works in the form of a collection of fragments of the picture scroll, and the introduction of the inscription of the scroll is omitted in the space limit. On the one hand, the readers who pay attention to the inscriptions of ancient calligraphy and paintings are a minority, and do not have to spend a lot of ink to guide most people to read; on the other hand, the reader's cognitive concept of folk collection has changed, and many people have listened to some expert nonsense before, thinking that folk collections are fake, so it is necessary to display the ancient calligraphy and painting inscriptions and prints, and examine the trajectory of inheritance. At present, the society's understanding of folk collection is quietly changing, more and more people recognize the folk collection of ancient art treasures, in the current national deployment of cultural strategy and the creation of art financial ecology of the social environment, it is expected to see the future of the prosperity of the folk collection market.
2021.8.2
Introduction: "Painting Sage" Wu Daozi series of articles
1. Paint holy miracles and pass on miracles
——One of the examinations of Wu Daozi's "Eighty-Seven Immortal Scrolls"
2. Folk collections have ended the dispute over Xu Beihong's collection
——Wu Daozi's "Eighty-Seven Immortal Scrolls" Examination No. 2
3. Paradise scenery, Datang style
——Wu Daozi's "Eighty-Seven Immortal Scrolls" Examination No. 3
4, the brush is fascinating, black and white is comparable to multicolor
——A collection of fragments of Wu Daozi's white paintings
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