A and lamp Zen life platform exclusive special column
The author, Kong Xiangxu, Ph.D. in Japanese Agricultural Economics, has been in Japan for eight years, focusing on the study of Japanese history and culture, and is the author of "Cherry Blossoms and Samurai".
One
Zong Baihua's "The Birth of Chinese Artistic Conception" quotes a passage from the late Qing Dynasty RuGuanjiu's "Word Order of Du Zhuan Xin An": "'When is the bright moon', and the word is also immortal." 'Blowing a pool of spring water', the word zen also. Immortals are not easy to learn but Zen can be learned. ”
I rarely see "immortals" in Japanese culture, but I see many "Zen people" and various art paths that follow the "Zen" route, as well as Zen life.
"Immortals are not easy to learn but Zen can be learned", which means that the "Zen" route can be promoted and become a kind of education for the people to practice.
Wang Guowei's article "The Aesthetic Position of Ancient Elegance" has a similar view. He put forward two types of aesthetic concepts of "beautiful and magnificent" and "quaint", and still believed that "quaint" was convenient for popularization among the people. Let me add that the formation of "quaint" is more resource-saving than "beautiful and magnificent".
"Blowing a pool of spring water" is a kind of Zen and zen fun. The Japanese call it "Yugen". However, in Wang Xiangyuan's compilation of the book "Japanese Yuxuan" compiled by Wang Xiangyuan, "The Moon is Hidden by Mist" and "The Autumn Leaves on the Mountain Are Shrouded in Fog" to visualize "Youxuan".
The Japanese see Yugen as a feature of Zen. The emergence of Yu Xuan lies in the fact that "our intuition about a certain object is slightly obscured", forming a "faint, hazy, thin meaning". Junichiro Tanizaki regards the "beauty of the yin" as a feature of Japanese culture, but it is also a kind of mysteriousness.
"Cai Gen Tan" says that "look at the flowers are half open, drinking wine is slightly drunk", which is also this aesthetic taste. Of course, you can also add a sentence, mist to appreciate the moon.
In fact, the moon's mysterious can be more extreme, such as the famous sentence with Seiko No. Tsuneko: The moon hides behind the mountain, and the light on the surface of Lake Biwa reflects in the air.
I once told someone that my understanding of Japan is half a bottle of vinegar and I like to suck it. Half a bottle of vinegar, if you show people the half bottle with vinegar, the empty half bottle is covered, and then dodge and dodge, it will look mysterious. Academically, knowing is knowing, not knowing is not knowing, is honesty: in art, some shade will become mysterious.
Two
Buddhism often uses the bright moon as a metaphor for man's true heart, a round of bright moon illuminating the heavenly heart.
The Japanese attach great importance to "Yugen", probably related to the influence of Zen Buddhism on Japan. Zen Buddhism is very realistic, realistic enough to emphasize the present. With the development of Zen culture in Japan, a reverence for "incomplete beauty" was formed, which Chinese translated as the beauty of imperfections. In fact, it is more accurate to use "incomplete" than "incomplete". For example, the moon has a lack of clouds and sunshine, and "yin" is not very good to be classified as "lack".
In order to establish this aesthetic value, there are many anecdotes in Japanese history books, and even extreme ideas.
Murata Zhuguang (1422-1502) was the founder of the Japanese grass mole tea ceremony, which is commonly referred to as the Japanese tea ceremony, and Senritsu was the master of the collection. When talking about the beauty of thin clouds obscuring the moon, the pearl Zen master even said: "The full moon without cloud obscuration is devoid of fun."
Jiang Tianxi interpreted this sentence like this: The full moon of the Mid-Autumn Festival is only once a year, of course, she is perfect, but if you only admit that the moon on August 15 is beautiful, and ignore the appreciation of the beauty of the upper Xuan Moon, the lower Xuan Moon, the Half Moon and the moon in the clouds, then how tedious it should be in a year's life. Only when people actively discover beauty in the existing existence and understand beauty tolerantly can the soul always be full of happiness.
That's a good point. In fact, the moonless night with high black wind at night is not also interesting? However, every day is a good day, a state of great monks and masters, and as long as we arrange the days as much as possible, we will be Amitabha.
Three
The NHK series of feature films "The Pot of Beauty" is designed to help people discover the beauty of life, including an episode of the moon appreciation.
I took two screenshots of the video. The first is in a modern tea room with a painting hanging on the wall to illustrate the basic elements of moon viewing. In the upper right corner of the painting is a partially obscured moon, a little dark; in the middle is a boat on the water, also black; a vase of flowers on the hem of the painting shaft, all autumn flowers and autumn grasses. This is standard for moon viewing.
The second is a moon viewing scene in real life, which is a Mid-Autumn Festival reward. In a traditional Japanese house, the pine trees in the courtyard are slightly obscured by the bright moon, and there is still a bottle of flowers full of autumn flowers and autumn grasses, and snacks and sake are placed.
I went to a Japanese friend's house once to admire the moon, and the basic elements are the same: choose the location of the good hope moon, preferably a little shelter in front of the court, surrounded by a bottle of flower arrangement, a snack and fine wine to serve - work together.
Four
In the moon viewing, there is also a big subject, which is to appreciate the moon in the water. One of the functions of the pool in the Japanese garden is to admire the moon in the pool water. If it is a dry landscape, on the river formed by white sand, sprinkled with washed moonlight, it is the best time to see the dry landscape. At this moment, the words used to describe dry landscapes can be used to come in handy.
It is worth mentioning that the movie "In Search of Qianlixiu" has the creativity of the moon in the water. Oda Nobunaga, a Japanese warlord of the Sengoku period, liked beautiful things and collected them everywhere. Once, he summoned wealthy merchants to take out their treasures, and he priced them. Among them, some took out Chinese paintings and porcelain, and some took out Korean ceramics, which were the fashions of high society at that time. Qian Lixiu was the last to appear, when the moon was empty, he took out a lacquerware box, placed it under the eaves, opened it, put some water into the box, and then pointed the box at the moon, just in time, the moon in the water and the pattern in the box were interesting.
Oda Nobunaga was stunned by the beauty in front of him and gave the rest of the money to Senritsu.
An idea, worth a lot.