Speaking of elegant women in ancient paintings, the most important thing to mention is the series of character paintings passed down to Gu Kaizhi of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, among which the "Female History Zhentu" is a landmark in the history of Chinese art. The "Female History Proverbs" collected by the Forbidden City are divided into Tang facsimiles and Song facsimiles, which were robbed during the invasion of China by the Eight-Nation Alliance and are now in the British Museum, while the Song facsimiles are still in the Palace Museum.
There are vaguely rumors that Gu Kaizhi's paintings of female wind gods also include the Song facsimiles of the Palace Museum, "Column Female Renzhi Picture Scroll" and "Roselle Fu Picture Scroll". This year is the 600th anniversary of the Forbidden City, "Surging News Ancient Art" (www.thepaper.cn) has successively launched the "600 Years of Forbidden City Appreciation" series, this issue focuses on the beauty of women in gu Kaizhi's pen hidden in the Forbidden City, the so-called "wing and wing, fusu so xing." Think to yourself. ”
"Female Historiography Scroll"
"Female History Zhentu" volume (Song G) Part on paper Ink pen Length 600.5 cm Width 27.9 cm Collection of the Palace Museum
The Female Shi Zhen was written by Zhang Hua, the Marquis of Guangwu of the Western Jin Dynasty, and the text content is about the virtue and conduct of women, with the purpose of educating and admonishing. Gu Kaizhi depicts the story in the text in the form of pictures to make it easy to understand. The earliest surviving copy of the "Female History Proverb" is a facsimile of the Tang Dynasty, which was originally from the old collection of the Qing Palace and is now in the British Museum. The "Female History Zhentu" collected by the Palace Museum is a Facsimile of the Song Dynasty, and there are 11 sections in the whole picture, namely "Fan Ji Ganzhuang", "Wei Nu Jiaohuan", "Feng Jieyu Blocking Bears", "Ban Jieyu Ci ren", "Guarding against micro-considerations", "Knowing and decorating its nature", "Out of his words", "Spiritual Supervision Without Image", "Joy Can not be Blasphemous", "Quiet Self-Contemplation", and "Female Shi Zhen". This volume is a white depiction of characters, fluent in penmanship, thin and continuous lines, and a few more healthy than the gossamer sketches of Gaogu, closer to Li Gonglin's faction. The character image has an ancient meaning, and this volume of Song facsimiles has two more paragraphs than the Tang facsimiles, which has important reference value for understanding the mother text of "Female History Zhentu" and its circulation, as well as the evolution of early character painting methods.
The Song facsimile of the Female History Zhentu is first quoted as the four characters of the Qianlong Emperor's imperial book "The Beginning of Wanghua", followed by inscriptions such as Bao Xilu, Xie Qian, Zhang Meihe, and Zhao Qian. Qianlong, Jiaqing, Xuantong, Liang Qingbiao and other printing 22 parties. The First Edition of Shiqu Baodi, volumes 32 and 35.
The surviving British Museum's "Female History Zhentu" is considered by most experts in the field of calligraphy and painting to be a Facsimile of the Tang Dynasty, and its content is expanded from right to left, with nine single-scene compositions in the center of the painting, and the original text is titled on the right side of each image. The beginning should have been three additional paragraphs of graphic text, as well as the inscription of the fourth paragraph, but it no longer exists during the Qianlong period. After Qianlong's death, the "Female History Zhentu" was collected in the Garden of Jianfu Palace in the Forbidden City, and was moved to the Summer Palace during the empress dowager Cixi.
"Female History Zhentu" (partial) Passed on Gu Kai's work Tang Dynasty facsimile silk color Collection of the British Museum
In 1899, after the Boxer Rebellion and the Eight-Power Alliance's entry into Beijing, Clarens of the British First Bengal Cavalry Regiment stationed at the Summer Palace. Captain Clarence A. K. Johnson (1870–1937) took advantage of the chaos to steal the Female Scrub, and Captain Johnson's family later argued that the Female Scrub was another gift from a noblewoman who was saved by Johnson. When Johnson returned to London in 1902, unaware of the value of the Female Stub, he took the Book to the British Museum and asked the librarian to value the jade buckle on the scroll, and Sidney Colvin (1845-1927), the superintendent of the Painting Department of the British Museum, and his assistant Laurence Binyon (1869–1943) realized the value of the painting and bought it from Johnson for £25. In 1912, the British Museum hired Japanese painter Hideaki Sugisaki and lacquer logworm to make 100 copies of wood planks. Between 1914 and 1915, the Female History Of Proverbs was divided into two long sections and a small section, the first containing the original works of 9 scenes, the second including all other later additions, and the third section being Zou Yigui's paintings.
It has been more than a hundred years since the "Female History Proverbs" was enshrined in the British Museum, and according to the "Surging News art review", the "Female History Proverbs" were placed in the display cabinet in the center of the exhibition hall, and the number of visitors was very large. However, according to Shi Mingli, curator of the British Museum at the time, "the "Female Historiography" in the display case will not be moved again, and it will only be publicly exhibited every year for about January, and the rest of the time will be protected from light, and the light shield will only be temporarily opened under special visiting needs." "Such a comprehensive protection is to allow the Female History Proverbs to be preserved for more than a thousand years.
Mr. Fang Wen, a well-known art historian who has passed away, believes that the three-dimensional sense of the character modeling of tang facsimile "Female History Zhentu" can be said to be influenced by the three-dimensional influence of Zhang Shengxuan's "concave and convex paintings", and it also maintains Gu Kaizhi's pen "tight and continuous... well-written" style. Researchers at the British Museum believe that if you consider Gu Kaizhi's inscription on the picture, and Gu Kaizhi lives in Jiangnan, the origin of this painting should ultimately be related to Gu Kaizhi.
"Column Daughter Renzhi Picture Scroll" (Song G)
"Lady Renzhitu" (partial) On silk Ink pen light coloring Length 25.8 cm Width 417.8 cm Collection of the Palace Museum
The "Lienu Renzhitu" volume is the work of Gu Kai of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, which is a facsimile of the Southern Song Dynasty.
Emperor Hancheng indulged in wine, favored the Zhao Feiyan sisters, and fell into the hands of foreign relatives, endangering liu's regime. In view of this situation, Liu Xiang (77-6 BC), the fourth grandson of King Yuan of Chu, collected the materials such as concubines, virgins, and pet concubines recorded in poetry books since ancient times, and compiled them into a book called "Biography of Lienu" and presented it to Emperor Hancheng, hoping that he would learn lessons from it to maintain Liu's regime. According to the moral code of women's feudal behavior and the consequences of governance and chaos brought to the country, the whole book is divided into seven volumes: motherhood, wisdom, benevolence, chastity, righteousness, justification, and iniquity, which is the "Volume of Benevolence" of the book.
The Renzhi Scroll collects a total of 15 female stories. This volume is a fragment, of which 7 stories, "Chuwu Dengman", "Lady Xu Mu", "Wife of Cao Shu", "Mother Sun Ao", "Wife of Emperor Bozong of Jin", "Lady Linggong", and "Uncle Ji of Jinyang", are completely preserved. Only half of the 3 stories of "Qi Ling Zhongzi", "Jin Fan's Mother" and "Lu Qi's Virgin" are preserved, and the other 5 stories are all lost, and the right half of "Lu Qi's Virgin" and the left half of "Jin Fan's Mother" are mistakenly stitched together, making people mistakenly think that it is a story.
This volume preserves the Han Dynasty's clothing system in many places, such as men wearing a crown of meritocracy, wearing a curved robe with large sleeves, a ribbon around the waist and a long sword; women combing their hair buns, wearing deep clothes, especially eyebrows painted with vermilion, which is a new makeup imitating Zhao Zhaoyi, which shows the customs and fashions of a specific period. The carriage on which He Boyu rode was called the "轺車", also known as the Han Dynasty, depicted in great detail and without error, which can be found in the large number of Excavated Han Dynasty portrait stones, bricks and murals.
In the lacquer screen painting "Lienu Guxian Tu" excavated from the tomb of Sima Jinlong of the Northern Wei Dynasty, the section showing Wei Linggong and his wife sitting at night and listening to the sound of the carriage is compared with the same content expressed in this volume, both the composition layout and the posture gestures of the characters are very similar, which can be confirmed that it is from the same ancient book as the "Lienu Renzhitu". In the process of passing on the mo, the latter is more faithful to the original works of the ancient texts.
According to the Book of Han, Liu Xiang, while presenting the Biography of the Daughters of The Column to Emperor Cheng of Han, also presented the Ode to the Daughters of the Columns and painted them as a screen. After Emperor Hancheng's Ban Jieyu fell out of favor, in her poems she talked about seeing the "Lienu Tu" in the palace and using this to judge herself. These are all contained in the Book of Han by Bangu. In the portrait stones and bricks of the Eastern Han Dynasty, there are many themes that express the stories of the women. The history of painting also records that Cai Yong once created "Little Column Girl Figure". The large number of "Lienu Tu" in this period was not only out of the needs of the political struggle of the court, but also to widely promote the moral education of women in society in order to maintain the feudal order.
According to the "Renzhitu of the Daughters of The Lady" that preserves more Customs of the Han Dynasty, as well as the simplicity of its composition form, it is speculated that the original of this volume should be from the Eastern Han Dynasty, and the ancestral book was created by Liu Xiang. Removing the traces attached by later generations in repeated imitations, we can still see through the artistic brilliance of court painting in the Han Dynasty two thousand years ago. Its character lines are rough and smooth, and the shape is accurate. In particular, the depiction of women, who are light and graceful, is particularly wonderful. The compositional layout is in line with the Han portrait stone. There are many copies of the "Biography of The Daughters of Lie" and the "Renzhitu of the Daughters of The Ladies" in the Song Dynasty, and this is the only one that has been preserved, which is particularly precious.
Roselle Futu Scroll (Song G)
"Roselle Futu" volume (partial) Jin Gu Kaizhi (Song G) silk color length 27.1 cm width 572.8 cm
The Luoshen Futu is a story painting based on the Luoshen Fu written by Cao Zhi of the Wei Dynasty (220-265) of the Three Kingdoms. The opening of the picture depicts the scene of Cao Zhi's instantaneous encounter with the Luoshui Goddess by the Luoshui River, Cao Zhi steps forward, looking at Long Hong flying in the distance, a Luoshui goddess who is "shoulders are cut, waist is like Yosu", "Yun Gong E'e, Eyebrow Repair Lianjuan" floats in, and from time to time, suddenly coming and going. In the later section, Luoshen drives away in the six dragon cloud car, accompanied by jade luans, wenyu, whales, etc., and Roselle looks back and looks at it, clinging to it, and a helpless separation feeling appears on the picture.
This figure depicts the content of the assignment in segments, the composition is coherent, and the main characters appear repeatedly with the assignment. The color is rich, the painting method is clumsy, the mountain stone and tree hook are filled without wrinkles, "the shape of the column is planted, if you extend your arms and fingers", the so-called "people are greater than the mountains, and the water cannot be flooded", which is the painting style before the early Tang Dynasty. The first quotation is the Qing Gaozong Hong's almanac book "Wonderful into the Millimeter". At the end of the volume, there are Yuan Zhao Mengfu's book "Luoshenfu", Li Yan, Yu Ji, Ming Shendu, and Wu Kuanshi are all false. And Qianlong poem title. 钤 "Mingchang", "Imperial Palace Treasure", "Qunyu Zhongmi", "Mingchang Imperial Treasure", and the Qianlong, Jiaqing, and Xuantong Tibetan Seals of the Qing Dynasty.
The picture does not read the text of "Luoshenfu", nor does it have a name, from the aspects of painting, silk, color, etc., it is a facsimile of the Song people, but the painting style still has the remains of the Six Dynasties, and its original legend is Gu Kaizhi's work. "Shiqu Baodi · Preliminary Compilation", "Shiqu Essays" bibliography.
(Some of the graphic materials in this article are from the Palace Museum)