"Flying Sky" woodcut
Text/Mu Jinfeng
When it comes to the art of Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes, we can't help but mention the flying sky. Although feitian is not a unique artistic image of Mogao Grottoes, it is the most beautiful artistic symbol here. Fei Tian is a celestial being in Buddhist legend, who often dances in the air during the Buddha's teachings, plays beautiful music, and sprinkles beautiful flowers.
In the calligraphy and painting library of the Museum of Modern Chinese Literature, there is a woodblock print of "Feitian" donated by the family of Cao Ming, a famous female writer in China, which is 545 mm long and 451 mm wide. In the painting, a fairy wearing a long flowing skirt and a flying ribbon on her shoulder dances in the sky. She has a dignified expression and a light posture, and her dress and scarf stretch with the wind; her legs are raised, her hands are trayed, and there is a big "Shou" word in the middle of the plate. Throughout the painting, the fairy's eyebrow contours, flesh posture, dress ribbon lines are very clear, and the flying posture is more graceful and light. On the right side of the wooden board, the book has a line of small characters: "Wish Comrade Caoming's eightieth birthday Chang Shuhong Li Chengxian co-painted tribute June 15, 1993."
This "Feitian" work was jointly created by Chang Shuhong and Li Chengxian, and was given to Cao Ming as a birthday gift. On June 15, 1913, Cao Ming was born in Guizhou Township, Shunde County, Guangdong Province. "June 15" is Kusanagi's birthday, and 1993 coincides with her eightieth birthday. Mr. and Mrs. Chang Shuhong rarely painted "Feitian" for others as a birthday gift, so there are few works of this kind, and this painting is even more precious.
Chang Shuhong
The birth of this painting stems from a story of "unexpected encounters". In March 1993, Cao Ming was hospitalized at Union Hospital for coronary heart disease and cerebral arteriosclerosis. This hospitalization did not take long, but during the hospitalization, Cao Ming fell one day due to a sudden fainting, this fall was just the back of her head, her head immediately got a large blood bag, Cao Ming was shocked on the spot, the situation is very critical. The surgeons of Union Hospital rescued urgently, and a total of 50cc of bruised blood was drawn, and Cao Ming was out of danger. In this way, Cao Ming had to stay in the hospital for another period of time. During this extra period of time, Mr. Chang Shuhong returned from a visit to Japan, and was also admitted to the Union Hospital due to illness, and it was the same department, and it was more coincidental that the two wards were close together, but at that time they did not know that their neighbors were each other. Until one day, Chang Lao listened to the nurse who took care of him in the ward, and there was an old lady next door who was "the most disobedient" writer, who had just fallen in the hospital a while ago, and the situation was very dangerous at that time, and the hospital specially formulated a "first-level treatment" plan for her. But now that her health was just getting better, she did not listen to the doctor's suggestion of recuperation, and even talked with foreign visitors about the creation of two days of literature (at that time, Yang Congfeng, associate professor of Xiamen University, made a special trip to Xiehe Hospital to discuss with Cao Ming about the creation of "Cao Ming Commentary"). As a result, after the talks, the writer's old lady was deaf for two days. When Chang Lao knew from the nurse that it was Cao Ming who lived next to him, he hurriedly asked his wife Li Chengxian to accompany him to visit his "most disobedient" writer friend next door. As friends, Cao Ming and Chang Shuhong met later. They first met each other in 1979 after they were elected to the Council at the Fourth National Congress of The People's Republic of China. In fact, Cao Ming knew more than twenty years ago that in Dunhuang, there was a legendary scholar named Chang Shuhong, who made outstanding contributions to the protection of the Mogao Grottoes. And Chang Shuhong has long heard that there is a female writer of industrial literature in China named Cao Ming, who has lived in Angang for more than ten years in order to create "Riding the Wind and Waves", which is not simple. Three years after this acquaintance, in 1982, in order to give better care to Chang Shuhong, who was already 78 years old, the central government appointed Chang Shuhong as deputy director of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage according to Deng Xiaoping's instructions. Soon, Chang Shuhong and his wife moved their family to Beijing. Although they are in the same city, Chang Shuhong and Cao Ming are not very familiar, and there is not much contact between them. It was not until 1988 that they were both elected as members of the Seventh National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, because the CPPCC held a meeting every year, and they were both in the literary and art group, that the two old men were able to meet each other often, and slowly they became good friends.
When the elderly Shuhong was accompanied by his wife Li Chengxian to Caoming's ward, Caoming was overjoyed, she did not expect that she and Changlao met in the hospital, and they were also next-door neighbors who had lived for a while. While chatting, Chang Lao accidentally saw a sign in front of Kusanagi's bed, which clearly wrote Kusanagi's date of birth: June 15, 1913. At that time, Chang Lao knew that it would be his old friend's birthday in more than two months, and at that time he did not say anything, but silently kept his old friend's life diary in his heart. After the conversation, in order to commemorate the "adventure" of the hospital, Cao Ming, whose head was bandaged, and Chang Shuhong, who was standing unsteadily, met outside the ward for a group photo, so there was this precious group photo of "Chang Shuhong and Cao Ming supporting each other". After that, as long as the body and time permit, they often "visited the door" to chat. When he learned that Cao Ming was about to be discharged from the hospital at the end of April, the elderly Shuhong and his wife Li Chengxian specially prepared to paint a woodblock print of "Feitian" in the ward as a birthday gift to Cao Ming. There are more oil paintings and relatively few woodcuts in the Dunhuang paintings created by Chang Lao, but his woodblock prints are also very distinctive, and Chang Lao also has a great study of Dunhuang woodblock prints. The Dunhuang Woodblock Prints are one of the Dunhuang engravings, and it is the oldest Chinese print we can see today. It was first mainly used in ancient Chinese engravings of Buddha, because the vivid and simple visual images in woodblock prints are easier to understand and accept by the public, and it gradually developed into a religious artifact that is convenient for dissemination and suitable for the masses to engage in simplified Buddhist activities, so woodblock prints have been widely disseminated in Dunhuang and the Central Plains. Dunhuang woodblock prints have a non-negligible driving force for the development of Chinese printmaking and New Year painting art in later generations, and it has also had a major impact on later Japanese prints and modern Western art. The Japanese art world has always been highly regarded for China's Dunhuang art. Since the 1980s, Chang Shuhong and his wife, as the most famous Dunhuang art masters in China, have been invited to Japan many times to give lectures and create works. In October 1992, before his hospitalization, he was invited to Japan again, and completed two masterpieces for the local creation: "Millennium Tide Stone" and "Okinawa Tree". In recognition of Chang Shuhong's contributions to Dunhuang art and Japanese painting, he received the Fuji Art Museum's highest honor and honorary curatorship. However, changlao was already old and sick for many years, and after returning to Beijing after this visit to Japan, he was admitted to the Union Hospital for treatment due to illness.
After the elderly couple painted this "Feitian" in the ward, they gave it to Cao Ming as a birthday gift. Elder Chang suggested to Cao Ming: It is not easy for a person to reach eighty, in order to commemorate this meaningful day, can you ask your friends who wish for a birthday not to send any gifts, directly ask them to sign their names on this painting, and send their blessings in this way, so that the birthday of the eightieth birthday and this woodblock print are not more commemorative? Cao Ming agreed after listening. At the end of April, When Cao Ming returned home from the hospital, he deliberately placed this painting of "Fei Tian" in the most conspicuous place in the living room for himself to enjoy. On June 15, 1993, on the day of Cao Ming's birthday, Zheng Bonong and Zhang Qi, leaders of the China Writers Association, Zhou Aero of Lu Xun Literature College, Zhu Bing, a famous researcher of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and Liu Chaolan, a children's writer, went to their homes to wish for their birthdays. When they walked into the living room, they were all fascinated by the painting. Seeing that her friends liked it so much, Kusaki thought of Changlao's suggestion, and in order to leave a precious souvenir, she invited them to sign one by one on the drawing board. During that time, every relative or friend who came to wish for his birthday was warmly invited by Cao Ming to sign his name on the woodblock print of "Fei Tian". For a long time after the birthday, some friends who visited Kusanagi also wanted to sign this painting and send their blessings to the old man Kusanagi. In this way, from June 15, 1993 to December 1998, a total of 120 relatives and friends signed the woodblock prints for nearly five years. There are famous writers Zang Kejia, Ouyang Shan, Lei Jia, Lu Fei, Yan Chen, Chen Zhaochun, Zheng Bonong, Zhang Qi, Zou Difan, Zhang Qi and so on. This full edition of signatures deeply expresses the sincere blessings of friends to the elderly Cao Ming and her high respect for her contributions to the cause of Chinese literature.
On April 2, 1993, Shuhong and Li Chengxian took a group photo outside the ward after visiting Cao Ming
In August of the same year after the completion of this work, Chang Lao created his memoir "Ninety Spring and Autumn - Fifty Years of Dunhuang" at The Union Hospital. In April of the following year, Chang Lao was admitted to Xiehe Hospital again due to a coma, and on June 23, 1994, Chang Shuhong, a generation of Dunhuang art masters, died in Xiehe Hospital at the age of 90. The following year, in accordance with The will of Chang Lao's body to "guard Dunhuang when he dies", Li Chengxian placed part of his husband's ashes in the courtyard of their old Mogao Caves, and let his tombstone face the Great Buddha Hall of Mogao Grottoes, so that he could always look after the home he had spent his life loving, and let his soul fly freely with the "flying sky" in this magical land. On the tombstone of the old man Of Shuhong, there are five big characters inscribed by Zhao Puchu himself: "Dunhuang Guardian Spirit". This title is well deserved for the old man of Shuhong.
In August 1994, Cao Ming wrote an affectionate article in the People's Daily entitled "Soul Xi, Dunhuang" to honor this old friend:
I seemed to see his figure drifting lightly towards Dunhuang in the northwest. The road was long, but it didn't matter, he was familiar with it. Along the way, where the sand dunes were, where the stones were, he could count them with his eyes closed. The flying immortals of Dunhuang, perhaps knowing that he was coming, were also warmly preparing to meet their protector, the soul of Chang Shuhong. ”
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