The Paper's reporter Gao Dan
In the textbook, Lu Xun's "Ah Chang and the Classic of Mountains and Seas" gives many readers "Amway" a "Classic of Mountains and Seas" painted with "a nine-headed snake; a cow with one foot; a bag-like Emperor Jiang; a headless but with milk as the eye, the navel as the mouth, and the punishment of dancing with the qi". This ancient book of the pre-Qin period has a natural mystery to the reader because of the many absurd mountains and rivers, myths and legends, myths and legends of witchcraft depicted.
The Classic of Mountains and Seas that we see now may be more of a version that only preserves the text, but the ancient Classic of Mountains and Seas was originally a book with pictures and texts, although the original ancient maps, the Han transmission maps, and the Shan Hai Jing maps in the records of the Six Dynasties, Tang and Song Dynasties have not been handed down, but in some works of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, some "accompanying maps" of the "Classic of Mountains and Seas" can be seen sporadically.
Now, many painters have come up with the idea of recreating the text of the Classic of Mountains and Seas, such as the book "Guan Shan Hai" published by the young painter Sugizawa, who painted nearly 200 gods, men and beasts in the Classic of Mountains and Seas.
In Sugizawa's "Guan Shan Hai", the gods and beasts created with the words "In the north of the women's country, the human face is snake-like, and the tail is crossed on the head"
The recently published book, "Mountains and Seas Without Boundaries: East Meets West", also has the original content of the "Classic of Mountains and Seas" as the motif, and there are two main parts of the book, one part is the oil painting created by the cartoonist Cai Zhizhong's disciple He Pengfei inspired by the Classic of Mountains and Seas, and the other part is the writers' re-creation of the stories in the Classic of Mountains and Seas: the writers spell out the plots in the Classic of Mountains and Seas like a puzzle, or imaginatively reshape the records of only a few words.
Book Shadow
Before talking about the new book, we can first pay attention to the tradition of graphic narrative initiated by the Classic of Mountains and Seas. Mr. Gu Jiegang once made a thesis: the Classic of Mountains and Seas was originally contained in pictures and words, and pictures predate words.
The earliest illustrations of the Shanhai Jing that we can see now are two illustrations of the Shan hai jing in the fragments of the Yongle Canon: one is the "Luxury Corpse" of the Overseas Eastern Classic; and the other is the "Zhaobi Corpse" of the Hai Nei Bei Jing. Because the Yongle Canon was written in the early Ming Dynasty, these two maps are likely to be taken from the existing maps of mountains and seas before the Ming Dynasty.
The Classic of Mountains and Seas preserved in the Yongle Canon
In a "Brief Description of the Editions of the Ming and Qing Classics of Mountains and Seas" by Ma Changyi of the Institute of Literature of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, 16 kinds of "Classics of Mountains and Seas" created and circulated in the Ming and Qing dynasties can be seen so far.
(1) Ming "Mountains and Seas Classic Map", edited by Hu Wenhuan, Gezhi series of books, published in the twenty-first year of the Ming Wanli Calendar (1593), 133 pictures.
(2) Eighteen volumes of the Ming Classic of Mountains and Seas (Pictured Panorama), drawings by Jiang Yinghao and Wu Linfu of Guangling, published in Jujintang, published in the twenty-fifth year of the Ming Wanli Calendar (1597), 74 pictures.
(3) Ming "Interpretation of the Classic of Mountains and Seas" eighteen volumes, Wang Chongqing Interpretation, Jiang Yikui school carving, Ming Wanli twenty-five years (1597) began to engrave, Wanli forty-seventh year (1619) published, Figure 2 volumes, 75 paintings.
(4) Ming "Classic of Mountains and Seas" + eight volumes, Japanese publications, no provenance, figure 74. (This book is jiang yinghao's drawing book)
(5) Qing "Shan Hai Jing Guang Annotated" (with pictures of all five volumes), Wu Renchen Notes, Kangxi Sixth Year (1667) edition, figure 144.
(6) Qing "Supplementary Painting of Mountains and Seas Jingguang Annotations" Wu Renchen (Zhiyi) Notes, Jin Zhang Shuye Tang Collection Edition, Qianlong Fifty-first Year (1786) Xia Quan, Figure 5 volumes, 144 paintings.
(7) Qing "Supplementary Painting of Mountains and Seas By Guangdong Annotation" Ren and Wu Zhiyi Notes, Foshan Sheren Backstreet Near Wen Tang Collection Edition, Figure 5, 144 paintings.
(8) Qing "Extensive Annotations on the Drawing of Mountains and Seas", Wu Zhiyi's Annotations, Cheng or Yin Drawings, Sichuan Shunqinghai Qinglou Edition, Xianfeng Five Years
(9) Qing "Classic of Mountains and Seas", Guangxu Sixteenth Year (1890) Xueku Shanfang Imitation Bi (Yuan) Clan Illustration Annotation Original School Journal, Figure 1 volume, 144 pictures.
(10) Qing "Shan Hai Jing Shu Shu" written by Hao Yixing, Guangxu eighteen years (1892) Wucai Company three times lithographed 144 pictures.
(11) Qing "Classics of Mountains and Seas", Wang Fushi, Figure 9, Guangxu Twenty-one Years (1895) Lixuezhai Print.
(12) The Department of Exotic Animals in the Qing Dynasty's "Ancient and Modern Book Integration and Bird and Insect Codex".
(13) The gods of mountains and rivers in the Qing Dynasty's "Ancient and Modern Book Integration and Divine Classics".
(14) Distant aliens in the Qing Dynasty's "Ancient and Modern Book Integration and Border Descent Classics".
(15) "Illustrations of mountains and seas" (revised version), Shanghai Jinzhang Book Bureau, printed in the eighth year of the Republic of China (1919), figure 144, (this book is based on Bi Yuantu as a facsimile).
(16) Japan "Strange Birds and Beasts Picture Scroll", Edo Period (equivalent to China's Ming and Qing Dynasties) Pictures, Nippon Bunkodo Co., Ltd., 2001 edition, Figure 76.
From these documents, we can see how the ancients understood the Classic of Mountains and Seas and how to draw the images in the Classic of Mountains and Seas.
It is worth noting that the author Ma Changyi emphasized: "The mountains and seas in the Ming and Qing dynasties are no longer primitive ancient maps, and there is an essential difference between the two. A considerable part of the ancient map may be the ancient wizard's ghost sending souls and ancestor worship, the guiding map, the ghost fighting map, and the text is the description of the witch map that appeared later. This kind of witch book with witch roots and ancient mythology (Lu Xun) contains pictures and texts is a cultural relic of the era when witchcraft was flourishing and the writing was underdeveloped, and has obvious witchcraft functions and practical value. The Mountains and Seas Classics of the Ming and Qing Dynasties are prints drawn by Ming and Qing painters and painters based on the Classic of Mountains and Seas for readers to read and appreciate. However, the original ancient map and the Ming and Qing Dynasty Mountains and Seas Classic Map maintain an ancient relationship and inheritance vein, and the original "Classic of Mountains and Seas" graphic narrative tradition is also preserved in the Ming and Qing Dynasties Mountain and Sea Classics. We can start from the Ming and Qing Dynasties Mountains and Seas Classic, trace the origin of the ancient pictorial "Classic of Mountains and Seas", and reproduce the narrative context of the pictorial "Classic of Mountains and Seas". ”
Among the 16 kinds of "Classics of Mountains and Seas" that have been circulated above, Hu Wenhuan and Jiang Yinghao are the most noteworthy, and the Hu Wenhuan diagrams of the Ming Dynasty play a role in the inheritance system of the Classics of Mountains and Seas because of their earlier age, which directly affects many image models in the Qing Dynasty.
Ming Hu Wenhuan edited "Mountains and Seas Classics"
The sacred beast depicted in Wu Renchen's Commentary on the Classics of Mountains and Seas (Eighteen Volumes, Figure 5) by Wu Renchen of the Qing Dynasty Shuye Hall
Being good at telling stories with pictures is an important feature of Chiang's drawing book. The picture book adopts a narrative method with a background and plot-based composition, the picture is centered on the gods and birds and beasts, and there is a plot relationship between the main image and the surrounding image and background. A total of 348 cases of strange gods and beasts are drawn in the 74 figures of the whole book, including some of the main images in the myths of the Classic of Mountains and Seas, such as the Nüwa with the human face snake body, the West Queen Mother with the tiger's tooth and leopard tail, the thunder god with the human face dragon body, the sea god Yu Qiang with the human face bird body and the snake trampling the snake, the daily Qua Father, the reclamation jingwei, the servant cow Wang Hai, the elephant-devouring ba snake, the one-legged cow body, the hydra body xiangliu, the human-faced nine-headed god bird Jiu Feng, etc., showing the magnificent and colorful Chinese mythological world in the form of pictures. Chiang's drawings are good at using series of images to represent God's family, lineage, and evolution trajectory in different scriptures, or to represent a god in different forms of images. The story of gods and beasts unfolds in the background of mountains, lakes and seas, trees and houses, people or birds and beasts, and the mountains and rivers, trees, animals and plants, and the retinues and mounts of the gods are all brought to life and become an inseparable part of the mythological story.
Jiang Yinghao's Classic of Mountains and Seas (Pictured Panorama)
Japan's "Strange Birds and Beasts"
From the above, the drawings of the Classic of Mountains and Seas in ancient China (Ming Dynasty and later) have always stayed in a stage of simple imagination that is stuck in the text.
Of course, people like Sugizawa and Liu Liwen, a young painter who graduated from the Picture Book Creation Studio of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, have depicted the strange beasts of mountains and seas in their minds. But in general, they are all realistic, but they use more colors and lines, and pay more attention to artistic rendering.
Liu Liwen Shan Hai Jing drawing
Returning to "Mountains and Seas Without Boundaries", the preface to the book reads: "In fact, the concept of painting, whether it is a program or a program, is the creative experience summarized and summarized by the predecessors, and the later generations are only integrated into their own consciousness and constantly improved." Some talented artists, on the other hand, are always able to break this relationship and come out of their own way. This is what makes art unique, it emphasizes creativity, and therefore provides an opportunity for artists to break through established aesthetic patterns, transcend their predecessors and improve themselves. ”
Compared with the above-mentioned painters, He Pengfei's drawings of mountains and seas belong to the category of Expressionism. "Expressionism is an important branch of modern art, which liberates painting from the dependence of images and provides artists with the opportunity to express their self-consciousness, so it is favored by many contemporary artists at home and abroad. He Pengfei loves expressionism, precisely because this way of painting can release his emotions, and at the same time can reveal the rich feelings in his heart, the things that cannot be said, and the images that cannot be expressed. In He Pengfei's paintings, color and texture are the two most important factors. They are related to He Pengfei's ups and downs of emotions, or wavy, or dignified, and the brush strokes lightly constitute a series of works with great expressive significance, and thus form He Pengfei's own artistic outlook. At the same time, He Pengfei absorbed some images of primitive totems and ancient cultural symbols in the picture, and through the transformation of language, his works transcended the simple expression of self-emotions and personal feelings, and had the characteristics of a certain cultural root-seeking. Curator Yang Wei wrote in the preface.
He Pengfei's shanhai jing drawing pays more attention to using strong, colliding colors to fit the story atmosphere, and the sacred beasts and characters in it still follow the image in the ancient "Shan Hai Jing" drawings, thus having a sense of dialogue and collision between different painting media and different cultural forms.
"Magic Mountain and Sea - Proud Worm"
"Magic Mountains and Seas - Oh"
"Magic Mountains and Seas, Mountains and Seas"
Zheng Junjian, chairman of the Guangxi Calligraphers Association, said: "The formation of the Classic of Mountains and Seas is a kind of pursuit and desire of human beings to conquer nature, and Pengfei uses this classical theme to express it in a very modern way, which is indeed the integration and communication of classical to the present. ”
"Magic Mountains and Seas - White Republic of China"
"Magic Mountains and Seas - Father Kwa"
Editor-in-Charge: Chen Shihuai
Proofreader: Yan Zhang