Riding the wind of rebirth

Chapter 1523 Buddha Statue

There are many records about Liu Yuan's statues in the Yuan Dynasty's "Paintings and Sculptures", including "On December 18, the first year of Zhizhi, Duo'er of Zhusefu was ordered to wait in the Royal Pagoda Hall behind the main hall...to the west was a statue of Manjushri Bodhisattva. "The statue of Maitreya in the east is wrapped in cloth and lacquered."

The earliest preserved dry lacquer and ramie statue in China is the dry lacquer and ramie statue of the Eighteenth Venerable from the Yuan Dynasty. It was first hidden in the Great Buddha Hall of Cining Palace in the Forbidden City and was transferred to the White Horse Temple in Luoyang in 1773.

Regarding these eighteen statues of the Lord, the cultural relics appraisal supplement specifically states that they are "passed to be Liu Yuansu". Based on historical data, the Forbidden City concluded that these Buddhist statues originated from Nengren Temple in Dadu, Yuan Dynasty.

By the Qing Dynasty, this craft had formed strict and complex specifications. According to the banknote of "Current Rules for Buddhist Works in the Old Summer Palace" collected by Lu Shuxun, the methods and materials for making the statues in the Qing court are detailed:

"Buddha statues are not limited to civil and military matters. They put putty and sand on the crotch and make the cloth fifteen times. They pressed the cloth with dust fifteen times. The long face resembles the pattern of clothing. Once it is painted with gray, two times of matting paint, three times of water polishing, one time of paint ash and dirt. Paint it twice with vermilion.”

"The materials used include: linen, tung oil, Yansheng lacquer, varnish, matte paint, lacquer vermilion, brick dust, caviar brick dust, soil, etc."

The so-called brick dust and soil are all materials used to mix lacquer, and they are still used by domestic craftsmen who make lacquerware.

Brick dust is a powder ground from old blue bricks and green tiles. Soil is a "drying agent" used to control the drying time of paint juice. It is often used together with a mineral called Mi Tuoseng. It is the sulfide-type galena slag deposited at the bottom of the furnace after the ancient method of refining silver and lead.

Because it is lightweight and is just a cavity of a lacquer shell, the ramie sculpture is very easy to carry.

But precisely because of this, the ramie statues are also particularly easy to damage. It only takes one hammer to destroy them, and they can also be easily ignited.

Also because of the convenience of portability, many statues were easily scattered abroad in the era of poverty and weakness. Most of the current masterpieces are abroad, such as the Buddha statues collected by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the United States and the Freer Museum of Art, and the authenticity of the Tangzhaoti Temple in the island nation. Like, all of them are excellent.

The earliest extant dry lacquer and ramie sculpture is the Amitabha Buddha statue at Longxing Temple in Hebei Province during the Sui Dynasty, which is housed in the Walters Art Museum.

The largest dry lacquered ramie statue now only has a Buddha head left. In the hands of a private collector in the island country, the height of the head alone reaches 49.5 centimeters. It was obviously cut from a complete Buddha statue and smuggled out.

In addition, there is also a Buddhist clip made of ramie from the third generation of the Yuan Dynasty collected by the Luoyang Museum. Historical records indicate that "the statues are all lacquered, with rich and golden make-up, and are extremely exquisite."

Each of these statues is now a national first-class cultural relic, and they are all painted and gold-lacquered. Although they are far more exquisite than those scattered abroad, they are not as old as them.

The statue now in Zhou Zhi's barrel is a lotus-seat statue. The statue is made of dark jujube-colored lacquer. The whole body is the same color, without gold and vermilion decoration, and it looks simple and solemn.

The height of the statue is about 60 centimeters, which is not particularly large, but the clothes, hands and feet can already be seen that it has been carefully built, and the art and science are particularly delicate.

He came to the bathroom of a dormitory, opened the faucet and filled the bathtub with water. Zhou Zhi found a pen, cut off half of the pen tip with scissors, dipped the remaining pen tip in water, and began to carefully wash the statue.

As a lot of mud was brushed away by the soft wool pen, the statue finally revealed its true appearance.

Due to being protected by clay for a long time, the statue is extremely well preserved. The entire paint surface is as clean as new. Under the light of the bathroom, it shows a gelatinous texture similar to that of horns. It seems to be somewhat transparent, but it is not transparent when you look closely.

The front of this Buddha statue adopts the classic shape of two-stage semi-circular carving with a back screen. The Buddha statue has a high bun, a round face, thin eyebrows and long eyes, a small mouth and thin lips, and the corners of the mouth are slightly raised with a smile.

After removing the mud, all the details of clothing were revealed. The Buddha statue was wearing a shoulder-length long dress with bare chest and silk underwear. The lines of the clothing were sparse and clear, and the lines were natural and smooth. The right hand is raised to perform the fearless seal, the left palm is lowered to perform the wish seal, and the bare feet are placed on the lotus platform.

There is a boat-shaped backlight behind the head, a shallow round headlight carved behind the head, and a lotus flower inside the circle. Judging from the shape, handprints and clothing, this is a statue of Sakyamuni Buddha.

However, as he cleaned up, Zhou Zhi became more and more surprised.

When I first saw this Buddha statue, Zhou Zhi felt that it should be from the Yuan and Ming Dynasties due to the influence of the region where it appeared, and it might be from the Song Dynasty at most.

However, after the cleaning was completed, the snail hair of the Buddha statue turned to the right, taking on the characteristics of a low and flat bun.

The statue has a round and kind face, curved eyebrows and closed eyes, slender eyebrows and eyes, a plump mouth and nose, and soft and dignified facial features.

The lip line has large fluctuations. The M shape of the upper lip line and the W shape of the lower lip line are natural and soft. The face is plump, and the corners of the mouth are slightly upturned and deeply sunken. It becomes a smile that is vague, compassionate and comforting, beautiful and subtle, warm and tolerant. meaning.

This smile makes people feel gentle and calm. It can be said that if you add one point, it will be too charming, and if you subtract one point, it will be less soft. It is so just right, peaceful, peaceful, compassionate, and warm. It makes people feel comfortable at the first sight. It can only be understood. , indescribable.

Compared with the statues of the Northern Wei Dynasty, the accessories of this Sakyamuni Buddha statue are slightly more complicated. There is a set of Yingluo-style decorations on the chest. The upper body is covered with a double-room coat and the lower body is wearing a skirt. The lines are simple and smooth, and the clothes have light clothing patterns. , the pleats are mostly tightened with fine pens, like clothes draped in gauze, light and close to the flesh. Viewed from the side, the abdomen is slightly protruding forward, as if it had just been fished out of the water.

This feature is so distinguishable. This style of cassock on the Buddha statue that is usually close to the body is the "Cao Family Style" - Cao Yi Chushui, one of the famous "Four Styles" of Chinese Buddhist art.

The four types are Cao type, founded by Cao Zhongda of the Northern Qi Dynasty; Zhang type, founded by Zhang Sengyao of Nanliang; Wu type, founded by Wu Daozi of the Tang Dynasty; and Zhou type, founded by Zhou Fang of the Tang Dynasty.

Among them, Wu Daozi's "Wu Dai is in the Wind" and Cao Zhongda's "Cao Yi Comes Out of the Water" are the most outstanding. The two are relative concepts. The former's brushwork is round and elegant, and the painted statues' belts seem to be fluttering in the wind, while the latter's brushwork is strong and dense. Folded, the clothes of the painted statue are close to the body, as if they had just come out of the water.

The statue's skeletal proportions are accurate and even, and the carvings are exquisite and delicate. It perfectly combines the physical beauty of the earthly world with the sense of transcendence in the fairy world. The dynamic streamlines make the overall beauty of the Buddha statue more vivid, exuding meditation, compassion, and silence. spiritual charm and inner temperament.

The wet statue glistened under the light and running water in the bathroom. Although Zhou Zhi was squatting to clean it and looking down, he felt like he was looking up and worshiping.

Gently turn the statue in a circle, and there are bas-reliefs and line carvings on the back. The upper bas-relief is obviously a carving of a human figure, a Buddha statue is also carved in the center, and the lower part is a rectangular tablet-shaped inscription.

There are a few lines written on the card in Wei stele calligraphy in vermilion lacquer:

"On the 15th day of the seventh month in the seventh year of Tianbao, the King of Kaifeng ordered Yang Ming to build a statue of the Buddha, two Bodhisattvas and three bodies, with His Majesty the Emperor's parents, brothers, sisters and wife as witnesses of the true Dharma."

This is the most traditional inscription for a donor. Many gold and bronze statues and grotto statues before the Tang Dynasty have similar inscriptions.

The calligraphy handwriting is powerful and ancient, with the style of a "stele knife". If my fourth cousin saw it, he would not be able to put it down.

Zhou Zhi's heart was even more shocked, and he almost couldn't hold the soft brush steady.

Tianbao is the reign name of Gao Yang in the Northern Qi Dynasty, and Yang Min is Gao Yang's important minister!

(End of this chapter)