Chapter 64 walking in the fields

Sicheng divided the work among five people. Someone measured the plane, someone checked the inscriptions, someone measured the brackets, and someone drew the cross-section and vertical section.As soon as they arrived at the temple every day, they immediately started working according to the division of labor.Sicheng climbed the beams and pillars most nimbly, and reached the roof of the palace in two or three strokes. He pulled out the tape measure and drew while measuring, which was very efficient.Then, they went to the Yungang Grottoes, where they began to examine the Northern Wei architecture represented in the art of stone carvings.

The Yungang Grottoes are a magnificent relic of early Chinese Buddhist art and a demonstration of the art of the Northern Wei Dynasty. "Shui Jing Zhu" records the grand occasion at that time: "The stone was cut to open the mountain, the structure of the trapped rock, the real appearance is huge, the world law hopes, the mountain hall and the water hall, the smoke temple faces each other..." Today's Yungang, because of its remote location, has few tourists.Not a single tree can be seen on the empty cliffs, and the crops in the fields are sparsely grown. There are only grottoes and Buddha statues in the grottoes guarding this barren and dry land.Here, they again fell into the dilemma of not being able to find a place to live.There are no restaurants, no hotels, no public facilities of any kind, not even a carriage shop.They had to turn to local farmers for help.A farmer finally agreed to lend them a house, which had no doors, windows, or a single piece of furniture, except for the open roof and drafty walls.They also had to spread out their luggage in this room.

There is a big temperature difference between day and night here. It is too hot to wear unlined clothes at noon, and it is too cold to huddle under the quilt at night.I also work with this farmhouse for meals. The staple food every day is boiled potatoes and cornmeal paste. Occasionally, a little pickle is considered a good accompaniment to the meal.Living and working conditions are poor, but their spirits are high.The history of a people is an organism in which everything is interconnected.The plastic arts of different historical periods provide precious records of different historical periods—architecture, clothing, rites and music, customs and even the entire daily life.The political history of a nation only provides the external form of life, while art brings people closer to the soul of this era.

During the Northern Wei Dynasty, Buddhism spread eastward, a powerful political rule quelled many disputes, and established a relatively balanced new order among conflicting civilizations.The inherent blood of Chinese culture seeped strong foreign influences. The plastic arts of this period showed the influence of different cultures at that time. The Yungang Grottoes themselves are the result of the large-scale entry of Indian Buddhist art from the Western Regions into China. They inspected the plan of the Yungang grottoes and their architectural age, and examined all the architectural forms represented in the stone carvings: such as towers, temples, colonnades at the entrance of the cave, and the architectural parts seen in the stone carvings, such as columns, appendixes, and bucket arches. , Caijing, as well as flying immortals and decorative patterns in the stone carvings --- the architectural forms and architectural features of the Northern Wei Dynasty were vividly presented in front of them.

An era may go from prosperity to decline, but art itself will never be eliminated.Because the history of politics and society represents eternal turmoil and conflict, while art represents the eternal glory and dream of mankind. Their work is arduous and trivial, because all the steles in the caves have disappeared without leaving any traces, and they need to conduct textual research based on the techniques of cave stone carvings.But they worked hard and with great interest.Between work and walking in the countryside and mountain villages, Huiyin can always discover the beauty of art in places that others don't care about.An earthen theater stage in a mountain village, homemade homemade cloth in the market, an old-fashioned longevity lock, and a simple and elegant clay pot—she would buy small things and take them away, and she would always Ask to be photographed.With an uncertain itinerary and limited equipment, Sicheng paid great attention to saving film, but he couldn't bear to give up Huiyin's wish.