Chapter 36 Chinese scriptures and Western manuscripts

Chinese scriptures and Western manuscripts It was recently reported that the German Democratic Republic will hold a International Book Art Fair.This reminds me of the form of our country's writing, although it is basically the same as the European writing Different, the form of books is also very different, but for the hobby of book art, the interest of Chinese and foreign book lovers Mi tends to, their collection scope and goals, some places coincide with each other, and they all lead to the same goal. Very interesting phenomenon. Chinese bibliophiles are particularly fond of Song edition books, and Western bibliophiles are also particularly precious about their early 15th century books.

Printed books, because these, besides being the first product of the evolution from codex to printed book, are in the content book The book itself, as well as paper printing and binding, all have specialties, so they are worthy of the treasure of book lovers. The Chinese bibliophile can't bear to let go of a book of fine paper and ink, with characters as big as money. In the past, it was just like a western bibliophile counting the lines of Gothenburg's forty-two-line Bible, Smelling the ancient fragrance of parchment with his nose, he nodded repeatedly with an expression of admiration.

In addition, regarding the emphasis on manuscripts, the tastes of Chinese and foreign book lovers can also be said to be the same.Chinese book collection What the family values ​​most are the manuscripts of the Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties found in the Dunhuang Stone Chamber, which are beloved by Western bibliophiles. are also ancient manuscripts drawn in their medieval monasteries.The Tang copy, commonly known as the Dunhuang scroll Most of the manuscripts copied are Buddhist scriptures, which are also religious works like the manuscripts of Western medieval monasteries. Indeed, it is an interesting comparison.

The scriptures written by the people of the Tang Dynasty were mostly in the form of scrolls, with Buddha statues painted at the beginning. The manuscripts of ancient scriptures in the Western Middle Ages, Although it was copied on loose leaves of parchment, it was also decorated, and it was very ornate.This special Ancient scripture manuscripts are called "Illuminated Manuscript" in the West to show that they are different from ordinary manuscripts. This term can be translated as "Golden and Bicolored Ancient Manuscript", because it is written in red and black ink In addition to the parchment, colorful decorative flowers should be added around the text and in the gaps of each line and sentence.

pattern, and the first letter of the first character in the first line must be written in cursive fonts in a particularly large, sometimes To occupy half or the whole of a page, the letters around the letters are decorated with colorful patterns and human figures. In addition to birds, insects and fish, the main parts should be painted with mud gold or pasted with gold and silver foil, which is very gorgeous. Therefore, it should be called ancient manuscripts with golden and green paintings. The age of the writing of scriptures by the people of the Tang Dynasty was closely related to the age of the appearance of the ancient manuscripts with gold and green paintings in the West.

Recently, they are all products of the eighth century to the ninth century.However, in our country, in the Song Dynasty (Eleventh Century), printed books have become popular, manuscripts have relegated to a secondary position, and writing scriptures has become a special feature. A special pious act of vowing.But in Europe, since they had printed books centuries after us, The writing of scriptures in colored books was still popular in the fifteenth century.And the famous first printed book in Europe, St. Gothenburg The Sutra, his design, was to imitate ancient manuscripts and sell them as cheap manuscripts.