Chapter 11 Section 2 Illustrations and Prints of Ancient Chinese Books

Chinese prints originated from book illustrations.People still refer to pictures and books together, probably because there have been pictures in Chinese books since ancient times.Xu Kang from the Qing Dynasty said in his "Meng Ying Lu": "The ancients called pictures and books together, and every book must have pictures..."Sui Shu·Jing Ji Zhi" has 14 volumes of "Zhou Li Tu"... It is an ancient book without drawing." After the popularization of printed books, this style of books with pictures was not only inherited, but also developed greatly. This is the illustrations and prints in ancient Chinese books.

The illustrations of books are an image description of the content of the text, which can give readers a clear concept of the image and deepen people's understanding of the text.Therefore, with the occurrence and development of woodblock printing, illustrations and prints gradually flourished. my country's use of woodblock printing technology to print books began around the early Tang Dynasty.And when this brand-new technology first emerged, its advantages and strengths were immediately taken in by Buddhists who are full of propaganda skills.They use this technique to carve scriptures and Buddha statues to achieve the purpose of making merit, preaching teachings and winning believers.Mr. Lu Xun said in "Woodcut Jicheng Xiaoyin": "Chinese woodcut pictures, from Tang to Ming, once had a very decent history." Buddhist paintings were originally something that existed in China. We can still see the real objects from Buddha statues and playing cards at the end of Tang Dynasty, as well as embroidered statues and small pictures of enlightenment in later novels.” This shows that when woodblock printing was just emerging, carving Printed woodblock Buddha paintings followed, which can be said to be the origin of woodblock prints in my country.

We mentioned earlier that after Tang Xuanzang went to India to learn Buddhist scriptures and returned to China, he once "printed the statue of Samantabhadra on Huifeng paper and gave it to the four people, and every year there was nothing left." This shows that as early as the early Tang Dynasty, that is, in the middle of the 7th century AD , woodblock prints have already been produced.And this print is the painting of Samantabhadra in Buddhism. In 1944, in a Tang tomb near the Wangjiang Tower outside the east gate of Chengdu, the "Dharani Sutra and Mantra Book" carved and printed by the Bian family in Longchifang, Chengdu County, Chengdu Prefecture, was unearthed, about one foot square.A Buddha statue is engraved in the middle, ancient Sanskrit mantras are engraved around it, and several small Buddha statues are engraved around the mantra. It is a woodcut print with complete composition and rich pictures and texts.This engraving was produced around the middle of the 8th century.

In the second half of the 9th century, that is, the ninth year of Xiantong Emperor Yizong of Tang Dynasty (868 A.D.), Wang Jie revered and made the "Diamond Sutra" for his two parents to pray for blessings.This frontispiece painting depicts the story of Sakyamuni Buddha sitting on the sutra feast in Zhishugui Lonely Garden and speaking to the monks.The elder Subhuti is exactly the image mentioned in the scriptures that he bares his right shoulder, puts his right knee on the ground, puts his hands together respectfully and speaks to the Buddha.On the left and right of the Buddha, there are two guardian deities standing majestically, surrounded by many nobles, benefactors and monks.In front of the sutra feast, there are two brave lions lying down, which are used to express the boundlessness of Buddhism, and even fierce beasts are enough to subdue them.In the upper part of the picture, on the banners blown by the breeze, two fairies float from left to right with auspicious clouds.The whole composition, the center is prominent, well-proportioned.Sakyamuni Buddha has a majestic appearance, with ten thousand dharmas hidden in his chest; the elder Subhuti listened piously, with a pleasant expression; .All kinds of images have their own characteristics, but they are all lifelike, vivid and vivid.It not only shows the vivid characteristics of Chinese painting in terms of painting skills, but also complements and integrates with painting in terms of carving knife technique and line tracing.Therefore, this work not only shows that my country's woodcut prints have entered a fairly mature period in the middle of the 9th century, but also has epoch-making significance in the form of book illustrations.Since then, Buddhist scriptures, regardless of the single scriptures in the Dazang, mostly take the form of frontispiece paintings, which is where the illustrations come from.This is of course related to the fact that the binding form of books at this time was mainly scroll binding, but later it evolved into folded binding and leaf binding. The illustrations are still often attached to the front of the book, which is also the legacy of the frontispiece painting.

After entering the Five Dynasties, not only the government organized forces to proofread and engrave Confucian classics, but the Jiedu envoys in the far northwestern border also presided over the engraving of Buddhist scriptures and Buddhist paintings.In the fourth year of Kaiyun in the Later Jin Dynasty (947 A.D.), Cao Yuanzhong, the Jiedu envoy of the Guiyi Army in the Guasha and Dunhuang areas in the northwest, invited people to engrave and print the "Statue of the Great Sage Pi (pi Pi) Salmonella King" and "The Great Compassionate Avalokitesvara for Rescuing the Suffering" "Bodhisattva Statue" has taken the art of printmaking a step further. "The Statue of the Great Sage Bishamonten King" depicts the protagonist Bishamon Tianwang, who is the guardian of the Dharma in Buddhism.Legend has it that in the first year of Tianbao in the Tang Dynasty (742 A.D.), Bukong Sanzang asked King Bishamon to show his holiness, thus quelling foreign aggression. Therefore, King Bishamon was regarded as the god of war in the Tang Dynasty.The structure of the engraving is very compact. A strong earth god, half of his body is exposed from the ground, holding Bishamon's feet with his hands.Bishamen holds a long halberd with a flag in his right hand, and a pagoda dedicated to Sakyamuni in his left hand. He wears a crown on his head, with wings on his side, flames from his shoulders, a narrow waist, a long sword, a long armor shawl, and scales of armor. , with piercing eyes and upturned beard, which fully demonstrates the character and power of King Bishamon.The goddess of eloquence stands on the left holding flowers and fruits; the boy and Raksha stand on the right.Rakshasa holds a baby in his right hand with a ferocious face. This is to show the story that King Bishamon can change a baby at any time and save all sentient beings.The center of the whole composition is prominent, the structure is rigorous, the lines are strong but not rigid, and the characters have their own characteristics.There are 10 lines of inscriptions engraved on the bottom of the pattern, and the picture above and below, with both pictures and texts, is the first of its kind in the form of book illustrations above and below the picture.

"The Statue of the Great Merciful and Greatly Compassionate Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva" has the same form as the "Statue of the Great Sage Bishamon Heavenly King", and it is also the above and below the picture.The statue of Bodhisattva is painted with ink and ink.Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva wears a crown on her head, steps on a lotus platform, holds a water bottle in her left hand, holds a lotus flower in her right hand, and wears a long shawl, floating to her feet.The painted upper banners, lotus flowers and skirts are all decorated in red, the trousers are white, the belt is green, and the lotus seat under the feet is red and ink.The composition is concise and the characters stand out.Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva has a wonderful appearance and kindness, with a natural demeanor.The lower part of the pattern is engraved with 13 lines of inscriptions, and the upper and lower images are rich in both pictures and texts. It is a rare treasure of early prints and is now in the Eastern Department of the National Library of England.

The Beijing Library has the "All Tathagata Heart Secret Whole Body Relic Dharani Sutra", also known as the "Leifeng Pagoda Sutra", carved and printed in the eighth year of Kaibao in the Northern Song Dynasty (AD 975), also known as the "Leifeng Pagoda Sutra". Engraved Feihua.The content is to describe the scene of King Wuyue's favorite concubine Huang's worshiping Buddha.The lines are concise, and the composition and environment arrangement are very compact.Since then, the "Kai Treasure" engraved in the Song Dynasty, the "Khitan Cang" engraved in the Liao Dynasty, and the "Zhaocheng Cang" engraved in the Jin Dynasty are all in the form of frontispiece paintings.However, in the engravings of Buddhist scriptures in the Song Dynasty, there appeared the form of illustrations or continuous illustrations in the middle of the scriptures.Some have pictures above and below, some have pictures on the left and text on the right, some have pictures inside and outside the text, and some have irregular insertions, with various forms, but the purpose is to explain the stories in the scriptures in a vivid and popular way.For example, the "Dharani Sutra" engraved in the Jiangsu area during the Chongning period of the Northern Song Dynasty (1102-1106 A.D.) is in this form.A picture board, divided into paragraphs to describe the content of the story, this form of illustrations in the volume, opened the precedent for the form of book illustrations in the future.In addition to Buddhist scriptures, there are 10 volumes of historical stories of Gao Keming's paintings "Three Dynasties Xun Jian Tu" published in the first year of Huangyou (AD 1049); eight volumes that are said to be Gu Kaizhi's supplementary pictures published in Jiayou's eighth year (AD 1063); In the second year of Chongning (AD 1103), 34 volumes of "Zao Fa Shi" written and written by Jiang Zuojian Li Jie; "Six Classics Map", "Quanshu Leiyao", "Bogutu", "Plum Blossom Joy Shenpu", "Wangyou Qingyue Collection", etc., are all examples of continuous illustrations or multiple illustrations in the book.They marked the development of illustrated printmaking into a wider field.

At the same time as the Song Dynasty, there were Liao and Jin Zhili successively in the north.Among the Liao engraved Buddhist scriptures unearthed from the wooden pagoda in Yingxian County, Shanxi, seven of them also have frontispiece paintings.Linfen, Shanxi Province in the Jin Dynasty, also known as Pingyang or Pingshui, was a book engraving center.In the twenty-sixth year of Dading (AD 1186), five volumes of "Bronze Human Acupoints [shu Shu] Blood Acupuncture and Moxibustion Illustrated Classics" were engraved by Shuxuan Chen.The 15 volumes of "New Book of Geography Corrected by New Magazine" printed in Pingyang area in the third year of Mingchang (AD 1193).In the fourth year of Taihe (1204 A.D.), there were 30 volumes of "Jingshi Zhenglei Daguan Materia Medica" engraved by Zhang Huimingxuan.In the second year of Zhenyou (1214 A.D.), the 31 volumes of "Compendium of Materia Medica" printed by Sun Xia's Book Shop in Fuchang, Songzhou.These books are accompanied by beautifully illustrated prints, showing that the art of prints in the Jin Dynasty, like the Song Dynasty, was also advancing.

It is particularly worth mentioning that the expedition team led by Kozlov organized by the Russian Geographical Society went to the ruins of the old Xixia capital in Heishui, Ningxia, and unearthed the picture of "Sweet and Slim with the Dynasty and Presenting the Beauty of the Country", which is a Jin Dynasty A single poster engraved in the Pingshui area.This print, also known as "Four Beauties", depicts four famous beauties in the history of our country.One is Zhao Feiyan, a female official in the palace of Emperor Cheng of the Han Dynasty, who later became a queen, with a light body and good at singing and dancing; the other is Wang Zhaojun, who went out to marry with a pipa; "Ban Zhao wrote it; one was Shi Chong's concubine Luzhu in the Jin Dynasty.The composition of the picture is full of changes, and the characters are vivid and natural.Zhao Feiyan and Luzhu are in the front, Wang Zhaojun and Ban Ji are behind.Lu Zhu faced left and the other three faced right.But the dresses are all slanted to the left.As a result, the eyes of the picture are not only concentrated, but also seem to be walking slowly in the breeze.Therefore, there is stillness in the picture, and there is movement in the stillness. The combination of movement and stillness, vividly on the paper, has an effect that is ready to come out.Behind the characters are arranged jade steps, carved railings, peonies, rockery, and finely painted lace, decorated with Luanfeng, so the picture shows the solemnity of the noble lady living in the palace, but the atmosphere of desolation.The line engraving is exquisite and subtle, and the ink application is harmonious and natural. It is an epoch-making masterpiece in Chinese woodcut prints.

The book engraving business in the Yuan Dynasty was also very developed, and there were many masterpieces in illustrations and prints.For example, "Shi Lin Guang Ji" with rich illustrations, "Five Kinds of Yu Shi's Pinghua" in the picture above and below, the larger volume of "Quan Xiang Cheng Zhai Xiao Jing Straight Explanation", the elaborate "Bo Gu Tu", and the exquisite and unique "Portrait "Sou Shen Qian Qian Ji Ji" and "Bamboo Spectrum Detailed Record", etc., are extremely exquisite in painting and engraving, which can be called the representative works of Yuan Dynasty prints.In particular, the 42 volumes of "Shi Lin Guang Ji" engraved by Jian'an Chunzhuan Academy are not only exquisite in book quality, but also extremely rich in illustrations.Among them is a picture of two noblemen sitting opposite each other, playing a Shuanglu game.There are two people standing behind the bed, one holding a baton and the other holding a helmet.There are a few tables next to it, on which are tea, wine, cups and chopsticks.Behind the characters, a screen is used as the backdrop, and peonies and peacocks are painted on the screen.A black hound is turning out from behind the screen.There is also a picture of two noble officials, sitting on the left and right, and the waiter kneels down to offer wine and fruit.There is a band behind the bed, plucking strings and playing.On the left and right sides of the bed stand a black and white hunting dog.These two illustrations and prints depict the life scenes of Mongolian dignitaries.The engraving knife technique is vigorous and unsophisticated, and the black and white printing contrasts sharply.The facial expressions, clothing and furnishings of the characters are also arranged reasonably, and hunting dogs appear on the screen, which reflects the nomadic life habits of the Mongolian people, and also expresses the life style of the Mongolian nobles, representing the upper class of the Mongolian people at that time. The face of life.

The illustrations and prints of engraved books in the Ming Dynasty, from form to content, from quality to quantity, from painting to engraving, were perfected and reached the golden age.The prints of the early Ming Dynasty showed a common feature, which is natural and unrestrained.The reason is that most of the engravers and painters are likely to be performed by one person at this time.In the prints, there are still very obvious traces of using a knife instead of a pen for the characters' eyebrows and creases in the dresses.Especially the incised lines, the signs of engraving by the engraver are still very clear.It is precisely because of this that the prints of the early Ming Dynasty had bold innovations in making use of line drawing, emphasizing intaglio and black-and-white contrast of the layout, which made the printmaking art take a new step. After the middle of the Ming Dynasty, along with the germination of capitalism, the urban residents increased dramatically.To meet the needs of the spiritual and cultural life of urban residents, operas and novels emerge in endlessly.In order to make these operas and novels more visual, according to the characters, scenes and plots in operas and novels, the illustrations drawn and printed are becoming more and more colorful.Especially after Jiajing and Longqing, operas and novels with rich illustrations and prints not only increased in quantity, but also greatly improved in quality and artistic level.There are more than 3,800 prints of the Ming Dynasty collected in the five collections of "Guben Xiqu Series". After Wanli, printmaking began to develop by leaps and bounds, and created a new direction and new path.In Beijing, Jinling (now Nanjing, Jiangsu), Huizhou (now Shexian, Anhui), Hangzhou, Jian'an (now Jian'an, Fujian) and other places, on the one hand, engraved books and engraved prints are blooming, and on the other hand, engraved books in the same area The styles of harmony and printmaking are gradually becoming the same.As a result, different schools divided by regions were formed, such as Jinling School, Huizhou School, and Jian'an School.When the Huang family appeared in Qiuqiu Village, Huizhou, and the Hui School came into being, they changed from the drastic and crude knife techniques of the past, and formed a graceful and slender style from the loose and sparse composition.For example, the illustrations of "Xianyuan Jishi" published by Huang Yulin, "Yuefu Xianchun" published by Huang Yingguang, and "Water Margin Leaves" published by Huang Zhaochu later, and "Bogu Leaves" published by Huang Jianzhong, etc., are all lifelike with unique composition methods. The vivid characters, ingeniously coordinated scenes and scenery, elegant and smooth knife skills, well-proportioned ink color, sharp contrast and natural light and dark printing work have pushed the art of printmaking to a peak. On the basis of the highly developed art of this kind of printmaking, overprinting technology has also entered this field.For example, "Cheng's Ink Garden" printed in color by Cheng Yue is an early version of multi-color overprinted works.In the time of Tianqi and Chongzhen, Hu Zhengyan, a scholar in the Wuying Temple, who was versatile at that time, and Wu Faxiang, who was ingenious and ingenious, further created the techniques of "饾〔dou bean〕ban" and "arched flowers", which were used for woodblock printing, especially the art of printmaking. , opened up a vast new world.The so-called "printing" is to trace the colored drawings in different colors, carve a small wooden board for each color, and then overprint or overprint in turn to form a complete color print.In such works, the shades of colors and the yin and yang are almost the same as the original works.The woodblock watermark of Rongbaozhai in Beijing has inherited and developed this technique.For example, "Han Xizai's Night Banquet Picture" printed by Rongbaozhai is said to have more than 1,000 picture plates of different sizes.The so-called "arched flower" is to use concave and convex two plates to make the paper arch the feathers of birds, the mountains and rivers of nature, the clouds in the sky, the flowing water on the ground, the railings in the courtyard, and the indoor patterns, etc. The three-dimensional effect makes people look more real and natural.The characteristic of this technique is to make the printing paper arch the pattern, so it is called arch flower.Combining these two techniques together is called 饾ban Gonghua.The famous "Shizhuzhai Jianpu", "Huapu" and "Luoxuan Biangujian" are unique in the history of Chinese printmaking with ancient gorgeous colors, bright and smooth knife techniques, and exquisite and natural overprinting techniques. Set up a banner to guide the development of printmaking art to a new realm. Another new characteristic of the printmaking art in this period is that the famous contemporary painters and the famous engravers at that time could cooperate with each other and cooperate closely.For example, when painting, painters adjusted their line drawing in consideration of the characteristics of prints, and carvers also paid attention to retaining the painter's style and techniques when engraving. As a result, a number of immortal prints were produced in the late Ming Dynasty.For example, "Gu's Painting Book" records the rich and varied painting techniques and creative styles of Gu Kaizhi from the Jin Dynasty to Sun Kehong, Wang Tingce and others in the Ming Dynasty.The "Yajizhai Painting Manual" compiled by Huang Fengchi in Xin'an provides painting methods and techniques in various aspects such as landscapes, flowers and birds. "Poems and Paintings" was written by famous Huizhou craftsmen, with each picture and word forming an interesting contrast.The "Nine Songs Picture" and "Mandarin Duck Tomb" painted by the famous painter Chen Laolian added infinite brilliance to the prints of the late Ming Dynasty. Most of the official prints engraved in the Hall of Martial Arts in the Qing Dynasty reflected the politics of the early Qing Dynasty.For example, the five sense organs of the Qin Tianjian were hand-painted by Jiao Bingzhen, the "Poetry of Farming and Weaving" engraved by Zhu Guifu of the Honglu Temple, and the "Picture of Longevity and Prosperity" created by Wang Hui [huihui], Song Junye, Leng Mei, Wang Yuanqi, etc., and the governor of Liangjiang during the Qianlong period "The Picture of the Grand Ceremony of the Southern Tour" compiled by Gao Jin, the Prime Minister and Minister of River Defense, as well as "The Picture of the Longevity Ceremony in the Eighties", "The Poetry Picture of the Old Summer Palace", "The Poetry Picture of the Summer Resort", "The Picture of the Ritual Vessels of the Dynasty", "The Royal Qing Duty Tribute Picture" ", "Cotton Picture", Qianlong's "Sixteen Battle Merits Picture" drawn by Western Castiglione, etc., all reflect the reality of political life in the early Qing Dynasty from different aspects.In particular, some painters dedicated to the inner court during this period were deeply influenced by Western painting methods. In terms of realism and composition, they combined with the traditional painting methods of the Chinese nation to create many good works with realistic images, scientific perspectives, and clear layouts. .This is the difference between official prints in the early Qing Dynasty and traditional prints. In the early Qing Dynasty, folk prints continued to develop on the basis of the development of prints in the late Ming Dynasty.For example, in the second year of Shunzhi (1645 A.D.), the great painter Xiao Yuncong's "Li Sao Tu" and "Taiping Landscape Map" in the fifth year of Shunzhi (1648 A.D.) not only inherited the excellent tradition of the previous generation in terms of character expression. Techniques have created a new style in the display and layout, showing a unique style. Here is a particularly worth mentioning masterpiece of art, which is "Mustard Seed Garden Painting Biography".It is a kind of picture book that is loved by the general public after the "Shizhuzhai Painting Book", "Jianpu" and "Luoxuan Biangujian" in the late Ming Dynasty. "Mustard Seed Garden Painting Biography" was compiled and carved under the guidance of Li Yu and Li Liweng.Li Yusheng was born in Qiantang, Zhejiang in the last years of Wanli.After the fall of the Ming Dynasty in the middle age, he traveled around the world as a survivor of the late Ming Dynasty when he entered the Qing Dynasty, and developed a heroic and unrestrained character.In his later years, he settled in Nanjing and built a separate business with a hill on the ground, so it was named after mustard seeds. "Mustard Seed Garden Painting Biography" is divided into three episodes, which are very popular and far-reaching. At the same time as the development of official and private prints in the early Qing Dynasty, illustration prints also developed in a unique style in opera novels.For example, in the Kangxi period, there are hundreds of illustrations.Others such as "Romance of Eastern and Western Han Dynasty", "Biography of East and West Jin Dynasty", "Journey to the West", "Comment on Popular Romance of Tang Shuzhi", "Yu Jiaoli", "Ping Yao Zhuan", "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", " "Water Margin of Loyalty", and "Qin Louyue", "Tianma Media" in operas, etc., there are many different illustrations and prints with high artistic level. Generally speaking, the illustrations and prints in ancient Chinese books, which are rich in content, diverse in form, different in painting methods, well carved and beautifully printed, are a precious spiritual wealth and cultural heritage left by our Chinese nation, which shows that the Chinese nation In the art of book binding, the design of illustrations has long been noticed, and this artistic idea has been continuously carried forward, making ancient Chinese books, especially those with exquisite illustrations, appear more colorful.