"Hanlin Zhong Kui" is a kind of literati transformation in the folk age, such a creation enables the literati to achieve proper harmony with the world in the rotation of the year, and can also have a unique Qing Ya poetry.
Since ancient times, people's expectations for Zhong Kui have developed from the practical needs of ghost hunting and furuncle removal in the early days to the spiritual needs of auspicious blessings and transcendent independence. This also seems to indicate that with the development of the times, people's helplessness and panic in the face of the unknown will eventually pass, and through the baptism of age and culture, the echo of auspiciousness and poetry will be long-lasting.
Zhong Kui's anti-epidemic and anti-evil story
According to research, the earliest works related to Zhong Kui can be traced back to the "final sunflower" mentioned in the Zhou Li and the Book of Rites. "Zhou Li Kao Gong Ji Yu Ren": "Da Gui is three feet long, on the pole, the final sunflower head, and the son of heaven serves it." Note: "Final Aoi, vertebrae also." For the vertebrae on its stalks, Ming has no bending. "Southern Song Dynasty Lin Xiyi (1193-1271) drew the form of "final sunflower" in the "Notes of the Examiners" (Figure 1), which is a kind of large gui with a raised front end. Whenever the imperial court held the "Great Gong" ceremony, the Son of Heaven would wear such a Great Gui as a magic weapon to drive away evil spirits.
Figure 1 Southern Song Dynasty, written by Lin Xiyi: "Notes on the Examination Workers" Volume 2, Jingyin Wenyuange Siku Quanshu, vol. 95, p. 55.
By the time of the Wei and Jin Dynasties, Zhong Kui had become an image of killing ghosts. However, the story of Zhong Kui was gradually formed with the development of the times, and the main plot was to eliminate the epidemic. In the Dunhuang writing volumes of the Tang Dynasty, such as the Chinese New Year's Eve Zhong Kui Driving Wu Wen (S.2055), there is an entry of the Night Bell Kui Xing Yi. Shen Kuo of the Northern Song Dynasty recorded in the "Mengxi Pen Talk and Supplementary Pen Talk" that Emperor Tang Ming was infected with the epidemic for more than a month, and after being cured after Zhong Kui caught ghosts in his dream, he ordered Wu Daozi to paint a portrait of Zhong Kui. Most of the legends of Zhong Kui recorded in later generations are also similar to this, so it can be seen that the story of Zhong Kui killing ghosts or exorcisms is a means of curing plague in the understanding of the ancients.
It is generally believed that after the Middle Tang Dynasty, painting bells became an important part of activities during the New Year. For example, Zhang said that the "Table of Thanksgiving zhong kui and the calendar day table" and "The calendar table of the calendar for Du Xianggong" all mention that on the occasion of the New Year, the imperial court gave the statue of zhong kui to remove the epidemic, and the calendar day table to boost the morale of the new year, that is, "Write the divine might, drive out the crowd, promulgate the legal calendar, and honor the four hours." When winter comes and spring comes, it is when the disease is easy to spread, and Zhong Kui has become a special image to dispel the epidemic. Mr. Shi Shouqian, in "The Anxiety of Elegance: Wen Zhengming, Zhong Kui and Mass Culture", believes that the Wu Daozi style of Zhong Kui had many influences on later generations and continued until the thirteenth century. For example, in the volume of the "Yizhou Famous Paintings", Later Shu in the late winter of each year, Hanlin attacked the painting of ghosts and gods, for example, into the "Zhong Kui".
From the fifth generation onwards, the theme of "Zhong Kui marrying a sister" was quoted into the painting. Meng Yuanlao (unknown - 1147) wrote the "Tokyo Dream Record" volume 10 "Chinese New Year's Eve", until the prohibition of the day, it presented a large ceremony, containing bells, little sisters, land, vesta gods, etc., a total of more than a thousand people. In the sixth volume of wu zimu's "Record of Dream Liang" of the Southern Song Dynasty, it is mentioned that in the middle of the first month, in the street market, three or five people in a team, pretending to be a god, a judge, a bell, a little sister, etc., beat gongs and drums, and beg for money along the door, which is commonly known as "playing night hu", and also drives away the righteousness. According to the Xuanhe Pictorial Notation, both the Southern Tang Zhou Wenjue (active in 917-975) and the Later Shu Shi Ke (mid-tenth century) have painted the "Little Sister of the Zhong Kui Clan". Li Gonglin (1049-1106) of the Northern Song Dynasty, Su Hanchen of the Southern Song Dynasty (12th century) and Wang Zhenpeng of the Yuan Dynasty (the first half of the 14th century) also have "Zhong Kui Marrying Sister" (Figure 2), and the Metropolitan Museum of Art also has a volume of "Zhong Kui Marrying Sister" under Yan Geng's name. "Marrying sister" or a homonym of "marrying charm", "marrying" in addition to the meaning of "marrying", there is also the meaning of "transfer", so "Zhong Kui marrying charm" as anthropologist Fraser said in the "Golden Branch", is a kind of "homeopathic sorcery", which was established by the ancients according to the association of "similarity". Among human voodoo around the world to prevent illness, "diversion" is commonly used as "homeopathic sorcery.".
Figure 2 Yuan Dynasty, Wang Zhenpeng, "Zhong Kui Married Sister", National Palace Museum, Taipei.
Another variation of Zhong Kui's portrait is the popular "Zhong Kui Travel" figure in the Song and Yuan dynasties. For example, Cleveland's Yan Hui's "Zhong Kui Travel" hand scroll, the Southern Song Dynasty late Gong Kai (1222-1307) "Zhongshan Travel Map" are similar pictures. The little devils generally hold musical instruments, jugglers, luggage, furniture, etc., and Shi Shouqian believes that it is a change from the "big puppet instrument" that removes the old and welcomes the new. Judging from the picture, it belongs to the same type of image as "Zhong Kui's sister". Because there is a queue of honor guards for marriage, it has also derived such as Gong Kai's "Zhong Jushi Migration Map" collected by the National Palace in Taipei.
Figure 3 Yuan Dynasty, Yan Hui, "Zhong Kui Moon Night Travel", ink on silk, long scroll, 24.8x240.3cm, Collection of cleveland Art Museum.
It can be seen from the relevant records of the two Song Dynasties that in addition to the ceremony of dressing up Zhong Kui from the end of the year to the new year, Zhong Kui also appears in the image. There were picture screens of Zhong Kui in the court, and a large number of zhong kui statues were sold on the city streets. For example, the "Tokyo Dream Record" volume 10 "December" contains: "Near the end of the night, the city is printed selling door gods, bells, peach plates, peach charms..." The Southern Song Dynasty Zhou Mi (1232-1298/1308) "Wulin Old Things" Volume 3 "Years Removed": "The temple division enters the screen, and the outside paintings of bells and ghosts are captured." Book VI of the Book of Dreams and Liangs, "Except for the Night", it is written: "Except for the night, the Shishu family, no matter how big or small, sprinkles sweeping the door, removing the dust, purifying the court household, changing the door god, hanging bells, nailing peach charms, pasting the Spring League, and sacrificing the ancestors." At this time, the Tang Dynasty imperial court's painting of Zhong Kui has been promoted as a new activity at the end of the year.
The image of Zhong Kui in the ceremony entered the act at the same time. In the sixth volume of the "Dream Liang Record", "Except for the Night", the forbidden Da Yi yi, Shu Jiao Le plays the image of Zhong Kui and other gods. In volume 10 of the "Wulin Past Events", "The Number of Official Miscellaneous Drama Segments", a copy of "Zhong Kui" is no longer seen, but in the Chuan Su Hanchen "Wu Rui Tu" (Figure 4) that was examined by the scholar Li Jiaduan as "Wuhua Cuan", "Cuan" is a performance with exaggerated movements, and "Zhong Kui" may have developed from "Jumping Zhong Kui". In addition, another Zhong Kui painting theme developed is the puppet play, especially for children's games. For example, the National Palace Museum in Taipei has collected the "Baby Drama Map" of the Song Dynasty, the Chuanyuan people's "Baby Picture of Xia Jing Drama", and the Qing Dynasty painter Chen Zi's "Baby Play Puppet" are the titles of this category.
The image of the ink makeup in Gong Kai's "Zhong Kui's Travels" (Fig. 5), which is hidden in the Friar Art Museum, may come from the fusion of the makeup of the shaman and the miscellaneous actor of The Freel Museum. In the article "Zhong Kui and His Sister", Ni Ye and Yuan Xu cited Meng Jiao's "String Song Line": "Driving away the flute and blowing the flute, the thin ghost stains his face with white teeth." This kind of inky makeup also appears on or is painted by Ming Ren in the lower right corner of the "Five Rui Tu" a figure shaped like Zhong Kui's figure. During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, the "Fengxian County Chronicle" records that on the first day of the first month of the month of La, "the beggars began to be puppets and men fu powder ink makeup for Zhong Kui, the king of the stove, holding a pole and a sword, looking at the door to sing and dance to beg, but also the will of the beggar." It is worth noting that The ink makeup of Zhong Kui is different from that of Zhong Kui, and on closer inspection, there are similarities with the face makeup in the "Recoil Portrait of Song Zhenzong" (Figure 7), where the powder is brightened at the bridge of the forehead and nose, and the ochre-colored rouge on the cheeks becomes ink, as does the neck. The cat woman and the hammerhead woman are also dressed up, considering the image that may be exaggerated in the female makeup. The metropolitan collection of Yan Geng's "Zhong Kui Marrying Sister" volume (Figure 6), followed by Wu Kuan's inscription, has a sentence cloud: "The old man is drunk and fighting, and the aunt's new makeup face is like lacquer." However, there is no ink makeup on the face of Zhong Kui's sister in the painting, and some of the images in the painting are very close to the "Zhong Kui Moon Night Travel Map", which should come from the same system, and the height of Wu Kuanba's paper is inconsistent with this one, and the character line drawing has a nail-headed rattail visual sense, but it can also be seen that there may be ink makeup in the original.
Figure 4 Northern Song Dynasty, Su Hanchen, Wurui Tu, silk color, axis, 165.5x102.5cm, National Palace Museum, Taipei.
Figure 5 Southern Song Dynasty, Gong Kai, "Zhongshan Travel Map", ink and pencil on paper, long volume, 32.8x169.5cm, Collection of the Friar Museum of Art.
Figure 6 Southern Song Dynasty/Yuan Dynasty, Yan Geng, "Zhong Kui's Marrying Sister" (partial), ink pen on silk, long volume, 24.4 x 253.4 cm, metropolitan museum of art.
Figure 7 Song Ren, "Seated Portrait of Emperor Zhenzong of Song" (partial), color on silk, axis, 177x120.8cm, National Palace Museum, Taipei.
By the Ming Dynasty Wanli Period (1573-1620), there was a miscellaneous drama "Qingfeng Nian Five Ghosts Alarm Clock Kui", which was judged from the fourth fold of the singing section "When the New Year is the Scenery of the New Year, thousands of countries celebrate wanfangwa", which is a drama of the late Ming Court And the Seasons of the Dynasty. Written in the "Ming Xian Zong Lantern Xingle Diagram" (Figure 7) in the 21st year of Chenghua (1485), there are bearers and bands in the "walking procession", as well as zhong kui and small ghosts in the queue, interestingly, in front of the bell kui, there are actors dressed in official clothes holding a small screen like a bell kui, which is an illustration of the New Year's bell ceremony, and the synchronization of the ceremony and the image can also be seen. A volume of Yin Shan's "Five Ghosts Haunting Judgment" was unearthed from the tomb of Wang Zhen (1424-1495) in Huai'an, Jiangsu Province, which is also a simplified puppet play. It is worth noting that by the late Ming Dynasty, the public zhong kui ceremony seemed to have declined, replaced by hanging images of zhong kui. For example, Xie Zhaochun (1567-1624) "Five Miscellaneous Tricks" Volume II said of the customs at the end of the year: "The ancients were the most important to drive away the epidemic." Along the Han to the Tang, the palace is forbidden to do it, and the child is protected to more than a thousand people. ...... Nowadays, there is no such drama in the folk, but the bell is painted and the firecracker ear is burned. Scholar Huang Xiaofeng once held up a "Picture of the Exorcism of the Cottage" (Figure 8) collected by the Friar Art Museum, painting the frontal portrait of an old man and a young man in the middle of the winter village, surrounded by onlookers, and even a woman blindfolded, showing the power of Zhong Kui in the image.
Figure 7 Ming Ren, "Ming Xianzong Lantern Xingle Tu" (partial), 1485, silk color, long volume, 36.7x960cm, National Museum of China collection.
Figure 8 Transmission of the Song Dynasty, "The Picture of the Exorcism of evil spirits in the cottage", color on silk, axis, 190.8x104.1cm, collection of the Friar Art Museum.
It is worth noting that since the image of Zhong Kui has the meaning of dispelling the epidemic and welcoming the new, and is widely popular in the folk, the phenomenon of mass production has appeared in some records. The Song Dynasty court gave the map in the form of engraving and printing, and the Mengxi Pen Talk and Supplementary Pen Talk said: "In the fifth year of Xi Ning, the painter copied the engraving board and printed one copy for each of the auxiliary ministers of the two provinces." It was the night of the new year, and Liang Kai, who was sent in to worship the official Liang Kai, gave the elephant of Zhong Kui to the Eastern and Western Provinces. Ye Mengde's "Shi Lin Yan Language": "In the forbidden period of the Divine Sect, Wu Daozi suddenly painted the image of Zhong Kui, because he made the engraving version to give the Second House." "Tokyo Dream Record" volume 10 "December" contains: "In recent years, the city has printed and sold door gods and bells..." Folk may be painted by painters in large quantities. For example, in the Qing Dynasty, from the Palace Museum's Zhang Feng (unknown - 1662) "Zhong Kui Axis" (Figure 9), there is a paragraph: "Ethyl unitary years apart, dreaming of making this picture of the green robe and hat, in terms of disgust and cutting teeth, is it still possible to do a hundred?" Yu Yisheng should know: Although tens of billions of can also be. Then he was shocked and embarrassed, and his meaning was hidden, if he seemed to hate Fu Lai late, Ji Xing Gao Zhao Yun'er. Ji Hai (1659) wrote the 122nd book by Zhang Fengjing. In the picture, a pen and ink bell, dressed in official clothes, a black hat, soap boots, holding a sword, looking up at a bat. Bat is homophonous with "Fu", that is, it has the meaning of New Year's prayer, and the sword is to remove the curse, which can also be seen that Zhong Kui's painting was made in large quantities in the New Year.
Figure 9 Ming Dynasty, Zhang Feng, "Zhong Kui Axis", size and other unknown, Beijing Palace Museum collection.
A similar image of the ink pen Zhong Kui, which may have been popular for a while, also appeared in the "Good View of Heaven" (Figure 10) of the Chuanyuan people hidden in the National Palace Museum in Taipei. "West Lake Tour Zhiyu" volume 20 Yun: "The Dragon Boat Festival is the Middle Of heaven festival." "In the picture, there are also durian flowers, hollyhocks, and at the top of the picture, juxtaposed with the statue of Zhong Kui, are four Taoist spirit runes, which are used to exorcise ghosts, which corresponds to the legend of Zhong Kui killing ghosts, in order to ward off the plague. The Third Book of Dreams reads: "Five-colored plague paper, when the door is offered." The Chronicle of the Ages also mentions the Dragon Boat Festival: "Make a red spirit rune and paint the image of the Celestial Master." In the Qing Dynasty, Fucha Dunchong wrote in the "Records of the Yanjing Dynasty": "Every time in Duanyang, the city is covered with a scale of yellow paper to seal it, or paint the image of the Celestial Master Zhong Kui, or paint the shape of the Five Poisons Charm, and sell it." People rush to buy, sticking to the door to avoid evil. "Therefore, the statue of Zhong Kui is used as a Dragon Boat Festival, and the main reason is also to dispel the epidemic." The drawing is integrated into Western painting methods, which should be a continuation of the painting style of Lang Shining (1688-1766) in the Qing Dynasty. In addition, the image of Zhong Kui in the painting is similar to Zhang Feng's work, all painted with ink pens, Zhong Kui holding a sword, wearing an official uniform, and a bat. Whether similar zhong kui images are mass-produced and used for the display of the New Year and the Dragon Boat Festival, is a question worth pondering.
Figure 10 Chuanyuanren, "A Good View of Heaven", Axis, Color on Silk, 108.2x63.5cm, National Palace Museum, Taipei.
Poetic bell in the eyes of the literati
In the field of literati painting, the new year's expectation of zhong kui blessings is derived from the painting title of "Hanlin Zhong Kui". In terms of aesthetic taste, "Hanlin Zhong Kui" has the ancient meaning of five generations of "Hanlin Tu", and also has the unique humorous meaning of literati painting. The "Zhong Kui Travel" series is mostly the background of no seasonal elements. By the time of the Ming and Qing dynasties, the statue of Zhong Kui was used for both the New Year and the Dragon Boat Festival, and the role of the scenery was even more important, and the Zhong Kui began to be placed between the mountains and rivers in the image.
Judging from the literature, the Eleventh Volume of the Xuanhe Pictorial Notation contains that Dong Yuan of the Fifth Dynasty once wrote the "Hanlin Zhong Kui Tu" and the "Xuepi Zhong Kui Tu", but there is no physical circulation. The scholar Lu Sufen once studied Wen Zhengming's (1470-1559) "Hanlin Zhong Kui Tu" (Figure 11). She noticed that the "Qinghe Calligraphy and Painting Boat" once contained Wen Zhengming's collection of Li Cheng's "Hanlin Tu", and the National Palace Museum in Taipei also contained Ming Cheng's (1487-1567) "Imitation of Li Chenghan Lin Pingye Tuwen Zhengming Long Song Volume". Xie Shichen once asked Wen Zhengming for an inscription in 1534 with a piece of Li Cheng's "Hanlin Tu", but this work was unfortunately destroyed after it was returned to Xie Shichen. In order to make up for this deficiency, Xie Shichen, eleven years after obtaining this trek, assigned a "Cold Forest Pingye Map" to Wen Zhengming's long title, and framed the calligraphy and painting into one volume.
Wen Zhengming wrote in the inscription for the "Hanlin Tu" in 1536: "Xie Sizhong wrote on this paper for two years, and today he has a little time to record this poem. According to Lu Sufen's investigation, after the painting was retained, Wen Zhengming created many paintings related to cold forests and snow scenes, including the "Imitation of Li Chenghanlin" (Figure 12) collected by the British Museum, the "Hanlin Zhong Kui Tu" (1542) collected by the National Palace Museum in Taipei, and the "Empty Forest Seeking Sentence Diagram" (1545) (Figure 14) also has this style of painting. This grasp of the sense of space enabled Wen Zhengming, when he was eighty years old, to paint the leafy, intricate trees and form an old and spicy and strong personal style when he created the Ancient Wood Cold Spring Diagram (1549) (Figure 15), which was much stronger than the light and elegant visual sense of the generally considered literary school, such as "Jiangnan Spring Map" (1547) (Figure 16). Judging from the picture, the many cold forest scenes painted by "Cold Forest Bell Kui" and Wen Zhengming have two main characteristics. The first is the sense of space that is deep and deep, the trees are all trees, and the leafless antler branches are staggered, which hints at a profound three-dimensional space in the picture, which is completely different from the two banks of a river commonly seen in the literati paintings of the Yuan Dynasty. The second is that clouds that hint at space often appear in the long-range, further extending the depth of space. Scholars point out that this is the same as the painting method of Li Cheng's "Hanlin Tu" (Figure 13) hidden in the National Palace museum in Taipei. In addition, because of the "Hanlin Zhong Kui Tu", the style is: "Han Lin Zhong Kui, Jia Wu Chinese New Year's Eve drama." Lu Sufen mentioned Professor Lin Baiting's point of view in the article, believing that Jia Wunian was the ten years after Wen Zhengming returned from Beijing, and the sigh of life expressed after being snubbed and excluded from the Hanlin Academy, "Hanlin" and "Hanlin" are homophonous. However, although Zhong Kui in the painting is dressed in white and has a revealing chest, he does not look down, but instead shows a gentle smile and holds a wat board in his left arm. It is not so much to express the inner unevenness, but rather to leave the earthly world and send love to the transcendent spirit of the landscape. It is worth noting that Wu Men's "cold forest" does not have the sense of depression in the early Song painters. Although some of them also use the crab claw painting method, they are more likely to paint antlers to form a new look, which is either due to the difference in the region and the different feelings of the natural landscape, or the continuation of the style in regional aesthetics and creation.
Figure 11 Ming Dynasty, Wen Zhengming, Hanlin Zhong Kui, 1535, shaft, light color on paper, 69.6x42.5cm, National Palace Museum, Taipei.
Figure 12 Ming Dynasty, Wen Zhengming, Imitation of Li Chenghanlin, 1542, shaft, ink and pencil on paper, 90x31cm, Collection of the British Museum.
Figure 13 Northern Song Dynasty, Li Cheng, "Hanlin Tu", axis, ink pen on silk, 180x104cm, National Palace Museum, Taipei.
Figure 14 Ming Dynasty, Wen Zhengming, "Empty Forest Seeking Sentence Diagram", 1545, shaft, ink and pencil on paper, 81.2x27cm, National Palace Museum, Taipei.
Figure 15 Ming Dynasty, Wen Zhengming, "Ancient Wood Hanquan Diagram", 1549, axis, silk color, 194.1x59.3cm, National Palace Museum, Taipei.
Figure 16 Ming Dynasty, Wen Zhengming, Jiangnan Tu, 1547, shaft, light color on paper, 106x30cm, National Palace Museum, Taipei.
For Wen Zhengming's "Hanlin Zhong Kui", Shi Shouqian put forward a very insightful point of view, believing that this actually has an element of poetic painting. He cites a poem by Ling Yunhan (active around 1372) in the early Ming Dynasty, "Zhong Kui Painting", which contains a sentence: "Holding the book of God full of paper, if you know the new year of Sil, a bamboo firecracker will be exhausted, and tomorrow will be more than 10,000 miles in the spring." In poetry, Zhong Kui breaks away from the image of ghost hunting and rituals, and is more embodied in the image of a blessed scribe. This poem appeared in Wen Zhengming's son Wen Jia's 1548 "Hanlin Zhong Kui Tu" after minor changes, and Zhong Kui was also embodied in the image of the "Han Lin Gaoshi" familiar to the literati. At the same time, Shi Shouqian mentioned that compared with the large-scale 189.7 cm in length and 120.2 cm in width in the "Zhong Kui Night Tour" collected by the Palace Museum in Beijing, Wen Zhengming's "Hanlin Zhong Kui" is only 69.6 cm in length and 42.5 cm in width, such a small size is suitable for the elegant play in the literati study.
In other words, "Hanlin Zhongkui" is a kind of literati transformation in the folk age, such a creation enables the literati to achieve proper harmony with the world in the rotation of the age, and to have a unique qingya poetry. This theme was handed down in Wumen. The National Palace Museum in Taipei has a collection of QianYi(1508-unknown) painting Zhong Kui (Fig. 17), which is also one of the titles of the "Hanlin Zhong Kui". In addition, Qian Hub's "Noonday Zhong Kui" is actually a variant of "Hanlin Zhong Kui", and the plum blossom held by the little devil hints at the season of Chinese New Year's Eve and Yuan Day, corresponding to the Qing Dynasty Jin Tingbiao's "Zhong Kui Exploring Plums". Shi Shouqian also cites Li Shida's "Hanlin Zhong Kui" (Figure 18) in the Osaka Municipal Museum of Art, which the author believes is the same as Li Shida's identity, showing the integration of literati painters and professional painters. He not only implicitly adopts the literati's "Cold Forest" painting title, but also makes the little ghost protrude from the treetops, and the image of Zhong Kui is not a scribe, but with a witty and exaggerated drama, compared with Wen Zhengming and Qian Hub's "Cold Forest Zhong Kui", Li Shida's Zhong Kui occupies a considerable proportion of the picture. More notably, Li Shida's payment is "Wanli Xinhai (1611) Autumn Writing, Li Shida". The word "write" also conveys the style of the literati to a certain extent. The Shanghai Museum has Fei Danxu's (1802-1850) "Zhong Kui Tu" (Figure 19), which reads: "The Hanlin Zhong Kui Tu of the Pseudo-Wen Shui Dao People", which can be seen in Wen Zhengming's "Han Lin Zhong Kui Tu", which was inherited by Wen Jia and passed down to the Qing Dynasty. It is worth noting that the "Cold Forest" scene that Wen Zhengming focuses on in "Cold Forest Bell Kui" has gradually simplified under the pen of later generations, becoming a symbolic combination of several trees, or parts of trees, losing a profound and confused sense of space. It can be seen from Qian Hub's "Painting Zhong Kui" that the cold forest behind Zhong Kui has been simplified to four trees, distributed into one front, two middle, and two backs, enclosing a simple depth space, but has simplified the yanlan. In Li Shida's paintings, this simplification is more obviously expressed, and it is also a reference for identifying the era of "Hanlin Zhong Kui". In the late Ming Dynasty, Li Shida, Sheng Maoye and other painters were influenced by the Wumen School and were believed to have a clear outline of the smoke forest, so the "Hanlin Zhong Kui" (Figure 20) attributed to Chen Lin in the Yuan Dynasty may be the descendants of Wumen, or from the hands of more advanced literati professional painters.
It can be seen that the seasonal objects behind Zhong Kui, such as the painting of "Cold Forest", is an emphasis on the age, and it is also a change that occurs after Zhong Kui's image enters the perspective of the literati. Zhong Kui is placed between the landscapes and rivers, reminiscent of "Gaoshi under the Tree" or "Unloving Landscape", with the poetic and hidden colors of the literati. In the later period, although the cold forest was simplified again, this unique painting theme continued.
Figure 17 Ming Dynasty, Qian Hub, "Painting Zhong Kui", size unknown, national palace museum in Taipei.
Figure 18 Ming Dynasty, Li Shida, "Hanlin Zhong Kui Tu", 1611, ink and pencil on paper, shaft, 124.3x31.7cm, Osaka Municipal Museum of Art Collection.
Figure 19 Qing Fei Danxu "Zhong Kui Tu Axis" Shanghai Museum collection
Figure 20 Yuan Dynasty, Chen Lin, "Hanlin Zhong Kui", shaft, light color on paper, 56.4x28.8cm, National Palace Museum, Taipei.
From the perspective of seasons, the opposite of the title of the "Hanlin Zhong Kui" painting is the "Noon Day Bell Kui" of the descendants. Qing Dynasty Hua Yan (1682-1756) 'Noon Day Bell Kui' (Figure 21), derived from the "Qingfeng Nian Five Ghosts Alarm Clock Kui" repertoire, but the season changed to the Dragon Boat Festival, the picture has willow trees, lotus ponds, durian flowers, hollyhocks, rather than dispelling the epidemic, it is better to say that there is a bit of a "summer map" mood, and wen Zhengming's "Hanlin Zhong Kui" in the humor of the same work. HuaYan sat and reclined under a weeping willow, and there were seasonal fruits and vegetables such as watermelon and pipa on the table, such as wine, wine, chopsticks, and watermelon. In the vase is a combination of peony and durian flowers. There are also flowers in the stream ahead, and two little ghosts grab one of the five poisons, the toad and the snake. One ghost was trying to steal loquat under the table, while the other was drinking wine from the mouth of the pot and amusing through the folding fan, and the pen and ink were used easily. At this point, people's demand for Zhong Kui images, in addition to the factors of folklore, has more light-hearted and witty fun.
Figure 21 Qing Dynasty, Hua Yan, "NoonDay Bell Kui", color on paper, axis, 131.5x63.7cm, National Palace Museum, Taipei.
After entering the field of view of the literati, the meaning of Zhong Kui's early prayer for blessing gradually changed, and various painting titles appeared, such as Gao Qipei's "Finger Painting Zhong Kui" album, Luo Ping's "Zhong Kui Fishing Map", "Ren Er Idle to Drunken Township", Fang Fu's "Smelling Wine and Happy", "Reading under the Plum", Ju Lian's "Zhong Kui Sleepy", Wang Su's "Drunken Viewing of Durian Flowers", "Gentle Township Youwei Husband", etc., sometimes for the literati's leisurely state, sometimes to express the block of the heart. In 1761, Jin Nong of the Qing Dynasty wrote "Drunken Zhong Kui" (Figure 22), in which he wrote in the inscription of the picture: "Tang Wu Daozi painted the Zhong Kui diagram of the Xiangdian Temple, Zhang Wo had the Zhong Kui, the Fifth Dynasty Mou Yuande had the Zhong Kui struck the ghost, Song Shi Ke had the Zhong Kui Little Sister Figure, Sun Zhiwei had the Snow Zhong Kui, and Li Gonglin had the Zhong Kui Married Sister Figure, Liang Kai has Zhong Kui Ce Tou Mei Tu, Ma Hezhi has SongXia Reading Zhong Kui, Yuan Wang Meng has Han Lin Zhong Kui, Ming Qian Hub has Zhong Lao Kui Moving Home, Guo Xue has Zhong Kui Miscellaneous Drama, Chen Hongshou has Zhong Kui New Year's Eve Night Tour, there are no paintings and drunken Bell Kui , to write with Zen gate rice juice and ink sucking pen, not special evil and its drunken appearance can bow, want to see the final Nanjin shi to invite the prosperous world, fortunately Taiping also. In the past, at the end of the year, people painted a small portrait of Zhong Kui to dedicate themselves to the official family, to remove the ominous, and now it is dedicated to the fifth day of May. Another example is the aforementioned "Zhong Kui Fishing Diagram" (Figure 23), there is a sentence in Luo Ping's inscription: "They have all painted their hands to renovate their samples, why not Mr. Not be an angler." "The Zhong Kui in the painting has long lost the image of the ghost-killing, only retaining the official clothes and beard, and even the Zhu clothes have been replaced by green shirts, which is very similar to the composition of the "Snow Night Visiting Dai Tu" (Figure 24) painted by Zhang Wo of the Yuan Dynasty in the Shanghai Museum, and is based on the image of the reclusive literati. It can be seen that after Zhong Kui's paintings entered the literati's field of vision, they have been constantly changing and recreating.
Figure 22 Qing Dynasty, Jin Nong, "Drunken Bell Kui", axis, color on paper, 127× 41.5 cm, National Art Museum of China.
Figure 23 Qing Dynasty, Luo Ping, "Zhong Kui Fishing Chart", "Zhong Kui Hundred Charts", p. 30.
Figure 24 Yuan Dynasty, Zhang Wo, "Snow Night Visiting Dai Tu", axis, ink and pencil on paper, 91.8x39.6cm, Shanghai Museum Collection.
Since ancient times, people's expectations for Zhong Kui have also developed from the practical needs of ghost hunting and exorcision in the early days to the spiritual needs of auspicious prayer and transcendent independence. This also seems to indicate that with the development of the times, people's helplessness and panic in the face of the unknown will eventually pass, and through the baptism of age and culture, the echo of auspiciousness and poetry will be long-lasting.
(The author is a professor at the School of Fine Arts, East China Normal University)