Wu Daozi
△ (Biography) [Tang] Wu Daozi "Sending Sons of heavenly kings" (Song facsimile) ink on paper
Wu Daozi (c. 680 ~759 AD), also known as Daoxuan, a native of Yang zhai (present-day Yuzhou, Henan), was born in the Sheng Tang Dynasty, and was revered as a "painting saint" by successive generations and as an ancestor by folk painters. It is said that because his mother was walking on the road and suddenly gave birth, she named him "Wu Daozi". In the Tang Dynasty texts, Wu Daozi was called Wu Daoxuan, which was given the name of Tang Xuanzong.
In the time of Emperor Zhenzong of Song, Zhao Xuanlang, the ancestor of the Zhao clan, was crowned as the main god of Taoism, and in order to show the highest respect, all the names, titles, and articles in the world needed to avoid the words Xuan and Lang, and when revising the history books of the Tang Dynasty, Wu Daoxuan was changed to Wu Daozi.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="11" > did not succeed in studying books, and changed to painting</h1>
Zhu Jingxuan's description in the "Catalogue of Famous Paintings of the Tang Dynasty" shows Wu Daozi's amazing painting skills: "When Wu Sheng painted the god circle light inside the door of xingshan temple, the old and young people in Chang'an City competed to the scene, and the viewers were blocked. Its round light is swept by the pen, and the momentum is like a whirlwind, and everyone is called a god help. ...... Heavenly nature, young and weak crown, poor Danqing magic. ”
Wu Daozi is a painter who came from halfway. According to the Tang Dynasty Zhang Yanyuan's "Records of Famous Paintings of Past Dynasties", Wu Daozi began to learn calligraphy, once worshiped Zhang Xu and He Zhizhang as teachers, because he could not succeed in learning books, he later worked hard to change to painting, and gradually mastered the magic method of painting.
Wu Daozi pioneered a new school of painting with a unique artistic style. He also used light color in the lines of scorched ink, and the coloring method was called "Wu Dress", and later painters, sculptors, and lacquer painters enshrined him as a grandfather, and he was good at Buddhism, gods, ghosts, figures, landscapes, birds and beasts, grass and trees, pavilions, etc.
The Xuanhe Pictorial Notation, which led the relevant officials to compile the catalogue of famous paintings in the palace, included 231 painters and 6396 works that had emerged since the Wei and Jin dynasties, and each painter was introduced and commented on one by one in the book. When introducing Wu Daozi in the second volume of the Xuanhe Pictorial Spectrum, it is said: "Gu Guan is in front, Zhang is in the back, and Daozi is both", which is the so-called "unprecedented queen". The "Gu" here is Gu Kaizhi; "Zhang" is Zhang Shengxuan; and the "Daozi" is Wu Daozi.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="42" > wonderful religious painting</h1>
△ "Sending Son Heavenly King Diagram" (partial)
Wu Daozi's unique style of religious paintings and figure paintings has always been talked about. His religious paintings bring out the form of religious art to the fullest, bringing a strong secular and human flavor into the religious paintings he paints. The Picture of the Heavenly King of Sending Sons is a facsimile of Wu Daozi copied by a Song Dynasty, now in the Osaka Municipal Museum of Art, Japan.
"Sending Sons to the Heavenly King", also known as "Shakya Birth Diagram", is Wu Daozi's painting according to the Buddhist scripture "Ruiying Benqi Sutra", the picture is grand, the details are tough, the plot is vivid, depicting the gods, from which Wu Daozi's superb skills can be seen.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="43" > no real handwriting but left a name in history</h1>
Wu Daozi's reputation is so high, why don't you see his true deeds? There are three main reasons for this, one is the Anshi Rebellion: Wu Daozi was appreciated by Tang Xuanzong and was summoned to the court, "no painting is allowed unless he is edicted"; and during the Anshi Rebellion, the lives were destroyed, and the royal family's calligraphy and paintings were destroyed and lost countless times; second, wu Daozi's paintings were mostly Buddhist works, and after the Tang Dynasty, some dynasties vigorously suppressed Buddhism, and many works were destroyed; third, because most of his works were made on the walls of the temple palace, and the walls were peeled off and damaged for a long time, and the paintings were destroyed; and there were too many facsimiles, and it was difficult to distinguish between authenticity and falsity. Pseudo-Wu Sheng see three hundred copies".
The paintings of Wu Daozi that we see today are all facsimiles of posterity, but, just like the "Orchid Pavilion Collection", although they are facsimiles, they are already precious.
Even if the original works are lost, through the records of many classics, Wu Daozi is still well known today, and he is a legend in the painting world for hundreds of years. If you want to know more wonderful stories of famous artists, please keep an eye on it.