Most of this painting is a work depicting ghosts and gods, heaven and hell, and karma. The purpose is to infect and educate people through artistic images, so that people can understand what to believe, what to avoid and what to oppose, so as to accept Buddhist teachings and become faithful followers of Buddhism, especially for the oppressed people in the lower classes of society. Among them, a few paintings that reflect the social life at that time, although they also contain the meaning of karma, are based on real life. Intentionally or unintentionally, it exposed all kinds of contradictions in feudal society and the sufferings of the people, and whipped the feudal rulers from the side. Its value is not only far above other Taoist and Buddhist figure paintings, but also has certain cognitive significance today. Although such works are rare, they are the essence of these paintings.
Water-land painting is a kind of religious painting hung in Buddhist temples-Water-land Dojo (also known as Water-land Dharma Society and Water-land Prison Society) when Buddhist ceremonies are held. The amphibious Dojo originated in India. According to Buddhist scriptures, Ananda, a disciple of Sakyamuni, tasted night dreams and hungry ghosts wanted to eat, so Ananda set up an amphibious Dojo to support the hungry ghosts. The earliest land and water Dojo in China was built by Liang Wudi for his concubine Xi in the Southern Dynasties. It is said that all ghosts and gods who have been overtaken by Buddhism can be "exempted from sin" and "ascended to heaven", so it is popular in later generations. With the development of the amphibious Dojo, "amphibious painting" has become a religious painting in China.
The founder of Buddhist painting is said to be Cao Fuxing, a famous painter in the Three Kingdoms period. Later, many famous painters painted murals of various religious villages for temples. For example, Gu Kaizhi, a famous artist in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, was not only good at figure painting. Mountains and rivers, painted religious paintings are also unique in the painting world. There is a well-known story about the Vimalakirti statue he painted for Luoyang Crock Temple. It is said that he tried painting for a month and opened an account for people to enjoy after painting. Vimalakīrti's image is to clear away the tumor and be lofty, "illuminate a temple", and even "the giver bites his throat", which instantly "makes him millions". Five generations. In Song Dynasty, landscape painting prevailed, and figure painting gradually took second place. Taoist and Buddhist figure paintings are undertaken by professional craftsmen engaged in painting and plastic sculpture. These painters are handed down from generation to generation, and at the same time, they interact with contemporary painters and learn from each other. Before Sui and Tang Dynasties, Taoist and Buddhist paintings were mainly used in temple walls. After the Song Dynasty, Taoist scenes (murals) were gradually painted on silk and hung between walls. Since Yuan and Ming Dynasties, single vertical axis preservation has gradually formed. The water and land paintings after the Song Dynasty were all painted by unknown folk painters. There is a passage in China Art History written by Japanese National People's Congress Murakami, "This kind of painting of Buddhist temples is the most popular in the Southern Song Dynasty. But this kind of painting is worthy of the walls of Buddhist temples, which is a special merit and has nothing to do with ordinary decorative paintings. Good writers are biased towards what they have learned, and they are not listed in the general painting world. Scholar-bureaucrat is a painter's work, which is particularly unimportant. Therefore, Chinese painting has no name in communication. " Although this passage is in terms of architectural paintings in the Southern Song Dynasty, it is also applicable to the authors of later water and land paintings. It is these painters, who are despised by literati, have been unknown for thousands of years. With their wisdom and hard work, they have painted countless vivid and spectacular giant murals and a large number of land and water paintings for many temples, many of which have been preserved to this day, but his name is unknown to future generations. The water and land paintings hidden in Baoning Temple in Youyu are immortal works left by such unknown painters.