Wu Daozi, a native of Yuxian County, Henan Province, was lonely and poor when he was young. He studied calligraphy at first, then switched to painting and became famous at the age of twenty. The active period of Wu Daozi's creation coincides with the era of strong national strength, economic prosperity and cultural prosperity in the Tang Dynasty. When he roamed Luoyang as a folk painter, Li Longji, Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, heard his name and appointed him as "Doctor of Internal Education". In Luoyang and Chang 'an, two important cities in the Tang Dynasty, poets and artists gathered together like stars. The Record of Famous Paintings in Past Dynasties says: "In the 230 years since the Tang Dynasty, the most wonderful artists have appeared. Their eyes and ears are connected. They are the most beautiful in the world." Wu Daozi, Wang Wei, Zhang Can, Li Sixun, Cao Ba, Han Wo, Chen Hong, Xiangrong, Liang Lingzan, Natalie and Yang Huizhi were all famous painters at that time. Many famous artists and thousands of folk painters compete with each other and show their magical powers. For a time, the prosperity of painting became a big landscape. Under the influence of this environment, Wu Daozi grew up rapidly with his outstanding genius. He is not only good at painting Taoism and explaining characters, but also omnipotent in landscapes, birds and animals, plants and pavilions.
The description of this "painting sage" in the literature is full of legends and myths: Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty sent him to Sichuan to inspect Shushan and Shushui and asked him to draw a sketch and come back to paint. However, when he came back from his inspection in Shu, there was no draft. In the face of the emperor's censure, he took his time, painting on the spot in Datong Hall, and his brushwork was like a storm. Mountains and rivers and dangerous beaches, 300 miles a day, won the admiration of Manchu. It shows that his landscape painting is very successful. On one occasion, Wu Daozi painted in public at Xingshan Temple in Chang 'an, and Chang 'an citizens flocked to watch him. When he saw that he was "swept away like a whirlwind with a pen", everyone was amazed with a wave of his hand. Because Wu Daozi is good at grasping the artistic principle of "keeping its spirit and specializing in one", he has been regarded as the supreme painter by the upper cultural elites for thousands of years, and also regarded as the founder by craftsmen's guilds specializing in lacquer painting and sculpture in past dynasties.
According to the records of famous paintings in past dynasties, Wu Daozi painted more than 300 Buddhist murals in Chang 'an and Luoyang temples, with different situations. Even if you draw a huge figure, you can't lose the scale, either starting from the arm or starting from the foot, which shows his control over modeling and composition. Write the Buddha statue with a round lamp. The beam or bow of the building column is quite sharp and does not need a round ruler. Wu Daozi's flying boldness is considered to be different from his predecessor Gu Kaizhi's elegance and delicacy. What Gu and Wu have in common is that they both apply the principles of calligraphy to the brushwork and layout of painting. Although Wu Daozi was a painter, he studied calligraphy under the great calligraphers of Tang Dynasty, Zhang Xu (whose date of birth and death is unknown, and he (about 659- 744). He was particularly interested in Weeds, so the soul of cursive script was revealed everywhere in the breath of Wu's paintings. For example, his brushwork, shaped like orchid leaves or water shield, is elegant and smart, and the allusion of "Five Dynasties Wind" has been passed down to this day.
Wu Daozi's paintings include 93 pieces, including Ming Di Seal Carving, Zhong Kui's Ten Fingers, Peacock King Ming, King Tota and Goddess of the Great Protector, which are included in Xuanhe paintings. It is the story of the birth of Sakyamuni, the son of Sudoku King. Now it is in Osaka City Art Museum, Japan, and the statue of Sakyamuni is in Dongfu Temple, Kyoto, Japan, all of which are copied by later generations. In addition, Daozi Mo Bao has a 50-page description, and 19 10 was exported abroad. It was originally lost and only a copy was left. The existing so-called Wu Daozi's paintings are all copied versions by later collectors and painters, which can only be used for reference when studying Wu's paintings and the evolution of his style. In the case that the original can't recover the loss, it is better to keep these indirect materials than nothing.
The volume "A picture of the heavenly king's son", also known as "The Birth Picture of Sakyamuni", has been treasured by collectors in past dynasties. The calligraphy and painting of Qinghe in the Ming Dynasty contains: Born of Gautama Buddha of Wu Daozi, a paper book and an ink painting. This is the first famous painting by Han (Cunliang) and the first famous painting in the world. "The picture is based on the seven classics of Ruiying, depicting the story that Sakyamuni was born in Sudoku Wang Jiating. In the front of the painting, the god who sent the child and the Swiss beast he rode galloped forward. The sitting king revealed the nervous and happy mood caused by handling an unusual happy event, and the reactions and expressions of the maids and attendants around him also revolved around this plot. The second half of the painting depicts Sudoku King holding the baby Sakyamuni carefully and moving slowly with reverence and gratitude. Taoist gods and their subordinate gods are depicted in Daozi Mo Bao. They walk around in the sky, which shows that they are in a fairyland, but their appearance is a portrayal of the real image of the Tang people. There are also some pages in it, depicting the gloomy and miserable state of hell and the punishment of criminals with the schema of "hell in disguise" This scene of "heaven" and "hell" is inadvertently similar to the poetic scene of Dante's Divine Comedy in some European Renaissance paintings.
In the West Building of Qianfu Temple in Chang 'an, which can be called the "Museum of the Prosperous Tang Culture", there was a mural of Taoist and Buddhist figures depicted by Wu Daozi. He painted the Bodhisattva as his own, just like Han Wo's later religious mural "A prostitute writes her virginity" and "A continuous master". The world of God he described was free to process without being bound by religious teachings and expressed a spirit of the times. Another striking manifestation is that he is not willing to stand in the corner of the Buddhist country as a "provider" on earth, but is willing to dominate the pure land of the Buddhist country as an ordinary painter. In his famous mural "The Map of Hell in disguise", he also boldly broke through the identity difference between civilians and nobles, put shackles on the past unpunished dignitaries and "beat" them into hell. Through vivid artistic images, he made people realize the equality of good and evil and expressed the Buddhist thought of equality of all beings.
Buddhist paintings have been handed down from generation to generation, and the "Cao family painting style" initiated by Cao in the Northern Dynasty (386-58 1) (the year of birth and death is unknown, and the activity in 550-577) is the most respected. This painting method embodies the characteristics that Buddhist painting is changing from exotic style to localized style. Depiction pays more attention to anatomical structure and folds close to human body, which is called "a grass comes out of water" in the history of China fine arts. But in his early years, Wu Daozi's brush strokes were thin and dense, and in middle age, he turned to male style. His brushwork is vigorous and powerful, and his lines are full of movement and vary in thickness. The lines are round, like "water shield strips" or "Liu Yemiao", and there is a wonderful feeling of "pen meaning is not exhausted" between strokes. Later generations called it "sparse body" by Zhang Sengyou, which is different from the "dense body" of Gu Kaizhi and, more importantly, distanced from Cao's Buddhist paintings, and in a sense marked the establishment of Buddhist images in Chinese painting. Since then, there are two main styles of Buddhist statues in China: Cao and Wu. In the Buddhist art of the Six Dynasties, Sui Dynasty and early Tang Dynasty, "Cao family style" was dominant; Since the prosperous Tang Dynasty, fully domesticated Buddhist statues have generally been "ruled" by the Wu family.
Wu Daozi has great enthusiasm and creative energy for painting art, comparable to Michelangelo, an Italian Renaissance artist. Both of them are passionate about painting. His artistic achievements have left an indelible mark not only in China, but also in the whole world art history.
The earliest general history of painting-a record of famous paintings in past dynasties
The 290-year history of the Tang Dynasty was an era of all-round prosperity in China's ancient society, economy and culture, and painting reached its peak, so there were documents on painting history, famous artists and famous paintings. China's earliest general history of painting, recording famous paintings of past dynasties, was published in the late Tang Dynasty. The author Zhang Yanyuan (about 8 15-875) was born in the family of three generations of prime ministers, and his family has a rich collection of famous paintings of Sui and Tang Dynasties. This book is known as "the originator of painting history". The book consists of ten volumes, divided into three parts, one is the discussion of painting history, the other is the painter's life, and the third is the appreciation and collection of painting works in past dynasties. The book begins with a discussion on the origin and social function of painting, with People Who Can Draw Names in the Past Dynasties in Syria as the main body, and describes "372 people from Xuanyuan to Tang Huichang (847)", and includes papers such as On Six Laws, On Painting Landscape Trees and Stones, On Teaching in the North and South Times, and Lu Gu Zhangwubi. This book by Zhang Yanyuan is both a history of painting and a history of painting criticism. It quoted dozens of previous paintings and theories. It is a summary of China's painting and painting theory before and after the Tang Dynasty, and a must-read for studying China's classical painting. In addition, the important painting history and painting theory in this period include Zhu's Record of Famous Paintings in Tang Dynasty (the year of birth and death is unknown, and his main activities were in 806-835) and Wang Wei's Landscape Theory and Landscape Tactics.