First, the understanding and application of the image of the nine-tailed fox in Han paintings.
(A) Korean painting of the nine-tailed fox cognition
The nine-tailed fox in Han painting refers to a kind of fox with Kyubi no Youko, and its image is the beautification and deduction of the real fox image by Han people. The nine-tailed fox generally appears beside the Queen Mother of the West as a goddess, and the nine-tailed fox and birds are rarely painted together.
(B) the symbol of the nine-tailed fox in Han paintings
The nine-tailed fox is a tribal symbol of some ancient clans and is usually regarded as a symbol of reproductive worship. In Han paintings, its ending means "many children are blessed", which is a good omen for the political unity of the king and a precursor to the birth of the king and his desire for nothing. According to the deduction of China's ancient image number and five elements, "nine" is also regarded as the largest yang number, representing "extreme yang", while "yang" refers to men in ancient ideology and culture, and "nine" and "yang" also contains the meaning of reproductive worship. Similarly, the description of Dayu's marriage in Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals shows the image of a white fox with nine tails representing power. In some religious stories, the nine-tailed fox is a symbol of power.
(3) The application of the image of the nine-tailed fox in Chinese painting.
The nine-tailed fox often appears on stone reliefs. As a goddess to set off the Lord God, Gao Wei is endowed with the sacred and positive significance of women's status. There is a nine-tailed fox in the image composition of the Queen Mother of the West. The moral of this image is longevity and many children, which highlights the brilliance of human nature. There are also many elements of the nine-tailed fox in the creation of Han paintings. Among them, the most common expression of the nine-tailed fox element is in the scene of the Queen Mother of the West, that is, the running nine-tailed fox. There are nine-tailed foxes sitting next to the Queen Mother in mural tombs such as Bu Qian Qiu in Luoyang and Xin Mang in Yanshi New Village in Henan. With the development, the image of the late nine-tailed fox became more colorful. The portrait of the top of the tomb collected by Xuzhou Han Painting Museum is carved with a nine-tailed fox on the side, with wings on the shoulders and a decorative mouth on the body. The whole image is beautifully carved.
Secondly, the modern application and evolution of the nine-tailed fox in Han paintings.
(A) the collision and blending of Han painting and contemporary ink painting
There are a large number of mythical figures in stone reliefs in Han Dynasty, which is closely related to Confucianism at that time. The combination of heaven and man and the induction between heaven and man prevailed in the Han Dynasty, which was the embodiment of Confucianism in the Han Dynasty and was highly praised by the rulers. It is generally believed that Shan Hai Jing is the earliest record of the image of the nine-tailed fox. At first, with the prosperity of economy and the prevalence of reburial, the bureaucratic landlord class carved immortals such as the Queen Mother in it to show their respect for their status and express their long-cherished wish of immortality. Then, according to the Eastern Han Dynasty's "White Tiger Yi Tong's Zen" cloud: "Virtue to birds and beasts, then Fengxiang, phoenix dance, Kirin Zhen, white tiger to, fox, white pheasant fall, white deer see, Bai Niao fall." This shows that it clearly regards the nine-tailed fox as a good omen of peace and prosperity and a symbolic expression of God's will. Therefore, the image of the nine-tailed fox has been circulated, and the image of the nine-tailed fox in Han paintings has spread rapidly.
During the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the attitude towards death changed greatly. The popular concept of immortals in Han dynasty includes two aspects: one is the immortality of the body, the other is the ascension to heaven. The pursuit of another paradise has made the tombs in the Han Dynasty luxurious and prosperous, and great breakthroughs have been made in the painting of murals and the carving techniques of stone reliefs.
Contemporary ink painting is no longer limited to the description on paper, but combined with western installation art to better present the works. We can learn from the painting skills in China murals and the carving skills in stone reliefs, improve the skills of contemporary ink painting, and further integrate Chinese painting with contemporary ink painting, thus completing the modernization process of tomb art, from simple funerary objects to contemporary art.
(2) The evolution and application of the nine-tailed fox image in contemporary ink painting.
As a totem of ancient tribes, the image of the nine-tailed fox carries the beautiful implication of success and the vision of people praying for the prosperity of their children and grandchildren. Due to the rise of stone reliefs in the Eastern Han Dynasty, its representative pattern "Nine-tailed Fox" is also widely circulated. Many viewpoints believe that the image of the nine-tailed fox as a goddess can only appear at the same time as the Queen Mother of the West. But in fact, this is not exclusive to the "Queen Mother of the West". It is only through the prosperity of the "Queen Mother of the West" that the image of the nine-tailed fox is gradually popularized and widely used in various fields.
In ancient times, many tribes made the fox's fur into clothes and directly compared the fox's face to a man's genitals. For example, the pattern on the stone axe of Longshan culture unearthed in Rizhao, Shandong Province, with two big eyes and a wide nose, is similar to the face of a fox, and is called "fox face pattern", which contains the desire to combine yin and yang and reproduce.
Some contemporary painters are enriching the image of the nine-tailed fox and giving it deeper meaning. In recent years, there are many works with the theme of Shan Hai Jing, such as Bai's Hou Shan Hai Jing. Re-understanding and understanding of Shan Hai Jing should be promoted with the development of society. The progress and development of human civilization is rapidly entering a new stage. In the change of civilization, every step of history is bound to take a step back. The information given by Shan Hai Jing should be a node before the development of human civilization. Re-elucidating or exploring the Classic of Mountains and Seas is our response to the change of unknown civilization. The initial intention of Bai's creation is to delve into the moral stories of divinity, humanity and animality. In the intricate three-dimensional space depicted by God, man and beast, it is this contradiction that gives him inspiration for his creation. Under the long-term institutionalized teaching mode, the original intention of my creation is missing, and the fantasy and complexity of Shan Hai Jing just excavated the original intention of Bai's creation. This "temptation" will remain in some artistic creation. On the moon at the top of the picture, the nine-tailed fox can see that women are the embodiment of Yin. Although it does not occupy the theme, it also sublimates its status and stands out among the gods. It constantly calls for the ID and seeks for the self, and clarifies the purpose of the whole painting in many female bodies: advocating the status of women. With the continuous evolution of the times, the image of the nine-tailed fox as one of the female representatives has been widely used. Painter Bai Jiang further developed the nine-tailed fox and widely used it in painting. Among the gods in Shan Hai Jing, we will feel our existence or a part of ourselves in a certain state. The brilliance of human nature in us often sublimates divinity and buries animal nature, but we often embody ecstasy and animal nature. This wonderful change may be the driving force for the progress of civilization. We hope that there is a sacred glory that can cover the left and right, and we hope that our will can be released freely in myth. Bai has a long history of creating ink painting with female body as material. What he wants to paint is not the human body itself, but various images in which the human body lives. The coverage of clothing lines will bury interesting intentions. Some contemporary artists often use paintings to reflect some realistic problems, while Bai uses pictures to get rid of reality. He thinks that the greatest value of painting is that he can get rid of reality in an absurd way. The fantasy world in The Classic of Mountains and Seas, the civilization before Confucius and the paintings before the Han Dynasty are all the media he yearns for and can get rid of the real world. What he has been pursuing is a surreal and poetic painting character. In the process of constantly questioning and overthrowing his own creation, he broke away from the real theme and drifted away from the context of China's contemporary art. Dream is one of the indispensable elements in his previous works. Now, when he looks back on the past with a creative mood, the turning point in his creation comes unexpectedly, and he looks for new inspiration "dreams" in the process of creating new works. His work "After the Classic of Mountains and Seas" is a return to "primitive innocence". His ambiguity about the real world forced him to add luster to the picture with innocence and obscurity. Casual and gentle expression and communication, curiosity and exploration of mysterious things, indifference to rigorous painting, finally formed the feeling of white painting. Through constant creation and thinking, he found the inner image that should be perceived and expressed. In a distant unknown field, he realized something close at hand, where the real world should come from.
Three. conclusion
As an important embodiment of China's civilization and artistic progress, the image of the nine-tailed fox has undoubtedly played a key role in promoting the development of China's art. For thousands of years, people have regarded it as the embodiment of gods and the reference of desires. Confucianism and Taoism also integrated it into it, giving the image of the nine-tailed fox a sacred meaning. Han portraits originated in the mid-Western Han Dynasty and have a history of more than 2,200 years. It flourished in the thick burial style of the Eastern Han Dynasty with a long history, and became one of the important carriers to explore the painting and carving technology of the ancients. By studying the evolution of the image of the nine-tailed fox in Han paintings, we gradually understand how the artistic application of the nine-tailed fox element in Han paintings produces ideological collision and fusion in the context of contemporary artistic creation, and gradually show the corresponding artistic expressions in the contemporary context. As a cultural phenomenon, art is closely related to human civilization. As a medium linking ancient and modern times, it enables us to cross time and space and think thousands of miles.