Traveling through the millennium to see the life of the ancients in Hexi --- Travel Notes of the National Museum

Traveling through the millennium to see the life of the ancients in Hexi

---National Museum Travel Notes

I like traveling, I like to be close to nature, and I like to savor cultural relics carefully. A piece of news caught my attention recently. Plucking mulberry, farming, and playing games with barbecue... The exhibition "Pictures of All Beings—The Life of the Ancients on Hexi Portrait Bricks" opened at the National Museum. 258 painted portrait bricks and related cultural relics tell the stories of the ancients in Hexi. Among the exhibits, 88 are national first-class cultural relics.

The National Museum is located on the east side of Tiananmen Square and on the south side of East Chang'an Avenue. Tiananmen East Station of Metro Line 1 (Exit D), or bus No. 1 or No. 52, etc., and get off at Tiananmen East Station. Tickets are free, but you need to make an appointment and enter the museum with a second-generation ID card.

Experts say that portrait bricks refer to bricks with portraits or patterns that are molded or depicted. my country's portrait bricks lasted for fourteen or five centuries from the Warring States Period to the Song and Yuan Dynasties. The craftsmen took the society at that time as the blueprint, incorporated extraordinary creativity, and depicted the historical pictures of the life of the ancients in different historical periods. Among them, the most "brilliant" are the painted portrait bricks in the Hexi Corridor area. The exhibition is divided into three units: "Picture World", "Various Lifestyles" and "Ningping Blessings", reflecting the various life styles and spiritual outlook of the people of all ethnic groups in the ancient Hexi area.

The Hexi Corridor in Gansu belongs to the western region. At that time, it was far away from the prosperity of the Central Plains. What I felt was the desolation of "the desert is solitary, and the long river sets the sun".

What did the ancients there eat more than a thousand years ago? what to wear? What are you thinking? ..., I came to the exhibition hall with curiosity.

The exhibition "Pictures of All Beings - The Life of the Ancients on Hexi's Pictorial Bricks" is located in the north N9 exhibition hall of the museum.

As soon as I entered the exhibition hall, I saw a large animation screen, which kept my eyes lit up. After a few minutes of explanation, I was unconsciously brought into that ancient era.

The land is fertile, the carved wood is flying, and the farmers are planting a year's hope.

There is a lot of fun in the slack season.

The lighting in the exhibition hall was very dim, which made people feel calm all of a sudden. A beam of light in front of the exhibit makes you eager to see what it is?

The god of the sun, the god of the moon, Fuxi, Nuwa, the East Prince, and the West Queen Mother are the local people's rich imagination of the heavenly world. The bricks of these heavenly beings are usually placed on the top of the tomb, or at a higher position on the wall of the tomb.

On the left is a red sun, with a golden bird in the middle. On the right is a full moon with a toad in it.

These two portrait bricks were originally assembled and placed in the caisson on the top of the tomb. On the right is Fuxi, with the head of a man and the feet of a snake, wearing a mountain-shaped crown, holding a gauge in his right hand, a sun wheel painted on his abdomen, and a golden bird in the middle. On the left is Nuwa, with a human head and a snake tail, animal feet, a high bun, a left hand holding a moment, a painted moon wheel on her abdomen, and a snake tail intersecting with Fuxi beside her.

Dong Wanggong is dressed gorgeously, with a wide robe and big sleeves, dressed as a scholar-bureaucrat, surrounded by clouds.

The Queen Mother of the West is sitting on the couch, with wings growing on her shoulders, a waiter stands on the right side, a standing toad on the left side, and auspicious clouds in front of the couch.

The gods, birds and beasts condensed the extraordinary imagination of the ancients, and entrusted the ancients' prayers for the blessing of the gods. They are generally inlaid on the wall of the tomb.

The bricks are decorated with red borders, and white-feathered parrots are painted on them, which seem to be walking.

The painted divine deer has vivid expressions, bright colors, wings on its shoulders, wide-eyed eyes, and feathers on its limbs, in the shape of a gallop, with clouds surging behind it.

The long trunk of the white elephant is rolled up, and the base of the hind legs is painted with wings. The white elephant is an auspicious animal in Buddhism.

Pegasus Portrait Brick

Hexi portrait bricks are rich in themes and all-encompassing, including farming, animal husbandry and hunting, songs, dances and feasts describing daily life, and pictures describing life and historical stories in Wubao. All these vividly reproduce the regional characteristics of various social life and equal emphasis on agriculture and animal husbandry of various ethnic groups in Hexi area.

Such portrait bricks are generally inlaid in the middle and lower part of the wall of the tomb, or on the walls of the front tomb and the tomb passage.

There is a tall mulberry tree in the center of the brick, and the woman on the left holds a mulberry cage and picks mulberries with the other. The woman on the right holds a mulberry cage in one hand and a mulberry hook in the other to pick mulberries.

Herding deer The deer is lying or standing, and a man with a long whip is painted on the far right of the picture, depicting the scene of herding deer in the Hexi Corridor area.

Cloth Cutting depicts a scene where two women hold a piece of cloth and prepare to cut it.

The picture depicts a man leading a horse, followed by a hunting dog in the distance, or depicts a scene where a servant prepares a horse for the master to hunt.

In the scene where the owner of the tomb travels in a chariot, there is an imperial guard beside the horse, and the servants follow behind the chariot. It shows the travel dignity of the tomb owner, which is the embodiment of the tomb owner's social life.

This brick uses ink lines to draw a warrior in armor, a bow and arrow on his waist, and combat boots, with a spear in one hand and a horse in the other, ready to go out.

Traveling in an ox cart A man is depicted on the bricks driving an ox cart, followed by a maidservant with a tray in one hand and a flask in the other.

On the left side of the banquet curtain, there are four men sitting side by side, and on the right side, there are two musicians sitting side by side, playing the clarinet and Ruan Xian, with ear cups and other wine vessels painted in the middle.

It depicts a picture of a servant holding barbecue to offer to his master. The servant is grilling meat kebabs on the rectangular stove, and the master wears a black jacket, holds a tray in front of his body, and holds instant noodles. On the brick, there are inscriptions "Youjie" and "Duan Qing" on the left and right of the owner. Duan Qing should be the name of the owner of the tomb, and Youjie is its epithet.

Liu Bo A man raises his hand to throw Erqiong, another man raises his left hand high, and stretches his right hand forward to point to the game scene of the chessboard. The two play chess by fighting each other. This kind of game is called "six games" in the game.

Well drink

Chicken

draw water

Hot chicken plucking

butcher

butcher pig

slaughter sheep

cook

cut meat

The two women are sitting opposite each other, and the wine utensils are placed between them, which should be a scene of drinking together.

duet

Playing music: The scene of two musicians sitting opposite each other and playing, the man on the left presses the strings with his left hand, plucks them with his right hand, and the man on the right plays the three-stringed string Ruan Xian.

The bricks with the word "Wu" are painted with city gates, Qiaolou is built on it, battlements are built on the city walls, and there are trees, cattle, horses and sheep outside the dock, and the word "Wu" is inscribed on the brick surface.

The dock is painted on the left side of the brick. The plane of the dock is square, surrounded by tall walls and square turrets at the four corners. On the right side, there are two people in red and white, holding halberds, standing as guards.

The highly authoritative patriarch in Wubao handles "civil disputes" within the clan

Litigation Portrait Brick

stick portrait brick

Closed Portrait Brick

It depicts a scene of a man turning around on a galloping horse, drawing a bow, riding and shooting. The character on the horse wears a crown and a cross-collared shirt. Because there is an inscription "Li Guang" on the side, and the last brick is a tiger and mountains, so It is considered to be the story of Li Guang, the "fly general" of the Han Dynasty, shooting a tiger.

The Silk Road left a unique [imprint] in Hexi

Barbarians leading a camel

Qiang Girl Seeing Off It depicts a man riding on a white horse looking back, and a woman with a sad face, as if saying goodbye. The woman with long hair shawls and a jug on her back stands to see off, which is the embodiment of Hexi ethnic integration and intermarriage.

Poster Biography depicts a staff member wearing a black cap, holding a cleave in his left hand and a rein in his right hand, the horse gallops in the air with all four hooves in the air.棨 is a wooden customs clearance token.

The back room of the tomb is the residence of the soul of the owner of the tomb. The portrait bricks of military equipment and silk (symbolizing wealth) are generally inlaid here, and they entrust the nostalgia and good wishes of the living to the dead.

Two stalk beans placed side by side with a round object on top should be an offering.

A bunch of silk is painted on both sides of the picture, and there is a bean in the middle, on which offerings are placed.

The shape of the bed is outlined with ink lines in the center of the picture, and the legs of the bed are represented by broken lines at the bottom. There is a red rectangular pattern on the bed, which should be a mattress or bedding. Reflect a corner of home life.

Four garments hang on painted clothes rails.

The bricks are painted with tows, which here symbolize the wealth of the tomb owner.

bucket box

Women wear hairpins in a high bun, have clear facial makeup, and wear exquisite and colorful clothes. The character opens the lid of the box with one hand, and probes into the object with the other hand, which is very lifelike.

weapon

The "Ting Lantern" and "Charcoal Stove" are both black round bases with grid patterns drawn on the handle. Candles are burning on the kiosk lamp and the charcoal stove is raging with flames.

After seeing the painted portrait brick exhibition in the Hexi Corridor area, I feel that the ancestors of the Chinese nation had extraordinary imagination and creativity. One brick for one painting, one brick for one scene, the content expressed is too rich, from the sky to the ground, All inclusive. Moreover, the simple lines and composition show a strong atmosphere of the times and regional and ethnic characteristics that blend and coexist. It allows visitors to further understand the ancient people in Hexi, which is also the cultural source of the Chinese nation's endless prosperity.