Looking at the life of the ancients in Hexi through thousands of years

---National Museum Travel Notes

I like to travel, like to be close to nature, and like to savor cultural monuments carefully. Recently, a piece of news attracted me. Mulberry picking and farming, barbecuing games... The exhibition "Painting Living Things-Ancient Life on Hexi Portrait Brick" opened at the National Museum, with 258 painted portrait bricks and related cultural relics telling the stories of the ancients in Hexi. Among the exhibits, 88 are national-level cultural relics.

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

Experts say that portrait bricks are bricks with portraits or patterns printed with fingerprints or carved. Portrait bricks in my country lasted for fourteen and fourteen centuries from the Warring States Period to the Song and Yuan Dynasties. The craftsmen used the society at that time as a blueprint, incorporated extraordinary creativity, and painted historical pictures of the lives of the ancients in different historical periods. The most "outstanding" of them were the painted portrait bricks in the Hexi Corridor area. This exhibition is divided into three units: "Painting Heaven and Earth","Various Aspects of Life" and "Ningping Descending Blessings", reflecting the various aspects of life and spiritual outlook of the people of all ethnic groups in Hexi in ancient times.

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 we felt was the bleakness of "the desert was lonely and the long river was full of smoke and the sunset". The "spring breeze did not reach Yumen Pass" pushed the Hexi region to the extreme.

More than a thousand years ago, what did the ancients there eat? Wear what? What do you think?…, I came to the exhibition hall with curiosity.

The exhibition "Painting Living Things-Ancient Life on Portrait Brick in Hexi" is located in the North N9 Exhibition Hall of the museum.

As soon as I entered the exhibition hall, I saw a large animated screen. My eyes lit up, and a few minutes of commentary was unconsciously brought back to that distant era.

The land is fertile and the carving share is flying, and the farmers plant hope for the next year.

Roll the horse and bow, fly the earth and chase deer, and make it a lot of fun during the slack season.

The lights in the exhibition hall were very dim, which suddenly made people calm down. A beam of light in front of the exhibit makes you eager to see what it is?

The sun god, the moon god, Fuxi, Nu Wa, and the east prince and the west queen mother mother are the local people's rich imaginations of the world in the sky. These portraits of heaven and man are generally placed on the top of the tomb chamber or in a higher position on the walls of the tomb chamber.

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

These two portrait bricks were originally put together and placed at the top of the tomb chamber at the caisson well. On the right is Fuxi, with a human head and a snake and animal feet, a mountain-shaped crown on his head, a ruler in his right hand, and a sun wheel painted on his abdomen, with a golden bird in it. On the left is Nuwa, with a human head and a snake tail, animal feet, tied in a high bun, holding a torch in her left hand, painted with a moon wheel on her abdomen, and her tail mingling with Fuxi beside her.

The East Prince was dressed luxuriously, with a wide robe and big sleeves, dressed as a scholar-official, surrounded by clouds.

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

Divine birds and exotic beasts embody the extraordinary imagination of the ancients and express their prayers for the blessings of the gods. They are usually inlaid on the wall of the tomb chamber.

The brick is decorated with a red border, and the white parrot is painted on it, as if it is walking.

The painted deer has vivid expressions and bright colors, with wings on its shoulders, eyes wide open, feathers on its limbs, and clouds surging behind it.

The long trunk of the white elephant is rolled up, and wings are painted on the base of its hind limbs. White elephants are auspicious beasts in Buddhism.

Tianma Portrait Brick

Hexi portrait bricks have rich themes and all-encompassing themes. They include farming, grazing and hunting, songs and dances that describe daily life, and pictures that describe life and historical stories in the dock. These vividly reproduce the diverse social life of all ethnic groups in Hexi and the regional characteristics of attaching equal importance to agriculture and animal husbandry.

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

There is a tall mulberry tree in the center of the mulberry picking brick. The woman on the left carries the mulberry cage with one hand and picks the mulberry tree with the other. The woman on the right carries the mulberry cage in one hand and picks mulberry with a mulberry hook in the other.

Deer herding deer lie down or stand, and a man holding a long whip is painted on the far right side of the picture, depicting the scene of deer herding in the Hexi Corridor area.

Cloth cutting depicts the scene of two women holding a cloth together to prepare for cutting.

The picture depicts a man leading a horse and a hound following him in the distance, or depicts a scene of a servant preparing a horse for his master to hunt.

In the scene of the tomb owner traveling by car, there is a royal servant next to the horse, and a servant follows behind the car. It shows the dignity of the tomb owner's travel and is a reflection of the tomb owner's social interaction and life.

This brick uses ink lines to draw a scene of a warrior wearing armor, a bow and arrow at his waist and combat boots, with a spear in one hand and a war horse in the other, preparing to go to war.

The ox cart traveling brick depicts a man driving an ox cart forward, followed by a maid with a tray in one hand and a flat pot in the other.

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

It depicts the scene of a servant holding roast meat and offering it to the master. The servant roasted meat kebabs on a rectangular stove. The owner wore a black kerchief on his head, placed a plate in front of him, and held instant noodles in his hand. On the brick, there are list titles "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 should be the character.

Six Bo One man raised his hand to throw the second qiong, and the other man held his left hand high and pointed forward with his right hand to the game scene on the chessboard. The two played chess by playing each other. This kind of game is called "six games" in the game.

Jingyin

domestic chicken

kap Shui

scalding chicken feathers

slaughtering cattle

a stuck pig

slaughtering sheep

the kitchen

cut meat

Two women sit opposite each other and place wine utensils between them, which should be a drinking scene.

Double song and dance

The music depicts the scene of two musicians sitting opposite to each other and playing. The man on the left hand presses the strings and picks the strings with his right hand, and the man on the right holds the three strings and plays them.

The brick with the word "Wu" is painted with the city gate, with a bridge tower built on it, and battlements built on the city wall. There are trees, cattle, horses and sheep outside the dock. The word "Wu" is inscribed on the brick surface.

The dock is painted on the left side of the brick. The dock is square in plane, surrounded by tall walls, and square corner towers in the four corners. On the right side, two people in red and white stood in guard positions with halberds.

The highly authoritative chief in the castle handles "civil disputes" within the clan

Hearing portrait brick

Stick the portrait brick

Case closing portrait brick

It depicts the scene of a man on a galloping horse, turning around, drawing a bow, riding and shooting. The figure on the horse wears a crown and a cross-collared shirt. Because there is a list title "Li Guang" on the side and the latter brick is a tiger and mountains, it is considered to be the story of Li Guang, the "Flying General" of the Han Dynasty, shooting a tiger.

The Silk Road left a unique [mark] in Hexi

A picture of the barbarian leading a camel

The Qiang woman saw off depicts a man riding on a white flower horse looking back, and a woman with a sad face, showing a sign of farewell. The woman's long hair draped over her shoulders and stood to see off with a pot on her back. This is a reflection of the integrated intermarriage of the ethnic groups in Hexi.

Post legends depict assistant officials wearing black turbans, holding harps in their left hands and reins in their right hands. The horse soared into the sky on all four hooves and galloped. is a wooden customs clearance token.

The back room of the tomb is the residence of the soul of the tomb owner. Portrait bricks of military equipment and silk (symbolizing wealth) are generally inlaid here. They express the living's attachment, sorrow and good wishes for the dead.

Two high-handled beans placed side by side with round objects placed on the beans should be offerings.

A bundle of silk is painted on both sides of the picture, with 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 with bottom fold lines. There is a red rectangular pattern on the bed, which should be a mattress or quilt. Reflect a corner of home life.

Four pieces of clothing are hung on the painted clothes pole.

The bricks are painted with tow, which symbolizes the wealth of the tomb owner.

bucket box

The woman wears a high bun and wears a hairpin with clear facial makeup and exquisite and bright clothes. The character opens the lid of the box with one hand and reaches in to retrieve objects with the other hand, which is very lively.

weapons

The "pavilion lamp" and "charcoal stove" are both black round bases with grid patterns painted on the handle. Candlelight burns on the pavilion lamp, and flames are raging inside the charcoal stove.

After seeing the painted portrait brick exhibition in the Hexi Corridor area, I felt that the ancestors of the Chinese nation had extraordinary imagination and creativity. Each brick, one painting, one brick, one scene, the content displayed was too rich, from heaven to earth, everything. Moreover, the simple lines and composition show the strong flavor of the times and the integrated and symbiotic regional and ethnic characteristics. It allows visitors to further understand the ancients in Hexi, which is also the cultural source of the Chinese nation's endless and long-lasting prosperity.