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Wood Block Print – Return to Jing Zhou

07/30/2012 //
0

L1200xH700mm, China

For those of you who has followed the recent historical comedy soap on TVB, here is a new year print from the yang liu qing school depicting the same story (minus the satire).  This story is set in the San Gou period, it was a time when China was divided into 3 separate kingdoms , a time after the corrupted East Han dynasty, warring period that lasted for almost 100 years.

Briefly the 3 kingdoms are;
WEI – led by East Han chancellor Cao Cao, adviser Sima Yi
WU – led by Sun Quan, adviser Zhou Yu
SHU – led by Liu Bei, general Guan Yu, Zhang Fei and Zhao Yun, adviser Zhu Ge Liang

The Return to Jing Zhou

Sun Quan and Zhou Yu (WU) set up a plan to get Liu Bei (SHU) to hand over his strong hold Jing Zhou.  Sun Quan has a beautiful sister, he proposed to Liu Bei for a marriage to his sister, a union of the 2 kingdoms. Liu Bei in return would have to go to WU for the wedding.  This is a proposal Liu Bei cannot lightly turn down for the sake of his kingdom.  Sun Quan however has no real intention of marrying his sister to his enemy, he would wanted to capture Liu Bei and and force him to hand over his kingdom.  Luckily before Liu Bei’s departure, his wizard adviser Zhu Ge Liang see through the trick and handed 3 notes to Zhao Yun and asked him to escort Liu Bei to Wu.  When Liu Bei crossed to Wu he opened the first note, it asked Liu Bei to visit the father in law of Sun Quan.  Impressed by Liu Bei and thinking that a union of the 2 kingdoms is a good idea from Sun Quan, the in law asked for Sun Quan’s mother for her approval for the marriage.  The empress dowager agreed and the marriage went ahead.  Sun Quan found out he has lost his sister, set out to detained Liu Bei in Wu.  Liu Bei opened the second note, it asked for a faked report that Jing Zhou was being attacked by now their common enemy Cao Cao (WEI).  Having a great excuse, Liu Bei together with his newly married wife and his men left Wu for Jing Zhou.  Sun Quan found out and had his general went after them.  Liu Bei then opened his third note, in the note it asked him to leave the defense to his wife.  Now in love with Liu Bei, the princess gave the general a hard time and refused to return to Wu.  When Liu Bei returned to Jing Zhou, Sun Quan’s army was confronted by Liu Bei’s general Zhang Fei and badly defeated.

Here goes the idiom, “lost the lady and  the army” (making double lost without any gain)

In this yang liu qing school print, we have from the left Liu Bei, Zhao Yun, maid 1, Princess Quan, maid 2, Guan Yu and lastly Zhang Fei

The story was also a very known script for the Beijing opera, here is a part of the opera.  The opera singers were the master of masters, the leading dan role was performed by Mr. Mei Lan Fang (in the past all roles are played by male artists).

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Categories painting / prints, paper

Paper Cutout

07/18/2012 //
2

H300x W190mm, China

The fisherman is one of the fundamental role in old agricultural based China.  Fisherman, wood cutter, farmer and intellectual are the four main roles; they have been the theme for many artworks, in fact, the 4 are a collective noun “yu qiao geng dou”.  Yu refers to the fisherman, yan zi ling, Yan was a classmate of the first emperor of the East Han dynasty.  Despite numerous invitation to become an government official, he declined and remained  a fisherman until old age.  Qiao, was the wood cutter Zhu Mai Chen, a high official of the Han dynasty.  Zhu love reading, from a poor family he was in such poverty that even his wife left him but for his determination he was recognized.   Geng, farming, is Emperor Shun (the legendary second emperor, 1700BC) teaching his people how to farm.  Dou, the intellectual, is Su Qin, the hardworking scholar who would use an awl to pitch himself if he has fallen asleep at his study.  The phase “yu qiao geng dou” not only recognized the 4 roles being fundamental, it also projected a desire of the rural commoners to become the part of the officials.

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Categories painting / prints, paper

Ukiyo-e Print – Nihonbashi

07/05/2012 //
0

W240xH260mm, Japan

This is a Ukiyo-e print of the Nihonbashi, likely to be of late Edo period or early Meiji Period.  The print depicted a scene of the busy junction of the Nihobashi with Nakasendo and the Tokaido which connect Edo with Kyoto.  There is much action going on in the scene.  Since the Edo period, the Nihobashi area has been the commercial center and developed into the financial district of today’s Tokyo.  The bridge in the print is the first bridge, a wooden bridge – Edobashi, it was replaced by a stone bridge, in 1964 an expressway was built over the bridge for the Olympic games.  The  print does not bear the name of the artist, it seems to have a similar style and theme of Utagawa Hiroshige III (perhaps someone more knowledgeable can let me know if my rough guess is correct).

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Categories painting / prints, paper

Yang Liu Qing – Door God

06/26/2012 //
0

W700xH1100mm, China

This is a Chinese new year print of the famous yang liu qing school, different from the new year print from other areas / schools, the yang liu qing prints combined the art of printing and painting in one.  Lines for the painting are first carved out from a piece of wood, black water base ink is then applied on the wood block and printed onto the paper by rubbing.  Once there is a sharp outline of the image, water base colour is then applied, giving varies tones of colour to the print.  Then a thick powder colour is used to give all the details to the painting.  The yang liu qing school began at the end of the Ming dynasty; it brought on the tradition of detail painting of the Sung dynasty and combined it with the printing technique popular in the Ming dynasty giving it an unique appearance.

This print is one print of a pair of door gods (traditional doors in China always comes in pairs), Qin Qiong, the other door will be of  Wei Chi Gong.  The legend of the 2 door gods goes like this; during the Tang dynasty an old dragon made a bet with a fortune teller and violated the law of the heaven.  As a punishment the supreme god Jade Emperor ordered Wei Zheng to have it killed at noon the next day.   Hearing the news, the old dragon went to see the Tang Emperor and begged him to help him, the Tang Emperor agreed.  The next day the Tang Emperor summon Wei Zheng to court and asked him to play a game of Chinese chess with him, hoping that if the game is long enough he will miss the noon execution.  During the long game Wei Zheng dosed off and in his dream he went to kill the dragon.  Not knowing the whole story,  the ghost of the dragon felt bitter that the Tang Emperor did not keep his words and came to haunt the court everyday.  Wei Zheng found out and send 2 generals, Qin Qiong and Wei Chi Gong, to guard the gate of the palace and this scared off the dragon.  The Tang Emperor felt bad that the 2 generals do not get a break and asked artists to make a painting of them to be put on the doors, and this seems to have the same effects, the rumor spread and now the door gods are all over China.

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Categories painting / prints, paper

Ukiyo-e Print

06/07/2012 //
0

W110xH170mm, Japanese

The print belongs to the Tale of Genji, a classic Japanese literature which many consider to be the first and finest pose work novel.  The author Murasaki Shikibu (11th century) was a noblewoman and lady-in-waiting, offer a glimpse into the live of the high courtiers of the Heian period.  There are 54 chapters in the Tale of Genji, each represented by a individual crest (genji-mon/genji-ko).  In this ukiyo-e print, the crest is the repetitive background symbols in dark and light blue, it is the 12th chapter (Suma).  The print depicted Genji exiled in Suma for the scandal of his love affair with Oborozukiyo.

This is an ukiyo-e print of the Utgawa school.  The Utgawa school was founded by Toyoharu and expanded by his student Toyokuni I who made it the most famous and powerful woodblock print school of the late 19th century.

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Categories painting / prints, paper

Mandala

05/28/2012 //
0

W380xH470mm, Tibet

This is a Tibetan Mandala (dkyilvkhor), originally it was a Hindu stage for meditation, it was later made also in the form of a painted work.  This tradition was also practiced by Buddhism.  The Mandala is the concept of the universe held the different religion; for meditation it is used for focusing attention of aspirants and adepts and creating a sacred space for the mind.

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Categories painting / prints, paper

Tiger Embroidery

05/25/2012 //
0

W75xH200mm, China

This small piece of silk embroidery (which we have framed) was taken from a children’s underwear (Du Dou).  The Du Dou is an undergarment for cover the chest and tummy, its a rectangular or square piece of cloth to be worn diagonally with the top corner trimmed for the neck.  2 strings affixed to the top corner is tied around the neck while the 2 strings attached to the side corners are tied around the back.  The embroidery patterns for children are of the theme of blessing; tiger is one of them.  Tiger is seen as an animal of strength and power, it has been worship for its protection; it is believed that evils will be frighten away when embroidery that has been wrapped around a child.  The tiger Du Dou is traditionally worn by all the children and babies on Duan Wu (the day of ills).

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Categories costume, embroidery, fabric, painting / prints

Wood Block Print – Skanda

05/12/2012 //
0

W220xL300mm, China

This is a wood block print of the Skanda, Wei Tuo, a guardian of Buddhism (leader of the 32 celestial guardians).  He has been worshiped in Chinese temples since the Sung dynasty, his statue is often placed behind the Maitreya statue.  It is believed that when the Buddha passed away and cremated, the demons came and robbed away his relics.  Wei Tuo chased and caught up with them and got back the relics, he was honored to be the guardian.  Though Indian in origin, Skanda was adapted into the Chinese culture as a courageous warrior and guardian and even has a Chinese name as Wei Tuo, but his task has never altered.

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Categories painting / prints, paper

Wood Block Print – The Wine God

04/13/2012 //
0

H230xW200mm, China

To start the black friday weekend here is a wood block print of the wine god.  Du Kang is believed to be the person who have discovered brewing wine in China and is known as the wine god.  Another person Liu Ling is said to be the wine saint, he is one of the 7 bamboo forest intellectuals who is so obsessed with drinking that he will always has a wine cup with him.  There is story of the wine god and the wine saint, it goes something like this … Once upon a time, Du Kang has opened a wine bar in the small town of Bai Shiu Kang Jia,  one day Liu Ling happened to walk pass, outside of the bar was the words “one cup will make a fierce tiger drunk for a year in the mountain, two jars will make a dragon sleep in the deep sea, if you are not drunk you can drink for three years for free”.  The mighty drinker Liu Ling laughed at the sign and decided to give it a try, what kind of wine has he not tasted before he thought.  Du Kang served the wine and drank with Liu Ling, after 3 cups Liu Ling could only felt the world spin around him.  He stumbled back home and stayed drunk for 3 years.  After 3 years, Du Kang went to collect the money for the wine and was told that Liu Ling has passed away 3 years ago!  The wife of Liu Ling was upset with Du Kang and wanted to take him to court, Du Kang explained that her husband is only drunk and the wine did not kill him.  They open up his grave to find him sobering up, the first thing he said was “what good wine it was!”.  The story is beautiful but in fact made up, as Du Kang was from the Shan dynasty (1000 BC) and Liu Ling was from Jin dynasty (300AD) … probably a story formulated after a glass or two …

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Categories painting / prints, paper

Golden Rooster

03/28/2012 //
0

W250xH250mm, China

It is believed that when the god Nu Wa created the world, it was the chicken he made on the first day (of Chinese New Year), dog on the second, pig on the third, goat on the fourth, buffalo on the fifth and horse on the sixth.  On the seventh day, human was created (hence it is the birthday for all man on the 7th day of Chinese New Year).  These 6 livestock were very important for the Chinese who are agriculture based for a long time, they are seen as a symbol of blessing (they made up half the 12 zodiac animals).

Legend has it that a long time ago on a mount in Chong Shan lived a golden rooster who like a alarm would crow at the same time every morning.  Hearing the crowing, people who lived a the mount opposite would ring the bell to wake all the villages around.  The golden rooster has a habit of snacking off the vegetable field, one day a farmer was angry at the rooster for damaging his crops and curse on it.  With the curse, the golden rooster fell from the mount and landed on by the river and turned into a large piece of rock, since then no crowing can be heard again.

This is a wood block print of the golden rooster crowing, a blessing.

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Categories painting / prints, paper
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