On The Artistic Language And Cultural Exploration Of The Wall Paintings In Yao Palace Of Qinglong Temple

The Qinglong Temple of Jishan, Shanxi Province was built in the second.year of Longshuo of Tang Dynasty, (662A. D.) the Yao Palace in which was built up in the twenty-sixth year of Yuan zhi Yuan of Tang Dynasty. (1289A. D.) The wall paintings in the Yao Palace had been polished and improved for many times and those on the northern wall were not completed until the forth year of Yongle in Ming Dynasty (1406A. D.). Because until then the Shuilu temple wall paintings had. experienced 100 years of history of Yuan and Ming Dynasties and they were formed at the transition of the two dynasties, they are endowed with unique characteristics in form and content. In a word, the highlight of the paintings is that The Gods in the wall paintings are from the different religious schools, people can feel the advanced painting skills and different traditional cultural forms are integrated and fused. Meanwhile, the paintings, in which the human being and the gods co-exist and the kings and their followers communicate kindly with the scholar of different schools, reflect the humanist spirit and warm feelings among people. On this meaning, the wall paintings of this temple are not merely those which advocate a kind of religious belief. Ever since Tang and Song Dynasties, due to the support of a special class of scholars of Tang and Song Dynasties, Buddhism prevailed and the renaissance of Taoism started and the philosophical ideas of Cheng and Zhu promoted the fusion of the three different religious schools: Buddhism, Taoism and Confucian school, which was prevailing in Yuan and Ming Dynasties. The wall paintings in Qinglong Temple rose with the influence of this vogue of the time. But they are different from the common Shuilu wall paintings in that their subjects are religious events and they vividly depict and illustrate the different things of human world, customs and religious pursuit with the painters' humanism spirit, which provide us a key to understand the social system, religious customs and cultural trend of those ancient dynasties.The paper consists of five parts. The first part includes the objective and the significance of this study, the study about it. up till now of home and abroad and the artistic, cultural issue, the research scope and the methodology of this paper. In the second part the author discusses the history and heritage of the Qinglong Temple. The third part attempts to make a comparative study between the development of temple paintings of Shanxi Province and those in Qinglong Temple in view of the former's influence and the latter's religious significance. In the forth part the author analyzes deeply and systematically the characteristics of these paintings and their religious connotation. In part five the author supplies some examples to prove his ideas on folk style and the costume features of these paintings.The methodology of this paper is reflected by an integrity of the advantages of many subjects (art, religion, human culture, and history and costume study) which reflects the artistic values and cultural characteristics. With the literary materials, photography materials, painting albums and to-the-spot research, the author tries to research the wall paintings from different perspectives.Through the above study, the artistic characteristics and the paintings forms of the paintings in Qinglong Temple are fully illustrated and the customs, religious tradition and spirit of ancient dynasties are explored. The painters in the past were pursuing the pure human feeling in the colorful world and seeking the common topics of people's everyday lives in a world where many gods live together happily. The mystery of religion isn't found here and it is replaced by the trace of people's pursuit for civilization. So the author makes a systematic and thorough discussion of the Chinese religious culture and religious worshiping activities and their relations with people' beliefs and moral education in ancient society to explore and explain the cultural connotation and historic meaning reflected by the painting language of the wall paintings.