Confucianism In Bian Jingzhao's Flower And Bird Painting

As the most representative flower and bird painter in the early Ming Dynasty,Bian Jingzhao made great achievements in the creation of flower and bird painting.He inherited the tradition of flower and bird painting in the two Song Dynasty and inspired the new style of flower and bird painting in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.Adhering to the Confucian attitude of active entry into the world,Bian Jingzhao made auspicious flowers and birds in line with the emperor’s aesthetic taste,which not only presented the scene of auspiciousness and wealth in the court,but also had the significance of Confucian moral education.During his lifetime,Bian Jingzhao created a number of flower-and-bird paintings,of which there are more than 50.The paintings that can be verified for specific years include eight paintings,namely "Gathering Cranes","Group Immortal Arch Longevity","Three Friends and a Hundred Birds","Flowers and bamboo gathering birds","Bamboo and Cranes Double Qing Picture","Year Old Dynasty Picture","Hundred Happiness Picture" and "Anle Fengdeng Picture".Nineteen paintings of unknown years are still in existence.His large paintings of flowers and birds are in sharp contrast to the small images of flowers and birds in Song Dynasty.The reason is related to the unique spirit of the Ming Dynasty and Bian Jingzhao’s personal identity.Bian Jingzhao’s paintings are imbued with Confucianism,with strong metaphor and symbolism.Different from figure painting,Bian Jingzhao turned natural objects into symbols and then attached them to human beings,expressing Confucian ideas.For example,Bian Jingzhao painted "three friends hundred birds" in the scene of hundreds of birds gathered,a metaphor for the officials to worship the son of heaven,conform to the will of heaven,Xining peaceful intent,highlights the Confucian ethics in the gang order of "Jun as minister" concept,so that Confucianism and painting have a closer relationship.Under the imperial centralization system,the rulers believed that this kind of painting could supplement education and contribute to the realization of Confucian ethical values.On the relationship between Chinese art and Confucianism,the main fields involved at present are: Han and Tang Dynasty tomb art,scroll painting,palace painting,especially flower and bird painting.The study of tomb art mainly discusses the ethics of filial piety,scroll painting is related to the way of the retreat and provenance of scholars,and court painting is related to the ethics of politics and religion.In court painting,the academic circle mainly paid attention to the Confucian ethics,neoConfucianism and other elements in the Song Dynasty flower and bird painting,but the discussion of the Confucian concept in the Ming Dynasty palace flower and bird painting is relatively lacking.Taking Bian Jingzhao in the early Ming Dynasty as an example,this paper probes into the Confucian concept and the function of politics and religion in the palace flowerand-bird paintings of Ming Dynasty.Based on the research of Bian Jingzhao and his paintings,this paper probes into the subtle and close relationship between his paintings and Confucianism,and then probes into how the palace paintings realize the civilizing function.On the other hand,we can also see the role,position and influence of Confucianism in Chinese art.This paper will be discussed from the following parts.The first part is textual research on Bian Jingzhao’s works of flowers and birds.In order of time,I have sorted out a list of Bien Jingzhao’s paintings that can be verified in years and his paintings that are only found on the record to explore his painting techniques and styles,laying a foundation for further study.The second part discusses the Confucian view of color in Bian Jingzhao’s flowerand-bird paintings.Under the influence of Confucianism and restricted by the concept of hierarchy,the rulers strictly defined the use of positive and intermediate colors among the five colors.Chinese painting has its unique Confucian concept of color,which is reflected in Bian Jingzhao’s painting that the use of color needs to be familiar with the rules of hierarchy order,and the use of color needs to match the hierarchy.For example,the object symbolizing the emperor is like the five major colors,with high color purity and bright color.At this time,color was endowed by the ruler with distinct moral and ethical meaning,and became a symbol of hierarchy.The third part,Bian Jingzhao flower and bird painting ethics.Bian Jingzhao inherited the Song Dynasty "courtyard style" flower and bird painting tradition.His paintings not only present the auspicious and rich atmosphere of the palace,but also reflect the Confucian thought of "Three Main principles and five virtues".The natural objects in the painting are endowed with symbolic meaning,forming fixed expression symbols,conveying moral principles,and creating the conceptual order under the monarchy system.It can be said that this is also the invisible means for rulers to maintain social order through metaphysical artistic expression.The fourth part,Bian Jingzhao’s flower and bird paintings "the idea of".Gewu,that is,the principle of investigating things,is implemented in painting.The idea of Gewu and knowledge of Neo-Confucianism of Song and Ming Dynasties had an impact on the spirit of examining things in Bian Jingzhao’s flower-and-bird paintings.Painting can be a way to cultivate oneself.Bian Jingzhao’s flower-and-bird paintings pursue the method of pattern and emphasize the "reason" of things,and require paintings to form realistic ideas on the basis of playing the function of ethics and education,so that the flowers and birds in the paintings have both appearance,form and spirit.The fifth part,Bian Jing Zhao flower and bird painting and Neo-Confucianism "to desire".In addition to auspicious flower-and-bird paintings,Bian Jingzhao also painted "cold finch" themes that deviated from the ruler’s aesthetic taste.His paintings show a kind of spiritual power yearning for noble personality and unyielding spirit.The formation of this kind of spiritual power and character should be closely related to the "to desire theory" of Neo-Confucianism.Under the influence of Neo-Confucianism’s "desire to go" thought,the emergence of this theme of painting suggests that the style of flower and bird painting in the Ming Dynasty has gradually become more popular,which is similar to the literati painting in the middle and late Ming Dynasty,and has a tendency to deviate from the taste of palace painting.The sixth part is the influence of Bian Jingzhao’s ethical schema of flowers and birds.The flower-and-bird schema containing Confucian ethics and moral thoughts had an influence on later flower-and-bird painters such as Lv Ji and Lin Liang.They inherited Bian’s paintings,and their flower-and-bird paintings have the Confucian function of "cultivating education and helping human relations",and strive to achieve the purpose of painting serving for politics.Bian Jingzhao’s paintings are closely related to Confucianism.From the above aspects,this paper probes into the Confucian factors in Bian’s paintings and explores the influence of his flower and bird ethical schema on later generations.It is of certain significance to Bian Jingzhao’s artistic research and to explore the influence of Confucianism in the field of art,and provides a reference method for further study of the relationship between Chinese traditional fine arts and Confucianism.