Interpretation of "Four-armed Guanyin" Thangka

Four-armed Guanyin is one of the important bodhisattvas worshipped by Tibetan Buddhism, which occupies a very high position in the minds of Tibetan people. In Tibetan traditional painting, four-armed Guanyin is a widely used theme of deity and Buddha. Starting with the worship of Guanyin in the snow-covered Tibetan areas, combined with the specific works of the four-armed Guanyin Thangka, this paper analyzes the statue characteristics and religious symbolic significance of the four-armed Guanyin Thangka, and then discusses the aesthetic value of the four-armed Guanyin Thangka. In this issue, Wotangka makes an in-depth study of these specific works.

Guanyin Bodhisattva is one of the four great bodhisattvas in Tibetan Buddhism, and has a lofty position in the eyes of Tibetans. Thangka is an art of Tibetan Buddhism, and Guanyin Bodhisattva and its incarnation are its important manifestations. In Thangka, Guanyin with four arms, Guanyin with eleven faces, Guanyin with a thousand hands and the incarnations of Guanyin bodhisattvas such as White Tara and Green Tara are very common themes. Previously, the research on Thangka art paid more attention to Thangka's production technology, sacrificial ceremony, inheritance mode, etc., but there were few articles on specific analysis of a certain Thangka work. This paper attempts to start with the worship of Guanyin Bodhisattva in Tibetan areas, summarize the sculpture characteristics and religious symbolic significance of four-armed Guanyin Thangka's works, and then explore its profound aesthetic value.

First, the worship of Guanyin in Tibet

Guanyin Bodhisattva is a bodhisattva widely believed by Tibetan people. Guanyin Bodhisattva, Tara and Master Lotus Peanut together constitute the "three extraordinary gods of victory on earth" and are widely worshipped by Tibetan people. He exists in the world as an image that vows to eradicate the suffering of all sentient beings and shows great compassion. He is not only the patron saint of Tibetan people, but also the patron saint of snow-covered Tibetan areas, and has formed his own unique cultural form and basic spirit. He is also known as the greatest wisdom and compassion bodhisattva, Manjusri Bodhisattva and Samantabhadra Bodhisattva. Specifically, the meaning of "Avalokitesvara" has two explanations, one is related to the self-cultivation method of Avalokitesvara, and the other is related to the cultivation method of Avalokitesvara. Because ordinary people's ears are outward, they will be moved by the outside world, producing evil thoughts such as greed, anger, delusion, love and evil, leading to bad karma such as killing, stealing, fornication and forgetting, and being rewarded by reincarnation. The Tibetan people in the snowy plateau are convinced that the enlightenment and gradual creation of civilization in the snowy area can not be separated from the enlightenment and personal arrival of Guanyin Bodhisattva. In addition, among many legends about the origin of Tibetans, the most widely circulated one is also directly related to Guanyin Bodhisattva. The Tibetan people believe that the remote ancestor of the Tibetan people was born of a monkey and a monkey grandson who was a combination of Guanyin and a rogue enlightened monkey god. Therefore, the merciful Guanyin Bodhisattva has naturally become the object of worship of Tibetan people, and it is also the most common theme in Thangka, a religious art.

Second, the characteristics of the four-armed Guanyin statue

In the Thangka, murals and sculptures of Tibetan Buddhism, Guanyin, a typical four-armed Buddha in the snowy area, is usually a still image. This four-armed Guanyin statue is very elegant, quiet and solemn. Guanyin has four arms on one side, wearing a five-Buddha crown, sitting on the lotus platform with diamonds on her feet. Her body is full of colorful light, giving off dazzling light. In Thangka, the four-armed Guanyin in the static phase is as white as the bright moon, with black hair tied to the top and Amitabha, the supreme teacher, on the top of his head. Guanyin has many ornaments, including earrings, necklaces, brooches, bracelets and anklets. Hold the crystal rosary in the first hand and the right hand, and draw an eight-petal lotus flower with the ear level in the left hand. Second, put your hands together and hold the mani pearl. Guanyin's eyes are slightly closed, her mouth is closed, she smiles silently, and she stares at all beings with the insight of Bodhisattva, showing her compassion.

1. Line modeling, full composition

Taking line drawing as the modeling skeleton is the basic means of Tibetan traditional painting and an excellent aesthetic expression in the same strain. It is this historical accumulation that has formed the unique aesthetic and aesthetic style of Tibetans. Up to now, people still regard relaxed, smooth, vigorous, soft, flexible and transparent line drawing techniques as the yardstick to measure the artist's level and the primary aesthetic standard to evaluate the value of works. Especially, the most important artistic feature of four-arm Guanyin Thangka's works is to use lines to model on a two-dimensional plane, to reproduce the shape of concrete existing things, to clean up the edge outline of objects through lines, and to give concrete expression, that is, to chase the volume with lines. Although Thangka's paintings are carried out in strict accordance with the procedures of proportion, conception, lines, ingredients and colors defined in Buddhist classics, it is emphasized in the specific composition that the picture must be seen more, comprehensively, far and carefully, and is not limited by time and space. Even in a small picture frame, the heavens and the earth should be drawn, overwhelming and full, with almost no gaps. Guanyin is wearing a dress on top and a skirt on the bottom. The belt is smooth and sporty. She wears a crown on her head, and the wreath is inlaid with lapis lazuli, turquoise, pearls and corals, which looks gorgeous and rich. Although it does not represent ordinary people, Guanyin's face is dignified and kind, healthy and full, and the whole picture is full of Buddha's light, revealing a solemn feeling and compassion in sacredness, which is reassuring and very vivid.

2. Rich colors and strong contrast

Thangka is colorful and exquisite in brushwork. The colors of Regong Thangka are particularly rich and colorful, and the contrast is very strong. In addition, Thangka is also good at depicting inlays with gold, silver and pearl gems, making the picture more sacred and magnificent. The color in Thangka is one of the main means to express the meaning of the whole picture. The four-arm Guanyin image is based on white, blue, red, yellow, green and cyan, which is basically the collocation, harmony or contrast of pure colors, showing strong color expression, which can not only describe everything in the world, but also express the sacred and pious spirit of the Tibetan people. For example, the white jade color of the four-arm Guanyin perfectly explains the theme of purity, auspiciousness and compassion represented by white. The whole picture gives people a sense of harmony, balance, joy and faith.

Symbolic significance of Guanyin with three arms and four arms

Any religious art aims at serving religion, and its religious function is to help people give an intuitive mirror image when eliminating "evil forces", enlighten people with religious significance, get rid of "ignorance" and be enlightened at any time. When we pay attention to Thangka art today, we must understand that Thangka is a kind of religious art, in which religious significance is primary and artistic elements are secondary. The profound religious meaning in Thangka is an unavoidable link for all researchers. It provides "illumination" and "annotation" for the aesthetics of the viewer's concept by symbolic means, which makes the concept visualized and simplified, and directly permeates aesthetics by popular artistic means such as implication, suggestion, metaphor and borrowing. Symbolism is embodied in the schema, content, vocabulary and techniques of theme painting. In the four-armed Guanyin Thangka, Guanyin's appearance, posture and solemn objects all have profound meanings of Tibetan Buddhism.

First of all, from the appearance, one end of Guanyin represents that he can understand Buddhism. On the one hand, he has the merits of dharma body far away from drama theory; on the other hand, his four arms represent four boundless minds, namely, four Buddhist behaviors of "resting", "increasing", "cherishing" and "punishing"-"resting" means calming all pains, obstacles and difficulties, and "increasing" means. The five Buddhist crowns on Guanyin's head represent five kinds of wisdom, and black hair represents non-contamination. Being white implies that he is clean and free from troubles and knowledge. The five-color sky clothes represent Five Dhyani Buddhas. Secondly, judging from the gesture, Guanyin's two palms are stacked on his chest, which symbolizes that he is encouraging all Buddhas to save the reincarnation of all beings together; Guanyin holds a crystal rosary in her right hand, symbolizing that Buddhism can free all beings from the cycle of pain; Guanyin holds eight petals of lotus in her left hand, symbolizing her pure and undyed heart without any flaws; The sitting posture of Guanyin's legs represents a stable state of meditation, which indicates the equality of wisdom, convenience, double luck and reincarnation; Guanyin sits on the moon plate, representing her compassionate and convenient method; The lotus under the moon plate represents the pure realm.

It is precisely because of these rich and profound religious connotations in the four-armed Guanyin Thangka that the four-armed Guanyin and its six-character Daming mantra will bring great benefits and merits to the Tibetan believers, eliminate their fear of disease, punishment and premature death, increase their life span and enrich their wealth. Even at the end of their lives, all the doors to the next group will be closed, so that gods and gods can be born and the desire of future generations to be reborn in heaven can be realized. When the four-armed Guanyin looks at all beings with the insight of the Bodhisattva, believers believe that all those who are watched by it will be freed.

Fourth, the aesthetic value of four-armed Guanyin

Thangka is a kind of religious art, and religious worship is its most primitive and fundamental purpose. "Once art is incorporated into the religious worship system, it will gain new functions. It is a means to stimulate and promote the religious feelings and ideas of believers, and also a means to urge believers to communicate with supernatural things according to their own beliefs. But in the worship system, art is still an aesthetic creation and has not lost its aesthetic aspect. Art is not only its creator, but also its' enjoyment', that is, the participants in the worship ceremony constantly gain aesthetic feelings. " In other words, in religious art, although the significance of religion is primary and the composition of art is secondary, it is precisely this important composition that increases the penetration and influence of religious teachings, makes religious art lively, and makes religious art closer to the real world, thus highlighting aesthetic factors and generating aesthetic value.

First of all, the four-armed Guanyin Thangka has realistic and secular factors. Although the four-armed Guanyin is a supernatural power imagined by Tibetan Buddhists and the product of transcending reality with illusory fantasy, it is produced in the real society after all and affects people in the real society, so it inevitably has realistic traces and secular atmosphere. It is these realistic contents that convey the aesthetic contents outside religion and their ideals. Although the image, posture, proportion, expression, hand and foot posture, Hou Lian Buddha's seat and instrument type of the four-arm Guanyin must be based on the standard procedures of three classics and one sparse, the statutes cannot be changed. The complicated clothes pleats, dancing ribbons and turquoise ornaments are more or less the projection and refraction of the real life of the Tibetan people in the snowy plateau. At the same time, the color setting of the four-arm Guanyin also comes from the color in the natural environment of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, which is the concentration and presentation of the natural color of the snowy plateau in Thangka art.

Secondly, the artistic imagination and symbols in the four-arm Guanyin contain certain aesthetic creation and value. When Tibetan Buddhism adopts Thangka as an artistic way to support and publicize its teachings and precepts, it is natural to carry out bold artistic imagination, which is similar to artistic creation and shows its aesthetic creativity and value. In the teachings of Tibetan Buddhism, the four-armed Guanyin is only an abstract formulation. When this abstract reference is presented to the world with the help of painting art, it becomes a concrete existence. The transformation of four-arm Guanyin from abstract to concrete has naturally integrated the bold artistic imagination of painters and believers. In order to give full play to the religious function of the four-arm Guanyin Thangka, believers are bound to beautify it and create it with maximum imagination, and its artistic expression means must have certain aesthetic significance. Therefore, the created four-arm Guanyin image must be covered with an artistic and idealized aesthetic color, giving it certain aesthetic value. This is isomorphic with the aesthetic value embodied by the reality and secularity of the four-arm Guanyin, which forms the complexity and diversity of the artistic aesthetics of the four-arm Guanyin Thangka. In other words, like any religious painting, the four-armed Guanyin Thangka has multiple functions. While decorating the Buddhist temple, it also serves as a guide for believers to worship. Therefore, the four-armed Guanyin Thangka not only embodies the religious consciousness of the Tibetan people, but also has a strong aesthetic color.

References:

[1] Nobuwang Store. Guanyin in Thangkari [M]. Xi 'an: Shaanxi Normal University Press, 2009.

[2] Kang? Ge Sang Yixi. Line drawing characteristics of Tangka art in Tibet [J]. Tibetan Art Studies, 2007, (4).

[3][ Su] Ugrinovic. Art and religion [M]. Wang Xianrui, Li Pengzeng, translated. Beijing: Life? Reading? Xinzhi Sanlian Bookstore, 1987.

[4] Jiang Shuzhuo. On religious art [M]. Beijing: Culture and Art Publishing House, 2005.

[5][ America] Winnie? Hyde? Mina. History of art history [M]. Li Jianqun, translate it. Shanghai: Shanghai People's Publishing House, 2007.

Next, please enjoy a set of four-armed Guanyin Thangka numbered 138-84863 1: