The main content of longevity

From ancient times to the present, literary and artistic works with the theme of birthday are often named "Wanshou Map", and many special paintings are named "Wanshou Map".

At all times and in all countries, people always pay attention to good luck, such as "I lend you a good word", and birthday wishes are auspicious words, such as wishing people "long life without borders" and "longevity is better than Nanshan".

In particular, the ancients paid special attention to "longevity" and expected longevity. Therefore, there are many ways to write a single word "shou", which has become a changeable variant word in China. The Chinese Dictionary has collected more than 56,000 words, creating a record of Chinese characters. One Chinese character "shou" has 16000 different writing methods, more than any other Chinese character.

Therefore, works with the theme of "longevity" and "birthday" are often named "longevity map".

First, painting "Wan Shou Tu"

Among the paintings in the ancient "Wanshou Map", Kangxi's "Wanshou Festival Map" and Qianlong's "Eighty Years of Wanshou Festival Map" painted in the Qing Dynasty have great influence and high value.

In the early Qing Dynasty, Kangxi banned the popularity and dissemination of illustrations of novels and operas in the Ming Dynasty, which led to the rapid decline of illustrations of novels and operas, while court prints developed rapidly. Kangxi's "The Picture of the Longevity Festival" was published at this time. This is a documentary print, which vividly depicts the scenes of officials and people inside and outside the capital, from Shenwumen to Changchun Garden, on Kangxi's birthday. At the same time, it is also an opportunity to show the peaceful and prosperous times during the Kangxi period, and it is also an elaborate production by the rulers to publicize the ruling achievements and educate their subjects. The scene is grand and there are many characters, which can be called a long scroll classic during the reign of Kangxi.

? Gan Long's "Celebration of the 80th Anniversary", including the book "Celebration of the 80th Anniversary", is a printed document reflecting the celebration of the 80th anniversary of Qianlong, and it is also an important picture for studying the politics, economy, ideology, religion, folk customs and even art in Gan Long's last years. The pictures of the 80-year-old Wanshou Festival are basically imitating the pictures of Wanshou Festival.

The eightieth Birthday Picture of the Empress Dowager Chongqing depicts the scene of Gan Long celebrating the birthday of the Empress Dowager Chongqing. There are many people and rich colors in the picture.

As a typical representative of court painting in the Qing Dynasty, the documentary painting of the court in the Qing Dynasty almost completely described the activities of the emperor, reflected the activity scenes at that time very carefully, truly and intuitively, and provided valuable video materials for us to understand the political, economic, geographical, cultural and other social life in the Qing Dynasty.

Two, the traditional drama in Shaanxi "Wanshou Tu" is also known as "Liu Hai Chopping Wood", "Liu Hai Jin Chan" and "Eight Immortals Birthday". In the year of Tong Yuan in the Qing Dynasty, Kuisheng class in Baoji County, Shaanxi Province performed the opening play of the temple fair "Wan Shou Tu" at Wang Changzhai Theater in Meixian County.

? The plot of "Wan Shou Tu" is as follows:

The jade emperor came to the court and asked about good and evil on earth. Sigong Cao Fu played with the Jade Emperor and said that there was a man named Liu Hai in Huxian County, Shaanxi Province, who was kind and filial. The emperor ordered Cihang to cross. Cihang has become an old woman, and Liu Hai was invited to her home to commemorate her with her mother. A fox wants to marry Liu Hai. The stone Buddha moved and taught Liu Hai to swallow the fox's elixir to subdue her. After being swallowed by Liu Hai, Hu Mei Dan Xian instigated Liu Hai to break the head of the stone Buddha and take away the money on his head and the golden toad he stepped on. According to his words, Liu Hai took the money and tied Jin Chan, and finally got the result. On March 3rd, Liu Hai and the Eight Immortals went to the flat peach birthday party of the Empress Dowager.

The aria that reveals the theme in the play is as follows:

Liu lives in Huxian county and can't carry firewood. Guanyin Bodhisattva once pointed out that foxes are charming, so we gave them to the elixir. Stone is the avenue of Bugeda Cave, and money is the golden toad. Liu Hai came to hold a flat peach banquet, and Fuxian paved Taiping money. Ah! The queen mother and the fairy fill in the words. People fill in the word "longevity". Empress Wu added the word "Wan" to the title and the word "Tu" to the title "Wan Shou Tu". ?

To explain, the "longevity map" introduced here is only a small part of it. Because there are too many works with the theme of "longevity", we can only hang one leak.