Characteristics of Jiuse Deer Sutra

Look at this painting when you are familiar with the plot (this story is well known to women and children in the northern dynasties where Buddhism prevailed), and you can more clearly feel the painter's unique arrangement of the plot order. We are usually familiar with the appreciation of ancient scrolls. Looking from right to left, we can learn a little about the beautiful information conveyed by the landscape figures in the paintings with the help of scrolls.

The Nine-color Deer Classic describes eight plot parts of the story: saving people, saluting the drowning person, the information of the king and queen, the nine-color deer resting on the way to catch deer, the statement that the drowning person refers to the deer and the nine-color deer. When dealing with these plots, The Classic of Nine-color Deer abandons the traditional sequential arrangement, but puts the climax of the story, that is, the statement of the nine-color deer, in the center of the picture, fully considering that the impact of murals on the viewer's vision occurs in an instant, first attracting the viewer's attention with the most powerful picture, and then letting him look for the plot in turn to read and understand the whole story. So, centering on the Statement of the Nine-color Deer, on the left side of the painting are three plots of the nine-color deer, namely, saving people, saluting the drowning person and resting, while on the right are the king and queen, the drowning person telling stories, the way of catching deer and the drowning person referring to the deer. This kind of picture processing is very infectious. This technique also shows that the painter's expression of his works at that time was very free and flexible, and was not limited by time and space. At the same time, this practice of attaching importance to visual effects based on the characteristics of painting materials is commendable even today.

In order to highlight the plot of "The Statement of the Nine-colored Deer", the pictures on both sides of the picture are inclined to the middle in composition, and the figures, chariots and horses, and landscape background, including the actions of the nine-colored deer itself, guide the viewer to focus on the central area. Although it is nine colors, the painter uses white as the main color of the deer, and then uses stone green and ochre to show its nine colors on the deer. Therefore, in general, the white color of the deer is in sharp contrast with Wang's dark horse, while the diverse and dynamic gestures of Wang and Ma set off the purity and serenity of the nine-color deer, making the picture full of tension. These mineral colors used by painters are called "stone colors" in Chinese painting. This color is characterized by strong coverage and full and pure color feeling. The massiness of the two main colors of black and white, coupled with the agility of rivers, mountains and rivers and figures floating in the composition, are all favorite works from any aspect.

Dunhuang is strict and pure, and it was not recorded in the long history of China until the late Qing Dynasty. The beautiful nine-color deer has been isolated in the vast Gobi for thousands of years, and it has finally left a precious page in art history for today.