The sun is almost setting.

Whenever you step barefoot on the white tiled ground and feel the heat left by the day, there is always a temperature from the source of history, ironed out from your feet, and slowly penetrated into your bone marrow from bottom to top.

Legend has it that this golden pagoda with eight Buddha's hair is said to have been laid by the Zhou Dynasty of Eastern Xia in the local history when King Ogaraba ordered craftsmen to start laying the foundation.

That year, Qi Huan and Jinwen were still fighting for hegemony, and even Shakyamuni himself was still preaching the Fa in the Ganges River Valley.

Legend has it that on the spring day when it was built, a heavy rain had just fallen in the sky.

The water on the ground is anchored in the warm sunset, reflecting the brilliant golden light.

When people passed by, they were surprised to find that the power of the Buddha had turned all the water into gold bricks.

thereupon

Everyone picked up these gold bricks and worshiped them, and used them to build pagodas.

This is where the name Shwedagon Pagoda comes from.

From the moment it began to be built.

Shwedagon Pagoda is the most important religious shrine and the most luxurious building within a radius of thousands of miles from the estuary of the Irrawaddy River.

For the next 2,500 years, it will be like the surging waters of the Irrawaddy River, and it will never return.

This country has prospered and declined.

It once used its own army to reduce the ancient capital of Thailand's Siam dynasty on the Mekong River to rubble.

Its own old capital was also breached by the British colonial army in ironclad ships, and was reduced to rubble.

Its capital was once on par with the Magic Capital, and it was one of the two most prosperous and wealthy trading port cities in the Far East.

The magnificent lampstands on the shores of the harbor and the lights of the city made the maritime travelers of the twentieth century write in their diaries: "When you enter the harbor at night, the lights are shining, and you are as bright as the morning glow, and as bright as day." ”

Today, it is a regular on the list of the world's least developed countries recognized by the United Nations.

Google's satellites streaked through an orbit 20,000 kilometers in the air, and the photo map showed a few flickering lights at night, like a few overwhelmed old-fashioned tungsten lights.

The wick struggled on the verge of being blown off.

If you treat the country as a person, it is just like Zen Buddhism's ultimate metaphor for life, old age, sickness and death, wealth and despair in this world, and turning your head is nothing more than a floating cloud in the air.

Under the clouds.

The only thing that has not changed is the Shwedagon Pagoda.

It has undergone numerous earthquakes, wars, and several large-scale repairs.

Now.

When Gu Weijing was barefoot, standing in the temple and looking at the spire of the sunset in the distance.

It is still the most important religious shrine within a radius of thousands of miles at the mouth of the Irrawaddy River, and it is also the most luxurious building.

Not even the golden pool of water after the rain has not changed.

But it should not be the Buddha who turned the rain into gold, but the glow of real gold reflected in the rain.

Gu Weijing knows.

Although the pagoda was not really made of gold, it was worth about $830 million in weight according to the current international gold price, not counting the cost of craftsmanship and labor.

According to different statistical methods, 87%~91% of the population of Myanmar are Buddhists.

But Gu Weijing is not one of them.

Even as a native of Yangon, he found that he rarely visited Shwedagon Pagoda.

Even though it's completely free for locals.

Gu Weijing only came to Dulwich once when he was in Grade 9, and for a while during the Spring Festival when he participated in the monument restoration project.

Strictly speaking.

Today is only my third visit.

But every time he stood at the foot of the Shwedagon Pagoda, he would have a sense of trance from the inside out.

Maybe it's the power of gold, maybe it's the power of religion.

It's a bit shocking, it's also a little psychedelic.

Especially today.

Gu Weijing even felt as if he was shrouded in a continuous spring rain that had fallen for 2,500 years, and he didn't know what year it was.

“My son，You are very fortunate， this‘Ceremonial Buddha Protecting the Dharma’ was painted by Master Cao Xuan himself…… (Donor, you are very lucky to see these, this "Buddha Protector Map" was personally restored by Mr. Cao Xuan himself, and the cultural value is very high——)"

Until the great monk beside him, the voice of explaining to a pair of Australian tourists came.

broke Gu Weijing's sense of confusion lost in time and space.

It seemed that the fluttering soul fell back to the ground again.

At least 20 centuries ago, monks were nowhere near as fashionable as they are today, fooling foreigners in English and calling people "My son" like missionary priests in churches.

Myanmar is a chaotic country that is also relatively closed.

But when there is no war, Yangon, Mandalay, Bagan and other places, the number of European tourists is quite large.

The great monks are all super international, and it is not uncommon to see monks running to foreigners to hone their spoken English.

Gu Weijing was working as a handyman in the project team here at the beginning of the year.

I also saw a little novice sitting on the flower bed over there, holding a GRE vocabulary book and reciting it wildly, looking sensitive and studious, wanting to go to graduate school.

He withdrew his gaze from the golden spire of the pagoda, listened to the conversation around him, and looked at the "Picture of the Buddha and Protecting the Dharma" in a space five meters square surrounded by the red ribbon that is common in art museums.

Gu Weijing has a little pride in his heart.

True.

Gu Weijing was a little unhappy - when the monk next to him introduced the tourist, he only mentioned Cao Xuan, not his name.

Scold!

It's a joint creation, do you know what a joint creation is, keep your eyes open and see if the "Cao Xuan Gu Weijing" on the commemorative plaque over there is good.

Although everyone has only heard of "Cao Xuan", they have never heard of who "Gu Weijing" is.

But you can't just because tourists haven't heard of it.

The great monk is not honest.

Stingy!

But in a sense, this is still the first work in Gu Weijing's life that has been "offered" for tourists to see.

What an artist wants all his life is not to put his works in famous venues for thousands of audiences to admire and admire.

It is a temple filled with incense, not an art museum.

Think about it.

That's a little bit ...... Little strange.

According to the habits of the Dongxia people, it is a bit of a terrible feeling of eating cold pork "the sound is especially there".

Don't worry about the little details.

There are many strange things in temples in Southeast Asia, and there are Beckham Temple and Pikachu Temple in Thailand next door.

This is still a milestone in the development of a career.

Whenever I see the tourists around me stop in front of this mural, and when I hear the monks next to me explain, I occasionally let out an exclamation of "oh oh oo".

can bring Gu Weijing a great sense of accomplishment and satisfaction.

Even though he knew very well that the object of those admirations was Cao Xuan and not himself, he was just a small pendant on his thigh.

Under the power of the fox and the tiger,

This still gives Gu Weijing the mountaintop scenery brought by some of the top cosplay painters.

Gu Weijing enjoyed the gap year next to him for a while (note, a year off from school during the school year), probably because of the admiration of the twin brothers who came to visit the Oriental style of the University of Melbourne.

Listen to them go away in the envious whispered discussion of "this painting may be worth a million".

Gu Weijing was reluctant to withdraw from this satisfaction of dopamine secretion by the brain.

Today, after school, Dulwich College did not go to the orphanage, but ran back to the Shwedagon Pagoda to revisit his hometown, but it was not at all for the sake of posing here.

It made him happy.

But in addition to being happy, he has more important goals to accomplish.

The task of breaking through the realm of sketching requires Gu Weijing to maintain the emotional level of painstaking (consummation) and even wonderful brushwork in the process of painting.

This quest prompt is too abstract.

After thinking about it, Gu Weijing really couldn't find a good starting point.

Never mind.

There is no chic ability to cross the river with a reed.

He can also use stupid methods to try to cross the river by feeling the stones.

What better object to learn than this ready-made "Buddha Protector Map" right next to home?

He could not replicate the mood of the Buddha Protector Diagram, and it was difficult for him to take shortcuts by simply copying.

But the process of Master Cao Xuan's creation - the feeling of projecting the spirit between the brushes.

Gu Weijing felt that there were still a lot of doorways in it, which were worth following his example.

Eating this piece of Cao Lao Mobaoli is one of the important purposes of his visit to the foot of the Shwedagon Pagoda today.

It is not necessary to be able to draw, and at his level, it is also difficult to imitate.

At least

He can work hard to ask himself to "read" and understand as much as possible, and to appreciate the connotation of this painting.

Considering that he once watched "The Dance at the Pancake Mill" and saw himself in the hospital.

Gu Weijing did not dare to recklessly use calligraphy and painting appraisal to disassemble the details of this painting as soon as he came up.

Instead, he chose to "face-to-face" the painting for a short time before the mural.

Stand still and think quietly.

Gu Weijing still saw some very interesting features...... They are the work of top masters, but they are completely different from the "Dance Party at the Pancake Mill".

In terms of painting characteristics, Reano is very typical of the influence of the predecessors of the Western art world, Delacroix and Gustave, who combined traditional color with impressionist methods in his creation.

He put a lot of effort into the combination of pigments, and incorporated his own unique innovations.

The colors are extremely vivid and translucent.

After all, he is a master who claims to use his brush to depict the tremor of the sun and the flow of air, and he is simply the pinnacle of playing with color, tone, temperature, saturation and lightness.

Each Renoir work is a textbook of extremely vivid color science.

And Cao Xuan is the old gentleman that Gu Weijing knew, and he felt the most reverence and respect.

There is no doubt that he is a highly respected grandmaster.

Still, what to say.

Take this painting, for example.

In terms of the expressiveness of color and the treatment of light, this "Picture of Worshipping Buddha and Protecting the Dharma" is still quite a bit different from the works of Impressionist masters in Gu Weijing's current view.

It's not just that Impressionism was almost entirely based on "light".

It is also because the "Buddha Protector Map" in front of me is a mural.

The light of the knowledge card of the "Maha Notes" provided by Gu Weijing borrowing system has taken a great advantage in color matching.

He blended the colors as much as possible with the old mural pigments around him, in order to restore the old as before.

But a mural is a mural.

Excellent is also for this classification.

Although there is no essential difference between murals and silk paintings and paper paintings in terms of painting methods and brushes, the color expression is still different.

The storage conditions are also completely different.

The fresco needs to give priority to withstanding the invasion of wind and sun, and the oil painting will deteriorate after two years under strong sunlight, while the mural needs to consider the survival time of ten years, decades or even hundreds of years, and the adhesion and durability of the pigment are far higher than whether the color of the pigment is bright or not.

In addition, the ability of paint to blend on sand and soil and the ability to diffuse and flow freely according to the artist's intention when painted on rice paper or on the surface of a plant-fiber canvas are also completely different concepts.

Compare the shortcomings of the painting method with other people's longboards, and the suspicion of Qin Qiong in the public war.

To insist that Cao Lao's painting is better is unreasonable bragging.

But this "Buddha Protector Map" also has things that are not done in Reano's works, as for ...... What is it?

It's a pity.

Gu Weijing didn't know.

In the short time spent in those weeks, Gu Weijing was more of a small follower who followed Cao Lao's side, shouting "666" there, marveling at Mr. Cao's perfection with his pen and his wonderful handling of details.

It's more about the small ones.

Now, for the first time, he has experienced the charm of this work from the perspective of an audience, quietly, well, and from the perspective of academic theory.

Before this painting, after standing for a long time, you can feel the magical attraction of this painting.

It seems to have a natural sense of serenity and serenity.

In other words.

Gu Weijing remembers that in the process of creation, Cao Xuan repeatedly emphasized that a painting should be a combination of spirit and technique.

Painting should be done in one go, and the finishing touches should be put on the table.

Perhaps an illusion.

Gu Weijing has been looking at this picture for an hour.

He seems to be able to vaguely feel that there is a "qi" flowing on the wall between Cao Lao's brushes in this painting.

It exists.

But what exactly is this "qi" - maybe it's the wrong state of mind, maybe it's not at the level needed for appreciation.

Gu Weijing can't say it.

There is a real meaning in this, and I have forgotten to argue.

He thought about it for a long time, and finally felt bored.

He knew that his thinking had reached the limit, and he didn't dare to force it.

He shook his head and looked away.

With this distraction, Gu Weijing suddenly found that the number of monks in the crowd around the isolation zone was a bit large.

Shwedagon Pagoda was originally the most important Zen monastery in Yangon, and the monks did like to wander around to find someone to chat with and practice speaking.

But in front of the small mural, there were five or six Zen masters.

The density is still a bit too high.

Normally, no matter how good Cao Xuan's painting is, no matter how precious it is.

These monks live here.

If you get used to it, it shouldn't be uncommon for a few months.

I haven't seen the sweeping aunt in the Louvre, watching the "Mona Lisa" every day?

Gu Weijing grabbed the monk who was explaining to the Australian tourists just now, and folded his hands, "Master, please ask you something, I see that this is a separation belt, is this painting going to be pulled out separately to make a tourist check-in attraction?" ”

(End of chapter)