White Tiger Wadang in Four Gods Wadang

The Han Dynasty was the heyday of the development of tile-dang craft. During this period, the tile was beautifully made, and a new tile decorated with seal script appeared. Most of these tiles are seal script, with harmonious arrangement and exquisite layout, which shows the simple and rich artistic style of Han Dynasty. Most of the characters are auspicious words, and artistic appreciation can be compared with exquisite seals.

In the Han Dynasty, it was best to decorate tiles with animals. In addition to the four gods of Qinglong, Baihu, Suzaku and Xuanwu, there are rabbits, deer, cows and horses.

The ornamentation of tile in Han Dynasty was more exquisite. The four gods, Qinglong, Baihu, Suzaku and Xuanwu, in the Wangmang period, have both form and spirit and extraordinary strength, which are the representative works of this period. There are also various animal and plant patterns, such as tortoise pattern, mosquito pattern, leopard pattern, crane pattern, jade rabbit pattern, mosaic pattern and so on. Among the tiles in the Han dynasty, the number of Chinese tiles is the largest, which is characterized by the division of boundaries in shape, centering on nipples and beads, and the inscriptions are arranged in a fixed pattern, and change up and down, left and right within this range. The number of characters varies, up to more than ten words, such as "Long live the Millennium", "Changle Weiyang", "Long life without borders" and "Yongfu". Fonts include Xiao Zhuan, Flower-Bird-Insect Zhuan, Lishu and Shu Zhen. With its dense layout and rough brushwork, it has become a unique collection of China pottery products.

Wadang in Han Dynasty inherited the tile shapes of Qin Dynasty and before, which were semi-circular and circular. Semi-circular tiles were popular in the early Han dynasty, and the shape changes of circular tiles are as follows: the style of tiles in the early Han dynasty is similar to that in Qin dynasty, and the characteristics are more obvious after Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty. The tile surface is printed by die and pasted on the tile cylinder blank, so the tile surface is generally enlarged, the back is smooth, there is no trimming, the tile side wheel is wide and flat, and the texture is obviously better than that of Qin tile. The color of pottery is gray or light gray.

Plain tiles in the Western Han Dynasty are rare, mostly decorative bricks and word tiles. Decorative bricks can also be divided into two categories: image painting and pattern painting. There are many kinds of images. According to the Records of Shaanxi Jinshizhi, there are dozens of species such as LAM Raymond, lin xi, Hong Fei, Pisces, Jade Rabbit and Toad, with ingenious composition and originality. It is worth noting that, unlike the brick and tile images in Qin dynasty, which are based on real life, the brick and tile images in Han dynasty are mostly rare birds and animals that are detached from real life through high artistic exaggeration. Through rich imagination, ingenious conception and delicate but not complicated line drawing, the simple, vigorous, bold and magnificent artistic style of the Han Dynasty is vividly expressed and very romantic. Hanwa type

Moer tile

According to the distinction of tile decoration, it can be basically divided into three categories: image tile, pattern tile and text tile.

◆ Image corrugated tile

Representative works:

Dragon-shaped tiles were unearthed in Chang 'an site in the Western Han Dynasty. Diameter 19.5 cm, and the side wheel is wider. The face is the image of a dragon with bulging eyes and a long beard, and the dragon body is decorated with fine scales.

The diameter of toad jade rabbit tile is 18 cm, and the side wheel is the main gear. The patterns on the face are mainly toad and jade rabbit. Toad has round eyes, a bulging belly, a short tail behind it, and its limbs bend and jump. Jade rabbit's eyes, ears, ears and long tail leap, surrounded by creeping grass patterns, covering up the image of toad and jade rabbit in the folklore moon palace.

Four-god pattern tiles are composed of four kinds of tiles decorated with dragon pattern, white tiger pattern, suzaku pattern and Xuanwu pattern. They are applied to halls and pavilions in different directions in the east, west, south and north, and many sites of Chang 'an City in Han Dynasty have been unearthed.

◆ Pattern tiles

Representative works:

Moire tile is the largest tile in the Western Han Dynasty. Its pattern is characterized by round buttons in the center of the face, or decorated with triangle, diamond, plaid pattern, breast nail pattern, leaf pattern, petal pattern and so on. Moire occupies the main part of a large area in the center of the face, and the pattern changes are very complicated and diverse. According to the main changes of moire patterns, it can be roughly divided into three types: curly moire tiles and claw moire tiles.

◆ Word tiling

The word "Wadang" has the most characteristics of the times and occupies a prominent position in the Han Dynasty. Rich in content and gorgeous in rhetoric. It contains auspicious prayers, such as "Eternal Promise", "Endless Changle", "Endless Eternity", "Endless Prosperity", "Long Live the Millennium" and "Immortality", as well as palaces, tombs, warehouses and private houses. Most of the characters are in Yang Wen, and the number of words varies from one to dozens.

Representative works: Wai Zi Wa Dang, handed down from generation to generation, mostly from the ruins of Chang 'an City in Han Dynasty. Face to face is a word "Wei", which is generally occupied face to face. Some "Wei" is small, and there is a week outside the word. Some are painted with cinnabar or chalk. For example, a piece of Ganquan Palace site in Liang Wudi Village, Chunhua County, Shaanxi Province, with a diameter of15cm and a side width of1.2cm, has the word "Wei" in official script on the front. Judging from the unearthed place, it should belong to the tile used by the Wei official department of Hanganquan Palace.

Wadang was the mainstream of Han Dynasty. Needless to say, its rich content and exquisite calligraphy value are highly praised by scholars of all ages. Calligraphy and painting have the same origin, and calligraphy is a unique artistic category and aesthetic object in China. It transforms the beauty of lines and is more free and diverse than the abstract geometric patterns of painted pottery. The linear motion and spatial structure of lines express and express various postures, emotions and interests, and finally form the unique line art in China.

Artistic feature

Shanglin Wadang in the period of Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty

Wadang in Han Dynasty integrated painting, relief, arts and crafts and calligraphy. With its unique artistic forms and decorative techniques, it has become a very distinctive art category in China's ancient art treasure house, and has always played a lasting artistic charm for thousands of years.

◆ Beautiful materials for tile decoration.

The theme of tile decoration in Han dynasty is very rich, and the materials of tile decoration cover almost all parts of heaven, underground, mythical world and human life. From the imaginary beast gluttony, dragon and phoenix, totem of four gods, to all kinds of birds and animals, flowers and trees, houses, figures, clouds and various abstract geometric lines in nature, patterns and words express all kinds of thoughts and feelings. , depicting a dragon and phoenix dance, deer running towards the tiger, birds flying and fish jumping, auspicious clouds lingering around, full of extraordinary vitality and exuberant vitality. With the unique sensitivity of art, we can accommodate all kinds of political, economic, cultural and ideological and religious fantasies in social life in an extremely limited space.

◆ Beauty of decorative bricks

Ceramic tile art is also a kind of plastic art, besides the shape of the volume of ceramic tile itself, what is more important is the shape of decorative pattern. The ancient ceramic tiles in China are generally semicircular and circular, and the circular arc is a dynamic and rhythmic shape. As the background and foil of decorative modeling, it can highlight the echo and unity of the whole picture in stillness and movement, and enhance the overall aesthetic feeling of artistic image.

The romantic color of Han art has been well reflected and integrated in the modeling of tiles. With large-scale movements and highly exaggerated body posture, he created a flying, simple and lovely artistic image with wild dynamics. For example, the four-winged tiger, toad and jade rabbit are all bold and rough sketches, without any direct details. The length is disproportionate, the straight lines, corners and squares are so prominent, lacking femininity, looking so clumsy, stuffy and unnatural. However, all this has increased their strength and beauty of momentum, and formed the simple style of Han art, which is simple but not vulgar, boastful but not decorative, decorative but not fake. That kind of vigorous life, that kind of naive and wild momentum, that kind of self-confident power to conquer the world, rather, shows the spirit of integrity of the Chinese nation.

◆ The structural beauty of tile-shaped ornamentation

Ceramic tile is a practical decorative building accessory. This determines that ceramic tiles must be decorated in the most eye-catching and prominent composition form in a limited area, under the heavy restrictions of looking up and farsightedness, on the roof and eaves with considerable height. Whether it is a symmetrical structure of the central axis, a radiating circular structure or an arbitrary flexible structure, the decoration of ancient tiles tries to achieve outstanding theme, balanced structure and give full play to the decorative effect, which is both costly and ingenious.

Symmetrical structure of central axis: most tile-shaped ornamentation is symmetrical. This symmetrical structure is the traditional feature of China's classical art.

Radiant circular structure: this structure is mainly used for patterned tiles, which extend radiation lines in all directions with the center of the circle as the center, such as sun pattern.

Arbitrary structure: animal image decoration is mainly this arbitrary structure, and the picture is free and eclectic. There is a main decoration full of pictures.

◆ The artistry of writing ceramic tiles

Tile characters are mostly seal script, and rarely official script. Within the specific scope of the circle, the circle is used to promote long and short lines. Do what you want for each other, don't be square. Give full play to the decorative art effect of seal script. According to statistics, there are as many as 120 kinds of changes in the seal script of Wadang, which can be described as spectacular. The beauty of seal script is based on the line composition and physical structure evolved from hieroglyphics, that is, straight and appropriate, freely vertical and horizontal, freely connected and perfectly laid out. It is by using the limited space that Wa Dang's calligraphy vividly embodies this beauty and achieves the same artistic effect as seal cutting.

In addition, there are a small number of artistic variants such as bird and insect seal, such as the tile-shaped word "forever receiving wealth", which is beautiful and vigorous, especially strange.