Heat, gorges, hotpot, paper-art, pollution - Dazu Rock Carvings 912; Chinese calligraphy 00216; Art of Chinese seal engraving 00217; Chinese paper-cut 00219
What and Why
Dazu Rock Carvings (Chinese: 大足石刻, Dazushike), are a rupestrian carving series that dates back as early as 650 CE, and continued until as late as the 15th century CE. The carvings depicts the intertwining of Buddhist, Confucianist (儒家, rujia) and Taoist (道教, daojiao) beliefs, or in Chinese 三教合流 (sanjiaoheliu), leading to today's 'misunderstandings' of the merge of these beliefs. In fact if you ask many Chinese nowadays, and while they claim they worship Buddhism, they are probably practising Taoism instead.
The art form of these carvings represent the finest representations during the era and are incredibly well preserved until today. The area is an approximately three-hour drive west from the major city of Chongqing (重庆).
The concept of the bundling of the three beliefs dates back to almost the 1st century CE, first proposed by the taoist medical doctor Tao Hongjing (陶弘景), although this concept has been refuted by many scholars including the famous Sima Guang (司马光). The idea stems from the fact that the main books bear almost the same ethos, and encourages its believers to read and mix and merge the ideologies from the Buddhist Heart Sūtra (Sanskrit: प्रज्ञापारमिताहृदय, Prajñāpāramitāhṛdaya), Classic of Filial Piety (孝經, Xiaojing), Book of Morals (道德经, Daodejing) from the three respective beliefs.
Toponymy
The name Dazu (大足), meaning sufficient, derives from the old name 大丰大足 (dafengdazu) back in the 8th century CE, meaning good harvest and abundance, as the land in the area is very fertile. Chongqing (重庆) means 'repeated celebration' which commemorates the emperor Zhao Dun (赵惇) of the Song (宋) Dynasty to use his own city as an enthronement as king and then become Emperor Guangzong (光宗) as a form of 'double celebration'.
See
Dazu Rock Carvings (大足石刻)
Most of the carvings are located in the Baodingshan (宝顶山), meaning treasure peak, the area where all the carvings are placed in a horseshoe-shaped shelf on the top right hand side of the site map above. This monument represents the largest, most artistcially impressive, and most well preserved area. There are actually four more locations with the similar sets of rupestrian carvings.
The carvings are largely Buddhist themed, and is considered one of the major Chinese Buddhist sacred areas. There is a Chinese saying '上朝峨嵋，下朝宝顶' (shangchao emei, xiachao baoding), meaning if you are look up you see Emei (峨嵋), if you look down you see Baoding.
The Dazu Rock Carvings reminded me of the sligthly less colourful and worn-out but equally impressive Ajanta Caves (Hindi: अजंता गुफाएँ) in India, blogged later.
There are altogether 32 sets of more than 50,000 sculptures around the gorge. The first set shows the three saints of Buddhism representing Pure Land Buddhism (淨土宗; jìngtuzong), the sect of Buddhism practised in China.
Dazu rock carvings group 1. This section of the carvings has the highest artistic and cultural values as described by various scholars. The themes of the carvings are largely karma (Sanskrit: कर्म) related, linking them to Buddhist and Taoist teachings.
Dazu group 2: Largely Taoist sculptures.
Dazu 3 shows some extremely well-preserved Buddhist-themed sculptures.
Dazu group 4, back to some Buddhist mythological sculptures.
Dazu group 5 is almost identical niche like Ajanta showing Buddhist and Confucianist figures.
Dazu 6 - This carving features the Dhama Wheel, or dharmachakra (धर्म चक्र) in Sanskrit. This is often used as a decoration in Hindu and Buddhist temples, statues and inscriptions, and remains a major symbol of the Hindu and Buddhist religions today, especially the school from Indian Buddhism.
The exit at Baodingshan.
Hongyadong (洪崖洞)
Unfortunately Chongqing the city proper has gained much notoriety lately due to its heavy smog and is extremely hot during summer, mainly because it is situated inside the Sichuan Basin (四川盆地, Sichuanpandi). It is one of the three 'furnace cities' in China, together with Wuhan (武汉) and Nanjing (南京). Chongqing is also built within a large number of mountains and if you take on of the metro lines, especially Line 2 and 3, you will actually cross from one mountain to another via various bridges.
The main touristy part is Hongyadong (洪崖洞), meaning a cave in a gorge-cliff. It is a city gate carved out at the edge of the cliff and has been there since the 1st century CE. The current Hongyadong was rebuilt in 2005 CE by the city council as a major tourism project combining dining, entertainment, museum and accommodation into one large intertwined complex, as the main picture above.
Make sure one takes the Chongqing Cableway (重庆索道, Chongqing suodao) either from or to Hongyadong across the river gorge. It provides a great view of the city and the river gorge.
Jiefangbei Pedestrian Street (重庆解放碑步行街)
The main shopping street with the main centrepiece landmark of the city, Jiefangbei, or the People’s Liberation Monument, which is now humbly dwarfed by the large cluster of commercial buildings.
Buy and Do
Inside Hongyadong, especially the lower less popular floors, it hides a number of good art and crafts shops and many of them exhibit the traditional Chinese paper art (紙藝, zhiyi). Paper-making is considered one of four greatest Chinese inventions: the others being gunpowder, compass and printing, leading to significant contributions to Chinese and world civilisations.
In modern cultural preservation, paper is an integral part of many ICHs, not only in China but many parts of world, including the blogged washi (和紙) in Shirakawa-gō (白川郷). And in Hongyadong alone, three of them are prominently featured: Chinese calligraphy (书法, shufa), paper-cutting (剪纸, qianzhi) and seal-engraving (篆刻, zhuanke), with shops making tourist shows for all three ICHs.
Chinese calligraphy (书法)
Chinese brush calligraphy is considered a must acquired skill as a Chinese and is an education given to every Chinese's upbringing, including myself. In a sense, this is an ICH, that I will consider myself to have direct practice and full involvement, instead of just watching people doing it. This means that I am also partly responsible to perpetuate this.
Chinese calligraphy is considered as the four Chinese arts (琴棋書畫, qinqishuhua): the other three being music, or specifically the music from string-instrument qin (琴); chess, or specifically the game of Go (围棋, weiqi); and Chinese painting (畫, hua). Clearly as calligraphy transpires language it has a great status in cultural perpetuation.
Many of these calligraphic art are considered a painting or art piece of its own for sale. My brush stroke is not up to that standard yet...
Paper-cutting (剪纸)
The folk art of graphical illustration though paper-cutting dates back to the 2nd century CE. Originally paper cut-outs were often used to decorate doors and windows, and they are sometimes still referred to as window decorations or 窗花 (chuanghua).
Usually, the artworks are made of red paper, as red is associated with festivities and happiness in Chinese culture, but other colours are also sometimes used. The most famous paper-cutting characters in Chinese are 福 (fu) meaning 'lucky' and 囍 (xi), meaning 'double happiness'. Nowadays with modern techniques, even three-dimensional graphics are made.
Seal-engraving (篆刻)
The third art related to paper is seal engraving, is a traditional form of art makes a seal, while incorporating the art of calligraphy into the design of the seal or company's emblem. Today, this Chinese seal is still used by many celebrities and high-ranked officials as their official or decorative stamp, with each given a bespoke design. Again traditionally the stamp ink has always been red until today.
Eat and Drink
Hotpot (火鍋)
One has not been to Chongqing if you have not tried its celebrated hotpot (火鍋, huoguo). Clearly it needs no introduction and you have to have a certain tolerance of heat to deal with this cuisine, especially the mala (麻辣) version, where the spice is so strong that it numbs your entire buccal cavity. The main numbness character of the hotpot comes from the Sichuan pepper (花椒, huajiao), which is probably used as an anaesthetics on its own. Just thinking about it and writing this blog has made me started sweating...
We went to this restaurant called Leishen (擂神). Sichuan hotpot includes all the giblets and but the real essense is really the red hot pool of hot oil. In Leishen, this soup oil is moulded into a cartoon block of grease and slowly melted by the heat to become the soup. To reduce the heat, the food is usually served by dipping into a bowl of sesame oil before eating. Apparently all Sichuanese are so used to the heat, that any reduction of its numbness and fire is a suggestion of disrespect!.
Xiaomian (小面)
The other specialty in Chongqing is the xiaomian (小面), meaning little noodles. The small dish is a traditional breakfast or street staple dish in Chongqing and is typically low-priced. Xiaomian is typically prepared with a good mixture of minced meats, vegetables and of course Sichuan peppers and spices. We had a good sample of the noodles in the famous branch Yuxiaomian (愚小面).
Stay
We stayed, because of work, in the Haiyu Hotspring Hotel (重庆海宇温泉大酒店, Chongqing Haiyu wenquan dajiudian) a bit far from the city centre. It is something of an unknown that Chongqing has a lot of hotsprings, and many hotels, especially near the mountainous North are hotspring hotels. Clearly not up to the Japanese standards of the same kind like those blogged in Narusawa (鳴沢), but not too shabby neither.
Getting There and Around
Chongqing has good metro system and of course you can reach any cities in China via high-speed train now. Reaching Dazu Rock Carvings requires a 3-hour drive from the city centre. As mentioned in other blogs, entry tickets to Chinese monuments are now very expensive. This site costs CNY 120¥.
Chongqing deserves at least three days of visit, and if possible spend sometime taking its metro as it crosses mountains and valleys. The subway system is amazing and some videos of it have set the internet ablaze. The rail system curves and goes up and down like roller coasters around the mountains, underground and gorges. Moreover they go along and across rivers and one line goes through buildings as in Liziba (李子坝) station. In fact the system contains the longest monorail system in the world.
UNESCO Inscriptions
The steep hillsides of the Dazu area contain an exceptional series of rock carvings dating from the 9th to the 13th century. They are remarkable for their aesthetic quality, their rich diversity of subject matter, both secular and religious, and the light that they shed on everyday life in China during this period. They provide outstanding evidence of the harmonious synthesis of Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism.
Chinese calligraphy has always been more than simply a tool for communication, incorporating as it does the element of artistry for which the practice is still valued in an age of ballpoint pens and computers. Indeed, calligraphy is no longer the basic tool of intellectuals and officials but has become the preserve of professional artisans and amateur enthusiasts. Whether they are recording information or simply creating beautiful forms, calligraphers’ brushes are used to ink five different styles of script, known as ‘seal’, ‘official’, ‘cursive’, ‘running’ and ‘regular’. The art may appear on any writing surface – even the rocky walls of cliffs – but it is especially common on letters, scrolls, works of literature and fan coverings. Today, in addition to traditional master-apprentice instruction, calligraphy is also taught at school. Many ceremonies that mark national celebrations and religious rituals incorporate the practice and calligraphy has itself proved influential on modern art, architecture and design. In its distinctive Chinese form, calligraphy offers an important channel for the appreciation of traditional culture and for arts education. It is also a source of pride and pleasure for the Chinese people and embodies important aspects of the country’s intellectual and artistic heritage.
Present throughout China and in various ethnic groups, paper-cut is a popular art integral to everyday lives. A predominantly female pursuit, it is transmitted from mother to daughter over a long period of time, beginning in childhood, and is particularly common in rural areas. It earns the most skilful artists respect and admiration. Many techniques are used: the paper can be cut or engraved with a chisel, coloured or left blank. Increasingly, modern technologies are used. Motifs, which vary greatly and are often devised by the artist, depend on the region of origin (for example, in southern China fine and delicate motifs predominate) and the purpose of the product, which might be used for interior decor (windows, beds and ceilings), festivities (weddings, birthdays and ceremonies), or prayers (invoking the rain, warding off the devil, and so on). As a key part of Chinese social life in all ethnic groups, paper-cut expresses the moral principles, philosophies and aesthetic ideals of its exponents. It continues to provide an outlet for emotion and is experiencing an unprecedented revival.
The art of seal engraving is a cornerstone of Chinese fine arts. The seal was originally used as a signature or sign of authority, but it came to be used by all social classes and in much of Asia. The Seal Engravers’ Society of Xiling in Zhejiang Province, central China, which was founded a century ago, preserves the art of seal engraving along with approximately a hundred other specialized institutions. The design is first sketched on paper, and then engraved on stone, in reverse, with a knife. In addition to mastery of traditional calligraphy, the art of engraving requires a high degree of virtuosity, since the artist works on a tiny surface area where every curve, every thickness of line counts. The very diverse motifs are the fruit of the artist’s imagination and culture. As an instrument of calligraphy and painting, the seal is a work of art in itself. It expresses an entire culture’s ideas about humankind and nature. Today, seals continue to be used in official documents and private correspondence. Even though those understanding the complex characters are ever fewer, the art of seal engraving is still practised by both professionals and amateurs.
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