《诡谲图像与古代人的精神世界》讲座回顾
2018年1月27日
“天命玄鸟，降而生商，宅殷土芒芒。古帝命武汤，正域彼四方。”
步入《神游》展厅，一定会惊叹于艺术家李振宁的想象力，造型千奇百怪的各类神兽，时躺时立、时而带有怪谲的表情、时而又安详静谧地让人出神。其实自古以来，中国人充沛的想象力给予我们民族极为丰富的图像学遗产，从良渚时代的玉器纹样，到先秦青铜礼器的饕餮文饰；从历代墓葬的壁画，到随葬器物中多种姿态的“镇墓兽”，这一以图像表达意识的方式在中华民族的血统中一脉相承。
那，这些图像背后究竟代表了当时人们怎样的思想？波云诡谲的神又与日常生活的人有着哪些千丝万缕的联系？2018年1月27日，上海玻璃博物馆就邀请到了复旦大学文物与博物馆学系教授、博士生导师吕静女士为公众带来了一场充满奇幻的古代中国人精神饕餮的盛宴。我们一起来回顾一下这次讲座的主要内容吧！
开场，吕静教授就以PIXAR动画电影coco的海报引入——墨西哥亡灵节，这是一场关于生与死的狂欢，也是一场想象力与美的碰撞。在对于死后世界的畅想与寄托上，中国和墨西哥有着诸多的相似处：作为一个以农耕立国的古文明，中国人大都采用土葬的形式，而在传统的葬俗中，人们会带着大量的随葬品进入死后的世界，而这些被称为“明器（冥器）”的物品上描刻着不计其数的纹样与图案，往往是对于来世的期许和祝福。
人是有情绪、有思想的生命体，图案或造型是散发情绪和述说想法的载体。关于来世的图案，实则是存于今生的人们述说的情感，所有文物中的图像都是该时代人们对自然和社会的认识、感知的表达形式。
纹样和图案的变化背后联系着人类生产、生活方式的改变以及对于整个世界观的变化。同样的神兽主题在不同的时代，以不同的表现形式反复出现，也帮助现代人揭示了许多文字记载中失传的古人的精神世界，以及中国人在这片土地上不断改造着世界，调整着与各种鸟兽之间的相处关系。动物，是人类生存的“衣食父母”，是同伴，是友朋，很多时候更是敌对方……但千百年来，中国人始终没有改变对于这片土地的热爱——这也是图像中表达出的最炙热的情感。
将近两个小时的讲座过后，听众们的脸上丝毫没有看到一丝倦意，反而闪烁的目光中充满了好奇，很多观众还纷纷提问，与吕静先生探讨了相关图腾纹样与思想变化的话题，热烈的氛围也更让博物馆体会到作为公众与文化嫁接桥梁的价值和意义。
文字由上海玻璃博物馆根据讲座内容整理
Quirky images and the ancients’ mental world lecture review
January 27, 2018
When you walk in wanderingexhibition room, you would be surprised with Li Zhenning’s imagination. These mythical creatures with different styles either lie on the floor, or stand vertically, or even in a peaceful state that makes visitors lost in thought. Down the ages, Chinese abundant imaginations offered our nations affluent heritage of iconology, from jade-ware pattern in Liangzhu era to Taotie (a mythical ferocious animal) emblazonry; from mural paintings from past ages tombs to “tomb-guardians” with different postures from wares which were buried with the dead, this approach which uses images to express consciousness is passing on through Chinese blood lineage.
Well, what are the thoughts behind these images? Do unpredictable immortals and people in daily lives have relationship with each other? On the 27thof January, 2018, Shanghai Glass Museum invited Dr. Lv Jing, the professor and doctoral supervisor in Fudan university, department of cultural relics and museums to give the public an extraordinary show which was filled with ancient Chinese people’s mental world. Let’s review the main contents of this lecture.
The changes of patterns and designs relates to the changes of human productive activity, living ways and the entire world outlook. The same mythical-creature theme appeared repeatedly in different eras and different expressive forms, it also helps modern people reveal ancient men’s’ spiritual worlds that were lost in written records as well as Chinese are always changing this world and adjusting the relationship between animals. Animals, are people that rely on for a living, are peers, are friends, but are enemies in most of the time… however, over thousands of years, Chinese have never changed the deep love of the ground——it’s also the fervent emotions that are expressed in these images.
Over the two-hour lecture, from the audience’s faces, we didn’t’ see any weariness, instead, they showed curiosities from there twinkling eyes. Many of them even raised questions and discussed the related patterns and changes of thinking with Dr. Lv Jing. The enthusiastic environment made the museum more aware of the values and significance of bridging the public and cultures.
The texts above are organized by Shanghai Glass Museum according to the lecture content.
