After the publishing of my book Interpreting Jing Hao ( 《解读荆浩》), it has been commented that the Qingchan Temple (青禅寺) Incident that involved the old abbot kidnapping the empress is no more than a baseless myth. Hence, I write this article to further examine this event. This article first discusses the question of Jing Hao’s (荆浩) place of origin, which was definitely not Qinyang (沁阳) or Jiyuan (济源), but Qinshui (沁水) in Shanxi (山西). While proving that Jing Hao’s place of origin was Qinshui, the Qingchan Temple Incident with which Jing Hao was involved can be examined in depth. I discuss why the Qingchan Temple Incident, which took place in Qinshui’s Honghe Valley (红河谷) against the backdrop of the Wuzong Emperor (武宗r.840-846)’s Great Anti-Buddhist Persecution, is an indisputable historical event. Then by analyzing several ruins, I demonstrate that the Qingchan Temple Incident was a bloody massacre. Moreover, through examining the records in the (New and Old) Books of the Tang Dynasty (新旧《唐书》) on the Wuzong Emperor and his concubines and children, I show that the kidnapping of the empress by the old abbot of the Qingchan Temple was arguably a credible event. Moreover, even if no kidnapping ever took place, there is enough to prove the factualness of the nineteen year-old Jin Hao (靳浩) taking refuge in the woods during the massacre of the monks of Qingchan Temple by imperial soldiers, an event preserved in oral tradition in the areas of Qinshui and Nanyang (南阳) . It is also true that Jin Hao changed his surname from Jin (靳) to Jing (荆, or “tree”) in order to thank the woods for saving his life, and that Jing Hao’s father lost his life in this massacre. This was the connection between Jing Hao and the Qingchan Temple Incident. Thus, the several ruins in the Honghe Valley related to the Qingchan Temple Incident can serve as indisputable evidence that Jing Hao’s place of origin is the abandoned village of Shihe (实和) in Qinshui, Shanxi. Keywords: Jing Hao, Qinshui, Shanxi, Qingchan Temple Incident
The Chinese and English abstracts of this article were written by the editorial staff. We hope Mr. Dai would forgive and point out any shortcomings in it. Within the five-millennia evolutionary history of civilizations in China, the Song period had the greatest contribution to Chinese culture. The Song’s cultural achievements was the guide for culture thereon after. The Song era was China’s cultural renaissance, bringing China’s cultural development to a zenith. Its extraordinarily remarkable paintings enjoyed a colorful career, yet the skills behind them did not survive. Strictly speaking, Chinese painting began after the Wei and Jin periods (3rd to 5th centuries) alongside the advent of the scroll. By the Song period (10th-13th centuries), the various subgenres of painting reached their summit. However, not only are the tally of Song paintings in museum collections incomplete, there are the ones in private collections around the world that are even more impossible to survey. Although the majority of Song paintings are collected in China, there are scholars in other countries such as the United States who are ever more passionate about this field and have their unique perspectives. Due to the cultural gap between China and the West, the resources/collections in China have not been fully utilized, as there are few opportunities to appreciate and study them. Whereas in a Western country like the United States, there are procedures for one to make appointments to undertake the necessary research, which can then be published. Nowadays, places such as the US, Japan, and Taiwan are all key locations outside of the Chinese mainland for the study of pre-modern Chinese paintings. As for my path toward understanding Song paintings, the story would have to be traced back to around 1960, when printed materials such as postcards started to feature pre-modern paintings of the flowers-and-birds (花鸟) genre. This article introduces a painting that I have collected called Two Immortals (《二仙图》), by Wu Zongyuan (武宗元), a master of human figure paintings (人物画) in the Northern Song period. The skills behind the Two Immortals have not been passed down. The painting has the collection seals of Xiang Yuanbian (项元卞) and An Qi (安奇). This article also attempts to demonstrate that the Scroll of Eighty Seven Immortals (《八十七神仙卷》) that was in the collection of Xu Beihong (徐悲鸿) could be the work of Wu Zongyuan, who was probably born between 970-980. Keywords: Song painting, Wu Daozi, Wu Zongyuan, Xu Beihong, Xiang Yuanbian, An Qi, Scroll of Eighty Seven Immortals.