Wubin Dharma Map Axis

[Wu Bin Da Mo Map Axis]

Da Mo Map Axis, Ming Dynasty, Wu Bin’s painting, paper edition, color setting, 118.8 cm vertically and 53.1 cm horizontally
The picture depicts the story of Dharma, the first ancestor of Chinese Zen Buddhism, meditating on the wall. In the picture, Dharma has dense hair, a bun on the top of his head, long earlobes, and features the face of a Buddhist monk. However, his eyebrows and nose bridge are not the deep eyes and high nose of people in the Western Regions, but the characteristics of Han people. Dharma was wearing a red cassock, with his right chest bare, and sat on a futon with folded hands. The face of Dharma is carefully portrayed, and the cassock pattern is simple and rough, which incorporates the strokes of war pen and nail head and mouse tail. The setting is simple, with a huge stone standing diagonally behind the Dharma. The outline of the stone is lightly marked with light ink. It pays attention to the texture of the stone with ink halo. The ink color is deep and silent, and blends with the artistic conception of Dharma’s meditation on the wall
The painter at the bottom right of this painting has his own title: “Wu Binzhai, the head of Zhiyin, worships and writes.” The next seal is “Wu Binzhi’s seal”, Zhu Wen, and “Wu Wenzhong’s surname”, Bai Wen. In the lower left corner, there are “Xie” Zhu Wen and “A” Zhu Wen Collection Seal
Since the rise of Zen in the Tang Dynasty, the sixth ancestor of Zen has become a popular theme among scholars and professional painters, among which the theme of Dharma facing the wall and crossing the river is the most popular. From the reading of “Wu Binzhai, the Zhiyintou Tuo, worships and writes in the heart” at the lower right corner of the picture and the collection seal of “A Xiu Room Offering” at the lower left corner, it should be a work with practical religious function. Cao Rong’s postscript in the early Qing Dynasty after Dai Jin’s “The Picture of the Six Ancestors of Dharma” in the Liaoning Provincial Museum was collected. He advised Cheng Junji not to be influenced by the pictures from the point of view of the importance of Zen Buddhism. He believed that “to participate in meditation without painting is superior”. Cao Rong’s postscript also explained the fact that “to participate in meditation with painting” existed at that time from the reverse side