一位攝影家的“佛教意象”
—— 讀徐大慶《亦真》

文陳曉琦 Chen Xiaoqi 圖徐大慶 Xu Daqing 譯曹宇光 Cao Yuguang

一位攝影家的“佛教意象”
—— 讀徐大慶《亦真》

文陳曉琦 Chen Xiaoqi 圖徐大慶 Xu Daqing 譯曹宇光 Cao Yuguang

A Photographer’s “Buddhist Impression”—— On "Like Reality" by Xu Daqing

佛教自東漢末年由印度傳入，大約2000多年，其間有過很多次興盛時(shí)期，“南朝四百八十寺，多少樓臺(tái)煙雨中”，描寫的就是此番盛景。中華文化浩無(wú)際涯，任何外來文化都會(huì)逐漸被其同化，佛教也是一樣，經(jīng)過多年的融合，直至形成“儒釋道”一體，因此它也成為中華文化的一個(gè)主干。所以，大量的關(guān)于佛教的字詞、典故、諺語(yǔ)、成語(yǔ)、俗話，成為百姓日常話語(yǔ)的一部分，在潛移默化中參與著民族文化和行為規(guī)范的建構(gòu)，不論信佛與否，一般人都有著或多或少的佛教見識(shí)和直接間接的佛教經(jīng)驗(yàn)，心中會(huì)隱約存在著一個(gè)以佛教或者佛意為符號(hào)的彼岸世界。當(dāng)下，雖然信息技術(shù)日新月異，人們對(duì)世界的認(rèn)知也越來越精深，但這些似乎并沒有妨礙佛教的香火鼎盛。佛教怎樣存在于人們的心中，暗示我們的生活，或者怎樣視覺化地描述自己內(nèi)心的佛教感知，成為藝術(shù)創(chuàng)作的一個(gè)龐大主題。在這樣宏大的敘事前提下，攝影家徐大慶帶領(lǐng)我們走進(jìn)了佛教名剎——少林寺。

上世紀(jì)80年代，位于中岳嵩山的少林寺因電影《少林寺》名聲鵲起，后又因其絕世武功名揚(yáng)天下，自然也成為攝影家關(guān)注的對(duì)象。許多攝影家經(jīng)年拍攝，持之以恒，建筑、生活、佛事、武功、人物，各個(gè)方面皆有大量影像留存，或詩(shī)情畫意表達(dá)個(gè)人的審美觀感、風(fēng)格追求，或真實(shí)記錄少林寺的人文風(fēng)貌，留住歷史文化。

數(shù)年前，法國(guó)年輕攝影師布津阿應(yīng)邀到少林寺創(chuàng)作，在室內(nèi)外拍攝了很多以建筑、環(huán)境為背景的武僧動(dòng)作肖像，很有視覺沖擊力，產(chǎn)生較大影響。后來，著名攝影家黑明拍攝了一組少林寺僧人的肖像，曾在故宮博物院展出，傳播甚廣。而在本土攝影師的作品中，寺院景物不僅是人物肖像的背景，還是人物生活的環(huán)境，僧人們與這樣的環(huán)境朝夕相處，直至成為一體，因而也是作品重要的表現(xiàn)內(nèi)容，體現(xiàn)了萬(wàn)物皆一、諸事平等的佛家三觀。而在布津阿的作品中，寺院景物只是純粹的造型元素，與佛家生活無(wú)關(guān)，只能用于烘托人物的形式構(gòu)成。不同的觀念角度和語(yǔ)言風(fēng)格，體現(xiàn)了中西文化的巨大差異。

攝影家徐大慶的《亦真》，用個(gè)人的觀察視角和影像語(yǔ)言，加之多重結(jié)構(gòu)的空間敘事，建構(gòu)了一個(gè)關(guān)于彼岸世界的視覺意象，也在佛教題材的攝影作品中表現(xiàn)出一種新的藝術(shù)風(fēng)格。佛塔、殿堂、香爐、經(jīng)書、袈裟、佛像、住持、僧人，這些儀式及符號(hào)經(jīng)過數(shù)千年佛教經(jīng)義的浸潤(rùn)涵化，具有了鮮明的辨識(shí)特征和人們心領(lǐng)神會(huì)的象征意義。徐大慶正是由外而內(nèi)，直指內(nèi)心的切入，對(duì)這些儀式及符號(hào)剝離、選擇、組合，漸次烘托主題，通過景觀化的圖像語(yǔ)言的陳述，營(yíng)造出一個(gè)個(gè)視覺化的佛教“故事”，喚起并印證人們經(jīng)驗(yàn)中的關(guān)于佛教的意像圖景，因而在內(nèi)心深處產(chǎn)生余音繞梁的藝術(shù)共鳴。

在《亦真》中，先聲奪人的是簡(jiǎn)潔、純凈、充滿美感和富有意味的形式，場(chǎng)景的碎片在或?qū)嵒蛱?、亦真亦幻之間和神秘意境的統(tǒng)攝下，互為支撐，互相增強(qiáng)，結(jié)為整體。儀式符號(hào)的指向性和象征意義得到了明確和強(qiáng)化，與心中的彼岸世界交相映照，佛教意像與現(xiàn)實(shí)景物相輔相成，推動(dòng)影像表現(xiàn)不斷升華，直至達(dá)到藝術(shù)與宗教水乳交融之化境，最終實(shí)現(xiàn)了攝影家心中關(guān)于佛教的意象歸宿。

一個(gè)攝影家鏡頭里的禪宗少林，帶給我們的不僅僅是藝術(shù)形式，更是心靈自由的藝術(shù)言說。徐大慶不是一個(gè)佛教徒，他對(duì)佛教的認(rèn)知恐與一般人無(wú)異。但他的拍攝作品所表現(xiàn)的藝術(shù)和宗教感染力，應(yīng)該遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)超越宗教和文化，為我們現(xiàn)實(shí)生活和未來路徑立此存照。如此美麗、純凈、莊嚴(yán)、內(nèi)蘊(yùn)豐富的十方法界，絕不僅僅是他的少林觀感和佛教意象，更是他對(duì)于這個(gè)世界莊嚴(yán)而飽滿的態(tài)度。

彼岸 Faramita

法界 Dharma Realm

婆娑Protihex

Introduced from India at the end of Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220 A.D.), Buddhism has lasted for some 2000 years in China and witnessed several periods of prosperity. As a poem line goes, there once existed 480 temples in Southern Dynasty (420-589 A.D.), which reflected a prime time for Buddhism worship. In the context of the boundless Chinese culture, any foreign culture will be gradually assimilated, including the Buddhism. Through centuries of integration, a trinity of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism is finally formed as a main part of Chinese culture as well. Consequently, a large quantity of words, idioms, set phrases and anecdotes arising from the Buddhism have become part of people’s daily conversations and subtly constructed the national culture and norm of behavior. Whether a Buddhist or not, a chinese knows some senses and direct or indirect experiences in Buddhism with awareness of an existent Faramita symbolized by Buddhism and Buddhist concepts. Currently, the information technology is evolving day and night, and people have gained more and more profound knowledge about the world, neither of which seem to obstruct the prosperity of Buddhism. It still exists in people’s heart and implies what our life will be. Moreover, how to depict the inner sense of Buddhism in a visual way has become a great theme for artistic creation. In such a grand narration background, the photographer Xu Daqing took us into the well-known resort of Buddhism—Shaolin Temple.

In the 1980s, the Shaolin Temple located at Songshan Mountain gained its reputation from the samename Kongfu film and became worldwide known for its legendary martial arts, which naturally attracted attention from photographers. Many photographers persisted in years of shooting in the temple took and a large quantity of images of architecture, daily life, Buddhist ceremony, martial arts and specific figures. Some of them intended to express vividly and poetically their own aesthetic appreciation or pursuit for styles while others preferred to give a record of humanist outlook of Shaolin Temple as a glimpse of history and culture.

A few years ago, a young French photographer Herve's Bruhat was invited to Shaolin Temple where he took many portraits of Martial Monks in the background of architecture and environment both indoors and outdoors with great visual impact and influence. Later on, the famous Chinese photographer Hei Ming shot a series of monk portraits of Shaolin Temple which were exhibited at the Palace Museum with extensive influence. Among the works by local photographers, the scenery in the Temple is not merely the background to reflect the figure, but also the living environment. Living within it day and night, those monks have become an indispensible part of it as well, which became the main contents in artistic creation in reflection of Buddhist values of universal equality. As to Bruhat’s works, the scenery, as merely a factor in creation, only served as contrast against the figure’s formation and then had nothing to do with Buddhism. Varied concepts, styles and artistic languages represent the sharp differences in culture between China and the West.

In the collection titled Like Reality by Chinese photographer Xu Daqing, he constructs a visual image about Faramita with his individual perspective of observation and photographic language in a spatial narration of multi-structure, which constitutes a novel art style in the Buddhism-themed photography. Buddhist pagoda, sanctuary, incense burner, scripts, kasaya, Buddhist statue, abbot and monk, all those ceremonies and signs, after thousands of years of Buddhist influence, have been endowed with distinct features and symbolization for people to recognize and understand. Xu Daqing chose to process some selected ceremonies and signs in new pairs to highlight the theme about the inner world, and by means of narration of landscape-like scenery, made up those Buddhist visual “stories” one after another to wake up the Buddhist indication in people’s experience as testimony and arouse an artistic sympathy of lasting aftertaste deep in heart.

In this collection Like Reality, the simple, pure formality full of beauty and significance strikes our attention. Those fragments of scenery, against a mysterious conception between reality and hallucination and between fact and vanity, support and strengthen each other as a whole. When the indication and symbolism of ceremonies and signs get confirmed and stressed, they constitute a mutual contrast with the inner Faramita. In complementary relationship, the Buddhist image and the actual scenery promote the visual presentation into a constant evolution until the perfect integration of arts and Buddhism, which is the ultimate destination of Buddhist images in this photographer’s heart.

The Shaolin Temple of Zen Buddhism in this photographer’s lens brings us not only a kind of art form, but also his artistic interpretation with a carefree soul. As Xu Daqing is not a Buddhist at all, he just knows about Buddhism as much as ordinary people. Nevertheless, the artistic and religious influence out of his photography should go far beyond the mere religion and culture, and show image evidence for our real life and future path. Such a beautiful, pure, solemn and abundant world reflects his serious and positive attitude to this world rather than his mere impression about Shaolin Temple and Buddhism.

梵行 Brahmacariya

佛弦 Buddhist String

真言Mantra