Different Conceptions Between Chinese and Western Frescoes

賴亭如

From the very beginnings of civilization， humans have developed religious thoughts and ideas. Primitive totem worship， sacrifices， witchcraft， and similar rituals all belong to this group of primitive religions. From a religious perspective， Chinese and Western frescoes embody different doctrines. Chinas Buddhism believes that everything under Heaven is a manifestation of Buddhist gods， and follows the doctrines of Buddhism. In contrast， Christians worship God， and believe that He created the greatest masterpiece – the world. Because of that， it has caused the different forms and materials of Chinese and western frescoes. And the most important reason that why they are different is just because their different conceptions in Western and Chinese religious.

Most of Chinese frescoes express the thoughts of breaking away from the reality and looking for the pure land. From this perspective， the Christians are surpassing earthliness and feeling the existence of God. They think theyre born with guilty and theyre forced by God to atone. They think that God has absolute power to rule everything in the world and they worship spirit and exclude flesh and enjoyment. Theyd like to break away from reality without any benefit. All these are the most notable characteristics of Christianity believers. Buddhism always persuades people to do nothing evil and do everything good. This is the basic teachings of Buddhism and Buddhism is a religion to persuade people to do good things. According to Buddhism， there are three times of cause and effect and people shouldnt do evils that will deceive them suffering from samara. On the other hand， there is the saying of the former life—the suffering ones in this life would get strength of bearing. They did evils in their former life， so they have to endure sufferings this life. And this is also one of the basic teachings of Buddhism.

The Buddhism teachings point out that people living in the world must cultivate minds and behaviors. For everyone， it wont end after their death， they will reincarnate according to their evils and goodness to return in the six paths of samaras. So， people living in the world must cultivate their minds and behaviors. And there are many ways to do so. People can choose different ways according to their preferences， such as the pure land Buddhism， Chan Buddhism and so on. For Buddhism， life if full of bitterness which can be divided into eight kinds：birth， old， illness， death， not begging， vitality， hatred and leaving. In a word， life is miserable.endprint

However， the doctrine of Christianity is that Gods creates everything in the world and will save the suffering people from misery. The estheticians of Christianity think that beauty comes from God and God is the identity of beauty， and human beings are created by God based on his own appearance. From this aspect， we can easily find the differences of western drawings and Chinese drawings. The western drawings tend to draw the really original shape of the objective things. They think that people are optimistic and they are willing to serve family， society， country and even the whole world. They believe that the more they serve， they more pride they can bring to God.

The Buddhism teachings believe the three lives and the wealth， poverty， life and happiness are due to the evils and goodness they did in the former life. They dont believe in fatalism. They seek for what God wants them to do and obey the orders. Christians think so because Jesus thinks so. Once， a blind young man was brought to God and the pupils asked， “My master， this young man was born with blindness. So who should be blame to， himself or his parents？” Jesus didnt give them feeble answers like Buddha. He knew that the young mans blindness might because of medicines or unhealthy midwife. Jesus had to point out that its out the young mans fault or his parents. From the positive aspect， we should think about how to heal the young man and give light to him. Jesus made the young man visual and made God proud. This is Gods attitude. Buddhists cultivate depending on their own strength and keep rules to gain goodness. They save themselves. However Christians dont rely on themselves but Gods mercy. This is the biggest difference between Buddhism and Christian. The ultimate goal for Buddhists to cultivate themselves is to be reliving， but Christians is for the eternal life. When Buddha was ill and died under a double-tree， he was said to be relived which is the ultimate goal of Buddhists. To be relived can be wrote nirvana in Indian which means dying. However， Christians have clearly answered this question， “God love all the people in the world and even grants his only child to them. Those who believe in him wont die but live forever.”

The above part is a slender analysis about the different conceptions between Chinese and western frescoes.endprint