Liu Songnian’s “Three Axes Of Luohan Painting” And The Song Dynasty Luohan Offering

This paper takes Liu Songnian,a painter of the Southern Song Dynasty who is now in the Taipei Palace Museum,as the research material,and discusses the theme of painting according to the scheme and religious meaning of the work.Combined with the social background of Liu Songnian’s painting era and the Luohan beliefs of the Southern Song Dynasty,the motivation and purpose of the production of “Luohan Painting Three Axes” were discussed.The entire text is divided into four chapters.The first chapter attempts to construct Liu Songnian’s personal painting appearance,as well as the real life of the Hangzhou court painter during the Southern Song Dynasty,from Liu Songnian’s life,surviving works,and possible teacher-inheritance relationships.The second chapter,starting from the background of the times,discovers the popularity of the eschatological view of Buddhism in the two Song Dynasties,and the Luohan faith reached its peak.This paper sorts out the development of Luohan beliefs and introduces the offering ceremonies of Luohan and the stylistic changes of Luohan painting,mainly the main Luohan painting styles in Zhejiang during the Southern Song Dynasty.Chapter3,from the analysis of the three Luohan paintings,reveals the meaning and programming source of each element in the picture;It shows the connection between the picture and the Buddhist concept of almsgiving,and discusses in detail the corresponding offerings of each axis.In the fourth chapter,a new interpretation of Liu Songnian’s “Three Axes of Arhat Painting” was proposed through research,and the “Lay Priest Asking the Scripture” should be renamed “The Lay Priest Offering the Scripture”,reflecting the style of writing scriptures and offering offerings in the two Song Dynasties.Secondly,by comparing and combing the Luohan painting styles in Ningbo and Hangzhou of the Southern Song Dynasty,it is revealed that Liu’s Luohan paintings skillfully combine the strengths of the two places and give birth to their own unique style.Finally,the author boldly speculates that Liu’s Luohan paintings should have been four-axis,which were the “Four Seasons Arhats” created by the Song people’s four-hour view,and the creative significance of the three-axis works is different from the scholarly belief that it is to pray for the country or provide for the court.