Are there secret meanings behind these paintings of mountains and rivers?

這些山水畫背後是否有什麼祕密含義？

September 13, 2017, the New York Times published an article, If Those Mountains Could Talk, featuring the Chinese landscape exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum, called Streams and Mountains Without End.

2017年9月13日，《紐約時報》發表文章《如果那些山會說話》，介紹了大都會博物館舉辦的中國山水畫展《溪山無涯》。

One of the things that visitors who are more familiar with other parts of the museum will recognize when they come into our galleries immediately is that the formats of the painting are a little different from what you would see in the European painting galleries, and the materials are different.

對博物館其他部分比較熟悉的參觀者進入我們的展廳後，會立刻發現繪畫的形式與在歐洲繪畫展廳看到的有些不同，材料也不一樣。

So to start with the main formats of Chinese painting that you'll see in this show, hand scroll format, where you have a scroll that reads from right to left, and kind of cinematic in that it flows over time.

首先，我們來介紹一下這次展覽中的中國畫的主要形式：手卷形式，即從右到左閱讀的長卷，這種形式有點像電影，隨著時間的推移而流動。

We also have hanging scrolls that hang on walls, fans that people would paint on, and albums.

我們還有掛在牆上的掛軸、人們在上面作畫的扇子和畫冊。

Those are the main formats.

這些是主要格式。

And generally the paintings are on either paper, what is sometimes called rice paper in English, a very absorbent paper, and then silk.

一般來說，畫作要麼是在紙上，有時在英語中被稱為宣紙，一種吸水性很強的紙，要麼是在絹上。

This exhibition, which showcases more than 120 Chinese landscape paintings in three rotations, offers some insights into this thousand-year-old Chinese tradition.

本次展覽共展出 120 多幅中國山水畫，分三期輪展，讓人們對這一具有千年歷史的中國傳統有了一些瞭解。

Each rotation will last five to six months, and the show will run from August 26, 2017 to January 6, 2019.

每次輪換將持續五到六個月，演出將從 2017 年 8 月 26 日持續到 2019 年 1 月 6 日。

Generally the materials are light-sensitive, and so that's part of why we do all these rotating exhibitions in these galleries, is because we'll put works on view for a little while, a few months or so, and then we'll take them off.

一般來說，這些材料都對光敏感，所以這也是我們為什麼要在這些畫廊裡舉辦輪展的部分原因，因為我們會把作品展出一段時間，幾個月左右，然後我們就會把它們撤下。

So we're in the first gallery of the exhibition now.

我們現在在展覽的第一展廳。

This is the gallery that's named after the exhibition itself.

這就是以展覽本身命名的畫廊。

It's called Streams and Mountains Without End.

它的名字叫 "溪山無盡"。

And I'm standing in front of the painting that sort of stimulated this exhibition in my mind.

我站在那幅畫前，這幅畫激發了我對這次展覽的想象。

This is a long landscape hand scroll from around the turn of the 15th century.

這是一幅大約創作於 15 世紀之交的山水長卷。

It's a Ming Dynasty painting.

這是一幅明代畫作。

Actually looking at it, unrolling it piece by piece for the viewer, him or herself, is a kind of a journey.

實際上，觀看這幅畫，為觀賞者自己逐片展開它，是一種旅行。

And so you begin in this little mountain hamlet here.

你就從這個小山村開始吧。

You can see that the season is springtime.

可以看出，這個季節是春天。

There are little figures in here that we can follow throughout the landscape and sort of travel with them.

這裡有一些小人物，我們可以跟隨他們一起遊覽整個景觀。

Here we have two guys crossing a bridge.

這裡有兩個人在過橋。

Here a turbulent patch of water with a boat that's being pulled back into shore.

這裡是一片波濤洶湧的水域，一艘船被拉回岸邊。

And as you move through the landscape, something really interesting happens.

當你在景觀中穿行時，有趣的事情就會發生。

The seasons actually change from what appears to be spring in the beginning through a kind of summery, mist-suffused summer scene into autumn.

四季的變化實際上是從一開始看似春天的景象，經過一種夏天的霧氣瀰漫的夏景，進入秋天。

And then finally, at the end of the scroll, you conclude with a snow scene, winter.

最後，在畫卷的末尾，你以一幅冬天的雪景作為結尾。

We're in the second gallery now.

我們現在在第二展廳。

This is the gallery called The Landscape of Poetry.

這就是名為 "詩歌的風景 "的畫廊。

And all the paintings in this gallery were made in some kind of response to poetry.

這個畫廊裡的所有畫作都是對詩歌的某種迴應。

This painting is particularly fun.

這幅畫特別有趣。

And here we see a guy sitting here at the water's edge.

在這裡，我們看到一個人坐在水邊。

And then up here, we see a bank of clouds rising from this marshy floodplain.

然後在這裡，我們看到雲層從沼澤洪泛區升起。

And so, you know, over time, people have come to think that this is this Wong Wei poem that says, I walk to the place where the water ends, and I sit and watch at the time when the clouds rise.

是以，隨著時間的推移，人們開始認為這是黃維的詩句："行到水窮處，坐看雲起時"。

As early as 1,000 years ago, Chinese artists wanted their paintings to be poetry, not merely a copy of the real scene.

早在 1000 年前，中國藝術家就希望自己的畫是詩，而不僅僅是對真實場景的複製。

Calligraphy writings are often a part of the Chinese painting.

書法作品通常是中國畫的一部分。

Some are poems to describe the painted scene.

有些是描繪繪畫場景的詩歌。

Others are the painting's title, artist's signature and date, or other notations about that painting.

還有一些是畫作的標題、藝術家的簽名和日期，或有關該畫作的其他說明。

I'm standing in front of, in some ways, one of the most exciting artworks in the exhibition because this is from a private collection, and it's a very old, very important early treasure of what we call the literati painting movement.

從某種程度上說，我站在展覽中最令人興奮的藝術品前，因為它來自私人收藏，是我們所說的文人畫運動中一件非常古老、非常重要的早期珍品。

This is painting made sort of by scholars for scholars.

這是一幅由學者為學者創作的畫作。

And this is the kind of painting that's really trying to operate like poetry.

這就是那種真正試圖像詩歌一樣運作的繪畫。

It's not telling you everything.

它並沒有告訴你一切。

It's just suggesting around the edges.

這只是邊緣建議。

And your job as a knowledgeable viewer is to sort of finish the sentence.

作為一名知識淵博的觀眾，你的任務就是把話說完。

Gallery 3 is a landscape of magic.

3 號展廳是一幅神奇的風景畫。

To an educated Chinese viewer, when they see the blue-green landscapes, they will think of two things.

對於受過教育的中國觀眾來說，當他們看到藍綠色的風景時，會想到兩件事。

One is of the distant past, antiquity, and the other is magic.

一個是遙遠的過去、古代，另一個是魔法。

Blue-green palette, when it's used for landscapes, it was kind of another sort of symbolic code in Chinese landscape painting, where the painter is signaling to you that the world depicted within is very much a kind of magical landscape.

藍綠色調用於山水畫時，是中國山水畫中的另一種象徵代碼，畫家在向你暗示，畫中描繪的世界是一種非常神奇的景觀。

This is not a place that you could just walk out your front door and hop on a horse and go visit.

這不是一個走出家門就能騎上馬去參觀的地方。

This is a place that you would need to go through some kind of magical portal to get to.

這個地方需要通過某種神奇的傳送門才能到達。

These are actually the kind of stones, the kind of minerals that would be used to create the pigments that would be used in these vibrant paintings.

實際上，這些石頭和礦物就是用來製作這些生動畫作的顏料的。

So for instance, we have malachite, the green on the right.

例如，右邊的綠色就是孔雀石。

This is lapis lazuli.

這是青金石。

That was sometimes used, azurite, another blue mineral.

有時也會用到天青石，另一種藍色礦物。

The fourth gallery is called Landscape of Reclusion.

第四個展廳名為 "回溯的風景"。

We're standing in the fourth gallery here, and this is called the Landscape of Reclusion.

我們現在站在第四展廳，這裡被稱為 "回溯的風景"。

And here I'm dealing with this idea that's very prevalent in Chinese art, Chinese literature, Chinese intellectual philosophy, this idea that when things are going haywire in society, it is a totally acceptable solution to turn your back on society and to retreat into the mountains, to just communing either with nature or with literature, with poetry.

在這裡，我討論的是在中國藝術、中國文學、中國思想哲學中非常普遍的一種觀念，即當社會出現混亂時，完全可以採取一種背離社會、隱居山林的解決辦法，與自然或文學、詩歌進行交流。

These are two renderings of one particular guy's kind of retirement villa, the place that he went to get away from it all.

這兩張效果圖是一個人的退休別墅，是他遠離一切的地方。

For casual viewers, the small shed and tiny human figures can easily be missed compared to the majesty of nature.

對於普通觀眾來說，與雄偉的大自然相比，小棚屋和渺小的人物很容易被忽略。

This is the sixth gallery in the exhibition.

這是展覽的第六個展廳。

This is called the Art Historical Landscape, and this is a kind of self-consciousness that the tradition achieved very early.

這就是所謂的 "藝術史景觀"，也是這一傳統很早就形成的一種自我意識。

Here we mostly have paintings from the 17th century.

這裡大部分是 17 世紀的繪畫作品。

This is the time of this really important artist, Dong Qichang.

這就是董其昌這位真正重要的藝術家的時代。

Throughout his entire life, he was constantly thinking about the great old landscape painting masters who came before him.

在他的一生中，他無時無刻不在思考前輩偉大的山水畫大師。

Here we have an album from 1630, one of his really important late works, him in each leaf sort of taking on some old master or another, but through his very subjective, interpretive lens.

這裡有一張 1630 年的專輯，這是他晚期的重要作品之一，他的每一片葉子都是在模仿某位大師，但都是通過他非常主觀的解釋性視角。

This is the seventh gallery.

這是第七個展廳。

This is called the Landscape of the Garden.

這就是所謂的花園景觀。

The process of making a garden is the kind of act of creation very similar to landscape painting.

建造花園的過程是一種非常類似於風景畫的創作行為。

You get to arrange the landscape according to your own imagination, to your own sense.

你可以根據自己的想象力和感覺來安排景觀。

Here where we see a little thatched hut in the midst of this kind of created, curated landscape, you can see all these fantastic rocks.

在這裡，我們可以看到一個小茅草屋，它就坐落在這種經過精心設計的景觀之中，你可以看到所有這些奇妙的岩石。

He's actually playing the guqin for that crane, you see, because cranes will dance if you play music for them.

他其實是在為那隻鶴彈奏古琴，你看，因為如果你為鶴彈奏音樂，鶴就會跳舞。

This is a real thing.

這是真的。

And so he's sitting there playing music for his crane, that's a way of engaging with this kind of auspicious creature and with nature generally.

是以，他坐在那裡為他的仙鶴演奏音樂，這是他與這種吉祥物和大自然接觸的一種方式。

The ninth gallery is the last, called Riverscapes.

第九個展廳是最後一個展廳，名為 "河景"。

And here I was inspired to put this gallery together because I was just thinking to myself, so many of the landscape paintings that we encounter in these galleries, a lot of times they're mostly water.

在這裡，我受到啟發把這個畫廊放在一起，因為我在想，我們在這些畫廊裡看到的很多風景畫，很多時候都是以水為主。

This is a big piece of state art.

這是一件大型的國家藝術品。

This was created for the emperor, probably the Kangxi emperor in the 1680s in the early Qing Dynasty.

這是為皇帝創作的，可能是清初康熙皇帝在 1680 年代創作的。

And it's a document of this powerful river that runs through China, the Yellow River.

它記錄了流經中國的強大河流--黃河。

They were documented here in this super deluxe court visual language, very different from a lot of the literati paintings we're seeing in this exhibition.

他們在這裡用這種超級豪華的宮廷視覺語言進行記錄，與我們在這次展覽中看到的許多文人畫截然不同。

Another work of art in this room called the Riverscape, and this is actually another piece of court art coming again from the Qing Dynasty court.

這個房間裡的另一件藝術品叫《江山圖》，這實際上又是一件來自清朝宮廷的宮廷藝術品。

This emperor that we see pictured here, the Qianlong emperor, who ruled for the last three quarters of the 18th century, he went down to the south, the sort of heartland of China, to do what was called the Southern Inspection Tour.

我們在這裡看到的這位皇帝是乾隆皇帝，他統治了 18 世紀最後四分之三的時間，他去了南方，也就是中國的中心地帶，進行所謂的南巡。

And so here we see him inspecting the confluence of the Yellow River and the Huai River.

在這裡，我們看到他正在視察黃河與淮河的交匯處。

This is an important confluence of two rivers that had some effect on whether it was going to flood in these very important agricultural regions.

這是兩條河流的重要交匯處，對這些非常重要的農業地區是否會發生洪水有一定的影響。

And it looks like he's about nine feet tall.

他看起來有九英尺高。

He actually wasn't taller than everybody else.

實際上，他並不比其他人高。

It's just that because of his status as the emperor, this is one of 12 scrolls of this size.

只是，由於他的皇帝身份，這樣大的卷軸一共有 12 卷。

They're all the same height.

他們的身高都一樣。

So it's a very impressive size.

是以，它的尺寸非常驚人。

Why are the Chinese so keen on the mountain river landscapes?

中國人為何如此鍾情于山川地貌？

The viewer can draw many different answers.

觀眾可以得出許多不同的答案。

One of them, perhaps, is that it reflects Taoist philosophy.

其中之一或許就是它反映了道家哲學。

Traditional landscapes usually have majestic mountains and huge rivers with tiny human figures.

傳統的山水畫通常是雄偉的高山和巨大的河流，配以渺小的人物形象。

This contrast reflects the Chinese Taoist view of the world.

這種對比反映了中國道家的世界觀。

Humans are small and mortal and must live in harmony with nature.

人類是渺小的凡人，必須與自然和諧相處。

Only mountains and rivers last for eternity.

唯有山河永恆。