Transformation of the artistic form and ideological content of the memorial complex in memory of the Sino-Japanese War in Beijing

Yuan' Xinyu Postgraduate student, Department of History and Theory of Design and Media Communications, St. Petersburg State University of Industrial Technologies and Design 46 Voznesensky Ave., Saint Petersburg, 190068, Russia yuanxinyu@rambler.ru Other publications by this author

The article is devoted to the ideological, artistic and compositional aspects used in the design of memorial parks in modern China. Military events are recognized by the Chinese people as one of the most important milestones in their history in the 20th century and part of the self-identification of the entire nation. Of course, as in Russia, which survived the horrors of the Great Patriotic War, in China there is an urgent issue of preserving historical memory in various forms, including the creation of large-scale memorial complexes, which undoubtedly makes this study relevant.

The purpose of the article is to analyze the artistic and expressive features of memorial complexes. The tasks include analyzing the history and creation of two of China's largest memorials related to the war of the Chinese people with the Japanese invaders; researching the specifics of revealing the theme of the memorial through the interaction of sculptural images and architectural space; identifying the features of modern monumental and memorial sculpture in China using the example of this monument.

The scientific and theoretical basis of the research was the works of B. R. Wipper, in particular the section "Sculpture" of his "Introduction to the historical study of Art", who believed that "a work of sculpture has a direct, tactile force of persuasion" ^[1]. V. M. Rogachevsky in the book "On Monumental Sculpture" on the example of works of Russian—Soviet authors reveal the peculiarities of the monument's connection with its surrounding architecture, highlighting the following: following the principles of classical sculpture in the construction of spatial forms, developing relief plans, generalization and flattening of figures in compositions ^[2]. O. A. Krivdina dedicates her scientific works to the work of individual sculptors, including M. M. Antakolsky, N. S. Pimenov, S. I. Galberg, M. G. Krylova, paying attention to the problem of synthesis of architecture and sculpture.

In recent years, Russian science has published works devoted to the analysis of the architectural and artistic design and features of China's memorial parks, including monumental sculpture. This question was considered by M. Wang ^[3], Yu. Liu ^[4], Yu. Liu ^[5], W. Xiang ^[6], I. V. Lyashenko ^[7], Ts. Guo ^[8] and others. At the same time, the problem of the formation and development of memorial complexes associated with the military events of the 1930s and 1940s is practically not covered. Among the exceptions, an article by Li Bin should be mentioned, in which the author examines the stages of development of monumental sculpture in New China with a brief description of some monuments, primarily related to revolutionary events and the struggle against the Japanese invaders ^[9]. Wang Miao explores the figurative and stylistic aspect of Belarusian and Chinese memorials dedicated to the memory of heroes and victims of the wars of the twentieth century ^[10]. Among other things, the authors consider the connection of sculptures with the environment, both architectural and natural. However, they focus on analyzing a significant number of monuments in order to identify common artistic and stylistic features. Meanwhile, such complexes are often associated with the peculiarities of the location, what happened in these parts during the wars, and architectural concepts relevant to the time of creation. For this reason, within the framework of this article, it is planned to highlight the specifics of the formation of the artistic solution of the largest memorial complex, which has lasted since the late 1980s, when interest in such monuments only arose in China, and to the present day.

In the post-war period, many monuments were erected in China, especially in those places that were directly affected by the war, where there are graves of fighters and victims of enemy aggression among the civilian population. These monuments are different in terms of functional and compositional features. These can be objects related to those events, for example, military equipment or buildings, obelisks and steles, memorial plaques, name plates, sculptures and entire architectural complexes. The latter often combine many of these types of monuments, representing a meaningful, compositional and artistic-figurative unity.

Fig. 1. The Hall of the Memorial of the Chinese People's War of Resistance to Japanese Aggression in Beijing. Source: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s?__biz=MzI5MDIwNTgwNQ==&mid=2653163264&idx=1&sn=b093a775820b7f6c48478ce19f0f2c1f&chksm=f7f3d602c0845f144a4701c667d2c9ace970432b78c2b3a296f558549fc20d651c72b99c07a4&scene=27

Such a complex is the Memorial Hall and Sculpture Garden of the Chinese People against the Japanese War, which are located in Beijing. They were built at different times, but at the moment they are united ideologically and artistically, although they were built at different times and in accordance with different concepts ^{[11, p. 4]}. The first one is of particular importance to the Chinese, since it was here that the Lugouqiao incident occurred, when on July 7, 1937, there was a clash between soldiers of the Japanese Garrison Army in China and a company of Chinese troops guarding the Lugou Bridge. This was the beginning of Japan's full-scale aggression against China and the reason for fomenting the Second Sino-Japanese War. On the eve of the jubilee year 1987, the Chinese leadership decided to create on this site the first and at that time the only such large-scale complex thematic memorial hall that would comprehensively reflect the history of the war of the Chinese people against the Japanese invaders. At that time, there was an increased interest in perpetuating the memory of the war years and the feat of the people in the form of organizing gardens around memorial complexes, as well as personalizing participants in the events in the form of their portrait images ^{[12, p. 2]}. The Beijing Memorial combines both trends. Moreover, it has become a model of patriotic education for other cities and regions of the country.

The memorial was officially opened on July 7, 1987 with the participation of Deng Xiaoping. In front of the museum there is a rectangular area of the Anti-Japanese War with an area of 8,600 square meters. On both sides of its central axis there are seven strips of lawns, symbolizing the beginning of the incident on July 7 and the 14-year war of resistance against Japanese aggression. The base is made of white marble, and a flagpole with a height of more than fourteen meters is installed on the north side of the square (Fig. 1). The dominant is the pavilion with a Memorial Hall. The latter is a one-story building, elongated horizontally, which resembles traditional Chinese architecture pavilions with tiled roofs. The outer wall is lined with cream-white marble, and the gate is made of forged bronze, which gives the memorial a special solemnity. The entrance to the hall is located in the center. A gentle staircase with ramps stretches towards it. A massive cornice with golden hieroglyphs hangs over it. Black and white are the traditional colors of mourning and peace. Gold has long decorated ancient palaces, altars and temples, being associated with the idea of freedom from the hustle and bustle of the world.

Fig. 2. Cheng Yunxian, Pan He, Liang Mingcheng. The awakening lion of Lugou. Bronze. 1987. Source: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s?__biz=MzI5MDIwNTgwNQ==&mid=2653163264&idx=1&sn=b093a775820b7f6c48478ce19f0f2c1f&chksm=f7f3d602c0845f144a4701c667d2c9ace970432b78c2b3a296f558549fc20d651c72b99c07a4&scene=27

In the center of the square opposite the entrance, there was previously a sculpture "The Awakening Lion Lugou", which symbolizes the strength and power of the Chinese nation (Fig. 2). The overall calm, horizontal spatial and compositional solution of the square contrasts with the upstretched and dynamic image. From a distance, the sculpture resembles a basalt rock with uneven protrusions, but as it approaches, the chaos of forms gradually seems to transform into a powerful mane developing in the wind, massive paws resting on the ground, and then the snout of a growling predator. The authors imitate a stone surface in bronze. Its dark color echoes the dark tiles on the roof of the pavilion. The monument stands on a long light gray plinth. The emotional outburst, which is clearly read in Leo, noticeably enlivens the calm and majestic memorial. However, in 2014, the sculpture was moved to the Southern Square of the same complex, and in its place a plate with a bronze "Medal of Independence and Freedom" by Bao Bao was installed (Fig. 1). This plate was installed on the eve of the anniversary date in the presence of the country's political leader. It was a landmark event, although, in the opinion of the author of the article, the sculpture did not contradict, but emphasized the general orientation of the complex horizontally, as if it met the visitor, showing him the way to the pavilion.

Fig. 3. Sculptures inside the Memorial Hall of the complex authored by Jiang Bibo. 1987. Bronze. Source: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s?__biz=MzI5MDIwNTgwNQ==&mid=2653163264&idx=1&sn=b093a775820b7f6c48478ce19f0f2c1f&chksm=f7f3d602c0845f144a4701c667d2c9ace970432b78c2b3a296f558549fc20d651c72b99c07a4&scene=27

The memorial of the Chinese People's War in terms of spatial organization resembles the complex on Mamaev Kurgan in Volgograd, which is dedicated to the Battle of Stalingrad, which became the beginning of a radical turning point in the war. It was created within the framework of a special form of monumental art – the "monument ensemble", which allows you to show events in dynamics using various artistic means. The dominant feature in China is a building resembling a traditional temple pavilion, and in Russia – an ancient burial mound. The main theme for the sculptor E. V. Vuchetich was the idea of demonstrating the mass heroism of the Stalingrad soldiers. The path of a man along the memorial begins with a high relief with images of people who came to worship fallen soldiers, continues near the monument on the square "Stand to Death", where the image of the Soviet people-a warrior is located. His sculpture stands against the background of ruins and reliefs with episodes of battles. A special semantic load is carried by the Hall of Military Glory, which rises above the square and visually connects the elements of the ensemble. Inside it, in the very center, there is a hand with a flaming torch, and on the walls there are mosaics with the names of the dead. Further on the square of Sorrow there is a sculptural composition "Grieving Mother", and the path ends with a grandiose monument "Motherland calls!" as a generalized image of the Motherland.

Inside the Memorial Hall in China there are also sculptures that expressively depict battles and images of heroes of the anti-Japanese war. The main exhibition consists of three thematic halls dedicated to Japanese atrocities, the people's war and the victims of aggression. The exhibition includes paintings, photographs and other cultural relics. In a special pavilion dedicated to the People's War, battle scenes are presented in sculptural form, for example, Taierzhuang, Pingxingguan and the Battle of One Hundred Regiments. The Hall of Victims presents the exploits of Yang Jingyu, Zhao Yiman, Zuo Quan, Peng Xuefeng, Zhang Zizhong, Tong Ling, Zhao Dengyu and others. Their artistic solution is close to the "Awakening Lion Lugou". So, the author Jiang Bibo, like Bao Bao, creates the effect of a stone surface in bronze (Fig. 3). This technique is especially pronounced in the relief image of the rows of Chinese soldiers standing like an indestructible wall in the path of the invaders. Each figure is like a rocky outcrop, a layer of basalt. At the same time, the faces are depicted individualized, as is the stone image of the fallen soldier, whose sculptural image is located in the center of the hall. It's like he's fused with the boulder he's lying on. Only the upright rifle, which he holds with a tense hand, indicates that the thirst to fight still lives in him.

Fig. 4. Sculpture Garden of the Memorial of the Chinese People against the Japanese War in Beijing. Source: https://www.beijing.gov.cn/renwen/rwzyd/202011/t20201125_2149172.html

At the end of the 20th century, it was decided to create a base of patriotic education in the Fengtai area and design it as a memorial complex. This is how the construction of the Sculpture Garden began. The foundation stone was laid on July 7, 1995, the garden was completed in July 2000 and officially opened to the public on August 16 of the same year. The development and creation of the project were carried out by the Beijing Architectural Institute of Design and Research, the Central Academy of Fine Arts, the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Gardens and Vegetable Gardens. The complex, created by joint efforts, covers an area of twenty hectares. The garden, which was created according to the principles of Chinese art, has many viewpoints and a significant number of green spaces, which are referred to as the "green forest". Eighteen species of trees (cedar, white pine, acacia, ginkgo, pearl plum, forsythia, begonia Sifu, etc.) and shrubs are planted in it, as well as lawns with various grasses, which resembles the solution of the previous complex. Each path in the garden runs at an angle of 45 degrees with respect to the central area with sculptures and seems to aim at the center of the entire composition. This visually expresses the cohesive spirit of the united resistance of the people to the war ^[13]. Around the square there is a "river" – a road paved with large cobblestones, symbolizing the Yellow River, which "flows" from west to east, giving the layout of the entire park saturation and regularity (Fig. 4).

Fig. 5. The stele on the central square of the Sculpture Garden of the Memorial of the Chinese People against the Japanese War. Source: https://www.sohu.com/a/558182909_121107011

The central square (fig. 5) is paved with gray granite, which came from the main battlefield of the War of Resistance to Japanese Aggression. Moreover, the central rectangle is below the level of the entire complex. It symbolizes a water bowl, from which an obelisk grows like a mountain, which is close to the ideas of the Chinese traditional landscape. The square consists of two tiers. On the first one, sculptures, lawn areas and granite slabs symbolizing the shores are on the edges. On the lower tier, denoting the "lake", to which the steps lead, there is a stele. The fifteen-meter-high stele consists of massive granite blocks stacked on top of each other. They symbolize the indestructible spirit of the Chinese people. Granite blocks press like a press on the bronze sculptures located at the base and sandwiched between them. Among the latter, the wreckage of the crushed military machine of the Japanese invaders is visible ^{[14, p. 44]}. The work symbolizes the victory of China and the triumph of justice: the masses fighting the invaders come to the fore, the emphasis is on dynamism and upward movement. The light color of the limestone seems even lighter in contrast to the dark pedestal. The powerful vertical of the stele is echoed by small columns located between strips of lawns with the names of fallen Chinese soldiers. If the central stele is an image of the death of the enemy under the onslaught of the Chinese people, then sculptures are a visualization of their actions, and symbolic tombstones are their sacrifice as an additional stone in that powerful press that will break the invader.

Fig. 6. Column sculptures "Mountains and rivers are broken", "Indiscriminate bombing", "To serve the country" on the central square of the Sculpture Garden of the Memorial of the Chinese People against the Japanese War. Source: http://www.360doc.com/content/22/0904/08/3982002_1046477742.shtml

The dynamics of the bronze forms of the military machine pressed with granite is repeated in thirty-eight columns with a diameter of two meters and a height of more than four meters behind the stele (Fig. 6). These sculptures are based on the text of the famous Chinese hymn song "March of Volunteers". The surface of the latter is decorated with sculptures that reflect the events of the eight-year bloody war and are conditionally divided into four parts: "Japanese Invasion", "Rise to save the dead", "Fire of anti-Japanese lighthouses" and "Justice will prevail". These are bronze sculptures-columns created in the tradition of Chinese pillars and repeat the forms of national sculpture ^{[15, p. 57]}. Sculptors create multi-figure compositions that can be viewed from all sides. In some works, the characters are highlighted in size and placed in the foreground. On others, it is a human mass, differently distributed over the surface of the pillar. Some works are solved in one plane, while others are divided into several tiers-scenes. Such a compositional solution is probably related to the need to show the space in which the action takes place. So, for example, if we are talking about a ship, then it was important for the authors to depict the figures of people fleeing and those who cover them on the ground. The figures of soldiers and people on each of the columns stretch upwards. It is as if they are walking on a stone serpentine, tall grass, between trees, over the ruins of buildings, industrial structures, the sides of ships that spiral upwards. The authors skillfully recreate various surfaces, in particular the textures of wood, metal, stones, including natural ones, bricks, fabrics, plants. Artistic means help to express the indomitable national spirit, fearlessness and heroism of the Chinese people.

After the completion of the Anti-Japanese War Monument and Sculpture Garden, they entered a single complex in Beijing, which also includes the Lugou Bridge, the Memorial of the Chinese People's War of Resistance to Japanese Aggression and the city of Wanping, forming the largest center of patriotic education in memory of the Anti-Japanese War in China. Due to the fact that military operations took place on the territory of Beijing, as well as there are historical authentic objects, structures and places associated with wartime events, all monuments were created in one way or another in accordance with the principle of documentality. For this reason, each of them expresses the meaning and interpretation of specific facts by artistic means. At the same time, due to the deep semantic load carried by monuments dedicated to the war, the need for them to visualize the battles, exploits of the people and individual soldiers in a complex, collectively in the form of a single epic is actualized. The artist does not single out the images of specific characters. They show figures commensurate with each other, in the total mass, to show that victory is forged by all, together. In Beijing, the authorities, in cooperation with architects, are following the path of combining existing monuments and complexes into a single space, which includes both historical objects and structures related to the artistic interpretation of what was happening at that time. This unification takes place through a meaningful and plastic connection between the complexes: old and new. For example, the first complex under consideration expressed the idea of mourning and the greatness of victory by quite traditional means, which are characteristic of Russian monumentalism, and the second is associated with a demonstration of how victory was created. It is important to note that the forms of the Memorial Hall pavilion are determined by the traditions of Chinese architecture, as well as the features of sculpture, for example, steles-pillars, are determined by the principles of national art. The layout of the space clearly shows the features of ancient gardens and parks of the Celestial Empire.

In the field of modern Chinese monumental sculpture, the authors follow the path of creating public spaces that emphasize the connection with that time and the natural environment, and take on the task of perpetuating history. This makes it necessary to study such objects located on the territory of the country and compare them with the solutions offered by Russian architects and sculptors. It should be noted that in the two largest memorial complexes in China, it is important for the authors to build a visually perceptible connection with historical events, and if the architectural composition allows you to direct the visitor, then sculptural images – to visualize the idea in the faces. In the first complex, a monumental sculpture is concentrated inside the pavilion, expressing the idea of mass heroism of Chinese soldiers. In the second and later created complex, the dominant is the stele, behind which tall columns with high reliefs are built, personifying the feat of the Chinese people. Thus, both memorials are a single space, which through sculptural images expresses the struggle of soldiers and ordinary people in the name of victory.

Thus, using the example of two complexes dedicated to the events of China's military past, which were created in different time periods, in particular in the late 1980s and early 21st century, it is clear how the ratio of monumental sculpture and the architectural environment is changing, as the approaches of developers to creating such spaces are transformed and complicated. If in the first case sculptural forms are present in the spatial-compositional solution only sporadically, adding touches to the disclosed narrative, then in the second case they act on equal rights, similar to what was done by Soviet artists and architects on Mamayev Kurgan. The Memorial of the Chinese People's War used the expressive means of monumental sculpture mainly for interior decoration. At the same time, in their artistic solution, in the dynamic upward striving of the sculptural groups, there is an acute urge of the artists to overcome the limitations of the walls and ceiling of the halls, to break out beyond them. They turn to the imitation of rock surfaces pointing upwards. At the same time, the authors leave the exterior of the building and the surrounding space practically without sculptural decoration with a predominance of balanced horizontals. In the Sculpture Garden of the Memorial of the Chinese People against the Japanese War, an open space is another matter, which is formed thanks to steles with an emphasis on the vertical, as well as the obvious priority of sculpture over architecture, which allows you to create a monumental, concise and at the same time extremely expressive image, or rather, even a narrative in which the spirit of unity of the nation and its victory over the enemy. The authors of both complexes deliberately abandon the harmonious unity of architecture and sculpture, unlike, for example, their Russian-Soviet colleagues. In the first case, the dominance of horizontally oriented architectural forms achieves a sense of peace, which is disturbed only in the inner space due to sculpture. In the second case, the architectural solution in the form of upward–pointing obelisks plays a secondary role, serving as a backdrop to the unfolding narrative through the means of monumental sculpture.