Cao Ba (曹霸)(704 AD -
770 AD)
His surname is (Cao) and the name given to
him by his parents is (Ba). He was born in Anhui Province, China.
|
曹 |
Meaning both sides. The name of a kingdom
in ancient China. It is also one of the Chinese surnames. |
|
霸 |
The leader of the ancient alliance of
princes. |
He was a famous painter in the Tang Dynasty
of China and his story is recorded in history books.
There was a very famous king in the Tang
Dynasty of China and his name was Li Longji.
When he became the king of the Tang Dynasty
in his 20s, he ran the Tang Dynasty very seriously and carefully.
He led the Tang Dynasty into an era of
greatness and prosperity.
Cao Ba lived during this time.
Because Cao Ba was good at painting, he was
favoured by Li Longji.
Because Li Longji appreciated him, he often
went to the palace to paint portraits of nobles and celebrities.
He was not only good at painting portraits,
but also at painting horses.
He is able to depict the different
expressions of each horse accurately and delicately.
He has a pupil named (Han Gan).
Han Gan later became a very famous painter
of horses and portraits.
But people at that time all agreed that Cao
Ba's painting skills were better than Han Gan's.
In his later years, Li Longji liked to have
fun, and he appointed some bad officials who liked to flatter him as important
officials in the central government. The national power of the Tang dynasty
quickly became weak.
In 755 AD, the Tang dynasty experienced one
of the bloodiest and most serious rebellions in Chinese history.
This rebellion lasted more than 8 years and
resulted in more than 30 million deaths, killing about 2/3 of the population of
the Tang Dynasty.
During these eight years of turmoil, Cao Ba
followed the refugees and fled the capital of the Tang Dynasty. He and other
refugees fled to Chengdu, now in Sichuan Province, China.
Since he only knew how to paint, he had no
other skills to earn a living. In those turbulent times, who had the extra
money to hire him to paint portraits? So his life was one of extreme poverty.
Although he was once the king's most valued
guest in the palace, in his later years he was despised by many ordinary
people.
There was a very great poet in the Tang
Dynasty of China, and his name was Du Fu.
A few years before Cao Ba's death, Du Fu
visited him several times.
The two of them became good friends, and Du
Fu once wrote a poem describing Cao Ba's life.
Dear friend, what inspiration or thoughts
do you have after listening to this story?
Do you think your life is better or worse
now than it was ten years ago? If you were Cao Ba, how would you feel about
facing life in your later years?
I hope this story can give you some new insights.
曹霸(Cao Ba )(西元704年-西元770年)
他的姓是(曹)，他的父母給他取的名字是(霸)。他出生地位於在中國的安徽省。
|
曹 |
意思是雙方的意思。古代中國的一個王國的名字。也是中國人的姓氏之一。 |
|
霸 |
古代諸侯聯盟的盟主。 |
他是中國的唐王朝一個著名的畫家，歷史書上記載了一個他的故事。
中國的唐王朝有一個很著名的國王，這個國王的名字叫做李隆基。
他20幾歲接任唐王朝的國王的時候，他非常很認真與用心的管理唐王朝。
他帶領唐王朝進入一個偉大與興盛的時代。
曹霸就生活在這個時代。
由於曹霸很會畫畫，所以他受到李隆基的欣賞。
因為李隆基很重視他，所以他常常到皇宮中替一些貴族與名人畫肖像畫。
他除了很會畫肖像畫外，他還很會畫馬。
他能夠很準確且細膩的描繪出每匹不同的馬的不同神態。
他有一個學生叫做(韓幹)。
韓幹後來也成為一個很著名的畫馬與人物肖像的畫家。
但是當時代的人們卻都一致認為曹霸的繪畫功力比韓幹更好。
李隆基晚年的時候變得喜歡玩樂，他又任命一些喜歡奉承他的壞的官員擔任中央政府的重要官員，唐王朝的國力快速變的衰弱。
西元755年，唐王朝發生了中國歷史上最血腥與最嚴重的一件叛亂事件。
這場叛亂事件延續了超過8年，死亡人數超過3000萬人，唐王朝的人口死了大約2/3。
在這場長達8年的動亂中，曹霸跟隨難民逃離唐王朝的首都，他與其他的難民一同逃難到現在中國的四川省的成都市，
由於他只會畫畫，他沒有其他的謀生技能，在那個動亂的年代，又有那些百姓有多餘的錢請他畫肖像畫呢?因此他的生活陷入極度的貧困。
他雖然曾經是皇宮中國王最看重的貴賓，但他晚年卻被許多普通百姓所輕視。
中國的唐王朝有一個非常偉大的詩人，這個詩人的名字叫做(杜甫)。
曹霸逝世前幾年，杜甫曾經拜訪過他好幾次。
他們兩個成為好朋友，杜甫曾經寫過一首詩，杜甫在這首詩中描繪了曹霸的一生。
親愛的朋友，你聽完這個故事有怎樣的啟發或有怎樣的想法呢。
你認為你現在過得比十年前好還是不好呢?你如果是曹霸，你晚年會用怎樣的心情面對生活呢?
我期待這故事能讓你產生一些新的收穫。
出處為歷代名畫記-卷9-76條
https://ctext.org/wiki.pl?if=gb&chapter=316161#%E5%94%90%E6%9C%9D%E4%B8%8A
出處為杜甫-丹青引贈曹將軍霸