YOYO takes you to the source of freehand brushwork paintings - the murals of Jiayuguan and Yumen Pass

There's a sense of dissonance with the telescope and cannon in the 4th photo with YOYO's sticker, right? The sites of Jiayuguan and Yumen Pass in the Hexi Corridor of Gansu. On the Gobi desert north of Jiayuguan in Jiuquan, Gansu, there are thousands of ancient tombs, formed over several centuries. From the more than ten tombs excavated so far, they were buried during the Cao Wei, Western Jin, and Five Liang periods, that is, from the early third century to the mid-fifth century. Murals are a common feature in these tombs. The painted works in Tomb No. 5 are worth appreciating. The Wei and Jin mural tombs in Jiayuguan reflect the social reality of the time, which is very rare. Generally, tomb murals depict the heavens, the earth, and the human realm. The so-called heavenly and earthly realms, which are mostly fictional stories, are few in number here, only seen in some shaped bricks. The human realm mainly depicts life in the human world, and the images of loyalty, filial piety, chastity, and sages that are common in Han dynasty brick paintings are basically absent here. What is displayed here is the social reality of the tomb owner's era, with a strong sense of the times. The murals are created with one brick at a time, with casual and free lines, completed in a single stroke, and the use of color is also extremely simple and unadorned. From this, one can glimpse the source of Chinese freehand ink painting.