編後記

    《道教神仙畫集》珍藏本，經過一年的編纂，現在終於面世了。如同世界上其它宗教一樣，道教從誕生的那一天起，便與藝術結下了不解之緣，無論是漢代的石刻、唐代的壁畫，還是明清時代的水陸畫，神仙信仰一直是中國美術的重要創作源泉。這不僅反映了中華民族的豐富想像力和對美好生活的追求與嚮往，而且拓展了美術表現範圍，成就了中國美術作品那種細膩而又誇張的表現手法。從某種意義上講，中國美術正是由於注入了神仙崇拜的宗教內容，才形成了以流暢而富於變化的線條勾勒出生動的人物形象的藝術特色。
為了如實地向世界介紹中國道教恢宏的文化觀、藝術觀，介紹道教珍貴的藝術精品，中國道教協會與華夏出版社共同組織編輯出版了這本《道教神仙畫集》。故宮博物院顧問單士元先生對這項工作給予了很高的評價。單老認為，《道教神仙畫集》的出版是道教文化的一項大型挖掘、整理工作，更是對道教文物的一項搶救性工程，“功德無量”。
    需要說明的是，由於水陸畫目前還很少有專家進行研究，畫集中許多作品的確切年代尚未得到考證。除《東八天帝》、《西八天帝》、《東八神將》、《西八神將》、《靈寶天尊》、《道德天尊》和《十殿閻君》等二十餘幅確定為明人珍品以外，《三官大帝》、《四值功曹》、《四大元帥》、《五方五老天尊》等近百幅均為清代精品。出自清宮“如意館”的《六十甲子本命神》，雖屬工匠之筆，但形神俱備，頗具皇家藏品風範。然而，由於年代久遠，幾經戰亂，這些具有珍貴文化價值、文物價值與美術價值的藝術珍品，很多已殘破不堪。為了真實可信，我們對原畫未進行“加工”，均按原作照像製版，印出來後有些畫顯出折痕，有些畫留有水漬，給人們的藝術欣賞會帶來些微不便，這樣做雖有美中不足之憾，但卻可提醒人們，保護道教文物的工作刻不容緩。
    謹此，向各位關心幫助本畫集編輯出版的朋友們，致以衷心謝忱。
                                 《道教神仙畫集》編委會
                                              1995年4月
Postscript
     After a year's hard work and editting, our Album For Taoist Deities And Divine Immortals has been finally published. As many other religions around the world,Taoism wasborn to be closely connected with art,all sorts of art,ranging from its stone sculptures ofHan Dynasty,its murals of Tang Dynasty to its paintings of Ming and Qing Dynasties. It isbelieved that divine immortals has permeated every parts of Taoist art and enriched thesource of inspiration of China's art. This religious belief to divine immortals not only constitutes the rich imaginative power of Chinese nation,embodies the wishes of ordinary people for good life but also widens expressive scope of art,whereby China's works of art hasformed their uniqueness of exquisite and exaggerate expression. Driven by this belief ,China's fine art has successfully gained its reputation by drawing vivid figues with smoothand changable lines.
      In order to introduce Taoist culture and art ,the Tao Association of China and Hua XiaPublishing House have compiled and editted this Album ,which Mr. Shan Shiyuan ,formerpresident of the Palace Museum ,highly appraciated as an excavation and classification ofTaoist legacy,and a great protection project of Taoist relics. "It'sbeneficense is boundless"he remarked.
      In this Album ,we include more than one handred and sixty pictures. Most of them areselected from the paintings of Ming and Qing Dynasties .we feel a great pity that many ofthese valuable works of art are left the tracks of time and wars and are incompleted whenappreciated. We hope our Album ,with above shortcomings ,will fully maintain the style oforiginal paintings ,provide a true model for the study of Taoist art and give us a warningthat the protection of Taoist relics brooks no delay.
Here ,we are heartfully thankful to those who give us great help in editting.
The Editting Committee
of Album for Taoist Deities
and Divine Immortals
Beijing,China
April 8,1995