Chapter 13 Chapter Thirteen Silk Road Pearl - Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes

The economic and cultural exchanges between China and countries in central and western Asia have a long history.After Zhang Qian's mission to the Western Regions in the 2nd century BC, the "Silk Road" was opened, and the exchanges between the two sides became more frequent.Over time, many economic and cultural exchange centers have been formed on this commercial route, the most famous of which is Dunhuang.In particular, the Dunhuang Grottoes are the crystallization of economic and cultural exchanges between China and the West, so they are known as the "Pearl of the Silk Road".

Dunhuang Grottoes (commonly known as Thousand Buddha Caves), generally speaking, include Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes, Anxi Yulin Grottoes, etc., with Mogao Grottoes as the main ones.Mogao Grottoes are located in Mingsha Mountain, about 25 kilometers southeast of Dunhuang County.According to records such as the "Li Junxiu Buddhist Altar Stele" engraved in the first year of Tang Wu Zetian's holy calendar (AD 698), the Mogao Grottoes were first built in the second year of Jianyuan (AD 366) in Fujian of the former Qin Dynasty. The monk raised the matter, and then Zen Master Faliang and others took over the karma.After the continuous excavation of the Northern Wei, Western Wei, Northern Zhou, Sui, Tang, Five Dynasties, Song, Xixia, and Yuan Dynasties, the huge group of caves that have been handed down to this day have just been built.The Mogao Grottoes are more than 1,600 meters long and are divided into north and south areas. On the nearly kilometer-long cliff face in the south area, the caves are densely packed, like a beehive, especially in the central part, with up to five columns up and down.According to the statistics of the numbered caves, there are still 492 caves, with more than 45,000 square meters of murals and more than 2,400 painted sculptures.There are five caves with wooden eaves structures in the Tang and Song Dynasties.There are about 250 caves in the North District, sorted and numbered after excavation in recent years.The shape of these caves, the themes of statues and murals, and the characteristics of artistic style were gradually formed during the long-term creation process. The evolution process can be roughly divided into several periods such as the Northern Dynasties, Sui and Tang Dynasties, Five Dynasties and Song Dynasties, and Xixia and Yuan Dynasties.The following is a brief description mainly based on the Grottoes in the South District.

The Northern Dynasties include the Northern Wei, Western Wei, Northern Zhou and other dynasties, with a total of 36 caves.Among them, three belong to Beiliang, 12 belong to the Northern Wei Dynasty, seven belong to the Western Wei Dynasty, and 14 belong to the Northern Zhou Dynasty to the early Sui Dynasty.There are three main forms of caves in this period: one is the Zen cave in the form of monk's room cave.That is to say, on the walls on both sides of the main room, there are small rooms for monks to sit and practice meditation. For example, Cave 285 with inscriptions on the fourth year (AD 538) and fifth year (AD 539) of Emperor Wen of the Western Wei Dynasty is a typical representative.The second is a grotto in the form of a pagoda temple, that is, a central tower pillar.The statues with niches on all sides of the tower pillars are the most typical grotto shapes in the Northern Dynasties, and Cave No. 254 is a representative one.The third is a cave with a square plane and an overturned bucket top.This type of cave has a large niche carved on the back wall, which appeared in the late Northern Wei Dynasty or early Western Wei Dynasty, but it has been used for a long time until the Yuan Dynasty.The early cave No. 272 ​​can be representative.This kind of statue in the cave has a main round sculpture and an accessory shadow sculpture.The round sculptures are mainly Shakyamuni Buddha or Maitreya Buddha, which are placed in prominent positions in the cave, and there are mostly statues of two servant Bodhisattvas on both sides.The standard form of one Buddha and two Bodhisattvas.During the Northern Zhou Dynasty, Buddhist disciples Ananda and Kasyapa appeared again, making a group of Buddha statues as many as five bodies.In the caves of the Northern Dynasties, the top and four walls are covered with murals.Most of the paintings on the top and the upper part of the four walls are Tiangong Jiyue, and the lower part of the four walls are decorative patterns and so on.In addition to the thousand Buddhas, the central wall is mainly painted with stories about the biography of the Buddha and the stories of the Buddha's life. Because the painting is in a moderate position, it is very eye-catching.

The Sui and Tang Dynasties were the heyday of the Mogao Grottoes. There are more than 300 caves from the Sui and Tang Dynasties that survive, accounting for more than 60% of the total number of caves.Among them, there were seventy or eighty caves in the Sui Dynasty, twice as many as the total number of caves opened in the previous 200 years, which shows the prosperity of Buddhism in the Sui Dynasty.In the early Tang Dynasty, that is, the early Tang Dynasty and the prosperous Tang Dynasty, 127 caves were built, which was the period with the most caves in the Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang.The most typical shape of caves in this period is the hall cave, which is the flat square overturned bucket cave that appeared in the early stage.The caves in the Tang Dynasty generally have front and back rooms. The front room is mostly horizontally rectangular in plan, and there are mostly wooden structures outside; the back room is the main room, mostly square in plan.There are two types of new caves that appeared in the late Tang Dynasty. One is the tunnel cave with a horizontal rectangular plane and a round roof, and the other is the large Nirvana cave, also known as the reclining Buddha cave.In the caves of the Tang Dynasty, some of them were still on both sides of the corridor or in the front room, and small ear rooms were chiseled.Due to the formation of a unified situation during the Sui and Tang Dynasties, although the Mogao Grottoes are far away in the northwest region, the style of their statues is more consistent with that in the Central Plains.Statues in the Sui Dynasty are mainly composed of one Buddha, two disciples, and two Bodhisattvas, or one Buddha, two disciples, and four Bodhisattvas.At the same time, new themes such as a group of standing statues of one Buddha and two Bodhisattvas or three groups of standing statues of nine bodies standing on a tripod appeared.The statues of the Sui Dynasty are characterized by square and round faces, strong physiques, relatively realistic, and generally short legs.Most of the painted sculptures and murals in the caves in the Tang Dynasty had a well-designed overall design, which broke through the old pattern and presented a new artistic conception.The main form of painted sculpture in the Tang Dynasty is a group of portraits.All statues are carved in the round, and reliefs are rare.The realistic technique has been greatly improved, and it has entered a new field of character inner portrayal.The content of the statue is mainly one Buddha, two disciples, two heavenly kings or two strong men, formed into a group of seven bodies or a group of nine bodies.In addition, there are seven Buddha statues, Bodhisattva statues and monk statues.Another feature of the colored sculptures in Mogao Grottoes in the Tang Dynasty was the appearance of giant Buddha statues.For example, in the second year of Wu Zetian Yanzai (AD 695) in the Tang Dynasty, the "Northern Statue" built by the Zen master Lingyin and the layman Yinzu is located in Cave 96, with a height of 33 meters.Built in the Kaiyuan period of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, the "South Statue" built by Seng Chuyan and fellow countryman Ma Sizong is located in Cave 130. It is a little smaller and 26 meters high.The main Nirvana statue in Cave 148 was excavated in the 11th year of Li Yu Dali (776 A.D.), Emperor Zong of the Tang Dynasty, and is about 15 meters high.There are 72 statues of disciples standing behind it, which is the largest group of painted sculptures in Mogao Grottoes.

During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, especially in the heyday of the early Tang Dynasty, the murals of Mogao Grottoes underwent epoch-making changes in both content and form.At this time, the murals had rich themes, magnificent scenes and brilliant colors.All kinds of character modeling, coloring and shading, line drawing skills, etc. have reached an unprecedented level.During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the art of painting was in a stage of transition. At this time, the mural themes, in addition to the old ones, were newly emerged as Jingbian paintings.The pictures of this kind of painting are generally small and the content is relatively simple.During the Tang Dynasty, the themes of mural paintings could be divided into several categories, such as paintings of Buddha statues, scripture paintings, paintings of Buddhist historical sites and precepts, portraits of donors and decorative patterns, etc.The main ones are all kinds of Jingbian paintings.This kind of painting had different themes and layouts before and after the Tang Dynasty.In the early Tang Dynasty, there were mainly eight kinds of Bianhua of Amitabha Sutra, Bianhua of Lotus Sutra, Bianhua of Infinite Life Sutra, and Bianhua of Oriental Pharmacist Sutra.It was developed on the basis of the prototype in the Sui Dynasty, and it matured in the Zhenguan period, forming a spectacular picture of a mural. Generally, there are not many types of themes selected in the same cave.In the later period, there were major changes. First, there were more themes and types of Jingbian paintings. Newly appeared were the Tianwen Sutra, the Diamond Sutra, the Repaying Grace Sutra, the Jinguangjing Sutra, and the Huayan Sutra. Paintings, Repaying Parents' Gratitude Sutra Bianhua, Siyi Brahma Asking Sutra Bianhua, etc.The simultaneous appearance of these kinds of Sutra-transition paintings in one grotto is a major feature of grotto art in the late Tang Dynasty.Among them, such as Cave 85, there are as many as 15 kinds of sutras and paintings painted in one cave.There are 12 types in Yinjia Grottoes (Cave 231), and nine types in Zhangjia Grottoes (Cave 159).This change adapted to the different ideological requirements of faithful men and women at that time, and at the same time enriched the content of grotto art.In addition, screen paintings and historical figure paintings also appeared at the same time.The portraits of the supporters were only a few inches small in the Northern Dynasties, but after the Tang Dynasty they became two or three feet high or even as tall as a real person, and they mostly occupied prominent positions on the two walls of the corridor or in the cave. In terms of artistic expression, the pattern of a thousand people is gradually broken, and more and more characteristics and personalities of different characters are portrayed, and it is also used to show the family status and pedigree of the family.This is a very intriguing change.Cave 156, dug in the late Tang Dynasty, depicts the local ruler's "Zhang Yichao and Mrs. Song's Traveling Picture", which shows the scene of Zhang Yichao and his wife traveling in the late Tang Dynasty. Two of the most outstanding works of human portraits.On a long horizontal scroll mural, there are more than 100 figures of honor guards, music, dancers, entourages, etc., covering the screen in sections, forming a mighty traveling queue, and there are also inscriptions on the screen.This created a precedent for painting murals in the Mogao Grottoes for personal praise.

During the Five Dynasties and Song Dynasties, around 920, the military and political power in the Dunhuang area fell into the hands of Cao Yijin.Until 1036, Dunhuang was occupied by Xixia, and the fifth Cao family ruled the Hexi area for more than 140 years.Among the caves belonging to this period in Mogao Grottoes, there are 55 extant caves, of which more than 10 caves still have clear inscriptions on the age of the caves.Some of the grottoes in this period were repainted using old grottoes; some were newly opened grottoes.The typical shape of the newly opened caves is the central Buddhist altar style that originated in the late Tang Dynasty. Its plane is slightly vertical and rectangular. The center of the cave is placed behind a horseshoe-shaped Buddhist altar, and statues are placed on the altar.The top of the cave is in the shape of a bucket.In front of the big cave on the lower level in front of the cliff, there is a wooden structure hall built on the platform base, thus forming a pattern in which the front part is the hall and the back part is the cave.The themes of the murals mostly follow the content of the Tang Dynasty.It can be classified into six categories: Jingbian paintings, story paintings, portraits of supporters, Buddhist historical site story paintings, Buddha statue paintings, and decorative patterns.Among them, the most eye-catching is the landscape painting that used to be the background of the characters, but it has become an independent picture in the "Wutai Mountain Picture" on the west wall of Cave 61. "Wutai Mountain Map" is about five meters high, 13.5 meters long, and runs through the entire wall, covering an area of ​​about 67.5 square meters. More than 170 buildings of various types, such as city walls, temples, bridges, pavilions, shops, thatched cottages, etc. are drawn, and scenes of various characters' activities are depicted, with a strong sense of life. "Mount Wutai" is the largest landscape painting in Dunhuang murals.It combines reality and imagination, and uses bird's-eye perspective to bring together thousands of miles of mountains and rivers and local customs on one wall. From a distance, there are majestic mountains and vivid characters, and the freehand brushwork of traditional Chinese landscape paintings Features, which can be seen in this picture.During this period, the portraits of the donors had a great development, and the portraits became taller, generally more than two meters in length.For example, the portraits in Cave 98 are about three meters long, and they are a group of portraits with high historical and artistic value.

In the Xixia and Yuan Dynasties for nearly 300 years, although the Mogao Grottoes were in a period of decline and there were few new caves, the construction and reconstruction activities have not stopped.During this period, more than 80 caves were built in Mogao Grottoes, of which more than 70 were old caves, whose murals (part or all) were repainted during Xixia, so the number of remaining Xixia murals is very considerable.On the south wall of the corridor in Cave 61, the giant blazing light Buddha and the stars in the Heavenly Palace repainted around the end of the Western Xia Dynasty or the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty. It is the only theme seen in the existing murals of Mogao Grottoes, and it is extremely precious.

In addition to the caves, statues, and murals, the remains of the Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang are also an important part of the scripture cave and its documents.This scripture cave was accidentally discovered in the living cave by Taoist Wang Yuanlu [lu Lu] in the 26th year of Guangxu in the Qing Dynasty (1900 A.D.). This cave is newly numbered as Cave 17.There are a large number of scriptures, documents and cultural relics in the cave, totaling more than 50,000 pieces.It is a pity that these precious cultural relics were stolen by batch after batch of cultural predators from imperialist countries in the late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China.Among them, A. Stein of the United Kingdom was the first to set an example. In 1907, he looted 24 boxes of written documents and 5 boxes of painted and embroidered Buddhist paintings in Dunhuang. In 1914, he came to China again and looted five boxes of manuscripts from Dunhuang, totaling more than 10,000 pieces of cultural relics, which are now stored in British libraries, museums, and India.In 1908, the Frenchman Pelliot snatched more than 5,000 fine works from the scripture cave of the Mogao Grottoes, and they are now in the library of Paris, France. In 1911, Japanese Tachibana Ruichao and Yoshikawa Koichiro obtained 600 scrolls from Taoist Wang. In 1914, the Russian Oldenburg took another batch of scripture manuscripts from Dunhuang, conducted cave surveying and mapping, and stole the murals of Cave 263.In addition, in 1924, American Warner used a special chemical glue to paste and steal 26 pieces of murals from Mogao Grottoes.Several times of plundering caused irreparable damage to the Dunhuang Grottoes.