Gansu classic cultural history

The Mogao Grottoes are located in the strategic location of the Silk Road. It is not only a transit point for East-West trade, but also a meeting point of religion, culture and knowledge. The 492 small grottoes and grotto temples in the Mogao Grottoes are famous for their statues and murals, showing the Buddhist art that has lasted for thousands of years. The Mogao Grottoes, also known as the "Thousand Buddha Cave", are located on the cliff of Mingsha Mountain, 25 kilometers southeast of Dunhuang City, Gansu Province in western China. There is plenty of sunshine, dry and little rain, four distinct seasons and a large temperature difference between day and night. The grottoes are more than 600 meters long from north to south/kloc-0, with five floors up and down and the highest point of 50 meters. There are 492 caves, 45,000 square meters of murals, 2,465,438 colored sculptures and 4,000 flying statues. The Mogao Grottoes are large in scale, rich in content and have a long history. Together with Yungang Grottoes in Shanxi and Longmen Grottoes in Henan, it is also called "Three Treasures of Grottoes Art" in China. The Mogao Grottoes were first excavated in the second year of Jianyuan in the former Qin Dynasty (AD 366) and basically ended in the Yuan Dynasty (AD 127 1 ~ 1368). During this period, after nearly a thousand years of continuous excavation, the Mogao Grottoes have become the largest and richest grottoes in the world, integrating architecture, stone carving, mural painting and colored plastic arts in various periods. These art treasures not only reflect the religious and social life in medieval China, but also show the outstanding wisdom and extraordinary achievements of the working people of all ages. The Tang Dynasty scripture "Lotus Sutra Volume 6" found in the Tibetan Sutra Cave in Dunhuang, Gansu Province was accidentally discovered in the Mogao Grottoes in 1900, which contained 50,000 to 60,000 cultural relics from the 4th century to14th century. This is an important archaeological discovery in China in the early 20th century, which shocked the world. Since then, the famous "Dunhuang studies" have developed. After nearly a hundred years of research, Dunhuang studies not only made remarkable achievements in academic, artistic and cultural aspects, but also showed the world the beauty of Dunhuang art, the richness of cultural connotation and the wisdom of working people in ancient China. Cultural Heritage Dunhuang Grottoes Art is a three-dimensional art integrating architecture, sculpture and painting. On the basis of inheriting the fine traditions of the Han nationality in the Central Plains and the brotherly nationalities in the Western Regions, ancient artists absorbed and melted foreign expressions, and developed them into Buddhist works of art with local characteristics in Dunhuang, China, which provided valuable materials for the study of ancient China's politics, economy, culture, religion, ethnic relations and friendly exchanges between China and foreign countries, and were the cultural treasures and spiritual wealth of mankind. There are 492 paintings and colored sculptures in more than 500 caves in architectural art, including Zen caves, palace caves, pagoda caves, dome caves, "shadow caves" and some pagodas. The largest grottoes are more than 40 meters high and 30 meters wide, and the smallest grottoes are less than one foot high. The Central Tower is a foreign grotto form preserved in the early days, which reflects that ancient artists assimilated foreign art while accepting it, making it a national form in China. Many of them are masterpieces of existing ancient buildings. Colored Sculpture Art Colored Sculpture is the main body of Dunhuang art, including Buddha statue, Bodhisattva statue, disciple statue, heavenly king, King Kong, Lux, God and so on. Color plastic forms are rich and varied, including round plastic, floating plastic, shadow plastic and good plastic. The maximum height is 34.5 meters, and the minimum is only 2 cm (Shan Ye clay sculpture and wood carving), which is rich in themes and exquisite in craftsmanship, and can be called the Buddhist colored sculpture museum. The portrait sculpture in Cave 17 in the Tang Dynasty is abhorrent to the unification of Hexi Capital, and the statue is painted with staff near the waiter, which integrates the statue with the mural. It is one of the earliest realistic portraits of eminent monks in China and has high historical and artistic value. Mural art The grotto murals are rich and colorful, and various Buddhist stories, landscapes, pavilions and other architectural paintings, landscape paintings, flower patterns, flying Buddha statues and various scenes made by working people at that time are artistic representations of folk customs and historical changes from the Sixteen Kingdoms to the Qing Dynasty 1500 years. In a large number of mural art, it can also be found that ancient artists absorbed the advantages of ancient art in Iran, India, Greece and other countries on the basis of nationalization, which is a symbol of the developed civilization of the Chinese nation. Murals in different dynasties showed different painting styles, which reflected the political, economic and cultural conditions of China's feudal society. They were a glorious chapter in the ancient art history of China and provided precious graphic historical materials for studying the ancient history of China. In the 26th year of Guangxu reign of Dunhuang Art (A.D. 1900), about 50,000 scriptures, documents, embroideries, portraits, etc. from Wei Jin to Northern Song Dynasty were found in the northern wall of Cave 16. Besides written documents in Chinese, written documents in various national languages such as Park Jung Su, Polo, Huigu, Tubo, Sanskrit and Tibetan account for about one sixth. The contents of documents include religious documents, literary works, contracts, account books, official documents and letters. The discovery of Dunhuang art is famous at home and abroad, and it is of great research value to supplement and sort out the ancient documents in China.