Northern Dynasties Patterns in Dunhuang Patterns

What is said here is that the Northern Dynasty refers to the period when the Northern Liang Dynasty, the Northern Wei Dynasty and the Northern Zhou Dynasty ruled Dunhuang area, which was recorded from about 420 AD to 58 1.

The Northern Dynasties is the initial period of Dunhuang grottoes art, and the whole art form shows the artistic characteristics of blending and reflecting western culture and Central Plains culture. The pattern is the same.

Grottoes in the Northern Dynasties mainly have two forms: "central tower column" and "overlapping bucket top". The central pylon grottoes are rectangular in plane, with a flat top (that is, flat chess) at the back and a herringbone roof in front. There is a square column in the center of the grotto, and the four sides of the square column are carved with niches. This is a typical China traditional wooden temple building and Indian "support" grottoes (that is, the neutral tower in the grottoes) mixed into the cave shape. The patterns in caves are also distributed for this unique architectural form. The back of the ceiling is a pattern that imitates the flat chess, and the front of the ceiling is a pattern that imitates the rafters, arches and painted patterns of the roof truss. The vertical side under the bucket is decorated as a sign column, and the rear side under the four walls is generally decorated as a horizontal side. There are lintels and columns on the side of the niche. All the patterns in the cave have distinctive architectural features. After the Northern Wei Dynasty, the central tower-shaped grottoes gradually evolved into bucket-top grottoes, that is, the grottoes were square in plane and the top of the grottoes looked like inverted buckets, and they were carving niches for the Buddha. With the change of the shape of the cave, the flat chess pattern of the early continuous square well has also evolved into the caisson pattern of the unilateral well, and the edge decoration of the roof and wall of the cave has lost its architectural significance and become pure decoration.

The patterns in the Northern Dynasties are concise and distinct, with few patterns, simple images and uncomplicated combinations. The same pattern is repeated and continuous, which is the edge decoration. Several kinds of ornaments are connected, with lotus flowers in the middle and algae wells. The patterns mainly include lotus pattern, gold and silver pattern, geometric pattern, moire pattern, auspicious bird and beast pattern and so on. Lotus pattern is a traditional pattern in China, which was used to decorate weeping objects during the Warring States Period and to decorate buildings in the Han Dynasty. In Buddhist art, it has a specific meaning. Lotus is pure and fragrant, which is a symbol of the pure land of Buddhism and the most sacred and solemn pattern in Buddhist art. Gold and silver patterns are common decorative patterns in caves of the Northern Dynasties in China, which were used in wooden buildings and cloth embroidery in the Northern Wei Dynasty. It is very rich in Dunhuang grottoes, including single leaf wavy, branched, four-leaf side lock and so on. Geometric patterns have been widely used in painted pottery in China, and colored thread brocade has been woven on fabrics in Han Dynasty. In the art of grottoes, the inner grottoes have never been seen, and it is rare in Xinjiang grottoes. Dunhuang grottoes are extremely rich, with checkered patterns, diagonal checkered patterns and rhombic patterns. Moire is a traditional pattern in China, and lacquerware in the Warring States period and brocade in the Han Dynasty are skillfully used. Among the northern dynasties grottoes, only Dunhuang grottoes exist. Lucky birds and lucky animals are tattooed with dragons, elephants, tigers, monkeys, peacocks and long-tailed birds. In addition, there are flame patterns, scale patterns, sporadic flower patterns and so on.

The main characteristics of the patterns and ornamentation in the Northern Dynasties are simple and vivid modeling. For example, gold and silver patterns are common patterns in caves in the Northern Dynasties, but they are particularly prominent in Mogao Grottoes. The shape is simple and simple, free and lively, and changeable. Plant leaves with three or four petals are used to design simple and vivid images like paper-cut and shadow play by using the changes of front, back, down and up. It is not only different from the gorgeous side decoration of honeysuckle carved in Yungang Grottoes in Datong, but also different from the complicated style of honeysuckle side decoration in Xinjiang Grottoes murals, which emphasizes concave-convex changes and does not expose open spaces. But take the pattern of single-leaf honeysuckle as the basic unit. Whether it is composed of single-leaf wavy pattern, double-leaf rattan branch pattern or four-leaf tassel pattern, its leafy image and structural context are always so clear and complete. Against the background of the red earth, it gives viewers a simple and simple aesthetic feeling. Another example is the geometric pattern, which only uses lines with different slopes to form different geometric shapes, and uses the changing law of "number" to fill colors alternately, so that the simple grid can be as colorful as brocade. Another example is moire, which is different from Chairman Mao's patterns and geometric patterns. It expresses its characteristics with its own inherent image and format, but it shows its image characteristics with the rhythmic momentum formed by continuous S-shaped curves. It doesn't have and doesn't need a specific fixed image, but it just shows its unpredictable flowing momentum.

The flat chess decoration at the top of the grottoes is composed of general three-dimensional patterns, which also shows the characteristics of simplicity and vividness. The flat chess decoration in each cave concentrates all kinds of patterns in the cave, and the combination of complexity and reality constitutes a unified overall decoration. Pingqi is a square well composed of several side decorations. Each square well is double nested. The center of the well is wide and Da Lian-shaped. The lotus flower is like a big wheel, which is the main body of Pingqi decoration. The edge decoration of the nested square well in the well is relatively narrow, decorated with simple patterns and made of a single color in the sense of earth red, occupying obvious division and being free and easy. The four corners of the square well are painted with flying flowers or lotus flowers, which are in harmony with the lotus flowers in the well. The periphery of the square well is a band-shaped edge decoration composed of geometric patterns, honeysuckle patterns and voiceless air patterns. The edge decoration is wider and the pattern drawing is more detailed. The overall flat chess is based on the red earth, with green, white and black patterns that we can't reach, simple, solemn and spectacular.

Pingqi is a whole decoration, which integrates all the patterns in the cave. On the contrary, the lintel of the niche and the backlight of the Buddha statue are decorated with Venus. Buddhist niches are mostly honeysuckle patterns, including lotus flowers, boys or birds, musicians and so on. The pattern of honeysuckle here is Baoye, and the lotus niche door is the gate of pure land of Buddhism (see picture on page 25). The backlight of the Buddha statue is decorated with flame patterns, indicating that the Buddha statue emits golden light. The decorative pattern is concise and eye-catching, and the content and image of the decoration are perfectly unified.

Different from flat chess, niche lintel and Buddha's light backlighting, wall banding has no specific content and sense of stability required by architecture. All the hemming is made of small pieces with three different patterns and colors, such as honeysuckle, geometry and cloud gas, with regular linear geometric patterns. The flowing of curved moire and the liveliness of arc-shaped gold and silver patterns form a decorative beauty with strong rhythm.

It has been pointed out above that the pattern decoration of the northern dynasties grottoes is closely related to the imitation of the wooden pagoda hall in the grottoes, which is the reflection of the painted decoration of the temple pagoda hall in the grottoes. The physical object is no longer visible, but the text description is detailed and specific. Galand of Luoyang said that the Buddhist temple in Yongning Temple "looks like Tai Chi" (the main hall of the palace). Yu Jia's temples and Dunhuang Grottoes can't be compared with them, but it is obvious that the painted flat chess and molded wooden frame at the top of the grottoes imitate the temple buildings. The lotus placed in the square well of Pingqi is a continuation of the decoration of the "one-dimensional square well, planting lotus in reverse" in Wang Yanshou's "Luling Guangdian Fu" in the Eastern Han Dynasty. The dragon, phoenix and tiger patterns in the edge decoration and the auspicious bird and beast patterns such as peacock and monkey in the herringbone curtain are also in the same strain as the bird and beast patterns such as "Running Tiger", "Dying Dragon", "Suzaku" and "Fighting Ape" carved on the ceiling of Luling Light Hall. The zigzag vertical angle pattern painted on the herringbone rafters is also the decorative pattern of the upper components of the Han Palace building. The edge decoration consisting of moire, gold and silver patterns and geometric patterns is very similar to the architectural decoration of the gate building of Yongning Temple, showing clouds and colors, and is also very similar (see 14, 19, page 29). The colors of the grottoes are similar to those of the wooden halls, such as bucket arches, columns, algae wells and chess ornaments, while the surrounding decorations and wall decorations alternate with Zhu, green and white, showing the "Zhu Zhu" format of the traditional exhibition hall and the decorative colors of Zhu embroidery, jade, silver and gold.

The ancients compared luxurious palaces to "Purple Palace" and "Wonderland", but they always looked at the pattern decoration of grottoes in the Northern Dynasties, but they all imitated wooden palace buildings. It is the same in appearance and human decoration as the temple Buddha statue and the temple imitation official building, but it shows the supreme dignity of the Buddha statue from its magnificent appearance and the decoration of exotic flowers, rare birds and animals. The so-called architecture is "neither strong nor beautiful, not enough for one person to be powerful, not beautiful and not enough for training" ("Ode to the Temple of Jingfu"), which is the purpose of the Northern Dynasties grottoes to imitate the wooden structure to display architectural decoration.