What are the contents of the murals of more than 40,000 square meters in Mogao Grottoes?

Dunhuang Grottoes, one of the four largest grottoes in China, are as famous as Yungang Grottoes in Datong, Longmen Grottoes in Luoyang and Maijishan Grottoes in Tianshui. In 366 AD, a monk named Le Jue passed by the eastern foot of Mingsha Mountain in Dunhuang and saw clouds flying around. A vision appeared in the sky, and three dangerous mountains were full of golden light. Le Xie fell to the ground and bowed down. He firmly believed that this place was a Buddhist country, so he stayed in Dunhuang. He dug the first grotto on the cliff at the eastern foot of Mingsha Mountain.

Since then, after excavation in the Sixteen Kingdoms, the Northern Dynasties, the Sui Dynasty, the Tang Dynasty and the Yuan Dynasty, with the hammering sound of 1000 years, a large-scale and rich cave group has been formed. So far, there are more than 2,400 colored sculptures and 40,000 square meters of murals here, which are the largest and most complete art treasures and ancient relics in the world.

Among the bright and precious cultural relics, murals are the most numerous. So, what exactly are these murals painted? What's the significance to China's art history?

Above _ Dunhuang Northern Wei Dynasty mural "Prince Sachan gave his life to feed the tiger"

As we all know, Dunhuang is an important place on the Silk Road, where eastern and western cultures blend. Since Yongping sought dharma in the Eastern Han Dynasty, Buddhism entered the eastern land along the Silk Road. Therefore, there are a large number of murals in Dunhuang Grottoes that reflect the contents of Buddhism. Murals are colorful and lifelike, involving Buddhist classics, Buddhist monuments, local people and so on. Generally can be divided into six categories.

1. Buddhist story murals mainly tell the story of the Buddha and are the main theme of story painting, which lasted for five centuries from the Northern Liang Dynasty to the Northern Song Dynasty. According to the changes of the times, these murals are very different in painting content, from layout, lines, painting methods, composition to color, with different characteristics in different times and styles. For example, the banner style in Cave 275 and the screen style in Cave 6 1, because the classics are different, the focus of Buddhist performance is also different.

Shang _ (Cave 275) Beiliang's Picture of the Dead King's Birth.

Shang _ (Cave 6 1)- Five Dynasties

2. Story painting is a means for people to explain the principles of Buddhism in ancient society, and it is China's original creation. In ancient society, it was difficult for ordinary people to understand profound Buddhist teachings and contents because of the limitation of cultural level. Story painting is to show Buddhism in the form of story painting, so that people can understand Buddhism intuitively, thus achieving the purpose of educating the people. For example, "Watching Endless Life" and "Prince Satuna lays down his life to feed the tiger", although the whole picture is not drawn, the continuity of the story can be supplemented by the words on the list.

Above _ (Cave 428) Prince Sadina gave his life to feed the tiger in the Northern Zhou Dynasty.

Above _ (Cave 1 12) The Tang Dynasty's Endless Life.

3. Bunsen Story

Bunsen's story tells the past karma between Buddha and his disciples from the perspective of newspaper industry. Characters include kings, doctors, civilians, scholars, farmers, workers and businessmen, telling their past lives and guiding people to actively do good. The material of the story comes from fables and legends to demonstrate karma and reincarnation. For example, the well-known story "Nine Colors Deer" is vivid and interesting.

Shang _ (Cave 257) Jiuse Deer

4. This mural is a continuous story mural with the prosperity of popular stories in the middle and late Tang Dynasty. The so-called popular words are mostly simplified into simple and popular variants with Buddhist stories, and Buddhist scriptures are publicized in the form of rap. Just like painting through classics, this is also to preach profound Buddhist scriptures in the form of rap, in order to make Buddhism better rooted in the people. Usually this kind of story painting is continuous, and the layman stands by, telling stories and guiding the audience to watch.

5. Buddhist Historical Stories These murals include monks' travels, Buddhist history, Buddhist local records, auspicious images of various places, and induction stories, which have high artistic and humanistic values. The time covers the prosperous Tang Dynasty to Xixia. There are many such murals in the Mogao Grottoes, such as Zhang Qian's mission to the Western Regions and Master Tan Yan's prayer for rain. These are not Buddhist scriptures, and stories about Buddhist historical figures and auspicious images are also summarized.

Above _ "Zhang Qian to the Western Regions"

Above _ "Master Tan Yan prays for rain"

6. Stories of local historical figures This kind of story painting mainly tells the story of the rebels ruling sandbars from the middle of the 9th century to the10th century. The content focuses on the life and travel of Zhang Yichao, Cao Yijin, the leaders of Guiyi Army, and their wives. Murals celebrate and publicize the rulers' achievements in the secular world.

Through the above classification, we can see that the murals in Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes are mainly Buddhist, and the murals are like the projection of a Buddhist world on the earth. There are strict grades, wonderful music and songs, causal reincarnation, joys and sorrows. By appreciating these mottled murals, we can feel the face of society at that time.

Northern Wei Dynasty _ Flying Above the Sky

The murals in Mogao Grottoes have gone through thousands of years. Although colorful colors have long faded, they are still an important part in the history of China fine arts. What is the significance of these murals to the art history of China?

First of all, in terms of content, it develops the content of story painting. Because Buddhism comes from the west, these foreign contents enrich China's paintings. ? Foreign stories? Injected new vitality into China's story painting. Let's look at life in a foreign country.

Secondly, the story paintings in Dunhuang contain a lot of Buddhist content, and there are also western styles in the early days. These paintings gradually merged with the painting methods of the Central Plains in the long history, and finally merged into and became a part of Chinese civilization.

If these murals take time as the axis, they will show the painting techniques and characteristics from the Sixteen Kingdoms to the Song and Yuan Dynasties one by one, forming a long scroll, from which we can see the changes of painting techniques. At the same time, the Buddhist world in the murals is the epitome of the human world, and the terraces, temples, palaces and artifacts in the paintings are the projections of life at that time. We can know how people absorb foreign customs and combine them with their own habits to form their own national habits.

Above _ (Cave 285) Western Wei Dynasty

Thirdly, the blending of scene and scene is a great achievement of painting creation.

China's early paintings mainly focused on figures, philosophy of Laozi and Zhuangzi, fairy tales and so on. In painting skills, taking the sky as the background, the description of the environment is ignored. After the introduction of historical and Buddhist themes into Dunhuang murals, the story content points to the world, and the rendering with mountains and rivers as the background gradually appears. It enriches the techniques and story content of China's landscape painting. In early story painting, people were the center. During the Northern Zhou Dynasty, environmental descriptions appeared on murals, but at this time, the proportion of people and the environment was not harmonious and appeared. Is man a mountain or a hill? Until the early 8th century, the realistic phenomenon of reasonable landscape proportion appeared in murals. Due to the introduction of landscape background, the composition of story painting is more diverse and free.

Fourthly, all kinds of story paintings have distinct regional characteristics.

Dunhuang is located in the northwest, along the Silk Road, and naturally has the geomorphological characteristics of the northwest region. The deserts, icebergs and rivers in the murals record the environmental details of ancient people's lives in detail. From this, we can appreciate the ancient business travel, and how many hardships and sinister natural environments we have to go through on the Silk Road, leaving us with an extremely valuable historical image.

Above _ "Buddha Ceremony of 500 Robbers"

Fifth, Dunhuang murals reflect the enthusiastic creative spirit of ancient painters.

In ancient society, the social status of craftsmen was very low. Painters engaged in Dunhuang murals did not leave their own names, but their creative enthusiasm can be seen from the lines, techniques and rich imagination of murals. They showed their imagination through the details of the story. Painters understand Buddhist teachings according to their own life experiences, and bring their real feelings and personal feelings into their paintings. Interpreting Dunhuang murals is a dialogue with the ancients through time and space.

The Millennium Mogao is the Dunhuang of mankind. This art hall has left too many treasures to be excavated for future generations. Without the protection, research and inheritance of several generations of scholars, we may not be able to walk into this art museum today.

Text: it's still early

References:

1 Study on Dunhuang History and Mogao Grottoes Art

2 Zhao Shengliang, Dai Chunyang, Zhang Yuanlin "The Origin of Dunhuang Culture" 20 14

3 Dunhuang Research Institute's China Grottoes Art Mogao Grottoes 20 15.

The text was created by the team of History University Hall, and the pictures originated from the Internet and belonged to the original author.