On the murals in Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes

Experts uncover the mystery of pigments in Dunhuang murals

Why can Dunhuang murals not change color for thousands of years? Where does the pigment come from? What technology and minerals is it made of? There have been many different opinions over the years. Wang Jinyu, a researcher at Dunhuang Research Institute, recently pointed out that after scientific analysis of more than 30 pigments used in Dunhuang murals, China had a high level of pigment invention and production and chemical technology more than 600 years ago. The pigments in Dunhuang murals mainly come from imported gems, natural minerals and synthetic compounds.

Dunhuang Grottoes are not only a world-famous art treasure house, but also a colorful museum of pigment specimens. A large number of painting art pigment samples from the Northern Dynasties to the Meta-algebra for thousands of years have been preserved, which is an important material for studying the chemical history of ancient pigments in China and even the world. Wang Jinyu, a researcher at Dunhuang Research Institute, used scientific methods to combine the analysis results of modern instruments with the records of ancient documents to scientifically analyze more than 30 colors of Dunhuang murals, such as red, yellow, green, blue, white, black and brown.

According to a report by Xinhua News Agency today, Wang Jinyu said that the study on the pigments of murals in Dunhuang Grottoes in different periods not only confirmed that China was one of the first countries to use lapis lazuli, verdigris, lithargyrum, red alum and mica powder as pigments, but also showed that China's ancient chemical technology and pigment preparation skills were at the leading level in the world at that time.

The Artistic Features of Dunhuang Murals

Dunhuang grottoes art is a national treasure of our country and a world cultural heritage. Its large scale, long duration, rich content, exquisite craftsmanship and well-preserved are all rare in the world.

Because it originated in Dunhuang, a key area in the middle section of the Silk Road, an international channel for cultural exchanges between China and the West, it has special geographical and cultural properties. Wusun, Yueshi, Xiongnu and other nationalities once lived here. After the establishment of the four counties in Hexi by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Yangguan and Yumenguan were set up in the territory, which was the only place for Chinese and Western envoys, merchants and monks to travel between East and West. Therefore, Dunhuang has been a city where Huarong Road has been in contact since ancient times, and it is also a region where many cultures blend. Grotto art originated in India, and after passing through Central Asia and the Western Regions, it must have various contents and forms. However, all the features are included in the long-standing cultural and artistic system of China, and present a new style. Here are ten characteristics.

(A) the grotto architecture with China characteristics.

Buddhist grottoes originated in India and spread to the western regions. The shape of every place has changed, and new forms have appeared in Vishnu (monk's room) and Zhiti (stupa temple) in India. In Dunhuang, it is farther from India. The earliest Zen cave in Dunhuang, its narrow tunnel can not be compared with the colonnade hall in India; Only one person can sit on both sides of the small meditation room, which is also different from the Indian living room meditation room. It completely imitates the meditation room shape of Kuqa Subhas and is smaller. The central pillar cave in the Northern Wei Dynasty is more different from the colonnade pagoda-style hall. It evolved from Bamiyan Buddha Cave in Qizil, Afghanistan, and developed into a multi-storey pavilion tower in China in the late Northern Wei Dynasty. The viewing function around the tower is similar to that of Tota, but the back room has a flat roof, the front hall has a herringbone hard roof, and there are Chinese niches on the north and south walls. In the early grottoes, the characteristics of China wood structure have been added. After the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the inverted bucket top hall has a niche on the front wall and a canopy (algae well) hanging from the top. Some caves have Buddhist altars, steps in front, screens behind, fences around, painted pot doors, geisha music and animal decorations around, and four murals. In the process of secularization, Buddhist grottoes further imitate the form of palaces, and the characteristics of China are more intense.

(2) Flying from India to China.

All the ancient civilizations in the world have their own images of flying gods, and there are angels in Greece-children or girls with arms and wings; China has a feathered man, with feathers on his arms, who gallops in the air and is known as the Flying Fairy. India has a sky with round heads and clouds, and angels with wings. Dunhuang Tian Fei is from India. When it entered Qiuci Grottoes, it became a round face, beautiful eyes, stocky body and awkward posture. Together with Indian nudity, Persian scarf and no riding clouds, it has formed a unique style of the western regions. After entering Dunhuang, he gradually combined with the feather people, and became a flying fairy at the end of the 5th century, with a plump face, long eyebrows and fine eyes, a bun on his head, a half-naked upper body, a big towel on his shoulders, and no round lamp on his head, which was chic and charming. This is China Feitian in Dunhuang style. The emperor of the Sui Dynasty loved flying, and the emissary Mufei flew up and down to open the door for the emperor, and the gods in the sky descended to earth. [( 1) a] Therefore, flying reached its peak in the Sui Dynasty, with various forms and numerous groups, forming a free flying group. Especially in the Heavenly Palace, the geisha Lotte in the pavilion also took off and became a geisha who flew around the cave for a week.

In the Tang dynasty, flying without wings, relying on a long towel instead of clouds, started dancing and soared into space lightly and nimbly. As China poet Li said in his flying fairy poem: "Holding hibiscus in hand is too clear;" Nishang drags broadband and floats to the sky. " [(2) a] This is the typical artistic image of China Fei Xian (Flying).

(3) Feminization of Bodhisattva

Grottoes originated in India, where human proportions, postures and facial expressions are realistic and ideal. In terms of gender, the characteristics are distinct, and the physiological characteristics of men and women in the congregation are very obvious. This person has a round face, bearded lips, broad shoulders and strong waist, and is strong and powerful; Women's faces are round, their eyes are sharp, their eyebrows are long, their lips are thick, their breasts are big, their waists are thin, their hips are big, and their feet are staggered. Some men's roots and women's genitals are unabashedly displayed.

Qiuci Grottoes inherited this tradition, but the number of naked figures has been greatly reduced. When entering Gaochang area, the gender of bodhisattvas and saints is mostly unknown, and after the Buddha, Tianlong Babu is mostly the same image. Regardless of gender, the nude image no longer exists. Most of the early grottoes in Dunhuang were like this. On the one hand, it conforms to the Buddhist scriptures of "non-male and non-female" saints in the Buddhist world, and at the same time, Confucian ethics thinks that nudity is immoral, uncivilized and immoral, so it deliberately does not show the physiological characteristics of men and women. After the Sui Dynasty, a female bodhisattva appeared obviously, with a rich and charming face, a green beard on her lips and no breasts on her chest, but gentle and graceful. Therefore, at the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, eminent monks handed down a statue of Bodhisattva: "In the Song and Qi Dynasties, the lips were thick, the nose was long and the eyes were wide, quite like a husband. Since the Tang Dynasty, calligraphers have always been as strict as geisha, so today people praise Gongwa as a bodhisattva. " [(3) a] The painter Zhao Gongyou described the Bodhisattva statue as "beautiful, with strange clothes and precious eyes like a woman" [4) a], lamenting the loss of its creative purpose. Dunhuang painters, like the Central Plains, are feminine and secular in order to "please the public".

(4) The portrait of the provider is unique to China.

In the art of Buddhist grottoes in India, the portrait of the patron saint with the inscription of the age has not been found. There are few portraits of diners in Qiuci Grottoes in the Western Regions, but there are also few inscriptions. Dunhuang has a group of portraits or murals of patrons in the earliest caves in the late Sixteen Countries, which is related to the ancestor worship of Confucianism. In the Han dynasty, there was a trend of painting ancestors, and the portraits of Buddhist masters combined with this became the original donor images. A portrait of a family has been formed in the Western Wei Dynasty, and developed into a family temple in the Tang Dynasty, such as Cave 220 in the 16th year of Zhenguan. With the theme of "ZhaiJiadong", it took more than 280 years for Zhai Fengda to draw three generations of portraits for his family, and more than ten generations came down in one continuous line.

Cave 98 of the Five Dynasties is the cave of Cao Yijin's merits, with 169 painting patrons, including Zhang Yichao, Suoxun, son-in-law of Hetian's consort, Li Shengtian and Princess Huihe. From the Cao Shi family, as well as our yamen officials, Cao Shi's in-laws, Cao Shi's ancestors, children, son-in-law and so on. In order of seniority, there is another one.

(5) The historical changes of Mahayana Kingdom

Mahayana religion is popular in China, forming many sects. Therefore, major Mahayana classics such as Beijing Sutra, Huayan Sutra, Vimalakīrti Sutra, Amitabha Sutra and Maitreya Sutra have all undergone changes. The classic here refers to a picture and a story, then a story and a picture, which can also be called a classic, but a large classic contains many stories. This change is not found in the Buddhist sites before the Sui and Tang Dynasties in Buddhist countries, nor in Central Asia where China painters first created according to Buddhist scriptures. Judging from the existing paintings, the Maijishan Grottoes in the late Northern Wei Dynasty have seen a huge Chinese-style Western Pure Land Change and Vimo Change. According to Dunhuang records, it was generally later than the Central Plains, which began in the Sui Dynasty and flourished in the Tang Dynasty. More than 20 pieces, including 1 102 pieces, have been preserved in Dunhuang Grottoes, including Western Pure Land Change, Oriental Pharmacist Change, Maitreya Buddha Change, Vimo Change, Gratitude Change and Secret Language Change. Especially after the Tubo period, all factions gathered in a cave and coexisted at the same time, showing their great power. These changes are the visualization of abstract Buddhist scriptures. In the process of visualization, there are pavilions and pavilions in China, magnificent royal palaces and natural scenery in the distance. In the changed artistic realm, there are many levels of artistic conception: religious realm, political realm, ethical realm and so on. , fully embodies the China characteristics of the integration of Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism.

(6) Dunhuang murals are a treasure house of music and dance.

Dance and music reflected in Dunhuang murals are connected as a whole. Dance is the form of music, and music is the sound of dance. It combines the factors of dance music of various nationalities and countries, and its diversity is obvious. It can be mainly divided into three categories: the dance music of the Han nationality in the Central Plains, such as music and Yan music; Brothers dance music in the western regions, such as Qiuci music, Shule music and Gaochang music; Foreign dance music, such as Tianzhu music, dance music from Central Asia and Persia. Western cool music is the product of the combination of Qiuci music and Central Plains dance music, which is popular in Hexi Corridor, including Dunhuang music. With the prosperity of the Silk Road and the development of Buddhist art in Dunhuang, Tianzhu music has had a far-reaching impact on dance music in the Western Regions and Dunhuang.

Dance music in Dunhuang murals can be divided into two categories: Yue Xian and pop music. The so-called Yue Xian is the dance music that appears in the image of heaven and man in Buddhism, such as the Tiangong geisha music that walked around the cave in the early days; Large-scale dance scenes in the splendid paradise of the Tang Dynasty, such as Hu Xuan Dance and Hu Teng Dance in Cave 220 and Ji Zhe Dance in Cave 2 17. Folk dance is music and dance in real life, such as geisha in Zhang Yichao's Travel Map. Qing merchants and hundreds of plays in Mrs. Guo Song: marrying six male dancers in the picture and so on. The gestures and postures of Yue Xian Zhongtian people and Bodhisattvas all contain the charm of Indian dance. However, all this has been integrated into the absorption, integration and continuous innovation of the national spirit in the Tang Dynasty, forming a huge system and excellent tradition of China dance music.

(7) Dunhuang Grottoes Art and Belief Thought

The art of Dunhuang Grottoes directly accepted the contents, techniques and styles of Buddhist art in the Western Regions, mainly praising the Buddha's life story and good deeds in previous lives, and publicizing the accumulated merits of lifelong practice. Therefore, the tragic themes such as Prince Sa feeding the tiger, the corpse king cutting meat to feed the eagle, the moonlight king cutting his head a thousand times, and cutting meat to serve his loved ones are very popular, carrying forward the spirit of sacrifice for all beings and eventually becoming a Buddha.

During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the whole country was unified, the political and economic development was great, and the Mahayana Sutra rose suddenly. The pure land of Maitreya Buddha, oriental pharmacist, Amitabha Buddha and Big Dipper has changed, which is contrary to the tragic atmosphere in the early days, showing a happy scene of pavilions, resplendence and singing and dancing. The idea that a person can become a Buddha after death and go to the pure land after seven days of chanting Buddha has replaced the old idea that he can become a Buddha after long-term repeated practice, and the Buddhist belief in believing in men and women has also changed. There are generally three kinds: one is to turn over the undead. Parents who want to die first, the third generation of parents and the seventh generation of parents, will always stay away from the pure land; Second, make a wish for the living. For example, "the place where I live now is flat", "Seeing my mother's descendants, there is no disaster" and "Cao Gong, the king of the house, is a security guard". Thirdly, those who wish to become Buddhists have more common aspirations. "May the dead god give birth to the pure land", "All beings in the dharma circle realize together" and "All beings will become Buddhas in a short time", especially the wishes for the living. Hokkekyo's popular products "Guanyin Classic Change" and "Thousand Hands and Thousand Eyes Guanyin Change" show a lot of chanting Guanyin's name and getting rid of real suffering immediately, instead of becoming a Buddha after death. Therefore, the picture of Elysium is often used as a sacrifice to the Buddha to get rid of the suffering of reality. Elysium has the hope of becoming a Buddha, but the hierarchy of three levels and nine levels is very strict and difficult to get.

For thousands of years, the change of Buddhist belief thought is influenced by Confucianism's entry into WTO and realistic thought, which is the product of the combination of Confucianism and Buddhism.

(8) Technical exchange of murals between China and India.

There are two sources of Dunhuang mural expression techniques: one is China's traditional mural technique, and Dunhuang Han and Jin tomb paintings are the foundation; The first is the expression from the western regions. The production methods of murals are basically the same, and the methods of expression such as modeling, line drawing, composition, coloring and vividness have their own national characteristics. I won't say much here, but mainly two completely different three-dimensional expressions.

Tianzhu concave-convex method from the western regions expresses subjective consciousness through light and shade. This method has been changed many times from Ajanta to Dunhuang, but all of them are painted with flesh red, and the eyes, nose and face are dyed with ochre blush to make the light and shade clear. Finally, the nose and eyeball are painted with white powder to show the colorful parts. The color changes with age, the muscles turn gray-black, and the white nose and small face are more prominent. This painting method has been popular in Dunhuang Grottoes for more than 250 years.

The traditional color blooming method in China is relatively simple. Contrary to the Indian bump, only a mass of red is rendered on the cheeks and upper eyelids of the face, which is rosy and has a certain three-dimensional effect. This method originated in the Warring States and was very mature in the Western Han Dynasty. Dunhuang frescoes entered at the end of the 5th century and coexisted with the light and shade method in the Western Regions for nearly a hundred years. Until the Sui Dynasty at the end of the 6th century, Chinese and Western cultures merged, with color halo as the main factor and light and dark rendering. It was not until the Tang Dynasty in the early 7th century that a brand-new three-dimensional representation of China was formed.

(9) Great integration of Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism.

At the beginning of Dunhuang art, it mainly showed the Buddha's statement, the life story of Sakyamuni-the story of the Buddha's biography, the story of the Buddha's good deed of giving his life to save all beings in his last life-the story of karma, and the story of thousands of buddhas sitting in meditation. It mainly shows the tragic and peaceful realm of becoming a Buddha six times.

In the late Northern Wei Dynasty, images of Taoist immortals, such as Dong, Queen Mother of the West, Fuxi, Nuwa, alchemist, Suzaku, Xuanwu, Qinglong, White Tiger, Feather Man and Wuhuo, appeared in murals, with floating ceilings, as well as images of Bodhisattvas in the Southern Dynasties, and literati wearing robes and high feet.

After the Sui and Tang Dynasties, there appeared many apocrypha, which were actually Buddhist scriptures written by China people. The Book of Filial Piety is based on the Book of Filial Piety. This change has taken place in the cave of the Tang Dynasty, with the Buddha and the sage in the middle. This paper describes the plot of pregnancy, childbirth, growth, disobedience and unfilial in October. This is not to preach Buddhism, but to preach Confucian filial piety. In many deep realms of pure land change, there are many Confucian ethical and moral thoughts and political realms.

A scholar in the Northern and Southern Dynasties put it well: "Sakyamuni was born in China and established religion as Kong Zhou; Kong Zhou was born in the West and taught like Sakyamuni. " This sentence reveals the law of cultural exchange.

(10) The intersection of Chinese and Western grottoes.

In the third century BC, Asoka preached Buddhism, and Buddhist art rose from India. In the first century, Greek Buddhist art appeared in Gandhara and spread to other countries. It was introduced from Afghanistan to Khotan, Xinjiang in the 2nd century. There are Greek-style statues of bodhisattvas and dragon patterns in China in the Han Tomb in Minfeng, Nanlu, and Sakamoto's story paintings in Nuoqiang's temple ruins. At the same time, Bamiyan Grottoes appeared in Qizil Grottoes on the North Road with Qiuci as the center. When it is combined with Qiuci's local customs, Qiuci's unique diamond story painting is formed. However, Qiuci art still contains Indian artistic elements, Afghan characteristics and Persian influence, and more importantly, Chinese painting factors, thus forming a diversified western style.

Gaochang has been the Han regime since the Jin Dynasty, and the Chinese culture is deeply rooted. The nude art from the west was resisted by Confucianism, the gender characteristics of nude figures and bodhisattvas were diluted, and Buddha and many saints became asexual nature. The form of painting has a greater relationship with the Han paintings in the Central Plains, so the first stop for the real communication between Chinese and Western arts is here.

Since its introduction into Dunhuang, it has been endowed with more China cultural factors, such as que-shaped niches, herringbone grottoes, group paintings and rough brushwork. , but basically maintained the western style. During the Northern Wei Dynasty, Chinese characters were sinicized and comic books developed. Although Indian and Persian elements are still maintained in style, the spread of Buddhist art in the Central Plains to the west, especially in the Southern Dynasties, has obvious Central Plains style from theme, character modeling, line drawing, color setting, three-dimensional light and shade to artistic conception creation, which has pushed the process of China of Dunhuang Grottoes to a climax. At the same time, it has formed a new situation in which the styles of the Western Regions and the Central Plains meet and coexist in Dunhuang. After Taihe, Central Plains-style paintings were introduced to the Western Regions with Song Yun and Sheng Hui, and then fed back to Central Asia and India. Facts have proved that Dunhuang Grottoes are the meeting point of cultural exchanges between China, India and China.