artistic culture

  First, Dunhuang art to Mogao Caves as the center.
       According to the Wuzhou Shengli first year (698 AD) Li Huai let repair Mogao Grottoes niche records: Mogao Grottoes was created in the former Qin Jianyuan two years (366 AD), from the sixteen northern Liang, down to the Yuan, Qing, lasted more than a thousand years.
Existing caves four hundred and ninety-two, murals more than forty-five thousand square meters, color sculpture more than two thousand four hundred body, the Tang and Song dynasty wooden structure of the eaves of the library of five, silk painting nearly a thousand, all kinds of writing instruments forty-five million, and the remains of the dyeing and weaving, colored bricks and so on.

       Second, the medium of Dunhuang art
       Architecture: the establishment of the caves are divided into Zen caves, hall caves, tower and temple caves, dome roof caves, shadow caves and other forms.
       Color sculpture: mainly religious deities, with round, relief, shadow carving and other types.
       Mural painting: divided into statue painting, sutra painting, story painting, Buddhist history painting, architectural painting, landscape painting, sustenance painting, animal painting, decorative painting.
       Colored bricks: the paintings are mainly of rare birds and beasts, supplemented by ancient myths and legends.
       Silk paintings: silk paintings and paper paintings unearthed from the Mogao Grottoes Cangjing Cave have the same content as the analogous frescoes.
       1, Dunhuang art - architecture
       Existing more than 500 caves in the preservation of painting, color sculpture of 492, there are Zen cave, hall cave, tower temple cave, dome roof cave, shadow cave and other forms, there are some pagodas. Cave shape of the largest 40 meters high, 30 meters wide square, the smallest less than a foot high. From the early grottoes preserved in the center of the pagoda pillar type of this foreign form of grottoes, reflecting the ancient artists in the acceptance of foreign art, at the same time, to digest, absorb, so that it has become the national form of our country. The cliff face of the Dunhuang Grottoes belongs to conglomerate rock with a brittle geological structure. Therefore, when excavating, the four walls need to be perpendicular to the bottom surface, and the top of the cave is mostly convex to prevent collapse.

Mogao Grottoes No. 285 grottoes are located north of the Nine Storey House, the Western Wei excavation, in the Tang Dynasty, the Song Dynasty, the Western Xia, Yuan repair, the north wall of the grottoes of the Western Wei Dynasty, four years, five years (i.e., A.D. 538, 539 years), wishing for a text inscription, indicating that the grottoes were built at this time. It is the earliest Mogao Grottoes cave with chronology, but also the richest early cave content. Cave shape is a plane square, dipper-shaped roof, the west wall of three round coupon niches, the north and south walls of the 4 Zen grottoes. Front room on the west wall of the door for the 286th grotto, the door to the north for the 287th grotto, canopies and front room murals for the Five Dynasties repainting. The west wall of the main niche molded sitting Buddha, coercive Bodhisattva two bodies, two side of the niche molded cross-legged sitting Zen monk statue. The north wall of the four chan caves painted with chan monks; cave top four Phi painted flying sky, thunder god, flying lian, jujiao, wuwu, kaiming, fuxi, nuwa, etc., the edge of the painting of the mountain dwelling chan monks like 35; west wall niches outside the painting of buddhas, gods, gods and goddesses, rushes; north and south wall wall paintings on the upper and lower segments, the segments of the subgroups, the contents of their own independent, but there is a general layout: on the upper part of the painting of the kabuki flying sky 12 body, playing music or scattered flowers, flowing and graceful, lively atmosphere; The lower part of a horizontal story painting "five hundred robbers into Buddha", painted war, trial and punishment, shaving and other scenes, providing us with ancient weapons, criminal law, architecture, clothing and other image information; the middle of the painting of the Buddha's story of this life and the story of karma; the lower part of the painting of the medicine fork. The upper part of the north wall depicts the eight pavements of the Saying of the Laws, with a wish and a supporter below each pavement, and the middle part depicts the Buddha and Bodhisattvas. On both sides of the door of the east wall, the Buddha of Immeasurable Life is depicted, and the supporters are depicted underneath, and there is a wish list title. The painted figures are slender and handsome, and their eyebrows are sparse. The painting technique is a combination of Western and Chinese art styles, and the subject matter includes traditional Chinese and Indian deities. Therefore, the cave was excavated in the Dongyang Wang Yuanrong as Guazhou assassin, history shows that Yuanrong had made a large cave in Mogao Grottoes, so some experts believe that this cave for the Dongyang Wang Grottoes.

       2、Dunhuang art - colored sculptures
       Colorful sculptures are the mainstay of Dunhuang art, including statues of Buddha, Bodhisattva, disciples, and the heavenly kings, vajra, warriors, gods, etc. The forms are colorful and varied. Colorful forms of sculpture, there are round sculpture, floating sculpture, shadow sculpture, good karma sculpture and so on. The highest 34.5 meters, the smallest only 2 cm or so (good industry clay and wood stone statues), the richness of the subject matter and craftsmanship, known as the Museum of Buddhist color sculpture. Mogao Grottoes color sculpture comprehensive and systematic reflection of the development and evolution of the art of color sculpture in China, is a real system of color sculpture history.
Cave 259 seated Buddha Shaped in the Northern Wei Dynasty, located in the cave in the northern wall of the lower niche from the inside to the outside of the number of the third niche, the eyes and the left leg has been slightly damaged. Sitting Buddha 0.92 meters high, wave hair in a high bun, face rounded, ear big shoulder, chest and abdomen, dignified posture, proportionality, legs coiled up, cross-legged sitting on the rectangular Sumeru seat, hands in front of the abdomen overlap for meditation seal. Crimson robe covering the body, in front of the knee was three lotus petals naturally drooping, yin carving pattern smooth and free of sparse and dense, close to the torso, giving people a sense of gauze through the body, that is, the use of the history of the so-called "CaoYi out of the water," the method. The structure of this image is neat, face and chest, fine carving, so that it appears to be delicate and moist, rich in flesh and blood; especially the curved eyebrows under the slightly open eyes, about the slightly raised nose, the corners of the mouth slightly curved and deeply sunken into the two small nests, curved like a half-moon shaped lips, are now a kind of heartfelt smiles from the depths of the soul. This Buddha fully embodies China's traditional art, the shape of God, the main and secondary, the characteristics of both God and form, is Dunhuang color sculpture in the best works.

       3, Dunhuang art - murals
       Dunhuang murals have images of gods (Buddha, Bodhisattvas, etc.) and common people (for the people and the characters in the storytelling paintings). These two types of images are derived from real life) but each has a different nature. From the modeling, the image of ordinary people rich in life, the characteristics of the times are also more distinctive; while the image of the gods is less varied, imagination and exaggeration more components. From the clothes and costumes, said the common people are mostly for the Central Plains Han, the gods are more to maintain exotic clothes and crowns; halo method is also different, the painting of the common people are mostly used in the Central Plains halo method, the gods are more for the West concave and convex method. All of these, in turn, were constantly changing with the times. One of the problems closely related to modeling is deformation. Dunhuang mural paintings inherited the deformation techniques of traditional painting, skillfully shaping a variety of figures, animals and plants. Different times, different aesthetic views, the degree and method of deformation are also different. Early deformation to a greater extent, more romanticism, the image of the characteristics of the distinctive and prominent; Sui and Tang Dynasty, less deformation, stronger sense of three-dimensionality, realism is increasingly strong. There are two general methods of deformation: one is an exaggerated deformation of a character in the original shape of the regular changes, that is, lengthened into a disaster. Such as the late Northern Wei or Western Wei period of the bodhisattva, greatly increased clothing, fingers and neck length, the end of the bone exposed, with the distance between the day pastoral foraging, the corner of the mouth upturned, shaped like a flower petal; after the deformation of the Che became the flow of the dashing "show bone rule like". Vajra Rex is more in the horizontal exaggeration, thickened limbs, shorten the neck, head round belly, prismatic eyebrows and eyes, emphasizing the physical fitness and superhuman strength. These two figures are the result of exaggeration.

 Pratyekabuddha sits in the center of the lotus seat on the back of the six-tusked elephant, white elephant feet on the lotus, bald elephant slave near the white elephant side of the back of the hand pulling the rope. The Brahma, heavenly kings, Bodhisattvas, Lohan and other saints follow in the clouds. In the distance, there are towering bee ranges, abrupt and steep, and in the mountains there are pavilions and temples, water pavilions and simple thatched cottages and bamboo fences, which make the scenery quiet and elegant, and make people think about it in a tranquil way. The work uses different lines to depict different objects, the mountain bees are thick ink and heavy brushwork, which makes the stone walls appear steep and majestic, and the clouds are double-hooked, presenting the effect of dense layers, fluttering and surging. Iron line drawing and folded Lu depicted into the characters, not only proportional, each with its own characteristics, and all the immortal style, elegant and elegant. The picture is only a light coloring slightly brindled, highlighting the modeling effect of ink, is a very rare ink landscape figures fine art.

According to "the Buddha said incomparable great mighty virtue golden wheel Buddha top blaze abatement auspicious dharani sutra" painting and become, hing mogao caves Yuan dynasty 61 caves Yong south wall of the mural is very similar. The picture holds the Sheng light Buddha Duan dust sitting on the lotus seat of the two-wheeled vehicle forward, behind the car full of flags, five obsidian star god, three sides of the cluster.
       Third, the influence of later generations
       The confluence of Buddhist, Taoist, and Confucian ideologies has had a significant impact on ancient Chinese culture since the introduction of Buddhism into China, and has been tested against traditional Chinese Confucianism in its artistic views.
The Rise of Dunhuang Studies: The remains of the Dunhuang Cave of Sutras have attracted the attention and research of scholars at home and abroad since their discovery by Wang Yuanchu, which has led to the rise of a new discipline in the world - Dunhuang Studies.