Dunhuang, because of its special geographical location, occupies an important position in the historical process of the interaction of Eurasian civilizations and the cultural blending of the Central Plains nationalities and the western nationalities. From the 4th to 14th century AD, with the development of Buddhism, a large number of Buddhist grottoes were built in Dunhuang, among which Mogao Grottoes are the largest, and 735 grottoes are still preserved, including 45,000 square meters of murals and more than 2,000 colored sculptures. In 1900, tens of thousands of documents and other cultural relics were discovered in the Tibetan Sutra Cave of Mogao Grottoes (now Cave 17), which attracted worldwide attention. As a result, a far-reaching discipline-Dunhuang Studies was produced, which added richer connotations to Dunhuang cultural heritage. The significance of Dunhuang culture has gone far beyond the scope of pure religion or art, but is a collection of multiculturalisms. Today, we want to inherit and carry forward the excellent traditional Chinese culture, and we can get a lot of enlightenment from Dunhuang culture.

Rooted in tradition, integrating all parties

In 138 BC and 119 BC, Zhang Qian made two missions to the Western Regions, opening up the Silk Road, a channel for communication between the East and the West. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty set up Wuwei, Zhangye, Jiuquan and Dunhuang counties in Hexi. Dunhuang is located at the westernmost tip of Hexi Corridor and has become the “throat place” of the Silk Road. In the economic and cultural exchanges of the Silk Road, Dunhuang has become “a metropolis exchanged by Huarong”.

Since the Han Dynasty, the Central Plains culture has been introduced into Dunhuang and has developed continuously, forming a solid cultural foundation in Dunhuang. Due to the development of the Silk Road, the exchanges between Dunhuang and the mainland are very frequent, and popular culture and art in Changan, Luoyang and other places will soon be introduced into Dunhuang. From the end of the Han Dynasty to the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, when there was war in the Central Plains, Dunhuang and Hexi remained stable, so the gentry scholars in the Central Plains often went to Hexi to avoid disaster, which promoted the development of local culture in Dunhuang.

Zhang Huan, a famous general in the Eastern Han Dynasty, once lived in seclusion in his hometown, received thousands of disciples in Dunhuang, and wrote books such as “It is difficult to be a secretary”. His son Zhang Zhi and Suo Jing, another Dunhuang native in the Western Jin Dynasty, were both good at calligraphy. These two calligraphers had an important influence on the development of early Chinese calligraphy. From the Three Kingdoms to the Jin Dynasties, celebrities in Dunhuang, such as Song Xian, Suo Xi and Guo Yu, were called “Shuo De and Famous Confucianism”. Due to the prosperity of Confucianism in Dunhuang, scholars from the Central Plains have also been attracted to give lectures in Dunhuang. Qi Jiabo, a famous Confucian in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, went to Dunhuang in the west and taught more than 100 students. In 400 AD, Li Hao, the king of Xiliang, established the Kingdom of Xiliang with Dunhuang as its capital. Li Hao was deeply influenced by Confucian culture, courteous corporal, recruited heroes and heroes, established Jinggong Hall in Dunhuang to discuss state affairs, and established state schools and county schools to set up education. At that time, some famous Confucians turned to him one after another, such as historical geographers Kan, Song You, educator Liu Yan and other famous scholars gathered in Dunhuang, which became a much-told story in the history of Dunhuang culture.

Dunhuang, which is bordered by the Western Regions, is the earliest place in China to come into contact with Buddhism. In the early days of the introduction of Buddhism, Chinese and foreign monks who traveled between the Western Regions and the Central Plains often stopped in Dunhuang to give lectures. As a result, famous monks in Dunhuang came forth in large numbers, such as Tan Momido, a monk from Jibin, Zhu Fahu, a native of Yueshi, Yu Falan, Yu Daosui, Song Yun, etc. from Dunhuang, were all famous monks at that time, especially Zhu Fahu, who had a great influence and was called “Dunhuang Bodhisattva”.

Grottoes are not only the place where monks live and live, but also the place of worship activities. Among the early grottoes in Dunhuang, Tazhu Grottoes, the popular center. This shape comes from the Zhiti Cave in India. In India, the center of Zhiti Cave is a stupa. The pagodas in India are all round pagodas covered with bowls, but after they were introduced into China, they were quickly changed into square pavilion pagodas. The central tower column symbolizes the stupa. People enter the cave and worship around the pagoda. It is worth noting that a herringbone roof appears in the front of the roof of the central pillar cave. Herringbone clothing is a traditional Chinese architectural shape and a major feature of wooden architecture. The central tower pillar cave is made of rafters on both sides of the herringbone cloak, and the form of bucket arches is made at both ends of the beam, which is undoubtedly the embodiment of the spirit of Chinese traditional architecture. After the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the popular caves with bucket tops originated from the Chinese-style form of bucket tents.

Many Buddhist niches in early grottoes were popular coupon-shaped niches in India, but at the same time, Chinese-style niches also appeared. “Que” is a form of ancient Chinese architecture. Two taller pavilions are built on both sides of the gate, forming a form with raised sides and low center, which is called Que. The Tushita Heavenly Palace where Maitreya Bodhisattva lives is symbolized by the que-shaped niche, that is, the traditional Chinese architecture is transplanted into Buddhist grottoes.

The image of traditional Chinese immortals appeared in the early grottoes of Dunhuang. For example, in Cave 249 of the Western Wei Dynasty in Mogao Grottoes, there are images of East Prince, West Queen Mother and related images of Xuanwu, Suzaku, Fengshen, Yushi, Leigong and Pidian. The images of Fuxi and Nuwa are also painted on the top of Cave 285 of Mogao Grottoes. The East Prince, the West Queen Mother, Fuxi, Nuwa, etc. are all traditional Chinese immortals, which have been widely spread among the people since the pre-Qin Dynasty. They are recorded in books such as Shan Hai Jing and Huainanzi, and appear in a large number of tomb murals and stone carvings in Han and Jin Dynasties. In the murals of the Eastern Jin Dynasty in Tomb No.5 of Dingjiazha, Jiuquan, we can also see the complete images of the Queen Mother of the West and the Prince of the East. The murals in the tomb chamber expressed peoples desire to become immortals after death at that time. In the mural on the top of Cave 249 of Mogao Grottoes, the east prince and the west queen mother galloped in the air on dragons and phoenix chariots respectively, followed by many immortals. In addition, there are four gods of wind, rain, thunder and electricity, as well as gods symbolizing the east, west, north and south: Qinglong, White Tiger, Suzaku and Xuanwu, which almost fully reflect the traditional Chinese immortal system. The themes of the East Prince and the West Queen Mother also appeared in caves such as Caves 294 and 296 of the Northern Zhou Dynasty and Caves 305 and 401 of the Sui Dynasty. The depiction of Chinese traditional mythology in Buddhist grottoes shows the transformation and innovation of foreign Buddhist art.

In addition, stories embodying Confucian loyalty and filial piety also appear in Dunhuang murals. For example, it is necessary to mention the original birth, the original birth of Shanzi, the original birth of good deeds and the original birth of the prince into the sea, etc. Although these stories are all from Buddhist scriptures, among a large number of Buddhist scriptures, which contents are chosen to express and publicize, or which kind of stories are more popular in China, reflects a tendency of cultural choice. Those contents that are more consistent with Confucianism appear more often, indicating the integration of Buddhism and Confucianism at that time.

Thanks to the strong support of Chinese civilization, Dunhuang not only maintains an open and inclusive spirit when accepting foreign cultures, but also can integrate and innovate on the basis of traditional culture.

Diversified intersection, colorful

Buddhism started in India, passed through the Gandhara region of Central Asia, passed through the western part of China, along the Silk Road, and finally introduced into the Central Plains of China. In this process, foreign Buddhism and art inevitably bring Indian style and Gandhara style. Gandhara, in particular, is the product of the integration of Indian culture and Greek culture, so it has introduced ancient Greek and Roman culture, Central Asian culture and West Asian culture into China through it.

The Buddha statues and Bodhisattva statues in the Beiliang and Northern Wei Dynasties have a very obvious Jiandoluo style. Gandhara, in present-day Pakistan and Afghanistan, belonged to North India in ancient times. This area was once occupied by the Byzantine Kingdom, so it was influenced by ancient Greek and Roman culture for a long time. Gandhara sculpture has obvious Greek sculpture style, paying attention to proportion and realistic technique. Among them, the statue of crossing feet Bodhisattva and the statue of thinking Bodhisattva are popular styles in Gandhara carvings. In the grottoes of Beiliang and Northern Wei Dynasties of Mogao Grottoes, statues of cross-legged Bodhisattvas often appear: the Bodhisattva crosses his legs and sits on a chair. In addition, there is a statue of the thinking Bodhisattva, which shows that the Bodhisattva is sitting on a chair, with one leg on top of the other, and one hand is supported as a thinking state. These are very typical Gandhara carving styles.

In addition to the influence of Gandhara, the indigenous Mathura carving style in India can also be seen in Dunhuang Grottoes. Not too far from New Delhi, the current capital of India, Mathura was a center of ancient Indian culture. Mathura preserves a large collection of Buddha statues dating back to the 1st century BC. The characteristics of the carving of Mathura Buddha statue are that the clothes are thin, close to the body, and the lines of clothes are dense, forming decorative clothes patterns. Chinese paintings in Wei and Jin Dynasties were called “Cao Yi Chushui”, which said that the Buddha statue painted by Cao Zhongda seemed to be wet by water and clung to the body. This characteristic of “Cao Yi Chushui” was the typical Mathura Buddha statue style. In the Sui Dynasty, Buddha statues were shaped tall and straight, with their bodies standing upright, their clothes clinging to their bodies, and their clothes patterns were simplified. Some of them even had no clothes patterns, a thin layer, clinging to their bodies. This is a popular carving style in the Gupta dynasty of India, which is called Gupta style.

After the Sui and Tang Dynasties, Chinese sculptors began to create Buddha statues with Chinese characteristics, and many sculptures with rich individuality appeared. For example, Cave 45 of the Tang Dynasty is a Chinese Buddha statue. Those Buddha statues, Buddha disciples and Bodhisattva statues are almost the same size as real people, and they pay attention to showing different personality characteristics, such as the solemnity of Buddha, the respect of Buddha disciples, the natural elegance of Bodhisattva, and the majesty of the heavenly king. Among them, the image of Bodhisattva shows Chinese faces and Chinese costumes, which reflects the aesthetic spirit of Chinese people.

With the introduction of Buddhist art, new painting techniques have also been introduced into China, typical of which is the painting technique called “concave-convex method” in ancient literature, also known as “Tianzhu legacy method”. In ancient times, India was called “Tianzhu”, indicating that this painting method came from India, and academic circles also called it “Western Regions Smudging Method”. The characteristic of this painting method is to express the three-dimensional sense of human body, pay attention to the proportion of human body, and express the three-dimensional sense of human skin through color smudging. Most murals in Dunhuang during the Northern Dynasties showed Buddha statues, Bodhisattva statues and disciples statues, all of which adopted the Western Regions smudging method. However, after the Western Wei Dynasty, the “Central Plains Style” also appeared in Dunhuang murals, which paid attention to lines and vividness, did not care about the presentation of three-dimensional sense, and mainly showed elegant characteristics. The style of the Central Plains and the style of the Western Regions are constantly transformed through mutual collision, mutual integration and mutual influence, forming new arts in different times.

In the era of innovation, each leads the way

The art of Dunhuang Grottoes combines Chinese and foreign arts, Han nationality and other nationalities, forming a Buddhist art system with Chinese characteristics, which represents the important achievements of Chinese Buddhist art in the 4th ~ 14th century. Especially because there are very few ancient art remains in mainland China from Wei, Jin to Sui and Tang Dynasties, Dunhuang art provides rich and precious materials for a comprehensive understanding of Chinese art history.

During the Eastern Jin and Southern Dynasties, a group of painters such as Gu Kaizhi and Lu Tanwei were very active in the south. At that time, the aristocratic class advocated clear talk and immortal thoughts, and had a special hobby for thin and fluttering human images. The characteristics of “showing bones and clear images” and “praising clothes and belts” were popular in paintings. Due to the reform of Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty, the art and aesthetic spirit of the south influenced the north. In the caves of Dunhuang from the late Northern Wei Dynasty to the Western Wei Dynasty, there were images of slender human body, slender body, delicate eyebrows, smiling sweet movements, and flying dresses like immortals, which reflected the influence of Gu and Lus painting styles.

According to the history of paintings, Zhan Ziqian, a painter in Sui Dynasty, painted Lotus Sutra, Maitreya Sutra, etc., and Dunhuang murals also appeared in Sui Dynasty. The so-called scripture change painting is a painting that generally shows the main content of a Buddhist scripture, with many plots and a large scale. Classic painting reflects Chinese peoples needs for landscape aesthetics, forms the technical characteristics of spatial treatment of Chinese painting, and also forms Chinese Buddhist painting art different from India. Painters in Sui and Tang Dynasties are good at classical paintings, and have left their works in a large number of temple murals in Changan and Luoyang. Unfortunately, due to the changes of the times, the monasteries in Luoyang, Changan, Sui and Tang Dynasties have long since vanished. The history of painting records that the classical paintings with different names in Changan and Luoyang temples can be seen in Dunhuang murals. From Dunhuang murals, we can understand the grand occasion of the classical paintings in the Central Plains in Sui and Tang Dynasties.

Yan Lide and Yan Liben, painters in the early Tang Dynasty, are good at figure painting. Yan Libens handed down works, such as Emperors of Past Dynasties, are very consistent with the Emperors Pictures in Cave 220 of the early Tang Dynasty in Dunhuang in terms of figure style and clothing code. This reflects the influence of Yans figure painting style in Dunhuang.

In the prosperous Tang Dynasty, Li Sixun and Li Zhaodao created green landscape painting. It shows a magnificent scene with green and heavy colors, which is deeply loved by people of the times. There are many green landscape pictures in Dunhuang murals. The green landscapes of Caves 217, 103, 148 and 172 of Mogao Grottoes in the prosperous Tang Dynasty provide a real basis for us to understand the original appearance of Li Sixuns landscape paintings.

In the prosperous Tang Dynasty, Wu Daozi painted a large number of murals in monasteries in Changan and Luoyang at that time, among which paintings such as Hell Change were “strong and angry, transforming into dark monsters, and you didnt realize it when you saw it”. Wu Daozi is good at using pen and pays attention to the charm of characters. He has been praised by critics of past dynasties and is called “the saint of painting”. Unfortunately, we cant see the original works of Wu Daozi. In Dunhuang murals, such as the image of Vimalakirti in Cave 103 of Mogao Grottoes, the eloquent spiritual outlook of the characters is shown with abundant, powerful and changeable line drawings. The image of Bodhisattva in Cave 199 and the south and north walls of Cave 158 show the disciples and princes of various countries in Nirvana Sutra. The characters are vivid, the line drawings are smooth and vigorous, and the colors are relatively simple, reflecting Wu Daozis figure painting style.

Murals such as the picture of the governors wifes worship to Buddha in Cave 130 of Mogao Grottoes show the gorgeous dress and graceful temperament of aristocratic women in the Tang Dynasty, which is consistent with the lady painting style of painters such as Zhang Xuan and Zhou Fang in the Tang Dynasty.

In short, today, when paintings before the Tang Dynasty are extremely rare, Dunhuang art has become an important basis for us to know ancient Chinese painting art. Numerous vivid images in murals still touch people today thousands of years later.

Inheritance and development depend on the present

Artistic innovation should be based on deep tradition. Without the inheritance of tradition, the so-called “innovation” can only be a tree without roots and vitality. Since the 20th century, due to the discovery of Dunhuang Sutra Cave and the rise of Dunhuang studies, many artists have begun to pay attention to Dunhuang. Zhang Daqian, Chang Shuhong and other outstanding painters have seen this and practiced it themselves, copying and studying in Dunhuang, not only studying by themselves, but also introducing Dunhuang art to the world.

From 1941 to 1943, Zhang Daqian and his disciples overcame numerous difficulties, traveled all over Mogao Grottoes and Yulin Grottoes, copied hundreds of murals, and held large-scale exhibitions in Sichuan and other places, which had a great social impact. Due to the influence of Dunhuang art, Zhang Daqian not only made a new breakthrough in figure painting, but also adopted the extremely bold method of splashing ink and color in landscape painting and flower-and-bird painting, which reached the height of the times in the artistic innovation of Chinese painting.

Chang Shuhong, another painter closely related to Dunhuang, originally studied oil painting in France. He discovered the special value of Dunhuang art from the perspective of western painting, and deeply realized that Dunhuang art was different from the tradition since Ming and Qing Dynasties, and it was a very important part of traditional art. He resolutely gave up the excellent life in Paris and returned to China. In 1944, Dunhuang Art Research Institute (the predecessor of Dunhuang Research Institute) was established, and Chang Shuhong became the director, and started his hard work in Dunhuang. Chang Shuhongs ideal is to take Dunhuang Grottoes as the base, so that teachers and students who study Chinese painting can come to Dunhuang to study, and from here they can learn about the purest art in ancient China, so as to create art with truly Chinese characteristics.

Pan Jiezi and Dong Xiwen, who followed Chang Shuhong to Dunhuang in their early years to copy and study murals, made outstanding achievements in their later painting creation. Pan Jiezi devoted himself to the creation of meticulous figure paintings, and fully carried forward his achievements in copying murals in Dunhuang. For example, his “The Creator of Grotto Art” was directly painted based on his personal experience of copying in Dunhuang Grottoes. Dong Xiwens masterpiece of oil painting “The Founding Ceremony”, regardless of the layout of characters in the close-up, the spatial arrangement in the long-term, and the contrast between light and dark colors, can feel the profound influence of Dunhuang art on painters. In addition, Chang Shana, the daughter of Chang Shuhong, who copied murals in Dunhuang since childhood, made full use of the elements in Dunhuang murals to create in designing the decoration of the Great Hall of the People, the National Cultural Palace and other buildings, forming a craft decoration full of national spirit. Sculptors Sun Jiyuan and He E, who worked in Dunhuang for a long time, also showed great advantages in their later creations. For example, Sun Jiyuans sculpture Ruixue and He Es sculpture Mother of the Yellow River are all works with profound traditional spirit and a sense of the times.

The music and dance in Dunhuang Grottoes are also full of vitality, especially in the creation of modern art. Dunhuang dance has greatly inspired artists and contributed to a series of Dunhuang-style music and dance arts. In the early 1980s, “Silk Road Flower Rain”, carefully created by Gansu Song and Dance Troupe, was put on the stage and achieved great success. This dance drama, with Dunhuang, an important town of the Silk Road, as its historical background, reproduces the historical stories of cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries on the Silk Road in the prosperous times of the Tang Dynasty. At the same time, it features the dance images in Dunhuang mural art, and fully displays the dance arts with national cultural characteristics, such as flying geisha music and rebounding pipa dance. The success of Silk Road Flower Rain not only shows the infinite charm of Dunhuang art, but also sets off a climax of inheriting and carrying forward the traditional art of the motherland in the field of music and dance.

Dunhuang Grottoes art is a valuable resource bank for modern cultural and artistic creation. These cultural elements have been widely used in the creation of modern culture and art such as city symbols, brand signs, handicrafts design, fashion design, digital publishing, animation, film and television, documentaries, etc. Countless Chinese and foreign artists have been inspired by Dunhuang art.

With the development of Internet technology and digital technology, some high-tech technologies, such as immersive new media and dome screen movies, have enabled us to gain a brand-new experience effect of Dunhuang cultural heritage. Showing Dunhuang culture by digital technology has become an important exploration since the new century, and digital technology has begun to be applied to all aspects of Dunhuang cultural creativity development. Millennium Mogao, produced by digital technology by Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes Digital Exhibition Center, is a high-quality documentary, with the purpose of letting visitors know enough background knowledge of Mogao Grottoes; “Dream Buddha Palace” adopts dome screen film technology, which is a dome screen film that restores cultural relics in real life. It is also the first dome screen film program in the world with 8K picture resolution. In recent years, Dunhuang Research Institute has launched programs such as Dunhuang Fairy in combination with animation production to explain Dunhuang art; Through game shows, projects such as Digital Sutra Cave were launched to effectively spread excellent traditional culture.

Dunhuang is not only a precious resource bank of Chinese civilization for thousands of years, but also a power source for building a new culture in the new era. Dunhuangs artistic treasure is an endless artistic masterpiece, and it is also used as a spiritual enlightenment, from which it can constantly draw creative inspiration, creative elements and cultural wisdom to create and develop new cultural industries. In short, Dunhuang culture is an important part of Chinese excellent traditional culture, and it is of great value to our cultural construction today. On the basis of comprehensive and complete protection and in-depth study of ancient grottoes, it is the unshirkable responsibility of our time to inherit and carry forward Dunhuang art, make it flourish in the new era, and create richer new art with Chinese characteristics for todays society.