What is Dunhuang culture?

"What is Dunhuang art?" Instead of giving an answer, I hope everyone can make a preliminary reflection on this issue together.

Now we usually equate Dunhuang art with Dunhuang Buddhist art without thinking. This leap in concept is understandable, because the splendid murals and sculptures in Mogao Grottoes constitute the main remains of local ancient art and visual culture, which constantly attract and shock art historians (Figure 1). However, this leap in concept has quite serious consequences, because it cancels a complex and rich spatial cultural structure formed by Dunhuang Buddhist art in its basic assumptions, which further hinders our in-depth understanding of the environment and special functions of Dunhuang Buddhist art.

Figure 1 Dunhuang Mogao grottoes

I once gave a speech at the Asia Society in new york, entitled "What is Dunhuang Art?" We need to remember that Dunhuang is an actual social geographical space, and the Mogao Grottoes-Buddhist buildings located 25 kilometers south of Dunhuang-only constitute a part of this geographical space (Figure 2). In the Middle Ages, there were many ancestral temples and ceremonial buildings inside and outside Dunhuang, which were not only places to worship and teach Buddhism, but also places to worship Taoism, Confucianism, Zoroastrianism, local religions and ancestors. It is easy for us to understand the social conditions of this multi-center visual culture: Dunhuang in the Middle Ages was an immigrant town, inhabited by people from different regions with different religious beliefs and cultural traditions. Therefore, the Buddhist art in Dunhuang has never been an isolated artistic tradition. To understand its historical significance, we must link it with other cultures and visual traditions developed at the same time and place, and analyze and understand it in the same cultural space.

Figure 2 Map of Shazhou Area in Tang Dynasty

Today, when we set out from Dunhuang City to visit the Mogao Grottoes built on the cliff of Sanxian Mountain, we will cross a vast desert. Since the 3rd century, this area has been used as a graveyard by local residents (Figure 3). In the past decades, archaeological work has found about 1000 tombs from the Western Jin Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty here, and more tombs are still buried in the desert. The dating of these tombs is very important, because their dating means that this cemetery exists in parallel with the early caves of the Mogao Grottoes not far away. However, the visual and physical images they use are quite different: the earliest existing grottoes have displayed a whole set of Buddha statues and murals around them (Figure 4), while the tombs of Wei, Jin and Beiliang in Dunhuang have found empty accounts of Taoist town tombs and intangible souls of the deceased (Figures 5 and 6).

Figure 3 The relative position map of the three-dimensional mountain where Dunhuang City and Dunhuang Grottoes are located.

Figure 4 Buddha statue on the main wall of Cave 275 in Dunhuang

Fig. 5 Brick carvings and "spiritual seats" in Jin tombs in Dunhuang.

Figure 6. Injection relief bottles found in tombs in Dunhuang area.

Figure 7 Grottoes include family sacrifices, Five Dynasties, A.D. 10 century.

We want to know why grottoes and tombs have such different visual language decorations, and what is the relationship between these two visual languages. Answering these questions is extremely important for the overall understanding of Dunhuang art, especially because more and more Mogao Grottoes have been built as "home caves" or family ancestral temple, and lifelike murals depict the families of the deceased as followers of the Buddha in the afterlife (Figure 7). It seems that the two basic components of traditional ancestor worship-collective family temples and tombs of family members-still coexist and complement each other here, providing a general framework for the spatial relationship between Buddhist grottoes and tombs in Dunhuang area. Graves are built near residential areas to provide a place for people to live after death, while the "family cave" on Sanwei Mountain wishes the eternal prosperity of the family with the blessing of Buddha.

One way to understand the diversity, content and complexity of Dunhuang art is to determine various religious and ritual centers and their distribution in this geographical space. In the Middle Ages, these religious and ritual centers were also the most important places for public activities and art dissemination. Although these religious and ritual sites are rarely preserved today except the Mogao Grottoes, the suicide note found in the "Tibetan Sutra Cave" provides a precious record of their past existence. Researchers can identify about 20 Buddhist temples in Dunhuang through these documents, most of which were written in the 8th 8- 10/0th century (Figure 8). Large temples in this city have played an important role in organizing Buddhist activities. There are quite a few sculptures and paintings in the temple property accounts of Dunhuang suicide note, and small temples are often sponsored by individuals. The precious Dunhuang suicide note, numbered S.3929, collected by the British Library praised the Dunhuang painter Dong for transforming his residence in the city into a beautiful Buddhist temple, and also recorded the deeds of Dong and other meritorious masters in jointly building the Five Niches Grottoes.

Fig. 8 photos of a temple in the Tubo period (786-848) collected by the National Library of France, P.t. 993

The Dunhuang suicide note also tells us the names of at least 1 1 Taoist temples in Dunhuang area. Among them, the Amethyst Palace was built in 739-74 1 year, which was the period when Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty issued an imperial edict to build a Taoist temple dedicated to Laozi in the capital and counties. The Taoist temple where the county seat is located is called the Purple Pole Palace, which contains the "true likeness" of Laozi ordered by the government (Figure 9). The popularity of Taoism in Dunhuang continued until after the 10 century. Dunhuang suicide note contains at least 649 Taoist scriptures, and more than 400 books are about Taoist tunes, poems, medicine, astronomy and various ways to occupy the road.

Fig. 9 Xi An Beilin Museum holds the true image of Laozi in the Tang Dynasty in the 8th century.

The Dunhuang suicide note also includes several local geographical documents, including ancestral temples and altars dedicated to the Yellow Emperor, Fengbo, Rain Master and other gods, the Confucian study palace dedicated to the statues of Confucius and Yan Hui, and a Zoroastrian temple about 500 meters east of the city (Figure 10). Each side of this temple is about 35 meters long, and there are 20 niches dedicated to Zoroastrian gods. In addition, S.0367 Dunhuang suicide note records a temple in Yiwu, which contains "countless images of plain books". Dunhuang local * * * provides Zoroastrianism Festival "Saizuo" with "painting paper", wine, oil and other materials. Mr. Jiang Boqin thinks that the Dunhuang suicide note P.45 18 is an existing Zoroastrian painting (Figure 1 1). There are still hanging strips on the painting, which may have been used in the "Saizuo" activity held in the Zoroastrian ancestral hall.

Figure 10 Atlas of Shazhou Governor's Office, page 2695, 2005, collected by French National Library.

Figure 1 1 Zoroastrian God, P.45 18, National Library of France.

These religious buildings built in different places inspire us to consider an important aspect of Dunhuang visual culture, that is, various festivals and ceremonies organized by different local religious groups and places throughout the year. One reason why these activities are important for people who study art history is that they are important opportunities to make and display images, and also because an important purpose of these ceremonial activities and festivals is to create a visual feast. For example, Zoroastrianism's "Saizuo" is a carnival full of visual images, and its activities include sacrifices, feasts, songs and dances, magic tricks and costume parades. Believers believe that this kind of activity can bring showers, so it should be held in at least four different months every year, sometimes for four consecutive months. Perhaps because of some similarities with Nuo, some elements of Saizuo were absorbed into this traditional Han etiquette activity. "Big Nuo" is held on the last day of the year, and its main significance is to ward off evil spirits. Masked performers dyed their hair red and shouted in the street with shields and halberds to welcome Zhong Kui and Bai Ze to exorcise animals. The images of the latter can be seen in Dunhuang suicide notes P.2682 and P.626 1.

Photo 12 burning lamp, "fifteenth day of the first month, cave feeding"

Taoist fasting ceremony is held every year for half a year, each lasting 10 days. An altar specially built for fasting is used to invite Taoist gods from all walks of life to come. The sacrificial activities of Taoism and Zoroastrianism complement each other with Buddhist festivals. There are at least 25 kinds of Buddhist festivals and ceremonies recorded in Dunhuang suicide note, among which the most important three are Lantern Festival on 1 month 15, Elephant Festival on February 8 and Yulanben Festival on July 15. These festivals and ceremonies attract a large number of people with their diverse visual effects. Among them, the oil lamp lit during the Lantern Festival illuminates the whole Mogao Grottoes (Figure 12). P.3497 Dunhuang suicide note contains an article "Burning Lights", which reads: "In the year of Chu Yang, there were endless lights. So the flame of snuff dispersed, like stars in the sky; The torch shines like the moon in the sky. " There are also many images of "burning lanterns" to worship Buddha in Dunhuang murals (Figure 13). The "Walking Day" parade is to commemorate the continuation of Sakyamuni's life. The team assembled before dawn and carried the most precious Buddha statue in the city through the main temples in the city. On the occasion of the Kasahara Festival, people worship seven generations of ancestors with fragrant flowers. At this time, ordinary people will also go to the lecture of "Mulan Bijing" and listen to the story of Mulan saving her mother. S.26 14 Dunhuang suicide note recorded this variant. According to its title, we know that this variant staged on July 15 is assisted by pictures. An interesting question is: Why did the most popular stories in the Middle Ages never appear in the murals of the Mogao Grottoes? The reason may be that the sacred space in these caves and temples is not a suitable place to hold the "Ghost Festival" ceremony.

Figure 13 burning lamp images in Dunhuang murals

The Kasahara Festival was held to mourn the dead, and the same motive also promoted the development of local portraits. We can understand the popularity of Dunhuang figure painting through a large number of "true praises" in Dunhuang suicide notes (figure 14). These written materials can be studied in connection with the existing "Ying Zhen" image (Figure 15). It can be seen from the eulogy that the "real thing" or "real object" of the deceased is also called "shadow", "appearance" or "image". These portraits may have been pre-painted before death, but their purpose is to be used for sacrificial activities after Mo's death. The statue of "Ying Zhen" is usually placed in the ancestral hall or a special room at home, so this room is called "Shadow Hall" or "True Hall". Cave No.1 17 of Mogao Grottoes is a theatre for monks all over the world, which has been preserved to this day. This small cave may be the place where Hongbian meditated before his death. After his death in 862, it was converted into a ceremony space to commemorate him (Figure 16).

Figure 14 Zhang Fujun is really awesome, part P.2482, collected by French National Library.

Figure 15 The portrait of the deceased found in the Dunhuang Tibetan Sutra Cave in the Five Dynasties "Bodhisattva Leading the Way" in the 5th century A.D. 10 in the British Museum.

Photo 16 Dunhuang Cave 17, Hongbian Cinema, Tang Dynasty, 9th century AD.

I hope this quick introduction can support my previous suggestion that Dunhuang Buddhist art should be studied and understood in a larger space and visual environment as an inseparable part of Dunhuang art. In a sense, I have defined Dunhuang art as a "whole art" here. At the beginning of this lecture, I regard the grave as a "general space", which can be analyzed from three levels, including "material and visual space" composed of concrete images, "perceptual space" that causes taste, hearing and smell, and "experience space" that covers the activities and feelings of the subject. These basic levels also exist in the research and imagination of Dunhuang art, but as a comprehensive regional art, Dunhuang art shows the constant interaction between different religious arts and visual culture. It is this spatial interaction, rather than the purely linear development of an artistic tradition, that endows Dunhuang art with infinite power and has been constantly updated in the past thousand years.