We need to remember that Dunhuang is an actual socio-geographical space, and that the Mogao Grottoes– a Buddhist complex 25 kilometers south of Dunhuang – only make up part of this geographic space (Figure 2). During the Middle Ages, there were many temples and ceremonial buildings in and around Dunhuang, not only places to worship buddhas and teach Buddhism, but also Places of Worship for Taoism, Confucianism, Zoroastrianism, as well as local religions and ancestors. It is easy to understand the social conditions of this polycentric visual culture: Dunhuang in the Middle Ages was an immigrant town inhabited by people from different regions with different religious beliefs and cultural traditions. The Buddhist art of Dunhuang has therefore never been an isolated artistic tradition, and to understand its historical significance, we must relate it to other cultural and visual traditions that have developed simultaneously and locally, and analyze and understand it in the same cultural space.
The author of this article, Wu Hung, stayed on to teach after graduating from Harvard University in 1987, was awarded a tenured professorship in 1994, and was hired to preside over the Teaching of Asian Art at the University of Chicago in the same year, holding the "Stebben Professor of Special Contributions" chair. In 2002, he established and served as the director of the East Asian Art Research Center, and also served as the advisory curator of the Smart Art Museum of the university. In 2008, he was selected as a life member of the National College of Arts and Sciences, and received the Special Contribution Award for Teaching Art History from the American University Art Society, in 2016 he was elected as the Slater Chair Professor of oxford University in the United Kingdom, in 2018 he was elected as a Distinguished Scholar of the American University Art Society, in 2019 he was elected as a Mellon Chair Scholar at the National Gallery of Art, and received an honorary Doctor of Arts from Harvard University, becoming the first mainland scholar to receive these honors.
What is Dunhuang Art?
Text | Wu Hong
Source | Chinese Art in the Global Landscape
"What is Dunhuang art?" Rather than giving an answer, I hope that together we will have a preliminary reflection on this question.
We now usually equate "Dunhuang art" with Dunhuang Buddhist art without thinking. This conceptual jump is understandable, as the splendid murals and sculptures in the Mogao Caves constitute the main remnants of the local ancient art and visual culture, constantly attracting and intimidating art historians (Figure 1). But this conceptual leap has quite serious consequences, because it cancels out a complex and rich spatial cultural structure composed of Dunhuang Buddhist art in the basic theory, which in turn hinders our in-depth understanding of the environment and special functions of Dunhuang Buddhist art.
Figure 1 Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes
I once did a lecture at the Asia Society in New York titled "What is Dunhuang Art?" The speech suggests that we need to remember that Dunhuang is an actual socio-geographical space, and that the Mogao Grottoes– a Buddhist complex 25 kilometers south of Dunhuang – only make up part of this geospatial space (Figure 2).
During the Middle Ages, there were many temples and ceremonial buildings in and around Dunhuang, not only places to worship buddhas and teach Buddhism, but also Places of Worship for Taoism, Confucianism, Zoroastrianism, as well as local religions and ancestors. It is easy to understand the social conditions of this polycentric visual culture: Dunhuang in the Middle Ages was an immigrant town inhabited by people from different regions with different religious beliefs and cultural traditions. The Buddhist art of Dunhuang has therefore never been an isolated artistic tradition, and to understand its historical significance, we must relate it to other cultural and visual traditions that have developed simultaneously and locally, and analyze and understand it in the same cultural space.
Figure 2 Map of the Sandbar Area of the Tang Dynasty
When we travel from Dunhuang City today to visit the Mogao Grottoes, built on the cliffs of the Three Dangers Mountain, we will cross a vast desert. This area has been used as a cemetery by local residents since the 3rd century (Figure 3). Archaeological work over the past few decades has uncovered about 1,000 tombs from the Western Jin to Tang dynasties, and many more are still buried in the desert.
The dating of these tombs is important because their age means that the cemetery exists in parallel with the early caves of the Mogao Caves not far away. However, the visual and material images they use are different: the earliest surviving grottoes display a whole set of statues and murals surrounding the Buddha (Fig. 4), while the Dunhuang Wei Jin to Beiliang tombs found are Taoist town tomb texts and empty tents for the invisible souls of the deceased (Figs. 5 and 6).
Figure 3 Map of the relative location of Dunhuang City and Sanwei Mountain, where the Dunhuang Grottoes are located
Figure 4 Buddha statue on the front wall of Cave 275 in Dunhuang
Figure 5 Brick carvings and "spirit seats" in dunhuang Jin tombs
Figure 6 Annotated bottles found in tombs in the Dunhuang area
Figure 7 The grotto includes the providers of the family's deceased, five generations, 10th century AD
We wanted to understand why the decoration of grottoes and tombs used so different visual languages, and what the relationship between these two visual languages was. The answers to these questions are extremely important for understanding Dunhuang art as a whole, especially as more and more of the Mogao Caves are being built as "family cave" family temples or family ancestral halls, with lifelike murals depicting deceased family members as worshippers of the Buddha in the afterlife (Figure 7). It seems that the two basic elements that have long existed in traditional ancestor worship – the collective family ancestral temple and the tomb of family members – still coexist and complement here, providing a general framework for the spatial relationship between buddhist caves and tombs in the Dunhuang area. Tombs were built near the living area to provide people with a place to live after death, while the "family cave" on the Three Dangers Mountain blessed the eternal prosperity of the family under the blessing of the Buddha.
One way to understand the variety, content, and spatial complexity of Dunhuang art is to identify the various religious and ceremonial centers within this geographic space and their distribution. During the Middle Ages, these religious and ceremonial centers were also the most important places for public activity and artistic dissemination. Although few religious and ceremonial sites remain today except for the Mogao Caves, the suicide notes found in the Caves provide a precious record of their past existence. Through these documents, mostly written in the 8th and 10th centuries, researchers have identified about 20 Buddhist monasteries in Dunhuang (Figure 8), and the city's large monasteries played a major role in the organization of Buddhist activities. The accounts of monasteries in the Dunhuang Testament contain a considerable number of sculptures and paintings, while smaller temples are often sponsored by individuals. A precious Dunhuang testament numbered S.3929 in the British Library praises the Dunhuang painter Dong Baode for transforming his residence in the city into an exquisite Buddhist temple, and also records the joint venture between Dong Baode and other meritorious masters to build the Wugong Grottoes.
Figure 8 Picture of the Monastery, Tubo Period (786-848), Collection of the National Library of France
The Dunhuang Testament also tells us the names of at least 11 Tang Dynasty Taoist temples in the Dunhuang area. Among them, the Ziji Palace was built between 739 and 741 AD, when Emperor Xuanzong of Tang issued an edict ordering the construction of Taoist temples dedicated to Laozi in the capital and counties. This Taoist temple, where the county capital is located, is known as the Purple Pole Palace, which houses the "True Face" of Lao Tzu, which was officially ordered (Figure 9). The popularity of Taoism in Dunhuang continued into the 10th century. The Dunhuang Testament contains at least 649 Taoist scriptures, and more than 400 others contain Taoist songs, poems, medicine, astronomy, and various methods of divination.
Figure 9 Portrait of Lao Tzu, Tang Dynasty, 8th Century, Xi'an Forest of Steles Museum Collection
The Dunhuang Testament also includes several pieces of local geographical documents, including ancestral halls and altars dedicated to the Yellow Emperor, Fengbo, And Yushi, confucian palaces dedicated to confucius and Yan Hui, and a Zoroastrian temple about 500 meters east of the city (Figure 10). The Zoroastrian temple is about 35 meters long on each side and contains 20 niches dedicated to Zoroastrian deities. In addition, the Dunhuang Testament No. S.0367 records a Zoroastrian temple in Yiwu, which contains "countless images of plain books". The local government in Dunhuang provided "drawing paper", wine, oil and other materials for the Zoroastrian festival saijo. Mr. Jiang Boqin believes that the Dunhuang Testament No. 4518 is a surviving Zoroastrian painting (Figure 11). The strips that still retain hanging on the painting may have been used during the "Sai Zoroastrian" event in the Zoroastrian Temple.
Figure 10 "Illustration of the Governor's Mansion of Shazhou", p. 2005, P. 2695, Collection of the National Library of France
Fig. 11 Zoroastrian deities, P.4518, Collection of the National Library of France
These religious buildings, built in different locations, in turn inspire us to consider an important aspect of Dunhuang's visual culture, namely the various festivals and ceremonial activities organized by different local religious groups and local governments throughout the year. One reason these events are important for those who study art history is that they are important times to make and display images, but also because an important purpose of these ceremonial events and festivals is to create a visual feast. For example, Zoroastrian "Saijo" is a carnival full of visual images, which includes sacrifices, feasts, songs and dances, illusions, and masquerade parades. Believers believe that this event can bring ganlin, so it is held at least 4 different months a year, sometimes for 4 consecutive months. Perhaps due to some similarities with the "Da Qi", some elements of the "Sai Zuo" were absorbed into this traditional Han ritual activity. The "Great Order" is held on the last day of the year, and the main meaning is to ward off evil spirits and exorcise demons. The masked performers dyed their hair red and shouted loudly in the street with shields and halberds to welcome Zhong Kui and the Shirasawa Divine Beast to exorcise the demons. Images of the latter are found in the Dunhuang Testaments Nos. 2682 and P.6261.
Figure 12 Burning the lamp, "Offerings on the fifteenth cave of the first month"
The Taoist fasting ceremony is held for 6 months of each year for 10 days. Special altars were built for the holding of fasts to summon various Taoist gods and immortals. The timing of ritual activities in Taoism and Zoroastrianism is in turn complementary to Buddhist festivals. The Dunhuang Testament records at least 25 Buddhist festivals and ceremonial events, three of which are the Lantern Festival on The 15th of January, the Xingxiang Day on 8 February, and the Obon Festival on 15 July. These festivals and ceremonial events attract a large crowd with their diverse visual effects. Among them, the oil lamps lit during the Lantern Festival illuminated the entire Mogao Caves (Figure 12). The Dunhuang Testament No. P.3497 includes a "Burning Lamp Text", which reads: "At the beginning of each year, the lamp wheel is endless. So the lights and flowers scattered, like the stars in the sky; the torch flowed, like the moon of the high heavens. ”
There are also many images of "burning lamps" to worship the Buddha in the Dunhuang murals (Figure 13). The "Statue Day" parade commemorates the continued life of Shakyamuni Shakyamuni. The procession gathered in full before dawn and carried the city's most precious Buddha statues through the city's main monasteries. On the occasion of the Obon Festival, seven generations of ancestors were worshipped with a fragrant flower diet. Ordinary people will also listen to the obon sutra and the mutated story of mutilation of the mother of Mu Lian at this time. The Dunhuang Testament No. S.2614 records this variation, and according to its title, we learn that the variation, which was staged on July 15, had pictures as an aid to the performance. An interesting question is: Why did this most popular story from the Middle Ages never appear in the murals in the Mogao Caves? Perhaps the reason for this is that the sacred spaces in these cave temples are not suitable places for the ceremony of "ghost festivals".
Figure 13 Image of a burning lamp in a Dunhuang mural
Obon festivals are held in memory of the dead, and the same motives contributed to the development of local portraiture. Through the large number of "Miao Zhen Zan" in the Dunhuang Testament (Figure 14), we can know the popularity of portraiture in Dunhuang. These textual sources can be studied in conjunction with existing "Miao Zhen" images (Figure 15). From the praise text, it can be seen that the "true appearance" or "true instrument" of the deceased is also called "shadow", "appearance" or "image". These portraits may be pre-painted during the period, but their purpose is for use in sacrificial activities after the death of the person. The statue of "Miao Zhen" is usually placed in a special room in an ancestral hall or family home, which is why this room is called "Shadow Hall" or "True Hall" [Fig. 3]. Cave No. 17 of Mogao Caves is the shadow hall of the high monk Hong Jie, which has been preserved to this day. This small cave may have been the place where Hong's meditation was during his lifetime, and after his death in 862 it was converted into a ceremonial space in his honor (Figure 16).
Figure 14 Zhangfu Junmiao Zhenzan, P.2482 part, Collection of the National Library of France
Fig. 15 Portrait of the deceased found in the Dunhuang Tibetan Scripture Cave, part of the Guiding Bodhisattva Diagram, Five Dynasties, 10th Century AD, British Museum Collection
Figure 16 Dunhuang Cave 17, High Monk Hong Zhenying Hall, Tang, 9th century AD
I hope this quick introduction supports my earlier suggestion that Dunhuang Buddhist art should be placed in a larger spatial and visual environment to be studied and understood as an integral part of Dunhuang Art. In a sense, here I have defined Dunhuang art as a kind of "total art". At the beginning of this lecture, I saw the tomb as a "total space" that can be analyzed on three levels, including "material and visual space" composed of concrete images, "perceptual space" that gives rise to taste, hearing, and smell sensations, and "experiential space" that encompasses the activities and feelings of the subject. These basic levels also exist in the study and imagination of "Dunhuang art", but as a comprehensive regional art, Dunhuang art shows the continuous interaction between different religious arts and visual cultures. It is this interaction in space, rather than the purity and linear development of an artistic tradition, that gives Dunhuang art an endless power to be constantly renewed over the course of nearly a thousand years.