■ "Palace Girl Diagram". The nine palace ladies stood up, their heads combed in a high bun, wearing a chest dress on the top, a long skirt on the floor, a long belt on their shoulders, holding or holding plates, goblets, bowls, Buddha dust and other living utensils, with a quiet demeanor and elegant demeanor.
The Tang Dynasty was an inclusive and extremely open society, so various forms of civilization could be popular and developed in the Tang Dynasty. Some of the contents of the Tang tomb mural vividly reproduce the exchange and mutual learning between the Tang Dynasty and foreign civilizations, and their rich themes and distinctive characteristics of the times have become rare first-hand materials for correcting, confirming and demonstrating the history of the Silk Road and civilization exchanges.
See the Silk Road civilization from the Tang tomb murals
Written by Cheng Xu
Photo courtesy of Shaanxi History Museum
In 138 BC, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty sent Zhang Qian on an envoy from Chang'an to the Western Regions, chiseling through a network of transportation roads that influenced the pattern of the Medieval world and connected Eurasia. Since then, the Western Han Dynasty and even later successive regimes have gathered the strength of the state to maintain the smooth flow of this passage, encouraged transportation and trade with silk, tea and other items and ideology and culture as the main content, and two-way exchanges and interactions as the main theme, and the Central Plains has begun a process of collision, conflict and integration with the western civilization of lasting, tortuous but far-reaching influence.
■ "Suzaku Diagram". It belongs to the gods representing the south of the four gods, and marks the orientation of the tomb.
In 1877, the German geographer Richthofen named the above passage the "Silk Road": from the Western Han Dynasty, the land transportation route from the Han capital Chang'an through Yumen, Yangguan and Onion Ridge to the West Sea (Mediterranean Sea, Arabian Sea) was originally named because silk was a commodity on the trade route. It is a concept that emerged many centuries later than Zhang Qian's chiseling through the Western Regions, but is very popular and widely cited at home and abroad, and has stimulated romantic imaginations of this ancient transportation route through Eurasia and the places through which it passes.
In 2014, the "Silk Road: Road Network of the Chang'an-Tianshan Corridor", jointly declared by China, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan for 33 heritage sites, was inscribed on the World Heritage List, of which 7 in Shaanxi, 4 in Henan, 5 in Gansu and 6 in Xinjiang in China, thus establishing Chang'an as the core of the starting point of the Silk Road and highlighting the reverence of all countries in the world for this great route.
■ Landscape Map. This is the earliest independent landscape painting found so far, filling the historical gap of the transition from green to ink painting in the Tang Dynasty, and even advancing the maturity period of Chinese landscape painting from the Song Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty.
Tang tomb murals
It can be called an encyclopedia of social history of the Tang Dynasty
Among the typical heritage preserved in the above-mentioned areas of the Silk Road, the burial chambers that reflect the ancient people's concept of "death as life" and spiritual will can be called the most comprehensive interpretation of the society at that time because of its wide variety, rich shapes, exquisite production, and obvious grades. Among them, the image murals, which are known as extremely realistic depiction effects and visual impact, are particularly complete and typical.
According to incomplete statistics, as of now, 138 Tang tombs painted with murals have been found across the country, distributed in more than ten provinces, autonomous regions and cities such as Shaanxi, Henan, Ningxia, Qinghai, Hebei, Beijing, Gansu and Xinjiang. Among them, the largest number of Tang tombs found in the Guanzhong area of Shaanxi Province is the largest, accounting for more than 70% of the total number of mural tombs in China's Tang Dynasty. According to the existing content of Tang tomb murals, it can be classified from seven aspects.
■ "Music and Dance Diagram". This is the largest one in area, 392 cm wide and 227 cm high, depicting 14 people, male and female tricks, and a deep-eyed and high-nosed Hu figure, which is very unique in the Tang tomb murals that have been excavated so far.
The world of the gods
There are mainly four gods (green dragon, white tiger, suzaku, and Xuanwu) who guide the soul of the tomb owner to ascend to immortality and exorcise evil spirits, guide, accompany or carry the soul of the tomb owner into the immortal world of auspicious birds and beasts (flying phoenix, flying phoenix, peacock, and crane), "Temple View Map", "Car and Horse Diagram in the Clouds", which mainly express the combined thought of the three religions and focus on reflecting Buddhist culture, "Flying Sky" and Gao Shi, which reflect the ancient sages and celebrities.
■ "Suzaku Diagram". Extremely flexible depiction technique, the whole shape is hanyi shenfei, with the typical style of the Tang Dynasty.
Majestic royal etiquette
There are mainly means of transportation, such as public opinion, calf carts, and eaves; the "Honor Guard Travel Map" that expresses the identity and status of the owner, and the "Column Diagram", a symbol of power and honor.
■ Column Diagram. The number of halberds displayed indicates their master's identity, rank, and power.
Secular life
There are mainly "Farming Charts" showing agricultural production, male and female attendants, guards, officials, male and female servants, Hu Merchants, Miscellaneous Servants and other character images that serve the owners of the tomb, "Feast and Drink Diagram", sitting posture and sitting equipment diagram and carrying (carrying) things (squat belt, sac, fish symbol, wat board, tuan fan, dust, ruyi, living utensils, etc.), "Polo Diagram", "Cockfighting Diagram" and "Hunting Travel Map" that show sports and entertainment, all kinds of moving (poultry) objects such as whisk dogs, Persian dogs, cheetahs, eagles, lynxes, lions, camels, horses, horses, Monkeys, toothed pigs, deer, hares, parrots, magpies, doves, yellow warblers, canaries, bees, dragonflies, etc.
■ Hunting Chart. The brigade was mighty and mighty, the wind was galloping, and the flags were flying, which was very majestic. Hunters gallop and chase their prey, and the whole picture is extremely rendered and exaggerated.
Architectural class
There are mainly "Que Lou Tu", "House Map", "Garden Mountain Stone Map", "Corridor Pillar Flat Qizao Well Map" and so on, which are symmetrically built in front of palaces, ancestral temples and mausoleums.
Art
There are mainly "Six Screens", "Landscape Screen", "Coats Screen", "Liuhe Screen of Characters Under the Tree", "Ten Screens", "Music and Dance Diagram", "Hundred Plays", "Flower and Bird Diagram", "Landscape Map" and so on, which have both practical and decorative functions.
Ethnic exchanges
The most direct image of ethnic exchanges in the Tang tomb murals is the "Guest Envoy Map" of the tomb of Prince ZhangHuai, in addition, there are some "Hu Feng Hu Hua" content and images.
■ The "Handmaid's Picture" excavated from the tomb of Princess Dachang of Fangling. The maid of honor, with a goblet in her left hand and a pot in her right hand, the thin material shows that it may be a gold and silver cup and a bottle from the Western Regions.
Astrology
The "Astrological Chart" mainly refers to the drawing of the sun, moon, stars, tatsu and the Milky Way in the burial chamber algae well, sometimes painting jin wu in the middle of the day, and sometimes painting toads or laurel trees and medicine rabbits in the middle of the moon. Drawing stars in tombs is a simulation of the ancient idea of the universe of the heavenly circle, indicating that people die and the soul and the sun, moon, and stars live forever.
In general, painting murals in tombs has four meanings: one is to decorate and beautify the tomb environment; the second is to hope that the owner of the tomb will continue to enjoy a better life in the underworld; the third is to drive away the victory and ward off evil spirits in the town tomb; and the fourth is to implicitly express the religious tendencies of the tomb owner.
Judging from the existing archaeological data, the master of the Tang tomb painted with murals is generally of the rank of more than four pins, all of which belong to the high-ranking nobles of the Tang Dynasty, including famous civilian generals, relatives of the emperor and state, and important foreign vassals. The age of the tomb spans the early, prosperous, middle and late Tang dynasties, and most of them have epitaph chronicles, which basically constitute the physical series of the overall appearance of the tomb murals in the Tang Dynasty. It can be said that the Tang tomb murals interpret all aspects of the social life of the Tang Dynasty in the form of images, which can be called the encyclopedia of the social history of the Tang Dynasty.
■ "Xuanwu Tu". It belongs to the gods of the four gods that identify the north. The combination of snake and turtle shows great protective power.
Tang tomb murals reflect foreign elements
In these Tang tomb murals, which exist in the form of images, there are many elements that reflect the connotation of the Silk Road.
Some of the tombs themselves have owners from outside the territory, such as the tombs of the Turkic royal family Ashinazhong and Li Sima, the tombs of the Turkic nobles and the joint burial tombs of the Qiming couple, the tombs of An Yuanshou and An Bo of the Anguo people, the tombs of Li Jinxing of the Jing dynasty, and the tombs of princess Zhenxiao of the Bohai State.
The mural images contain many foreign elements, which can be summarized into three categories: "Hu People", "Hu Wu", and "Hu Feng Hu Hua". The image of the Hu people mainly has 12 identities, such as emissaries, yiwei, gongren, Hu ke, Hu shang, qile, horsemen, camels, coachmen, animal trainers, monks, servants, etc., which are roughly consistent with pottery figurines, gold and silverware, ceramics, stone burial utensils and documentary records, reflecting the historical facts of the large number of ethnic groups around the Tang Dynasty in the interior, and outlining the social status and professional role of the Hu people as "affiliated", "foreign" and "minority" as a whole. This marginality of the Hu people has also been deliberately emphasized by the mural designers who hold the mainstream social discourse and the painters who express this intention, although they also show a Tang Temperament in their images.
■ The mural of the "Eagle Training Dog" in the tomb of Prince Yide. The dog type is tall and slender, and should be a Persian dog. This breed of dog became an indispensable hunting animal at that time because of its fast speed and quick response.
Hu objects mainly include utensils and animals and plants, the former includes utensils, ornaments and production techniques derived from the West gold and silver, glass living utensils, such as "Hu bottle", "multi-curved plate", "goblet", etc., reflecting the Tang Dynasty high society's pursuit of luxury life, and this fashion on the Silk Road luxury trade greatly stimulated; the latter includes "horses", "camels", "cheetahs", "eagle harriers", "Persian dogs", "lions" and so on and the economy, Precious animals associated with political and military capacity-building or related to the pursuit of obsessive sensual pleasures.
Hu Feng Hu Hua includes Hu Costume Hu Ornament, Hu Food and Hu Drink, Hu Le Hu Dance, Hu Riding Hu Opera, etc. Hufu Hu decoration is a combination of various ethnic elements of clothing, hairstyles, makeup, etc.; Hule Hu dance contains dances, musical instruments and performers from all countries in the Western Regions; Hu drinking hu food reflects foreign food and drinking culture; Hu riding Hu opera confirms the popular hunting, polo, hundred plays and other fashions in Tang Dynasty society.
■ The mural painting "Hu Ren Leading Camels" in the tomb of the Tang Dynasty in Luoyang. As the most typical image symbol of the Silk Road, hu people holding camels appeared in the two worlds of the Tang Dynasty people who "died as if they were alive".
Internalization and externalization go hand in hand
From the perspective of civilizational exchange theory, many elements related to the Silk Road in the Tang tomb murals not only reflect the influence of extraterritorial civilization on Tang Dynasty society, but also the so-called "Han Huhua" phenomenon, such as wearing Hu clothes, dancing Hu dance, and enjoying Hu food, but also outlines the development trajectory of the localization of foreign elements and the interaction with other foreign cultures. Not only that, the interaction between the Civilization of the Tang Dynasty and the civilizations outside the territory was also manifested in the form of conflicts, choices, adaptations and integration, coexistence and progress, and finally manifested as a special state of internalization and externalization.
Internalization is mainly manifested as the digestion and dissolution ability of a civilization, which is the vitality of a civilization's evolution; externalization is mainly manifested in the forms of commerce, trade, war, migration, cultural dissemination, etc., which can not only activate the innovative vitality of a civilization, make itself new, but also lose the national nature of the original civilization due to externalization, and thus be assimilated. Some of the foreign elements in the Tang tomb murals can no longer distinguish the exact source, but there are still traces of exodus after internalization and externalization.
In this process of interactive development, exchanges among civilizations and mutual learning among civilizations have always been the driving force for the development of the Chinese nation, and the regionality, synergy and diversity of civilizations have been derived, as well as the pluralistic integration of the national structure and the high sense of identity of the Chinese national civilization. This not only affects the development and changes of different cultures, regions and countries, but also has an important impact on the changes of the entire international system with Datang as the core. Observing the changes in the relationship between Hu and Han from the phenomenon of cultural exchange and collision refracted by the Murals of Tang Tombs may be a more penetrating perspective for studying the history, current situation and future of cultural exchanges between China and the West in the Tang Dynasty.
■ The mural of the "Guest Envoy Map" from the tomb of Li Xian, the Prince of Zhanghuai. Three Tang dynasty diplomats and three foreign envoys pose a contrasting scene, with emissaries from distant Byzantium and Silla preparing to enter the meeting place under the leadership of Tang officials.
Two-way communication and interaction are the main themes
Through the exchange and mutual learning between the Silk Road and foreign civilizations, the civilization of the Tang Dynasty highlighted the characteristics of the middle period of carrying forward the past and the future in the long river of exchanges with the characteristics of long-term, continuous and immersive. While the Tang people accepted foreign cultures with an inclusive and inclusive mind, they also spread the culture of the Tang Empire to the surrounding neighbors with an open attitude, mainly in the cultural system, funerary funeral rites (tomb murals), costumes, music and dance.
It can be said that the exchanges between the people or regimes of the central plains of the Tang Dynasty and the frontiers and central and western Asia and West Asia were multi-level, continuous and two-way interactions, which effectively promoted the exchange and integration of various ethnic groups and promoted the development of Tang Dynasty society. "Guest Envoy Map", "Polo Diagram", "Hunting Map", "Hu Teng Dance", "Hu Xuan Dance", etc., as representative works of Tang tomb murals Chinese ming exchanges, confirm the historical facts of the Tang Dynasty's exchanges with more than 300 countries recorded in the historical records.
The Tang tomb murals record, reproduce and interpret the historical context of exchanges and mutual learning between the Tang Dynasty and foreign countries or national civilizations in the form of images, and the image shows the process of mutual exclusion, interaction, mutual tolerance and mutual penetration between the Tang civilization and the foreign civilization, as well as the deep-seated historical trend of coexisting with similarities and differences, seeking common ground while reserving differences, seeking common ground while reserving differences, seeking common ground in differences, and neutralizing differences.
■ Mural of "Hu Teng Dance" excavated from the tomb of Su Sixun. The two teams facing each other sat and played the instrument with joy, and a Hu man in the middle stepped on the carpet to dance, and the performance team of this Hu-Han group was quite popular during the Tang Dynasty.
Pictorial representation of the long scrolls of silk road history
The political, commercial, military, cultural and personnel exchanges between the Tang Dynasty and foreign countries depicted in the tang tomb murals are precisely the dynamic process of migration, mutation, dissemination, adaptation and integration of many foreign artifacts, things, plants, animals, as well as diets, clothing, and behaviors brought about by the Silk Road in the Tang Dynasty. Through the vivid pictures, we can feel the leisurely mood of Wang Guowei's chanting in the "Epic of Yong", "Distant people have a sense of homecoming, knowing that it is the heyday of the Han family", and also understand the profound meaning of Mr. Peng Shuzhi's words: "Civilized life is in exchange, and the value of communication is in civilization." The true meaning of civilization lies in the humanistic spiritual essence contained in civilization. ”
In short, the Tang tomb murals are an important part of the historical relics of the Silk Road, and other relics, especially the grotto murals, temple murals, etc., constitute the pictorial expression of the long scrolls of the history of the Silk Road, together with historical documents and archaeological materials, jointly confirm that this Silk Road with a long history, wide distribution, far-reaching influence, diverse ethnic groups and heavy ruins has a vital role and far-reaching impact on world history, Chinese history and the Chinese nation.
In particular, it is worth mentioning that compared with other types of funerary objects, the relatively small number of Tang tomb murals, coupled with extreme difficulty in preservation, makes them a very precious ancient image art, and because of its rich themes and distinct characteristics of the times, it has become a rare first-hand material for correcting, confirming and demonstrating the history of the Silk Road and civilization exchanges.
■ The mural of "Playing Polo" from the tomb of Li Xian, the Prince of Zhanghuai. Polo, imported from distant Persia, became a favorite entertainment sport of the Tang aristocracy due to the fierce duels and great sense of power.
Brilliant typography presentation
This article was originally published in Civilization Magazine, Issue 10, 2016