Mogao Caves Cave 445 Sheng Tang
North Wall Maitreya Warp
Cave 445 is located high on the cliff and was excavated in Sheng Tang. The cave structure is a common hall cave form since the Sui and Tang dynasties, the main room is square in plan, the roof of the cave is covered with bucket shape, and the four-cloaked murals are incomplete. An open niche was opened on the main wall, and the niches were carved with one Buddha, two disciples, and two bodhisattvas, which had been rebuilt in the Qing Dynasty. Although the surface has turned black and the limbs are mutilated, the proportion of the body structure is moderate, the shape is beautiful, the muscles are round and elastic, which is a typical work of the Sheng Tang Dynasty, and it is still a fine work of the Mogao Cave statue.
Most of the walls of the west wall of the cave roof fell, the other three cloaks were blackened by human incendiary objects, basically for the statue of a thousand Buddhas, the south wall was the Western Pure Land, and the north wall was the Maitreya sutra, the scene was grand, the momentum was extraordinary, and it was a representative work of the same genre. On the east wall there are statues of a thousand Buddhas and jizo bodhisattvas. Undoubtedly, the transformation of painting has become the main subject of this cave.
The north wall is painted with Maitreya sutras. Maitreya is one of the most numerous paintings in Dunhuang murals, with as many as 98 paintings from the Sui to the Western Xia (92 in Mogao Grottoes, 4 in Yulin Grottoes, and 2 in Five Temples). The translation of the Maitreya Sutra was first seen in the Eastern Han Dynasty, and since then, there have been generations, and the main translations that exist at present are the Western Jin Dynasty Zhu Fa Protector's translation of the Maitreya Sutra, Liu Song's frustrated Qu Jingsheng translation of the "Guan Maitreya Bodhisattva Shangsheng TuShi Tianjing", the Later Qin Kumarosh translation of the "Buddha Says Maitreya Under the Generation of the Buddha Sutra" and "The Buddha Says the Dacheng Buddha Sutra", Tang Yijing's translation of the "Buddha Says Maitreya Under the Generation of the Buddhist Scriptures" and so on.
The Maitreya Sutra is divided into Maitreya Shangsheng Jingchang and Maitreya Xiasheng Jingchang, which are generally painted in the Caves of the Tang Dynasty. The Shangsheng Sutra is based on the 445 Guan Maitreya Bodhisattva Shangsheng Tushi Tianjing, which is said to be the place of the Shuwei Kingdom to the Garden of Solitude, and the object of the discourse is Upari, telling the story of Maitreya's birth in the Brahmin family of the Great Brahmins of the Brahmin Kingdom, and 12 years later he entered the Shangsheng Tushi Heavenly Palace and supplemented the Bodhisattva Residence pure land temple for the rest of his life. Tushi Heavenly Palace already existed, because he lived here and said that he was free from sentient beings, so it became the Pure Land of Maitreya.
The "Next Life Sutra" mainly talks about Maitreya being born from the Tushi Heavenly Palace to the world of TheRava, becoming a monk and becoming a Buddha, and meeting the masses in three groups. Its contents include the birth under the Maitreya tree, the seven steps of the lotus, the Empowerment of the Nine Dragons, Maitreya returning to the city, the king of the servants offering the treasure building to Maitreya, the brahmin demolishing the treasure building, Maitreya seeing the treasure building disappearing in a flash, and feeling that life is impermanent, so he enlightens the monk, descends to the devil, and gathers three sermons under the Longhua tree, and the king, the princess, the prince, the minister's daughter, the brahmin, etc. after listening to the Dharma, Maitreya enters the Jain Mountain to see the kaye, and the kaye offers shakyamuni sangha (袈衻). After Shakya, the world of Shaiva finally had a new master, Maitreya Buddha.
Maitreya's country appeared in the taiping and prosperous scene, the content of which is a kind of seven harvests, raw clothes on the trees, roads are not left behind, the night is not closed, the woman is married at the age of five hundred, the old man is self-proclaimed grave, the land is naturally open and closed, let people defecate, the dragon king rains and dusts at night, and Ye Hua sweeps the streets in the middle of the night.
The Maitreya Sutra vividly introduces the future kingdom of Maitreya Buddha, and according to the prophecy of Shakya Buddha, Maitreya will be born in the next human world at the age of 5.6 billion years. Those who were born in the Pure Land of Maitreya in the upper life will also be born on earth. When Maitreya comes out, the earth will become heaven, in short, the Pure Land of Maitreya is an ideal country of riches and abundance.
The north wall of the warp painting is detailed, the picture is complex, the upper part is the Shangsheng Sutra, accounting for about one-third of the total painting, the remaining two-thirds is the Lower Shengjing, the upper life is changed in the center of Mount Meru, there is a Tushi Heavenly Palace on the mountain, the Heavenly Palace is a combination of three courtyards, Maitreya is said to be in the middle, the heavens are surrounded, there are halls, galleries, flowers and trees in the courtyard, the gods outside the wall are guarded, there are palaces on both sides of the Heavenly Palace, symbolizing the forty-fold subtle palace, the sky paintings the heavens to the meeting and the heavenly music flying, but it is a pity that the upper frescoes are seriously smoked, and some of the pictures are not very clear.
The main picture is mainly concentrated in the middle and lower part of the mural, the middle part is painted with Maitreya Sanhui, the first meeting is centered, Maitreya wears a right-sided robe, sitting on the throne of Meru, da miaoxiang, Fahualin two great bodhisattvas and other disciples, bodhisattvas, and heavenly kings around the left and right, and the two sides draw the scenes of the second and third meetings. The lower part of the first meeting paints incense offerings and the image of the seven treasures: the wheel treasure paints a wheel, the main treasure is a treasure box, the elephant and the horse treasure each paint an elephant and a horse, as well as the image of the soldier treasure, the female treasure, the jewelry, etc., the seven treasures are one of the symbols that identify this sutra.
There is also a shaving figure in the lower part, depicting the king, princess, prince, minister, and maid of the winged city after listening to Maitreya's words, and there are six curtains in the whole scene, divided into two compartments according to men and women, the west side is female shaving, the east side is male shaving, and there are several people in each curtain: the shaved person is sitting precariously, the mage is holding a knife to cut his hair, the maid or kneeling before holding a dharma tool, or holding a robe on the side, or holding a robe on the side, or having different expressions, or whispering, or devout, or frightened, or peaceful. After shaving, wash your hair with clean water. On the female shaving side, a man with a stick picks up the drapery and peeks inward at the woman, the image is vivid and vivid. This picture first appears in this cave, and the Maitreya Sutra has also been painted since then.
The lower west side draws a wedding chart based on the verse "A woman marries at five hundred years." In the picture, there is a tent outside the door of the mansion, and the "Qinglu", the guests in the tent are sitting and drinking, and the wedding is being held in front of the tent: the groom throws himself on the ground, kneels to worship the guests, the bride is dressed, standing on the side of the beggar, the maid is busy, and the dancers are dancing with the music. Researchers believe that this dance is called "green waist" (also known as "six") and the painter vividly shows the wedding scenes in the northern region and the custom of men and women worshipping women during ceremonies.
There are many ancient Chinese wedding ceremonies, the ancients believe that marriage is the beginning of the world, "on the zongmiao temple, the next generation", the family, the family and even the society have a profound impact, so, since ancient times, must not be scrupulous, there must be a certain procedure, and this series of procedures is the marriage etiquette, due to the difference in geography, the marriage etiquette around the place has a certain difference, Dunhuang unearthed in the literature clearly stipulates that the wedding in the woman's tent, "the woman lays the accounting ceremony: all ceremonies must be in the southwest corner of the house auspicious account. The purpose of the account is "to share the prison plate, to close the cup, and to sit left and right in the account" of the husband and wife. There are two kinds of tents in the wedding: one is to choose the place outdoors, which is the vault, which is called "Qinglu" in the wedding, "The northern wedding, will use the green cloth curtain as a house, for the Qinglu." "The other is indoor hanging, which is the drapery. Dunhuang's accounting is obviously the former. The custom of Qinglu has been recorded as early as the Eastern Han Dynasty, and the "New Language of the World" records: "When Wei Wu was young, guanren was newly married, because he sneaked into the master's garden, he called Huyun at night: 'There are thieves and thieves,' and everyone in Qinglu appeared in The guan. It can be seen that the marriage customs of the Eastern Han Dynasty have become popular in the custom of Qinglu. There is also a poem in "The Peacock Flies Southeast": "Its day cattle and horses are hissing, and the bride enters the green house." ”
There are two reasons for the wedding to set up Qinglu: one is related to the name of Qinglu, and the other is connected with "avoidance", "Qinglu" is also known as "Hundred Zi Tent", which is due to its production characteristics. The Hundred Zi Tent is a miniature vault, covered with a green curtain called qinglu, with willow branches as a circle, with ropes intertwined, interlocked, can be moved freely. Because a large number of willow branches are needed, there are called hundred branches tents, which are verbally rumored to be hundreds of branches. Therefore, the Qinglu, tent, felt, and hundred zi accounts in the literature are foreign objects of the same name.
China is known as the 'state of etiquette', and weddings occupy an important position in all ceremonies. Since ancient times, the history of various dynasties and the history of the wilderness have records about marriage customs, and the research works of later generations are "sweat cattle and cattle", but Dunhuang's marriage customs still have their unique features, first of all, the literature excavated from the Tibetan Scripture Cave is complete and original, and secondly, there are more than forty existing marriage maps in the cave, which truly and vividly reproduce the marriage scenes of the Tang and Song Dynasties, which is a vivid record of medieval marriage customs and a unique image data.
The lower part of the east side of the picture depicts brahmins demolishing treasure buildings, natural trees with raw clothes taken at will, and Maitreya and his disciples entering the city to beg for food. The demolition of the building is a depiction of Maitreya giving the treasure building to the Brahmins, and the Brahmins tear down and divide them in an instant, in which the Brahmins or false ladders climb the buildings to reveal the beads; or carry the cloth bag to contain the treasures. The Buddhists use the demolition of buildings as a metaphor for the vagaries of the world, inducing people to become monks and seek refuge in the Three Jewels. The most unique picture is the Brahmin's upper room unveiling tiles, going to the rafters to reveal the purlins, and in an instant only the beams and columns are left, showing the internal structure of the house such as beams and columns, which is the only one of the similar themes in the Mogao Grottoes.
The upper part of the west side of the picture shows the situation of "one kind of seven harvests", and the next life is in the middle of the clouds: "The rain is at any time, the grain is lush, there is no grass, one kind of seven harvests, very little effort, and a lot of harvest." The picture shows the plots of cultivating land, sowing, harvesting, carrying, field eating, playing field, raising field, grain into the warehouse, etc., specifically reflecting the agricultural production process and the labor life of the peasants at that time, as well as the production tools used - the straight plough (commonly known as the two oxen lifting bar), the curved plough, the sickle, the ox cart, the flail, the six-strand fork, the mustard grass, the long broom, the dustpan, etc. Although the picture is blackened, it can still be recognized on closer inspection, and there is a rent collection map above the picture of the harvest and labor, and there is a room in the picture, which sits with a soft scarf and a round neck robe. The owner of the belt, he leaned back in a chair, serene and comfortable, a housekeeper outside was returning to the situation, a large pile of grain was accumulated outside the house, the pile was a measuring instrument, the inside of the house was cool and leisurely, and the work outside the house was scorching, the contrast was stark, and it was the image portrayal of supervising labor and urging the payment of rent in the manor of the landlord in the Tang Dynasty. The curved plough used in farming, which was an advanced production tool of the Tang Dynasty, was a prominent achievement in the reform of agricultural tools in the Tang Dynasty.
Tang Dynasty tortoise Meng "Qi Qi Jing" records that the curved plough has 11 parts of the composition, the curved plough diagram in the picture is basically in line with the literature records, the qu yuan plough is to reform the previous generation of ploughing straight and long rudder into a curved short rut, and install a plough rock that can be rotated on the head, which is convenient for turning and turning, to improve the ploughing speed, plough evaluation and plough arrow, can adjust the depth of the soil, to meet the different needs of deep ploughing and shallow farming, the plough wall and the plough wall can be ploughed, and the plough strategy of protecting the plough wall can be turned over the soil, and the plough strategy of the plough wall can be turned over, and the acre is beneficial to intensive cultivation.
Experts believe that because the people all yearn for a peaceful and prosperous life, stability and abundance, the content of the Maitreya Sutra is precisely the most practical and relevant to people's lives. It requires food and clothing, marriage and funeral, support for the elderly, return from death, no sinister life, no social treachery, and so on, so it has been widely believed by the grass-roots people.
The five-hundred-year-old woman's first marriage and the old man's self-congratulation tomb are not acceptable to the customs of the Han people, but as a transmuted image shown in the mural, it becomes the picture of men and women marrying, children serving the elderly, these pictures are completely in line with the traditional ethical and moral concepts of the Han people - the inheritance of the ancestors, the succession of the family, filial piety to the parents, etc., the disguised picture greatly strengthens the connection between the content of the scriptures and the life of the world, so that maitreya changes, greatly close to life, caters to people's moral concepts, so that not only among the lower people, And it also has faith and support among the ruling class.
It can be seen from the prevalence of Maitreya's change that after the Tang Dynasty, people's concept of religious belief has gradually changed, that is, from the inner piety of religious beliefs, it has gradually changed into a desire for the enjoyment of the real world, from the yearning for the pure land after death, and gradually shifted to the desire for the enjoyment of the real world.
The south wall through the wall paints the Western Pure Land Transformation, and like the Maitreya Transformation, it belongs to the Pure Land Transformation and is one of the important themes in the Dunhuang murals. "Pure Land" is the World of Buddhahood, which is called "Land of Bliss" in the Buddhist scriptures, where there is only happiness, beauty without suffering, and ugliness, such as the world of Maitreya, which can actually "grow clothes on the tree" and "seven harvests of crops", so it can also attract the yearning of good men and women, and can best exert the wisdom and imagination of painters, becoming a cluster of strange things in Buddhist art.
There are many kinds of pure lands, which are spread in ten directions, such as the Pure Land of the East, the Pure Land of the West, the Pure Land of Maitreya, etc., and the Western Pure Land belief is the most popular. The Sutra of Immeasurable Life, the Sutra of Amitabha, and the Sutra of Contemplating immeasurable life are collectively known as the Three Sutras of pure land, because these three sutras all describe the affairs of Amitabha Buddha and his Pure Land. Comprehensive Buddhist scriptures, from a modern point of view, the Pure Land of Midas has the following characteristics:
Beautiful natural surroundings. The Pure Land of Midas is a place of comfort without natural oppression and harm, where all needs can be fully satisfied, food, clothing, shelter and transportation can be solved, and the vast and infinite land is flat and prosperous without mountains, dangers, desolate and barren places, mild climate, whether spring, summer, autumn or winter, sentient beings have their desires, and they are free to be satisfied.
Equal and harmonious social life. In class society, there is no equality between people, but there is no such phenomenon in the Pure Land of Midas, this is an equal society, not only between residents, but also between residents and Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, it is also equal, there is no class race of national regional differences, Buddhas are only teachers, enlighteners, not exploiters, rulers, masters, so social life is peaceful and peaceful, can not see selfishness, let alone harm others, only see self-interest, seek supreme bodhi.
A new person who is physically and mentally healthy. In the real world, because of the existence of natural oppression and social oppression, life is full of suffering and troubles, the Buddhists summarize many sufferings and troubles as the concept of "filth", so they call this world the dirt, on the contrary, the fundamental feature of maitreya's pure land is the "pure" sentient beings, including both the body and the mind, are idealized new people with physical and mental health.
The Buddhist practice method is difficult, and the Hinayana harvesting arhat fruit is aimed at believing that even if a person accumulates good virtues and has good roots in his body, he will suffer a thousand disasters. Advocating the practice of successive lifetimes is by no means possible in a lifetime, and unlike these difficult practices, the Amitabha Sutra proposes a very simple and quick-acting method of practice, that is, chanting the Buddha.
In the picture, the main body is the three midas and the bodhisattvas. The left and right sides of the main figure have large seven-fold treasure buildings, the lower floor is a Buddhist pavilion-style building, the place above the arch should not be out of the eaves, set up a railing, became the second floor balcony, the upper six people's band, the left and right sides of the treasure building symmetrical, a total of twelve people, some scholars believe that the trick music in the figure may be related to the Tang Dynasty "Standing Trick", is a very precious image information. Among them, there is a layman wearing a long blue coat, carrying a long drum, and behind it there is a trick music drum, and its image is rare in the same genre.
This Western Pure Land Sutra was formerly called "Amitabha Sutra", but according to the latest research, it should be the Guanyin Infinite Life Sutra, because the great bodhisattva on the west side of the Lord is the crown of the Buddha, and the great bodhisattva on the east side is the crown of the Aquarius, and there are nine products of past lives, and these contents are only recorded in the "Guan Wu Wei Shou Sutra". The tenth view of the sutra, "Guanyin Bodhisattva Body Thought", is to think of Guanyin as a good friend, the most famous of which is to wear the crown of the Buddha. The eleventh view of "Dashi to Bodhisattva Body Thinking" is to think of dashi to bodhisattvas, the most famous of which is the Aquarius Crown. The Amitabha Sutra and the Immeasurable Life Sutra do not mention the images of Guanyin and Dashizhi. The Nine Pins of Past Lives are also only found in the Sutra of The Immeasurable Life, while the Amitabha Sutra does not mention past lives, and the Sutra of Immeasurable Life only records three lifetimes.
During the Tang Dynasty, western Pure Land beliefs flourished, which was inseparable from the missionary work of Daoqi (562-645). Dao Qi, a monk at the age of 14, studied under The Kaihua Temple in Taiyuan, And first refined "Nirvana" and preached it twenty-four times. Later, in the fifth year of Daye (609), he saw the Tanluan Monument at Xuanzhong Temple and specialized in the Pure Land of the West, "Heng lectured on the Concept of Immeasurable Life, which will be done two hundred times. ...... The name of the Buddha is recited orally, and the daily limit is 70,000. "The Taoist customs of Jinyang, Taiyuan and Wenshui counties have all been enlightened, and there are "Anle Collections" passed down. In his later years, he also taught the Upanishads of the Guan Jing to Shandao (613-681), who also carried forward the Western Pure Land belief in Taoism. Good guidance has been the most effective in the development of pure land beliefs. He was far away and had gone up Mount Lu. In the cold winter of the fifteenth year of Zhenguan (641), he visited Xuanzhong Temple, and Daoqiu taught him the meaning of the Guan Jing. In the capital Chang'an for more than thirty years, he "wrote 100,000 volumes of the Midas Sutra and painted 300 walls in disguise in the Pure Land." "There are many surviving writings. Of course, because the Western Pure Land belief was quite popular during the Northern Qi Period, the popularity of western Pure Land belief in the early Tang Dynasty was not the work of one or two people such as Dao Qi and Good Guide.
Buddhism is a pantheistic one, there are all kinds of Buddhas, all kinds of Buddha kingdoms, giving people unlimited imagination space. Buddhism generally refers to the world outside the world of TheVa as the Pure Land World, and there are also people who call the World of the Pure Land the Pure Land World because wherever there is a Buddha, it is a Pure Land. The Pure Land World is gorgeous and colorful, the belief in the Pure Land World is called the Pure Land Faith, in ancient China, there are not many popular types of Pure Land Beliefs, Maitreya Pure Land, Medicine Pure Land, Amitabha Pure Land, etc. are the most important contents of China's Pure Land Faith. The two Pure Land Sutras in Cave 445 are a true reflection of the popularity of religion at that time. And the main wall of the cave is painted in the form of a warp painting, which is a major feature of the Sheng Tang Dynasty.
Dunhuang art is an extremely valuable cultural heritage, which has left many landmark works under the influence of the developed Central Plains culture, and it is also a mirror that directly or indirectly reflects the history of the northwest and various activities on the Silk Road in the 4th to 14th centuries AD. The Chusheng Tang Caves preserved in Mogao Caves are also rare masterpieces in the history of human culture, which not only bring us the enjoyment of beauty, but also provide valuable historical information.
(Source: Dunhuang Research Institute)