Author/Wishing You a Happy Birthday
Ph.D. and Professor, Department of Art History, Academy of Fine Arts, Tsinghua University
More than half of the existing art in Dunhuang was created in the Tang Dynasty, which shows that Dunhuang Tang Dynasty art has a decisive position in Dunhuang art. Moreover, Dunhuang Tang Dynasty art is also the most in the country, the highest level of art, the most important, so if we want to understand Datang art today, we have to look at Dunhuang. Dunhuang statues are all color sculptures, Dunhuang grottoes are a comprehensive architecture, painted sculptures, murals, patterns of four forms of art complex, the four kinds of art contrast with each other, set off each other, complement each other, together to create a religious environment (Buddha's world), but also to create an artistic realm (ideal beauty of the world), flowers, beautiful.
Walking into the grotto, there are painted sculptures in front of you, and there are murals in the back, all of which are Buddhas, disciples, bodhisattvas, heavenly kings, luxes, etc. At this time, you will find that when they jointly express the same character, the painted sculptures and murals are very similar, the appearance, body, movements, clothing, etc. are very similar, but they are only flat and three-dimensional, and the paintings and sculptures can explain each other, which once again proves that Chinese Buddhist art paintings and sculptures are consistent.
Dunhuang Early Tang Dynasty murals first recommended the 220th cave mural, which was stripped out in 1944 (when the War of Resistance Was the most arduous, my Chinese nation was still insisting on art research), the most wonderful of which was "Vimal Sutra Change", which painted Manjushri asking questions, Wei Mo debate, Chinese and foreign emperors came to listen to the Fa, There were Chinese emperors and courtiers under Manjushri Bodhisattva, and there were foreign chiefs and servants under Vimal.
Dunhuang Mural, Cave 220 "Vimalaya"
As mentioned earlier, Yan Liben painted the Vimal Statue. The Chinese emperor on this mural has his arms spread out, swinging wildly, and the group of courtiers behind him serve and be careful, much like Yan Liben's "Emperor Diagram", such as Sima Yan, the emperor of the Western Jin Dynasty, and Yuwen Yi, the emperor of the Northern Zhou Dynasty (who had destroyed the Fa), are all of this image. The costume is the same, and the two fan waiters in front of them are also very similar. Looking at the foreign chiefs who came to listen to the Fa, it is likely that they are also related to Yan Liben's paintings, as mentioned above, Yan Liben also painted "Foreign Maps", "Western Regions Maps", "Occupational Tribute Maps", etc., but unfortunately none of them have been handed down.
Dunhuang Chu Tang "Wei Mo Jie Jing Change" also has Cave 203 and Cave 335, but the color change is serious, not as good as the above 220 caves to maintain well, not as mature as the 220 caves, but also reflects the early Tang Dynasty classicism style. (The book "Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes Content Summary" is wrong to designate Cave 203 as "Song Painting")
It is very likely that the Dunhuang painters referred to the paintings from the capital Chang'an, and then recreated them on the basis of these capital paintings. Strong culture radiates outward, the central government influences the localities, and the local imitates the capital, which is a common law in the history of Chinese and foreign cultures, so it is entirely possible that the classical painting style of the Chang'an court painter Yan Liben affected the Dunhuang murals, and it can be said that the capital Chang'an and the remote Dunhuang are developing synchronously, and the difference is only a few years or more than ten years. Thus from the capital Chang'an to the remote Dunhuang, an artistic transmission route was formed.
This is a continuation of the route of transmission from the capital Nanjing to Dunhuang via Luoyang and Xi'an during the Six Dynasties mentioned above. "Etiquette is lost in the wilderness", the capital culture is lost, you can go to the place to find, the local culture can also go to the capital to find the reason, use the capital culture to explain the local culture, the two can prove each other, explain each other. This is a way to study the history of culture and art.
Dunhuang Chu Tang Dynasty painted sculpture first pushed 328 caves, is composed of a Buddha, two disciples, two bodhisattvas 5 people composed of a group of statues, in addition to 4 offering bodhisattvas kneeling to listen to the lecture, the most beautiful one was stolen to the United States. At this time, the bodhisattva had sat down to listen to the lecture, indicating that the status of the bodhisattva had increased and that the bodhisattva faith was popular. The whole look is quiet, mature, realistic, rigorous, serious, and solemn, much like Yan Liben's classicist painting style. It is also similar to the above two Beijing Buddha statues.
Dunhuang Painted Sculpture, Cave 328
Cave 328, which is now in the Sackler Museum at Harvard University, houses the statue of the Bodhisattva
This cave painted sculpture of Anan is exactly the same as the portrait of Anan on the mural behind him, which once again shows that the painting and sculpture are consistent. At this time, the bodhisattva had not yet escaped the influence of the Sui Dynasty, and was not like a real woman, and she still had a beard and was not sexy. The level of painted sculpture art in Cave 328 is very high, and it is a Fine Work of Dunhuang, no less than the above two Beijing Buddha statues, which is likely to refer to the capital model (samples, paintings). Cave 322 is also good, especially the bodhisattvas and disciples are wonderful, and it is also the style of early Tang Dynasty classicism.
Finally, let's talk about Wei Chi Yi Monk, the two great masters of the early Tang Dynasty painting world, in addition to Yan Liben, is Wei Chi Yi Monk. Wei Chi Yi Monk was a native of Khotan (Hetian, Xinjiang), his father Wei Chi Was a Painter of the Sui Dynasty, his father and son were called "Big and Small Wei Chi", and Wei Chi Yi Monk's brother was also a painter, all of whom were from the Khotanese school. Like Yan Liben, Wei Chi Yi monk also came from an artistic family.
King Yu Khotan recommended it to Emperor Taizong of Tang, Li Shimin, who was highly valued by Emperor Tang and was also a court painter of the early Tang Dynasty, and he and Yan Liben were a little late at about the same time, and the two worked together, which inevitably affected each other. Monk Wei Chi Yi painted many murals at Liangjing Temple, for example, he painted the Thousand Hands and Thousand Eyes Guanyin (Tantric Buddha Painting) in the above-mentioned Chang'an Ci'en Temple (Yan Liben also painted murals at this temple). Another example is the painting of "Descending Demons and Changes" at the Chang'an Guangguang Temple (Wu Daozi also painted murals in this temple).
Dou Meng, a historian of art in the Middle and Tang Dynasties, said: "Chengsi uses his pen, although he is different from the Chinese Tao, his qi is high, and he is friends with Ke Gu (Gu Kaizhi) and Lu (Lu Tanwei). "Chengsi" and "Qizheng" are exactly the classical style of the early Tang Dynasty. Zhu Jingxuan, an art historian of the middle and late Tang Dynasties, said that he painted "foreign objects and images, not the prestige of China", which was comparable to Yan Liben's strengths.
Zhang Yanyuan, a historian of art in the late Tang Dynasty, said: "Painting foreign countries and bodhisattvas, small ones use pens to tighten, such as bending iron coils, and large ones sprinkle with arrogance." "Using the pen to be tight, such as bending iron disc wire" is the iron line drawing, which is a major feature of the Khotanese school of painting. These evaluations show that he enjoys a high status in the history of Chinese painting. Unfortunately, however, his paintings have disappeared. If you want to understand his painting style, you can only look at Khotanese murals, which are rare in existence, most of which are collected overseas, extremely precious and difficult to see.
I have seen several fragments of Khotanese murals in the album, all of which are heavy colors, drawing shapes with iron wire, "with a tight pen, such as bending iron disc wire", may be a hard pen to draw lines, very rigorous, along the line rendering light and shade, showing a sense of three-dimensionality, that is, the so-called "concave and convex painting method", that is, the Khotanese painting method, which is a major contribution of the Wei Chi family to Chinese painting, the above Yan Liben's iron line drawing is likely to be influenced by him.
Guizi (Xinjiang Kucha, Baicheng area) is not far from Khotan, the existing murals are more than Khotan, the two countries one north and one south, are influenced by Gandhara (1---3rd century), post-Gandharan art (4---7th century), the painting style is relatively close, the turtle murals are obviously colored, and the lines of the Khotanese murals are obvious.
Gandhara art is the Greek Buddhist art of Central Asia during the Kushan Empire (1---3rd century), the decline of the Kushan Empire in the 3rd century, the division and chaos in the 4th century, the rule of the Kouwuda (White Huns) in the 5th and 6th centuries, the rise of Central Asian culture, the Central Asian people transformed Gandhara art into Central Asian Buddhist art, that is, Hou Gandhara art, represented by The Bamiyan art of Afghanistan, affecting Guizi and Khotan. There is now a "Descending Demon Change" in the Mural of Guizi Kyzyl, and the painting of the Witch Seducing Shakyamuni who is practicing asceticism can be used as a reference for us to guess the above-mentioned Mural of The Demon Transformation of the Wei Chi Yi Monk today.
To sum up, the mainstream of Buddhist art in the early Tang Dynasty was Yan Liben's classicist style. The court classicism of the capital influenced the art of the early Tang Dynasty in Dunhuang.
It can be seen from this that the spread route of Buddhist art, from an international point of view, is from India, Central Asia to China, taking the northwest land route (Silk Road) and southeast sea route (porcelain road), from west to east; but from the domestic point of view, after the Three Kingdoms of the Three Kingdoms Of Eastern Wu Cao Buxing created the Cao family model, Chinese (note the word "China") Buddhist art was born and developed, radiating from the north of Nanjing, the capital of the Six Dynasties, radiating the whole country, from east to west. Because foreign culture always spread to the capital first, first in the court and aristocratic high society, and then spread to the folk, spread to the localities, and spread to the whole country. In short, first from west to east, then from east to west.
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