Duan Wenjie
The ancient caravan route linking China with the West is known as the Silk Road, a great conduit of commercial and cultural exchange stretching 7,500 km from Chang'an (present-day Xian) to Rome. Chinese silk, which gave the route its name, was transported to the West, while wool, dyestuffs, gold, and silver—along with cultural ideals—traveled east. Among these, the religious culture of Buddhism left a lasting and profound mark on China. Under the open-door policy of Tang dynasty Emperor Li Shih-min, the Silk Road flourished as a meeting ground between East and West during the great era of the Tang civilization (618-907 c. e.), when Chinese feudal culture reached its height and spread its influence throughout the world.
Dunhuang is strategically located at the far western limit of early Chinese settlement, at the point where the two branches of the Silk Road converge. It was the first trading town reached by foreign merchants entering Chinese territory from the west and thus became the repository for a cultural exchange that encompassed the art, literature, and religions of China, Central Asia, and the West. This vigorous meeting of cultures produced a wealth of art and artifacts at various points along the Silk Road, especially at those towns where Buddhist monks stopped off on their pilgrimages to India. Dunhuang was the last stop in China on the great pilgrim route. On the cliff face above the river they excavated cave temples, or grottoes, to serve as lodging, as centers of worship, and as repositories for documents, sacred works, and works of art. Because of its strategic location, the grottoes of Dunhuang came to be the largest and greatest of the Buddhist grotto complexes along the Silk Road, with a history spanning one thousand years. As such, Dunhuang can be seen as a microcosm of Chinese medieval culture, reflecting the broad multinational, multiethnic influences that gave it such distinctive character.
During its height, Dunhuang culture gave rise to a wealth of architecture, sculpture, murals, paintings on silk, calligraphy, wood-block prints, embroidery, literature, music, opera, and other art forms. Although the contents of the library cave have unfortunately been dispersed to museums in the West, the grottoes still contain a trove of paintings and statuary that exemplify religious and historical themes and artistic
Techniques as they evolved over a one-thousand-year period of Chinese art. The murals, covering 45,000 m2, fall into the following categories:
• revered images: images of each of the divinities worshiped in Buddhist temples; these murals are the most numerous and are executed with the highest degree of artistic skill;
• Buddhist scriptural tales: (1) stories of the life of the Buddha, (2) stories of previous lives, and (3) karmic stories; these murals draw the viewer into their fantastic realm;
• Chinese mythical themes: images of the creator Fuxi, the cre-atrix Nuwa, the Royal Sire of the East, the Queen Mother of the West, the Vermilion Bird of the South, the Dusky Warrior of the North; these figures, along with other deities, have entered the cave art;
• images evolved from sutras: large-scale murals depicting the Buddhist utopia, a world of great joy and splendor;
• Buddhist history: these murals combine historical figures with Buddhist tales, including stories from India and Central Asia, as well as Zhangye, Jiuquan, and other locales;
• portraits of donors: images of those who funded the grottoes, murals, and sculptures—among them, portraits of individuals from every social class and ethnic group, as well as merchants of various nationalities; and
• ornamentation: geometrical patterns depicting plants, animals, heavenly bodies, and people in ornamental design.
The mural art of Dunhuang reflects the daily life of medieval Chinese of all classes, as well as that of people from countries throughout Asia. Noteworthy are scenes of the manufacture of goods, social life, the commercial trade between China and the West, the meetings of princes, the succession of Chinese emperors, the worship of the Buddha at Turfan, the travels of the Princess of Huige, and more. The mural art of Dunhuang is a mirror of Chinese history, described by one specialist as a library contained in wall paintings. The art of Dunhuang has added inestimably to our understanding of medieval life in China.
The murals, sculpture, and architecture of the grottoes also illustrate the ways in which grotto art originating in India was adapted under Chinese influence. Departing from the Indian model, the Chinese introduced wooden architectural structures to achieve the effect of an audience hall of a Chinese palace. Moreover, Chinese mythical themes were incorporated into the decorative patterns, enriching their content and adding to their scope. As the Indian Buddhist tales were illustrated with Chinese characters, clothing, and customs, a hybrid was created that exemplified the exchange and merging of cultures through which the arts flowered.
Following the traditions of the Han and Jin dynasties, the artists of Dunhuang combined realism with imagination, achieving an expressive quality by outlining figures and features, which were then filled in with color. Using this uniquely Chinese method, the artists of Dunhuang put
Their imprint on the Indian Buddhist subject matter. Moreover, they absorbed and adapted expressive techniques and themes introduced from the Persian and Greek, as well as Indian, heritage—e. g., the portrayal of the beauty of the human figure or characteristic styles for depicting divine images.
Ultimately, the creative blending of themes and artistic techniques established a new Chinese style of Buddhist art; by the fifth century c. e., the style had itself become a source of influence on Western, Central Asian, and Indian culture.
The grottoes of Dunhuang, in which history is crystallized, has been listed by Unesco as a World Heritage Site. The mission of the Dunhuang Academy is to preserve, study, and promote the site. The task of preservation—the Dunhuang Academy's first priority—has been advanced greatly by domestic and international cooperation in recent years, the evidence of which was borne out by this conference.
Acknowledgments
On behalf of the Dunhuang Academy, the author extends gratitude to all individuals and institutions who have contributed to the study and preservation of the site.
World History
