Why are Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes called gods?

On the ancient Silk Road in Gansu, China, there is a world-famous art treasure house, which is Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes. She has experienced many vicissitudes. After 1600 years of ups and downs, she still retains 492 numbered caves, more than 2,450 painted sculptures, more than 4,500 square meters of murals and five wooden eaves in the Tang and Song Dynasties. In a cave, people have found more than 50,000 works of art, such as documents, embroidery and paintings, from the Northern Wei Dynasty to the Song Dynasty. In Dunhuang, no matter artists, musicians, craftsmen, dancers, religious figures, writers, archaeologists, historians, folklorists, architects, etc. They can get the information they need to study, and the study of Dunhuang has become a special knowledge-Dunhuang studies.

There are two unique mountains in the east of Yumenguan and Yangguan: Sanwei Mountain and Mingsha Mountain. Sanwei Mountain is named because there are three peaks in the mountain and dangerous rocks are about to fall. As the sun sets, it shines brightly, reflecting magical colors. Mingsha Mountain is formed by the accumulation of quicksand. People slide down from the top of the mountain, and the sand rubs thunder, hence the name. The world-famous Mogao Grottoes were dug on the cliff at the foot of Mingsha Mountain. There are more than 1000 caves, so it is called Thousand Buddha Cliff.

The Mogao grottoes are rich in artistic modeling, and everything in the world is ready, as if the world is looking for heaven, and as if the gods of heaven are happy to come to earth. Among various shapes, colored plastic is an important one. Because colored sculptures are the object of worship, Buddhists worship them. As far as art is concerned, the Mogao Grottoes pay equal attention to sculpture and painting. Murals in caves not only serve as a foil, but also form an inseparable, unified and harmonious perfect whole with statues.

The Mogao Grottoes are excavated on conglomerate, and the stones are loose. You can open caves, but you can't use them for carving. So from the beginning, traditional clay sculpture makeup was adopted. Clever artists use traditional techniques such as kneading, shaping, pasting, pressing, cutting and carving to shape the body, and then use painting techniques such as painting, dyeing, brushing, painting and tracing to describe the details and reflect the texture, which was called "plastic capacity quality" in the Tang Dynasty. This has created an immortal masterpiece of art that has been handed down through the ages.

Among the 492 existing caves in Mogao Grottoes, there are about 2,450 prototype statues of 1 10. Among them, there are about 1400 statues that are basically intact. About 300 bodies belong to Wei grottoes; 350 statues of Sui Cave; More than 670 statues in the Tang grottoes; The figures in Five Dynasties, Song Dynasty, Xixia and Yuanku exceeded 100. There are also nearly a thousand painted and reshaped bodies in the Qing Dynasty. The number and duration of statues are unmatched by any sculpture art museum in the world.

The development and evolution of colored plastic art in Mogao Grottoes can be roughly divided into three stages: early, middle and late.

In the early stage of its development, the subjective circular sculpture was mostly the main idol worshipped by Buddhism, such as Maitreya, Sakyamuni and Duobao sitting side by side, chatting, meditating and thinking. The central tower column showed Sakyamuni's life stories of penance, demonization, enlightenment and chatting.

Buddha statues are generally a combination of one Buddha and two bodhisattvas. Among them, the number of Maitreya Buddhas is the largest, which is generally placed in the upper niche, indicating that Maitreya Buddhas have a high pocket rate in heaven. Secondly, there are many meditation images. "Meditation" means "mental practice", which means meditation, forgetting all the troubles in the world, making the spiritual world reach the realm of Qingming and gradually approaching the kingdom of heaven. The early statues, whether in character modeling, clothing, form or even artistic style, were not completely divorced from the Indian Gandhara artistic technique. The characters are characterized by broad forehead, high nose, slender eyebrows and eyes, wavy bun and stiff physique, but the clothes have been China.

Sui and Tang Dynasties are the middle period of grottoes development and the heyday of Mogao Grottoes sculpture. During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, most of the caves were stacked with Buddhist temples, and a group of statues centered on Buddha were arranged in the big niche on the front: the Buddha statue was in the middle, and two disciples, two bodhisattvas, two heavenly kings and two mighty men stood on both sides, with teachers and disciples, sitting and standing, and being literate and martial, which became the customization of statues in the Sui and Tang Dynasties. The Buddha statue is in the middle, the largest figure, with a bun and a plump face, eyebrows like a colorful moon, straight nose, slightly upturned corners of the mouth, a pair of earlobes, harmonious, dignified and kind, dressed in cassock and over-the-shoulder clothes, with plain patterns, and sitting on the lotus seat, so that everyone can sit on the lotus seat.

Artists in the Tang Dynasty have a special liking for the shaping of Bodhisattva. They poured their lives into soil and hemp grass, and also created life. They are praising "God", and more are praising the kindness, beauty, wisdom and dignity of human women. In the Tang Dynasty, artists put the beauty of women into the shaping of bodhisattvas surreally, while the masculinity of men was condensed in the sculpture of King Lux. The heavenly king is wearing armor, felt boots, glaring at his fists, stepping on evil spirits, and being mighty and fierce; Lux's upper body is bare, her muscles are prominent, and her eyebrows are glaring, which is daunting. Coupled with colorful gold embellishment, strong ink and heavy colors, the finishing touch, fluffy hair, elegant and free and easy, very dynamic, received the effect that clay sculpture is difficult to achieve, greatly enhancing the appeal of art.

The Five Dynasties, Song Dynasty, Xixia, Yuan Dynasty, etc. are the declining periods of Mogao Grottoes sculpture. The statues, images and costumes of the Five Dynasties and the early Song Dynasty still retain the legacy of the Tang Dynasty, but they are far less than the sculptures of the Tang Dynasty and lack internal vitality. The expressions of Buddha and Bodhisattva are indifferent and even helpless. In Xixia and Yuan Dynasty, few statues have been preserved so far, only Sakyamuni Duobao sat side by side and talked about it, and the content and techniques were similar to those in Song Dynasty. Recently, a two-body statue of a goddess who can be regarded as a minority in Xixia was discovered, wearing the clothes of aristocratic women in Xixia, which was purely secular. In the Qing dynasty, some Taoist gods were added, which was extremely uncoordinated.

Among the rich art galleries in the Mogao Grottoes, more than 45,000 square meters of religious art murals are based on Buddhist classics and carefully drawn by artists and painters of all dynasties in China. But it covers not only Buddhism, but also politics, military, economy, society, culture and many other aspects, which can be said to be all-encompassing and profound. It can be roughly divided into Buddha or Bodhisattva statue paintings, Buddha and marriage story paintings, various paintings, portraits of patrons, decorative patterns and so on. "Statue painting" is a large number of murals in the Mogao Grottoes, including Buddha, Bodhisattva, Lohan, Hanazono Sakura Buddha, Daotu and Tantric Datura. Buddha is the abbreviation of "Buddha", which means "consciousness" or "wisdom".

In Buddhism, "Bunsen" refers to the past life of Sakyamuni. Buddhists in India believe in samsara, believing that Sakyamuni experienced many lifetimes before his birth, and then interpreted many folk fables and legends into the Bensheng Sutra of Buddhism. What these stories have in common is advocating the spirit of self-sacrifice and persuading people to be kind. The Biography of Buddha refers to the deeds of Sakyamuni's life, usually including reincarnation, birth, initiation, becoming a city, penance, demonization, enlightenment, nirvana and so on. The stories of Bunsen and Buddhism were almost replaced by classics in the Tang Dynasty. Buddhist scriptures are the images of Buddhist scriptures. Jingbian is the main body of the murals in Mogao Grottoes, occupying the most important position, with a large area and a large number. The theme of the changes in the Tang Dynasty is to praise the joy of Buddhist countries. Obviously, conversion to Buddhism will have a good result, and even tragedy will end in comedy, which is related to the social and economic prosperity and the relative stability of people's lives in the Tang Dynasty. After the mid-Song Dynasty, the study of Confucian classics gradually became stylized, just like a thousand Buddhist scrolls, and it was difficult to distinguish its theme connotation, while the study of Confucian classics in the Yuan Dynasty became various tantric mandalas. "Providers" are those who pay for cave restoration. They painted their own images on the wall to show that the Buddha and Bodhisattva in this cave are their support and their merits. They are people in the real world, and their clothes are consistent with their social status at that time. They are extremely important and precious materials for studying costumes and social life in past dynasties. "Patterns" are all over the cave, just like entering a garden where flowers are blooming. The decorative patterns of the Mogao Grottoes can be described as a collection of patterns, which are varied and beautiful.

The rich galleries in Mogao Grottoes reflect real life, and the illusory Buddhist world is people's belief and support for religion. The paintings on the high stone walls reproduce the realm of the unity of God and man, which is a miracle.