Dunhuang Early Tang - The Complete Collection of Dunhuang Murals in China (5)

Author: Duan Wenjie
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-01-01
Features: The Tang Dynasty was a peak in the development of feudal cultural and artistic achievements, with the early Tang marking a period of pioneering and innovative growth. The early Tang murals in the Dunhuang Grottoes fully embody the spirit of this era. Firstly, they further integrated foreign Buddhist thought with China's Taoist and Confucian philosophies, while also absorbing beneficial elements of foreign art during the process of nationalizing Buddhist art, ultimately forming a Chinese-style Buddhist art with distinct national characteristics. A prominent feature of the early Tang murals is the creation and refinement of various monumental Buddhist narrative scenes, such as the Amida Pure Land Transformation and East Pharmaceutical King Transformation from the reign of Emperor Taizong of Tang, and the Maitreya Sutra Transformation and Vimalakirti Sutra Transformation from the reign of Wu Zetian. Particularly in the artistic conception of these monumental scenes, grounded in real-life experiences, they demonstrated extraordinary imagination, crafting a rich, profound, and thought-provoking Buddhist paradise. In terms of artistic techniques—such as figure modeling, composition, line drawing, atmospheric shading, and the expression of human emotions—the murals achieved significant progress, enhancing their realistic representation. Additionally, within the depictions of the Buddhist realm, the real world is subtly hidden, such as scenes of emperors traveling, court dances, tribal leaders in attendance, foreign princes paying homage, Zhang Qian's mission to the Western Regions, Kang K'ai's preaching in Jiankang, craftsmen building houses, boatmen pulling oars, women cooking, hunters chasing sheep, as well as children playing in water and distant mountains with sails. All these elements demonstrate that the early Tang murals were not only innovative artistic masterpieces but also a mirror reflecting the social and historical context of the early Tang period. This book is part of the Complete Collection of Dunhuang Murals in China, featuring numerous works of Dunhuang murals.