What are the Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes like?

The Mogao Grottoes, also known as Thousand Buddha Cave, are located at the eastern foot of Mingsha Mountain in the southeast of Dunhuang County, Gansu Province. It is a relatively complete Buddhist art museum and a treasure house of Buddhist images in the world. It is also the largest and richest artistic grotto in my country. Both the statues and murals in the Mogao Grottoes have a spirit of realism, which is closely connected with people's thoughts and feelings in various periods in history. It is a way for countless craftsmen in our country to understand and reflect life artistically through the refraction of religion. result. Therefore, we say that the art of Mogao Grottoes is not only Buddhist art, but also a rich and all-encompassing treasure house of ancient culture, and a living historical picture. The Mogao Grottoes provide us with valuable information for studying ancient history, literature, art, architecture, etc.

Interior view of Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang. The second year of Qin Jianyuan (366) was an era of special significance for Dunhuang. According to Li Huairang's "Rebuilding the Monument of the Buddhist Shrine in the Mogao Grottoes" from Dunhuang in the first year of the Holy Calendar of Wuzhou in the Tang Dynasty (698), in 366, there was a monk named Le Zun who wandered around holding a tin staff. At dusk on this day, the sun was about to set. In the endless desert, he came to the foot of Sanwei Mountain in Dunhuang. Suddenly he looked up and saw thousands of golden lights shooting out from the top of the mountain, and there were shapes of thousands of Buddhas in the golden light. He thought this must be the treasure land of Buddha's light. So he recruited people to build a cave on the rock wall opposite Sanwei Mountain so that he could practice cultivation and admire the "Buddha's Light". More than 1,600 years ago, the first grotto in Mogao Grottoes was created. Not long after Lezun, Zen Master Fa Liang came from the East and dug a second grotto on the cliff of Mingsha Mountain. At that time, Buddhism and Buddhist art were already very popular, and with the promotion of Golden Light Thousand Buddhas , so more and more people believe in Buddhism, and they dig caves here one after another in order to worship Buddha and practice cultivation. In this way, Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes gradually prospered.

After that, it went through 10 dynasties including Northern Wei, Western Wei, Northern Zhou, Sui, Tang, Five Dynasties, Northern Song, Western Xia and Yuan, which lasted for 1000 years. The construction of Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes has almost never stopped. Despite many wars and more than 10 changes of dynasties, this long period of artistic creation has not been able to stop. Countless skilled craftsmen in ancient times used their intelligence and diligent hands to sketch beautiful pictures on the steep cliffs. There are currently 492 caves in the Mogao Grottoes, with a total length of 1,618 meters. According to the distribution of the caves, they can be divided into two sections, the north and the south. Almost all of the caves are concentrated in the southern section, while the caves in the northern section are both few and small. According to rough estimates, there are more than 2,400 colored sculptures in the Mogao Grottoes, as well as tens of thousands of shadow sculptures (made first with models and then attached to the wall, similar to relief sculptures), small thousand Buddhas, and a total mural area of ??more than 45,000 Square meters, the tallest Buddha statue is more than 30 meters tall, majestic and powerful, while the smallest Bodhisattva is only a dozen centimeters, clever and delicate.

The Mogao Grottoes in history were more magnificent and glorious. According to the existing inscriptions from the Tang Dynasty, there were thousands of grottoes in the Mogao Grottoes at that time, and there were wooden eaves in front of the caves. There are corridors connected to each other, and its former style can still be vaguely seen from the eaves of the six existing Tang and Song Dynasty caves with paintings that are as new as new. The cliffs of the Mogao Grottoes belong to the Yumen Series conglomerate (also called Quaternary rock formation). It is formed by river alluvial and is a concrete of pebbles and sand of different sizes. Although the stones are very hard, they are each different. Separated and held together only by a little calcium glue with little adhesive force, the texture is relatively brittle. After long-term sand erosion, many caves have collapsed, and only a few parts have been preserved. Despite this, the rich content of the Mogao Grottoes , the huge area and superb technology are still breathtaking.

Similarly due to geological reasons, the Mogao Grottoes cannot focus on sculptures like other grotto art, and can only develop towards statues and murals. Moreover, only wooden eaves can be used outside the cave. This kind of construction feature is insufficient in terms of spectacular scenery and majestic momentum. However, its statues, murals, and even the decorations on the eaves of the cave are rich in color and more delicate than sculptures. Compared with the art of Yungang, Longmen, Tianlongshan and other grottoes, it also has more special artistic value. Apart from the Mogao Grottoes, there is no other such a huge group of ancient statues and murals in China, or even in the world.

The content of Buddhism reflected in the art of the Mogao Grottoes can be compared with the Tripitaka, which also includes the four parts of sutras, laws, treatises and history. Therefore, the Mogao Grottoes are like a Buddhist of classics. According to the form of its content, we can divide the art of Mogao Grottoes into two parts: painted sculptures and murals. According to the order of grotto art itself, the statue is the main body of each cave, which governs the content of each cave. The painted sculptures are divided by era. There are 318 bodies in the Northern Wei Dynasty, 350 bodies in the Sui Dynasty, 670 bodies in the Tang Dynasty, 24 bodies in the Five Dynasties, 187 bodies in the Song Dynasty, 8 bodies in the Xixia Dynasty, and 9 bodies in the Yuan Dynasty. The above do not include shadow sculptures. Inside. The materials used for the clay sculptures, except for a few huge stone-based clay sculptures with a height of more than 30 meters (the shape of the Buddha was left out when the cave was dug, and the outside was shaped with clay), the others are all made of wood, with grain, grass and reeds on the outside. Then, use grass mud to make the body, and then use hemp mud, paper pulp mud, cotton mud, etc. to shape it. After the mud dries, add color with color to finally make a colorful clay sculpture.

In addition to the colorful Buddha statues, there are more murals in the Mogao Grottoes. Although the scope of the reflection does not cover all the Buddhist classics, it covers almost all the Buddhist classics and sect history. The content is very complex and the forms are diverse. According to their nature, they can be roughly divided into five categories: sutra changes, explanatory pictures, traditional national mythological themes, offering figures, and pattern decorations. Among them, sutra changes have the most content. The murals in the Mogao Grottoes are all gouache murals, except for one cave in the Yuan Dynasty that is a watercolor mural. To draw a mural, you must first flatten the hole surface with mud. You need to add crushed grass or hemp tendons inside the mud to prevent it from falling off. After the mud dries, apply a thin layer of lime and polish it smooth. Painted murals on it. When painting, you usually first use ocher lines or light ink lines as a base, then apply various pigments layer by layer, and finally use color or ink lines to draw once. Most of the pigments used in the Mogao Grottoes murals are powdery. Among them, soot, kaolin, azurite, stone green, cinnabar, ocher, etc. are mineral pigments that can last for a long time. Therefore, many murals have experienced thousands of years and their colors are still very bright. .

There is also a world-famous Buddhist scripture cave in the Mogao Grottoes - Cave 17. It was once a very inconspicuous small cave. It is said that during the changes of dynasties and wars, some officials and monks were unable to take away the treasures when they escaped, so they hid them in a certain cave, which is the Seventeenth Cave. By the end of the 19th century, the Taoist priest Wang Yuan was in charge of Mogao Grottoes. Because of his ignorance, he destroyed some of the treasures and sold them to foreigners such as Stein, an Englishman who came to explore. Later, due to poor protection, those precious scriptures, murals, etc. were leaked overseas, leading to an inextricable situation. Recovered losses.

The Mogao Grottoes gained new life in 1949. In this year, Dunhuang was liberated and the Mogao Grottoes returned to the hands of the people and were protected by the government. In 1950, the Central People's Government reorganized the Dunhuang Art Research Institute into the Dunhuang Cultural Relics Research Institute. In 1961, the Mogao Grottoes were listed as a national key cultural relics protection unit by the State Council. Since then, a lot of maintenance and protection work has been carried out on the Mogao Grottoes. Especially after the reform and opening up, the Mogao Grottoes have received more and more attention from the party and the people, their protection has been improved, and their research has become more in-depth. The ancient Mogao Grottoes have regained their youth.