The Works in Early Great Tang

Tang Dynasty (A.D. 618 to A.D.907) had its great position in the international community. The culture of this period was great. The most important characteristic was to include in one and monopolize of advanced cultures of external nationalities and to discard the dross and select the essential.

More than 130 years in the period of Early Tang and Flourishing Tang were the top summit of development of Chinese Buddhist history. On the basis of Buddhist sect in Sui Dynasty, many new sects were set up in succession. Supported by the high advanced temple economy, many famous senior monks translated tremendous amount of Buddhist sutras and established respective enormous ideology system. They indicated the highest level of philosophy of the day. Many monks made great efforts to develop the Buddhism, so its ideology affected more and more people and infiltrated everyday life and cultural field. Some basic Buddhist doctrine became people’s morals conception and action standard.

When Gaozong and Wuhou were in power, the imperial power was effectively connected with religious authority. In the style of prescript, the Buddhism exceeded other religions. The vigorous mass campaign of worshiping Buddha rose among the high officials and the civilians. The Buddhist religious ceremonies were often held; the monks and nuns increased quickly; the temples were built; the grottoes were carved in the cliff; and the Buddhist rites were established all over the whole country. Under the historical background, Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes reached its golden age.

In the period of Early Tang and Flourishing Tang, the grotto was divided into front room and back room. The back room was the main room. Its plane was squareness and its ceiling was a filler-shape embellishing well. In most grottoes, a large niche was built in the front wall to let a wide room inside. The monks and believers held the Buddhist activities here, such as sermon, expounding Buddhist doctrine and worshiping. And then, the style of Buddhist Hall Grotto held the absolute dominant position in Mogao Grottoes in Tang Dynasty. Little old style of Sui Dynasty were still kept, such as the No.332 Grotto and No.39 Grotto were the style of central pillar and herringbone; the No.46 Grotto, No.225 Grotto and No.386 Grotto had two niche that were built in northern side and southern side, and it formed the three-wall and three-niche structure; the No.57 Grotto and No.322 were the single-niche style and they succeeded the style of double-decker niche of Sui Dynasty.

The distribution of the images and murals in the grotto were designed and arranged thoroughly. They showed the new artistic conception on the basis of the former dynasty. The scene that Buddha is expounding Buddhist doctrine to the believers was put in the large niche of the front wall and it was the most important idol in the grotto. In the two sides of the Buddha, from far to near, according to the ranks, the apprentices, Bodhisattva, gods and Hercules were arranged to stand oppositely. A set of images in the niche was at least 7 or over 10. In addition, the images of apprentices and Bodhisattva were painted in the image back to show the large scene of listening the doctrine. The limited room of the niche had the limitless insight and image space. It was the real portraiture of the emperor and empress and imperial concubines, general and premier rank system in the Buddhist world, and it set off Buddha’s stateliness and grandness.

The murals were still the forms of accessories thought in the grotto. The various sutra murals had been the main part of all murals in the grotto. The Bodhisattva image and small Vemogy Sutra were painted in the two sides of the large niche of the front wall. One was Vemogy lay Buddhist and another was Manjusri. The mural showed that the two Buddhists were asking and answering the Buddhist doctrine. One side of the grotto was painted Chenxiangrutai and another side was painted Yuchengchujia, and it showed some supernatural phenomenon before Sakyamuni entered into religion. The large sutra murals were painted in the northern wall and southern wall, such as Amitabha Sutra, Wuliangshoufo Sutra, Maitrega Sutra, Fahua Sutra and Yaoshi Sutra and so on. The structures of these sutras were precise and ingenious, and its scene was grand and magnificent. It should authentically show the spirit of flourishing age of Tang Dynasty. The eastern wall was the front wall of the main room. The artists of Tang Dynasty used the mural divided into two parts by the gate to paint two sets of eudipleural murals. Vemogy Sutra was the most common one. The mural of expounding Buddhist doctrine was often painted above the gate. It might be three Buddha sitting side by side or two Buddha sitting side by side. The room of the mural was skillfully used. In the middle part of the filler-shape ceiling, there were flaming embellishing well, thousand Buddha in the south and the sutra. The ground was paved with the lotus-veins bricks. So, the whole grotto was decorated to be the clean land of happiness.

The colorful image from Late Northern Wei Dynasty to Western Wei Dynasty was used lean image to show cheesy demeanor and verve, and the fleshy image of Northern Zhou Dynasty showed the rich demeanor of Buddha. If it was, the image of Early Tang Dynasty was the embodiment of vigor and grace. Especially the model of Buddha and Bodhisattva was attached importance to depict the natural physique, such as wide shoulders, fleshy breast, and slim waist. So, the vigorous and holy Buddha, slim and graceful bodhisattvas were live in front of people. They represented the typical art of Tang Dynasty, and this style was originally formed in capital Chang’an. The gold-plating copper Amitabha image made by Dong Qin in the 4th year of Kaihuang Period in Sui Dynasty (A.D.584) was unearthed in the south of Xi’an and it had the female’s gentle and graceful posture. Japanese Youling Museum stored up a sitting Buddha image made by Ma Zhou in 13th year of Zhenguan Period (A.D.639) and it belonged to the posture above mentioned. The style of Buddhist characters in Early Tang Dynasty of Bin County Large Buddha Temple Grottoes, You County Youwang Mountain Cliff and Linyoucishan Temple Grottoes were the same as the style of Dunhuang.

The representatives of the artists in Tang Dynasty continuously collected the typical beauty in the real-time life and added them into their own works, and established the special fleshy and healthy images of Early Tang Dynasty. It was a common occurrence that the famous painters painted for the temples and their style must be copied by the ordinary painters. The Buddha images were closely linked to the aesthetic judgment of the society. And then, the Buddhist characters that could show the special aesthetic judgment of art of Chang’an Tang Dynasty were spread westwards along the ancient path of Chang’an and Western Corridor of Yellow River to Dunhuang.

Longmen Grottoes in the two sides of Yishui south of Luoyang offered the important material objects for seeking the origin of Dunhuang arts of Tang Dynasty. The large and small grottoes like the beehive were scattered in the cliff in two sides of Yishui. The two third of numbered 2345 niches and grottoes were the works of Early Tang and Flourishing Tang. The large niche in Fengxian Temple was advocated to built by Tang Gaozong Li Zhi and the empress Wu Zetian gave cosmetics money—twenty thousand Guan in charity. The plane of this large niche was horseshoe shape and the image was 17.14-meter Lushena Buddha. Two prentices, two Bodhisattvas, two gods and two Hercules were in both sides of it. This kind of arrangement could be seen in some middle scale grottoes, such as Fengnan Grotto, Bazuosi Grotto, Longhua Temple Grotto and Jinan Grotto. Compared with them, we knew the large niche of the front wall in grottoes of Early Tang and Flourishing Tang in Mogao Grottoes was the small-scale form of Longmen Grottoes. Their product idea stemmed from Liangjing area of Tang Dynasty.

In A.D.690, for being the empress, Wu Zetian specially gave order to a monk of Baima Temple Xue Huaiyi and others to fabricate Dayun Sutra and declared that Wu Zetian was the future Maitrega and should be the top dominator of the world. In September of the same year, Wu Zetian was in the throne and ordered to issue Dayun Sutra to the world. And Liangjing and each Zhou should build a “Dayun Temple”. According to volume 288, Taipingguangji citing Chaoyejianzaai written by Zhang. In A.D.695, Xue Huaiyi built a 900-chi large Buddha image in Virtues Hall and its small toe could accommodate decades of men. In A.D.704, Wu Zetian spent hundreds of thousands of money in building another large Buddha image in Baimaban in Beimeng Mountain of Luoyang. The names of two Buddha were recorded in the historical book. But we could image that they would be the fashionable Maitrega. Inside the grotto, Maitrega should be beside Sakyamuni. For the special political requirement, the sitting Maitrega was the main Buddha in Jingxi Grotto of Longmen Grotto, three-Buddha niche, Northern Grotto of Shuangyao, Huijian Grotto and Middle Grotto of Leigutai. This situation appeared in grottoes of Early Tang and Flourishing Tang in Mogao Grottoes.

The heights of sitting Maitrega in No.96 Grotto and No.130 Grotto were respectively 33 meters and 26 meters. The Northern Big Image had been repaired in the later generations and its head kept the fleshy old appearance of Early Tang; the right hand of Southern Big Image was molded by the late generation, and the other kept its origin of Flourishing Tang. The cooperation between two cone-shaped grottoes and the large Buddha was suitable and showed the grand momentum (picture 24).

In 25th year of the Republic of China (1936), a nine-decker wooden attic was rebuilt in the No.96 Grotto and it became the token of the appearance of Mogao Grottoes. It liked the fairyland in the desert and let Mogao Grottoes fascinate the visitors.

Translated by Beijing Star-light Translation Center
Compiled by Historical Department of www.travel-silkroad.com
January 2nd, 2001