Nationality Dangxiang and Western Xia Dynasty

Dangxiangzu was a branch of Qiang nationality. They had done pastoral nomadism in nowadays Shanxi, Gansu and Qinghai border area since Sui and Tang Dynasties.

In A.D.1038, a Dangxiang man named Li Yuanhao established the capital in Xinqingfu (Yinchuan City) and established Daxia State. Because it lied in the west bank of Yellow River, it was called Western Xia in the history. In A.D.1074, Huihu fought with Western Xia troops and Western Xia won the battle, and conquered Dunhuang. From then on, Western Xia had ruled Dunhuang for over 150 years.

The kings of past dynasties in Western Xia were the pious Buddhist believers. Li Yuanhao knew not only Chinese and nationalities’ language but also Buddhism. He advocated using Buddhism to rule the border area. He wanted to use the Buddhism to cow his people into submission and consolidated his authorities.

Repairing Ganyin Tower of Fuguo Temple in Liangzhou Inscription established in A.D.1094 was kept in Wuwei Museum. According to the inscription, we could know that the rulers of Western Xia worshiped the Buddhism. Western Xia had protected and repaired the Buddhist temples of past dynasties that were destroyed in the woods and the villages. So the Buddhism in Western Xia developed quickly and the temples were found everywhere. Under the historical background, the people of Western Xia naturally utilized the carved grottoes and protected them, and rebuilt them.

Over 70 grottoes in the period of Western Xia were kept in Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang. Most of them were the grottoes carved in the past dynasties and the new ones were few. For example, No.263 Grotto and No.246 Grotto were the grottoes in Northern Wei Dynasty. Their central-pillar had been kept, but the craftsmen of Western Xia changed the murals and images. So, the grottoes of Western Xia in Mogao Grottoes had fewer features in their forms. The materials of murals and images succeeded the art style of Dunhuang ruled by Cao Family. The features of grottoes of Western Xia were vivid. Their contents were abundant enough to be called the largest artworks treasury of Western Xia in China.

In decades of repaired grottoes in Western Xia, the way of large-scale painting was used and no intention to destroy the murals and images. Two or three decade of colorful images of Western Xia were kept in Mogao Grottoes and most of destroyed images were remodeled. These images included Buddha, prentice and Bodhisattva, and image of Sakyamuni discussing the doctrine with Duobao Buddha. In the art style, the faces of the images looked fleshy and the veins were smooth. They kept the style of Tang and Song Dynasties. In the aspects of their postures, colorful tones, healthy tincture, their art achievements were not as good as those of Tang and Song Dynasties

The murals art of Western Xia in Mogao Grottoes imitated those of Cao Family period in the aspects of materials arrangement, characters’ images, clothes and hats, and painting skill. It produced the special style of murals art of Western Xia. Most of the murals’ contents of Early Western Xia described the numerous thousand Buddha and worshiping Bodhisattvas. These images of strapping worshiping Bodhisattvas were the same and were lack of dynamic change. In spite of having some unfashionable sutra paintings, there were Amitabha Sutra and Yaoshi Sutra with the simplified scenes. For example, the pavilions, attics, Yaoshi Buddha expounding the doctrine surrounded by the celestial beings, lotus pool and instrument players had been simplified in Yaoshi Sutra in northern wall of No.400 Grotto. The details of stories in the sutra had disappeared. Some paintings simplified the attics and pool that symbolized the western Elysium. The new style used Buddha expounding the doctrine and Huashen Boy to express the original contents, but we couldn’t tell their styles. In fact, the picture plane effects had almost been as good as the ordinary painting of expounding Buddhist doctrine.

In the middle stage of Western Xia, their own national features of art had been showed more and more in the murals. The faces of Buddhist characters became rotund and long; the images of worshipers with unreligious clothes showed national features of Western Xia. Few female worshipers wore shadow- sleeve skirts and felt hats. These clothes had developed from the Hanzu’s clothes in the hinterland. The images of worshipers owned by king of Huihu in the eastern wall of No.409 Grotto were a set of infrequent portraitures. The image of the king represented the owner of this grotto. There was a young man in front of him and maybe he was the king’s son. Eight attendants respectively held the umbrella the fans, the bows in both hands, double-edged sword, golden melon and shield. Some scholars thought it was the worshiping image of Western Xia King. Judging from the feature of clothes, they liked the people of Huihu. In the period of Western Xia, Huihu often appeared in Dunhuang and their Khan had the close association with the royal family of Western Xia. So it was no wonder that the worshiping image of Huihu king appeared in Mogao Grottoes. Similarly, the two images of female worshipers painted in the northern section of eastern wall of No.409 Grotto wore the peach-shape phoenix coronet and shadow-sleeve robe. This dress of Huihu noble women should represent the image of Huihu queen (Picture 48).

The murals of Western Xia in Mogao Grottoes had the vivid feature in colors. The large-scale thousand Buddha, worshiping Bodhisattva, paintings of expounding Buddhist doctrine and sutra paintings used the green to coloring up the ground. Some paintings of expounding Buddhist doctrine or sutra paintings used red and blue to coloring up the ground. The circle flowers picture of the embellishing well and murals were colored up in green and the cold green covered the grottoes to intensify the religious atmosphere. It couldn’t be seen in the grottoes of other dynasties. In addition, the golden was used to bush the decorative part of the murals. The dragon, phoenix, decorative edgings, jade-like stone and bracelets were made by the craftwork of sticking gold, drawing gold and piling gold to intensify the sense of reality of the murals and show the inside luxury. The picture of red ground and green circle flowers of No.309 Grotto, and the dragon or phoenix embellishing wells of No.245 Grotto, No.234 Grotto, No.130 Grotto and No. 16 Grotto were the excellent works of decorative murals of Western Xia in Mogao Grottoes.

The Buddhist art of Western Xia in Mogao Grottoes was in the stage of Chinese Buddhist art development going down, for Western Xia Dynasty, it was the period of rising and development of Buddhist art. They couldn’t compare excellence with that of Tang Dynasty, but they showed the freshness and vigor. The numerous murals of Western Xia grottoes provided us with the precious visual political, economic, religious and cultural materials and references to research Western Xia.

Translated by Beijing Star-light Translation Center
Compiled by Historical Department of www.travel-silkroad.com
January 10th, 2000