`Tubo Fighting among Rivals for the Throne and Leaving Footprint
---The works in the flourishing ages of Tang Dynasty

Tubo
Tubo was a name of Tibetan, which was transliterated into Chinese in Tang Dynasty. Long before Tubo people had made a living on agriculture and nomadism in Qinghai-Tibet Platean. The head of Tubo Songzanganbu became the Zanpu (a title of Tubo king) and established a powerful country in the early stage of A.D.7th century.

The capital of the country was nowadays Lhasa. At that time, the Tang Dynasty ruled by Tang Taizong was a very powerful empire. For setting up a friendly relationship, Songzanganbu sent an envoy to propose marriage with Tang Dynasty. So Tang Taizong asked his daughter Wencheng Princess marry to him and expressed the friendship.

In A.D.755, “An-si Rebellion” broke out. The picked troops, which were stationed in the Gansu Corridor, were moved to put down the rebellion. When the garrison of the Gansu Corridor was empty, Tubo troops seized opportunity to invade this area. Although the troops and civilians of Dunhuang strived for resisting, but the enemy outnumbered. By A.D.781, the whole Gansu Corridor was conquered by Tubo troops.

The No.159 cave of Mogao Grottos was a single niche image of Buddha cave that was carved in the middle period of Tang Dynasty. There were a series of Vimalakirti-nirdesa paintings on the east wall. There were a series of characters held the leading situation in the painting of princes under Weimoji’s command. The chief man wore a red felt hat and a big-collar long gown with leather belt around his waist. He wore a necklace with plait near the temples and held an incense burner. And his posture seemed that he was worshipping Buddha. There were two waiters who held offering and opened way in front of him. And there was a waiter who held the canopy behind him. Many people of various nationalities were behind the waiter. All of them composed an advancing parade featured in apparent rank, seniors and juniors. They were solemn and respectful. Among them, some people had red face and black hair; some people were lame; some people wore the felt hat, felt rain hat or brocade hat. Maybe they respected various nationalities in Western Region and businessmen from different countries. The influential person among them represented the Zanpu of Tubo. There was another parade of emperors of Han Dynasty who were worshipping Buddha at the opposite side. Because of being short of pigment and inconvenient communication in Tubo Dynasty, the mineral yellow and the mica were used to paint. So, the color of the paintings was clear and the murals succeeded in using lines.

The period of Tubo conquering Dunhuang was like the middle period of Tang Dynasty in hinterland. During the 60 or 70 years, the crafts men and artists of Dunhuang totally repaired 18 caves in flourishing age of Tang Dynasty. At the same time, they carved 48 new caves. The quantity and scale were impressive. Among them, the Buddha Hall Cave, with square main room and a big niche carved in the front wall, was still the most important traditional mold-making. The front-wall niche was made into square and some were made into double-floor style and there was a bed in the niche. It liked the horseshoe and showed the shape of the word “sunken”. The sitting Buddha and his two apprentices, two images of Tianwang and two Bodhisattvas were sitting in the bed. A “Hu” door was opened beside the bed to set the musical instrument players.

The content and overall arrangement of the Buddha Hall Cave followed its standard. There were paintings of four Tianwang on the south, the west and the north walls in the front room. The providers’ images were painted in two sides of the corridor. The canopy-shape plafond was painted in the come-shape-ceiling center of main room and Feitian surrounded it. The painting was painted in the center of the top ceiling that the Painting Buddha was preaching and he was surrounded by thousands of Buddha. Ten screens were painted in the niche wall in the inside of the front-wall niche colored statue. The stories of Benshen, Yingyuan about the Painting Buddha were painted inside of the screens. The jar-shape top of the niche was decorated by colored pictures. There were more than 40 paintings of images of Sipohuixiangtu on the jar-shape top. There were some small-sized Jingbian paintings in two sides out of the front-wall niche, such as Wenshubian, Puxianbian and so on. There were still various Jingbian Painting on the north and south walls, but they didn’t like the painting of the Buddha Hall Cave and it had only Jingbian painting in the early stage of Tang Dynasty. The 3 large-width Jingbian Paintings were painted on each wall and the lower part of the wall was saved about 1／3 square to paint the every Jingbian stories in the screens. That was to say, each Buddhist sutra had its story of concrete chapters. Among them, there were about 4-screen painting under each Jingbian Painting. In this period the commonly seen paintings included “Guanwuliangshanfo Jingbian”, “Mile Jingbian”, “Dongfangyaoshi Jingbian”, “Amituo Jingbian”, “Weimojie Jingbian”, “Fahua Jingbian”, “Tianqingwen Jingbian”, “Jingang Jingbian”, “Lengjia Jingbian” and so on. Some new materials were found in this period. There were two Jingbian Paintings in Two sides of the door on the east wall, but 4-screen painting was still in the lower part.

We could take the influential components of hinterland’s art style from Dunhuang Buddha Hall Cave in Tubo Period. The Fengxian Temple of Longmen Cave and other famous middle-sized caves in early stage of Tang Dynasty had the reverse sunken-shape “Tan” bed which was surrounded by three walls. There were a series of chief idols sculpted in the “Tan’ bed. Except that, it had been found in prices’ and princesses’ tombs in Xi’an area in the early stage of Tang Dynasty and it was commonly painted in the bedroom. So we could image that aristocrats installed screen paintings to decorate their bedroom in Tang Dynasty. In the real society, the secular and pragmatic art style was used in the Buddha Hall Cave. That was inevitable appearance of religious art production. Because of remote location, the art style of Dunhuang was inferior to that of hinterland.

A kind of characteristic Nirvana Cave was cared in Dunhuang in Tubo Dynasty. The No. 158 Cave’s plane was a rectangle and it had a jar-shape ceiling. There was a broad bed under the front wall and a large 16-meter sleeping Buddha was molded in the bed to express the nirvana of Sakyamuni. It was interesting that the responses of apprentice, Bodhisattvas, Tianshen, Hufashen after his Nirvana were painted vividly around the sleeping Buddha. They were matchlessly mournful and just like their own parents died. They couldn’t hear the Buddha preaching Buddhist doctrine. The expressions of Bodhisattvas were composed because they really understood that the Sakyamuni’s nirvana was not equal to death. The Buddha had got rid of the transmigration and entered a no-born-and-death extent reached. So, the Buddha would be with us everywhere and anytime.

Some parts especially described the setting that princes of various nationalities wailed in mourning. Some of them were kings of Han who wore a hat and long gown; some of them were princess of Zangzu, Tujiazu, Nanhaikunlun, South Asia, Central Asia and Western Region; some of them felt low or colored brocade gown; some of them wore high-top felt hat with exposed torso; some of them braided the hair with hair worn in bun; some of their face were brown and black, and they had deep eyes and high nose. They had the various features of Western Region, South Asia and Central Asia. According to their own national custom and habits, they chose different ways to express mourning; some of them cut own ears with knife; some of them cut own hearts and some of them cut own noses; someone was laying open the bowel and committing suicide with a sword. At the same time, all of them were crying and weeping. They hoped to express that they piously venerated the Sakyamuni and express their grief mourning. The large painting of Nirvana Bianxiang had rigorous structure and vivid character mold making. The whole painting had great manner and it contrasted their mourning and sleeping Buddha’s serenity. The painting threw the lofty extent reached of nirvana into sharp relief. In Tubo Dynasty, Tang’s elegant demeanor of Dunhuang caves art was the developing main trend, but it was very valuable that lots of picture materials of ancient nationality suddenly emerged. It reflected that the cultural communication of each nationality actively promoted the development of Chinese culture in Dunhuang ruled by Tubo Dynasty.

In A.D. 848, Zhang Yichao led Dunhuang people to revolt and expel the Tubo troops when the civil strife happed in Tubo. The heroic troops led by Zhang Yichao included Hanzu, Huihuzu and Qiangzu. In A.D. 861, Zhang Yichao led 7000 soldiers to destroy the last Tubo fortified point Liang Zhou (Wuwei in Gansu province) on West Bank corridor of Yellow River. In A.D. 866, the troops captured Xizhou (Gaochang City on south east of Tulufan) in Xinjiang province, Beiting (Pochengzi in Jiersaer County) and temporarily opened the old Silk Road that had been broken off about 100 years. At that time, they opened the road from Dunhuang to Chajan. The son –in-law Suoxun and grandson Zhang Chengfeng had continuously ruled Dunhuang from A.D. 890 to A.D. 920 when Tang Dynasty had been destroyed.

For honoring Zhang Yichao’s contribution, Zhang Huaishen carved the No. 156 Cave in Mogao Grottos in about A.D. 864. This was a square Buddha Hall Cave which was carved a niche in the front wall, and it laid in lower part of south and north walls. It spread to lower part of east wall. The painting of “Zhang Yichao Leading Troops” and “the Lady Song of Song’s Henei Prefecture Traveling” was painted on it. The painting was a splendid masterpiece, which length was 16.4 meters and height was 1.2 meters. And it described the grand parade of Zhang Yichao and her wife Lady Song. There were many musical players and dancers in the fore part of “Zhang Yichao Leading Troops”. The bugle sounded rhythm morally face to face and towards the sky. The audience could naturally be attracted in 8 dancers. The band that was put in good order was behind the dancers and they were playing harmonious music. The middle part of this painting showed the ruler of west bank Zhang Yichao who was tall, strong and majestic looking. He was the spirit of the whole painting. Many soldier on horses held the flags and cluster around Zhang Yichao. Making comprehensive survey, we could see both ardent atmosphere and powerful manner.

The acrobatics show was in the fore part of “Lady Song Traveling”. A man carried a long pole on the head and four children were showing breathtaking operation on the top. Four musical players and four dancers were face to face far away from the dancers of “Zhang Yichao Leading Troops”. Behind them, lots of waitress, carriages and followers on the horses were clustering around Lady Song and moving slowly. The occasion was very luxurious and extravagant.

The painting of “Zhang Yichao Couple Traveling” was a masterpiece of provider’s paintings. The large occasion was rarely seen in the caves all over the country. The provider meant the master who provided money to carve caves and make charitable deed. Sometimes, the provider of caves was not the constructor of caves, but their relatives were on the false pretenses of provider’s name to build it. For letting the charitable deed leave a good name for a hundred generations, the provider had always painted his own image in the cave and wrote some sentence such as “someone provides it”. The images of providers were different from the characters of Buddhist and they were the real mankinds. The painting of “Zhang Yichao Couple Traveling” had its particular huge impressive and dignified manner. And it should the musical playing in an endless stream. So, it really showed the traveling occasion and kept many valuable historical and folk custom materials for us.

A kind of cave had its own feature that the Buddhist altar was in the center of the cave. They commonly had a long and wide corridor and its main room was square. A Buddhist altar was set in the center and many ways surrounded the altar and people could do religious service. There were a ladder in front of the altar and a reverse sunken-shape Buddhist bed was set up in the altar. A Buddha statue was in the front and the statue of apprentices Bodhisattvas, Tianwang were in two sides. There was a large screen behind the Buddha. It liked the back of the chair and reached the top. The railings were around the Buddhist bed. The Attic of Buddhist Texts was in the No.16 Cave. It was the earliest one of caves that had been built by eminent monk Hong. The screen of Buddhist Altar was like the fan-shape wall of the temple. The fan-shape wall was set behind some statues on the altar in the front hall and people could do religious service around the altar. It was obvious that the Buddha Altar Cave copied the style of wood-structure temple hall. They were copied from the front hall niche of Buddha Hall Cave to the Buddhist Altar.

The Mogao Grottos of Tang Dynasty was still the fashionable material of Tubo Dynasty. But there were some new content such as “Baofumuenzhong Jingbian”, “Laoduchadousheng Jingbian”, “Xiangmo Bian”, “Lengyan Jingbian”, and “Miyan Jingbian”. Compared with last Dynasty, the material of each cave became abundant. The 16 or 17 Jingbian paintings were painted in one cave and the No.156 that had been mentioned before was like that. Zhang Chengfeng had carved the No.9 Cave and painted 7 Jingbian paintings from A.D. 890 to A.D. 893. At the some time, the content of the Jingbian paintings were increased. For example, there were 94 pieces of specific details in the painting and Bangti of “Weimoji Jingbian” had increased too more than 50 pieces. There were lots of occasions that showed the real life in the society and some included preaching doctrine paintings of abstract Buddhist doctrine. Compared with the early stage or middle stage of Tang Dynasty, the subject, structure and manner was not better than before. It showed that Buddhist art of Tang Dynasty was going downhill.

In specific cave, such as the No. 85 Cave, the screen-shape story painting was based on “Xianyu Jing”. There were about 20 kinds of story paintings, such as “haishennanwenchuanren Pin”, “Hengjiada Ping”, “Qipingjinshiyingyuan”, “Jintian Pin”, and “Santanning Pin” and they were new content in Mogao Grottos at the late stage of Tang Dynasty. The past fashionable “Ruixiang Picture”had a trend to develop continuously. A kind of “the story painting of Buddhist historical achievement” was combined with “Ruixing Picture” to form a complex structure. Most of the paintings were painted on the top of the cave’s corridor. When the believers entered the main room through the corridor, they could look up to see them. Many regular singles Ruixiang were painted on the slopes that were in two sides of corridor. The art standard of those paintings was not as good as those of prosperous stage of Tang Dynasty.

In Family Zhang period, Hanzu assimilated Mogao Grottos and its extent was stronger than before. On the one hand, it showed the combination of Buddhist believing and common custom. On another hand, it indicated the high developing period had past.

Written by www.travel-silkroad.com
Translated by Beijing Star-light Translation Center
September 12, 2002