Echo Sand and Evening

Within the Qing Dynasty Buddhists’ eyes, the Buddhist idols desolated for almost four hundred years had been destroyed heavily and had completely lost their former-day luster. So they collected the funds and alms to repair the images, murals and wooden architecture of Mogao Grottoes and recollected the prosperous burning incense.

The incentive to making art of Mogao Grottoes in each dynasty was to propagandize the Buddhist ideology by way of art and to provide the monks with a clean place and to satisfy Buddhists’ requirement. So it served for the religion. According to the doctrine, continuous repairing the images could make the idols have the ability of magical power and exchange the thoughts and feeling with the Buddhists. When the people of Qing Dynasty repaired Mogao Grottoes, they used the new colors to cover the images and murals in past dynasties, like Cao Family and Western Xia. But the age of these new artworks was close to ours. Some scholars thought that there were no values of archaeological studies and art studies. The materialism reminded us of the purpose of Mogao Grottoes’ existence was not to provide the modern scholars by ancient artists with the research materials and to satisfy some special requirement of religious life. In this aspect, it was reasonable to repair Mogao Grottoes in Qing Dynasty.

From Qing Dynasty to Republic of China, the painters and craftsmen worked in Mogao Grottoes left some inscriptions and let us know the situation of their work clearly. For example, Ganqian craftsmen inscribed his name in the 5th year of Qianlong Period (A.D.1740) in No.450 Grotto. There were inscriptions of Ganquan craftsmen and Wuwei painters in the 3rd year of Jiaqing Period (A.D.1798) in the northern wall of No.450 Grotto. On May 14th, the 23rd year of Jiaqing (A.D.1818), the painter Zhang Chenglin re-painted the princes in Vemogy Sutra in the south of eastern wall gate of No.237 Grotto. The believers who burned joss sticks inscribed their names in the 2nd year of Guangxu Period (A.D.1876) in the upper section of gate of No.365 Grotto. There was an inscription in the western wall of No.23 Grotto that three brothers of Li Family from Shanxi meld one hundred images in the 4th year of Republic of China (A.D.1915).

In late Qing Dynasty, Wang Yuanlu went to Dunhuang from Jiuqian. He visited the scenic spots and historic site. He climbed Sanwei Mountain and saw the grand scene of Thousand Buddha Grotto. He built a Taoist Taiqing Grotto over 20 meters away from the third floor of No.16 Grotto and lived there. The discoverer of Buddhist Texts Grotto had the pious religious psychology to repair the ancient artworks of Mogao Grotto. He wasn’t afraid of hard work to collect alms and used the cultural remains in Buddhist Texts Grotto to exchange money with the foreigners. He used this money to engage employees to repair the Buddhist images in the grottoes and added some Taoist immortals in the grottoes. Taoist Wang thought his practice brought the virtues for his future life and the good tidings to the believers. The images repaired in Qing Dynasty were in the majority of all artworks of Mogao Grottoes in Qing Dynasty. This work had been kept until Republic of China. Nowadays, we could see the Taoist Wang’s grave in front of Mogao Grottoes.

According to the elementary statistics of experts in Dunhuang Academe, the repaired images of Buddha, Bodhisattva and prentices were 485 in the artworks of Qing Dynasty and Republic of China in Mogao Grottoes. The remodeled images of Buddha, Bodhisattva and prentices were 611. The 221 grottoes were involved, and it was 44.9 percent of the existing 493 grottoes of Mogao Grottoes. The 18 grottoes had the repaired or remodeled murals of Qing Dynasty and Republic of China, totally 200 sq.m. It was to say, the influence of artworks in Qing Dynasty and Republic of China.

The main work of repairing Mogao Grottoes in Qing Dynasty and Republic of China aimed at modeling the images. The main materials were still the Buddhist images of Buddha, Bodhisattvas, prentices, gods and Hercules. Because of the Taoist activities of Mogao Grottoes of the time and the effect of the confluence of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism in the society, the artwork had grandly entered the Buddhist grotto, such as Laozi riding the crane and Cao Guojiu, Han Xiangzi and HE Xiangu who was one of the Eight Immortals in the legend was in the niche of No.5 Grotto. The image of Sun Wukong was in the niche of No.13 Grotto and the image of Zhenwu Emperor was in the niche of western wall of No.131 Grotto. The two door gods were painted in the western wall of front room of No.150 Grotto. The Niutou and Mamian were painted in the corridor’s northern and southern walls and the twelve constellations in Taoism were painted in the northern and southern walls of main room, and the official, Zhong Kui and ghosts were painted in the eastern wall. The images of Xuan Zang and his two prentices were painted in the niche of western wall of No.211 Grotto. The image of Zhao Gongming was in the No.350 Grotto and the image of Yu Huang was in the niche of western wall of No.454 Grotto. The images of Songzi Queen who was believed in by the public were in No.138 Grotto, No.334 Grotto and No.454 Grotto.

Compared with artworks of Mogao Grottoes before Yuan Dynasty, the artworks of Qing Dynasty and Republic of China were undoubtedly crude. Some works showed the artistry of high standard. For example, the image of Songzi Queen of No.454 Grotto in which the craftsmen spent more thinking was called by modern artists “modeling the image of an unadorned and live old woman”. The painting of worshiper in Qing Dynasty in the lower brim of altar of No.233 Grotto was an artwork with features of age. In aspect of the religion and artworks, the arts of Qing Dynasty and Republic of China had the value to research. It was a pity that the 24 images including Songzi Queen had been destroyed during the Culture Revolution.

The wooden architectures in front of the grottoes had been rebuilt in the periods of Qing Dynasty and Republic of China to protect the grottoes and the believers. These achievements could be obliterated.

The wooden 3-floor building in front of No.16 Grotto was destroyed by war in Tongzhi Period and it was sponsored to be rebuilt by Dai Fengyu and Wang Yuanlu in late Guangxu Period (A.D.1897 to A.D.1905).

A wooden memorial archway “Mogao Grottoes” was put in the entrance to the grotto. It was the memorial archway of Guhanqiao standing in front of No.428 Grotto and the wooden plaque “Guhanqiao” had been built from A.D.1899 to A.D.1931. When it was removed in 1964, the title of “Mogao Grottoes” replaced it.

The 9-floor wooden building in front of No.96 Grotto was started to build in 2nd year of Yanzai Period in Tang Dynasty (A.D.695). At first, it had four floors. From A.D.874 to A.D.885, Zhang Huaishen added it into five floors. In A.D.966, the two-floor timbering was changed. After A.D.1898, it had been rebuilt fourth time. From A.D.1928 to A.D. 1935, Liu Zhihe, Zhang Diwu and Zhu Cishan had lived Thousand Buddha Grotto for a long time without avoiding cold and warm to build it. They collected alms in turn and spent 12,000 Yuan in building this grand and magnificent 9-floor building. It was built along the mountain and liked the heavenly palace. Set off by the golden sands hill, the red pillars and arches stroke the eye. The nowadays 9-floor building had been the sign of Mogao Grottoes and the token of the Dunhuang art.

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