Sakyamuni
The Primary Works in Dunhuang

Sakyamuni, is also called “Tathagata”, the founder of Buddhism, was a real historical personage. His name was Gautama Siddhartha (Gautama was his family name of the clan), and he was respectfully called by Buddhists ‘Sakyamuni’, which means the “Sage” of the Sakya Clan. It was said that he was the prince of King Suddhodana of Sakya Clan, born in Lumbini Grove (near the present border of India and Nepal) in Nepal. It was generically regarded that he was born in 563B.C and died in 485B.C, almost was contemporary with Confucius of China, who was born in about 551B.C and died in 479B.C.

Gautama was born in the noble Ksatriya caste. His mother Maya died when he was baby and his aunt Mockplogbe brought him up. He was accepted the noblest education of Brahmanism systematically in India in his childhood and later married Yasodhara, who the daughter of Jesan King and got a son, named Rahula.

At the age of 29, he left home, broke from the material world and became an ascetic. After 6 years’ austeres, he at last accomplished his philosophical system in his own when he was 35 years old, and this was also called ‘attain Buddhahood’ by Buddhists later, because they believe that Sakyamuni’s thought could explain how come so much suffering existed in the world and it also could lead them to break from the material worries and obtain the happiness they were pursuing eagerly.

Ever since then, Gautama who had ‘attain Buddhahood’, undertook the freeing the mass from worldly worries, and had preached his ideas in the Ganges River drainage area for 45 years. His preaching was got support gradually by dynast and obtained more and more disciples among the commonality. Sakyamuni rose ‘nirvana’ in the Pololin forest close to Kusinagara City in the Uttar Pradesh of India at 80 years old. Buddhism believed that Sakyamuni’s nirvana was not the conception of ‘death’ in people’ s mind, but a completely free from the traumas of reality for ever, and it also their final destination. It was said that all Sakyamuni’s thoughts were dictated by his disciple Ahnan, who served Sakyamuni for a long time, and then recorded and collated by his disciples in ancient Indian Sanskrit or Pali language. Ancient Chinese Buddhist scriptures were translated from those in ancient Sanskrit.

The Sakyamuni’s deeds recorded in Buddhist scriptures, acquired many elements of mystery and many contents were made up like fairy tails. In Buddhists’ eyes, Sakyamuni was different from us commoners, he had not only superman’s physical character, but also superman’s extraordinary power to do some bizarre and earth-shaking deeds, so those Sakyamuni’s outstanding deeds stroke root in the hearts of the Buddhists. They hoped to influent all the people by language and art images so that they could prostrate at the feet of Buddha as well as they believed in Sakyamuni. As the base of carrying forward Buddhism, Mogao Grottos near Dunhuang in Northern Dynasty naturally depicted as Sakyamuni’s’ stories by statues and paintings.

The earlier grottos always laid special emphasis on a certain scene to summarize. Sakyamuni’s main experiences, for example, the mural on the middle layer in the No.275 grotto, depicted the view of Sakya prince’s wandering out of the four city gates and meet an old man and an ascetic, hence he felt the changeable life and the only way to extricate was renouncing the family. The figure of half sit cross-legged Thinking Bodhisattva in the upper niche in the No.257 grotto was the Sakyamuni’s image in meditation of the central pillar before renouncing the family. The skinny figure in the shrine of central pillar in the No.248 grotto showed Sakyamuni’s austeres before he ‘attained Buddhahood’. In the front part of sidewall in No.260, 263, and 254 grottos, painted a lot of scenes for Sakyamuni is facing everyghost down into the way of Buddha. In these paintings, the ugly demons that were baring fangs and brandishing claws formed a vivid comparison with the tall and big image of Sakya, and it was also the climax of Sakyamuni’s biography. Comparatively, the mural for Buddhism on the two slopes of the No.290 grotto’s top was the one had the richest content and composed of most scenes. Both the paintings on the east and west slopes were made up of three sectors from top to bottom and the whole length was 27.50m, hence a picture-story book with 87 views. Every tableau picture took persons’ actions as the dominant, while buildings, hills, trees, etc, as the scene so that show clearly the surroundings as well as separated the different pictures. There was an inscription about the story beside each picture, which showed clearly the development of the plot.

It goes like this. One night, Mrs. Maya dreamed a Boddhisattva riding a white elephant flew down in the music. She awoke suddenly. The king asked a diviner what it meant the next day, and the diviner told him, “It’s very good. God has given reincarnation to your wife”. It was true that Mrs. Maya got pregnant and other kings of neighboring countries came to congratulate them. Ten months passed and the time of parturition was approaching, according to ancient Indian custom, Mrs. Maya should give childbirth at her parent's home, so she went back. But when she just traveled half the way, the prince was born from her right rib while Mrs. Maya was seizing a carefree tree. It was the sign of a superman’s birth style. Soon after the prince was born, he could walk. He walked seven steps and seven lotuses came out where he stepped on. Then he said, ”Everyone in heaven or on earth should obey my order.” With one hand pointing up and another down. Then flew nine dragons from afar and sprayed water to let him have a bath. Then Mrs. Maya held the prince in her arms and went back by the dragon-drawn cart, with fairies’ playing music-instruments and gods escorting. The king and all the officials and officers welcomed them. The diviner named the prince “Gautama”. An Asito genius prophesied that if he ascended to the throne in the future, he would be an overlord known far and wide for his military prowess and if he renounced the family and became an ascetic, he would be a Buddha, i.e, the person who could enlighten the mass. Certainly, the king didn’t want the prince leave home, so when he grew up, he selected 500 beauties to play with him, 500 servants to accompany him reading. But nobody knew why he was still unhappy in the palace. So the king called the officials together and discussed with them to marry princess to him. The princess wanted to have a martial arts competition among all the princes and she’d marry the winner, When Gautama wanted to go out of the city gate with a bow and arrow, a huge white elephant emerged and stood in the doorway. He threw it out of the gate easily. In the martial arts competition, He won his cousin Nanda, shot through seven iron drums with a bow and arrow and finally launched a pearl-string onto the princess’s body and married her. But the prince was still unhappy after marriage, so the king married him another beautiful concubine and allow him to travel out of the city. Out of the east gate, he saw an old man hobbling along; out of the south gate, he met a morbid man; out of the west gate, he saw a group of people making funeral arrangements; out of the north gate, he saw an ascetic there. He thought that birth, sickness, decrepitude, and death were all people’s traumas. When he sat under a tree and watched a farmer plaguing the field outside the city, he saw the bugs being eaten by birds as soon as they were dug out of the earth. And that made the prince lost in deep thought. He was unable to go to sleep after went back, and then he made up his mind to leave home and become an ascetic so as to seek the way of liberating the mass from sorrow. Then, he ordered to the carter to lade the wagon for him, and at that time appeared some gods to escort him and they let the horses standing on their palms and flew out of the city.

The prince let the carter return the palace with the cart and tell his parents that he had renounced the family. All the family members cried out for the message. The king sent five followers for the prince. When they caught up with him, he had already begun austere in a mountain. Persuaded by the prince, the five persons begun austere also, but they could not persist in it before long and left the prince. After a long period of austere, Siddhatha ‘attained Buddhood’ at last. He thought of the five persons first after he ‘attained Buddhood’. He heard that they were practicing austere in the Deer-garden, so he went there and preached his ideas to them. Thus the five persons became Siddhatha’s earliest disciples. Ever since then, he begun his task of liberating the mass out of traumas, and he was respectfully called ‘Sakyamuni’ by his disciples.

The view of Budda’s biology in the No.290 grotto had a rich and complete content and it was rare in earlier Chinese Buddhism paintings. Monks of the Eastern Han Dynasty translated the scriptures that the painting based on. The scriptures recorded Sakyamuni’s magical deeds in detail and the ancient arts in Dunhuang showed them clearly before people’s eyes, because all the people who believe in Buddhism should know Sakyamuni’s deeds first. The works in the No.290 grotto functioned not only as illiterates’ initial enlightenment but also set a visual example for the ascetics.

To the arts style, the figures in the view of Buddha's biology in grotto No.290 had already Sinicism obviously: The Indian Suddhodana King looked like a Chinese emperor, while Mrs. Maya dressed in Chinese concubine's costume and the personage's line drawing style was also completely Sinicism. The method of absorbing the essence of the western painting and integrating traditional Chinese and western drawing functional better to narrow the gap between the western ‘sage’ Sakysmuni and eastern populace, and also functioned better to strike roots in the hearts of the Buddhists.

Compiled by www.travel-silkroad.com
Translated by www.xinghui.com
July 21, 2001