A Study On Mogao Cave 428 In Dunhuang

Located on the third layer of the middle section of the Southern Area at Mogao grottoes,Cave 428 is on a grand scale with rich contents and various themes.It is not only the representative cave of the Northern Zhou in the Mogao Caves,but also the important remains for research into the grotto art,Buddhist thought and art exchange of the Northern Zhou.Most scholars agree that Cave 428 was excavated in the decade before Emperor Wu of the Northern Zhou decreed the persecution of Buddhism and built by Yu Yi,the Duke of Jianping,who was the Regional Governor of Guazhou of the Northern Zhou.The main body of the cave temples is comprised of architecture,sculptures and murals.Therefore,the core issue of this thesis focuses on the building function,the subject matter as well as the connotation of the configuration of Cave 428 and so on.This thesis analyzes the composition and characteristics of images by applying archeology and iconography method.By using the method of historical philology,this thesis researches some issues such as the relationship between text and image,the cause of the image drawing and the historical background of the cave building.In addition,this thesis discusses the relationship between Buddhist art and secularity of Cave 428 by using a combination of other research methods.The fusing of the Sakyamuni belief,the Lotus Sūtra belief and the Avatamsaka Sūtra belief is reflected in the Buddha statues in all four sides of the central pillar as well as the murals on all four walls in Cave 428.The murals on the walls consist of the upper,middle and lower parts.Similar to the thousand-Buddha motif of Cave 254 excavated in the Northern Wei,1485 Clay-Molding Buddha Sculptures of upper parts in Cave 428 probably represent the thousand Buddhas of the ‘glorious’ past kalpa and the thousand Buddhas of the ‘constellation’ future kalpa.The white-robed Buddha in the upper part of the west wall is Sakyamuni,who is the representative of the thousand Buddhas of the ‘good’ present kalpa.The white-robed Buddha along with ClayMolding thousand Buddhas constitute a thousand Buddhas for each of the three kalpas.The themes of murals on middle part is most abundant in Cave 428.On the east wall are the murals of jataka tales and nidana stories,which reflect the thoughts about almsgiving and commandments observing of six perfections of Bodhisattva-carya.These murals are examples of almsgiving and commandments observing for those believers at home and monks.The image of Vairocana Dharmadhatu on south wall is drawn according to Dasabhumi-vyakhyana.It is the reflection that Dasabhumi-vyakhyana was popular in Dunhuang under the influence of the ideological trend of Dasabhumi-vyakhyana during the period of the North dynasty.The five-pagoda motif on west wall is derived from a pagoda with four pillars and five pagodas in the Northern Wei.It should be considered as Dharmakaya divided into five copies.The image of Nirvana and statues of Sakyamuni and Prabhutaratna seated side by side have roots in the Northern Central Plains,which mean that the Lotus Sutra was popular in Dunhuang.There are two groups of Māra and Māra’s child in the “Defeat of Māra”on north wall,which implieds the conflict between Buddhism and Taoism before Emperor Wu of the Northern Zhou decreed the persecution of Buddhism,and the hope of Buddhists for the lasting spread of Buddhism in China.A number of 1242 donors were painted in the lower parts(including each niche-border in central pillar)in Cave 428,the majority of them were related to the prosperity of the monastery economy at that time.Moreover,the policy of combining culture in Northern Zhou Dynasty was represented in the images of donors wearing traditional costume of Han ethnic group and ethnic minorities,which appeared in this cave at the same time.Under the influence of the Buddhist art traditions from India,the Central Asia and the Western Regions,the contents of Cave 428 contain not only Han elements from the North of the Central Plains,but local characteristics created by Dunhuang artists after mixing various art styles from different places.Therefore,as the most representative cave of the late Northern Dynasty in Dunhuang,Cave 428 represents the highest level of creativity of Dunhuang artists and plays an important role in the history of Dunhuang grottoes construction.