| Sui and Tang Dynasties were the heyday of the development of Mogao Grottoes art,so the early Sui Dynasty was the turning point of Dunhuang art.Since the Northern Dynasty to the Sui Dynasty was the origin,development,heyday and decline of the Central Tower Cave,studying the contents and statue thoughts of the Central Tower Cave in the Mogao Grottoes in the early Sui Dynasty can reveal the evolution of the Mogao Grottoes from "early art" to "heyday After the establishment of the Sui Dynasty,Buddhism and Taoism were revived,and religion became the force to help complete the unification.Therefore,Dunhuang Buddhism was prosperous and full of changes at this time.During the change of dynasties,Cave 302 and Cave 303 of the Mogao Grottoes,which were built in the fourth year of the reign(584),are located adjacent to each other,with slightly the same area and similar structural forms.They are the only two grottoes in the Mogao Grottoes with inverted cones as the central column.The 302 and 303 caves are symmetrical in form and belong to small inverted tower-shaped central column caves with front and rear chambers.The contents of the murals in the two caves are symmetrical(the contents of the themes in the front of the two walls in the south wall are symmetrical),and the contents displayed in a single cave are also symmetrical.Thousands of Buddhas are painted on the four walls in a large area,and the story painting is moved up to the top of the cave and covered with herringbone;The statue thought includes Maitreya statue,the statue thought of the 10th and 3rd Buddhas,the thousand Buddhas,the statue thought of the 4th Buddhas,the statue thought of Mount Xumi,the story of the Dragon King of Touhe,the thought of Fahua,etc.This artistic similarity enables us to spy on a corner of Buddhist grotto art and social and political culture in Dunhuang in the early Sui Dynasty.Although the grottoes are very similar to each other,they can still be complicated from some differences in grottoes’ shape,statue contents and statue thoughts.In terms of shape,the main room of Cave 302 has the form of three Buddhas with three walls and three niches.The herringbone cover on the mural follows the previous system in Cave 302.Cave 303 has undergone Hokkekyo changes.In Cave 302 with flat roof at the back,it inherits the style of Dou Si Pingqi roof in the Central Column Cave of the Northern Zhou Dynasty and has not been deliberately designed.Cave 303 is a new form specially designed for the Central Tower of Xumi Mountain.The statue thought Cave 302 is also influenced by the Buddha view of the 10th Party and the 3rd World,the Zen method of "Dharma Body View" in the samadhi of chanting Buddhism,Fukuda Sutra Change and the third-order religion,and Pure Land thought of pharmacists.Cave 303 is also influenced by the Dharma-China thought and the 33-day symbol of Xumi Mountain.Therefore,it is precisely under the historical background of this change that the Xumi Mountain-style Central Pillar Grottoes are only shown in No.302 and No.303,from which some reasons for the decline of the Central Pillar Grottoes in the Mogao Grottoes can also be found.However,there is a contradiction between Cave 302 and Cave 303 between the early construction time of Cave 303 in terms of shape and the early construction time of Cave 302 in terms of content and ideology.Therefore,this article chooses to make a comparative study of Cave 302 and Cave 303 in the Mogao Grottoes to analyze the complexity of Dunhuang’s historical background in the early Sui Dynasty and the contradiction between the contents and thoughts of the statues in the Mogao Grottoes. |
PDF Full Text Request