Study On Dunhuang During The Late Tang,Five Dynasties,and Early Song Through Festivals

Festival is a special time in people ’ s life,which is closely related to people ’ s life and production,and is an important part of people ’ s social and cultural life.Festivals are also closely related to specific social folklore,culture,history,religion,ethnicity and politics.The information of legal documents,arithmetic documents and socio-economic documents in Dunhuang documents preserves a large number of records about Dunhuang festivals in the late Tang Dynasty,the Five Dynasties and the early Song Dynasty,which provides a window for us to comprehensively observe and understand Dunhuang festivals and their social history and culture.This paper mainly explores this issue from the aspects of the system and content of festivals,the cultural connotation of festivals,and the relationship between festivals and regime operation.First of all,this paper combs the ’ festival literature ’ and compares these festival names with the relevant records of the traditional Tang and Song literature.It is found that Dunhuang ’ s festival system inherited from the Central Plains and dominated by Chinese traditional festivals.This paper also analyzes the specific content of the festival customs in Dunhuang,and finds that although the festival has the characteristics of ’ strong Hu style,’ strong religious color and obvious worship of natural gods,the basic characteristics of Dunhuang festival culture are mainly Chinese culture and multi-civilizations.Secondly,this paper combs and analyzes the contents of the major festival customs in Dunhuang.The study shows that the integration of Buddhism and Chinese traditional culture,and the ’ three churches ’ of Confucianism,Buddhism and Taoism are the basic forms of Dunhuang belief at this time.Studies have also shown that festivals are the common “ cultural symbols ”of the peoples of all ethnic groups in Dunhuang.Through them,we can know the history of multi-ethnic cultural integration in Dunhuang,and then know the reasons for the formation of the ethnic pattern in Dunhuang that is dominated by Han ethnic groups and multi-ethnic coexistence.Thirdly,this paper analyzes the elements of Dunhuang ’ s agricultural sacrificial rites,festival wishes,festival customs and so on.It is found that the activities of agricultural prayers,health and epidemic prevention,entertainment,and respect for the dead are important contents of Dunhuang festival customs in the late Tang Dynasty,the Five Dynasties and the early Song Dynasty.By them,this paper examines the care and attention of Dunhuang people to life,and explores the cultural connotation of Dunhuang festivals.Finally,this paper further study found that festival customs exist in the inheritance of knowledge,skills,personal behavior norms,strengthening social ethics and other content,they played a ’ educating people ’ role in Dunhuang in the late Tang,Five Dynasties and early Song Dynasty.The “ sacrifice ”,“ appreciation ” and blessings in festivals strengthen the political ethics and power order of the rebels from different aspects,highlighting the legitimacy and authority of the rebel regime.The government of the Guiyi Army strengthened this order and authority by leading all kinds of festival activities.At the same time,it strengthened its control,maintained the operation of the Guiyi Army regime and the stability of Dunhuang area in the late Tang Dynasty and early Song Dynasty.In short,a large number of records on festivals in Dunhuang literature provide a more realistic ’ historical scene ’ for studying the festival culture and social history of Dunhuang in the late Tang,Five Dynasties and early Song Dynasty.Through this“ scene,” this paper explores the role of festival customs in the fusion of beliefs,ethnic blending,cultural interaction,life rhythm,social education and the operation of the regime in Dunhuang in the late Tang Dynasty,the Five Dynasties and the early Song Dynasty.In addition,this study has important reference significance for today ’ s social ethnic identity,cultural confidence,the revitalization of traditional festivals and other practical problems.