History of civilizations found in Dunhuang
The statue of Maitreya in Mogao Cave 275 Photo: FILE
Dunhuang, a city in Gansu Province, northwestern China, got its name when it was established as one of the four frontier garrison towns (along with Jiuquan, Zhangye and Wuwei) by the Emperor Wu of Han (156–87 BCE) in 111 BCE. Ying Shao (140–206), a Chinese writer who lived during the Eastern Han Dynasty, noted that dun meant “grand” and huang meant “splendid.” Pei Ju (547–627), a politician of the Sui and Tang dynasties, wrote that Dunhuang was the city located at the intersection of all three main silk routes that led to the West. Historical documents show that Dunhuang was a town of military importance and a major hub of commerce for the Silk Road. The significant position of Dunhuang made it the main base of communication between ancient China and the rest of the world.
Murals
From the 4th century to the 14th century, a number of man-made Buddhist grottoes had been excavated in this region, including the famous Mogao Caves, the Western Thousand Buddha Caves and the Yulin Caves. These caves house more than 50,000 square meters of gorgeous murals and 2,000 Buddhist statues.
The Dunhuang Caves resemble a natural museum of architecture, statues and murals. The caves are examples of architecture that draw on the features of the cliff tombs of the Han Dynasty (202 BCE–220) and the Buddhist caves in India and Central Asia. Many of the early caves were developed in the xinzhu style. Caves of this style usually employ a rectangular plan. The outer section of this style of cave has a xuanshan roof (also known as the overhanging gable roof, a general form of architecture in East Asia in ancient times) that indicates the section is a hall. In the inner section, there is a square-sectioned central column supporting the roof of the cave with sculptures in niches representing the stupa, around which worshippers may gather and receive blessings. Duan Wenjie, former president of the Dunhuang Academy, believes that this architectural style is an adaptation of the caves at the feet of the Buddha of Bamyan in Afghanistan, which originated in Qiuci (also known as Kucha, an ancient Buddhist kingdom located on a branch of the Silk Road), then introduced to Gaochang (a historical kingdom in the present-day Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, destroyed in wars during the 14th century). It was introduced into the Hexi area (present-day Gansu Province) during the Sixteen Kingdoms Period (304–439). When it was adopted into the Mogao Caves during the Northern Wei era (386–534), it had evolved into a new Chinese architectural style.
The murals in Dunhuang caves reflect the common influences shared across the different cultures. Take the statue of Maitreya in Cave 275 for example. His crown, curly hair falling over the shoulder and ornaments over his chest, together with a cross-legged pose, reveal the adoption of the Buddhist art of Central Asia, India and Persia. The style of the triangular backrest carved with a brocade motif in bas-relief has been found in the relics of Qiuci. The pair of lions that flank the statue, though inspired by foreign cultures, reveal the simplicity and majesty of the tiger statues of the Han Dynasty.
During the Sui and Tang dynasties, intensive cultural exchange brought Western textiles inlaid with fine images into China. One of the images that would stand out above any other is the pearl roundel design from Persia (this design was a repetition of medallions encircled with a border of 20 pearl shapes), which became popular in the West, the Hexi area and northern China. The pearl roundel design of the textiles unearthed from the Astana Cemetery, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, and Dulan, Qinghai Province, was also found in Dunhuang murals, such as the pearl roundel on the dress of the Bodhisattva Sculpture in the western niche of Mogao Cave 420. Zhu Chongshou, a professor at Tsinghua University, notes that the pearl roundel design was popular between the 6th and the 8th century in China, a period close to the era of its wide spread in Persia from the 6th to the 7th century. It reflects the frequent economic and cultural exchange between China and the West at that time.
The earliest chronicle inscription of the Mogao Caves was found on the wall of Cave 285. Under the inscription were rows of portraits of worshippers. The inscription and portraits not only show that the construction of this cave was sponsored by the Xianbei people, an ancient nomadic group that once resided in the eastern Eurasian steppes (present-day Mongolia and northeastern China), but also provide valuable information for the study of the history of the Xianbei people in the Hexi area.
Dunhuang manuscripts
When Cave 17 from the Mogao Caves sites, later known as the Dunhuang Library Cave, was discovered in 1899, an estimated 30,000 manuscripts, scrolls and booklets that dated from the Jin Dynasty (266–420) to the early Song Dynasty (960–1279) were found literally stuffed into it. The manuscripts include works ranging from philosophy, history and mathematics to folk songs, vernacular literature and works of social economic theory. There are also a large number of religious documents, most of which are Buddhist, but other religions including Daoism are also represented. The majority of the manuscripts are in Chinese. Other languages represented are Tibetan, Old Uyghur, Khotanese, Old Turkic, Sogdian and Sanskrit.
The manuscripts are a major resource for academic studies in a wide variety of fields. Experts consider the manuscripts on topics of Confucianism, history, philosophy and literature that date to the period of the Six Dynasties (222–589) and Tang era (618–907) to be of great assistance in amending, interpreting and compiling ancient documents. Manuscripts in foreign languages play an important part in the study of ancient linguistics. The Buddhist texts dating to the period before Buddhism was introduced into Tibet and the Daoist texts that had never been adapted by the people of the Song and Yuan dynasties are a significant resource for the studies of the history of Buddhism and Daoism. The manuscripts about the contemporary economy and society also provide more details about the Tang Empire.
Han slips
Since Sir Marc Aurel Stein (1862–1943), a British archaeologist, discovered 705 bamboo and wooden slips with characters inscribed on them dating back to the Han Dynasty in Dunhuang in 1906, a large number of Han slips were excavated in Gansu Province within two years of this finding. Zhang Defang, former Dean of the Gansu Slips Museum, states that the 70,000 slips of the Han and Jin eras unearthed in northwestern China are a primary source for academic studies of the Silk Road, depicting the contemporary local customs and cultures that existed along the Silk Road.
The Han slips feature detailed information about Kangju, an ancient kingdom in Central Asia which became for a couple of centuries the second greatest power in Transoxiana after the Yuezhi (an ancient kingdom of Indo-European people). Historians developed a much better understanding of the events and diplomacy of the Han Dynasty by reading these bamboo slips. The countries in Central Asia, particularly the Republic of Kazakhstan, also consider them to be precious documents for the study of their own history. A set of wooden slips, believed to be a booklet that belonged to envoys that were sent from Kangju, were found at the Xuanquan Site in Dunhuang. According to Zhang Defang, this 7-slip booklet, which contains 293 characters, recorded a dispute between envoys from Kangju and envoys from Suxie City (present-day Shahrisabz), one of the five cities under the control of Kangju. These people came to pay tribute to the Han Dynasty and got involved in a dispute when assessing tribute in Jiuquan (a city in present-day Gansu Province). The Han court ordered the officials in Dunhuang to investigate and report this issue. It was an event that happened between July and September in 39 BCE during the reign of the Emperor Cheng of Han, a trivial detail that mirrors the intensive contact that underwent between the Han and other countries.
Furthermore, excavated slips in Gansu Province contain a broad range of calligraphy works, which has enormously contributed to research on the history of ancient Chinese calligraphic art, particularly of the evolution of Chinese characters into the li style (clerical script), a style that may have originated in the brush writing of the later Zhou and Qin dynasties.
The article was edited and translated from Guangming Daily. Zheng Binglin is a professor at Lanzhou University. Zhu Jianjun is executive deputy head of the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Lanzhou Municipal Committee.
edited by REN GUANHONG