Dunhuang Murals
Dunhuang Murals
In the vast desert in Northwest China, there is a small leaf-shaped oasis about 25 kilometers to the southwest of the city of Dunhuang in Gansu Province. This is where the famous Dunhuang Murals were found in the Mogao Grottos. In December 1987, Dunhuang appeared, together with Mount Tai, the Great Wall, the Forbidden City and the Terracotta Warriors, on UNESCO's World Cultural Heritage List.
Construction of the Mogao Grottos began in 366 and reached a peak in the Tang Dynasty (618-907), but it was not finished until the Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368). By Emperess Wuzetian's reign in the Tang Dynasty, more than 1,000 grottos had been hewn into mountain slopes there. Today, some7,000 caves with 492 grottos remain extant in Dunhuang. The complex contains the earliest carved grotto in China. No other grottos in China have experienced a longer period of construction and have a richer content. The entire Mogao Grottos extend for 1,600 meters, and are enshrined with more than 50,000 literary documents and 45,000 square meters of murals drawn over a period that encompassed ten dynasties from the Frontal Qin Dynasty (351-394) to the Yuan Dynasty. It also features 245 colored clay sculptures, and five wooden architectural structures of the Tang and Song (907-1279) dynasties. If we put all the murals of the Dunhuang Grottos together, they would form a 25-kilometer painting corridor, which is unique in the world.
The first painter of the Dunhuang Murals was a monk named Lezun. To create paintings on the coarse surface of the rocks, the artists first applied grass and clay on the roofs and walls of the caves and then began painting. Several clay figures were created later to accompany the paintings. The largest mural in the grotto is 40 meters long and 30 meters wide, and the smallest less than one square meter.
Most of the Dunhuang Murals depict Buddhist stories. For example, in No. 257 Grotto, there is a mural drawn in the Northern Wei Dynasty depicting the Buddhist story "Nine-Color Deer Script." The Nine-color Deer came upon a river and saved Diao Da who was drowning. Later the Queen urged the King to skin the Nine-color Deer to make a garment for her. When the King's soldiers were searching for the Nine-color Deer, Diao Da betrayed the Deer's whereabouts. Diao's ingratitude for the Deer's kindness was punished; the Nine-Color Deer was allowed by the King to go back to the mountain. The story is painted in nine scenes, with most animal and human figures drawn in profile; no wrinkling and rubbing skills were used to paint the background mountains and rivers. The strokes of the painting are of great strength, the colors are bright, and the shapes of the figures are decorative. Deep colors are used to draw the outlines, and the color becomes lighter in the middle section. The brightest parts were pointed with white powders to make it look more three-dimensional.
The Dunhuang Murals contain rich designs of Buddhas, deities, ghosts, animals, mountains, rivers, architecture and a few decorative patterns. It is a splendid treasure of Buddhist art. The murals present the painting styles and features of different dynasties, imitating the West Regions at first but drawing more on the Han styles as time went on. In the Dunhuang Murals, we can see directly the development of mural art over ten dynasties and get rich information about many aspects of Chinese culture and history.
The Yongle Palace Mural
Yongle Palace Murals
The Yongle Palace Mural in Pinglu County of Shanxi Province on the northern bank of the Yellow River is a treasure of Chinese murals.
The Sanqing Hall is the main hall of the Yongle Palace. Paintings were drawn inside and outside its alcoves and on the walls. The mural in the hall covers a total space of 403.34 square meters, and it decorates the hall like a relief sculpture. Records show the mural was drawn in 1325 during the Yuan Dynasty, and it has retained its original beauty even after the wear-and-tear of several hundred years.
The mural in the Sanqing Hall portrays Taoist scenes, with portraits of eight 3-meter-tall Taoist gods on the eastern, western and northern walls and on the two sides of the alcoves. Surrounding the gods are some 280 immortals who stand in long rows on four tiers; they include emperors, angels, deities, kings and immortal boys and girls. Some of them are talking, some listening, some looking around or pondering.
The figures portrayed in the Yongle Palace Mural represent fully the characteristics of traditional Chinese painting. The painters used simple, fluid and forceful strokes to depict the various expressions of living creatures of different ages and characteristics. The mural possesses a harmonious beauty with a strong decorative effect. The clothes of the major gods in the mural are painted bright red but the basic color of the mural is green with some use of golden powder, which imparts complete religious solemnity and tranquility. The 280 immortals in eight groups are drawn with varied expressions to avoid boredom and repetition.
The Yongle Palace Mural shares the painting style of the Chaoyuan Fairy Stick Painting by the famous Song Dynasty wall painter Wu Zongyuan. The portraits of figures are similar and they employ the same brushwork techniques. Their difference is that the Yongle Palace Mural depicts a moving immortal team, whereas Wu's painting presents a static worshiping scene.
Besides the Sanqing Hall, murals are also found in the Wuji Gate, the Chunyang Hall and the Chongyang Hall of the Yongle Palace. The mural in the Chunyang Hall was drawn 30 years later than those in the Sanqing Hall. It is a pictorial rendition of the life of Lu Dongbin in 52 consecutive scenes. At the background there are palaces, gardens, mountains, fields, streets and people from all walks of life. The mural in the Chongyang Hall tells the story of Wang Chongyang, initiator of the Quanzhen sect of Taoism. The painting style is similar to that of the Chunyang Hall with 49 consecutive scenes separated by mountains, stones, clouds and trees.
The murals in the Yongle Palace total 873 square meters. They have a rich content and are painted with refined skills. They are developed from the figure painting styles of the Tang and Song dynasties. Though the murals depict fairy stories, the figures in the paintings are realistic instead of abstract and have strong personalities. The painters, whose signatures appear on the murals -- Junxiang, Ma Qi and Zhang Junxiang --were ordinary folk artisan-painters with no personal records in art history, but their excellent art creations are forever recorded in Chinese painting history.
