A Study Of Dunhuang Entertainment Culture

Entertainment is a general name referring to various games or recreational activities belonging to the field of spirit cultural activities aiming at recreation and amusement. There were many different entertainment activities playing an important role in the common life of ancient society of ancient China, which once had made ancient people feel happy, cultivated their sentiment and strengthen their physical power. At present, studies at home on ancient Chinese entertainment activities mainly focus on the geographical regions such as the Central Plain, the southern China and so on. The activities which had existed in the northwest have not obtained the deserved attention. The data relevant to old recreation activities are rich in both Dunhuang documents and the Mogao Grottoes’wall paintings, and the systematical studies on the data on one hand can enrich the content of studies on Chinese traditional entertainments, helpfully filling gaps in Chinese entertainment history, on the other hand can initiate a new perspective of Dunhuang folk-custom studies.The paper collects and compiles all the contents about entertainment activities existing in Dunhuang documents and the Mogao Grottoes’wall paintings, and with the method of using the data and corresponding images and combining other historical data and present study results, mainly discusses four kinds of activities, i.e., martial arts type, festival type, game-playing type and children-play type which are divided according to the property of these activities.The activities of the martial arts type which include hunting, arrow-shooting, sumo and dancing on a pole require the strong physical condition for the participants. Text descriptions corresponding to the images portraying hunting, shooting and sumo in Dunhuang wall paintings can be found in a story narrating prince martial-art competitions recorded in Buddhist sutras. As an entertainment activity popular in Dunhuang upper class, the hunting adopted bows and arrows supplied from the fixed place. Hunting dogs and falcons were good assistants for people’s hunting in Dunhuang. and the falcons were even supplied as the local tribute to the emperor by the Dunhuang government. Sumo is recorded in the vocal music part of the(?)x.02822 "Za Ji Shi Yao Yong Zi", which actually highlights its features focusing on performance and amusement. The images of dancing on a pole often appear in the wall paintings and various gestures are painted.A lot of leisure activities such as enjoying lanterns, attending banquets, spring outing, dancing accompanied by singing, playing football (a game called cuju), bowing to hit a ball, watching cockfights, enjoying flowers, celebrating the double-seventh day, ascending a height and performing a ceremony for sending away the god of plague, which were respectively carried out by ancient people in the following festivals, i.e., the Lantern Festival, the Shangsi Festival, the Cold Food Festival, the Qingming festival, the Dragon Boat Festival, the double-seventh festival, the Double Ninth Festival and the New Year’s Eve, are all recorded in Dunhuang literatures and Mogao Grottoes’wall paintings. These activities are characterized in reducing differences between all levels of society temporarily. The popularity of festival recreational activities among different social levels can be seen from the property of participation, for example, both the Gui-yi-jun regime and the common people and monks lighten grottoes in the Lantern Festival, which to the most extent realizes the happiness from the government to the folk and achieves the enjoyment of monks and laymen.Chupu and Shuanglu, two gambling games, derive from the six-gambling games. The paper utilizing Dunhuang literatures and other historical data discusses rules of the two games so as to distinguish the differences. The "Chess Scripture" remaining in Dunhuang literature supplies us with the unique data for acknowledging the art of ancient Go. There are many records of Canggou game in Dunhuang literature, mentioning the rules of the game. What counts is the delicate description to the facial expression and mental feeling of the participants of Canggou. The records of game-playing activities in Dunhuang data usually hold the oppositive and dissuasive attitude, which just reflects the popularity of the game-playing in Dunhuang region from the other side.The children games recorded in Dunhuang data and Mogao Grottoes’wall paintings provide the precious material for us to learn about children’s entertainment activities in Dunhuang and the old time. The bamboo hobbyhorse in the literature provides the image of hobbyhorse existing before the Song dynasty. The Wozi dog companying children is the product of species culture communication between China and west. The game of accumulating sand to form a pagoda particularly has heavy Buddhism style. The notice issued by the Gui-yi-jun government for prohibiting children from playing slingshot in Taoist rites just reflects the popularity of slingshot among children in Dunhuang district. The hand puppet plays showed in Dunhuang wall paintings can be played simply and easily, and was loved by children and parents for its effects on accelerating sentiment communication and improvement. Tumbling was also loved by children and the relevant images reflected in Dunhuang wall paintings also fully demonstrate the recreational property of this game.In a word, there are full and accurate records in Dunhuang literatures and the pictures of entertainment activities in Mogao Grottoes’wall paintings should be the actual portrayal of the entertainment activities at that time. From the discussion of Dunhuang entertainment items, it can be concluded that the activities have high recreational property, are deeply affected by Confucian culture and can reflect the factors of Sino-Western cultural communications.