Research On Murals Of Buddhist Temples In Tang And Song Dynasties, Shanxi

Buddhism was introduced into Shanxi in the Han and Wei dynasties,which is the origin of a thousand-year development history of Shanxi Buddhist art.The remains of ancient Buddhist temple murals in Shanxi reach about 11,940 square meters,as a significant component of the world religious material and spiritual culture.The murals were created in dynasties from Tang to Ming and Qing;there are more murals of later dynasties than of earlier dynasties--The area of temple murals of the Jin,Yuan,Ming and Qing dynasties is up to 11,300 square meters,accounting for 95% of the total area,while a minority of remains are of the Tang Dynasty,the Five Dynasties,and the Liao and Song dynasties,about 640 square meters.This paper is focused on the study of the minority.The research is based on field investigation,supported by detailed and accurate literature.On the basis of consulting the research results of previous scholars,and analyzing and referring to the existing data,the contents of the temple murals are interpreted.Following that,this paper analyzes and explains the formation and evolution of Buddhist temple murals of the Tang and Song dynasties in Shanxi Province,and further explores their belief connotation,ideology and so on from Shanxi's regional culture and physical geography,Buddhist doctrine,ethnic relations,artistic style and other perspectives and dimensions.About the interpretation of mural images,the author tries to achieve accurate identification of the subject and the content,diversified analysis of style and form,and mutual proof between image and text.This paper will focus on the typical cases of Shanxi Buddhist temple murals from the prosperous Tang Dynasty to the Northern Song Dynasty(the second half of the 8th century to the end of the 11 th century).It is divided into four parts:Part I is the discussion of the Tang murals of Foguang Temple in Wutai Mountain.The investigation is focused on the “Buddha Preaches” painting of the north secondary room of the main hall and the “King Vaisramana in Disguised Form” on the back side of the Lord Buddha statue.Based on analysis of the subject,content,style and composition of the images and review on the specific historical documents of Foguang Temple in the second half of the eighth century,this part describes the origin,distribution and influence of the murals of Foguang Temple,and further explores the relations among the Buddhist fractions of Wutai Mountain and their influence;Part II is the study of the murals of the Five Dynasties at Pingshun Dayun Temple.First of all,the Vimalakirti Sutra Illustration Paintings on the East Wall and the remaining mural on the back side of the horizontal partition wall in Amitabha Hall are interpreted,and the causes for the occurrence of "South School Landscape" in murals are explored carefully.After that,two sources of the image style of the Vimalakirti Sutra Illustration Paintings in Dayun Temple are inferred by comparison.According to the surviving images on the back side of the horizontal partition wall and the north wall,the subject and content of the murals are inferred,paving the way for the reconstruction and restoration of the murals on the west wall.Based on the discussion of the above issues and historical investigation of the Vimalakirti Sutra Illustration Paintings and other sutra illustrations on the East Wall,further demonstration is conducted on the content of murals on the west wall;Part III is mainly a discussion around the subject presented by the Northern Song Dynasty murals at Kaihua Temple,Gaoping.First of all,the content of the mural on the east screen wall,a wall on the east side of the North Wall,is re-interpreted,making it clear that it is from the Maitreya Sutra Illustration Paintings,and further revealing the reasons why the belief in Maitreya Sutra prevailed in the southeast of Shanxi for a long time as well as its close relationship with Gaochang Uyghur.Secondly,the subject and content of the mural on the west screen wall,which are controversial at present,are re-discussed.At the end of this chapter,the author traces to the source of the Statue of Vairocana Buddha in the mural of the East Wall,carries out comparative analysis and reveals the historical meaning and image implications of the subject.Part IV is a study of the murals of the Liao Dynasty in the Dagoba,Jueshan Temple,Lingqiu.First of all,the symbolic significance of Buddhist pagodas as the origin of Buddhist art is discussed,and the situation of Liao pagodas investigated,which directly reflects the popularity of the Buddhist “terminative thought” in the Liao Dynasty.By identifying the statue of Goddess Guanyin in white and the statue of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva in the mural,and tracing to the source of the mural style,the author also elaborates on the close relation between the Buddhist images and Gaochang Uyghur in the Liao Dynasty,further explains the development trend of Buddhist doctrine and Buddhist fractions reflected by such image portfolio,and points out that Liao pagodas,sutra inscriptions and “return of traditionalism” in images were all the results of monks' attempts to make Buddha dharma everlasting and the embodiment of “terminative thought” that dominated the whole Buddhist world in the 11 th century.This paper,through the field investigation and literature arrangement of the Buddhist temple murals of the Tang and Song dynasties in Shanxi,carefully analyzes the subject,content,style evolution,image evolution and image implications of mural art of the Tang and Song dynasties in Shanxi from the perspective of regional culture against the backdrop of China's "Belt and Road" initiative,with an aim to explore the cultural connotation and artistic spirit of Shanxi ancient art and further pursue the ideological nature of Chinese ancient Buddhist temple mural art.