A Study On The Picture Of Vimalakirti Sutra 'Disease Inquiry By The Envoy' In Dunhuang Grottoes

The Vimalakirti Sutra mural in Mogao Grottoes is rich in content,the painting level is pretty high,and it has a valuable artistic achievement.It owns an important position in the art history of Dunhuang.The creation of the picture "Disease Inquiry by the Envoy" is based on a famous scriptures in Vimalakirti Sutra,the meaning of this famous scriptures is “After hearing the sad news of seignior's death,thousands of people included the king,the minister,the elder,the hermit,the Brahmin and the vassal king,and the subordinate,they were all going for mourning.” Mogao Grottoes NO.220 opened a new mode of " ManjushriDisease Inquiry " it was a watershed of Vimalakirti Sutra's development.Also,it was the first time for picture "Disease Inquiry by the Envoy" to show up,the reason of its appearance is closely related to the international background.The development of this article is based on the picture's timeline in which the most important period is when the Tibetan occupied Guazhou.At the same time,it did a research on the image of the seignior who werealways standing in front of the troops.Combine the history,background and cultural factors,we can roughly determine that he was the seignior of South China Sea area.By learning the picture "Disease Inquiry by the Envoy" can help us to understand the heyday of its political which is like “Pilgrims Progress”.