Explore The Pattern And Decoration Of The Tree Image In The Mogao Grottoes

It is recorded in the "three five calendar"(San Wu Li Ji)that the "tree" was formed by the fine hair of Pangu(creator of the universe in Chinese mythology)when the earth was opened up.It is amazing that our ancestors had such a beautiful imagination.It can also be imagined that the "tree" has been closely related to people’s life since ancient times,revealing people’s desire to enjoy mountains and rivers and to be close to nature.The image of trees in the murals of Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang is mostly from the background of Jataka story-paintings and Buddhist Sutra paintings.Among them,the layout of mountains and forests with strip ups and downs,the tree modeling with scouring and generalization,and the color application with thick and thin colors all have a strong decorative beauty.This thesis focuses on the demonstration of the evolution process of the vertical development of the mural tree image of Mogao Grottoes from the Northern Dynasty(the fifth century AD)to the Tang Dynasty(the eighth century AD),which lasted for more than 300 years in the Five Dynasties of the Northern Wei(386-543),the Western Wei(534-557),the Northern Zhou(557-581),the Sui(581-617),and the Tang(the early Tang[618-705] and the prosperous Tang Dynasty[705-781]);through the horizontal comparison with the typical tree images of the portrait bricks of the South Dynasties(420-589),it traces its origin and combining with the specific legend,using the theoretical analysis of Chinese pattern composition,according to formal beauty rules,the thesis compares and explains the patterning in the evolution of tree modeling and the changes and laws behind it,and summarizes the characteristics and practices of decorative nature in tree painting.Copy and arrange more than 20 decorative patterns of tree patterns as illustrations of this thesis,in order to experience and digest the modeling rules and color methods of the ancients in practice.Through the decorative characteristics of Dunhuang trees,this study aims to make the past serve the present,and try to inspire and draw lessons from the present painting practice.