Everyone listened with relish, and Nanli asked with interest: "Niu Ben, can you not hang our appetite and tell us the history of Dunhuang from the beginning, if you say it well, I can really consider developing this island!"

I hesitated, but readily agreed. "Just now, I have already introduced the Mogao Grottoes, so I won't repeat them. Let's talk about Dunhuang!"

Dunhuang is an important town on the ancient Silk Road, and the art treasures collected by the Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang are the treasures of Sino-foreign exchanges, and people call the Mogao Grottoes a pearl in Gansu. The image of Dunhuang murals is very realistic, especially: "flying sky" pattern, which was praised by the Tang Dynasty people as "flying in the sky, full of wind on the wall", became the symbol of Dunhuang murals.

Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes was built in 366 A.D., on the upper wall of Mingsha Mountain, which is long in Sanhuali, more than 490 caves were built densely layer by layer, full of painted Buddha statues and murals with Buddhist stories as the theme. There are more than 2,000 colorful Buddha statues, and the largest one is 33 meters high. The frescoes are highly skilled and staggeringly numerous, and if one side is connected, it can be arranged into a gallery more than fifty miles long. Before Qin Fujian built the first two years, there is the Venerable Shamen Le to go here, see the golden light on the Mingsha Mountain, there are thousands of Buddhas, so the heart of germination and excavation, after the successive construction, then become the holy land of Buddhism, called Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes, commonly known as the Thousand Buddha Caves.

It is said that the ancient painters who created the murals of the Mogao Grottoes are roughly divided into three categories: one is a monk and official, who has a certain social status, but there are few of them. Then there are the painting monks, they are monks who can also paint, and the number is slightly larger than the former. Finally, there are pure painters, who wander around and live in caves, painting in caves, living in caves, and once they are finished, they are never seen again. It is conceivable that this huge painting project must have exhausted the energy of many painters, and they walked into this stone cave like a beehive, and I am afraid that they will never get out of the Mogao Grottoes, it is such a group of excellent and great nameless people who have left an image of the glorious Silk Road civilization of mankind for future generations.

"I remember, the most famous portrait of the Mogao Grottoes is the Flying Sky?" Song Jun asked.

I nodded and said, "Indeed." In Buddhism, the flying heavens are Gandharva and Kinara. The task of the Buddha is to spread the fragrance in the Buddha country, offer flowers and treasures to the Buddha, live in the flowers, and fly in the heavenly palace. Kinara's mission is to play music, sing and dance in the Buddha realm, but not to fly in the clouds. Later, the Gandharva and the Kinnara were mixed, and there was no distinction between men and women, and there was no division of functions, but they became one and became Feitian. The early music played in the Tiangong was called "Tiangong Lingle", and the later singing and dancing with musical instruments was called "Feitian Lingle".

The style of Dunhuang Feitian is characterized by not having wings, not producing feathers, with the help of clouds, with fluttering dresses, flying ribbons soaring in the air. Thousands of postures, ever-changing. This is on the basis of the national tradition, absorbing and integrating the achievements of foreign flying art, and developing and creating the image of Dunhuang flying sky.

In the early days of Dunhuang, Feitian was mostly painted on the top of the cave, the caisson on the top of the cave was decorated, the upper edge of the Buddhist shrine and the head of the main character of the Bunsen story painting. During the Northern Wei Dynasty, the scope of Feitian's paintings has been expanded to include the diagram and the inner sides of the Buddhist shrine. Although the image of Feitian still retains the characteristics of Feitian in the Western Regions, it has undergone changes and gradually changed to Dunhuang Feitian. For example, the back of the north wall of Cave 226 of the Northern Wei Dynasty says that the west side of the diagram is above a body of scattered flowers flying into the sky, the face shape changes from oval to long but plump, the nose is plump and the mouth is small, the facial features are well-proportioned, the figure is slender, the skirt is fluttering, flying in the sky, heroic and generous, the momentum is like a flying crane, the flowers are fragrant, the posture is beautiful, and the dynamic sense is particularly strong. Feitian in the Sui Dynasty is in a period of integration, exploration and innovation. The main body shape is different, the body is slender, the proportion is moderate, the waist posture is soft, and it is colorful. Some of the faces are delicate, and some are round. The costumes are different, some are half-naked, some wear long-sleeved robes, and some wear short-lined robes. There are different flying states, there are solo flights, group flights, upward flights, downward flights, upwind flights, and downwind flights...... In the Tang Dynasty, Dunhuang Feitian had completed the process of absorbing and integrating China and foreign countries, completely formed its own unique style, and reached the peak of art. The four murals of the Tang Dynasty caves are full of large-scale warp paintings. Feitian is not only painted on algae, Buddha shrines, and four drapes, but most of them are painted in the sutra paintings. The Buddha said in the middle of the Elysian World, flying in the sky, some stepping on colorful clouds and slowly descending, some waving their heads and arms and soaring into the air, some holding flowers in their hands and soaring into the sky, and some holding flower plates in their hands and floating in the air. The skirt swaying in the wind and the fluttering and rolling ribbons make the flying sky fly so light and ingenious, chic and free, charming and moving. After the Five Dynasties and the Song Dynasty, Feitian did not innovate in modeling dynamics, and gradually moved towards formulaic. Although the style characteristics of Feitian are different, they are not as good as the next generation, and gradually lose their original artistic life. ”

After speaking, I thought for a moment, shook my head, and continued: "In fact, the cave murals are rich and colorful, all kinds of Buddhist scripture stories, mountain and river scenes, pavilions and pavilions and other architectural paintings, landscape paintings, floral patterns, flying Buddha statues and various scenes of production by the working people at that time, etc., are the artistic reproduction of the folk customs and historical changes of more than 1,500 years from the Sixteen Kingdoms to the Qing Dynasty, which is majestic and magnificent. In a large number of mural art, it can also be found that the ancient artists absorbed the ancient art of Iran, India, Greece and other countries on the basis of nationalization, which is a symbol of the developed civilization of the Chinese nation. The murals of various dynasties show different painting styles, reflecting the political, economic and cultural conditions of China's feudal society, and are glorious chapters in the history of ancient Chinese art, providing precious image and historical materials for the study of ancient Chinese history. ”

Brother Guang sighed and said, "But, it's a pity. The Mogao Grottoes are very little known after the Yuan Dynasty, and they have basically preserved their original appearance for hundreds of years. However, after the discovery of the cave, it immediately attracted many Western archaeologists and explorers, who obtained a large number of precious classics and murals from Wang Yuanqi at a very low price, and shipped them out of China or scattered among the people, seriously damaging the integrity of Mogao Grottoes and Dunhuang art. ”

I hated, "Especially Birch!"

"Who?" asked Sun Wei.

"He is a learned sinologist in France, and with his profound knowledge of sinology and rich archaeological knowledge, he has examined all the suicide notes in the cave. He himself said: "Those who discard the scrolls in the cave without their eyes, Yu dares to say that there is absolutely no one." "There's a selfie of Birch and the theft of a suicide note from a cave: he is crouching in the cave, facing a mountain of scriptures, and he is flipping through the pages under the candles...... He spent three weeks in the cave, not only touching every manuscript, but also reading every piece of paper. His proficient knowledge of Chinese language and Chinese history led him to take all the essence of the Tibetan scripture cave. Therefore, the scrolls he stole were the most valuable and the most valuable. For example, almost all the volumes about the Taoist scriptures were stolen by Birch, and about sixty or seventy pieces were all collected in Paris. ”