PREFACE OF ZHANG DAQIAN’S COPIES OF
DUNHUANG FRESCOES

 

        In the summer of 1941 (Xin Si, the eighteenth year of the cycle of sixty years in Chinese Ganzi System), I made a journey to the west frontier. I stopped at Dunhuang, for the frescoes there greatly enchanted me. Therefore, I had spent three years there before I came back. When I crossed the Jiayu Pass again, my heart was full of passion and could not help recalling those days and nights in front of the frescoes. The legend goes that in the second year of Jian Yuan of Qianqing Kingdom, a Buddhist monk, whose Dharma name was Happy Sramana the Reverend, when passing Mingsha Mountain (Echoing-sand Mountain), saw thousand rays of light shining on the mountain top, as if there were a thousand Buddhas present. Thus he hewed a grotto there. Later, from North Wei Dynasty to Yuan Dynasty, a great number of grottoes were hewn there. Nowadays, there are still 309 grottoes left in a 2 to 3 li expanse across the sheer cliffside running from south to west. However, the legendary first grotto hewn by the monk couldn’t be found now. The grottoes were called Mogao Grottoes in Tang Dynasty. They are now called Grottoes of a Thousand Buddhas. 40 li south of the Dunhuang County, the only things seen there are sand and wilderness, no plants could grow there. However, in the area where Mogao Grottoes are situated, there are thousands of aspen trees and streams are flowing around the woods. True that Mogao Grottoes have been a holy place for several hundred or thousand of years. I love the art of painting and deeply admire the paintings in Mogao Grottoes. In my judgment, 90 percent of the painting art of ancient people in the world can be found there. The search for the authentic works of the Six Dynasties, Sui and Tang Dynasties is somewhat like chasing a dream. The frescoes in the grottoes are not mentioned in history books, nor had they been known to sages of the past. Thousands of walls have frescoes on them. Yet the frescoes have been shaded by the darkness in the grottoes, I am astonished at the extreme contrast between their present unknown state and their glorious past. The frescoes in the grottoes remained today had been painted in a time span from the North Wei Dynasty to the Xi Xia Dynasty. Generations after generations of painters continued to paint frescoes on the walls in the grottoes. These grottoes are actually the exhibition hall of the artistic production of ancient painters and these frescoes are really masterpieces of painting art. If we make an investigation into the styles of these paintings, we can find that the frescoes of North Wei Dynasty are superb in the trend of portraying mountains, forests and wilderness. The frescoes of Sui Dynasty inherited this trend and added simplicity and serenity to it. While people in Tang Dynasty put greater emphasis on the intellectual aspect of painting, the frescoes of this period were of an excellent combination of simplicity and elegance. The frescoes of Tang Dynasty were masterpieces. The style of the frescoes in Five Dynasties and beginning of Song Dynasty cautiously followed that of the later period of Tang Dynasty without any creativeness, many of these frescoes were of little artistic value, because there had been so many social upheavals and talents were rare. The frescoes of Xi Xia Dynasty had some fresh elements in them, but they were usually unnatural and dull, consequently also of lower artistic value. The Gorges of Ten Thousand Buddhas are in Anxi County in Gansu Province, the grottoes there were called Yulin Grottoes in Tang Dynasty. They were also within the jurisdiction of the Dunhuang Prefecture then. The Yulin Grottoes are 180 kilometers south of Anxi County. They were said to be first built in North Liang Period, the grottoes were once extended 1 to 2 li, but most of them have already collapsed. There are only over 20 of them left today. Investigating the frescoes in these grottoes, I have found only the works of early Tang Dynasty. I have devoted myself to the coping of the Dunhuang Frescoes for nearly three years. Learning the art of painting at an advanced age, I always say to myself it is really a pity. Only with three years of arduous work, can I say a few words about painting history? Here I would like to present my copies of the frescoes painted in several dynasties in Mogao and Yulin Grottoes. I have selected some of the copies to form an album. My personal energy is very limited; in front of the great art works, I venture to display my slight skill that must be laughed at by the original painters of the frescoes.