Learn Something New | Let's Look at the Ancient Architecture in Dunhuang Murals
| Single-courtyard Heavenly Palace Buddhist Temple, Mogao Cave 237
There are a large number of architectural images in Dunhuang murals, including palaces, watchtowers (que), Buddhist temples, pagodas, city walls, residences, as well as prisons, tombs, high platforms, thatched huts, yurts, tents, bridges, plank roads, etc. Many appear in complete group forms, clearly showing the group composition of buildings. 'When rites are lost, seek them in the wild.' With such a lack of physical examples, the Dunhuang murals undoubtedly provide the best material for our research.
| Irregular city wall, Mogao Cave 171
| Thatched hut for monks' ascetic practice, Mogao Cave 61
| Plank road on cliffs, Mogao Cave 6
| Five Hundred Bandits Becoming Buddhas (partial), Mogao Cave 285, Western Wei
For example, in Cave 285 (Western Wei), the main hall in the story 'Five Hundred Bandits Becoming Buddhas' has a single-eave hip-and-gable roof. On the upper part of the hall body, there is a set of trusses similar to modern structures, with herringbone supports between upper and lower purlins, forming a lateral load-bearing structure, which is its special feature. Another example is in Cave 423 (Sui), the 'Tushita Heavenly Palace' has a main hall with three-story pavilions on each side. The main hall has five bays and six columns, with a plain brick platform base below. The pavilions on the sides are extremely sketchy, similar to the common plan of one hall with two pavilions seen in Han stone reliefs.
Regarding the interior of palaces, the murals show little. This is because Dunhuang murals are religious paintings intended to promote Buddhism; unless necessary, palaces are generally not depicted. Moreover, ordinary painters at that time probably could not frequently enter palace halls and thus could not see the details. Only in the 'Sutra of the Visualization of Infinite Life' paintings, the story of King Bimbisara being imprisoned by Prince Ajatashatru is depicted, partially showing the interior of the palace. The story of 'Unborn Resentment' in Cave 148 (High Tang) depicts scenes of the king being imprisoned, the queen visiting, the prince's tyranny, and the king meditating for the Buddha to appear and preach, from which we can glimpse a little of the palace interior.
In ancient Dunhuang, people placed great importance on building houses. They had a strong custom that 'the house is the foundation of people; people take the house as home. If the dwelling is peaceful, the family will prosper for generations.' The common people had many considerations for residences, requiring avoidance of 'five voids' and compliance with 'five solids'. 'If the house is small, livestock are many.' Ancient Dunhuang had early regulations on six livestock: according to manuscript S.5755, they are horses, cattle, sheep, pigs, dogs, and chickens. The abundance of these six livestock is closely related to family prosperity; many livestock means many grains and more people to feed, a symbol of family prosperity.
| Courtyard stable, Mogao Cave 85, Late Tang
When building houses, they would carve and paint on beams, interior walls, and courtyard walls for decorative craftsmanship. They brought Chinese folk auspicious symbols—dragons and phoenixes—into imported Buddhist temples. Painting on halls and pavilions, and carving dragons and painting phoenixes on beams, originated from the same architectural custom, as reflected in the 'Painting Halls and Pavilions' mural in the 'Sutra of the Field of Blessings' of Cave 296 (Northern Zhou). The residential architecture in Tang dynasty murals is represented by Cave 85 of the Late Tang, which is a residence in the 'Lotus Sutra' illustration. It is a square courtyard, divided into front and rear yards by corridors, with a two-story gate building at the front. The front yard is horizontally long, the rear yard square and wide, with a pavilion in the center, seemingly the owner's residence. Surrounding are not only corridors but also living quarters. On the left side of the residence, there is an attached stable, also divided into front and back yards, with a gate opening outward, a small yard inside where a person lies on the ground. The rear yard stable contains horses and servants. Outside the residence, farmers are working, indicating this is a landlord's estate.
Pagodas are a type of building that came to China with Buddhism, having religious commemorative nature. However, from the shape of pagodas in their mature period, they are all based on the Chinese indigenous multi-story pavilion, with an Indian stupa-style finial added on top, completely sinicized. They often combine with famous mountains and rivers to become scenic spots. The pagodas in Mogao murals include multi-story pavilion style, pavilion style, stupa style, diamond-throne style, etc., with diverse shapes and ingenious structures.
In the story of Prince Sattva sacrificing himself to feed a tiger on the east ceiling of Cave 301, there is a stupa containing Sattva's remains. On the south wall of Cave 257, in the scene of a monk observing precepts and committing suicide, there is a single-story tomb pagoda for the monk's remains. The base of this pagoda is a Sumeru throne base made of straight lines, with a relatively high waist. The front of the base has a sloped path. The pagoda body is square in plan, with a semicircular niche on the front, covered by a single-eave hip roof, showing tile rows, with deep eaves. In terms of shape and color, the roof seems to be wooden, while the rest is built of brick and stone.
| Diamond-throne style pagoda, Mogao Cave 428, west wall
The murals depict palace cities, prefectural cities, and county cities, with similar layouts. Cities are generally square, arranged symmetrically along an axis, with rammed earth walls on four sides, and gates on two or four sides. Above the gates are single-story or multi-story gate towers. Most corners have watchtowers, combining defensive and decorative functions. For example, in Cave 296 (Northern Zhou), the royal city in the story of Sudatta is square, with gates on the front and back sides, each gate having a three-bay gate tower. At the two rear corners, there are platforms protruding from the wall. On the axis inside the city is the king's hall, three bays wide, with a platform base, surrounded by railings at the edge of the platform and steps. Behind the hall are asymmetrical courtyard-like houses. The city gates and palaces in this diagram are basically symmetrically arranged along the axis, reflecting that before the Sui and Tang dynasties, urban planning had already paid attention to symmetry and balance.
Also, there is the city gate tower of Vaishali in the 'Vimalakirti Sutra' illustration of Cave 8 (Late Tang). Its lower layer is a city platform protruding from the wall, with three gates. The gate openings have trapezoidal tops and wooden frame supports. In the central gate, a half-open door leaf can be seen, with nine rows of door nails. The gate opening is narrow at the top and wide at the bottom, appearing tall and narrow. The platform surface has diamond patterns, possibly indicating decorative tiles. The gate tower is five bays wide and three bays deep, with flat seats and railings around.
| Construction diagram, Mogao Cave 321, Early Tang
The above only introduces the main architectural types in the murals. In fact, the architectural images in Dunhuang murals are numerous and extremely rich. Besides those introduced, there are pavilions, terraces, watchtowers, etc. There are also some architectural drawings, such as a construction diagram in Cave 321 (Early Tang) in the 'Sutra of the Jewel Rain'. This picture shows a house under construction, nearly completed. The house has three bays, with eaves columns without bracket sets. The double-leaf door is not in the center but on the right. Inside, a craftsman is using a trowel to plaster the wall, with another assisting behind. On the roof, craftsmen are also working. All craftsmen are bare-chested. Such construction scenes are rare in murals.
In summary, the architecture in Mogao Caves has continued for over a thousand years, reflecting the architectural customs and requirements of the human world and the heavenly realm, and demonstrating the architectural technology and artistic level of Chinese feudal society. Although the ancient architectural forms reflected in the murals differ somewhat from actual ancient buildings, they provide a wealth of visual materials for studying ancient Chinese architecture and are an extremely precious cultural heritage.
