Flowery Paintings in Wei，Jin and Southern Northern Dynast

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Flowery Paintings with both Chinese and Foreign Characteristics in the Three Kingdoms，Wei，Jin and the Southern&Northern Dynasties.The period of Three Kingdoms，Wei，Jin and the Southern&Northern Dynasties was a chaotic time full ofcountry disruption，wars and social turbulence in Chinese history.Meanwhile it wasalso a time with great changes in ideology，developed culture，great merging of all nationalities and frequent communication between Chinese and western culture.Since the import of Buddhism to China in late Eastern Han dynasty，it had brought great influence on the society，culture and art.Buddhist doctrine had become a very important theme in Chinese art including painting.The thought of metaphysics had flourished at the time.The literati’s spiritual freedom and development of personal characters provide beneficial subjective elements for artistic creation.The art of painting gained unprecedented development in this period.

Mural Painting in Grottos

Grottos are temples located in caves excavated in mountain cliffs.They were the places for Buddhists and believers to cultivate themselves according to Buddhist doctrine and to worship Buddha.In most of those temples，there were niches for statues and mural paintings for people to worship.That is why mural paintings in grottos became the mainstream painting at that time.

Themes of murals at the time were mainly stories and jatakas of Buddha，figures of Buddha，Bodhisattvas，flying devata deva-musicians，Yaksa and Buddhist devotees.

The mural from Northern dynasty located in Mogao Grottos is the most famous representative work.Mogao Grottos lie near the Mt.Minsha cliff south east to Dunhuang City.They were constructed in 366 and in the following 1，000 years peoplefrom different dynasties came here to excavate caves and create statues，murals.Now there are stil1 492 grottos，3，000 painted sculptures and 45，000 square meters of mural paintings.

The most interesting mural painting among the Northern dynasty murals in Mogao Grottos is about the preexistence of Sakyamuni and his life of being generous，kind-hearted，helpful and working for the salvation of all people.The popularity of thetheme revealed that the society of that time was in turbulence and frequent wars.

The rulers were exploiting people cruelly，while people could only suffer and tolerate that and reposed their hope in the future.For example，the mural titled”Jakata story of Prince Sattva”depicts the story of Sakyamuni’s preexistence asPrince Sattva.One day Prince Sattva went hunting with his two elder brothers.Hesaw a starved mother-tiger and her baby，so he made a wish to save the tigers.Heused bamboo sticks to stab his neck and jumped under down the cliff so that thetiger could be saved by eating his flesh and drinking his blood.Buddha had suchmercy even towards ferocious beast，let alone towards humans.Therefore，the theme was very popular and influential.In Mogao Grottos，usually a story was depicted through a whole piece of mural painting.Later consecutive mural paintings appeared to depict these stories，which were like picture-story books today.The painting skills used the Northern dynasty murals involved some foreign painting skills.The figure was thin and overdrawn.The whole picture was full covered in an ordered way.

The sketch line was smooth and full of changes.The color was stained in a hazingway.The characteristic was massy yet full of varieties，bright，beautiful and with classic elegance.