Cliff Paintings and Murals
11 min readXinjiang had magnificent painting and sculptural arts in ancient times, which produced ma jor impact on eastern and western civilizations. For example, during the Sui and TangDynasties, the father and son from Yutian, Yuchi Bazna and Yuchi Esen used to be hostage princes in Chang’ an. Both were good at painting; in particular, the son, Yuchi Esen painted Buddhas “in impressive and towering images”with “firm and tight touches like bent iron wires”, making his works superb. Their paintings had a strong cubic sense as if there were protruding and sunken parts in them, which had huge impact on the painting style on the Central Plains. Another example is the Daxiang Caves in Xin jiang, whose giant standing Buddhas were about one century earlier than those in Datong of Shanxi. Some say theywere also one century earlier than the Bamiyan Buddha in Afghanistan; even they were products of the same period, Xin jiang had far more giant Buddha statues than Bamiyan.
Some scholars believe that “the giant Buddhas of Xin jiang exerted more important influence than other types of cave structures or murals did on areas both to the west of the Congling Mountains and to the east of Xinjiang”9 Due to limited space, this section will only briefly touch upon cliff paintings and cave murals, which represent the nomadic and sedentary culture respectively.
Tens of thousands of cliff paintings were discovered in Xinjiang, which have a long history dating back to the Neolithic(some say late Palaeolithic) Age to early Iron Age.
Depicting how the ancient hunting people lived for tens of thousands of years, thesepaintings have a wide range of sub jects, from large scenes of work and life such as phallism, hunting, herding and wars to specific images of animals, plants, hands, feet, the sun and the moon. Simple in structure, such paintings often carry rich cultural connotations, as they record the growth of the primitive people in the Western Regions, represent the best wishes of the herdsmen and hunters, express what was on their mind, and display their national spirit, psyche and character. They are both crystallization of the civilization of early steppe people and invaluable heritage of the broad Chinese civilization.
The phallic cliff paintings in Xin jiang went through three phases, female and male phallic worship and life totem paintings, corresponding to the matrilineal, patrilineal and clannish stages in the development of human society. The large phallic paintings at Kangjiashimenzi of Hutubi County, Xinjiang can be seen as representatives of phallic cliff paintings there. The life activities of the primitive people were the most fundamental motive among the many factors leading to primitive arts. The most important act in human life is live and reproduced, and cliff paintings on phallism are direct reflection of such life activities.
Labor created men and arts. On the cliff of the Tianshan Mountains were a lot of dance paintings, which gave a vivid expression to the dancing-like scene when the primitive people were laboring(mainly hunting), thus vindicating that dance arose from labor.
The patrilineal system was established in the Neolithic Age, so men gradually appeared in the cliff paintings as artistic images. There are paintings of men shooting bows, where men’s body are highly simplified and abstract, whose image of shooting bows, strong arms, thick and slightly bent legs express the strength of life. Xin jiang also has extraordinary cliff paintings with palm/hand as the sub ject. There are such paintings on the cliffs of Tangbale Caves in Fuyun County and Jeshhalar Caves in Altay County. Hands create the material conditions for human survival and overcome enemies threatening human subsistence; therefore, they are symbols of one’s strength and the source of power for human struggle versus Mother Nature, hence an object of worship and eulogy for the primitive people.
Animals were closely related to the work and life of primitive people in the Western Regions, so they are the major images in the cliff paintings there. These paintings represent the ancient nomadic people’s reverence to, worship of and reliance on animals as well as their hatred and condemnation of those animals as they threaten human survival.
Among all cliff paintings about animals, sheep and goats are the most frequent subject.
Such animals were indispensable for the ancient people in the Western Regions. On the cliffs of Kufugou, Baytik Mountains in the border of China and Mongolia are a great numberof paintings on sheep, goats and other related animals, such as ordinary goats, argali, small barhal and antelopes, each with its unique and vivid image, giving expression to the nomadic people’s fondness of sheep and goats. Horses are also one of the ma jor subjects in animal cliff paintings. Horses had a very big role to play in ancient society as they were essential for transport, hunting and fighting wars, and their meat could also be food for humans, therefore, they were the second life to the ancient people in the Western Regions. On a rock at Kangjiashimenzi in Hutubi carved nine galloping horses, which testify to the profound affection of nomadic people towards horses.
There are an extraordinarily big number of cliff paintings with the sun and the moon asthe sub ject in Xinjiang. Peoples in the Western Regions, from the Saks to the Huns, Usun, Cheshi, Rouran and Turks, all featured with solar worship in their primitive faiths.A prominent characteristic of the sun-and-moon cliff paintings in Xin jiang is the supremestatus of the sun. For instance, the cliff paintings at Xingdi, Kuluke Mountains have a god of sun carved on the top, with its head covered by hair-like things, making this image both personified and god-like. It stands high above anything else, representing it is god of all.
There are hunting scenes in the cliff paintings, which suggest the mode of living and working of the ancient people in the Western Regions and provide us clues for ascertaining the times of the paintings. For example, the cliff paintings in Wensu County depicting hunting with stone balls as weapons tell us they are products of late Neolithic Age, those at Hongshiyue Township, Nilka County with bows and arrows similar to modern ones as hunting tools should be of the Iron Age. From the cliff paintings we find that the ancient people in the Western Regions sometimes hunted separately, sometimes in duo or in collective chasing. The one on Chasing Wild Bulls in the Xingdi Gorges is among the best cliff paintings on primitive hunting scenes.
There are four pieces of cart paintings at Lanzhou-wanzi and one such painting at Lijia-wanzi in Barkol, Xinjiang. These carts have two wheels, four spokes and ox in the front. According to experts, such vehicle was probably the Hun style, which suggests the presence of the Hun culture in the cliff paintings in Xin jiang. In another development, the vehicles depicted in the paintings in Yiwu and Yumin counties were possibly the “high wheel vehicle”of the Dingling people. All of those point to the wide use of vehicles in the nomadic life of the ancient people in the Western Regions.
There are also paintings of warring scene over the control of grassland in Xinjiang. For example, on the rock at Zheyaogou in Qincheng District, northeast of Hami City carved a man on horseback stabbing with his spear a pedestrian archer,a scene of battling for grassland. It was amidst blood-shedding and battle-fire that people in the Western Regions developed and prospered, conducted inter-group cultural exchanges and forged their militant and courageous national character.
The images in Xin jiang cliff paintings are primitive, simple and natural. The human figures in earlier period are particularly life-like and delicate. For example, those found in Kangjiashimenzi were done in great details, especially in the face, capturing accurately the basic features of the Sak: large eyes, high nose, wide mouth, broad jaw, broad shoulders and narrow hips. The animals in the cliff paintings/carvings are all silhouettes, with headand horns carved in particularly fine lines. The deer horns in the paintings at Xingdi are masterpieces, as they were done skillfully and smoothly, with elegant shape and profound artistic significancee There are also many grottoes remaining in Xin jiang, which have kept Buddhist arts over the past 1,000-plus years as they were built between the 41h and 1oth-11th centuries.
Among them the most famous are in Qiuci, which include the Thousand-Buddha Caves in Kizil, Kumutula, Semsem and Kizilhak, located in the area near today’s Kuqa and Baicheng.
Buddhist grottoes usually consist of three parts-buildings, sculptures and murals. In Qiuci, the sculptures have been nearly totally destroyed; different types of buildings still remain, such as Giant Buddha Caves and Central Pillar Caves for worshipping, preaching places of senior monks, resident units for monks and nuns as well as zendoes for deep meditation.
The best-kept part is murals, which are also loaded with the highest artistic value.
The subjects of murals at Qiuci grottoes range from Buddha, Bodhisattva, Buddha’s life story, Jatakas story, story on principal and secondary causes, images of Protector, monks and nuns, patrons, musicians and dancers, birds and animals, as well as decoration designs. Buddha’s life story record what Sakyamuni went through in his entire life from birth to Nirvana; while Jatakas story is about the deeds of Sakyamuni before he achieved the correct intelligence. These two stories account for a big proportion in the murals; and in some cases, Buddha’s life story even run into chains of pictures with as many as 60 pieces.
Such subjects emphasizing accumulated actions leading to salvation and enlightenment featured early Buddhist faith and Hinayana sect. Kizil Grottoes are typical representatives of early Buddhist and Hinayana arts. Since Hinayana values meditation, there are murals at Kizil directly addressing meditation, such as Dhyana Buddha at Cave No.47 and monks sitting in meditation at Caves No.118,92 and 77. The latter were painted against the backdrop of mountains, water pools, trees, animals, musicians and dancers, which highlights the”concentration”of meditation through contrasts of movement and stillness.
According to Hinayana,”there are no Buddhas of the ten directions of space and only Sakyamuni is the one to be worshipped”. Despite the diversity in subjects, formalities and painting styles in the murals of Kizil grottoes, they point to one single concept-ad vocation of one Buddha and one joss, with focus on Sakyamuni’s actions in previous generation, karma in present generation and mandate in future generation, that is,”only Sakyamuni is the one to be worshipped”.
Qiuci also has Mahayana sub jects in its grottoes, such as the Han-style caves in Kumutula. The building of those caves was started later than Kizil grottoes, yet the former took longer time to finish, as the work ended in about the 10th-11th centuries. According to experts, among the 80 caves to the north of Weigan River in Kumutula,32 are Han-style, accounting for two-fifths of the total; another two-fifths are totally destroyed and thusunable to determine; while the remaining one-fifth of Qiuci-style. The so-called Han-stylecaves are those featured with or strongly influenced by Han-Buddhist arts on the Central Plains in sub ject, layout and composition, figures, decoration designs, and painting techniques. For example, scriptural pictures were a type of manifestation of religious sub jects popular on the Central Plains since the Tang Dynasty. In those Han-style caves there are such scriptural pictures whose composition, figures, buildings and decorations are almost identical with their counterparts on the Central Plains. In addition, there areusually Chinese inscriptions beside the Han-style murals in Kumutula. As to the images of reverends, they look completely like the Han people, with Chinese inscriptions on theirside. The Han-style thousand-Buddhas are different from Qiuci-style ones in decoration designs, as the former use Han-style designs such as round-shaped flowers, curved grass, camellia and clouds, while the latter use geometric and honeysuckle variant designs.
Moreover, there are images of patrons who look like Han people in Han-style murals. All of these are typical of Han-style mural paintings. Both scriptural pictures and thousand-Buddhas are ways of expression for Mahayanae The Han-style caves were closely related to the installation of Office of Protector of Anxi, stationing of big number of ethnic-Han troops in Qiuci and the migration of ethnic-Han monks to Qiuci during the Tang Dynasty since such caves were absent before. Work on Han-style caves continued after the Tang forces withdrew from the Western Regions at the end of the 8th century, during the period of Tubo control in the first half of the oth century and the reign of Uighur afterwards. Cave No.79 was built by the Uighur people who left inscriptions in three scripts, Chinese, Uighur/Huihu and Qiuci on top of the figure of the patron, which suggests the profound impact of the Han culture.
The murals in Qiuci grottoes not only reflect the Buddhist ideas and their development in ancient Xin jiang but also reveal productive activities and daily-life in that period. For example, Cave No.175 at Kizil has a picture of two people swinging a hoe-like tool at land, and a person driving two oxen yoked to a plough. There is a picture of earthenware-making in Cave No.123. It is worth particular mentioning that these grotto murals capture the prosperous music-and-dance in ancient Qiuci. Incomplete statistics show that as many as 24 musical instruments make their appearances in murals at Kizil, Kumutula and Semsem.
Images of dances abound in the murals, both on the ground and in heaven. In short, the grotto murals in Qiuci give expression to both religious arts and secular life.
The painting techniques of figures in Qiuci grotto murals represented by Kizil caves are different from those on the Central Plains, as the former are featured with lines like”bent iron wire”and color application methods with cubic effects. On the other hand, with their forceful but fluid lines, free and unrestraint color application, these paintings are also hugely different from those to the west of the Congling Mountains, forming their independent artistic style, representing “the peak of all Central Asian arts”Q. Qiuci grotto murals combine the best parts of eastern and western civilizations. Some specialistsobserve,”the dense wrinkles on the clothes suggest elements of the Gandhara art, the smooth lines and cubic-effect color application elements of Matula and Azanto art of India, the proportionate and beautiful human body elements of Greek and Roman arts, the neatstructure and depiction of tibia, hats and ribbons elements of ancient West Asian and Sasanian Persian arts, and the continous, cheerful and forceful lines, unrestraint and lively ink and water application, life-like and dynamic image portrayal and some decorative designs traditional features of painting arts on the Central Plains. Murals in Qiuci grottoes have some features of both the eastern and western arts; but instead of mechanic repetition or simple mix-up, they are real and creative integration and combination of the ancient civilizations and arts in the east and west, which give them a unique artistic taste.’
The culture and arts in Xinjiang are manifold and diversified. There are other literature pieces such as Door to Truth, musical ones such as Dastan, grottoes such as Bezklik Thousand-Buddha Cave, and paintings such as the one about Fuxi and Nuwa. What has been listed in this chapter is only some of the best known, which, as limited in number asthey are, already reflect the inherent relations between arts and culture in Xinjiang and their counterparts on the Central Plains and point to the fact that Xin jiang arts and culture are the integration of the eastern and western civilizations and the spiritual wealth that people of all ethnic groups have worked together to create.
