In BC 138, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty sent Zhang Qian to the Western Regions. Later, General Huo Qubing defeated Xiongnu, listed four counties, built two passes, and opened up the "Silk Road" for land transportation to Central Asia and West Asia. Dunhuang County, located at the intersection of the North and South of the Silk Road, was once a bustling metropolis, just like Shanghai now. With the prosperity of trade, Buddhism was introduced into the Central Plains from the Western Regions, but few people could read Sanskrit at that time. What shall we do? Then carve it and draw it.
In 366 AD, in the Jin Dynasty, there was a monk who came all the way from the Western Regions. The sun is about to sink into the boundless desert, and the monk has not found a place to live. He looks around, tired and hungry. Just then, facing the sunset, he found three towering peaks in the southeast corner of the desert, emitting brilliant golden light, as if there were thousands of Buddha statues in the golden light. The monk was dumbfounded and cried with tears in his eyes, "This is a holy place!" He made a pilgrimage here and vowed to promote Buddhism. He begged for money and invited craftsmen to dig caves on the cliffs on the edge of the desert. This is Lezun Cave, which was later called the first grotto.
The story spread quickly. Many good men and women came to pay homage, and more and more people built grottoes, from monks to princes and nobles, from local officials and businessmen to ordinary people. The Silk Road is long and dangerous, and they believe that supporting the Buddha can bless the smooth journey, the country and the people. They carved the image of the Buddha on the stone, smeared mud on the outside layer by layer, and painted a voice and a smile; Draw Buddhist stories on the surrounding walls to persuade people to abandon evil and do good.
During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the Silk Road was smooth and prosperous, and the spread of Buddhism flourished. Mogao Grottoes witnessed the rise of grottoes and statues. At present, more than 270 of the 735 caves were excavated during the Sui and Tang Dynasties.
It is said that in the early Tang Dynasty, Wu Zetian planned to be an emperor. To do such an unprecedented thing, she must stress a "theocracy"! Her Toy Boy and Xue Huaiyi rummaged through ancient books and found a Great Cloud Sutra, which recorded a story that the Buddha was a pure goddess when he was alive, and later became a king as a woman. It implies that Wu Zetian is the reincarnation of Maitreya. So Dayun Temple was built all over the country, and Dunhuang was no exception. Mogao Grottoes is the third largest Buddha statue in the world, with a height of 35 meters. It is said that it is a statue of Wu Zetian, and the robes are painted with dragon patterns, tube tops and red lips. The towering Buddha statues in Tsui Hark's film Di Renjie Empire are real.
After the Anshi Rebellion, Hexi region fell into the hands of Tubo people. Later, Zhang Yichao, a famous family in Dunhuang, led an uprising to defeat Tubo and joined the Tang Dynasty. Since then, the local separatist regime has been established 100 years, trying to preserve the prosperity of Dunhuang. At present, the Mogao Grottoes are still painted with Zhang Yichao's marching map of the whole army, and he still retains the majestic posture of riding on a high horse.
In the Ming Dynasty, the Ming army was defeated by Turpan, so it withdrew eastward in an all-round way, Dunhuang was abandoned, Jiayuguan was closed, the Silk Road on the road was cut off, and the Maritime Silk Road was developed instead. On that side is Zheng He's voyage to the West, and on that side is the wasteland abandoned by Mogao Grottoes for more than 200 years. It was not until the Yongzheng period of the Qing Dynasty that Dunhuang County was re-established.
Then 1900, the legendary year. At that time, the Mogao Grottoes were guarded by a Taoist named Wang. One day when he was cleaning the grottoes, suddenly the wall cracked a small mouth and pulled it in. It is actually a hole, which contains all kinds of Confucian classics and cultural relics! From the time point of view, from the sixth century to the eleventh century, the contents are all-encompassing, and Buddhist scriptures, medical books, account books, and even letters between husband and wife have been completely preserved! Taoist Wang ran around reporting, but the government at that time ignored him and only ordered Taoist Wang to "stay where he is". Later, the British explorer Stan came here along the Silk Road. Hearing that Taoist Wang worshipped the Tang Priest, he said, "I was sent by the Tang Priest to send the scriptures back to the West." The foolish old king believed it. Stein only used 600 taels of silver to transport dozens of boxes of scriptures. Later, the French, Americans and Japanese also came. Of the 50,000 cultural relics, less than 8,000 remain in China.
Moreover, after the October Revolution in Russia, a group of Belarusian defeated soldiers fled to China, camped in the Mogao Grottoes, removed the lintel of the cave as firewood, made a fire to cook and scribbled.
Not only that, the famous painter Zhang Daqian went to the Mogao Grottoes in the 1940s. In order to facilitate copying, he directly peeled off the outer wall by hand and destroyed many murals.
From 65438 to 0944, Zhang Daqian's Dunhuang Art Exhibition was exhibited in Chengdu and Chongqing, which caused a great sensation, and the people who bought tickets lined up for more than a mile. When a painting student arrived in Chengdu, the tickets were sold out on the first day and bought the next day. Two years later, he went to Dunhuang with his family and lived in the Mogao Grottoes all his life. He is Duan Wenjie, the first president of Dunhuang Research Institute. Since then, China has learned more about Dunhuang studies. 1987, Mogao grottoes was listed as a world cultural heritage.
Zhang Daqian's paintings are still vivid on paper. Only after 80 years, the prototype of the mural has been blurred under the corrosion of air and sunlight. Even the carbon dioxide exhaled by our tourists will accelerate the loss of murals.
Therefore, as a small tourist, when you walk into the Mogao Grottoes, your heart will beat like thunder because of poor breathing.
Knock on the door. Knock on the door. Knock on the door.
It's like a drum whistling overhead.
This is the call flowing in the blood.