Let you wander, you become a national tourism image ambassador

Chapter 466: Improvisational Composition, Dunhuang Divine Comedy - "A Thousand Years of Prayer"

"The excavation of Mogao Grottoes lasted for about 1000 years from the Sixteen Kingdoms period to the Yuan Dynasty, which is unique among the Longguo Grottoes.

It is not only a brilliant art treasure house of the ancient Dragon Kingdom civilization, but also an important witness to the dialogue and exchanges between different civilizations that once took place on the ancient Silk Road.

There are 735 caves in Mogao Grottoes, with more than 4.5 square meters of preserved murals, more than 2400 colored sculptures, and five wooden cave eaves from the Tang and Song dynasties.

It is a microcosm of the development and evolution of Longguo Grottoes art and enjoys a lofty historical position in grotto art.

The Dunhuang Grottoes are a three-dimensional art form that combines architecture, sculpture and murals.

The caves are divided into two areas, north and south. The southern area has 492 caves and is the place for Buddhist worship activities in Mogao Grottoes.

The 243 caves in the northern area were mainly residences for monks and craftsmen, with training and living facilities, earthen kang pits, chimneys, niches, lampstands, etc.

The Dunhuang Grottoes we often refer to are the Mogao Grottoes, or the general term for the Mogao Grottoes and the Western Thousand Buddha Caves, and sometimes also include the Yulin Grottoes in Anxi.

The Dunhuang Grottoes, the Yungang Grottoes in Datong, Shanxi, and the Longmen Grottoes in Luoyang, Henan, are known as the three major grottoes of the Dragon Kingdom.

If you have the opportunity, you can also visit the other two caves. I believe you will not be disappointed.

Okay, let’s get back to the topic. Our Mogao Grottoes are based on the cave shape, sculptures, mural themes, content and style characteristics.

It can be divided into four major development periods: the Northern Dynasties, Sui and Tang Dynasties, Five Dynasties to Song Dynasty, and Western Xia to Yuan Dynasty.

The styles of the caves in each period are different. After all, the entire time span is about 1000 years.

What you are seeing now are the caves from the Northern Dynasties period, which were mainly excavated during the Northern Wei, Western Wei and Northern Zhou dynasties.

Some of the Northern Wei caves may have been excavated during the Northern Liang period. The cave shapes mainly include central pillar caves, square caves and Zen caves.

The main statues in the caves of this period are generally Sakyamuni or Maitreya, as well as seated statues of Sakyamuni and Duobao, Bodhisattva statues, and Zen monk statues.

Some of the central pillars and the upper parts of the four walls are decorated with shadow sculptures of thousands of Buddhas, offering Bodhisattvas and flying apsaras.

Then the ceiling and walls of the caves were painted with murals, with celestial musicians mostly depicted on the upper part of the ceiling and walls.

The lower part of the four walls are decorated with Yakshas or decorative patterns. The middle wall, in addition to the Thousand Buddhas, is mainly painted with the Buddha's biographies, previous lives and causal stories. They are positioned in a moderate position and are eye-catching.

The composition of this type of story paintings, except for single frames, is mostly in the form of horizontal scroll comic strips.

Just like the story painting "Five Hundred Bandits Becoming Buddhas" in Cave 285 of Mogao Grottoes, it depicts scenes of fighting, being captured, interrogated, and tortured.

With white as the base, fresh and elegant tones and bright and free style, it is a masterpiece of Western Wei murals.

Northern Dynasties Buddhism attached great importance to meditation, so the contents of the caves at this time were mostly related to the religious activities of monks meditating and observing Buddha.

Most of the Northern Wei murals use earth red as the background color, with blue, green, ochre, white and other colors used for coloring. The colors are warm and heavy, the style is simple and thick, and there are strong characteristics of Western Buddhist art.

After the Western Wei Dynasty, white walls were mostly used as the base, the color tone tended to be fresh and elegant, the style was bright and free and easy, presenting the Central Plains style.

Now continue to follow my footsteps. The grottoes you see now are from the Five Dynasties to the Song Dynasty.

The caves of this period are mainly central altar caves, with a back screen at the back of the altar connected to the top of the cave.

The top of the cave is in the shape of an inverted bucket, with arched concave surfaces carved out at the four corners of the lower end, on which are painted images of the Four Heavenly Kings.

In front of the large caves on the lower level of Mogao Grottoes, there was a wooden palace building, forming a layout of hall in front and caves in the back.

The four existing wooden cave eaves from the early Song Dynasty have retained much of the Tang Dynasty style and are important materials for studying Tang and Song Dynasty architecture.

It's just that the colored sculptures of this period were severely damaged, with only two caves remaining. Although the shapes still have some remnants of the Tang Dynasty style, the craftsmanship is not as sophisticated as that of the Tang Dynasty.

The themes of the murals are mostly inherited from the Tang Dynasty, mainly including Buddha statues, sutra paintings, Buddhist historical paintings, auspicious images and portraits of donors.

Cave 61 has a huge "Map of Mount Wutai" running through the west wall, with an area of ​​about 50 square meters. It is the largest mural in Mogao Grottoes.

The painting uses a bird's-eye perspective to depict the mountains, rivers, cities, and bridges within a radius of hundreds of miles from Zhenzhou, Hebei Province to Taiyuan and Wutai.

As well as shops, temples, hermitages, monasteries, pagodas, and various activities of people such as paying tribute, burning incense, traveling on foot, grinding mills, and treading pestles, it forms a vivid historical map and picture of social life.

The murals of this period still retain the style of the Tang Dynasty, with plump figures, warm colors, and bold and varied line drawing, but the brushwork is rough and simple.

During the Western Xia period, the sutras became more formulaic, with empty content, dull expressions on the characters, poor colors, and weak lines.

Moreover, during the period from Western Xia to Yuan Dynasty, few new caves were excavated, and most of the old caves were rebuilt and the murals were repainted.

Although there are many murals, there are few new themes. There are only some special features in composition and coloring, but not many, so I will not list them one by one. "

Qin Yuan used fluent French to translate the information he had looked up on the Internet into authentic French, which a group of foreign students listened to with great interest.

Compared with the five thousand years of history of the Dragon Kingdom, France's history and culture pales in comparison. They are only about 1500 years old.

Therefore, they were naturally shocked when they heard that the history of Mogao Grottoes was more than 1000 years old.

Coupled with Qin Yuan's vivid explanation, they became even more interested in it.

In fact, most of the students who can come to Longguo for exchanges have some understanding of Longguo.

However, due to the language barrier, they could not understand many things, even though there were many people present who understood French.

For example, Fang Long, the master of traditional Chinese music, understands French, but he himself does not know much about history, and people who understand history do not understand French.

Therefore, before this, no one had been able to explain the history and culture of Dragon Country to them vividly through French like Qin Yuan could.

How can you understand it if you can't even understand it? In fact, many times foreigners don't understand Dragon Country, and a big reason is because of the language barrier.

Then another point is that the publicity was not strong enough, but now with the appearance of Qin Yuan, he has solved these two major problems perfectly.

An internationally renowned blogger with more than 1200 million fans, who can speak multiple foreign languages, who can compare with such strength?

"I never thought that the caves had such a long history, and the statues and murals inside were so vivid and interesting. It's really amazing."

"Mr. Qin, your explanation is so interesting. This is the first time we have learned about the Mogao Grottoes!"

"Mr. Qin, I looked up some information last night. I heard that the Dunhuang Flying Apsaras seemed to come from here, right?"

"Yes, I have heard of the Dunhuang Flying Apsaras, but I haven't seen any on my way here!"

Hearing that a group of French students were very interested in flying, Qin Yuan smiled and led them to a cave.

Then he pointed to the mural of flying celestial beings inside and continued explaining.

“That’s the flying fairy you want to see. In Dragon Country, flying fairies are often painted on tomb murals, symbolizing that the soul of the tomb owner can ascend to heaven.

Along with the winged people, there are also various kinds of gods and immortals in the tombs. There are scenes of ascension to heaven in tombs from the Warring States Period and even earlier periods.

After the Eastern Han Dynasty, as the idea of ​​immortals and early Taoism became more popular, Buddhism was introduced into Longguo and merged with Longguo's Taoism. During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, when Buddhism was first introduced, the flying fairies in the murals were also called flying celestials, and there was no distinction between flying celestials and flying fairies.

Later, with the in-depth development of Buddhism in China, the Buddhist flying celestials and Taoist flying fairies merged with each other in artistic images.

Dunhuang Flying Apsaras refers to the flying gods painted in the Dunhuang Grottoes. It later became a special term for China's unique Dunhuang mural art.

From the perspective of artistic image, the Dunhuang Flying Apsaras is not the artistic image of one culture, but a complex of multiple cultures.

Although the hometown of Feitian is in India, the Dunhuang Feitian were jointly nurtured by Indian culture, Western Region culture and Central Plains culture.

It is a flying fairy with the characteristics of Dragon Kingdom culture that was integrated into one after a long period of communication between Buddhist celestial beings, Taoist winged beings, flying fairies from the Western Regions and flying fairies from the Central Plains.

It has no wings, no feathers, and no halo, and it soars into the sky mainly by relying on its flowing dress and flying ribbons.

The Dunhuang Flying Apsaras can be said to be the most talented creation of Dragon Kingdom artists and a miracle in the history of world art.

It appeared when the Mogao Grottoes were founded, starting from the Sixteen Kingdoms, going through ten dynasties and lasting for more than a thousand years, until the end of the Yuan Dynasty, when it disappeared with the completion of the Dunhuang Grottoes.

During this thousand years of history, historical situations have changed due to the replacement of dynasties, transfer of political power, economic development and prosperity, and frequent exchanges between Chinese and Western cultures.

The artistic image, posture and artistic conception, style and taste of Feitian are constantly changing. Different eras and different artists have left us Feitian with different styles and characteristics.

Later generations created a variety of artistic works around the Dunhuang Flying Apsaras, including paintings, dramas, novels, music, etc.

"Is there any music? I don't think I've ever heard any music related to the Dunhuang Flying Apsaras?" At this time, a French student asked curiously.

"Yeah! I haven't heard of it either. I've seen a lot of paintings and plays online, but I've never heard of the music."

"Mr. Qin, is what you said true? Is there really music about Dunhuang Feitian? Can you tell me the title of a song?"

I heard a group of French students asking questions out of curiosity. Not only French students, but even students from my own country asked questions as well.

This made Qin Yuan a little confused. As far as he knew, in his previous life there was a song called "Thousand Years of Prayer" composed by the island musician Ji Shen, which was very consistent with the Western style and ethereal feeling of Dunhuang Feitian.

Is it possible that this song does not exist in this world?

As soon as he thought of this, Qin Yuan immediately took out his mobile phone and started searching, and then he really discovered that this song did not exist in this world.

No wonder this group of students would ask such questions.

Seeing this, he smiled and said, "It seems that I remembered it wrongly, but it doesn't matter, it's just a piece of music about the flying fairy in Dunhuang!

If you want to listen, I will compose a song for you tonight. What do you think? "

"Mr. Qin, why do we need to do it tonight? I think it's better to do it now!
After all, there are rumors online that you possess the incredible talent of being able to compose a song in seven steps, and your fans praise you to such a high level that they feel you are about to become an immortal.

Since we have such a good opportunity today, why don't you show us what you have and let us see it!"

At this moment, a handsome man standing next to Master Fang Long said jokingly.

The person who spoke was none other than Zhang Bohua, who had been beaten by him in piano skills. His crushing dominance that day had made the man lose face. It was obvious that he had been hated by the man in front of him.

But this incident happened over a year ago, and the man in front of me still holds a grudge against me. He is really petty!
"Bohua, what are you doing? Mr. Qin doesn't have time to compose music right now, so don't make trouble."

Hearing Zhang Bohua's words, Fang Long glared at his apprentice coldly.

Then he shifted his gaze to Qin Yuan, and said with a smile: "Mr. Qin, don't pay attention to him. He is so old, but still so ignorant. I am really disappointed."

"Teacher Fang, we actually really want to see how Mr. Qin composes live. It would be a great honor if we could see it!"

"Yes, I have also seen Mr. Qin composing live on the Internet. It would be very interesting if I could see it with my own eyes today."

At this time, several French teachers looked at Qin Yuan expectantly and spoke, but they were different from Zhang Bohua who wanted to embarrass Qin Yuan.

Those foreigners really wanted to see how powerful Qin Yuan was. After all, the ability to compose music on the spot was rare in the world.

Hearing more and more people making such noises around him, it became difficult for Qin Yuan to refuse.

He might even be criticized for pretending to be like him in the previous videos.

He didn't want to show off, but now everyone had pushed him to this point and he had no way to retreat.

In that case, he could only show off reluctantly.

After figuring it out, he smiled at everyone and said, "Since everyone is so interested in on-the-spot improvisation, I'll show off my skills.

But if I don't do it well, please forgive me! Don't laugh at me then."

Qin Yuan had a smile on his face and his words were full of humility, which did not arouse the slightest disgust.

Under such circumstances, even if the music he composed did not suit everyone's taste, it would not cause dissatisfaction.

"Mr. Qin, you are already very impressive for having the courage to improvise on the spot. How could we possibly laugh at you, Mr. Qin?"

"That's right. If anyone dares to laugh at Mr. Qin, I will be the first to disagree. Besides, we absolutely believe in your ability, so just do it without worry!"

"Since everyone has said so, I will make a fool of myself."

As Qin Yuan spoke, he took out his tablet computer from his backpack, and then his fingers began to quickly operate on the music production software.

There were no musical instruments or bands playing instruments on the scene, and most importantly, there was no recording studio here.

Therefore, if you want to create music quickly, you can only rely on virtual instruments.

As for the control of virtual musical instruments, Qin Yuan has already reached the level of perfection, and the music score of "A Thousand Years of Prayer" is imprinted in his mind.

So for him, producing this song was a piece of cake. The only troublesome part was the vocal part.

In the original version, the vocals were sung in the island language, but it is obviously not appropriate to use the island language now.

He had to use the Dragon Kingdom language, preferably an ancient language with a strong Dragon Kingdom historical flavor.

When he thought of this, he immediately thought of the official language used during the Zhou Dynasty, the so-called "Ya Yan".

Elegant language was mainly popular in the Central Plains area of ​​the Yellow River Basin, especially in Luoyang, Henan, where there happened to be a Longmen Grottoes.

Therefore, it feels absolutely great to reinterpret the song "Thousand Years of Prayer" in elegant language.

Thinking of this, he took action immediately without any hesitation. It only took him five minutes to prepare the accompaniment.

After that, he took the microphone and signaled the students present to be quiet, and then he began to produce the vocal part.

(End of this chapter)