Go, go, go, Mogao Grottoes!
For outsiders like Chen Xing, Dunhuang is Mogao Grottoes, and Mogao Grottoes is Dunhuang. But in fact, they are two places. Dunhuang is the name of the city, and Mogao Grottoes is the scenic spot that everyone is familiar with.
The connection is so close because the two places are not far apart.
Chen Xing saw that there was a direct bus nearby. He went downstairs and waited for a while but didn't see the bus. A taxi happened to come, so Chen Xing took a taxi.
The price is not outrageous either, just over twenty yuan.
Chen Xing believes that when visiting tourist attractions like this, you must check the off-peak and peak seasons of this place on the Internet. Not only is there a huge gap in tickets, but the main reason is that there are too many tourists in the peak season, and you have to queue up at the gate to enter the scenic spot.
But if you just like crowds and bustle, then Chen Xing didn't say anything.
I believe that many people have the impression that Mogao Grottoes are full of caves. In fact... there is not much difference.
But the length of the scenic spot exceeded his imagination.
If there are fewer tourists here, then this is an archaeological site that is still working. There are ladders everywhere. There are some modern stairs and corridors outside the cave. In addition to making it convenient for tourists to walk and visit, these things It is estimated that it also has the effect of stabilizing the mountain.
Some places cannot be said to be caves. They are beautifully built, like pavilions built on the mountain. They are just half wooden buildings. After all, the 'buildings' here are mainly to protect the cultural relics in the caves.
These grottoes are all dug into the mountain, and they are everywhere on the entire mountain wall.
But only a few grottoes with different numbers are open every day.
The ticket Chen Xing bought this time allowed him to see eight caves. This was a full ticket. There was a ticket that only opened four caves that was half cheaper than the one Chen Xing bought.
There are hundreds of grottoes in the Mogao Grottoes. If you can only see eight of the small grottoes every time you come, how long will it take to see them all? Not to mention after reading it, if you didn’t work here, you would never be able to visit even one-fifth of the Mogao Grottoes in your lifetime.
While queuing up to visit, he did some mental calculations.
After a minute he gave up.
You think too highly of yourself.
Chen Xing is now becoming more and more proficient in literature, but in mathematics he can only say that he can recognize Arabic numerals, addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, that's all... He now has to use a calculator even for multiplication and division within one hundred.
The former math teacher would probably want to beat Chen Xing to death.
Chen Xing finally queued up to the door.
This is too busy during the peak season, there are so many people...
Grotto number, 323.
When you walk in, you can see that the area inside is okay, and there are modern lamps for lighting, but in fact it is quite bright even without these lamps, as long as there are not so many things placed at the entrance to block the sun.
Everyone lined up and gathered around a place, constantly pushing forward.
Chen Xing didn't do any homework when he came, so he didn't know what they were looking at. But this just allows Chen Xing to visit other things first, and then go see what they are doing later. Did he win the lottery at the first place he came to?
Isn't it the Feitian mural?
Chen Xing suppressed his thoughts of going there to be crowded, and together with a few people, he studied the Buddha statue in a prominent position at close range.
There was a couple next to him, and the man kept talking: "Exquisite, so beautiful. Is this color restored by us in modern times? It looks so beautiful now. I don't know what it looked like thousands of years ago."
Chen Xing looked at the introduction with small characters below.
You can't stop reading just because the characters are too small. This Buddha statue was only built in the Qing Dynasty, so of course it is new.
The shelf life of sculptures is still very long. Time will first destroy the outermost layer of oil or paint, and then slowly erode into the inside. But if someone maintains it, let alone hundreds of years, even if it takes another few hundred years, people will not be able to see his true appearance.
There is a famous Venus de Milo in the Louvre Museum. Doesn’t it still look good after all these years?
A well-preserved ancient artifact can tell a lot about the history of that period.
I still use the Venus de Milo as an example - although she has lost both hands, her face and figure also reflect the fact that people of that period were also pursuing this kind of dignified, beautiful and plump women.
Look, Chen Xing, a layman, can see so many things, let alone those professionals.
Getting back to the topic, Chen Xing looked at other murals and turned his attention to the crowd.
Why are there so many people?
It seemed that they couldn't wait until they left. Even if someone left, there would be other people who had just come in around here, and there would be endless room for them, so Chen Xing also walked over.
He was a little taller than these people, so he didn't have to push too hard to see the mural they were visiting.
This mural is very clear. At the bottom is a man riding a horse walking forward, followed by other people. There is a stone tablet in front of this man on the mural, but Chen Xing is too far away to see clearly.
There are people at the front who help me recite.
"What is written on it is what caused Zhang Qian to go west? I can't see clearly."
"It's Zhang Qian's mission to the Western Regions. It's the only place in the world. You guys don't understand what we're doing here. Can you let me go up and take some pictures?"
Many people still can't understand this mural, but the label is blocked by others.
Chen Xing also heard the name of this mural from others. After knowing that it was the story of Zhang Qian's mission to the Western Regions, the painting became easier to understand. The man on horseback must be Zhang Qian. The middle and even top of the painting are all Chinese painting techniques. The painted mountain peaks express the feeling of a long, long journey.
There are many stories interspersed in between.
The places where these stories took place can be distinguished from the architectural styles on the murals. There are stone tablets in each story, but the handwriting is really unclear.
If you really wanted to identify what was written on it, you would probably have to shine a flashlight on it.
But if you really do this, this tourist may never want to come to Dunhuang for the second time in his life.
After reading this, Chen Xing hurried to the next place. It's not the National Day recently, so why are there so many tourists here? Everyone wants to take time off in advance to travel, and go on a staggered trip with tourists who only come after official holidays?
But now there is no peak peak, there are so many college students.
I watched a few of them along the way and thought they were just average, not as exciting as the first one I went to, 323. But when it was time for dinner, Chen Xing came to the grotto numbered 285. As soon as he entered the queue, Chen Xing’s eyes were shaken.
What a beautiful cave!
The first thing that comes into view are the three niches carved in the center of the west wall. A large circular coupon-shaped niche, with small niches on each side, each containing a painted clay sculpture.
The clay sculpture should be a Buddha statue, but you can't see the face clearly.
This is related to the geology of Dunhuang. The grottoes here are all excavated on loose conglomerate, which cannot be carefully carved, so the art form of clay sculpture and painting is used.
But not being able to see the face clearly does not affect the temperament of this clay sculpture.
He is thin and clear, but his character is still there.
The clothing pattern of the clay sculpture is close to the body. The cassock has a double collar and droops, exposing the monk's branch inside. The underwear has knotted belt decorations and is exposed. The hands are mutilated for unknown reasons, which is a pity.
There is that kind of Buddha light around the clay sculpture, which is also very handsome.
In modern temples, the Buddha's light is basically fixed. Just like the picture taken by Chen Xing in Wuyuan, the setting sun shines on the stone wall at the right time, and the reflection becomes a dazzling Buddha's light.
But the Buddha's light shown here is like the characters in many games gathering energy, with blue and white air currents emerging from the whole body and converging on the top of the head.
The clothes were not the robes worn by monks, or rather not the monks' robes that Chen Xing had in mind, which made him look too handsome overall.
The statues of gods that Chen Xing had seen before, whether Buddhist or Taoist, were mainly solemn in architecture. Chen Xing's photography style was also famous for its solemnity and richness at first. It must be said that it was also influenced by ancient Chinese architecture.
But this grotto is decorated with a lot of colors.
These colors painted buildings, birds, and cranes...Looking around, the cave is filled with murals with strong lines, varying colors, and exquisite craftsmanship, without any gaps.
Chen Xing saw a line of writing on the side, which was left over when this grotto was originally built. It said: "It was built in the middle of August in Wuwu, the fourth year of Datong in the Great Dynasty."
There is no other indication of time here.
Chen Xing searched on his mobile phone and found that Datong was the reign of Emperor Wen of the Western Wei Dynasty, which was from 538 to 539 AD. This means that this grotto should be one of the earliest grottoes built, and it can be regarded as the elder.
This hole is covered with a dome, which is a triangular roof, with the sharp corner cut off smoothly.
Ancient China was also so proficient in structural science.
The more you study ancient buildings, the more you will understand the wisdom of the ancients. If there is such a person who first enlightened the industrial thoughts in China, then China today does not know where it has soared.
The murals Chen Xing saw today include those of Zhang Qian on his mission, the Asuras of the Three Kingdoms holding the sun and the moon with their hands, and the murals of Mount Wutai during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period.
Chen Xing has not seen the painting of Feitian now, but from the style in Grotto No. 323, we can also guess that the religious culture in the Western Regions at that time was very different from that in the mainland.
The culture of the Western Regions has its roots in the Western Regions, and Chinese culture was later passed on.
The two cultures merged, and the bad ones were gradually abandoned in the tide of the times, leaving only the best and most beautiful parts, forming the appearance of the modern Western Regions.
This is the last of the eight grottoes that Chen Xing can go to today.
Walking out of this grotto, what Chen Xing faced was not the colorful ancient world in the room, but a vast desert. Yellow was the main theme of this world, followed by so many tourists.
Chen Xing was stunned for a moment when he saw so many people.
I have been immersed in the culture of the Western Regions for too long, and I have been thinking about how I can use photography to express this culture and stories of the Western Regions.
When I walked out and saw such a lively scene, I was really not used to it.
The key point is that there is still a quarrel at the door, saying that panning does not count as jumping in line...
Disgusting scenery!
The location of this grotto is relatively high. Looking at the decoration here, you can tell that this is one of the places that Chen Xing went to. The most important ones are probably only the first one that Chen Xing went to in terms of popularity. The murals of Zhang Qian's mission can be compared. .
Chen Xing arrived at nine o'clock in the morning, and it was already past lunch time.
I visited eight grottoes for four hours in total.
I have experienced it a lot.
At first, I didn’t feel that I had any experience. I just felt that it was not easy to preserve some murals and some Buddha statues. After all, these things had been destroyed by foreigners. Foreigners don’t know anything about Chinese culture. They just think that the beautiful things will be moved away, and the ones that cannot be moved will be destroyed.
There are also some things that Chen Xing said before.
A few decades ago, Chinese people didn’t understand cultural relic protection at all, or there were too few people who understood it.
There are so many scenic spots across the country that need protection, but the Mogao Grottoes are nothing.
But until Chen Xing saw that unique Buddha statue, which although it was old-fashioned Buddhism, it showed the chicness of Taoism in Chen Xing's mind, he suddenly understood.
Who says religion has to be serious.
No one stipulates that Buddhism must be rigid.
Why use some dogmatic things to flaunt something?
Religion can also be handsome and charming.
Chen Xing probably knows how he is going to take the photo, so he should go to Yanjing earlier to meet Sister Tang and decide on the makeup first.
You may not be able to find suitable fashion items for a while. You can only look at whether there are good fashion designers in Yanjing.
If it really doesn't work, I can only ask the school to introduce a few Chinese designers.
When he came back to his senses, Chen Xing had already walked a long way past Mogao Grottoes.
There are only some people taking pictures here who are far away from the Mogao Grottoes, because the environment here is like a desert. The dry sand is constantly flowing, and it keeps digging into Chen Xing's shoes. If he takes off his shoes now and shakes them down, he will probably be able to I saw flying sand like an hourglass.
People who took pictures here valued this place for making films and giving it the feeling of a desert. But it was only then that Chen Xing discovered that the area where the Mogao Grottoes was located was so barren. When he walked out of the slightly modern scenic spot, there was nothing outside.
This is a desert.
Mogao Grottoes only occupy a small corner of this desert.
In the 21st century, it only costs 20 yuan to take a bus from the city of Dunhuang to the Mogao Grottoes, and 2 yuan by bus. It can be reached in a blink of an eye, 20 kilometers away.
But in ancient times, people might have to walk most of a day or a whole day to reach these twenty kilometers.
There are no towns around the Mogao Grottoes. The nearest one may be Crescent Moon Spring. I heard that this place used to be a post station or something. Anyway, it is a small place, a small oasis in the desert, which is insignificant.
No one should care about this place, because the surroundings are so desolate, with only a piece of sand and gravel, and the vast desert is like a wall.
However
But countless people come here
They form a human picture that lasts for thousands of years.
Chen Xing's eyes heated up, and a familiar feeling made him feel that the system understood him best.
[Fortunately, there is still Dunhuang in the world]
[The 1,600-meter art gallery, the rise and fall of 1,600 years of glory and disgrace, are all hidden in the eyes of the Buddha statues in the Mogao Grottoes overlooking all living beings. And we follow the call of beauty to understand, admire, protect and retain it]
Long time no see, my system friend.
(End of chapter)
