国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

Sec. ii]   TIME AND MILIEU OF PRODUCTION   841

That all these pictures, whatever their material and whatever the subjects represented, were intended to be displayed in the shrines at which they had been offered is definitely proved by the interesting record of Sung Yün already referred to.22 When describing his visit in A. D. 519 to a famous Buddhist temple at a site east of Khotan, which I have, as I believe, identified with the pilgrimage place of Ulûgh-ziârat to the north-west of Domoko,23 the pilgrim tells us that ` the banners (or/ammes) and canopies (or hangings) in embroidered silk which are suspended there count by tens of thousands ; more than half of them are banners of the empire of the Wei '. We need not consider here the question whether Sung Vim necessarily means here banners brought from China. But what is important to note is his further statement that among the banners bearing Chinese inscriptions there were many with dates corresponding to the years A.6. 495, 501, and 513 ; ` there was only one banner which, upon examination of its date, proved to be a banner of the epoch of the Yao Chin [dynasty, A. D. 384-4171

In this record, for which credit is due to the Chinese traveller's antiquarian instinct, we have Conserva-conclusive proof that it was customary at such Buddhist shrines to preserve votive offerings of votivef pictures, and obviously of embroideries, too, for prolonged periods. That this pious custom also offerings. prevailed at Tun-huang is strikingly illustrated by the great collection of paintings, etc., discovered in the walled-up chapel. It has also its exact parallels in the shrines of the West, from classical

times to the present, and has always helped to enrich the adornment of temples and churches.24

That apart from any aesthetic or religious notions the custom was largely prompted also by a quasi-

practical motive needs no detailed demonstration for those who are familiar with places'of pilgrimage in the East, or with some in the West either. To show respect for the gifts of previous donors was obviously in the interest of the guardians of the shrines, who benefited by the charity of such

donors and were, no doubt, anxious to attract others to follow their example.

It is to this interested conservation that we may in all probability have to attribute two curious Frag-classes of artistic remains found among the deposit of the cave. I mean, on the one hand, those mentary

paintings

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very numerous fragments of silk paintings, banner tops, etc., which must have become mere torn and

votive remnants long before the hidden deposit received them ; on the other, the equally great mass of rags'. fabric strips of all sorts which also had found their way there, and which undoubtedly had once been placed in different cave-temples as votive offerings of a sort still common everywhere in the

East.25 I shall have occasion to discuss these `votive rags' in my next chapter. Here it will

suffice to mention the striking evidence which the elaborate patchwork pieces and lambrequins made up of such tatters bear to the care that was once bestowed by the local guardians upon the pre-

servation of even the humblest votive gifts.

Sung-Yün's record of temple banners.

22 Cf. Chavannes, Voyage de Sung Fun, p. 14 ; Aucuul Kholan, i. p. 456 ; above, p. 838, note 7.

23 See Ancient Kholan, i. pp. 457, 462 sq.

2' It may not be out of place to call attention here to the great rôle which, as modern researches have abundantly proved, the use of figured fabrics, painted, woven, or embroidered, and often of a very elaborate type, has played in the adornment of Christian churches since an early period, and particularly during Byzantine times. Many fine specimens of such fabrics dating from the fourth century onwards have been brought to light by recent explorations in Egyptian tombs ; cf. Strzygowski, Orient oder Rom, pp. 90 sqq., 113 sqq.; Diehl, Manuel dart byzantin, pp. 78 sqq., 247 sqq., where further references will be found.

We shall have occasion, when discussing the ancient

• fabrics from the Thousand Buddhas, to recur to this parallel,

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made doubly interesting by the close influence of Sassanian art which can be traced in the textile remains both of early Byzantine and Tang times ; see below, pp. 907 sqq.

To Prof. Strzygowski belongs the special merit of having emphasized the important part which such figured fabrics, owing to their portability and easy transport, must have played in the powerful influence exercised by the art of the Hellenized East upon the Christian West. is it too bold to conjecture that Buddhist art, as displayed and developed in China proper, may have been specially aided by the same medium of painted fabrics in asserting that reverse influence westwards which becomes more and more clearly traceable in remains of the later Buddhist art of Central Asia? The subject is too big to be taken up herein passing.

25 See below, pp. 899 sq., and PI. CVII—CX for illustrations of patchwork of ' votive rags'.

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