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

portion is reproduced on Plate I, and another portion on Plate II. Here there is a
similar delicate expressiveness of drawing, combined with a glowing animation of varied
colour. The picture is full of exquisite detail. Note the life and charm, for instance, in the
figure seated with her back to us in the window of the high pavilion in the upper right-hand
portion, next the border (Pl. I). Here again is a master of individual temperament.
In both of these pictures the artist has been able to control his complex material and
multitude of forms into a wonderful harmony, without any restlessness or confusion ; and we
are taken into an atmosphere of strange peace, which yet seems filled with buoyant motion
and with floating strains of music.
None of the other pictures is, as art, quite on this level, the tendency being for the
quality of the workmanship to be inadequate to the conception and design. The two grand
fragments illustrated on Plates IV and V ; the Avalokiteśvara (Pl. XX) ; the Vaiśravaṇa crossing
the ocean (Pl. XLV) are perhaps nearest. And next would come such examples as the Avalo-
kiteśvara in Glory (Pl. XVII) and other representations of the same Bodhisattva (Pls. XVIII, XIX,
XXI), and some of the Paradise pictures, and banners ; but as we gradually descend the scale,
an insensitive execution contrasts more and more with the dignity and grandeur of the design.
These were not great painters, but they belonged to a great school. In such a picture as the
Two Forms of Avalokiteśvara (Pl. XV) we feel that if only the rather inanimate workmanship
corresponded to the grandeur of the design, we should be in presence of a masterpiece. We
have a hint at least of what majesty the T'ang masters must have been capable.
This group of paintings gives to the collection found at Tun-huang an artistic importance
quite beyond that of any of the groups of works of art discovered by various expeditions in
Turkestān ; and it is worth while to examine them a little more closely.
The flooding wave of Indian religion and Indian art, after traversing a region of inferior
cultures, meets in China for the first time an established art of original power and native
genius. The Indian religion, in spite of vicissitudes and rebuffs, takes a firm hold on the
Chinese. Buddhist paintings are demanded of the great masters. Of what character is the
resulting art ?
We are unable to say what the earliest treatment of Buddhist themes by Chinese artists
was like. Buddhist images were introduced from India as early as the first century A.D., and
were eagerly sought for and studied in succeeding times. Plate XIV—the original of which is,
so far as we know, unique—is of singular interest ; for it consists of a group of drawings
after Indian Buddhist statues—just such as the great pilgrim of the seventh century, Hsüan-
tsang, might have brought back from his long journeyings among the sacred sites of India.
In the fourth century the famous painter Ku K'ai-chih painted, we know, many Buddhist
subjects, but neither the 'Admonitions' in the British Museum, nor the Ló-shen Fu in the
Freer Collection, shows any trace of Buddhist or Indian influence ; on the contrary, they
show the purely native style of China in its integrity.
That purely native style is found in the paintings we are examining, but not as a rule in
the treatment of the main subjects. Many of the large pictures of Paradise have borders
on either side, divided into compartments, in which are painted scenes from the Jātakas or
stories of the former lives of Buddha. One is reminded of the predella pictures of an Italian
altar-piece. Plate I affords a good example, showing part of the right-hand border of the
picture. And here the figures, the dresses, the landscape, the style of drawing, the spacing,
are all Chinese. Were it not for the subject-matter, no one would dream of suggesting any
influence from India. In the small banners, these Jātaka episodes form sometimes the
entire subject, three or more scenes being usually painted one above the other. Examples
are reproduced on Plate XII, Plate XIII, and Plate XXXVII. On these banners we find scenes
from the legend of Śākyamuni in his last life on earth ; his conception by his mother, his
birth in the Lumbinī garden, his first steps, his athletic feats as a boy ; his first meeting with
death and sickness ; his flight from the palace at midnight. Even here everything is Chinese :
types, costume, architecture, pictorial conventions ; it is only after Gautama has taken up
his mission and begun to teach that he is represented in Indian guise, according to the
traditions derived from Gandhāra.