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

ment with forms in repose, rich detail with empty space, so as to stir in the spectator the
intensest appreciation of each particular element. Space is not, in Chinese painting, some-
thing left over and unfilled ; it is a positive power and an integral factor in design.
In the typical classics of Chinese art these special powers in the control of ordered, fluent
line, and in mastery of spacing, are magnificently displayed. But even in these Tun-huang
pictures, where the subject-matter, the imagery, and the canons of ideal form are taken
over from India, we feel how all this is being fused in the fire of a different genius. And in
such a picture as the large Paradise (Pls. I and II) how potently this genius is at work, con-
trolling all these many groups of crowded figures, and this built-up composition, with all its
various colours, in the spell of a single mood of immaterial felicity and peace !

IV

It has been mentioned that a series of Nepalese paintings of Bodhisattvas were found at
Tun-huang. These are precious documents, because of the extreme rarity of Indian paintings
of so early a period ; but as their artistic interest is but slight, they have not been chosen for
illustration. Plate XXXI reproduces a Tibetan painting. The territory of Tun-huang was
conquered by the Tibetans in the middle of the eighth century A.D., and till the middle
of the ninth century the Tibetan power was dominant. Quantities of Tibetan Buddhist
writings were found in the cave ; and among the paintings this one, certainly, is entirely
Tibetan in style. (Two Tibetan drawings are reproduced on Pl. XXXII.) It is of the same
type as the numerous pictures brought from Tibet itself in recent years, collections of which
are in the British Museum, and in other museums of Europe and America. With regard to
these pictures the question of date has always been a matter of conjecture. Many are
darkened by incense-smoke, which in a few years can give an appearance of impressive
antiquity. The probability is that the Tun-huang specimen dates from about the tenth
century, and if so, it is likely to be the oldest of its kind now in existence, or at the least one
of the oldest. It is painted in distemper on linen, a technique favoured by the Tibetan
artists.
But how did this Tibetan art grow up ? What is the indigenous element in it ? Buddhism
was only introduced into the country in the seventh century, and whether Tibet had any art
to speak of before its introduction we do not know. In Tibetan Buddhism the Tantra system
of magic and witchcraft, and the worship of demons (supposed to be converted by Buddha
and to be vassals under his sovereignty), play a dominant part ; and in the paintings the forms
are often monstrous and horrible, the colouring sombrely splendid. But the harmonies of
fluid, sinuous line, for which they are even more remarkable, seem to be an element borrowed
from Chinese art and carried to excess in Tibet. If we compare for a moment this painting
with, for instance, the one reproduced on Plate XLII, we see how much this element counts for.
And on the whole it seems likeliest to suppose that Tibetan painting is rather an offshoot of
Chinese art, developed in a certain direction, and so acquiring a special character, than a native
growth. But of this we cannot be certain.
Plate XLII illustrates, much reduced, an imposing example of the kind of painting in
a mixed style which flourished in Eastern Turkestān. Note how the flowers dropping through
the air suggest none of that sense of the fragility of flowers, and of their light floating on
the air, which the Chinese artist knows instinctively how to give : they are heavy and motion-
less. There is a certain rigidity and solidity in the whole picture ; and the effect of solidity
is consciously aimed at by the system of modelling the central figure in two tones of colour.
This system is carried yet further in Plate X, where high lights on nose and forehead (blackened
through oxidization in some places) have been added in white. Compare also Plate XI,
illustrating a very large painting of similar character, full of the most interesting detail (note
the babies enclosed within the lotus-buds, souls of the blessed about to be born into
Paradise). These pictures are painted in what Sir Aurel Stein calls 'the fresco style',
c