Dunhuang, Gansu: Telling Dunhuang Stories to the World
【New Stage, New Concept, New Journey, Promoting the Building of a Socialist Cultural Power】
Guangming Daily reporter Song Xiqun Wang Bingya
Dunhuang, an important Silk Road town, is a "cultural oasis" in the vast desert, where the four major cultural systems of China, India, Greece and Islam converge.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the British explorer Stein broke into the Mogao Caves, and Dunhuang has been pushed into the spotlight of the world since then.
The 735 caves and 45,000 square meters of murals show colorful historical pictures from the 4th to the 14th centuries.
Stein found not only Mogao Grottoes but also Dunhuang Hanjian slips.
In 1907, Stein unearthed the first batch of Dunhuang Chinese bamboo slips at the Dunhuang Great Wall tunnel site.
Tens of thousands of bamboo slips from different eras have been unearthed in Dunhuang, Jiuquan, Zhangye, Wuwei, Tianshui and other regions of Gansu in the next 100 years.
Through the murals and bamboo slips, people have uncovered the mystery of the Millennium Silk Road and touched the Dunhuang culture, which has learned from all its strengths.
For more than a hundred years, artists and scholars have come to this art treasure house that gathers the achievements of Sino-foreign exchanges to draw their nourishment, and tell the story of Dunhuang to the world in a brand-new way.
Dancing in Dunhuang
During the New Year's Day of 2021, the national stage art repertoire "Dream of Dunhuang" and the music giant "Dunhuang · Ode to Mercy" will meet the audience at the Guangzhou Grand Theater, and they will use the dance music of Dunhuang art to send New Year blessings to the audience.
The "Proposals of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Formulating the Fourteenth Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development and Long-Term Goals for 2035" (hereinafter referred to as the "Proposals") adopted by the Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China Telling Chinese stories is the focus, innovating to promote international communication, and strengthening foreign cultural exchanges and multi-level civilization dialogue.
The large-scale dance drama "Dream of Dunhuang", created and performed by Lanzhou Song and Dance Theater, is based on the thousands of years of history of Mogao Grottoes, and uses the love journey between the young painter Mogao and the general's daughter Crescent as a clue to deduce a tragic and moving story. love story.
Since its premiere in Beijing in April 2000, the play has been performed in more than 1,500 performances in more than 10 overseas countries including Germany, Russia, Italy, etc. wherever it goes, the "Silk Road Wind" has been blown up and "Dunhuang" heat".
In 2007, "Dream of Dunhuang" was included in the "National Cultural Export Key Project Catalog". In 2008, it won the first place in the "Excellent Export Cultural Products and Service Projects" of the Ministry of Culture, and became the Chinese cultural product successfully "going out" through the market. The model.
In January 2020, "Dream of Dunhuang" was staged at the David Kirk Theater at Lincoln Center in New York. More than a hundred actors from the Lanzhou Opera and Dance Theater presented a "movable Dunhuang" in front of more than 10,000 American audiences.
Huang Ping, the Chinese Consul General in New York, said in his speech: “The actors on the stage are like the walkers on the Silk Road thousands of years ago. They are the messengers who spread Chinese culture and tell Chinese stories well in the new era.”
Le Shu Dunhuang
Musician Tan Dun's "Dunhuang: Ode to Mercy", which took six years to compose, is a huge musical production that combines solo, chorus and symphony.
The works interpret the stories of the Mogao Grottoes in 6 scenes, including the Bodhi Tree, Nine-Colored Deer, Thousand Hands and Thousand Eyes, expressing the common emotional value of equality, dedication and fraternity.
In 2018, "Dunhuang · Ode to Mercy" premiered at the Dresden Music Festival in Germany.
When Tan Dun finished conducting the last note, more than 1,800 spectators stood up and applauded, and thunderous applause lasted for 15 minutes.
Since then, "Dunhuang · Ode to Mercy" has been performed in Australia, the United States, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Xi'an and other places, and has been widely praised.
"Dunhuang · Ode to Mercy" attempts to turn the Dunhuang murals into sound, let us hear Dunhuang. Looking back on history and Chinese culture, we can see that we have experienced so many vicissitudes of life, and we can find spiritual power in it," Tan Dun said.
Tan Dun saw compassion and benevolence in the wall paintings of Mogao Grottoes. Through the bridge of music, he brought remote Dunhuang to the rest of the world, allowing people of different languages and cultural backgrounds to communicate with each other and share their hearts.
In coincidence with Tan Dun's ideas, there is also Liu Guizhen, director of the Chinese Poetry and Music Culture Research Center of Lanzhou University.
Liu Guizhen led the team for nearly three years and went to Dunhuang for many inspections, collating, textualizing, and editing the five-character poem "Twenty Poems of Dunhuang" from Dunhuang manuscripts. For the first time, he tried to interpret Dunhuang manuscripts in the form of vocal music sets.
"Twenty Poems of Dunhuang" was created in the Tang Dynasty and mainly depicts Dunhuang historical sites and historical figures, showing the customs and customs of Dunhuang.
During the creation of this set, Professor Zheng Binglin, director and professor of the Institute of Dunhuang Studies of Lanzhou University, and Zhu Xiaofeng, associate research librarian of the Dunhuang Academy were invited as academic guidance.
In the process of creating and editing, "Twenty Poetry of Dunhuang" was based on the versions edited and recorded by Zheng Binglin and Dunhuang Research Institute researcher Ma De respectively. At the same time, it is based on the principle that characters come from sound and rhyme in the creation of poetry, combined with singing and tune. , Guiyun has been collated, corrected, corrected, and made these twenty poems more musical.
The composing and arranging work was presided over by Yang Kun, the dean of the Music Department of Lanzhou University School of Art. He combined the musical materials in the interpreted version of Dunhuang Music Score with contemporary composition techniques. Some of the works used Central Asian, Indian, and Arab Musical elements reflect the diversity of musical images and cultural tolerance.
"Through the poems, we deeply feel that Dunhuang culture is a culture of virtue and kindness, diversity and confluence. It has a grand atmosphere and a big mind that embraces all rivers and rivers, which greatly benefits everyone who approaches it." Liu Guizhen Said that the creation and performance of the vocal suite "Twenty Poems of Dunhuang" is to pay attention to the living conditions, aesthetic tastes and psychological needs of modern people, to explore the modern meaning and methods of Dunhuang music, to provide solutions to many problems of contemporary people, and to let the spirit of Dunhuang Infiltrate people's hearts.
"Number" Says Dunhuang
The "Proposal" proposes to implement a digital strategy for the cultural industry and accelerate the development of new cultural enterprises, cultural formats, and cultural consumption models.
Since the end of the 1980s, the number of visitors to the Mogao Grottoes has increased dramatically. The Dunhuang Academy has faced a new mission-to meet the audience's needs for appreciation and research of the Mogao Grottoes, and to reduce the loss of the thousand-year-old treasures and extend their lives.
Dunhuang Academy immediately put forward the concept of "Digital Dunhuang".
"Digital Dunhuang" uses surveying, mapping and remote sensing technology to store all cultural relics such as the shape of the Mogao Grottoes and the sculptures in the cave, using digital technology to preserve cultural relic information, and use the grotto digital resources to produce high-fidelity reproduction murals, 3D printed colored sculptures, and ultra-high-definition balls Screen movies, Dunhuang cultural animation works, etc.
Based on the digitization achievements of the Dunhuang Academy of Grottoes, the China Dunhuang Grottoes Conservation Research Foundation and the Dunhuang Academy jointly planned and organized the "Dunhuang Mural Art Exquisite College Public Welfare Tour Exhibition".
The tour selected more than 60 exquisite murals, two classic copy caves and a batch of copied scriptures and silk paintings unearthed from the Buddhist scripture caves, using digital technology to reproduce the Dunhuang grotto art in high definition.
Since 2013, the touring exhibition has been exhibited in 40 institutions including Renmin University of China, Central Academy of Fine Arts, Tsinghua University, Peking University, Shanghai Jiaotong University, the United Nations Office in Vienna, Duisburg, Germany, and the National Gallery of Uzbekistan. Aroused a enthusiastic response.
In 2014, the completion and use of the Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes Digital Exhibition Center completely changed the visit mode of tourists: All tourists need to make an online reservation to visit Mogao Grottoes; all tourists must first watch a dome movie at the Digital Exhibition Center to understand Mogao in advance. The background knowledge of Gao Grottoes, and then enter the Mogao Grottoes to visit.
This method effectively controls the number of visitors and improves the quality of the tour. It is a useful exploration to realize the "permanent preservation and sustainable use" of Mogao Grottoes.
In 2016, the "Digital Dunhuang" resource library was launched, and 30 classic cave high-definition image resources appeared on the Internet for the first time and shared them with the world for free.
Digital technology also provides an important way for Dunhuang document sharing and return.
At the symposium commemorating the 120th anniversary of the discovery of the Tibetan scriptures, Luo Huaqing, the deputy dean of the Dunhuang Academy, introduced in his speech: "The Dunhuang Academy plans to expand the field of digital data based on the'Digital Dunhuang: Dunhuang Mural Database'. , Informatization and other high-tech means, carried out the'Digital Dunhuang Cultural Relics Project-Lost Overseas Dunhuang Cultural Relics Digital Return' activity, promoted the digital return of diaspora Dunhuang cultural relics, and guided and supported scholars from various countries to better study Dunhuang cultural relics. Good Dunhuang story."
Today, the digital "Silk Road" has begun.
With the support of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, this project will systematically investigate and sort out the Cangjingdong cultural relics collected overseas through international cooperation, and build the "Dunhuang Cangjingdong Unearthed Document Catalogue" and "Cangjingdong Documents" in the Dunhuang Studies Information Resource Network "Research Catalog" thematic module, through the network to share Dunhuang academic resources of the Academy globally.
"Simplified" on Dunhuang
The Xuanquanzhi Site is a Han-Jin post-post site 64 kilometers east of Dunhuang City. More than 23,000 Chinese bamboo slips with characters were unearthed from 1990 to 1992. It is the earliest and best preserved Han Dynasty discovered so far. Jinyizhi Institution is rated as a World Cultural Heritage by UNESCO.
"Xuanquan Hanjian is a historical testimony to the exchange and mutual learning between Chinese and Western civilizations on the Silk Road." said Xiao Congli, director of the Organizing Research Department of Gansu Bamboo Slips Museum.
Zhang Defang, the former curator of Gansu Bamboo Slips Museum, pointed out in the article "Sino-Western Cultural Exchanges in Xuanquan Han Bamboo Slips": "The Xuanquan Han Bamboo Slips preserved a large number of Western Regions from the establishment of the prefecture until the end of the Western Han Dynasty. Xuanquan set a precious record of staying. The Han Dynasty set up the Western Regions to protect the Western Regions, and did not adopt the inland system of prefectures and counties for the Western Regions, but followed its old customs; stationed troops in important strategic areas to prevent the Huns from encroaching and be responsible Local public security; it is good for big countries such as Wusun and Qiuci to make peace with them, and to make Kundi brothers; pay attention to the exchange of Han culture and Western culture, etc., and effectively manage the vast areas of the Western Regions. It can also be seen from the materials of the Han Dynasty. Through frequent visits to Han, the countries of the Western Regions have continuously strengthened their sense of attachment, belonging and centripetal force."
"Since Zhang Qian opened the prelude to the diplomatic relations between ancient China and Central Asia, a large number of Chinese bamboo slips have added a lot of vivid details, concrete and vivid." Zhang Defang said.
Xuanquan Han Bamboo Slips is an important part of Northwest Bamboo Slips.
The Northwest Bamboo Slips provide historical data on the countries and regions along the Silk Road. They are the original documents for studying the ancient Silk Road, and it is a panoramic picture of the Silk Road.
In the past 20 years, Gansu scholars have organized and published the Gansu Qin and Han Slips.
"Gansu Qin and Han Bamboo Slips Collected Explanations" project is the latest collation of Gansu.
Since the start of the project in 2012, it is planned to publish four ten volumes, including one volume of "Dunhuang Maquanwan Chinese Bamboo Slips Collection", which has been successfully completed.
Following the publication of "Xuanquan Hanjian (1)", "Xuanquan Hanjian (2)" is also scheduled to be published in the near future.
Through combing, interpreting and presenting these historical documents, readers around the world will further deepen their understanding and knowledge of ancient China and the Silk Road.
(Guangming Daily reporter Song Xiqun and Wang Bingya)
Guangming Daily (version 07 on January 22, 2021)