• International Journal of Advanced Culture Technology
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.16-29
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• 2024

Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang, China is one of the world cultural heritage, is the largest ancient grottoes art group in the world, and is a natural and cultural place with outstanding universal value for mankind all over the world. Dunhuang music and dance derived from the murals of Mogao Grottoes is an artistic representation of its thousand-year-old glorious history and an indispensable historical material for research. As one of the iconic images of Dunhuang music and dance, the "rebound lute behind the back" dance posture has unique charm value both in the original mural composition and the stage image. This paper analyzes the characters holding pipa in Dunhuang murals by case analysis, comparative research and other relevant research methods, then studies the stage image and posture of "rebound lute behind the back", and finally analyzes the stage works of "rebound lute behind the back". It is concluded that the dance image of "rebound lute behind the back" is a dynamic stage art work gradually formed by artists from the static Dunhuang murals through refining, developing, processing and transforming. This is to revive the image of Dunhuang music and dance murals, to provide reference and reference for the inheritance and development of Dunhuang culture, and then to enhance and enrich the artistic value of excellent traditional Chinese culture and world cultural heritage.

• Asian review of World Histories
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.105-127
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• 2014

The Silk Road, a trans-Eurasian network of trade routes connecting East and Southeast Asia to Central Asia, India, Southwest Asia, the Mediterranean, and northern Europe, which flourished from roughly 100 BCE to around 1450, has enjoyed two modern eras of intense academic study. The first spanned a period of little more than five decades, from the late nineteenth century into the early1930s, when a succession of European, Japanese, and American scholar-adventurers, working primarily in Chinese Turkestan (present-day Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, which comprises China's vast northwest) and China's Gansu Province (to the immediate east of Xinjiang) rediscovered and often looted many of the ancient sites and artifacts of the Silk Road. The second era began to pick up momentum in the 1980s due to a number of geopolitical, cultural, and technological realities as well as the emergence of the New World History as a historiographical field and area of teaching. This second period of fascination with the Silk Road has resulted in not only a substantial body of both learned and popular publications as well as productions in other media but also in an ever-expanding sense among historians of the scope, reach, and significance of the Silk Road.

• Acta Via Serica
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.119-128
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• 2019

This paper attempts to reveal little-known pages from the history of relations between the peoples of Central Asia and Korea based on materials derived from written sources and modern scientific literature, as well as from medieval wall paintings from the early medieval Afrasiab Palace of Varhuman, the ruler of Samarkand, and from stone sculptures of Sogdian figures contained in Silla royal tombs. Korea's interest in the western lands led to its contact with Buddhism, which spread and later flourished in all three Korean kingdoms (Koguryo, Paekche and Silla). The spread of Buddhism in turn motivated a number of Korean monks to undertake pilgrimages to India via Central Asia. Hyecho, a young Silla pilgrim, left evidence of his journey via the South China Sea to India in 723 AD. Paul Pelliot discovered a report from Hyecho's journey entitled Notes on Pilgrimage to Five Regions in India (Wang Wu Tianzhuguo zhuan) in the Dunhuang caves in 1908. Hyecho's contributions are worthy of attention, substantially complementing knowledge available for this little-studied period in the history of South and Central Asia. The information contained in Hyecho's manuscript is, in fact, considered the most significant work of the first half of the 8th century. Research regarding the relationship between Central Asia and Korea remains underdeveloped. Existing historical evidence, however, including the above mentioned Samarkand wall paintings, depicts the visits of two Korean ambassadors to Samarkand, and evidence from Silla tombs suggests the presence of diplomatic relations in addition to trade between the two regions. Overall, the history of the relationship between Central Asia and Korea yields new insights into how and why these distant countries sustained trade and diplomatic and cultural exchange during this early period. Taking into account Korea's growing interest in Uzbekistan, especially in its history and culture, this article can act as a catalyst for studying the history of the two country's relations.

• Korean Journal of Heritage: History & Science
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• v.33
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• pp.182-208
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• 2000

Kwan-gyongdo is a pictorial presentation of a $s{\bar{u}}tra$ that teaches the Buddhist way for a person to be reincarnated in the paradise of $Amit{\bar{a}}bha$ Buddha. It consists of a preface (Kwan-gyong sobun pyonsangdo) and 16 scenes of $S{\bar{a}}kyamuni$ preaching. The preface, a painting illustrating the motivation behind the production of tile kwan-gyongdo, illustrates the "Legend of King $Aj{\bar{a}}tasatru$", a tragic story in which the prince of India's Magadha kingdom murders his father, the king, to usurp the throne. The 16 subsequent scenes show $S{\bar{a}}kyamuni$ teaching the distressed queen how a person can be reborn in paradise through meditation and praying. In the kwan-gyongdo in the Mogao Cave No. 17 in Dunhuang, China, painted during the Tang dynasty (618-907), the preface and the 16 scenes are presented in one painting, whereas they are presented in two paintings in those painted in Korea during the Koryo period (918-1392). The difference is attributed to the stylistic disparity of the two periods. Despite the temporal gap between the Koryo paintings and the Mogao Cave paintings, a comparison of the two can show the characteristic development of kwan-gyongdo. Kwan-gyongdo of the Koryo period do not have the "enmity created in the previous life" scene featuring a heavenly figure and a hare, a result that shows the influence of the Tang school that deleted the scene. The scene of $S{\bar{a}}kyamuni$ preaching on the Mountain of Spirit is included in kwan-gyongdo of both the Koryo period and the Mogao Cave, but the scene of $S{\bar{a}}kyamuni$ emerging from the earth to the Magadha palace is not included in Koryo kwan-gyongdo. Kwan-gyongdo of Koryo are generally a simpler but more faithful rendering of the $s{\bar{u}}tra$.

• Korean Journal of Heritage: History & Science
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• v.52 no.2
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• pp.292-307
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• 2019

Buddhists have always tended to adorn and embellish Buddhist statues and their surrounding spaces in order to exhibit the grandeur and sublime nature of the Buddha. The various kinds of splendid instruments and implements used in such ornamentation are collectively called jangeomgu in Korean. Thus, the term jangeomgu encompasses articles used to decorate Buddhist statues, halos, and baldachin, as well as Buddhist banners and wind chimes, which are generally hung outside a building. Wind chimes are still widely used at Buddhist temples. In China, judging from various structures such as the Wooden Stupa of Yongningsi in Luoyang and the Dunhuang Caves, wind chimes began to be used around the sixth century. As for Korea, Buddhism was first introduced from China during the Three Kingdoms Period, and Koreans accordingly began to build Buddhist temples and buildings. It would appear that wind chimes came to be used around the time that the first temples were built. The oldest extant wind chime in Korea is the gilt-bronze wind chime of Baekje, discovered at the Mireuksa Temple Site in Iksan. In general, Korean wind chimes dating from the Three Kingdoms Period are classified into two general types according to their shape and elevation, i.e., those shaped like a Buddhist bell and those shaped like a trapezoid. As these two forms of wind chimes have influenced each other over time, those made during the Goryeo dynasty, having inherited the style, structure, and design of the preceding period, display such features. At the same time, the artisans who produced wind chimes pursued technical development and adopted free, yet not extravagant, designs. In particular, Goryeo wind chimes are characterized by original designs created through exchanges with other Buddhist art forms of the same period, such as the embossed lotus design band of Goryeo bells; the bullmun design, which served to display the grandeur of the royal family; the samhwanmun design, which consisted of decorating the interior of a Goryeo incense burner with three holes; Sanskrit designs; and designs inspired by the windows and doors of stone pagodas. In this way, the production of Goryeo wind chimes developed with a focus on purpose while being free of formal constraints. This study started out from the fact that the largest number of Korean wind chimes were produced during the Goryeo dynasty. Therefore, research on wind chimes should be based on those of the Goryeo dynasty, especially since fewer relevant studies have been conducted compared to studies on other forms of Buddhist art. For the purposes of this study, the reasons for the production of wind chimes will be examined first, followed by an examination of the various styles of Korean wind chimes. Then, based on the findings of this investigation, the development and characteristics of the wind chimes produced during the Goryeo dynasty will be explored for each period.

• MISULJARYO - National Museum of Korea Art Journal
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• v.98
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• pp.226-241
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• 2020

Located on the right side of the third floor of the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, the "Art of Central Asia" exhibition boasts the world's finest collection of artworks and artifacts from the Silk Road. Every item in the collection has been classified by region, and many of them were collected in the early twentieth century through archaeological surveys led by Russia's Pyotr Kozlov, Mikhail Berezovsky, and Sergey Oldenburg. Some of these artifacts have been presented around the world through special exhibitions held in Germany, France, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Korea, Japan, and elsewhere. The fruits of Russia's Silk Road expeditions were also on full display in the 2008 exhibition The Caves of One Thousand Buddhas - Russian Expeditions on the Silk Route on the Occasion of 190 Years of the Asiatic Museum, held at the Hermitage Museum. Published in 2018 by the Shanghai Chinese Classics Publishing House in collaboration with the Hermitage Museum, Kuche Art Relics Collected in Russia introduces the Hermitage's collection of artifacts from the Kuche (or Kucha) region. While the book focuses exclusively on artifacts excavated from the Kuche area, it also includes valuable on-site photos and sketches from the Russian expeditions, thus helping to enhance readers' overall understanding of the characteristics of Kuche art within the Buddhist art of Central Asia. The book was compiled by Dr. Kira Samosyuk, senior curator of the Oriental Department of the Hermitage Museum, who also wrote the main article and the artifact descriptions. Dr. Samosyuk is an internationally renowned scholar of Central Asian Buddhist art, with a particular expertise in the art of Khara-Khoto and Xi-yu. In her article "The Art of the Kuche Buddhist Temples," Dr. Samosyuk provides an overview of Russia's Silk Road expeditions, before introducing the historical development of Kuche in the Buddhist era and the aspects of Buddhism transmitted to Kuche. She describes the murals and clay sculptures in the Buddhist grottoes, giving important details on their themes and issues with estimating their dates, and also explains how the temples operated as places of worship. In conclusion, Dr. Samosyuk argues that the Kuche region, while continuously engaging with various peoples in China and the nomadic world, developed its own independent Buddhist culture incorporating elements of Gandara, Hellenistic, Persian, and Chinese art and culture. Finally, she states that the culture of the Kuche region had a profound influence not only on the Tarim Basin, but also on the Buddhist grottoes of Dunhuang and the central region of China. A considerable portion of Dr. Samosyuk's article addresses efforts to estimate the date of the grottoes in the Kuche region. After citing various scholars' views on the dates of the murals, she argues that the Kizil grottoes likely began prior to the fifth century, which is at least 100 years earlier than most current estimates. This conclusion is reached by comparing the iconography of the armor depicted in the murals with related materials excavated from the surrounding area (such as items of Sogdian art). However, efforts to date the Buddhist grottoes of Kuche must take many factors into consideration, such as the geological characteristics of the caves, the themes and styles of the Buddhist paintings, the types of pigments used, and the clothing, hairstyles, and ornamentation of the depicted figures. Moreover, such interdisciplinary data must be studied within the context of Kuche's relations with nearby cultures. Scientific methods such as radiocarbon dating could also be applied for supplementary materials. The preface of Kuche Art Relics Collected in Russia reveals that the catalog is the first volume covering the Hermitage Museum's collection of Kuche art, and that the next volume in the series will cover a large collection of mural fragments that were taken from Berlin during World War II. For many years, the whereabouts of these mural fragments were unknown to both the public and academia, but after restoration, the fragments were recently re-introduced to the public as part of the museum's permanent exhibition. We look forward to the next publication that focuses on these mural fragments, and also to future catalogs introducing the artifacts of Turpan and Khotan. Currently, fragments of the murals from the Kuche grottoes are scattered among various countries, including Russia, Germany, and Korea. With the publication of this catalog, it seems like an opportune time to publish a comprehensive catalog on the murals of the Kuche region, which represent a compelling mixture of East-West culture that reflects the overall characteristics of the region. A catalog that includes both the remaining murals of the Kizil grottoes and the fragments from different parts of the world could greatly enhance our understanding of the murals' original state. Such a book would hopefully include a more detailed and interdisciplinary discussion of the artifacts and murals, including scientific analyses of the pigments and other materials from the perspective of conservation science. With the ongoing rapid development in western China, the grotto murals are facing a serious crisis related to climate change and overcrowding in the oasis city of Xinjiang. To overcome this challenge, the cultural communities of China and other countries that possess advanced technology for conservation and restoration must begin working together to protect and restore the murals of the Silk Road grottoes. Moreover, centers for conservation science should be established to foster human resources and collect information. Compiling the data of Russian expeditions related to the grottoes of Kuche (among the results of Western archaeological surveys of the Silk Road in the early twentieth century), Kuche Art Relics Collected in Russia represents an important contribution to research on Kuche's Buddhist art and the Silk Road, which will only be enhanced by a future volume introducing the mural fragments from Germany. As the new authoritative source for academic research on the artworks and artifacts of the Kuche region, the book also lays the groundwork for new directions for future studies on the Silk Road. Finally, the book is also quite significant for employing a new editing system that improves its academic clarity and convenience. In conclusion, Dr. Kira Samosyuk, who planned the publication, deserves tremendous praise for taking the research of Silk Road art to new heights.