122 Chapter 3

Chapter 3 Maṇḍalas and Historical Memory

In the year 848, after nearly a century of Tibetan rule in Dunhuang, the Chinese general Zhang Yichao expelled the Tibetan commander, initiating a military campaign to regain China’s Central Asian territories.1 A native son of Dunhuang, Zhang had known only Tibetan rule.2 By the early 840s, the weakening Tibetan empire paved the way for new leadership in the region. First, the Uyghur empire, which adjoined Tibet’s northern border, fell in 840, destabilizing the region. Only two years later, the Tibetan emperor Lang Darma was assassi- nated, resulting in internal power struggles and a degradation of central authority.3 In 848 and again in 851, Zhang Yichao sent envoys to the Tang capi- tal of Chang’an in order to report his victory over the Tibetans. As a result of the latter envoy, by which time Zhang had attempted to consolidate the terri- tories of the Hexi Corridor, the Tang court awarded him the title of military governor (jiedushi 節度使) of the newly established Return to Allegiance Army (Guiyijun), so named because it pledged allegiance to the Tang court of China.4 This chapter will unpack two important developments during the Guiyijun era. The first is the continued legacy of the Tibetan period, manifested through

1 An account of Zhang Yichao’s life as viewed through Dunhuang manuscripts is provided in Rong Xinjiang 榮新江, Guiyijun shi yanjiu: Tang Song shidai Dunhuang lishi kaosuo 歸義軍 史研究: 唐宋時代敦煌歷史考索 (Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 1996), 62-78. Gertraud Taenzer hypothesizes that, because only a small number of Tibetan officials and servants lived in Dunhuang, Zhang Yichao’s army mainly had to battle members of the Tibetan army that were stationed roughly eight kilometers east at present-day Anxi; see Taenzer, “Changing Relations between Administration, Clergy and Lay People in Eastern Central Asia: A Case Study according to the Dunhuang Manuscripts Referring to the Transition from Tibetan to Local Rule in Dunhuang, 8th–11th Centuries,” in Carmen Meinert, ed., Transfer of Buddhism Across Central Asian Networks (7th to 13th Centuries) (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2016), 19-56; 36. 2 The Zhang clan was relatively powerful in the early Tang dynasty, but seems to have become less influential during the Tibetan period, avoiding official service. Of Zhang Yichao’s early history, we know little but for his keen interest in Buddhism, military affairs, and loyalty to the Tang court, as represented in the Dunhuang manuscripts. See Jidong Yang, “Zhang Yichao and Dunhuang in the 9th Century,” Journal of Asian History 32.2 (1998): 97-144; 105-9. 3 Yang, “Zhang Yichao and Dunhuang,” 109-10; Beckwith, Tibetan Empire in Central Asia, 168-70. 4 Rong, Guiyijun shi yanjiu, 64-65, 78; Yang, “Zhang Yichao and Dunhuang,” 113-18; Beckwith, Tibetan Empire in Central Asia, 170-71.

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2018 | doi 10.1163/9789004360402_005 Maṇḍalas and Historical Memory 123 stylistic and iconographic choices in the Mogao and Yulin cave shrines. Likely because of the perpetuation of this legacy, the Maṇḍala of Eight Great Bodhisattvas continued to serve as a symbol of political legitimacy in the post- Tibetan era through its appropriation by the Guiyijun rulers. Second, the adaptation of iconographic elements from the Vajradhātu Maṇḍala to the Maṇḍala of Eight Great Bodhisattvas reveals religious advances during this period. Much like the carvings and paintings of the Maṇḍala of Eight Great Bodhisattvas discussed in the previous chapter, paintings and monochrome ink diagrams based upon the Vajradhātu Maṇḍala varied greatly in composi- tion and style despite consistency in iconography. Yet it is precisely the visual treatment of the maṇḍala that provides insight into how the human work of ritual was conceptualized and distinguished from the heavenly realm of the Buddhas of the maṇḍala.

Mogao Cave 156 and the Victory of Zhang Yichao

Mogao Cave 156 is renowned for the paintings on the bottom panel of the south and north walls, which memorialize the triumphal procession of Zhang Yichao (fig. 50) and his consort, Lady Song (fig. 51), into the newly recovered lands of the Hexi Corridor. On the south wall, the inscription accompanying the oversized image of Zhang Yichao states, “Picture of the procession of Zhang Yichao, military governor of Hexi, acting minister of works and concurrent censor-in-chief, and his assembled troops expelling the Tibetan occupation and recovering the Hexi territory” (Hexi jiedushi jianxiao sikong jian yushi dafu Zhang Yichao tongjun □chu Tubo shoufu Hexi yidao hangtu 河西節度使檢 校司空兼御史大夫張義潮統軍□除吐蕃收復河西一道行圖).5 The procession numbers more than one hundred figures.6 Many of the members of the proces- sion are riding purposefully on horseback in an orderly military formation, clad in armor and wielding boldly decorated banners. The procession is accom- panied by a retinue of musicians, dancers, and civilian onlookers.7

5 Dunhuang yanjiuyuan 敦煌研究院, ed., Dunhuang Mogaoku gongyangren tiji 敦煌莫高 窟供養人題記 (Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, 1986), 74. Rong Xinjiang reads the missing character as sao 掃; Rong, Guiyijun shi yanjiu, 68. 6 Li Yuebai 李月伯, “Dunhuang Mogaoku di 156 ku fu di 161 ku de neirong jiqi yishu jiazhi” 敦煌莫高窟第156窟附第161窟的內容及其藝術價值, in Li Yuebai, Dunhuang shiku yishu: Mogaoku di 156 ku fu di 161 ku (wan Tang) 敦煌石窟藝術:莫高窟156窟附第161 窟 (晚唐) (Jiangsu: Jiangsu meishu chubanshe, 1995), 13-24; 21. 7 For representations of musical instruments and dancing in the procession, see Chen Ming 陳明, “Zhang Yichao chuxingtu zhongde lewu” 張議潮出行圖中的樂舞, Dun­