敦煌莫高窟的“人非人”形象及其启示

The “Non-human Man” Image in the Mogao Grottoes of Dunhuang and its Enlightenment

敦煌莫高窟的人形有翼兽有多种称谓,"人非人"即是其中的一种。但是,这类形象并非局限于一时一地,在洛阳、西安、太原等地都有发现,其含义与名称也各不相同。南北朝是佛教、儒家礼教、道教、祆教等杂糅共处的时代,莫高窟的人形有翼兽恰好就处在一个交叉点上。不同的信仰者均使用了同一类图像,这就使研究者产生很大分歧,在图像与观念、实物与文献之间不断产生困惑。正如早期基督教艺术对希腊罗马异教图像的篡改一样,汉地旧有的神灵图像也在佛教、道教、祆教图像的建立过程中被挪用和更改,这是莫高窟的人形有翼兽带给我们的启示。

The human-shaped animals in the Mogao Grottoes of Dunhuang have various names, and one of them is the non-human man. Strangely enough, this type of image was not restricted to one time or one location, but was found in such places as Luoyang, Xi＇ an and Taiyuan and given different meanings and names. The North and South Dynasties were the times when Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism and Zoroastrianism blended and co- existed, at the intersection of which rose the human-shaped animals in the Mogao Grottoes. People of different worships used the same icon, which caused serious differences among researchers who continued to be confused between icon and conception and between objects and documents. Just as early Christian art distorted Greek and Roman pagan icons, so the former images of gods in China Were distorted and diverted in the process of establishing the Buddhist, Taoist and Zoroastrian images, which is just the enlightenment the human-shaped animals in the Mogao Grottoes reveals to us.