云冈第38窟音乐树图像研究

A Study on the Images of the Music Tree in Cave 38 at the Yungang Grottoes

第38窟属云冈晚期(494-525),系吴忠伟为亡子吴天恩荐福所造。窟内东、西两壁均雕有音乐树,但其无论树形还是树上乐伎的属性皆异。本文首先辨识音乐树上所雕乐器内容,然后根据壁面造像内容结合佛经分析认为,该窟西壁表现的是西方净土之树,东壁表现的是弥勒兜率净土之树。

Cave 38 was constructed by Wu Zhongwei for his deceased son Wu Tian’en in the late phase of the Yungang caves(494-525). Images of a music tree appear on both the eastern and western walls of the cave,but the shapes of the trees and the attributes of the musicians in the trees are different. This paper first identifies the musical instruments engraved in the images, then analyzes the trees by comparing them with textual descriptions from relevant Buddhist scriptures. The researchers concludes that the tree on the west wall is a tree of the Buddhist Western Pure Land, while the one on the east wall depicts a tree of the Tusita Heaven of Maitreya.