A study of the Central Plains Style of figure and genre painting in the early period of the Dunhuang Grottoes

This paper makes a careful examination of the "Central Plains Style" of figure and genre painting in the early period of Dunhuang Grottoes and the track of development, pointing out three stages in the development of the "Central Plains Style" of figure and genre painting. The first stage transmits the traditional style of the Han and Jin dynasties; in the second stage, during the Northern Wei and the Western Wei dynasties, a new art style was transmitted to Dunhuang; in the third stage, during the Northern Zhou dynasty and later, there was a merging of the Central Plains and Western Regions styles. This article traces the sources of diverse painting styles and identifies successive changes in figure and genre painting under the central plains influence. The local style in Dunhuang has some features that are not identical with those of the Central Plains.