# Research on the Integration Method of Character Costume Culture in Dunhuang Murals Based on Deep Learning Algorithm

Authors: Ying Zhai; Ningjing Xuan; Hualong Shi; Qiao Liu
Journal: International Journal of Antennas and Propagation
 (2022)

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## Abstract

Objective. As one of the world’s cultural heritages, Dunhuang murals contain profound cultural, historical, social, and artistic values. In this paper, the evolution and progress of character costumes are analyzed and the development process of Chinese costumes is studied. Methods. This paper compares the characteristics of the costumes in different times; the progress and changes in graphics, styles, and textures; and the different characteristics from the costumes in the modern society. It also compares the coupling degree data of clothing culture in the two periods. Through analysis and research it is found that, compared with traditional algorithms, the integration of clothing culture using deep learning algorithms is more coupling. Through the calculation and analysis of clothing evolution in Dunhuang murals, more design inspiration can be provided for Chinese clothing designers, and more strength and research materials can be contributed to future design and clothing development in combination with ancient and modern clothing culture.


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## Body

## 1. Introduction

During the development of China’s 5000-year history and culture, Dunhuang murals became world cultural heritage, including 522 cave murals such as Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes, Western Thousand Buddha Caves, and Anxi Yulin Grottoes, covering a total area of more than 50000 square meters. The murals have a wide range of themes, rich contents, and exquisite skills. They depict in detail the image and activities of God and the relationship between God and man, so as to grant wishes and comfort the soul. The Dunhuang murals are refined from traditional painting art. They are carved on rocks by artisans. The painting content originates from life, the development of the times, art development, and social development. The Jiang Bowen Dunhuang murals span the Wei and Jin dynasties, Sui and Tang dynasties, and the Five Dynasties. Combined with the background of the times, folk cultural characteristics, religious beliefs, and other aspects, they absorb the characteristic traditions of surrounding ethnic minorities and display the integration achievements of Millennium culture and art by artistic means [1]. There are two main types of figure painting images in Dunhuang murals: one is Buddha painting with fantasy characters such as fairy tales, religion, Buddhism, Bodhisattvas, and gods as the protagonist. The main paintings include various Buddha statues, such as the third Buddha, the seventh Buddha, Sakyamuni, Duobao Buddha, Xianjie Thousand Buddha, and so on; Bodhisattva (Manjusri, Puxian, Guanyin, Shizhi, and others); Tianlong Babu (heavenly king, dragon king, Yasha, Feitian, Asura); Kalura (golden winged bird king) and; Jinnara (Lotte, python God, and so on). Most of these Buddha statues are painted in illustration. There are 933 illustrations in the murals of Mogao Grottoes alone, with 12208 Buddha statues with different expressions. The other kind of portrait is mainly about the patrons, who believe in Buddhism and invest in the construction of grottoes. In order to express their devotion and integrity to Buddha, they left a name for future generations. When they opened the cave for statues, they painted portraits of themselves, their families, relatives, slaves, and maidservants in the cave. These portraits are called the portraits of the providers. Zhou [2] studied that Dunhuang murals show people around the world China’s unique artistic culture and humanistic thought spirit by absorbing Chinese culture and comprehensively sorting and drawing different regions, cultures, beliefs, and arts into paintings. Zhang noted that clothing, food, housing, and transportation are the bases of human life, in which the clothing culture has a long history and runs through the history of human existence. Now people’s research on the clothing culture of previous dynasties mostly depends on the ancient books or scientific research work handed down from ancient times and archaeologists’ excavation and exploration of relic tombs. The rich historical details of the Dunhuang murals record the clothing characteristics of many dynasties, from emperors to civilians. For the study of clothing development with the characteristics of each dynasty, it has improved the rich image data [3]. In the long course of human development, the evolution of clothing is inseparable from the matching and rendering of colors. Through the production of different proportions of colors, the development of human clothing is more and more colorful and rich in styles. Bai in the 135 pictures of women’s clothing in the Tang Dynasty in the Dunhuang murals shows rich color matching. Through the extraction and investigation of the main color by current means, it can be determined that the clothing characteristics are relatively soft and delicate in the early stage of the development of the Tang Dynasty and more dignified and gorgeous in the prosperous Tang Dynasty. The clothing tends to be exotic in the middle Tang Dynasty and relatively simple in the late Tang Dynasty [4]. Qu excavated more than 200 Dunhuang Grottoes during the development of the Tang Dynasty. The characters in the murals were mainly women, and the images of female providers were mostly secular images of women at all levels of the Tang Dynasty, and even incorporated Buddhist art into the characters. For example, Bodhisattva, Feitian, and Kabuki have great commonalities in their clothing, makeup, and modeling. By studying their clothing cultural characteristics, they can provide rich inspiration for the development of current clothing designs [5]. Tang Dunhuang murals, due to the particularity of its geographical location, not only have rich characteristics of various Chinese dynasties and cultures but also have rich foreign cultures, such as the combination of silk culture and Buddhist culture in the Tang Dynasty. In terms of clothing skills, the Tang scroll grass pattern, Baoxiang pattern, Lianzhu pattern, Lingyang public pattern, and Ruijin pattern are typical Tang styles. In the Tang Dynasty, there also appeared the pattern form of the combination of Phoenix, cloud, and flower [6]. Since Zhang Qian left the Western regions to open up the silk road, the trade exchanges, cultural exchanges, and cultural and ideological exchanges between China and the Western regions have provided a lot of enlightenment and reference for the painting of the Dunhuang murals. In different historical dynasties, the painting style and color selection are different, forming different character mural styles and clothing development styles [7]. Clothing culture can not only reflect the artistic development level and cultural characteristics of a country but also show the country’s economic level, social culture, and spiritual beliefs. Gao as a clothing country, China has experienced the cultural changes of dynasties from ancient times to modern times, from fur coat, coat and lower garment, hair and right lapel, beard, and deep clothes, to wide clothes and ribbons in the Wei and Jin dynasties, elegance in the Tang Dynasty, seriousness and elegance in the Song and Yuan Dynasties, buttons in the Ming Dynasty, and full clothes in the Qing Dynasty, and modern clothing culture is colorful in Dunhuang murals [8]. In this paper, by comparing the traditional algorithms, the clothing culture in Dunhuang murals is mainly studied and analyzed under the deep learning algorithms. By comparing the historical value, cultural value, and artistic value of clothing culture, it is found that China’s clothing culture is rich and colorful in the diversity of clothing. More ethnic culture, artistic, and cultural elements can be found in clothing materials, styles, patterns, decorations, and so on. It not only provides more ideas for China’s clothing design but also has greater research value in the fields of history, culture, and art.


## 2. The Influence of Character Costumes in the Dunhuang Murals in Different Periods

The Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes were established in the second year of Jianyuan of the Qin Dynasty (AD 366). From the Sixteen Kingdoms to the Yuan Dynasty, it has experienced more than 1000 years of historical evolution. The grottoes were built in the Northern Wei Dynasty, the Western Wei Dynasty, the Northern Zhou Dynasty, the Sui Dynasty, the Tang Dynasty, the Five Dynasties, the Northern Song Dynasty, the Western Xia Dynasty, and the Yuan Dynasty without interruption. As a major clothing country in China, many costume designs and artistic inspirations benefit from Dunhuang murals. During the period of the Sixteen Kingdoms and the Northern and Southern Dynasties, Dunhuang was influenced by regions and ruled by many ethnic minorities, which were able to integrate many exotic cultural elements. Influenced by the trade along the Silk Road, the local residents are complicated and have different cultures. At that time, the emerging cultural characteristics of clothing were mainly Hu and Han clothes, and the official clothes of Hu and Han officials all imitated Han clothes. At that time, the clothing style of Dunhuang murals was simple and unified, and the overall clothing was mainly simple. In time, the clothing of princes and nobles was also a single-color matching, without complex pattern bottom case embellishment. It can be seen from the pictures of noble elders in the Northern Wei Dynasty and the costumes of kings and nobles in caves 257 and 285 of the Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang that the social and cultural costumes at that time had completely tended to be sinicized. With the simple fashion style of the Sui and Tang dynasties, it began to break the monotonous fashion style of the Sui and Tang dynasties and began to integrate into the unique fashion style of jewelry and the Tang Dynasties. The Tang Dynasty was a very prosperous dynasty. Under the stable environment of politics, society, environment, and humanities at that time, people were more open to dress in clothing. Women in the Tang Dynasty were extremely open in dress. They not only enriched the decorative patterns in dress color but also wore them more boldly and nakedly. From princesses and nobles to ordinary people, women can wear sexy naked clothes without being discriminated against and instructed to. In addition, as one of the men’s Hu suits in the Tang Dynasty, round-neck robes were also favored by women and once became the clothing choice for women to travel. In the portrait of the governor’s wife at Cave 130 in the prosperous Tang Dynasty, the maid behind him was wearing a man’s Hu suit with ribbons around her waist. This phenomenon also shows the high status of women in the Tang Dynasty. We can also see the prosperity of the Tang Dynasty, the prosperity of culture, and the openness of thought. Dunhuang cultural elements were shown incisively and vividly in the clothing development of the Tang Dynasty. The development of clothing is an important embodiment of the development of Chinese culture and art. In the clothing designs of the Tang Dynasty, natural life such as flowers, birds, fish, and insects was used to outline the pattern background, break the inherent feudal thought, and use exaggerated expression painting to integrate art and life culture. Pan Dunhuang, as an important traffic artery of the Silk Road, combines the collision and integration of Eastern and Western cultures, ideas, and religious ideas, creating the world-heritage Dunhuang murals. The figure costumes and patterns in the murals provide detailed research data and ideas for the development of modern costumes; flying ribbons with mythological colors and phoenix patterns with Chinese mythological significance; and explore their clothing design concept, clothing structure, and clothing fabrics for reference and inspiration [9]. Through the comparison of Dunhuang mural costumes in different periods, the following Figure 1 is obtained:Figure 1
Comparative analysis of characters’ costumes in Dunhuang murals in different periods.As shown in Figure1, it can be seen that Dunhuang murals are much higher than modern costumes in clothing color, clothing type, and clothing design. Because Dunhuang is located at the main traffic road of the Silk Road and integrates foreign cultural ideas, Western countries have frequent business exchanges and introduce a lot of clothing ideas in art and culture. Compared with modern clothing culture, the clothing culture of Dunhuang murals in recent thousands of years is more complex and diverse. No matter from the color contrast and collocation, pattern decoration, mythological elements, and design scheme, it can better show the overall clothing cultural characteristics of our country and provide a lot of research materials and inspiration for the development of clothing design in the future.


## 3. Analysis of the Background and Current Situation of Dunhuang Murals

The Dunhuang murals are the crystallization of history, culture, and art in the development of China. They are an important way and cultural site to promote the spread of the Buddhist culture. Since the opening of the Silk Road, there have been frequent business exchanges between China and the West, which has promoted the integration of artistic ideas in Dunhuang and introduced many exotic cultural ideas. The special geology of Dunhuang has brought about the emergence of the Dunhuang murals. The artistic creation is carried out by means of mural painting, which records the historical stories of all dynasties, in which the characters are vivid and the content is real; and he is good at using artistic techniques such as myth and religion to draw. A large number of Dunhuang murals not only show the labor wisdom and exquisite skills of the ancient people but also show the spirit of continuous renewal and innovation of China’s ancient culture and art. Its artistic beauty is not only reflected in the living and cultural atmosphere of different historical dynasties but also reflects the perfect combination and unity of the mural level of each dynasty. The Dunhuang murals span thousands of years of history, from the split state after the Han Dynasty to the Wei, Jin, North, and South to the prosperity of the Tang Dynasty. The people’s lives, social development, and progress described in the murals have played important roles in exploring the history of China. The clothing depiction of the dependents in Huangshan murals can explore the change process and development direction of China’s clothing culture. From the costumes of historical figures, royal nobles, and civilians, we can find the social development and historical changes of each dynasty, which is of great significance to the study of history and culture in China [10]. Kan Dunhuang murals are not only of great research value in the field of art but also of great value in the field of science and technology. More than 80 agricultural maps in the murals depict the scientific and technological levels in agricultural development, including more than 10 kinds of production activities and more than 20 kinds of production tools, such as the curved yuan plow, sowing tripod columbine, and so on. In addition, there are many strange utensils and porcelain. Transportation means all represent the scientific exchange between China and the West in ancient times [11]. A large number of color seasoning specimens in mural costumes represent the progress and development of metal smelting technology in ancient China, which also provide excellent data in the study of the history of science and technology in China. With the improvement and progress of scientific level, Han Hongbin used the artistic elements of character costumes in Dunhuang murals to carry out innovative research in the field of modern clothing development and develop innovative clothing design concepts and artistic elements. Integrating the artistic flavor of ancient people into the field of modern cultural design shows its unique artistic charm [12]. Zhou the clothing color in Dunhuang murals not only integrates the ancient clothing culture and artistic color but also reflects the social conditions, economic conditions, and cultural thoughts in the historical period. It is helpful to study ancient history and provides a good reference resource for the development of clothing in modern society [13]. The value of the Dunhuang murals is analyzed and compared from the fields of history, science and technology, and art, as shown in Figure 2.Figure 2
Analysis of the background value of the Dunhuang murals.As shown in Figure2, it can be seen that the first focus of Dunhuang murals is historical value, up to 42.03%. From the perspective of history, we can have a more complete understanding of the historical development, history, and culture of each period; secondly, from the perspective of scientific and technological value, the proportion reached 29.08%. The Dunhuang murals spanning thousands of years have been preserved so far, and the scientific and technological levels contained therein have great research value. The artistic value of murals accounts for 28.89%. The purely manual carving skills, the cultural spread of Buddhism, the detailed description of characters and costumes, and the artistic collocation of colors all show the vigorous development of ancient art, which is of long-standing significance to the inheritance of culture and art in China. The development of Dunhuang mural costumes, through the evolution of each dynasty, has integrated Buddhist art and culture and Western region painting art and cultural connotation. After three or four hundred years of evolution, it has completely formed its own national style and artistic characteristics in the Tang Dynasty. This learning attitude of introduction, integration, and innovation is still of great significance to the development of today’s social art field.


## 4. The Coupling Degree of Character Costumes to Modern Costumes in Dunhuang Murals with Different Algorithms

Dunhuang, with the largest number of murals in the world, is a treasure of human culture and art. It is of great significance to better understand the politics, economy, culture, nationality, religion, diplomatic relations, people’s production and lives, music and dance, clothing, and other aspects of the times. Clothing is the most basic material for human survival and an important system of social progress and cultural development. The most representative image data of clothing culture provide favorable conditions and important reference materials for the study of culture in each period. From Dunhuang’s painting costumes, we can not only see all aspects of social life in each period but also experience the extensive and profound material culture, spiritual culture, social fashion, and cultural integration in each period.Clothing is the unique labor achievement of mankind. It is not only the crystallization of material civilization but also has the meaning of spiritual civilization. It has been hundreds of thousands of years since human society passed through ignorance and barbarism to the era of civilization. It has evolved into today’s modern civilized society. In order to better count material culture, spiritual culture, social customs, and cultural fusion, we compare and analyze them under different algorithms. The data obtained are shown in Table1.Table 1
Coupling degree of the Dunhuang murals and modern costumes under different algorithms.
GroupingMaterial cultureSpiritual cultureSocial fashionCultural fusionConventional algorithm41.2343.5648.9247.58Deep learning algorithm66.8972.1375.1269.82T8.888.967.659.01p0.0380.0430.0470.035In Table1, the data values of material culture, spiritual culture, social fashion, and cultural integration in the conventional algorithm are less than 50%, while in the deep learning algorithm, the data ratio of these four cultural factors is more than 65%, which is higher than that in the conventional algorithm. Using the deep learning algorithm, we can classify and recalculate the changes of texture and graphics, character image, and clothing in Dunhuang frescoes according to the new scientific and technological levels and calculation methods. Deep learning is the internal law and expression level of learning sample data. The information obtained in the learning process is very helpful in the interpretation of data such as text, image, and sound. Its goal is to enable machines to have the same analysis and learning ability as human beings and to recognize data such as characters, images, and sounds. According to the research findings of the four aspects of mural costumes, the use of conventional algorithms can be relatively simple only to study the material culture, spiritual culture, social customs, and cultural integration. The use of in-depth learning algorithms can obviously conduct in-depth research on the costume culture in Dunhuang murals, and the results also more intuitively reflect the progress and historical value of China’s costume inheritance. Therefore, it can be seen that the influence of cultural factors on the deep learning algorithm plays an important role. In the statistical algorithm, we make a comparative analysis and get t < 10, p<0.05, which is more statistically significant.In order to observe the coupling degree of cultural factors more intuitively and better, Figure3 is drawn according to the data obtained in Table 1.Figure 3
Visual analysis of the Dunhuang murals and modern costumes under different algorithms.As shown in Figure3, under the deep learning algorithm, modern clothing is the biggest feature of modern Chinese women’s clothing, integrating social fashion factors. At that time, women generally wore cheongsams. Cheongsam was originally the favorite dress of Manchu women. After the 1920s, Han women also imitated it, pushed through the old and brought forth the new on the original basis, and made continuous improvement. Finally, it became the main dress of Chinese women. The two algorithms have obvious changes in the changes of modern clothing, which provides a basis for the later social progress and changes in clothing.


## 5. Optimization Analysis of the Costumes and Cultural Factors of Dunhuang Murals in Different Periods

The art, culture, and clothing evolution history contained in the Dunhuang frescoes represent the evolution of wisdom in the historical development of China and are the excellent creations of Chinese art and culture. With the continuous improvement of people’s spiritual pursuits, people’s living tastes are more and more inclined to artistic aesthetics. The Dunhuang Grottoes are Chinese art with research values. After more than 1000 years and more than 10 dynasties, they have developed from initial creation to prosperity and finally declined. In this process of change, they show us the historical, cultural , and clothing factors of different times. In the Wei and Jin dynasties, there were some ethnic minorities living at that time. First, their main clothing was influenced by the clothing styles of ethnic minorities, with obvious Hu characteristics; second, influenced by the traditional costume culture of the Central Plains, they inherited the orthodox style of praising clothes and bringing wealth since the Han and Wei dynasties. Of course, their national costumes have also been put forward and reflected in the Dunhuang murals. At the peak of the Sui and Tang dynasties, clothing went hand in hand, complemented each other, and combined into a whole. This is the product of the great national integration in the Northern and Southern dynasties, and it is also the most significant change in China’s service system in the Middle Ages. Until the Five Dynasties period, the costumes were basically divided into Hui and Han mixed costumes. Therefore, the characters in this period were influenced by both Han costumes and Uighur costumes.Based on the clothing factors and cultural factors of the three periods, the clothing and cultural factors of the modern period are compared, and the comparative data values of the four periods are compared. The data values obtained through data analysis are drawn in Table2.Table 2
Comparison of the influence of clothing and culture in different periods.
GroupingWei and Jin dynastiesSui and Tang dynastiesFive Dynasties periodModern periodClothing factors35.2345.8638.4251.28Cultural factor40.1259.5654.7667.12In Table2, only in the Sui and Tang dynasties, compared with the Wei, Jin, and Five Dynasties, the data value of the Sui and Tang Dynasties is above the two periods. In the modern period, due to the development of society, the diversification of clothing, and the improvement of acceptance ability, the clothing factor in the modern period is much higher than that in the first three periods. In terms of cultural factors, the data values of Sui and Tang dynasties have changed significantly than those of the Wei, Jin, and Five dynasties. The Tang Dynasty was one of the most dazzling dynasties in Chinese history. We often call it “Furong Datang.” Its national unity, social stability, economic prosperity, and cultural prosperity are still talked about by us today. Its social development reached its peak of prosperity during the “Zhenguan rule” and “Kaiyuan rule” from Taizong to Xuanzong. Therefore, compared with the Wei, Jin, and Five dynasties, there are obvious changes. In the modern period, the improvement of cultural quality and the diversification of clothing put the data value on the high side. Therefore, the development and progress of an era determine the influence of clothing and cultural factors. The application system of cultural factors in modern clothing design has diversified China’s cultural development. As the representative of traditional culture and art, it plays a role of frame structure in modern clothing. The data value analysis of the two in different periods can be seen more clearly. Figure 4 is drawn according to the data values in Table 2.Figure 4
Visual analysis of the impact of clothing and culture in different periods.As shown in Figure4, clothing and cultural factors were in an upward trend in the Sui and Tang dynasties because the social background was relatively prosperous at that time, while in the Five Dynasties, due to the changing social background and social unrest, these factors were in a downward trend. In the modern era, society was stable, the economy was prosperous, people’s acceptance ability was relatively strong, and the data value of clothing factors was relatively high. Therefore, different periods have an important impact on clothing and cultural factors.


## 6. Summary

Based on the deep learning algorithm, this study examines the method of cultural integration of character costumes in the Dunhuang murals. On the premise of the current background of the Dunhuang murals at that time, this study further analyzes the optimization of cultural factors by comparing the influence of character costumes in the Dunhuang murals in different periods and the coupling between character costumes and modern costumes under different algorithms. Finally, the cultural factors in different periods have a deep impact on clothing. Based on the in-depth learning algorithm, this study observes the method of cultural integration of character costumes in the Dunhuang murals. By taking the current background of the Dunhuang murals as the premise, the impact on character costumes in the Dunhuang murals in different periods, and the comparison of the coupling degree between their character costumes and modern costumes under different algorithms, we further optimize and analyze the cultural factors. Finally, the cultural factors in different periods have a deep impact on clothing. The social culture and economy under the background of the times had an important influence on the costumes at that time. In the modern society, the costumes of characters in the Dunhuang murals also had a deep impact on modern times, providing reference conditions for modern costumes; thus, promoting the economic development of the society and laying a foundation for modern costumes. In China’s clothing design industry, the clothing research based on Dunhuang frescoes also contributes more inspiration and ideas to the future design and development of clothing in China. In the process of historical mining value, the use of deep learning can also conduct in-depth research and exploration on Dunhuang frescoes to create greater historical value. In the field of art, the evolution of clothing has also condensed the cultural and artistic characteristics of thousands of years in China, and the folk characteristics and regional culture of different periods have also been more reflected in the clothing of China.



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