Visualizing Familial Order: Female Donor Images in Mogao Cave 156 at Dunhuang

Abstract

Mogao Cave 156 preserves a remarkable group of clearly identified female donor images, providing important evidence for understanding kinship, social identity, and visual culture in Dunhuang during the Guiyijun (Return-to-Allegiance Army) period. Previous studies have primarily examined Cave 156 through the perspectives of political history, Zhang Yichao’s military authority, donor identification, and patronage systems, while the role of female donor imagery in constructing lineage identity and family memory has received comparatively limited attention. Focusing on the female donors in Cave 156, this article investigates how inscriptions, cartouches, iconographic features, and spatial organization contributed to the formation of a lineage-oriented visual program within the Buddhist cave space. It argues that these female images functioned not merely as representations of individual patrons but as visual instruments through which the Zhang clan articulated kinship relations, political legitimacy, and collective memory. Their integration into the cave’s broader representational structure reveals that female donors occupied an active role in the construction of family identity, expanding beyond the subordinate visual positions often assigned to female donors in earlier grotto contexts. Through an analysis of female donor imagery, this study demonstrates that Cave 156 reflects the changing function of donor representation during the Guiyijun period, when Buddhist cave construction increasingly became a medium for expressing family order, lineage continuity, and social authority. The female donors of Cave 156 thus provide a significant perspective for examining the intersection of gender, family, and political identity in Dunhuang visual culture.