As an original Early Tang cave at the Mogao Grottoes, cave 323 is the only Dunhuang cave to use Buddhist historical paintings as its theme. More particularly, the picture of Zhang Qian exploring the Western Regions on a diplomatic mission, which was a political and diplomatic event in Chinese history, was adopted as the earliest fact about the dissemination of Buddhism in the Central Plains. The “role reversal” of Zhang Qian’s diplomatic mission in this picture became an image of “historical memory” at least in the Tang dynasty, which reflects the dissemination of Buddhist images into the Central Plains. An investigation of the wall paintings and sculptures in this cave indicates that the designers or painters of this cave might have been monks who intended to entrust the mission of “searching for the name of the Buddha” to Zhang Qian, a pioneer in opening up the traffic route between China and the West. In other words, “role reversal” appeared in the historical event of Zhang Qian’s diplomatic mission. It was turned from a political image into a Buddhist theme and finally was fixed as special visual material endowed with the function of “historical memory,” thus playing an important role in the history of Buddhism. Therefore, this unique and original cave is important in the history of art, while the non-Chinese iconographic elements suggest that the owners of this cave might have been immigrants from the Western Regions.%莫高窟初唐第323窟属敦煌石窟中的“原创性”洞窟，窟内图像独特，是敦煌石窟群中仅存的主题为佛教史迹画内容的一窟。其中的“张骞出使西域图”更是特殊，把本来属于政治外交性质的张骞使西域历史附会为佛像传入汉地最早事件。在这幅壁画中张骞出使事件发生的“角色转换”，至少到初唐时期成为一种特殊的“历史记忆”图像，集中反映佛像传入汉地的历史。考察洞窟整体壁画及塑像，洞窟的设计者或绘画者很有可能为僧人，其目的是将“求佛名号”的使命交给中西交通开拓者的张骞身上。说明有唐一代，张骞出使西域的历史在佛教界发生了“角色转换”，由政治和外交图像转换为佛教题材内容，并最终成为一种独特的图像文献，赋有“历史记忆”的功能，在佛教发展史上占有一定的地位。因此，这种独一无二的原创性洞窟在艺术史上具有非常重要的意义。而从图像胡风因素出发，则可发现该窟的功德主有可能为来华的西域移民。
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