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Banner with flying ducks (detail)
花鳥文幡（局部）
Tang dynasty, 8th century A.D.
Silver on silk
Total length 131.0 cm
Painted area: H. 43.8 cm, W.14.2 cm
British Museum, Stein painting 127. Ch. 0024
See also Fig.45.
This banner is painted in silver which has generally turned dark but still retains a metallic sheen. It recalls a series of three banners, somewhat larger in size, in the Pelliot collection (Bannières, Nos. 205, 212, 213). One of these shows a kalavinka playing a pipa; the other two each have a small bird carrying a large spray of leaves and flowers. The Pelliot banners are all preserved complete with headpieces, side streamers, damask tail streamers painted with floral motifs, and weighting boards. With the present banner the side streamers are missing, and unfortunately the weighting board, of layers of woolen material covered with gauze and lacquered, is no longer preserved with the painting; but the headpiece is complete, and the four tail streamers almost complete, though very fragile. They are on a complex alternating gauze and are painted with small floral motifs in an opaque pigment, probably including some silver as in the main part of the banner.
It has been suggested by Waley that this was a marriage banner, but if we consider it together with the banners in the Pelliot collection, showing the musician kalavinka and song birds, it seems more probable that these are all intended to show the birds and musicians dwelling in the Western Paradise (see the note on kalavinka following the notes to Vol. 1, Pl. 9). A date in the ninth century, or earlier, has been proposed for the Pelliot banners and seems reasonable in view of the confident, relaxed curves of the brushwork, as well as the materials composing the banner, with the silk headpiece painted in bright colours, a piece of printed silk serving as a hanging loop, and two bamboo stiffeners wound first with raw white silk and then diagonally with coloured silk. The classic scroll at the bottom of the painted panel also suggests a late eighth century date, since the motifs within each wave of the scroll are not yet elaborated into a complete flower or leaf (personal communication from Jessica Rawson).
唐代,8世紀
絹本褐色底線描（銀泥）
幡全長：131.0釐米
圖案部分：高43.8釐米 寬14.2釐米
英国博物館,斯坦因繪畫127.Ch.0024
參照Fig.45.
此幡的圖案是用銀泥描繪，銀由於變色而發黑，但其金屬的光澤仍保留至今。在伯希和收集品中也見到三件尺寸稍大，與此有相同趣味的幡（參照伯希和圖錄《敦煌幡和繪畫》篇圖版205、212、213）。其中一件是演奏琵琶的迦陵頻伽，另外兩件上畫著銜巨大花枝的小鳥，三件都有幡頭、兩側的幡尾、繪有花紋的綾織幡腳、鎮板等，全都很完整。而本圖的幡，則缺兩側的幡尾，在紗包覆蓋的毛織布上塗漆而成的鎮板也已掉下。幡頭很完整，四根幡腳雖變得很脆弱，但保留也大致完整。幡腳用紋紗，用不透明的顔料繪著小的花紋。在那顔料裏，大概含有繪幡主體使用的銀泥。
Waley曾認爲此幡是結婚儀式上用的，但綜合伯希和收集品中繪著迦陵頻伽和小鳥的幡畫考慮，則看作是欲表現棲息於西方淨土的靈鳥更爲合適（參看第一卷圖9對迦陵頻伽的註釋）。伯希和收集品中的幡，相當於9世紀或者8世紀末的作品，此幡也大概是同一時代的作品。那是因它具備的舒展而無停頓的曲線和幡的材質，幡頭色彩明亮，吊環使用的印染絹。還有包著兩根竹芯的白色生絹，及上面像斜格子一樣纏的染色絹等。再，表現在此圖主體下端的古風的唐草文樣，花和葉子的形狀還不夠精致，認爲它是8世紀末的更爲妥當（根據與Jessica Rawson女士的私人交流）。