Dunhuang frescoes as the highlight of human culture are very likely to be regarded as products of pure art on account of their external visual features. As a result, their essential doublelayer spiritual and secular implications are usually neglected. In fact, however, “moral and ethics” as the core of “human culture” take an indispensable place in the component elements of Dunhuang frescoes. Showing concern with and making an exploration of this part of them can, on the one hand, help to understand the development and change on moral and ethics in a certain region and, on the other hand, restore the true feature of Dunhuang frescoes as an important component part of Dunhuang studies.

Dunhuang frescoes; Buddhist art; moral painting; artistic ethics