Since the mural painting in the main room of Cave 321 at Mogao, Dunhuang-dating from the era of Wu Zetian (684-705)-are largely intact, it serves as a representative example of Dunhang cave art from this period. Among the various subject matter in the mural paintings found in this cave, the Baoyu Sutra illustration on the south wall and Eleven-headed Guanyin on the east wall are unprecedented at Dunhuang. Both subjects, in fact, are closely connected with Wu Zetian. In addition, the arrangement of the three elements-sun, moon and kong-in the Baoyu Sutra illustration can be found in the character for Wu Zetian's given name (Zhao 曌). Thus, this illustration was intended to glority Empress Wu's receiving of the Mandate of Heaven. The northern wall bears a grand illustration of the paradise of the Amitabha Buddha, of which various iconographic characteristics draw upon both the Sukhavati-vyuha and the Amitayus-dhyana sutras. Although the Amitayus-dhyana Sutra was used as a source for Western Paradise illustrations before the monk Shandao (613-681), it was his influence that cemented the popularity of these illustrations. During the early Tang dynasty, the famous painter Yuchi Yiseng (act. Ca. 650-710) was active in Chang'an and Luoyang. The brushwork, shading and the use of color in the mural paintings at Cave 321 resemble the description of Yuchi Yiseng's Buddhist mural painting recorded in various accounts. In sum, Dunhuang mural paintings of the late Wu Zetian era were, in figural form, composition, technique, and subject, closely related to Buddhist painting found in the monasteries of the Chang'an and Luoyang metropolitan region. It is quite evident that the artistic mode of the Wu Zetian era expressed in the murals of Cave 321 was nourished by the arrival of new intellectual trends and painting techniques from the Chinese heartland.