Definition
1. A stone chamber carved from mountain rock. Also refers to a stone cave. 2. A temple building dug into the mountain, with murals of Buddha statues or Buddhist stories inside. The famous ones include Dunhuang Grottoes, Maijishan Grottoes, Yungang Grottoes, Longmen Grottoes, etc.
Edit this section for introduction
Grottoes and Indian Buddhist architectural forms
From the Northern Wei Dynasty (386-534) to the Sui Dynasty (581-618) and the Tang Dynasty (618-907) ) was the heyday of grottoes, especially during the Tang Dynasty when many large grottoes were built, but the number gradually decreased after the Tang Dynasty. During this period, the Yellow River Basin was the political, cultural, and economic center of China. The Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang, Gansu, the Maijishan Grottoes in Tianshui, Gansu, the Yungang Grottoes in Datong, Shanxi, and the Longmen Grottoes in Luoyang, Henan are known as the four major grottoes in China
Grotto Art and Religious Culture
Grotto art is a kind of religious culture based on Buddhist stories. It flourished in the Wei and Jin Dynasties and flourished in the Sui and Tang Dynasties. It absorbs the essence of Indian Gandhara art, integrates the traditional techniques and aesthetic tastes of Chinese painting and sculpture, reflects Buddhist thought and its sinicization process, and is an important tool for studying the history of Chinese society, Buddhism, art and cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries. Precious information. The main existing grotto groups in my country are all works between the Wei and Tang Dynasties or the early Song Dynasty. Among them, the four most famous grottoes for their stone carvings are Datong Yungang, Luoyang Longmen, Tianshui Maijishan and Chongqing Dazu.
Grotto Art and Buddhist Art
Grotto Art and Buddhism are very closely related. Grotto art served the people who believed in Buddhism at that time. Because people of different classes and classes believe in Buddhism, the Buddhist sects they belong to are also different. Therefore, the themes of statues and murals must also be based on the classics of their own sect. Therefore, the development of grotto art varies depending on time and place. For example, in the Xinjiang Grottoes, except for the caves opened by the Han people in the Tang Dynasty or later, which depict some Mahayana sutras, there are no statues or stories reflecting the Mahayana sutras at all in the other early caves. The statues that have survived to this day in these grotto groups are mainly individual images of Sakyamuni and Bodhisattva. Secondly, they are mostly portraits of stories about the life of the Buddha and his life (that is, how to practice asceticism, endure humiliation, and seek liberation). Most of these portraits were created based on various scriptures in the "Sravaka Canon". They are the same as the records of the foreign businessman Zhu Pole Zizhu Fadu who studied the Hinayana religion and the ritual-only Sakyamuni. The records of belief in Theravada religion are also completely consistent. Grotto art is Buddhist art. It reflects Buddhist thought and the process of its occurrence and development. The statues, Bodhisattvas, Arhats, Dharma protectors, and various story images of the Buddha's life and life are all created through specific human beings. created from the image of life. Therefore, it cannot cut off the connection with people's lives in historical periods. It does not reflect social life as directly as other arts, but it reflects the life scenes of people from all walks of life in various historical periods and in various ways. This should be a characteristic of grotto art.
Edit this paragraph Mogao Grottoes
Introduction
Mogao Grottoes is a national key cultural relics protection unit, commonly known as Thousand Buddha Cave, and is known as the most important cultural heritage site in the 20th century. A valuable cultural discovery, Dunhuang, located at the western end of the Hexi Corridor, is world-famous for its exquisite murals and statues.
History
It was built in the pre-Qin period of the Sixteen Kingdoms. It has gone through the construction of the Sixteen Kingdoms, Northern Dynasties, Sui, Tang, Five Dynasties, Xixia, Yuan and other dynasties, forming a huge scale,
value
There are currently 735 caves, 45,000 square meters of murals, and 2,415 clay sculptures. It is the largest and richest Buddhist art holy site in the world. . In modern times, the Scripture Cave was discovered, containing more than 50,000 ancient cultural relics. From this, Dunhuang studies, a discipline specializing in the study of the Scripture Cave and Dunhuang art, was derived. But in modern times, the Mogao Grottoes have been defrauded and stolen, a large number of cultural relics have been lost, and its treasures have been severely damaged. In 1961, the Mogao Grottoes were announced as one of the first batch of national key cultural relics protection units. In 1987, the Mogao Grottoes were listed as a world cultural heritage. It is one of the four major grottoes in China.
Mogao Grottoes
Edit this paragraph Yungang Grottoes
Introduction
The grottoes are carved into the mountains. The Yungang Grottoes are a national key cultural relics protection unit and are located in Datong City, Shanxi Province. The Yungang Grottoes have 252 niches and more than 51,000 statues, representing China's outstanding Buddhist grotto art from the 5th to 6th centuries AD. Among them, the Tan Yao Five Grottoes have a rigorous and unified layout and design. They are classic masterpieces from the first peak period of Chinese Buddhist art.
History
The Yungang Grottoes have a history of more than 1,500 years. They were first built in AD 460 and were excavated by Tan Yao, a Buddhist monk at that time. The existing Yungang Grottoes are one of the first batch of national key cultural relics protection units announced by the State Council in 1961.
Structure
The entire grotto is divided into three parts: east, middle and west. The Buddhist niches in the grotto are like honeycombs, with large, medium and small caves densely embedded in the clouds. Half waist. The eastern grottoes are mostly built for pagodas, so they are also called pagoda caves; the central grottoes are divided into two chambers, front and back, with the main Buddha in the middle, and the cave walls and ceiling are covered with reliefs; the western grottoes are composed of small and medium-sized caves and small niches with additional carvings. Most of them were built in a later period, and most of them were works after the Northern Wei Dynasty moved the capital to Luoyang. The entire grotto is grand, with a solemn appearance, exquisite carvings and prominent themes.
Grotto Sculpture
The various religious figures in the grotto sculptures have different expressions. In terms of carving techniques, it inherited and developed the fine art traditions of my country's Qin and Han Dynasties, and absorbed the beneficial elements of Gandhara art to create Yungang's unique artistic style, which is extremely useful for the study of sculpture, architecture, music, and religion. Rare and valuable information. Stretching for about one kilometer from east to west, there are 53 large and small grottoes and more than 51,000 Buddhist sculptures. It is one of the largest grottoes in my country. Together with Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes and Luoyang Longmen Grottoes, it is also known as China's three major grotto art treasures. Yungang Grottoes
Edit this paragraph Maijishan Grottoes
Introduction
Maijishan is located about 45 kilometers southeast of Tianshui City, Gansu Province. It is the Qinling Mountains in my country. There is a strange peak in Xiaolong Mountain at the west end. The height of the mountain is only 142 meters, but the shape of the mountain is strange. The solitary peak rises like a stack of wheat, so people call it Maiji Mountain. The southwest side of the mountain is a cliff, and the grottoes are carved on the cliff. Some are twenty or thirty meters away from the base of the mountain, and some are as high as seventy or eighty meters. It is rare among Chinese grottoes to have hundreds of caves and Buddha statues carved on such a steep cliff. Surrounded by mountains, lush forests, streams and rocks, the scenery is beautiful. It is known as the "Little Jiangnan" and is known as "the crown of forests and springs in the Qin Dynasty".
Reason for its name
"Maiji Mountain spans the Qingwei River in the north and extends to Liangdang in the south. There are five hundred miles of hills and mountains, and Maiji is half of it. A stone rises up, high Millions of fathoms, looking like clusters of wheat, are like wheat piles in a farmer's house, hence the name."
Natural scenery
The scenery around Maiji Mountain is beautiful. The mountains are densely covered with cypresses, pines, and wild flowers and grass. Climbing to the top of the mountain, looking far into the distance, you can see lush green mountains on all sides. You can see thousands of mountains and valleys, mountains and mountains, green pines like the sea, clouds and mist, and the distant and near objects are intertwined, forming a beautiful picture. This picture has been called "Mai Ji Misty Rain" is known as the first of the eight scenic spots in Tianshui. Among the famous grottoes in my country, Maiji Mountain has the best natural scenery.
History
The Maijishan Grottoes are a national key cultural relics protection unit. They were built in 384 AD. After more than ten dynasties, they were continuously excavated and renovated, and they have become a famous large-scale cave in my country. One of the grottoes, it is also a world-famous art treasure house. The rocks in Maiji Mountain are all purple-brown water-formed rocks. The mountain rises abruptly to a single peak, and originally there were many natural caves. Its altitude is 1,742 meters, and the top of the mountain is 142 meters above the ground. There are 194 existing caves, including more than 7,200 clay and stone sculptures from the 4th century to the 19th century, and more than 1,300 square meters of murals. Since Maiji Mountain is composed of Tertiary period sandy conglomerate, the stone structure is loose and difficult to carve, so it is famous for its exquisite clay sculptures, most of which are painted. It was hailed as the "Oriental Sculpture Exhibition Hall" by the sculptor Liu Kaiqu.
Most scholars believe that its excavation began in the late Qin Dynasty, and continued to be excavated and repaired throughout the Northern Wei, Western Wei, Northern Zhou, Sui, Tang, Five Dynasties, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties. Among the existing statues, the most original ones from the Northern Dynasties are Mostly. A notable feature of the Maijishan Grottoes is that the caves are located in extremely dangerous locations. Most of them are excavated on cliffs, and the caves are all accessible by aerial plank roads erected on the cliff faces. Visitors can't help but feel thrilling when climbing up these winding volleying plank roads. The ancients once praised these projects: "Between the cliffs, there are carved stones to become Buddhas, thousands of niches and caves. They were broken by human power, which is suspected to be magical work." There is also a rumor among the nearby people that "after cutting down the firewood of Nanshan, we built the Maiji Cliff", "First there are There is a proverb that behind a thousand feet of firewood is a pile of wheat. It can be seen that the project of digging caves and building plank roads was arduous and grand at that time.
Grotto Art
Maijishan Grotto Art is famous both at home and abroad for its exquisite clay sculpture art. Historian Fan Wenlan once praised Maijishan as "a large exhibition hall displaying statues". If Dunhuang is a large mural hall, then Maijishan is a large sculpture hall. The large statues here are more than 15 meters high and the small ones are only more than 20 centimeters. They reflect the characteristics of statues in various eras over the past thousand years and systematically reflect the development and evolution of clay sculpture art in my country. The clay sculptures here can be roughly divided into four categories: high-relief sculptures that protrude from the wall, round sculptures that are completely separated from the wall, and molded shadow sculptures and wall sculptures that are pasted on the wall. Among them, there are thousands of life-size round sculptures, which are full of life interest and are regarded as treasures. Maijishan's statues have two obvious characteristics: strong national consciousness and secularization trend. Except for the early works, starting from the statues of the Northern Wei Dynasty, almost all Buddha statues have a posture of bowing their heads and looking down, with amiable faces. Although they are gods in heaven, they are like secular people and have become the embodiment of people's good wishes. Judging from the body shape and clothing of the statues, they are gradually getting rid of the influence of foreign art and reflecting the characteristics of the Han nation. Many of the caves in Maiji Mountain are built into unique "Ya Pavilions". The Seven Buddha Pavilion, which is 15 meters high on the head of the East Cliff Clay Buddha, is a typical Han-style cliff pavilion building in my country. It is built on a cliff more than 50 meters above the ground and was excavated in the mid-6th century AD. Although the Maijishan Grottoes are mainly clay sculptures, there are also a certain number of stone carvings and murals. The Maijishan Grottoes are listed as a national key cultural relics protection unit. More than 1,300 meters of volleying plank roads have been newly built and repaired, allowing visitors to smoothly climb all the caves. The tallest statues in the Maijishan Grottoes are 16 meters long, while the smallest ones are only over 10 centimeters. Among them, the statue in Cave 44 is called "Venus of the East" by the Japanese. The monks' robes of the statues in Cave 78 and Cave 128 of the Western Qin Dynasty are carefully painted with patterns. The Seven Buddha Pavilion, which is more than 70 meters high, has beautiful statues, and the remaining murals on the top of the aisle are exquisite. Among them, the picture of carriages and horses on the top of the west end shows that the carriages and horses are going in different directions no matter which angle you look at. A classic work of domestic mural composition. Maiji Mountain
Edit this paragraph Longmen Grottoes
Longmen Grottoes
Introduction
Longmen Grottoes are located 12 kilometers south of Luoyang City. It is a place with beautiful scenery, where there are two green mountains facing each other in the east and west, and the Yishui River flows slowly northward. Looking from a distance, it looks like a natural gate, so it was called "Yique" in ancient times. Since ancient times, it has been the first sight when visiting Longmen.
History
The Longmen Grottoes began to be excavated around the time when Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty moved the capital to Luoyang (AD 493). Later, through the Eastern Wei, Northern Qi, Sui, Tang, Song and other dynasties, large-scale construction continued It took more than 400 years to build. It is densely spread on the cliffs of the east and west mountains of Yishui, and is 1 kilometer long from north to south. There are 2,345 existing caves and niches, more than 2,680 inscriptions and tablets, more than 70 pagodas, and more than 100,000 statues. The largest Buddha statue is 17.14 meters high, and the smallest is only 2 centimeters. These all reflect the extremely high artistic attainments of the working people in ancient my country. Fengxian Temple is the largest grotto among the Tang Dynasty Grottoes in Longmen, with a length of more than 30 meters and a width of more than 30 meters. According to the inscription, the cave was excavated during the reigns of Emperor Gaozong Li Zhi and Wu Zetian of the Tang Dynasty and completed in 675 AD. The Buddha statues in the cave clearly reflect the artistic characteristics of Buddhist statues in the Tang Dynasty. They have a plump face, drooping ears, and a perfect, serene, gentle, and friendly form, which is extremely touching.
The seated statue of Lushena Buddha in the center of the grotto is the largest Buddha statue in the Longmen Grottoes. It is 17.14 meters tall, with a head height of 4 meters and an ear length of 1.9 meters. It has a plump shape, a majestic appearance, smooth clothing lines, and a high degree of artistic appeal. It is truly exquisite. of artistic masterpiece. According to Buddhist scriptures, Lushana means that light shines all over. This Buddha statue has a plump face and beautiful eyes, the corners of its mouth are slightly raised in a smile, and its head is slightly lowered, looking down slightly. It looks like a wise and kind middle-aged woman, which makes people respect but not fear. Some people commented that when shaping this Buddha statue, she perfectly combined noble sentiments, rich emotions, broad mind and elegant appearance. Therefore, she has great artistic charm. On both sides of the Lushena Buddha statue are two disciples, Kassapa and Ananda, who are docile and pious, and the two Bodhisattvas are kind and cheerful. The King of Heaven holds the pagoda in his hand, looking tall and strong. The statue of the powerful man is even more moving. He has his right hand on his waist and his left hand clasped together. He is majestic and lifelike.
Edit this paragraph Elephant Mountain Grottoes
Gangu Elephant Mountain Grottoes are located about three kilometers outside of Gangu County, Tianshui City. The mountain looks like a flag when viewed from the front, and looks like a dragon when viewed from the side. It is named after a large cave on the cliff between the cliffs in the mountain, and in the cave there is a giant Buddha made of stone and clay. It is called the "big cliff statue" among the eight scenic spots in Gangu County.
The statues of the Gangu Buddha Grottoes can be traced back to the Northern Wei Dynasty, but the specific age is unknown. The existing statue of Sakyamuni Buddha was first carved in the Northern Wei Dynasty and was not perfected until the flourishing Tang Dynasty. The giant Buddha is a stone clay sculpture with a height of 23.3 meters and a waist width of 10.4 meters. He is sitting on a lotus throne in the lotus position. He is tall and burly, gentle and kind. He is sitting in a 30.2-meter-high grotto with a rounded roof. The bun is high and protruding, the ears are drooping, the neck is short and decorated with three string patterns, the short beard is in the shape of a tadpole, the Seal of Prayer for All Living Beings is applied, and the lotus is stepped on on the feet. There are still hanging sculptures of Bodhidharma, Binga, Feitian, Cirrus clouds, lotus leaves, etc. in the cave, which are lifelike. On the horizontal ridge of Elephant Mountain, there are rows of pavilions and ancestral temples facing each other. Climb up from the foot of the mountain, pass by Wei Tuo Hall, then cross Feizhan Pavilion Road and go straight up to the highest point of the Three Holy Temples. There is a stone inscription on it: "Baiyun Sealed Place". The buildings of pavilions and palaces on the mountain are closely connected with the mountains and are densely covered with mountains. There are pavilions layer upon layer, palaces and courtyards, and they climb higher one by one. There are Tutu Temple, Mo Zhai Hall, Fuxi Hall, Jieyin Buddha Hall, Wenchang Pavilion, Luban Hall, Wealth Hall, Wuliang Hall, Wei Tuo Hall, etc. It is said that the Luban Hall was built by using the remaining pieces of wood as beams after the Elephant Mountain construction was completed. The structure of the temple is ingenious, exquisite, and unique, fully demonstrating its superb architectural skills. The caves and niches are arranged left and right with the Big Statue Cave as the center. There are seven caves on the west side close to Feiyun Rock, and fourteen caves on the east side adjacent to Songhua Cliff. On both sides of the Big Buddha Cave, there are long corridors built along the mountain. The niches are connected. Most of these cave niches are nearly square in plan, with large round arched niches on the front walls, high altar bases, and Zen caves for monks to practice. This is the special feature of the Elephant Mountain cave niches. Elephant Mountain is a place where literati of all ages went to visit the scenic spot and wrote poems to praise it. There is a temple fair every year on April 8th of the lunar calendar, and it is very lively and crowded with tourists. When you climb the mountain and look to the north from the cave, you can see the misty waves of the Weishui River pouring eastwards. Railways and highways cross the Weichuan River, the Tongji Canal flows smoothly, and the mountains in Weibei are vast and the scenery is beautiful and spectacular. Since Elephant Mountain was renamed after the Great Buddha, people in the world have been calling it Daxiang Mountain. After in-depth research on the birth, history and allusions of Buddha, Zhao Puchu, president of the Buddhist Association, believed that the name Elephant Mountain was more accurate based on the legend that Sakyamuni "entered the womb on an elephant". Although there is only one word difference and the same pronunciation, the meaning is far-reaching. From then on, the scenery of Daxiang Mountain was officially named Elephant Mountain. On June 25, 2001, the Elephant Mountain Grottoes, as a cultural relic from the Northern Dynasties to the Tang Dynasty, were approved by the State Council to be included in the fifth batch of national key cultural relics protection units.
Edit this paragraph Dazu Grottoes
Dazu Grottoes: Dazu Grottoes
Dazu is the hometown of stone carvings. There are more than 40 stone carvings and more than 50,000 statues in the county. indivual. Among them, there are two most famous and largest ones, one is called Baoding Mountain and the other is called Beishan. These two places are national key cultural relics protection units and are representative works of post-Tang Dynasty cave art in my country. There are nearly 10,000 stone statues in Beishan. The main statues are concentrated in an area about 1 mile long, shaped like a crescent moon, called Fowan. The stone carvings here were excavated in the first year of Jingfu in the Tang Dynasty (AD 892) and went through the Five Dynasties and Two Song Dynasties, and were operated for 250 years.
These stone carvings are characterized by fine carvings and vivid images. The most exciting ones are several statues of Guanyin, Manjusri and Samantabhadra. The Buddhist grottoes in Dazu County, Sichuan were founded between the late Tang Dynasty and the Southern Song Dynasty. They were discovered by Yang Jialuo and others in the 34th year of the Republic of China. The grottoes are divided into seven areas, with Longgang District and Baoding District being the most important. Longgang, also known as Beishan, is located on the north side of Dazu County. Five kilometers away, it consists of five sections including the Buddha Bend, with 290 niches for statues, two inner steles, four cliffs, one picture, one stone sutra, four sutra pillars, and three-dimensional statues with four bodies. In the second year of Qianning in the Tang Dynasty (895 AD), Wei Junjing, the governor of Changzhou, built the Yongchang Village and carved the Buddha statue for the first time. In the attached inscription, there are Qianning, Yongping, Qiande, Guangzheng, Shaoxing, Qiandao, Daguan and Chunxi. , Yuanyou, Jiatai and other era names. The most impressive statues of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas in the grottoes are in niches 125, 136, 180, 245, etc., with their majestic appearance, meticulous brushwork, and rich floral decorations. Baoding Cliff is located 17 kilometers northeast of Dazu County. In the Big Buddha Bend and the Small Buddha Bend, there are clearly 2,551 Buddha statues that can be counted, and more than 10,000 of them have been damaged. The curved cliff wall of the Giant Buddha is about 15 meters high and 280 meters long. It was built by Zhao Zhifeng, the filial son of Mi Liangli in the Southern Song Dynasty. It is large in scale, rigorous in structure and complete in system. Cave No. 31 in the whole area is centered on the sacred site of the birth of Buddha and Nirvana. The left rock is from Avalokitesvara with Thousand Hands and Thousand Eyes to the Bodhisattva of Ten Powers. The right rock is from King Kong Ming to Yanagi Honzon. The two walls on the left and right face each other. In the narrow valley, water comes from the birthplace of the Buddha and spits out from the dragon's mouth, which is the source of the Dazu River. The images of hell in disguise, cow herding, etc. in Cave 31 have profound Zen meanings, unique styles, and express the breath of life. They are the only existing grottoes. Historically, from the official to the private sector, from documents to oral tradition, there was no such title as "Dazu Rock Carvings". This name was decided in 1945 after the famous historian Mr. Yang Jialuo led a delegation to inspect the Dazu Rock Carvings. Over time, it became a common practice and is still used today. This name was also used when it was declared a world cultural heritage in 1999.
Edit this paragraph Cave Temple
Location