Chapter 15 Chapter 15 Heluo Treasures - Luoyang Longmen Grottoes

In Luoyang, the former capital of the Nine Dynasties, there is a grotto named Longmen Grottoes.This is one of the three major grottoes in northern my country.It is characterized by many caves, many statues, and many inscriptions. It can be called a treasure of Heluo and unique in the Central Plains. The Longmen Grottoes are located on both sides of the Yishui River, 13 kilometers south of Luoyang City, about one kilometer long from north to south. There are more than 2,100 caves and niches, including 29 large-scale caves, more than 100,000 statues, more than 3,600 inscriptions and inscriptions, and more than 50 pagodas.The Longmen Grottoes were first excavated around the time when Emperor Xiaowen moved his capital to Luoyang in the Northern Wei Dynasty (AD 494), and continued to be excavated in the Eastern Wei, Western Wei, Northern Qi, Sui, Tang, and Northern Song dynasties.Among them, the caves and niches carved in the Northern Wei Dynasty accounted for about 1/3 of the total, and the caves and niches in the Tang Dynasty accounted for nearly 2/3 of the total.The Guyang Cave, Binyang Cave, and Lianhua Cave in the Northern Wei Dynasty and the Qianxi Temple, Fengxian Temple, and Kanjing Temple in the Tang Dynasty are all representative caves in the Longmen Grottoes.In addition, there are a group of "satellite" caves around Longmen, whose style is in the same line as the Longmen statues, and they are also part of the Longmen Grottoes. For more than 1,000 years, the Longmen Grottoes have suffered from natural erosion, man-made destruction and imperialist plunder. After 1949, it was well protected and repaired and became a national key cultural relic protection unit.

The opening statues of Longmen Grottoes can be divided into two periods: the Northern Dynasty and the Sui, Tang and Five Dynasties.The Guyang cave was first opened during the period of Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty. It was carved by a group of noble officials who supported Emperor Xiaowen to move the capital. It is the cave with the most statues in the Longmen Grottoes.There are one Buddha and two Bodhisattvas on the front wall of the cave, and there are three-story niches on the left and right walls, which are basically carved in the Northern Wei Dynasty.The three caves in Binyang were engraved from the first year of Jingming to the fourth year of Zhengguang (500-523 A.D.), of which only the middle cave in Binyang was completed, which is one of the representative caves in the late Northern Wei Dynasty.The statues in the middle cave, the front wall is a typical combination of five statues, the north and south walls are a group of three standing statues, and there are large relief figures on the front wall, which is the famous "Picture of Emperors and Empresses Respecting Buddha".Unfortunately, the map was stolen abroad in 1935.The shape of the caves in the late Northern Wei Dynasty is still mainly worship caves, with square planes, dome roofs, and pointed arches in the niches.The main theme is the Buddha of the third generation.At this time, the carving technique of Longmen Grottoes has shown a tendency to transition from the straight flat knife method of Yungang Grottoes to the round knife method; the artistic style has also undergone major changes, forming the "Central Plains Style".This Central Plains style is the result of the fusion of Xianbei culture and Han culture of the Southern Dynasties, and the fusion of foreign Buddhist art and traditional Chinese art style, and has distinct characteristics of the times.Most of the statues of the Eastern and Western Wei Dynasty were carved with small niches on the walls of the caves of the Northern Wei Dynasty, and the shape of the niches did not change much.During the Wuping period of the Northern Qi Dynasty (570-575 A.D.), the Amitayus Buddha began to be called Amitabha Buddha, and his shape became short, fat and strong, with enlarged breasts and wide shoulders, giving him a heavy feeling; the folds of his clothes were simple, and round knives were often used. The performance of the transition to the statues of the Tang Dynasty.

The longest period of statues in Longmen Grottoes, the largest statues, and the richest themes are the Tang Dynasty.The shapes of statues in this period can be divided into three types: worship caves, Zen caves, and Yi (yiyi) caves.Among them, the caves of worship account for the vast majority.The themes of the statues include Buddha statues, Bodhisattva statues, Arhat statues, Dharma protector statues, scripture story statues, and supporting figures.The second climax in the history of Longmen Grottoes statues appeared during the period from Tang Taizong to Tang Xuanzong.Among them, Tang Gaozong and Wu Zetian were the mature period of statue art in Tang Dynasty.There are large caves excavated during this period, including the Binyang North and South Caves and Qianxi Temple completed around the fifteenth year of Emperor Taizong's Zhenguan (AD 641), and the Fengxian Temple Dalu completed in the second year of Tang Gaozong's Shangyuan (AD 675). Shena like niches and so on.Fengxian Temple is an open-air cliff statue group excavated for Tang Gaozong and Empress Wu Zetian. It is about 36 meters wide from north to south and about 40 meters long from east to west.The main Buddha is 17 meters high.According to the inscription on the statue, after the completion of the Buddha statue, Wu Zetian once "helped 20,000 guan for fat and powder" as a queen, and led a group of officials to participate in the "consecration" ceremony of Lushana Buddha.The sculpture of large group portraits in Fengxian Temple can be said to be the peak in the development history of Chinese sculpture art.Since the "Anshi Rebellion", statues have declined from prosperity to decline, and the scale and number of statues are far less than before.The shape of the statues is also much inferior to that of the early and prosperous Tang Dynasty.

Another important feature of Longmen Grotto Temple is that there are many statues, inscriptions and inscriptions, ranking first among all the grottoes in the country.The inscription in the style of the Wei stele, which is famous for its inscription art, not only records the historical background of the excavation of the Longmen Grottoes during the Northern Wei Dynasty, but also represents the style and level of calligraphy art at that time.In the early Tang Dynasty, "The Stele of the Yique Buddhist Shrine" written by Cen Wenwen and written by Chu Suiliang, and "The Stele of the Dalu Shena Statue" engraved in the middle of the Tang Dynasty in the tenth year of Kaiyuan (AD 722), etc., are respectively the early Tang Dynasty and the Tang Dynasty. The representative of regular script art in the heyday.There are many other contents in the inscription, which are of important historical value for the study of Chinese medicine, guilds, Chinese and foreign transportation, and even the development history of Chinese characters.