Dazu Rock Carvings

--Dazu stone carving is the general name of stone carving group, including Baoding mountain, Beishan Mountain, Nanshan Mountain, shizhuanshan mountain and Shimen mountain. Most of Dazu stone carving mentioned by ordinary people refer to Baoding mountain stone carving.

--Dazu stone carving is a kind of Buddhist stone carving, which is very beautiful and spectacular. Each sculpture has its own story, but also color, it is very realistic, even vivid.

--In particular, the Buddha statues in the stone cave, the expression and manner, needless to say, even the fringes of clothes give people the feeling that a gust of wind can blow up.

--The stone carvings express the samsara of Buddhism, so you must listen to the explanation. You will feel that you are having a vivid Buddhist class. It is suggested that you invite a tour guide to join a group. If you go alone, you'd better report a one-day tour. You can't see for yourself.

--It used to take a long time to travel from downtown Chongqing. It takes 4-5 hours to go back and forth by car. Generally, more people choose one-day tour.

Dazu Rock Carvings

Dazu rock carvings, located in Dazu District of Chongqing, was excavated in Tang, Five Dynasties and Song Dynasty, and was also excavated in Ming and Qing Dynasties. World cultural heritage, one of the eight largest Grottoes in the world, is distributed in the southwest, northwest and northeast sectors of the county, a total of 23. More concentrated in Baodingshan, Beishan and other 19. Among them, Baodingshan cliff statues have the largest scale and the most exquisite. In addition to the statues of Buddhism and Taoism, there are also statues of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism in the same niche, among which Buddhism accounts for the largest proportion.

Dazu Grottoes represent the highest level of grotto art in the world from the 9th century to the 13th century. It is the last monument in the history of human grotto art. It shows the great development and changes of the artistic style of Chinese Grottoes in the Tang and Song Dynasties from different aspects, and has irreplaceable historical, artistic and scientific value of the early grottoes. It is famous for its large scale, exquisite carving, diverse themes, rich connotation and well preserved. In December 1999, Dazu stone carving, represented by Baoding mountain, Beishan Mountain, Nanshan Mountain, Shimen mountain and shizhuanshan mountain, was listed in the world heritage list by UNESCO,

It is the only world cultural heritage in Chongqing.

Dazu stone carving is now a national AAAAA tourist attraction, a national key cultural relic protection unit, and one of Chongqing's top ten cultural symbols,

2016 National Day holiday tourism "comprehensive order best scenic spot".

On December 7, 2018, it was selected into the cultural tourism charm list of "charming China city" in 2018 sponsored by CCTV financial channel and Pacific Century Tourism.

Historical evolution

The beginning of construction

Dazu County, built in 758 ad (the first year of Qianyuan of Tang Dynasty), is subordinate to Changzhou. In 885 ad (the first year of Tang Guangqi), Changzhou was moved from Jingnan county to Dazu. In 1279 ad (the last year of the Southern Song Dynasty), Dazu had always been the seat of Changzhou Prefecture. The "Five Mountains" cliff statues in Dazu stone carvings were completed in the past 400 years.

Among the existing Dazu stone carvings, the earliest one is the Jianshanzi cliff statue carved in 650 A.D. (the first year of Yonghui in the early Tang Dynasty), and only one cliff statue of Shengshui temple was excavated more than 200 years later. There are no more than 20 statues in all. It was not until 885 A.D. when Changzhou moved to Dazu that the cliff statues gradually flourished.

In 892 A.D. (the first year of Tang Jingfu), the governor of Changzhou, under the command of Chongchang, Puzhou, Chongqing and Hezhou, Wei JunJing, the governor of Jingnan army, built Yongchang village in Longgang mountain (today's Beishan) in the north of the county. At the same time, he first built Buddha statues in Beishan Mountain. From then on, state and county officials, local officials, civilians, monks and nuns followed suit one after another until 907-965 (the period of Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms). Sichuan is the state of Shu, known as the former Shu and the latter Shu in history. The construction of Buddha statues has been constantly increasing, forming the first climax of statues in the history of Dazu stone carving.

The origin of statues

After the grotto art originated from ancient India was introduced into China in the third century, there were two peaks of sculpture in northern China around the fifth century and the seventh century (Wei Jin to Tang Dynasty), but it declined in the middle of the eighth century (after Tang Tianbao). At the same time, the cliff statues in Dazu County, located in the Yangtze River Valley, have sprung up. From the end of the 9th century to the middle of the 13th century, Dazu stone carvings represented by the "Five Mountains" cliff statues have been built, forming another peak in the history of Chinese Grotto Art, thus extending the history of Chinese Grotto Art for more than 400 years. Since then, Chinese Grotto Art has stagnated, and no new large-scale Grottoes have been excavated in other places. Dazu Grottoes have become the last monument in the history of Chinese Grotto Art construction.

Statues in the late Tang Dynasty

During the 360 years from 892 to 1252 (from Jingfu in the late Tang Dynasty to Chunyou in the Southern Song Dynasty), 34 statues of Buddhism, Taoism and "Three Religions" were built in Dazu, accounting for about 80% of the total number of Dazu stone carvings. Except for Beishan cliff statues, which were first carved in 892, the first year of Jingfu in the late Tang Dynasty, the rest were built in more than 170 years from Yuanfeng in the Northern Song Dynasty to Chunyou in the Southern Song Dynasty from 1082 to 1252.

At the end of the 13th century, in the late Southern Song Dynasty, the stone sculptures were interrupted due to the war. By the end of the 15th century, during the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty, the cliff statues were gradually revived and extended to the late Qing Dynasty. During the 500 years from the beginning of the 15th century to the end of the 19th century (Ming and Qing Dynasties), there were 39 cliff statues, of which there were many excellent ones, but most of them were small-scale statues, and the number of statues was less than 20% of the total number of today's Dazu stone sculptures.

Statues of the Northern Song Dynasty

From 965 to 1077 ad (from Qiande to Xining of the Northern Song Dynasty), the cliff statues stagnated. So far, there is no chronological statue in the county. At this time, the stone sculptures in the temple rose. Today, there are relics to be found or documents to be collected. There are Dazhong temple in the east of the county, Shibi temple in the west of the county and yan'en temple in the north of the county. By the 1980s, more than 100 Buddhist sculptures were unearthed in the Dazhong Temple alone.

From 1078 to 1173 ad (from Yuanfeng in the late Northern Song Dynasty to Shaoxing and Qiandao in the early Southern Song Dynasty), Dazu stone sculpture set off a second climax. In 1082 ad (the fifth year of Yuanfeng), Yan xunshe, the owner of the Grand Manor, excavated the "Three Religions" statue area of Shizhuan Mountain Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism. Since then, there have been 32 cliff statues in the county, including Buddhism, Taoism and the "Three Religions" statue area. Nanshan, Shimenshan statue area and Beishan pagoda were built here. It took more than 250 years to build the Beishan statue area in 892 ad, and it was completed in 1146 ad in Shaoxing, Southern Song Dynasty.

From 1174 to 1252, Zhao Zhifeng, a Dazu monk who was known as the "secret seal of the six generations' ancestors", inherited the Buddhism secret sect founded by Liu benzun in the late Tang Dynasty and preached in Baoding mountain. With the main purpose of promoting Buddhism, he spent more than 70 years in the Qing Dynasty, collecting funds from all over the world to build nearly ten thousand Buddha statues, and built the only large-scale grotto Taoist center in the history of Tantric Buddhism in China, which made Dazu's stone sculptures reach its peak. During this period, the statues in other parts of the county basically stagnated. Under Zhao Zhifeng's seat, stone carving masters gather in Baoding mountain to perform. Baoding mountain has become the center of Chengdu Yoga School of Chinese Buddhism.

Five mountain statues

At the end of the 13th century and the middle of the 17th century, Dazu suffered from war twice. Among the "Five Mountains" cliff statues, except that the Shengshou temple in Baodingshan was burned twice and rebuilt twice, the cliff statues have been well preserved.

After the completion of the "Five Mountains" cliff statues, in addition to the secular decoration and cultivation, it was not until the end of the 19th century to the beginning of this century that the local people carved a few small niches beside the statue area, such as Guanyin, Mountain God, heaven God and earth mother. Now it has basically maintained the scale and style of the statues in the Tang and Song dynasties. Since the founding of the people's Republic of China in 1949, it has been properly protected and open to the public.

Dazu stone carvings, represented by the cliff sculptures of Beishan, Baodingshan, Nanshan, shizhuanshan and Shimenshan (hereinafter referred to as "Five Mountains"), are an important part of Chinese Grotto Art. They are also the most magnificent and brilliant page in the world's grotto art from the first year of Jingfu in the late Tang Dynasty to the 12th year of Chunyou in the Southern Song Dynasty from the end of the 9th century to the middle of the 13th century. Dazu stone carving was built in 650 A.D. in the first year of Yonghui of Tang Dynasty. It flourished from the end of the 9th century to the middle of the 13th century A.D. and extended to the Ming and Qing Dynasties. It is a representative work of Chinese late grotto art.

"Five Mountains" cliff statues are famous for their large scale, exquisite carvings, diverse themes, rich connotations and well preserved. Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism are different from the early grottoes. With distinctive characteristics of nationalization and life, it is unique in Chinese Grotto Art. With a large number of physical images and written historical materials, this paper shows the significant development and changes of Chinese grotto art style and folk religious belief from different aspects from the end of the 9th century to the middle of the 13th century. It has an important contribution to the innovation and development of Chinese Grotto Art, and has irreplaceable historical, artistic, scientific and appreciation value of the previous generations of grottoes.

Distribution of stone carvings

Distribution of stone carvings

With Dazu District, Tongnan District, Bishan district and Tongliang district as the scope, Dazu district is under the jurisdiction of Chongqing Municipality. It was built in the first year of Qianyuan period of Tang Dynasty (758). It is famous for "Dafeng Dazu". It is the "hometown of stone carving" and "hometown of hardware" at home and abroad. It is one of the first batch of Grade A cities in China

Chinese PinYin : Da Zu Shi Ke