East thousand Buddha cave

Dongqianfo cave is located on both sides of the gorge 35km south of Qiaozi Township, Guazhou county. There are 23 existing caves, most of which were destroyed during the cultural revolution. The fourth cave is a statue of Xixia eminent monks, dressed in folk clothes, and well preserved. The mural of Xuanzang's pilgrimage to the West in East thousand Buddha cave is very famous, which can be said to be the earliest prototype of pilgrimage to the West. Guazhou has a deep friendship with Tang Xuanzang, and Yulin Grottoes also has many murals related to the journey to the West. Xuanzang traveled westward without permission and passed by Guazhou (formerly Anxi County) for more than a month to preach in Ta'er temple. Now he can still see the remnant pagoda of Ta'er temple from Suoyang city site, just on the side of the road to East thousand Buddha cave.

East thousand Buddha cave

East thousand Buddha cave is one of the Dunhuang Grottoes. There are 23 existing caves, including eight caves with murals and statues, three caves in East Rock, five caves in West Rock, and most of them are single room caves. There are rectangular central pillar Suidao cave, circular dome cave and square flat top cave. Among them, cave 2, 4, 5 and 7 are all rectangular central pillar caves. There are still some statues of Buddha and Bodhisattva, but most of them were rebuilt in the Qing Dynasty. Only Cave 4, the statue of Xixia eminent monk, dressed in common costume, is well preserved. Murals are distributed on four walls, and the contents can be divided into five categories: Jing Bian paintings, Tantric images, statue paintings, decorative patterns, and portraits of donors. Cave 2 is the best preserved mural. Its artistic style and content are basically the same as those of caves 2, 3, 4 and 29 in Yulin grottoes. It is a branch of the art of Xixia and Yuan Dynasties in Yulin grottoes. However, it has certain characteristics and is the representation of the shape of the early Grottoes in the western regions. In May 2013, Hong Kong reporter song Yin's inscription on the murals of the East thousand Buddha cave in Guazhou county was exposed. The Bureau of cultural relics of Guazhou County apologized to the people all over the country. Wang Shucheng, President of Wenhui newspaper, said Song Yin had been removed from the newspaper in 2002, denounced his behavior of humiliating his report, and was willing to cooperate with him in investigating him.

Main attractions

One of the Dunhuang Grottoes. It is located on both sides of the canyon 35 kilometers south of Qiaozi Township in Anxi County, Gansu Province. There are 23 caves, including eight caves with murals and statues, three caves in Dongyan and five caves in Xiyan, most of which are single chamber caves. There are rectangular central pillar Suidao cave, circular dome cave and square flat top cave. Among them, cave 2, 4, 5 and 7 are all rectangular central pillar caves. There are still some statues of Buddha and Bodhisattva, but most of them were rebuilt in the Qing Dynasty. Only Cave 4, the statue of Xixia eminent monk, dressed in common costume, is well preserved.

Murals are distributed on four walls, and the contents can be divided into five categories: Jing Bian paintings, Tantric images, statue paintings, decorative patterns, and portraits of donors. Sutra changes include: Western Pure Land Change, pharmacist pure land change, Manjusri change, Puxian change, Nirvana change, Shuiyue Guanyin change, etc.; Tantric images include Mandala, Tantric Mandala (Tibetan secret), eleven side Guanyin change, eight arm Guanyin change, etc. (Han MI or miscellaneous secret); statue paintings include allegory, Sakyamuni path, Zen Buddha, Guanyin, etc.; decorative patterns include cave top decoration, round light, backlight, edge The patterns include lotus, honeysuckle, hundred flowers, rolled grass, flame, jewel, etc. the portraits of the donors are still in Xixia, and they are inscribed in Xixia.

Cave 2 is the best preserved mural. From the point of view of Buddhist belief thought, most of them belong to the comprehensive belief of the combination of Xian MI and Zang MI. As far as the content and style of murals are concerned, the images of Han and MI in Xianjiao scriptures belong to the style of Central Plains. Zangmi originated from Tibet and had certain influence of Tibet, India and Nepal. Its artistic style and content are basically the same as those of Yulin Grottoes No.2, 3, 4 and 29. It is a branch of the art of Xixia and Yuan Dynasty in Yulin grottoes. However, it has certain characteristics and is the representation of the shape and system of the early Grottoes in the western regions. For example, caves 2, 4, 5 and 7 are all rectangular central pillar Suidao caves, with Nirvana painted behind the central pillar. Xuanzang's Sutra drawing is based on the Song Dynasty's "Tang Sanzang Sutra collection" or "Xuanzang Sutra collection", with the changes of Puxian, Qianshou Guanyin and Shuiyue Guanyin. This kind of interspersed picture has appeared in Yulin grottoes. However, the scene of Xuanzang's Sutra collection is placed in an important position in the picture of shuiyueguanyin transformation, and there is also the great Vatican King's flying guard, which makes Xuanzang's Sutra collection become the center of the transformation, and the unified and harmonious form of the picture is only this one. The mural art of dongqianfo cave is the product of the combination of Bianwen and Bianwen created by China. Both the content and style are represented by cave 2. There are many styles coexisting in one cave. During the nirvana, the eight saints, seven disciples and princes of various countries mourning Sakyamuni are vivid and vivid. Vajra, the vigorous dancing Vajra in the tantric Mandala, has a strong Tibetan style, especially the statue of Avalokitesvara, which climbs branches, has a charming posture and special costumes. It has a strong Indian influence and is unique to the East thousand Buddha cave. Like Yulin grottoes and Mogao Grottoes, the East thousand Buddha cave can see the exchange of Buddhist culture between China and India through Tibet after the 11th century. Duan Wenjie, a famous Dunhuang scholar, said in his article on the newly discovered Buddhist sutra drawing of Xuanzang: "the discovery of six Buddhist sutra drawing of Yulin grottoes and dongqianfo cave in Anxi is rare. It is rare to study the evolution of Buddhist thought, the history of cultural exchange between China and India, and the creation and improvement of the main characters' artistic images before the completion of journey to the West Image information ".

Inscription event

Event overview

Song Yin, a Hong Kong media reporter, left his name on the mural of dongqianfo cave in Guazhou County, Gansu Province, which was exposed in May 2013. On May 27, 2013, the Cultural Relics Bureau of Guazhou County apologized to the people of the whole country and said that it reserved the right to investigate the incident and the responsibilities of relevant personnel. Wang Shucheng, President of Wenhui newspaper, said on his microblog last night that song Yin had been removed from the newspaper in 2002, denouncing his humiliating behavior and willing to fully cooperate with the investigation.

Witnesses said

"One can't take pictures, the other can't touch and draw. He said it clearly before entering the cave. I didn't expect that he did this kind of thing secretly when I told others about the murals." 13 years later, Li Chunyuan felt sad and angry when he mentioned it.

Li Chunyuan is a well-known cultural and historical expert in Guazhou County, Gansu Province. He is familiar with the local historical sites. Many important visitors to Guazhou county will ask him to "go out of the mountain" to talk about it.

In the summer of 2000, six people from Song Yin and his party visited Guazhou county. Arranged by the relevant departments of the county, Li Chunyuan took them to visit the East thousand Buddha cave more than 80 kilometers away from the county.

"Cave 2 is the most precious cave in the East thousand Buddha cave. The frescoes were painted in the Xixia period. The picture of Xuanzang's seeking scriptures on it was more than 400 years earlier than Wu Chengen's journey to the West." Li Chunyuan said that when he explained, the most intolerable thing happened behind him.

"As soon as I looked back, I found that he had written in pen on the floor of the cave corridor where the murals had fallen off, the inscription" at the beginning of summer, 2000, song Yin, senior reporter of Hong Kong Wen Wei Po, came here to visit and investigate. "There was no time to stop it." Li Chunyuan said.

Due to the remote location of the East thousand Buddha cave and the lack of open conditions, for a long time, except for a small number of researchers and some distinguished guests, few people have visited the East thousand Buddha cave. This "sad" thing is also in Li Chunyuan's heart.

What he didn't expect was that the incident happened 13 years later. In May 2013, a netizen exposed the photo of song Yin's "inscription" in the East thousand Buddha cave, which caused a heated discussion.

Reporter missing

In terms of artistic style, the East thousand Buddha cave is classified into Dunhuang Grottoes, but in terms of management relationship, it is different from Mogao Grottoes, Yulin grottoes and West thousand Buddha cave belonging to Dunhuang Research Institute. Guazhou county is responsible for daily protection and management.

"To a certain extent, the incident reflects that there are some defects and loopholes in the visit management of East thousand Buddha cave by the Cultural Relics Bureau of Guazhou county and suoyangcheng Cultural Management Office of suoyangcheng county. In response to this, the Cultural Relics Bureau of Guazhou County apologized to the people of the whole country. " Yesterday, the Bureau of cultural relics of Guazhou County said: "the Bureau of cultural relics reserves the right to investigate and investigate the responsibility of the incident and related personnel."

Dongqianfo cave is located at the north foot of Changshanzi, 86 kilometers southeast of Guazhou county. There are 23 caves with a total area of 486 square meters of murals and 38 painted sculptures. It is a rare and exquisite art treasure house of Xixia. In November 1996, it was announced as a national key cultural relics protection unit by the State Council.

According to the introduction of the Bureau of cultural relics of Guazhou County, in mid May 2000, the management personnel of suoyangcheng cultural management office found pen inscriptions on the ground floor of the south wall of the corridor in front of cave 2 of East Qianfo cave, and then called the Hong Kong Wenwei Po to ask for investigation. Wen Hui Bao said that the reporter had been transferred from Wen Hui Bao and disappeared. The County Cultural Relics Bureau also dealt with the incident internally and criticized the people concerned in the system.

Guazhou County Bureau of cultural relics said that in order to effectively strengthen the protection of cultural relics, they have taken corresponding safeguard measures to prevent such incidents from happening again.

At 22:39 on May 27, 2013, Wang Shucheng, who was certified as "chairman of the world Chinese Press Association, chairman and President of Hong Kong Wenwei Po", said on Weibo: after inquiry, the person involved in the event of Dunhuang historic sites leaving a name, which was widely concerned by netizens in May 2013, was indeed our Henan Office 13 years ago. In 2002, the man was removed for violating newspaper regulations, and his whereabouts were unknown. Although this incident happened 13 years ago, its bad influence has brought shame to this newspaper. Over the past few days, our colleagues have been very angry and condemned for this humiliating behavior. If the relevant departments investigate their responsibility, we are willing to fully cooperate.

Fan Jinshi, member of the National Committee of the Chinese people's Political Consultative Conference and President of the Dunhuang Academy of Sciences, believes that it is not easy to make graffiti on cultural relics

Chinese PinYin : Dong Qian Fo Dong