Four mountain cliff carvings

Four mountain cliff carvings

The four mountain cliff carvings, including Geshan cliff carvings, Jianshan cliff carvings, Tieshan cliff carvings and Gangshan cliff carvings in Zoucheng City, are the key cultural relics protection units in China. It is one of the most important Buddhist stone carvings in China. It enriches the forms of Buddhism dissemination and becomes a cultural phenomenon in the history of Buddhism. It is a rare material for the study of Chinese religious culture. At the same time, it also occupies an important position in the history of Chinese calligraphy.

National key cultural relics protection units

Brief introduction of cultural relics

Four mountain cliff stone carvings are

In June 2006, it was officially approved by the State Council

Yishan cliff inscriptions were merged into Tieshan

It is a key cultural relic protection unit in China.

Zoucheng's Northern Dynasty carvings have been well-known for a long time. Before that, there were "four mountains" and "eight mountains". Bashan mountain refers to the Northern Dynasties in Shandong Province. The inscriptions have been seen in the eight mountains. These are: Mount Tai, mount Shuiniu, Mount Gelai, Mount Jianshan, Mount Tieshan, mount Geshan, Mount Gangshan and mount Yishan. The eight peaks are all located in Zoucheng City, except Mount Tai, mount jianlai and mount Wenshang buffalo. Among them, the four peaks of Jian, tie, GE and gang, which are relatively concentrated within 30 Li, are also known as "four mountains" and "four cliffs of ancient Ying" in history. Tieshan and Gangshan cliff carvings were announced as national key cultural relics protection units in 1988.

Geographical location of cultural relics

Geshan cliff stone is carved on a granite stone flat 15 km northeast of Zoucheng. The facet is 20.6 meters from east to west and 8.4 meters from north to south, with a total area of 173 square meters. The content of the text is Vimalakirti Sutra. Yishan stone carvings are located on Yishan mountain, 10km southeast of Zoucheng. There are more than 300 existing stone carvings, of which two are located in Wuhua peak and goblin cave. Wuhuafeng Scripture is located on the stone of "guangfengjiyue". On the sunny side, it is engraved with Manjusri Prajna Sutra, which is 2.13 meters in length and 3.65 meters in width. Eleven lines of Scripture are vertically engraved, each line is cross, and the first line is engraved with the four characters of "Manjusri Prajna". There are 79 existing words. The stone carving of goblin cave is located on the Wulong stone on the west side of "goblin cave" in Shanyang, with a vertical height of about 4 meters, a width of about 2.65 meters and an area of about 10.6 square meters. There are 7 lines of scriptures, 14 characters in each line, with a diameter of about 20 to 30 cm.

Geshan and Yishan cliff inscriptions belong to the Northern Zhou Dynasty. Although they have been eroded by more than 1400 years of wind and rain, their handwriting is still very clear. Cliff stone carvings, with heaven and earth as the background and mountains as materials, are displayed in the space of nature and integrated with natural scenery. It is the unity of humanistic calligraphy and natural environment, artistic beauty and natural beauty. However, on the huge boulders standing quietly, the essence of Buddhist scriptures is carved, like a mysterious stone Buddhist Scripture scattered in the mountains. With its unique momentum, the engraved scriptures are in line with the quiet, lush and natural environment. With the natural and natural font and character potential, they give people a natural and extraordinary sense of mountains and forests. His calligraphy style is full of changes, mainly changing Li, including seal script, regular script and calligraphy style. It has a large scale and high artistic conception. It is known as "the originator of big characters and the ancestor of bangshu". Cliff stone carving integrates natural landscape, religious culture and calligraphy art. People can enjoy the charming scenery of nature, the wisdom of religious culture, and indulge in the realm of calligraphy art, which makes people feel infinite artistic charm.

As one of the most important Buddhist stone carvings in China, the four mountain cliff carvings enrich the forms of Buddhism dissemination, become a cultural phenomenon in the history of Buddhism, and are extremely rare materials for the study of Chinese religious culture. At the same time, it also occupies an important position in the history of Chinese calligraphy. For thousands of years, it has been recognized in the field of calligraphy that it is also of great value to explore the evolution of Chinese characters in the Northern Dynasties and the art of calligraphy. The strokes used in stone carving are mainly round, heavy in floating, smooth in astringent, and the lines are thick and thin, even and appropriate, implicit and dynamic; the muscles and bones are embedded, with the meaning of seal character, and the body is muddy, simple and full of tension. It is natural, harmonious, natural and has a soul shaking artistic beauty. Wei Yuan of Qing Dynasty praised it as a masterpiece of big character calligraphy and a gem of stone carving art in the Northern Dynasty. Kang Youwei thought that the calligraphy of Si Shan Mo Jing was a "connecting link between the preceding and the following, opening a new generation of style".

Cliff carving

Cliff carving culture

It can be said that cliff carving is an ancient cultural phenomenon, which has a long history. In ancient times, there were carved stone and painted stone with color, drawing ideal pictures, worshiping or visiting places. Later, it was more convenient to carve with gold. Cliff refers to the inscriptions on the cliff, that is, in the place where you need to narrate or record, you can flatten a piece of cliff and carve characters on the spot. Because the stone wall can't be refined as the stone tablet, the font is ancient Li, which is different in size, length, width and narrow. It has both natural charm and strong strength and power, so it is called "Shenpin". Some of the cliffs are carved through the calligraphy elixir, but many of them are carved directly by playing a knife. Therefore, the style of the cliffs is naturally open, majestic and interesting, showing a kind of masculine beauty. There are many famous mountains in China. Mountains are the source of people's life. Most people worship them as gods. Mountaineering can increase their intelligence and ease their mind. It is hard to eliminate them by means of gold and stone, so there are many people who carve them. The less the number, the more a thousand words. The trend of Buddhist Scripture stone carving prevailed in the Northern Dynasties, and continued until Sui, Tang, song and Yuan Dynasties.

During the Northern Dynasties, Buddhism experienced three times of extermination. Buddhist monks and laymen are deeply worried about this. "It's hard to find a gold ultimatum, but it's easy to put out paper.". On the other hand, the stone ode of Jianshan Scripture in Zoucheng also has the words of "bamboo is easy to sell, but gold and stone are hard to put out, and it is always kept in the mountains.". It is hoped that the Buddhist scriptures will be engraved on the cliffs to make the Buddhism immortal. It is in this historical background that the inscriptions on precipices of the Northern Dynasties came into being. It pursues the integration of the scriptures on the mountains and rivers with the whole environment and the human soul, creating a living natural whole. The event of exterminating the Buddha made the art of calligraphy break away from the hall of elegant room and go to the nature. So that the art of calligraphy and other arts blend, more widely promote the development and refinement of the art of cliff calligraphy.

Most of Zoucheng's scriptures are carved with big characters, and the names of Buddha are carved with great momentum. Due to the large character, the artistic level of the book elixir is high, and the rock is slightly soft. The carver didn't cover his writing with knife work, which created conditions for the cliff calligraphy to convey the spirit of the writing. Calligraphy and knife technique are the ingenious combination of cliff calligraphy. An excellent stone Carver can not only reproduce the style of calligraphy itself, but also creatively change and sublimate the art of calligraphy itself. New changes have taken place in its stippling, structure and style. Round pen can be carved into square pen, round turn can be carved into square fold, continuous pen can be carved into broken pen, light pen can be carved into heavy pen. After the processing and modification of the knife technique, the effect of the cliff calligraphy art is very interesting, which is called "Jinshi flavor".

Inscriptions on cliffs

Many of Zoucheng's cliff inscriptions were done by an Daoyi, a famous monk and calligrapher. Some traces of an Dao can be seen from the comments in the articles of stone ode by Tieshan and word of mouth by erhongding. "Shi Song" records that "in the first year of the elephant in Huangzhou, Dagang mountain in the southeast of Xiaqiu Master an of dashamen has a good command of Tao and enlightenment, a good sense of morality, a good sense of justice, and a good command of Xiantao calligraphy. He is especially clear, and his spirit is superior to Sixian. He wrote 930 words in dajijing, wearing Bodhi Qing cross Xi birthday, wonderful Yue Ying Yao, such as dragon fog, like Phoenix Tengxiao. The sage's secluded path, the divine secret method, and the eternal plunder from the Buddha and tree mark. It is not difficult to see that an Daoyi, who is the surname of Zou Yi, is knowledgeable and has a wide range of friends. It is difficult to comment on the excellence of his calligraphy. Therefore, he is able to reflect the sky with high mountains, and integrate hundreds of books. He is a great innovator. He has a profound vision for a long time, and his realm is secluded and immortal. Kang Youwei called his book "Tong Li Kai, Fang Yuan, Gao Shen, Jian mu, which is the ultimate path of breaking the nest In fact, the Sui Dynasty stele has a clear and open style. Yang Shoujing said: "the steles of Zheng's family in Yunfeng mountain are not as good as they are. Since they are not ancient virtues, they are great talents in life. It's amazing that an Neng has such attainments." Since the Jin Dynasty, the prosperity and development of Buddhism has affected all kinds of Chinese culture and art, especially calligraphy. The main influence of Buddhism on the art of calligraphy is as follows: the book comes from the nature, the book is precious to the spirit, the book is the painting of the heart; there is no fixed method, and it can be combined or separated. If the first scribe sets the precepts, the divine cannot; if he is generous, he does not stick to the details. When you cut mountains and cliffs, you can brush your hair in the face of heaven. If you go into a place of no one, you will be arrogant. Therefore, you don't care about your clumsiness and comment on it with later generations.

Cliff stone carvings, no matter from Buddhism, history, calligraphy, art, social aspects, are worth our efforts to study, reveal, understand, explore, appreciate this precious heritage.

Excellent calligraphy record

Zoucheng carved sutras on the cliffs of Tieshan, Gangshan, Geshan, Jianshan and Yishan (Zoucheng carved sutras for short) are Buddhist sutras and inscriptions on granite walls by famous monks and calligraphers in the Northern Qi and Northern Zhou dynasties. His calligraphy is characterized by the alternation of official script and regular script, the combination of square and circle, the simplicity and vigour, and is praised by ancient calligraphers as "the originator of big characters and the ancestor of bangshu". The four mountain scriptures are of great value to the study of the evolution of Chinese characters in the Northern Dynasties and the art of calligraphy. For thousands of years, Zoucheng's Scripture carving has been loved and respected by many calligraphers, and many ancient books on epigraphy and calligraphy theory have been recorded one after another. In recent years, in Zou

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