Fangshan Shijing

Buddhist scriptures carved in stone at Yunju temple, Fangshan

synonym

Fangshan stone Scripture generally refers to Fangshan Yunju temple stone Buddhist Tripitaka

Fangshan Yunju temple stone Buddhist scriptures (Fangshan stone Scriptures), is China's stone carving treasure house from Sui Dynasty to the end of Ming Dynasty. It is an important cultural relic for the study of ancient Chinese culture and art, especially the history and classics of Buddhism, as well as a precious treasure of world cultural heritage.

Stone scriptures

An overview of jingku

The largest and oldest cultural treasures of Buddhist stone scriptures are preserved in the stone Scripture mountain of Yunju temple, Fangshan County, Beijing. In the east of Yunju temple, it is also called Dongfeng. It is about 500 meters high and has nine holes, which are divided into upper and lower layers. There are two holes in the lower layer, the first and second from south to north; there are seven holes in the upper layer, with Leiyin cave as the center, the third and fourth holes on the right, Leiyin cave as the fifth hole, and the sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth holes on the left. Among the nine caves, Leiyin cave is the earliest one. The original Sutra hall is called Shijing hall. There are stone doors that can be opened and closed. The remaining eight caves were sealed by iron melting with stone plug furnace after they were filled with stone sutras. In the Liao and Jin Dynasties, two underground caves were opened in the southwest corner of Yunju temple at the foot of the mountain. After the stone scriptures were buried, they were combined into one, and a tower was built on it, which was called Yajing tower.

The evolution of engraving

Fangshan stone Scripture was initiated by Sui jingwan (i.e. Zhiyuan). Jingwan inherited his teacher Huisi's last wish and began to carve from 605 to 617 (SUI Daye). In 634 (the eighth year of Tang Zhenguan), 146 pieces of sutras, such as Huayan Sutra, Weimo Sutra and Shengli Sutra, were engraved on the four walls of Leiyin cave. In 639 (the thirteenth year of Tang Zhenguan), jingwan passed away after carving Nirvana Sutra. There are four disciples who inherit jingwan's carving career, Daogong, Yigong, Siam Gong and Fagong.

In the Kaiyuan period of Tang Dynasty, with the support of the royal family, Hui Siam, the fourth generation disciple of Jing Wan, built two new halls (i.e. today's first and second caves) under Leiyin Cave (Shijing Hall) to Engrave Stone scriptures. In the middle and late Tang Dynasty, due to the support of local officials and the help of Buddhists, more than 100 scriptures and more than 4000 stones were carved and stored in nine caves. During the war period of the Five Dynasties, the carving of the stone scriptures came to a standstill. From the Liao Dynasty on.

According to Zhao Zunren's stele for the achievement of the four major scriptures in 1058 (the fourth year of Qingning), Han Shaofang, the governor of Zhuozhou, counted the number of stone scriptures in the cave: from 1027 (the seventh year of Taiping) to 1057 (the third year of Qingning), 80 volumes of Prajna Sutra were engraved continuously, accounting for 240 tablets; one volume of dabaoji sutra was engraved, accounting for 120 tablets, accounting for 360 tablets. In terms of the two Sutras of Prajna and Baoji. In fact, according to the rubbings of Shijing, only the stone scriptures carved by daozong from 1056 (the second year of Qingning) to 1093 (the ninth year of Da'an) should be 161, 656 volumes, and about 1084 pieces of scriptures (except the missing ones).

Since then, there have continued to engrave 44 sutras and 4080 tablets. In 1118 (the eighth year of Tianqing), the disciples Shanrui and Shanding buried the stone scriptures carved by daozong and Tongli in the southwest corner of Yunju temple and built the scripture tower. After that, there were further inscriptions of the Tongli disciple Shanfu. The continued carving of stone scriptures in Jin Dynasty began in 1132 (the 10th year of Tianhui). In 1136 (the fourteenth year of Tianhui), Jiansong, a monk of Yuanfu temple in Yanjing, continued to carve the Sutra of Duwang (Volume 10); from 1138 to 1149 (from the first year of Tianjun to the ninth year of Huangtong), Xuanying, a monk of Baoning temple in fengshengzhou (now Zhuolu, Hebei Province), and Shi Junqing, Liu Qingyu, etc., continued to carve the Sutra of Tantric school; from 1149 to 1190 (from the ninth year of Huangtong to the first year of Mingchang), there were Huangbo, King Han and Liu Qingyu of jinzhangzong The prime minister's wife, Zhang Zongren and others continued to carve a Han and other 20 pieces.

In addition, there are some inscriptions by unknown sutras engravers, such as Vajra shattering the Dharma Sutra, the collection of names of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas of the great Tibetan religion, and the collection of the best secret Tibetan Dharma of Buddhism. The gold carved stone scriptures are buried in the underground cave under the meridian pressing tower, except that the great Jiaowang Scripture is hidden in the third cave of Dongfeng.

The engraving of stone scriptures in Yuan Dynasty stopped again. Yunju temple and Shijing mountain were repaired by the Ming Dynasty. During the Wanli, Tianqi and Chongzhen years, Wuxing Sanzhen and Zhencheng recruited the capital officials, such as GE Yilong and Dong Qichang, to continue to carve Shijing. The plan includes more than ten kinds of sutras, such as the forty Hua Yan Sutra, the Fabao Tan Sutra, the Baoyun Sutra, the Buddhist relic Sutra, the forty second chapter Sutra, the dafangguang Zongzhi Baoguang Ming Sutra, the fanwang Sutra, and the Amitabha Sutra. Because the original stone caves have been fully closed, a new small hole was opened on the left side of Leiyin cave. The stone was built as a wall to hide the carved Scripture stele. Dong Qichang, a famous calligrapher, wrote the word "treasure", commonly known as "treasure cave" (the sixth hole). This is the end of the stone Scripture carving in Yunju temple. According to statistics in recent years, more than 14000 stone scriptures are stored in and outside the nine caves of Shijingshan.

The value of Shijing

Since the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the Fangshan stone scriptures have attracted extensive attention of scholars. Its value has been introduced in the travel notes and works of Zhou Chen in Ming Dynasty, Zha Li, Shi Jingfen and ye Changchi in Qing Dynasty. But only from the perspective of inscriptions and calligraphy, rarely from the perspective of Buddhism. Since 1956, the Buddhist Association of China has started to carry out comprehensive collation and rubbing. These steles are valuable material basis for collating the errors of the woodcut scriptures. Some of the inscriptions also contain the guild names and political, social and economic conditions of Youzhou and Zhuozhou in the Tang Dynasty, which is of reference value to the study of the social situation in North China at that time, and also an important material for the study of the development of ancient stone and calligraphy.

Explore the experience

The year 1956 marks the 2500 anniversary of Sakyamuni's nirvana. The world Buddhist Federation calls on all Buddhist countries to do something meaningful for the Buddhist community. The Chinese Buddhist Association reported to the State Council and chose to excavate the Fangshan stone Sutra as its gift.

Open nine holes

Leiyin cave is the first object cleaned up by the working group. It is the only open one among the nine caves, once used as a place for ritual activities. After more than a thousand years of wind and rain, the cave is dilapidated. There are 18 pieces of stone Sutra plates embedded in the four walls, which are scattered on the ground; the four words "come here for a visit" are randomly engraved on a sutra plate facing the cave wall; the earth Kang at the entrance is built up with fragments of Sutra plates. Just over 600 years ago, in the Zhizheng period of the Yuan Dynasty, a Korean monk named Huiyue also came to Leiyin cave. He read the "Inscription of the second year of Zhenguan" written by jingwan in the cave, understood master jingwan's intention of carving scriptures, and saw the damaged stone scriptures in front of him. He felt the same regret. Huiyue stayed, raised money everywhere, carved five Sutra plates damaged in the cave, and left an inscription at the end of the Sutra.

Despite the invasion of spring and sand, the stone Sutra slab is still well preserved. After cleaning, the polished stone can be distinguished. The work of cleaning and rubbing stone scriptures on the mountain has been going on for two years. Considering the protection of the original appearance of the stone scriptures on the mountain, the stone scriptures on the mountain are put back into the cave according to the original position, and the stone gates are sealed again.

Dig the crypt

In the summer of 1957, according to historical records, the staff found the crypt in front of the destroyed South Tower in Yunju temple. The cave is 109 meters long from north to south, 10 meters wide from east to west, and 5 meters deep. It is surrounded by walls on four sides. The cave is divided into two rooms of different sizes, filled with stacks of Sutra plates of Liao and Jin Dynasties. A year later, the rubbing work of the cave stone Scriptures was completed, and the Bureau of cultural relics appropriated special funds to build a storehouse to store 10082 unearthed stone scriptures.

With the deepening of research and new archaeological discoveries, scholars have identified it as Qidan collection. The quality of Qidan collection compiled by a large number of eminent monks gathered in the Liao Dynasty was very high. This Northern Nationality believed in Buddhism. After obtaining the sixteen prefectures of Yanjing from the Song Dynasty, it made use of the Han Scholars and absorbed the Han culture, making the country strong. After the compilation of Qidan collection, it was given to Korea. However, it was once lost in Chinese history, and there was no record of it in the literature, even whether it was a scroll or a square volume. Seventeen years after the excavation of the cave stone scriptures, the Beijing Bureau of cultural relics sent a special person to repair the wooden pagoda in Yingxian County, Shanxi Province. More than 100 pieces of Liao Dynasty cultural relics were found in the stomach of the reclining Buddha on the fourth floor of the wooden pagoda, 12 of which were scrolled scriptures arranged in thousand characters. After comparison, the content of a piece of paper in the scroll is the content of a stone Scripture tablet of Liao Dynasty in the cave. The number of words, lines and individual characters are exactly the same, which fully proves that Qidan collection is the base of Scripture carving in Liao and Jin Dynasties.

Shijingshan still keeps some secrets that have not been disclosed. According to historical records, there is also a sutra cave named "peacock cave" on the mountain. Those Sutra tablets which are inconsistent with the literature data and can not be found in the unearthed stone scriptures are hidden in the peacock cave.

Protection of Shijing

Special care target

On March 4, 1961, the State Council of the people's Republic of China announced the list of the first batch of national key cultural relics to be protected. Yunju temple and Shijing in Fangshan were listed as national key cultural relics protection units, and a series of measures were taken to protect Shijing.

Huizang cave

However, more than 10000 stone tablets in the warehouse were seriously weathered in the 40 years after they were unearthed, and the damage was far more than the sum of the past 1000 years. Due to the air pollution and the difference of materials, the surface of some Scripture tablets protruded, powdered, and the handwriting was blurred, and some even disappeared.

On the original site, a modern underground palace was rebuilt, covering an area of 400 square meters, with floor, side walls and roof

Chinese PinYin : Fang Shan Shi Jing