Longmen

Longmen Grottoes

synonym

Longmen (Longmen Grottoes) generally refers to Longmen Grottoes (national key cultural relics protection units in Luoyang City, Henan Province)

Located in Luoyang City, Henan Province, Longmen Grottoes is the largest stone carving art treasure house with the largest number of statues in the world. It is rated as "the highest peak of Chinese stone carving art" by UNESCO,

It ranks first among the major Grottoes in China.

Now it is a world cultural heritage, a national key cultural relic protection unit and a national AAAAA tourist attraction.

Longmen Grottoes were first excavated during the reign of Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty. They have been successively built for more than 400 years in the Eastern Wei, Western Wei, Northern Qi, Sui, Tang, Five Dynasties and Song dynasties. They are densely distributed on the cliffs of the East and West Mountains of Yishui. The length of the Grottoes is 1 km from north to south. There are 2345 niches with more than 110000 statues

Together with Mogao Grottoes and Yungang Grottoes, they are known as the three largest Grottoes in China

Later, Maijishan grottoes are called the four major grottoes.

Most of the statues in Longmen Grottoes were built by royal nobles. They are the only royal Grottoes in the world.

Wu Zetian carved Lushena Buddha according to her appearance,

< / I and after the news of building a paradise in Ziwei city of Luoyang Imperial Palace came to Japan, Emperor Shengwu vowed that "I will also build it" and set up the Dongda temple in Nara.

In addition, Emperor Xiaowen chiseled Guyang cave for Empress Dowager Feng, the statue of Lanling's grandson in Wanfo cave, Li Tai built Binyang South cave for the eldest granddaughter, Princess Wei chiseled Jingshan temple, and Gao Lishi built wuliangshou Buddha for Tang Xuanzong.

Longmen Grottoes is a milestone of Chinese Grotto Art, which integrates the aesthetic perception of Chinese people and makes the grotto art show a trend of Sinicization.

He has also experienced the construction of Tianzhu, Silla, tuhuoluo, Kangguo and other foreign countries, and found European patterns, ancient Greek pillars, etc., which can be called the world's most internationalized grottoes.

There are more than 2860 inscriptions in Longmen Grottoes. His masterpieces are "Longmen 20 products" and "Longmen Shuangbi" (Yi que Buddha niche stele by Chu suiliang and Longmen inscription stele by song Zhenzong),

It is a masterpiece of Chinese calligraphy.

geographical environment

"In the suburbs of Luodu, where mountains and rivers are the best, Longmen is the first." ——Bai Juyi, Tang Dynasty.

Longmen Grottoes is located in the southern suburb of Luoyang, the ancient capital. The two mountains are facing each other, the Yishui river flows in the middle, the Foguang mountain scenery is beautiful, and it is the tianque spectacle described by Su Guo in Song Dynasty as "two towering mountain gates, one water flowing together".

The origin of the name

According to shuijingzhu: "in the past, Dayu dredged Longmen to pass the water. The two mountains were opposite each other. It looked like a que. The Yi River passed through it, so it was called the Yi que."

Longmen, also known as yique, where the East and West Mountains face each other, and the Yihe River flows through it. From afar, it looks like a natural gate que, so it was called "yique" in ancient times. "On both sides of the Strait, the mountains and cliffs are cut off, and the opposite is like a gate, but the dragon can cross it, so it's called Longmen."

In the Sui Dynasty, Yang Guang, emperor of the Sui Dynasty, once climbed Mang Mountain to the north of Luoyang and saw yique in the south of Luoyang from a distance. He said to his attendants, "isn't this the gate of the real dragon emperor? Why didn't the ancients build their capital here? " A minister flattered to answer, "the ancients do not know, just waiting for your majesty you." After hearing this, Emperor Yang of the Sui dynasty built the city of Tokyo in Luoyang. The main gate of the Imperial Palace, Ziwei City, was opposite to yique. From then on, yique was called Longmen by people.

Yang Guang called yique "Longmen", and its legend has a lot of new development and evolution. Among them, the story of "carp leaping over the dragon's gate" is a more representative one.

Main attractions

Longmen Grottoes consists of Xishan grottoes, Dongshan grottoes, Xiangshan temple and Baiyuan.

Xishan Grottoes

There are more than 50 large and medium-sized caves in the Northern Dynasties and the Sui and Tang Dynasties on the cliff of Xishan.

The representative caves in the Northern Wei Dynasty include Guyang cave, Binyang middle cave, Lianhua cave, huangfugong cave, Weizi cave, Putai cave, huoshao cave, Cixiang kiln, Lu cave, etc;

The representative caves of Sui and Tang Dynasties are Fengxian Temple, Qianxi temple, Binyang South cave, Binyang North Cave (the above two caves and their top decoration were completed in the Northern Wei Dynasty, and the Buddha statues were completed in the Sui and early Tang Dynasty), Jingshan temple, cliff three niches, Wanfo cave, Huijian cave, pure land hall, Longhua temple, Jinan cave, etc.

Fengxian Temple

Buddha: nine bodies. The main Buddha in the middle is Lushena Buddha, which was carved by Empress Wu according to her appearance,

 

 

On the right side is the elder disciple JIAYE, on the left side is the younger disciple Ananda, and then the Bodhisattva Puxian < I (left) < / I, Manjusri < I (right) < / I,

 

The mighty king of heaven, the aggressive man of strength and the main Buddha Luciana together constitute a group of art group images with rich modality and texture.

Excavation time: at the beginning of Emperor Gaozong of Tang Dynasty, Empress Wu Zetian sponsored 20 thousand yuan of zhifen money in the third year of Xianxiang (672 A.D.), and finished in the second year of Shangyuan (675 A.D.), with a length of more than 30 meters and a width of more than 30 meters. Lord Buddha: Lushena is the Buddha of the body, which means the light shines everywhere. With a height of 17.14 meters, a head height of 4 meters and an ear length of 1.9 meters, it is famous for its mysterious smile and is praised by foreign tourists as "the Oriental Mona Lisa" and "the most beautiful statue in the world".

 

 

The Buddha's face is plump and mellow, with wavy hair lines on the top of its head. Its eyebrows are curved like a crescent moon, with a pair of beautiful eyes gazing down slightly, revealing a peaceful smile. It looks like a wise and kind-hearted middle-aged woman, which is respectful and fearless.

 

Related research: Lu she is the image of Wu Zetian, which is based on. According to the records of the Buddha's niche in daluchena, "it's really up to me, the emperor, to be beautiful." There has been a precedent in the history of using the image of the Emperor himself to make Buddha statues. For example, Emperor Wencheng of the Northern Wei Dynasty "ordered a division as a stone statue, which is now like the body of the emperor.". The statue of Sakyamuni in Guyang cave has the "beautiful trace" of Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty.

On the day of the completion of Fengxian Temple, Wu Zetian personally led hundreds of civil and military officials to participate in the opening ceremony of Lushena, and played drums in the East Bank of Yishui river.

Status: Longmen Grottoes is the largest and most exquisite group sculpture of cliff type. The cliff style niche carved according to the Huayan Sutra centers on Lushena Buddha, which is graceful and magnificent. With a week's artistic group image full of modality and texture, the ideal artistic conception of the Buddhist world is expressed incisively and vividly. This group of statues reflects the great material and spiritual strength of the Tang Empire, and shows the highest achievement of Tang Dynasty sculpture art.

 

Value influence: in the 12th year of Tianping (740), Emperor Shengwu cast a 500 ton, 15 meter high gold and copper statue of Lushena Buddha in Dongda temple, Nara.

 

Significance: Fengxian Temple's large-scale art group sculpture, with its grand scale and exquisite carving, stands at the peak of Chinese stone carving art, becoming a model of Chinese stone carving art and a symbol of the great era of the Tang Dynasty.

Qianxi Temple

Another name: zhaiyitang

Location: the first cave at the north end of the west mountain of Longmen

Excavation time: the reign of Emperor Gaozong of Tang Dynasty (650-683)

Scale: more than nine meters in height and width, and nearly seven meters in depth.

Function: used to be the villa of Li Fan, Prime Minister of Tang Dynasty

Structure: the wooden structure eaves were originally built in the Qing Dynasty, and later rebuilt to imitate the Tang wooden structure style, paved with slate floor.

Layout: Amitabha, the main Buddha, sits on the platform of Xumi. On the left side of the main Buddha is the elder disciple JIAYE, and on the right side is the younger disciple Ananda. Next to the two disciples are Guanyin Bodhisattva and dashizhi Bodhisattva, and Amitabha, known as the "three saints of the west".

Features: the dashizhi Bodhisattva in the south wall has a plump shape and a quiet manner. There are 1:1 copies on display in the Palace Museum.

Binyang cave

Another name: Binyang three caves

The meaning of cave Name: welcome the born sun

Digger: Xuanwu emperor of Northern Wei dynasty built for his father Xiaowen Emperor

Project status: the project started in 500 AD and lasted for 24 years, employing 800000 2366 people. Later, due to the court coup and the death of Liu Teng, the three planned caves (Binyang middle cave, South cave and North cave) only completed the middle cave, and the main statues of South cave and North cave were completed in the early Tang Dynasty.

Binyang North cave

Master Buddha: "scissors hand" Buddha (Amitabha)

Research on fingerprints: this "scissors hand" is actually a very rare kind of Buddhist fingerprints, which can convey a strong will.

 

Binyang middle cave

Status: the representative caves in the Northern Wei Dynasty

Internal structure: horseshoe shaped plane, dome, central carved lotus canopy, lotus is surrounded by eight jiletian and two supporting heaven and man.

Carving technique: the straight knife technique of the Northern Wei Dynasty.

Features: as Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty carried out a series of Sinicized policies after moving his capital to Luoyang, the costumes of the main Buddha in the cave changed from Yungang Grottoes, which favored the right shoulder cassock to the wide robe and large sleeve cassock.

Buddha statue: Sakyamuni, the main Buddha, has two disciples and two Bodhisattvas on his side. There are also statues on the left and right walls, each of which has a Buddha and two Bodhisattvas, and stands on the lotus seat with a broad robe and cassock.

Relief: it is located on the north and south sides of the front wall of the cave, with four layers from top to bottom.

Chinese PinYin : Long Men