Mengshan Buddha

Mengshan Buddha is a temple village to the north of Jinci temple, with a main peak of 1 325 meters high. Xiaoyue in Mengshan is one of the eight scenes of old Taiyuan.

The 200 foot cliff Buddha, called Xishan Buddha, is slightly higher than the largest Leshan Buddha in China.

The mountain scenery near Mengshan Giant Buddha is very beautiful. It's a good place to go outdoors and search for historical sites.

Mengshan Buddha

Mengshan Giant Buddha is a cliff Giant Buddha located in the northwest of Sidi village, Jinyuan District, Taiyuan City, Shanxi Province. Mengshan Giant Buddha was excavated in Tianbao period of Northern Qi Dynasty. It was originally a cliff Buddha statue behind Kaihua temple in Mengshan. Li Yuan, Emperor Gaozong of the Tang Dynasty, Li Zhi and Empress Wu Zetian, Li Keyong, Emperor Wu of the later Tang Dynasty, and Liu Zhiyuan, Emperor Gaozu of the later Han Dynasty, all came here to worship Buddha. At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, Mengshan Buddha was destroyed. In the general survey of place names in Taiyuan City in 1980, Mengshan Giant Buddha was rediscovered. When it was discovered, the Buddha's head had disappeared, and the Buddha's body was buried in earth and rock, which was seriously weathered.

The exposed chest and neck of Mengshan Giant Buddha is 17.5 meters high, 25 meters wide, and 5 meters wide in diameter. It is recorded in the Tang Dynasty as "200 feet high", which is about 63 meters today according to the ordinary ruler of the Tang Dynasty. In terms of height, Mengshan Buddha is the second largest Buddha in the world, and in terms of age, it is the first large-scale stone Buddha in the world.

The Buddha's abdomen, hands, legs, feet, base, and the remains of the pavilion are all covered in the mud and stone on the hillside of the Buddha's chest. In addition, there are also some important inscriptions here.

Since 2007, the city of Taiyuan has protected and developed the Mengshan Giant Buddha, strengthened the body of the Buddha, and built a new 12 meter high Buddha head with reference to the Beiqi Buddha head unearthed in Taiyuan. In October 2008, Mengshan Giant Buddha was opened to the public. On August 10, 2017, after the restructuring of the Giant Buddha Scenic Spot, the ticket price officially opened at 70 yuan per piece.

Historical evolution

Construction process

The Great Buddha of Mengshan was originally a Buddha statue behind Kaihua temple. Kaihua temple was built in 559 ad (the second year of Tianbao in the Northern Qi Dynasty), which was granted by Gao Yang, the emperor of culture and publicity in the Northern Qi Dynasty. After the temple, stone was chiseled to build roads, and Buddha statues were chiseled one mile behind the temple.

The date of the excavation of Mengshan Giant Buddha is controversial. According to the records of Taiyuan County in Yongle Dadian, the excavation of Mengshan Buddha began in the second year of Tianbao in the Northern Qi Dynasty. According to the records of Taiyuan county annals by Jiajing of Ming Dynasty and Shanxi general annals by Chenghua of Ming Dynasty, another view holds that the excavation of Mengshan Giant Buddha was later than the second year of Tianbao after the construction of Kaihua temple. According to Su Yugui's record of rebuilding the solemn Pavilion of Kaihua temple in Mengshan in the Five Dynasties, in the last year of Tianbao, Emperor Wenxuan of the Northern Qi Dynasty chiseled stones and carved statues according to the mountains. It is believed that the excavation of the Great Buddha in Mengshan began in 559 (the 10th year of Tianbao).

Build more

At the beginning of Renshou in Sui Dynasty, a new Buddha Pavilion was built in Kaihua temple to protect the Great Buddha, and it was renamed Jingming temple. In 620 ad (the third year of Wude of Tang Dynasty), Li Yuan, Emperor Gaozu of Tang Dynasty, came here to worship Buddha and changed the name of the temple back to Kaihua temple. On the other hand, Li Yuan worshiped the Buddha before he became emperor. When he went back, he dreamt that the Buddha would be empty that night. After he ascended the throne, Li Yuan changed the name of the temple to Kaihua temple. In 657 ad (the second year of Tang Xianqing), Li Zhi, Emperor Gaozong of Tang Dynasty, toured Bingzhou and visited Tongzi temple and Kaihua temple with Empress Wu Zetian. The Buddha statue of Tongzi temple was more than 170 feet high and the Giant Buddha of Kaihua temple was 200 feet high. Li Zhi, empress, concubines and palace people gave away a lot of jewelry, property and clothes.

Destruction and destruction

In 844 ad (the fourth year of Huichang in Tang Dynasty), the Buddhist Pavilion of Kaihua temple was destroyed in the process of emperor Wuzong's extermination of Buddhism, and the Great Buddha of Mengshan was exposed to the wind and rain. In 895 A.D. (the second year of qianning in Tang Dynasty), Li Keyong, the governor of Hedong who occupied Bingzhou and later became emperor Wu of Tang Dynasty, ordered people to rebuild the Buddha Pavilion of Kaihua temple after paying homage to Mengshan Buddha. After five years, the Buddha Pavilion was finally built. In 945 A.D. (the second year of Kaiyun in the later Jin Dynasty), Liu Zhiyuan, the king of Peiping who guarded Taiyuan and later the great ancestor of the later Han Dynasty, went to Kaihua temple to burn incense and offer sacrifices to Buddha. After that, he invested in the restoration of Buddha statues and Buddha pavilions. There is a record of the restoration of Mengshan Kaihua temple's solemn pavilions written by Su Yugui.

In 990 A.D. (the first year of Chunhua in Northern Song Dynasty), two new Sakyamuni relic pagodas (today's LIANLI pagoda) were built in Kaihua temple. At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, Kaihua temple was destroyed, and only the monk's house and relic pagoda were still there. It is generally believed that Mengshan Buddha was destroyed at this time. In 1385 A.D. (the 18th year of Hongwu in Ming Dynasty), King Zhu of Jin Gong rebuilt Kaihua temple, which was renamed fahua temple.

Rediscover

In 1983, Wang jianni, a municipal worker who participated in the census of place names in Taiyuan, rediscovered the Mengshan Giant Buddha. When investigating the place names, Wang jianni found that there were many place names with temple characters in Mengshan, Taiyuan, and another place called daduya, which was very strange. During the field investigation, it was found that Dadu cliff was actually the breast of Mengshan Buddha. The head of the Buddha had been lost, and the exposed breast was 15.75 meters high. Under the breast, it was buried in earth and stone, with the thickness of tens of meters. On the top of the cliff behind the Buddha statue, there are about 500 meters of ancient architectural relics. On December 11, 1983, the news was reported in the people's daily. On September 21, 2001, Mengshan Giant Buddha was listed in the second batch of key cultural relics protection units in Taiyuan city. In September 2006, the new Buddha head project started. In January 2008, the Buddha head was placed. On October 7, the restored Mengshan Giant Buddha Scenic Spot was opened to the public.

Structure of Buddha statue

The Giant Buddha of Mengshan mountain is excavated by using the steep cliff and is located near the top of the mountain. The niche is an open cliff type with a width of 29.60 meters and a depth of 17 meters. The head of the Buddha statue has been lost, and the mountain is flush with the neck. Researchers speculate that there may have been naturally raised rocks here at that time, and carved it into the head of the Buddha when digging. On the cliff behind the Buddha statue, there are a large area of flat ground, temple sites, scattered broken bricks and tiles, and a broken tablet engraved with Zen master Che of Tianmu Mountain in Hangzhou. Mengshan Giant Buddha is a single Buddha statue, and there are no remains of the statue inside and outside the niche.

The head of the Buddha is lost. The neck is 5 meters in diameter and more than 2 meters high, with three incised lines. The height from neck to abdomen is 22 meters, and the distance between two elbows is 22.70 meters. The shoulders are flat and wide, the chest blades are thick, and the body is strong. Because the rock mass of the Great Buddha is loose sandstone, weathering and collapse are very serious, the clothing patterns of the Buddha statues can not be identified. There are several rows of small square holes in the chest of the Buddha, which is supposed to be the remains of the restoration of the Great Buddha. The small arms of the Buddha are 12 meters long and 2.80 meters wide, which are well preserved. Buddhist statues are sealed with Zen meditation. The length of the right hand is 3.10 meters, the palm and little finger are still alive, and the left hand is disabled. Under the two hands are the legs made up of stones, which are 3 meters high and are in the sitting position. Under the legs is a stone platform.

Both legs and platform base were built when the Great Buddha was rebuilt. The researchers believe that although the original sitting posture of the Buddha may not be the initial sitting posture during the restoration, it is likely to be the initial sitting posture judged by the Zen seal of both hands. According to the remains before the clearance, archaeologist Su Bai infers that Mengshan Buddha is Maitreya Buddha. However, after the cleaning up, the Buddhist statues were not reclining. Later researchers believed that Mengshan Buddha might be Sakyamuni Buddha. One of the reasons is that the record of rebuilding the solemn Pavilion of Kaihua temple in Mengshan mentions the reason for the victory of chengzhaoti and the truth of Mou Sakya. The other reason is that the Sakya Buddha in cave 20 of Yungang Grottoes excavated in the Northern Wei Dynasty is also the same as the Great Buddha of Mengshan.

The height of Mengshan Buddha is about 30 meters from the lower legs to the neck. According to the shoulder width of 18 meters, the researchers estimate that the head height of the Buddha statue is about 10 meters, that is, the height of the Mengshan Giant Buddha is 40 meters. In addition to the 6-meter-high base built during the later reconstruction, the total height is about 46 meters. This is different from the historical records. According to Ming Bao Ji Ji Shu of Tang Dynasty, the Great Buddha of Kaihua temple in Mengshan is 200 feet high. According to the Tang Dynasty, the height of Mengshan Giant Buddha recorded in the Tang Dynasty is 59 meters, which is more than ten meters higher than the actual height of Mengshan Giant Buddha. Some media calculated the height of Mengshan Giant Buddha as 66 meters according to the modern one foot plus 0.33 meters, some media calculated it as 63 meters, and some media said that the height of Mengshan Giant Buddha is 66 meters. According to these media, Mengshan Buddha is higher than Bamiyan Buddha, which is 55 meters high in Afghanistan. Some media even claimed that Mengshan Giant Buddha is as famous as Leshan Giant Buddha and Bamiyan Giant Buddha, and according to their high relationship, Mengshan Giant Buddha is regarded as the second largest stone Buddha in the world.

On the platform in front of the Great Buddha, there are architectural relics with a width of three rooms (about 15 meters). The stone of the gate pier and the stone of the ground are still there. The researchers judge that the architectural age may be later than the Five Dynasties. To the north of the building remains, there is a tortoise shell, and the monument has been lost. There are some small stone caves on the west wall of the niche, which are used to embed the beam purlin when building the Buddha Pavilion. On the east side of the Great Buddha niche, there is a cliff inscription and the remains of two caves. The inscription on the cliff is about 2.50 meters high and 1.85 meters wide, which is rectangular at the height of the Buddha's chest. It was carved in advance and then embedded on the cliff. The text is not clear. It can only be judged that the inscription is a Buddhist sutra, but it is impossible to know which one.

The small cave on the east side of the cliff inscriptions is about 1 meter high and wide. Due to the collapse of the rock, the cave has been destroyed. To the east of the cave is a large cave with a square surface, 2.97 meters wide, 2.99 meters deep and 2.94 meters high. The rectangular cave gate is 1.74 meters high, 0.97 meters wide and 0.52 meters deep. There are stone pillars carved on both sides of the gate. On the stone pillars are carved a cudou. On the cudou is a carved forehead with a Dougong

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