Figure 2, Dazu Baoding Mountain Big Buddha Bay No. 18 Guan Wu Wu Shou Buddhist Sutra Disguised Niche (Partial)
Figure 3, a statue of a boy in a fence excavated from the Song Tomb in Bao'en Village, Dazu Longgang Town
Figure 1, Dazu Beishan Fowan Grottoes No. 245 Guan Wu Wu Shou Buddhist Sutra in disguise
Figure 4, Dazu Beishan No. 136 wheel through the Tibetan cave Sun Moon Guanyin statue
Figure 5, Dazu Shimenshan Grottoes No. 6 Western Three Saints and Ten Holy Guanyin
Figure 6, the monk figure of No. 20 Dafo Bay on Dazu Baoding Mountain is believed to be Zhao Zhifeng
◎ Huang Wenzhi
Exhibition: Special Victory Dazu - Special Exhibition of Dazu Stone Carvings
Venue: National Museum
Dazu Rock Carvings refers to the general term for grottoes and cliff carvings in Dazu District of Chongqing, including 6 national key cultural relics protection units and many provincial and municipal cultural protection units, of which the Dazu Grottoes with Dazu North Mountain, Baoding Mountain and Nanshan Mountain as the main body are "World Heritage" approved by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organizing Committee. The Dazu stone carvings are mainly the remains of the two Song Dynasties, representing the highest level of stone carvings from the 9th to the 13th century AD, and are known as the last monuments in the history of world grotto art. Recently, the "Special Exhibition of Dazu Stone Carvings" was exhibited at the National Museum, presenting the past and present lives of Dazu stone carvings and the moving artistic brilliance.
Pure Land Past Life: The virgin has a meaning
Entering the exhibition hall, the most eye-catching thing is the disguised shrine of the Guan Wu Wu Shou Buddhist Sutra (Figure 1), which was originally located in the No. 245 FoWan Grottoes of Dazu Beishan, with a height of nearly 5 meters (the original large copy), which is carved according to the "Guan Wu Li Shou Buddhist Sutra", showing the solemnity and beauty of the Western Bliss pure land. The Sutra of The Immeasurable Life is one of the three pure land sutras, which narrates the sixteen visualization methods of Shakyamuni Buddha telling the devotees about the appearance of Amitabha Buddha (infinite life Buddha) and the solemnity of the Pure Land of Bliss, so in the fine art works (sutras) that express the sutra, most of them have to draw or carve sixteen visualizations on both sides of the picture, and the two sides of this niche are designed in this way, and the same theme of the sutra paintings in the Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes is also this layout.
This masterpiece, completed in the late Tang Dynasty, shows the Heavenly Palace Pavilion where the Three Saints of the West are located above the main wall, and there are celestial people hearing the Fa and praising between the pavilions; below it is carved the past life space combined with the wall and the railing, showing the scene of the nine past lives. The Three Saints of the West sit on tall lotus pedestals topped with a rich canopy. On both sides of the lotus seat of the Buddha statue, many bodhisattva statues are carved, implying the prosperity of the Dharma and praising the solemnity of the Pure Land. On the canopy on top of the Buddha statue, surrounded by celestial beings and birds, four "beams of light" that spread to the outer border of the niche and flow in a symmetrical manner are emitted, and the Buddha is expressed in the circle formed by each of them, which is a kind of imaginative creation. In the middle of the top of the niche is carved a large lotus flower, flanked by a teardrop-shaped cloud, both of which are illusioned from the "beams" emitted by the Heavenly Palace Pavilion. Various musical instruments are represented in the clouds, which do not sound without drumming when the Buddha speaks. According to the Buddhist scriptures, when Shakya Buddha spoke, a golden light was emitted between his eyebrows, illuminating the immeasurable world of the ten directions, and the pure and wonderful land of the ten Buddhas also appeared in front of everyone's eyes. Like the many Buddhas and bodhisattvas on the lotus platform on the walls on both sides of the niche, it should be the symbol of the Pure Land of the Ten Buddhas, and it is also the manifestation of the divine power when the Buddha said it.
The bottom of the no. 245 Guan Wu Wu Shou Buddhist Sutra disguised niche in the Beishan Fowan Grottoes shows the picture of the nine products of past lives. The so-called nine-pin past life means that the blessings of the merits obtained by the faithful are deep and shallow, and according to this, they are divided into three grades, and each grade has three grades, which are combined into nine pins. This difference determines the different courtesies that people receive when they pass on to the Pure Land World.
In the Dazu Grottoes, the clearest picture of the nine past lives is the disguised shrine of the Wuliangshou Buddhist Sutra No. 18 of Dafo Bay on Dazu Baoding Mountain (Figure 2). Unlike the grand scene of the disguised shrine of the Wuliangshou Buddhist Sutra in cave 245 of the Beishan Fowan Grottoes, the disguised niches of Dazu Baoding Mountain are more understandable. The upper part of the painting is a nearly circular sculpture of the Three Saints of the West, the lower part is carved between the railing and the arch bridge, with corresponding inscriptions, in addition to the carving of eight pictures on the cliffs at both ends of the niche, corresponding to the sixteen views in the classic. The main figure of the Three Noble Beings of the West, Amitabha Buddha (The Buddha of Infinite Life), has two hands and four standing bodhisattvas, and two bodhisattvas in the middle holding lotus lamps, which are the symbols of the Pure Land of the West. Below the bodhisattva there are three virgins, either praying or holding objects, like a beautiful face. Children are the appearance of the superiors when they were reborn in the Pure Land World, and they are greatly welcomed by Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and Celestial Beings.
In fact, in every picture of the past life, there are children who are all deceased, or sit on the lotus platform with their hands folded, or ride on the railing to play. There are also a few children who sit in the lotus flower and have not yet been born, because they have done great evil deeds in their previous lives, and before they die, they are fortunate to hear the Dharma and pass away to the Pure Land, but they need to go through a long period of practice in the lotus flower before they can wash away their sin karma and get a new life.
Interestingly, this kind of past life scene of a boy riding between the railings and playing also appears in song dynasty tombs, such as the statue of the boy who was excavated from the Song Tomb in Bao'en Village, Dazu Longgang Town (Picture 3), which carved such a cute boy who was naughty and embarrassed to turn over a fence. The stone carvings with this theme in the tomb should be alluding to the new life of the tomb owner, which does not rule out the connotation of the nine past lives, after all, the Pure Land faith that carries the fruits of good and evil and the idea of past lives is the most popular Buddhist thought at that time.
Enlightenment Question: The Salvation of the Bodhisattva
Dazu Baoding Mountain Dafo Bay No. 29 Yuanjue Dojo, the cave height and width of each more than 6 meters, the depth of nearly 11 meters, is the largest cave in the Dazu area. In the middle of the main wall of the cave is carved Vilujana Buddha, flanked by Medicine Buddha and Amitabha Buddha. Opposite Vishnu Buddha, there is a circle sculpture of a bodhisattva sitting on his knees with his hands folded, representing (incarnations) of the twelve bodhisattvas on the left and right walls of the cave, who is asking the Buddha for the Dharma. These twelve bodhisattvas are called enlightened bodhisattvas, and their interaction with Vishnu Buddha constitutes the classic scene of the Enlightenment Sutra. The Medicine Buddha is the leader of the Eastern Glass Pure Land World, and its counterpart is the Amitabha Buddha who taught the Western Paradise Pure Land World, and the combination of the two Buddhas and the Vishnu Buddha reflects the pluralism and secularity of folk beliefs. The enlightened bodhisattvas in the Yuanjue Dojo wear a crown of many sets of curly flower beards, and there are Buddhas between the flowers. The bodhisattva's face is rounded and his facial features are exquisite, showing the beautiful temperament of young women. Although the clothing of these statues is quite thick, the clothing is rounded and full, the lines are smooth and stretched, and there is no jerkiness at all, and the overall appearance is a kind of earthy atmosphere.
Also expressing the theme of bodhisattva, Dazu Beishan No. 136 Revolving Cave presents another artistic style. In the middle of the cave, the stone carved wheel is hidden, which is gorgeous and magnificent. The so-called Chakra Sutra is the meaning of collecting the classics and placing them on the rotating wheel, symbolizing the constant rotation of the Falun. The main statue of the cave is Shakya Buddha, flanked by the two bodhisattvas of Gaya and Ananda, as well as Guanyin and Dashizhi, and the two walls are also carved with six bodhisattvas, four of which are considered to be statues of Guanyin, which shows the flourishing of bodhisattva faith at that time, especially the guanyin belief and secular life.
Among these statues of Guanyin, a six-armed Sun and Moon Guanyin statue is particularly well preserved (Figure 4). The style of this Guanyin statue is obviously different from that of the bodhisattvas of the Giant Buddha Bay Enlightenment Dojo on Baoding Mountain, whose crown resembles a flower basket filled with flowers, full of life, while the curled flower beard and the Buddha have a more sacred sense of ritual. The bodhisattva's chest is particularly delicate and gorgeous, but the carving of the clothes tends to be flattened, which is obviously different from the full and rounded style of the bodhisattva of the Great Buddha Bay Yuanjue Dojo, showing the difference in the aesthetic taste of the craftsmen. Baodingshan Dafowan Yuanjue Dojo statue, and Dazu adjacent to the Huayan Cave statue of Shiyang Town, Anyue County, which is also the pinnacle of Stone Carving in the Song Dynasty, but the age is earlier than Dazu, so the locals rumor that the carving technicians of the Dazu Baoding Mountain Yuanjue Dojo may come from Anyue, and the Dazu Beishan Wheel Sutra Cave should represent another carving tradition, paying more attention to the expression of secular aesthetic interest and decorative meaning.
The Dazu Shimenshan Grottoes No. 6 Western Three Saints and Ten Sacred Kannon (Fig. 5) is also a dojo that highlights the Guanyin faith. The main wall of the grotto represents the Three Western Saints with Amitabha Buddha as the main figure, and there are five pure bottles in the lower part of the two walls, in which lotus leaves and two-stemmed lotus flowers (lotus platforms) are born, and on each group of double-stemmed lotus flowers stands a Guanyin, a total of ten Guanyin, the inscription is called the Ten Sacred Kannon. The holdings of these Kannon hands vary, including the well-known Yangliu Guanyin, the Counting Bead Hand Guanyin, the Ruyi Wheel Guanyin, and the most rare thing is that these statues have inscriptions, so that we can obtain accurate information about the age of the statue and the lord of merit. The theme of the Ten Sacred Guanyin is mainly popular in the Dazu area of the Southern Song Dynasty, and some researchers believe that this is the evolution of the Thousand Hands Guanyin, but it can be seen from the inscription that the name of the Ten Sacred Guanyin has become a fixed term during the Southern Song Dynasty.
The Avalokiteshvara Pumen Pin in the Lotus Sutra says, "If there are immeasurable tens of billions of sentient beings, suffering from all kinds of suffering, hearing Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattvas, and single-mindedly claiming fame, Guanyin Bodhisattvas immediately observing their sounds, they will all be liberated." The point in this sentence is that one can attain liberation by calling guanyin (Guanyin), which is of great attraction to secular believers. The combination of pure land belief and Guanyin faith reproduces the grand situation of folk Buddhist belief in "family Amitabha, household Guanyin" since the Sui and Tang dynasties.
Practice Seeking: The Aspiration of the Believer
Among the Dazu stone carvings, the largest is the Dafo Bay of Dazu Baoding Mountain, and it is hard to imagine that this collection of late Chinese grottoes was carved by a practitioner named Zhao Zhifeng. Zhao Zhifeng lived in the late Southern Song Dynasty, early ordained, after raising funds, site selection dazu Baoding Mountain cave statue, more than 70 years of history, Dazu Baoding Mountain Dafo Bay No. 20 monk image is considered To be Zhao Zhifeng (Figure 6), he has a short beard, left hand holding a pod, the right hand is held as a statement, wearing a collared dress, cloaked in robes, behind the stupa.
Zhao Zhifeng engraved two lines on the lower left wall: "Heaven is also wide and hell is also wide, and I don't believe in Buddha's words and suffer bitterly." The inscription on the lower right wall reads, "Seek pleasure in the midst of suffering in my path, and seek suffering in the happiness of all sentient beings", all of which have the meaning of exhorting the world not to do evil, practice diligently, and enjoy liberation, which is completely consistent with the educational function of the entire grotto. The Baodingshan Big Buddha Bay combines various types of scenes such as Pure Land, Hell, Filial Piety, Meditation, Nirvana, and Bodhichitta to form a grand narrative image, becoming the largest folk Buddhist practice outside the royal-led excavations of caves such as Datong Yungang and Luoyang Longmen.
In the Dazu stone carvings, there is another extremely important figure that needs to be mentioned, that is, the "self-harming" ascetic Liu Benzun. Liu Benzun was active in the Sichuan region during the five dynasties of the late Tang Dynasty, and there were many gods, the most widely known of which is the scene of "Liu Benzun Ten Refinements" carved in the grotto. In the Sichuan-Shu region, the three "LiuBen Zun Ten Refinements" are the most representative, namely The Pilu Cave of Anyue Stone Sheep Farm, the Big Buddha Bay of Dazu Baoding Mountain, and the Little Buddha Bay of Dazu Baoding Mountain. The ten refinements of Liu Benzun include the refining of fingers, lixue, ankle refining, eye cutting, ear cutting, refining heart, refining the top, laying arms, refining yin, and refining knees.
In the past, it was believed that the Ten Refinements of Liu Benzun were a kind of esoteric way of practice, and Professor Li Jingjie of Tsinghua University made an in-depth analysis of the theme of this statue, believing that in addition to the refining of the mind, the other nine were all acts of giving alms and offering to the Buddhas for themselves, which was the key to the Mahayana Bodhisattva's practice of the six paramitas and the attainment of the Buddhist path, and its basis was mostly related to the social background of the time (related events in history, induction deeds) and the teachings of the Huayan Sutra.
Li Jingjie then further examined the religious connotations of Vilujana Buddha, pointing out that Liu Bendun was the embodiment of Vilujana Buddha, or the two were one. A round carved statue of Liu Ben from The Bay of the Little Buddha, wearing a square flat-topped scarf and a scarf of Buddha (Vilujana Buddha), lacking the right eye, left ear, and left arm, all of which are missing for almsgiving to the Buddhas. Another distinctive feature of the image is that there is a flame burning from the inside out on the chest, according to which it can be seen that this is the sixth of the ten refinements, the refining of the heart.
Dharma Protector Lineage: Restoration is practice
Several statues of Arhats are displayed in the exhibition hall, but unfortunately, the heads of these Arhats have been damaged or stolen. The main basis of the Arhat faith is Tang Xuanzang's translation of the Great Arhat Nanti Midora (referred to as the Book of Dharma Residence), which arose in the Tang Dynasty and flourished in the Two Song Dynasties. According to the Buddhist scriptures, after Shakya Buddha was imprisoned in Naga Nirvana, the eldest disciple Gaya presided over the first festival assembly in the history of Buddhism, and then entered the Jizu Mountain with divine power and extended his life until Maitreya became a Buddha in the next life. The appearance of the five hundred arhats or sixteen (eighteen) represented by Gaya as the inheritors and protectors of the Dharma is of great significance in the age of the end of the Five Evil Worlds. Most of the statues displayed in the exhibition hall are the remnants of the Arhats excavated from the site of the Dazhong Temple in Dazu Wangu Town, with different dynamics, presumably the images on the faces of these Arhats before they were destroyed are vivid and infectious.
At the exit of the exhibition hall, there is a large screen showing the restoration documentary of the Thousand Hands Guanyin Disguised Niche No. 8 of Dafo Bay on Dazu Baoding Mountain. The thousand-handed Guanyin disguised form is a more popular theme in the grottoes of the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties of Bashu. Big Buddha Bay No. 8 Thousand Hands Guanyin Disguised Shrine The main figure wears a tall crown of multiple incarnated Buddhas, all in gold, with a vertical eye in the middle of the forehead, the hands on the chest are made of ten, the knotted mid-seal, and the zen seal, and the hands around the body and head hold various magic instruments and knots of different seals, and each palm has eyes.
According to the Thousand Hands and Thousand Eyes Great Compassion Sutra, the Bodhisattva of Contemplation (Guanyin Bodhisattva) in the past heard that the vast perfection of the Great Compassion Draupadi had made a wish for the benefit of all sentient beings, and immediately attained his body. This Thousand Hands Guanyin in Big Buddha Bay has long been plagued by various diseases after more than 800 years. In 2008, the "Dazu Baoding Thousand Hands Guanyin Rescue and Reinforcement Protection Project" was listed as the No. 1 National Stone Cultural Relics Protection Project, and it took eight years to complete. The project is the product of the combination of traditional skills and modern technology, and the protection and restoration of the grotto has accumulated valuable experience, but the trade-offs and trade-offs for restoration have triggered a wider range of discussions and thoughts.
The surviving cultural relics of Dazu stone carvings are very rich, but most of them are located in the cave niches between the mountains and fields, and the immovability of cultural relics affects the excitement of the exhibition to a certain extent, but there are still a considerable number of original stone carvings presented to the viewer, such as Shakya Buddha and Meditation Guanyin from Dazu Little Buddha Bay, which are classics in Dazu stone carvings, in addition to some fragments in cave niches, statue heads, and some secular stone carvings are exhibited at the same time, presenting the diversity of Dazu stone carvings from multiple levels. However, in order to get a better viewing experience, it is still necessary to observe the scene, so that you can truly feel the cultural connotation of the original space where the cultural relics are located, and feel the ancients' love for life and their vision of the next life. Photography / Huang Wenzhi