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"Exploring the Traces of Brahma"
Yang Hong
Triptych Bookstore 2022
Buddhism was introduced to China from India, which lasted for thousands of years, left a large number of grotto temples, Buddhist temples and other relics in the land of China, and created a large number of exquisite statues, murals and other cultural relics, which became a special branch of archaeology in the historical period, with remarkable results. In addition to the archaeological discoveries of Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes and Famen Temple Underground Palace, yungang, Longmen, Bingling Temple, Maijishan and other world-famous grottoes, in recent years in Shandong Qingzhou, Hebei Quyang, Yicheng and other places excavated statue cellars have also attracted widespread attention from all walks of life. Since the 1990s, a number of important Tibetan Buddhist monasteries and monasteries have been cleared out, updating the world's understanding of the history of the spread of Buddhism. All of this may lack a clear and systematic understanding for the average reader.
Through several special topics such as cave temples, cave front buildings, Buddhist monasteries, underground cellars, and pagoda relics, this book presents a comprehensive picture of the archaeological cause of Buddhism on the mainland, so that readers can understand the spatial and temporal distribution of Chinese Buddhist art relics.
The study of Chinese cave temples began at the beginning of this century. The Japanese Ito Tadata investigated the Yungang Grottoes in Datong in 1902; the Frenchman Sha Qi investigated the Longmen Grottoes in Luoyang in 1907; the German Le Cork stolen relics from the grottoes of Baicheng, Kucha, and Turfan in Xinjiang in 1904 and 1913 and stripped away the murals; the Englishman Stein, the Frenchman Bo Xihe, and the Japanese Otani Guangrui robbed the Dunhuang Grottoes from 1907 to 1914, and 1933- In 1934, the Japanese and Americans also carried out dismembered theft of statues of tianlongshan grottoes and Luoyang longmen grottoes in Taiyuan, Shanxi. At this stage, whether foreigners or Chinese, they basically studied the remains of Chinese cave temples from the perspective of art history, and could only record (mainly photographic and survey) the current situation and copy the murals. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the remains of the grottoes have received due attention, and all localities have carried out investigation and recording work based on scientific archaeology on the existing grottoes, and many important cave niches that have been lost for a long time have been discovered.
Mr. Yang Hong introduces the history of Chinese Buddhist art archaeology and the archaeological evidence of the first transmission of Buddhism to China in the first four chapters of the book, and the next five to seven chapters combine the times, regions and characteristics to sort out the main cave temples and cave ruins in the country, and the last three chapters focus on Buddhist cultural relics such as statues and relics excavated underground. The whole book is written on the basis of a hundred years of scientific archaeology work, the use of images is very careful, the sources include line drawings, real photos and cultural relics photos, never use artifacts of unknown origin, so it can be said that it is a yardstick guide to understand the archaeology of Chinese Buddhism, while summarizing archaeological results, restoring the historical appearance, but also presenting the moving beauty of Chinese Buddhist art.
Schematic diagram of the façade of the cave in the north xiangtang mountain (notes made by the author under the guidance of Mr. Su Bai in 1957)
About the Author
Yang Hong was born in Beijing in 1935. He is a researcher at the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a professor and doctoral supervisor of the Department of Archaeology of the Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a member of the State Cultural Relics Appraisal Committee, and a distinguished professor of the School of Humanities of the Central Academy of Fine Arts. Member of the Editorial Board of the Monthly Journal of Cultural Relics and Advisor to the Editorial Board of the Monthly Journal of Archaeology. He was also employed as a member of the Cultural Relics Appraisal Committee and a member of the National Leading Group for the Collation and Publication planning of ancient books. His research interests include Chinese Han and Tang Dynasty archaeology, Chinese art archaeology and ancient archaeology. He has participated in the writing of "Archaeological Harvest of New China" (Cultural Relics Publishing House, 1961), "Archaeological Discoveries and Research in New China" (Cultural Relics Publishing House, 1984), "Chinese Encyclopedia and Archaeology" (China Encyclopedia Publishing House, 1986) collectively compiled by the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. He has published more than 300 academic papers in journals such as Journal of Archaeology, Archaeology, Cultural Relics, and Fine Arts Research. His major academic monographs include Treatise on Ancient Chinese Weapons (Cultural Relics Publishing House, 1980), Half a Century of Fine Art archaeology: A History of Archaeological Discoveries of Chinese Art (Cultural Relics Publishing House, 1997), Han and Tang Dynasty Art Archaeology and Buddhist Art (Science Publishing House, 2000), and Treatise on Ancient Chinese Soldiers and Art Archaeology (Cultural Relics Publishing House, 2007). He is also the co-author of "The Beauty of China- An Illustrated Catalogue of Zhongwei Art" (Zhonghua Bookstore, Hong Kong, 1993) and "Meiyuan - A Journey of Ancient Chinese Art" (Sanlian Bookstore, 2008).
Mr. Yang Hong
In 1957, Mr. Su Bai led the students of the fifth and third level archaeology classes to survey the Xiangtangshan Grottoes (right 4. Mr. Su, right 1. Sun Guozhang, right 2. Liu Huida, left 1. Liu Xun, left 2. Yang Hong)
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The Sinicization of Buddhist Art
A Sanskrit trace buried deep underground and annihilated in the mountains in China
2. Search for sanskrit traces in old China
3. New China's Sanskrit Traces Exploration.
IV. The first transmission of Buddhist art to China
V. Establishment of Chinese grotto monasteries
Grottoes of the 66 Kingdoms Period: Grottoes in China with painted sculptures and murals as the main art forms.
7. Central Plains Northern Wei Grottoes - Grottoes in China where stone carving is the main art form
VIII. The Development of Chinese Grotto Art: Grottoes of the Late Northern Dynasty
9 Chinese grotto art continued to develop to an increasingly secularized -- Sui, Tang, Song and Yuan grottoes
10 Archaeological excavations of the remains of a Chinese cave temple
11. Underground Vatican Palace : Archaeological excavations of the ruins of Chinese Buddhist monasteries
XII Underground Buddhist Art Museum – Archaeological Excavations of The Burial Pit of the Statue
13 Gold Coffin Silver Coffin Relic – A container of Chinese Buddhist relics found by archaeology
Appendix Xiangtangshan Grottoes Caprice