Rib Attendant Bodhisattva Yungang Grottoes Early Northern Wei Dynasty
In 220 AD, Cao Pi usurped the Han Dynasty, the Eastern Han Dynasty collapsed, and China entered the Three Kingdoms Era.
From the Three Kingdoms to the Wei and Jin Dynasties and the Southern and Northern Dynasties, a total of 361 years, these three and a half centuries of China's land of war and chaos, the number of disasters, the days of peace, the time of war.
"Four hundred and eighty temples in the southern dynasty, how many buildings in the smoke and rain." As a chaotic world, the Southern Dynasty seems to need spiritual sustenance more. Buddhism has become precisely this sustenance.
Offerings to bodhisattvas Yungang Grottoes In the middle of the Northern Wei Dynasty
The arched door of the first cave and the central pillar façade (south side) of the Buddha shrine Gongxian Grottoes of Northern Wei
Jiaozu Bodhisattva (formerly Yungang Grottoes Cave 15) Northern Wei, Metropolitan Museum of Art, USA
During this period, religious architecture developed by leaps and bounds, typical of which were various grottoes.
All four major grottoes in China were excavated during the Wei and Jin Dynasties, and have been repaired and added in later generations.
Flying Pipa Relief Northern Wei Stone Sculpture 40 cm high Yungang Grottoes
The earliest construction was the Dunhuang Grottoes, which were excavated in the ninth year of Yonghe in the Eastern Jin Dynasty (353 AD), in which Wang Xizhi called on friends and qushui in Lanting, Shaoxing, Zhejiang, and wrote the famous "Orchid Pavilion Collection Sequence" throughout the ages.
More than 30 years later, the Later Qin regime excavated the grottoes in Tianshui, Gansu, for the Maijishan Grottoes; at the beginning of the founding of the Northern Wei Tuoba clan, the Yungang Grottoes were excavated in Datong, and after Emperor Xiaowen moved the capital to Luoyang, the Longmen Grottoes were excavated at the southern foot of the new capital.
Buddha shrine and painted sculptures The west wall of Cave 249 of Mogao Caves
These four grottoes became the most direct evidence of the worship and belief in Buddhism in that era.
Many people have preconceived notions that grottoes are carved mountains as rooms, carved Buddha statues, painted murals, belong to the category of sculpture and fine arts, and have nothing to do with architecture.
Mogao Cave Cave Cave 148 Cave Mural Medicine Man Transformation
This is not the case, Dunhuang's nine-storey high-rise building is a wooden structure, with cornices and angles, magnificent; the murals of Cave 148 of Mogao Caves reflect the style of large temple building groups in the Tang Dynasty, and we can clearly see that the main hall mostly uses the roof of the temple, and the auxiliary hall uses the top of the mountain, which can see the hierarchy of the building.
The mural painting of Cave 359 of Mogao Caves reflects the image of the attic architecture of the Middle And Tang Dynasties: hexagonal spire, small snouted beasts on the tiles, two doors and four windows, corridors plus guardrails, and a base with a waist of the Sumire seat. It is very close to the pavilions common today.
In addition, the interior of the grotto often sees the slope roofs, buckets, beams and columns of imitation wood structures, which are all stone components, but also faithfully reflect the style of wood structures of that era.
On the east side of the first cave, the Gongxian Grottoes of Gong county are in northern Wei
The arched door of the first cave and the central pillar façade (south side) of the Buddha shrine Gongxian Grottoes of Northern Wei
In addition to the grottoes, stupas also developed during this period.
The stupa, also known as the "pagoda", its name is derived from the Indian Sanskrit word Stupa (窣堵波), which is also translated as "floating tu", so we have a saying that we have today that is known to women and children called "saving a life is better than creating a seven-level floating tu".
The two Buddhas sit side by side in the Yungang Grottoes in the middle of the Northern Wei Dynasty
The Buddhist temples of ancient India were originally centered on stupas, and other buildings surrounded the stupas. After Buddhism spread to China, the original temple pattern continued this tradition. It was only after the Sui and Tang dynasties that the Daxiong Treasure Hall dedicated to Shakyamuni Buddha gradually replaced the center of the pagoda and became the most critical building of the temple.
Songyue Temple Pagoda in Dengfeng, Henan
The earliest surviving pagoda on the mainland is the Songyue Temple Pagoda in Dengfeng, Henan, which was built in the 4th year of Zhengguang of the Northern Wei Dynasty (523 AD), more than 1400 years ago.
Songyue Temple Pagoda is a brick eaves pagoda with a dodecagonal shape (the only case in China), with a height of 39.8 meters and an outer diameter of 10.6 meters on the ground floor.
The first tower is particularly tall, divided into two sections with a stacked flat seat, and the four fronts open the doors that run through the upper and lower sections.
The remaining eight sides of the lower section are plain flat bricks and are not decorated. The upper section is the most concentrated place in the decoration of the entire tower, decorating the pot door, lion, and fire bead weeping lotus. The tower brakes are carved from stone blocks. 、
The brake seat is a huge lotus petal composed of a Sumire seat, on which the Meru seat supports a shuttle-shaped seven-fold phase wheel, and the brake top is a huge orb.
The appearance of the Songyue Temple Pagoda is symmetrical and beautiful, and the overall outline is gentle parabolic, and it is precisely because of its scientific and reasonable design and rigorous construction that it has been preserved to this day, and has survived natural and man-made disasters such as earthquakes and wars.
Because of the patronage of the Buddha of the Dynasties and Dynasties, many of the grottoes and pagodas of the Southern and Northern Dynasties period have been preserved and have become our precious historical wealth.
However, the capital planning and palace architecture during the Southern and Northern Dynasties periods were not so lucky, because of the frequent wars and wars, we can no longer see any miyagi ruins from the Southern and Northern Dynasties period today.
Shanxi Datong Yungang Grottoes
The Southern and Northern Dynasties were a history of human suffering, but they were also a melting pot of art. Because of the frequent changes of regimes in the Northern and Southern Dynasties and the constant change of emperors, the style of grottoes, Buddhist temples, and pagoda statues has also changed with the times, and is known for its many changes.
Reading it, you will find that the beauty of the original chaotic world has its origins, and the mysterious and wise smiles on those Buddha statues are the best representatives of this era.
Course recommendations
The Southern Dynasty model and its northern transmission
In the Southern Dynasty under the rule of the Han People, the unique statue style of the Han people was born and spread to the north, influencing the formation of the Statue Style of the Yungang Grottoes and the Longmen Grottoes. Under the development of Buddhism in Luoyang, the new capital of the Northern Wei Dynasty, another upsurge of cave statues was set off throughout the country, and it affected the production of grotto art and the carving of statues and statues in various parts of the north. The archaeological excavations of Yongning Temple have provided us with materials on the pagodas of the Northern Wei Dynasty.
A four-year statue of Liang ordinary unearthed from the site of the Ten Thousand Buddhas Temple in Chengdu
Interior view of the Longmen Grottoes in Luoyang, Henan, north of Wei Binyang
A clay statue of a Northern Wei donor excavated from the site of Yongning Temple in Luoyang, Henan
Statue of bodhisattva of the Northern Wei disciples in Cave 121 of Maijishan Mountain, Tianshui, Gansu
Lecturer
evergreen
Buddhist art historian, Ph.D. in Art History, University of Kansas, USA, B.S. and M.S. in Archaeology, Peking University. His research focuses on Buddhist art. His publications include Chang'an and Luoyang: A Study of Buddhist Art in the Two Capitals of the Fifth to Ninth Centuries (Cultural Relics Publishing House), And Chinese Buddhist Sculptures from the Friar Museum of Art in the United States (Cultural Relics Publishing House).