Longmen Grottoes handwritten newspaper

The Longmen Grottoes are one of the treasures of Chinese stone carving art, a world cultural heritage, a national key cultural relics protection unit, and a national AAAAA tourist attraction. They are located in Longmen Mountain on both sides of the Yi River in the southern suburbs of Luoyang City. and Fragrant Mountain. Longmen Grottoes, Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes and Yungang Grottoes are also known as the three major grottoes in China. Come and enjoy it with me.

Information 1:

Introduction to Longmen Grottoes

The Longmen Grottoes were excavated during the reign of Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty, and then went through the Eastern Wei, Western Wei, The Northern Qi, Sui, Tang, Five Dynasties, Song and other dynasties continued large-scale construction for more than 400 years, with a length of 1 kilometer from north to south. Today, there are 2,345 caves and niches, more than 100,000 statues, and more than 2,800 inscriptions. Among them, "Twenty Products of Longmen" is the essence of Wei calligraphy stele, and "Stele of Yique Buddhist Niche" written by Chu Suiliang is a model of regular script art in the early Tang Dynasty.

The Longmen Grottoes lasted for a long time and spanned many dynasties. They reflected the political, economic, religious, cultural and other aspects of ancient China from different aspects with a large number of physical images and written materials. The development and changes have made significant contributions to the innovation and development of Chinese grotto art. It was listed as a World Cultural Heritage by UNESCO in 2000.

The Longmen Grottoes were excavated around the time when Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty moved the capital to Luoyang (AD 493). Later, large-scale construction continued for more than 400 years through the Eastern and Western Wei, Northern Qi, Northern Zhou, Sui, Tang and Song dynasties. . Densely dotted on the cliffs of the east and west mountains of Yishui, it is 1 kilometer long from north to south. There are more than 97,000 Buddha statues in total. The largest Buddha statue is 17.14 meters high and the smallest is only 2 centimeters.

There are more than 50 large and medium-sized caves from the Northern Dynasties and Sui and Tang Dynasties on the cliffs of Xishan Mountain. Guyang Cave, Binyang Middle Cave, Lotus Cave, Huangfu Gong Cave, Weizi Cave, Putai Cave, Huoshao Cave, Cixiang Cave, Lu Cave, etc. are representative caves of the Northern Wei Dynasty; Qianxi Temple, Binyang South Cave , Binyang North Cave (the caves and cave roof decorations of the above two caves were completed in the Northern Wei Dynasty, and the Buddha statues were completed in the Sui and early Tang Dynasties), Jingshan Temple, Three Buddha Niches on the Cliff, Ten Thousand Buddhas Cave, Huijian Cave, Fengxian Temple, Pure Land Hall, Longhua Temple and Jinan Cave are representative caves of the Tang Dynasty. Dongshan is full of caves and niches from the Tang Dynasty, including 20 large and medium-sized caves, such as Erlianhua Cave, Kanjingsi Cave, Dawanwufo Cave (also known as Leigutai San Cave), Gaoping Junwang Cave, etc.

Design drawings

Information 2:

The value of Longmen Grottoes

Calligraphy art

As of 2014, there are 2,345 cave niches and more than 80 pagodas in the east and west mountains. Longmen Grottoes is the place with the most ancient inscriptions in China, and is known as the Forest of Ancient Steles. There are more than 2,860 inscriptions in the Longmen Grottoes. Among them, the prestigious Longmen Twenty Pieces and Chu Xiliang's Yique Buddhist Shrine are in Wei stele style and Tang regular script respectively. A model that can be called the finest work of Chinese calligraphy art. There are more than 110,000 statues in the whole mountain of Longmen. The largest Buddha statue, the Lucena Buddha, is 17.14 meters high, with a head height of 4 meters and an ear length of 1.9 meters. The smallest Buddha statues are in the Lotus Cave, each only 2 centimeters, and are called miniature sculptures.

The Longmen Grottoes are also a treasure in the history of calligraphy art. The famous calligraphy masterpiece Longmen Twenty Pieces is the best calligraphy selected by connoisseurs of later generations from the numerous stone carvings and statue inscriptions in Longmen Grottoes. These inscriptions not only record the motivation and purpose of making the statue, but also provide a basis for the archaeological staging of the grottoes. Kang Youwei, a scholar in the Qing Dynasty, once strongly advocated that the whole society should use Wei stele style for writing, and also praised Wei stele for its ten beauties, such as: jumping brushwork, natural structure, rich flesh and blood, etc. Today, Wei stele style is also widely used as slogans and decorative characters. It can be seen that the 20th grade plays an important role in calligraphy.

Buddhist Culture

The Longmen Grottoes are an artistic expression of Buddhist culture, but they also reflect the political, economic and cultural fashion of the time. The grottoes retain a large amount of physical materials on religion, art, architecture, calligraphy, music, clothing, medicine, etc. Therefore, it is a large-scale stone carving art museum. [2]

Cultural significance

The Longmen Grottoes are the place where the royal nobles of the Northern Wei and Tang Dynasties concentrated their vows and statues. They are the embodiment of the royal will and behavior and have a strong national religious color< /p>

Color.

The statues of the two dynasties reflect completely different styles of the times. The statues of the Northern Wei Dynasty lost the rough, majestic and vigorous characteristics of the Yungang Grottoes here, and the atmosphere of life gradually became more lively, delicate and gentle. These statues of the Northern Wei Dynasty have long and thin faces, thin shoulders, and straight chests. The clothing patterns are carved using a straight knife method, which is strong and simple. Among the many caves carved during the Northern Wei Dynasty, Guyang Cave, Binyang Middle Cave, Lotus Cave, and Grotto Temple are the most representative ones. Among them, Guyang Cave contains a collection of statues of a group of royal nobles and court ministers in the early days when the Northern Wei Dynasty moved its capital to Luoyang, which typically reflects the historical sentiment of the Northern Wei Dynasty when the whole country worshiped Buddhism. These stone carvings of various shapes and dazzling arrays of art are precious records of the intersection and integration of traditional Chinese culture and foreign civilizations.

During the Northern Wei Dynasty, people advocated thinness as beauty, so Buddhist sculptures also pursued an artistic style of graceful bones and clear images. People in the Tang Dynasty considered fatness to be beautiful, so

Buddha statues in the Tang Dynasty had a round face, broad shoulders, and bulging chests. The carvings of the clothing patterns used the round knife method, which was natural and smooth. The Tang Dynasty statues in Longmen Grottoes inherited the excellent traditions of the Northern Wei Dynasty and absorbed the culture of the Han nation, creating a vigorous, vivid, simple and natural realistic style, reaching the pinnacle of Buddhist sculpture art. Among the key caves of the Longmen Grottoes in the Tang Dynasty, the most famous are the large-scale and majestic Dashena statue group. This cliff-style Buddhist niche carved based on the Avatamsaka Sutra, with the graceful and magnanimous Lushena Buddha as the center, uses a week of highly emotional and textured art group images to convey the peacefulness of the Buddhist world. The ideal artistic conception of color is vividly expressed. This group of statues embodies the powerful material and spiritual power of the Tang Empire, and shows the highest achievement of sculpture art in the Tang Dynasty.