What are the three major grottoes in China? Where are they?

The three major grottoes in China are the Mogao Grottoes, Yungang Grottoes and Longmen Grottoes. Mogao Grottoes are located at the eastern foot of Mingsha Mountain in the southeast of Dunhuang City, Gansu Province. Yungang Grottoes are located at the foothills of Wuzhou Mountain in the west of Datong City, Shanxi Province. The Longmen Grottoes are located on the banks of the Yi River in the southern suburbs of Luoyang, Henan.

1. Mogao Grottoes

Located in Dunhuang City, Gansu Province, Mogao Grottoes is a national key cultural relic protection unit. It is commonly known as Thousand Buddha Cave. It is located in Dunhuang at the west end of the Hexi Corridor. The exquisite murals and statues are famous all over the world.

It was built in the Pre-Qin period of the Sixteen Kingdoms, and has gone through the construction of the Sixteen Kingdoms, Northern Dynasties, Sui, Tang, Five Dynasties, Xixia, Yuan and other dynasties, forming a huge scale with 492 caves. With 45,000 square meters of murals and 2,415 clay sculptures, it is the largest and richest Buddhist art sanctuary in the world.

2. Yungang Grottoes

Yungang Grottoes are one of the largest grottoes in my country. Together with Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes, Luoyang Longmen Grottoes and Maijishan Grottoes, they are also known as the four largest grottoes in China. A treasure trove of grotto art. It is carved into the mountain and stretches about one kilometer from east to west. It is magnificent and rich in content. There are 45 main caves, 252 large and small niches, and more than 51,000 statues, representing China's outstanding Buddhist grotto art from the 5th to 6th centuries AD.

3. Longmen Grottoes

The Longmen Grottoes were first excavated around the time when Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty moved the capital to Luoyang (AD 493). Later, through the Eastern and Western Wei, the Northern Qi, and the Sui, Tang, Song and other dynasties, the Longmen Grottoes were built again. It has been continuously constructed on a large scale for more than 400 years.

It is densely spread on the cliffs of the east and west mountains of Yishui, with a length of 1 km from north to south. There are 2345 caves and niches, more than 2680 inscriptions and tablets, more than 70 pagodas and more than 100,000 statues. Among them, the largest Buddha statue of Lushe is 17.14 meters high, and the smallest one is only 2 centimeters. She has a plump and elegant face, a slight smile, and is dignified and beautiful. These all reflect the extremely high artistic attainments of the working people in ancient my country. Extended information

1. Value of Mogao Grottoes

There are more than 200 musical-themed caves in Dunhuang murals, and there are many bands, musicians and musical instruments. According to statistics, there are different types of bands There are more than 500 groups, more than 40 kinds of various types of blowing, beating, stringing and strumming instruments, and more than 4,500 pieces. There are also music scores and other musical materials in the Dunhuang Scripture Cave documents.

The rich music image data shows the continuous development and changes of Chinese music culture in the past thousand years. It provides valuable information for studying the history of Chinese music and the exchange of Chinese and Western music.

There are almost dancing images in the murals of most caves in the Dunhuang Grottoes. There are dance scenes and dance images that reflect social life and customs in the human world, such as music and dance from the Western Regions, folk banquets and wedding dances; there are scenes of palace and noble Yan music and dance scenes reflected in the Sutra; there are dance images of the heavenly palace and the fairy world, Such as the dancing image of Feitian, offering music and so on.

There are also dance scores and related materials preserved in the Sutra Cave. Dance art is an art that cannot be preserved in time and space. Modern people know very little about ancient dance images. As far as the collection of dance images in the Dunhuang Grottoes is concerned, it can be called a museum of dance art, preserving countless superb dance skills and perfect dance art. The image represents the development of dance in each era and its development process.

2. Value of Yungang Grottoes

The statues of Yungang Grottoes are magnificent and rich in content. They are the crown of Chinese stone carving art in the 5th century AD and are known as the ancient Chinese carving art. treasury. According to the time of excavation, it can be divided into three phases: early, middle and late. The styles of grotto sculptures in different periods also have their own characteristics. The early "Tanyao Five Caves" were majestic and had a rich and simple Western sentiment.

The grottoes in the middle period are famous for their exquisite carvings and gorgeous decorations, showing the complex, changeable and magnificent artistic style of the Northern Wei Dynasty. Although the caves in the late period are small in size, the characters are thin, handsome, and moderately proportioned. They are the model of grotto art in northern China and the origin of the "thin and clear statues" style. ,

The Yungang Grottoes vividly record the historical trajectory of the development of Buddhist art from India and Central Asia to Chinese Buddhist art, reflecting the process of gradual secularization and nationalization of Buddhist statues in China. A variety of Buddhist artistic sculpture styles have achieved unprecedented integration in the Yungang Grottoes.

3. The value of Longmen Grottoes

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.

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.

Baidu Encyclopedia—Three Major Grottoes

Baidu Encyclopedia—Mogao Grottoes

Baidu Encyclopedia—Yungang Grottoes

Baidu Encyclopedia—Longmen Grotto