What are the three so-called "Longmen Three Caves" in the Longmen Grottoes?

Longmen Grottoes is located in Longmen Pass in the southern suburb of Luoyang, which is 2.5km away from the urban area/kloc-0. They were excavated in the 19th year of Taihe in the Northern Wei Dynasty, with a history of 1500 years. Together with Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes and Datong Yungang Grottoes, it constitutes three famous grottoes art treasures in China.

The untidy Longmen was called "A Que" in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. Xiangshan (Dongshan) and Longmenshan (Xishan) face each other in the east and west, and the Yi water flows through them, forming a magnificent gate. Later, it was called Longmen because it was in the south of Sui and Tang Dynasties.

The so-called "grottoes" are straight holes dug on the cliffs of Shibi Mountain, or natural caves used to hide or store food and things. As early as the primitive society, people have used natural caves to describe animal images and life scenes. However, it was only after the rise of Buddhism in ancient India that cave temples appeared as places for Buddhist believers and monks to worship Buddha.

Because of the quietness and mystery of the mountain, the cave is warm in winter and cool in summer, and the cave carved by the mountain is more convenient and durable than the temple built of brick and stone. Therefore, in ancient India, there have been cave temples integrating architecture, painting and sculpture. With the missionary activities of monks, this kind of cave temple art was introduced into China's frontier and inland areas, and merged with China's national characteristics, traditional artistic techniques and styles, becoming a unique carving and painting process in China. The Longmen Grottoes we are going to see today are one of the treasures of many temples in China.

In addition to the advantages mentioned above, there is also a natural condition that cannot be ignored in the carving of the Longmen Grottoes in Mahu. The cliffs on both sides of Yishui belong to the limestone layers of Cambrian and Ordovician in Paleozoic. Its hard and dense stones are not suitable for weathering and large-scale peeling, so it is very suitable for artistic sculpture. Compared with other sandstones, it has favorable preservation conditions.

The excavation of Longmen Grottoes in Luoyang is another large cave temple group excavated by the royal family after Dunhuang Grottoes in Gansu and Yungang Grottoes in Datong, Shanxi. It was founded in the Taihe period of the Northern Wei Dynasty, and lasted until the Qing Dynasty through the Eastern Wei, Western Wei, Northern Qi, Northern Zhou, Sui and Tang Dynasties. More than 400 years before and after. Among them, the large-scale and efficient construction was about 150 years, which appeared in the Northern Wei Dynasty (about 40 years) and the Sui and Tang Dynasties (about 1 10 years) respectively. The large and small shrines and stone statues of Longmen Grottoes are scattered on the cliff walls of the east and west mountains of Longmen, along the banks of Yishui, with a length of 1 km from north to south.

Dear friends, it takes us about 1.5-2 hours to visit Longmen Grottoes, where we can see more than 1000 large and small Buddha statues every minute. According to the statistics of Longmen Cultural Relics Protection Institute 1962, there are more than 2 caves and niches in the two mountains. There are more than 654.38 million statues, more than 40 pagodas and more than 2,870 inscriptions. Statues are mainly made in the Northern Wei (Eastern Wei and Northern Qi), Sui and Tang Dynasties. The Northern Wei Dynasty accounts for about 30%, and the Sui and Tang Dynasties account for about 60%. The largest statue in Longmen Grottoes is the Rushena Buddha in Fengxian Temple. Longmen Grottoes are mostly concentrated on the cliffs on the west bank of Yishui, with 7 large caves. Because the rock formation in Longmen Dongshan is thinner than that in Xishan, it is inconvenient to carve large statues. Among Longmen Grottoes, Guyang Cave, Binyang Middle Cave and Lianhua Cave are representative grottoes in the Northern Wei Dynasty. The representative of Sui Dynasty works is Binyang South Cave. The representative caves in the Tang Dynasty are: Qianxi Temple, Binyang North Cave, Wanfo Cave and Fengxian Temple.

The statue of untidy Longmen Grottoes is not only the crystallization of infinite wisdom and sweat of working people and artists in past dynasties, but also a wonderful flower combining foreign culture and China culture. These sculptors undertake the mission of creating statues for gods and emperors, but boldly break through the "ritual" bondage of religion and ethics. In the process of carving, a lot of real life is blended, which vividly shows the moving scenes of various characters. Such as joy, kindness, majesty, reserve, pain, and even the solemnity of the Buddha as the supreme ruler, which threatens people and the piety and tranquility of the provider, are the results of the artist's profound observation of the real "person" and the combination of realism and romanticism. It can be said that Buddha and man are vividly displayed in sculpture art. The integrity of layout, the concentration of momentum, the solidity of the whole, the diversity of personality changes, the vividness of facial expressions, the smooth beauty of clothing lines, etc. , are on the basis of thousands of years of artistic practice tradition, draw lessons from a large number of foreign cultures, elaborate creation, a large number of innovations, break through the tradition, and deliberately manage the results. Brilliant ancient craftsmen and sculpture design artists, facing the bare cliffs, carved such magnificent and meticulous group images with simple hammers and chisels, which was really amazing when the productivity and production tools were very backward at that time.

The untidy Longmen Grottoes, like a colorful and all-encompassing museum, provide extremely valuable materials for the study of China's history, religion, culture, art and medicine.