Luoyang, Henan, is one of the birthplaces of the Chinese civilization and the Chinese nation. Since Xia and Shang, 13 dynasties have established their capitals here. The capitals have a history of more than 1,500 years and their cultural heritage is extremely strong. The Northern Song historian Sima Guangzeng With emotion, “If you ask about ancient and modern things, please only look at Luoyang City.” When you come to Luoyang for tourism, there is a must-see attraction, which is the Longmen Grottoes located at the foot of Longmen Mountain 12 kilometers south of the city.
Luoyang Longmen Mountain, 303.5 meters above sea level, has two peaks facing each other in the east and west. The Yi River flows slowly to the north, and the natural scenery is very beautiful. However, according to legend, in ancient times, Longmen Mountain was a connected whole. Because the Yishui River was blocked on the south side of the mountain, flooding was often caused. So Dayu sculpted Longmen Mountain during water control and divided it into east and west halves, allowing the water to flow out to the north. Since then, the “Longmen Mountain” has been hailed as the first of the eight scenic spots in Luoyang. The Longmen Mountain that Dayu excavated back then is where the Longmen Grottoes are now. According to records, the Longmen Grottoes began to be carved when Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty moved to Luoyang. In the 16th year of Taihe in the Northern Wei Dynasty (493), Emperor Xiaowen ordered the construction of a grotto on the Longmen Mountain. After more than 1,400 years of construction in more than 10 dynasties such as Eastern Wei, Western Wei, Northern Qi, Sui, Tang, Five Dynasties, Song, etc., it became the longest-built grotto in the world. According to statistics, there are 2,345 existing cave niches, more than 100,000 statues, and more than 2,800 inscriptions on steles. They are a collection of sculptures, architecture, calligraphy, costumes, literature, religion and many other art forms. They are the world’s largest statues and largest scale. The treasure house of stone carving art, together with Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes, Datong Yungang Grottoes, Tianshui Maijishan Grottoes, are called “China’s Four Great Grottoes”, and it ranks first among all the major caves in China. These more than 100,000 statues and inscriptions on the steles are densely distributed like honeycombs on the 1km-long Longmen Mountain and Xiangshan rock walls on both sides of the Yishui River. The largest one is 17.14 meters high and the smallest is only 2 cm. For more than a thousand years, although the grottoes have been damaged to varying degrees due to natural wind erosion and man-made destruction, their lifelike and ingenious carvings have been admired to this day, and are hailed as the pinnacle of Chinese stone carving art. It is worth mentioning that the Longmen Grottoes are also the only royal grottoes in the world. Most of its statues are built by royal nobles. Among them, the Lucena Buddha carved by Wu Zetian according to his appearance is the most famous. This Buddha statue is 17.14 meters high, with a plump and round face, serene and majestic, and its image is admired by many Buddhist believers at home and abroad. It is known as the “most beautiful Buddha in China”. The Three Caves of Binyang, excavated in the Northern Wei Dynasty (500 AD), were built by Emperor Xuanwu of the Northern Wei Dynasty for his parents, Emperor Xiaowen and Empress Dowager Wen Zhao. The “Scissor Hand” Buddha statue that is popular on the Internet is located in Binyang North Cave among the three holes. This statue of about 10 meters high is called “the cutest Buddha in history” because of the broken right thumb, just like the cute “scissors hand”. . The Ten Thousand Buddhas Cave, completed in the first year of Tang Yonglong (AD 680), is the most complete cave in the Longmen Grottoes. On the wall outside the cave is a statue of Avalokitesvara with a height of 85 cm. The left hand holds the bottle clean and the right hand raises the dust. The posture is natural and graceful. It is said that the artist Mei Lanfang spent two hours here when he wrote and acted the Peking Opera “Luo Shen”, and then he was suddenly enlightened and the performance was a great success. It is said that the lotus roof of the Great Hall of the People in Beijing was designed based on the lotus relief in the lotus cave of the Longmen Grottoes. However, it is regrettable that a large number of exquisite statues in the Longmen Grottoes were insanely robbed and vandalized in the 1930s and 1940s. Some are stored in overseas museums, and some are still missing. This is not just the Chinese nation’s whereabouts. The pain is the shortcoming of human civilization.
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