Anyang Grotto Art Research,

In this thesis, the author takes An Yang Grotto, one of the main grotto groups in Ye cheng area, built in late Bei Chao dynasty￡Eastern Wei and Northern Qi￡(?)and early Sui Chao dynasty, as the research object, analyzes how An Yang Grotto Arts were being created and developed under the certain historical, cultural and local environment. The author also studies several Buddhist monks in that area, their preaching activities and the spread of Buddhistic arts and culture. The author tries to discover the i°commonnessi±and i°individualityi±of the An Yang Grotto Arts. The problems of Buddhistic Arts are also discussed roughly in the thesis.An Yang Grotto includes five grotto groups, which located in two places. One is Da Zhu Grotto in Bao Shan Mountain￡(?)located 30 kms southwest of An Yang￡>>the other is what the academic circle calls i°■Little South Sea Grottoi±￡(?)-located at the foot of Mt. Gui Gai which is 5 kms to Bao Shan. The five Grottoes were successively in Eastern Wei￡(?)Northern Qi and Sui Dynasty.The cultural heritage of An Yang Grotto group drew attention from Chinese and foreign scholars from the 30s of 20th century. Researchers kept doing investigation, observation and study about it. Among them, the Research Institute of the protection of Ancient Architecture in He Nan province has published i°Bao Shan Ling Quan Temple.i±However, the comprehensive cultural and artistic study on An yang Grotto group is only at the beginning phase. This paper is an attempt to conduct the systematic study about it. The author spent 4 years on the study and has been to An Yang Grotto group over a dozen times for observation and investigation. The author obtained a great deal of accurate literature related to the grotto group. This paper'conducts the exploratory research on the comprehensive culture and art of An Yang Grotto group for the first time.The paper is divided into six parts. The first part is the introduction, which mainly deals with the significance and the scope of study of the research topic, the grotto art's development periods, major research methods and status. Besides, the main ideas of the paper are also presented in this part. Chapter 1 discusses the geographical condition and historical, cultural and religious factors related to An Yang and its surrounding areas once served as the capital of six dynasties, namely Yin Shang dynasty, Cao Wei kingdom, Hou Zhao, Qian Yan, Eastern Wei and Northern Qi, which shows the important role and impact of the i(?)Ye cityi culture. Chapter 2 illustrates the layout of the five grottoes in An Yang and their present condition, and provides the classification of the grotto arts. Chapter 3 discusses the contents and forms of the An Yang Grotto art during Eastern Wei dynasty, Northern Qi dynasty and Sui dynasty. The grotto art is also studied in relation to the extraordinaire art. Chapter 4 mainly covers 2 topics. On the one hand, the An Yang Grotto art is studied together with Buddhist images, Buddhistic esthetics values and symbolism. On the other hand, the spread and impact of Buddhist cultures are dealt with to explore the Buddhist art that An Yang grottoes are categorized into. The paper concludes that various conditions shapes i°An Yang modei±. The last part is the conclusion, in which the paper reviews the comprehensive cultural significance and artistic values of An Yang Grotto art. This part also discusses some catypical images in the An Yang grottoes, e.g. the stone pagoda of the Northern Qi dynasty;i°White Buddhai±statue, Zen Temple Grotto, Scripture-carving grotto, divines group, the preaching great master, seven Buddhas and so on. This paper tries to convey that the art is transitional, regional, diversified, hoping that researchers will have correct artistic orientation and value judgment toward the research topic of this paper.The paper holds that An Yang grottoes are among the important and unique art forms of the i(?)Ye cityi grotto artistic system. It reflects the grotto art transition form Northern Wei to Tang Dynasty. Together with the grotto arts in Xiang tang Mountain and Tian long Mountain, its serves as a link between the past and the future. Its unique contents and forms reflect extraordinary factures and values, among which the thoughts of Zen Buddhism, Hua Yan Sect, Jing tu Sect, and San jie Sect, not only lays a foundation for the formation and development of the later sects, but also has a profound influence on the art of Grotto in the area of An Yang and Ye City.An Yang grotto art reflects the coexistence of diversity and uniqueness as well as the integration of contents and forms in such aspects as Buddhist culture and arts, as well as artistic images and creative thinking. But the contents and forms still await further exploration.