Archaeological Investigation And Study Of Shihong Temple Grottoes In Fuxian County,Shaanxi Province

Fu County,located in Yan’An,Shaanxi Province,formerly known as Fuzhou.Yan ’an area is one of the areas where Buddhism grotto art is relatively concentrated in song and Jin Dynasties,the large-scale grottoes in this area include the Zhongshan Grottoes in Zichang County,the Wan ’an Buddhist temple grottoes in Huangling County,the Qingliang Park Grottoes in Baota District and the Shihong temple grottoes in Fu County.The Shihong temple grottoes are located in Zhiluo town,Fu County,Shanxi Province.The Grottoes are large in scale and rich in statues.There are 10 grottoes in existence,with 3,371 statues of the Sui Tang,song,Jin,ming and Qing dynasties preserved and more than 50inscriptions(including 16 chronological inscriptions).There are many broken relationships among the statues in K7 grottoes,which can be used to judge the relative relationship between the statues,and then analyze the order of the wall statues.The grotto structure can be analyzed from three aspects: The grotto plane shape,the grotto door,the grotto roof and the pattern.The plane shape of the grottoes can be divided into three categories: rectangular,nearly square and irregular.According to whether there is a Buddhist altar in the grottoes,the grottoes can be divided into two categories: a grotto with a altar and a grotto without altar.The grotto door are analyzed from the aspects of form and subsidiary structure.Two Grottoes have Pattern,the other grottoes with excavating marks or pillar marks.The cave function can be divided into three types: ritual Buddhist Cave,Chan Cave and bury cave.There are statues in Shihong temple grottoes except K1,K8 and K10 grottoes,including Buddhist statues and Taoist statues.There are several kinds of Buddhist statues: Buddha,Bodhisattva,Bhikkhu,Arhat,warrior,provider and animal.The subject matter includes Tathagata,Bodhisattva,holy monk and Arhat.Statue combination can be divided into single statue,double statues,many statues,special combination of four categories.There are 49 extant inscriptions in Shihong temple,of which 21 are dated.Content can be divided into three categories,one for the statue of the inscription,one for the revision of the inscription,the other theme unknown.According to the statistics of the surnames and regions in the inscription of the statues,the surnames are Wang,Zhang,Li,Zhao,Yang and so on.The area mentioned in the inscription of the statue is 81,mostly in Hunan and Hubei.There are four items related to the army in the inscription of the statue.The explanation of the inscription of the army is helpful for us to understand the situation of the army establishment in the Tang,song and Jin dynasties.