Study On The Small And Medium-sized Grotto Temples In The Northen Dynasties Of Westen Henan Rigon

Stone carving is an important category of plastic arts,and grottoe is a comprehensive cultural carrier of stone carving,script and Buddhism.Once this Buddhist art form originated from ancient India was introduced into China,it quickly integrated with Chinese local culture,and formed a unique Chinese Grotto Art in the process of continuous innovation and transformation.After the Northern Wei Dynasty moved to Luoyang,Emperor Xiaowen（孝文帝）carried out the Sinicization policy in an all-round way,Luoyang became the political,economic and cultural center.Buddhism reached its peak under the joint praise of the rulers and the people.Luoyang,as the dissemination center of Buddhist culture,inherited the style of Yungang statues and created a unique Longmen Buddhist artistic style,Luoyang and its surrounding areas have left many Buddhist relics.In this paper,"the Western Henan area（豫西地区）"refers to the geographical areas of Xiaoshan（崤山）,Mangshan（邙山）,Xiongershan（熊耳山）and Songshan（嵩山）on the South Bank of the Yellow River in Henan.It is not the commonly defined Sanmenxia and Luoyang.This paper includes the west of Zhengzhou."The Northern Dynasties（北朝）"is a historical period of nearly 200 years start from the time when Emperor Daowu（道武帝）of the Northern Wei Dynasty unified the north and established the Northern Wei regime（AD 386）,until Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty（隋文帝）ended the division between the north and the south（AD 581）.It includes five dynasties:the Northern Wei Dynasty,the Eastern Wei Dynasty,the Western Wei Dynasty,the Northern Qi Dynasty and the Northern Zhou Dynasty.There are 16 Grottos of the Northern Dynasty in the Western Henan,which are widely distributed.The Grottos are distributed around Luoyang in four directions,and are all excavated in the mountains and hills of the Eastern Branch of the Qinling Mountains（秦岭）.Since the National census of cultural relics in the last century,the academic circles have investigated these grottoes,but the research work is still not deep enough.On the one hand,these grottoes are distributed in inaccessible places,and the difficulty of field investigation is also one of the reasons for less research.In addition,the investigation and Research on Longmen Grottoes（龙门石窟）and Gongxian grottoes（巩县石窟）are very rich.Therefore,this paper focuses on other small and medium-sized grottoes of the Northern Dynasty in the Western Henan,in order to establish the chronological sequence of small and medium-sized grottoes of the Northern Dynasty in this area,and clarify the source and destination of their Buddhist art style,the Buddhist thought and belief of local people,the relationship between the geographical distribution of grottoes and traffic lines,etc.The pre work of this paper is literature collation and field investigation,including basic work such as written records,photography,measurement and so on.The first chapter examines the natural geographical environment,human geographical environment（history,culture and Buddhist development）and the general situation of all Northern Dynasty Grottoes in western Henan.The second chapter uses the method of archaeological typology to make a typological analysis of the small and medium-sized grottoes of the Northern Dynasty in the western part of Henan Province according to the large categories of caves and small niches,the shape and system of grottoes and niches,the combination of statues and the content of themes.Taking the chronological grotto statues as the yardstick,the group,stage and age are discussed according to the types.According to the theme and inscription of statues,combined with Buddhist scriptures and historical documents,the third chapter examines the theme and vows of grotto statues,and analyzes the Buddhist beliefs of local people.The fourth chapter uses the method of cultural factor analysis,discusses the source and destination of the style of small and medium-sized grottoes in the northwesten Henan of the Northern Dynasty.Finally,the excavation sequence of Shuiquan grottoes（水泉石窟）,the carving style of grottoes,grottoes and niches in the late Northern Dynasty,and the geographical distribution of grottoes are discussed.