Investigation And Research On GongXian Grottoes

Gongxian grottoes,one of the famous grottoes temples in China,is located in Nanhedu town,about 13 kilometers northeast of the old county of Gongyi city,He'nan province.Gongxian grottoes,was carved into the cliff of Dali mountain.Arrayed in a line,Gongxian grottoes are divided into three regions,the west part,the middle part,and east part.There are 5 caves,1 Thousand Buddha Niches,3 large cliff statues,and 331 small niches,nowadays.Since the late Northern Wei dynasty it began to chisel,through the Eastern and Western Wei,Northern Qi and Northern Zhou,Tang,Ming and Qing dynasties,a variety of statues and inscriptions survived.It has a very important position in the development of Chinese grotto temple and buddhist art.This study is conducted based on the field research,using the archaeological method of gongxian grottoes for scientific investigation and collation.The main body of this paper is divided into seven chapters:The first chapter is the introduction.Firstly,the background of this paper was introduced.According to the existing situation of statue and the existing researches,the grottoes temple really started in the late Northern Wei dynasty.However,there is no exact document to record why the grotto temple was dug here,whether the main grotto and the statue niches in the grotto were the royal grottoes dug by the emperor of the Northern Wei dynasty,and what was the specific digging age and development sequence.These problems are still controversial.In addition,apart from the main grottoes and the statues in the grottoes,there are a large number of small statues in the grottoes,and there is no comprehensive and in-depth study and discussion on the digging age and characteristics of these statues.Secondly,the previous discovery and research history of the grottoes in Gonxian are reviewed.Finally,the research method of this paper is clarified and the main innovation points of this paper are explained.Chapter two is an overview.Firstly,the geographical position and natural environment of Gongxian grottoes are analyzed and discussed,and the unique water conservancy and transportation geographical conditions around Gongxian grottoes are discussed.Secondly,starting from the grottoes in gong county,this paper analyzes the causes of site selection of the grottoes temple in China.Finally,this chapter also discusses the historical culture of Heluo and Buddhist culture.The third chapter systematically investigated and studied the five main grottoes in Gongxian.First,the investigation report of the main cave was published.Secondly,on the basis of the investigation,the selection of grottoes and statues was further studied.Of the five main grottoes in Gongxian grottoes,the first,second,third and fourth grottoes are the central pillar grottoes,and the fifth grottoes are the square,three-wall and three-niche buddhist temple grottoes.The shape and system of the central pillar grottoes not only absorbed the characteristics of the third stage grottoes of Yungang,but also incorporated some layout characteristics of the Longmen buddhist temple grottoes into the excavated design.The fifth grottoes are not only the reproduction and description of the Binyang grottoes in Longmen,but also the product of the combination of the shape and system characteristics of Yungang and Longmen.The development of its way of worshiping images is also of pioneering significance.The fourth chapter makes a systematic investigation and research on the statue niches in Gongxian grottoes.First of all,a survey report on the niches in the caves was published.In order to break the restriction of taking the cave as the basic unit,we adopt the method of taking the statue niche as the basic research unit to number the images in the cave niche.Secondly,the typology of the cave is studied.Finally,on the basis of previous studies and the conclusions of typology,the following conclusions were made about the age and sequence of Gongxian grottoes: the first grottoes was excavated by emperor Xuanwu at the earliest time,which was equivalent to the Xiping period when the large grottoes in Longmen were stopped.The grottoes were abandoned after the prototype was carved out rather than collapsed after completion,which is closely related to the empress dowager hu's family.However,the first grottoes and the second grottoes were not built as double grottoes.The second grottoes were independent large grottoes with empress dowager ling as the master of virtue.Grottoes 4 and 3 were built by emperor Xiaoping and empress dowager hu,who actually controlled the state power at that time.The time sequence of grottoes 4and 3 was later than that of grottoes 1,which was similar to that of grottoes 2,but it also started in Xiping period.Because the empress dowager ling was abandoned,the later wall was very rough and sloppy,and the 3rd cave appeared a lot of chisel changes;The fifth cave was originally built for emperor Xiao Zhuang,but after the turmoil and political struggle in the late Northern Wei dynasty,it was actually completed in emperor Xuanwu's period.However,it was still built by the royal forces,not by the people.The fifth chapter represented the investigation report of the small cave carved on the cliff outside the grottoes in gong county and the later carved one in the grottoes,which provided the foundation for the research of the small niche.The sixth chapter represented the study on the small niche statues in Gongxian.First,through typological analysis,the small niches of gongxian grottoes are divided into two parts: the North Wei dynasty niches and the Tang dynasty niches.Secondly,in-depth researches were conducted on these two different periods of small niches.The carving of niches in the Northern Wei dynasty began in Putai period of the Northern Wei dynasty,but only 227 niches in the Northern Wei dynasty can be confirmed.There are far more small niches in the Eastern and Western Wei period than in the Northern Wei dynasty,and the carved positions are relatively uniform,basically all around the doors of the caves,especially the 5th cave,which has the largest number.The number of small niches in the Eastern Wei was much larger than that in the Western Wei.Although there were followers of both the Eastern and Western Wei in gong county due to the war and the chaotic situation,the area was generally under the control of the Eastern Wei.Beiqi period was a climax of small ligou grottoes grottoes carving.Besides the central zone,Small niche carving also distributed in the walls of the other grottoe.There are a lot of innovation and change,but because still ligou in Beiqi period is closed,so he kept more and Northern Wei tradition,still thick clothes,no thin stick put oneself in the developing trend of visible Beiqi small niche ligou grottoes statues with strong local characteristics.The small niches in the late period were all carved in the Tang dynasty,which is very wide in terms of time span.There were early,middle and late tang dynasties,but in terms of the quantity and quality of carved niches,they were clearly concentrated in the period of Gaozong in Tang dynasty and Wuzhou dynasty,and there were three peaks of carved niches in the years of Longshuo,Linde and Ganfeng,Zongzhang and Xianheng.Chapter seven represented the related problems of gongxian grottoes,which is divided into two parts.The first part investigated and studied the present situation,origin,uniqueness and value of relievo of emperor and empress paying homage to Buddha.The second part discussed the relationship between Gongxian grottoes and other related grottoes,including the relationship between Gongxian grottoes and Yungang grottoes,Hongqing temple grottoes,Shuiquan grottoes,Xiwo grottoes and Wanfoshan grottoes.The conclusion part summarizes the article,explains the problems in the research,and puts forward the direction for the further research...