Comparatively Studying Of The Yugang And The Longmen Grottoes During The Middle And Late Of Northern Wei Dynasty

By means of comparatively studying the representational caves sculptures of the Yugang Grottoes and the Longmen Grottoes, this paper probes the communication of the varies kinds of culture during the middle and late of Northern Wei Dynasty. This study bases on the comprehensive study of multidiscipline, such as archaeology, history, ethnology, philology, art, sociology and so on; it also use the existing research results of the Yugang Grottoes and the Longmen Grottoes as sources of reference.There are five parts of the main body of the article.The first part is the introduction. It give a brief statement of the history background of Northern and Southern Dynasties, the origin of grotto, the basic information of the Yugang Grottoes and the Longmen Grottoes, the topics of significance and research approach.The second part is the overview of the historical background of the middle and late Northern Wei Dynasty and the development stages of the Yugang Grottoes and the Longmen Grottoes. This section studies the history of middle and late Northern Wei Dynasty, the excavation background and the development stages of the Yugang Grottoes and the Longmen Grottoes.The third part is the comparative study of the sculptures of the Yugang Grottoes and the Longmen Grottoes. The representational caves sculptures of these two Grottoes were selected described and compared. The comparison is divided into two parts. One is the comparison between the first stage and second stage of the Yungang Grottoes; another is the comparison between the first stage and second stage of the Yungang Grottoes and Longmen Grottoes. Both of these two parts choose the representational caves sculptures as entry points.The forth part is the cultural communication of the grottoes. This section mainly studies The phenomenon of cultural integration in the sculptures of the Yugang Grottoes and the Longmen Grottoes.The fifth part is the conclusion. The communication of three cultures constantly existed in the process of the development of Chinese grottoes. One was the foreign culture—mainly Indian Buddhist culture; the other was the cultures of national minorities in the northeast region of China; the third one was the culture of Central Plains. The communication of these three cultures created the unique feature of early Buddhist grottoes of China.