On Ideology Of Carving Of Statues In Yungang Grottoes

Cutting of Yungang Grottoes under the Northern Wei government control, the grottoes have distinguished themselves from the other grottoes cut in China with the statues being made in a typical imperial style. Yungang Grottoes are reputed at home and abroad for a massive scale, variety of subject matters, exquisiteness of carving, and richness of contents."Yungang Mode" which is created with Yungang Grottoes has produced great influences upon the styles of statuary in various grottoes in China. Cutting of Yungang Grottoes finished in the Northern Wei dynasty. In all the niches and caves in Yungang Grottoes, the statues are distinctly different from each other according to their order of position, duly proportioned, and appropriately contrasted against each other, exaggerated and played up both to create formal beauty and accurately express certain ideological contents.The major reason of cutting of Yungang Grottoes is that the rulers of Northern Wei made a choice with Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism. After Tuobao family of the ethnic Xianbei conquered the Central Plain, they began to face Xianbei nomadic culture and the traditional culture of Wei, Jin, including gradually prosperity Buddhist culture which created conflict and integration and had an import impact on images of Yungang Grottoes. Yungang grottoes that were cut in Northern Wei period, as the social ideology reflected, they show different sides to Northern Wei dynasty from the political, religious, cultural thoughts.The Characteristics of Buddhism in Northern Wei period is that the government builds temples and grottoes in order to realize the function of the people to enlightenment. The rulers of Northern Wei took national wealth to cut grottoes, is not simply to worship Buddhism, but to have strong political and ideological purpose. There are three motivations of the cutting of Yungang Grottoes, first, it is the Tuoba royal family for praying recommended its ancestors; the second is the needs of political rule; The third is to play the role in enlightenment to people in Pingcheng that was the center of the political, economic, culture and religion in the north of China. Yungang Grottoes were the center of Buddhist activities and the political mission sites of Northern Wei in the north China,The carving of the Statues combined with the Emperor and Buddha and decorations of dragons largely are the concept of venerating emperor. The carving of the Jataka of Samaka is the concept of filial piety. All the carving statues reflect the combination with Confucianism and Buddhism.The thesis based on the statues in Yungang Grottoes and historical records and studies the ideology of the statues of Yungang from the perspective of culture. The thesis concludes that Yungang Grottoes are the magnum opus combined Confucianism with Buddhism through studying the characteristics of religions believes in Northern Wei period, the motivations of cutting of Yungang Grottoes and carved images of Yungang grottoes.