A Preliminary Study On Cave’ Eaves Of Maiji Mountain Grottoes From Northern Dynasties To Sui Dynasty

As dependent architecture of cave,cave’eaves is an important part of study on grotto arts.Cave’eaves of Maiji Mountain grottoes,numbered 1,3,4,5,28,30,43,49,168,with good preservation situation and long-time development,which reflect evolution of buildings and Buddhism architecture from Northern dynasties to Sui dynasty.In this paper, a chronology study on the development of nine cave’eaves of Maiji Mountain grottoes in Tianshui from Northern dynasties to Sui dynasty(6-7centuries) will be done,and the following aspects are studied.First of all,nine cave’eaves are classificated and contrasted by using Archaeological Typology,and the development of cave’eaves of Maiji Mountain grottoes is divided to four periods:the first period,from the third year of Jingming to the downfall of Northern Wei(502-534 AD),the second period,from the first year to sixth year of Datong in Western Wei(535-540 AD),the third period,from the third year of Tianhe to the third year of Jiande in Northern Zhou(568-574 AD),and the fourth period,from the first year to the fourth year of Renshou in Sui dynasty(601-604 AD).Secondly,architectural components of cave’eaves,such as corbel bracket,inverted V-shaped brace,architrave,eave column are analysed, combining with relics,such as architeura funerary objects unearthed from tombs and stone coffins.Although cave’ eaves originate from India,its structure of performance does not changes completely.More importantly,the form of Chinese traditional timber buildings is inherited and showed by later generations buildings. Finally, As are reflected in Yungang cave.Tianlong Mountain grottoes and North-south Xiangtang Mountain cave, the differences in the beams structure, building decoration and carving techniques are studied comparatively,and the distribution of the cave’eaves in norther district in China will be divided into three areas:the northern region of Shared province, Yungang cave which carved cave’ eaves earlier,and influenced by Greek and Indian deep; the southern region of Hebei province,North-south Xiangtang Mountain cave,which is popular with tower temple eaves; Longyou area and the middle area of Shanxi,Maiji Mountain grottoes and Tianlong Mountain grottoes, which exhibit Chinese architectural characteristics completely.