Research On The Temporal And Spatial Distribution Of Cave Temples In Shaanxi Province And Their Influencing Factors

The cave temple is a product under certain historical conditions and is a living fossil of ancient ideology and culture.As a true record of historical development,environmental evolution and the relationship between human and nature,which has profound scientific and cultural heritage.Studying cultural relics of grottoes has great significance for exploring the manifestations of buddhism and further studying buddhism.There are a large number of grottoes in Shaanxi province,originally,they were drilled with the Northern Wei Dynasty and stopped in the Republic of China,there were various degrees of repairs during the Sui and Tang Dynasties,the Song and Yuan Dynasties,and the Ming and Qing Dynasties.There are important cultural relics were preserved in the cave temples,such as buddhist scriptures and murals.These relics are of important historical and artistic values for study ancient chinese politics,economy,culture,history,art,religion and etc,which are important human cultural heritage in our country and even in the world.Based on archaeological survey data of cultural relics of grottoes in Shaanxi province and predecessors in archeology,history and other aspects of research results.This paper,from the perspective of geography,first using the precise location function of Google Earth to collect and locate the position data of grottoes and establish the cultural heritage database of grottoes in Shaanxi Province;Secondly,using the powerful spatial analysis and statistical function of ArcGIS to analyze and excavate the spatial location information of cultural remains of 907 grottoes.By using different spatial statistical analysis indicators,we can get the temporal and spatial distribution characteristics of grottoes in the study area,such as the degree of aggregation,the direction of distribution,and the distance from rivers and ancient roads.And a comprehensive study of the elevation,slope,aspect,topography and geomorphology in the region,etc,further analyses and studies the influence of natural geography factors on the spatial distribution pattern of grottoes in Shaanxi province.In the end,from two aspects of regime change in Shaanxi,religious policy,at the same time,combining the characteristics of grottoes,to discuss the temporal and spatial distribution characteristics and evolution rule of cultural relics of grottoes in Shaanxi.(1)The number of grottoes remains from the Wei,Jin,Northern and Southern Dynasties to the Ming and Qing Dynasties showed an increasing trend.Through the statistical analysis of the number of cultural relics of grottoes in Shaanxi Province,it is found that:the proportion of the number of grottoes in the total developed slowly from 4.4%in the period of the Wei,Jin,northern and Southern Dynasties to 7.8%in the period of Sui and Tang Dynasties.Then it grew rapidly to the 18.9%of the Five Dynasties to the Song and Yuan Dynasties.Finally,it increased rapidly to 68.9%of the Ming and Qing Dynasties.According to the study of the evolution of Shaanxi's political power and the spread of buddhism culture at that time,it was found that:the rise and fall of grottoes are closely related to the belief in buddhism of authorities.(2)The Shaanxi grottoes is concentrated in the city of Yanan and Yulin.The grottoes in Shaanxi province is concentrated in Yanzhou(today's Yanan city)in the period of the Wei,Jin,northern and Southern Dynasties,other areas,such as Yulin,Tongchuan,Xianyang and Baoji,are only scattered.In the Sui and Tang Dynasties,the hot area of grottoes is still in Yanan,clearly,it has gradually spread to other areas,the grottoes are drilled in Tongchuan,Yulin and Baoji City;They are Centrally distributed in the area of Yanan in the Five Dynasties to the Song and Yuan Dynasties;They were concentrated in the Yulin region,and Yanan and southern Shaanxi were also distributed in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.(3)Most of grottoes are distributed on the livable aspect.It has the function of providing accommodation for the buddhist,therefore,we must choose suitable living aspect.The site of grottoes in the south is the most distributed,accounting for 19.1%of the total.Second,the southwest and southeast respectively accounted for 15.1%and 13.7%of the total.The least is that the northeast slope is 9.5%of the total.The proportion of the number of grottoes in the total number is 19.1%on the most livable aspect—the southern.The number of appropriate residential aspect—southeast and southwest,sites is more,accounting for 28.8%of the total.The appropriate residential aspect—north and northwest,sites accounting for 17.0%of the total.The inhabitable residential aspect—east,west and northeast,sites accounting for 35.2%of the total.It shows that many cultural relics of grottoes in Shaanxi are toward the livable aspect,only a few toward the not inhabitable aspect.(4)Most of grottoes are distributed on the middle slope and the gentle slope.There are 525 sites on the middle slope in the Wei,Jin,Northern and Southern Dynasties to the Qing Dynasty,accounting for 57.9%of the total.Secondly,there are 264 sites on the gentle slope,accounting for 29.1%of the total.There are 60 sites on the steep slope,accounting for 6.6%of the total.There are 58 sites on the flat slope,accounting for 6.4%of the total.There are no grottoes on the steep slope.(5)The spatial distribution of grottoes is greatly influenced by the rivers and the ancient roads around grottoes.The sites are concentrated in the area within 3 kilometers from the river and the ancient road.The farther away the rivers and the ancient roads,the less the sites are,the trend of gradual decline is presented.(6)The center of grottoes site is in Ganquan County,Yanan.It shows that the buddhist monks were mainly active in the Yanan area in the period of Wei,Jin,and the Northern and Southern Dynasties.The buddhist monk's overall scope of activity is still concentrated in the Yanan area,although in the Sui and Tang Dynasties and the Five Dynasties to the Song and Yuan Dynasties,the center of grottoes site had been offset.By analysing the gravity of distribution of cultural relics,we can found that:great changes had taken place in the center of grottoes site in the Ming and Qing Dynasties,from the southern Yanan region to the northern Yulin area,this is related to the increasing number of grottoes in Yulin.