Study On The Image Of The Cliff Stone Carvings In The Ming Dynasty In Laojundong Taoist Temple,Chongqing

The Ming Dynasty Cliff Stone Carvings in Laojundong is located in Laojundong Taoist Temple,Chongwen Road,Nan’an District,Chongqing.The cliff is carved with thirty-two plot images on the mountain,including “the spiritual practice of Miaoshan”,“Guanyin rescue” and “historical figures”,and the word "Xiangshan" is engraved on the top of the cliff.The stone carvings are large in proportion and have a strong secular atmosphere.They are precious materials for the study of the late cliff stone carvings in the Sichuan-Chongqing area,but there is no accurate and complete interpretation.Therefore,based on the interpretation of the images,this article will conduct a complete and detailed textual research on the stone carvings as much as possible,and through a comprehensive analysis of the content and form,conduct a holistic study of the stone carvings,and explore the social culture and religious beliefs behind them.According to the main features of the images,this paper firstly divides them into three parts: “the spiritual practice of Miaoshan”,“Guanyin rescue” and “historical figures”,and taking these as the contexts,the content and connotation of the images are analyzed by the method of mutual confirmation between images and literatures.Among them,the interpretation of “the spiritual practice of Miaoshan” images is mainly based on the existing literatures and images of “Miaoshan Story”,the interpretation of“Guanyin Rescue” images is mainly based on the Sutra “Pumen Pin” and its pictures,and the interpretation of “historical figures” images mainly refers to the records in ancient literatures,related archaeological materials and handed-down art works.Through interpretation,the Ming Dynasty cliff stone carvings in Laojundong include four sets of images of “the spiritual practice of Miaoshan”,twelve sets of images of “Guanyin Rescue”,and eight sets of images of “historical figures”.These images seem to belong to different text systems,but when they are placed side by side on this cliff,they are based on a certain internal logic.The interpretation of these images is the basis for exploring their narrative logic and relationship.Based on the analysis above,the author analyzes the reasons why three types of images,namely “the spiritual practice of Miaoshan”,“Guanyin rescue” and “historical figures” are placed in the same narrative space in combination with the specific historical situation in Chapter Four,and then explore the overall composition of these images.On this basis,the relationship between the stone carvings and Laojundong Taoism is analyzed.To sum up,the cliff stone carvings in Laojundong Ming Dynasty connect religious teachings with the ethical and moral requirements of real life,and use typical historical figures to promote the way of loyalty and filial piety,reflecting the complex folk beliefs in the Sichuan-Chongqing region during the late Ming and early Qing dynasties.When it enters the worship space of Laojun Taoism,it transforms into a visual presentation of Taoist doctrines and ideas,and becomes part of the creation of Taoist space.