When was Longmen Grottoes built?

In 493 AD, Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty ordered the capital to be moved to Luoyang. Emperor Xiaowen, who believed in Buddhism, did not forget to transfer the development center of Buddhism to Luoyang while moving the capital. He organized the construction of temples and monasteries. A grotto statue was opened around the Yishui River in Longmen, south of Luoyang, and the creation of a magical large-scale grotto group-Longmen Grottoes began. \ x0d \ x0d \ Longmen Grottoes, located in the Central Plains, are the fruitful achievements of foreign Buddhist teaching art rooted in the soil of Chinese traditional art and the concentrated expression of the complete system of ancient sculpture art in China, so Longmen Grottoes have their own special historical position in China's grottoes art. \ x0d \ x0d \ Longmen Grottoes are well-preserved large-scale grottoes in China. According to incomplete statistics, there are more than 2,000 caves and shrines, more than 60 pagodas, 10 million statues and more than 2,800 inscriptions. Longmen Grottoes is one of the three largest grottoes in the north of Central Plains. Together with Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes and Datong Yungang Grottoes, it is also known as the three major artistic treasures of China, and is known as the world human cultural heritage. \x0d\\x0d\ Thirty-five years from Emperor Xiaowen of Wei moved to Luoyang to Emperor Xiaoming, it was the first prosperous period of carving Buddha statues in Longmen. Most of the grottoes excavated in this period were concentrated in the West Mountain of Longmen, accounting for about one third of the statues of Longmen Grottoes. Among them, there are more than a dozen large and medium-sized caves, such as Guyang Cave, Binyang Cave and Fangyao Cave. \ x0d \ x0d \ Longmen Grottoes, Guyang Cave is the earliest excavated cave, which was excavated in 493 AD. In the history of China, this year was the seventeenth year of Taihe in the Northern Wei Dynasty and the year when Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty moved the capital to Luoyang. \x0d\\x0d\ Guyang Cave is located at the south foot of Longmen West Mountain. The main Buddha enshrined in the cave is Sakyamuni Buddha, and the large niche on the south wall is where Sakyamuni sits side by side with the Buddha, which is also called "two Buddhas sitting side by side" in Buddhism. There are three rows of niches on the north and south walls, and each row is four symmetrical and varied niches. \ x0d \ x0d \ The lintel of one of the big niches is engraved with a complete set of Buddhist stories, which shows the process of Wang Zicheng Daoism in Siddhartha. \ x0d \ x0d \ There are hundreds of large and small shrines in Guyang Cave. Not only are there the most Buddhist stories, but the patterns on the niches are also beautifully decorated, rigorous and complete, and rich in colors. \ x0d \ x0d \ The Buddha statues in the grottoes are all dedicated by believers, and each Buddha statue records the prayer process of believers. As can be seen from these statues, Guyangdong was the place where the royal nobles in the Northern Wei Dynasty made the most wishes. \ x0d \ x0d \ Binyang Three Caves were also the main caves excavated in the Northern Wei Dynasty. \ x0d \ x0d \ Binyang Middle Cave is dedicated to Buddha III. There are two disciples and bodhisattvas on each side of the main Buddha, Ye Jia and Manjusri Bodhisattva on the left and Ananda and Samantabhadra Bodhisattva on the right. The Buddha's face and flank face are slightly longer, and the clothing lines are neatly and densely stacked, which reflects the artistic characteristics of the statues in the Northern Wei Dynasty. \ x0d \ x0d \ Binyang cave ceiling is carved with a lotus treasure cover and ten wind-blown geisha music to support heaven and man. There are large reliefs on both sides of the inner wall of the cave, which are divided into four layers: Vimalakīrti, the life story of the Buddha, the Empress Dowager Cixi, and the Ten Kings. Many caves in Longmen Grottoes have pictures of rituals and buddhas, and the middle cave in Binyang is the best, but it was stolen abroad. \ x0d \ x0d \ In the late Northern Wei Dynasty, some distinctive caves were dug, such as Lotus Cave, Huoshao Cave, Huangfugong Cave and Weizi Cave. \x0d\\x0d\ The most famous one is Fangzi Cave, which is named after a large number of ancient prescriptions carved in it. Some prescriptions carved in caves can also treat what modern people call intractable diseases, such as diabetes. These prescriptions predate Sun Simiao's "Just in case". \x0d\\x0d\ The closure of Binyang Middle Cave marked the end of the opening activities of Longmen in Luoyang in the Northern Wei Dynasty. \ x0d \ x0d \ With the demise of the Northern Wei Dynasty, the excavation of Longmen Grottoes tended to decline and remained silent for nearly a century until the establishment of the Tang Dynasty. During the hundred years from the founding of the People's Republic of China to the prosperous Tang Dynasty, Longmen Grottoes ushered in the second grotto prosperity period in history. \ x0d \ x0d \ Grottoes excavated in this period are generally from south to north according to the time, concentrated in the West Mountain of Longmen. It was only during the period of Wu Zetian that people moved to Dongshan, accounting for about two-thirds of the Longmen Grottoes. The most representative grottoes in Longmen Grottoes in Tang Dynasty are Qianxi Temple, Wanfo Cave and Fengxian Temple. \x0d\\x0d\ The first cave excavated in the Tang Dynasty was Qianxi Temple at the northern end of Longmen Xishan. At this time, China Buddhism "Pure Land Sect" was established. The statue of opening holes in the Tang Dynasty reached its peak in the period of Tang Gaozong and Wu Zetian. Although grotto statues belong to Buddhist art, they are closely related to politics. From the numerous stone carvings of the Tang Dynasty in Longmen, we can also see the traces of Wu Zetian stepping onto the throne of the queen step by step. \ x0d \ x0d \ Wanfo Cave was completed in November of the first year of Yonglong, Tang Gaozong. This is a merit cave specially excavated for Tang Gaozong and Wu Zetian. A group of royal monks and nuns headed by Yunzhi, a devotee of the Tang Dojo, were ordered to make a wish for Tang Gaozong and Wu Zetian collectively. \ x0d \ x0d \ Wu Zetian was superstitious about Maitreya when she was a queen. To this end, she made Maitreya in Longmen. Thousand-Buddha Cave, Huichang Cave, 15,000-Buddha Cave, Extreme South Cave and Cliff Three Buddhas are all caves with Maitreya as their main statues. \x0d\\x0d\ Among thousands of statues in Longmen Grottoes, the one with the largest size, the most beautiful shape and the highest artistic value is the main statue of Fengxian Temple-Lushena Buddha. Fengxian Temple, located on the hillside south of Longmen Xishan, is an open-air shrine with a width of nearly 40 meters from north to south. There are nine big statues here, all carved from the mountain. \ x0d \ x0d \ The main statue of Fengxian Temple is Rushenafo. Lushena Buddha is the name of the Buddha, and it is also a respectful name for the true body of the Buddha. The height of the Giant Buddha is more than 17 meters, and the ear alone is 1.9 meters high. In Buddhist scriptures, Rushana is the ideal incarnation of the Buddha when he shows his virtue. \x0d\\x0d\ The Ashe statue niche in Fengxian Temple is a royal statue opening project personally run by Tang Gaozong and Wu Zetian, and the design and construction of the project was personally designated by Emperor Gaozong. To this end, Wu Zetian once donated "20,000 yuan powder money" with Xian Heng for three years. The local legend is that Lushenafo is the incarnation of Wu Zetian. Lushenafo is endowed with the image of a woman: plump face, slender eyebrows, crescent-shaped eyebrows, drooping eyelids, eyes looking down, corners of her mouth slightly tilted but smiling, and she is solemn, elegant, wise and clear. \ x0d \ x0d \ Legend has it that on the New Year's Eve of the first year of Tang Gaozong, when Fengxian Temple was completed, Wu Zetian personally led civil and military courtiers to Longmen to attend the opening ceremony of the main Buddha Lushena. \ x0d \ x0d \ The statues of Longmen Grottoes in the Tang Dynasty have changed greatly compared with those of the Northern Wei Dynasty. In the Tang Dynasty, the number of statues of Maitreya Buddha was second only to Amitabha Buddha, but the number of Sakyamuni decreased obviously, and Manjusri Bodhisattva and Guanyin were the most among the bodhisattvas. \x0d\\x0d\ In art, the round knife in the Tang Dynasty replaced the straight knife technique in the Northern Wei Dynasty, and the clothing lines of the Buddha statue were smoother and more elegant, and the muscles of the lux hag were all protruding, which was in line with the anatomical principle and exaggerated appropriately, and was full of powerful momentum and power generated outward. While drawing lessons from foreign sculptures, they also absorbed the techniques of traditional art in the Central Plains. \ x0d \ x0d \ The second excavation climax of Longmen Grottoes ended around 705 AD. In the same year, Wu Zetian abdicated and died, and the Maitreya statues in Longmen Grottoes became extinct. The glorious history of Longmen Grottoes, with the disappearance of Maitreya, fell from the magnificent peak. \ x0d \ x0d \ Longmen Grottoes have experienced 1500 years of vicissitudes since they were excavated in the Northern Wei Dynasty, witnessing the evolution of Chinese dynasties and the development of Buddhist culture in China.