a. Brief Introduction
These grottoes reflect the heyday of Tang Dynasty culture (618-907).
Located 13 km south of Luoyang, Henan Province, the Longmen Grottoesare concentrated on the east and west cliffs of the Yishui River, andstretch for one km. Work started on the grottoes around the year 493,during the Northern Wei Dynasty, and continued for the next 400 years.In total there are 2,345 caves and niches, housing more than 100,000statues of Buddha, Bodhisattvas and Arhats, together with 2,840inscribed stone tablets and over 60 stone stupas. Among them, the mostrepresentative caves are: Guyang Cave, Binyang Cave, The Lotus(Lianhua) Cave of Northern Wei, Qianxi Temple, Cave of Ten ThousandBuddhas (Wanfuo), Fengxian Temple and Kanjing Temple. The richcollection of statues and figures, most of which can be dated,facilitate the study of the history of Chinese sculpture with precisedata.
Large numbers of memorial texts and inscribed stone tablets at theLongmen Grottoes, like the Twenty Gems of Longmen Calligraphy and ZhuSuiliang's stone tablets, are considered rare treasures of Chinesecalligraphy. The Zhu Suiliang Inscription, made in 641 in honor of themother of the fourth son of Emperor Taizong, is one of them.
b. Cultural Heritage
The grottoes and niches of Longmen contain the largest and mostimpressive collection of the plastic arts of China in the late periodof the Northern Wei Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty.
The grottoes provide information on religion, painting, calligraphy,music, costumes, medicine, construction and foreign relations duringthis period.
c. Sculpture
The stone sculptures in the Longmen Grottoes are unique in theirblending of religious grandeur and secular touches. Based on theessential concepts and doctrines of Buddhism imported from India, therock sculptures in the Longmeng Grottoes already begin to assumedistinctive Chinese characteristics. The style of the sculpture, thedesign of the clothing and the facial expressions of the statues, aswell as the carving methods all exhibit the pinnacle of development ofChinese grotto art. For example, the 11 Buddha statues in the BinyangCave, typical Northern Wei carvings, represent a style in transitionfrom the simple and compact depictions in the Yungang Grottoes ofDatong, Shanxi Province, to the vigorous and realistic Tang Dynastysculptures.
The Longmen Grottoes reveal the great creativity of Chinese artisansat that time. In the case of statues, differences of personalities wereemphasized, with creative means of expression. Among the most famousfigures in Buddhism, the serene Sakyamuni, the grave Kasyapa, the briskAnanda and the muscular Guardian Warriors are all depicted withcaptivating details and impressive vividness.
Advanced techniques were also applied to achieve expressiveness. Forexample, in the modeling of large statues, artisans with a keen senseof perspective deliberately amplified the heads of the figures, so asto avoid virtual distortion; in the particular shaping of facialfeatures, the Indian method of raising the nose bridge was adopted, andthe Greek method of protruding eye pupils was not only borrowed butalso enriched by the use of glass material. An exemplary piece is thestatue of Vairocana (the Buddha of Great Enlightenment), which is 17.14m in height and highly acclaimed as the quintessence of Buddhistsculpture in China.
d. Calligraphy
The Longmen calligraphic works constitutes an important chapter inthe evolution of Chinese calligraphy. Mainly inscribed as memorialarticles upon the completion of statues on the walls of caves andniches, they have been passed down for generations as preciousremainders of calligraphic styles of that time. Twenty of theseinscriptions are the most famous, categorized as the Wei epigraphicgenre (weibeiti), a comparatively mature transitional stage of Chinesecalligraphy.
Chinese calligraphy is a graphic art of high abstraction. It hasdeveloped for over 3,000 years and ranges in style from themeticulously and laboriously inscribed zhuan (seal) characters to theLi (official), Kai (regular) and Xing (semi-cursive) characters, and tothe flamboyant and unconstrained Cao (cursive, or grass) characters.Like painting, it is often judged and described by such terms asbalance, texture, vitality, energy, bones, wind, and strength. TheLongmen calligraphy, mostly in the Wei epigraphic genre, featuringvigorous strokes, medium-slow progression, compact texture, latentenergy and immense possibilities for change, has been imitated by manygenerations of calligraphy lovers.
