Cave temple is a masterpiece of ancient Chinese sculpture art, which has produced many great works of historical significance, among which Yungang Grottoes is one of the masterpieces. Yungang Grottoes is known as "the mother of East Asian Buddhist art" because of its great artistic achievements.

Yungang Grottoes are located at the southern foot of Zhoushan Mountain in Xiwu, Datong City. Because the highest point in the foothills of Wuzhou Mountain is called Yungang, the grottoes are named after it. There are 53 main caves, 4 caves in the east, 9 caves in the middle and 40 caves in the west, with more than 5 1 1,000 stone carvings. It is one of the largest caves in China and a world-famous art treasure house.

Yungang Grottoes was founded in the first year of Heping in Wen Chengdi in the Northern Wei Dynasty (460) and lasted for more than 40 years. The construction of grottoes is closely related to the fate of Indian Buddhism after it was introduced into China, and it is also the product of feudal emperors consolidating their own rule. After Xianbei people entered the Central Plains and established the Northern Wei regime, they attached great importance to the role of Buddhism from the beginning, overhauled Buddhist temples and calmed people's hearts. But in the third generation of Taizu, under the influence of Stuart Ho Choi, Taizu believed in Taoism and vigorously destroyed Buddhism. In 452, Mao was brutally killed by eunuchs, and Wen Chengdi acceded to the throne. Taking the fate of Emperor Yitai as a warning, Wen Chengdi launched a movement to promote Buddhism. One of its actions is to dig grottoes and carve giant buddhas by imperial edict. The purpose of doing this is to combine "worshipping Buddha" with "being loyal to the monarch" and publicize the idea that "the emperor will come soon" in order to ease contradictions and strengthen rule. Yungang Grottoes were born in this historical background.

Among the people, there is a wonderful legend about the origin of Yungang Grottoes. Many years ago, there was a Yungang village at the foot of Wuzhou Mountain. The village is inhabited by border veterans, who are defending the border and fighting. There is a small sand dune near the village. As time went on, the sand dune became bigger and bigger, and finally it grew into a big sand dune 50 feet high and four or five miles wide. When night falls, beautiful music comes from the sand dunes. Yungang people are puzzled by this. A brave young man in the village drives his sheep to the sand dunes to listen to music every day. Over time, the shepherd learned to play the flute and hum songs. When he sings, there is also ensemble music in the sand dunes. The shepherd is determined to solve the mystery. He spent 49 days digging sand dunes. When he dug the sand dune into a big bunker, he heard a muffled sound from the bunker and said, "I want to come out." The shepherd casually replied, "Come out." The words sound just fell and there was a loud bang. There was a big ditch in the middle of the sand dune, and a temple for miles suddenly appeared in front of us. Ten thousand stone buddhas sparkled, and beautiful geisha music danced in the air, and soon flew to the stone wall and became a flying stone man. Fascinated by this magical landscape, the shepherd stepped into the temple hall and saw the grottoes behind the hall. The tall stone Buddha sat on the lotus platform, surrounded by countless arhats and gods. The news alarmed people near and far, and Yungang Grottoes became famous all over the world. To commemorate the shepherd who gave birth to Yungang Grottoes, a shepherd statue was made at the top of the Grottoes.

Yungang Grottoes are full of charm. Feng Yunxiang, a poet in the Ming Dynasty, wrote a poem entitled Yungang Temple, praising: "When the axe leaves the chemical industry, the moonlight and mountains cry at midnight." The pith is fragrant, and thousands of buddhas and thousands of treasures give birth to strange light. "The Notes on Water Classics by Li Daoyuan in the Northern Wei Dynasty described the face of Yungang Grottoes more vividly and concretely: Yungang Grottoes" are really expected by the world because of its rock structure, facing the mountain hall, the water hall and the smoke hall, with beautiful forests and a new look ". Today, although the mountain hall and the water hall no longer exist, the immortal statues in the grottoes still shine with magical brilliance after thousands of years of vicissitudes.

Yungang Grottoes are divided into three areas: East, West and Middle. Each area is not only obviously different in shape, but also shows the historical and cultural characteristics of different excavation years. Among them, Cave 16 to Cave 20 in the west, the famous "Cave 5 of Tan Yao" in history, has the earliest excavation age and the longest history. These five caves were excavated between 460 and 465. Yao Tan was a Samoan Sect in Wen Chengdi during the Northern Wei Dynasty, and was in charge of the monastery. He appealed to Wen Chengdi and was granted. He dug five grottoes in Wuzhou Mountain in the western suburbs of the capital (Datong) and carved five giant buddhas with Daowu, Mingyuan, Wu Tai, Mu Jing and Wen as models to commemorate the five founding emperors of the Northern Wei Dynasty. Historically, he called the five caves carved by Yao Tan the Five Cave of Tan Yao. Every cave in Tan Yao has a Buddha statue more than ten meters high. They stand upright, cross their feet, or cross their legs, and their posture is vivid and magnificent. Among them, the statue of Sakyamuni in Cave 16 is13.5m high, with its head held high, its nose high and straight, and its lips thin and long. Contrary to the common statue of Sakyamuni, it actually imitates Wen Chengdi. According to "Shi Lao Zhi of Shu Wei", even the black stone embedded in the Buddha statue is the place where Wen Chengdi has moles. The Buddha statue in Cave 20 is a famous open-air giant Buddha, carved by the founding emperor Daowudi. This statue is 13.7 meters high, with a towering bun, full face, wide shoulders, high nose and thin lips. It is magnificent and majestic, and it is a masterpiece of carving art in Yungang Grottoes.

The caves in the central area of Yungang Grottoes were excavated from 465 to 494 AD. Its modeling plane is rectangular, divided into two rooms, the majestic elephant is lowered, and the ranks of large secular providers appear; The cave walls and top are carved with reliefs with Buddhist themes. These reliefs are exquisite and vivid, and the lines are tortuous and smooth. The 12 hole in the central area is called the "music hole". Rows of musicians are carved on the ceiling of the cave, holding flute, pipa, flute, drum and other musical instruments, playing and playing music. Dressed in flying clouds, riding the wind is light and charming. There is a serene and solemn nigume sitting in the middle of each row of ci-poetry lotte, intoxicated by the light singing and dancing. The whole group is vivid and dynamic.

The eastern part of the grottoes was the last period of excavation in Yungang Grottoes, which lasted from 494 to 524. The shape of the eastern region is mostly square grottoes, and there are carvings on the cliffs outside the grottoes; In the center of the cave, there is a tower column carved with relief, and the tower body is carved with Buddha statues and stories on all sides. Among them, the fifth and sixth holes are adjacent to a group of double holes. In front of the cave, there are five four-story wooden pavilions built on the mountain in the eighth year of Qing Shunzhi (165 1), with glazed tile roofs, which are very spectacular. Sitting in the middle of the fifth cave is a main Buddha, with a height of 17 meters, a foot length of 4.65 meters and a middle finger length of 2.3 meters. His eyes are lowered and he looks down on the world. This is the largest of the 50,000 Buddha statues in Yungang Grottoes and the latest Buddha statue. Wearing ribbons and big skirts, the giant Buddha looks like a scholar-bureaucrat in the Southern Dynasties, which is different from the Gandhara costume in the early caves of Tan Yao. It can be seen that the localization policy of Emperor Xiaowen of Wei at this time has been extended to a deep degree. The sixth cave, known as the first grand view of Yungang, has a square two-story tower with a height of 16 meters in the center, and there are Buddha statues on all sides of the lower floor. At the four corners of the upper floor, there are nine small towers with eaves carved on the elephant's back, and statues of Buddha, Bodhisattva, Lohan and Tian Fei are carved on the other walls. There are 33 Buddhist stories of Sakyamuni from birth to becoming a Buddha engraved on the back room wall, which are rich in content and exquisite in composition. The sixth grotto is grand in scale and exquisitely carved, which represents the essence of Yungang art. If the Tan Yao grotto excavated by Wen Chengdi is a tall and rough part of Yungang grotto, then the fifth and sixth grottoes excavated by Emperor Xiaowen are the grand ending parts of Yungang grotto.

Among the three major grottoes in China, Yungang Grottoes are famous for their magnificent stone carvings and colorful contents. Its carving skills inherited and developed the artistic tradition of Qin and Han Dynasties, absorbed and integrated the essence of foreign art, and created a unique style, which played a connecting role in the development of Sui and Tang Dynasties.