First place Yungang Grottoes
Yungang Grottoes, located in the northern cliff of Wuzhou Mountain in the western suburb of Datong City, Shanxi Province, is one of the largest ancient grottoes in China, with a length of 1000 meters from east to west, 45 existing main grottoes, 252 large and small grottoes and more than 5 1000 stone carvings. According to documents, during the peaceful years of the Northern Wei Dynasty (AD 460-465), the famous monk Yao Tan presided over the construction of five grottoes in Wuzhousai (Pingcheng, now Datong) in the suburbs of Beijing. The existing 16-20 grottoes in Yungang were the earliest so-called "Tan Yao's fifth grottoes". Most of the other major caves were completed before Emperor Xiaowen moved to Luoyang in the 18th year of Taihe in the Northern Wei Dynasty (AD 494).
Judging from the age inscriptions and artistic styles preserved in the grottoes, this magnificent art project is basically a relic of the Northern Wei Dynasty, with a history of 1500 years. There are 53 existing caves and 5 1000 stone carvings. The highest Buddha statue is 17 meters, and the smallest is only a few centimeters. Yungang Grottoes are famous for their magnificent momentum, rich content and fine carving.
Li Daoyuan, an ancient geographer, described it this way: "Because of the rock structure, the truth is huge and rare in the world. Shantang is opposite to Shuitang. " This is a true portrayal of the magnificent scenery of the grottoes at that time. The sculpture in Yungang Grottoes absorbs and draws lessons from the Indian Gandhara Buddhism art, and at the same time organically integrates the traditional artistic style of China, which has a very important position in the history of sculpture art in the world. Today, it has become a tourist attraction that Chinese and foreign tourists admire and yearn for. Yungang Grottoes, one of the three largest grottoes in China, is a world-famous art treasure house.
Among dozens of caves in Yungang, the fifth cave of Tan Yao is the earliest and the most magnificent. Wuliu Cave and Wuhua Cave are rich and colorful, which are the essence of Yungang art.
Second place Mogao Grottoes
Mogao Grottoes, also known as "Thousand Buddha Cave", is located at the foot of Mingsha Mountain, 25 kilometers southeast of Dunhuang County, and is named after its location in Mogao Grottoes. It is the largest and most famous Buddhist art grottoes in China. It is distributed in three or four layers on the cliff of Mingsha Mountain, with a total length of 1.6 km. There are 492 existing grottoes, with a total area of 45,000 square meters of murals and more than 265,438 painted sculptures. Grottoes vary in size, statues vary in height, the big ones are magnificent, the small ones are exquisite, the accomplishments are deep and the imagination is amazing. Murals are mostly Buddhist stories, such as Sakyamuni's life story, previous life sacrifice and so on.
There are portraits of Buddha, Bodhisattva, Heavenly King, Lux and Hanazono Sakura Buddha, as well as people with feathers, flying people, flowers and birds, animals and so on. Although the murals have been eroded by wind and sand for thousands of years, they are still bright in color and clear in lines, which makes people have to admire the exquisite art and creative spirit of ancient artists.
"Escape", big also, "Ming", sheng also. Because this place plays a very important role in developing the vast western regions, it has been named "Dunhuang" since the Han Dynasty.
Grottoes developed on a cliff high in the desert, so they were named "Mogao Grottoes". In ancient Chinese, "Mo" and "Mo" were common, later called "Mogao Grottoes".
Dunhuang is located at the westernmost end of Hexi Corridor in Gansu Province. It is called "Guazhou" because it is rich in beautiful melons in the Spring and Autumn Period. There was Mingsha Mountain in the south of the Tang Dynasty, also known as "sandbar". Since the Han and Tang Dynasties, there have been frequent business trips on the Silk Road, and Dunhuang has become the main road leading to the Western Regions and Chang 'an. Because it is located in the throat of the Silk Road, it can be described as an important town. At that time, villages and docks were one after another, and chickens and dogs heard about each other. Historically known as "Huarong Road". Buddhism and its art spread eastward with the western regions as the first stop, so pagodas are everywhere and the market is prosperous. According to the literature, the Lantern Festival is second only to Chang 'an, and its prosperity can be seen in general. Poplar and Xinjiang poplar, like feather blankets, are the most obvious plant landscapes in Dunhuang.
Third place Yulin Cave
Yulin Grottoes, commonly known as Wanfo Gorge, is located on the Yulin River (also known as Zhen Shi River) 75 kilometers southwest of Anxi County. There are 42 caves in the Tang Dynasty, the Five Dynasties, the Song Dynasty, the Xixia Dynasty and the Yuan Dynasty, which are distributed on the cliffs on the east and west sides of Yulin, with 428 murals on the east cliff 3 1 and the west cliff 165438. Due to natural and man-made reasons, there are few original colored sculptures in Yulin Cave, and most of the existing colored sculptures are rebuilt or reshaped by later generations.
Yulin Grottoes, the sister grottoes of Mogao Grottoes, are closely related or similar to Mogao Grottoes in terms of content, artistic style, painted sculptures and murals, but they are obviously different in many aspects and have their own unique artistic style. Especially after the Five Dynasties, the art of Mogao Grottoes showed an obvious decline trend, while Yulin Grottoes showed its characteristics of the times and unique artistic charm in terms of content, painting style and artistic level, thus enriching the connotation of this treasure house.
196 1 year, Yulin cave was listed as the first batch of national key cultural relics protection units by the State Council and placed under the jurisdiction of Dunhuang Cultural Relics Research Institute.
Fourth place Longmen Grottoes
Longmen, called yique in ancient times, was generally called Longmen after Sui and Tang Dynasties, and it has been in use ever since. Located in the south of Luoyang 12.5km. Green hills here, east and west facing each other, and Wang Yang flowing from central to north, are one of the three major Buddhist art treasures in China. The statues of Longmen Grottoes are densely distributed on both sides of Yishui and east-west cliffs.
Longmen Grottoes, built around the time when Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty moved the capital to Luoyang (494), were built on a large scale in the Eastern Wei Dynasty, the Western Wei Dynasty, the Northern Qi Dynasty, the Northern Zhou Dynasty, the Sui Dynasty, the Tang Dynasty, the Five Dynasties and the Northern Song Dynasty for more than 500 years, making large and small caves and niches densely distributed on the cliffs on both sides of Yishui, with a length of 1 more kilometers from north to south.
As far as its construction history is concerned, there are two largest cave statues. The first one is Xiaowen, Xuanwu and Xiaoming in the Northern Wei Dynasty, which lasted about 35 years. Emperor Taizong, Emperor Gaozong, Wu Zetian and Emperor Xuanzong were the second generation emperors, accounting for 1.