The History and Culture of Maijishan

Maijishan has a long history and enjoyed a high reputation as early as 1600 years ago.

Five generations wrote "Fish Pond Gossip" and said: "Those who accumulate wheat in the mountains cross the clear Wei River in the north and gradually go south. The mountain range is 500 miles, and the wheat field is in the middle, starting from a stone, looking high and round, just like the folk wheat field, hence the name."

Du Fu has a poem praising: "There are few residual monks in wild temples, and the mountains and roads are high.

Musk sleeps on carnations and parrots peck at golden peaches.

Stone pierces people, cliff locks the house, and it is late to go to the pavilion. "With the smooth flow of the Silk Road, Maijishan Grottoes began to be built in the post-Qin period of the Sixteen Countries.

According to Liang Zhuan, in the early years of the Southern Song Dynasty, a monk lived in Maiji Mountain, and soon a famous monk came. They live together in a temple and often have more than 300 apprentices.

In the Western Wei Dynasty, after the death of Yi Fu, the former queen of Wei Wendi, she "chiseled McKee Cliff and buried it as a niche." During Baoding and Tianhe years in the Northern Zhou Dynasty, Li, the governor, built the seven buddha Pavilion for his dead father, and asked for an inscription for Cliff in Tianshui County, Qin Zhou.

In the fourth year of Emperor Wendi's Renshou, Ambassador Qin Zhou built a seven-level pagoda with a height of 9.4 meters on the top of Mackey Mountain, which is said to be one of the 84,000 pagodas of Ashoka.

Up to now, this pagoda still stands on the top of the mountain, but it has only five floors.

According to historical records, Gao Xuan and Tan Hong, famous Zen monks, once gave lectures here, "gathering 300 monks".

During the Northern Wei, Western Wei and Northern Zhou Dynasties, there were thousands of statues of Daxing Cliff Pavilion.

Sui, Tang, Five Dynasties, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties all had continuous excavation or reconstruction.

Maijishan Grottoes have preserved a large number of physical materials about religion, art and architecture, enriching the ancient cultural history of China.

religion

Buddhism is dominant, which reflects the Three Buddhas, seven buddha, Western Pure Land and so on. It is an important form of Buddhist literature to reflect the story of Buddha's birth and biography from murals and stone carvings, such as Chinese character's birth sutra, Prince Sakena who gave his life to feed the tiger, Nirvana and so on.

Through the sculptures of Buddha, Bodhisattva and Tian Fei, the spiritual enlightenment of Buddhism to the real world is reflected.

art

It truly reflects the infinite yearning and aesthetic orientation of artists in that era for a better life.

The statues in the Northern Wei Dynasty are beautiful and handsome, and the wise smile implies contempt for the horrible reality, forgetting the honor and disgrace of life, and being chic and relaxed after transcending the secular world; The statues of the Western Wei and Northern Zhou Dynasties are warm and honest, and they are addicted to the pursuit of real life and the yearning for the Buddhist world. Sui and Tang dynasties statues are plump and delicate; Statue costumes in Song Dynasty have realistic patterns and solemn shapes.

Maijishan is good at clay sculpture.

Artists have abandoned the meticulous attention to details in the past, and raised their appeal to the height of commanding everything, with touching faces and rich life breath.

From the statues of Maijishan in different times, we can see the religious figures with rich flavor of life, such as Buddha, Bodhisattva, disciple and provider, which were created by artists with realistic figures as the main material at that time through exaggeration, imagination, generalization and refinement.

The piety shown by the Buddhist disciples in 12 1 cave and the boys and girls in 123 cave is not the piety of an ascetic monk, but the childlike sincerity and joy under the influence of the trend of the times.

Therefore, Maijishan statue is influenced by the local social environment, which makes it show the local people and feelings, makes the Buddha statue look deja vu in life, makes people feel the amiable and lovely world of Buddhism, and thus sincerely believes in it.

Maijishan Grottoes used to be "all niches are Buddhas, and there is no wall without flying". However, due to the wet rain, most of the murals are peeled off, but the original stories of the Northern Dynasties, such as the change of pure land, nirvana, hell and the life of Prince Sakena, are still preserved. The cities, temples, chariots and costumes depicted in the murals all have China cultural characteristics.

Feitian, in particular, is rich in color and distinctive, including clay sculpture, sculpture, painting and lean meat sculpture.

Although Tian Fei's hometown is in India, Tian Fei in Maijishan is the artistic crystallization bred by Chinese and foreign cultures, and it is the China culture Tian Fei with the integration of Indian Buddhism and China Taoism.

She has no wings and feathers. She relies on clouds instead of clouds. She only relies on fluttering dresses, flying ribbons and beautiful girls soaring in the air, which is the most talented masterpiece of ancient artists in China.

At the same time, dances and musical instruments are also reflected in murals and sculptures, which provide valuable information for the study of ancient music in China.

Architectural art

Maijishan Grottoes are dug on cliffs, with caves as dense as honeycombs and plank roads as high as flying frames. Thrilling and dangerous, rare in the world, it has formed a magnificent three-dimensional building complex.

Its wood-like stone cliff pavilion is unique and magnificent.

Most of the caves are Buddhist temples without pillars, which obviously have local characteristics.

One of the most magnificent buildings in Maijishan Grottoes is the seven Buddhist niches in the fourth cave, also known as the "Scattered Flower Building". Located on the East Cliff Buddha, about 80 meters above the ground. It is a temple structure with seven columns and eight columns, about 9 meters high, 30 meters wide and 8 meters deep. It is divided into front porch and back room.

The column is an octagonal column covered with a lotus petal-shaped column base, and all the building components are carefully crafted, which reflects the maturity of architectural technology in the Northern Zhou Dynasty.

The back room consists of seven parallel tent-shaped niches with four corners, which are overlapped by curtains, and the columns, beams and other building components in the niches are all expressed in relief.

Therefore, the building of the fourth cave of Maijishan is the largest grotto in China that imitates the traditional architectural form of China, and it is an important material for studying the wooden buildings in the Northern Dynasties. It truly and truthfully shows the external and internal features of the Buddhist temples that have been in China since the late Southern and Northern Dynasties, which is of great significance in the development history of grottoes.

Cave 12 1:

Direction:

The westernmost point of the west cliff.

Times:

Late Northern Wei Dynasty, Song Zhongxiu.

Cave shape:

Plane square hole of bucket caisson with cover.

The front, left and right walls of the cave are provided with pointed arches; The cave is 2.55m high, 2.36m wide and 2.15m deep.

Statue:

There is a Buddha statue in each of the three niches.

In the main niche, the left and right walls and the middle door are shaped by two lux.

The upper body of the Buddha statue was reshaped in the Song Dynasty, and the skirt of the lower body hung down in front of the seat, stumbling on the square platform, and the disciples wore robes and skirts.

Left disciple Taluoji.

Bodhisattva wears robes.

Bodhisattva has a close relationship with his disciples, smiling, holding his chest with his hands and clapping his hands to celebrate, as if whispering, just like a brother and sister in real life, full of youthful vitality and touching emotions, making people feel natural and cordial.

The head of Lux was reconstructed in the Song Dynasty.

Zuo Li is naked in the world, wearing a skirt, a shawl with a circular cross on her abdomen, a diamond rod in her left hand and a windbreak belt in her right hand, while you Lishi is standing in a wide-sleeved coat and a long skirt, with her hands hanging down and wearing protective armor, strong and brave, with a dignified and awe-inspiring spirit.

This cave is one of the important representative caves along the Northern Wei Dynasty.

Murals:

Buddhas and Bodhisattvas paint backlights and light.

Most of the murals in the caisson have peeled off and been blackened, only floating in the air, faintly visible.

Inscription: None.

Among the grottoes in Xia, 133 and 127 grottoes are the largest.

Monument Cave 133 is the most special cave in McKee.

There are not only many clay sculptures in the cave, but also 18 stone tablets and several small Buddha statues with thousands of buddhas on their faces, so it is also called "Wanfo Hall".

Among them,No. 10,No. 1 1 andNo. 16 are the essence of many historical sites.

Cave 127 is even more wonderful. Most of the murals on the walls and caissons are well preserved, with vertical brushwork and post-Wei style.

Draw a story of Buddha in Chinese for thousands of riders in Qian Qian to listen to.

Western paintings give their lives to the tiger. There are 12 tigers in different shapes, which is a fine product.

Especially there is a stone Buddha in the niche, which is the most wonderful. In the backlight of the stone Buddha, there are 12 geisha above, each playing an instrument.

There are eight birds below.

There is a waiter on the left and right, though small, with different manners.

Among the scrolls of lotus, there is also a small Buddha head of lotus and peanut.

Sitting in the middle of the Buddha, sitting with both hands raised, showing kindness and joy when speaking.

This Buddha statue, not to mention in McKee, is a rare treasure in the world of Buddhist art.

Maijishan has a long history and splendid culture, which is the most distinctive of local traditional culture, including folk sacrifices, cultural entertainment, song and dance acrobatics, food culture and so on.

Worship Fuxi

Fuxi is the ancestor of mankind admired by the Chinese nation, and Tianshui is the birthplace of Fuxi and the hometown of Huang Xi.

Sacrificial activities have been recorded for more than 800 years.

Since 1988, Gansu Province and Tianshui City have held "Fuxi Cultural Tourism Festival" in Qinzhou District of Tianshui every year, and held a grand Fuxi public sacrifice ceremony, which was attended by politicians and VIPs from all walks of life in the country, provinces and cities.

There are thousands of people in the empty lane, and the scene is grand.

The public sacrifice ceremony has been included in the first batch of intangible cultural heritage by the state.

Worship of "Bath Buddha Festival"

There are many Buddhist temples in Maijishan Scenic Area, such as Ruiying Temple, Ling Ying Temple and Jiaolong Temple. Buddhist activities have a long history, especially the "Buddha Bathing Festival" on the eighth day of the fourth lunar month.

On this day, the Maijishan Grottoes, Ling Ying Temple on Xianrenya and other Buddhist shrines welcomed thousands of pilgrims and believers, and the scene was spectacular.

Country yangko

Rural yangko, also known as "community fire", is a general term for various forms of folk songs and dances, which are mostly accompanied by percussion or small folk bands, mainly playing dragon lanterns, lions, playing high platforms, waist drums, running donkeys, bamboo lanterns and big skulls. Singing and dancing, there are dry boats, plywood, stilts, horse yangko, high umbrellas, wax flowers, tigers, fire dragons and so on.

During the Spring Festival or festival every year, beautiful villages form a large array of Yangko performances, which are very lively.

Shaanxi opera performance

Shaanxi Opera is one of the local operas popular in Shaanxi, Gansu and Ningxia.

Tianshui people love to watch and listen to Shaanxi opera, and they can even shout a few words about it.

Every festival or temple fair, the scenic spot will invite local Shaanxi Opera Troupe or Shaanxi Opera lovers to hold Shaanxi Opera performances to increase the customs of Shaanxi Opera for tourists.