The Rushena Buddha statue in the middle of the grottoes is the largest Buddha statue in Longmen Grottoes, with a height of 17. 14m, a head height of 4m and an ear length of 1.9. The Buddhist stories in Longmen Grottoes are mostly concentrated in the grottoes excavated during the Northern Wei Dynasty, such as Guyang Cave, Lianhua Cave, Weizi Cave and Huangfu Apartment. From the content, there are white elephants reborn, visiting the park and being born under the tree. The origin of Longmen Grottoes: During the reign of Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty, Emperor Xiaowen respected Buddha. Why? Because of political needs, Buddhism has certainly become the key support object of Emperor Xiaowen. Because Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty carried out the policy of sinicization, he moved the capital to Luoyang, Henan Province, and dug grottoes on both sides of Yishui in Luoyang, among which many famous calligraphy works of the Northern Wei Dynasty were also engraved beside the grottoes (Longmen Twenty Products), leaving precious wealth for future generations. The Tang Dynasty can be said to be the heyday of Buddhism. Emperor Taizong's active and enlightened religious policy made Buddhism develop rapidly. Emperor Gaozong even respected Buddhism. Many temples and jungles were given by the emperor. As a result, Buddhism reached the scale of the state religion in the Wu Zetian period. Wu Zetian built Longmen Grottoes on a large scale according to the contents of Hua Yan Jing. At present, the Buddha's head of Lushena in Longmen Grottoes is said to be shaped according to the appearance of Wu Zetian, and the construction of Longmen Grottoes has reached its peak.
Since the emperors of Longmen Grottoes have always taken a protective attitude, why do we see that Longmen Grottoes are dilapidated today? In fact, there are several factors: First, because Longmen Grottoes are built on Longmen Mountain, Longmen Rock is limestone, which is convenient for carving, but it is also vulnerable to natural erosion such as wind and rain, sun and rain. Second, there was a famous "Three Martial Arts and One Case" in the ancient history of China. This "Three Martial Arts and One Case" refers to the four events of destroying Buddha in Northern Wei Dynasty, Northern Zhou Dynasty, Tang Wuzong and Zhou Shizong. Emperor Wu of the Northern Zhou Dynasty destroyed the Buddha for the first time, only 50 years after the Longmen Grottoes were dug! Especially in the Tang Dynasty, the movement to destroy Buddhism was very extensive, because Buddhism reached its peak in the Tang Dynasty from the three generations of Emperor Taizong, Gaozong and Wuzhou, but excessive support led to the expansion, so the movement to destroy Buddhism began in Wuzong. Longmen Grottoes have been destroyed to varying degrees after four campaigns to destroy Buddha.
The third is caused by the war. During the war, the Central Plains was the main battlefield. In countless wars, the statues of Longmen Grottoes were also damaged to varying degrees. After the Anshi Rebellion in Tang Dynasty captured Luoyang, the statues and inscriptions in Longmen Grottoes almost disappeared. In order to move the capital from Nanjing to Luoyang, the government of the Republic of China also bombed a large number of foothill shrines when building the road under the West Mountain of Longmen. The statue of Sakyamuni in Laojun Cave was painted by Cixi as a grand old gentleman, and was later repaired under the organization of Liang Sicheng, but it was also damaged. However, Longmen Grottoes was really devastated when China was invaded by foreign powers from 1907 to 1940. Foreign cultural relics were destroyed and stolen. They colluded with domestic lawless elements and profiteers at home, cut off the heads of Buddha statues, shoveled murals, secretly dug stone tablets and stole them abroad for huge profits. This is also the reason why many Buddha statues in Longmen Grottoes have no heads. Lu, who once supported Sun Yat-sen's revolution, was able to export a large number of China cultural relics to the west with the help of the government network during the period when the government of the Republic of China strictly controlled the outflow of cultural relics.
Edward Shawan was one of the first foreigners to visit Longmen Grottoes. He published the Archaeological Atlas of Northern China in 1909, in which a large number of photos of Longmen Grottoes stimulated western collectors. Western buyers can pursue them in the open market, and sometimes they can even book the selected cultural relics specially. The most typical examples of this are the large reliefs of Binyang Cave, Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty and Empress Zhao Wen (the two paintings are called after the emperor) stolen in the 1930s and 1940s, which are now displayed in the Metropolitan Museum in New York and the Nelson and Atkins Art Museum in Kansas respectively. The statue of Ye Jia, a disciple of Sakyamuni in Lotus Cave, is now in the French Ji Mei Museum.
In the final analysis, the greed of the people is the reason why the Buddha statues in Longmen Grottoes have been seriously damaged. Recently, I saw the national treasure, and it is really a pity to think of the cultural relics that we were classified as robbers in modern times, such as the murals dug up in Dunhuang. I hope to do a good job in the protection of cultural relics in the future.