The Longmen Statue was carved in the seventh year of Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty (483), and then it was carved continuously in the Eastern Wei Dynasty, the Western Wei Dynasty, the Northern Qi Dynasty, the Sui and Tang Dynasties and the Ming and Qing Dynasties for more than 1, years. More than 2,3 caves were opened on the cliffs on both sides of the Yishui River, with more than 1, statues and nearly 3, inscriptions. Generally, the inscription of the statue is based on "the time of sculpture".
The local
Detailed Statues of Wang Yuan in Beihai, a treasure house of statues inscriptions, has not been paid attention to by epigraphists in past dynasties, and its value of literature and calligraphy art has never been recognized. Until the reign of Emperor Qianlong and Jiaqing in Qing Dynasty, there were a few masterpieces of Longmen statues, such as Shi Pinggong, Sun Qiusheng, Wei Lingzang, Yang Dayan and An Ding Wang Xie Statue. There are some records in Bi Yuan's Records of the Stone Inscriptions in Zhongzhou, Qian Daxin's Postscript on the Stone Inscriptions in Qianyantang, Wuyi's Postscript on the Stone Inscriptions in the Teaching Hall, Wang Chang's Collection of the Stone Inscriptions, and Hong Yixuan's Reading the Inscriptions in Pingjin, ranging from two or three to five or six, but at that time, there was no record of Longmen Four.
Statues of monks
In the thirty-third year of Qianlong (1768), Qian Daxin recorded the inscription of Longmen Statues, but only Yang Dayan was included. In the forty-sixth year of Qianlong (1781), Sun Qiusheng was included in the sequel of Jinshi Postscript of Qianyantang, which was celebrated for four years. On the other hand, there are 5 Han steles, 269 Tang steles and only 3 Longmen statues in Qian Yan Tang, and its attention can be imagined. In the fifty-third year of Qianlong (1788), Bi Yuan, the governor of Henan Province, wrote the Golden Records of Zhongzhou, which only included four pieces of Shi Pinggong, Sun Qiusheng, Yang Dayan and the Statue of Anding Wang Xie. At the same time, Wuyi, a fellow villager in Henan Province, only included two pieces of Yang Dayan and Wei Lingcang, accompanied by an article in the fifty-fourth year of Qianlong (1988) There are more than 2 kinds of vulgar words regarded by Wuyi, but from the point of view of their existence, they are also messy and lack of famous products, which is also very different from the later Longmen Twenty Products. All these phenomena fully reflect the basic situation of the spread and research of Longmen statues during the Qianlong period-not paying attention, spreading and collecting less.
Today's recognized "Longmen Sculpture Inscriptions" are located at the top and ceiling of the north and south walls of Guyang Cave. Guyang Cave, formerly known as the "Cave Temple", is the first cave excavated in Longmen Grottoes, with a depth of about 13 meters, a height of about 11 meters and a width of about 7 meters. In the Qing Dynasty, Taoist priests changed the statue of Sakyamuni enshrined in the cave into a statue of the moral Buddha of the Grand Master, so in the old days, they changed it into a statue of the Buddha.
Wang Yuanxie's Statue
In the first year of Jiaqing (1796), Huang Yi brought an extension worker to the Longmen Grottoes to set up a high platform to extend the monument, which officially kicked off the spread of Longmen Sculpture Exquisite rubbings. However, it is not easy to spread the cliff with a three-story statue inscription. Huang Yi's Diary of Song Luo's Visit to the Monument records: "According to the workers' carving of Longmen, the mountain monk copied it and helped. The monk knew that the small niche at the top of the cave in Yi Que had the lettering' Kaiyuan', and he climbed up and got a piece of paper. A small piece of rubbings is hard-won, and the effort to rise to the top is beyond the ordinary people. ..... In the Longmen Cave, see the words' Datang Yonglong' engraved on the top, turning into a giant book. At the moment of the top of Laojun Cave, it was a high risk to frame wood, but it was still inaccessible, just sighing. " This passage of Huang Yi's diary reflects the hardships and difficulties in spreading the Inscription of Longmen Statues, and the greatest excitement of epigraphy scholars in Ganjia, and also lies in the discovery of the Tang Dynasty Inscriptions, rather than the Northern Wei Statues that we regard as the Longmen Classics today, because at that time, the Han and Tang Monuments were the core of academic concern.
See also The Statue of the First Pinggong in the National Library (the first rubbings of Jiaqing), which contains the inscription of Qian Song in the eighth year of Xianfeng (1858): "This Longmen stone carving is the highest in the world, and it is carved in the Yang language, which is the only one in ancient times. The cliff is high and steep, and it is extremely difficult to expand. After Liu Yanting's expansion, there is no interest. " Qian Song's inscription and postscript once again confirmed that few people spread the Longmen Statue during the reign of Jia Dao, and the reason for the rare spread of its rubbings was mainly restricted by the traditional concept of attaching importance to the inscriptions in the Han and Tang Dynasties and neglecting the statues in the Northern Wei Dynasty, except for the realistic conditions such as "steep cliffs", and the fine rubbings of Longmen Statues were only circulated in a few high-end epigraphy scholars.
The Statue of Biqiu Huicheng
During the Daoguang period, Guyangdong successively welcomed two super "epigraphy fetishes". In addition to spreading the "Four Products of Longmen" on a high platform, it also spread the inscriptions of other statues in Longmen Grottoes on a large scale. One of them was Fang Lvpin, who wrote "Yi Que Stone Burning" and searched for more than 8 kinds of statues. One is Liu Xihai, who is the author of A Collection of Statues of Longmen in Jiayin County, with more than 9 statues. This is a signal that the Longmen Statue has begun to "revitalize", which shows that the spring breeze of epigraphy has blown to the Longmen Statue Group of "children's bodies in poor villages", which was neglected in the past, and has blown all over the corner outside Guyang Cave. It is a signal that the Longmen Statue has begun to "turn its fortunes". However, at that time, the rubbings of Longmen Statue still didn't get the general attention of the collection circle of steles, and the spread and sales were still sporadic, which had not yet become a popular variety in the collection.
In the ninth year of Tongzhi (187), a turning point appeared in the spread of Longmen Statue. The former Henan Taishou recruited workers to spread Longmen Statue, and at the same time, the name of "Ten Products of Longmen" appeared. Based on the Inscription of the Monument of the Former Henan Taishou Delin, which was printed on the south wall of Guyang Cave, the text said: "Tongzhi in the Qing Dynasty. Sun Bao, Hou Taifei, Helan Khan, Huixiang, Yuanxie, Dajue, Niuju, Gaoshu, Yuanxiang and Yunyangbo. " This time, local officials participated in the spreading project together with monks and nuns, which is a "feat", and it opened the way for the large-scale commercialization of Longmen Statue in the future.
The title of
"Longmen Ten Products" in Hui Gan Statue may be based on "Longmen Four Products"-Shi Pinggong, Sun Qiusheng, Wei Lingcang and Yang Dayan. Although there were a few rubbings of "Longmen Four Products" in Qianlong, Jiaqing and Daoguang periods, most of them were Longmen.
Wei Lingzang's Statues
After nine years of Tongzhi (187), on the basis of the four products of Longmen and the ten products of Longmen, six products were added, namely, the life of a bhikkhu, the feeling of a bhikkhu, a Buddha, Sima JieBoda, Yuan You and Udayana, to form the "twenty products of Longmen".
Since then, the situation that the Inscription of Longmen Statue was neglected during the reign of Jia Dao has been reversed after the publication of Twenty Products of Longmen during the reign of Tongzhi, and the Twenty Products finally became a classic representative of Longmen Statue. The former Henan Taishou Delin pioneered the collection and naming of Longmen Statue in the form of "products", which is undoubtedly a pioneering work.
Yang Dayan made a statue of Emperor Xiaowen
However, there is still a process of social acceptance for the widespread spread and deep-rooted popularity of Longmen 2. In the early years of Guangxu, Lu Zengxiang's masterpiece of epigraphy, The Correction of Stone Inscriptions in Eight Qiong Rooms, included Twenty-three Sections of Longmen Mountain Statues (Taihe to Jingming) and Ninety-eight Sections of Longmen Mountain Statues (Zhengshi to Yongxi), but the name of "Longmen Twenty Products" was not used. At the same time, Wang Yan's monograph on epigraphy, The Records of Twelve Stone Inscriptions, included Yuan Wei. See also Pan Zhiwan's old collection "Twenty Pieces of Longmen" (developed by Pan Zhiwan's uncle Pan Guanbao when he was an official in Henan at the beginning of Guangxu), which contained Pan Zhiwan's inscription "Yuan Wei stele" in the first month of Guangxu Decade (1884), and did not adopt the name "Twenty Pieces of Longmen". According to the above cases, it can be seen that the spread and social influence of Longmen Twenty Products from Tongzhi to the early years of Guangxu is still extremely limited.
In the 17th year of Guangxu reign (1891), an even bigger "pusher" came, that is, the publication of Kang Youwei's "A Double Boat in Guangyi" immediately became a "best seller" of epigraphy at that time, and it was reprinted 18 times before and after. Kang Youwei promoted the calligraphy of Longmen Twenty Pieces to the height of "Longmen Style", and "Ten Beauties in Wei Bei" and "Respecting Wei and Subordinating Tang Dynasty" began to take root in people's hearts, and the calligraphy of the Northern Wei Dynasty became popular, which directly led to the rapid increase in the spread of Longmen Twenty Pieces, and rubbings entered ordinary people's homes and became the hottest famous products in the collection of rubbings at that time.
The Statue of Zheng Changyou
In fact, the widespread acceptance of Twenty Products of Longmen was not only based on Kang Youwei's call to climb the mountain, but all this was based on the day-and-night extension of Longmen in Guangxu period. The social circulation of Twenty Products was the real reason for its fame, and Kang Youwei was only the last straw. Since then, Luoyang Bei Jia has been able to pack and sell Longmen Sculpture Boutique with confidence, and Twenty Products has become a "business experience" for the sale of steles.
During the Xuantong period, Fang Ruo's Essays on School Monuments came out, which replaced Udayana, which had been mistakenly carved in the Tang Dynasty, and replaced it with Ma Zhen Worship, which was carved in Wei Dynasty, and became a new edition of Longmen Twenty Paintings, which was called "Ma Zhen Worship". In the 24th year of the Republic of China (1935), Han Hede of Gaozhuang Village, Longmen Town, Luoyang smashed the lower half of the Statue of Wei Ling Zang in the middle of the night. In the same year, the villager Ma Fude smashed more than half of the Statue of Xie Boda. Since then, "Ma Zhen worships this book" and "Longmen Twenty Products" have become a set of residual books.
Longmen Twenty Products
Up to now, there are many versions of Longmen Twenty Products, which the author divided into six editions.
1. The twenty products of Longmen, which was spread during the Tongzhi period, is called "the original collection and extension".
2. The rubbings made in the 17th year of Guangxu (1891) before the publication and engraving of Guangyizhou Shuangban were called "Guangxu Early Edition" or "You Fill Wang Early Edition".
3. The rubbings of the Qing Dynasty after the 17th year of Guangxu (1891) are called "Guangxu Late Edition" or "Youbu Wang Late Edition".
4. The rubbings in the early Republic of China were called "Ma Zhen worships this book".
5. The rubbings after the 24th year of the Republic of China (1935) are called "Ma Zhen worships the disabled".
6. In the 197s, Longmen Grottoes spread a number of them, which were called "near rubbings".
In the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, while vigorously spreading the Longmen Boutique, the Complete Works of Longmen Statues were also spread. For example, in the 16th year of Guangxu (189), Changbai Fenger won 1,5 products, in the 24th year of Guangxu (1898), Miao Quansun won 1,145 products, and in the 4th year of the Republic of China (1915), Zeng Bingzhang, a magistrate of Luoyang County, won 17, products. In the 24th year of the Republic of China (1935), Guan Baiyi collected more than 1,2 products, in addition, Beijing Liulichang Fuhua Pavilion collected more than 2, products, and Japanese Mizuno Kiyoshi Yi and Chang Guangmin Deer searched for 2,429 products, etc. It can be seen that the 4-5 years in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China were the heyday of the spread of Longmen Statue.
At that time, among the bookshops in the north and south of the Yangtze River, besides the Four Products of Longmen and the Twenty Products of Longmen, good people also published the Fifty Products of Longmen and the One Hundred and Fifty Products of Longmen, among which the best-selling and most classic one was Twenty Products of Longmen.
The spread of Longmen Twenty Products is an excellent case with certain universality, which subverts the traditional imagination of the prosperity of Ganjia Jinshi. From the analysis of rubbings collected by public institutions at home and abroad, we can see that the peak of the spread of epigraphy appeared after Tongguang, not in the Ganjia period as generally imagined in the past. Epigraphy experienced its enlightenment, recovery and rise to its peak, and it took more than a hundred years to accept it.