Cliff stone carvings originated in ancient times, as a way to remember things, and prevailed in the Northern Dynasties, with rich historical connotation and historical value. Cliff stone carvings can be divided into broad sense and narrow sense. Cliff stone carving in a broad sense refers to everything that people carve on natural stone walls, including all kinds of written stone carvings, stone carvings and rock paintings. Cliff stone carving in a narrow sense refers to the literal stone carving, that is, using natural stone walls to carve notes.
In ancient times, stone carvings and colored stones were used to draw ideal pictures. Later, it was more convenient to carve with gold. The custom of carving stones with Buddhist scriptures prevailed in the Northern Dynasties, which lasted until the Sui, Tang, Song and Yuan Dynasties.
During the Northern Dynasties, Buddhism experienced three extinction events. Buddhist monks and laymen are deeply worried about this: "I think there are some disadvantages in this, and a simple strategy will not last long." Gold books are hard to find, and leather paper is easy to destroy. " The "Shi Fu" engraved on Jianshan Mountain in Zoucheng also has the words "Bamboo is easy to sell, stone is difficult to destroy, and it will last forever with the help of mountains", hoping to engrave Buddhist scriptures on cliffs and boulders to make Buddhism immortal.
It is in this historical background that the cliff stone carvings in the Northern Dynasties came into being. It pursues the integration of the scriptures on the mountains and rivers with the whole environment, and also with the human mind to create a living natural whole. The incident of destroying Buddha made calligraphy art rush out of the elegant hall and go to nature, which made calligraphy art blend with other arts and promoted the development and perfection of cliff art more widely.