Photo by Niu Chenyang of Tianlong Mountain.
1. Many places in the world are famous because of one person.
Tianlong Mountain, located 36 kilometers southwest of today's Taiyuan City, is also like this, and its fame is due to a man named Gao Huan.
Gao Huan was a native of Bohai during the Northern and Southern Dynasties. Gao Huan grew up in the troubled times, and mastered an army in the troubled times, he took his army into Luoyang, abolished the Northern Wei Emperor Yuanlang at that time, and set up Yuan Yu as the emperor, known as Emperor Xiaowu in history. Then let Yuan Xuan crown himself as the prime minister and the general of Tianzhu, and the political power of the Northern Wei Dynasty fell into the hands of Gao Huan. After that, he built the Jinyang Palace and the Great Prime Minister's Mansion in the city of Jinyang that year, settled in Jinyang and controlled the Northern Wei regime. A few years later, because of the palace fight, he abolished Emperor Yuanxuan and named the 11-year-old Yuan Shanjian as the emperor, that is, Emperor Xiaojing, known as the Eastern Wei Dynasty in history. I guess it was during this period that Gao Huan fell in love with Tianlong Mountain.
The ruins of the Gaohuan Summer Palace.
He took a fancy to Tianlong Mountain, first of all, because Tianlong Mountain is particularly cool in summer and is a summer resort. Tianlong Mountain is a branch vein of Luliang Mountain Range, the altitude is more than 1700 meters, the mountain is high and densely wooded, the mountain wind is strong, it is difficult to stop here in the summer heat. I estimated that it was at noon on a summer day, and I couldn't stand the heat in Jinyang City, so I asked my subordinates to inquire where it was cool, and soon someone reported: Tianlong Mountain. So, Gao Huan ordered a summer palace to be built in Tianlong Mountain as a resting place for the long summer. Wang Tingyun, a poet of the Jin Dynasty, knew about the beauty of Gao Huan's summer palace, and once wrote a poem: "The jade dragon hangs in the west of the mirror platform, and the snow dances in the wind for half a day." The cold clouds went up to 3,000 feet, and the humane Gao Huan Summer Palace. The Qing Dynasty poet Zhu Yizun also wrote based on people's legends about Gao Huan's summer palace: "People say that back then, the palace was built to the cloud roots, and the smoke was thick. According to the inscription of Tianlong Temple, Gao Huan's summer palace is like Qin's house and Han's Weiyang. We can imagine Gao Huan's comfort in the summer palace back then: while issuing orders to the young Emperor Xiaojing of the Eastern Wei Dynasty about the personnel changes in the court and the relevant economic and military affairs, while hugging the beauties to watch the graceful dancing of the dancers, the comfort must be indescribable.
People who stand at the pinnacle of power usually have a desire in their hearts, that is, they want to keep their position and never lose it. Of course, Gao Huan is like this, he must hope that his good life can continue forever, so he thought of the Buddha, hoping to be blessed by the Buddha. It is likely that because of this consideration, he then began to follow the practice of other places, digging grottoes and carving Buddha statues on the mountainside on the southern slope of the eastern peak of Tianlong Mountain, in order to express his devotion to the Buddha. He hired highly skilled cave craftsmen to create the two caves that are now the second and third caves of the East Peak. I guess that after these two grottoes were dug up, he held a grand ceremony to worship the Buddha, and many ** and attendants in Jinyang Palace participated in this ceremony. One of the rituals must be that Gao Huan reverently knelt in front of the grotto, praying for the Buddha to bless him with all the best, glory and eternal office. Later, his son Gao Yang followed his father's example and excavated three more caves, namely the 1st cave of today's East Peak and the 10th and 16th caves of the West Peak. As soon as this wind opened, the descendants followed suit, and between the Northern Qi and the Sui, someone dug the 11th cave of the East Peak. When Emperor Yang of Sui was the king of Jin, he dug the 8th cave of the east peak. In the Tang Dynasty, 18 caves were dug at once. In this way, after spanning four dynasties for more than 400 years, 25 grottoes were dug in the mountainside of the east and west peaks of Tianlong Mountain, and there were more than 500 statues, 1,144 statues (pieces) of Buddha carvings, caisson wells and portraits.
The standing statue of Kannon in Cave 9.
Gao Huan never expected that the act of digging caves and carving Buddha statues started by him would leave a valuable cultural heritage for future generations. These grottoes in Tianlong Mountain are famous all over the world for their skillful carving techniques, profound Buddhist contents, distinctive characteristics of the times and rich life atmosphere. Today, the 9th cave we see is a rare grotto boutique in the late Tang Dynasty. There is a 755 centimeter high Maitreya sitting statue on the peak, the posture is dignified, the clothing pattern treatment is combined with the virtual and the real, and the gathering and dispersion are reasonable, so that the solemn Buddha statue adds a lively atmosphere;The lower part is the 500 centimeter-high eleven-faced Guanyin as the main figure, Manjushri and Puxian Bodhisattva as the three major statues of the servants, which are handled in a male and female way, skillfully showing the sculpture skills interspersed between the flesh, the gauze and the ornamentsThe back wall is backed by light reliefs of sitting Maitreya, sitting Buddha and many Buddha sitting on lotus seats. A number of niche caves are attached between the cliffs, wide and fierce are combined, complex and simple are combined, and the meaning is quite profound.
Gao Huan has been engaged in politics and military all his life, but he has inadvertently participated in cultural creation, this is the wonder of the world!The initial intention of people to do things is not consistent with the effect produced after the success of the work, which is a common kind of world and state of the world. No matter what the history books say about Gao Huan, we must affirm that Gao Huan is famous in Tianlong Mountain!
2. The fastest way to destroy an ancestral business is to cooperate with the outside world. It takes at least two people: a thief on the outside and a loser on the inside.
The destruction of the cultural heritage of the world-famous Tianryushan Grottoes is because of the appearance of two people: one is a foreign thief, the Japanese Yamanaka Dingjiro;One is the son of a ruined family, the abbot of Tianlong Temple (Shengshou Temple) Jingliang monk.
The Tianlong Mountain Grottoes have been prosperous for more than 400 years, but since the Song Dynasty, because this area is ruled by the northern minority regime, it has begun to decline from prosperity. In the Yuan Dynasty, no one cared about it. But the ancestral business that has been handed down is still there.
In the early 20s of the 20th century, these Buddha statues sitting in the grotto were still silently watching the changes in the world.
Until 1918.
In this year, Sekino Zhen, a professor of archaeology at Kansai University in Japan, came to North China to conduct an academic investigation on Buddhism. Unprepared, he saw the grottoes that had been lonely for many years, and the soft lines, varied styles, and exquisite carvings of the statues in the caves surprised and delighted. He hurriedly recorded this treasure trove with his camera and included it in the third issue of his "Historical Sites of Buddhism in China". In 1921, after his archaeological report was published in the Japanese magazine "Guohua", it immediately attracted the attention of scholars, and for a time, the Tianlongshan Grottoes once again attracted people's attention.
While the artistic value of this grotto is being hotly debated by scholars, an unscrupulous antique dealer also begins to open his eyes, and he smells the scent of his prey with the sensitive nostrils of a merchant. He was the president of the Yamanaka Chamber of Commerce in Japan at the time, and the Chinese antique dealer Yamanaka Jojiro. In the first half of the 20th century, he was the world's largest dealer of Chinese antiques.
In the 20s of the 20th century, China was still in the midst of war, and most of the Chinese who suffered many disasters were worried about their own food and clothing, and had no time to care about the safety of the statues in the Tianlongshan Grottoes. Fortunately, these grottoes are cared for by the monks in Tenryuji (Shengshou Temple), and the Buddha statues in the grottoes are cared for and offered by the monks, which is their duty.
Yamanaka Dingjiro, who made his fortune by reselling Chinese antiques, could not let go of this opportunity to make a fortune after learning that there were exquisite stone Buddha statues in the Tianlongshan Grottoes?He quickly made some preparations, and then in 1922 (1923) he set off from Japan to Shanxi, China, and accurately found Tianlong Mountain and found Shengshou Temple on Tianlong Mountain.
The first time he came, he was here to inspect the stepping spot and make plans for the theft. I guess that before entering Shengshou Temple, he would hire guides and assistants to inspect the grottoes in advance, and only after knowing in his heart did he enter the temple, and then met with the monk Jingliang, the abbot of the temple at that time, and said that he loved the Tianlongshan Grottoes, and established a connection with Jingliang, and also saw that Jingliang's ordination was not for faith but for livelihood, and concluded that he was a figure who could be bought. At this time, he had not yet revealed his thief face.
In 1924, Yamanaka Dingjiro came to Tenryu Mountain again, and the exact time of his second meeting with Monk Jingliang is quite difficult to determine. Judging from the records of the relevant materials and the clothes on the **, it should be a spring.
Given that a lot of the dirty things happened at night, I also concluded that their second meeting took place on a spring night.
This spring night was originally an ordinary night on Tianlong Mountain. The evening breeze is caressing the treetops in the mountains;Standing on the top of the mountain, you can only see a few lights in Taiyuan City;It was very quiet, and the occasional frightened night bird made a chirp, which was quickly absorbed by the dense mountain forest. The Buddhas carved in the 25 niches on the stone walls of the east and west peaks of Tianlong Mountain are quietly looking down at Tianlong Mountain, looking down at the villages under the mountain, looking down at Shengshou Temple, and also looking down at the mountain Dingjiro and Jingliang monks to meet each other.
The beginning of this meeting must have been a warm pleasantry. Yamanaka Jojiro made a fortune by selling Chinese antiques, and naturally spoke Chinese. He said that it was a blessing for him to be able to come to Tianlong Mountain again to see the statues of the Buddha caves, and it was an honor to see the abbot again, hoping to get more guidance from the monks in terms of Buddhist knowledge. Jingliang said that you are welcome to visit again, and if there is anything you need to help the poor monk do, please feel free to bring it up. Then, with a wave of his hand, Yamanaka asked his assistants to carry the usual gifts he had brought, most likely bags of white flour and rice, large bottles of sesame oil, bundles of cloth for robes, and boxes of candles, which were commonly needed in the temple. Monk Jingliang was a little moved to clasp his palms and salute and said: Let the donor break the fee, thank you, thank you ......
The abbot of Jingliang is not polite, in that time when current affairs were chaotic and pilgrims were scarce, these gifts were indeed a large gift to Tianlong Temple.
After that, Yamanaka Dingjiro and Jingliang sat down in the guest hall and drank a few sips of tea from the little monks. Jingliang and this Japanese really have nothing to say, so they said: I want the donor to come to Tianlong Mountain from Japan, the road is far away, it must be very tiring, there are a few monks' rooms in our temple, I will let them take you and the entourage to rest, how about it?
Yamanaka Jojiro smiled and said in a low voice: I still have a few words I want to say to the abbot alone.
Jingliang waved his hand to let the little monk who was waiting for them out, and Yamanaka Dingjiro also waved his hand to let his entourage go out.
When there were only two people left in the house, Yamanaka Dingjiro pulled over a leather case that he had been carrying, opened the lid of the box, revealing the 20 gold bars and 500 oceans in the box, and then pushed the box towards Jingliang's side.
You're - Jingliang exclaimed softly. He had never seen so much money since he became a monk.
It's all yours!Yamanaka Dingjiro looked at Dingjing Liang and said. He saw the joyful and greedy glint in the other man's eyes, and he knew that his plan could succeed.
This, this, is there anything the donor needs my help with?Jingliang can be the abbot in the temple, and he is naturally not stupid, he knows that the other party must have something to do with him.
It's not a big deal, I just want to ask the abbot to allow me to chisel some Buddha statues in the grottoes, and take them outside to let the world see the beauty of the stone Buddha statues in Tianlong Mountain, and promote Tianlong Mountain.
How can this be?Out of the instinct of the abbot of the Buddhist monastery, he hurriedly waved his hand and refused.
These Buddha statues hidden in the caves deep in the mountains, few people come to see them, and they are not helpful in changing your life situation, even if some are chiseled, no one knows, why should you care?And these gold bars and the ocean, you can quickly enjoy the glory and wealth of the world, why not?As he spoke, he pointed to the contents of the box.
Jingliang looked at the gold bars and the ocean in the box again, and there was hesitation in his eyes.
Yamanaka Jitaro took out 20 gold bars and 500 oceans from a bag he had brought with him and put them in the box.
Jingliang sighed. It's clearly heartbeat.
Of course, if you really care about those useless stone carvings, I won't embarrass you. After speaking, he pulled the box containing 40 gold bars and 1,000 oceans towards him.
Wait, Jing Liang raised his hand to stop it, he really liked the contents of the box. He quickly convinced himself in his heart that those stone carvings had been sitting or standing for so many years, and who else cared except himself and the monks in the monastery?What's the big deal about chiseling some out?I only heard him say in a low voice: You have to be secretive, don't make a big show, chisel it and pull it away, I will pretend not to see ......
Yamanaka Dingjiro stood up with a satisfied smile and said, "You can rest assured ...... this."
These conversations and scenes were all imagined by me, because there was no written record of this meeting, and future generations can only imagine it.
Yamanaka Jojiro poses for a photo with Monk Joryo (in the center).
Fortunately, they left a few **. From these **, it can be seen that Yamanaka Dingjiro and Jingliang are very satisfied.
After this meeting, the large-scale looting of the Tianlong Mountain Grottoes began.
The scene of the theft. Dingjiro and his team of robbers embarked on a frenzied raid: smaller Buddha statues were chiseled down and taken away. The big Buddha statue chiseled down and pulled away. In the Buddha caves they passed, the big Buddha had no head, and the small Buddha statue disappeared completely.
It was later found out that Yamanaka Dingjiro had taken 45 Buddha heads from Tenryu Mountain alone. There are more than 200 statues excavated in the entire Tianlong Mountain Grottoes, of which more than 150 have entered the market and become private collections.
The precious cultural heritage of Tianlong Mountain Grottoes can no longer be completely presented in the eyes of future generations.
A Japanese thief who thought he had a plan and a ruined son of a Buddhist monastery were also nailed to the pillar of shame in history forever!
If you do evil things, how can you not get retribution?How could the heavens have spared the great thief?After World War II, the Japanese Yamanaka Chamber of Commerce, which made its fortune by absorbing the blood of the Buddha, was auctioned off 80% of its assets by the Americans 23 times, and then collapsed!
3. The revival and re-attention of a heritage site often requires the efforts of a group of people.
In the 21st century, the Tianlong Mountain Grottoes will meet the world with a new look and win the attention of a large number of tourists, which is also realized with the joint efforts of many people.
First of all, the staff of the cultural relics department carried out meticulous scientific and technological protection of the grottoes. In cooperation with the Yungang Grottoes Research Institute, the Tianlongshan Cultural Relics Depository has carried out a one-year disease investigation and countermeasure research work, and has carried out targeted treatment of diseases such as wind erosion, freeze-thawing, spalling and phthalate.
Secondly, the staff of the environmental protection department carried out a protective restoration of the overall environment of Tianlong Mountain. Remediation of quarries, planting of trees, filling of pits. Let Tianlong Mountain become pine and cypress again, full of greenery, and the streams and springs are singing, so that the Buddhas in the grotto have an external environment to sit in the cave and watch the world.
Tianlong Mountain Tourist Highway.
Then the staff of the cultural and tourism department and the municipal department repaired the staircase road and winding mountain road for going up the mountain to view the Buddha and worship the Buddha. Panshan Road is a three-storey elevated highway with a height of more than 30 meters, like a giant dragon circling in the mountain, the car drives on the three-layer design of the roundabout elevated, as if playing a roller coaster, which is unique in the country and can be called a miracle.
The most important thing is that the Tianlong Mountain Cultural Protection Institute began to ** the grotto cultural relics that were looted that year, and slowly restored the prosperity of the grottoes.
In that year, the looting of the Tianlongshan Grottoes was started by the Japanese, and the ** of the cultural relics of Tianlongshan also began from Japan.
The head of the Buddha who returned.
On September 14, 2020, an auction house in Tokyo, Japan, released the information of the lots to be auctioned in accordance with the auction procedures. The result of the supervision is that the Buddha head does originate from Cave 8 in the Tianlong Mountain Grottoes, and is the head of the main Buddha statue of the Buddha shrine on the north wall of Cave 8. This Buddha head with slightly closed eyes, lowered eyes and a smile on his face belongs to the first-class cultural relics. As soon as it was confirmed, the antiquities department immediately called off the auction and began a recall operation. In the end, the Buddha head returned to China without any problems. On the night of Chinese New Year's Eve on the evening of February 11, 2021, the main Buddha head on the north wall of Cave 8 of Tianlongshan Grottoes, which had been lost overseas for nearly a century, was unveiled at the Spring Festival Gala as the 100th lost cultural relic returned in 2020. That night, sitting in front of the TV, I looked at the Buddha head who had returned to China with difficulty, and I had mixed feelings, and I couldn't help but sigh in my heart: You have suffered!
Collect data and restore it digitally.
Since 2014, the Tianlongshan Cultural Preservation Institute has cooperated with domestic and foreign academic institutions to collect more than 90 three-dimensional data of the lost statues of Tianlongshan in more than 30 museums in 10 countries, including the Metropolitan Museum in New York, the British Museum and the Tokyo National Museum, and realized the professional digital restoration of 11 major caves.
In the summer of 2023, when I came to the Tianlong Mountain Grottoes, I couldn't help but wonder, is the scene of the looting of the Tianlong Mountain Grottoes to be preserved forever?Can it be like this: choose two destroyed grottoes to remain as they are, so that future generations can know the consequences of the country's weakness and poverty?For the rest of the grottoes, digital restoration and reproduction technology was used to fully restore the damaged statues. After the restoration, write the restored place of each grotto and hang it in front of the cave. In this way, the whole Tianlong Mountain Grottoes will reappear in front of the world with a new look, let people see the glory of the grottoes, let the world share the beauty of the carving art of the predecessors in the process of viewing, to feel the sincerity of the faith of the predecessors, to guess the mentality and life of the ancestors, and to be proud of the long history of creation of our nation.
I don't know if my idea will be adopted
I pray to hear the good news!
Zhou Daxin, a famous writer, is the winner of the Mao Dun Literary Award, the Lao She Prose Award, the Feng Mu Literary Award, and the Nanding Literary Award. ）