[Explanation] Xiangtangshan Grottoes is located in the branch of Taihang Mountain, Fengfeng Mining Area, Handan City, Hebei Province.

It was excavated during the Northern Qi period, more than 1,400 years ago.

54-year-old Zhao Lichun is the curator of the Xiangtangshan Grottoes Art Museum. For more than 30 years, he has been committed to the conservation research and cultural excavation of the Xiangtangshan Grottoes. Many people in academia call him "Zhao Xiangtang".

　　[Explanation] According to Zhao Lichun, he came to work in the cultural relics depository of Fengfeng mining area in 1985.

In 1988, he participated in the grotto archeology research class jointly organized by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage and the Department of Archaeology of Peking University. Since then, he has become interested in the research and protection of grotto art.

　　[Concurrent period] Zhao Lichun, curator of Xiangtangshan Grotto Art Museum, Fengfeng Mining Area, Handan City, Hebei Province

　　Then it happened to be through this study that I learned that the seemingly dilapidated cave temples with little arms and heads around us are actually so important in the history of China’s cultural development. It was once in ancient Chinese history. Created a peak.

After a short study, (I) gradually began to realize that the (Xiangtangshan) grotto I was guarding was actually a treasure.

　　[Explanation] According to Zhao Lichun, there are 16 existing grottoes in Xiangtangshan Grottoes, with more than 450 niches of cliff statues, more than 5,000 statues of various sizes, and a large number of engraved scriptures and inscriptions.

When he began to conduct cultural research on the Xiangtangshan Grottoes in 1988, there was no local information to check, which caused him considerable difficulties.

　　[Concurrent period] Zhao Lichun, curator of Xiangtangshan Grotto Art Museum, Fengfeng Mining Area, Handan City, Hebei Province

　　When I started doing this research in the 1980s, this place was a county-level cultural management office at that time. It was not a research institution. This was the biggest problem.

It is not an academic institution in itself.

When you are going to engage in these studies, you have no information.

So later I bought books in large quantities, and now there are more than 30,000 books, most of which were bought during that period.

　　[Explanation] Zhao Lichun said that over the past 30 years, he and his colleagues have completed the complete dating and numbering of the Xiangtangshan Grottoes, and have also written many articles on the style of sculpture and the inscriptions of the caves.

With their efforts, these precious historical relics have attracted more and more attention from academia.

　　[Concurrent period] Zhao Lichun, curator of Xiangtangshan Grotto Art Museum, Fengfeng Mining Area, Handan City, Hebei Province

　　The specialty we are engaged in is called Cave Temple Archaeology, which is a category of archaeology.

In fact, the greatest interest of archaeology is discovery.

In 2012, there was a heavy rain and the rain washed away. On the wall of the Nanxiangtang Temple, three Buddha heads were found after the wall peeling off. This thing is a very magical thing. How many years have we been here? , Do you think there is still a Buddha's head in the wall?

So this thing (Archaeology of Cave Temple) is very wonderful.

　　[Explanation] In Zhao Lichun's view, the Xiangtangshan Grottoes have gone through thousands of years of vicissitudes, especially the devastating robberies during the Republic of China, which caused serious damage, and a large number of statues and carved scriptures were lost overseas.

How to make cultural relics "live" under protection and let more people understand the art of Xiangtangshan Grottoes is the responsibility of the guardians of the grottoes.

In 2018, Zhao Lichun began to seek cooperation with universities to establish the Xiangtangshan Grottoes Digital Exhibition Center, hoping to use digital scanning technology to create digital files for each cave and Buddha statue, and use technology to restore them virtually.

　　[Concurrent period] Zhao Lichun, curator of Xiangtangshan Grotto Art Museum, Fengfeng Mining Area, Handan City, Hebei Province

　　A cooperation project between us and the University of Chicago is the University of Chicago. It is responsible for providing the data of these Buddha statues from abroad and lost overseas. We (responsible for providing) the collected data of Xiangtangshan, and then (let) these two data Recombination, using digital cultural relics return technology, so that in a virtual space, we return the cultural relics that have been lost overseas, so that the audience can see another (Xiangtangshan Grottoes) real presentation in such a virtual space.

　　Chen Shiyu, Li Dong, Yin Weiwei, reporting from Handan, Hebei

Editor in charge: [Ji Xiang]