East and West asked 丨 Li Jun: How can a Yungang Grotto carry thousands of years of ethnic integration?

Taiyuan, 4 April (ZXS) -- Question: How can a Yungang Grottoes carry the integration of ethnic groups for thousands of years?

——Interview with Professor Li Jun, School of Archaeology and Museum, Shanxi University

China News Agency reporter Hu Jian

Located in the foothills of Wuzhou Mountain, 16 kilometers west of Datong, Shanxi, Yungang Grottoes are one of the largest cave complexes in China, together with the Ayantuo Grottoes in India and the Bamiyan Grottoes in Afghanistan, which is known as the world's three treasures of stone carving art, like a history book carved on the rock of the cliff. As a world cultural heritage, Yungang Grottoes integrates the essence of Xianbei, Han and other ethnic groups and Central Asian culture, and is a splendid treasure of Northern Wei civilization and the crystallization of exchanges and blending of various ethnic groups.

In May 2020, Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee, President of the People's Republic of China, and Chairman of the Central Military Commission, stressed during his inspection tour of the Yungang Grottoes that "it is necessary to deeply explore the historical connotation of exchanges, exchanges and blending of various ethnic groups contained in the Yungang Grottoes and enhance the sense of community of the Chinese nation." "How do the Yungang Grottoes embody ethnic integration? What is the value in the history of ethnic integration? Recently, China News Agency's "East-West Question" exclusively interviewed Li Jun, a professor at the School of Archaeology and Museum of Shanxi University.

The following is a summary of the interview:

China News Agency: As a cave excavated by the royal family, how does the Yungang Grottoes reflect ethnic integration from the perspective of its large and small caves and statues?

Li Jun: "Weishu Shi Laozhi" contains: "The White Emperor of Tanyao, in the capital city of Xiwuzhou, chiseled the mountain stone wall, opened five caves, and built one Buddha statue, 16 feet tall, 20 feet second, carved with qiwei, crowned in the first. "This is a description of the first phase of the Yungang Grottoes, the Five Caves of Tanyao (Caves <>-<>).

The main Buddha statue of Cave 20 is dressed in a right-sided shoulder-covered cassock, which not only shows the artistic characteristics of ancient Indian statues, but also reflects the national spirit of Tuoba Xianbei people's plagiarism and strength, magnanimity and wisdom. The Lord of Cave 17 is equipped with a dragon head ornament on his chest, a flower crown on his head, and an arm chest, vividly reproducing the image of the prince of the Kushan Dynasty. The main Buddha of Cave 16 has a Gandhara art style and a heavy jacket, showing a trend from India and the Western Regions to the Central Plains.

These Buddha statues are carved rough and majestic, reflecting the aesthetic characteristics of the Central Plains tradition and the spiritual outlook of Tuoba Xianbei, and the characteristics of Hu and Han mixing and ethnic integration in the Yungang Grottoes are at a glance.

Yungang Grottoes Cave 16 Standing Buddha Cave. Photo by Wu Junjie

On the walls of the caves in the middle of Yungang, there are both pagodas combined with pagodas and phase wheels, and Handi imitation pavilion-style square pagodas. The east and west sides of the Buddha niches on the north wall of the front room of Cave 10 have a strong Ionic style of ancient Greece. The majesty of ancient Indian architecture, the exquisite femininity of ancient Greek architecture and the magnificence of Han architecture are all concentrated in the caves of Yungang Phase II, and the fusion of diverse cultures is vividly expressed.

With the smooth opening of the Silk Road, music and dance from the Western Regions, Central Asia and West Asia continued to be introduced to Pingcheng (Note: present-day Datong City, Shanxi Province). This pomp and circumstance has been preserved in the form of carvings in the Yungang Grottoes. Yungang Grottoes have 24 cave carvings, music and dance image content, including more than 530 carvings of musical instruments, 28 kinds, and more than 60 groups of bands, including the Central Plains Han-style piano and Xiaosheng and Xianbei Dajiao, as well as Guzi thin waist drums and five strings, as well as West Asian Persian vertical flutes, Tianzhu Fanbai, Hu Feng Han Yun, inclusive.

There are 68 pieces of thin-waisted drums in Yungang Grottoes carvings, and they appear in the Kizil Grottoes in Xinjiang and in the murals of the Northern Liang, Northern Wei, Western Wei and Sui dynasties of the Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang, Gansu. Caves 11 and 13 of the Yungang Grottoes are carved with two images of tambourine, which were introduced to Guzi via the Silk Road and are still traditional musical instruments of Xinjiang Uyghur, Uzbek, Tajik and other ethnic groups. During the Northern Dynasty, the short-necked pipa was introduced to China from Persia, and there are nearly 50 pipa carvings in the Yungang Grottoes. The Persian musical instrument was introduced to China from Central Asia during the Han Dynasty, and its forms in the Yungang Grottoes were more diverse.

Cave 12 of Yungang Grottoes, also known as "Music Cave", is the earliest court symphony orchestra in ancient China, with dozens of figurative figures sculpted on the upper wall of the front hall playing various Chinese and Western musical instruments such as pipa, basket and guqin. Photo by Wu Junjie

The Yungang Grottoes record the music and dance art of the Northern Wei Dynasty with carvings, integrating the traditional music of the north and south of China, the Western Regions and the Central Plains, as well as the musical essence of Central Asia, which is a vivid example of the integration of various ethnic cultures, and provides a unique picture for the study of the music and dance culture of the Northern Dynasty period.

China News Agency: Why are the Yungang Grottoes the crystallization of exchanges and integration among various ethnic groups?

Li Jun: According to the Book of Wei, in the first year of Tianxing (398), "<>,<> civil officials from the six prefectures of Shandong and <>,<> people from He and Goryeo Zayi, and more than <>,<> people with hundreds of tricks and tricks to fill the Jingshi Division", and moved the capital to Pingcheng in July of the same year. From the year of the establishment of Pingcheng as the capital, all the people and property that were forcibly relocated from the various political areas destroyed by the Northern Wei Dynasty, or captured from the northern and southern Champa cities, were mainly concentrated in the vicinity of Pingcheng. The areas forcibly evicted included Liuzhou in Shandong, Chang'an in Guanzhong Province, Liangzhou in Hexi, Helong in the northeast, and Qingqi in the east, which were economically and culturally developed in northern China at that time.

During the Northern Dynasties, the scope and degree of ethnic integration were unprecedented, and the southern Xiongnu, Qiang, Qiang, Xianbei and other tribes were largely integrated into the big family of the Chinese nation and became part of the Han nation. Chen Yinke, a modern Chinese historian, believes that "in the Northern Dynasty era, culture was more important than bloodline, and all people who were sinicized were known as Han people, and those who were Huhua were known as Hu people, regardless of their bloodline."

The most famous cave 20 of the Yungang Grottoes. Photo by Wu Junjie

In the context of this national integration, the Northern Wei royal family took the first step in the reform of Sinicization during the period when the capital was Pingcheng. When Emperor Daowu built the capital Pingcheng, "when he first established Taiwan Province, he placed hundreds of officials, and paid homage to the princes, generals, assassins, and taishou, and Shang Shulang had already used literati." Emperor Chu expanded the Central Plains, paid attention to comfort, all the masters and doctors and the military disciples, all of them introduced the gifts, kept the questions and thoughts, people had to commit suicide, they had slight abilities, and they were salty and useful." In the period of Emperor Taiwu, he built the capital according to the Han style, built palaces, reformed the official system, placed the three dukes, dazai, shangshuling, servants, and attendants, and discussed state affairs with the prince.

After the Northern Wei Dynasty established its capital as the capital Pingcheng, there were frequent exchanges with the countries of the Western Regions where Buddhism was prevalent, and there is a description of this grand scene in the "History of the Western Regions": "In Taiyanzhong, Wei Deyi heard from afar, and the kings of the Western Regions, Shuzi, Shule, Wusun, and Yue, and the kings of the Western Regions, Qi, Shanshan, Yanqi, Che Shi, and Sogdian sent envoys to offer... Since then, they have come one after another, not only in years, and dozens of generations of national envoys. ”

On the east side of Cave 8 of the Yungang Grottoes, Maha Shuluo Tian. Photo courtesy of Yungang Research Institute

These official contacts not only brought advanced Buddhist ideas and statue templates to the Northern Wei Dynasty, but also made the Pingcheng area the starting point of the Northern Dynasty Silk Road. The large number of laborers and great wealth gathered here were concentrated by the Northern Wei royal family, which combined Eastern and Western techniques, and produced a large number of large-scale buildings in and around Pingcheng. In this context, the Yungang Grottoes, which combine the essence of Xianbei, Han and Central Asian cultures, came into being.

China News Agency: Why are the Yungang Grottoes a history book carved in stone? What is the value of its multicultural blend in Chinese culture?

Li Jun: During the Northern Dynasties, the Xianbei people went south to establish the capital Pingcheng and implemented the Sinicization reform, which accelerated the historical process of integrating the northern ethnic groups with the Chinese nation. Datong City, where the Yungang Grottoes are located, was known as Yunzhong and Pingcheng in ancient times, and is one of the nine ancient capitals of China. This area is located in the intersection of cold livestock land and warm agricultural area, and since ancient times, it has been a tug-of-war between agricultural civilization and nomadic civilization, the border defense of the dynasty established by the Han people in the Central Plains and the pass for the northern nomads to go south to the Central Plains, and it is also the transition and link of ethnic exchanges and integration.

On the east side of Cave 8 of the Yungang Grottoes, Maha Shuluo Tian. Photo courtesy of Yungang Research Institute

The Weishu Shilaozhi said: "Since Liangzhou was opened, the world has believed in Buddhism. Dunhuang is bordered by the Western Regions, and the Taoism and customs are in the old style, and the villages and docks belong to each other, and there are many pagodas and temples. Taiyanzhong, Liangzhou Ping, and his countrymen in Jingyi, Shamen Buddhism is all eastern, and Xiangjiao is increasing. "The city of Pingcheng in Northern Wei was the political, economic and cultural center of Northern China at that time, and during this period, the Western Regions, the monks of Liangzhou, and the Han dynasty all gathered here.

After Emperor Wencheng restored the law, he ordered the monk Tanxi to go to Mount Xiwuzhou in Pingcheng, chiseling the stone walls of the mountain and opening five caves. Tangyao was originally a Zen monk from Liangzhou, and studied under the Tianzhu monk, so the Yungang Grottoes have been the result of a multicultural convergence since the time of excavation.

The south wall of the back room of Cave 7 of Yungang Grottoes is a patron. Photo courtesy of Yungang Research Institute

As a meeting place of diverse cultures, Yungang Grottoes have a variety of statue themes, including Dharma Protector Gods, Lotte Tricks, Offerings and Buddha Journeys, Bunsen, Karma and Vimalaya stories, etc., and vividly reproduce the spectacular scene of "merchants and hawkers, Japanese money under the stuffing" contained in the "Book of the Later Han and the Western Regions" on the walls of the caves. Merchants from the Western Regions and even Central Asia who came through the Silk Road were an important part of the cultural exchanges and interactions between the Central Plains and the Western Regions and the East and the West at that time. Their figures appear from time to time in the Yungang Grottoes, such as Caves 6, 12 and 16, and merchants from Central Asia and the Western Regions have made cameo appearances in the stories of Buddha's journey as Hu merchants, which is a true reproduction of the cultural exchanges between the northern regions of the Central Plains and the Western Regions at that time.

Yungang Grottoes is an artistic treasure house produced under the historical background of the opening and integration of Northern Wei and mutual learning between civilizations, like a history book engraved on stone, exuding a brilliant and magnificent light, vividly recording the sinicization of the Xianbei people and the process of national integration of the Northern Dynasty with images, providing first-hand materials for future generations to study the national integration of the Northern Dynasty. These Buddhist statues also spread to Japan and Korea by sea, and the Yungang Grottoes are known as the "mother womb of East Asian Buddhist art". (End)

Respondent Profile:

Li Jun, male, born in December 1966. He graduated from the Department of Archaeology of Jilin University in 12, and has been a professor, doctoral supervisor, leader of archaeology discipline, director of the Chinese Archaeological Society, and a high-end leading talent of "Three Jin Talents" in Shanxi Province since 1989.

His research direction is prehistoric archaeology and cultural heritage protection theory and practice, and he has the qualification of individual leader of archaeological excavation of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, and presides over a number of archaeological excavation research and cultural relics protection projects. He presided over the excavation of Maquan Gou, Yujiagou and a series of sites, Nanzhuangtou Site, Jiangjialiang Cemetery in Nihewan Basin, among which Yujiagou Site and Jiangjialiang Cemetery were rated as the top ten archaeological new discoveries in China in 1998. In recent years, basic investigation and excavation work has been carried out around Datong and Shuozhou areas of Shanxi Province, and the concept of "Danihe Bay" has been proposed.

He has published several research results, including "Nihewan Paleolithic Culture" (co-author, Huashan Literature and Art Publishing House, 2006), "Report on the Excavation of the Luquan Tomb of Shijiazhuang Yuanshi (co-author, Science Press, 2014), "Excavation of Neolithic Sites in Jiangjialiang, Yangyuan County, Hebei" (Archaeology, 2001), "1997 Excavation Report of Zhuangtou Site in Xushuinan, Hebei" (Journal of Archaeology, 2010), "Paleolithic Sites and Paleohuman Activity Information" ( Nihewan Rift Valley and Paleoanthropology", Geological Publishing House, 2011), "Early Millet Utilization in Northern China" (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), 2012), "Research on the Image Content and Combined Characteristics of Caves 2020 and <> of Yungang Grottoes" (Frontier Archaeological Research, <>), etc.