History of Moguang Statue in Beishan

Dazu County was founded in 758 AD (the first year of Tang Dynasty) and belongs to Changzhou. In 885 (the first year of Tang Guangqi), Changzhou was moved from Jingnan County to Dazu. By A.D. 1279 (the last year of the Southern Song Dynasty), Dazu was the county of Changzhou. The "Five Mountains" cliff statue in Dazu stone carving was built nearly 400 years ago. Among the existing Dazu stone carvings, the earliest one is the Cliff Statue of Jianshanzi, which was carved in 650 AD (the first year of Yonghui in the early Tang Dynasty), and only one Cliff Statue of Shui Sheng Temple was newly carved in the next 200 years. These two statues in the middle and early Tang Dynasty always have only 20 niches. It was not until 885 AD that Changzhou moved to Dazu, and the cliff statues gradually flourished.

In 892 AD (the first year of Tang Jingfu), under the command of Chongchang, Pupu, Chongqing and Hehe, Changzhou secretariat ordered Weijun Jing, a Confederate army, to build Yongchang Village in the county town of Beilonggangshan (now Beishan), and at the same time to carve Buddha statues in Beishan. Since then, state and county officials, local gentry, ordinary people and monks and nuns have followed suit, until 907-965 (Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. Sichuan is a country of Shu, which is called pre-Shu and post-Shu in history. The continuous construction of Buddha statues has formed the first sculpture climax in the history of Dazu stone carving.

During 965- 1077 (from Gande to Xining in the Northern Song Dynasty), the cliff statues stagnated, and so far, no chronological statues have been found in the county. At this time, stone carvings and round carvings rose in the temple. Today, there are relics to be found or items to be collected, and there is Dazhong Temple in the east of the county. There is Shibi Temple in the west of the county seat and Yan 'en Temple in the north of the county seat. By the 1980s, there were more than 100 Buddhist round carvings unearthed in Dazhong Temple alone.

A.D. 1078- 1 173 (Shaoxing and its main road from Yuanfeng in the late Northern Song Dynasty to Shaoxing in the early Southern Song Dynasty), Dazu stone carving reached its second climax. Since AD 1082 (the fifth year of Yuanfeng in the Northern Song Dynasty), the owner of the manor began to dig the "Three Religions" statue area in Shi Zhuan Mountain, and the cliff statues in the county came in droves, and 32 Buddhist, Taoist and "Three Religions" statue areas were dug up successively. Nanshan, Shimen Mountain Statue Area and Beishan Pagoda are all built here. The Beishan Sculpture Area, which began in 892 AD, lasted more than 250 years and was completed in 1 146 AD (the 16th year of Shaoxing in Southern Song Dynasty).

During the 70-odd years of 1 174- 1252 (from Xichun to Chunyou in the Southern Song Dynasty), Zhao Zhifeng, a monk of Dazu, claimed to be "the sixth ancestor, preached in Baodingshan and followed the tantric school founded by Liu Ben in western Sichuan in the late Tang Dynasty. He lived in poverty for more than 70 years with the aim of promoting Buddhism. Nearly 10,000 Buddha statues have been excavated in all directions, and the only large-scale grotto Dojo in the history of China tantric school has been built, which has brought Dazu stone carving to its peak. During this period, statues in other parts of the county basically stagnated. Under the seat of Zhao Zhifeng, the stone carving masters gathered in Baoding Mountain to perform. Baodingshan became the center of Chengdu Yoga School, a tantric school in China.

During the 360 years from 892- 1252 (Jingfu in the late Tang Dynasty to Chunyou in the Southern Song Dynasty), Dazu successively built 34 carving areas of Buddhism, Taoism and "Three Religions", accounting for about 80% of the total number of Dazu stone carvings. Except for the Cliff Statue in Beishan, which was carved in 892 (the first year of Jingfu in the late Tang Dynasty), the rest were built in 1082- 1252 (Yuanfeng in the Northern Song Dynasty to Chunyou in the Southern Song Dynasty) 170 years.

At the end of A.D. 13 (the last year of Southern Song Dynasty), the stone carving was interrupted by war. By the end of 15 (Yongle period of Ming dynasty), the cliff statue was shamefully resurrected and continued until the end of Qing dynasty. During the 500 years from the beginning of15th century to the end of19th century (Ming and Qing dynasties), there were 39 cliff statues, most of which were small-scale sculpture areas, and the number of statues was less than 20% of the total number of Dazu stone carvings today.

At the end of 13 and the middle of 17, Dazu suffered military capital twice. In the "Wuyue" Cliff Statue, except Shengshou Temple in Baoding Mountain was burned down twice and rebuilt twice, the Cliff Statue has been preserved to this day.

After the completion of the "Wushan" cliff statue, in addition to secular decoration and cultivation, until the end of 19 and the beginning of this century, local talents added several small niches such as Guanyin, Mountain God and Tianmu beside the statue area. At present, the scale and style of statues in the Tang and Song Dynasties have been basically maintained. Since the establishment of 1949 People's Republic of China (PRC), it has been properly protected and opened to the public.

The form and date of the latest record

1949 since the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC), the archival arrangement of "Wuyue" statues has been gradually improved. From 1993 to 1996, Chongqing Dazu Stone Carving Art Museum systematically investigated 75 cliff statues such as "Wuyue" by means of measurement, writing, photography and rubbings, and obtained complete records.

D. Status of protection

There are more than 20,000 cliff statues in Beishan, Baoding, Nanshan, Shi Zhuan, Shimen and other places, which have not been seriously damaged by man-made and natural disasters in history. So far, most of them are well preserved, and some of them look like new sculptures. Except for some caves that collapsed in earlier years, some statues were eroded by wind and rain, some limbs were partially damaged and details were eroded, which is the best among the grottoes in China.