Bath breeze | Big Buddha Bay Stone Carvings

In a mountain depression, a half-moon shaped bay of bright water, surrounded by green trees that "whizz", when the sun is red, the light blue smoke "grunts, grunts" upwards, like a dragon like a phoenix, wandering in mid-air, suddenly facing up, suddenly facing down. The moment of facing upwards meets the white clouds, and the petals spread out everywhere; the downward softness merges into the slightly faint chime sound, which is the Dafowan Grottoes of Baoding Mountain in Dazu County.

The Dafowan Stone Carving was originally built during the Chunxi period of the Southern Song Dynasty, and was excavated by a senior monk named Zhao Zhifeng who lobbied good men and women to believe in women, and took more than 70 years to excavate. It was lost in the lofty mountains of Bashu, and it was only in modern times that it attracted the world's attention, when the first to recommend the Baodingshan Giant Reclining Buddha, which is equally famous as the Leshan Giant Buddha. The reclining Buddha was lying on the waist of the East Mountain, the upper body was about thirty meters long, and the face was six meters long, and this was only the part above the knee, and the part below the knee was hidden, and it disappeared into the mountain. Just like when we look at the master's Danqing, we have an epiphany of the feeling that the pen is bowed and there are paintings outside the painting, leaving people with a huge imagination space. The descendants of the local good men and women proudly declared to the outside world: The reclining Buddha is in the big foot, the hand touches the county, the foot steps on Huzhou, except for Baoding Mountain, there is no bigger reclining Buddha in the world. In addition, the stars on the left and right of the reclining Buddha are also covered with more than thirty bodhisattvas and busts of Guanyin, large and small. Like the reclining Buddha with a peaceful demeanor and slightly closed eyes, these statues are not only carved to be divine and lifelike, but also have kind eyebrows and good eyes, and their forms are lovely, unlike the gods and monsters that we usually see in other places, such as those gods and monsters with hideous faces, bulging brass bells, and green snakes in their ears, such as facing a good teacher and a good friend, so that people do not feel a sense of affinity. Therefore, it is inevitable to think to yourself, the original immortal world is not terrible, but the terrible thing is the immortal world that he has created for himself in his heart.

With the reclining Buddha as the center, the north and south rocks lined up by swallow wings are the second must-see places in Big Buddha Bay. There is a niche in the south rock, which is 72 meters high and 125 meters wide, and is dedicated to the "Thousand Hands Kannon". The statue is carved according to the Buddhist "Thousand Hands Sutra", with the kind-looking Guanyin statue as the main body, and the peacocks around the screen extend a total of 1,007 different hands, each with an eye engraved on each palm, plated with gold powder. Fingers are either flexed or extended or five fingers together, symbolizing the boundless power of mana; the eyes are open or closed or the eyes are slightly open, which means infinite wisdom. The local people call it the Thousand Hands and Thousand Eyes Guanyin Bodhisattva, and it is also the world's rare Guanyin sculpture with a thousand hands and a thousand eyes, comparable to the Thousand Hands and Thousand Eyes Buddha in the ancient capital Kaifeng Xiangguo Temple. It is said that after the niche was carved, it was often shrouded in auspicious clouds, and the Buddhist children also offered twilight offerings, especially on the birthday of Guanyin on February 19 every year, which was even more incense-filled and overcrowded. It's just that the rainwater in the cliff cracks is leaking, and Avalokiteshvara is like a doctor who can't be autonomous, his mana can't protect himself, and after more than a thousand years, his fingers have been severely weathered, and if you touch it, you are in danger of breaking. The local cultural relics department has invited countless knowledgeable and intelligent experts to come to consultation, but this problem cannot be solved. Therefore, the extremely clever cultural management personnel resolutely took measures: the Buddha could not burn incense and burn the watch in the shrine, and also erected a railing in front of the stone sculpture of the Thousand Hands Guanyin, declaring that he dared to go beyond the thunder pond and fined him a number of fines. I don't know whether it was the power of Guanyin, or the people of the country who let the fine be punished at every turn, and after that, no one really dared to touch a finger of the Thousand Hands Guanyin. Although it is a stopgap measure, it has also made great contributions to the protection of cultural relics.

The south cliff is a Buddhist shrine, and the north cliff stone sculpture is the main body of the Big Buddha Bay. Just as heaven and earth set up here to become a hall where people and gods live together, the top of the cliff extends forward, such as the eaves; the middle and lower parts of the cliff are flat, like walls. On this half-cliff that is 500 meters long and more than 10 meters high, the ten great kings and four bodhisattvas of the Buddhist family, the ten halls of the Taoist temples of Yan Luo, the minotaur horse noodles, the black and white impermanence, the Confucian two saints of Confucius and Meng, and the sages of the past generations are all gathered on this natural rock wall. Just like the unique Popularization Conference held to explore the infinite mysteries of the universe, to discuss why human beings are constantly fighting and infighting, and how the three religions can work together to manage the affairs of good and evil between heaven and earth. Some of them sat upright, some listened with their ears sideways, some stretched their fingers forward, and some ghosts and monsters raised their eyebrows in anger, holding swords and whips, as if under the will of the Three Professors, they were punishing those corrupt officials, adulterers, and unscrupulous descendants with the torture of pulling out their tongues and cramping. In contrast to this, there are also many exquisitely carved and idyllic character carvings, from the mother's october pregnancy, breastfeeding and nurturing, to the ten-year cold window, the title of the gold list is inexhaustible. In the meantime, there was a chicken girl who was immersed in joy, her simple clothes, her slightly squinted eyes, and her good face reveled in fantasy, and she seemed so gentle and serene everywhere. It can be said that in the mysterious atmosphere of the whole Big Buddha Bay, she and another piper girl are full of real-life interest and unique. Some archaeological circles once praised them as the "Venus of the East", which seems to be no exaggeration.

The third most visible place in Big Buddha Bay is the Three Sacred Wonders of Huayan. The Three Sacred Wonders are not far from the mountain gate, and according to the mountain, the giant stone carvings of the three great masters of Buddhist tantra, such as the fearlessness of goodness, vajrayogini, and the non-empty, are excavated. The statues of the Three Saints are dignified and their clothes are flowing, and they can reach a two-story building. One of its hands was holding a seven-story pagoda weighing hundreds of pounds, which looked precarious, and people had passed under it, and their palms did not feel like pinching a handful of sweat. Surprisingly, this statue has been excavated in the Southern Song Dynasty during the Chunxi period, and it has gone through thousands of years, and the seven-story pagoda is still not crooked or oblique, and it has not dropped a single stone slag, which is indeed a difficult mystery. Later, when I asked people in the industry, I learned that in terms of mechanical principles, it is to connect the stone carved wide robe with the body, and then hold up the hands and the pagoda, and its center of gravity has been divided into various parts of the body, so it can last for thousands of years without falling. At this point, you cannot but high-five the wisdom of the working people of ancient times.

There are many places to see in the Big Buddha Bay Grottoes, but the most important places to see are these three points. Just like the return of the Five Mountains without looking at the mountains, and the return of the Huangshan Mountains without looking at the Mountains, you have taken the essence under your eyes, there is no need to linger, and you have to leave some room for imagination, and the next time, like a tea tasting, slowly go to the fine throat.

About the Author

Wang Shenghua, real name Li Chonghua, pen name Mengzhi. Famous writer, critic, calligrapher, and cultural scholar. Graduated from northwestern university Chinese department.

He is a member of the Chinese Writers Association, honorary chairman of the Chinese Calligraphers and Painters Association, vice chairman of the National Joint Conference of Sinology Institutions, member of the Art Committee of the Shaanxi Provincial Committee of the China Democratic League, executive vice chairman of the Shaanxi Provincial Sinology Research Association, visiting professor of Chang'an University, professor of modern college of Northwest University, visiting professor of Xi'an Urban Construction Vocational College, consultant of Shaanxi Folk Writers Association, consultant of Confucius Society of Shaanxi Province, etc. He was the editor-in-chief of Western Art Newspaper and the director of the Joint Department of the Shaanxi Provincial Federation of Literature and Literature. He has published more than 20 works such as "Dream Home" and won 37 national awards.