This time I went to Qinling to see the autumn colors, I chose to go to Lantian because an important reason was to see the water and land hermitage. It preserves the largest group of wall sculptures in China and is known as "China's second Dunhuang". I didn't know it was wonderful before I went, but I didn't expect it to be so exciting, and it was really shocking after watching it.
Although the temple is called a nunnery, nuns have never lived. It is located at the foot of Wangshun Mountain, Puhua Town, 10 kilometers east of Lantian County. It was originally the water and land hall of Wuzhen Temple, an ancient temple of the Six Dynasties, which was built in the reign of Emperor Wen of Sui. Zhu Huaicheng, the king of the Qin Dynasty in the Ming Dynasty, enshrined this place as the ancestral hall of the Buddha, spent 5 years repairing the temple, rebuilding the wall sculpture and preserving it to this day. In 1996, it was listed as the fourth batch of national key cultural relics protection units.
We braved the rain to enter the water and land hermitage, and we didn't even need tickets here! In today's world where tickets cost one or two hundred yuan at every turn, it is really precious. The essence of the water and land hermitage is the wall sculpture in the water and land hall, which is divided into 4 parts: the north and south gables, the two walls of the main compartment in the hall and the two eaves walls, there are more than 3,700 figures of different sizes!
When I entered the main hall, I was immediately shocked by the dense colored sculptures on several walls. I counted it, and there were about 9-10 floors up and down, stretching from the ground to the roof. Buddha figures, birds and animals, landscapes and bridges, garden waterfalls, pavilions, palaces and pagodas... The overall layout is rigorous, rich in color, large and small, sparse and dense, and its artistic imagination is amazing.
We looked up in the hall and watched carefully, 3,700 Buddha statues and figures, the most exquisite. Hardly two people are the same. There are men and women, each Buddha statue or figure is dressed differently, there are wide robes with large sleeves, fluttering clothes, some are tightly dressed, short and capable, some are bare-chested and breast-bared, and the expression is bold.
Each Buddha statue or character has a different expression, some are happy, some are confused, some are surprised, some are dignified, some are playful...
Each Buddha statue or figure has different movements. Some are looking at a painting scroll together, some are whispering, and some are dozing. I stared at the young man for a long time, he was taking something out of the food box, and his movements were very careful, and the plate he was holding in his left hand was in danger of turning on its side.
One of the characteristics of the wall sculpture of the water and land nunnery is that it brings together Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, and combines the story of Buddhism with the Chinese Confucian and Taoist culture. Therefore, the main body of the wall sculpture is the Buddha and Taoist figures, including the Buddhas, the Bodhisattvas, the 24 heavens, the 500 Arhats, the 1,000 people listening to the scriptures, and the Nirvana of Sakyamuni.
In the middle of the main hall, the sculpture is the Buddha sitting on the seat of Sumeru, the medicine master, and the Amitabha Buddha. There are three bodhisattvas on the back of the three Buddhas. These three bodhisattvas are different from what we see elsewhere in that they are bearded male Guanyin figures. This is what makes Suiroku an unique.
At the same time, there are many people from life in these wall sculptures. A child ringing a bell, a woman kneeling in front of a Buddha statue praying for the blessing of a bodhisattva, a man sitting at a table with his right index finger pointing at his left palm talking... These are all situations that we often see in our lives. In the depths of the Qinling Mountains, it is a miracle that such superb art has survived and has not been destroyed for thousands of years.
It is said that the clay sculptures on the north and south walls are in the form of comic strips, depicting the life of Buddha Shakyamuni, as well as many other stories. We decided to ask a docent to talk about it. When we arrived at the lecture room, we were told that in order to control termites in the temple, they had just been sprayed the day before, and they refused to enter the temple, and we were advised not to stay in the temple for too long. We had to go back to the temple and see for ourselves. Probably because of the psychological effect, I really felt that the smell of medicine was choking, so I had to reluctantly leave the palace. We are a layman to see the lively, as for the wall sculpture here is superb, the hanging carving, round carving, relief, carving and other artistic techniques into one, the mud into gold, ingenious workmanship, no commentator to explain, we can not figure out the difference between various "carvings". I just think it's beautiful, it's beautiful!
Facing the gate of the Mizu-Riku-an, it is Shimogo-Shinji Temple. Wuzhen Temple is a well-known Pure Land ancestral garden at home and abroad, and its history can be traced back to before the Western Jin Dynasty. In the 14th year of Emperor Kaihuang of the Sui Dynasty, the high monk Jingye was edicted to build in Zhongnan Mountain, after expansion, it has become a large temple with six major temple groups at the beginning of the Tang Dynasty. Suiroku-an is one of the water-land dojos. The temple in front of me is newly built, and there is only one main hall and one side of the side room at present, but the autumn color is just right.