Lotus in Search of Historic Sites： Emperor Da Sui+Master Chuan Fa ｜ Narrow Valley in Taihang Mountain Taiping Temple Grottoes

　　Emperor Da Sui+Master of Dharma-spreading

　　Narrow Valley in Taihang Mountain Taiping Temple Grottoes

　　Lotus in search of historical sites

　　Located in Jiaozuo City, Henan Province, the core area of Central Plains civilization, it goes without saying that there are abundant historical sites. Write a grotto in Taihang Fairy Valley, Qinyang County, Jiaozuo City, Henan Province.

　　Backed by the Taihang Mountain, if viewed from God's perspective, the Yellow River and the Qinhe River stopped rushing in Jiaozuo and joined hands. Qinyang, under the jurisdiction of Jiaozuo, has been the political, economic and cultural center of northwest Henan since ancient times. This is not nonsense. Qinyang has the reputation of "a famous country with rivers and moons" in ancient times, and it is the first batch of ancient counties in China. The narrow valley Taiping Temple Grottoes I want to visit are located in the Fairy Valley Scenic Area of Ziling Town, Qinyang City.

　　The scenery of the historic sites in Taihang Mountain is naturally not bad, and there are macaques along the way. Stop at Erxian Temple, go west along the mountain road, and you can reach Xiuxian Cave in about half an hour. This cave is the origin of the saying that the narrow valley Taiping Temple Grottoes were dug in the Northern Wei Dynasty. Taiping Temple Grottoes in Narrow Valley are known as the "Little Dragon Gate" in northern Henan. During the Northern Wei Dynasty, temples were built here and Buddha statues were dug, which reached its peak in the Sui and Tang Dynasties. The words "Emperor Da Sui" can also be seen in the inscriptions on cliffs outside the existing Thousand Buddha Cave, which undoubtedly recorded a clear concept of time for the historical value of the grottoes. Cliff has obvious signs of destruction, vaguely "... Yoga Blue House, TempleNo. Taiping, 20 ..." seems to tell the story of rebuilding Taiping Temple in the twenty years after the founding of the Emperor.

　　Above: Inscription of Cliff in Sui Dynasty, left in the middle, and the word "Emperor Da Sui" is clearly visible.

　　In the thousand years of ups and downs, nourished by the environment of flowing springs, waterfalls, butterflies and birds singing, it must be that the Buddhism in Taiping Temple, a narrow valley, has never been broken. The most valuable is the Thousand-Buddha Cave, the entrance of which faces south. The entrance of the cave is square, and a few steps up in front of the cave is the Taihang deep valley. The statue layout in the cave is three walls and three niches, with lotus floor. The north wall is the main wall, and the main statue is one Buddha, two disciples and two bodhisattvas, with incense burners, two lions and two providers carved under the niche; Only one Buddha and two bodhisattvas are carved on the east and west walls, and under the niche are two lions and incense burners. There are thousands of Buddha statues around the main niche of the Three Walls. The most noticeable place at the bottom, which is located at the bottom of the corner of the four walls, is carved with 25 statues of disciples who preach dharma, which makes people shine at the moment, and suddenly reminds people of the Lingquan Temple Grottoes in Anyang, Henan Province. There are 24 statues of sages who preach dharma in the Great Living Grottoes, which are completely carved in accordance with Yao Tan's translation of the Karma Sutra for Paying Dharma and Storing. Twenty-four statues of Buddhist saints who lived in the holy cave are the earliest statues of Buddhist disciples that have been found and exist at present. Behind the statues of disciples, there is a story that reflects the monk Yao Tan's thought.

　　Yao Tan, a monk, did two things in order to make Buddhism continue to spread. First, he presided over the excavation of the famous "Tanyao Cave" in Yungang Grottoes, with the third Buddha as the main content, to announce to the world that Buddhism not only has the present world, but also has the past tense and the future world, so as to arouse the confidence of believers. Second, it translated the ideological tendency of paying for the law and collecting scriptures, which emphasized the protection of the law. Yao Tan's thought was later absorbed by the believers, so he carved the image of the sage in the grottoes and became an important part of Buddhism in the Sui Dynasty.

　　Above: The statue of the Great Living Sanctuary in Lingquan Temple Grottoes in Anyang, Henan Province.

　　The carvings made by the disciples of Taiping Temple Thousand-Buddha Cave in the Narrow Valley are obviously drawn from the Great Living Cave of Lingquan Temple, with the popularity of the idea of "last dharma" as the background. The theory of last dharma originated from the Nirvana Sutra translated by Dharmaksema, a master of translation in Beiliang, which puts forward that Buddhism can be divided into three stages: five hundred years of dharma, one thousand years of dharma and ten thousand years of last dharma. After that, Emperor Daowu of the Northern Wei Dynasty and Emperor Wudi of the Northern Zhou Dynasty destroyed the law again, which forced the believers to seriously think about the arrival of the last law. Under this background, the third-order religion founded by the third-order monk nobuyuki of the Sui Dynasty came into being. The statue layout of this cave with square roof, three walls and three niches is exactly the same as that of the Great Living Cave, so it is inferred that the craftsmen who dug it may be the masters of the same school. There is a graceful flying on the top of the covered bucket of the Great Living Sanctuary Cave, and the carving of the Thousand Buddha Cave in Taiping Temple in the narrow ravine is obviously badly repaired by later generations. Except for the inscriptions of the disciples and the cliff, the traces of the early Sui Dynasty are not obvious. Judging from the inscriptions of the remaining Jin people in the Song Dynasty who visited this place, the grottoes should have been revived and abolished several times, and continued until the Qing Dynasty, where incense continued.

　　Quiet, narrow, far away from the dust and smoke, there is clearly a huge energy coming in the Taihang Canyon, which makes the small Thousand Buddha Cave, the walls, the top of the cave and even the inscriptions full of devout Buddhist words. In the grottoes, there is a vivid historical atmosphere. Sunlight shines on thousands of buddhas through the hole, and the gradual change of light and the piety of the ancients seem to have a reaction of thinking, and a quiet atmosphere lingers around.

　　Cangyang Jiacuo's beautiful poem says: Let you live in my heart, love each other silently, and be silent and happy.

　　Beyond the mountains are secular joys and sorrows and the present world, full of endless life thinking and endless life compulsion. People living on the oasis, either you have faith or you have compassion. Perhaps in this way, in the lonely years, the cultivation in spring and the harvest in autumn, and the happiness and humiliation of every moment are attributed to the gifts from heaven.

　　"Heaven" may be exactly the same as the theory of Buddhism. From the moment it is entrusted to the heart, Buddha is the starting point of the road to salvation and the other side of prayer for everyone.

　　Tips: You need to climb a mountain to visit this grotto. The nearest way is to stop at Erxian Temple and start hiking. It takes half an hour to reach the Thousand Buddha Cave.

　　This article has been authorized by the author to publish.

　　Both pictures and texts are provided by the author.