Chapter 454 Hetui
Like most tourists, Su Xing can't help but smile when he hears some interesting stories or sees interesting Buddha statues.
For example, the main Buddha Amitabha in Binyang North Cave has both hands with palms facing outward. The ring finger and little finger of the left hand are bent, and the other three fingers are straight downward. On the right hand, the ring finger and little finger are bent, and the index finger and middle finger are straight upward.
It looks like his right hand is gesturing "yeah" to the tourists!
In addition, this Amitabha Buddha is carved with kind eyes and kind eyes, and it looks even more adorable.
In fact, it is because the thumb of the right hand of this Buddha statue has been broken after going through wind and rain, and there is some distance between the index finger and the middle finger, which makes it look like the "scissor hand" gesture.
In fact, this Amitabha Buddha is sitting in the lotus position, with his hands evenly divided and pointing to the heaven and earth, and is in an extremely rare Buddhist mudra.
At present, "Scissorhand Buddha" has not yet become popular on the Internet, and its popularity is not as high as it will be in a few years.
But at this time, many tourists who visited this place couldn't help but look at the Buddha statue and take more photos.
Some tourists joked: "The shape of this Buddha statue is quite unique and cute..."
Su Xing smiled, and also took a photo of the "Buddha with Scissor Hands" with his mobile phone at the periphery.
When visiting the Vairocana Buddha, Xiaoyu's voice was filled with unconcealed pride. "Among the many Buddha statues in Longmen Grottoes, the Vairocana Buddha in front of us is the largest, most beautiful, and has the highest artistic value! It is also one of the most perfect and well-known Buddhist statues in China. It is not only the most iconic work of Longmen Grottoes, but also a representative work of Chinese Tang Dynasty Buddhist sculpture art.
This giant Buddha is a royal niche statue project personally run by Emperor Gaozong and Wu Zetian of the Tang Dynasty. The design and construction of the project were personally appointed by Emperor Gaozong. The Buddha is more than 17 meters high, and its ears alone are 1.9 meters tall!
Legend has it that the Lucena Buddha was carved according to the portrait of Wu Zetian and was the incarnation of Emperor Wu. She had a plump face, crescent-like eyebrows, looking down, her mouth was slightly raised but not smiling, she was solemn and elegant, wise and bright. , is the embodiment of beauty and wisdom in the hearts of the Tang people..."
Su Xing looked up at the Vairocana Buddha and was also deeply shocked by her!
After thousands of years of vicissitudes, she still sits here with a dignified manner, her eyes are bright and compassionate, and she seems to have seen through the world, but she still protects this land.
Li Xinhe and Senior Brother Lu saw that Su Xing kept raising his head and looking intently at the Big Buddha of Lu Shena. They looked at each other, and they were a little afraid to disturb the younger junior sister.
After visiting the entire Xishan Grottoes, Su Xing’s mood was very complicated.
She feels proud and proud that China has cultural and artistic treasures such as the Longmen Grottoes.
After more than 1400 years of carvings, it shows too much of our country's splendid civilization and the wisdom of the ancients.
However, when she saw the damaged grottoes and Buddha statues, it was hard not to feel a surge of sadness and indignation and a deep sense of powerlessness in her heart...
Empty shrines, missing Buddha heads, broken grooves extending to the abdomen, torn collars...
There are too many Buddha statues destroyed in Longmen Grottoes due to theft!
In addition to the Buddha statues, many reliefs were also stolen!
As a Chinese, how can we not feel sad about that humiliating history?
How could one not feel heartbroken for the treasures stolen by robbers?
Xiaoyu's eyes were slightly red. "In 1893, Japanese scholar Okakura Tenshin discovered the Longmen Grottoes in my country. He took photos and gave lectures everywhere using the photos of the Binyang Caves after returning to Japan. Later, French sinologist Edouard Chavannes came to the Longmen Grottoes in 1907 to measure, make rubbings and take photos of the grottoes. In 1909, Chavannes published information and photos about the Longmen Grottoes in his book "Archaeological Records of North China. Grotto Volume", which stimulated many Western countries. They carried out large-scale theft, robbery and destruction of the Longmen Grottoes in my country from 1911 to 1949!
In fact, so far, there are no accurate statistics on the number of stolen cultural relics from the Longmen Grottoes. There are 96 key cave niches that have been severely damaged, and more than 260 main Buddha and Bodhisattva statues have been stolen. More than 1000 other various statues, 16 reliefs, and 15 inscriptions were destroyed..."
Su Xing knew something about the fact that Okakura Tenshin and Edward Shawan took photos and researched the Longmen Grottoes and publicized them in Western countries.
After listening to Xiaoyu's explanation, she decided to go to the library to look for some books of the French sinologist when she returned to school to see how that guy studied Chinese history, conducted archaeology in my country, and discovered and promoted Chinese cultural relics!
There is also the Japanese Okakura Tenshin, a Japanese artist, educator, and thinker.
She found this person when she was learning about world artists in her previous life. Okakura Tenshin regarded Asian civilization as one, but he believed that Japan should undertake the mission of "promoting Asia" and even achieve it through war. His thoughts were an important source of the later "Great Eastern Confederation Theory" and the policy of "promoting Asia" in the name of aggression.
Wake up in my heart: Ha tui!
By the way, this guy also wrote a "Tea Book", yay!
Li Xinhe and Senior Brother Lu originally wanted to avoid wasting money, so they tried their best to listen to the explanation.
As locals, they have long known that many cultural relics had been stolen from the Longmen Grottoes.
But now listening to Xiaoyu's explanation, they truly understood what Longmen Grottoes had gone through in the first place!
Senior Brother Lu couldn't help but cursed in a low voice, "These bitches..."
Su Xing and the other three followed Xiaoyu as they watched and listened, their moods rising and falling along with her explanation.
Although today is Monday, there are still many tourists at this particularly famous tourist attraction.
Visitors come from all ages and educational levels.
In fact, there is still a certain threshold to visit such cultural and historical attractions.
Some tourists don't know much about the Longmen Grottoes, and they don't check the information in advance or ask for a guide. When they arrive, they may sigh: "Wow! There are so many Buddha statues!" or "Wow! The Big Buddha is so big!".
After that, I felt bored after walking around.
Not far from Su Xing and the others, there were three tourists, a girl in her twenties, and two middle-aged and elderly men and women, who looked like a family of three.
At this moment, the middle-aged couple kept complaining about you and me.
"Why are there just a bunch of stone Buddhas in this place! The silk scarf I bought doesn't look good when taking pictures here. I might as well go to the beach..."
"The tickets are so expensive, it's not worth it at all! You insist on coming if I can't..."
The girl's expression was stiff, her mouth tightened into a line, as if she was trying to control her emotions.