#The Longmen Grottoes

[zegalba]

The Longmen Grottoes (龙门石窟) 'Dragon's Gate Grottoes, or Longmen Caves are some of the finest examples of Chinese Buddhist art.

[alimmansour222]

What a legendary architectural masterpiece 😮😲😯🤯😍

[anamericaninhuaibei]

[panicinthestudio]

Emperor Xiaowen and his entourage worshipping the Buddha, ca.522-23

Northern Wei dynasty, China

From the Central Binyang Cave, Longmen, Henan province

Limestone with traces of pigment  

H. 82 in. (208.3 cm); W. 12 ft. 11 in. (393.7 cm)  

Together with a companion piece showing an empress and her attendants (now in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City), this depiction of an emperor and his entourage once adorned the Central Binyang Cave (also known as Cave 3) in the Longmen complex, near Luoyang, in Henan province. It was positioned centrally on the northeast wall between a group of protective semidivinities above and a narrative debate scene below. Xuanwu commissioned the construction of the Central Binyang Cave in honor of his father, the emperor Xiaowen (r. 471–99), and his mother, the dowager Wenzhou (d. 494); the emperor and empress in the reliefs are therefore believed to refer to his parents. A figure wearing court garments and holding a tasseled baton leads the procession. He is followed by a smaller figure wearing armor and another who stands before the emperor, holding an incense burner. The trees originally indicated the point at which the procession moved around a corner, from the north to the east wall. Several of the attendants hold lotuses or other flowers and offerings, and the entire procession can be understood as making offerings to the Buddhas in the cave, an act of merit making that would continue in perpetuity and improve the future lives of the participants.

Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art

[newhanfu]

Dunhuang Style Photography

Qian Nv You Hun Online x Longmen Grottoes Research Institute Works from Linxi Photography Studio

[hadrians-view]

Longmen Grottos, China. The grottoes were excavated and carved with Buddhist subjects over the period from 493 AD to 1127 AD.

[breserker]

so i've gone insane in terraria and for my final cloud island of homes i'm building some stone foundations and then. god hlep me. a giant buddha. great! i laid down the cloud, then the stone steps, then--fucking fuck shit a blood moon. well good bye stylist and clumsy slime.

ok fuck. daytime. at least no solar eclipse so start to really see where those edges are, trying to get a good sense of scale of the thing and the four remaining houses below, one of which will have to host a mushroom biome. main inspiration for a lot of this will be the longmen grottoes in china, so there's a lot of work to be done. basically it's only scaffolding up right now. ok fine. and--

"a pirate army is approaching from the west"

save

exit

done with terraria for now i think

[chinesehanfu]

[Hanfu · 漢服]China Tang Dynasty Chinese Traditional Clothing Hanfu in TV Show《爱奇艺登场了洛阳》with Actor @娄艺潇

【Summary】

Actor Lou Yixiao (娄艺潇) plays Wu Zetian, and holds a prayer ceremony under the "Loshena Buddha Statue" in the Longmen Grottoes in Luoyang.

The statue of Lusena Buddha was excavated in the third year of Xianheng, Emperor Gaozong of Tang Dynasty (AD 672). Wu Zetian, who was the empress of Li Zhi at the time, she donated 20,000 money to the project, which is equivalent to more than 6 million Yuan (CNY) today in terms of the price of food at that time.

【Hanfu and Hairstyle Culture Relics Reference】：

・"Stone Carvings of the Emperor and Empress of the Tang Dynasty"

・The Image of the Empress of the Tang Dynasty in Dunhuang Murals

Recreation Work By：@桑纈

🔗Weibo：https://weibo.com/7503957371/KEExcqAPa

[tauruscreations]

Bo-Cheng being a Guan Yin successor has learned her similar abilities to being able to trap even the most powerful beings into bindings that they can’t break without her removing the spell. And similar to Guan Yin she mentors Red Son like in journey to the west and mentors Macaque. She’s training them in the path of enlightenment so they become better people and not constantly set out on this weird path of vengeance and entitlement. It clearly works since they get better in the series.

She’s not around in the main series story cause she typically hanging out at the Longmen Grottoes.

Red Son has his iconic gold rings on his neck, wrist, and ankles and Macaque happens to have earrings.

She uses em whenever they act up and nearly attempt destroy the world. Kinda like a mom grabbing a bratty child by the ear and pulling them away for acting out.

Don’t worry it only causes a mild headache- kinda like the one they give her cause she has to deal with them.

[simply-buddhism]

Longmen Grottoes, China

[masterofrecords]

The Ravages of Time episode 4

I started on this episode thinking “oh, this is going to be an easy one – it’s just a little about the city, nothing bad”. I was halfway through the first paragraph when I realized I’ll need a ton of notes to explain what all these words mean… Editing and writing the notes and fact-checking everything took me ages, haha. So. Buckle up, this is gonna be a long one, I’ll probably put the notes under the read more this time so as not to clutter everyone’s dashes.

Before getting into the translation proper, I must note that there doesn’t seem to be a lot of consistency between different sources on how to translate some terms and names here. I’ll be using the terms I like best or a literal translation if I haven’t found an established one.

Additionally, a lot of dates for the early period aren’t precise (with the uncertainty being sometimes measured in centuries) due to the lack of written sources.

Episode 4

Luoyang Commonly shortened to “Luo”, formerly known as Luoyi and Luojing. As the place of origin of Ancient Chinese culture, the city has great importance. It was located in the middle of the territory of Ancient China, between the Nine Provinces [1]. Over more than 5000 years of history, 13 dynasties held their capitals there. The Xia dynasty Erlitou, Yanshi Shangcheng, Eastern Zhou dynasty capital ruins, the ancient city of Han and Wei dynasties, the Sui and Tang Luoyang city were the five great capitals lined along the Luo river, known together as the “Five Capitals of the Luoyang Basin” [2], a sight rarely seen in the world. The Longmen grottoes, the Grand Canal and the Silk Road – three sites and six locations of World Cultural Heritage are situated there [3]. – excerpt from the website of the Luoyang prefecture of the People’s Republic “Beautiful Luoyang – essential facts” Eastern Zhou royal capital In 1046 BCE, after Western Zhou dynasty formed, a city was built in Luoyang. The Duke of Zhou built Chengzhou and the city wall on the northern bank of the Luo river. In 1960s Western Zhou precious bronzeware was unearthed, containing inscriptions saying that the King of Zhou [4] “was the first to move his home to Chengzhou.” In the first year of King Zhou Ping’s rule (770 BCE), the capital was moved to Luoyi (near modern-day Luoyang in Henan Province) [5], marking the beginning of the Eastern Zhou dynasty. The residence of the rightful ruler, called the Eastern Zhou royal capital, extended from the south of modern Mouth Mang to the north of the Luo river, where the Luo and Jian rivers converged. Since the 1950s the excavation of the Eastern Zhou capital city revealed the astonishing scope of the city, precise planning, exquisite construction. It is of great importance to the study of the development of Ancient Chinese capitals.

[1] Nine Provinces – the territorial divisions of ancient dynasties, also commonly refers to China of that period as a whole (the Xia and Shang dynasties period – around 2000-1000 BCE)

[2] The Five Capitals of the Luoyang Basin – over the centuries, the locations of the cities moved a little, but they all remained on the northern (sunny) bank of the Luo river. They include:

Erlitou – a bronze age (Xia dynasty – XXI-XVII centuries BCE) site where the remains of an ancient capital were found. Erlitou is the modern name of the nearest village; the city’s original name was most likely Zhenxun.

Yanshi Shangcheng (lit. Yanshi market) – an early Shang dynasty (XVI-XI centuries BCE) city. A lot of the finds from the site seem to be related to rituals or craft like pottery and bronzeware.

Eastern Zhou dynasty capital ruins – elaborated in the next paragraph, but I’ll just offer the dates for Easter Zhou: 771-256 BCE.

The ancient city of Han and Wei dynasties – again just dates, the fun parts are (or will be, I assume) in the donghua. Han (206 BCE - 220 CE) and Wei (220-266). This is the period of the donghua. “But what about the Three Kingdoms?” you might ask – Wei dynasty is one of those three kingdoms, the one where Luoyang was situated.

Sui and Tang Luoyang city – not particularly relevant for this card since it’s in the distant future. Sui (581-618), Tang (618-907). I’m not very knowledgeable about Sui, but it’s worth noting that during the Tang dynasty the capital traveled between Chang’an and Luoyang. The main capital was in Chang’an for the majority of the period, and it was the largest city of the country (about a million people), while Luoyang was known as the “Eastern Capital”. However, during Empress Wu’s reign the capital was fully moved to Luoyang.

[3] three sites and six locations – I believe refers to the Grand Canal and the Silk Roads having to multiple protected locations, most outside of Luoyang. After analyzing the maps on the UNESCO website for ages, I think there are 4 locations from the Silk Roads complex in Luoyang.

Longmen Grottoes – also Longmen caves or “Dragon’s gate grottoes”, are a complex of artificial caves carved in the limestone on both sides of the Yi river, containing over a hundred thousand of buddhist statues, and is considered one of the finest examples of buddhist art. Most are dated to Tang or Northern Wei dynasties. Was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list as “an outstanding manifestation of human artistic creativity”.

Grand Canal – a unique waterway system going from Beijing in the north to Zhejiang province in the south. It was constructed over multiple centuries from V century BCE. It connects all five main waterbasins of China, and “represents the greatest masterpiece of hydraulic engineering in the history of mankind”. Notably, the pound locks were invented to make navigation between differently elevated portions of the canal easier and safer. The total length of the canal is almost 2000 km and some portions of it are still used for transportation.

Silk Road – probably the most universally known one, this is part of the ancient roads network going from Luoyang/Chang’an to the West. The UNESCO site includes various cities, palaces, temples, tombs and various other locations built along that route across many different cultures and eras. “These interaction and influences were profound in terms of developments in architecture and city planning, religions and beliefs, urban culture and habitation, merchandise trade and interethnic relations in all regions along the routes.”

[4] Duke of Zhou or King of Zhou? Those are two different people. The King of Zhou, judging by the date, should refer to the first king of the Western Zhou dynasty, King Wu. The Duke of Zhou was his younger brother Dan, who was heavily involved in the establishment of the new dynasty (and frankly left a much bigger impression on history). This is all from a time when the rulers of the country were referred to as kings – the title of the emperor won’t appear until the establishment of the Qin dynasty in 221 BCE.

[5] The act of moving capitals was what led to the dynasty becoming “Eastern Zhou” instead of “Western Zhou”, even though the ruling family remained the same (though – as it tends to be – there was a power struggle involved). Zhou Ping is also the reason why the dynastic name of Wu Zetian’s rule was Zhou dynasty – she claimed ancestry from Zhou Ping’s youngest son.

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Spoiler time! Well, not really, because most of this episode is fighting... but I still have things to say!

"It should be the Kuaiji army of Sun Jian from Jiangdong". Jiangdong - lower Yangtze area, Kuaiji - Kuaiji commandery, conquered by Sun Jian's son a few years before the events of the donghua

Unlike a lot of secondary characters, both Hua Xiong (Dong Zhuo's general) and Huang Gai/Uncle Huang (from Sun Jian's army) are real people. (Meaning you don't have to worry about Huang Gai for another... say, ten years). Not much is known about them except that they did indeed take part in the conflict between Dong Zhuo and the coalition.

[amokedas]

Longmen Grottoes in Henan Province, China. Over 2,300 caves filled with over 100,000 statues of all sizes. 4th-10th-centuries CE.

[mosertone]

Longmen Grottoes in Henan Province, China. Over 2,300 caves filled with over 100,000 statues of all sizes. 4th-10th-centuries CE.

[anamericaninhuaibei]

[vicnormansstuff]

The Longmen Grottoes in China

[newhanfu]

Dunhuang Style Photography 2

Qian Nv You Hun Online x Longmen Grottoes Research Institute Works from Photographer Shu Qing Cheng