Dragon Gate was built by Dayu to control the water, and the legend of fish leaping over the Dragon Gate also happened here. The grottoes were first excavated during the reign of Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty, flourished in the Tang Dynasty, and ended in the late Qing Dynasty. It has been built for more than 1,400 years in more than 10 dynasties, making it the longest grotto in the world. A large number of colorful paintings were used during construction, but most of them have faded today.
Densely dotted on the cliffs of the east and west mountains of Yishui, with a length of 1 kilometer from north to south, there are 2,345 caves and niches and more than 110,000 statues. Together with Mogao Grottoes and Yungang Grottoes, it is also known as the three largest caves in China. The grottoes were later called the Four Grottoes in Jiamai.
In the legendary period of flooding, both the Luo River and the Yishui River were blocked and formed a large ocean, similar to a barrier lake. Of course, the scale formed during that period was much larger than that of a barrier lake. many.
The people were in great distress and many drowned. Dayu even suffered from floods, so he led his people to first dredge the Luo River and let it flow into the Yellow River. However, the Yishui River was blocked by Longmen Mountain, so he dug up Longmen Mountain so that the Yishui River and the Luo River merged into the Yellow River, thus solving this problem. of flooding.
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The value influence of Longmen Grottoes
Longmen Grottoes retain a large number of religion, art, architecture, calligraphy, music, clothing, medicine, etc. The physical data in this area reflect the development and changes in many fields such as ancient Chinese politics, economy, religion, and culture from different aspects, and have made significant contributions to the innovation and development of Chinese grotto art.
The Longmen Grottoes are large in scale and majestic. The statues in the cave are exquisitely carved and rich in content and themes. They are known as the world's greatest treasure house of classical art. With its own systematic and unique sculpture art language, it reveals various laws and regulations of sculpture art creation.
The grotto art before it retained more elements of Gandhara and Motuluo art, while the Longmen Grottoes inherited the Indian grotto art, the Yungang Grottoes style more recently, and the Wei and Jin Dynasties. It was excavated by the integration of the advanced and profound Han history and culture of Luoyang and the Southern Dynasties.