Yungang Grottoes: A Mandala of Politics and Religion

In China, many cave temples created by carving into rocky mountains and sheer cliffs still survive today. The interiors of most of these cave temples were carefully shaped to form solemn religious spaces, with Buddhist statues carved into the walls and murals painted across the wall surfaces. This type of cave temple architecture has been identified across a vast region stretching from India to China, and serves as an important legacy of Buddhist culture being transmitted eastward.

Wooden temple structures are vulnerable to warfare and natural disasters. As a result, very few examples of wooden architecture from earlier periods have survived. In contrast, cave temples carved into rocky mountains have generally remained in relatively good condition. In China, a large number of these types of cave temples dating from approximately the 4^th to the 14^th century still exist. They serve as invaluable cultural heritage sites which convey the Buddhist art, religious practices, and architectural styles of ancient times, as well as the social customs and even the spiritual culture of the people who created them.

Among the most prominent examples of rock-cut cave temples are the Mogao Caves in Dunhuang, which are known for their exquisite murals, clay sculptures, and vast collection of excavated manuscripts; the Yungang Grottoes, famous for their monumental stone Buddhas; and the Longmen Grottoes, renowned for their intricate carvings and the celebrated calligraphic works known as the "Twenty Inscriptions of Longmen." In this article, I will focus on the Yungang Grottoes, which were established in the mid-5th century under the patronage of the Northern Wei dynasty.

After the fall of the Later Han dynasty, China was divided into what are known as The Three Kingdoms--the Cao Wei Kingdom, Wu Kingdom, and Shu Han Kingdom. Although China was temporarily reunified under the Western Jin, the collapse of the Western Jin due to internal conflict led northern China into the era known as the Sixteen Kingdoms of five non-Han people. This was an era in which various dynasties rose and fell in rapid succession. It was the Northern Wei dynasty, established by the Tuoba clan (a subgroup of the Xianbei people), that ultimately brought an end to this period of turmoil and unified northern China. As a massive national undertaking, the Northern Wei constructed what is now known as the Yungang Grottoes on the western outskirts of Pingcheng, which was the capital of the Northern Wei at that time (currently Datong City, Shanxi Province).

The Yungang Grottoes are located on the southern foot of Wuzhou Shan Mountain and extend approximately one kilometer from east to west. The grottoes consist of a total of forty-five caves of various sizes that were carved into the cliffs. Today, the site is managed by the Yungang Grottoes Research Academy. The caves are numbered sequentially from east to west. Since being introduced to the world in the early 20^th century by figures such as the Japanese architect Itō Chūta and the French oriental scholar Édouard Chavannes, the Yungang Grottoes have been actively investigated and researched by many scholars both in China and abroad. In particular, a large-scale field survey was conducted between 1938 and 1944 by a research group lead by Seiichi Mizuno and Toshio Nagahiro of the Institute of Oriental Studies. This field survey has been recognized as a groundbreaking achievement in the history of scholarship. Although the fieldwork conducted by Mizuno and Nagahiro was forcibly suspended when Japan was defeated in World War II, a comprehensive report compiling their extensive research findings was later published by the Institute for Research in Humanities at Kyoto University. This monumental work was titled The Yungang Grottoes, and was comprised of 16 volumes in 32 books that were published between 1951 and 1956. More recently, a new edition of the report was published. The new edition incorporates not only the original data and results but also the latest scholarly findings. This update consists of 20 volumes in 42 books (published between 2014 and 2017) that were released under the editorial supervision of Professor Hidenori Okamura of Kyoto University (at that time). It was published in both Japanese and Chinese as a joint project between the Institute for Research in Humanities at Kyoto University and the Institute of Archaeology at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

The accumulation of past research has largely clarified the construction process of the Yungang Grottoes. The overall development of the construction is generally divided into three major phases, although some details remain subject to debate. The first phase consists of Caves 16 through 20, which are considered the earliest. The second phase includes Caves 1 and 2, as well as Caves 5 through 13. The third phase comprises the remaining caves, primarily those located to the west of Cave 20. Of particular interest is that the caves from the first and second phases exhibit significant differences not only in the styles of the Buddhist statues and decorative motifs but also in the architectural structure of the caves themselves. In the first phase, the design is characterized by a relatively simple structure centered around a massive Buddha statue which occupies the majority of the cave's interior space. In contrast, the second phase features more complex spatial configurations and multi-layered arrangements of Buddhist figures. These characteristics clearly reflect a different underlying design philosophy. Rather than being merely stylistic, these differences are also thought to reflect the political and religious intentions of the designers and builders. Furthermore, the chronological classification of the grottoes is based primarily on the time at which construction began. Scholars generally assume that there was a certain degree of overlap in the pace of the work and the timing of completion across the different phases.

In this study, I will focus on the construction plans spanning from the first to the second phase; specifically, the group of caves from Cave 5 to Cave 20. My focus will be to explore the underlying principles of their architectural design.

The third emperor of the Northern Wei was Emperor Taiwu, who effectively unified northern China. Taiwu also issued an edict in the seventh year of the Taiping Zhenjun era (446 CE) that banned Buddhism. This edict led to the destruction of Buddhist temples and forced monks to return to secular life, marking a period of severe persecution. However, following Emperor Taiwu's death, his successor Emperor Wencheng made a significant reversal in policy. In the year following his accession, Emperor Wencheng issued a decree restoring Buddhism and initiated efforts to revive the religion. The construction of the Yungang Grottoes stands as a major state project symbolizing the revival of Buddhism.

According to "the record of Buddhism and Taoism" in the Book of Wei, in the first year of the Heping reign under Emperor Wencheng (460 CE), Shixian, who held the position of director of Buddhist monks and oversaw the Buddhist clergy, passed away. His successor, Tanyao, was appointed to the post, and at that time, the official title was changed to Shamentong. Even when Buddhism was banned under Emperor Taiwu, Tanyao did not renounce his faith. Instead, he lived in seclusion in the mountains, secretly maintaining his religious practice. The year after Emperor Wencheng's restoration of Buddhism, Tanyao was traveling to the capital when he happened to encounter Wencheng's procession. It is said that the emperor's horse grasped Tanyao's robes and would not let go, leading people to remark that "the horse has recognized a person of virtue." Upon assuming the position of Shamentong, Tanyao petitioned Emperor Wencheng to excavate five grottoes west of the capital and to construct large Buddha statues in each. These five caves, numbered 16 through 20, are today known as the Five Tanyao Grottoes.

The Five Tanyao Grottoes all face south and feature large Buddha statues carved into their rear walls. Each statue stands between 13 and 16 meters tall. Caves 16 and 18 contain standing Buddhas, Caves 19 and 20 house seated Buddhas, and Cave 17 depicts a bodhisattva sitting crossed-legged. All of these statues display powerful and majestic physiques. These statues are believed to portray more than simple religious symbolism; they also embody the authority and legitimacy of the Northern Wei emperors. In other words, the Buddhas carved in these five caves serve both as representations of the Tathāgata and as portraits of successive Northern Wei emperors. During the reign of the dynasty's founder, Emperor Daowu, the monk Faguo (who held the position of director of Buddhist monks and oversaw the Buddhist clergy) stated that "Emperor Daowu remains true to the Buddhist path and is truly the Tathāgata of the present age. The monks ought to pay him homage." In this way, Faguo emphasized that "paying homage to the Son of Heaven is equivalent to paying homage to the Buddha." This concept of the "Emperor as the Tathāgata" reflects the unique character of Northern Wei Buddhism, which closely intertwined the identities of the emperor and the Buddha. There is also a recorded anecdote that when Emperor Wencheng commissioned a stone Buddha modeled after himself, a black stone appeared on the statue's face at the exact location of the emperor's mole. Such legends support the view that the Five Tanyao Grottoes served not only as religious symbols of Buddhism but also as monuments commemorating and honoring the successive emperors of the Northern Wei dynasty.

After the Five Tanyao Grottoes were completed, a second phase of grotto construction began. The second phase features more magnificent and complex spatial designs. These caves clearly incorporate architectural elements such as gates and columns. The walls are fully adorned with niches and decorative motifs, creating a solemn and sacred religious atmosphere. The sculptures both inside and outside the caves draw on Buddhist scriptures such as Za baozang jing, which was translated by Tanyao. This reflects the intention to materialize an ideal Buddhist world as envisioned by Tanyao. The caves in the second phase are therefore thought to have functioned as religious sites that use visual art to portray Buddhist teachings in a vivid, three-dimensional form.

The construction of the Yungang Grottoes can be said as a state project sponsored by Emperor Wencheng and directed by Tanyao. Building such a monumental Buddhist site required the power of the state, backed by imperial authority. This project was undertaken through a collaboration between the emperor's personal devotion and the expertise of the Buddhist community.

Tanyao first oversaw the construction of the five caves that displayed the imperial majesty of the Northern Wei emperors. Afterward, he likely took the lead in designing caves in the second phase to embody his vision of the ideal Buddhist world. It seems that what Tanyao truly valued was not the five commemorative caves honoring the emperors, but rather the group of caves in the second phase; specifically, those spanning Caves 5 through 13. One reason for this interpretation is the presence of Cave 20, now known as the Open-Air Great Buddha.

Cave 20, one of the Five Tanyao Grottoes, suffered a collapse of its outer wall during construction. Although the original plan was to house the principal seated Buddha inside the cave, the collapse exposed it to the outside. Such an incident would typically be considered a major failure. As the project's chief supervisor, Tanyao might have been subject to punishment. However, the construction was not halted, and the caves in the second phase continued to be built as planned. This suggests that from the outset, Tanyao may have deliberately selected a safe location as the site of caves in the second phase. In fact, the area where Caves 5 through 13 are situated is at least as large as the Five Tanyao Grottoes, yet it shows no signs of major wall collapse. Judging from the visible fault lines still present today, it is likely that the instability of the cliff face at Cave 20 could have been predicted in advance. It was probably Tanyao's decision to establish an imperial cave there despite this risk. There is also a possibility that Emperor Wencheng, as the project's sponsor, tacitly accepted the decision by Tanyao. This situation clearly reflects the complex relationship in which political powers and religious forces mutually leveraged each other to achieve their respective goals through cooperation in the construction of the Yungang Grottoes. From the perspective of Chuo University's Faculty of Policy Studies, one might say that the Yungang Grottoes were realized through "a fusion of political policy and culture."

Reference Literature (*1-5 The official name or the book titles are tentative.)

• Ishimatsu, H., Buddhist Images in the Northern Wei Period, Brücke in Tokyo, 2005.
• *¹ Yungang Grottoes Research Academy, Yungang Grottoes, Volumes 1 & 2, Heibonsha in Tokyo/Wenwu Publishing House in Beijing, 1991, 1992.
• Okamura, H., The Archaeology of Yungang Grottoes: Exploring the Giant Stone Buddhas of a Nomadic State, Rinsen Book in Kyoto, 2017.
• Su Bai, *² Chinese Buddhist Cave Temple Sites: Archaeology of Chinese Buddhism from the 3rd to 8th Century, Wenwu Publishing House in Beijing, 2010.
• Su Bai, Studies on the Cave Temples of China Wenwu Publishing House in Beijing, 1996.
• Sofukawa, H., The Yungang Stone Grottoes Reconsidered, Journal of Oriental Studies 83 published by Kyoto University, pp. 1-115, 2008.
• Ma Shichang & Ding Mingyi, *³ Outline of Archaeology of Chinese Buddhist Caves, Wenwu Publishing House in Beijing, 2009.
• Ma Shichang, *⁴ Collected Writings on Archaeology of Chinese Buddhist Caves, Shangwu Press in Beijing, 2014.
• Yagi, H., *⁵ Thoughts on the Construction of the Yungang Grottoes, Hozokan in Kyoto, 2024.