Since the opening of the Beijing Suiyuan (now Beijing Baotou) railway in the early 20th century, more and more scholars, dignitaries and tourists have come to visit Yungang Grottoes. Photography, painting, singing and reporting have been seen in the newspapers. After liberation, due to the establishment of specialized agencies, we gradually accumulated a number of precious celebrity pen and ink heritages, from which we can feel and share their happiness and inspiration in front of Yungang Buddha.

1. World Heritage declared successfully

At the turn of the century, Yungang Grottoes once again ushered in the opportunity of great development, such as the declaration of world heritage, the declaration of five-a scenic spots, and the comprehensive environmental management of Yungang scenic spots. In October 1999, Yungang Grottoes began to apply for world heritage. In the next year, the demolition and square construction in front of the mountain gate, the greening of yungangyu, and the water storage project of Yungang section of Shilihe River were carried out one after another. On December 14, 2001, Yungang Grottoes were listed in the world heritage list by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee. In May 2007, Yungang Grottoes became one of the first five A-level tourist attractions in China.

2. Comprehensive environmental management in Yungang

In the spring of 2008, Datong Municipal Party committee and government decided to carry out three major projects: the reconstruction of the ancient city, the construction of the new city and the comprehensive treatment of the surrounding environment of Yungang Grottoes. According to the requirements of Yungang Grottoes protection plan, the demolition and afforestation of buildings on both sides of Yungang tourist road were completed, and Yunfo new village was built in the east of Xiaozhan village in Yungang yukou to accommodate the relocated residents of Yungang town. At the same time, a 6.8 km bypass road was built again after Yungang mountain to ensure the formation of Yungang closed scenic spot. In 2009, the construction of Yungang grand scenic spot was in full swing. Six villages, including Yungang Town, Yungang village, zhangsiyao, Zhulin temple, xiaoweitun, machun and Gongren village, were demolished, and 5170 households were involved in the relocation. Seventeen new buildings, including tourist center, tanyao square, LIFO Avenue, Emperor and empress LIFO group sculpture, Lingyan temple, Yungang Museum, performing arts center, Shihuo street and Yungang Grottoes Research Institute, were built, covering an area of more than 50000 square meters Square meters. At the same time, the dam of Yungang section of Shilihe river is reinforced for water storage, Yungang ecological parking lot, enclosure, road, greening, and the pavement of special tourism line is rebuilt. By September 2010, all the supporting service facilities of Yungang scenic area have been completed, and the tourism environment has taken on a new look.

3. Multicultural Development

With the formation of large scenic spots, the work of Yungang Grottoes Research Institute has stepped into the fast lane of diversified and all-round development. First, the slogan of "five A-level scenic spots, six A-level management" was put forward to comprehensively improve the level of tourism service. The second is to continuously improve and enrich the cultural facilities of the scenic spots. Yungang Museum, Yungang Art Museum, shadow puppet show, Shibing Art Museum, shooting art field of Northern Wei Dynasty, Yungang art creation base, etc. have been opened one after another. The third is to carry out in-depth research on Yungang Grottoes, organize and edit large-scale works such as complete works of Yungang Grottoes sculpture, archaeological report on excavation of Yungang Grottoes front site, archaeological excavation report on Yungang peak site, investigation report on Yungang Grottoes, complete works of classification of Yungang Grottoes and complete works of decoration patterns of Yungang Grottoes, with the goal of rewriting the concept of "Yungang in China, research in Japan" The history of academic humiliation. Fourth, facing the future of cultural relics protection, we have established Yungang Grottoes monitoring center, stone relics protection and restoration center, digital center, painted mural protection and restoration center, cultural relics protection and restoration center, etc. we have made fruitful achievements in Yungang Grottoes protection through joint research with domestic well-known universities. The fifth is to vigorously develop Yungang cultural products, which passed the acceptance of "National Buddhist culture and grotto art tourism industry famous brand demonstration zone" by AQSIQ in 2016.

1. The awakening of protection consciousness

In the 1920s, after the nationwide public opinion denounced the villagers' self-theft, in the autumn of 1931, the Yungang Stone Buddha Temple custody Committee was established in Datong County, and police officers were set up to guard the grottoes. Later, the "Yungang villa" of Zhao Chengshou, commander of Shanxi cavalry, was also built. In 1935, the county government built a new Yungang village more than 200 meters south of the grottoes, with one courtyard for each household and four Shiquan kilns; in the autumn of 1939, all the villagers moved away from the grottoes. In the summer of 1942, the Mongolian government compiled and issued the "Datong Yungang preservation plan", although it was not possible to implement it at that time.

2. Key protection after the founding of the people's Republic of China

After the founding of new China, the party and government attached great importance to the protection of Yungang. Set up historic sites maintenance office, clean environment, plant trees, repair historic sites. In March 1961, the State Council announced the Yungang Grottoes as the first batch of national key cultural relics protection units. In the 1960s, in view of the serious problems such as cracks, collapse, stone carving spalling and weathering, we organized domestic experts to carry out geological exploration, disease investigation and Research on protection materials and methods. We took the lead in carrying out experimental projects in caves 1 and 2, and adopted bolt pulling, epoxy resin grouting and bonding and traditional reinforcement technologies, which achieved good results. At the same time, the Yungang Grottoes protection project has been included in the ten-year plan of the State Science and Technology Commission. On September 15, 1973, Premier Zhou Enlai accompanied French President Pompidou to visit Yungang and proposed the goal and task of repairing the Grottoes in three years. From 1974 to 1976, the State Administration of cultural relics organized a large-scale rescue and reinforcement of all the endangered caves and statues, which basically solved the problem of the stability of the caves and kept the original appearance of the caves to the maximum extent. Yungang Grottoes like a new life. The "grouting reinforcement technology for surrounding rock cracks" adopted in the three-year project won the first National Science Conference award in 1978.

3. The glorious period of protection

After the cave collapse problem was solved, the anti weathering of stone carving became the theme. In the first half of the 1990s, the protection project of Yungang in the eighth five year plan was carried out in accordance with the instructions of vice premier Tian Jiyun. The comprehensive measures such as reducing the ground in front of the cave, building protective eaves of grottoes 7 and 8, and water-proof and drainage facilities on the top of the cave were taken to control the water disaster, and the preliminary effect was achieved. In the second half, the route change project of Yungang section of national highway 109 was carried out, which completely solved the problem of dust pollution of coal vehicles on the grottoes The harm of environment. At the same time, Yungang Grottoes Research Institute has carried out a lot of scientific research work in cooperation with China Institute of cultural relics, Getty Conservation Institute of the United States and wacker company of Germany. In 1997, the regulations on the protection and administration of Yungang Grottoes in Datong City was approved by the provincial people's Congress. In 2000, the people's Government of Shanxi Province approved and promulgated the Yungang Grottoes planning. In 2002, the provincial government and the State Administration of cultural relics jointly held a meeting on the anti-seepage protection of Yungang Grottoes and started the waterproof project. In 2007, the serious seepage problem of the Western Grottoes was solved. From 2012 to 2015, the construction of Wuhua cave's dangerous rock reinforcement, colored plastic mural restoration, ground sculpture site display and protective cave eaves was completed. Yungang Grottoes protection has entered a glorious period.

1. The rise of Yungang research

The study of Yungang Grottoes began with Cao Yan's "great Jin Xi Jing Wu Zhou Shan rebuilt great Grottoes Temple stele" in the Jin Dynasty, followed by Zhu YIZUN's "Yungang Stone Buddha record" in the early Qing Dynasty. But the real academic research is a century. In the first half century, most of the studies on Yungang Grottoes were conducted by Japanese scholars, such as Nishiya Komura, Yasukuni tsuzumototo, Suzuki guanye, Dading changpan, Xuanmiao Ono, etc., which mainly discussed the architectural features and artistic origins of Yungang Grottoes; while Chinese scholars focused on analyzing the history and architecture of Yungang and introducing the research results of neighboring countries. In September 1933, Liang Sicheng and other colleagues from China Construction Society visited Yungang Grottoes and conducted a survey and Research on the grotto architecture of the Northern Wei Dynasty.

2. The exploration of Japanese scholars

During the period of Japanese invasion of China from 1938 to 1944, the investigation team of Kyoto University headed by Kiichi Mizuno and Mitsuo Naguang conducted a detailed investigation of Yungang Grottoes. His research achievements of photography, measurement, line drawing, rubbings and papers were collected into 16 volumes of Yungang Grottoes, which were published successively from 1951 to 1956, representing the highest level of Yungang research at that time. Shuiye and Changguang pointed out: Yungang art can be divided into two aspects: Western foreign and Chinese tradition. Its western style has diversity, which is the representation of Liangzhou style with strong central Asian (Xinjiang) color. It is obviously influenced by Western stone carvings, clay sculptures and murals, while the early carvings show Gandhara style, Sino Indian style and Central Asian style. Chinese tradition is mainly manifested in animal sculpture, wood like architecture and so on. There is a process of gradual Sinicization of grotto statues.

3. The prosperity of Yungang

In 1947, Mr. Su Bai discovered the "golden stele" while sorting out rare books in Peking University Library, and in 1956 he published the article "a note on the stele of the great grotto Temple rebuilt in Wuzhou mountain, capital of the great Jin Dynasty". Since then, a series of articles have been published, such as the discussion on the stages of Yungang Grottoes, the discovery and research of the golden stele, the gathering of Pingcheng's strength and the formation and development of the Yungang model. From the perspective of history and archaeology, this paper discusses the history and art of Yungang Grottoes in an all-round way, and has made a breakthrough, basically clarifying the historical evolution and stages of Yungang Grottoes. In 2006, Zhang Zhuo's chronicle of Yungang Grottoes was published, which became the first general history of Yungang Grottoes. Among them, "Luyuan Fu" and Yungang Grottoes "," Xuzhou eminent monks and Yungang Grottoes "," Jinbei "discussion", "Quanzhen Taoism and Yungang Grottoes", "Yungang castle building and the decline of ancient temples" and other papers have solved many historical questions. It marks the maturity of Yungang studies.

4. Promotion of archaeological excavation

The promotion of Yungang Grottoes research also benefited from the five stages of archaeological excavation. In 1938 and 1940, Shuiye and Changguang carried out small-scale archaeological excavations on the site in front of cave 8 and Wuhua Cave (caves 9-13), the site in front of tanyao cave 5, the temple site of Northern Wei Dynasty on the western and eastern mountain tops, and the temple site of Liao Dynasty near Longwang temple. From 1972 to 1974, the Yungang Grottoes cultural relics preservation office carried out a large-scale archaeological excavation of the site in front of the Wuhua Grottoes in order to cooperate with the cave maintenance and reinforcement project. In 1987, in order to protect the grottoes on the west side of longwanggou, the excavation in front of the grottoes was carried out. From 1992 to 1993, in order to cooperate with the protection and maintenance of the eighth five year plan and the lowering and hardening of the ground in front of the grottoes, the Yungang Grottoes Institute of cultural relics and the Shanxi Provincial Institute of archaeology jointly carried out large-scale archaeological excavations of the sites in front of the grottoes (caves 9-20) and cave 3. From 2008 to 2012, Yungang Grottoes Research Institute and Provincial Institute of archaeology conducted archaeological exploration on the waterproof area of the top of the mountain in the central and western regions, and excavated two temple sites of the Northern Wei and Liao dynasties. The excavation of a large number of architectural sites and scattered cultural relics has greatly enriched our understanding of the grottoes and monasteries of the past dynasties and their lives.

1. Lonely cold Village

In the fifth century, in the wave of Buddhism spreading to the East, the royal family of the Northern Wei dynasty built the great grotto temple in wuzhoushan. However, from the beginning of its thunderous birth, Yungang Grottoes inevitably embarked on a long road of decline, despite the good deeds of restoration in all dynasties. By the beginning of the 20th century, Yungang, which has experienced thousands of years of vicissitudes, was a desolate and dilapidated scene. The one kilometer long grottoes were separated from the East and west by the ruins of the former military fortress. The Western grottoes were transformed into dwellings, stables, smoke and paint statues, no more solemn. The eastern Grottoes collapsed and decadent, and the cliff carvings of the Ming and Qing Dynasties were no more glamorous. The ancient stone Buddha temples in the central region, with only a few Pilgrims, were no longer the most beautiful It's a good place for people to go to. The solitude of the last world is immersed in the verses of the doer.

2. Doctor's discovery

In June 1902, Dr. Tadao ITO, a Japanese doctor of engineering, was on an inspection tour in China. He inadvertently stepped into the dilapidated gate of the Shifo temple. He was surprised to find that the most spectacular grottoes of the Northern Wei Dynasty were preserved here. Their art forms came directly from the West and were in line with the Japanese ancient style. Later, his Yungang travel notes and the Yungang Grottoes temple in Shanxi, attracted the attention and interest of the world academic * *. In 1907, French Sinologist E. Chavannes came to Yungang with a photographer, and soon published his photos of Yungang Grottoes, Longmen Grottoes and other historical sites as "archaeological Atlas of northern China". From then on, Yungang Grottoes became famous and became a great place for scholars and artists at home and abroad.

3. The disaster of Buddha

However, along with Chinese and foreign researchers, there are also various treasure seekers and antique dealers who collect cultural relics for imperialist powers. They are bold and reckless in luring Yungang villagers and hooligans, chiseling Buddha statues and Buddha heads, and even colluding with the military. Up to September 1929, the national government antiquities preservation Committee sent people to Yungang for investigation and statistics. A total of 96 stone Buddhas were damaged or lost. These lost overseas Yungang statues are mainly scattered in Japan, France, the United States, Germany and other countries.