隋代の龍門石窟

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The Long-men grottoes in the Sui dynasty were rarely known except a few niches with the name of the era. Therefore, it has generally been thought that few Buddhist grottoes were made in the Sui dynasty. However, since the careful examinations of wall paintings in the Dun-huang Grottoes had been carried out, it came to be known that there were about one hundred grottoes related to the Sui dynasty era in the Dun-huang grottoes. Therefore, the surpassing policies of worshipping Buddhism promotion by Emperor Wen-di and Yang-di were verified. The following consideration focuses on the Gu-yang Cave in the Long-men Grottoes. The Gu-yang Cave in Long-men Grottoes has plenty of niches with the inscriptions of Northern Wei dynasty era. Therefore, generally speaking, it is believed that those grottoes were chiselled in the Northern Wei dynasty. But the epigraph (Fig. 2) on the wall at the inner part on the right side of the Gu-yang Cave means the Cave of the ancient Lou-yang. Therefore, this epigraph cannot be regarded as a product in the Northern Wei. dynasty. Moreover, in terms of the calligraphy style, the letters on the epigraph belong to the style of the gentle and regular script in the Sui and Tang dynasties (Fig. 3). On the other hand, the stiff style of the regular script in the Northern Wei dynasty (Fig. 1) is quite deifferent from the former one. There fore, we should say that the letters of the epigraph of Gu-yang Cave were inscribed in other later eras. On the background of the letters of the epigraph of Gu-yang Cave, many figures of people and flowers are depicted (Fig. 2). For exemple, there are the figures of a few lotuses rising from a jar in the middle of the epigraph, and there are the images of lay believers on both sides of the lotuses. And on the upper part of the epigraph are the images of an emperor and an empress, and on the lower part are the images of maids and nale servants having each lotus with three leaves or each offering. The similar images of those maids and male servants are found on the other niches in the Gu-yang Cave (Fig.4). Therefore, we can say that both figures and letters of the epigraph of Gu-yang 3ave belong to the same later era. On the second layer of the niches on the southern wall of the Gu-yang Cave are the images of two Buddhas, i.e. Shakyamuni and Prabhutaratna sitting together. And on the upper edge of the niche on which the two Buddhas are inscribed there are the relief pictures on the biography of Shakyamuni (Fig. 12). One of those pictures shows a scene of his birth and his seven footmarks. The same picture can be found for the first time in the relics in the East Wei dynasty (Fig. 13). The description on the scene of Shakyamuni's birth can be seen in the Sui dynasty's sutras. And it is difficult to find out the figures such as flower rings (Fig. 10) or strings of beads or statues of seven or twelve Buddhas on haloes (Fig. 9) in the caves in the Northern Wei dynasty. By examining the Shui-quan Grottoes in the northern suburbs of Lou-yang, using the information on the Shui-quan Grottoes released in 1990, I have found the niches of the Shui-quan Grottoes (Fig. 14) very similar to the ones of the Gu-yang Cave in the Long-men Grottoes. The stela left in the Shui-quan Grottoes shows "the period of ten years or so of Tai-he age (489-495 A.D.)" in Northern Wei dynasty. The Shui-quan Grottoes were made during that period. However, a long paragraph of smaller letters was added on the same stela in a later era. This paragraph reads: the King, He-nan molded three bronze statues in Lou-zhou. In the authentic historical books we can find three persons who were called the King, He-nan, that is, Yao, King of He-nan in the Northern Wei dynasty, and Xiao-yu in the Northern Ch'i dynasty, and Zhao in the Sui dynasty. The same paragraph of the smaller letters contains such descriptions as "1,500 Long-hua statues," "3,000 Buddhistic shrines," "16 sections of the 16 prince statues," "30,000 big Buddhist statues," and so forth. It is possible that these Buddhist statues were made by the King, He-nan Zhao, grandson of Emperor Wen-di i.e. the eldest son of Emperor Yang di. The period of the King, He-nan Zhao is from 590 to 601 A.D. Consequently, I can conclude that the Gu-yang Cave was repaired after Wen-di had been enthroned. The Buddhistic books, i.e. Fa Yuan Zhu Lin and Bian Zheng Lun say that Emperor Wen-di renovated 1,508,940 old statues. This description will be able to be applied to the above mentioned renovation work of the Gu-yang Cave and the Shui-quan Grottoes.
創価大学の論文

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小山満
創価大学

隋代の龍門石窟

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