On the east bank of the Minjiang River in Leshan City, Sichuan, there is a world-famous stone Buddha statue - the Leshan Giant Buddha, which is also the largest stone statue in my country. However, what many people don’t know is that there is a stone Buddha statue in Leshan that

On the east bank of Minjiang in Leshan City, Sichuan, there is a world-famous stone Buddha statue - Leshan Giant Buddha , which is also the largest stone statue in my country. However, what many people don’t know is that there is a stone Buddha statue in Leshan that is comparable to the Leshan Giant Buddha, and it is also older. However, it is still a semi-finished product. Some people even say that it is the Leshan Giant Buddha. Blueprint, is this true or false? Below, the editor will reveal the secret to you.

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Historical records indicate that the Leshan Giant Buddha was called Lingyun Giant Buddha in ancient times. It was started in the first year of Kaiyuan of the Tang Dynasty (713 AD) and was not completed until the Zhenyuan year. It took more than a hundred years and can be called a miracle in stone Buddha statues in my country. The Leshan Giant Buddha has always been considered a unique Buddha statue, but archaeological experts accidentally discovered another stone Buddha statue. In the 1990s, archaeological experts inspected the Pingqiang Three Gorges area, which is also the junction of Leshan City and Meishan City. The great poet Du Fu also left poems here, such as "Outside the River" The Three Gorges are connected to each other, and new poems are sparse all day long when drinking wine." The Pingqiang Three Gorges area has winding rivers and beautiful scenery. There are also cliffs on both sides of the bank, and there are many hanging coffins.

During the inspection, experts heard from local villagers that there is a Giant Buddha in the upper reaches of the Pingqiang Three Gorges, and they also said that it is the real "Leshan Giant Buddha". Experts were also very surprised and puzzled by this. Is it still a little-known Buddha? A few days later, experts, led by local villagers, found the legendary mysterious Buddha. However, the outline of the Buddha could only be seen in the distance on the other side of the river. If you stood close, you could only see the rock wall covered with plants. . At this time, experts realized that this turned out to be an unfinished giant Buddha. The only outline that could be seen was the head, which was about 6-8 meters high, and the entire body had not yet been excavated.

In the following years, experts conducted in-depth research on this "unfinished project". According to the traces of excavation, it was speculated that it was also a project in the Tang Dynasty, and its time was earlier than the Leshan Giant Buddha. Therefore, the experts They became curious about its legend. As we all know, the designer of the Leshan Giant Buddha is Master Haitong. In his early years, he witnessed too many shipwrecks when passing by the Minjiang River, so he prepared to offer salvation to those who died in shipwrecks. At the same time, in order to avoid more shipwrecks, Master Haitong summoned skilled craftsmen to carve Buddha statues on both sides of the Minjiang River.

At the beginning, Master Haitong chose a cliff in the Pingqiang Three Gorges and reached an agreement with the mountain god to carve a Maitreya Buddha statue here. As a result, for some unknown reason, the mountain god actually repented during the excavation process, so that all the parts carved during the day were restored to their original appearance at night. So Master Haitong left the Pingqiang Three Gorges with his craftsmen in a rage, and finally chose to continue digging the Giant Buddha in another place, which is now the Leshan Giant Buddha... Of course, this is just a local legend, so it doesn't sound right. Too believable.

Local villagers said that the mountain god may be a legend, but Master Tonghai is indeed a real person. Therefore, they also believe that Master Tonghai chose a rock wall in the Pingqiang Three Gorges to practice his skills before excavating the Leshan Giant Buddha. After all, no one had carved giant sculptures at that time. Buddha statue experience. So, Master Tonghai started experimenting in the Pingqiang Three Gorges. After they dug out the head of the Buddha statue, they found that the whole project was not difficult at all, so they gave up "practicing" and couldn't wait to start officially digging the Buddha statue. Archaeological experts deny this, because at that time, it took a lot of manpower and financial resources to dig out Buddha statues, and it was impossible to have money to "practice".

After research, experts have found no record of Master Tonghai excavating other Buddha statues in historical materials. The only one is the current Leshan Giant Buddha. Therefore, the unfinished Buddha statue in the Pingqiang Three Gorges most likely has nothing to do with Master Tonghai. Experts speculate that before Master Tonghai, there may have been other eminent monks who were carving out the Buddha statue. However, after they finished carving out the head of the Buddha statue, they stopped digging for various reasons.

Experts said that there are only three reasons. The first is lack of money, and the second is lack of people. People and money were a necessary condition for new construction projects in ancient times. However, experts think that the most likely reason is still the third. That is to say, the rocks in this mountain are not suitable for carving Buddha statues. After scientific identification, the rock walls of the Pingqiang Three Gorges are sandstone, and the rocks are easy to loosen. For example, the nose or ears that were just carved today fell off within a few days. Therefore, this mysterious monk finally chose to give up, leaving us with regrets.

Comparison can be found that in a sense, the Leshan Giant Buddha succeeded, and it also made Master Tonghai a success. If it were not for the Leshan Giant Buddha, Master Tonghai would be just an unknown monk in history; while the Pingqiang Three Gorges Buddha failed, Perhaps the eminent monk at that time was more famous than Master Tonghai, but he failed and became unknown in history, and we still don’t know who he is today.

Reference:

Author of "Leshan Giant Buddha" : Edited by Dong Jing , Hua Yuzhi teaches painting, publisher : Sichuan Children's Publishing House

Wen Xiucai, editor-in-chief of Wenlan Hairun Studio, this article is written by: Special History Writer: Liu Lijiang