Photo 1: Buddhist Cliff Carvings at Jingshiyu of Mount Tai
Buddhist Cliff Carvings are calligraphy, statues and other classic artifacts carved by Buddhists on mountain cliffs, which were the products of a specific historical environment during the Northern Dynasty period (386-581 AD) in China. Buddhist Cliff Carvings in Shandong were made in the Northern Zhou and Northern Qi periods, mainly around Mount Tai and Mount Yishan with Buddhist scriptures, names, numbers, sutra names, etc. They are rich in content, wide-ranging in subject matter, and are extremely important cultural relics in the history of Chinese Buddhism.
Photo 2: Buddhist Cliff Carvings on Hongding Mountain, Dongping County, Shandong Province
The Buddhist Cliff Carvings of the Northern Dynasties in Shandong Province are famous for their majesty and grandeur, and are revered by Mr. Kang Youwei (a renowned Chinese scholar in late Qing Dynasty) as "the ancestor of large characters" and "the father of calligraphy", which is currently a hot spot in the fields of Buddhist culture, art archaeology and calligraphy art history. As far as calligraphy is concerned, these carvings have great artistic value in terms of the innovation, the magnificence of calligraphy, and the pursuit of "metaphysical" and "Confucian" aesthetic expressions.
The Buddhist Cliff Carvings in Shandong are mainly distributed around Mount Tai and Mount Yishan, and have been found in the following places: Yellow Stone Cliff of Thousand-Buddha Mountain in Jinan City, Hongfan East Mountain, Yuncui Mountain and Ergu Mountain in Pingyin County, Sili Mountain and Hongding Mountain in Dongping County, Phoenix Mountain in Ningyang County, Shuiniu Mountain in Wenshang County, Yingfo Rock of Culai Mountain in Xintai County, Jingshiyu of Mount Tai, Mount Yishan, Jian Moutain, Tie Mountain, Ge Mountain and Gang Mountain in Zoucheng City and so on. The contents include scriptures, verses, Buddha's names, sutra names, titles, prefaces, eulogia and odes, etc.
I Buddhist Cliff Carvings around Mount Tai in Northern Dynasty
(A) Carvings at Jingshiyu, Mount Tai
The cliff carvings at Jingshiyu is located 1 km northeast of the Doumu Palace at the southern foot of Mount Tai. The scripture is carved on a huge granite level ground. The longest part of the carved surface is 52 meters, the shortest part is 26.4 meters and the width is 32.2 meters with a total area of 1,200 square meters. The sutra is the first half of the Vajra Sutra translated by Kumarajiva. It is written in Chinese official or regular script in 47 rows with 10 to 92 Chinese characters per row. The diameter of the characters ranges from 50 to 60 cm. Only 1,382 characters exist today.
Photo 3: Panoramic view of the cliff carvings at Jingshiyu
Photo 4: Rubbings of the cliff carvings at Jingshiyu
Photo 5: Six characters of cliff carvings at Jingshiyu
The calligraphic style of the cliff carvings at Jingshiyu is mainly Chinese Clerical script of characters with various strokes of regular, running and seal script in a broad and natural form. They are rich in changes, majestic in shape and magnificent in momentum. The calligraphy is so vigorous and graceful that it is reputed as "the ancestor of calligraphy".It is a masterpiece of Chinese calligraphy and a treasure of the Buddhist culture in Mount Tai.
(2) Buddhist Cliff Carvings on Culai Mountain
Carved in the first year of Wuping of Northern Qi Dynasty (570 AD), cliff carvings here can be found in two places. One is on the boulder north of Guanghua Temple and the content is "Great Prajna Sutra", and the other is on the Yingfo Rock and the content is "Manjuist Prajna Sutra".
Photo 6: The original stone with cliff carvings of “Manjuist Prajna Sutra"
Photo 7: Rubbings of cliff carvings of “Manjuist Prajna Sutra"
The "Great Prajna Sutra" is carved on a huge round stone to the east of the site of Guanghua Temple in Julai Mountain Forest Farm. The sutra and its title are engraved on the front side, with the height of 1.33 meters and the width of 2.02 meters. The sutra is written in clerical script in 8 rows, with 7 characters per row, and the diameter of each character is 18 cm. The content is taken from the Maha Prajna Paramita Sutra.
Photo 8: Cliff carvings of “Manjuist Prajna Sultra” and inscriptions on Yingfo Rock 1
Photo 9: The original stone with cliff carvings of “Manjuist Prajna Sultra” and inscriptions on Yingfo Rock 2
Photo 10: Rubbings of "Manjuist Prajna Sutra" and inscriptions on Yingfo Rock
The "Manjushri Prajna Sutra" is engraved on the boulder of Yingfo Rock, 1 km southeast of Culai Mountain Forest Farm. The sutra is engraved on the bottom and the inscription engraved on the top. The carved surface is 1.35 meters high and 3.4 meters wide. It is written in the Chinese clerical script in 14 rows with 7 characters per row and the diameter of the Chinese characters is 20 cm. The sutra is taken from the "Manjushri Sutra of Prajna Paramita". The title is on the upper right side of Manjushri Sutra. The carved surface is 2.45 meters high and 1.17 meters wide. It is inscribed in the clerical and regular script, with two rows at the top and four rows at the bottom, and the diameter of the characters is 6-30 cm.
(3) Cliff carvings on Hongding Mountain in Dongping County
Located 1.5 kilometers northeast of Tuncunpu Village, Jiuxian Township, Dongping County, with an altitude of 368 meters, Hongding Mountain is divided into Big Hongding and Small Hongding. The scriptures are engraved on the south and north cliffs of the "concave" valley at the west foot of the Small Hongding. There are 22 places engraved with scriptures, Buddha names, inscriptions, odes, etc. on the mountain, including 16 carvings on the north cliff wall and 6 on the south cliff wall.
Photo 11: The original Stone of cliff carvings of the Great Emptiness Buddha
Photo 12: Rubbings of the cliff carvings of "the Great Emptiness Buddha
(4) Cliff carvings on Shuiniu Mountain, Wenshang County
The sutra is carved on the cliff wall of Shuiniu Mountain located east of Xiaolou Village, Baishi Township, Wenshang County, with a carved surface of 2.6 meters in height and 1.95 meters in width. It is written in the Chinese clerical and regular script in 6 rows with 9 characters per row. Each character is 27 cm in diameter, and is taken from Maha Prajna Paramita Sultra.
Photo 13: The original stone with cliff carvings at Shuiniu Mountain, Wenshang County
Photo 14: Rubbings of cliff carvings on Shuiniu Mountain, Wenshang County
(5) Buddha Name on Phoenix Mountain
The name is carved on the top of Phoenix Mountain, 500 meters east of Liujiazhuang Village, Geshi Township, Ningyang County, with Buddha's name and several other words carved at the same time. The picture below shows the Chinese character "Buddha" (one of them), which is on the stone in the middle of the mountain top. The engraved surface is 0.74 meters long and 0.85 meters wide. It is written in the clerical and regular script in two rows and the diameter of the character is 34 cm.
Photo 15: The original stone with cliff carvings on Phoenix Mountain
Photo 16: Rubbings the name of the Buddha at Phoenix Mountain
II Cliff carvings of the Northern Dynasties on four mountains in Zoucheng City
There are four places of cliff carvings on Tie Mountain, Gong Mountain, Ge Mountain and Yi Moutain respectively. The original carvings on Jian Mountain were destroyed in 1960 and only few rubbings still exist today. The four mountain cliffs are carved with Buddhist sutras and inscriptions on the granite walls during the Northern Qi and Northern Zhou dynasties.
(1) Cliff carvings on Tie Mountain
Located on Tie Mountain in the north of Zoucheng City, 146 meters above sea level, the carvings here are engraved on a granite level ground. There is a stone pit nearby. According to local legends, an immortal named Tieguaili left the footprints here and the mountain is named after his name.
Photo 17: The original stone of cliff carvings on Tie Mountian
Photo 18: Rubbings of stone carvings of Stone Ode on Tie Mountain
Photo 19: Rubbings of the cliff sutra "Stone Ode" in Tie Moutian
The "Stone Ode" is located at the bottom left of the engraved sutra "Collection of Scriptures of Hai Hui Bodhisattva". The engraved surface is 17 meters long and 3.5 meters wide. It is engraved with two characters "Stone Ode" in seal script, with a diameter of 70-95 cm. The text of the ode is written in the Chinese clerical and regular script in 12 rows with 43-52 characters per row. Each character is 22 cm in diameter.
(2) Cliff Carving on Ge Mountain
Ge Mountain is located 1.2 kilometers north of Gezhuang Village, Dasou Township, 13 kilometers east of Zoucheng City, with an altitude of 235 meters. The scripture is engraved on a huge stone level ground with a granite surface, 21 meters long and 8.5 meters wide at the western foot of Ge Mountain. It is written in clerical and regular script in 10 rows and 42 characters per row and the diameter of the characters is 50 cm. The scripture is "Vimalakirti Sutra".
Photo 20: The original stone with cliff carvings on Ge Mountain
Photo 21: Rubbings of cliff carvings on Ge Mountain
(3) Buddhist cliff carving on Gang Mountain
243 meters above sea level, Gong Mountain lies in the northern suburbs of Zoucheng City and it is the northern neighbor of Tie Mountain. There are two kinds of scriptures carved on the mountain: one is the excerpt of "Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra", and the other is the excerpt of " Amitayurdhyana Sutra". The same verse of the former is carved twice: one is a scattered carving with large characters, 30-40 cm in diameter, distributed on more than 30 boulders in the east and west; the other is a more concentrated writing with small characters, 10-20 cm in diameter, located on 5 boulders in the east and west.
Photo 22: The original stone on which the scripture was carved on Gang Mountain
Photo 23: Rubbings of cliff carvings on Gang Mountain
(4) Buddhist cliff carving on Yi Mountain
Yi Mountain, also known as Zhiyi or Zou Mountain, is located 10 kilometers southeast of Zoucheng City. It is 548 meters above sea level and of granite quality. Since ancient times, it has been a famous mountain dubbed as "small Mount Tai" in Shandong Province. The mountain has more than a hundred kinds of stone carvings including 3 places of carvings from Northern Qi Dynasty.
Photo 24: The original stone with the cliff carvings of "Manjushri Prajna Sutra" on Yi Mountain
Photo 25: Rubbings of the cliff carvings of "Manjushri Prajna Sutra" on Yi Mountain
The "Manjushri Prajna Sutra" is carved on the cliff next to the "Goblin Cave" halfway up the mountain. The engraved surface is 3.8 meters high and 2.6 meters wide. It is written in clerical script in 8 rows and 14 characters per row and the diameter of the characters is 17-23 cm.
(5) Cliff carving on Jian Mountain
The carved scripture is located 6 kilometers east of Zoucheng City. The broad and flat stone surface on the mountain ridge is engraved with four big Chinese characters “Great Emptiness Buddha' (Da Kong Wang Fo)” , so the place is later called "Great Buddha Ridge". There are paragraphs of scripture, Buddha names, prefaces, verses, inscriptions, etc, with a total of more than 400 Chinese characters. In 1960, the carvings were all destroyed due to the construction of reservoirs with only some rubbings remaining today.
Photo 26: The ruins of cliff carvings on Jian Mountain
Photo 27: Rubbings of Manjuist Prajna Sutra on Jian Mountain