Project Components and Objectives

1) One major component of the project is a collaborative research effort to better understand the important archeological finds of Northern Qi , to bring scholars together to examine and study the important cultural artifacts of this period found in tombs, sites of former monasteries, and ancient habitation sites, as well as cave temples. A team of scholars will meet in Beijing and travel together to sites around China . Together they will design a program of research and future meetings. Scholars from China will be invited to visit museums in the U.S., in particular, those with examples of Xiangtangshan sculptures and other Northern Qi artifacts.

2) The second major component of this project is a digital reconstruction of the former appearance of the caves. It is now possible through new technology in three-dimensional digital imaging to scan the caves and their missing sculptures and to reconstruct the caves in virtual reality. This component depends in part on the work of the research team to locate and catalogue the stone sculptures from the caves. It requires the cooperation of museums and private collectors in the United States, Europe, and Japan and permission to access the Xiangtangshan caves for scanning and digital photography of the sculptures and their original locations.

3) The third component is the presentation and preservation of the results of the research and digital reconstruction.

• An international conference at the University of Chicago will allow scholars to present their research on culture and art of the Northern Qi dynasty and encourage new perspectives and sharing of ideas on this important but previously understudied period
• We will publish a book of collected scholarly papers on Xiangtangshan and visual culture of the Northern Qi period.
• An exhibition at the David and Alfred Smart Museum, University of Chicago, will show the results of the research and digital reconstruction components of the project together with actual sculptures from the caves. We feel that this kind of exhibition will present the art and information with great effectiveness and educational impact and provide a bridge between the study of ancient cultures and new technology.
• The reconstructed caves and sculptural images can be used in vivid and innovative ways for education and research purposes. We will design a website from which they can be viewed from computers and can be projected in classrooms or exhibition galleries.

4) Finally we plan to make the digital reconstruction available to a broad audience. The Center for the Art of East Asia in the Department of Art History will create the digital reconstruction and own the copyright. We intend to give institutions that collaborate on the project free access and the right to display the digital reconstruction. We retain the right to license its future use.

The results of this project can have many future applications in museum multimedia display, education, archeological work, and historical preservation and reconstruction. In addition, it will make significant contributions to the preservation and study of Chinese art and visual culture. It will advance scholarly and technological cooperation among universities, museums, and other cultural institutions active in this and other fields of study in China, the United States and around the world.

The Northern Qi dynasty (550-577) was part of the Northern Dynasties period (420-589) when the northern part of China was ruled by Xianbei emperors who first established the Northern Wei dynasty in the late fourth century through military conquest. The Northern Qi were the successors to the Eastern Wei (534-550), established after the split of Northern Wei into eastern and western regimes. Under the minister Gao Huan, the power behind the Eastern Wei throne, the eastern capital was established at Ye, in present-day Linzhang county, southern Hebei province. This was also the seat of the Northern Qi dynasty declared in 550 by Gao Huan’s second son, Gao Yang, the Emperor Wenxuan (r. 550-59). The dynasty was ruled by a succession of the sons and grandsons of Gao Huan and then was conquered in 577 by the Northern Zhou (557-581), which had arisen from the Western Wei regime based at Chang’an, in Shaanxi province.

During this period the arts flourished in a multicultural environment. The close interaction between Chinese and non-Chinese fostered new systems of government and agricultural administration, and new, often hybrid, art forms. By the late fifth century, the Xianbei aristocracy frequently intermarried with the local Chinese elite. The rulers made use of the traditional Chinese agrarian system to fill their granaries while maintaining their military strength. They sought out the talents of people of various ethnic backgrounds to assist in administering their empire, to design and furnish their palaces, temples, and tombs, to supply them with luxury goods, and provide religious guidance. Xianbei aristocracy and military leaders, Chinese officials, eminent Buddhist monks, foreign traders, entertainers and official envoys were active participants in the political, religious, cultural, and commercial life of the time. Though brief, the Northern Qi is artistically a very significant period during which the arts of painting and sculpture flourished, and the names of famous artists who were active are recorded in history. The paintings and Buddhist sculptures of this period are boldly innovative and varied in style and set precedents for art of the succeeding Sui and Tang periods. In recent years startling discoveries have been made of sixth century tombs with beautiful mural paintings, finely modeled tomb figures, glazed ceramics and carved stone furnishings that show the richly variegated fabric of Northern Qi culture. The depiction of foreigners and their activities has in particular awakened new interest in the Northern Qi and its contemporary Northern Zhou period and their transformative significance in Chinese history.

The remarkable archeological finds from Eastern Wei and Northern Qi burials and temple sites in recent decades has called for a reassessment of the art of the period that will bring together the new underground finds and material from long-abandoned above-ground sites. Numerous studies and excavation reports show the historical and artistic importance of the Northern Qi. Also among the major artistic achievements of the period were the cave temples and monumental stone carvings, of which Xiangtangshan, in present day Fengfeng Mining District, Handan Municipality, Hebei province, are the most important. Begun in the middle of the sixth century with imperial sponsorship, the principle caves at the sites were completed in the Northern Qi period.

The large-scale caves of Xiangtangshan, “Mountain of Echoing Halls,” are a group of Buddhist cave shrines established near the capital at Ye, and on the road leading between Ye and the Jincheng, the seat of the Gao family, which was much traveled during Eastern Wei and Northern Qi. The Xiangtangshan caves are divided among three sites where the major portion of cave-construction activity was completed in the Northern Qi dynasty. There are eleven caves divided among the three sites, the Northern Group, Bei Xiangtangshan, is the earliest and largest in scale and was begun with imperial sponsorship; the Southern Group, Nan Xiangtangshan, has smaller caves numbered from one to seven; and the third site at Shuiyusi, also known as Xiao Xiangtangshan or “Little Xiangtangshan,” which has one Northern Qi cave with sculptures. The caves at these sites were hollowed from limestone cliffs and carved with images of Buddhist deities, architectural and ornamental elements, and the texts of Buddhist scriptures. These elements represent various important religious concepts and ideals and can be related to popular belief and practice, the scholarship of scriptural texts, and teaching activity of eminent monks of the time. There are only a few dated dedicatory inscriptions from the period, and no contemporary record of the beginning of the caves, but some later inscriptions record the work. Together with the carved images themselves, they provide evidence for dating. The discussion of the caves can be covered by three principal areas of focus: 1] the architectural forms, 2] the carved images and their arrangements, and the 3] engraved scriptural passages.

1] Architecturally the caves were designed as stūpas of one or two storeys with a domed roof. Stūpas, which derive from Indian burial mounds for the relics of the Buddha, developed different forms over the centuries since the historical Buddhas death in the sixth century BCE and over vast geographical distances. From hemispherical mounds covered in stone, to constructed monuments with raised central dome, to multistoried wooden buildings, these types were transmitted across Asia. In Luoyang in the Northern Wei dynasty, the stūpa took the form of a tower that could rise to great heights, the most extreme case being the celebrated stūpa of the Yongning Monastery. However, the favored architectural type of stūpa beginning, it appears, in the Eastern Wei and through the Northern Qi was a single-storey structure with domed roof which refers back to earlier prototypes. The exterior façade of most of the Xiangtangshan caves can be seen to have had a dome carved in relief at the top. Some still have a porch preserved in front showing wooden architectural details, with post and lintel construction and bracketing to support a tiled eave over the entrance. The exterior features are best preserved at Cave 7 of the Southern Group. Smaller relief stūpa-shaped niches are represented inside the caves and on the mountainside nearby. The domed stūpas also appear floating above entrances to caves and at the main images on steles supported, by flying divinities. Its symbolical importance is related to that of the Asokan stūpa, which was a container of the relics of the Buddha. The legend of King Asoka credits this Indian ruler with the distribution of the Buddha’s relics all across his third century BCE empire and the miraculous construction of 80,000 stūpas in a single day.

2] The principal sculptures are groups of Buddhist images set on altars in the central pillars or against the walls of the caves. The interiors of the Xiangtangshan stūpa caves are of two types, the central pillar cave and the chamber with altars on three walls. The main image groups consist of a Buddha as central figure with two, four or six attendants. The standing attendant figures include bodhisattvas, disciples and pratyekabuddhas. These main images are modeled with full volumetric forms in spite of frequently being attached to the walls behind them. Some were originally carved in the round and then set into pedestals and thrones on the cave altars. Subsidiary figures were carved in relief—heavenly musicians, kneeling monks, lions, spirit kings, guardians, etc. These appear on the front of altars, on the walls and ceilings, and in cave entrances. In addition there are fearsome monsters, kneeling and supporting columns at the side of niches, donor figures, paradise scenes, and episodes of the life of the Buddha. Other elements include relief carvings of lotus blossoms, bold sweeping palmette scrolls, incense burners, and small “thousand Buddhas.

3] The engraving of Buddhist scriptures, or sūtras in stone is an important innovative feature of the Xiangtangshan caves. This practice appears to have begun in the Northern Qi period in the area of Ye. The earliest known example is nearby at the Middle Cave of Xiaonanhai near Anyang, Henan. Sūtra engravings appear at both the Northern and Southern Groups of Xiangtangshan Caves. Most notably, the South Cave or “Cave of the Engraved Scriptures” at the Northern Group has extensive sutra engraving work that was sponsored by the official Tang Yong from 568-572. This practice spread to other sites in the area of the capital, most notably Wahuanggong in Shexian, Hebei, and from there to other parts of northern China by the late Northern Qi period. In Shandong province, most of the engravings are in natural settings, as on the sloping sides of mountains or on large boulders, at Taishan, Tieshan, Gangshan and other locations. The sūtras are texts believed to have been teachings of the Buddha and are therefore a type of relics, relics of the Buddha dharma, and appropriately housed within stūpa caves.

The rich and complex content and artistic achievement of Xiangtangshan is not readily surmised today because of the extensive damage. Some of the loss is attributable to the erosion and the passage of the centuries, but most has been perpetrated by relatively recent human activity. The quality of the sculpted images made them a target of looters in service of the art market beginning in the early twentieth century.

The plundering began around 1909 during the period of political upheaval with the collapse of the last imperial dynasty in 1911 and the establishment of the republic, when the relative isolation of the caves from urban centers made possible the large-scale destruction over several decades. The once free-standing images have mostly been removed, and many relief elements are missing, forcibly cut away. Nearly all of the heads and hands of the remaining images are gone. Sculpted figures and fragments began to appear in museum and private collections around 1913. Several large standing figures were published in the Burlington Magazine in 1914. The volumetric modeling, large scale, and fine detailing of these limestone sculptures makes them among the most impressive of Chinese sculptures in many museums in the West and in Japan.

The first photographs known of the caves known internationally were taken in the 1920’s and 1930’s, after extensive damage had already occurred. They show repairs, mostly new replacement heads that were poor substitutes for the original. During the war and in the early years of the Peoples Republic further damage occurred. The caves at the Southern Group, located near the village of Pengchengzhen and at the edge of the coalmining town of Fengfeng were used as storage for a munitions factory and then a people’s daily newspaper. The remaining damaged sculptures and fragments were removed from some of the caves so that they are now virtually empty. Recent renewed awareness of the caves and their sculptures outside China has resulted in attempts to assign sculptures to the caves. These studies so far have been of limited scope and include mis-information, or insufficient information, and misattributions. More detailed and accurate recording of the caves and sculptures will enable further progress in this area.

Though the caves are now under official protection and management, they continue to deteriorate. Environmental damage is now the most serious problem. The caves are situated in a rural coal mining area with severe air pollution from mining, and the operation of coal-fueled electrical power plants, ceramic kilns, and cement factories. The combined effect of acid rain and cement dust is taking a visible toll, particularly at the Southern Group of caves. The quarrying of stone and use of explosives in close proximity to the caves at Shuiyusi threatens the existence of that site. The location of the monumental caves at the Northern Group up on the mountainside in a rural location, gives is an advantage over the other sites. It is today once again used as a religious site where people make offerings to the images and where popular festivals are held.