Religious Interpretation of Yungang Grottoes: Blending of Chinese and Western Cultures

Abstract

The grotto art in China has a long history. Yungang grotto is a representative grotto with China characteristics that has been preserved so far in the Northern Wei Dynasty, and it is an important cultural heritage of the Northern Wei Dynasty, which embodies the culture of the Northern Wei Dynasty. Yungang grotto is also the beginning of the localization of China grotto art. The unique artistic charm of Yungang Grottoes lies in the organic combination of Indian Buddhist culture and China traditional culture, which incorporates the inherent culture of Xianbei people. This paper briefly expounds and analyzes the statue model of Yungang Grottoes bred by multiculturalism; From the perspective of cultural thought, this paper explores the consciousness of statues in Yungang Grottoes. From the perspective of blending Chinese and western cultures, this paper studies the architecture and Buddhist sculptures of Yungang Grottoes from the religious level. By studying the characteristics of Yungang Grottoes' architecture and Buddhist sculptures, this paper tries to demonstrate the Xianbei cultural characteristics of Yungang Grottoes and discuss the design of Yungang Grottoes and the blending characteristics of Chinese and western cultures embodied in the design. It is hoped that this study will shed some light on understanding and exploring the grotto culture, the blending of Chinese and western cultures and the China-oriented Buddhism.