Where Did The Stone Come From For The Thousand-year-old Fangshan Yunju Temple Stone Scripture?

The stone scripture of Yunju Temple is a Chinese cultural miracle after the Great Wall and the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. From the Sui Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty, the number of stone sutras carved is the highest in the past and present. Some experts have roughly calculated that these 14,278 stone scriptures carved for more than a thousand years, are connected end to end, and are 25 miles long. They are known as the "Great Wall of Stone Carvings" by the world.

Where did the stone come from for the thousand-year-old Fangshan Yunju Temple Stone Scripture? The research team lasted two years to investigate the secret.

Leiyin Travertine is bluestone-like marble

About 70 kilometers southwest of the city, in the Fangshan Mountain Col, there is a thousand-year-old temple called Yunju Temple. Not far from the ancient temple, is the famous Shijing Mountain at home and abroad. At the top of the mountain, there are nine Buddhist scripture caves on the upper and lower levels, which contain more than 4,000 stone scriptures carved from the Sui Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty.

Among the nine Buddhist scriptures caves, Leiyin Cave is the earliest Buddhist scripture cave in Shijingshan. Its walls are inlaid with 146 stone scripture plates originally engraved by Jingwan, a monk in the late Sui Dynasty, the founder of the Shijingshan scripture carving business. He made a vow to engrave the scriptures in Baidai Mountain in troubled times, and the reason why he chose this place was related to the surrounding stone materials and caves suitable for Tibetan scriptures.

Huang Bingzhang, the former curator of the Buddhist Books and Cultural Relics Museum of the Chinese Buddhist Association and one of the excavators of the Fangshan Stone Scriptures, once stated in the "Shijing Mountain and Yunju Temple": "The Shijing Mountain is not only beautiful in scenery, but the nearby Shiwo Village is rich in white and good carvings. Through the stone, it was taken by Jingwan."

The Dashiwo area of Fangshan, where Yunju Temple is located, is rich in various types of marble, including bluestone, blue-white stone, white stone, etc. It is especially famous for its white jade-like "white marble". As a result, many people naturally associate the stone classics with white marble. Coupled with the fact that it is difficult to distinguish white marble among the folks, it is said that "Leiyin Cave Stone Scripture was carved from white marble". And is the stone carved into the stone scripture white marble? Where is it? Has always been ignored by people.

In November 2015, the 38th UNESCO General Conference proposed that the World Geopark should strengthen research on the relationship between the natural and cultural heritage in its region. As a UNESCO-licensed geopark, China Fangshan Global Geopark organized a scientific research team in June 2017 to start the "Relationship Study of Yunju Temple Stone Scripture Culture and Geology".

Shijing experts and geological experts formed a scientific research team to conduct field investigations. "In the beginning, our team organized a visit to Yunju Temple." As a member of the scientific research team, Wei Jinglian, a geologist, was limited by little interest in Buddhist culture. "The first time I went to see it, I hardly left much impression. I didn’t notice the material of the Leiyin Cave Stone Scripture.” A few days later, Wei Jinglian and the research team went to see it again and found out, “The material of the Stone Scripture is blue and black, not like white marble. Is it true?”

In order to clear up the doubts in the happiness, the scientific research team specially invited several stone classics experts and experienced stonemasons to visit the mountain again. "The stonemason took a look and said it was definitely not white marble." Combined with the identification of the stonemason, geologists based on their knowledge and experience in rock, judged that the Leiyin Travertine Stone should be bluestone marble.

However, where exactly these bluestone marbles are, has become a question that the research team needs to answer. "As the saying goes, where salt is salty, and where vinegar is sour. According to the stone types of Leiyin Travertine, we try to find the digging sites of this type of marble as much as possible to prove it." Wei Jinglian said.

Investigation found the quarrying site of Sui and Tang Dynasties

The "big stone nests" in Fangshan originally referred to the puddles left behind after quarrying, and they were called stone nests by the locals. The history of stone mining here is quite long, going back to the Jin Dynasty and down to the present, and large and small quarrying pits were formed throughout the countryside in various periods.

How to find the stone carving site more than a thousand years ago? "We searched for early excavation sites as much as possible according to the same geological conditions and the same rock types." Under the guidance of Shijing experts, the research team first went to the villages around Dashiwo to search for it, but failed.

Faced with this situation, the research team can only conduct a "carpet-style" search. The team conducted 9 field visits in Shimen, Yanshang, Gaozhuang, Shiwo, Xinzhuang and other villages. When the "mountains and waters were exhausted", they finally found a fenced hill in Dushu Village with a bare side. Rock formations. They found the owner in the village, and then went under the small hill in the orchard. According to the features of the exposed rock texture, layering, etc., they found that the stone material almost the same as the Leiyin Cave Stone can be found here.

“Although these mining faces are not necessarily collected during the Sui and Tang Dynasties, but according to its stratigraphic structure, stone layer characteristics, etc., they represent the characteristics of the stratigraphic stone in the surrounding areas at that time, and can be compared and confirmed by the carved stones." Wei Jinglian said.

Through field investigation and comprehensive analysis, the scientific research team came to the conclusion that the stone materials and Thousand Buddha Pillars carved in Leiyin Cave are mainly bluestone, Aiyeqing and Qingbaishi buried 15 to 20 meters underground. In addition, Dushu Village in Dashiwo Town, today's Yanshang Village and Xiezi Mountain and Xiaoshan area should be the main stone excavation sites of Fangshan in the early Sui and Tang Dynasties.

To this end, the scientific research team conducted an on-site inspection of Mobei Temple. "It is close to Shijing Mountain, the terrain is open, there are quarries nearby, the stone transportation is convenient, the life is convenient, the natural conditions and the stone resources are very superior...All signs confirm the views of the Shijing experts."

At the same time, geological experts further comprehensively analyzed natural conditions, stone mining conditions, and human activities, and believed that: “Because the white marble is only buried in Gaozhuang Village and the buried position is deep, it often needs to be excavated more than 50 meters before it can be harvested. It was impossible to pick them during the Sui and Tang Dynasties."

"More than a thousand years ago, Gaozhuang Village did not exist." Yang Yiwu further explained to reporters that when Sui Seng Jingwan carved the scriptures, there was still an unexploited virgin land. "After the Liao and Jin Dynasties, especially during the Ming and Qing dynasties, white marble must be mined from here whether it was to build capitals, palaces, or to build mausoleums and gardens. Skilled craftsmen came here after the king’s orders, and countless servants came to work here, thus forming a natural village. "

Therefore, in combination with the historical development of engraving, the emergence of Mobei Temple, the similarity between the marble produced around Mobei Temple and the stones in Leiyin Cave, and the convenience of quarrying and transporting rocks here, the Fangshan Global Geopark's research report pointed out: The 146 national gems carved in the Sui and Tang dynasties contained in the "Leiyin Cave" of Yunju Temple, a thousand-year-old temple, are not "white marble" but mainly bluestone marble. "But whether the stone scriptures and stone materials published by people in the later period will have white marble, it needs more in-depth research and textual research." Wei Jinglian said.