A a masterpiece of Chinese timber construction, Yingxian Muta, octagonal in shape, is built without the help of a single nail, screw, or bolt. Its unique construction employs fifty-four different kinds of duogong, or bracket arms, one of the most complex examples of roof construction in China, and, indeed, in the world, and certainly the most complex example of roof construction of any building constructed during the Liao Dynasty.

Its all-wood (of course) interior staircase reveals nine floors, although the pagoda’s exterior leads the viewer to expect only five floors. In the center of the ground floor is an 11-meter high statue of sitting Sakyamuni, plump and amiable, yet exuding dignity and surrounded by six brightly colored pictures of Buddha. On the second floor is a statue of Buddha and four Bodhisattvas, while on the third floor is a statue of Buddha with four faces, each face with a piercing gaze. The four-faceted Buddha symbolizes the infinite knowledge and wisdom of Buddha, whose gaze can pierce any object, or “see through” appearances to the core, as it were. On the fourth floor is a statue of Buddha, two statues of Bodhisattva and two statues of lesser aspirants. On the fifth floor is another statue of a plump, sociable sitting Sakyamuni surrounded by four differently shaped, but exquisitely formed, Buddha statues.

There are windows on all eight sides of the pagoda, offering excellent views of the surrounding countryside, especially in good weather, including views of Mt. Hengshan and the nearby Songgan River.

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The present-day memorial temple complex, which is vast, has been damaged and destroyed over the years but was restored and enlarged roughly to its present format during the middle of the 12th century CE. The memorial temple complex, though dedicated to Confucius from its inception, has not always been called the Confucian Temple. In earlier times it had different titles, among these, that of Dacheng Palace. Under that title, the temple complex was rebuilt in the 3rd Dading Year (CE 1163) of the Jin (CE 1115-1234) Dynasty, i.e., during the reign (CE 1161-1189) of Emperor Shizong. After the complex was renamed the Confucian Temple (better known today as Pingyao Confucian Temple), its main hall was given the name of Dacheng Palace. Pingyao Confucian Temple is China’s oldest preserved Confucian temple. Those parts of the temple complex which stem from the reconstruction in CE 1163 are the only examples of Jin Dynasty Confucian-temple architecture to be found throughout all of China. Moreover, the temple complex boasts 87 sculptures of Confucius and his disciples, the largest grouping of such sculptures in any Confucian temple complex anywhere in the world.

Throughout most of its history, Pingyao Confucian Temple was the home of the local school. With the abolition of the old Chinese examination system that had been set up during the final years of the reign (CE 1875-1908) of Emperor Guangxu during the Qing (CE 1644-1911) Dynasty, the old local school hierarchy was also abolished. Thus the local school at Pingyao Confucian Temple became the Industrial School of Pingyao County.

In 1923, a group of local businessmen and merchants contributed funds to build Pingyao Lizhi Middle School at the temple. The head of the county, Guo Xueqian, inscribed the new middle school’s name on a stele that hung over the entrance to the school. After the emergence of the People’s Republic of China, the school was placed under the authority of the state and renamed simply “Pingyao Middle School”. It was moved from Pingyao Confucian Temple to a location in Chayuan Street in Pingyao. In 1950, Pingyao Middle School fusioned with Taiyue Middle School and the new, larger school was re-located back to Pingyao Confucian Temple.

Most of the architecture of Pingyao Confucian Temple has been preserved in its Jin Dynasty state, i.e., from its CE 1163 restoration state, also under the government of the PRC. Jiuxing Gate, the Western knowledge teaching facility and the provincial livestock office were dismantled, however. In the late 1950s, a new teaching facility was incorporated into Pingyao Middle School, while the Chaoshan Classical Learning Academy as well as Jingyi Pavilion and Zunjing Pavilion were demolished. Still, much remains of the original school buildings at Pingyao Confucian Temple, just as much of the temple complex dating back to the restoration in CE 1165 remains.

In December 1997, the Ancient City of Pingyao – with, among its many preservation-worthy attractions, the Pingyao Confucian Temple – was officially inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It had already been granted special protection by the state government of China as a cultural heritage site. Following the UNESCO World Heritage Site recognition, steps were taken to open Pingyao Confucian Temple to the public while preserving the temple complex from excessive and uncontrolled traffic. Thus Pingyao Confucian Temple was formally opened to the public in 2004.

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It should also be pointed out that at the time of the digging of the Yungang Grottoes proper (the sculptures and other statues stem from the period CE 520-525, i.e., towards the end of the Northern Wei Dynasty), the city of Datong was the capital of the Northern Wei Dynasty; the capital was moved to the city of Luoyang (home of the Longmen Grottoes) in CE 494.

Of the 53 original grottoes of the Yungang Grotto complex, only 45 remain intact. These remaining 45 grottoes contain some 250 niches and 51,000 statues, the latter ranging from a few centimeters in height to 17 meters high. Grottoes No. 5 and No. 6 are particularly impressive as they are very colorful and intricately detailed, compared to other grottoes here which contain few, but large, figures. At the other extreme, the 14-meter-high seated Buddha of Sakyamuni outside Grotto No. 20 commands respect not only for its size, but also for the face of the figure, which is characterized by soft lines and a pair of eyes that radiate intellectual and spiritual vigor.

Unfortunately, these precious grottoes have suffered severe and sustained degradation, both at the hand of nature (in the form of exposure to the elements, including driven sand) and at the hand of man, aka pollution, especially in the form of coal dust and and other industrial-produced grime which has marred the beauty of these fragile grottoes. In fact, the international community has begun to show an interest in the preservation of all of the old grottoes of China, including the Yungang Grottoes. For example, the Getty Conservation Institute has teamed up with the government of the PRC in an effort to halt the degradation of the Mogao and Yungang Grottoes, recognizing that these grottoes are part of world culture. In that regard, a word or two on the cultural signifance of the grottoes – or perhaps more properly, the cultural signifance of the contents of the grottoes – is in order…

The emergence of the art of the Yungang Grottoes (and the same applies even more emphatically to the Magao Grottoes) is intimately linked to the Silk Road that connected China to the outside world from the 1st century BCE to the 16th century CE. The Silk Road was of course primarily a trade route, but it was also a communications route in the broadest sense, i.e., ideas traversed from east to west and vice-versa (the very notion of East versus West surely stems from the geography of the overland Silk Road route*, which, from Chang’an (present-day Xi’an) in the east to Constantinople (Istanbul) in the west, very nearly describes a straight, horizontal, east-west line). One such idea that travelled from east to west during the era of the Silk Road was Buddhism. Indeed, the Magao Grottoes lie directly on the original, northern Silk Road route.

At the time of the interrior adornment of the Magao and Yungang Grottoes, Buddhism was in ascendance in China. Less than a century later another religious idea, which would prove to be pernicious to these Buddhist grottoes, would travel in the reverse direction: Islam. A number of the images of these grottoes, especially those representing the human form, would be effaced by zealous Muslims (though, in fairness, it must be said that much of the effacement seen on the buddha figures of Yungang Grottoes is due to unchecked natural erosion and manmade pollution).

The unique beauty of the Yungang Grottoes was recognized almost immediately upon their completion. Li Dao-Yuan (CE 466-527), a renowned geographer in China during the Northern Wei Dynasty, once said, “The 53 grottoes, carved out of cliffs, are vivid, grand and rarely seen elsewhere; the mountain shrines and waterside palaces co-exist so harmoniously here”. The most culturally significant figures in the Yungang Grottoes, after the Buddha figures, is perhaps the statues of the five Chinese emperors. These important works of art are among the few historical relics to survive the Northern Wei Dynasty. The international community has been somewhat tardy in recognizing the contribution of these grottoes to our common cultural heritage, but it has finally responded favorably. The invaluable work of the Ghetty Conservation Institute has already been mentioned above. In 2001, UNESCO officially recognized the cultural importance of the Yungang Grottoes by including them on UNESCO’s annual World Cultural Heritage List.

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* A second “Silk Road”, this one by sea, replaced the overland Silk Road when the cost of Arab “toll fees” (beginning with the Yuan (CE 1279-1368) Dynasty, trade along the Silk Road was increasingly controlled by Arabs, who exacted increasingly exorbitant transit fees) eventually made alternative transport by sea financially attractive, thus bringing an end to the era of camel caravans that had crossed the vast deserts of Central Asia ever since the 1st century BCE. The overland Silk Road route began to decline towards the end of the 15th century, and dried up to a trickle in the beginning of the 16th century. The demise of the overland route was, however, as much due to political instability along the route as it was due to increasing “toll fees”. Successful trade – at least of the legal sort – requires a certain degree of peaceful cooperation between local (and tribal), regional, and nationial entities. Where this is lacking, trade suffers.

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