Destruction of Reliefs

Today, visitors to the 1500-year-old Binyang Central Cave are greeted by a number of colossal sculptures, but they miss a critical aspect of the cave that earlier visitors would have experienced. After these visitors had entered and paid their respects to the Buddha, they would have turned back toward the doorway and had an opportunity to take in a set of elaborate stone relief carvings covering the east “exit wall.” Divided into four registers, or horizontal sections, spanning both sides of the doorway, the reliefs depicted divinities and stories from the Buddhist scriptures, imperial processions, and fantastic beings. The majority of these relief carvings were looted in the early 20th century–in many cases destroyed and broken into tiny pieces in the process. Some fragments were acquired and restored to varying degrees by museums in the ensuing years, but many portions have since been lost, and little remains on the wall itself at Binyang Central Cave.

Though many of the great sculptural figures in Binyang Central Cave survived the looting of the early 20th century, much has been lost from this important cultural and religious landmark. The Center for the Art of East Asia at the University of Chicago has been working in collaboration with partners at Xi’an Jiaotong University in China to produce digital reconstructions of damaged or missing elements from the Binyang Central Cave. The first of these projects was completed in 2023 and resulted in a digital reconstruction of the Empress Procession relief (see Digital Restoration of the Empress Procession). Research is currently underway regarding other damaged sculptures from the cave.

References:
McNair, Amy. Donors of Longmen: Faith, Politics, and Patronage in Medieval Chinese Buddhist Sculpture. University of Hawai’i Press, 2007.

Coleman, Fletcher. "Fragments and Traces: Reconstituting Offering Procession of the Empress as Donor with Her Court." Orientations, no. May/June (2018): 94-101. Accessed July 21, 2022.

Coleman, Fletcher. "Restoring the Past and Present: The Case of the Figure of Wei Mo Chi." Ars Orientalis 50, (2020). Accessed July 21, 2022. Permalink.

Image Notes:
Sculptural images along south, west, and east walls of Binyang Central Cave. Binyang Caves: Cave 104, 140, 159 of Longmen Grottoes. 2010.

Remains of east wall reliefs. Date unknown. Courtesy of Xi’an Jiaotong University.

East wall relief drawing. Mizuno Seiichi and Nagahiro Toshio. Kanan Rakuyō Ryūmon sekkutsu no kenkyū

Remains of Spirit kings relief, east wall, northern portion. Photo 2016. Courtesy of Katherine Tsiang.

Empress Procession, east and south walls. Photo 1910. Charles Lange Freer Papers, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Photographer: Utai.

Empress Procession restoration on display in Nelson Atkins Museum, Kansas City. Date unknown. Courtesy of Xi’an Jiaotong University.

Emperor Procession, east and north walls. Photo 1910. Charles Lange Freer Papers, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Photographer: Utai.

Emperor Procession restoration on display in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City. Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Mahāsattva relief, east and north walls. Photo 1909. Chavannes, E., France. Ministère de l'éducation nationale, & Académie des inscriptions & belles-lettres. Mission archéologique dans la Chine septentrionale. Ernest Leroux.

Remains of Mahāsattva relief, east and north walls. Liu Jinglong. Binyang Caves: Cave 104, 140, 159 of Longmen Grottoes. 2010.

Vessantara relief, east and south walls. Photo 1909. Chavannes, E., France. Ministère de l'éducation nationale, & Académie des inscriptions & belles-lettres. Mission archéologique dans la Chine septentrionale. Ernest Leroux.

Remains of Vessantara relief, east and north walls. Liu Jinglong. Binyang Caves: Cave 104, 140, 159 of Longmen Grottoes. 2010.

Vimalakīrti relief, top register, southern portion of east wall, ca. 1912–13. Friedrich Perzyński. Von Chinas Gōttern (Munich: Kurt Wolff Verlag, 1920), plate 27

Remains of Vimalakīrti relief, east and north walls. Liu Jinglong. Binyang Caves: Cave 104, 140, 159 of Longmen Grottoes. 2010.

Vimalakīrti restoration in storage at the National Museum of Asian Art, Washington, D.C. Photo 2019. Courtesy of Xi’an Jiaotong University.