A Literature Review On The Study On Maiji Mountain Grottoes In Tianshui

Maiji Mountain Grottoes in Tianshui located in the crossing of the ancient Silk Road and shudao in Sichuan province, along with Dunhuang Grottoes, Yungang Grottoes and Longmen Grottoes constitute the four main Buddhism grottoes of earlier China. The characteristic clay sculpture and the stone fetus clay sculpture made in north dynasty got the highest artistic achievement in Maiji Mountain Grottoes, which has been drawn attention from scholars at home and abroad for a long time. Scholars, especially those who mainly focused on the grotto archeology and grotto art made great contribution to the study of Maiji Mountain Grottoes.However, there is little study until now in a macro perspective, such as, during the recent 100 years, what monographs and papers were published? What disciplines were involved? What problems are still to be addressed? This research status quo of Maiji Mountain Grottoes attributed to the fact that the comprehensive research material is not available to researchers and the comprehensiveness and depth of the present study is far from satisfactory. In other words, the present study on Maiji Mountain Grottoes is unsystematic. As far as the above imperfections are concerned, this paper tries to conclude the research results on Maiji Mountain Grottoes more deeply to get a comprehensive picture of the study on Maiji Mountain Grottoes through summarizing what has been achieved on the study on Maiji Mountain Grottoes since 1940s.This paper divides what has been involved in monographs and papers into 10 subcategories: investigation, history and archeology, introduction to the grottoes and the content of the statue murals, sculpture and the mural's artistic style, tablet and document, protection and maintenance, construction and resort travel note, monograph and picture album, the general content list and the chronological table of great events, other content. To make more detailed review and analysis, each subcategory is divided chronologically into four periods: 1940s, 1950-1960s, 1970-1980s, 1990s now. By reviewing what has been done perfect and imperfect, the wider study discipline can be exploited to enhance the comprehensive study on Maiji Mountain Grottoes.