북위시대 용문석굴 개착에 나타난 신앙적 특색

The Religious Traits On The Longmen Caves In BeiWei

&nbsp;&nbsp;Yungang Caves clearly show Buddhist cultural expansion following domestic situation. In contrast to the caves, Longmen Caves are pervaded with not only personal religious propensity but also national wishes. It means Buddhism as the national religion had the traits of being totally absorbed into folks.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;BeiWei&quot;s religious object had moved from worshipping Sh？kya to harmonizing it with Maitreya. Shi-Lao-Chih tells, "There are six Buddhas before Sh？kyamuni, who came at the present age. In the future Maitreya will appear in this world succeeding Sh？kyamuni". As a result, it seems reasonable to assume Maitreya naturally became the religious object.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;Yungang Caves were built with wishes that Dharma should endlessly continues based on ？Accounts Relating to the Transmission of the Dharmapi？aka？ revealing Tanyao thoughts. It was lead to Longmen Caves with new hope on worshipping Maitreya.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;The belief on Maitreya was not just for the peace in the after life. It also reveals how people were eager to see the present Maitreya during their life time.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;It has been proved through the Maitreya statue of the famous "Five caves of Tanyao" in Yungang Caves.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;It is quite clear that this belief was based on the Beiwei people&quot;s realistic and passionate disposition.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;The Tath？gata had been appeared in Longmen Caves since 519, even though it was still only eight of them in the whole caves.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;Comparing to about 110 Amida statues were made in Tang Dynasty, Beiwei started to make much less statues of Tath？gata around the year of 520.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;And the name of Buddha statue was unique, Beiwei typically often used Tath？gata which means longevity than the name of Amida. In this regard, Beiwei&quot;s Buddhism can be considered much more realistic and dynamic.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;The belief on Maitreya as the succeeder of Sh？kyamuni was much stronger than that on Sukh？vati with Amida in Beiwei.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;It proves that Beiwei people sought Dharma not only in Sukh？vati but also in the present life. The desired Maitreya to come down to the world and save all mankind.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;This personalized belief based on the firmly settled Buddhism in BeiWei became a driving force for building caves.