Carving Stone like Water Scouring the Earth: How Did Stone Become Indestructible at the Longmen Grottoes?

When water gradually erodes away soluble limestone, an unstable network of caverns, sinkholes, and underground streams is developed. Built upon one such porous landform, the world-famous Longmen Grottoes in Luoyang, China, has been subject to water erosions since its first cave-shrine was excavated in the fifth century. Visitors to Longmen in the seventh century were familiar with collapsed grottoes and omnipresent signs of water weathering, but they still proudly proclaimed that the cave-shrines would preserve the Buddhist teaching for eternity. Why did the Buddhists in Tang (618–907) China turn a blind eye to the impermanence of stone?

This paper argues that Longmen donors viewed the work of carvers as analogous to that of the legendary sagely king, Yu the Great, who reputedly excavated a drainage canal at Longmen to control a disastrous flood. Knowledgeable of the corrosive power of water, these carvers adapted certain iconographic details, such as the “thousand Buddha” icon, to steer the flow of water inside the grottoes. Some even participated in urban hydraulic management in Luoyang. In the eyes of Longmen donors, just as the floodwater scoured the earth to uncover hidden “principles” of the universe, the chisels of Longmen carvers released the true form of Buddhist teaching from stone cliffs. Although stone is susceptible to weathering, they had faith that their interventions would make the material indestructible.