In the first year of Heping in the Northern Wei Dynasty (AD 460), the eminent monk Tan Yao was ordered by Emperor Wencheng to dig five grottoes in Wuzhou Mountain - this was the beginning of the Yungang Grottoes that shocked the world in the future. Tens of thousands of craftsmen gathered on the cliff day and night, and the sound of hammering and chiseling echoed on the Wuzhou River year after year. It was the most glorious era of the Northern Wei Dynasty, and it was also a key historical node for the Xianbei nation from nomadism to civilization, and from grassland to empire.
