Thousands of cliffs hide souls, one cave locks resentment, one sculpture conveys one's heart, and one craftsman protects it for thousands of years. In Tianshui, Gansu Province, the solitary peak of Maiji Mountain stands tall, and more than a thousand clay and stone sculptures are embedded in the cliff. It is known as the "Oriental Sculpture Exhibition Hall". Everyone admires the exquisite clay sculptures and the far-reaching Zen spirit, but they don't know that these thousands of cliffs and caves are the thousand-year soul locking array that seals the souls of the grievances of the troubled times of the Western Wei Dynasty and the secret sins of the palace. The "Eastern Smile" Buddha in Cave 44 is the core of the lock. Chen Yan, a young cultural relic restorer, comes from a family that keeps monuments. He is gifted with the ability to sense the whispers of rocks and touch the residual souls of clay sculptures. He was ordered to repair damaged grottoes in Maiji Mountain. When he was restoring the Giant Buddha in Cave 44, he accidentally touched the bloody seal on the Buddha's body, and uncovered layer by layer the tragic songs of the craftsmen and the secrets of the palace that had been buried by the years. During the Western Wei Dynasty, the master craftsman Mo Chen led a group of craftsmen to dig mountains and build caves. He used his own soul as a guide to seal the grievances of the troubled times and the palace in the cave, and exchanged peace for peace with gentle persistence. At present, cultural relics smuggling gangs covet the ancient treasures in the caves, wantonly destroy the caves, disturb the souls, and the thousand-year soul locking array is on the verge of collapse. The ancient and modern lines are gently intertwined, and the original aspirations of the two generations of craftsmen resonate across time and space. There is no fierce killing, only the sincerity of the craftsmen and the compassion of the mountains and rivers. When the bloody seal cracked and the innocent souls stirred, Chen Yan inherited the ingenuity of his ancestors and used his mortal body to repair the seal and appease the souls. Thousands of cliffs are speechless, and the craftsmanship is immortal. All the caves in the world are never a gift from the years, but a thousand-year inheritance that the craftsmen use their souls to shape the Buddha and that the descendants continue to protect.
Purpose: This book is based on the spirituality of the grottoes and the character of the craftsmen. It jumps out of the conventional narrative of traditional immortals and heroes defying heaven and conferring gods and seeking immortality. It constructs a worldview in which all things are animistic and clay sculptures hide souls. It has the same origin as "The Soul of the Elephant Mountain: Thousand Years of Gazing on the Cliff". Both are based on the Tianshui Grottoes culture and jointly interpret the core core of "protection and inheritance". The work uses the thousands of cliffs and caves in Maiji Mountain, clay Buddha statues and the remaining veins of the Qinling Mountains as carriers to interpret the core idea of thousands of cliffs hiding years and clay sculptures carrying joys and sorrows, and points out that all things in the world and the remaining souls of clay sculptures have their original hearts and memories. The whole book abandons the inertial setting of the strong man saving the world, focusing on the responsibility and inheritance of the craftsman's tiny body, explaining that the true path lies not in nine-day transcendence, but in the simple persistence of adhering to the original intention with craftsmanship and protecting the common people with sincerity. The Anlan Grotto was never a gift from heaven. It was the ancestors who sealed their grudges with their souls and guarded it with heavy burdens. The descendants continued their craftsmanship and passed it down from generation to generation, thus achieving peace in this world. The work combines the Zen spirit of the grottoes, the cultural context of the Western Wei Dynasty and the regional heritage, distinguishing the dual core of craftsmen in troubled times using their souls to calm resentments, and craftsmen in prosperous times using their art to enrich the world. It echoes the idea of Zen masters in "The Soul of the Elephant Mountain" to create Buddhas to calm evil spirits, and to be passed down and protected by future generations. It finally settles on the ordinary as perfection: all the ups and downs of the ages and perseverance for thousands of years are ultimately to protect the fireworks and ordinary peace of the world, and guide readers to respect the mountains and rivers, remember the craftsmen, and cherish the present.