What are the ancient buildings in Aksu?

Qizil Thousand Buddha Cave. It is more than ten kilometers away from Qizil Reservoir.

Thousand Buddha Cave is located on the river steps 7 kilometers southeast of Qizil Town, Baicheng County, Aksu Prefecture. It is backed by Mingudage Mountain, connected to Muzati River and Chaerdage Mountain in the south, and the Ganwei River meanders through it, about 69 kilometers east of Kuqa County.

According to the data, this is the largest cave temple group in ancient Qiuci, and its excavation time is earlier than the famous Dunhuang Grottoes. It started in the Eastern Han Dynasty and was built in the Northern Song Dynasty, with a history of two thousand years. Although these exquisite architectural relics suffered natural erosion and man-made destruction in the storm of history, 236 caves, 65,438+/kloc-0,000 square meters of murals, the remains of several statues and the crumbling walls of temple towers have been preserved to this day. They talk to people all the time about the prosperity of that year. At the same time, it also left many interesting rumors among the people:

It is said that Wu Ming's mobile phone used to be a wooded hill. One day, the daughter of King Qiuci came here to hunt and met a handsome and brave herder. They fell in love at first sight. The young man proposed to the king, who made things difficult with harsh conditions. Young people spent three years carving 65,438+0,000 caves on the rock wall of the valley. Time has passed two years in the blink of an eye with the jingle of broken rocks, and the young man who is on the verge of success is afraid that he was exhausted when he dug the 990th cave. When the affectionate princess saw that her sweetheart had not been heard from for a long time, she went into the mountains to look for it. She cried and cried all the way through the bitterness and finally turned into a rock that dripped all the year round. This is a scenic spot in Qizil today-Drip Spring. It is this endless spring that finally flows into the Muzate River, which not only brings vitality and vigor to the cool Gobi, but also adds a touch of bright green to the nearby grottoes.

But legend is legend after all, no matter how sad or touching it is, it has obviously been processed by some ordinary people, so it has also incorporated some values of the civilian class. People can make all kinds of comments on Princess Qiuci and the civilian teenager, but people ignore the most important point: this kind of "Roman holiday" love can only appear in a democratic and open society, but it can't happen in the ancient Qiuci country with strict hierarchy and order. The princess who talks about golden branches and jade leaves is a sesame official at the grassroots township level. She must be "quiet" and "avoid" in business trips, seeing off and other activities. How can ordinary people get close? From another point of view, this legend is very reasonable, and China folklore always likes to have an affair between the royal family and the people-either the princess has a secret crush on civilians or the prince has a secret crush on civilians! To put it mildly, this is an erotic interest of the civilian class. To put it bluntly, it is a yearning for ordinary people to "climb the dragon and attach the phoenix".

Compared with such a rumor, I'd rather believe another popular saying:

In 2 12 A.D. (Jian 'an in the Eastern Han Dynasty 16 A.D.), an overseas king suddenly admired the beauty of Princess Qiuci, but failed to propose marriage, so he sent troops to surround Qiuci (now Kuqa). Although King Qiuci had sent messengers in advance to ask Han Anxi for help, and the Han army stationed in Hala and Zhuo (now Turpan) was also moved by the wind, it was difficult to extinguish the fire. Seeing that the castle was about to be breached, King Qiuci was forced to accept the proposal, and a dispute about "marriage" was coming to an end. Originally, I expected to win the invaders in Yu Wei, which complicated things. I proposed to send 5,000 young Qiuci women to form a "service group" to the military camp to "comfort" their soldiers, otherwise I refused to retreat!

A nation can calmly face setbacks, accept disasters and failures, but never face the abuse of its own women. In the case of unbearable, a war to defend national dignity started.

This is a war that is outnumbered, and the outcome can be imagined. Twenty days later, when Han's army and Qiuci's people arrived, it was already a river of blood. When cleaning up the battlefield, people were even touched by the tragic war: some Qiuci people tried their best to stab the enemy's chest with a long knife before falling down, but they couldn't pull it out; Although some Qiuci people were shot several times, they still kept the image of chopping and killing after falling down. In front of such a dead man, you must respect him. Because they are real fighters, their fierce battles and roars after waves are not only full of tension and texture of life, but also safeguard the territorial integrity of China and the dignity of the Chinese nation, which is immortal.

Faced with such heroism, people's hearts have not only been sublimated, but also faced with a choice.

Although Buddhism began in the 4th century BC, due to the epiphany of Sakyamuni, an ancient Indian king of suddhodana, and was introduced to Chinese mainland in the 4th century A.D., it became popular in western China as early as the 3rd century A.D. ... and its teachings, especially its purpose of saving all beings and surpassing the dead, coincided with Qiuci people's choice to commemorate their heroism at that time. When the new king rebuilt Qiuci after the war, he gathered skilled craftsmen from all over the country and ordered them to dig caves, carve statues, draw murals and integrate heroes and their secular life into religious stories to commemorate them. Because the prototypes of murals and sculptures are living people, you will never feel oppressive when standing in front of these Buddha statues. This is the true Qiuci style: they are either rich and plump, or beautiful and dignified, full of warm human feelings, which is quite different from the speculative gods excavated in Yungang Grottoes in the Northern Wei Dynasty. In the face of such a Buddha statue, you will not kneel before it and feel sorry for yourself. You will only have a yearning for beauty, justice and loftiness, and even can't help but reach out and touch the powerful arms and smooth folds. In Cave 17, there is a picture of a businessman's original story, which is from the Tripitaka? Although the story of Saab burning weapons to help businessmen is ridiculous, the picture shows a genre painting: a Persian businessman with a white face, deep eyes and a high nose, wearing an Arabian felt hat and an ingot collar, lighting up his arms and illuminating the road for the caravan. Two of them are typical Qiuci costumes, which can not only confirm the prosperity of business travel on the Silk Road day and night, but also glimpse the whole process of Buddhism's introduction into China, first Qiuci, then the Central Plains, then Qizil, then Dunhuang, and finally Yungang Grottoes, with China characteristics.

There are also many flying geisha and Qiuci dancing in the Thousand Buddha Cave in Qizil. Dancers are mostly girls with light posture, tight-fitting thin shirts and half-exposed upper body. They either fly against the wind, or their toes touch the ground and rotate gracefully, dancing gracefully without bones. Unfortunately, it is forbidden to take pictures here, and you can't share these lifelike sculptures with your friends. Of course, people like this only need to be careful to get the taste. The camera shooting, too close, actually lacks the necessary sense of alienation and that kind of hazy beauty.

It was first published in the March 2005 issue of National magazine.