Related reading of longxing temple Buddha statue in Qingzhou, Shandong Province
Around the first century A.D., Buddhism was introduced to China by businessmen and monks from Central Asia, but it had little influence. After the 4th century A.D., with the collapse of the Han Dynasty and the vacillation of Confucian authority established by Confucius, Buddhism gained unprecedented development in China. After the founding of the Northern Wei Dynasty, Buddhism gradually combined with politics. The emperors, queens and some royal nobles in the Northern Wei Dynasty were devout believers who actively advocated Buddhism. At this time, the huge grotto Buddha statue began to be built on a large scale, and the model of the statue was said to be the emperor himself. In the folk, Buddhism has also become Noah's Ark for people to seek liberation from war and suffering, and there has been a craze for statues everywhere. During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, Qingzhou was the link between the Southern and Northern Dynasties. As a political and cultural center, Qingzhou also became a concentrated area of Buddhist grottoes and statues. Today, near Qingzhou, there are still several Buddhist grottoes built in the sixth and seventh centuries, which were built during the prosperity of Buddhism. At the same time, these grottoes were built, as well as a large number of temples and temples, as well as Buddha statues and bodhisattvas enshrined in temples. It can be inferred from the records on the stone tablet in longxing temple that longxing temple at that time was called Nanyang Temple, which was the most important local temple. There are tall pagodas and magnificent Buddhist temples in the temple. A giant Buddha stands in the center of the Buddhist temple, 30 feet and 9 feet high. Before the excavation of longxing temple Pit, some Buddhist statues were unearthed in Qingzhou and its surrounding areas, totaling 1000 pieces of historical relics, which are roughly the same as those in longxing temple. This is enough to prove that Qingzhou at that time was not only the center of Buddhism, but also the center of sculpture.