Smile of the Oriental Goddess: Serenity Beyond a Millennium

The Longmen Grottoes in Luoyang, along with the Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes and the Datong Yungang Grottoes, are one of the three great grotto art treasures of China, and are listed as a World Heritage Site on the World Heritage List. Fengxian Temple is the cave with the highest artistic value and the largest scale among the Longmen Grottoes. Unlike other caves that are relatively enclosed in their carving technique, it is an open-air cliffside shrine. The Vairocana Buddha is also the tallest and largest Buddha statue among all the niches, standing 17.14 meters in height, with the head alone measuring 4 meters. Every detail is meticulously carved and lifelike. After enduring a thousand years of wind, frost, rain, and snow, although the Buddha statues around the Great Buddha have suffered natural weathering and human damage, the Great Buddha remains as graceful as a flying swan and as steadfast as a golden bell. No matter from which angle one gazes in reverence, from the inside out it exudes a demeanor of dignity, majesty, nobility, grandeur, serenity, calmness, compassion, and humility.

Every time I revisit Luoyang, strolling along the rippling banks of the Yi River and standing at the foot of Mount Yique, I cannot help but gaze and observe the Vairocana Buddha at Fengxian Temple countless times. For fifteen hundred years, the Great Buddha has been seated on the mountainside of the western mountain, facing the surging Yi River day after day, the rising morning sun, the lushly shaded eastern mountain, and the bustling crowds passing by hastily. Though a thousand years have passed in the world, the Buddha’s expression remains serene and dignified, and his smile remains gentle and pure, allowing you to see a vast and holy heart and to feel a pure and beautiful soul.

Some compare the Longmen Vairocana Buddha to the Oriental Mona Lisa, but in my heart, the Western Mona Lisa can never compare with the Oriental Vairocana Buddha. The Vairocana Buddha is forever the Oriental goddess in my heart! When Mona Lisa was born under Leonardo da Vinci’s brush five hundred years ago, the Vairocana Buddha had already been seated at Yique for a thousand years. Different people read hundreds of positive or negative meanings from Mona Lisa’s smile, but in the smile of the Vairocana Buddha, they unanimously read a pure meaning: illuminating all with light, and delivering all sentient beings.

There are various legends about the prototype of Mona Lisa, including theories of a noblewoman, a deserted wife, a prostitute, Leonardo da Vinci himself, and even a far-fetched theory of an Eastern maidservant. But regarding the prototype of the Vairocana Buddha, whether in historical records or folk accounts, there is only one: Wu Zetian, the only female emperor in Chinese history. The cave where the Vairocana Buddha resides, Fengxian Temple, was carved in 650 AD, the first year of the reign of Emperor Gaozong of Tang. It was a gift from Emperor Gaozong to his beloved concubine Wu Meiniang. That year, Wu Zetian was 25 years old. The 25-year-old Wu Zetian captivated Emperor Gaozong with infatuation. With the authority of an emperor, he permanently fixed the beauty of his beloved concubine at the poetic and dreamlike age of 25, and moreover, sanctified it as the highest realm of religion, to be revered and worshipped. For this, Wu Zetian donated all her annual cosmetics allowance of 20,000 guan (a unit of currency). Later, the empress, who combined wisdom and brutality, beauty and ruthlessness, was at that time still a benevolent Bodhisattva and a graceful goddess.

In Sanskrit, Vairocana means "illuminating all," reflecting the Buddhist doctrine of delivering all sentient beings. In a religious context, Vairocana is also an incarnation of Shakyamuni, the supreme deity. Wu Zetian renamed herself Wu Zhao, probably with a similar meaning. Among the common people on Longmen Street, they found the name Vairocana too highfalutin and hard to pronounce. For a long time, they called the Vairocana Buddha the statue of Wu Zetian, and this name is still used today. It can be seen that Vairocana is Wu Zetian, and Wu Zetian is Vairocana. The Great Buddha is truly the Oriental goddess.

Time flies like a shuttle, and the past is like yesterday. In the long river of history, it is hard to say what 1,500 years amount to—long or short? Wu Zetian has long since vanished, and the Tang Dynasty has turned to ashes, but the culture, spirit, and elegance of that time have been engraved into history and memory. What changes is time and space, what changes are stories, but what remains unchanged? Each person has a different answer and interpretation in their heart. The Longmen Grottoes, Fengxian Temple, and the Vairocana Buddha are historical remnants and symbols. Today, they still stand firmly in their original place, on the banks of the Yi River, between heaven and earth, in the eyes of later generations, and in their hearts.

1,500 years later, more than ten kilometers north of Longmen, the once extremely prosperous Sui and Tang city has become ruins, and Luoyang has been reborn on those ruins. In a corner of this reborn Luoyang, based on historical records and rich imagination, a royal city has been rebuilt on the ruins of the Empress’s palace, hoping to evoke more memories, more beauty, and more illusions... I wonder what the Vairocana Buddha’s heart would feel about this, what guesses it would make, and what expressions it would have...

May the smile of the Oriental goddess continue to traverse another 1,500 years and transcend time and space to become eternal.