Anyue Xuanmiao Temple, a living fossil of Taoism

•The Xuanmiao Temple cliff statues are hidden in a moss-covered fairyland. They are located at the foot of Baiyang Mountain in Yuanda Town, Anyue County, Sichuan Province. They are living fossils of Tang Dynasty Taoist culture and a famous Taoist statue site in my country. The statues are distributed on two huge red sandstone mounds and around a mushroom-shaped flat-topped boulder. There are niches carved on the four sides of the wall. There are 79 niches of different sizes, 1,293 stone statues, and 4 Tang steles. They are mainly exquisite carvings from the Kaiyuan period (718) to the Tianbao period (748) of the Tang Dynasty. The niches are mainly square and arched, and most of them are outer niches. The themes of the statues are mainly Taoism, followed by Buddhist and Taoist niches. The most distinctive ones include Laojun and Sakyamuni sitting side by side, the Three Pure Ones and the Four Imperial Gods, the Twelve Hour Gods, and the Vajra Warriors. •The cliff carvings at Xuanmiao Temple are mainly Taoist, with Buddhist and Taoist carvings in the same niche. They are large in scale and rich in content. They are unique in the province and rare in the country. The carved Taoist and Buddhist statues are vivid and beautiful, with various postures, staggered and harmonious coexistence. Among the 79 statue niches, 12 are joint Buddhist and Taoist statue niches, such as the seated statues of Sakyamuni and Laozi, with the Buddhist Bodhisattva on the left and the Taoist Golden Immortal on the right. This provides definite evidence for the mutual combination, penetration and reference between Buddhism and Taoism in history, and is a representative object reflecting the phenomenon of mutual penetration, reference and combination between Taoism and Buddhism after the Jin Dynasty in my country. •The largest niche is the Laojun statue niche, which was built in the 18th year of Kaiyuan in the Tang Dynasty. The niche is a double-chamber type. The main statue on the main wall is Laojun sitting on a three-layer lotus platform with upturned lotus petals on an octagonal base. Laojun has a round face and his eyes are looking straight ahead. He wears a lotus crown and a beard, and a Taoist robe with a high wide collar. There is a three-legged table in front of his chest, with his left hand on the table and a treasure fan in his right hand. There is a lotus-shaped halo behind his head. On the left and right are golden boys and jade girls, wearing lotus crowns and Taoist robes with cross collars and wide sleeves. The left statue holds a tablet in both hands, while the right statue has his hands clasped together and stands barefoot on a lotus pedestal. There is a female immortal carved on each of the left and right walls of the niche. The guardian gods are carved symmetrically on the left and right walls and the upper part of the main wall, which together form the twelve hour gods. There are crouching lions and 12 small statues carved on the outer edge of Laojun's feet. Outside the niche is a real person carved, wearing a cross-collared gown over a half-sleeve robe, standing on a lotus platform with a jade seal in his hand. On the left stands a divine general with tied hair, deep eyes and a wide mouth, wearing armor, holding a sword in his right hand, leg guards to the knees, and long boots on his feet. In the lower part of the niche stand twelve divine generals, dressed similarly to the twelve hour gods. •The pavilions, towers, towers, platforms, brackets, ritual instruments, musical instruments, costumes, etc. that fill the walls of each niche are all real objects from the history of the development of Taoism and the history of ancient architecture, especially the numerous Taoist Vajra Warrior statues, which are tall and almost lifelike, squatting and twisting their waists, full of realism, and extremely vivid and majestic in form. The fairy dancers are graceful and lifelike in posture. •The cultural relics include four Tang Dynasty steles, one of which is the "Heart Sutra" written in the Kaiyuan period of the Tang Dynasty (730 AD), and the other is the "Stele of the Mysterious Temple of Jisheng Mountain" engraved in the "Seventh Year of Tianbao in the Tang Dynasty". The first half is engraved with the founding and doctrines of Taoism, and the second half is engraved with the process of cave carving and statue making from the Kaiyuan period to the Tianbao period of the Tang Dynasty. •Xuanmiao Temple is the only statue-making area funded by Taoist believers and presided over by Taoist priests. It breaks the shackles of religious rituals and carves various statues of gods, dragons, lions, blue cows, mythical birds and other animals with different expressions according to the specific environment of the independent boulders. The carvings are staggered, harmonious and beautiful. Although the statues were destroyed by both human and natural weathering and erosion, visiting the architectural remains is an epic in stone, reflecting the ancient Tang Dynasty style and the mysterious power of Taoism.