龍門石窟=Longmen Grottoes; 《大唐內侍省功德碑》=Stele of the Imperial Office Bureau in the Tang Dynasty; 唐玄宗=Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang dynasty; 年代; 開元朝宦官=eunuchs of the Kaiyuan era
The Stele of the Imperial Office Bureau under the Tang Dynasty is an important artifact for studying the Longmen Grottoes and its history. This paper reinterprets the inscription and comes to a new understanding of its content and the date of the steles’ construction. The researchers conclude that a group of eunuchs headed by Gao Lishi and Yang Sixu built a group of 19 Amitābha Buddhas in the Longmen Grottoes to pray for blessings on behalf of Emperor Xuanzong after they accompanied the emperor to the Eastern Capital Luoyang, and that the group of statues was completed in June of the sixth year of the Kaiyuan era with an additional stele erected on July 30 th of the same year to record this event.
