Deepcore: When Cave Breath

北周时期，时局骤变。昔日鼎盛之所，一朝化为瓦砾寒烟。

在这场浩劫中，一位寄居寺院、为生计造像的无名匠人，机缘中被卷入……他本就平头百姓，唯手艺为生，终日敲凿供奉之像。然而，当寺院被毁，方丈于火光中托他："若世道暂失容身之处，便将它藏于石中。"这份临终遗命，如重锤敲入他的内心。他遁入栖霞山密林深处，于一处人迹罕至的山腹中开凿洞窟，昼夜不息，以血汗凿下窟内奇观……

章节导演：钱伊依

During the Northern Zhou dynasty, political circumstances shifted abruptly. A place once at the height of prosperity was reduced overnight to rubble and cold smoke.

Amid the catastrophe, an unnamed artisan who lived at the monastery and carved devotional images for a living was drawn into the turmoil by chance… An ordinary commoner with only his craft to sustain him, he spent his days chiseling images for worship. When the monastery was destroyed, the abbot entrusted him amid the flames with a final request: "If the world can no longer offer it shelter, hide it within stone." The dying charge struck his heart like a hammer. He withdrew deep into the forests of Qixia Mountain and opened a grotto in a remote mountainside. Working without rest, day and night, he carved the wonders within the cave with his own blood and sweat…

Chapter Director: Yiyi Qian

大漠千窟，壁坼龛残。王圆箓，于光绪二十六年偶入一隅，拨开千年沙尘，揭开敦煌莫高窟最隐秘的一页。那是被泥封的第十七窟，洞内经书堆积如山，字画墨香犹存。身处尘世末劫，王圆箓以一己之力抵抗洞窟的坍塌——他选择变卖经卷，换回砖瓦木料，勉力修缮。于历史，这或为功；于文化，却成劫。

英国人斯坦因、日本人橘瑞超，先后至此，以寥寥银两换走无数文宝。传教士、考古学者、收藏家争先恐后来临，而王圆箓身处其间——既是看守人，又是开门者。他终身隐居窟内，未再远行。

Across the desert stood a thousand grottoes, their walls cracked and niches ruined. In the twenty-sixth year of the Guangxu reign, Wang Yuanlu entered a hidden corner by chance. Brushing away a millennium of dust, he opened the most secret page in the history of the Mogao Grottoes: Cave 17, sealed with mud, where scriptures were piled high and the scent of ink still lingered among writings and paintings. Living at the end of an age, Wang resisted the collapse of the caves alone. He chose to sell manuscripts in exchange for bricks, tiles, and timber, struggling to fund repairs. In history, this may be counted as merit; for culture, it became a calamity.

The British explorer Aurel Stein and the Japanese explorer Tachibana Zuicho arrived in succession, exchanging small sums of silver for countless cultural treasures. Missionaries, archaeologists, and collectors followed one after another, while Wang stood among them—both guardian and gatekeeper. He remained secluded within the grottoes for the rest of his life and never again traveled far.

盛唐中叶，洛水之畔，龙门山上石声隆隆。奉先寺下，工棚林立，朝廷命匠数千，昼夜不息。当权者初登大宝，天授元年（公元690年），令："佛即天子，天子即佛。"一位女匠，执凿于寒岩之下，奉命造像。一尊拟皇之佛，是以佛貌加冕天命的象征。然在她眼中，佛非独像一人。她于眉眼之间微调比例，巧引凡人之姿；于衣纹垂褶中暗藏庶民之态。那不动的石佛，似睨众生悲喜，亦似洞悉一代帝王的孤意。十余年后，造像落成。游人膜拜，香火鼎盛。千秋往事埋于断岩风雨之中，无人再去探究。

In the mid-Tang period, stonework thundered across Longmen Mountain beside the Luo River. Below Fengxian Temple, work sheds crowded the site as thousands of artisans labored day and night by imperial command. When the ruler had newly ascended the throne, a decree was issued in the first year of Tianshou (690 CE): "The Buddha is the Son of Heaven; the Son of Heaven is Buddha." A woman artisan worked with her chisel beneath the cold cliff, charged with carving an image. A Buddha modeled on the sovereign became a symbol of crowning heavenly mandate through Buddhist form. Yet in her eyes, the Buddha did not resemble one person alone. She subtly adjusted the proportions of the brows and eyes to introduce the features of ordinary people, and concealed the bearing of common folk within the falling folds of the robes. The unmoving stone Buddha seemed to gaze upon the joys and sorrows of all beings, while also seeing through the solitude of an emperor. More than a decade later, the image was completed. Visitors worshipped and incense flourished. The affairs of ages were buried among fractured cliffs, wind, and rain, and no one sought to investigate them further.