In this paper an attempt is made to build on the enormous amount of research done by MIZUNO Seiichi 水野清一, NAGAHIRO Toshio 長廣敏雄, as well as, slightly later, SU Bai 宿白 to reconsider what kind of conclusions have to be drawn as far as the methodology of style and iconography and to the and reconsider these issues as far as the period the grottoes at Yungang have been created and the identification of dedication of the grottoes. For grottoes 1-20, the most important grottoes have been created on initiative of the ruling Northern Wei court, among which the five Tan Yao 曇曜 grottoes No.16-20 have been carved for the deceased emperor, and grottoe 5, 6, 3 on the one hand and the grottoes for the reigning emperor and dowager (No.13 and 7-11) on the other are usually considered differently ; the former as an imperial grave in which the deceased emperor is carved similarily to a big statue of Buddha S?akyamßni and the latter, in which emperor Wencheng 文成 and Xiaowen 孝文, as well as dowager Feng 馮 are resembling a crosslegged Buddha Maitreya. The pending question of the two grottoes with the 'golden stele' (No.9 and 10) are not grouped to the Chongjiao 崇教 temple but rather identified to belong with grottoes 7 and 8 to the 'two saints' emperor Wencheng and dowager Feng and to have been carved on behalf of the Northern Wei court and to symbolize respectively as the main statue a standing Maitreya and a Maitreya seated on a chair. The grottoes No.1 and 2 are considered to belong to the Chongjiao temple, which had been founded at the time of the eunuch Qianer Dingshi 鉗耳慶時. Finally grottoe 3 has to be seen as carved for the deceased dowager Feng with the still existing three statues of seated Buddhas, they have been created later during the Liao dynasty. To conclude, as a result of the reconsiderations as outlined above, the idenfication of which of the grottoes was dedicated to whom and the dating of the grottoes has been accomplished.
