The enormous statue of Vairocana Buddha (above) is said to be the likeness of Empress Wu Zetian

Since I heard that story long ago, I have always wanted to visit the grottoes to see how this woman transformed herself into a deity more than 2,000 years ago. The statue is considered one of the most artistic in ancient China.

After climbing hundreds of steps, I was thrilled to stand at the foot of the Vairocana Buddha in Fengxian Temple Cave, halfway to the top of Mt Longmen.

Most other caves are dug deep into the mountain, with statues hidden inside. But Fengxian Temple Cave is more like an outdoor temple, as craftsmen carved the commanding statue in a shallow niche facing outward.

A local historian told us that the Vairocana Buddha is the embodiment of Dharmakaya and connotes devotion, sacrifice and perfection. Vairocana means "light everywhere."

The historian's explanation took me back 2,300 years and I could almost see how Wu, a determined consort in her 40s, wanted to demonstrate that women could be both strong and womanly.

Her critics called her cruel and ruthless -- no one would say that of a male ruler. But she also introduced more merit into officialdom and took measures to help ordinary people.

I walked among the crowds, pondering on how modern Chinese women still face the same challenge -- if you are strong-willed and successful in your career, you may face an unhappy life in terms of relationships and family affairs.

The Longmen Grottoes are the result of craftsmen from seven dynasties working for almost 400 years. Although it was begun in the Northern Wei Dynasty (386-534 AD), emperors and individuals in the Tang Dynasty contributed around 60 percent of the statues.

It was also intriguing to compare the periods of the statues with their images of female beauty. The Northern Wei Dynasty considered slimness a standard of beauty, while in the Tang Dynasty the definition of beauty was quite the opposite.

The grottoes contain 2,345 caves and niches, 2,800 inscriptions, 43 pagodas and more than 100,000 Buddhist images. It is generally considered the zenith of ancient stone carving and aesthetics.

Garden of peonies

The ancient Chinese created many tales about flowers, giving each a human embodiment. For example, the spring narcissus is often a slim lady in white, ascending from the water without getting wet.

The lady of peonies is quite different. She is Queen of the Flower Court, ruling all the other flowers. She is many people's favorite because the peony, too, is linked in legend with ruthless Empress Wu.

The story goes that the empress loved flowers and ordered all kinds planted in her garden in Chang'an, today's Xi'an. On a snowy winter morning right after she ascended the throne, she issued a proclamation in the form of a poem.

"I will visit the garden tomorrow where I expect to see signs of spring. All flowers are ordered to blossom tonight and nobody shall wait for the wind."

All the flowers obeyed and bloomed the next morning when the empress entered the garden -- except for the proud peony that refused the blossom.

The empress was furious and burned all peonies in the court. She ordered all peonies to be "imprisoned" in Luoyang, where peonies had not grown before. The disobedient peonies would be punished with its harsh weather.

But peonies flourished and became even more beautiful in Luoyang where more than 1,000 varieties bloom today.

The fabulous peony legend does appear in historical records, but there's a more realistic version, also about the empress.

Confronting enormous criticism as the first female ruler, Wu wanted all officials to believe she was destined to be a ruler. To create a magnificent aura in her Xi'an garden, she ordered all gardeners to force flowers to blossom in winter, using greenhouses. But the peony failed to bloom in the harsh weather.

The empress, a peony lover, decided to move all peonies to Luoyang, following the gardener's suggestion, and later moved her entire court there as well.

Either way, Luoyang city is famous for peonies, bigger, brighter and more vivid than peonies elsewhere, it is said. Flower appreciation is a spring ritual in Luoyang and many literati there have written poems about fair ladies and peonies.