The Yaofang Cave stands apart from every other grotto at Longmen because its walls are covered not with Buddhas but with text: 140 prescriptions for diseases ranging from malaria, diabetes, and rabies to ear infections and mental disorders, inscribed here during the Tang dynasty. The cave functions as a remarkable document of Tang-dynasty medicine — a practical manual cut into the walls of a devotional space, representing the Buddhist tradition of treating bodily and spiritual suffering as equally worthy of attention.
The prescriptions mix herbal treatments, dietary recommendations, and procedures that range from the empirically sound to the theoretically adventurous. Reading through them (a translated commentary is available at the site) gives a vivid picture of Tang medical knowledge at its most systematic. The cave is not visually spectacular — the inscribed walls don't compete with the sculptural caves nearby — but as a piece of historical evidence it's unique in the complex and in Chinese art history more generally.