抗日战争全面爆发后，大批高校、科研机构迁至四川、重庆、云南等地，众多学者亦开始将研究视野转向西南地区。中国营造学社在这期间开展了“川康古建筑调查”活动，对川渝等地的石窟造像进行了考古调查。抗战结束前夕，大足石刻考察团首次对大足石刻进行了考古调查，认为其“可继云冈、龙门鼎足而三”。这一时期的系列考古调查活动是我国学术界首次对川渝石窟开展的具有现代学术意义的调查研究，亦是民国时期中国石窟考古的一次重大事件。其调查内容为这一领域的研究提供了诸多宝贵资料，并为后来的川渝石窟考古奠定了基础。

 After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japan, a large number of universities and research 
institutions were relocated to Sichuan, Chongqing, Yunnan and other areas, and consequently many scholars began to turn their research focus to this region. During this period, the Society for Research in Chinese Architecture carried out the Sichuan-Xikang Ancient Architecture Survey, conducting archaeological investigations of grotto statues in Sichuan, Chongqing and other areas. On the eve of the end of the War of Resistance Against Japan, the Dazu Rock Carvings Investigation Team performed the first archaeological survey of the Dazu Rock Carvings, and concluded that they could be ranked alongside the Yungang and Longmen Grottoes as one of China’s three major grotto sites. The series of archaeological surveys in this period marked the first investigation of the Sichuan-Chongqing grottoes with modern academic significance, and constituted a significant event of Chinese grotto archaeology during the Republican era. The contents of the investigation provided valuable materials for the research in this field, laying a foundation for the later Sichuan-Chongqing grotto archaeology.