The Central Plains Region Of The Tang Dynasty Buddhist Master Zunxiang Research

Since the introduction of Buddhism to China from the early end of the EasternHan dynasty to T'ang dynasty, great changes in the major statues of Buddha tookplace from the faith theme to the statues' shape. The paper intends to conduct aninitial study on the major statues of Buddha in T'ang dynasty, especially on that ofAmitabha Buddha from the aspect of Buddhist iconology and art historiography.The major statues of Buddha, just as its name suggests, is the center of the beliefin Buddhism, which is mainly placed in the cave temples or the temple centers forpeople to worship. The patterns of the major statues include those of Sakyamuni'sspeech, Sakyamuni and Prabhutaratna seated together, Maitreya, Lusena andAmitabha Buddha. On the basis of the different postures, there are seated statues withthe crosslegged position, statues with one crosslegged and one leg standing position,seated upon statues and so on. The major statues can be the single Buddha's or theBuddha groups', such images as Sakyamuni and Prabhutaratna, Buddha III, Seven-Pharmacist Buddha, etc. The research centers on the period of "zhenGuan", alongwith the two periods of the early and prosperous T'ang dynasty, and centers on theregions of ChangAn, the capital of that time, and Luoyang, with the coverage of theprovinces of GanSu, ShanXi, ShanXi, HeBei and other part of North China. Thethesis also gives great attention to the cave temples and the major statues of Buddhacollected in the museums home and abroad, such as seated statues with theevil-conquer power, right hand giving the sign of Abhaya Mudra, and left palm put onhis left knee, that is "ZhenGuan" style. In addition, it makes a classification to theregions, ages, and the features of statue-images, moreover makes a longitudinalanalysis on the same cave temple in art historiography, meanwhile, it gives across-sectional comparison between the different ones from the aspect of Buddhisticonology. What is more, it illustrates the influence of this kind of style produced inthe early T'ang dynasty on the later dynasties and its changes. The specific studyfollows the report of the different grottoes in chronological order. Based on theremaining historical sequence of the statues, a net-point research is given to the similar patterns' among the northern cave temples in the Central Plains. Also attentionis paid to the typical statues of the retinues as well as the relevant murals closelyrelated to the major statues of Buddha so as to make an objective historical analysison them.The research data indicate HanAn, the capital in T'ang dynasty, not only thepolitical, economic and cultural center, but also that of Buddhist faith. As far as thestatues with "ZhenGuan" style are concerned, it originated in the early period of"zhenGuan", popular during the periods of Emperor GaoZhong and EmpressWangZeTian, flourished in the era of "KaiYuan". Consequently popular among thelarge area of the northern part in the central plain.