Early Buddhist Statues Nationalization And Secularization

The early-stage Buddhist icon art in China has been discovered in many regions, while the earlier and more typical remains lies in changjiang river valley. In recent decades, many scholars have studied the route of its spreading, the evolution of its style, and made some monographic studies on the early-stage Buddhist icon art of specific region and relic. But to study its nationalization and secularization that is few, especially combined them into a whole.Nationalization and Secularization are important features of the Chinese Buddhist art in its spreading and developing process. They played an important role in the evolvement of Chinese art, and have had profound influence on the shape of Chinese art history. This paper attempt to study the nationalization and secularization of Chinese early-stage Buddhist icon art and its social and cultural condition systematically and synthetically.The article consists of five parts as following.The preface discusses the theoretic meaning and the aim of the paper.The first chapter introduces those discovered early-stage Buddhist icon art in China in the period of middle and last period of East Han dynasty, three kingdom period and West Jin dynasty. That include some stone carvings and tomb figures and money trees in graves in the southwest region of china, some stone carvings in graves and Kongwang mountain's cliff carving in northern region, some bronze mirrors and ceramic manufactures and tomb figures in tombs in the middle and lower reaches of the Changjiang River. etc. The assortment takes the regional character, phases of development, material and artistic technique into account, while gives attention to their cultural meaning and iconological context.The second chapter is a detailed analysis of the nationalization and secularization of main discovered early-stage Buddhist icon art in China. Mainly from the viewpoint of their motif, belief meaning, social and cultural function, artistic techniques, Plastic Characteristics and art style, this article associate and compare them with regional culture, Funeral Custom, and secular art of the time, then summarize the character of the nationalization and secularization of the early-stage Buddhist icon art in china.The third chapter discusses some important subject of the secularization and nationalization of Chinese early-stage Buddhist icon art, including related regional culture and beliefs of social classes, the relationship between early-stage Buddhist icon...