A Study On The Turning Of Buddhist Aesthetics In The Early Mahayana Perio

Buddhism originated in the north-eastern region of ancient India around the 5th century BC,and was initially one of the many local beliefs that emerged during the Sixteen Kingdoms.By the time of the Kushan Dynasty,Buddhism had passed through the stages of development of primitive Buddhism and sectarian Buddhism before entering the early stages of Dasein Buddhism.At this time,Buddhism began its metamorphosis from a local faith to a world religion.The most obvious sign of this metamorphosis was the emergence of the monolithic Buddha sculpture.The spread of primitive Buddhism relied mainly on oral transmission between the Buddha and his disciples,and when it developed into the period of sectarian Buddhism,some changes took place in the way Buddhism was transmitted.Sculptures of Buddhist subjects based on the stories of the Buddha’s biography and nativity,and sutras established in textual form,both contributed to the development and spread of Buddhism.In the early Dasein Buddhist period,influenced by the Gandhara style of art,Buddhist sculpture began to emerge with monolithic images of the Buddha as the main form of expression.This paper analyses the shift from relief sculpture as the main form of expression in Buddhist sculpture during the sectarian Buddhist period to monolithic statues as the main form of expression during the early Dasein Buddhist period,and discusses the development of Buddhist aesthetic thought from a focus on ’nirvana’ to a focus on the ’Buddha’s body’."It also discusses the development of Buddhist aesthetic thought from a focus on Nirvana to a focus on the Buddha’s body,and the shift in Buddhist aesthetics from a focus on ’subtle enlightenment’ to a focus on ’intuition’,revealing the aesthetic connotations of early Mahayana Buddhist aesthetic style and Buddhist sculpture.On the basis of this,the causes of the aesthetic style of early Mahayana Buddhism are explored from both internal and external Buddhist contexts,taking into account the influence of multiple factors such as changes in Buddhism’s own teachings,regime changes,economic development and external religious conflicts.