The Northern Zhou Dynasty Buddhist Art

There are significant differences in the statues style of the caves of Western Wei and Northern Zhou dynasties in Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes, under the emperor, Yu Wen Shi's regime. That is: "Xiugu Qing type of imaging" was replaced by the statue of a stronger and abundant body with a rounded face, and the origin of this statue style was from the statue style of Southern dynasty. In addition, that the Thousand-Buddha-image area was extended, and the Buddhist painting of Buddha stories, Jataka stories etc. which were originally important content were moved to secondary position of the cave, is another distinctive feature in the Northern Zhou Cave of Mogao Grottoes. This change took place due to the influence of Gongxian Grottoes of Luoyang, from which it shows that the formation of the Northern Zhou statues was influenced by two factors, one factor is that the Northern Zhou statues inherited the style Luoyang statues, another major influence is from the statue style of Southern Dynasties. My research is divided into two parts studying on the origin and development of Buddhist art during the Northern Zhou Dynasty, the first part deals with its process of historical development, while the second part focus on special cases'study as a essential supplement.