On The Clay Arhats Of Song Dynasty In Changqing Lingyan Temple

Changqing Lingyan temple in Shandong province has a long history, known as the the primary temple of the "Four domain Temples",and which has rich historical relics. Of the forty Arhat statues in the thousand Buddha Hall of Lingyan temple.there are twenty-seven statues belong to the Song Dynasty, the rest thirteen statues are of the Ming Dynasty. The Song Dynasty sculptures have been well preserved, still can be seen the original style. The twenty-seven Song Dynasty statues of arhat,have appropriate body proportion,modeling beautiful and vivid; especially the different character of the statue,distinct personality expressed the inner world of the characters and Can be seen as the image of the literati in the Song Dynasty.This batch of Arhats of the Song Dynasty in Lingyan temple, maintain their elegant demeanor still thousands of years later. Which firstly owed to the developed science and technology of the Song Dynasty. Clay sculpture process of the Song Dynasty was becoming more and more mature and rigorous on the basis of the previous generation,the subsequent clay sculpture program basically followed the achievement of the Song Dynasty and rarely transcend it. In addition,the fashion of respecting culture and suppressing force、as a result of aesthetic custom fun from special ethnic relations and developed commodity economy,these all made the culture of Song Dynasty refer to the spiritual world, it tends to introspective, science and poetry of the Song Dynasty is a reflection in this direction. Which reflected in the Lingyan Temple’s arhat statues, all these arhats give us spiritual shock.As representative of the sculptures of the Song Dynasty, Lingyan temple’s arhat statues reached the peak of Chinese ancient society and it became the model of the offsprings due to the excellence of the craft and art level, and it affected deeply the sculptures of the Yuan、Ming and Qing Dynasty. Lingyan temple’s arhat statues had established the status and significance for the later.In this paper, the method of art archaeology would be used, attempts to analysis the 27 colorful statues of arhat in Lingyan temple on their history rehabilitate and artistic beauty of form.This thesis is divided into five chapters, respectively is:the first chapter is the introduction, overview summary of Lingyan temple and the Arhats, achievements of ocean research, and the significance and research method of this task. The current lack of research of the cademic circles about the Lingyan temple arhats——" Domestic Primary Clay Sculptures", and put forward the art archaeology of this batch of arhats as the main research method means.The second chapter discussed the prevalent reasons and background of arhats in Lingyan temple as well as the whole Arhats statues of Song Dynasty, respectively is theravada Buddhism and realistic fashion trend, aesthetic common interest. Understanding of these, so that we can grasp and understand the arhat statues from the Macro perspective. The third chapter is about the ontology survey about the Arhats in Lingyan temple. Mainly includes the the concept and statuary style of arhats, the arhats1 identity, the original address and the textual research on the author, the exploration of archetypal characters of arhats, and the arhats’dress and personal adornment etc.The fourth chapter discusses the shaping technology. The Song Dynasty was the most developed era in science and technology aspect in ancient China which had made a breakthrough development in medicine、machinery manufacturing、 dying process etc. In the context of developed science and technology of the Song Dynasty, clay sculpture also reached a historical peak, Lingyan temple’s sculptures were the outstanding representative of that era.The fifth chapter discussed the historical status of the arhats of Lingyan temple. This paper summarized four aspects aesthetics about the Lingyan temple’s arhats i.e. beauty of shaping、personality、sculpture language and classical form. This chapter is the key part of this thesis. Arhat image is entirely the product of Chinese Buddhism, its image is a continuous process of secularization and towarding life. Lingyan Temple’s arhats reachded the peak of eastern realism, and opened the precedent of the combination with life, and produced profound influence on the sculptures of Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasty.