Archaeology Research On Buddhist Statues Of The Northern Dynasties In Changan Region

Thousands of buddhist statues have been found in Xi'an and neighbouring area.Most of them are stone, a few are copper,iron or pottery.Stone statues can be divided into 7 forms,separate circular sculpture statue,back screen statue,statues stele, stone statues tower,three sided statues stone and single sided statues stone respectively. Basing on archaeological typology,meanwhile taking statue inscription and correlative historical and buddhist literatures as vital clues,this dissertation collects,arranges and analyses more than 200 statues of the Northern dynasties on show or published,including 50 inscription statues."The Northern Dynasties" means the the Northern Wei dynasty,Western Wei dynasty and the Northern Zhou dynasty. "Chang'an" is "Chang'an City", the capital of the West Han,Sui and Tang dynasties.So,"Chang'an buddhist statue" here means ancient statues found in Chang'an and neighbouring area.From the fifth century,there was not a changeless Chang'an buddhist statues style,but brought into correspondence with the style of Liangzhou,Yungang,Longmen,or showed a short local style such as Jingming style,Taichang style complexly.lt was because that Chang'an just an edge city of the Northern Wei dynasty.Until the late Northern Wei dynasty,being accompanied by an upcoming division of the Northern Wei,Guan-long bloc created an atmosphere of believing in buddhism and a short unified style with some influence factor of Luoyang buddhist statues appeared.During the Western Wei dynasty, a new unified Changan buddhist statue style grew up. In the Yao xian and Fuping county,where abound in cyan stone,the limestone statues took off in a big way and bred new style.New factors of the Western Wei statues reflect obvious factors from the Eestern Wei statues.It shows that the frequent military attacks between Western Wei and Eestern Wei during Datong years have not blocked buddhism communication.Luoyang may be the communication pivot and channel.Before the buddhism destroyed by emperor Taiwu of the Northern Zhou dynasty,Chang'an statues were varied,including separate circular sculpture statue,back screen statue,statues stele etc,while reflected and fused statue features from the Southern dynasties area,the Northern Qi dynasty area,Luoyang area and alien race area.After the destroyed period,buddhism revived again,a ripe and distinctive style have been created,which is named the Northern Zhou style. Large cyan stone separate circular sculpture statues were quite popular.This kind of statues should be influnced by sandstone circular sculpture statues of the Southern dynasties,Chengdu area,while absorbed the local aesthetic consciousness.Large cyan stone circular sculpture statues of the Northern Zhou and Sui Dynasties,for example the typical statue with inscription the second year's of the Daxiang years.were the result of Yangjian's belief on buddhism,who was the important court official of the Northern Zhou and the emperor of Sui, caused the prosperous time of Chang'an statues from the late Northern Zhou to Sui.There are two manufacturing techniques of gilt bronze statues in the Northern Zhou dynasty,Chang'an area,lost wax casting from central Asia and clay mould casting from Chinese traditional bronze casting technic since Warring States period.The number of lost wax casting statues less than mould casting statues.The latter was main manufacturing technique of the Northern Zhou dynasty.Carving techniques of stone statues include circular sculpture,through carving,high relief,relief,bas-relief,reduced carving,line carving etc.This dissertation sorts out statue techniques of each period and arrives at following conclusions about Chang'an statues.In the Northern Wei dynasty,most were sandstone and relief,bas-relief,reduced carving techniques mainly used statues. When the Western Wei dynasty,sandstone and high relief statues became popular,meantime white limestone (marble) statues began to appear.Up to the Northern Zhou dynasty,most were limestone statues and used mainly circular sculpture,line carving also made a great progress.We think that "style"and "pattern"are two different concepts,Chang'an buddhist statues of the Northern dynasties should just be one style of this period,but not a pattern. The imitation of previous statue, probably appeared as a tradition,in the Song dynasty. There are "Fuxian style" and "Huanghua stone statue" in Japanese academic circles.In fact, the production place of so-called "Fuxian style"statue is an unique statue style from eastern Gansu to the west and east to around Chang'an,.but not limited to Fuxian country, northern Shaanxi."Huanghua stone statue" is a fuzzy concept.As one kind of local jades, the origin place of "Huanghua stone" mainly include Shaanxi,Henan,Hebei etc.This kind statue,from East Wei down to Sui dynasties, flourished in Western Wei and Northern Zhoudynasties.Some of their inscriptions were late imitation.The buddhist statues of the Northern Wei dynasty, Western Wei dynasty and Northern Zhou d ynasty can be divided into five periods:North Wei's Taihe years and before it is the first period ,Jingming years to 525A.D. around is the second period,526A.D. to West Wei's Datong 11th y ear is the third period,the Datong 12th year to the destroy of buddhism by Emperor Wu in Nor th Zhou is the forth period,and the 1sat period is the buddhist revival after Emperor Wu.