The Native Figure Sculptures Of The Southern And Northern Dynasties Under The Impact Of Buddhist Statues

Southern and Northern Dynasties are a dividing period in Chinese history,following Eastern Jin Period and Sixteen States and followed by Sui Dynasty when the whole nation was involved in division and chaos with the southern part and northern part locked in a lengthy face-off despite the succession of different periods and dynasties.In this context Indian Buddhism gained prevalence in China.Buddhism statue is formative arts which originated in India and was introduced into China in Eastern Han Period,which exerted some effect and profound influence on the formative arts of the indigenous figures in terms of content,style and language.So far as statue form is concerned,Gandhara art in Kushan Period,Mathura art in Gupta period and Sarnath statue art had great influence on indigenous sculpture of China.The introduction of Buddhism statue had great impact on our innate concept of formative arts in conception and the presentation of forms.With respect to form,prior to Southern and Northern Dynasties,indigenous figure sculpture had already witnessed advanced development in that both formative arts from myth religion cultural system and sculpture formative arts from burial cultural system respectively established thorough cultural systems in conception,form and language and also presented various expressions in different periods.In the long period of development language and material of formative arts have been closely related.In the form of space,formative arts of indigenous figure sculpture can be classified into two types,circular engravure and relief,which exist side by side and are applied simultaneously according to specific requirements.During Southern and Northern Dynasties,there were very few stone non-Buddhism figure statues among indigenous figure sculptures,which,if anything,are mainly discovered in burial cultural system and didn't turn out in great numbers owing to the popularization of Buddhism but were rare.Considering the great number of Buddhism statues up to tens of thousands this is a sound illustration of the considerable impact of Buddhism statues on indigenous figure sculptures.In shape the form is by far inferior to that in Han Dynasty lacking the vigorous and monolithic grandeur.In the style of forming and language they are also the best proof of the effect of Buddhism statues.During Southern and Northern Dynasties pottery figurines were transformed bearing conspicuous differences from those in Han Dynasty with weak expressive force but resembling Buddhism statues.In contrast pottery figurines in Northern Dynasty are more realistic with more emphasis put on the heritage feature of form whereas those in Southern Dynasty stress the expression of fun trait.Pottery figurines in Northern Dynasty are mostly characterized by being handsome and elegant while most of those excavated from the tombs in Southern Dynasty show the characteristic of wearing loose and magnificent garments.The pattern of icon statue has been in existence at home for long,among which the typical ones include the statues of Fuxi(God of fishery and husbandry),Nvwa(Goddess of Sky-patching)and the Queen of Heaven.In Eastern Han Period the statue of Libing(an honored expert in water conservancy famous for designing and presiding over the construction of Dujiangyan Dam in Warring States)in the style of circular engravure ever appeared with his name engraved on the statue.The development of these icon statues can attribute to the introduction of Buddhism statues in the later period of Eastern Han period with some adjustments in the shape.The statues bore the combination of icon statue and Buddhism,such as the combination of the Queen of Heaven and Buddhism,which changed not only the indigenous innate style but also its cultural features,rendering the Buddhism statues complicated.Meanwhile under the impact of Buddhism statues,indigenous Taoism statues started their growth in Northern Wei period which ever since their appearance were present among the statue tablets under the guise of Buddhism statues.Both in style and in language,the presentation of Taoism statues was realized via the style and language of Buddhism statues,creating the phenomenon of the consubstantiality of Buddhism and Taoism,which is actually the representation of lacking cultural self-confidence.Superficially the deficiency arises from the mutual influence between politics and culture.However a profound reason lies in the clashes between foreign and indigenous culture.Despite the fact that indigenous figure sculpture formative arts were affected by Buddhism statues,under the influence of cultural tolerance and innate traits,accomplished its self-development,self-improvement and established a complete system with a tolerant and open manner,possessing both realistic style and symbolic and expressive feature and also showing the formative conception and aesthetic pursuit unique to indigenous figure sculpture formative arts.