Research On Stone Chronological Buddhist Statues In Northern Dynasties Of Hebei

At present,there were more than 200 Stone Chronological Buddha statues of the Northern Dynasty unearthed in Hebei and published detailed materials.They were classified,Identification and divided into two types: Buddha statues and Bodhisattva statues by using the research method of archaeological typology.Each type of statues was divided into standing statues,jiejuan sitting statues,Shanjuan sitting statues and Jiaojiao sitting statues according to their body posture.On this basis,the Buddha statues were divided into single and double bodies,finally,divided the style of Buddha clothes,cross way of silk,hand posture,crown decoration,Buddha seat form and other aspects,analyzed the artistic characteristics of various images on the chronological Buddha statues,focused on the time point of change,strived to scientifically and accurately clarify the evolution law of the types of Buddha statues,grasped the development characteristics of statues in a certain stage or region,and explored the evolution of their style sources,so as to provide clues and reference basis for the study of chronological inference of non chronological Buddha statues.At the same time,combined with the inscription of statues,the common religious beliefs and cultural customs in the society in the Northern Dynasty were considered in connection with the cultural exchange at that time,so as to explore the local Buddhist communication characteristics,social and historical background and regional cultural characteristics,and found out a lot of information behind the statues,so as to lay a foundation for comprehensively revealing the style characteristics of statues in that place.In addition,compared the chronological Buddha statues of the Northern Dynasty in Hebei with those in Qingzhou to explore the communication,integration and influence between the two regions.Through the analysis and Research on the respect,posture,style characteristics and inscription content of the stone dating Buddha statues unearthed in the Northern Dynasty of Hebei Province,they can be divided into three periods: Northern Wei Dynasty,Eastern Wei Dynasty and Northern Qi Dynasty.In the Northern Wei Dynasty,the stone chronological Buddha statues in the Northern Wei Dynasty were made of bluestone and sandstone in the early stage.In the Taihe period,bluestone gradually became the main material of statues,while the traditional white stone statues gradually became popular in the late Northern Wei Dynasty.From the perspective of statue shape,most of the Buddha statues in the Northern Wei Dynasty were seated at the beginning,and there were good seated and standing statues no later than the Zhengguang period;There are four styles of Buddha’s hand posture,including meditation seal,fearless and willing seal,fearless seal on the right hand,extending the left hand forward and downward,bending the other fingers upward except the index finger,fearless seal on the right hand,and holding the knee on the left hand.Among them,fearless and willing seal is the main popular style;In terms of the style of Buddha’s clothes,the early Buddha statues were mostly full shoulder cassock with thick clothes patterns.The right side cassock appeared in the reign of Taihe.In the 18 th year of Taihe(494),the artistic style of "showing bones and clearing images" was formed after the reform of Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty.Compared with Buddha statues,the number of Bodhisattvas in the Northern Wei Dynasty and Hebei Province is small,while most of them are bodhisattvas.From the perspective of hand posture,the pattern of holding a lotus bud with the right arm bent on the chest and a sachet with the left hand drooping appeared no later than the Zhengguang year.Since then,this pattern has become a popular style of the statue of Li Bodhisattva.The main form of the crossing of silk and silk of Bodhisattva is double "U" shape.The crown decoration is mostly square,and the neck of Bodhisattva is generally peach shaped,but some peach shaped decorations have wide edges and roughly the same shape and system.In the Northern Wei Dynasty,the Buddha seat was mostly composed of a base and a statue seat,and a few had only a base.There are five types of Buddha seats: rectangular base,bed seat,circular lotus covered pedestal and waist tied Xumi pedestal,among which circular lotus covered pedestal and waist tied Xumi pedestal are the main popular styles.In the late Northern Wei Dynasty,under the influence of the gold and copper statues of the same period,the bed type base began to appear.In the early stage,the arched shape of the back of the boat and the arched shape of the back of the boat quickly became popular.During the Eastern Wei Dynasty,the Buddha statues in the early Eastern Wei Dynasty were still dominated by single jujube sitting Buddha statues,and the establishment of Buddha statues was still the main posture of Buddha statues except jujube sitting,and the good jujube Buddha statues had disappeared.In the late Eastern Wei Dynasty,the double seated Buddha became a new style and began to appear.At first,it was limited to Sakyamuni Duobao Buddha.Later,the double seated Buddha became popular and a unique style of statues in Hebei.In addition to the traditional standing statues,the statues of Bodhisattvas have ended with the initial sitting and semi initial sitting.The number of the initial sitting Bodhisattvas is very small,and the semi initial sitting Bodhisattvas have developed rapidly as soon as they appear.In terms of the shape of the Buddha seat,the influence of gold and copper statues continues to exist,while bed type base still founded,and the newly emerged rattan hoof seat is very popular.Most of the bases are engraved with Huasheng boy Boshan stove,double lions and Lishi statues.On the back screen of statues,the shape of the back screen of Buddha statues in the Eastern Wei Dynasty has developed greatly compared with that in the Northern Wei Dynasty.The boat shaped back screen inherits the style of the boat shaped back screen in the late Northern Wei Dynasty,but it is slightly thinner than that in the northern Wei Dynasty.In addition to the boat shaped back screen,the round head light,lotus petal back screen and double tree disk branch back screen appeared in this period.The round head light was only seen in the statues of half step sitting Bodhisattva,and the double tree disk branch back screen also first appeared in the statues of half step sitting Bodhisattva.In the Northern Qi Dynasty,new forms of stone dating Buddha statues continued to appear.The most prominent manifestation was the large number of double body Buddha statues.In addition to the double body Buddha sitting statues that had appeared in the Eastern Wei Dynasty,there were also double body standing Bodhisattva statues and double body half sitting Bodhisattva statues.In terms of statue shape,the "praising clothes and broad belts" style cassock in the late Eastern Wei Dynasty has gradually been reduced to disappear.The shoulder style cassock and the right side style cassock popular in the early Northern Wei Dynasty are popular again at this time.However,the shoulder style cassock at this time has been greatly changed from the shoulder style cassock in the early Northern Dynasty.It is dominated by the round collar shoulder style cassock,the Buddha clothes are close to the body,and the clothes are half hung in front of the seat.The clothes are simple and outlined in two lines.Bodhisattva statues are still dominated by standing Bodhisattva statues and half sitting Bodhisattva statues.Bodhisattva costumes are roughly bounded by the last year of Tianbao.Bodhisattva statues and costumes in Tianbao period are very similar to those in the late Eastern Wei Dynasty,that is,silk crosses through the wall in the abdomen.After Tianbao year,this style decreased sharply,with bare upper body and lower body wearing a light and soft long skirt.The style of "X" cross of silk in the abdomen has become the mainstream.The statue of a Bodhisattva sitting on a half arch,which was floating on a ribbon and holding a long stem lotus bud in the Eastern Wei Dynasty,has disappeared in this period.Another kind of statue in the Eastern Wei Dynasty has the right arm up,the left hand holding the right ankle,one foot drooping and stepping on a circular lotus platform.The silk hung from the shoulder around the elbow to the base,and the style of double hook Yin line engraved on the legs was inherited from the early Northern Qi Dynasty.In short,the number of stone dating Buddha statues in the Northern Qi Dynasty was the largest.After inheriting the style of the Eastern Wei Dynasty,the details of the statues gradually changed,formed new characteristics and continued developing.