The Dissemination Of Buddhism And The Vogue Of Chinese Plant Pattern

Before Buddhism was introduced into China, Chinese plant patterns were rare while human beings and animals were the main ornament subjects. With the opening of the Silk Road and the dissemination of Buddhism, there appeared a great variety of plant patterns, which turned to become popularized in the dynasties of Wei, Jin and Tang in China. Dynasty Tang, especially, saw the pattern of Tangcao (scrollwork), which is thought to be perfect in artistic form.In this paper, I will first do some researches into the headstream of several typical plant patterns of Buddhist arts in the dynasties of Wei, Jin and Tang. Then I will make comparisons of the changes of the styles as well as the causes of the changes of the plant patterns in different civilizations on the Silk Road. On the basis of all the discussions, I will further on study the relation between the spread of Buddhism and the flourishing of the Chinese plant patterns.This paper consists of six chapters. Chapter One discusses the Chinese tradition of plant ornament before the introduction of Buddhism, showing that the pre-Han religions were the decisive factor on the development of plant ornaments. Following the Western-origin theory, Chapter Two gives the picture of the dissemination of plant patterns from Egypt to Greece and then to the Orient, making also comparisons of different ornament styles of Egypt, Greece, Persia and Central Asia. In Chapter Three, I discuss the importance of India, which is the cradleland of Buddhism, in all the ancient civilizations, and how the foreign ornamental factors and native Indian art tradition combined to form the unique Buddhist plant ornaments in India Chapter Four studies the dissemination and changes of plant patterns and ornaments in the spreading process of Buddhism in Chinese Western Regions to Dunhuang. In Chapter Five I try to arguehow the introduction of Buddhism played its decisive role in the flourishing of plant patterns.In the final part of Conclusions, I conclude that any artistic form, if disseminated in dufferent culture, will have localization as its necessary destination; that the origin of any artistic form has complicated factors and contributors, including the influences of foreign civilizations, the continuity of native culture, the inherent necessity of art, as well as the factors that may be still unknown to us but have always been there promoting the development of art.