Xi 'an Area And Its Origin Of Their Buddhist Images

Xi’an area in Shaanxi Province have an important position in the Buddhist sculpture art of Northern-ZhouDynasty (557-581). Hoards of stone Buddhist sculptures, most of which is full relief, have been unearthed insuccession in the relices of Chang’an City and arounding areas since the middle of the20th century. The totalnumber of the Buddhist statuaries in Northern-Zhou period is over100. Some of them are confirmed according toinscriptions left on the surface, others are judged by the technique and style. Three discoveries in recent years arevery important and provide us further information to understand the Buddhist art of Northern-Zhou. This paperwill conduct a research on the style of Northern-Zhou’s Buddhist sculptures excavated in Xi’an area and explorethe origin of them.The thesis is divided into four parts. The first chapter gives a view on Buddhist history and describes thebasic situation of Buddhist sculptures which discoveried in Xi’an area. The second chapter analyses the style andshows the forming and developing of them, then explains the features of the Buddhist carves’art. The third chapterfocuses on the source of the style. Mostly, it shows that there is a relationship between the Buddhist sculptures inXi’an area and Buddhist sculptures of the northwest district in the early years, Southern Dynasties, the Buddhastatues of Gupta style, sculptures of Henan district. The last chapter explains the influence of Chang’an’s Buddhistsculptures in surrounding area near the central Shaanxi plain.Generally speaking, through exploring the style and origin of the Buddhist sculptures by analysising andcomparing the main features, we expect to get a clear understanding of the way how the Buddhist sculptures inXi’an area formed the special style by inheriting the internal ones and absorbing the external ones, finally laid thefoundation of the mode of Buddhist sculpture art in the Sui and Tang dynasty.