National Identity In The Buddhist Statues Of The Northern Wei Dynasty

Since Buddhism was introduced into China in Western Han and Eastern Han Dynasties, it had been witnessed a rapid development during the periods of the Sixteen States and the Northern Dynasties. After the establishment of the Northern Wei Dynasty, all the governors strongly advocated Buddhism by cutting caves and building temples except for Taiwu Emperor. Under this policy, the number of Buddhist temples had amounted to 40,000 and that of monks to 2 million. Meanwhile, the folk statue carvings also obtained a rapid development. The donators donated statues to express their praying and wishes by carving the images of their Patrons, writing inscriptions and carving various statues.All these, to some extend, reflected the Patrons' identification. Therefore, I collected the Buddhist statues and stone inscriptions in Northern Wei Dynasty to study the national identification from the Patrons' surnames, accessories and statues inscriptions. And I found that there were some similarities and differences between official grotto and folk statues, which would be discussed separately. This paper consists of three parts.The first part, mainly in the Yungang grottos and Longmen grottos, by analyzing Donors surname, clothing and inscription, to discuss what ethnic identity reflected in official Buddhist statues. Grotto in official, Patrons dress, surname have a big difference because the reform of Emperor Xiao wen. Before the reforms of Emperor Xiaowen, official provider's dress hu clothing of all. After the reforms of Emperor xiaowen, they all dress han clothing. Provider's surname and clothing changed with the key points of time, it reflects the influence of Emperor xiaowen reforms.The second part, focuses on the ethnic identity reflected in the unofficial statues. In case of statues in Shandong, Shanxi, Hebei, Henan, Shaanxi, and other Northern Wei areas. The change of surname and clothing in civil statue, there have some differences with the official statues. In civil statue, regardless of the reform of Emperor Xiao wen, they all have statue with the hu dress han clothing, the hu dress hu clothing, the han dress han clothing, the han dress hu clothing. The difference of this change in type of donors surname and clothing, to some extent, it reflects the existence of a certain degree of between Hu and Han ethnic identity lower classes.The third part, based on the previous two parts, focuses on the territory of the Northern Wei Dynasty Buddhist statues embodied in the national identity of time and space characteristics. In official Grotto, the change of donors surname and clothing are closely related to the reform of Emperor Xiao wen, and very obvious surname of Hu also disappeared. In unofficial statues, although regional statues exist own characteristics, but generally consistent,it has not been dramatic change because of the reform.