Ethnic Communication Seen In The Northern Dynasties Statues In Guanzhong Area

Guanzhong(关中)area was in the dual development period of Buddhism prosperity and ethnic integration in the Sixteen Kingdoms.Entering the Northern Dynasties,the integration between ethnic groups and religions was further deepened.With the superior geographical position of communication between China and foreign countries and the support of social regimes,Buddhism has developed prosperously in Guanzhong(关中)region.People everywhere express their beliefs in the form of statues and monuments,praying for blessing and disaster relief.The Northern Wei Dynasty was the early stage of the rise of the Guanzhong statue tablet,forming two different styles:the central city Chang’an and the local representative Yaoxian(耀县).Entering the Northern Zhou Dynasty of the Western Wei Dynasty,Chang’an,as the political center,has increased its radiation force,and the style of the statues in the surrounding areas gradually tends to be consistent with it.At the same time,in religious activities such as statues and monuments,the people have produced the religious grassroots organization of Sheyi(社邑),which makes the interaction of various ethnic groups frequent.The statues,line patterns,inscriptions and changes in their nature on the monuments can reflect the integration between ethnic groups.Therefore,the method of iconography is adopted to pay attention to the overall information contained in the statue tablet.Firstly,the costumes of Buddha statues on the statue tablet are taken as the starting point,and the statue tablet of Yaowang Mountain(药王山)is the main one.Adopting the method of archeological typology,the Northern Dynasty statues in the area are divided into three periods according to the Buddhist style,which provides a basic framework for the subsequent discussion.In the basic time framework,we summarize the characteristics of the times of the Northern Dynasty statues of Yaowang Mountain,focusing on the analysis of the communication and integration among ethnic groups in different periods.At the same time,it makes a simple comparison with the statues in Chang’an(长安)area.There are regional and temporal differences in the forms of statues in different regions and the interaction between ethnic groups,so as to discuss the communication between statues in Guanzhong area.Finally,on the basis of detailed textual research,the Lifei’s(荔非氏)statue tablet in the Northern Dynasty of Yaowang Mountain was taken as a case study,and the clan names of the donors were counted.The social life picture of Qiang people(羌人)represented by the Lifei’s family in the north of Weihe River(渭河)was analyzed from the two forms of family statue tablet and the Heyi(合邑)statue tablet,including family lineage,official and marital status,and then the ethnic communication represented by the Lifei’s family in Yaowang Mountain was discussed.Through the above analysis,from small to large,we have a more profound understanding of the ways and manifestations of ethnic exchanges in Guanzhong area.