A Study On Buddhist Statues Of The Jin Dynasty In Northern Shannxi And Eastern Gansu

Before the Northern and Southern Song Dynasties,Buddhist statue art played an important role in art history,but the Buddhist art lost its original status with the rising of literati paintings.However,it didn’t witness the decline of Buddhist statues.On the contrary,Buddhist grottoes’ excavation was still undergoing during the Liao,Jin,and West Xia Dynasties when Buddhist statue art developed further and formed its last peak period since the Sui and Tang Dynasties of China.When northern China was ruled by the Jin Dynasty,a batch of grotto temples were also constructed and excavated which were mainly in Northern Shannxi and Eastern Gansu.Although the Buddhist statues in grotto temples of the Jin Dynasty had got remarkable art achievement,the academic community didn’t pay much attention to thembecause of the shortage of literature,let alone studieson them in Northern Shannxi and Easetern Gansu.Based on a clear dated inscription and statues,the paper is developed by using graphics and images to analyze the inscriptions of Buddhist statuesandexplore the shape of grottoes,distribution of statue niches and grotto temples in the area in the Jin Dynasty.Nirvana image,statues of Manjusri and Samantabhadra,Sixteen Arhat Statues,Water and Moon Kuan-Yin statues and Flying Apsara statues are the focus of the research,which elaborateson the changes of the Buddhist statues in the Jin Dynasty in their content,structure and style.The paper also exploresthe statues’ clothing,decorative patterns and workmanship characteristics based onBuddhist beliefs and the fashion in the Song and Jin Dynasties,summarizing Buddhist statues’ art features in the Jin Dynasty.At the beginning of the Jin Dynasty,grotto artisans were adherents of the Northern Song Dynasty and immigrants from other places.Because of inheritance in artisans and Fenben,statues’ styles of both early Jin and Northen Song Dynastieswere similar.However,during the middle Jin Dynasty,their styles were clearly differentfrom those of the Song Dynasty as theyweresimilar to those of the Tang Dynasty,which can be the evidence to judgethe era of statues in the Song and Jin Dynasties.The late Jin only had few statues and explorations.Northern Shannxi and Eastern Gansu had a prominent strategical position during the Song and Jin Dynasties,and they also serve as the link of cultural communication between North and South China which were reflected in Buddhist statues.Therefore,the research onBuddhist statues should start from regional studies so as to systematically explore the whole region under the ruleof the Jin Dynasty.In this way,Chinese Buddhist statue art will be a complete whole,which is the academic value and practical significance of the study.