The Study Of The Half-thinking Image

The banjiasiwei image is a rare example in Buddhist art of a statue named after a posture,and was most popular in India in the Gandhara region in the late Kusana period.It became an important type of Chinese Buddhist statue in the Sixteen Kingdoms and Northern Dynastie and spread to the Korean Peninsula and Japan.This paper focuses on the banjiasiwei image in India and China and analyses its form,including bodyshape and posture,clothing,ornament,backdrop and others aspects.on this basis,the study is combined with the historical literature to discuss issues of identity,symbolism and belief patterns so as to reveal the occurrence and evolution of the banjiasiwei image and systematically expounds its essential meaning.India's banjiasiwei image is a combination of a banjia sitting posture and siwei gesture.The former symbolises the identity of the king,while the latter represents the figure's psychological state,for exemple,compassion or anxiety.The above images appeared early on before images of Buddha existed in India and were finalised in the Kusana period.According to form of expression,Indian banjiasiwei images can be divided into three categoris: "Sakymuni's life story images","preaching Buddha images" and "relatively independent Buddha images" as well as additional non-standard images.The banjiasiwei image in the Buddha's biography mainly shows Prince Siddhartha's difficult choice between secular life and pure penance,and suggests the importance of practicing Buddhism for the prince.The banjiasiwei image in "preaching Buddha images" and "honorific images" are mostly symmetrically arranged with crosse-legged Bodhisattvas,possibly Avalokitesvara who sympathises with all living beings and Maitreya who pursues wisdom.In "preaching Buddha images",there is a subsidiary form of banjiasiwei image which shows a deva Bodhisattva in a listening posture.Independent banjiasiwei images come in several different forms,corresponding with the identity of Sakyamuni and Avalokitesvara,with the former in particular more likely.Banjiasiwei images in China appeared relatively early in the southern tombs of the Wu Jin period and later in the Kizil Grottoes.In the Sixteen Kingdoms and the Northern Wei Dynasty,banjiasiwei images were widely distributed throughout grottoes in northern China,and also found in Buddhist steles and pagodas influenced by such grottoes.Although banjiasiwei images were very rich in style,they all originated from images in Gandhara of "contemplation under the trees" or "preaching Buddha images".In the late Northern Wei Dynasty,images of "contemplation under the trees" in the Longmen Grottoes completed the process of Sinicization,and their influence continued to spread to the murals of the Mogao Grottoes in the mid Sui Dynasty.During the Eastern Wei Dynasty and Northern Qi Dynasty,the banjiasiwei image developed regional characteristics in Quyang,Yecheng and Qingzhou,further highlighting the image and meaning of the "contemplative prince image".After the Sui and Tang Dynasties,Buddhism developed and diversified and the banjiasiwei image was influenced by several factors,eventually leading to its decline and disappearance.