Daming Clay Arhat Statues

Through the awareness of appearance and essence, and taking the Statue of Arahat in Buddhist statues of clay sculpture in Daming Temple of Yangzhou for example, this paper aims to reflect the value of sculptural art in the Qing Dynasty.With the rise and fall of Daming Temple in history , the Buddhist statues of clay sculpture in it got changeable. The existing statues of Arahat were completed in the late Qing Dynasty, but they are of historic thread of thought and explorable value in moulding material, technique and style. On the basis of the relevant objects survived in this temple and some local records, in the light of the observation on the Buddhist statues of clay sculpture, and by means of modern people's vision and through the barrier of historical space and time, this paper probes into the symbols left on the Buddhist statues in that period from multi-angles and at all levels, thus analyzing from these statues the relationship between economy, culture, science and technology, art and social personalities from all walks of life and statues of religion and art, and also exploring the artistic achievement of Buddhist sculpture in the Qing Dynasty and making contributions to the construction of local artistic history.