A Study On Lotus Images In The Northern Dynasty

A large number of Buddhist statues were unearthed at the end of the last century at Longxing Temple in Qingzhou,and are of great variety and exquisite carving.The lotus flower images are of great aesthetic and research value,and the dragon spitting out a lotus flower is an iconic image in the statues of Qingzhou,providing a rich source for exploring Buddhist artistic decoration.This thesis takes the lotus images in the Buddhist statues of Longxing Temple from the Northern Dynasties period as the main object of study.Based on the existing research findings on the decorative images of Longxing Temple,and combining relevant textual and physical materials,this thesis summarises the cultural connotations and formal characteristics of the lotus images in the statues of Longxing Temple by applying typological and comparative approaches.At the same time,the question of the origin of the lotus images in the statues of Longxing Temple is traced.The thesis is divided into four parts.The first part is a brief introduction to the historical background and archaeological findings that led to the creation of the Longxing Temple statues.The second part is an analysis of the artistic style of the lotus images in the statues of Longxing Temple,which is the focus of this paper.In this section,the origins and symbolic connotations of lotus images are first introduced;secondly,according to the different positions of lotus images in the Longxing Temple statues,the lotus images are divided into three types: lotus on a pedestal,lotus with backlight and lotus holding object,and the specific images of lotus are outlined in line drawings.The table is used to classify the lotus images and to examine the structure and form of the various types of lotus images in the Longxing Temple.On the basis of this classification,the development of the lotus images is then divided into stages,the periodical characteristics of the lotus images in different eras are studied,and the changes in form during their historical development are summarised,thus sorting out the evolution of the lotus images.The third part is an examination of the relationship between the origins of the lotus images.A more in-depth study of the origins of the lotus images in the Longxing Temple statues concludes that,while absorbing ancient Greek and Indian Buddhist decorations,the lotus images in Longxing Temple were also fused with decorative arts from the Central and Southern Dynasties,resulting in the formation of the Qingzhou-style lotus images.At the same time,the lotus images in Longxing Temple are compared with those from other regions of the same period,highlighting the uniqueness of the style of the lotus images in Longxing Temple and attempting to clarify the evolution of the Buddhist lotus after its introduction from the West to the Middle Kingdom.The fourth section explores the interaction between the images at Longxing Temple and those at Zhucheng,Linqu and Boxing through an analysis of the style of the images,followed by an introduction to the different characteristics of the lotus images in their historical evolution after the Northern Dynasties,in an attempt to elucidate the self-regulation of the lotus images in the context of cultural exchange and historical evolution.