A Comparative Study Of The Zoroastrian Angels And The Buddhist Flying Sky Schemas Of The 5th-7th Centuries

In recent years,images of Zoroastrian angels found in stone funerary objects of the northern and Sui dynasties that were imported into China have been misinterpreted as Buddhist flying devas.By tracing and comparing the iconography,it can be found that the two types of images,Zoroastrian angels and Buddhist flying devas,come from different cultural backgrounds and have their own unique iconographic types.The Zoroastrian angels were created by the Central Asian Sogdians after they entered the Central Plains,combining local and Han visual traditions.Their basic image features a celestial figure with fan-like feathers on both shoulders,sometimes clad in a wide cape,and are mainly found in the art of stone burials of the Sogdians who entered China.When Zoroastrian angels entered the Central Plains,they interacted graphically on multiple levels with the Buddhist images of flying devas that were popular at the time in the late Northern Dynasties.The first layer is the interaction of decorative elements,such as images of fire altars and sun and moon crowns with typical Persian cultural elements are transferred to the Buddhist art space and combined with images of flying devas,while images of lotus flowers and incense burners with typical Buddhist cultural elements are also transferred to the Zoroastrian art space and combined with images of angels.The second layer is the replacement of spatial layout.The guiding and saving patterns of Buddhist flying images are used in Zoroastrian art,while the layout of the celestial palace of Zoroastrian angels is also transferred to Buddhist art,enriching the pictorial representation of flying devas and angels.The third layer is the interaction of cultural connotations,as the mutual appreciation of flying pictograms promotes the conceptual exchange and mutual appreciation of Zoroastrian heavenly thought and Buddhist Pure Land thought.As a result,the two images have many similarities in terms of decorative elements,layout space,and cultural function that are difficult to distinguish.In terms of prerequisites,the homogeneity of the Buddhist and Zoroastrian concepts of "fire worship" makes the Zoroastrian angels and Buddhist flying images inherently compatible.In terms of environmental conditions,both images were introduced to the Central Plains via the Northern Silk Road and were influenced by the regional artisan workshop mechanism and Chinese cultural ethos,which allowed them to spread and interact in different contexts of culture and art.We argue that the process of the entry of foreign artistic motifs into the Middle Kingdom was also a process of their Chinesization,involving the collision and intermingling of multiple cultures.Both the Zoroastrian angels and Buddhist flying skies were eventually actively combined with images of native feathered figures under the influence of Chinese culture,not only demonstrating the exchange and interaction between the diverse religious arts of Zoroastrianism,Buddhism,and Taoism,but also enriching the expression and cultural connotation of the post-mortem world of ancient tomb art.