| The subject of this paper is a stone half-legged Buddhist statue from the Eastern Wei and Northern Qi periods in Hebei.During this period,the turbulent social environment and the support and reverence of the rulers all contributed to the rapid rise of Buddhism,which attracted the people of the time and led to the gradual rise of stone Buddhist statues in Hebei.As one of the special types,the half-legged statue of Siwei,with its unique connotation and beautiful posture,has been widely circulated in Hebei,and its large number,exquisite shape,and orderly chronology make it a part of the stone Buddhist statues at this stage that cannot be ignored.Therefore,the study of stone half-legged Siddha statues from the Eastern Wei and Northern Qi periods in Hebei is of great significance in the study of Chinese Buddhist art.Based on the more than one hundred and twenty cross-legged statues that have been recorded in detail,this paper selects the stone cross-legged statues excavated in two major areas,Dingzhou and Yecheng,as the main object of study,and supplements them with cross-legged statues excavated in the surrounding areas of these two areas.Most of the statues are inscribed with vow texts and are clearly dated and well preserved,so they are representative and can reflect the characteristics of stone cross-legged statues in Hebei during this period.This paper mainly adopts the archaeological typology method,starting from the types of stone cross-legged statues,and classifying and ranking the statues according to various criteria,including the location,expression,number of figures,posture,composition of the back screen,and the combination of coercive attendants of the statues.Based on this,we explore the evolutionary order and development pattern of each element and divide the evolution of the half-legged statue into three stages,namely,the early Eastern Wei period,the late Eastern Wei period to the early Northern Qi period,and the middle and late Northern Qi period.The paper is supplemented by historical documentation and iconography,which corroborate the views through historical documents and discuss and summarize the artistic styles of the statues.In each of the three phases,the cross-legged contemplative statues show different characteristics.In the early Eastern Wei Dynasty,the cross-legged statue of contemplation was influenced by the style of gold and bronze Buddha statues in the Northern Wei Dynasty,and a large number of cross-legged statues of contemplation appeared on the back of Buddha statues,while the cross-legged statue of contemplation on the main dwelling held objects in the hands,had a heavy skirt,and had no back screen and no warder.From the late Eastern Wei Dynasty to the early to mid Northern Qi Dynasty,the half crossed-legged statues gradually got rid of the style of Northern Wei Dynasty statues,the phenomenon of holding objects in the hands gradually disappeared,the skirt was closed in the body,the clothing pattern was reduced,the legs were double hooked and carved in the shade,different styles of back screens began to appear,and two and four warders appeared,forming a new combination of three statues and five statues.In the middle and late Northern Qi period,the skirt of the cross-legged contemplative statue continues to decrease,and the double hooks and shaded lines disappear,and in the late period the skirt even appears to be plain,and the main statue begins to appear as a double cross-legged contemplative statue,while the identity of the warder appears as a spiral bun statue,and the double tree back screen is connected to the hugging mansion and the dome arch niche as the new style of back screen at this stage.On this basis,this paper further compares the cross-legged contemplative statues of the two places to find out the similarities and differences between them in various aspects.The two places are basically the same in terms of the temporal evolution of costumes and bases,but they differ in terms of the material of the statue,the identity of the contemplative statue,the expression technique,the style of the back screen,and the combination of the guardians.Finally,we analyze the popularity of the half-legged statues in Hebei during the Eastern Wei and Northern Qi dynasties and summarize the reasons behind their popularity. |
