Encyclopedia of Buddhism Volume One A -L Robert E. Buswell

C HINA, BUDDHIST A RT IN
stone image, some of great size. Images from the
Northern Zhou tended to be laden with jewelry in bodhisattva
figures and to have a sense of natural mass
and movement, contrary to the Northern Qi’s hermetic,
aloof, and pristinely pure abstract imagery,
which was possibly inspired by the styles of the Gupta
Sarnath school of India. Regional distinctions in imagery
were particularly pronounced during this period
and they continued into the Sui dynasty.
Dunhuang, with its semiautonomous status at the
far reaches of northwest China, saw continued activity
throughout the Northern Wei and into the Northern
Zhou, and the site generally developed its own
traditions in the second half of the fifth century to
around the end of the Northern Wei. By the time of
cave 285 in the Western Wei, however, artists at Dunhuang
had adopted Chinese style drapery and also incorporated
some Central Asian iconographic features.
Maijishan was also active throughout this period, with
caves of painted clay imagery, wall paintings, and some
important stone steles, including a rare example that
depicts the Buddha’s life in narrative scenes. The Tianlongshan
caves in Shanxi, opened in the Eastern Wei,
continued with the production of remarkably beautiful
sculptures in the Northern Qi and Sui.
Following the Buddhist persecution by the Northern
Zhou in the late 570s and the unification of China
under the Sui, Buddhist art gained momentum under
imperially sponsored restorations and construction
projects. New cave sites in Shandong at Tuoshan and
Yunmenshan emerged, and Dunhuang entered one of
it most flourishing periods, beginning a wave of production
that carried on into the Tang period and beyond.
The TIANTAI SCHOOL was strong in China and
the Lotus Su tra is reflected in the paintings of caves 419
and 420 at Dunhuang. The regional variations encountered
in the mid-sixth century continued into the
Sui with certain developments: Early Sui images became
more grandiose and monumentalized; during the late
Sui images began to loosen toward a slightly more naturalistic
impression, as seen in the painting of Mañjuśr
Bodhisattva, depicted with superbly confident line
drawing, in cave 276 at Dunhuang. The great period of
the abstract icon came to an end in the Sui. Very few
large pagodas or stupas survive from this period, the
most striking being the monumental twelve-sided,
fifteen-story, parabolically-shaped brick pagoda at
Songshan in Henan, dated to around 520, and a stone
square-image pagoda with four entrances (simenta),
dated 611, at the ancient Shentongsi in Shandong.
Avalokiteśvara as the guide of beings to the halls of paradise. (Chinese
painting from cave 17 at Dunhuang, tenth century.) © Copyright
The British Museum. Reproduced by permission.
Tang dynasty (618–907) and the Five Dynasties
(907–960)
Although the collapse of the Sui in 617 and the formative
decades of the Tang brought an initial hiatus
in the production of Buddhist art, the eventual longlasting
cohesion helped to engender unprecedented
developments in Buddhism and its arts in China. Except
for Dunhuang, where the opening of new cave
chapels continued at a more or less constant rate, it
was not until around the 640s that Buddhist art began
to appear with prominence in central China, mostly in
the capital at Chang’an and at Longmen near Luoyang.
With the return of the monk-pilgrim XUANZANG
(ca. 600–664) from his astonishing travels to India
from 628 to 645, the emperor sponsored the building
of the Great Wild Goose Pagoda in the capital to house
the manuscripts he brought back. Austere, grand, and
monumental, this Tang brick pagoda still remains a
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