An overview of the study of Buddhist statues in the Chang'an area of the Tang Dynasty

In the Tang Dynasty, there were various Buddhist statues in the Buddhist monasteries in the Chang'an area, and what can be seen now is only a part of them. A comprehensive study of them reveals the outstanding achievements of the Tang Dynasty in terms of religious art.

Foreign research on Buddhist statues in Chang'an area of the Tang Dynasty is mainly based on the heirlooms that were handed down before the founding of New China, and the research in this area is represented by Japan. Although their research has achieved certain results, because they mainly focus on heirlooms as the research object, the research process is inevitably lacking, and the overall characteristics of the Buddhist statues unearthed in the Tang Chang'an area are still insufficient, and the newly discovered materials are not enough.

Over the past few decades, a large number of Buddhist statues have been unearthed in the Chang'an area of the Tang Dynasty, and a large number of relics and relics related to Buddhism have also been discovered. Although domestic scholars have done a lot of work and achieved remarkable research results, on the whole, the domestic research on Buddhist statues and monasteries in Chang'an area of the Tang Dynasty is still mainly based on data reporting and simple analysis, and the comprehensive research on the types, artistic characteristics and development and evolution of Buddhist statues by using the method of archaeological typology is still relatively weak, and there is still a need for further in-depth research.

For the Buddhist statues in the Chang'an area, it has always been concerned by the academic circles, such as the doctoral dissertation written by Ms. Yan Juanying, a scholar from Taiwan, China, in 1986 on the title of the Qibaotai statue, which is one of the representative works of the study of Buddhist statues in Chang'an in the Tang Dynasty. In 1998, Mr. Chang Qing not only published the basic information of the Big Buddha Temple in Binxian County, but also devoted a chapter to the fourth chapter, with the title of "Prospect of Chang'an Statue Art in Xijing", and conducted in-depth discussions on several issues such as the statue style of the Big Buddha Temple Grottoes in Binxian County and Chang'an in the Tang Dynasty, the formation of Tang Dynasty Buddha art in Longmen, Luoyang, and the Chang'an factor in the Chinese grotto statue art.

Later, Mr. Chang Qing wrote a special article to discuss the Buddhist art style and its origin in Chang'an during the Tang Dynasty. Mr. Chang Qing's treatises are the most in-depth and comprehensive research results on the Buddhist statue art in Chang'an in the Tang Dynasty; Mr. Wang Jianxin has written an article on the mode of Buddhist statues in Chang'an and the style of statues in the Tang Dynasty; Mr. Luo Shiping has discussed the styles of Buddhist statues in Sichuan and Chang'an in the Tang Dynasty; and Mr. Ding Mingyi has written a special article on the gold and bronze Buddhist statue art unearthed in Xingjia Village, Lintong, Shaanxi. The Japanese scholar Mr. Ken Okada has discussed the art of Buddhist statues in the early Tang Dynasty in Chang'an, and the Japanese scholar Mr. Lumi Hita in his monograph "Research on Buddhist Art in the Early Tang Dynasty", which discusses the Buddhist statue art in the early Tang Dynasty, also touches on the issue of Buddhist statues in the Chang'an area of the Tang Dynasty, and the chapters "On the Seven Statues of Shakya Invited by Xuanzang" and "The Production and Significance of the Brick Buddha Unearthed in Xi'an" all involve the Buddhist statues in the Chang'an area of the Tang Dynasty.

Mr. Jin Shen also discussed the Buddhist statues unearthed from the site of Anguo Temple in Xi'an, and on the basis of the research of Japanese scholar Saburo Matsubara, he further believed that the white stone statues of Anguo Temple not only came from the Youzhou area, but also had factors from the Quyang area. Mr. Pei Jianping in his article "From the Northern Wei Dynasty Buddha Statues Unearthed in Guanzhong to See the Formation of Chang'an Model Buddha Statues", the Chang'an model of Buddha statues in Chang'an area is discussed, although this article discusses the Chang'an model of Buddha statues in the Northern Wei Dynasty, but has a certain reference value for the discussion of Buddhist statues unearthed in Chang'an area in the Tang Dynasty. Mr. Bai Wen's doctoral dissertation, "Research on the Iconography of Tang Dynasty Buddhist Statues in Guanzhong", conducted an in-depth discussion on Tang Dynasty Buddhist statues in Guanzhong. Dong Yuxiang also discussed the formation and development of the "Chang'an model" of Buddhist statues in the Tang Dynasty.

Ms. Yang Xiaojun's book "Buddhist Modeling in the Wu and Zhou Periods: Focusing on the Relief Stone Buddha Statues in the Qibaotai of Guangzhai Temple in Chang'an" conducts a comprehensive study of the Buddhist modeling in the Wuzhou Dynasty (680-712), and on this basis, a case study of the relief stone Buddha statues in the Qibaotai of Guangzhai Temple in Chang'an, the representative work of Buddhist modeling in the Wuzhou Dynasty, the first chapter is a comprehensive study of Buddhist architecture and modeling in the Wuzhou and Zhou dynasties. The second chapter analyzes and studies the formation process, characteristics and spread of the Wuzhou style. Chapter 3 examines two iconographic issues related to the relief stone Buddha statues of Qibaotai in Guangzhai Temple in Chang'an—the Buddha statue of the Demon Suppression Seal and the eleven-faced Guanyin Bodhisattva statue. Chapter 4 is a study of the style and restoration of the stone Buddha statues in relief on the Qibaotai. Chapter 5 analyzes the visual culture of Buddhism in the Liangjing region during the Wu and Zhou dynasties, starting from the close relationship between Buddhist modeling and politics in the Wu and Zhou dynasties.

Ms. Chen Yuexin conducted an archaeological typological analysis of the 39 well-preserved single stone standing Buddha robes in Xi'an, and divided the single stone standing Buddha statues in Xi'an into three periods according to the date of the statues combined with the relatively clear dating data of other regions: the first period is mainly in the Northern Zhou Dynasty (557-581), the second period is mainly in the Sui Dynasty (581-618), and the third period is roughly from the Zhenguan period (627-649) to the Kaiyuan Dynasty (713-741). At the beginning of the year, it has important reference value for further in-depth discussion of the age of Buddha statues from the Northern Zhou Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty in Xi'an.

In addition to the above-mentioned treatises, Ms. Wen Jun has conducted a classified study on the mural themes in the temples in Chang'an City based on some of the written materials about the murals of Chang'an monasteries preserved in the documents such as "Records of Famous Paintings of the Past Dynasties", "Records of Famous Paintings of the Tang Dynasty", "Records of Temples and Towers", "Records of Chang'an", "Pictures and Paintings", etc., which has important reference value for in-depth understanding of the religious beliefs in Chang'an at that time.

It is particularly worth noting that Mr. Chang Qing's book review "A Brief Discussion on the Research on the Archaeological Dating Methods and Styles of the Grotto Temples - After Reading the Charity Temple and the Linxi Bridge", although the article is in the nature of a book review, in fact, the article expounds the dating and style research in the archaeological research of the cave temples in the form of a feeling after reading, which has theoretical guiding significance for the study of Buddhist statues.

So far, although the research on Buddhist statues in Chang'an has made some achievements, from the results of these research results, there is little or no typological method to summarize the various types of statues and give a general judgment standard. In the process of research and discussion, on the basis of absorbing the research results of predecessors, the book first classifies the main Buddhist statues in Chang'an area of the Tang Dynasty by using the typological method, and on the basis of classification, according to the detailed changes of Buddhist statues, the development and evolution of Buddhist statues in Chang'an area of the Tang Dynasty are discussed, so as to provide a yardstick for judging the age of various statues. Why should we explore the law of development and evolution of Buddhist statues on the basis of observing the basic style of Buddhist statues? As we all know, in the process of studying cave temples, in the same cave, factors such as shapes, statues, and murals constitute the overall content of the cave, and the changes in these contents are often asynchronous and often staggered.

This requires attention to the subtle changes in the details, not just in the form of changes in the statue. While paying attention to discovering and identifying the items that change the most, it is also important to understand that the more dominant the content of the cave tends not to change much over a long period of time; This is because the work of digging caves is easily restricted in large aspects, while in some small and minor aspects it is possible to add the craftsmen's own designs or express some new tricks. Therefore, we should pay attention to both the big aspects and the small changes, and the small aspects must not be ignored. This is true for the investigation and study of cave temples, and this basic principle is still applicable in the study of other individual Buddhist statues.

The study of Buddhist statues in the Tang Dynasty has always been an important part of archaeological research, through the study of these statues, we can understand the religious beliefs and aesthetics of the people at that time, especially the Buddhist statues in Chang'an area of the Tang Dynasty as a typical representative of Buddhist statues at that time, and the study of them is of more academic significance.

The Tang Dynasty had a prosperous social economy and culture, and cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries were extremely active, providing a solid external condition and material foundation for the prosperity and prosperity of Buddhism. For example, Chang'an, the capital of the Tang Dynasty, was the starting point of the Silk Road at that time, and there were two routes from Chang'an to Hexi: the south road passed through Fufeng, Tianshui, and Lanzhou to Wuwei, and the north road passed through Binxian, Pingliang, and Guyuan to Wuwei. Out of Wuwei or Anxi, in Xinjiang is divided into south, north, and middle three routes to the west: the south road passes through Ruoqiang, Yutian, and Hotan to Kashgar, the middle road passes through Hami, Turpan, Yanqi, and Kuqa to Kashgar, and the north road goes from Hami, Jimusar, and Yining to the west. From Hexi to Xinjiang is the main route to the Western Regions since the Han and Tang Dynasties.

At the same time, the "Silk Road" of the northern grasslands and the "Silk Road" of the sea are also unimpeded. As the cultural center and Buddhist center of the Tang Dynasty, the Chang'an area has naturally become the focus of attention due to its unique conditions. Judging from the various Tang Dynasty materials excavated by archaeological excavations, one of the biggest characteristics of Tang Dynasty art is that it is bold to absorb and be inclusive, which is manifested in Buddhist statues, that is, the traditional line carving art and three-dimensional statue art are perfectly combined, so that the Tang Dynasty Buddhist statue art has reached the peak of ancient Chinese Buddhist statue art. Through the study of Buddhist statues in and around Chang'an, we can grasp the pulse of the development of Buddhist statue art in the Tang Dynasty, which is of positive significance for exploring the development law of Tang Dynasty statue art.

This article is excerpted by Sun Li and Yan Guangyu from the "Preface" of "Archaeological Research on Buddhist Statues in Chang'an Region of the Tang Dynasty" by Ran Wanli. The content has been slightly abridged and adjusted.