A Study of the Buddhist Statues around Yizhou in the Southern Dynasties

• Main Authors: Che-Hsuan Chen, 陳哲萱
• Other Authors: 李玉珉
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2012
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/90917149540511409263

碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 藝術史研究所 === 100 === Ancient Yizhou area is around Sichuan Basin, which includes Chengdu and those areas located around upper reaches of Min River. Yizhou belongs to Southern Song (420-478), Southern Qi (479-501) and Sothern Liang (502-557) until it was taken by Western Wei (534-556) in 553. Archaeologists have found over 80 Buddhist statues of Qi and Liang Dynasty in Yizhou, which are the most important data of the Buddhist statue research in the Southern Dynasties. Yizhou Buddhist Statues have always been considered as subordination of Jiankang建康 Buddhist Statues for a long time. However, the position of Yizhou is complex. Yizhou is distant from Jiankang but can link the Yangtze River to the capital area. It is right at the northwest corner of Southern Dynasties’ boundary, which connects to Tuyuhun吐峪渾 Kingdom on the west side, faces to Northern Dynasties on the north side. According to the monks’ stories, it is believed that there were many monks traveling around the whole China through Yizhou. Thus, presumably the features of Buddhist statues in Yizhou were not only influenced by one place, Jiankang. In addition, the traditional features of Buddhist statues in Yizhou can be traced back to the Eastern Han (25-220) so the statues during the period of Southern Dynasties ought to have reflected their own origins. I am personally interested in how Yizhou’s local traditions and outside influences affect each other and how they work on the Buddhist statues in Yizhou. In this dissertation, this topic will be further discussed. Firstly, there will be a review of the history of Yizhou to build up the background of the Buddhist activity. This section is based on the monks’ biographies as historical data and then integrate information such as social activities, transportation and religious events to rebuild the religious situation in Yizhou. Secondly, the style of Yizhou statues will be discussed. The development of Yizhou statues can be divided into four periods: Song, Qi, first and the second half of Liang. The first and the second half of the Sothern Liang are divided by the standing Sakyamuni, donated in 529. Statue subjects and iconology will be discussed in Chapter 3. The study will be focusing on the main figure and comparing with its inscriptions to identify and discriminate the details and combination groups of the statues.