The Lost Buddhas: Chinese Buddhist Sculpture from Qingzhou

The Lost Buddhas: Chinese Buddhist Sculpture from Qingzhou

 

(이건 분명 山東省 靑州에서 발굴한 '동양의 비너스'라 할만 한 것 같다)

 

 

 

IN 1996, onE of the most significant archaeological finds of the 20th century was discovered when construction workers in the Chinese town of Qingzhou were levelling a sports field. Found by accident, like the terracotta warriors discovered at Xi’an in 1974, this extraordinary discovery brought to light a caché of hundreds stone Buddhist sculptures on the site of the long-ruined Longxing (Dragon Rise) Temple in Qingzhou in Shandong province in eastern China (fig. 1).

 

 

 

Mostly created during a period straddling the late Northern Wei (386-534) to the Northern Qi dynasties (550-577), there were also a small number of works from the Tang (618-907) and Northern Song dynasties (960-1127). It is estimated that the pit must have contained fragments of at least 320 to 400 sculptures. All the sculptures from the hoard have suffered destruction on purpose: many were beheaded, or bodies were separated from arms and legs. There were obvious traces of damage on broken pieces caused by the smashing with implements. The statues were apparently ritually interred during the 12th century for reasons that are still unclear. As the burial of the sculptures was evidently planned carefully, and over 100 coins found inside the pit seem to have been scattered purposefully, it seems that the interment was conducted accompanying a kind of ceremony. 

 

 

 

 

Ever since they were excavated, the reason as to the destruction and interment of the sculptures at the pit has been the focus of scholarly argument. It is difficult to imagine that the 400 sculptures represented by the fragments excavated were accommodated in a single temple. Where were they from? How did they end in the caché? Why were they destructed?

 

 

 

It has been speculated that the destruction of the sculptures might be the result of the Northern Zhou dynasty’s Buddhist persecution movement under Emperor Wu (r 561-78), who believed the temples had become too rich and powerful. In 577, Northern Zhou armies conquered their rivals the Northern Qi (Qingzhou was within its domain), taking over their territory. They continued their anti-Buddhism campaign that started in 573. The persecution of Buddhists during this period included the destruction of numerous temples and sculptures and hundreds of thousands of monks and nuns being defrocked causing a severe setback for Buddhism. Such incidences however can not answer the question as to why the hoard that was buried also contained Buddhist sculptures from Tang to Northern Song dynasties period. The hypothesis that the works from the Northern dynasties of 6th century were unearthed during the 12th century and reinterred together with sculptures from the later period is unconvincing.

 

 

 

Another supposition held that the hoard was the result of the suppression of Buddhism that occurred during the Northern Song dynasty. Emperor Huizong (r.1101-1125), who strongly favoured Daoism over Buddhism, declared in 1119 that Buddhism was a barbaric doctrine, and its temples and clergies should be converted to that of the Daoism.  However, Huizong’s attempt to attack Buddhism was rather an experiment to demote Buddhism by changing terms and titles. It was not a wholesale persecution, and no severe destruction of temples and sculptures were recorded.

 

 

 

One theory suggests that the images were damaged in warfare in Qingzhou in 1127-29 and were buried thereafter. The Jurchen tribal chieftain founded the Jin dynasty in parts of northern China proper in 1115, and soon started to attack Northern Song China. During the years from 1127-29 the area of Shandong was a relentless battlefield and the city of Qingzhou was occupied and ransacked six times by the Jin forces. Yet it is difficult to imagine that the battle in ancient times could result in such severe damage upon sculptures. There is little evidence of powder residue on the figures to suggest that the sculptures were damaged by explosives. The sculptures were also not destroyed in iconoclastic attacks. After establishing their dynasty, the Jurchen became increasingly sinicized, the rulers themselves became patrons of Chinese Buddhism. The noticeable increase in devotion to Buddhism began in the reign of Emperor Taizong

 

(r. 123-35). As it is mentioned in the historical record, before the fall of Qingzhou, the Emperor worshiped Buddhist icons at the court and at the temples in the capital city, and ordered the construction of Buddhist temples and pagodas at a number of locations. It is hard to believe that the Jurchen military personal would desecrate and demolished Buddhist icons.

 

 

 

A suggestion that the sculptures were damaged in a natural disaster such as an earthquake or accident such as the collapsing of a roof or damage done during the repair of a temple building, however, does not account for the deliberate breakage of objects or the large quantity of the objects. Indeed, the more the mystery about the destruction of the sculptures was investigated, the more questions were raised.

 

 

 

Although Chinese scholars have no means of ascertaining at present why the sculptures were destroyed and buried, they all agree that the finding has a distinguished and distinctive place in the history of Chinese art and Chinese Buddhist sculpture. These works perfectly reflect the prevalent beliefs, which permeated many levels of local life, and the dramatic stylistic changes in sculpture that occurred during a time when Buddhist art in China reached its apogee.

 

 

 

The development of Buddhist sculpture created in the Qingzhou region as it evolved from the late Northern Wei to the Northern Qi periods (early 6th century-570s) can be described in terms which express various modifications in iconography and style.  one of the important trends of this development was to render the bodies of the divine images in a fuller and more fleshy manner, and finally to free them from their dependence on the mandorla or background. Such an innovative characteristic is best seen in the works excavated from the Longxing Temple hoard.

 

 

 

In Qingzhou as well as in the whole Shandong area, stone stelae were a new type of Buddhist carving that became popular during the late Northern Wei dynasty in early 6th century, along with sculptures carved into existing rock. Prior to this, small bronze altar pieces dominated Buddhist art in the area. In the early 6th century, when innovative patterns incorporating more figures could be found elsewhere, the triad was still the primary model for Buddhist stelae in Qingzhou.

 

 

 

A Buddhist stele from the Longxing Temple hoard represents a typical Buddhist stelae created in 530s-40s Qingzhou, with a central Buddha and two bodhisattvas standing barefoot upon a semicircular pedestal against a leaf-shaped mandorla (fig. 2). The Buddha’s hands are in the conventional gestures of abhaya mudra (dispelling fear) and varada mudra (munificence). The lower edges of his garments flare outwards, forming characteristic curves; he shows a remarkably animate smile – sometimes described as an ‘archaic half-smile’– these are all typical of the Northern Wei and early Eastern Wei style. Like most Buddha figures from this period, he has a conspicuous ushnisha - the cranial bump at the top of his head, which is one of the 32 physical characteristics of the Buddha spelled out in the Buddhist canon, symbolising his wisdom and openness as an enlightened being.

 

 

 

The mandorla is opulently adorned. As well as a shallowly cut lotus halo, the Buddha’s head is encircled by an aureole and a nimbus surrounds the body each consisting of red and floral concentric bands. The pointed top of the mandorla have depicted two rows of apsarases (flying celestial beings) along its pointed edge. At the top of the mandorla, supported by the apsarases, is a small domed ta or stupa, a reduced version of the venerated four-sided structures commonly built in Shandong during the Northern dynasties, which were used to house Buddhist relics and sacred writings.

 

 

 

The most significant new iconographic elements to be introduced to stelae during this period were a pair of dragons and the lotus pedestal. Full of lively, sinuous movement, the beasts writhe around the pedestals with their tails twisting vigorously upwards. A bunch of lotus flowers issue from each dragon’s mouth and forms part of the pedestal for the bodhisattva. Their curves and movement counterbalance the linear rhythm of the figures’ garments and form a sharp contrast with the calm contemplation and immovable stability of the triad.

 

 

 

As Buddhist sculpture developed from the late Northern Wei (386-534) to the Northern Qi dynasties (550-577), it underwent a dramatic change in iconography and style. on a stele from the second half of 6th century (fig. 3), many of the conventional iconographic elements and much of the manner remain from earlier periods; the arrangement of the triad, the shallowly sculpted halo and painted aureole and body nimbus of the Buddha, and the writhing dragons with their bunches of lotus flowers are all part of the legacy of the Northern and Eastern Wei Buddhist art style. However, the Buddha figure in this stele is far removed from the Northern Wei model. The striking breakaway is the treatment of the body and the clothing. The slim form of earlier figures has given way to a bulkier mass. The way in which the Buddha wears his garments demonstrates a new style: unlined in the torso and pleated only around the edge of the mantle. At this time there emerged a new interest in plain surfaces, contrasted with concentrations of busy patterns of pleats, and a sincere attempt by sculptors to indicate a body beneath the clothing.

 

 

 

Freestanding figures, divorced from the great mandorla backgrounds, soon dominate sculpture-making in this region during the Northern Qi period. The quality of mass or roundness is best demonstrated in a number of freestanding, extremely rhythmic figures of the Buddha in The Lost Buddhas exhibition as seen in fig. 4.

 

 

 

This statue’s foremost feature is its sense of emphatic plastic solidity and weight; its most unusual the draped garments, which are thin and light, conveying an impression of great simplicity. The slight modelling of the torso makes it seem like the material is adhering closely to it, permitting a greater awareness of the physique beneath. The garments are almost entirely pleatless; only around the U-shaped edge of the mantle is there a pleated frill. Indeed the sculpture, executed in a more advanced style than previously, is not purely Chinese but a result of more direct contacts with India.

 

 

 

The impetus for this new style seems to have come from Sarnath in India, the place where Shakyamuni first taught, which emerged as one of the leading Buddhist centres in India during the Gupta period (c 319–500). Buddha sculptures from Sarnath are characterised by their sensually realised torsos, clinging robes and plain drapery. The head is centred against the disced halo of concentric decorative bands. The Sarnath Gupta style, particularly the depiction of the Buddha’s thin, clinging and unlined robes, was influential throughout India and was transported to Southeast and East Asia where it was adopted by local artists.

 

 

 

The artisans in Qingzhou seemed to have at their disposal, simultaneously, two distinct geographic versions of the Gupta style. In addition to the Sarnath style, the other school of the Gupta period centred at Mathura in Northern India seems to have reached Shandong simultaneously, and exercised great influence onto the image-making here interactively. An image of the Buddha typical of the Mathura style shows the figure wearing a diaphanous robe, which covers both shoulders and falls in pleats from a round neckband; the edge, grasped in the left hand, is looped over the right arm. Below the hem of the Buddha’s outer garment, which ends just below the knee, the lower garment reaches to just above the ankles. All these features find parallels in many Qingzhou sculptures from the Longxing Temple hoard.

 

 

 

On a standing Buddha from the exhibition (fig. 5), the idealised norm of the classical Mathura Gupta style of India, such as the stylised, fine lines of ridged pleats on the clinging robe, is expertly combined with the Chinese aesthetics of elegance and rhythmic linear simplicity. Now with both arms broken, the figure is an example of extraordinary grace, and is most unusual in its combination of plastic roundness and tense linear rhythms. A thin robe, wrapped under the exposed right shoulder and over the left, reveals the contours of the body and legs. The fabric is pleated with precisely carved folds. There is a strong accent on these ridged lines: they sweep from shoulder to thigh in radiating diagonals, forming patterns of chaste and simple beauty.

 

 

 

It is possible that the influential Mathura Gupta style was advocated by the contemporary painters, and the painterly sculptural aesthetics prevalent since the Northern Wei has adapted the foreign style suitable to, or fit for, a specific taste in Shandong. In the mid 6th century, Cao Zhongda, a well-known artist from the Central Asian kingdom of Sogdiana and a leading Northern Qi court painter, developed a drapery moulding style that came to be known as Caoyi chushui (‘Cao’s robes just out of the water’). Apparently derived from Central Asia and Gupta India, it gave rise to a type of Buddhist sculpture characterised by closely pleated garments clinging to the body as though wet. The current example, along with a few other statues from the Longxing Temple hoard, displays exactly the type of dress at which Cao was adept.

 

 

 

Accompanying this new sculptural aesthetic of mass or roundness is a trend in which the divine images were conceived and rendered in a shape closer to that of a human. The ｅxpression of the Buddha as both a man and a deity is realised for the first time. Such characteristic is seen in one of the most charming Buddha heads from this period (fig. 6). Unlike the sovereignty and majesty usually expressed in other examples of the Buddha, this stone head appears sweetly tender. Extremely plastic and sensuous in all its rounded forms, it possesses an almost-untouched delicacy comparable to a child’s. The facial features are animated with a lighter grace and purity than is found in other Buddha images. This is due not only to the youthful physiognomy, but also to an almost-innocent ethos.

 

 

 

In comparison with the Buddha, the bodhisattvas are usually depicted as less austere or inward, and therefore display even more liveliness. The tendency to represent bodhisattva figures with a secular beauty started earlier than the Northern Qi, as exemplified by a sculpture from Eastern Wei (534–50) (fig. 7).  This bust of a young maiden-like bodhisattva is perhaps one of the most charming sculpted religious figures of the Eastern Wei period from the Qingzhou area. Here, the coldly classical head of the Northern Wei period has been transformed into a locally inspired physiognomy. The face is extremely alive and innocently expressive, a gentle departure from the usual attitudes of divine reverence. Certain new elements, such as the incised looped hair on the forehead and the three small bell-like ornaments attached to the hair band, combined with the highly individualised face, suggest a sculpture of high originality.

 

 

 

The compassionate nature and divine quintessence of the bodhisattva is given ｅxpression by a master sculptor in a statue created in late 6th century (fig. 8). Extremely sculptural with full sensuous forms, the figure is modelled with delicacy and excellent proportion. The body, with undulating contours, shows a pronounced development in the portrayal of the divine aspects of heavenly beauty in the late Northern Qi period; the modelling is approaching the Indian Gupta model yet with a refinement that tempers the bejewelled, voluptuous forms. The hand too shows suppleness. The face, intense with spiritual concentration, is carved decisively and cleanly, and the fine-grained grey limestone has a crisp, clear glow which adds to the serenity and solemnity.

 

 

 

The sculptures created in Qingzhou during the Northern dynasties are perhaps some of the most emotionally moving and spiritually profound of this kind in China, and this delicately sensuous representation of the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara surpasses in elegance and subtlety most other sculptures excavated from Longxingsi site. BY LIU Yang,  Curator of Chinese Art, Art Gallery of New South Wales