ASIAN ART NEWSPAPER MAY 2007
Buddhist Sculptures from Shandong
by Yvonne Tan
Seated buddha, Northern Qi dynasty, Tianbao 3 (553 AD),
limestone with gold pigments, overall height 115 cm,
excavated in 1988/90 at Zhucheng Sports Centre,
Zhucheng Municipal Museum
The Miho Museum in Shigaraki, Japan, celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. Inaugurating the event is a special commemorative exhibition, Buddhist Sculptures from Shandong: Tracing the Source of Asuka Buddhist Imagery, which explores the genius of Shandong Buddhist figural art. Shandong in east China is renowned as the birthplace of Confucius and Mencius as well as of The Art of War's Sun Zi. Since antiquity, the coastal province on the Yellow River's lower reaches, has been receptive to civilising influences from the Chinese heartland. Buddhism from the west made its inception during the Sixteen Kingdoms (304-439) period. The earliest temple, the Langgongsi built near the capital Jinan in 351, provided the impetus for subsequent evolution of the faith. From the Northern Wei (386-534) onwards, Shandong became an important centre of Buddhist culture in east China. Its vigour was keenly felt elsewhere. On its eastern seaboard the Shandong peninsula faces Korea across the Yellow Sea, and the Japanese archipelago beyond, with important implications for the transmission of both the religion and its art.
Since the 1980s, important groups of Buddhist figures have been excavated in different parts of the province. Apart from Jinan, major excavation sites are near the Buddhist precinct of Longxingsi, Qingzhou in the east. Binzhou, Guangrao, Bo'xing, Anqiu and Zhucheng surrounding it were influential 5th-century Buddhist centres. Much of the stone and gilded polychrome imagery recovered from these sites was however damaged. This was because the Buddhist religion did not go unchallenged over the centuries, and was fraught with successive waves of anti-Buddhist purges. Extant Buddhist sculpture in Shandong had been carved onto cliff faces and inside caves; was freestanding in temples and monasteries; or was handed down through the generations. Most sculptural figures were imperial or state funded commissions, some were privately commissioned by the faithful. On display are 72 Buddha sculptures in bronze, stone and bisque-fired ceramic offering an overview of stylistic changes in Shandong Buddhist figural art over three centuries. They reflect the level of artistic achievement perfected in Shandong from the Sixteen Kingdoms, Northern Wei, Eastern Wei (534-550) and Northern Qi (550-577) to the Sui (581-618) dynasties. In Japan this historical period is particularly significant. It witnessed the beginnings of Buddhist culture. And its sequel, the shaping of Buddhist art in Asuka or early Nara (552-646) Japan, has been ascribed to powerful resonances from the continent, which arrived by way of 6th century Korea.
The exhibition is a cooperative partnership between the Miho Museum and the State Administration of Cultural Heritage of the People's Republic of China and the Shandong Provincial Department of Culture. The Miho Museum is marking a new chapter in the history of Buddhist cultural exchange between Japan and China by returning to Shandong an important Bodhisattva from its collection. The figure originally from the Longhuasi temple, Bo'xing, dated between the Northern Wei and Eastern Wei, will be back in China by the end of the year (see image above, right).
In China, sculpture as an artistic expression is identified almost exclusively with the Buddhist religion. Its dissemination in Shandong might be credited to a non-Chinese patron, the Tuoba Xianbei tribe of Central Asian and Turkic extraction. They occupied 4th century north China and as the Northern Wei, made their capital in 398 at Pingcheng, present-day Datong, Shanxi. By 439, their conquest of north China was complete, and extended to the far west where the capture of a small Gansu state under Dunhuang territory was critical. A remarkable feature of Tuoba rule was the forcible resettlement of Chinese population. Up to 100,000 people per time were subsequently moved from Dunhuang to Pingcheng, including sculptors and painters. They were employed when emperor Wencheng restored the faith in the 450s, following massive anti-Buddhist purges. Five cave shrines were carved out of a sandstone cliff nearby called Yungang 'Cloud Ridge' to commemorate earlier Wei rulers.
Shandong was effectively brought under Tuoba rule by 469. Within a decade, Buddhist bronze statuary between 8 to 18 cm high, appeared in the province. They were miniature versions of lesser Buddha images arranged in the Yungang scheme, seated in niches on cave walls. Being small and portable, it cannot be ascertained if all were from Shandong. Only the inscriptions on box-shaped pedestals reveal who commissioned them, when and for what purpose. Rounded fleshy forms of Central Asian prototypes in stiff configuration, are typified by a Seated Maitreya dated 478. At 17.8 cm high, it has a tall ushnisha, the cranial projection on its head, a downcast facial expression and Gandharan drapery typical of northwest India.
These eclectic Buddhist forms soon gave way to a fully Chinese sculptural idiom that reverberated beyond its borders to Korea and Japan. The grand sinicisation of barbarian rule had commenced in the interim. Sixth Wei emperor, Xiaowen made the transition from a dynasty of conquest to a unified feudal state. To assimilate Han culture, the capital was moved south in 494 to ancient Luoyang, Henan. Tuoba patronage of the arts intensified with imperial commission of Buddhist sculpture. Work on the Longmen cave shrines near Luoyang began not long after. For the next hundred years, a feverish creative energy dominated all manner of Buddhist art.
By the early 6th century, large limestone images started superseding small bronze statuary in Shandong. The 'northern Wei style' left Buddhist figures carved in light relief with a linearity and rhythmic movement. They had sinified stylistic features. Their drapes assumed the 'waterfall' effect ending occasionally in 'saw-tooth' edges. Ornament was dominated by the lotus, increasing in size whether on a nimbus or on a pedestal. These traits are found in a limestone Maitreya Triad dated 529 from Qingzhou. The standing Maitreya, 'Future Buddha', and two smaller Bodhisattvas have almond-shaped eyes, fleshy cheeks and upturned mouths. The Maitreya's right hand is raised in the abhaya mudra 'freedom from fear' gesture and his left is in the vara mudra 'giving' stance. The trinity is backed by a boat-shaped halo with a purely Shandong device, celestial figures holding the sun and the moon to protect Buddhist law. Decorative detailing on the halo later included secular Chinese and foreign elements such as dragons, floral and lotus blossoms, flying celestial musicians and the scrolling vine of Persian ancestry.
Strong creative impulses marked the transition from the Northern Wei (386-534) to the Eastern Wei (534-550). Single figural forms up to 3m. high were fashioned out of stone in the late Northern Wei. The Bodhisattva image - Avalokiteshvara or Guanyin in China - surpassed other single Buddhist personages. Its sublime refinement is exemplified by the Standing Bodhisattva from Bo'xing, which the Miho Museum is returning to Shandong. This elegant figure is characterised by a large circular nimbus, backed by a lotus rosette. Its side body profile appears linear but its overall stance is stately and formal. Its lower left hip is thrust very slightly forward, suggesting movement. This slackening of tension is meant to convey its majesty. Clearly designed to be viewed from all angles, it is given to complete accessory ornament. Both its pearl chain and ribboned cords crossed in front are echoed at the back. Its skirt folds are an exclusive decorative scheme, calculated also to give the figure a fullness. Its head bears a crown with a principal cicada motif. Identified with Buddhism, the cicada, a symbol of integrity, was found originally on the headgear of high officials. Only three figures displayed carry the motif. The Bodhisattva's abstract mask expression, consistent with the orthodox Northern Wei habit, has parallels in Nara, Japan. One is the Guze Kannon Bodhisattva - Kannon is the Japanese term for Avalokiteshvara - at the Horyuji, a repository of early Buddhist art founded in 607. The other is the Asuka Daibutsu, 'Great Bronze Buddha' cast in 609 at the Asukadera, the first Japanese temple built in the late 6th century by workers from Paekche Korea (18 BC-663). The Bodhisattva's circular nimbus and its back robe folds are also duplicated in the Four Heavenly Kings also at the Horyuji.
However the influence of Central Asian oasis monasteries, of which Dunhuang was a Chinese culminating point, did not cease entirely. Elements adapted from the west coexisted with local Shandong sculptural imagery from the Eastern Wei (534-550) to the Northern Qi (550-577). Rigidity of pose was reduced and the abstract face, and indeed the body, slowly began to come alive. Ornament was limited. One youthful-looking Bodhisattva of the Eastern Wei from Qingzhou is without complex accessory. Apart from the symmetrical treatment of its skirt pleats, its defining feature is the lavish use of gold and coloured pigments. Gold on its hair roundels, double arc-shaped necklace and skirt ends are complemented by red and green on its shoulder decorations and robe. It was a precursor to the Bodhisattva in Pensive Pose with One Leg Pendent, also from Qingzhou, a reminder of Dunhuang prototypes, where seated Bodhisattvas with pendent or crossed legs had been established a century before. While the dragon spouting from its pedestal lotus, gold on its crown, red shoulder ornaments and drapes are in the Chinese manner, its downcast eyes are an Indian import. Permeating Northern Qi stone imagery was also cut gold-leaf patterning decoration, known as kirikane in Japan. The prominent sash on one rare Fragment of a Bodhisattva carved in hanbaiyu, white marble, is decorated by repeated kirikane motifs of a tortoise encased by hexagons. An identical tortoise motif on a folding screen fabric at the Shoso-in, Nara suggests its transplantation to Japan.
Meanwhile the simplification of the Indian aesthetic progressed on the Chinese mainland. A columnar Buddhist style was in vogue before the late 6th century. Focused as a single solid mass, the body's fleshy volume was reaffirmed under thin drapes. Ornament was banished altogether. These imposing architectonic influences prevalent throughout the Northern Qi (550-577) are said to be of Indian Gupta (4th/6th centuries) provenance. Where the crowns have disappeared, the heads boast snail-like whorls. Round faces with downcast eyes, project globular profiles having elongated ear lobes. One Seated Buddha dated 552 from Zhucheng in full lotus position exhibits child-like facial features. His bare right shoulder in the Indian formula is partly covered by a stole. The only excesses are the multiple skirt edges falling in ripples over his pedestal. On another Standing Buddha, loose U-shaped garment folds replace the pleats of yesteryear, revealing an under robe at the feet. This figure and its round nimbus carrying seven tiny Buddha images were carved out of a single piece of stone.
Before the onset of the Sui dynasty (581-618), the pendulum seems to have swung back to renewed and extravagant ornamentation. By the Northern Qi's end heightened realism and profuse ornament were expressed in Shandong figural art. Three-dimensional sculptural elements reflect a new ease ushering the entry of freestanding stone Bodhisattva figures. Necklaces, chains, ribbons and knots are coordinated to embellish slender figures. Rendered in realistic human form are the face, nose, lips and angular profile. The eyelids are almost closed. The hands are emphasised and given a softness. Some are realistically holding garment stoles. Others have fleshy palms and defined fingers. New and ingenious decorative schemes also surfaced. A standing Bodhisattva from Anqiu has a temple guardian's head carved beneath its lotus pedestal, itself a flowering plant complete with meandering leaves. The head with furrowed brow, rolling eyeballs and teeth parted in a fierce grimace, bear an uncanny resemblance to Japanese gigaku masks - worn during comic dances imported from China - preserved at the Horyuji. These figural depictions set the pace for Sui sculpture, which flourished as a synthesis of all previous styles. By this time Three Kingdoms Korea - initially resistant to Buddhism - had already embraced the faith to become 6th-century agents for its transfer. A Korean mission brought the religion to Asuka Japan around 552. Largely through the efforts of Prince Shotoku (574-622), Buddhism replaced the native Shinto to become a state religion and the vehicle for the expression of Asuka Buddhist imagery.
Yvonne Tan
Buddhist Sculptures from Shandong: Tracing the Source of Asuka Buddhist Imagery is at the Miho Museum, 300 Momodani, Shigaraki, Shiga 529-1814 until 10 June. www.miho.or.jp
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Left: Bodhisattva in Pensive Pose with One Leg Pendent, Northern Qi dynasty, limestone with gold and coloured Pigments, overall height 90 cm, excavated 1996, Longxingsi temple site, Qingzhou City |
Right: Standing Bodhisattva, |
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Left: STANDING Bodhisattva, Northern Qi dynasty, limestone with gold and pigments, overall height 165 cm, excavated 1996, Longxingsi temple, Qingzhou City, Qingzhou Municipal Museum |
Right: STANDING Bodhisattva, Eastern Wei dynasty, limestone with gold and coloured pigments, overall height 200 cm, excavated 1996, Longxingsi temple site, Qingzhou City, Qingzhou Municipal Museum |
Standing Bodhisattva, Northern to Eastern Wei dynasties,
limestone with pigments, overall height 120.5 cm.
Longhuasi temple site, Chongde village, Shandong province