NORTHERN WEI SCULPTURE

Chinese sculpture dating from the Northern Wei period (ad 386534/535) of the Six Dynasties (220589) and representing the first major influence of Buddhism upon China. Northern Wei sculpture, produced in northern territory that was occupied and ruled by foreign invaders and that was quick to respond to Buddhism, is distinct from the more traditional indigenous art produced in the south, which was still ruled by native Chinese dynasties. Few examples of Northern Wei sculpture survive from the period prior to 446452, during which a major persecution of Buddhism was carried out. With surprising suddenness, however, Buddhism was restored to favour, and there followed a major period of Buddhist art. The artconsisting primarily of sculpture but also of some wall painting and reflecting various iconographic types, with simple images of the Buddha predominatingmay be divided into two major periods: the first from immediately following the persecution to 494, when the capital of the Northern Wei was moved from the northern city of P'ing-ch'eng (the present Ta-t'ung, Shansi province) to the ancient centre of Chinese civilization, Lo-yang (Honan province); and the second from 494 to the end of the Northern Wei period. The style of the first period is a curious amalgam of foreign influences that are ultimately traceable to the Buddhist art of India, which emphasizes the heavy stylization of blocky volumes, giving a certain naive and archaic quality to the figures (see Yn-kang caves). While that style is found later, it was ultimately replaced by an entirely different Chinese, or Lung-men, style, which clothes the Buddha in the costume of the Chinese scholar and stylistically emphasizes a svelte and sinuous cascade of drapery falling over an increasingly flattened figure (see Lung-men caves).