Wang Ruixia: Why did the Buddhist statues of Qingzhou Longxing Temple rewrite the history of oriental art?

Editor's note:

The beauty of national treasures, through ancient and modern times, is magnificent. Behind each rare cultural relic is the ingenuity and wisdom of the ancients, engraved with the cultural genes of the Chinese nation, and witnessing the exchanges and mutual learning between Chinese and foreign civilizations. From 2023 May 5, China News Service "East-West Question" has launched the "Treasures of the Town Hall" series of planning (1), which explores the meaning of cultural relics and the stories behind them through experts.

Qingzhou, Shandong, May 5 (ZXS) -- Why did the Buddhist statues of Longxing Temple in Qingzhou rewrite the history of oriental art?

——Interview with Wang Ruixia, former director and research librarian of Qingzhou Museum

Written by Li Mingrui Zhao Xiao

Located in Weifang, Shandong Province, Qingzhou Museum is the only county-level comprehensive museum among the first batch of first-class museums in China. Buddhist statues unearthed at the ruins of Longxing Temple, the museum's "treasure of the town hall", have been hailed by Western scholars as "a major discovery that rewrites the history of Eastern art".

What is the unique artistic value of the Buddhist statue of Qingzhou Longxing Temple? What Chinese and foreign cultures are integrated? Wang Ruixia, former director and research librarian of Qingzhou Museum, recently accepted an exclusive interview with China News Agency's "East-West Question" to interpret the above issues.

Video: Wang Ruixia: Why did the Buddhist statues of Qingzhou Longxing Temple rewrite the history of oriental art? Source: China News Network

The following is a summary of the interview:

China News Agency: How was the Buddhist statue of Qingzhou Longxing Temple discovered?

Wang Ruixia: The Buddhist statue at the site of Longxing Temple in Qingzhou was unearthed in October 1996. At that time, Yidu Normal School requisitioned farmland adjacent to the south of the Qingzhou Museum as a playground, and found some scattered fragments of statues in the process of bulldozing the playground. These fragments have not only attracted the attention of the cultural relics department, but also attracted lawbreakers.

One night, the duty officer of the Qingzhou Museum found a faint light on the playground construction site and reported it to the local police station. The police arrived in time to stop the excavation. After dawn, museum leaders and business personnel go to the construction site to investigate and report the situation to the superior business department. A salvage excavation began.

After exploration, archaeologists found that the cellar pit was located in the northern part of the temple site, with a length of 8.7 meters from north to south and a width of 6.8 meters from east to west. Later, after excavation and sorting, it was found that more than 600 Buddhist statues such as limestone, white jade, granite, pottery, iron, wood and clay sculptures were regularly buried in the pit, extending from the Northern Wei, Eastern Wei and Northern Qi dynasties to the Sui, Tang and Northern Song dynasties.

The largest Buddhist statue is 320 cm tall and the smallest is only 20 cm high. Some of the unearthed statues have a chronological period, located in the range from the second year of Yong'an (529 AD) of the Northern Wei Dynasty to the fourth year of Tiansheng (1026 AD) of the Northern Song Dynasty, and the large number of statues unearthed at the site of Longxing Temple in Qingzhou, the exquisite carving, the completeness of the gold painting, and the long time span are rare in the history of Chinese Buddhist archaeology.

Painted stone Buddha seated statue with gold painting. Photo by Li Mingrui

China News Agency: Why are these exquisite Buddha statues buried underground in Qingzhou?

Wang Ruixia: Today's Qingzhou is the core of "Qingzhou", one of the ancient nine prefectures in history, and is a veritable thousand-year-old city with extremely rich historical and cultural remains.

Qingzhou culture inherits the Dongyi culture and Qi culture. In 399, Xianbei Murong Yi occupied Qingzhou, and the following year Murong De became emperor, and the capital was Guanggucheng, Qingzhou, known as "Southern Yan". Many northern monks and Buddhist monks accompanied Murong De south, bringing northern and Buddhist culture to Qingzhou.

In 410, the Eastern Jin general Liu Yu destroyed Southern Yan, and for more than half a century, Qingzhou was deeply immersed in the culture of the Southern Dynasty under the rule of the Southern Dynasty regime of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. In 469, the Northern Wei regime established by the Xianbei Tuoba clan occupied Qingzhou, which created conditions for ethnic and cultural integration. After decades of blending, with the implementation of the Northern Wei Sinicization policy, the Xianbei and other ethnic groups that entered the Central Plains gradually integrated into the Han cultural circle.

After 500 AD, Qingzhou became the political and cultural center of one side, and various elements merged to form a new cultural appearance, and the style of revering Buddha statues prevailed, covering the clan class and ordinary people.

As for why these statues are buried underground, some people on the Internet speculate that they are related to the large-scale "Buddha eradication campaign", but from archaeological excavations and some other materials, it should be influenced by the Song-Jin war. Before the war destroyed the monastery, the collected Buddha statues had nowhere to be preserved but to be buried, in accordance with the teachings of the Buddha statues to be buried.

Visitors visit Qingzhou Museum. Photo by Li Mingrui

China News Agency: The Buddhist statue of Longxing Temple in Qingzhou has been praised by Western scholars as "a major discovery that rewrites the history of Eastern art." What is the unique artistic value of these Buddha statues?

Wang Ruixia: The number of Buddhist statues in the Northern Wei, Eastern Wei and Northern Qi dynasties is the largest in Qingzhou Longxing Temple, and there are two main categories in terms of shape: one is the back-screen statues of the Northern Wei and Eastern Wei periods; The other category is the single round carved statue of the Northern Qi period.

The back-screen statues unearthed at Longxing Temple are a Buddhist statue style that prevailed in the context of the Northern Wei Han Dynasty. The Qingzhou area was successively subordinate to the Southern Dynasties and the Northern Dynasties, and the cultural interaction between the North and the South was more obvious. In 494, after Emperor Xiaowen of Northern Wei moved the capital to Luoyang, he vigorously promoted the policy of sinicization, and the sinicization of Buddhist art was more obvious.

At that time, the Han culture, represented by the culture of the Southern Dynasties, was beautiful and handsome, and paintings and sculptures were popular with "beautiful bones and clear images" and "praise clothes". The aesthetic style of the Southern Dynasty flowed into the Northern Wei Dynasty, and Buddhist statues were also influenced by this, the most obvious manifestation of which was the popularity of the "Cloth Belt" style of Buddhist clothing imitating the clothing of the Southern Dynasty scholars, which continued in Qingzhou until the Eastern Wei Dynasty, becoming the mainstream of Qingzhou's Buddhist clothing style from the late Northern Wei Dynasty to the Eastern Wei Dynasty.

In 550, Northern Qi was established. The Northern Qi rulers pursued a policy of Huhua, which was most evident in Buddhist clothing. The Buddha clothes made in Qingzhou changed the popular "cloth and belt" style of Buddha clothes from Northern Wei to Eastern Wei, and a large number of popular shoulder and right Buddha clothes in India appeared, and even appeared in Gupta art that not only covered the right and left arms were exposed.

In the Northern Qi period, the back-screen Buddhist statue style almost disappeared, and the single round carving statue developed, and the simple and bright new style of modeling was clearly expressed in Buddha statues and bodhisattva statues, especially in Buddha statues. Due to the light and thin clothing, the Buddha statue has broad shoulders, breast augmentation, thin waist, toned body, thin skirt texture, looming body, less carving or no carving of clothing pleats, this loose and lustrous style makes the Northern Qi carving art unique, clear and touching, known as "Cao Yi out of the water".

Painted stone Buddha statue with gold painting. Photo by Li Mingrui

The Buddhist statue style of Qingzhou Longxing Temple, in addition to the influence of political evolution, has also retained some of the original characteristics of Indian statues. For example, the Buddha statue should embody the 32 phases and 80 good qualities of the Buddha. On the statue of Qingzhou, it can be seen that the face, clothing, and posture of the Buddha and Bodhisattva all show the characteristics of the fusion of Fan-Han. For example, Buddha statues have webbed fingers connected and bodhisattvas covering their upper bodies, which follow the Indian pattern of statues. And their warm faces are very different from the outstanding skeletal representation of Indian statues, which are completely Chinese. By the Northern Qi period, the Fan-Han fusion was more pronounced. Many people who see the statues of Qingzhou will compare them with Indian Gupta art, and indeed there are many similarities between the two.

In addition, another important feature of the Buddhist statues of Qingzhou Longxing Temple is that many Buddha statues are painted all over, and these paintings are directly painted on the smooth stone surface. Most of the statues also retain the painted gold process, which is very rare in the previous Buddhist art archaeology, and the combination of sculpture and color is ingenious, and its decorative techniques and artistic effects are unique.

Five statues of Buddha and Bodhisattva disciples. Photo by Li Mingrui

China News Agency: The Buddhist statues of Qingzhou Longxing Temple have been exhibited in the United States, Germany, Switzerland, Japan and other countries, and are known as one of the "world's farthest Buddha statues". How did these Buddha statues affect Western scholars' perception of Chinese sculpture?

Wang Ruixia: Whether it is the back-screen statues of the Northern Wei and Eastern Wei periods, or the round carved Buddha statues and bodhisattva statues of the Northern Qi period, they are all new creations that constantly absorb new cultural factors. The Qingzhou Buddhist statue art formed under the influence of different political, economic, social and cultural life has made the world re-understand ancient Chinese sculpture, and also made Qingzhou ancient Buddhist sculpture "sprout" in the field of Buddha carving art. The exquisite Buddhist statues unearthed at the site of Longxing Temple in Qingzhou are not only admired by the world. Others call one of the exquisite statues of the Eastern Wei Bodhisattva "Venus of the East".

Visitors visit Qingzhou Museum. Photo by Li Mingrui

In the past, when people talked about sculpture, they often thought of Greek and Roman sculptures, and regarded them as objects for students to copy in Chinese art teaching.

We do not deny the beauty of Western sculptures, they are very realistic and shockingly realistic. The biggest difference between ancient Chinese sculpture and them is that it pays more attention to the portrayal of the spiritual world, taking the Buddhist statue of Longxing Temple in Qingzhou as an example, from the smiling face of the Buddha statue, you can see its inner pleasure, and the worshiper is willing to tell his heart. Their well-proportioned, upright posture is exactly what Chinese admires as dashing and ethereal.

The Buddhist statues of Qingzhou Longxing Temple have made more people realize the artistic value of ancient Chinese sculpture. Some people commented that seeing this batch of statues, the soul seemed to be cleansed, which is the supreme state of art. The Buddhist statue of Qingzhou Longxing Temple is a masterpiece in the history of Chinese sculpture, and it is also a treasure in the history of sculpture in the world, and it will "fly" farther and farther in the future. (End)

Respondent Profile:

Wang Ruixia, Vice Chairman of the Qingzhou CPPCC, former director of the Qingzhou Museum, research librarian, deputy to the National People's Congress, the fifth batch of Qilu Culture Stars, director of the Religious Archaeology Special Committee of the Chinese Archaeological Society, and director of the Grotto Temple Special Committee of the China Ancient Ruins Association.

He has been engaged in the research of Buddhist archaeology and Buddhist art for a long time, presided over the collation and research of Buddhist statues in Longxing Temple, and has successively published more than 30 papers in domestic and foreign journals such as <China Archaeology and Art Digest>< Arts of Asia> "Cultural Relics", "Archaeology", "Dunhuang Studies", "Wenbo", "Central Plains Cultural Relics", "China Museum", etc., published the monograph "Weifang Buddhist Statues", and wrote and completed the " Qingzhou Longxing Temple Cellar Buddhist Statues - Buddha Statue Volume I", edited and published more than 10 books such as "Essence of Qingzhou Cultural Relics", "Shandong Qingzhou Fujiazhuang Northern Qi Line Carved Portrait Stone", "Qingzhou Jiyu", "Qingzhou Civilization Dictionary" and other books.