Page 440 - The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from the People’s Republic of China

an expression of inner contemplation — even of aloofness. The many dated pieces make it pos-
sible to establish a sequence of stylistic innovations, to discern local and regional styles, to
avoid generalizations based on thin evidence that may in fact reveal little more than the work-
manship of one craftsmen or a particular set of circumstances (the quality of the material, the
price paid by the donor, etc.), and to better gauge the overall character of a local tradition.
Solid analysis awaits full publication of these remarkable finds, but already one may speak of
a Qingzhou style.
Comparing the Qingzhou finds with other objects from the north, art historians initially
characterized Qingzhou as a conservative, rather backwater area distant from the cultural and

political centers of the state. The area was contested by the northern and southern states; it
had been under the control of the south for more than half a century (409-469 CE) before
finally being made a part of the Northern Wei state. But the new discoveries have revealed a
distinctive local or regional style, in part characterized by the absence of folds (or at most by a
lightly sculpted indication of drapery) on the robes of the Buddha — perhaps to provide a bet-
ter surface for the paint — and a more detailed and complex ornamentation of the bodhisatt-
vas. Elements of the southern style, perhaps harking back to the southern occupation, can be
discerned in the bronze figurines of Qingzhou, and it is possible that what may be termed the
Qingzhou regional style in stone sculpture is also attributed to southern influences, but that is
difficult to establish because so little stone sculpture has survived in the south. The scholar
Yang Hong has attributed the rich, multistyled art of the Qingzhou sculptures to a unique com-
bination of northern patterns, southern influences, and local or regional characteristics. 6
One of the mysteries that remains to be solved is the circumstances of the burials of these
Buddhist statues. The proscription of Buddhism by the Northern Zhou state in 574 CE and the
extension of that policy into the northeast after the conquest of the Northern Qi in 577 CE is
often cited as the reason for specific burials. The damage wreaked on the statues before burial
lends credence to that explanation. When caches include Sui pieces — that is, made after the

persecution was lifted — the disturbances that attended the fall of the dynasty are cited. In
other cases, such as that of the Longxing Monastery itself, Buddhist statues dating as late as
the Song dynasty (960-1279 CE) have been found. The burials may have been carried out in
succession over time, but the reports of their excavation do not make reference to stratification
at the burial site. AD

1 Xia and Zhuang 1996, 59 - 67. 5 See, for example, Leidy 1998, 88-97 and n. 2; Huang 1997,
2 Shandongsheng 1998, 4-15. See also Xia 1998 84-85.
3 Soper 1959,118-119. 6 Yang Hong 1998, 51.
4 Yang 1960, 50.

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