Page 130 - The Arts of China, By Michael Sullivan Good Book

138 Dragon. Gilt bronze. Northern Wei
Dyn»ty- their quarry, after the fashion of Han decorative art. These paint-
ings are a vivid illustration of the way in which Chinese Bud-
dhism, at least at the popular level, came to terms with Taoism and
native folklore.
FUNERARY This was the heyday of Buddhist faith in China. Many people
SCULPTURE were cremated, denying themselves the elaborate burials that had
been characteristic of the Han. But the Confucian rites were not
altogether neglected, and some of the imperial burials were as
spectacular as ever. The actual tombs of the Liang emperors have
never been found among the green hills and rice fields outside
Nanking, but much of the monumental sculpture that lined the
"spirit way" still survives. The winged beasts of the sixth century
are more graceful than those of Han, being animated by a dynamic
linear movement which also found expression in miniature in the
beautiful gilt-bronze lions, tigers, and dragons of which there are
no
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