Scholar discovery changes perspective of Chinese Buddhist art

Chinese Buddhist art inherited the artistic styles of Mathura and Amaravati and is evidenced by wider transmission routes in history, said scholars from the East China Normal University in Shanghai.

The discovery was presented at an academic conference hosted by the university's College of Fine Arts, which took place from Saturday to Sunday. Focused on the exploration into the roots of both global and Chinese Buddhist arts, it gathered over 40 notable scholars from across the world including China, the United States, India, Japan, Thailand, Indonesia, and Bangladesh.

For a long time, the international academic community's interpretation of Chinese Buddhist art has been heavily influenced by the "Gandhara Influence Theory". However, the theory demonstrated logical and empirical shortcomings when confronted with the theory of the "Southern Transmission System of Early Buddhist Sculpture in China", which was proposed by Chinese scholar Ruan Rongchun based on systematic archaeological discoveries.

Focusing on the academic debate, the College of Fine Arts at East China Normal University drew on its professor Ruan's original theories and archaeological data as the foundation and conducted continuous fieldwork and overseas research for over three decades.

With extensive field research and overseas expeditions, as well as physical artifacts, the team demonstrated that Chinese Buddhist art not only inherited the artistic styles of the Mathura and Amaravati traditions, but also saw wider spread with two other major transmission routes, rather than relying solely on the Northern Silk Road for its dissemination.

The first route originated from Mathura and later transmitted into the Yangtze River basin and northern China. The second route ran from Amaravati art to the distant ancient kingdom of Qiuci, also known as Kucha, and further to the Bamiyan Grottoes in Afghanistan.

The discovery mapped out the complete transmission trajectory of Chinese Buddhist art, fundamentally correcting traditional perspectives and contributing to the global Buddhist art research with Chinese wisdom and knowledge.