A gradual but evident stylistic change occurred in the current of Buddhist sculpture after the foundation of the Sui Dynasty, although vestiges of the styles which were prevalent in Northern Chou and Northern Ch'i still remained. The Avalokiteśvara image, bearing an inscription dated A. D. 600 (the twentieth year of the K'ai-huang Era), shown in Pl. II, is a typical stone statue which illustrates the establishment of the new style. It is not before the second decade of the K'ai-huang Era that the establishment of a clearly recognizable Sui style took place. The sculpture of the earlier part of the Sui Dynasty is closer to the Chou and Ch'i Periods in terms of style. It seems that the speed of change from the older traditional style to the Sui style varied by region. And local stylistic differences existed in Shantung, Hopei, Shansi, Honan, Shensi, Kansu and other regions before the Sui Dynasty. An important question would be which local style played the principal role in the fomation of the so-called Sui style. The author, who has studied the relevant stone images of Bodhisattva considers that the tradition of the Chang-an school became the main current of the Sui sculptural style. Of course there were still local variations in the Sui style such as those in Shantung and Hopei. But the author regards the works by the Chang-an school to be the most typical of the Sui style, The stone Avalokiteśvara image referred to above is one of these examples. And the author at the same time emphasizes his presumption that the Chang-an school would have received strong influences from the styles of Shensi and surrounding regions and also some influence from Honan in the process of development from the Six Dynasties style to the Sui style. It might also be noted that the iconoclastic trend at the end of the Northern Ch'i Dynasty was of some consequence in the formation of the Sui sculptural style. This trend retarded the stylistic development of Buddhist images but, on the other hand, helped to nourish the emergence of a drastically new style.
