The stone Buddha statues at Yun-Kang are a great treasurehouse of ancient sculptural art in China. They have been famous since the beiginning of this century. Because of constant war,many of the statues have been dispersed in foreign countries. An exhibition of stone sculptural are held at the Museum of History early this year provided an opportunity for the author of this article to see for herself these objects of art and aroused her interest in tracing the sources of the styles of these statues.
The earlier statues of Yun-Kang were of Western styles which originated from `Gandhara, ` `Mathura` ,and Upagapta. They were a combination of the styles of Western China, North India, Central India, Central Asia, and Rome--a great combination of major western styles of the fifty century. After the second and third periods, however,traditional Han styles and technique were gradually absorbed,and the statues assumed a native Chinese form.
In this article,the author analyzes the shapes of the Buddha statues and the stone caves, and tries to find out their Chinese or Western origins. 31 pictures are provided for comparison.