The city of Chang’an, the capital of the Tang empire, and the Buddhist artwork from the surrounding area are important subjects for discussing the Buddhist art of the early Tang dynasty prior to the An Shi Rebellion from 755—763, a period far richer in material than that of the later reign of Empress Wu Zetian and the decades preceding her ascendance, an era from which very few works remain extant in Xi’an today.Meanwhile, a large number of images of the Buddha and bodhisattvas dating to the period between the Sui and Tang dynasties have been preserved in excellent condition in the Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes. Mogao caves 57 and 332, both exemplary of the style of the Early Tang(the first phase of the early Tang dynasty), inherited many elements from the caves of the third phase of the Sui dynasty, with a few small additions. The most obvious change in style is that certain pure land illustrations like the western pure land or Maitreya pure land would be painted on both side walls, and that furthermore, in these illustrations, scenes of being reborn were described in minute detail, the statues in the caves also being depicted with unprecedented realism. The secularization of Buddhist images in the first caves of the early Tang dynasty, especially those in cave 322, undoubtedly mirrored the Buddhist art of the Central Plains, of which Xi’an was undoubtedly a cultural leader.
