四川丹棱石佛灣、佛兒崖石窟中的五十三佛、二十五佛造像及相關問題=On the Statues of the Fifty-Three Buddhas and Twenty-Five Buddhas in the Shifowan and Foerya Grottoes in Danleng, Sichuan
四川丹棱=Danleng in Sichuan; 五十三佛=Fifty-Three Buddhas; 二十五佛=Twenty-Five Buddhas; 佛說觀藥王藥上經=Sutra on the Bhaisajya-Raja(Medicine King) Bodhisattva and Bhaisajya-Samudgata(Medicine Superior) Bodhisattva; 三階教=Three-Stage Sect
Sculptures depicting the themes of the Fifty-Three Buddhas and Twenty-Five Buddhas are carved in both the Shifowan and Foerya Grottoes in Danleng, Sichuan Province that date back to the first half of the 9 thcentury. In addition, the statues at Shifowan have accompanying inscriptions from the second and third year of the Kaicheng era(837, 838). The sculpture of Fifty-Three Buddhas was made according to two sutras popular in Chinese Buddhism since before the Tang dynasty when these statues were constructed. The sculpture evinces the following structural characteristics: the Fifty-Three Buddhas are in the center of the carvings, among which Bhaisajya-guru, Bhaisajya-Raja( Medicine King) Bodhisattva,and Bhaisajya-Samudgata( Medicine Superior) Bodhisattva can be readily identified based on descriptions from Sutra on the Bhaisajya-Raja(Medicine King) Bodhisattva and Bhaisajya-Samudgata(Medicine Superior) Bodhisattva, while the figures of Amitabha, Avalokitesvara, and Mahasthamaprapta can be identified as having been constructed based on the Aparimitayur-sutra.The themes of these sculptures inherited the artistic tradition of the Southern and Northern Dynasties and were not influenced by the spread of the contemporary "Three-Stage Sect" of Buddhism.The themes of these sculptures inherited the artistic tradition of the Southern and Northern Dynasties and were not influenced by the spread of the contemporary "Three-Stage Sect" of Buddhism.The themes of these sculptures inherited the artistic tradition of the Southern and Northern Dynasties and were not influenced by the spread of the contemporary "Three-Stage Sect" of Buddhism.
