A recent discovery in the early archaeology of Buddhist art in China has unearthed a bronze money tree with Buddha statues and a pottery base dated from the fourth year of the Yuanguang era(125 CE),which shed light on the beginning of Chinese Buddhist art. After the Western Jin dynasty, Chinese Buddhism began to mature, successively forming three Buddhist centers in Heibei, Chang’an and Liangzhou, northern provinces in China ravaged by war. After the Sixteen Kingdoms period, Chinese Buddhist art began to appear in the form of gilt bronze Buddha statues from the Later Zhao dynasty and developed into two Buddhist art systems, one in central Shaanxi and eastern Gansu, the other in Liangzhou in the Hexi regions. This early work would become the basis for the prosperity of Northern Wei Buddhist art. The emergence and development of Buddhism in Pingcheng was influenced by the Buddhist art from five Buddhist centers: Liuzhou in Shandong Province, Chang’an in Shaanxi Province, Liangzhou in the Hexi Regions, Helong region in northeast China,and Qingqi region in east China. With the unification of north China and the reformation of the Northern Wei dynasty, the five caves, which inherited past Buddhist art, gradually gave birth to the "Yungang Pattern."
