Maitreya altarpiece (Northern Wei dynasty (386–534), dated 524 Hebei province, China)
Buddhism arrived in China around the 1st century CE (although there are some tradition about a monk visiting China during Asoka’s reign), and through to the 8th century it became very active and creative in the development of Buddhist art, particularly in the area of statuary. Receiving this distant religion, China soon incorporated strong Chinese traits in its artistic expression.
In the 5th to 6th centuries the Northern Dynasties, rather removed from the original sources of inspiration, tended to develop rather symbolic and abstract modes of representation, with schematic lines. Their style is also said to be solemn and majestic. The lack of corporeality of this art, and its distance from the original Buddhist objective of expressing the pure ideal of enlightenment in an accessible, realistic manner, progressively led to a research towards more naturalism and realism, leading to the expression of Tang Buddhist art.
Following a transition under the Sui Dynasty, Buddhist sculpture of the Tang evolved towards a markedly life-like expression. As a consequence of the Dynasty’s openness to foreign influences, and renewed exchanges with Indian culture due to the numerous travels of Chinese Buddhist monks to India from the 4th to the 11th century, Tang dynasty Buddhist sculpture assumed a rather classical form, inspired by the Indian art of the Gupta period.
However foreign influences came to be negatively perceived towards the end of the Tang dynasty. In the year 845, the Tang emperor Wuzong outlawed all “foreign” religions (including Christian Nestorianism, Zoroastrianism and Buddhism) in order to support the indigenous Taoism. He confiscated Buddhist possessions, and forced the faith to go underground, therefore affecting the ulterior development of the religion and its arts in China.
Chan Buddhism however, at the origin of Japanese Zen, continued to prosper for some centuries, especially under the Sung dynasty (1127-1279), when Chan monasteries were great centers of culture and learning.
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