Читать книгу Chinese Art - Stephen W. Bushell - Страница 6

During the period of the “Northern and Southern Dynasties,” when China, from the beginning of the fifth to nearly the end of the sixth dynasty, was divided, Buddhism flourished exceedingly. The Toba Tartars, who ruled the north, made it a state religion, and their history devotes a special book (Wei Shu, Ch. CXIV) to the subject, which gives an interesting account of the monasteries, pagodas, and rock sculptures of the time; with a supplement on Taoism under the heading of Huang Lao, i.e., the religion of Huang Ti and Lao Tzu. In the south the emperor Wu Ti of the Liang dynasty, who reigned (502–549) at Chien K’ang (Nanking), often put on the mendicant’s robes and expounded the sacred books of the law in Buddhist cloisters. It was in his reign that Bôdhidharma, the son of a king in Southern India, the 28th Indian and 1st Chinese patriarch, came to China in 520 A. D., and after a short stay at Canton settled at Lo Yang. He is frequently represented in glyptic art carrying the famous pâtra, the “Holy Grail” of the Buddhist faith, or pictured crossing the Yangtze on a reed which he had plucked from the bank of the river.