China in World History

46 China in World History

In addition to these caves associated with emperors and would-be

emperors, numerous other Buddhist works of art were created during

the period of division that have survived to the present day. In the far

northwestern village of Dunhuang (in today’s Gansu Province) archae-

ologists in the twentieth century discovered another set of caves adorned

with Buddhist carvings sponsored by a large monastery there, along

with a whole library of Buddhist scriptures produced over several cen-

turies starting in the fourth century ce. About eight hundred miles to

the west of Dunhuang, near Kucha, where Kumarajiva lived as a child,

another group of caves at the small town of Kizil shows the popularity

of Buddhism in Central Asia (near today’s Kyrgyzstan) starting in the

fourth century ce. These caves are notable for the vivid multicolored

paintings, in Indian style, that adorn their walls. One of the paintings at

Kizil illustrates the close connection between merchants and the spread

of Buddhism in China, as it shows the Buddha lighting the way for a

traveling merchant. Interregional trade was essential to the rise of Bud-

dhism in China, for merchants often brought missionaries along with

This large Buddha from the Northern Wei dynasty (460–493 CE), in Cave number

20 at Yungang, near modern Datong (Shanxi Province), is now exposed to the

elements because of the collapse of the cave. The formerly nomadic Tuoba Wei

rulers of the Northern Wei sponsored the creation of thousands of elaborately

carved Buddhist fi gures at Yungang to demonstrate their religious devotion and

cultural sophistication. Photo by Paul Ropp