The Northern Dynasty is known for its Eastern smile

In the 1st century AD, Buddhist art originated in the South Asian subcontinent, incorporating elements from ancient Greek, Persian, and Central Asian civilizations. Buddhism spread along the northern and southern routes, spreading northward along the Silk Road to Afghanistan, Central Asia, Kashmir, western China, and the Central Plains. During the Northern and Southern Dynasties (420-589), Buddhist art underwent a transformation into a Chinese style and continued to influence the Korean Peninsula and Japan, forming an East Asian system of Buddhist statue style. The early Buddhist statues of the Northern Wei Dynasty (386-534) inevitably carried foreign characteristics, but by the 4th century, the facial features of the early Buddhist statues had begun to be sinicized. By the late Northern Wei Dynasty (the second half of the 5th century - the beginning of the 6th century), the Buddhist statues had been completely sinicized. In 534 AD, the Northern Wei Dynasty split into the Eastern Wei (534-550) and the Western Wei (535-556), which were later replaced by the Northern Qi (550-577) and the Northern Zhou (557-581). In 581 AD, the Sui Dynasty unified the north. The period from the late Northern Wei to the early Sui was a time of extreme social turmoil. The rulers, for the sake of governance, and the people, for the sake of spiritual comfort, was also a period of great prosperity for Buddhism and Buddhist statue art. The Buddhist statues found in several areas of Shandong are unique in the history of ancient Chinese art, especially the artistic achievements of hundreds of statues found in the Longxing Temple in Qingzhou, most of which have charming smiles. According to the records of Zhang Yanyuan's 'Famous Paintings of the Past Dynasties', Cao Zhongda, who was known as 'the most skilled in the Northern Qi', came from the Western Regions. His painted Buddhist statues were 'unrivaled in his time', forming the artistic style of the 'Cao family style', which was on par with the 'Wu family style' of Wu Daozi in the Tang Dynasty. Its characteristic is the 'Cao's clothes coming out of the water' shown in the Buddhist statues unearthed from the Longxing Temple in Qingzhou - the various parts of the body of the Buddhist statue (head, shoulders, torso, arms and legs) become organic, interconnected muscular structures, standing freely, with the chest, waist, and buttocks forming a subtle 'reverse posture', and clear, natural clothing lines, as if coming out of the water. This artistic achievement clearly reflects the development of the technique of three-dimensional objects in northern Buddhist art from the late Northern and Southern Dynasties to the Sui and Tang Dynasties, and lays a solid foundation for the development of future modeling art. The Buddhist statue art of the Northern Dynasty to the Sui and Tang Dynasties in Shandong also influenced the Korean Peninsula across the sea, and indirectly influenced the 'official spread' of Buddhism to Japan through the Korean Peninsula in the 6th century. The exhibits in this unit mainly include representative Buddhist statues from the Northern Dynasty to the Sui and Tang Dynasties unearthed from the Longxing Temple in Qingzhou and the Longhua Temple in Boxing, as well as sporadically discovered Buddhist statues from other regions, and some religious artifacts and secular statues.