从中亚“犬神”至中原“狻猊”——古代天王造像之“兽首吞臂”溯源与东传演变考

From the inugami in Central Asia to the lions in Central China——A survey of the origins of the animal heads catching the arm in the ancient Heavenly King Statues and the propagation eastward

唐宋时期"天王""镇墓武士"造像中,手臂与肩部连接处常筒饰威慑恫吓的"兽首",现代学者将其称为"兽首含臂"。"兽首吞臂"最初起源于粟特民族古老的"犬神"崇拜,并在北魏时期随着粟特商人带入中原,并影响了初唐时期以"毗沙门天王"为代表的天王造像装饰,还影响了唐宋镇墓武士造像装饰,其母题呈现多元化。而当时中原正处于唐文明最为鼎盛时期,强盛的唐文明对外域文明有着极强的文化改造力,唐代不仅吸收了中亚的"犬神吞臂"母题装饰,并且将其改造为中原天王造像的"狻猊吞臂"。这一母题演变还体现在了不断从唐文化中汲取文明的日本佛教造像演变中,其艺术特征或许受到日本本土神道信仰中的"龙蛇"信仰影响,增加了日本"龙"或"蛇"的艺术面貌特征。

On the statues of 'Heavenly King' and 'Tomb Warriors' in Tang and Song Dynasties, there is always 'animal head' decorated on the connection of the arm and shoulder, which is named as 'animal heads catching the arm' by modern scholars. Originating from Sogdian people's Inugamiworship, this kind of decoration was brought into the Central Plains by Sogdian merchants in the Northern Wei Dynasty. It influenced the decoration of the statues of Heavenly King in the early Tang Dynasty with the statues of 'Vaisravana' as the representative. The decoration of the statues of tomb warriors in Tang and Song Dynasties was also be affected, leading the motif presented in a diversified way. At that time, the Central Plains was in the most prosperous period of Tang civilization, and this strong civilization has a powerful cultural transformation on foreign civilizations. It not only absorbed the motif decoration of 'Inugami gulping the arm' in Central Asia, but transformed it into the 'lion catching the arm' in the statues of Heavenly King in Central Plains. The evolution of this motif can also be found in the evolution of the JapaneseBuddhist statues, which constantly absorbs civilizations from the culture of Tang Dynasty. The Japanese Buddhist statues may be influenced by the worship of 'dragon and snake' in Japan's indigenous Shinto faith, because there are some 'dragon' or 'snake' artistic features added in the statues.