CategoriesCultural and Religious Styles
Sui Dynasty
Chinese art of 581–618, a short dynasty that reunified China and bridged northern and southern Buddhist styles on the way to the Tang.
No works indexed yet
No open-access works for Sui Dynasty are in the index yet. They will appear here as more collections are indexed.
About
The Sui dynasty lasted only from 581 to 618, but it reunified China after nearly three centuries of division and laid the ground for the Tang. Its two emperors built on a colossal scale: a new capital at Daxing, later the Tang city of Chang'an, and the Grand Canal linking the Yellow and Yangtze rivers. The Anji Bridge in Hebei, completed around 605, is a shallow stone arch with open spandrels and among the oldest standing bridges of its kind.
Both emperors supported Buddhism generously, and the art of these decades blends northern and southern styles. Sculptors gave Buddhas upright, columnar bodies and fuller faces, and hung bodhisattvas with long strands of jewels, often in gilt bronze small enough for private altars. At the Mogao caves near Dunhuang, dozens of chapels were carved and painted in the Sui years, with bright patterned ceilings. Potters produced some of the earliest high-fired white wares, pointing the way towards true porcelain.