This article considers the characteristics of Buddhism in China under the Nortern Dynasties, by collecting, classifying and analyzing over 2500 inscriptions on Buddhist statues built in this period. After these statues are classified into three categories -bronze statues, stone statues and cave sculpture- their chronological changes, regional distribution, image type and the social status of their founders are each analyzed in turn. In the period of the Northern Dynasties innumerable Buddhist statues of various sizes were built by emperors, noblemen and commoners. This boom originated in the Northern Wei dynasty which constructed the Yun-kang cave temples (while its capital was located at P'ing-ch'eng) and excavated the Lung-men cave temples (after it transfered its capital to Lo-yang). The imperial house took the lead in constructing these large cave temples. Such a practice spread due to its propagation by the Buddhist body, until the building and worship of stone statues gradually became popular, reaching their peak in the 6th century. The Sakyamuni-Buddha and Maitreya-Bodhisattva images were mostly made during the Northern Wei dynasty. Then the making of Avalokitesvara-Bodhisattva images increased rapidly under the Eastern Wei and Northern Ch'i dynasties. In the contents of prayers the following three types of objects were noticeable : (1)a desire to enter heaven after death, (2)a desire to live under the Maitreya-Bodhisattva, and (3)a prayer for peace for the emperor and the state. The first shows that trans migrationism of Buddhism had a great influence on the Chinese outlook on life. People in the period of the Northern Southern Dynasties conceived of heaven (天) by uniting the idea of "Paradise" (浄土) in Buddhism with that of "Providence" (天) in the traditional thought of China. Also, they often used Taoist ideas of heaven. The second came from the belief that Maitreya-Bodhisattva, the Saviour, would appear to save the world sometime after the death of Sakyamuni-Buddha. After the middle of the 5th century the faith of Maitreya was widespread in Northern China. The third was a prayer for the "enperor's peace of mind" and the "protection of the state." This shows that Buddhism under the Northern Dynasties functioned as a ruling ideology of the state. It seems that those phenomena about Buddhist statues made in the period of the Northern Dynasties resulted from the following historical process. The Buddhist clergy and laity, which had been annihilated under the oppression (446-451 A.D.) by T'ai-wuti, were quickly reconstructed under the strict control of the state after his death. Compelled to depend upon the power of the state, the Buddhists constructed a cave temple at Yun-kang and made for the North ern Wei emperor great images of Sakyamuni and Maitreya which were modelled after him. Thus Buddhism came to play a role in adoration of him through its stress on Sakyamuni and Maitreya. The same is true of the Lung-men temple. Buddhists also dispatched many monks throughout the country, who organized lay religious groups at various places and encouraged them to build a statue and hold liturgical rituals by following the example of the construction of the Yun-kang and Lung-men cave temples. As a result images of Sakyamuni and Maitreya were numerous under the Northern Wei dynasty, and prayers "for the sake of the emperor" or "for the the sake of the state" were frequently found inscribed on them. After the Northern Wei divided into the Eastern and Western Wei, however, images of Sakyamuni and Maitreya which had been associated with the Northern Wei emperor decreased, and in their place people came to worship those of Avalokitesvara-Bodhisattva as wonder-working.

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