The Buddhist sculpture hoard at Bei Wuzhuang in Ye City Site at Linzhang County, Hebei Province

Abstract In January 2012, a rescue excavation was conducted to a Buddhist sculpture hoard in the Ye City Site of the Northern Dynasties located in present-day Linzhang County, Hebei Province, from which a bunch of important academic materials was recovered. Among these recovered artifacts, 2895 sculptures (intact or damaged) have been registered and numbered, plus almost 3000 fragments. Most of these sculptures were made of white marble, and one tenth of them bore inscriptions. Their dates were mainly the Eastern Wei and Northern Qi Dynasties, with few exceptions belonging to the Northern Wei and Tang Dynasties. This hoard is the one yielding the most Buddhist sculptures found since the founding of the People’s Republic, and this discovery showed the position of the Ye City as the centers of the Buddhism, culture and art in the Central Plains and North China during the late Northern Dynasties.