須大拏本生圖是，描繪釋迦前世降生為須大拏太子，樂好布施的修行生涯。從現存的造像來看，須大拏本生圖大約流行於北魏遷都洛陽前後，並且多集中於今河南地區，與洛陽佛教的興盛有著密切的關聯。雖然《菩薩本緣經》、《六度集經》、《太子須大拏經》都收錄有須大拏本生，是北朝須大拏本生圖繪製的依據，但更重要的是，傳承自印度、中亞的圖像而開展。由於須大拏本生的若干情節內容，如布施妻子、兒女等，多與中國儒教倫理相衝突，因此有的造像遂避開這些情節。並且根據《太子須大拏經》，表現與孝道思想相關的情節，特別是渡河一景幾乎成為代表性的圖像。這說明佛教造像並非自外於現實的社會文化，是融合於中國社會文化之中發展的。

Pictorial representations of the Suddhana Jâtaka describe Sakyamuni's former life as Prince Suddhana, a life of dedication to religious observances and self-sacrifice. Material preserved today suggests that the representation of the Suddhana Jâtaka in Chinese Buddhist art was most popular during the Northern Wei (386-534) period, at the time of the move of the capital to Lo-yang. Representations of this kind were most common in the geographical area of present-day Honan, a fact that is closely related to the flourishing of Buddhist culture around the new capital.

While Buddhist sutra's such as the P'u-sa pen-yüan Sutra, the Liu-tu chi Sutra, and the T'ai-tzu Hsü-ta-nu Sutra all contain versions of the story of the Suddhana Jâtaka, and may therefore to a certain extent have served as a textual basis for Northern Wei narrative wall-paintings, pictorial traditions transmitted from India and Central Asia still were the main source of inspiration for early Chinese representations of the story. Chinese representations of the Suddhana Jâtaka reveal restricting influences from Confucian ethics in the selection of themes to be depicted. Scenes describing the sacrifice of wife and child appear to have been avoided, while those relating to ideals of filial piety from the T'ai-tzu Hsü-ta-nu Sutra, would become a preferred topic in wall-paintings of the story. This clearly illustrates the fact that Buddhist art was not isolated from the reality of its socio-cultural environment, but on the contrary, that mutual interaction with this environment constituted the foundation for its further growth and development.

北朝造像; 本生圖; 須大拏本生; 儒教倫理

Buddhist sculpture of the Northern Dynasties; Jâtaka; the Suddhana Jâtaka; Confucian ethics