树神崇拜自古有之。[英]弗雷泽所著《金枝》部分章节即记载了古今各地的树神崇拜。在佛教中,树神是重要的护法神,菩提树神、娑罗树神或是身份并不明确的广义上的树神(例如诸经中出现的树神王)均属于这个范畴。树神图像于中国多个朝代的佛教美术遗迹中均有出现,但不同时期树神图像出现的原因及所属系统并不相同。单体造像方面,中山大学图书馆藏北魏兴安二年造像(453年)基座正面拓本中可见具有明确榜题的树神图像,东魏武定元年(543 Tree worship since ancient times. [英] Fraser’s book The Golden Branch records chapters of tree-god worship throughout ancient and modern times. In Buddhism, the tree-god is an important Dharma-god, a Bodhisattva god, a tree-god, or a tree god in a broad sense of indefinite identity (such as the Tree of God, who appears in the sutra) falls into this category. The images of tree gods appear in the Buddhist art relics of many dynasties in China. However, the images of tree god goddess in different periods have different causes and systems. In terms of monosomy, the image of the tree god with a clear list of titles can be seen from the frontal rubbing of the statue of the Sun Yat-sen in the Northern Wei Dynasty of Sun Yat-sen University Library (453). In the first year of Wu Dong in the Eastern Wei Dynasty (543