Organizer: Robert Hymes, Columbia University
Chair: Ellen Neskar, Stanford University
Dorothy C. Wong, Harvard University
Chinese Buddhist steles differ from most other types of Buddhist art in that they combine Buddhist imagery with a native Chinese form-the rectangular stone tablet traditionally inscribed with a funerary, commemorative, or edifying text. They therefore represent a creative synthesis of Buddhist (Indian and Central Asian) and native Chinese artistic traditions. As a product of close interaction between Buddhism and Chinese society and institutions, the custom of erecting Buddhist steles was also a social and religious phenomenon.
Although the earliest Buddhist steles date to the first half of the fifth century, this new visual form did not come into general use until the last years of the fifth century, and this custom prevailed until the end of the sixth century. Buddhist steles are found over wide geographical range, concentrating in the Lower Yellow River Valley in the north, and in one region in the southwest. The rapid growth of this practice coincided with the last phase of the Northern Wei dynasty-a period that saw the apogee of the spread of Buddhism under state support, intensified Sinification of the court, and the gradual social integration of racial groups facilitated by the force of faith.
This paper examines the confluence of a number of social and cultural forces that brought about the flourishing of Buddhist steles in the opening decades of the sixth century. It also analyses the synthetic and transformational artistic process that gave rise to Buddhist steles, and interprets the kinds of visual statements these monuments made to the creators, the patrons, and the viewers at large. The direct copying of sculptural embellishment of Northern Wei imperial rock cut caves onto the stele face suggests the assertion of the religious and artistic identity of the Northern Wei (a Turkic stock) over a Chinese form. But at the same time, the borrowing of the Chinese stele form for Buddhist imagery also means the appropriation of symbolic values and cultural associations invested in the traditional monument in order to create a cultural and political identity that gives the user legitimacy. The strongly volumetric Indian sculptural mode and the Chinese linear mode modified each other and laid foundations for an integrated, unified artistic style that was to mature in the following seventh and eighth centuries. In religious terms, native Chinese ancestor worship intermingled with the Buddhist belief in salvation in the next world, while yearnings for a political utopia were realized in the messianic cult figure Maitreya (the Buddha to be), a central icon frequently represented on Buddhist steles of this period. The devotional groups for whom the steles were made paralleled existing Chinese agrarian social units; their social and racial mix further demonstrates the success of Buddhism as a unifying agent. Designed to stand in public spaces of the community, Buddhist steles stood as visual emblems that eloquently articulate a new sense of a collective, communal identity.
Gu Sen, China Institute of Art; Kuiyi Shen, Ohio State University
The earliest possible reference to Xi Wang Mu (the Queen Mother of the West) occurs in the Shang period in China. Since then, Xi Wang Mu evolved from an immortal to one of most important female deities in the history of Chinese mythology and one of the major deities of Taoism. After Buddhism spread into China from India via Central Asia, the feminized Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara (Guanyin) became the most popular female deity in China, while Xi Wang Mu evolved into a universal goddess (Wangmu Niangniang) because of her integration with the magical mountain Kunlun, previously the domain of the Superior God.
The Han period (206 BC-220 AD) was the peak of the worship of Xi Wang Mu. Not only can we find many literal descriptions about Xi Wang Mu in historical documents, but we can also see more of her images in Han art works such as murals, stone and brick reliefs, and other objects. In recent years, Han art has attracted more and more scholarly attention in the West. Professor Wu Hung and Martin Powers did brilliant studies of Han art in their recent publications. But there are many questions which remain to be answered regarding the iconographic meaning of Xi Wang Mu in Han art.
In this paper, we will stress three aspects in an iconographic study of Xi Wang Mu's images shown in Han stone and brick reliefs:
Eric Reinders, University of California, Santa Barbara
Within the Buddhist monastic compounds of Medieval China, correct obeisance to senior monks and to Buddha images was central to the definition of monkhood, central to the distinction between monk and layman. Yet, to my knowledge, there has been very little systematic analysis of the role of obeisance in the construction of monastic identity. The monk's refusal to bow (to laity) has received some attention: from Weinstein, Hurvitz, Tsukamoto, Ch'en, Zurcher and others, we know some of the political dimensions of the refusal of monks to bow to the emperor or to their own parents. Two particular periods have been examined: (a) early in the fifth century (involving Huiyuan and Huan Xuan), and (b) in the period 657-662. A prominent actor in this latter debate was the "founder" of the Chinese Vinaya school, Daoxuan (596-667). In 661, Daoxuan wrote Shimen guijingyi (Buddhist Rites of Obeisance), a systematic discussion on bowing. Hence we have bowing in two contemporary contexts: as the object of prohibition and as the object of an imperative discipline. Focusing on this text against the political background, this paper is an attempt to chart out the role of the bowing body in the construction of group identity in the early Tang, guided by the following questions: how were the various bowing practices organized? How did Daoxuan account for multiple bowing conventions (Confucian, Buddhist, Chinese, Indian)? What was the value of correct obeisance practice? What were the political consequences of ritual orthodoxy?
Zongli Lu, University of Wisconsin, Madison
This paper seeks to disprove the common misconception that the belief in prophecy lost its official sanction and political influence during the Chin (266-420) and Sui (589-618) dynasties. Although the emperors harshly and repeatedly banned the apocryphal texts during the early medieval era, the belief in prophecy, this paper will argue, maintained its official status and continued to exert a powerful influence in both the political and social arenas.
Through examining historical records, I will show how philosophical tradition, historical conditions and practical concerns all reinforced the belief in prophecy. Relating the belief in prophecy to Chinese philosophy, we find that it was not simply a passing fashion, but a way of thinking deeply rooted in Chinese cosmological and philosophical concepts. In China, it is widely accepted that prophecy is the communicative channel between Heaven and man. The mandate of Heaven cannot be transmitted, disseminated or carried out without prophecy. As long as people believe in the mandate of Heaven, prophecy cannot lose its powerful status. Historically, the widespread social chaos and political struggle of the early medieval era provided rich soil for the dissemination of rumor and political prophecy. Chinese rulers would not have relinquished this mysterious, yet effective political weapon. In an effort to ban prophecies unfavorable to them while promoting favorable ones, rulers prohibited the dissemination of prophecy through private channels but sanctioned "official" prophecies. Because of the above conditions, the belief in prophecy gained influence as the overall number of prophecies increased and new forms of prophecy came into existence.
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