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- Susan Andrews (Mount Allison): Reconstructing Northern Dynasties religious life through the Ancient Chronicle miscellanea
Images figure prominently in the first extant text dedicated to the Mountain of Five Plateaus (Wutai shan 五臺山): Huixiang’s 慧祥 (seventh-century) Ancient Chronicle of Mount Clear and Cool (Gu Qingliang zhuan 古清涼傳). In addition to renderings of Mañjuśrī, the central chapters of this two-folio work mention statues of Maitreya, Śākyamuni, and Samantabhadra housed in temples, stūpas, and a cavern at the emerging center of Buddhist activity. The total absence of Buddhist statues from the Ancient Chronicle’s little-studied fifth and final chapter is thus striking. Exploring the narratives compiled in the “Miscellaneous Accounts of Branches and Tributaries” (Zhiliu/zashu 支流) chapter I will consider what the absence of images (as well as monastics and Mañjuśrī) from these materials suggests about regional religious life during the period. I will also consider how these records teach us about the roles that images played in the textual construction of mountains as Buddhist sites in medieval East Asia more generally.
- James Benn (McMaster): East Asian Buddhist attitudes towards non-Buddhist practitioners in India
The early eighth-century Chinese Buddhist apocryphal scripture known as Lengyan jing or Śūraṃgama sutra contains some vivid and lengthy descriptions of demonic states that may arise for the practitioner in deep states of meditation. In some of these states, the practitioner is said to experience profound mis-perceptions of reality that are said to correspond to the teachings of named non-Buddhist individuals or schools in India. References to Jains or Nirgranthas abound in Chinese Buddhist literature, and the Jains are frequent targets of religious polemic, but other, more obscure, ascetic traditions are also the topic of lively discussion for Buddhist authors. In this paper, I ask why Buddhists in East Asia—especially those who had never been to India—showed such anxiety and concern about non-Buddhist teachings.
- Robert Brown (UCLA): Xuanzang’s Indian Icons. With notes by Max Deeg
I begin by asking why when Xuanzang returned to China from 16 years of traveling and living in Central and South Asia did he bring 657 books but only seven icons? Is there a reason for the apparent lack of interest or value in the icons vs. that of the texts? I find that comparing the lists of the seven icons that are listed in the same order in Xuanzang’s Record and in his Biography that there are major differences recorded between the two in terms of size, material, and identification for almost all of the sculptures. The essay is an exploration of what are these discrepancies between the two lists, and what they may reflect in terms of Xuanzang’s understanding of the icons. I end with some thoughts on how the modern practice of art history may compound the difficulty in our understanding of this evidence.
Professor Deeg in his notes comments on the nature of the texts (the Records and the Biography) in which the icons are identified, and how these texts should be considered in identifying the icons in terms of their Buddhist doctrinal character. In using the texts, Xuanzang’s agenda and personal preferences can be suggested, making categories of meaning that help to explain and identify the objects.
- CHEN Huaiyu 陳懷宇 (Arizona State University): Textuality and Materiality: Buddhist and Daoist Stone Lanterns in Medieval China
Stone lanterns were important ritual architectures of the monastic compounds in medieval Chinese Buddhism and Daoism. They became flourishing in the Tang dynasty, and both declined afterward. This study examines the textuality and materiality of these stone lanterns by focusing on their inscribed texts and images. In analyzing extant inscriptions and images of these stone lanterns, this study reveals the literary structure, doctrinal ideas, and ritual practices in Buddhist and Daoist liturgical rituals centered on these stone lanterns and their roles in medieval religious life. This comparative study will shed new light on how Buddhist and Daoist monasticism in medieval China competed for their spiritual power by constructing their stone lanterns to carry on their historical traditions, honor their gods and deities, reach their soteriological goals, and serve the worldly needs of their practitioners.
- CHEN Jinhua 陳金華 (UBC): A Future Buddha Casting for a Past Buddha: Marginalia on the Puti Ruixiang 菩提瑞像 (Auspicious Image of the Sakyamuni Buddha under the Bodhi-tree) and Its Transmission from South to East Asia | 菩提瑞像小考
Mahābodhi Temple in Bōdhgayā once housed a statue depicting Śākyamuni’s attainment of enlightenment after successfully subjugating Māra. This statue was unique in at least two respects. The first of these was its location. It stood at the very site where tradition holds the Buddha achieved enlightenment [bodhi], under the renowned bodhi-tree. Second, its reputed crafter, the future Buddha Maitreya, contributed to the sense that this was an important object. This temple was given the name “Mahābodhi” (great enlightenment; Da Puti si 大菩提寺 in Chinese) partly because of the site’s liminal significance during the Buddha’s life. Due to extraordinarily symbolism, this statue came to be venerated by pilgrims both from across South Asia and more remote areas including China. Famous Chinese pilgrims who paid personal homage to this statue included Xuanzang 玄奘 (602-64), and Yijing 義淨 (635-713). The Tang general-adventurer Wang Xuance 王玄策 (fl. 643-61) went further; he arranged for its replication and returned to China with the copy. This image immediately became a model for local craftsmen and artisans who produced further copies of the statue. Evidence suggests that in the following decades and centuries, models travelled far beyond the Tang capitals, reaching westward to Dunhuang and east to Korea, or even Japan.
- CHEN Lang 陳朗 (Michigan): The Afterlife of the ‘Universal History’ of Tiantai
Built upon Prof. Shinohara’s seminal studies on Tiantai historiography and Buddhist biographies, my paper examines the construction of the Tiantai lineage in late imperial China. It compares the Comprehensive History of the Buddhas and Patriarchs (Fozu tongji 佛祖統紀) with the Tiantai Transmission of the Buddha’s Mind Seal (Tiantai chuanfo xinyin 天台傳佛心印), another — but much shorter — work of Tiantai historiography composed in Yuan Dynasty, which was influential and controversial in the Ming and Qing. It explores how the Tiantai advocates in the Ming and Qing endeavored to fit themselves into the Tiantai narrative of history, trying to distinguish themselves from and, paradoxically, keep a rapport with other Buddhist schools.
- CHEN Zhiyuan 陳志遠 (Chinese Academy of Social Science): 《律相感通傳》文本形态的變遷 | Textual Transformation of Lüxiang Gantong Zhuan [Records of the Miraculous Responses and of the Manifestations of the Vinaya ]
成書於乾封二年（667）的《律相感通傳》屬於道宣最晚年的作品。《大正藏》所收本（T1898）的底本，可以溯源至享保三年（1718）京都中野氏刊本，該本匯校高麗藏再雕本、古抄本和兩種刊本（稱為“舊本”和“一本”）。
《大正藏》所收《道宣律師感通錄》（T2107）與前者實為同一作品，其底本是高麗藏再雕本。近年又發現了京都南禪寺所藏高麗初雕本。據刊記可知，最初開寶藏《集神州三寶感通錄》卷上錯收了《律相感通傳》，初雕本的編輯者將其抽出單行，並依據《可洪音義》的歸類方法，將其置於“右”字函。再雕本的編輯者守其再次發現了開寶藏的錯簡，予以指出。
可洪根據《貞元續開元釋教錄》的著錄獲知《道宣律師感通錄》這一作品存在，並從勘經上座惠澄處得到寫本。此本包含彥悰的序，篇次結構也與傳世本大異，代表了晚唐五代北方流傳本的形態。此外，《法苑珠林》引用了此書絕大部分感通故事，再考慮其與《住持感應記》的互涉關係，可知道宣晚年曾經醞釀過一個規模龐大的寫作計劃，記錄天人對話的形式，保存於西明寺之中。道世、彥悰等人均參與了稿本的清定。唐宋諸家經錄著錄卷數、篇題之多歧，原因正在於此計劃的未完成狀態。
Records of the Miraculous Responses and of the Manifestations of the Vinaya(hererafter GTZ) was compiled in 667, several months before Daoxuan’s death. The Taisho edition (T1898) was based on the woodblock print, published in 1718 by the book merchant Nakano, located in Kyoto. The Nakano edition is a collation of the text that is included in the Second Goryeo Canon, the old manuscript, and two other woodblock prints, known as the “old edition” and the “other edition.”
The Taisho edition of another text, with the title Records of the Miraculous Responses of the Vinaya Master Daoxuan (T2107), is the identical work. This edition is based on the Second Goryeo Canon. And fortunately its first Goryeo Canon edition is still preserved in the Nanzenji, Kyoto, which was discovered in the past decades. The colophon inscriptions suggest that the Kaibao edition of the Records of the Miraculous Responses of the Three Treasures in China mistakenly included the GTZ in its first scroll. The editors of the first Goryeo Canon extracted this part, and placed this new text under the label character 右 according to the classification of Kehong’s Phonetic and Semantic Dictionary. Sugi, the supervisor of the second Goryeo Canon discovered this editorial error and recorded it in his Collation Remarks.
Kehong knew the existence of GTZ via the Sequel to the Catalogue of Buddhist Teachings compiled in the Kaiyuan Era, expanded in the Zhenyuan Era, before obtaining the manuscript from a sthavira Huicheng who was in charge of collating the Buddhist texts. The text Kehong worked on, which contained a preface by Yancong and deviated in structure from all extant editions, testifies a unique textual form circulated in north China during the late Tang and the five dynasties. In addition, all but one miraculous stories in GTZ were quoted in the encyclopedic Pearl-forest of the Dharma Garden. This fact, considering its overlapping with the Records of Miraculous Responses of Preservation, indicates that Daoxuan embarked on an ambitious project towards the very end of his life. The sermons of the heavenly gods were recorded and were subsequently stored in Ximing Monastery. His collaborators Daoshi and Yancong participated in the revision of these records and produced the definite copy respectively. The unfinished condition of Daoxuan’s work partially explains the fact that the titles and the number of scrolls of Daoxuan’s works vary in different catalogues compiled in Tang and Song era.
- Max Deeg (Cardiff): Expanding the Master(‘s) Hagiography: The Fo benxing ji jing 佛本行集經: An Understudied Biography of the Buddha
The Fo benxing ji jing 佛本行集經 [Sutra of the Collection of the Past Activities of the Buddha], “translated” by the late 6th century Gandharan monk Jñānayaśas – of Dhyānayaśas, as I reconstruct the name – is the first Buddha biography in Chinese which was “translated” into a Western language – into English by Samuel Beal – and has no known Indian original or counterpart (like Aśvaghoṣa’s Buddhacarita or the Lalitavistara). Since then, the text has been used – if at all – uncritically by scholars and no real research has been done on it. This paper will address the possible reasons for this negligence but will then focus on certain features of the text, as, for example, its North-western origin and its potential value for the interpretation of Buddhist narrative art, particularly from Gandhāra.
- Joseph P. Elacqua (Leiden): The Next Mandala that Gathers All: Śubhakarasiṃha and the Deities of the Womb Realm
In recent articles and his book, Spells, Images, and Mandalas, Dr. Koichi Shinohara has written extensively on the evolution of Esoteric Buddhist ritual texts into mandalas that express the earliest Esoteric pantheons and their imagery. Dr. Shinohara discusses a number of images and mandalas within his work, and his innovative studies provide the perfect foundations to study subsequent developments that have a dearth of scholarly attention—namely the origins of the Taizōkai mandala 胎蔵界曼荼羅, the earliest widely-known mandala still used today.In this paper, I will explore the textual and iconographic connections between the texts and mandalas examined by Dr. Shinohara and their connections to the Taizōkai mandala and its origins. I will focus on the Sheda Yigui 攝大儀軌 , the Taizō Zuzō 胎蔵図像 iconographic scrolls, and Yixing’s commentary to the Mahavairocana-sūtra. These materials—often ignored in modern scholarship—bridge the gap between the texts and mandalas detailed in Dr. Shinohara’s recent studies and are all associated with the Indian monk Śubhakarasiṃha.I argue that Śubhakarasiṃha consciously built upon the framework established by many of the works studied by Dr. Shinohara, expanding Taizōkai-related teachings to both encompass and eclipse the Esoteric Buddhist teachings that had already been transmitted to China. Rather than focusing on the pantheon present in the sūtras he himself translated, Śubhakarasiṃha used the Taizōkai-related teachings to engineer a complete and systematized pantheon of Esoteric Buddhist deities—each with an established spell, image, and presence in the most populated mandala in the history of Buddhism.In highlighting the ritual and iconographic connections between these works, this paper will serve to connect Dr. Shinohara’s aforementioned studies to the greater body of research on the ritual and iconography of Chinese Esoteric Buddhism as well as Japanese Shingon Buddhism.
- FAN Jingjing 范晶晶 (PekingU 北京大學): Why Did the Buddha Renounce the World?: A preliminary Survey of the Textual and Iconographical Traditions of the Great Renunciation
The early biographies of the Buddha are always fragmentary, scattered in the Buddha’s teachings, either expounding the doctrine or supplying the background of the teaching. Gradually, the biographical stories of the Buddha become abundant. And the reason why the Buddha renounced the family life has caught people’s attention. Then “the great renunciation” of the Buddha stands out, turning into an important theme in Buddhist literature and sculptures. This paper will thoroughly survey the Buddha’s biographical materials in Buddhist scriptures and iconographies, trying to sketch the development of the episode “the great renunciation” in the textual and iconographical traditions. This process reveals not only the interactions between the literary and sculptural traditions, but also the mutual influences among different biographies of the Buddha in different sects.
- FENG Guodong 馮國棟 (ZhejiangU 浙江大學): 禪宗“五祖重來”的文本與圖像 | Text and Images: The Coming back of the Chan Fixth Patriarch
禪宗五祖弘忍作為栽松道者後身重來的故事，一直在僧俗兩界流行。對於這一故事的真實性尚需進一步考證與認定，但不可否認的是，從宋代中期之後，僧俗兩界已漸次接受了這一故事，並不斷地以文學、繪畫等形式去重複、講述這一故事。也正因為這種不斷地講述，五祖為栽松道者後身這一故事也為越來越多的人所接受。“五祖栽松圖”、“五祖荷鋤圖”、“五祖再來圖”、“栽松道者托胎圖”，此類畫作的出現，正是人們對五祖形象理解、接受的反映。
- GUO Lei 郭磊 (Dongguk University 韓國東國大學): 明通潤《維摩詰所說經直疏》之朝鮮刊本考
《維摩經》在朝鮮半島早有流通，只是一直沒有相關注釋書，讀起來比較費解。1853年（清文宗咸丰三年），信士劉聖鍾（1821-1884）前往北京購入通潤的直疏本，返回朝鮮之後示於性闊大師，大師即於江原道鐵原聖住庵刊刻了通潤所著之《維摩詰所說經直疏》，時為1854年。這部經典的刊刻過程是由雙月堂的性闊大師主持，經華隱護敬的校對，然後文人吳旻秀撰寫了〈緣化秩〉。目前，韓國國內可知出處的《維摩詰所說經直疏》刻本和複印本共計十一部。其中，國家電子圖書館收藏有兩部（1854）、首爾大學奎章閣也有兩部（1854）。此外還有其他四所大學和三所寺院各自收藏有一部《直疏》。四所大學分別是東國大學（1854）、延世大學（1854）、高麗大學（1854）以及韓國學中央研究院（1914）。三所寺院分別是京畿道高陽——圓覺寺藏本（1854）、全羅南道潭陽郡月山面龍興裏夢聖山——龍興寺藏本（1854）、慶尚南道梁山靈鷲山——通度寺極樂庵藏本（1854）。朝鮮《直疏》刊本的一個特點就是「刻手」都是在家人，這與朝鮮時代其他佛教經典刊刻的刻手以出家人爲主而不同。此外，在大部分的刻本中有六幅變相圖，圖文契合。此本之流通實為近代中韓佛教交流之一例。
- HO Puay-peng 何培斌 (National University of Singapore 新加坡國立大學): Illustrating the Ideal: Transmission of Spatial Form in Medieval China and Japan
From the Southern Song dynasty, several drawings are extant illustrating the layout of historical monasteries. Unlike painterly illustrations such as those seen wall paintings in cave temples and monastic halls, or the painting scrolls that were fashionable during the Kamakura period, these drawings depict monastic architecture seemingly in their entirety, utilizing orthographic projection or rudimentary perspective. They have been regarded as true representation of architecture at the time of drawing. However, are there other possibilities in reading these drawings?
This paper will study the drawing accompanied the Guanzhong chuanli jietan tujing 關中創立戒壇圖經 [Illustrated Scripture on the Building of Ordination Platform in Guanzhong] contained in Taishō Tripiṭaka, vol. 45, no. 1892; and the Wushan shisha tu 五山十剎圖 [Illustrations of the Five Mountains and Ten Major Monasteries]. Jietan tujing is attributed to Master Daoxuan and said to have been completed in 667. The version contained in Taishō is said to have been transmitted to Enchin 圓珍 (814-891), a monk from Enryakuji 延曆寺 north of Kyoto who visited China in the 4th year of Gangyō 元慶 (881). This version was reprinted by Weiding 惟定 of Wolong Jingdeyuan 臥龍景德院 in the 22nd year of Shaoxing 紹興 (1152). Since it is said the woodblocks for the Tujing was engraved again by Weiding, the date for the illustrations might be dated to 1152. On the other hand, Wushan tu were drawn by monk Tettsū Gikai 徹通義介 (1219–1309) of Daijō-ji 大乘寺 in Kanazawa 金澤. Tettsū travelled to Zhejiang and visited many Chan monasteries in 1259 and drawn the diagrams for replication in Japan. While Jietan tujing consists of one illustration, Wushan tu consists of 70 diagrams, 3 of which detailed monastery layout, 18 diagrams of architecture sections, elevation and details, and the rest of the diagrams contain drawings of furniture and ritual paraphernalia.
Both Jietan tujing and Wushan tu were painted for illustration of architectural layout and details for the transmission of a set of ‘correct information’ about monasteries depicted. The purpose of the illustrations might be for supplementing written texts so that the visual information might more accurately reflect the ‘true picture’ of monastic architecture of Jetavana Monastery in Savatthi, or Jingshansi 徑山寺, Lingyinsi 靈隱寺, Tiantongsi 天童寺 etc., in Zhejiang province. These are not illustrations to illustrate biography, or historical episodes or novels. They are not illustrations of sutra with religious purposes. These diagrams attempt to present a comprehensive picture of the layout, building forms and spatial relationship, furniture, and other objects found in these monasteries. Why would diagrams be a better means for the transmission of true images of these monasteries? How would these diagrams be read and used at the time, away from the spatial and cultural contexts of the location of the monasteries, i.e. India and China, for readers in China and Japan? This paper will present the meaning of the Jietan tujing and Wushan tu in their role in the transmission of the ideal architecture model for Discipline School and Chan/Zen School.
- Alexander HSU (University of Notre Dame): A Forest of Accounts of Compiling the Buddhist Canon: Daoshi on Collecting and Collected Scriptures
The fifth chapter and twelfth fascicle of Daoshi’s 道世 seventh-century Forest of Pearls from the Dharma Garden (Fayuan zhulin 法苑珠林) features a mini-anthology of over ten mythological accounts of the Buddha and his disciples coming together to preserve the dharma for posterity (Shinohara 2019, 201-225). Most of these accounts are copied over from Chinese Buddhist scriptures, but the final one is copied from a compilation of divine revelations recorded from Daoshi’s close colleague, the renowned vinaya master Daoxuan 道宣, in a work called the Daoxuan lüshi ganying ji 道宣律師感應記, a special text on cultic objects preserved nowhere else that Shinohara has returned to teach us about (2000, 2003). Now that Shinohara has fully translated this chapter of the Forest of Pearls, even more of us can take a closer look at Daoshi’s accomplishment.I argue that Daoshi’s mini-anthology about the canon’s “collections” jieji 結集 strives to offer his readers a useable multiplicity of accounts about the recurring origins of the dharma at Buddhist councils. Just as entire canons of the Buddha’s teachings were preserved in order to reach a diversity of sentient beings, so too did Buddhas and their disciples meet multiple times in order to preserve multiple collections. I show how, precisely, Daoshi adapts and amends a parallel mini-anthology about compiling the Buddhist canon from the first prefatory fascicle of Sengyou’s 僧祐 Chu sanzang jiji 出三藏記集 of the sixth century, returning to the scriptural sources Sengyou cited to quote more fully from them, replacing other quotations, and adding entirely new excerpts. While the scriptural accounts of Buddhist councils attest to the dharma’s oral preservation, only Daoxuan’s revelation promises that these scriptures have been written down in multiple scripts, stored in heavenly deep storage in caves and stupas, and entrusted to reliable dragons, gods, and demons. Daoshi’s expansion of Sengyou’s forest suggests, in the early Tang, a deepening interest in the origins and ontology of Buddhist scriptures, a greater confidence in managing discrepant sources, as well as a background insecurity concerning the scriptural tradition’s continued accessibility.
- HU Xiaozhong 胡孝忠 (ShandongU 山東大學): 山東現存最早佛教地圖——金代《靈巖寺田園界至圖》研究
靈巖寺位於山東省濟南市長清區萬德鎮，泰山西北麓。初建於東晉，興於北魏，盛於唐宋，位居“四大古刹”之首。金代屬山東東路濟南府長清縣，《十方靈巖禪寺田園記》的碑陰《濟南府長清縣靈巖寺明昌五年上奏斷定田園記碑陰界至圖本》係山東現存最早佛教地圖，在佛教史和地圖學方面都有研究意義，對了解中國寺院經濟狀態具有無可比擬的無比的價值。
- George Keyworth (Saskatchewan): On the Transmission of Sacred Teachings Documents as Depictions of Transmission in Medieval Shingon Buddhism in Japan
The study of texts, images, saints and sages, encyclopedias, historiographical and hagiographical Buddhist literature written in the Sinitic language are all topics transformed by Prof. Koichi Shinohara’s research. Although he addressed the transmission and dissemination of esoteric Buddhist texts in medieval China and Japan, he has not yet investigated the books and images and transmission documents preserved and safeguarded in medieval Shingon 真言宗 libraries during the medieval period in Japan (ca. 1185-1603), including but not limited to Daigoji 醍醐寺, Ninnaji 仁和寺, Tōji 東寺, Chishaku’in 智積院 (where remaining materials from Negoroji 根来寺 are kept), Amanosan Kongōji 天野山金剛寺, and Shinpukuji 真福寺. To the best of my knowledge, Brian Ruppert (2009) was the first scholar outside Japan to address in English the overabundant texts from many of these medieval libraries that were painstakingly copied to ensure transmission documents from the “authentic hand” (jihitsu 自筆) of key teachers. In this paper I review and update Ruppert’s overview of sacred teachings documents (shōgyō 聖教) as “authentic hand” copies, and discuss how these documents functioned simultaneously as texts and images. Many of these ritual (jisō 事相) documents contain visual guides; scholastic or study-guide (kyōgaku 教学) documents almost always have colophons (okugaki 奥書 or shikigo 識語) to guide students, disciples, and patrons to view these documents as texts and images of transmission, practice, and study. Long after the period when many historians have restricted their research to the arrival and dissemination in Japan of Chan (Zen) Buddhist teachers from China, the transmission of these sacred teachings documents produced large, notably regional, libraries where hand-copied manuscripts and special printed texts preserved not only the idea that late Tang-era (618-907) Buddhist teachings were kept alive, so to speak, hundreds of years later, but that specific texts written or copied by instructors for debates and ritual performances—especially at Negoroji in the 12th – 14th centuries—required reproduction as texts and images. An overarching question addressed in this paper is: how and why were texts, images, sets of texts (‘canons’), commentaries, and ritual manuals explicitly perceived to be authentic in medieval Japan only if they could be shown to be legitimate copies from the hands of certain masters?
- Minku KIM 金玟求 (CUHK): The Lore of A Floated Stone Image of Buddha Vipaśyin in Southern Dynasties China and A Curious Analogue in Shaoxing 紹興 Museum
Despite mediocre artistic traits, a jowly-faced stone Buddha image stored in the collection of Shaoxing (Zhejiang) Museum is worth our keen attention. The image bears an extraordinary inscription, specifying the seldom witnessed iconographic subject in Chinese Buddhist art, Weiweifo 維衛佛 (or Vipaśyin, the first among the so-called Seven Buddhas of the Past). More intriguing is its alleged date. It is dated to 488 CE or the sixth year of Yongming 永明 (483–493), the regnal era belonging to Emperor Wu Di 武帝of Southern Qi 齊 (479–502), making the specimen as the earliest and largest freestanding stone Buddhist devotional image known to us from the lower metropolitan hydrosphere of Yangzi, a crucial, but archaeologically underrepresented, center of Buddhist activities during the Southern Dynasties period (420–589). At the same time, one may well quickly recollect a lore cited in Fayuan zhulin 法苑珠林 (T2122) under the section ‘Ganying yuan’ 感應緣 (juan 12) that Daoshi 道世 says to have gleaned from the obscure text Shi’er lingyan 十二靈驗. In 313, a certain Zhu Ying 朱應 of Wu Xian 吳縣 discovered a stone image of Vipaśyin, along with another Past Buddha Kāśyapa (Jiashe 葉), floated to the coast, so he transported them to Tongxuansi 通玄寺. Thereafter, in 488, his great-grandson Zhu Farang 朱法讓, too, discovered a piece of floating stone, so he presented it to Chanlingsi 禪靈寺. Curiously, the latter date 488 matches with the inscribed date of the Shaoxing image, and Zhu Ying’s Buddha was indeed Vipaśyin. To make things more complicated, we also recognize that several antiquarian epigraphic records, for instance, the gazetteer of the Kuaiji 會稽 region compiled as early as the Jiatai 嘉泰 reign (1201–1204) of the Southern Song 宋 (1127–1279) by Shi Su 施宿 (1164–1222), cite an inscription that is verbatim identical to what is written on the Shaoxing image. Nevertheless, the image frustrates modern art historians, for it hardly follows the late fifth-century Southern Chinese style. Further suspicious is the peculiar calligraphic writing itself engraved awkwardly on the back, where an aureole is otherwise expected. What is going on? Is this image a forgery? The presentation aims to unravel these problems and to demonstrate a fascinating juncture of Buddhist historiographical tradition with the so-called “metal and stone study” (Jinshi xue 金石學), a growing intellectual pursuit of post-Song China.
- Youn-mi KIM 金延美 (Ehwa Womans University 韓國梨花女子大學): Between Image and Text: Tracing the Transformation of a Buddhist Talisman from Dunhuang and Korea
Talismans occupy an ambiguous position at the nexus of text and image. Furthermore, it crosses boundaries in terms of spiritual traditions, such as Daoism, Buddhism, and Korean shamanism. Focusing on a talisman known as “Talisman of the Pure Land in the Next Life” (tangsaengjŏngt’obu 當生淨土符) in contemporary Korea, this paper traces its modifications in pre-modern Korea and China. Today, Korean shamans offer this talisman to people seeking employment and promotion at their workplace. The origin of this talisman, however, lies in the Buddhist talismanic tradition, which was once deeply entwined with Daoist or Chinese native practices. Based on woodblock prints excavated from inside tombs and statues, this paper shows how the shape and function of this talisman gradually changed during the Koryŏ (918-1392) and Chosŏn (1392-1910) periods of Korea. The paper further traces its earlier form in Dunhuang manuscripts, where it appeared under a different name, “Seal of Spirit-Feet” (shenzu yin 神足印) with more complex explanations of its efficacies. Inter-regional and interreligious exploration of this talisman and its modification reveals a hitherto unknown links between Chinese and Korean religious practices as well as premodern Buddhism and contemporary shamanism.
*This is a presentation branched off a co-study by Prof. Paul Copp, Ven. Jeonggak, and Youn-mi Kim
- Nelson Landry (Oxford University): Miracles and the Supernormal in Medieval China: A Discussion on Religious Objects in the Works of Daoxuan 道宣
This paper will concentrate on Buddhist material culture related to saintly figures, examining Buddhist relics and image as they are presented in the Ji shenzhou sanbao gantong lu 集神州三寶感通錄 (Collected Record of Miracles Relating to the Three Jewels in China; henceforth the Record of Miracles). The Record of Miracles is a collection of miracle tales compiled by the scholar monk Daoxuan 道宣 (596-667) in 664. Daoxuan did much of his compilation at Ximing Monastery in Chang’an alongside his close collaborator, Daoshi 道世, who in 668 would finalize his monumental Buddhist encyclopedia, the Fayuan zhulin 法苑珠林 (Forest of Pearls from the Dharma Garden). As Professor Koichi Shinohara has argued in the past, they drew from many of the same sources made available to them at Ximing and would perhaps have been working together to compile these stories—as it is attested by the high degree of textual overlap between the two texts.
This paper will by no means be an exhaustive analysis of the cult of saints in China. What this paper will do is analyse those historical and cultural conditions related to the cult of saints that concerned Daoxuan. He was a monk of great erudition who read translated Indic Buddhist texts and helped translate many into the Chinese idiom. His was a world at once informed by the experience of Chinese religious and political life, while simultaneously being coloured by his own prolonged literary encounter with the foreign philosophies and rites of Buddhist India. Bearing this in mind, by investigating the literary evidence related to relics and images, as well as Daoxuan’s experience with these cult-objects and the place they held in both his writing and his life, this paper will firstly draw some conclusions about the place of Buddhist objects in Chinese society. It will secondly demonstrate Daoxuan’s profound investment and personal interest in the cult of saints. These two points also touch on the works of Daoshi, who knew Daoxuan well and included many segments of the Record of Miracles into the Fayuan zhulin. Important instances where the Record of Miracles or where details about Daoxuan’s life are included in the encyclopedia will also be studied in this paper, adding to the work done by Shinohara in the late 1980s early 1990s.
- LI Wei 李巍 (He’nanU 河南大學): “捨身飼虎”“割肉貿鴿”文本及其圖像化——兼論阿育王佛塔圖像中的捨身主題 | Texts and Images for the Themes of “Feeding the Tiger with One’s Own Body” and “Protecting the Pigeon by Cutting off the Flesh from One’s Body”: With References to the Self-imolation Motif in the Images on the Aśokan Stūpas
The story of the ‘Swift-Eyed King’ (Ch. Kuaimu wang 快目王) sacrificing his eyes, as recorded in the Xianyu jing 賢愚經 (Skt. Damamūka-nidāna sūtra; Sūtra on the Wise and the Foolish), is a popular Buddhist jatakatale that highlights the theme of bodily sacrifice. According to the story, the ‘Swift-Eyed King’ gorged out his eyes as an alms-offering but later miraculously recovered his sight. The painting of this story could be found in the murals in Kizil and Dunhuang, as well as in Buddhist statues in the later epochs. This story is often depicted along with other stories related to the bodily sacrifice, together forming a collective theme. The story of ‘Swift-Eyed King’ is particularly important, as it contains a strong symbolism about eyes: that the sacrifice of mundane eyes is reward with the transcendental “eyes of wisdom” (Ch. huiyan 慧眼); and this symbolism may be related to the practices involving the visualization of bodily sacrifices which were practiced by the monks who visited the grottos. In terms of artistic expression, we could observe, as the history advanced, an increasing accretion of indigenous Chinese elements in the representation of the story. More importantly, the story of ‘Swift-Eyed King gorging his eyes is much more than a Buddhist story and an artistic theme but has concrete relationship with the monastic practices in the medieval China. By bearing in mind this cultural context, we could better fathom the popularity of the sacrifice stories and images during the medieval China and better reflect on the common Buddhist narrative which involves the sacrifice of the mundane body and the subsequent recovery of a “sacred” body and experience.
“捨身飼虎”（薩埵王子本生故事）和“割肉貿鴿”（屍毗王本生故事）在絲綢之路上廣泛流傳，其文本和圖像各自有著複雜的歷史傳統。“薩埵王子本生”被簡化為“捨身飼虎”，“屍毗王本生故事”被概括為“割肉貿鴿”，並逐漸成為並列出現的文化符號。法顯在遊記中描繪了以四則捨身主題的本生故事，這些故事的圖像被惠生摹寫並帶回中土，後來在吳越王模仿阿育王造塔的宗教實踐下和阿育王塔的基本形製結合，最終成為漢地所造阿育王塔底座的核心圖像。這一過程是佛教本生故事傳入漢地，與中國本土文化交融日益密切，文本和圖像的傳統不斷融合的產物。作為佛教本生類故事的典型代表，考察這兩則故事的譯入和整理以及圖像化，有助於我們理解佛教“捨身”主題不斷強化，並和中國語言文字特色結合，成為四字為主的“文化符號”，繼而成為一個個典型的形象傳播開來的歷史過程。
- LIU Xuejun 劉學軍 (Jiangsu Second Normal University): 從像贊到僧傳《高僧傳》書寫之文體 樣式及文化內涵 | From Life-Portraying Verse to Biography: Stylistic Style and Cultural Connotation of the Biographies of Eminent Monks
以慧皎《高僧傳》為代表，中古僧傳在文體上的一個重要特征，就是借鑒了傳統正史書寫中的“論讚”體式。實際上，如果仔細考察這些中古僧傳作品中的“論讚”內容，我們可以發現，它們其實與中古僧人邈真傳統的關係更為切近。邈真圖像上的讚辭與寫真圖像之間的關係，以及與僧傳“論讚”部分在文體層面的聯繫與區別，均可揭示——這種中古僧人邈真傳統固然與中國傳統圖像紀功的傳統有關，但也同時具有印度佛教傳統中的“興福”觀念；而中古僧傳作者利用“論讚”這一體式，將中土寄寓褒貶的歷史批判意識和印度佛教讚頌佛德的觀念結合在一起，則創造出了一種新的漢地佛教歷史書寫理念。
- LIU Yi 劉屹 (Capital Normal University 首都師範大學): Laozi and Buddha under the Shadow of the Imperial Canopy: Rethinking of the Buddhist Images in the Han Dynasty 華蓋之下的黃老與浮屠——關於漢代佛教圖像的省思
In 1947, Prof. Lao Gan identified the “Liuya baixiang” (六牙白象) in Teng county of Shandong province as a Buddhist image. Then Prof. Yu Weichao made the conclusion circulated as he published “Donghan fojiao tuxiang kao” (On Buddhist images in the Eastern Han Dynasty) in the 1980s. Afterwards, the issue of Buddhist images of the Eastern Han Dynasty has been a crucial and long-debated topic in the circles of art archeology in China, as seen in recently published works. However, if we put together what was artistically developed in India and Central Asia of the same period, we tend to believe that Buddhist images should be emerging around the middle and late 1 century AD instead of 1 century BC. This will bring two important consequences to our understanding of Buddhist images of the Han Dynasty.Firstly, to what extent could we believe the written records of the Han Dynasty which stated that Buddhist scriptures and images were introduced in the Emperor Ming of the dynasty? The paralleled shrines of Laozi and Buddha offered by Liu Ying, the lord of Chu, and the sacrifices made to Laozi and Budda under the imperial canopy of the Emperor Huan of the dynasty, were they actual images or just abstract symbols? Prof. Wu Hung has provided an example of two images of such sacrifices offering to memorial tablets instead of actual images. This will be probably bring us some reflections upon the phenomenon.Secondly, the Buddhist images of the Eastern Han Dynasty that have been widely accepted among Buddhist scholars and art historians in China are mostly Buddhist symbols that lack the original type in India and Central Asia and thus are deemed atypical. If these original images do not exist, how could Chinese Buddhists produce these Buddhist images? The actual archaeological artifact that has been verified so far is the Buddhist image carved on the money tree of the year 125, which was excavated in Fengdu, Sichuan province. If we use this as the reference to examine the Buddhist images in the Emperor Ming of the Han Dynasty and the so-called Buddhist images in the northern part of the dynasty, we should have new thoughts on this issue.In summary, bearing in mind the actual situations of the Gandhara area where Buddhist images first emerged, we should reconsider the authenticity of those Buddhist images of the Eastern Han Dynasty excavated in archaeology. They were probably not Buddhist images at all in the first place.
自1947年勞榦先生辨認出所謂山東滕縣「六牙白象」為佛教圖像後，復經1980年代俞偉超先生《東漢佛教圖像考》一文的宣傳，東漢的佛教圖像問題已經是中國美術考古學界經久不息的重要話題。近年出版的相關著作，也在反復討論這些所謂的「東漢佛教圖像」。然而，結合同時期印度和中亞地區佛教藝術發展的情況，越來越可以相信佛像的出現應該在公元1世紀中後期，不會早到公元前1世紀。這樣就會給我們所理解的漢代佛教圖像帶來兩個重要的衝擊：
第一，漢代史籍中關於漢明帝時佛教經像傳入中國的記載究竟有多大的可信度？楚王英的黃老浮屠並祀，漢桓帝的華蓋之下祭祀黃老浮屠，究竟是有實際的佛像，還是只有抽象的象徵物？巫鴻在一篇文章中提供的兩幅在華蓋之下祭祀對象只是牌位而非具體形相的例子，也許會帶給我們關於漢代黃老浮屠並祀的重新思考。
第二，目前被中國佛教學界和藝術史學界普遍認可的「東漢佛教圖像」，絕大多數都是缺乏印度和中亞圖像原型的、非典型的佛教象徵物。如果印度和中亞佛教圖像中沒有原型存在，中國佛教徒又是怎樣創造出這些「佛像圖像」的？目前真正可以確認是佛像的考古實物，是公元125年四川豐都出土的搖錢樹上的佛像。以此為標準來看漢明帝時期的佛像，以及漢代北方地區的所謂「佛教圖像」，應該會對漢代的佛教圖像問題有新的認識。
總之，結合佛像最早起源的犍陀羅地區的實際情況，有必要重新考慮以往被認定是「東漢佛教圖像」的那批考古資料的真實屬性。它們很可能原本就不是「佛教圖像」。
- Michael Nylan (UC Berkeley) & Thomas Hahn (UC Berkeley): Morphologies of the Sacred
In honor of Koichi Shinohara, much of whose work has focused on the interplay between Buddhist images and texts, we would contribute an essay on sacred mountains as sites which assemble images and texts in particular ways, whose long histories have witnessed significant alterations as the cult sites accommodate to local and national historical changes. We propose to examine three sites: Kuaiji Mountain, as largely pre-Buddhist cult site dedicated to an ever-popular culture hero; Tiantai Mountain, and Yandang shan (both with a significantly larger Buddhist presence).Kuaiji Mountain saw temples erected to the Great Yu, the legendary flood-queller, and thus was a site supposedly visited by the First Emperor of Qin (Qin Shihuang) on his progress south, which “took off” in Eastern Han as a result of local infrastructure improvements, to become a center of pilgrimage equipped with local academies. The Tiantai and Yandang Mountains constitute two geologically related corridors of mountain ranges southeast of Hangzhou in Zhejiang province. Both are noted for the exceptional beauty of their aquatic and rock-based landforms, as well as the significant Buddhist and Daoist communities they were (and still are) home to. The body of literature attributed to them over the centuries reflects these geomorphological and cultural similarities, progressing from early travelogues (youji 游記) to mountain records (shanji 山記) and mountain gazetteers (shanzhi 山志). With the shift from imperial to state patronage in the modern era, another genre of literature becomes the formative, dominant force that determines the fate of the area: that new genre is the so-called Famous Mountain Scenic Area Masterplan (mingshan fengjingqu zongti guihua 名山風景區總體規劃). In the case of the Yandang Mountains, its masterplan brought a UNESCO inscription as a World Geopark in 2005. In the case of the Tiantai Mountains, its more modest masterplan boosted tourism and improved local infrastructure. Both mountains have long been on the agenda of noted travelers, itinerant monks, painters and poets, such that the accumulated body of literary and visual art is quite overwhelming.We hope in our paper to raise larger questions of heritage preservation of relevance to today’s world, among them: (1) What is required to develop a cult site and popularize it? (2) What is required to sustain the cult site, under different regimes? (3) How have the modern PRC policies marginalized the religious presence of these sites in recasting them as “scenic sites” and “tourist destinations”? (4) How have international connections affected historical preservation in the modern period at different sites? (Tiantai Mountain has always had international connections, but Yandangshan has only recently acquired these. Kuaiji Mountain, by contrast, has never had them.)
- James Robson (Harvard): Guilded Gods: On Images of Deities Connected with Guild Cults in China
This talk is based on recent research I have carried out using the documents found inside Chinese deity images from Hunan province. One of the striking characteristics of these images is that the documents clearly name who the image is of and provide further information that allows us to know quite a lot about the image. Among the thousands of images studied, I have become increasingly interested in particular figures related to different guilds (woodcarvers, hunters, metalworkers, physicians, boat-builders, etc.). While we know much about guilds and religion in Europe, little has been written about the religious nature of guilds and their deities (hangye shen 行業神) in China. I will focus much of my attention on one particular deity, a certain Yangsi Jiangjun 楊四將軍, since I recently discovered an image of this figure in a private collection. Yangsi Jiangjun 楊四將軍 is the patron god of boatmen who work the rivers and lakes of China. This talk will also explore the religious nature of guilds and how the training of those within a guild is comparable to the training of a disciple by a master in a religious context.
- Gregory Schopen (UCLA): Image Processions and Monastic Fund Drives in Early and Medieval India
Buddhist monastic image processions and organized fund drives in India have received very little attention although they could have been an important source of income for monastic Communities there. Here it is emphasized that one Indian Vinaya, and apparently only one, has detailed rules dealing with both image processions and organized fund drives. Both are discussed and it is even suggested that the first may only be a specialized form of the second.
- SHI Jiangang 石建剛 (Northwestern Polytechnical University): 宋夏戰爭背景下北宋沿邊安定堡漢蕃軍民的護國萬菩薩堂——陝西子長北宋鍾山第10窟研究
陝西省子長縣的鍾山石窟第10窟，開鑿於北宋治平四年（1067年），是一座超大型立柱式中央佛壇窟，造像精美，內容豐富，乃是中國北宋石窟的代表。鐘山第10窟，時人稱之爲“萬菩薩堂”，窟內主要造像亦多與五臺山文殊信仰相關，呈現出強烈的五臺山文殊信仰的內涵。據北宋時期開窟題記和金代重修碑記載，該窟當時被稱爲“萬菩薩堂”，窟內所見成排的羣菩薩造像乃是“萬菩薩”像，據考證其正是由五臺山文殊信仰衍生而來的“五臺山萬菩薩”造像。考察洞窟其他主要造像，多與五臺山文殊信仰存在密切關係，甚至是洞窟形制和造像佈局亦在模仿五臺山佛光寺東大殿。洞窟造像還有一個顯著特點，即絕大多數造像下方雕刻出雲朵，且在部分乘雲神祇造像下方特意雕刻有禮拜的比丘像，可見其正是對五臺山化現的藝術表現。唐代高僧不空在描述化度寺護國萬菩薩堂時，稱其“並依台山文殊所見，乘雲駕象凌亂楹梁，光明滿堂不異金閣”，鐘山第10窟所見正是如此。鐘山第10窟的營建與安定堡關係密切，可以說，安定堡爲鍾山石窟的營建提供了最爲重要的經濟基礎和信衆基礎。石窟位於安定堡東側，二者相距僅1000餘米。鍾山石窟正是在安定堡修建後不久即開始營建的，根據窟內大量題記可知，該窟正是在安定堡當地信衆張行者的主持下，由安定堡及其附近地區漢蕃軍民共同出資營建的。安定堡地理位置十分重要，有“邊鎮之咽喉，西塞之要經，秦關之保障”之說，不仅是絲綢之路北線著名的商貿物流中心，而且还是宋夏戰爭的前沿陣地，因此成爲宋夏民族政權在陝北沿邊地區爭奪的焦點之一，宋夏战争期间曾数次易主。通過對五臺山萬菩薩圖像的系統梳理和研究可知，這一圖像至遲在唐天寶時期已經從五臺山文殊信仰中分離出來，成爲了一種獨立的圖像題材和信仰內容。五臺山萬菩薩呈現出強烈的護國特色，如唐代大曆二年不空在《請抽化度寺萬菩薩堂三長齋月念誦僧制一首》中列“化度寺文殊師利護國萬菩薩堂三長齋月念誦僧二七人”，並在附言特別說明此乃是“精建道場爲國念誦”；另如《元史·英宗本紀》中同樣有“五臺萬聖祐國寺”之說，均明確表達了其護國的功能。結合石窟碑刻題記和傳世文獻記載，筆者認爲鐘山第10窟因宋夏戰爭而興建，是宋夏戰爭背景下北宋沿邊安定堡漢蕃軍民共同營建的一座護國萬菩薩堂，石窟肩負着護國佑民、撫慰漢蕃軍民心靈創傷、凝聚人心等一系列特殊使命和功能。
- Jacqueline Stone (Princeton): Joining the Assembly on Eagle Peak: Text, Image, and Empowerment in Nichiren’s “Great Mandala”
The medieval Japanese Buddhist teacher Nichiren (1222-1282), known for his message of exclusive devotion to the Lotus Sūtra, devised a calligraphic mandala as an object of veneration (honzon) for his followers. Down its center is inscribed the title of the Lotus Sūtra in the mantric formula Namu Myōhō-renge-kyō, flanked by the names of two buddhas Śākyamuni and Prabhūtaratna as attendants and surrounded by the names of representatives of the Lotus Sūtra assembly on Eagle Peak. Composed entirely of Chinese characters, along with two Siddham glyphs, Nichiren’s “great mandala” (daimandara) embodies the dual aspects of image and text. As image, it represents an enlightened cosmos, the realm of the primordially awakened buddha of the Lotus Sūtra. At the same time, its use of characters, rather than anthropomorphic or symbolic images, preserves and underscores its continuity with the Lotus text. Nichiren’s calligraphic mandala would become an identity marker for his later tradition. This paper, however, considers it in light of broader medieval Japanese doctrinal discourses about the Lotus Sūtra and how Nichiren drew on them to interpret text-image interface. Nichiren appropriated elements of original enlightenment (hongaku hōmon), which encouraged spatialized, mandalic representations of the Lotus Sūtra assembly, not as an event in the mythic past but as an ever-present reality. He also interpreted Tendai readings of the Lotus as the “perfect teaching” embodying the interpenetration of the dharmas to underscore his arguments for the soteriological power of its written characters and their unique ability to empower insentient buddha images as objects of worship. Recent scholarship has shown that Buddhist scriptures have been revered, not only for their discursive content, but as potent objects with talismanic powers; what mattered about sacred texts was not necessarily what they said but their ritual efficacy. The case of Nichiren’s mandala suggests that, at least in some instances, the power of a text as sacred object and its intellectual content were deemed inseparable.
- SUN Yinggang 孫英剛 (Zhejiang U): 中古政治史上的月光童子
魏晉南北朝隋唐時期，有關月光童子（Candraprabha-kumāra）將出於中土為轉輪王（Cakravartin）的觀念非常流行，對這一時期的政治理念和政治運作都產生了重要的影響，在中古政治史上留下了很深的痕跡。從公元3世紀開始，月光童子就從佛傳故事中一個並不顯眼的角色，逐漸成為帶有讖言性質的政治宗教符號。不論是北齊、隋代、武周的君主進行政治宣傳，還是南北朝時期的民眾造反，其中都能看到它的影子。以前的研究著重探尋月光童子的思想和信仰源頭。其實月光童子本身並不重要。他變得重要起來，是因為他和佛教轉輪王的信仰連在了一起。從根本性質上說，月光童子轉世於中土為轉輪王的預言，是轉輪王信仰結合了中古時期中國本土具體情況，發展出來的一套適應中土政治要求的新說法。
- TONG Ling 童嶺 (Nanjing U 南京大學): 開皇神光與大業沸騰——道宣《集神州三寶感通錄》的隋代書寫 | Divine Light in Kaihuang 開皇 and Ebullition in Daye 大業:Daoxuan 道宣’s Writing About Sui Dynasty in Ji Shenzhou Sanbao Gantong Lu 集神州三寶感通錄
道宣被佛教史學者稱為“中國佛教史學之父”，在中國乃至東亞佛教史上有著不滅的光輝。在道宣涉及“佛教歷史”的三大著作：《續高僧傳》、《廣弘明集》、《集神州三寶感通錄》之中，《廣弘明集》與《集神州三寶感通錄》均成書于麟德元年（664）。特別是對於深感天年將近的道宣來說，《集神州三寶感通錄》可以說寄託了他最後的深意。本文擬從金陵刻經處本《集神州三寶感通錄》與廣勝寺本、麗藏本的對勘中，釋讀道宣對於隋代的佛教史敘述。重點通過對“隋京師日嚴寺石影像”等條目的分析，將其與楊玄感叛亂、大業六年彌勒教盜賊之亂等事件相結合，指出道宣《集神州三寶感通錄》佛教史書寫的背後之意。尤其是處於中古時代末法思想盛行的道宣，力圖對隋文帝與隋煬帝採取不同的敘述與評判，其實隱含了他對唐高祖武德沙汰令的否定以及末法危機感，也蘊含了他對唐高宗、武則天護法的希望。
Daoxuan 道宣, the master of the Darmagupta School in the Tang Dynasty, is the originator of the Four-part Vinaya school (Sifen Lüzong ) and is also called the “Father of Chinese Buddhist Historiography” by Buddhist historians. He has an imperishable glory in the history of Buddhism in China and even East Asia. Among the three books of Daoxuan on Buddhist history : Xu Gaoseng Zhuan 續高僧傳 Guang Hongming Ji 廣弘明集 and Ji Shenzhou Sanbao Gantong Lu (“Collected Record of Miracles Relating to the Three Treasures in China” 集神州三寶感通錄), the latter two were written in the first year of Linde 麟德 (664). Especially for Dao Xuan, who deeply felt that his natural span of life was approaching, Shenzhou Sanbao Gantong Lu can be said to contain his last profound meaning.
This paper intends to explore Daoxuan’s profound meaning for the revival of Buddhism in the Sui Dynasty，by the narrative of “Gantong” in Buddhism history from the Northern Zhou Dynasty to the Sui Dynasty in Ji Shenzhou Sanbao Gantong Lu.Through analyzing the items such as the Daci Temple Pagoda 大慈寺塔 in Xiangzhou 相州 built by Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty and the stone image of Riyan Temple 日嚴寺 in the Sui Dynasty and combining it with the abolition of Buddhism by Emperor Wu of the Northern Zhou Dynasty, the rebellion of Yuchi Jiong 尉遲迥 in the early Sui Dynasty, the rebellion of Yang Xuangan 楊玄感 during the reign of Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty, and revolt of Maitreya believers in the sixth year of Daye, it points out the meaning behind the writing of Buddhist history in Daoxuan’s Ji Shenzhou Sanbao Gantong Lu.
In the period of the prevalence of the Latter Dharma Idea in the Middle Ages, Dao Xuan tried to adopt different narratives and judgments on Emperor Wen and Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty. In fact, it implied his denial of the edict of elimination in Wude 武德 issued by Tang Gaozu 唐高祖 and his sense of crisis of the Latter Dharma, and also contained his hope for Tang Gaozong 唐高宗 and Wu Zetian 武則天 to protect Buddhism.
- Eugene Wang 汪悅進 (Harvard): Visual Narratives of What?: Uncovering the Deep Script of Meditation Scenes in Buddhist Cave Shrines
The concept of “visual narrative” is a can of worms. The term, largely taken for granted, is bandied around with ease and facile assumptions. Yet, what do we really mean by the term? Where precisely do we locate the “narrative?” What is the narrative about? There are easy and hard cases. The easy cases are straightforward: a text contains a narrative; it is subsequently illustrated, i.e., visualized in material forms. The narrative is thus to be located in the source text. The hard cases are less straightforward, often in the form of assemblages of pictorial or sculptural scenes. The medley of source texts informing them are unrelated to one another. These texts may contain narratives. Yet they do not explain the latent threadline that ties up the assemblage of scenes cobbled together from various source texts. It is this organizing threadline that concerns us here.My focus is on visual programs featuring meditation scenes that embellish Buddhist cave sanctuaries. While the scenes appear to be about meditations, the logic behind the assemblage of “narrative” scenes featuring meditation and other contents is irreducible to the source texts. Nor are they about meditation per se. A latent narrative informs the assemblage of these otherwise unrelated scenes. This is this deep script that my paper attempts to uncover.
- WANG Jinping 王錦萍 (National University of Singapore): From Scriptural to Familial: Textual Shifts of Zunsheng Dhāranī Tomb Pillars in Middle-Period Northern Shanxi
While Zunsheng Dhāranī tomb pillars in the Tang almost always included the entire Zunsheng Dhāranī Sutra and its ancillary texts, their counterparts in the Liao-Jin-Yuan periods saw a trend of inscriptional texts overshadowing the space and importance of scriptural texts. Many Zunsheng pillars did not even inscribe the Dāranī itself, whose very presence allegedly imbued the pillars with miraculous religious power, such as relieving the deceased from the hells and removing bad karma. Focusing on the region of northern Shanxi where Mt. Wutai is located, this paper analyzes the shift of documentary claims of Zunsheng Dhāranī tomb pillars from privileging scriptural texts to inscriptional texts from the Tang to the Song, Liao, Jin, and Yuan dynasties. This location is significant because the sacred Buddhist mountain had close association with the popularity of the Zunsheng Dhāranī Sutra and Zunsheng pillars in Tang China. From the Tang onward, pious Buddhists installed Zunsheng pillars carved with all or part of the Zunsheng Dhāranī Sutra near their ancestors’ tombs. Such Zunsheng pillars, naturally called tomb pillars, often also bore epitaphs or other inscriptions about the installers’ families. The paper discusses the trend of change in Zunsheng tomb pillars by foregrounding the following questions. How did changes in people’s epigraphic practices in northern Shanxi affect their perception of a Zunsheng pillar’s imagined power? Was the material presence of the Zunsheng Dhāranī crucial for a pillar to sustain its supposed religious power? How did people define a tomb pillar without scriptural texts a Zunsheng pillar? The paper makes two arguments. First, material and visual forms of a Zunsheng pillar gradually overtook textual forms to convey religious messages that were inherently attached to the pillar. Second, the importance of Zunsheng tomb pillars as a medium for kinship records increasingly surpassed that for scriptural texts in northern Shanxi after the Jin dynasty, attesting to the shifting dynamics in the relationship between Buddhist followers and Buddhist texts or objects.
- WEI Xiaomei 未小妹 & YAO Qilin 姚淇琳 (Academy of Dazu Rock Carvings 大足石刻研究院): 千手觀音文本與圖像關係探討（三）：再論證聖元年千手觀音像
在重新厘清千手觀音漢譯經典的真偽和形成時間的基礎上，結合漢地出現的早期的千手觀音圖像來看，可以發現，除了常見的依據文本造像和借鑒、改造既有的圖像外，新出現的圖像似乎對晚其出現的經典也產生了直接的影響。主要內容：一、源於經典、遠於經典——伽梵達摩譯本；二、既有圖像的借用——隋唐多臂觀音；三、已有圖式的改造——“定州系”白石佛像；四、對經文翻譯的影響——菩提流志譯本；五、孰早孰晚——智通譯本。
- WEI Zheng 韋正 (PekingU): 雲岡石窟排序的新方案
關於雲岡石窟的排序，以往都是單線式分期。根據石窟形態、規模，本文擬提出分期新方案，核心內容是第7、8窟與曇曜五窟同時營造而略晚，第1、2窟與以往二期洞窟同時營造而略晚。第7、8與第1、2窟均為當時大型洞窟之附屬窟，所以另擇新地而造。
- Albert Welter (University of Arizona): Text and Image in Wuyue: An Investigation of King Qian Chu’s Printing of The Precious Chest Seal Dhārani Sūtra
King Qian Chu 錢俶王 (Zhongyi 忠懿; r. 947-978) was the longest reigning ruler of the Wuyue state 吳越國 during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms 五代十國 period. Known for their support for Buddhism, Wuyue monarchs established a significant number of Buddhist institutions and monuments, branding the region as a “Buddha land” 佛國, a legacy that continues to the present day. One of the hallmarks of Qian Chu’s reign was his invoking of the Aśoka model of erecting an alleged 84,000 stūpa reliquaries throughout his territory. He was abetted in his quest by the presence of an Aśoka stūpa 阿育王塔 in Mingzhou 明州 (contemporary Ningbo), based on the legend of the Aśoka’s dispersion of śarīra reliquaries of the Buddha’s remains throughout the known world in the 3rd century BCE. On three occasions, Qian Chu minted miniature Aśoka-style stūpa reliquaries and printed copies of a dhārani sūtra, The Precious Chest Seal Dhārani Sūtra (full title: The Precious Chest Seal Dhārani Sūtra of the Whole-Body Relics Concealed in the Minds of All Tahtāgatas (Yiqie rulai xin mimi quanshen sheli baoqie yin tuoluoni jing 一切如来心秘密全身舍利寶篋印陀羅尼経, Skt: Sarvatathāgatā-adhiṣṭhāna-hṛdaya guhyadhatu karaṇḍa-mudra-dhāraṇī-sūtra; CBETA T 19-1022A). The sūtra was acquired in Śri Lanka and translated into Chinese by Amoghavajra, or Bukong Jin’gang 不空金鋼 (shortened to Bukong 不空; 705-774). It has a rich history of transregional dissemination stemming from its origins and transmission throughout China and to Japan. My presentation aims to examine Qian Chu’s printed text from several angles, including the advent and use of printing technology, the role of the Aśoka stūpa cult in Wuyue, the relation between the illustration on the frontispiece of Qian Chu’s printed copy and the contents of the dhārani sutra, and the place of esoteric teachings in Wuyue Buddhism.
- WU Xiaojie 伍小劼 (Shanghai Normal University 上海師範大學): 韓國藏刻本《十王經》與《受生經》合刊現象初探——兼談「受生錢」的製作
韓國松廣寺、龍華寺藏《佛說預修十王生七經》刻本都和《佛說受生經》搭配鐫刻，將兩經合刊在一起的是經中圖像還受生錢的說法，這種搭配方式及圖像均不見於中土。有的韓國藏《受生經》還詳細介紹了「受生錢」的製作方法。經典合刊搭配、相應圖像及受生錢製作方法之形成是由於預修儀式的需要。
- YAN Yaozhong 嚴耀中 (Beijing Normal University 北京師範大學)：隨觀念在時空中演變的形象——以五道大神為例
關於五道大神，當今國內學界的主流意見是：「原出中國固有信仰，即五道將軍，後被佛教、道教吸收，但是發揮主導作用的仍是中國本土的神」（余欣2006）。本文按照時間順序和證據認為其原型出於婆羅門教神祇，後在佛教俗諦中被改造成輪回秩序的維護者，再沿著絲綢之路漸變為冥界之神。兩宋之後，其宗教功能被閻羅王所替代而形象淡化。
- YI Lidu 衣麗都 (Florida State University): Word, Image and Performance in Yungang 雲崗石窟譯經與造像——从《大吉义神咒經》談起
This paper examines the Sūtra of the Great Divine Spells of Auspiciousness (大吉义神咒經) and its profound influence on image-making and liturgical performance in Yungang, a 5th century court rock-cut cave monastery. The paper will first explore the translation of the text including the actual date of the translation and the significant meaning of jiyi in the social and political context of the protection of kingship, power struggle and Dharma protection. The focus will be on the relationship between the text and the subjects of the second-phase caves in Yungang, and the text and ritual performance. I will argue that the visual representations of many types of Dharma protector deities in a systematic Buddhist cosmological pantheon in the Yungang caves are primarily based on the Sūtra of the Great Divine Spells of Auspiciousness. I will also argue that the reason the visual representations of Mahesvara in Yungang differentiates themselves significantly from other early images in India, Khotan and Dunhuang, and were not phallic, is precisely because the images were depicted based on the Da jiyi sutra, which was translated in Yungang, and had little to do with the Chinese tradition, as has been previously suggested. It is significant to note that the sacred texts translated in Yungang by Tanyao, the founder of the Yungang monastery, played a significant role in image-making, function and ritual practices.
- ZHANG Liming 張利明 (Zhejiang U): “捨身飼虎”故事的犍陀羅原貌及其在中國的發展
“捨身飼虎”故事產生於犍陀羅地區，最初的文本很可能由佉盧文寫成。至遲從東漢晚期開始在漢地流傳，在之後200多年中，出現了多種漢文節譯本，皆在強調釋迦前世行菩薩道，超踰九劫，先於彌勒成佛的果報。5世紀上半葉先後出現由曇無讖、法盛、慧覺等涼州僧譯出的三個成熟的不同譯本，曇無讖譯本盛行於漢地，成為中國北朝、隋代河西和中原北方地區相關圖像的主要經典依據；法盛譯本的底本來自犍陀羅地區，內容除捨身飼虎外，還包含財物佈施、慈孝、治病等主題，反映了犍陀羅地區的故事原貌和主旨。慧覺等譯本來自於闐無遮大會，反映了4-5世紀新疆地區該故事的面貌，並在龜茲石窟藝術得到了印證。中國“捨身飼虎”的圖像與佛經皆體現出鮮明的地域性、時代性特徵，二者相互印證，共同反映了“捨身飼虎”故事從犍陀羅到中國的演變歷程，見證了絲綢沿線佛教文化與藝術的互動與再造。
