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Buddhist Art and Architecture in China (Buddhism)

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May 4th, 2018
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  1. Introduction
  2. Buddhist art has played a crucial role in the dissemination and development of Buddhism in China, which began in the Eastern Han period (25–220 CE). Rigorous scholarship on the works as objects of art, however, began only in the early 20th century, primarily by Japanese and Western scholars, who had access to Buddhist images in China and in their respective countries. Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), in 1949, important contributions have been made by Chinese scholars. Some of the best American scholars emerged while China’s doors were closed to the United States. These scholars moved the field forward with remarkable textual studies based on secondary documentation as well as on the limited body of visual material to which they had access. The early art historical scholarship focused on establishing a chronology of formal development; style and iconography were the primary tools for organizing the extant Buddhist works of art. Gradually, an increasing number of scholars shifted to more thematic studies, probing issues of form and meaning; patronage; word–image dynamics; ontological status of image as divine substitute, or representation; the relationship between ritual and art; and so on.
  3.  
  4. General Overviews
  5. The subsections in this category—namely, Textbooks, Compendia, and Museum Resources—represent a broad spectrum of introductory-level resources. All items are recommended for beginners and advanced students alike, but many—especially the more recent publications—will prove surprisingly useful for specialists researching particular aspects of Chinese Buddhist art and architecture.
  6.  
  7. Textbooks
  8. By far the best introductions to Chinese Buddhist art and architecture, ideal for undergraduate and lower-level graduate teaching, are found in sections of surveys on Chinese or East Asian art or on Buddhist art of the world. Watson 1995–2007 and Sullivan 2008, textbooks on the arts of China, provide useful introductions in independent chapters interspersed between those on works of different media. Sickman and Soper 1989 is a classic survey, with heavy emphasis on Buddhist art and architecture, and thus is a must-read for students of all levels. Lee 1994 and Leidy 2008 examine major developments in Chinese Buddhist art history within broader contexts of the world. Clunas 1997 considers in a single chapter Buddhist art in China’s social history. Howard, et al. 2006 and Fu, et al. 2002 are collections of introductory essays on Chinese sculpture and architecture, respectively, with significant portions devoted to discussion of Buddhist works.
  9.  
  10. Clunas, Craig. Art in China. Oxford History of Art. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.
  11.  
  12. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  13.  
  14. Considering the conciseness of the volume, a single chapter on Buddhist art offers a sweeping yet useful overview of the social history of Chinese Buddhist art. The chapter is divided into subsections, including “Early Buddhist Art,” “Religious Art of the Northern Song Dynasty: 960–1127,” “Buddhist Monks and the Elite in the Southern Song,” “Buddhist Art in the Yuan Dynasty: 1279–1368,” and “Religious Painting of the Fourteenth–Fifteenth Centuries.”
  15.  
  16. Find this resource:
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  18.  
  19. Fu Xinian, Guo Daiheng, Liu Xujie, Pan Guxi, Qiao Yun, and Sun Dazhang. Chinese Architecture. Edited by Nancy S. Steinhardt. Culture and Civilization of China. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2002.
  20.  
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  22.  
  23. This survey features essays written by some of the most prominent scholars in the field of Chinese architecture history. With the exception of the first essay, “The Origins of Chinese Architecture,” all the essays include discussion of Buddhist temple buildings and pagodas, illuminating the significance of Buddhist architecture in the overall history of Chinese architecture.
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  25. Find this resource:
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  27.  
  28. Howard, Angela Falco, Li Song, Wu Hung, and Yang Hong. Chinese Sculpture. Culture and Civilization of China. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2006.
  29.  
  30. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  31.  
  32. This is a compendium of Chinese sculpture—secular and religious—written by four scholars, two of whom teach in the United States, and two in the PRC. Howard, as Western editor and contributor, wrote one of the two introductions that present the development of Buddhist sculpture in China. Howard’s essay covers the subject from the inception of Buddhist sculpture in China to the end of the Tang dynasty, including the important findings of Sichuan and Yunnan. Li Song continues with Buddhist sculpture of the successive dynasties.
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  34. Find this resource:
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  36.  
  37. Lee, Sherman E. A History of Far Eastern Art. 5th ed. Edited by Naomi Noble Richard. New York: Abrams, 1994.
  38.  
  39. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  40.  
  41. Written by the late curator Sherman E. Lee, this book focuses on the stylistic interplay among important works of greater Asia. Part 2, “The International Influence of Buddhist Art,” consists of an overview of early South and Southeast Asian art, followed by a survey of the Buddhist art of Central Asia and East Asia in a section titled “The Expansion of Buddhist Art to East Asia.”
  42.  
  43. Find this resource:
  44.  
  45.  
  46. Leidy, Denise Patry. The Art of Buddhism: An Introduction to Its History and Meaning. Boston: Shambhala, 2008.
  47.  
  48. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  49.  
  50. A curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Leidy examines the development of Buddhist art in all of Asia. The fifteen chapters are organized by notable developments within specific time frames and often also by geographical divisions—for example, “Pillars and Stupas: Second Century BCE to Third Century CE” and “China under Foreign Rule: Tenth to Fourteenth Century.”
  51.  
  52. Find this resource:
  53.  
  54.  
  55. Sickman, Laurence, and Alexander Soper. The Art and Architecture of China. 3d ed. Pelican History of Art. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1989.
  56.  
  57. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  58.  
  59. First edition published in 1968 (Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin). This book is divided into a section on Chinese sculpture and painting (Sickman) and a section on architecture (Soper). A significant portion of each section is dedicated to Buddhist works. Caveat: although the book inevitably misses the numerous discoveries postdating 1968, it is a must-read for students and instructors of Chinese Buddhist art and architecture.
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  61. Find this resource:
  62.  
  63.  
  64. Sullivan, Michael. The Arts of China. 5th ed. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008.
  65.  
  66. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  67.  
  68. Offers a brief but informative introduction to Buddhist art in two of its eleven chapters (divided by historical periods): chapter 5, “The Three Kingdoms and the Six Dynasties,” and chapter 6, “The Sui and Tang Dynasties.” Good for undergraduate teaching.
  69.  
  70. Find this resource:
  71.  
  72.  
  73. Watson, William. Arts of China. 3 vols. Yale University Press Pelican History of Art. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1995–2007.
  74.  
  75. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  76.  
  77. Published in three volumes: Volume 1, To 900 AD; Volume 2, 900–1620; and Volume 3, After 1620. The series offers a succinct yet valuable introduction to Chinese Buddhist sculpture, painting, and architecture. The chapters are divided by prominent styles of given historical periods. Useful for undergraduate- and early-graduate-level teaching.
  78.  
  79. Find this resource:
  80.  
  81.  
  82. Compendia
  83. Early-20th-century-scholarship focused on documentation of extant Buddhist images, which was a necessary step for the subsequent drafting of a grand historical narrative. Sirén 1925, Tokiwa and Sekino 1939–1941, and Matsumoto 1937 represent the classic early-20th-century-style scholarship of collecting, publicizing, and classifying Chinese Buddhist images. Matsubara 1995 and the sixty-volume Zhongguo meishu quanji are among many subsequent collectanea that continue the long-standing Chinese tradition of compiling a large amount of information into a multivolume set. Although the modern compendiums offer superior images, in color, the earlier publications remain indispensable, as they feature images that have disappeared from public view or were damaged as well as those still awaiting research.
  84.  
  85. Matsubara, Saburō. Chūgoku Bukkyō chōkoku shiron. 4 vols. Tokyo: Yoshikawa Kōbunkan, 1995.
  86.  
  87. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  88.  
  89. Along with the author’s Chūgoku Bukkyō chōkokushi kenkyū: Tokuni kondōbutsu oyobi sekkutsu zōzō igai no sekibutsu (Tokyo: Yoshikawa Kōbunkan, 1966), this four-volume set is an indispensable source for any student of Buddhist art history. The first volume, containing the essays, is followed by three volumes of images.
  90.  
  91. Find this resource:
  92.  
  93.  
  94. Matsumoto, Eiichi. Tonkōga no kenkyū: Zuzō hen. 2 vols. Tokyo: Tōhō Bunka Gakuin, 1937.
  95.  
  96. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  97.  
  98. Although it exclusively treats paintings at Dunhuang, Volume 1 features Matsumoto’s seminal analysis of a large number of pictorial subjects that appear on the walls of Dunhuang and on various other media elsewhere in Asia.
  99.  
  100. Find this resource:
  101.  
  102.  
  103. Sirén, Osvald. Chinese Sculpture from the Fifth to the Fourteenth Century: Over 900 Specimens in Stone, Bronze, Lacquer and Wood, Principally from Northern China. 4 vols. London: Benn, 1925.
  104.  
  105. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  106.  
  107. This early publication by the Swedish scholar Sirén features a comprehensive historical narrative (Volume 1), followed by valuable (albeit black-and-white) photographs of extant Buddhist images with explanatory notes (Volumes 2–4).
  108.  
  109. Find this resource:
  110.  
  111.  
  112. Tokiwa, Daijō, and Sekino Tadashi. Shina bunka shiseki. 12 vols. Tokyo: Hōzōkan, 1939–1941.
  113.  
  114. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  115.  
  116. A must-browse compendium, consisting of six volumes of text and six portfolios of images. Represents the early document-report-classify style of scholarship.
  117.  
  118. Find this resource:
  119.  
  120.  
  121. Zhongguo meishu quanji. 60 vols. Beijing: Renmin meishu, 1984–1994.
  122.  
  123. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  124.  
  125. This sixty-volume set offers the most comprehensive collection of images and short descriptions of Chinese art in all media, including painting (Volumes 2–22), sculpture (Volumes 23–35), decorative arts (Volumes 36–47), and architecture (Volumes 48–53). Some of the volumes are photographic reports of seminal research by scholars of the PRC—for example, the scholar responsible for Volume 32 is Su Bai, who has published widely on the arts of Chinese Buddhism.
  126.  
  127. Find this resource:
  128.  
  129.  
  130. Museum Resources
  131. Some museums with significant holdings of Chinese Buddhist materials provide highly effective introductions to Buddhist art. The Seattle Art Museum’s Discovering Buddhist Art and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts’ Art of Asia: Buddhism offer image-based introductions to Buddhism and Buddhist iconography, primarily for the general audience. The Freer and Sackler Collections online holds world-class sculptures, and the main site allows access to a useful teaching manual. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Collections online features the best educational content, including short but substantial essays that branch out of its Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. Leidy and Strahan 2010 is a substantial printed resource on the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s collection of religious art. The British Museum Collection Database is also worth browsing for a general introduction to the museum’s collections, especially its famous collection of Buddhist painting on silk. The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Collections online requires a bit of effort to navigate, but the fine holdings render the effort worthwhile.
  132.  
  133. Art of Asia: Buddhism. Minneapolis Institute of Arts.
  134.  
  135. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  136.  
  137. Question-and-answer pages with the curators introduce to the general audience the basics of Buddhist iconography. Iconographical features of a bodhisattva, for example, are presented, using a 6th-century bronze bodhisattva from the collection.
  138.  
  139. Find this resource:
  140.  
  141.  
  142. British Museum Collection Database.
  143.  
  144. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  145.  
  146. Search under “Chinese Buddha” and “Chinese bodhisattva” between AD 400 and AD 1900. The site also offers an online exhibition, “The ‘Caves of the Thousand Buddhas,’” in which the museum’s famous textile paintings are used to explain Buddhist iconography. Also features a surprising number of ceramics bearing inscriptions suggesting their roles in Buddhist rituals.
  147.  
  148. Find this resource:
  149.  
  150.  
  151. Discovering Buddhist Art. Seattle Art Museum.
  152.  
  153. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  154.  
  155. A guide to Buddhism and Buddhist art, this interactive tour contains short blurbs about key deities and concepts of Buddhism as they relate to the museum’s collection.
  156.  
  157. Find this resource:
  158.  
  159.  
  160. Freer and Sackler Collections. Smithsonian Institution.
  161.  
  162. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  163.  
  164. The best way to learn about these collections is by conducting an advanced search under the term “Buddha” in “Chinese Art.” Repeat with “bodhisattva.” Also use the general search box at the top of the page to access a pdf file called “The Art of Buddhism,” a teaching guide that is intended for elementary and middle schools but that could be useful even for undergraduate teaching.
  165.  
  166. Find this resource:
  167.  
  168.  
  169. Leidy, Denise Patry, and Donna Strahan. Wisdom Embodied: Chinese Buddhist and Daoist Sculpture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2010.
  170.  
  171. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  172.  
  173. An art historical and scientific survey of 120 works from the museum’s collection of Chinese Buddhist and Daoist sculptures, ranging from the 4th to the 19th century; 50 of the collection’s masterpieces are individually discussed. The book features two introductory essays. The first, by curator Leidy, gives a useful overview of ritual practices and iconography, whereas the second, by conservator Strahan, discusses construction methods and other considerations relating to the material qualities of the images.
  174.  
  175. Find this resource:
  176.  
  177.  
  178. Metropolitan Museum of Art Collections.
  179.  
  180. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  181.  
  182. An excellent educational resource for all levels of teaching. Do an advanced search by clicking on “Who” and entering “Chinese Buddha” or “Chinese bodhisattva”; then click on “In the Museum,” and select “Asian Art.” Also search the “Heilbrunn Timeline” under “Buddhism” and “Buddhist” for concise yet helpful introductory essays on various forms of Buddhist art—images of deities and other relevant topics.
  183.  
  184. Find this resource:
  185.  
  186.  
  187. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Collections.
  188.  
  189. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  190.  
  191. Although the website is not at all user-friendly, the caliber of the collection warrants investment of time and effort. The best way to browse the museum’s collection of Buddhist images is by doing an advanced search, entering a keyword, such as “Buddha,” “bodhisattva,” or “amitabha,” and then entering “China” under the “Culture” section just below.
  192.  
  193. Find this resource:
  194.  
  195.  
  196. Reference Works and Bibliographies
  197. Among printed references, Seaman 1993–2002 provides impressively thorough bibliographies, and Buswell 2004 offers helpful introductory essays on selected topics. Grove Art Online and the Digital Dictionary of Buddhism are useful resources for initial stages of art historical research. East Asian Buddhist Studies: A Reference Guide, hosted by the University of California–Los Angeles, is a frequently updated reference guide to resources that are primarily in East Asian languages. The Arts of China Consortium is the best way to keep up with current activities in the field.
  198.  
  199. Arts of China Consortium.
  200.  
  201. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  202.  
  203. Maintained by the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, this useful site offers links to various international resources related to Asian art as well as to news about exhibitions and conferences within the field.
  204.  
  205. Find this resource:
  206.  
  207.  
  208. Buswell, Robert, and William Bodiford, eds. East Asian Buddhist Studies: A Reference Guide.
  209.  
  210. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  211.  
  212. Maintained by the UCLA faculty in East Asian Studies, this website lists a vast number of titles (mostly in East Asian languages) on East Asian Buddhism. Although the site’s parameters reach well beyond the arts of Buddhism, it must be kept as a key online resource for any student of Chinese Buddhist art and architecture. In addition to listing essential scriptural transcriptions, dictionaries, and encyclopedias, the site also has the sections “Buddhist Icons,” “Buddhist Dictionaries,” and “Biographical Dictionaries and Personal Names.”
  213.  
  214. Find this resource:
  215.  
  216.  
  217. Buswell, Robert E., Jr., ed. Encyclopedia of Buddhism. 2 vols. New York: Macmillan USA, 2004.
  218.  
  219. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  220.  
  221. Each entry, penned by a respected scholar in the field, provides a concise overview of a topic along with a concise bibliography. Articles include “China, Buddhist Art In,” by Marylin M. Rhie; “Buddhist Art,” by Jonathan A. Silk; “Chan Art,” by Charles Lachman; and “Esoteric Art, East Asia,” by Cynthea J. Bogel.
  222.  
  223. Find this resource:
  224.  
  225.  
  226. Grove Art Online.
  227.  
  228. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  229.  
  230. Previously the thirty-four-volume Grove Dictionary of Art, edited by Jane Turner (New York: Grove, 1996), this online dictionary is available through institutional support and offers a significant number of entries on Buddhism and Buddhist art.
  231.  
  232. Find this resource:
  233.  
  234.  
  235. Muller, Charles, ed. Digital Dictionary of Buddhism.
  236.  
  237. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  238.  
  239. This dictionary is a product of continuing contributions by Buddhism specialists around the world. Although conceived as a reference resource for the study of Buddhism the religion, the site includes lists of terms that are essential to art historical scholarship as well. Also helpful for translation of names, places, and so on into Chinese, Sanskrit, Korean, Pali, Tibetan, and Japanese.
  240.  
  241. Find this resource:
  242.  
  243.  
  244. Seaman, Gary, ed. Chinese Religions: Publications in Western Languages. 4 vols. Ann Arbor, MI: Association for Asian Studies, 1993–2002.
  245.  
  246. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  247.  
  248. Each of the four volumes contains a valuable section offering an up-to-date bibliography on Chinese Buddhism. Within that section is a subsection titled “Art and Iconography,” listing publications on art and architecture of Buddhism.
  249.  
  250. Find this resource:
  251.  
  252.  
  253. Image Archives
  254. In addition to a wealth of Museum Resources available for image-based research, there are several image archives that publish significant images—both in situ and in museum collections—for free or for purchase. Among the free resources are the Huntington Archive Digital Database Collection, featuring South, Southeast, and East Asian images, and the International Dunhuang Project: The Silk Road Online, with its digitized images of medieval manuscripts. The Asian Historical Architecture site is a growing collection that is, in the early 21st century, very incomplete, but still worth browsing. Luna Imaging, ARTstor Digital Library, and Scholars Resource are image vendors that collect and distribute quality images for a fee.
  255.  
  256. ARTstor Digital Library.
  257.  
  258. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  259.  
  260. Offers a wide range of images useful for teaching and research, with contributions from museums, photo archives, individual collections, and libraries. Subscribed to by most educational institutions.
  261.  
  262. Find this resource:
  263.  
  264.  
  265. Asian Historical Architecture.
  266.  
  267. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  268.  
  269. Although this is a growing database—and therefore, in the early 21st century, spotty—coverage extends far beyond images of Chinese Buddhist architecture. Each featured building or complex is searchable by the country and city, and is represented by multiple photos that can be viewed sequentially for a virtual tour.
  270.  
  271. Find this resource:
  272.  
  273.  
  274. Huntington Archive Digital Database Collection.
  275.  
  276. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  277.  
  278. This photographic archive features a large number of images of Buddhist art of all of Asia. As with many other digital image databases, the captions do not deliver perfect accuracy, and the image resolution is often not high. Nonetheless, the coverage of the collection is impressive.
  279.  
  280. Find this resource:
  281.  
  282.  
  283. Luna Imaging.
  284.  
  285. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  286.  
  287. Works somewhat like ARTstor and allows institutionally supported downloads. Smaller in volume relative to ARTstor, but its images are generally higher in resolution and larger in size. Searchable under keywords, such as “Buddha” and “bodhisattva,” with hundreds of Buddhist images.
  288.  
  289. Find this resource:
  290.  
  291.  
  292. Scholars Resource.
  293.  
  294. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  295.  
  296. An image distribution portal through which educational institutions can license digital images. The collection of Buddhist images is ad hoc, but it provides some of the masterpiece sculptures in the Shanghai Art Museum and also a few from Musée Guimet. The Resource also features a fair number of images of Buddhist architecture.
  297.  
  298. Find this resource:
  299.  
  300.  
  301. Whitfield, Susan, ed. International Dunhuang Project: The Silk Road Online.
  302.  
  303. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  304.  
  305. Publishes digital images of all manuscripts, paintings, textiles, and artifacts from the “secret library cave” at Dunhuang, along the Silk Road, as well as from other archaeological sites around that oasis. Includes the collections of the British Library, Bibliothèque national de France, Princeton’s Lo Archive, and so on.
  306.  
  307. Find this resource:
  308.  
  309.  
  310. Period-Specific Studies
  311. According to the prevailing narrative of Chinese Buddhist art history, the introduction and initial Sinicization of Buddhist art were followed by a period of Sinocentric Buddhism of the Tang dynasty (618–907), articulated in rock-carved, bronze, stone, and painted images and in architectural forms. This was, in turn, followed by the proliferation of regional styles in the same traditional media (stone and bronze), as well as in wood and ceramic, during the Song period (906–1279). Literati-influenced monochrome Chan painting also emerged during this time. The Yuan dynasty (1279–1368), under the Mongols, and the late imperial periods—the Ming (1368–1644), under the native Zhao family, and the Qing (1644–1910), under the Manchus—are marked by Tibetan- and Nepalese-influenced esoteric imagery on the imperial level and renewed synchretism of Buddhism, with regional beliefs on both imperial and popular levels.
  312.  
  313. Early China
  314. In Sinology, the term Early China often indicates the period between the introduction of Buddhism in the Eastern Han (former Han) period, 25–220 CE, through the beginning of the Tang dynasty (618 CE).
  315.  
  316. Textual Sources and Text-Based Studies
  317. Zürcher 1995 examines texts to reveal ways in which preexisting Chinese traditions facilitated the adoption of new Buddhist images in China. Soper 1959 and Shinorara 1998 also show specific ways in which the early Chinese perceived, produced, and consumed religious images.
  318.  
  319. Shinohara, Koichi. “Changing Roles for Miraculous Images in Medieval Chinese Buddhism: A Study of the Miracle Image Section in Daoxuan’s Collected Records.” In Images, Miracles, and Authority in Asian Religious Traditions. Edited by Richard H. Davis, 141–188. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1998.
  320.  
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  322.  
  323. This is one among Shinohara’s many studies on the writings of Daoxuan (b. 596–d. 677) and his contemporary Daoshi (date unknown), who wrote “histories” of Buddhism and Buddhist images featuring many that involve icons’ miraculous performances.
  324.  
  325. Find this resource:
  326.  
  327.  
  328. Soper, Alexander Coburn. Literary Evidence for Early Buddhist Art in China. Ascona, Switzerland: Artibus Asiae, 1959.
  329.  
  330. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  331.  
  332. Perhaps the most important piece of art historical scholarship on the early period, this volume builds on an earlier study, Omura Seigai’s Shina bijutsushi chōsohen (Tokyo, 1915), offering abundant commentary and syntheses for the English reader. Discussion is divided into images belonging to specific dynasties, inscriptions, iconography, miracle-working images, and a variety of materials and sizes.
  333.  
  334. Find this resource:
  335.  
  336.  
  337. Zürcher, Erik. “Buddhist Art in Medieval China: The Ecclesiastical View.” In Function and Meaning in Buddhist Art: Proceedings of a Seminar Held at Leiden University, 21–24 October 1991. Edited by K. R. van Kooij and H. van der Veere, 1–20. Gonda Indological Studies 3. Groningen, The Netherlands: Forsten, 1995.
  338.  
  339. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  340.  
  341. The author of the seminal book The Buddhist Conquest of China: The Spread and Adaptation of Buddhism in Early Medieval China (Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 1959) delineates a fascinating process whereby the images of the Indian religion became inflected through association with the traditional, politically charged culture of auspicious/miraculous manifestations.
  342.  
  343. Find this resource:
  344.  
  345.  
  346. Image-Based Studies
  347. Similar to Zürcher 1995 (cited under Early China: Textual Sources and Text-Based Studies), Wu 1986 uses images to examine how the early Chinese adopted new Buddhist images. Wang 2000 presents case studies that reveal the tendency of patron families to appropriate a Buddhist narrative in order to articulate their own emotions of loss and hope. Akiyama 1972 exemplifies how early Japanese scholarship on Chinese Buddhist art was introduced to American readers. Rhie 1999–2002 is a comprehensive, formalist study of the Buddhist art of China and Central Asia.
  348.  
  349. Akiyama, Terukazu. Arts of China: Buddhist Cave Temples. Translated by Alexander C. Soper. Tokyo: Kodansha, 1972.
  350.  
  351. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  352.  
  353. In this large volume, Soper translates essays by Akiyama (“The Tun-huang [Dunhuang] Caves and Their Wall Paintings”) and Matsubara (“Buddhist Sculpture”). Following the essays, the volume features large black-and-white images from some of the major Buddhist sites of China: Dunhuang, Binglingsi, Maijishan, Yugang, Gongxian, Longmen, Kizil, and Bezeklik.
  354.  
  355. Find this resource:
  356.  
  357.  
  358. Rhie, Marylin Martin. Early Buddhist Art of China and Central Asia. 2 vols. Handbuch der Orientalistik: Vierte Abteilung, China. Leiden, The Netherlands, and Boston: Brill, 1999–2002.
  359.  
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  361.  
  362. The sheer volume of information in this study of works from the 1st to 5th centuries requires much energy to absorb. But the author’s erudition offers the rare pleasure of considering a specific work within a broad and rich context. Angela Howard’s review of Volume 2 (Artibus Asiae 62.2 [2002]: 283–292) may be useful as a guide through the massive work as well as for exposure to the reviewer’s points of contention.
  363.  
  364. Find this resource:
  365.  
  366.  
  367. Wang, Eugene Y. “Grotto-Shrine as Chronotope and the Working of Analogous Iconography: The Sixth-Century Sculptural Program in Cave 38 at Yungang in Perspective.” In Between Han and Tang: Religious Art and Archaeology in a Transformative Period. Edited by Wu Hung, 70–91. Beijing: Wenwu, 2000.
  368.  
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  370.  
  371. A fascinating case study of a relief sculpture program at a Yungang cave reveals the way in which a seemingly generic Buddhist narrative is told visually to express the patron family’s good wishes for a departed member’s soul.
  372.  
  373. Find this resource:
  374.  
  375.  
  376. Wu Hung. “Buddhist Elements in Early Chinese Art (2nd and 3rd Centuries AD).” Artibus Asiae 47.3–4 (1986): 263–352.
  377.  
  378. DOI: 10.2307/3249974Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  379.  
  380. Examines early Buddhist images that conflate Buddhist and Daoist ideas in their concept and visual form. The reader learns that the early Chinese importers of Buddhist ideas and imagery were inclined to mold the foreign products into something more accessible to the Chinese sensibilities and intellectual conditions. Available online by subscription.
  381.  
  382. Find this resource:
  383.  
  384.  
  385. Tang, Song, and Liao Dynasties
  386. The Tang dynasty (618–906) is generally regarded as the period in which Buddhist art in China reached full maturity and in which its influence reached far beyond China’s borders. During the Song dynasty (960–1279), a new interest in naturalism gave rise to more frequent use of clay and wood for production of sculptural figures, while an active intellectual engagement between the scholar literati and Chan Buddhists bred a visually distinctive tradition of Chan painting in monochrome ink.
  387.  
  388. Textual Sources and Text-Based Studies
  389. Acker 1954–1974 and Guo 1951 are quality, annotated translations of two of the most important treatises on painting, whereas Soper 1948 creates a vivid picture of a 10th-century temple that no longer survives. Xuanzang 1996 is a pilgrim’s report on the peoples and images the author saw in India and Central Asia.
  390.  
  391. Acker, William Reynolds Beal, ed. and trans. Some T’ang and Pre-T’ang Texts on Chinese Painting, Translated and Annotated. 2 vols. Sinica Leidensia. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 1954–1974.
  392.  
  393. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  394.  
  395. A substantially annotated translation of Zhang Yanyuan’s Lidai minghua ji (c. 847), this is an indispensable source for any serious student of Chinese painting. Volume 1 contains the first three chapters of Zhang’s text, the last of which discusses Buddhist paintings that had been around or were still extant in 9th-century China.
  396.  
  397. Find this resource:
  398.  
  399.  
  400. Guo, Ruoxu. Experiences in Painting: An Eleventh-Century History of Chinese Painting, Together with the Chinese Text in Facsimile. Translated and edited by Alexander Coburn Soper. Studies in Chinese and Related Civilizations. Washington, DC: American Council of Learned Societies, 1951.
  401.  
  402. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  403.  
  404. A masterful translation of a crucial piece of art criticism by the Song dynasty scholar Guo Ruoxu.
  405.  
  406. Find this resource:
  407.  
  408.  
  409. Soper, Alexander C. “Hsiang-Kuo-Ssŭ: An Imperial Temple of Northern Sung.” Journal of the American Oriental Society 68.1 (1948): 19–45.
  410.  
  411. DOI: 10.2307/596233Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  412.  
  413. With ample translations from Guo 1951, the author reconstructs the architecture and decorative contents of an early Northern Song (906–1127) imperial Buddhist temple that was expressly built to emulate the best works available during the Tang dynasty. Available online by subscription.
  414.  
  415. Find this resource:
  416.  
  417.  
  418. Xuanzang. The Great Tang Dynasty Record of the Western Regions. Translated by Li Rongxi. BDK English Tripitaka 79. Berkeley, CA: Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research, 1996.
  419.  
  420. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  421.  
  422. A very accessible, well-regarded translation of a wonderfully entertaining 7th-century travelogue by a monk-pilgrim who traveled from the Tang dynasty capital to India. A valuable source for those interested in the formal and conceptual influence that Indian and Central Asian Buddhist images exerted on later Chinese works.
  423.  
  424. Find this resource:
  425.  
  426.  
  427. Secondary Sources
  428. Wu 1992 exemplifies art historical works that skillfully use textual sources, such as the text translated in Acker 1954–1974 (cited under Tang, Song, and Liao Dynasties: Textual Sources and Text-Based Studies), in studying extant paintings. Bogel 2009 includes useful discussions about esoteric Buddhist art of the Tang period. Foulk and Sharf 1993–1994 and Lippit 2007 question the functions of Chan (Ch’an) portraiture, and Shen 2006 is a pioneering work on Buddhist art of the Liao dynasty, which had been previously marginalized in Buddhist art historiography. Steinhardt 2004 reveals possible agency of a mid-20th-century historian in later classification of a structure as iconic Tang-style architecture.
  429.  
  430. Bogel, Cynthea J. With a Single Glance: Buddhist Icon and Early Mikkyō Vision. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2009.
  431.  
  432. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  433.  
  434. Although this book is primarily about Japanese esoteric Buddhist visual culture, the author considers the Tang period of Chinese art in several parts of the book—especially chapter 4, in which Tang-period esoteric Buddhist images are discussed.
  435.  
  436. Find this resource:
  437.  
  438.  
  439. Foulk, T. Griffith, and Robert Sharf. “On the Ritual Use of Ch’an Portraiture in Medieval China.” Cahiers d’Extrême-Asie 7.7 (1993–1994): 149–219.
  440.  
  441. DOI: 10.3406/asie.1993.1064Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  442.  
  443. Widely cited, influential article. Emphasizes the ritualistic qualities and uses of Chan (Ch’an) portraiture. Reprinted in Bernard Faure’s Chan Buddhism in Ritual Context (London and New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003), pp. 74–150.
  444.  
  445. Find this resource:
  446.  
  447.  
  448. Lippit, Yukio. “Awakenings: The Development of the Zen Figural Pantheon.” In Awakenings: Zen Figure Painting in Medieval Japan. Edited by Naomi Noble Richard and Melanie B. D. Klein, 35–43. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007.
  449.  
  450. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  451.  
  452. Considers the role of Chan figural paintings in helping articulate the idea of unbroken transmission of the Buddha’s teachings. Gives a first-rate summary of the tradition and also discusses how both the works’ formal qualities and the methods of their production and dissemination reflect the religious tenets of Chan Buddhism.
  453.  
  454. Find this resource:
  455.  
  456.  
  457. Shen, Hsueh-man, ed. Gilded Splendor: Treasures of China’s Liao Empire, 907–1125. New York: Asia Society, 2006.
  458.  
  459. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  460.  
  461. This exhibition catalogue features several excellent articles, including Nancy Shatzman Steinhardt’s “The Architectural Landscape of the Liao and Underground Resonances” and Shen’s “Praying for Eternity: Use of Buddhist Texts in Liao Buddhist and Funerary Practices.” Shen demonstrates that the copied texts became a passport enabling the deceased to cross the border between life and death. This article supplements another excellent article by Shen, “Realizing the Buddha’s Dharma Body during the Mofa Period: A Study of Liao Buddhist Relic Deposits,” Artibus Asiae 61.2 (2001): 263–303.
  462.  
  463. Find this resource:
  464.  
  465.  
  466. Steinhardt, Nancy Shatzman. “The Tang Architectural Icon and the Politics of Chinese Architectural History.” Art Bulletin 86.2 (2004): 228–254.
  467.  
  468. DOI: 10.2307/3177416Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  469.  
  470. Provides two compelling reasons why the east hall of Foguang Monastery, which is “neither the only Tang wooden building, nor even the oldest” (p. 228), is treated as an exemplary Tang architectural work: (1) the iconic status of the historian who “discovered” it; and (2) the building’s correspondence with the stereotyped Tang building, as envisioned by later students of architecture. Available online by subscription.
  471.  
  472. Find this resource:
  473.  
  474.  
  475. Wu Hung. “Reborn in Paradise: A Case Study of Dunhuang Sutra Painting and Its Religious, Ritual and Artistic Context.” Orientations 23.5 (1992): 52–60.
  476.  
  477. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  478.  
  479. An interesting work on the relationship between extant murals at Dunhuang and textual sources about Buddhist murals in Chinese capital cities that are no longer extant. Shows that during certain historical periods, artists and patrons of Dunhuang emulated artistic styles current in the capitals.
  480.  
  481. Find this resource:
  482.  
  483.  
  484. Yuan and Late Imperial Periods
  485. Buddhist art of the Yuan dynasty (1279–1368), under the Mongol government, is characterized by imperial endorsement of Tibetan and Nepalese Buddhist styles. The exoticizing trend in the realm of religious imagery reflected new adherence to esoteric images, owing to Tibetan and Tibetan-influenced Mongolian Buddhism. This trend continued into late imperial China, conventionally referring to the Ming (1368–1644), under a native Chinese imperial house, and the Qing (1644–1910), under the Manchus. Deeper engagement between Buddhism and native religions, including Daoism, is also a hallmark of later Buddhist art tradition. Edwards 1984 is a case study in which the fusing of foreign (Yuan) and native (Song) tastes is evident. Leidy 2010 is an overview of Buddhist arts of the Yuan dynasty. Twitchett 1983 is a cursory survey of the history of printing up to the late imperial periods. Murray 1994, an overview of Chinese narrative painting history, appears in a volume that provides the best introduction to Buddhist art of the Ming dynasty, whereas Rawski and Rawson 2005 and Berger 2003 are the most useful introductions to the following, Manchu-ruled dynasty.
  486.  
  487. Berger, Patricia. Empire of Emptiness: Buddhist Art and Political Authority in Qing China. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2003.
  488.  
  489. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  490.  
  491. An engaging story of the Manchu emperor Qianlong’s artful use of the visual rhetoric of “nonduality” in his attempt to define and consolidate his position of authority as China’s absolute ruler.
  492.  
  493. Find this resource:
  494.  
  495.  
  496. Edwards, Richard. “Pu-tai Maitreya and a Reintroduction to Hangchou’s Fei-lai-feng.” Ars Orientalis 14 (1984): 5–50.
  497.  
  498. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  499.  
  500. The author contemplates the distinct Chineseness of a large, laughing Pu-tai (pinyin: Budai) Maitreya image that is part of a monumental sculptural program of images that embody primarily Tibetan characteristics. Edwards suggests that the inclusion of the Pu-tai Maitreya in the pre-Yuan style among the ostensibly Tibetan-influenced (i.e., Yuan) program demonstrates a careful balancing of old and new during the period of foreign conquest.
  501.  
  502. Find this resource:
  503.  
  504.  
  505. Leidy, Denise Patry. “Buddhism and Other ‘Foreign’ Practices in Yuan China.” In The World of Khubilai Khan: Chinese Art in the Yuan Dynasty. Edited by James C. Y. Watt, 87–127. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2010.
  506.  
  507. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  508.  
  509. Published in a catalogue for a blockbuster exhibition, Leidy’s essay provides a succinct overview of Buddhist art during the reign of Khubilai Khan.
  510.  
  511. Find this resource:
  512.  
  513.  
  514. Murray, Julia K. “The Evolution of Buddhist Narrative: Illustration in China after 850.” In Latter Days of the Law: Images of Chinese Buddhism, 850–1850. Edited by Marsha Weidner, 125–149. Lawrence, KS: Spencer Museum of Art, 1994.
  515.  
  516. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  517.  
  518. Featured in the catalogue for a groundbreaking exhibition, this essay is a helpful summary of the history of Buddhist narrative art. The author’s treatment of pre-Tang- and Tang-period visual narratives at Dunhuang as accurate indices of the tradition requires some qualification. Yet, this is among the more useful sources on the topic.
  519.  
  520. Find this resource:
  521.  
  522.  
  523. Rawski, Evelyn S., and Jessica Rawson, eds. China: The Three Emperors, 1662–1795. London: Royal Academy of Arts, 2005.
  524.  
  525. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  526.  
  527. This quality exhibition catalogue features fourteen essays on various aspects of the arts of the Qing dynasty, particularly under the reigns of Kangxi (1661–1722), Yongzheng (1722–1735), and Qianlong (1735–1796). Treats a variety of topics, including the role of Tibetan Buddhism and the conflation of Buddhist rituals with traditional Chinese ancestor rituals.
  528.  
  529. Find this resource:
  530.  
  531.  
  532. Twitchett, Denis. Printing and Publishing in Medieval China. New York: Beil, 1983.
  533.  
  534. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  535.  
  536. Sections on the printing of Buddhist scriptures and findings at Dunhuang are featured amid a broader survey of the history of printing in China. The volume, in booklet format, is not a high-quality product, and the text is not comprehensive. The introduction by the well-respected author is, however, useful.
  537.  
  538. Find this resource:
  539.  
  540.  
  541. Modern and Contemporary
  542. After the ostensible absence of religious overtones in the visual culture of Communist China, a significant number of contemporary artists have referenced Buddhist concepts and imagery in their works. Birnbaum 2003 considers an iconic monk-painter-calligrapher of the 20th century from a religious studies scholar’s perspective, whereas Gao 1993 and Chiu 2007 offer brief introductions to two of the many living artists in whose works Buddhism is discernible to varying degrees.
  543.  
  544. Birnbaum, Raoul. “Master Hongyi Looks Back: A Modern Man Becomes a Monk in Twentieth-Century China.” In Buddhism in the Modern World: Adaptations of an Ancient Tradition. Edited by Steven Heine and Charles S. Prebish, 75–124. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
  545.  
  546. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  547.  
  548. One of several articles by Birnbaum on Li Shutong, an artist-poet turned monk known as Master Hongyi.
  549.  
  550. Find this resource:
  551.  
  552.  
  553. Chiu, Melissa. “Altered Art: Zhang Huan.” In Zhang Huan: Altered States. Edited by Melissa Chiu. New York: Asia Society, 2007.
  554.  
  555. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  556.  
  557. Zhang’s later, Buddhism-inspired works are covered, following a concise overview of his earlier works, which focus on the poverty and pain of his youth. When read in view of corresponding images (also searchable on the artist’s official website), Chiu’s brief discussion of works such as Long Ear Ash Head (2007) stimulate deeper formal analysis.
  558.  
  559. Find this resource:
  560.  
  561.  
  562. Gao, Minglu. “Meaninglessness and Confrontation in Xu Bing’s Art.” In Fragmented Memory: The Chinese Avant-Garde in Exile. Edited by Julia F. Andrews and Gao Minglu, 28–31. Columbus, OH: Wexner Center for the Arts, 1993.
  563.  
  564. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  565.  
  566. A short essay on one of the most important contemporary artists, whose rhetoric of emptiness resonates with aspects of Buddhist ideas. A good way to begin exploring Gao Minglu’s significant body of writings on key contemporary artists, including many who infuse Buddhist concepts and imagery into their works.
  567.  
  568. Find this resource:
  569.  
  570.  
  571. Site-Specific Studies
  572. It should not be surprising that Buddhism penetrated different regions of China’s vast territory at different times, and the amalgamation with each region’s unique cultural base resulted in a remarkably heterogeneous visual culture of Buddhism.
  573.  
  574. The Central Plain
  575. The Central Plain (Ch. zhongyuan) is a historical term referring to the areas on the lower reaches of the Yellow River, covering modern-day Henan and parts of Hebei, Shanxi, and Shandong provinces. Because these areas encompass historical capital cities, including Chang’an and Luoyang, they boast a significant number of monumental projects in situ, in which images of rulers and aristocrats abound in various guises—in the form of divinities and ideal devotees. Sirén 1925 and Akiyama 1972 (the latter cited under Image-Based Studies) represent now somewhat dated works that remain essential for the thoroughness of photographic documentation and the comprehensive views of their subjects. Su 1978 and Caswell 1988 offer conflicting chronologies based on textual studies, whereas McNair 2007 and Okada 1996 engage in visual analysis in addition to textual studies. Tsiang 1996 is one of several publications by the author on the important 6th-century cave site at Xiangtangshan.
  576.  
  577. Caswell, James O. Written and Unwritten: A New History of the Buddhist Caves at Yungang. Vancouver, Canada: University of British Columbia Press, 1988.
  578.  
  579. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  580.  
  581. Responds to Su 1978. Caswell’s main concern is the construction dates for the “Imperial Five”—five caves (Caves nos. 16–20) built to commemorate five generations of Northern Wei (386–534) imperial ancestors at Yungang. Although Caswell’s new chronology is challenged by its reviewers, the book and its bibliography, as well as the scholarly reviews, are a good starting point for research on Yungang.
  582.  
  583. Find this resource:
  584.  
  585.  
  586. McNair, Amy. Donors of Longmen: Faith, Politics, and Patronage in Medieval Chinese Buddhist Sculpture. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2007.
  587.  
  588. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  589.  
  590. Examines the famous site with some 2,300 Buddhist caves (5th–8th century) near Luoyang, Henan Province. The formal qualities of the images and the inscriptions lend themselves to deductive conclusions as to motivations for sponsoring the projects.
  591.  
  592. Find this resource:
  593.  
  594.  
  595. Okada, Ken. “A Report on a Few Aspects of the Udayana Image—A Discussion on the Similarities between Tang Sculptures and Southeast Asian Counterparts.” In Longmen shiku yiqian jiubai zhounian guiji xueshu taolunhui lunji. Beijing: Wenwu, 1996.
  596.  
  597. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  598.  
  599. An important work that convincingly shows the surge of interest in the Sarnath-style Udayana images at Longmen was a result of influences arriving from Southeast Asia.
  600.  
  601. Find this resource:
  602.  
  603.  
  604. Sirén, Osvald. Chinese Sculpture from the Fifth to the Fourteenth Century: Over 900 Specimens in Stone, Bronze, Lacquer and Wood, Principally from Northern China. 4 vols. London: Benn, 1925.
  605.  
  606. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  607.  
  608. This early publication by the Swedish scholar Sirén features a comprehensive historical narrative (Volume 1) followed by valuable—albeit black-and-white—photographs of extant Buddhist images with explanatory notes (Volumes 2–4). The featured images are mostly from Yungang and Longmen.
  609.  
  610. Find this resource:
  611.  
  612.  
  613. Su, Bai. “Yungang shiku fenqi shilun.” Kaogu xuebao 1 (1978): 25–38.
  614.  
  615. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  616.  
  617. Su Bai began publishing his research on the Yungang caves in the late 1950s. This 1978 article, written in Chinese, is an exemplary textual study that offers a chronology of the Yungang caves. Su’s chronology remains authoritative—despite the more recent Caswell 1988, which challenges it.
  618.  
  619. Find this resource:
  620.  
  621.  
  622. Tsiang, Katherine R. “Monumentalization of Buddhist Texts in the Northern Qi Dynasty: The Engraving of Sūtras in Stone at the Xiangtangshan Caves and Other Sites in the Sixth Century.” Artibus Asiae 56.3–4 (1996): 233–261.
  623.  
  624. DOI: 10.2307/3250118Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  625.  
  626. Director of the Xiangtangshan Caves Project, Tsiang draws on her extensive knowledge of the visual programs at Xiangtangshan to consider possible motivations behind the abrupt appearance of grand-scale scriptural carvings on the limestone surfaces of the Buddhist cave shrines. Also very useful is Tsiang’s introductory essay in the exhibition catalogue Echoes of the Past: The Buddhist Cave Temples of Xiangtangshan (Chicago: Smart Museum of Art, 2010). Available online by subscription.
  627.  
  628. Find this resource:
  629.  
  630.  
  631. Northwestern China (on and Near the Silk Road)
  632. Ever since the discovery of hundreds of manuscripts inside the “secret library cave” at Mogao, Dunhuang, scholarship on the art and culture of Dunhuang has been a growing industry. Matsumoto 1937, a study of Dunhuang murals, is a single lifetime achievement of a most diligent scholar. Ma 1995 exemplifies the output of quality scholarship from the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The International Dunhuang Project: The Silk Road Online is a rich resource of news and images, whereas Whitfield 1995 is an expensively produced, fine introduction to Dunhuang art. Juliano and Lerner 2001 is a refreshing look at the socioeconomic life along the Silk Road from art historians’ perspective.
  633.  
  634. Juliano, Annette L., and Judith A. Lerner, eds. Monks and Merchants: Silk Road Treasures from Northwest China Gansu and Ningxia, 4th–7th Century. New York: Abrams, 2001.
  635.  
  636. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  637.  
  638. Published in conjunction with an exhibition at the Asia Society, the volume features short essays by Juliano and other specialists on the arts of the Silk Road to paint a vivid picture of the commercial route and the cultural and visual exchanges on it.
  639.  
  640. Find this resource:
  641.  
  642.  
  643. Ma, Shichang. “Buddhist Cave-Temples and the Cao Family at Mogao Ku, Dunhuang.” Special Issue: Buddhist Archaeology. Edited by Gina L. Barnes. World Archaeology 27.2 (1995): 303–317.
  644.  
  645. DOI: 10.1080/00438243.1995.9980309Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  646.  
  647. The author has published broadly on Buddhist cave temples of China. As an archaeologist, Ma collects physical evidence of destroyed or shifted spaces in order to reconstruct the precise contexts in which the surviving Buddhist sculptures and paintings were used. This article also provides an excellent overview of the Mogao site at Dunhuang—both the well-known group in the southern part and the previously lesser-known northern part of the site. Available online by subscription.
  648.  
  649. Find this resource:
  650.  
  651.  
  652. Matsumoto, Eiichi. Tonkōga no kenkyū: Zuzō hen. 2 vols. Tokyo: Tōhō Bunka Gakuin, 1937.
  653.  
  654. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  655.  
  656. The first volume is a collection of the author’s essays on various pictorial subjects and genres, and the second volume features corresponding images. Although the scholarship is necessarily outdated, the topics and contents still warrant close reading.
  657.  
  658. Find this resource:
  659.  
  660.  
  661. Whitfield, Roderick. Dunhuang: Caves of the Singing Sands: Buddhist Art from the Silk Road. 2 vols. London: Textile and Art, 1995.
  662.  
  663. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  664.  
  665. Together with the author’s Cave Temples of Mogao: Art and History on the Silk Road (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2000), the most accessible and thorough introduction to the Mogao Caves at Dunhuang, along the Silk Road.
  666.  
  667. Find this resource:
  668.  
  669.  
  670. Whitfield, Susan, ed. International Dunhuang Project: The Silk Road Online.
  671.  
  672. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  673.  
  674. Offers information about the latest research, conferences, and publication activities on Buddhist art, literature, history, and religion in Dunhuang, a site along the Silk Road featuring cave shrines. The database also features several useful educational tools as well as digitized images of manuscripts, paintings, textiles, and other materials.
  675.  
  676. Find this resource:
  677.  
  678.  
  679. Southwestern China (Sichuan)
  680. As a basin surrounded by mountain ranges, Sichuan maintained considerable cultural independence while preserving certain visual influences that entered the region in times of war or during imperial exile. The first decade of the 21st century saw important new scholarship on this previously neglected region. Howard 2001 is a monograph on a cave site at Dazu, whereas Hida, et al. 2003 is a collection of reports and analytical essays on various sites in Pujiang and Qionglai. Teiser 2006 studies the iconography of the wheel of rebirths, and Wong 2004 is an essential introduction to the Buddhist steles of Sichuan.
  681.  
  682. Hida, Romi, Ding Lu, and Lei Yuhua, eds. Zhongguo Sichuan tang dai mo ya zao xiang: Pujiang, Qionglai di qu diao cha yan jiu bao gao. Qiongqing, China: Chongqing chu ban ji tuan, 2003.
  683.  
  684. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  685.  
  686. The fruit of four years of field research directed by Hida Romi, of Waseda University, and Lei Yuhua, of the Archeological Institute of Chengdu, this impressive volume surveys and analyzes the cliff-carved images at twenty-three sites in the two towns of Sichuan province. Features nearly 300 pages of Japanese text and some essays in Chinese along with abstracts in comprehensible English.
  687.  
  688. Find this resource:
  689.  
  690.  
  691. Howard, Angela Falco. Summit of Treasures: Buddhist Cave Art of Dazu, China. Trumbull, CT: Weatherhill, 2001.
  692.  
  693. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  694.  
  695. With this monograph on an extensive 12th-century program of relief sculpture at Dazu, Howard brings attention to Sichuan, a relatively neglected region in mainstream historical discourse on Chinese art. She focuses on the life and religion of the patron Zhao Zhifeng (b. 1159) to explicate the visual program at the site, which she proposes is designed to be read as a spatial mandala.
  696.  
  697. Find this resource:
  698.  
  699.  
  700. Teiser, Stephen F. “Wheels for Pilgrims: Baodingshan, Sichuan, Thirteenth Century.” In Reinventing the Wheel: Paintings of Rebirth in Medieval Buddhist Temples. By Stephen F. Teiser, 221–238. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2006.
  701.  
  702. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  703.  
  704. The final chapter of this well-regarded book examines the 13th-century relief carving of the wheel of rebirths in Sichuan, which is especially gratifying when considered in view of the preceding chapters on the imagery in India, Tibet, Central Asia, and elsewhere in China. An art historian may desire more stylistic and technical analysis, but the focus on the content (the question of what is depicted) is sufficiently satisfying.
  705.  
  706. Find this resource:
  707.  
  708.  
  709. Wong, Dorothy C. “Sichuan Buddhist Steles and the Beginnings of Pure Land Imagery in China.” In Chinese Steles: Pre-Buddhist and Buddhist Use of a Symbolic Form. By Dorothy C. Wong, 151–174. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2004.
  710.  
  711. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  712.  
  713. Analyzes four Sichuan steles in terms of their content and form, in the context of Sichuan’s historical and cultural specificities. A very effective introduction to the subject, particularly as representations of Buddhist paradise.
  714.  
  715. Find this resource:
  716.  
  717.  
  718. Southeastern China (Nanjing, Ningbo)
  719. Based on the relatively scant remains of Buddhist art in the southern regions, early-20th-century scholarship assumed that Buddhist art was something of a monopoly of the northern kingdoms. Soper 1960 reversed that view. Nara National Museum 2009 and Lippit 2009 are among several early-21st-century works that keep attention on this vital region of Buddhist art history.
  720.  
  721. Lippit, Yukio. “Ningbo Buddhist Painting: A Reassessment.” Orientations 40.5 (2009): 54–62.
  722.  
  723. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  724.  
  725. Published in conjunction with a landmark exhibition at Nara Kokuritsu Hakubutsukan (see Nara National Museum 2009). The essay is an excellent summary of past scholarship and a sharp reassessment of Chinese, Korean, and Japanese Buddhist paintings related to the interregional networks that transpired through the port city of Ningbo, in Zhejiang province.
  726.  
  727. Find this resource:
  728.  
  729.  
  730. Nara National Museum. Sacred Ningbo: Gateway to 1300 Years of Japanese Buddhism. Nara, Japan: Nara National Museum, 2009.
  731.  
  732. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  733.  
  734. This volume is a catalogue published in conjunction with a landmark exhibition of the same title at the Nara National Museum (Nara Kokuritsu Hakubutsukan). The volume contains quality images as well as an introductory essay (in Japanese) and a list of works (in Japanese and English).
  735.  
  736. Find this resource:
  737.  
  738.  
  739. Soper, Alexander C. “A ‘Wei Style’ Bronze from Chekiang.” Artibus Asiae 23.3–4 (1960): 213–219.
  740.  
  741. DOI: 10.2307/3247994Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  742.  
  743. This landmark study, along with the author’s seminal article “Southern Chinese Influence on the Buddhist Art of the Six Dynasties Period” (Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities 32 [1960]: 47–107), successfully altered the field’s view of early Buddhist art in the southern capital regions—which had been incorrectly regarded as inferior work produced in a region where Buddhism was far less dominant. Available online by subscription.
  744.  
  745. Find this resource:
  746.  
  747.  
  748. Thematic Studies
  749. The 20th and early 21st centuries have been a prolific period in the field of Buddhist art and architecture. Although the subsections in this category—namely, Iconography/Iconology, Patronage, Word and Image, Presence and Representation, and Ritual and Art—do not exhaust the thematic interests of this scholarship, a large portion of the published materials fall under these subcategories.
  750.  
  751. Iconography/Iconology
  752. Although scholarship in the early 21st century is relatively less preoccupied with identification of deities or religious narrative content, iconography (i.e., study focused on identifying the what and who, based on formal details, or the how) and iconology (i.e., inquiry into the meaning of an iconographic content in view of the broader anthropological, cultural, and religious contexts—the how infused with the why) still remain an important part of art historical exercise. Matsumoto 1937 is a piece of classic early-20th-century Japanese scholarship in its meticulous inventorying of a site’s offerings. Ning 2004 is a monographic study that relies heavily on iconographic conventions for the interpretation of a larger program, which the author uses to consider the broader, socioeconomic context of his subject. Jang 1992 tabulates the multivalent iconographic uses of a single subject, demonstrating the instability of iconographic conventions.
  753.  
  754. Jang, Scarlett Ju-Yu. “Ox-Herding Painting in the Sung Dynasty.” Artibus Asiae 52.1–2 (1992): 54–93.
  755.  
  756. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  757.  
  758. An often cited study of the iconography—or rather, iconographies—of ox-herding imagery as a pictorial subject. Jang shows that ox-herding, which became especially popular during the Southern Song period (1127–1279), was interpreted in a number of ways, depending on with whom and when it became the subject of a religious/intellectual discourse. The study shows that the fluidity and adaptability of the imagery may have enhanced its utility. Available online by subscription.
  759.  
  760. Find this resource:
  761.  
  762.  
  763. Matsumoto, Eiichi. Tonkōga no kenkyū: Zuzō hen. 2 vols. Tokyo: Tōhō Bunka Gakuin, 1937.
  764.  
  765. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  766.  
  767. Volume 1 is a collection of the author’s essays on various pictorial subjects and genres; Volume 2 features corresponding images. Although the scholarship is a bit outdated, the book is nevertheless essential for learning basic iconographic attributes of some of the most prominent Buddhist images.
  768.  
  769. Find this resource:
  770.  
  771.  
  772. Ning Qiang. Art, Religion, and Politics in Medieval China: The Dunhuang Cave of the Zhai Family. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2004.
  773.  
  774. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  775.  
  776. This book as a whole takes a socioeconomic approach to studying a painted Buddhist cave, but it also includes several iconographic discussions. For example, Ning examines pictorial images of a famous sculpture, which she identifies as a famous, dynastic, fortune-telling Panhe image, based on the iconography—right arm hanging down, left hand clutching the end of the wearer’s robe at the chest (pp. 79–105). This is an entirely feasible reading yet also allows for more layered identification, inviting discourse on the reliability of iconography as an analytical tool.
  777.  
  778. Find this resource:
  779.  
  780.  
  781. Patronage
  782. McNair 2007, Ning 2004, Abe 2002, Lingley 2006, and Liu 2003 deal with the question of who commissioned the art, for what specific purpose, and how the motives affected the form of the sponsored works.
  783.  
  784. Abe, Stanley K. Ordinary Images. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002.
  785.  
  786. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  787.  
  788. An insightful examination of 3rd- through 6th-century images sponsored or used by individuals who do not get a mention in official histories. Although the author’s definition of the “ordinary” patrons may be questioned, his fresh proposal to include ordinary images as rightful objects of art historical scrutiny has been accepted with general enthusiasm.
  789.  
  790. Find this resource:
  791.  
  792.  
  793. Lingley, Kate A. “The Multivalent Donor: Zhang Yuanfei at Shuiyu Si.” Archives of Asian Art 56 (2006): 11–30.
  794.  
  795. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  796.  
  797. Challenging what she considers too broad a definition of “ordinary” patrons, Lingley offers this fascinating study of a late-6th-century female patron to underscore the highly specific agency of a particular donor. Available online by subscription.
  798.  
  799. Find this resource:
  800.  
  801.  
  802. Liu, Heping. “Empress Liu’s Icon of Maitreya: Portraiture and Privacy at the Early Song Court.” Artibus Asiae 63.2 (2003): 129–190.
  803.  
  804. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  805.  
  806. A fine study of a portrait commissioned by an 11th-century empress of her own self as a messianic bodhisattva. An excellent example for beginning research students of solid methodology in combining textual and visual analyses.
  807.  
  808. Find this resource:
  809.  
  810.  
  811. McNair, Amy. Donors of Longmen: Faith, Politics, and Patronage in Medieval Chinese Buddhist Sculpture. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2007.
  812.  
  813. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  814.  
  815. The first English publication to summarize past scholarship and advance new insights into the famous man-made caves of stone-carved sculptures in Henan. Along with acute visual analyses, McNair includes a substantial number of the translated inscriptions that accompany the images in order to shed light on the variegated sponsoring habits of Buddhists of various social levels.
  816.  
  817. Find this resource:
  818.  
  819.  
  820. Ning Qiang. Art, Religion, and Politics in Medieval China: The Dunhuang Cave of the Zhai Family. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2004.
  821.  
  822. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  823.  
  824. Some aspects of Ning’s argument—for example, that the proliferation of Khotan’s Ox-Head Mountain imagery was owed to the diplomatic relations between Dunhuang and Khotan—invite further discussion. This is nonetheless a useful introduction to the agency of patrons, habits of sponsorship, and overall visual politics of Dunhuang.
  825.  
  826. Find this resource:
  827.  
  828.  
  829. Word and Image
  830. How an artist visually articulates a Buddhist narrative into a pictorial or sculptural program is a perennial question for art historians. The common Chinese convention of allowing images to cohabit a pictorial surface with script further complicates this line of inquiry. Wu 1992 and Wang 2005 consider how painters of famous Buddhist narratives “translate” these stories into the pictorial and architectonic fields, whereas Wong 2004 examines how the text accompanying images on a stele enriches and completes the semiotic relationship. Tsiang 1996 looks at the function of monumental inscriptions of Buddhist words as visual image.
  831.  
  832. Tsiang, Katherine R. “Monumentalization of Buddhist Texts in the Northern Qi Dynasty: The Engravings of Sūtras in Stone at the Xiangtangshan Caves and Other Sites in the Sixth Century.” Artibus Asiae 56.3–4 (1996): 233–261.
  833.  
  834. DOI: 10.2307/3250118Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  835.  
  836. Considers possible motivations behind the abrupt appearance of grand-scale scriptural carvings on the limestone surfaces of the Buddhist cave shrines, arguing that the enlarging of the carved scripture was a visual rhetoric borne against a preexisting Confucian tradition of carving on rocks and also a long-standing imperial tradition of claiming authority through symbolic ownership of monumental projects. Available online by subscription.
  837.  
  838. Find this resource:
  839.  
  840.  
  841. Wang, Eugene Y. Shaping the Lotus Sutra: Buddhist Visual Culture in Medieval China. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2005.
  842.  
  843. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  844.  
  845. Examines a large corpus of images that are conventionally regarded as “illustrations” of the Lotus Sutra, the most widely read Buddhist text in China. The author shows that the artists that executed these images expressly employed pictorial devices, such as mirroring, mapping, and spatial programming, quite apart from the structural logic that constitutes the text.
  846.  
  847. Find this resource:
  848.  
  849.  
  850. Wong, Dorothy C. Chinese Steles: Pre-Buddhist and Buddhist Use of a Symbolic Form. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2004.
  851.  
  852. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  853.  
  854. Highlights the role of text in infusing the images of the divine and of devotees in converting the stele into a composite semiotic unit.
  855.  
  856. Find this resource:
  857.  
  858.  
  859. Wu Hung. “What Is Bianxiang?—On the Relationship between Dunhuang Art and Dunhuang Literature.” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 52.1 (1992): 111–192.
  860.  
  861. DOI: 10.2307/2719330Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  862.  
  863. Looks at the question of what happens during the process of cross-media translation of a Buddhist narrative as it is repeatedly told and revised in word and image. Wu analyzes the story “The Magic Competition,” also known as “Subjugation of Raudraksa,” carefully studying how the painters at Dunhuang translated, adapted, and eventually revamped the narrative structure of the originally word-based text as they recounted the stories within the spatial structure of a wall and its architectonic context. Available online by subscription.
  864.  
  865. Find this resource:
  866.  
  867.  
  868. Presence and Representation
  869. Whether an image of a divine being signals divine presence or simply functions as a sign referencing divinity that resides elsewhere is an important question for Buddhist art historians and historians of Buddhism alike. Rong and Zhang 1993 studies Dunhuang manuscripts and paintings of famous images on cave ceilings to consider the ontological status of the painted images, whereas Wu 1996 raises more layered questions of ontology in its visually oriented study of the paintings. Wang 2005 presents an imperially sponsored Buddhist reliquary as a narrative device for expressing concerns beyond its presumed significance as a symbol of the Buddha’s presence (in past historical existence and in present absence). Lee 2010 argues that the nirvana imagery representing the final moment of the Buddha’s presence was used as a symbol of survival.
  870.  
  871. Lee, Sonya S. Surviving Nirvana: Death of the Buddha in Chinese Visual Culture. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2010.
  872.  
  873. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  874.  
  875. Examines images of the Buddha’s Great Extinction (nirvana or parinirvana) from the 6th through 12th centuries, arguing that the imagery signaling the imminent absence of the Buddha was construed as a sign of divine presence and, ultimately, survival.
  876.  
  877. Find this resource:
  878.  
  879.  
  880. Rong Xinjiang, and Zhang Guangda. Yutian shi Congkao. Shanghai: Shanghai shu dian, 1993.
  881.  
  882. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  883.  
  884. A collection of essays on the history of Khotan. Contends that painted images of famous images of the western regions within individual frames of ceiling slopes in late-Tang-period Dunhuang caves are to be worshipped as sacred images. This view is complicated by Wu 1996.
  885.  
  886. Find this resource:
  887.  
  888.  
  889. Wang, Eugene Y. “Of the True Body: The Buddha’s Relics and Corporeal Transformation in Tang Imperial Culture.” In Body and Face in Chinese Visual Culture. Edited by Wu Hung and Katherine R. Tsiang, 79–118. Harvard East Asian Monographs 239. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2005.
  890.  
  891. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  892.  
  893. Considers the program of the Famensi reliquary in terms of how the imperial family of the 9th-century Tang dynasty articulated its own circumstances of imperial succession by way of narrative designs on one of the famous sets of nested caskets.
  894.  
  895. Find this resource:
  896.  
  897.  
  898. Wu Hung. “Rethinking Liu Sahe: The Creation of a Buddhist Saint and the Invention of a ‘Miraculous Image.’” Orientations 27.10 (1996): 32–43.
  899.  
  900. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  901.  
  902. This pioneering case study of the south wall mural of cave no. 72 is a thought-provoking examination of when an image acts as an image and when it acts as a divine substitute. Analyzes the ontological status of image, especially in terms of how the architectonic field of the cave shrines frames the images’ self-assigned ontological status.
  903.  
  904. Find this resource:
  905.  
  906.  
  907. Ritual and Art
  908. Sharf 2011 considers the famous reliquaries in Famensi and their relationship to a uniquely Chinese esoteric ritual. The rest of the selections in this subsection—Abe 1990, Wang 2011, and Wu 1992—study the sculptural and pictorial programs of Buddhist caves. In the absence of surviving medieval wooden temples, painted caves have been the main focus for examining the relationship between the formal qualities of visual materials and religious activities that provided the context for those forms.
  909.  
  910. Abe, Stanley K. “Art and Practice in a Fifth-Century Chinese Buddhist Cave Temple.” Ars Orientalis 20 (1990): 1–31.
  911.  
  912. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  913.  
  914. Asserts that the visual program of the early Dunhuang cave, cave no. 254, anticipates circumambulation and meditation upon images. Available online by subscription.
  915.  
  916. Find this resource:
  917.  
  918.  
  919. Sharf, Robert F. “The Buddha’s Finger Bones at Famensi and the Art of Chinese Esoteric Buddhism.” Art Bulletin 93.1 (2011): 38–59.
  920.  
  921. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  922.  
  923. In response to a dominant interpretation of the nested caskets as a spatial reconfiguration of “esoteric” mandalas, Sharf argues for a connection to uniquely Chinese esoteric altar rites and related liturgical manuals. This study of the Famensi relics is also unique in that it includes a formal analysis of the finger bones themselves. Together with Wang 2005 (cited under Presence and Representation), constitutes a great starting point for sifting through the vast corpus of publications on the Famensi treasures.
  924.  
  925. Find this resource:
  926.  
  927.  
  928. Wang, Eugene. “Painted Statue in an Optical Theater: A Fifth-Century Chinese Buddhist Cave.” In Special Issue: Superficial? Approaches to Painted Sculpture. Edited by Susanne Ebbinghaus. Source 30.3 (2011): 25–32.
  929.  
  930. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  931.  
  932. Asserts that the program of cave no. 254, studied in Abe 1990, is not designed for viewing during circumambulation. Wang argues that the narrative unfolds linearly, progressing from front to back and from left to right.
  933.  
  934. Find this resource:
  935.  
  936.  
  937. Wu Hung. “What Is Bianxiang?—On the Relationship between Dunhuang Art and Dunhuang Literature.” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 52.1 (1992): 111–192.
  938.  
  939. DOI: 10.2307/2719330Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  940.  
  941. In proposing a new way to think about the process of word-to-image translation, this article offers a nice summary of preceding scholarly considerations of the relationship between pictorial narratives and performative storytelling or religious lectures. Available online by subscription.
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