HELEN

B. CHAPIN

A LONG ROLL OF BUDDHIST

IMAGES

II
Revised by Alexander C. Soper
Editor's Note:

text hasbeen
to Dr. Chapin's
andmakingadditions
facilitated
bytworecent
Theprocessof correcting
andExcursusin ArtibusAsiae,
studiesof the"longroll"in theFar East. As notedin myForeword
g , a member
XXXII, I, z97o,p. 9 andn.7, Mr.Li Lin-ts'an
of thestaffof the National

a veryuseful
paperin Chinese
(withEnglish
summary)
onfour
PalaceMuseum
at Taipei,
haspublished
thisscroll.
titleis"A study
HisEnglish
including
oftheNanearlyworks
ofBuddhist
artfromYiinnan,

is Monoinvarious
museums."
in thelightofartmaterialsfound
chaoandTa-likingdoms
Thepublication

Almostsimultaneously
Academia
Mr.
of Ethnology,
graphno.yof theInstitute
Sinica,Taipei,r9R67.
anarticle
intwoinstallments
inTheKokkaMagazine,
nos.
M, if2f published
Sekiguchi
M/asayuki
imagespainted
by
"OntheBuddhist
8yf (zy66) and89 (9y67), witha titlethatmaybetranslated:
Li's concern
withthe"longroll"is primarily
historical
and
Sheng-wen
of theTa-likingdom."
Chang
onits arthistorical
and
ethnological.
Sekiguchi
placesgreater
emphasis
features,
including
thecolophons
seals;heseemsnotto haveknownof Chapin's
study.He ends,as Chapindidandas I shallhere,withan
interest
remain
untouched.
thatlargeareaofmajor
admission
textbelow,
I amindicating
overa sentence
Inpresenting
long,byitalicsand
myadditions
Chapin's
deeper
indentation.
Brieferadditions
are
andsetinsquare
Additions
in thefootnotes
are
brackets.
italicized
in
brackets
at thestart.
shownbyACS
italicized square
the"longroll"aretakenfroma set ofphotographs
madein iy6' for the
Theillustrations
covering
Photographic
Archivefrom the ChineseNationalPalaceandCentralMuseums,
administered
by the

AnnArbor,Michigan.
to
of theHistoryof Art, University
of Michigan,
Department
Permission
theeditor
PalaceMuseum.
themhasbeen
granted
bytheNational
publish
in thescrollarereferred
to bythe"frame"
Individual
pictures
numbers
assigned
thembyLi Lin-ts'an,
placedaboveeachfrome.

IN TRODUCTION

Inthe collectionof the PalaceMuseum,Peking[nowtheNationalPalaceMuseum,Taipei],,is a

long roll of Buddhistimages,paintedas I shallshowlaterbetweenthe yearsIi73 and i176

xx21, which it still retains. It is

S[ACS]: When Chapin wrote, the scroll was identified by the code designation Lii
now described in the Chinese-language catalogue of paintings and calligraphy in the transplanted National Palace Mu. In the first edition, Taichung, 1956, it appears in iv, pp.78-85; in the
seum, Ku Kung shu bualu -T rg 4 I
second, enlarged edition, Taipei, 1965, in iv, pp. 77-84.

157

of our era for the Emperor Li Chen of the Hou Li (Later Li) Kingdom2 fT

, and
lA
.g of kingattributedto the artistChangSheng-wenJAW A. This country,the last of a series

of their greatnorthernneighbor,China,flourishedin what is now

doms semi-independent
Yiinnanprovince,China,fromA.D. io96 to 2Z53.The scrollin the PalaceMuseumis not only
a good exampleof Sung Buddhistpainting,exhibitingcertainstylisticfeaturespeculiarto the
South,and a documentof somevaluefor the historicaland religioushistoryof SouthChina;
but it is of primeimportanceas a documentfor the studyof ChineseBuddhisticonographyof
of the pantheonwhichtook placeduringthe
T'angand Sungtimes,beforethe disintegration
Mingdynasty.
into
In this preliminary
studyaftera briefstatementof the valueandinterestof researches
T'angand Sung Buddhisticonography,I shallattemptto placethe paintingamongthe other
existingdocumentsfor this study,andto estimateits relativevaluein this connection.I shall
necessarilysketchbrieflythe work which has alreadybeen done in this field and indicatein
outlinewhat remainsto be done. I shall describethe variousdivinitiesand assemblagesrenotestakenduringthe winterof
presentedin the painting,as well as possiblefrom[incomplete]
1931-32 in Peking; and I shall translatethree of the [seven]inscriptionsat the end.

one of the very highestpeaksin that alternately

The T'ang dynastywas unquestionably
China'sculturethrough
ascendinganddescendingline whichmaybe conceivedas representing
the ages.Thenamesof its famouspainters,poets,calligraphers,
philosophermonks,andtravellers have gone singingdown the corridorsof time; andalthoughthe namesof [virtuallynone]
of its sculptorsare known,theirwork showsthatthey equalledin theirown mediumthat of
theirfellow artistsin otherfields.The T'angperiodis knownto have inspiredJapanto the
achievementsin architecture,
sculpture,and paintingof the Naraperiodand to have started
currentswhichinfluencedthe artsof the [Early] HeianandFujiwaraperiods.Moreoverfrom
in whosetemplesare
the city of Nara,laidout afterthe [modelof the]T'angcapital,Ch'ang-an,
andclay]imagesof the eighthcenturyin the trueT'ang
still enshrinedbronze,[hollow-lacquer,
tradition,we canget a betterideaof the Chinesemetropolisandcenterof culturethanfromthe
presentHsi-anFu [in Shensi],the site of the city itself.
This culture of the T'ang period, though it was open to a number of influencesnative and

foreign,was in the mainBuddhist,and most of its greatachievementsderiveddirectlyor inof which

directlyfrom Buddhistinspiration.Besidesthe developmentof templearchitecture,
only vestigesremain,of sculptureandpainting,of scholarlytranslationsof hundredsof Buddhist canonicalworks and of Buddhistphilosophicaldiscoursesand commentarieson the scripture, we must include the invention of printing, perhapsthe most far-reachinghumanachievement since neolithic times, which was in all probabilitydue to the effortsof Buddhistmonks to
reproduceimages and textsa. A beginning has been made toward making known to the West
the literature,especiallythe poetry, and general books on art, including T'ang art, have been
written. But of the iconography of T'ang Buddhist art, which takes its place among the great
religious artsof the world, and of the philosophy underlyingit, the West knows next to nothing.
2 [A CS]: Strict historical terminology calls the regime under which it was painted the Hou (Later) Li, since the dynastic
succession was briefly broken in io94-96. The Palace Museum refers to it under the heading Ta Li, however.
3 See
Carter, Thos.Francis, The Inventionof Printingin Chinaand its SpreadWestward,New York, Columbia U.P., 1925,
especially chapter VI.
158

The Sung dynastywitnesseda greatchangein the natureof ChineseBuddhism.The new

religionhadnow been assimilatedandabsorbedinto the consciousnessof the people;andthe
dominantfeatureof the ChineseBuddhismof Sung timeswas the developmentof the Ch'an
sect, whose doctrinesandideasrepresenta fusionof Buddhismwith indigenousTaoistideals.
of Chinathan
Not only did this sect producea philosophyandpsychologymorecharacteristic
artof its own whichwas to exerta profoundinfluenceon
of Indiaanda greatimpressionistic
andfoundan outletalso
the artof Japan,butits idealswereabsorbedby the Neo-Confucianists
in the landscapepaintingwhichwas the greatestachievementof Sungtimesandhasneverbeen
surpassedby the landscapepaintingof any otherpeopleor of any othertime.We cannothere
Art in its Relation
to
go furtherinto this subject,but mayreferthe readerto Anesaki'sBuddhist
First, Second,and Third
Ideals,chapter44, and to Suzuki'sEssaysin ZenBuddhism,
Buddhist
Seriess,addingonly thatCh'anart still awaitsadequatetreatmentin English.
The formsof Buddhismdominantin Chinain T'angtimes-those of the PureLand,T'ient'ai,Chen-yensectsandothers-did not wholly die out; werein fact activein variouspartsof
the country6.On the other handno new pantheonsor even divinitiesfound their way into
Chinafrom India,for the absorptionof Buddhisminto Hinduismin India,a processalready
activein T'angtimes,was fast nearingits completion,markingthe end of Buddhismassuchin
India.Theseformsof Buddhismin China,then,retainedthe pantheonsof T'angtimes;andthe
Sungsculptureandpaintingwhichtheyproduced,thoughexhibitingthestylisticcharacteristics
of Sung,follow almostentirelythe iconographyof T'ang,andcanbe studied,in so far as their
iconographyis concerned,as T'angdocuments.
Ourpaintingis importantas one of the few existingspecimens,whichI shallpresentlylist,
of Chinesework suitablefor the study of T'ang Buddhisticonography.Among these it is
It shows
for its lengthandfor the greatnumberof differentdivinitiesrepresented.
remarkable
us the spreadof Tantric7andotherformsof Buddhismin the Southandtheirexistencesideby
side with the risingsect of Ch'an.In this paperwe shallnot takeup the studyof Ch'anart,for
areincludedin this long roll theyaredonenot in theimpressionalthoughthe Ch'anpatriarchs
istic style of Ch'anart but preciselyin the samemanneras the Arhatsoccurringin the earlier
partof the samework.When,therefore,we speakof Sungiconographyin thispaper,we really
meanT'angBuddhisticonographyas used in Sungtimes.
In orderto understandthe iconographyof T'angpaintingsandof Sungpaintingsbasedon
T'ang iconography, we must bear in mind that as Mr.Waley points out, a "sect" like the Pure

Land,the T'ien-t'ai,the Chen-yen,meantto the ChineseBuddhistsof that time a branchof

learnings. Just as in a university many branches of learning such as medicine, law, literature,

etc., are pursued,so the canonicalworks of these differentsects were studiedin the sametemple,
4 Anesaki, Masaharu, BuddhistArt in its Relationto BuddhistIdeals, with Special Referenceto Buddhismin Japan, Boston,
Houghton Mifflin Co., 1915.
s Suzuki, Daisetz Teitaro, Essays in Zen Buddhism,London, Luzac, 1927ff.
6 In Ming times they were absorbed into the Ch'an sect, which thus lost its most distinctive characteristic, that of independence of images, texts, etc. Thus today we may enter a Buddhist temple through a gate markedCh'an lin, "Grove
of Meditation", to find within a profusion of images of Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, Arhats, et. al.
7 See below, pp.
160ff.
by Sir Aurel Stein, London, British Museum, 193I ; see
Tun-huang
s Waley, Arthur, A Catalogueof PaintingsRecoveredfrom
Introduction, p.xvi.

159

If we bearthisfactin mindwe shallnotbe surprised

to find,
veryoftenbythesamestudentsq.
sectsillustrated
aswe do in thelongroll,thefavoritethemesof severaldifferent
sideby sidein
the samework.Anotherthingto be bornein mindis thatdhydna
or meditationwaspractisedby

of the timeandnot leastby thosebelievingin a Paradise,

all the Buddhists
for examplethe
Buddha.Images,whetherpaintings,sculptures,
of Amitdbha
oryantra(i.e. geoworshippers
metricdesignswithesotericmeaning)
wereusedas aidsto dhydna;
andconcentration
on ideal
withthepurposeof securing
a foretaste
of Paradise;
formswasundertaken
a spiritual
visionof,
in
or unionwith,the objectof meditation.
of
the
the
Palace
Museum
Many
images
painting
like
from
those
no
doubt
connected
with
and
with
were,
Tun-huang,
scriptures
giving
dhydna
fordhydanao.
instructions
andbeliefscurrentin China
Thoughthe Ch'ansecthaselementsderivingfrompractises
beforeBodhidharma's
livedduringthe
coming,andthoughmanyof its greatestexponents
theriseof thesectto a positionof widespread
influence
andtheformulation
of
T'angdynasty,
I
be
without
in
its bodyof tradition
hesitation
2.
times
In
the
may, believe, placed
Sung
T'ang,
themindsof thepeoplewerewideopento newandforeignideas--itwasthena popular
attitude
forallthevariedformsof Buddhism
totake--andtherewasgreatenthusiasm
whichwerepouring
intothe countryfromthe West.Theywereall studiedsideby side,as hasbeensaid,andthe
betweendifferent
sectswereso vagueas to be almostnon-existent.
demarcations
of TantricBuddhism
in the T'angdynastylonglayhiddenin
Evidencefortheprevalence
and
theChineseBuddhist
even
scriptures;
thoughNanjio'sCatalogue
oftheChinese
of
Translation
cameout in 1883,few if anyexceptthe Japanese(whowerealreadyaware
theBuddhist
Tripi.taka

tookthetroubleto countthenumberof Tantric

of theirpresence)
workslistedtherein1a.
Waley,
in theIntroduction
to hiscatalogue
in the Steincollection,published
of thepaintings
in 1931,
wasprobably
the firstWesterner
in
correctlyto gaugethe wideextentof TantricBuddhism
"A studyin Buddhist
T'angChina.Thearticleby thepresentwriterin Ostasiatische
Zeitschrift,
close
on
its
followed
It
heels14.
was
of
course
the
andstudyof theTundiscovery
iconography",
thatledto thisrealization,
andnowotherevidenceis gradually
huangpaintings
accumulating
therecordof translations.
to corroborate
As earlyas the EasternHan dynasty,a mantrals
for use in protectingone's house,the Fo
9 It may be noted that the Buddhist Tripitaka contains more than I6oo works of all sects, including those expounding
contradictory systems of philosophy; see Nanjio, Bunyiu, A Catalogueof the ChineseTranslationof theBuddhistTripitaka,
2nd. ed., Takya, 1929. Even today, the Ryfikoku University in Ky6to, a college of the Japanese Shin sect, has professors
giving instruction not only in the philosophies of the other Buddhist sects but also in the various Western scientific and
philosophic as well as religious theories; and in this procedure it is not alone among Japanese sectarian universities.
I0 Waley, Catalogue,Introduction, pp.xii, xiii.
II See Hu Shih, "The development of Zen Buddhism in China", in The ChineseSocialand Political Review,Peking, 1931,
PP.475-5 05, where evidence is given for Bodhidharma'spresence in Chinabefore the previously accepted date, A.D. 520.
Hu Shih also shows the growth of legends about the figure of Bodhidharma,and it is likely that the same thing is true
of many of the stories told of the Ch'an masters of T'ang and earlier times.
1z Hu Shih's work is very suggestive in this connection. See also his "P'u-t'i-ta-mo k'ao" [A study of Bodhidharma] in
Hu Shih Wen-ts'unsan chi 6AjA
4 = A (in Chinese), II, pp.449-65.
1a See Nanjio, Catalogue,pp.446-48 and nos 529-41, etc. for the long list of works translated by Amoghavajra.
14 H. B.Chapin, "A study in Buddhist iconography: the six-armedform Cintdmani-cakraAvalokite'vara, illustrated by two
representations in Japanese paintings, and Sri Mahddeviand Vasu Rsi as attendants", Ostasiatische
Zeitschrift,N.F. 8, 1-2
and 3-4, Berlin, 1932. This study was sent to the printersa year earlier,and Mr.Waley's catalogue was practicallyfinished
in 1928.
Is Op.cit., pp.
34-35.

16o

shuoanchaishen-chou
intoChinese16.
fo: %s v al W, hadbeentranslated
ching
BytheT'ang,
innumerable
Tantricworkswereavailableto ChineseBuddhiststhroughtranslations
by Vajrabodhi, Amoghavajra,and other Indianand Chinesemonkswhose very namesindicatetheir
Tantricaffiliations,theirconnectionwith the Vajrayina.Amoghavajra,
who belongedto the
TantricYogdcdraschool,receivedthe patronageof threesuccessiveemperors:by one of whom
(Su Tsung,who reigned756-63)he was orderednot to leaveChina,on accountof his valueto
the country.At his deathin 774 the rankof a Ministerof Statewas conferredon him with a
posthumoustitle meaning"Great-eloquence-correct-wide-wisdom."
All the Tantricsects were known in Chinaas Mi-tsung,esoteric;and among them the
mostimportantwasthatwhichregardedVairocanaas the Adi-Buddha,theprimordialsourceof
allbeing.This sect,like thatof the PureLandwhichworshippedAmitSibha,
hadbesidesnumerous subsidiaryworksa trinityof scripturesas its maindoctrinalbasis:
The Vairocana
sitra or Tajihching(Nanjio,no. 530), translatedby Subhakarasimha
in 724;
The Susiddhi~ara
or Su-shih-ti-chieh-lo
ching(Nanjio,no. 533), translatedby the samein 726;
ta chiaowang
The Vajralekaraor Chin-kangtingi-ch'iehju-laichen-shih
sheta-ch'enghsien-cheng

about753.
ching(Nanjio,no. Iozo),translatedby Amoghavajra
in
that
states
this
sect, though flourishing Chinaproperat the time the Tun-huang
Waley
stage.Thisstatepaintingsweremade,existsin the Tun-huangfindsonlyin a veryrudimentary
ment holds of the worksin the Steincollection,but amongthe paintingsbroughtby Pelliot
from Tun-huangand now in the MuseeGuimet,is one datingfrom the tenth centurywhich
Vdhana[mounts],Vairocanaat the
shows the Five Dhyini Buddhaswith their characteristic
center.It is illustratedin AsiaticMythology,
facingpage 244. Hackindoesnot tell us the colours
of all the Buddhasin the painting,but he saysthatVairocana
is golden-coloured
(op.cit.,p.
243).
It is interestingto note that,in spiteof Sanskrit
andiconographical
instructions
in
S.dhanamdl.
Chineseand Japanese,whichagreein assigningthe colourwhite to Vairocana,this divinityis
paintedwith flesh of a golden hue in the PalaceMuseumpaintingsas well as in the Mus~e
Guimetpicture.He occurstwicein ourlong roll;andin one case,at least,he is iconographically
correctboth as to colourand to
So faras I knowthe Vajradhdtu
andGarbhako'adhdtu
Mudr..
Mandalas
BestknownbytheirJapanese
namesas theKongjkai
andTaizkai Mandarasrespectively,
are not includedin the Tun-huangfinds,if we exclude a coarsedrawingwhichmaypossiblybe
a rudimentaryform of the latter,now in the Stein collection of the British Museum. Beside the
two labelledimages of Vairocana,each surroundedby an assemblageof divinities, the long roll
presents us with an image of DharmapiramitB,the "mother" of the "Lotus Section" in both
the Vajradhituand the GarbhakodadhituMandalas(see infra).
Another image in our painting of interest in this connection is that of the Paficaguhyaor
"Five Esoteric Ones": the only Chinese example of which I know, it correspondsclosely with
severalJapanesespecimensof the Fujiwaraand Kamakuraperiods madefor use by the Shingon
sect, whose Adi-Buddha is Vairocana.The Shingon sect calls the central figure of the group
16 Nanjio, Catalogue,no.478.
17 See Waley, Catalogue,Introduction, pp.xiv-xvii.

16I

a divinityworshippedby some of the esotericsectsas Adi-Buddha,8,

whilean inVajrasattva,
on
the
Palace
Museum
scription
paintinglabelsthe centralfigureof the entirelyanalogous
there
as
who is likewisesometimesregardedas Adi-Budrepresented Samantabhadra,
group
dhaig.Although the Shingon sect considersthe other four as embodying four of the passions,

madeone with the Bodhicittawithinthe all-encircling

wisdom(seeinfra),I shallkeepin mind
the possibilityof a relationship
betweenthis groupandthatof the fiveDhyini Buddhas.It may
be noted also that the "Five EsotericOnes" have some correspondence
with the Rissha-e
in
the
whose
centraldivinityis Vajrasattva.
He is
name]
assembly[usingtheJapanese
Vajradhdtu,
surroundedby the samefour divinitiesembodyingthe passions,togetherwith theirSaktis,
makinga groupof nine.In the moreexhaustivestudyof the long rollwhichI hopeto make,I
shall translatethree accountsof this group given in Japanese,one in Mochizukil'sBukkyj
daiitenZo,one in the Mikkyj daijitenby Matsunagazr, and one in the Risshikyj no kenky by

Toganoo2z,andshallattemptto fathomits meaning.

A longchainof adverse
bothpersonalandglobal,prevented
this "moreexcircumstances,
haustive
study"
fromeverbeingwritten.
Tantricdivinitiestoo numerousto detailhereareincludedamongthe wallpaintingsin situ
at Tun-huang,as well as amongthosebroughtfromthatsite andnow in the BritishMuseum,
at New Delhi],andthe MuseeGuimet2a.
For example,severalmandalas
of
[theNationalMuseum
the Thousand-armed
a
number
of
each
of
the Cintimani-cakra
Avalokitesvara;
representations
and AmoghapIdaforms of Avalokiteivara;Vaidravana,
Sri Mahddevi,Vajrayaksa,
Kundali,
VinSikyaka24(i.e. Gane'a); and variousformsof Siva,Visnu,and otherTantricdivinitiesoccur
in thesepaintings.WhileTun-huangwas farfromCh'ang-an,
the capitalandcenterof culture,
it neverthelessreflectedcurrentspassing into Chinaalong one of the main arteriesof tradeand

of ideas.At the timewhenthe paintingsweremade,to be sure,the traderoutewas deflected,so

that one of the principalBuddhistmovementsin [T'ang] China,the worshipof Vairocana
Buddha,is seenat Tun-huangin a farless advancedstagethanit hadreachedin Chinaproper
at the sametime. Thuswhilethe pre-T'angsculptureandpaintingat Tun-huangareat practicallythe samestageas in Chinafarthereast,in the ninth and tenth centuriesTun-huangrepresentsa backwashof ChineseBuddhistculture.
Besidesthe Tun-huangpaintings,therearetwo or threeexamplesof T'angpaintingsand
=
sculpturesof Tantricdivinitiesin Japan;and[in fingojiTi A nearKyjto]therearethe two
See Bhattacharyya,Benoytosh, TheIndianBuddhistIconography,
mainlybasedon the Sddhanamili and OtherCognateTantric
Texts of Rituals, Oxford U.P., 1924, pp. 2, 6.
19
Getty, Alice, The Godsof NorthernBuddhism,znd ed. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1928, p.46.
20
a , T6kya, 1931ff., in 5 vols. [ACS] : only 2 of these
Mochizuki, Shinky6 V )]
;kj
-, Bukkyvdaiiten
had been published when Chapin wrote this study.
zI Matsunaga, Sh6da C 7J' a ., Mikkyj daijiten
@, Ky6to, 1933, in 3 vols.
5
22 Toganoo, J6un I
no kenkyl
i
, Kayasan University, K6yasan, z932.
, Risshb-k?yj
a)?f
6
0
s
.
Paris, 1914-24; those in the
a23Those in situ have been published without text by Pelliot, Paul, Lesgrottesde Touen-houang,
British Museum [and New Delhi] have been identified and catalogued by Waley, op.cit.; while those brought to the
Musee Guimet by Pelliot have been described by Hackin, J., in his Guide-catalogue
du Muse'eGuimet: les collections
boudInde centraleet Gandhara,Turkestan,Chineseptentrionale,
Tibet. Paris, van Oest,
dhiquesexpose',historiqueet iconographique;
1923.
24 This is one of the many names used in Hinduism for the god Gane'a: see Gopinatha Rao, Elementsof Hindu Iconography,
I, I, p. 47.
18

162

of the DiamondandWombCyclessaidto havebeenbroughtfromChinaby Kaba

mandalas

Daishiwhichif they arenot Chinese,areundoubtedlybasedon a Chinesemodel.

Therewas recentlyexhibitedin the MillsCollegeArt Gallery(Octoberto December,1934)

a T'angbronzeimageof Gane'a,theHinduelephant-headed
Lordof Obstacles,
belongingto
thedeFreycollection
in Paris.Ganega,
wasadmitted
into
togetherwithotherHindudivinities,
theTantricBuddhist
wherehe occursnotonlyasanobstructive
demontrampled
on
pantheon,
by Buddhistgods, but also as a Deva worthyof worship.He is foundin the Tun-huangpaint-

of the Thousand-armed
wherehe is attendant
on
Avalokitesvara,
ings,notablyin themandalas
KundaliVidyardja.
in itsvariousaspectswassubmerged
in Sungtimes
AlthoughtheTantricformof Buddhism
by the risingtideof popularityof theCh'ansect,neverthelessnot onlydidit producegreatartin
the fieldsof sculptureand painting,most of which, it is true, has been destroyedin the upheavalsthathaveone afteranothershakenChina,butit passedon its peculiarcultureto

Japan'5;

andevenin China,it hasleftindeliblemarkson popularthought.Forexample,

theUllambana
orAll soulsFestival(Yii-lan
schoolwhichAmoghavajra
is still
introduced
hui)of theYogdcdra
celebratedat the presentday26.Again,Tantricpracticeshaveevenfoundtheirwayinto Taoism.

in 1925,I witnessed
on threedifferent
occasions
WhileI wasin Shanghai
portionsof theTaoist
servicesheldcontinuously
forsevendaysandsevennightsat a Taoisttempleon PekingRoad
for the cessationof the KiangsuandChelkiang
Provincial
War,whichwasthenin action.At
hatanalogous
to thewuchih
oneof thenightservices,the Taoistpriest,wearinga five-capped

pao kuan.7of the TantricBuddhists,offereduncookedrice and waterto the hungryghosts.

Otherexamples
couldbe furnished.
Westernscholarshaveonlyrecentlybegunto realizethe

importanceof this phaseof Buddhismin China,thoughits undoubtedpopularityin Japanin

the Heian,Fujiwara,
[andKamakura]
periodsis a clearindicatorof whatis to be expectedin the

in India,China,and
landwhichwasNippon'smodel.A correlated
studyof TantricBuddhism
Japanwouldthrowmuchlightuponthestateof mindof theChineseof theT'angperiodand
in theart,phior misunderstood
explainmanypointswhicharetodayeitherincomprehensible
one
the
and
of
of
of
China's
literature
greatest
goldenages--aperiodduringwhichshe
losophy
outshoneallrivals.
A factwhichenhances
thevalueof thedocuments
wehaveforthisstudyis thechangewhich
of theearlierTantric
alargenumber
beyondrecognition
sweptawayortransformed
divinities'8,
thosewhichdisappeared
cults,
by godsadoptedfromTaoismandotherindigenous
replacing
2s The many fine paintings of Tantric divinities still extant in Japan point unmistakablytoward a high [prior] development
of this art in China.
26 I saw this festival on the
5th day of the 7th month in Pei-hai Park in Peking, in 1931. Repasts were set out for the
souls of the dead, and lighted lanterns set in real lotus flowers were floated on the lake. [These last were] originally
intended to guide the souls of the dead back to the world of shades, after their brief sojourn-from the 7th to I5th days
of the month-among the living.
27 This is the crown worn by many Tantric divinities with images of the Five Dhydni Buddhas, representing the Five
Wisdoms; and has been worn also by Tantric priests officiating at services for the dead. The hat worn by the Taoist
priest also had five figures painted on it; whether they retained their Buddhist names, were given Taoist ones, or were
nameless, I did not find out.
28 For instance, the six-armedform of Cintdmani-cakraAvalokite'vara, popular in T'ang times. I traced a modern painting
of this divinity to the atelier of the Yung Ho Kung in Peking, where the Lama artist confessed to having made the image
after the illustrations and text of a Japanese Buddhist dictionary, the Bukkyj daijitencompiled by Oda, Tokuna ~
in 1919.

163

both generalandlocal,andby manyhybridforms.Afterthe Mingdynasty,the Buddhist

to uswhoknowthosewe meetin theTun-huang
anarrayof facesunfamiliar
presents
pantheon
of manyof thesehybridgodsaredescribed
Thestrange
andillustrated
physiognomies
paintings.
in the pagesof Dord,Recherches
surlessuperstitions
enChine"9.
To cite a specificexample,the
of
the
attendants
Thousand-armed
in woodsculpture
Avalokiteivara,
twenty-eight
represented
of theMingdynastyat the Ta TungSs-i,outsidethe Shun-chih
Men(gate)of Peking,correwiththetwenty-eight
attendants
of thesamedivinityrepresented
spondin nota singleinstance
in the T'ang
in the BritishMuseumandthe MuseeGuimet.Thus,the greatnumberof
man..alas
of Buddhist
andsculptures
divinities
madein theMingandCh'ingdynasties
existingpaintings

areof butlittlehelpin elucidating

themysteries
of T'angandSungiconography;
andwe must
turnto the Tun-huang
and
a
few
other
documents
from
earlier
times,eked
paintings
genuine
outby a judicious
of thesamedivinities.
representations
studyof corresponding
Japanese
Beforeproceeding
to describe
thelongrollof Buddhist
imageswhichis thesubjectof this
for the studyof ChineseBuddhist
iconopaper,I wishto list theexistingoriginaldocuments
graphyof T'angandSungtime,eventhoughI havehadto referto mostof themalreadyin
of thisstudy.Of originalChinesepaintings
dealingwiththeimportance
datingfromthesetwo
the
and
short
era
of
strife
them
we
between
aside
from
a
few
isolatedspecimens,
have,
periods
suchas the so-calledHokkemandara
in the BostonMuseumof FineArtso30,
andseveralpictured

andsculptured
in different
discovered
imagespreserved
templesin Japan,onlythepaintings
by

SirAurelSteinin i906-08in the Ch'ien-foT'ung,or "Thousand-Buddha

caves"at Tun-huang,

in Kansuprovince,
China.Froma walled-up
taleof whichis related
chapelthere,theromantic
in thepagesof Serindia3I,
camemanyrollsof paintings
andmanuscripts,
a largeproportion
of
whicharein the BritishMuseum.
Othersareat NewDelhi,whilestillotherswerebroughtto
the MusdeGuimetby ProfessorPaulPelliot,who visitedthe site afterSirAurelStein.The
remainsweresentfor by theChinesegovernment,
butthereweremany"losses"on theway
fromTun-huang
to Peking,andeverynow andthenone of thesespecimens
turnsup in the
market.One suchpaintingis now-or was in 1932-in a privatecollectionin Peking.Manyof

theTun-huang
havefoundtheirwayto Japanin variousways.Twoorthreepaintmanuscripts
ings arein America,in the BostonMuseumof FineArtsandthe Fogg Museumat Cambridge;

butthesearecomparatively
fromthestandpoint
of iconography,
aswellasof art.
unimportant,
TheFoggMuseum
hasseveralfrescoes,broughtfromTun-huang
whichareof
byMr.Warner,
whichwerepublished
Thereremaininsitumanywall-paintings,
higherquality32.
by Pelliotin

deTouen-houang,
Lesgrottes
consistingof sixvolumesof plateswithouttext.SinceChinesesoldiers
havelivedin thesecavesanda Russianprisonerwas confinedfor sometimein one of them,it is
by no meanscertainthatmorethana smallproportionremainsin a conditionadmittingserious
study33.
en Chine,Shanghai, Missions Catholiques, 1911-34, in 16 vols.
sur les superstitions
Dor6, Henri, Recherches
Chapin's note on this picture is now entirely out-of-date and has been omitted. Recent discussions have questioned even the tradition that the work is Chinese, rather than Japanese.
a1 Stein, Sir Mark Aurel, Serindia,Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1921, In 5 volumes.
32 Siren, Osvald, History of Early ChinesePainting,London, Medici Soc., 1933,
P.49, pls.28, 29.
33 [ACS]:
Although some damage of the sort suggested by Chapin was suffered, particularlyin the lower wall surfaces
of the very beautiful Cave 70 (Pelliot), further deterioration was arrested and the caves were given at least temporary
protection by the establishment of the Tun-huang Institute in 1944 with government backing. Since the Second World
War the cave-shrines and their sculptures and paintings have been written about and illustrated many times. Because the

29

o0[ACS]:

164

SuccessiveGermanexpeditionsunderGrtinwedelandvon Le Coq studiedthe manypaintings on the wallsof cavesin Chotscho,Kutscha,Turfanand otherplacesin CentralAsia; and
von Le Coqbroughtbackfrescoesof considerable
sizewhicharenow on permanentexhibition
at the Museumfar V*lkerkunde,Berlin.Most of thesepaintingsareof but mediocrequality,
andnot all of themareimportanticonographically.
Theyinclude,however,severalvery good
Plate40)34; a numberportrayingusualsubjects,such
paintings:for examplea Hdriti(Chotscho,
as the dramaticsceneof the announcement
of the deathof the Buddhato KingAjStasatru
(AltPlates42-43); and morethanone strikingparallelwith the Tun-huangpaintingsand
Kutscha,
with our long roll. The baseof a colossalmandala
of the Thousand-armed
for
Avalokitesvara,
illustrated
on
Plate
of
the
shows
two
Nanda
and
32 Chotscho,
example,
dragonkings,
Upananda,
Sri
the
lotus
and
as
Vasu
and
and
stalk;
Rsi
attendants;
supporting
Mahddevi
KundaliVidydrdja
VajraYaksato rightandleft below, in practicallythe samerelativepositionsthey hold in the
mandalaof the Thousand-armedAvalokite'varain the Stein collection, describedon pages 54-59

as no.XXV in Waley'scatalogue.An extremelyinterestingimage of the six-armedform of

was foundby Grtinwedelin Cave27, B*iza*klik;
Avalokitesvara
Cintdmani-cakra
unfortunately
he illustratesit by a drawinginsteadof a photograph(see Altbuddhistische
in ChineKultstiitten
a designationwhichthoughit cannotbe said
sisch-Turkestan,
fig.590). He callsit a Padmapdni,
to be wrong,we mayabandonfor the less inclusivenameCintdmani-cakra.
This imagemaybe
comparedwith the examplescited and illustratedin my article"A studyin Buddhisticonoanddifferencesnoted.I cannotgo into detailshere,and
graphy",andcertaincorrespondences
so will add only thatSri MahideviandVasuRsi arein the picture,andthattherearefour attendantdivinitieswithinhaloeson lotusesjoinedto the mainstalk,who no doubtcorrespond
to the four divinitiesattendanton Cintdmani-cakra
in the long roll underdiscussion(seeinfra).
These discoverieshave been publishedby Granwedelin his Alt-Kutscha
and Altbuddhistische
in Chinesisch-Turkistans,
and by von Le Coq in Chotscho
and Die Buddhistische
SpaitKultstitten
in
antike Mittelasien36.
This last work,in sevenvolumes,was finishedaftervon Le Coq'sdeath
Ernst
Waldschmidt.
by
A Japaneseexpeditionfinancedby CountOtanialsoacquireda largenumberof manuscripts
and paintings, some of which are in the museum at Port Arthur (Ry6jun) while others are in
Ky6to. The pictureshave been publishedin a large illustratedwork of severalvolumes which I

have seen, but whichis not at presentavailableto me37.

subject is a peripheral one here, I shall not attempt an up-to-date bibliography. It should be pointed out at least that
published reproductions of the paintings took an amazing upward leap in quality with the appearanceof the Japanese
album Chzigokubijutsu(i.e. "Chinese Art"), K6dansha, T6ky6, vol.II on early Buddhist remains, 1965. This is now
available in an English-language edition, with a revised and expanded discussion of the Tun-huang wall paintings by
Prof. Akiyama Terukazu f, [I
$ : Arts of China,BuddhistCaveTemples,New Researches,
Tokyo and Palo Alto, 1969.
34 Le Coq, Albert von, Chotscho:Facsimile-Wiedergabe
derwichtigenFundedererstenK'niglichPreusdschen
ExpeditionnachTurfan
in Ost-Turkistan,Berlin, Reimer,
1913.
ArbeitenyonIppo bis IPo7
Berichtiiberarchdiiologische
35asGrtinwedel, Albert, Altbuddhistische
Kultstiittenin Chinesisch-Turkistan.
und
der
in
Oase
bei Kuca,Qarasahr
Turfan.Berlin, Reimer, 19I12.
und religionsgeschichtliche
an Tempera-Gemdlden
aus Buddhistischen
Idem, Alt-Kutscha. Archdologische
Forschungen
Hibhlender
erstenachtJahrhunderte
nachChristi Geburt.Berlin, Reimer, 192o0.
36 Le Coq, Die Buddhistische
Spiitantikein Mittelasien.ErgebnissederKgl.Preuss.TurfanExpeditionen.Berlin, Reimer, I1922-23.
In 7 vols.
2-,
37 [A CS]: This is a referenceto the reporton the expeditionsentby CountOtani V. 1 Wf,Shinseiikiki Vj fi
5k
ed. by Uehara Yoshitaro
, Tokyo, I937.
q, f t
.,

165

The PalaceMuseumroll, paintedbetweenthe yearsII73 and I176, containingrepresentations of hundredsof differentdivinitiesanddivineassemblies-manyTantric,includingVairoof T'ang
canaBuddha-furnishesvaluablematerialforthestudyof ChineseBudhisticonography
Buddhaarefound-once preachingto a
of Sakyamuni
and Sungtimes.Severalrepresentations
lotus-, as well as porgreatassemblage,and once at the centerof a huge thousand-petalled
of MaitreyaBuddha;
three
the
of
an
assemblages
traitsof the SixteenArhats; interestinggroup
Buddhawith his attendants,
togetherwith the textandillustrationsof his twelve
Bhai'ajyaguru
vows; numerousother Buddhas,Bodhisattvas,includingtwenty differentforms of Avalokiteivara;and Devas and guardians,amongwhom are severalugraor fierceforms,a type of
whicha few examplesoccurat Tun-huang.Of especialinterestis a groupwhichis probablythe
of the so-calledpatriarchsof the Ch'ansect. One of the finest
earliestknownrepresentation
compositionsin the rollis the sceneof the visit of Mafijuirito the idealBuddhistlaymanVimanirdeja
sfitra,a favoritework of Ch'anfollowers.We findthe same
lakirti,fromthe Vimalakirti
sceneengravedon a fine stone stelanow in the MetropolitanMuseum,New York City,and
paintedon the walls of the Tun-huangcaves,as well as on separatepaintingsfrom the same
site 8.

BesidestheseChinesepaintings,thereremainfor comparative
studyan enormousnumber
of Japanesepaintingsof the Nara,Heian,and Kamakuraperiods,those of the latterepochs

being by far the most numerousof the three. These Japaneserepresentationsthrow considerable

light on the Chinesemodelsfromwhichthey derive.In this briefessay,however,I shalldeal

only with the imagesof Buddhistdivinitiesin the PalaceMuseumpainting,with cursoryrefer-

ences here and there to similarrepresentationsin other works.

in theworkdoneby
existsfor the studyof ChineseBuddhist
A background
iconography
(already
scholarsin theIndianfield.Rao'scolossalworkon the Elements
ofHinduiconography
fromthe
is of greatvalue,asarealsothemanyvolumeson HinduTantricdoctrines
mentioned)
has conpen of Sir John Woodroffe(i.e. "ArthurAvalon")39.Dr. BenoytoshBhattacharyya

to
andAn Introduction
valuablebooks,IndianBuddhist
tributedtwo exceedingly
Iconography
[ACS]: For a recent, comprehensive study of this and other Six Dynasties Chinese renderings of the scene of the debate
38as
between Vimalakirti and Manju'ri, see Emma Bunker, "Early Chinese representations of Vimalakirti", Artibus Asiae,
XXX, 1, 1968, pp. 28-5 2. The subject matter of the scripture involved, the Vimalakirtinirdelasitra, has been translated
de Vimalakirti,Louvain, 1962.
and annotated with exemplary thoroughness and accuracy by E. Lamotte, L'enseignement
39 For a list of books on Tantric Hinduism by Sir John Woodroffe, see bibliography in my article, "A study in Buddhist
iconography" (note 14 above). These works are first-rate,and since the basic tenets of Hindu and Buddhist Tantrikaare
essentially the same, they are powerful aids to an understanding of Tantric Buddhism. So far as I am aware, no such
general and authoritative books relating to the latter exist. [ACS]: It should be pointed out that the authority of
Woodroffe's studies, along with several other classics of his generation dealing with Tibetan Lamaism, is being severely
challenged today by a Tantric practitioner and scholar, Aghenanda Bharati (of German birth, currently Professor at
Syracuse University, New York State). See, e.g. his review of P.H.Pott, Yogaund Yantra,in Artibus Asiae, XXX, 1,
in
I968, P. 95, where he speaks of "the well-meant but poorly informed effusions of a life-long neophyte Indology".
with
Tantric
with
side
side
interchanges of
Buddhism,
Hinduism
Tantric
did
Not
by
develop
only
[Chapincontinues]:
divinities as well as of ideas, but also the absorption of whole Buddhist communities into the Hindu fold, as Buddhism
died out in India, necessarily tinged Hinduism with Buddhist colors. In this connection see Vasu, Nagendranath, The
ModernBuddhismandits Followersin Orissa,Calcutta, published by the author, 1911. The title of the book is somewhat
misleading: it deals with Tantric Buddhist principles, mainly the belief in Mahd Sknya, the "Great Void", and divinities
found incorporated in doctrines and pantheon of those who are classifiedtoday as Vaishnavas, followers of Vienu. Their
corresponds closely to that of the Five Dhyani Buddhas [or Fivefinas], and as they constitute
theory of the Five
was no doubt adopted from Buddhism. See especially Vasu's pp. 82-ioo.
remnants of Buddhist
communities,
Vi.nus

166

besideseditingtheGuhya-samaja
Tantra
andotherSanskrit
Esoterism,
texts4o.Foucher's
Buddhist
a
two essayson IndianBuddhisticonography4l,
Burnouf'sIntroduction
dubouddhisme
l'histoire
andLaValleePoussin's
surl'histoire
deladogmatique43,
indien42,
opinions
Bouddhisme,
togetherwith
a numberof essaysandarticlesbyFoucher,Waddell,
and
others
deserve
mention.
OberTucci,
miller'stranslations
of the Uttaratantra
andof Bu-ston's
areinteresting
and
History
ofBuddhism
to the samesubject44.
valuablecontributions
ForChineseBuddhist
on theotherhand,littlehasbeendone.Petrucci's
notes
iconography,
in theAppendixto Serindia
areworsethanuseless,andMissAliceGetty'sbook,TheGodsof
is
far
from
exhaustive
andcontainsseriouserrors.
Northern
Buddhism,
duMIuseGuimet,
lescollections
Hackin'sGuide-catalogue
is valuable,
as arealsothe
bouddhiques
of Lamaism
andof BuddhistCentralAsiaby the sameauthor
sectionson the mythologies
TheMaisonFranco-japonaise
startedout ambitiously
withthe
includedin AsiaticMythology4s.
fromChineseandJapanesesources,but
an encyclopedic
of Buddhism
dictionary
Hibogirin,
althoughtheprojectwasstartedin i929, onlytwo volumeshavebeenissued,coveringitems
A longintervalhaslapsedsincetheissuanceof thesecondvolume,and
fromA to Buss6seki46.
The Ettudes
I do not knowwhetheror not furthervolumesarein processof compilation.
in memoryof Raymonde
Linossier
alsocontainssomegoodmaterial47.
d'orientalisme
published
of thepaintings
fromTunof valuemaybe foundin Waley'scatalogue
Muchinformation
NewDelhi,
AsianAntiquities
[nowtheNational
Museum],
huangandin theMuseumof Central
mentionedabove48.

hasbeen
theworksarealltoofew,thougha beginning
Onparticular
phasesof iconography
andJapan,is usefulthoughin somerespectsdisapin China
made.De Visser'sbook,TheArhats
in a Dutch
pointing.I understandthatthe sameauthorhas publisheda studyof Akdsagarbha
periodical,butI havenot seenit49.Noel Pdri'saccountof Haritiis excellent,andwe areindebted

18. Idem, An Introductionto BuddhistEsoterism,Oxford U.P., 1932. Also The GuhyasamajaTantraor Tathagata
Guhyaka,critically edited with introduction and index (introduction only in English), Oriental Inst., Baroda, 193I.
Dr. Bhattacharyyais also the editor of Two Vajrayina Works,Gaekwad's Oriental Ser.XLIV, Oriental Inst., Baroda,
which I have not yet seen.
41 Foucher, A.,
deI'Inded'apris desdocuments
tudesurI'iconographie
nouveaux,Paris, I9o00; and ttude surI'inconobouddhique
de I'Inded'apris destextes ine'dits,Paris, 1905.
graphiebouddhique
a I'histoiredu bouddhisme
42 Burnouf, E., Introduction
indien,Paris, I876.
43 Poussin, Louis de la Vallee, Bouddhisme,
Paris, 1909.
opinionssur I'histoirede la dogmatique,
44 Obermiller, E., trans.: Uttaratantra.TheSublimeScienceof the Great Vehicleto Salvation,beinga Manualof BuddhistMonism.
The Workof Arya Maitreyawitha Commentary
by Aryasanga.Acta Orientalia, IX, 1931.
( 29o-0d344).Historyof Buddhism.Materialienzur Kunde des Buddhismus, nos. 18,
Idem, trans.: Bu-stonRin-chen-grub-pa
19. Heidelberg, Harrassowitz, 1931-32.
(see note 23 above).
4s Hackin J., Guide-catalogue
Idem and others: Asiatic Mythology.Transl. by Atkinson, F.M., New York, Crowell, n.d.
(I9337).
46 Demieville, P., Ltvi, S., and Takakusu, S.: Hobgirin, dictionnaire
du bouddhisme
d'apris les sourceschinoiseset
encyclope'dique
..
2
Ceased
Maison
[
publicationafter vols.]
franco-japonaise, 1929-.
japonaises,T6ky6,
47 Musee Guimet, Paris: L-tudesorientalespublie'espar
de RaymondeLinossier,Paris, 1932. 2 vols.
le Muse'eGuimeta la me'moire
48 [ACS]: See note 8 above. Chapin inadvercently omitted to list Stein's The Thousand
Buddhas:AncientBuddhistPaintings
Borderof China. London, 1921. He and F.H.Andrews together
from the Cave Templesof Tun-huangon the Westernmost
published the Buddhist paintings found still farther west in Sinkiang in Wall PaintingsfromAncient Shrinesin Central
Asia, London, 1948. 2 vols.
49 De Visser, M.W., The Arhats in ChinaandJapan, Berlin, Oesterheld, 1923. Idem, "The Bodhisattva Akgagarbha (Kokuz6) in China and Japan", Verhand.der kon.akad.vanwetensch.te Amsterdam,1931.
[ACS]: In relation to the "long roll" also an earlier study, "The Bodhisattva Ti-tsang (JizS: i.e. Keitigarbha)in China
and Japan", Ost.Zeit., 2, 1913-14, and 3, 1914-15.

40 See note

I67

to himalsofor a reviewof Matsumoto'sMirokujidiron,whichthrowssomelight on the literatureconnectedwith the Maitreyacults0o.

in ChinaandJapan,is
theMantrayinic
R.H. vanGulik'sHayagriva,
Aspectof theHorse-cult
for his
mantra
andinstructions
of Hayagriva's
excellent.Of specialinterestarethetranslations

worships.

iconoTherearealsotwo articlesby thepresentwriter,oneentitled"A studyin Buddhist

to which
theAddenda
ofAvalokiteivara]
[dealing
graphy"
withthesix-armed
Cintimani-cakraform
Thelattercontainsa transarenowin press,andtheothercalled"TheCh'anMasterPu-tai"sz.
theconnection
noteexplaining
of Pu-tai,togetherwithaniconographical
lationof thebiography
betweenthatmonkandimagesof Mi-loFo, theChineseMaitreya.
I thinkthatI havementioned,if not all, at leastmost of the workwhichhas been donein

of T'angandSungtimes.
theWestin thefieldof ChineseBuddhist
iconography
In this fieldthe Japanesehavefar outstripped
anyothernation,andmuchmaterialof
in the Japanese
valueremainsshutto Westernscholarsin publications
inestimable
language.
whotogetherareeditingtheTaishd
andOnoGemmyo,
Theworkof Takakusu
shinshbi
Shunjir6
Thisiconographicsupplementto the Tripitakapublishesfor the
Dai.zkyjZu.Z,is importants53.

of riteslikethe
of deities,togetherwithexplanations
firsttimemanylongrollswithdrawings
nokenkyR
homa.ToganooJ6unis responsiblefortwo helpfulandinterestingworks,theMandara
is inMochizuki'snew five-volumedictionary,Bukkyjdarjiten,
and the Risshikyjnokenkyzs54.

one-volume
sinceOdaTokuno's
is,I believe,outof printss.
Bukkyd
especially
dispensable,
dariiten
a dictionary
of esotericBuddhism,
Thethree-volume
by Matsunaga
Mikkyjdaijiten,
Shad6,is
there
veryhelpfulforthestudyof Tantricdivinities.BesidesthesefewthatI havementioned,
authorsonChinese
area greatmanyotherbooksandarticlesof highvaluewrittenbyJapanese
with
characters
andtranswhich
are
a
number
of
Buddhist
andJapanese
given
iconography,
and
to myarticle"Astudyin Buddhist
in thebibliographies
literation
iconography"
appended
to its Addenda.
it willbe seen,hasonlyjustbegun.We
workof studyingseparate
Theimportant
divinities,
likethose
divinities
havethegeneralworkof WaleyandHackin,anda fewarticlesonparticular
Good
byPdri,deVisser,vanGulik,andthepresentwriter;butthesoilhasonlybeenscratched.
imthe
studies
of
all
with
are
scholars
of
the
work
translations
of
needed,together
Japanese
andsculptures
illustrated
fromtheoriginalpaintings
portantdivinitiesandformsof divinities,
whichremainto us fromT'angandSungtimes,or fromthosewhichweremadein Japanon

Chinesemodels. The long rolls, includingthe PalaceMuseumpaintingand those, whether

Chineseor Japanese,whicharein templecollectionsin Japan,areto be studiedandcompared,
franaise de l'extrime Orient(hereafter referred to as BEFEO),
so P6ri, N., "Hariti, la mtre-de-demons", Bull. de l'e'cole

Hanoi,XVII,

1917.
Idem in BEFEO,
XI, 1911.
Robert
Van
Gulik,
s5
H., Hayagriva,TheMantrydnicAspect of the Horse Cult in ChinaandJapan, Leyden, Brill, 1935.
s2 Chapin, "Study", see note 14 above.
Idem, "The Ch'an Master Pu-tai", Jour. of the AmericanOrientalSoc., 53, I, 1933.
r
j
3 g
and Ono G. lj\ f A 4, editors, Taishj shinshADaiZ6kyd6Zuyz
A
/A Jj)&
s53 Takakusu S.
5
vols.
only
to
consult
was
In
12
which
Chapin
Tokyo,
[of
,
able
1933-...
5].
653 Ej , Kbyasan, 1932.
,
Mandarano kenkyf
s4 Toganoo,
ff,
22
note
above.
Idem,
ss55See note 28 above. A general Buddhist one-volume dictionary in Japanese.

168

andtextsdealingwith the divinitiesrepresented

areto be translated.
Further,thesestudies
shouldbe madein correlation
withtheworkdonein theIndianfield.
Rather
thanattempting
toassemble
anexhaustive
relevant
that
of everything
bibliography
hasbeen
since
the
above
was
I
shall
mention
a
works
written,
published
only very
few
ofparticular
valueto thepresent
There
is
now
a
and
treatment
study.
competent thorough
highly
byMarieTherisedeMallmann
in India,as revealed
bothin scriptural
of thecultof Avalokitelvara
andinremaining
DaleSaunders
hasproduced
a polylingual
workontheBudwritings
images.
lessfrmlygrounded
in its handling
thanin
dhistmudr!which,although
of theIndianevidence
its description
esoteric
is
An authoritative
of Japanese
practises, indispensable.
generaldis-

cussion
artbyDietrich
Seckel
hastheadded
valueofa longbibliography
of Buddhist
ofbooks
in Western
outpriorto i9f7), which
covers
thefieldsof Buddhism
and
(worked
languages
Asiatichistoryas wellas iconography,
andpainting.An encyclopedic
architecture,
sculpture,

workontheiconography
Matsumoto
oftheTun-huang
andportable
paintings,
frescoes
Eiichi's
cD
R, waspublished
afewyearstoolatefor
SS
Tonk6-gano kenkyf t r
itsfindings
to beincorporated
intoChapin's
a generation
study;it is stillunique,
laters6.

As individual
themes
below
in Chapin's
studies
text,I shallciteother
appear
post-Chapin
where
topublish
continue
morethananyone
Fornonelse,inJapanese.
anyexist.TheJapanese
tosomeoftheirworkisprovided
apartialaccess
summaries
in
linguists,
byEnglish-language
themonthly
Kokka,andin thequarterlies
BijutsukenkyiandBijutsushi (thelattertwo
thenthefirst). A prolific
abstracted
scholar
Buddhist
beingmorecarefully
Japanese
of esoteric

an excellent
smallhandbook
onBuddhist
iconoart, SawaRyfkenf i R ff , hasproduced
graphyin theFar East, withusefuldrawingss.
Thetwinmandalasto whichChapinrefersseveral
timesas epitomes
lorein the
of esoteric

a littlecloser
tocomprehensibility
studies:
FarEasthavebeen
bytwoWestern-language
brought
anarticle
ontheiconography
alonebyMrs.Beatrice
LaneSuzuki(thewifeof
oftheTaizrkai
theZenscholar),
anda comprehensive
by Tajima
studyof bothwiththeirtextualsources
deux
la
Les
et
doctrine
d'esoterisme
Back
grandsmandala
Shingons58. ofboth
Ryjun,
bookinJapanese
to (n. r4
already
by Toganoo
of theseliesthestill moreencyclopedic
referred

wrotetherewerealready
a goodmanyexcellent
reabove).WhenChapin
Japanese
facsimile
collections
inhandscrollform,
productions,
ofimportant
oficonographical
drawingsfrom
Shingon
orthirteenth
centuries.
A major
recent
to
addition
temples,
dating
probably
fromthetwelfth
is
thisveryconvenient
esoteric
material
the
Tendai
calledtheGobu
typeof study
assemblage
Ego
@
shinkan
preserved
at Miidera- -5g near
, of whichthetwoearliestexamples
,

Chinese
theothera contemporary
Japanese
original,
Ky~to--oneperhapsa midninthcentury
copy--are nowavailable
infacsimile
rollss9.

a l'e'tude
Guimet,LVII, Paris, 1967. Saunders
s6 [A CS]: de Mallmann, M.-T., Introduction
d'Avalokitevara:Annalesdumuse'e

Kunst
E.D., Mudra: a Studyof SymbolicGesturesin JapaneseBuddhistSculpture,New York, 196o. Seckel, D., Buddhistische
2
in
Tonki-gakenky)# )& 1
Ostasiens,Stuttgart, 1957. Matsumoto, E., CA*z
1937,
,
vols.
T6kya,
A,
4--,
W
s7 [ACSJ: Sawa R., it ; @a i , ButsuZ6Zuten1,
4,
TOky6, I962.
s8 [ACSJ: Suzuki, B.L., "The Shingon School of MahdydnaBuddhism: Part II, The Mandara; the Taizo Kai", The
EasternBuddhist,VII, I and 2, 1936 and 1937. Tajima R., Les deuxgrandsmandalaet la doctrined'esoterisme
Shingon,Bull. de
la maison franco-japonaise,n.s. VI, Tokyo-Paris, 1959.
s9 [ACS]: See Takata, O.,
Ef @ in BijutsukenkyR,no. i73, 1953, pp. I39ff., with a good English summary. The full
roll, much better preserved, is apparently the Chinese original.

169

THE PAINTING

Afterthus outliningthe backgroundandplacingthe paintingtherein,I shallproceedto give a

generaldescriptionof the long roll whichis the subjectof the presentpreliminary
study.
It is 51 feetlong, excludingthe inscriptionsat the end.Theimagesarepainted,as [a colophon
writtenin 1763 by] the EmperorCh'ien-lungtells us, on papermadefrom the mulberry,of
excellentqualityand old60;thoughfine in textureit is durable.The work is well executedin

colorsandgold,redpredominating.
Severalshadesof mauve,winecolorandmaroon,
together
withyellow,orange,green,andbluearealsoused.Thebluehasfadedmuch.Thedrawing,
for
themostparticonographically
correctaccording
to thecanonsof thetime,is freein its useof
A fewpartsarein monochrome,
andwere
flowinglineandthecolorssingtogetherin harmony.
leftunfinished.
Onesectionseveralfeetinlengthis byaninferiorhand,andsomeparts
probably
havebeenretouched,notablythe BrahmiandIndragroupsandalso,slightly,the faceof
Thepaintingis attributed
in aninscription
writtenbythemonkMiao-kuang
CintZimani-cakra.
in A.D. 180to ChangSheng-wen,
aboutwhomnothingfurtheris known.
Thescrollhasbeenconsiderably
mutilated.
Eachfigure,or groupof figures,wascutaway
fromitsfellows,eventhegreatassemblies
beingcutupintofromthreeto sixsections,andthe
wholemadeintoanalbum,asCh'ienLungtellsus in hisinscription,
andthenremounted
asa
roll6l. Manyfiguresareentirelymissing,as,for example,two of the EightGreatDragonKings

andtwo,also,theRedBirdandthe BlackWarrior
(thesnakeandthetortoise)of theSsuShen,
or Godsof theFourDirections.
TheGreenDragonandtheWhiteTiger62,
theothertwoof the
sixdragonkingsto makeupthenumbereight.Many
four,havebeenplacedwiththeremaining
are
for
the
of theBuddha
as, example, Temptation
parts misplaced,
byMdraandhishosts,which
is put at the beginningof the roll afterthe two Vajrapi~ni.
Perhapsthis groupis the only one

leftof thewellknownseriesof eightscenesfromSdkyamuni's

life.Thoughtherearethuslines
of junctionbetweenthevariouspartsof thepaintingandthoughotherpartsaremissingand
still othersmisplaced,neverthelessthe paintingitselfis well preserved,beingbut slightlyworn
andfaded.Its valueas an iconographicdocument,in spiteof its mutilation,is extremelyhigh.

Aninscription
on thepaintingitself,accompanying
theImperial
whichprecedes
procession
thedivinitiesof thepantheon,
reads:64
60 See below, p. 187.
61 See below, p. 188.
62 See below, p. 193. The White Tiger as depicted here strongly resembles a dragon. The same thing is true of the
representations of him in the 6th century tomb paintings near Heij6 [i.e. Pyongyang]in Korea; on the throne of the Buddha
Bhai'ajyaguruin Yakushiji, Nara; and elsewhere. [ACS]: As my comment, p. I96, points out, it "strongly resembles
a dragon" because it is a dragon. Chapin mixed up the two symbolic creatures because she followed their identifying
labels-which are reversed-instead of depending on her eyes.
63 See below, p. 192.
64 In the case of earlier regimes in the same part of the country, for example that of Nan Chao f i (A.D. 728-898),
which was far more powerful than the Hou Li, the Chinese emperor conferred on the king a [subordinate]title, Yiin-nan
Wang or Nan Chao Wang. But at the time of the Ta Li (937-1o94) and Hou Li (io96-I1253) kingdoms, the rulers were
calling themselves emperors, [Huang Ti], without the sanction of their powerful neighbor, who had her hands full
with enemies to her north and northwest. This information is taken from the Nan Chaoyehshih,for which see note 65.
[ACSJ: It is more accurate to say that the imperial titles, Huang Ti and the native P'iao-hsin @t {, were usurped
first under the later Nan Chao, by the i ith ruler of that line, in 860. Then as later the Yiinnanese were taking advantage
of Chinese preoccupation with greater threats elsewhere.

170

Li-chenHuang-tiP'iao-hsinhua, "The EmperorLi-chen[the P'iao-hsinhadthispicture]

painted."
Huang-tiis of coursethe Chinesetermfor emperor,thoughthe proudsons of Han never
recognizedthe use of the title for thesepettykingletsof the barbarousSouth6s.P'iao-hsinwas
the nativetermfor emperor,as we aretold by the Nan Chaoyehshih66.
Li-chenwearson his clothesthe sacredsymbolsdescribedin the Bookof Ritesandthe Book
of History,which were used to adornthe robes of the Son of Heaven67,Emperorof all the
Chinas--ifI maybe permittedto borrowthe Russianway of phrasing,whichwell connotesthe
gloryandpoweremanatingfromthe Chineseruler,at leastat the timeswhenhe heldswayover
Turkestan,Mongolia,and other countries,as was the case duringa part,at any rate,of the
gloriousdynastyof T'ang.Even whenthosejewelswerelost, he retaineda good dealof glory
and splendor.
Li-chenwas one of the reignnamesadoptedby TuanChih-hsing a N, the fourthruler
.
of the Hou Li Kingdom,whichlastedfromio96 to 1253, whenit wasconquered
bytheMongols
and madea partof the empire.He was of the sameTuanfamilythat had foundedthe Ta Li
undera usurper]the
Kingdom and had ruled it from 937 to 1094. After a two years'[interregnum

a regime]
nameof ruler,if not the power,[heading
knownas
Tuanagaincameinto the hereditary
Hou Li or LaterTa Li68. The maineventsof the reignof TuanChih-hsingmaybe foundin the
[ACS: This footnote, taken from Chapin's later study, "Yiinnanese images", p. 142, is substituted for the original as a
bA
more accurate description of the Nan Chaoyehshih
f _5 and the problems it raises].
The Nan Chaoyehshihis an unofficial history of Yiinnan attributed to Yang Shen @ (in 155o) and revised by Hu
l.
Wei if g in I775. Published separately, 'it is' also included in the Yiin-nants'ung-shu
[anthology].The
edition used by us is that of Yiian Chia-ku
cyclical yearping-ch'en(I856?). This book has been translatedinto
V,., ye-che, Histoireparticulibredu Nan-tchao,traductiond'unehistoirede
French by Camille Sainson under the title, Nan-tcbao
l'ancienYun-nan.The edition used by M. Sainson was printed in Yiinnan in 1880; the differencesbetween the two editions
are slight. This translation is not without error and should be consulted together with the corrections made, apparently
independently, by Chavannes,E., in T'oungpao,V, 190o4,pp. 473-81, and by Pelliot in BEFEO, IV, 1904, pp. 1094-1127.
The latter is the more comprehensive.
[ACS]J: The same volume of BEFEO also contains valuable data on the Nan Chao state by Pelliot in his "Deux itin6raires de Chine en Inde a la fin du viii siecle", pp. I3Iff., esp. p. I42ff. In connection with the Nan Chaoyehshih,Pelliot
criticizes both the accuracy of the translation by Sainson (what Chapin abbreviates as the NCYS, Fr.) and the quality
of the edition of the text used (Chapin's NCYS, Ch.). Notwithstanding the mid-Ming date claimed, 15yo, he believes
that a great deal was probably added in 1775 by Hu Wei. A clearly related but considerably briefer version exists, assigned
to a different Ming author, Yiian Yiian-sheng PG T {; while under the name Yang Shen there is a still shorter early
X i . Both of these last are reprinted in an important collection of Yiinhistory or pseudo-history, the Tientsai-chi?g
b
nanese source material that in 1904, according to Pelliot, was hard to come by, the Yiin-nanpei chengchih
Aj
LI (in 20 chapters, compiled in 183I by Wang Sung E g). This is now readily available in a reprint of I913,
incorporated in the historical portion of the Yiin-nants'ung-shu:the briefer Nan Chaoyehshihin viii, and the Tientsai-chi
in vii. Also included, in v, is a short, confused, but occasionally very interesting quasi-history, the Chi ku Tien shuo
1
, with a colophon dated I265 and signed by a certain Chang Tao-tsung
~.

" term P'iao-hsin see

66 For the
NCYS, Fr., p. 14 and NCYS, Ch., i, p. 2b. [ACS]: The first adoption of this title is recorded for A.D. 809: see Fr., p. 57, and Ch., i, p. 19b. In BEFEO, IV, pp. 164-65, Pelliot traces the term to an early
Burmese Pyfi-shin, "Prince of the Pyii".
67 These twelve symbols are listed by Herbert Giles in his Introduction
to the Historyof ChinesePictorialArt, p. 2. They are
illustrated in the Liu chingt'u )"
H , compiled by Cheng Chih-ch'iao V ; 7R in 1743, in ch.iv, pp. 15a-16b. The
title of this book may be rendered "Illustrations to the Six Classics": the titles and explanations of the symbols are given
according to the Shu ching,or Book of History.
68 See the table of the rulers of Yiinnan in NCYS, Fr., p. 274. These dates were obtained by M. Sainson by transforming
the Chinese reign dates and corresponding Yiinnanese dates, as given in the text, into the terms of Western chronology.
It is an easy matter to find in numerous published chronological tables, such as those included in H. Giles' or R.
Mathews' Chinese-English
dictionaries,the Western equivalents for the dynastic dates of China proper; but without the
Nan Chaoyehshih it would be impossible-unless some similar texts were found-to find the dates for the reign names

65

I7I

andtheprevioushistoryin thepages
NanChaoyeh
shihon pp.1o4-06of theFrenchtranslation,
into
further
detail
It
to
here;andI mayaddonlythatit was
preceding. willnotbenecessary go
to
notunusualfortheChineseto referto emperors
by theirreignnames,as[Tuan]is referred
is reallythe reignnameof the Emperor
by Li-chenin ourpainting.ForexampleCh'ien-lung
KaoTsungShunHuang-ti.
THE INSCRIPTIONS
AND THEIRDATES
of thelongroll,I shallrecordmytranslations
of threeof
Beforedealingwiththeiconography
to be foundat the end,followingthepantheon:
thoseby Miao-kuang
the[seven]inscriptions
ki. , by SungLien* 0, andbytheEmperor
Ch'ien-lung.
It maybe wellfirstto explainthecorrectinterpretation
of the dategivenby Miao-kuang.
Thisnamemeans"WonderfulLight"andis the namein religionof a Buddhistmonk.He gives

u F , of the period
the dateof his ownwritingas the fifthyear,cyclicalcharacters
keng-tzu
Sheng-teAi., the firstmonthandeleventhday.TheChinesescholarSungLien,whoseinfollowsthatof Miao-kuang,
refersthisdatetothefourthyearoftheperiod
provisionally
scription

'
in the reignof the EmperorLi Tsungof
Chia-hsi R,,whichhasthe samecyclicalcharacters,
Hegivesnoreasons
Sung,A.D. I240.HewasfollowedinthiserrorbytheEmperor
Ch'ien-lung.

seeforhimself;andreference
forhischoiceof thisyear,asthereaderwillpresently
to theNan
makesit apparentthathis guesswas justsixtyyearsoff.
shih69
Chaoyeh

In the Nan Chao

startedin the
yehshihwe aretold thatthe reignof EmperorChih-hsing

eighthyearof the periodCh'ien-taoC - of EmperorHsiaoTsungof Sung,or

The next

I172.

thenamegivenon ourpainting;andlater[he
yearhe changedthenameof hisreignto Li-chen,
it again]to Sheng-te,the nameusedbyMiao-kuang.Sincetheyearassignedthe character
changed

in thesixty-year
combination
cyclewastheseventhof theSungperiodShun-hsi- Ke,
keng-tzu
or A.D. i i80, thatmusthavebeenalsothefifthyearof [theYiinnanese
period]Sheng-tereferred

to by Miao-kuang.
Workingbackward,we see thatthe periodLi-chenbeganin II73 andended
in I175.BetweenII73 andI176,then,the long rollof Buddhistimagesmusthavebeenpainted.
I believethe paintingto be the originalpaintedat that time and not a copy70;in the first
placebecauseit is so well done,andin the secondbecausetheiconographyis comparable,
among

fromTun-huang
Chineserepresentations,
anddiffers
onlywiththe T'angandSungpaintings
given on the Palace Museum painting, and on the one from Yiinnan formerly owned by Messrs.Yamanakaand Co., and
now in [the Fujii Ytirinkanin Japan;for whichseeSoper,Foreword,p. 8ff.]. The date on this painting, [whichis a copydone
a half centurylater], is 899. This date and that of the Palace Museum roll, Ii173-76, were both first established by the
present writer.
69 NCYS, Ch., i, p.42-a; NCYS, Fr., pp.
o104-0o5.
70 All Sung Buddhist paintings which are not definitely Ch'an (i.e. impressionistic brush-and-ink work) were, I believe,
based in general, if not in particular,on T'ang models. There must have been many long rolls of Buddhist divinities
made all over China in T'ang times. This Palace Museum painting is all the more important in that it is the only one
of its kind, so far as I know, which has escaped the ravages of time. That there are many similar rolls in Japan, many
of which have now been published for the first time in the TaishdshinshR
Dai.zky6 Zu.z, is certainly very strong evidence
in favor of this view.
[A CS]: The presumed mid-9th century Chinese original of the Gobushinkanroll of iconographic drawings, preserved
in Miidera (see note 59 above) is a vivid demonstration of Chapin's point. It differs from the Ta Li roll in being iconographicallycompact, instead of heterogeneous, and in being drawn, not colored.

172

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N : , . i!iii~~~~iii!i
'.i
i~ii~ii~i~
i ,,"
i~i,

!,<
:',':..
i
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'"

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The long roll of Buddhist images: colophons by Priest Miao-kuang (right) and Sung Lien (left).
Collectionof the National PalaceMuseum,Taipei, Taiwan,Republicof China.

'lo

il4W
X4,

A A-

:,r

?A

Pl. 3 The long roll: colophons by Priests Lai-fu (right) and Tseng-ying (left).

il)ilk

i!ii'i~liii!!iiiiiiii~ii044i

Pl. 4 The long roll: colophon by an unidentified monk.

i:

:i:.MOO^"_

)fm

:___
I;
Inv

42

JL

i : z.-:

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IT

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i:

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sw

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i:

:-::-------::--:---i~
~t~

IAN.iiiiii:iii-iui_
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i-iiiii~ii:i

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--:';"'--il~ii--iii-i--i
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:-i: ~i- :

-.

'iPISM
O,:i

.~Hp:
:

i-

i:

::w

The long roll: colophons by Priests Tsung-lo (right) and Lai-fu (left).

~ii-iii:?.

:i ~

i-:

i~-

-:

i:

-i~

:%;
......
..

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P1. 6 The long roll: the Hou Li emperor and his retinue.

i:. iiiii!:!!
i...........

:,:

'i i+--

i i- :

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ss,

:
Is

.
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i

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i

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i i~i(...

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P1. 5 The long roll: the Hou Li imperial retinue.

.4k.

ist
4J..

iiii~d~Eiiii
a8i
iii`
,ii:~iiii'i"
,,,:,,,

-i-ii-i-iiii
iiiii
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i x ikNii,,.4w:

41?

Pl. 7 The long roll: two Vajrapini and the Temptation.

-- ~

~i

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~
~~~~
i

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~i-!!i:!7T
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.

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17

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The long roll: river guardians(?)

2(

21

VWK

OWMMMA

mo:-::-::::

iis
:i-~:-i~_:--i-i---:i--i~iii--- -:_
i-i~-iii:

L7

ii--i-::iiiii
~iii
iiiiiiiiii-ii-iiiiii
i:-~:i
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i-.~i~-i-:::_i

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:::::::::
:::
-:::::
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ON.

Pl. iT The long roll: Indra and Brahmd.

U:

fromall laterMingandCh'ingwork.Moreoverall the Chineseconnoisseurs

immeasurably
on Paintingsof the PalaceMuseumagreedin pronouncing
it the
composingthe Committee
of the inoriginalSung[period]painting.Besidesthe paintingitselftheyhadthe calligraphy
theauthenticity
of anyof them,onebeingdated
bywhichto judge.Nonequestioned
scriptions
a
few
later
than
the
is by SungLien,a scholar
only
years
paintingitself.Thesecondinscription
of theopeningyearsof theMingdynasty,
of whosewritingtherearea numberof [other]specimensin thePalaceMuseum.If it hadbeena forgery,the connaisseurs
wouldhaverecognized
it assuch.SungwasConsulting
Scholar
to theEmperor
thefirstMingruler,andwas
Hung-wu,
famousforhislearning
andcalligraphy;
hehasbeencalled"thechiefliterary
manof theopening
yearsof theMingdynasty71."
Therefollowtentativetranslations
of the threeinscriptions,
areillus[thefirsttwoof which
trated].
a) By Miao-kuang
(Platei):
The artistChangSheng-wenof the Ta Li Kingdomhas askedme for a record[of my
hispaintingof variousdivinities,doneforthebenefitof allbeings.
thoughts]concerning
Thereis theVoid;thereis theAbsolute.TherebeingtheAbsolute,theremustbetheVoid.
Fromthe midstof the Void,fromthe depthsof the absolute,therespontaneously
arisesthe
Fromtheming-hsiang
arisestheoriginal
ming-hsiangn.
powern.Fromthispowercomethemanifold
of life.Thereis thecrowdof beings;therearetheBuddhas.
Thecrowdof beingsis
phenomena
theseaof Buddhas
is withoutlimit.Dualitycausesformsandhardship.
immeasurable;
To save
frombitterness
andpromoteknowledge
therearealltheimages.Truly,theyareasif divine.
Theartistadmired
andwasinfluenced
andWu[Tao-tzu]
by thestylesof Chang[Seng-yu]
andapproaches
thebeautyof theworksleftby Wu.74
7x[ACS]: Chapin quoted this statement from the Ch'ing dynasty appendix (by P'an Tsun-chi 1 L J)T)to the Shangyu
lu
Liao
a kind of
by
Yung-hsien M ff g,
M ,&
biographical dictionary; ch.xvii, p. I7,b. Sung Lien has a paragraph in H.Giles' BiographicalDictionary,no. 1836, giving the dates 131o-81, and an official biography in Ming shih,
cxxviii. Among his other accomplishments, he was a prolific writer of colophons.
is the primordial ether.
72 The ming-hsiang
[ACS]: I cannot find any justification for Chapin's rendering here. The term is lacking entirely in the general dictionaries that I have consulted, including the mighty Dai Kanwajiten.I cannot find it in any of the Japanese Buddhist
dictionaries that Chapin used. In W. E. Soothill and L.Hodous, A Dictionaryof ChineseBuddhistTerms,London, 1937,
p.263, it is defined as: early dawn, the proper time for a monk to break the night's fast; brightness. This same very plain
meaning fits the one citation given in the P'ei wenyfinfu, a quotation from the Latkdvatdrasatra. A letter from Prof.
E. Lamotte of the University of Louvain, dated 11 July, 1969, gives several scripturalreferences substantiating the use
of ming-hsiang
as the standard equivalent for the Sanskrit aruna,dawn.
73 This term, i ch'i - X, corresponds to the Taoist T'ai-chi, the Great Monad, or primummobile,from which issue the
Yin and Yang, or negative and positive principles or forces; which in turn, by their interaction, produce the "1o,ooo
things".
74 Chang Seng-yu was a famous artist who flourished in Nanking under the Liang dynasty; he was much employed by the
Emperor Wu Ti (r. 5o02-49).See Siren, Early ChinesePainting,I, pp. 22-24.
Wu Tao-tzu's name is undoubtedly the most celebrated in the annals of Chinese painting. He flourished in the middle of
the 8th century and besides much other work painted a number of noted frescoes on the walls of Buddhist temples
in the capital, Ch'ang-an. See Siren, I, 71-79.
[Miao-kuang'ssecond]Wu, although pronounced in the same way as the Wu Aiof Wu Tao-tzu's name, is written with
a differentcharacter,
In all these three cases, the surname only is given; and while it is practicallycertain that Chang
A-. are meant
Seng-yu and Wu Tao-tzu
by the first two names, the identity of the third is problematical. It is possible that
Wu Ching-tsang
0 #, who lived in the T'ang dynasty and was known for his paintings of "gods and demons" is
j- hand Wu
meant. On the other
Tung-ch'ing j-j np ep may be intended. He was a man of Ch'ang-shawho worked under

I83

likethis:
I prefersomething
thereis an Ultimatethereis a Void.
Lo, thereis a Void,andthereis a Ultimate.Where
In themidstof VoidandUltimatea Brightness
as of dawnis spontaneously
That
generated.

thesingle
Thatsingle
Ch'igenerates
theuniverse.
generates
Ch'i,[thelife-principle].
Brightness

a Buddha
arenumberless;
Thelivingbeings
theBuddhaappears.
Whentherearelivingbeings,
sea is illimitable.Oneafteranother
comewaysandforms,sorrowuponsorrow,andthen

allis reflections
Foronewhotrulyknows,
andimages;
intheworkofsalvation
salvation.
these
aretrulygod-like.
onthestylesleftbyChang
andWu,andfindpeace
Onelookswithadmiration
inthebeauty
leftbyAilaster
oftheworks
Wu.
It is fittingto desirethatthe crowdof beingsshouldhavethe Buddhanatureat heart.There

Wonders
areonlyBuddhaandthe crowdof beings;thesacredandprofanearenot different.
fromhis heart.Whenthe family
powerradiates
springfromthe handof the artist;spiritual
will be at peaceandwill also
reverences
divinitythe countrywill flourishandtheindividual
be rich.
in thefifthyear,cyclicalcharacters
of theperiod
WrittenbythemonkMiao-kuang
keng-tzu,
Sheng-te,thefirstmonth,theeleventhday.
(Platei):
b) SungLien'sinscription
of theTaLiKingTherollof Buddhist
imageswaspaintedbytheMaster
ChangSheng-wen
thereis the
dom.An inscription
saysthatit waspaintedfor the EmperorLi-chen.Afterward
the firstmonth,the
datedthe fifthyear,cyclicalcharacters
recordby Miao-kuang,
keng-tzu,
All
in
the
are
color
and
and
eleventhday,of the Sheng-tereign.
images
gold allareextremely
wellpainted.Thecalligraphy,
too, cannotbe calledbad.
in thetimeof theHandynasty,calledYeh-yu.At thetimeof T'ang
Ta Li wasoriginally,

tribeswere in possessionof it. In the

it was known as Nan Chao.VariousMan[aboriginal]

to TaLi k n, whichagainwas
its namewasTaMeng.Thenthenamewaschanged
beginning
Chin,whenthe Shihfamilywasruling
changedto Ta Li gH. At the timeof the Posterior
it wasunderTuanSsu-p'ing.By the closeof the Sungdynastyit hadbecomevery
[China],
KaoHsiangandKaoHo.Duringthe
wasin thehandsof twobrothers,
weak.Thegovernment
Ytiandynasty,the MongolEmperorHsienTsungdestroyed
the kingdomanddividedit up
into prefecturesand districts.
The cyclicalyearkeng-tzu
referredto was probablythe fourthyearof the Chia-hsiperiodin
the Northern Sung dynasty. He studied the style of Wu Tao-tzu and was noted for his [secular]figure paintings; he did
stellar divinities, Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and Arhats. There is also Wu Tsung-yiian A' 'EC, who flourished ca. oio
and painted Buddhist subjects in the style of Wu Tao-tzu... The man referred to was evidently not so famous as Chang
Seng-yu or Wu Tao-tzu, and yet he may well have had a considerable and not undeserved reputation.
[ACS]: I have omitted two obsolete references to indices of Chinese painters. Probably the painter referredto was the
third named by Chapin, Wu Tsung-yiian. In the catalogue of the Sung Emperor Hui Tsung's collection, Hsiian-hohua
t , his notice is twice as long as Wu Tung-ch'ing's (the first, T'ang Wu she names is not represented at
p'u
4@ g
an
honorable position at court independent of his art, and when the most famous artists of the realm were
had
He
all).
assembled to do wall paintings for an imperial Taoist temple, he was ranked above all the ioo odd others. This early
I zth century estimate is the one most likely to have penetratedto the Yiinnanese court, through its contacts with Southern
Sung.

184

the reignof Li Tsungof SungA.D. I240. Li-chenwasone of the descendants

of the Tuan
who
family.AboutthistimethewholecountrywasstolenandoverrunbytheManbarbarians,
to discuss
tookpossessionof theImperial
insigniaandusurpedthethrone.It is not necessary
we
the
in
have
taken
a
of
course
of events.Nowadays
men
just
[thischaos detail].Now
glimpse
Allwereoriginally
in thevirtueof sincerity.
of a heavenly
nature.Inthebeginning
takepleasure
therewas no withinandwithout.
therewas no distinction
betweenChineseandbarbarians;
Indeed!
thistranslation
It should
ending
goesastray.
Afterthesentence
family"above,
"theTuan
runsomething
likethis:Ofcourse
thiswasonlya minuscule
overrun
bybarbarians,
territory
the
and
the
we
take
That
andso
regalia usurped throne.
whofilched imperial
may forgranted,
it further.Lookingat [theirsituation],however,
neednotdiscuss
[we shouldremember
that]

thatallmentakeingoodness
is [a universal
thedelight
onman's
trait]based
firmlymaintained
Heaven-sent
nature.

TheCh'anmonkTe-t'aiof TungShanhasacquired
thisrollbypurchase-notcheaply--and
andshowto others.I havewrittenthiseulogyandreturned
it to him.Sung
keepsit to examine
Scholarof theHan-lin.
Lienof Chin-hua,
a titlegivento Han-lingraduates;
Therearetwo sealsimpressed:
theother
one,T'ai-shih,
was SungLien'stzu,a nameor styletakenat the ageof twenty.
SungChing-lien.
Ching-lien
arenotquiteasstraightforward
as Chapin
These
twofirstcolophons
sawthem.Sekiguchi
a papersheetthatwaspart of theoriginal
haspointedoutthattheyoccupy
(sinceit
scheme

thesametopandbottom
continues
border
Thelinearframe
thatnowencloses
decorations).
only
seems
once
to
been
drawn
so
as
to
take
in
the
as
Miao-kuang's
colophon
have
left-handportion
linesmaystillbetraced
is thefact that
well;erased
topandbottom
there.Moretroubling
theforceful
andclearly
aretheremains
legible
"Miao-kuang"
writing
beneath
signed
of other
ata slightly
smaller
scaleandwitha slightly
narrower
Thecalligraphic
characters
spacing.
style
on
the
labels
theicons
wellpreserved
of"Miao-kuang"
identifying
andgroups
reappears equally
thateverything
in thishanddatesfrom
The
of thescroll.Li suggests
someperiodof restoration.

At thesametimethere
must
"Miao-kuang"
panel,incidentally,
hasnosealafterthesignature.
aboutthesamespace,when
havebeensome
occupying
firstcolophon,
SungLienadded
hiscomontheleft.
ments
arefourmorecolophons
There
seems
notto have
monks,
byMingdynasty
whichChapin
seen.I shallsummarize
to
the
contribute
whatthey
painting's
history.

I
c) By Tsung-[lo?],
18-gy (Plate2):

Describes
as"one
scroll",
depicted,
showing
thepaintingphaysically
chtian
@,very
skilfully

"Buddhas,
Arhats,theEightClassesof Beings,etc.,beginning
withtherulerof
Bodhisattvas,
thatlandandending
ofthesixteenrealmsofIndia:thisbecause
withthemonarchs
suchmonarchs
areexterior
guardians
Dharma...Te-t'aithelibrarian
hasaskedmetoindite
of'theBuddhist
this... [dated:17/, andsigned]Tsung-lo[?]Abbot-priest
of theShan-shih
Ch'antemple
on T'ien-chai."
Thisestablishment,
nearNanking,haduntilits donation
in I3 o beenthe
mansion
of theMongolprince
whobecame
EmperorWenTsungof theYiian.Thewriterwasa
wellknownCh'anpriestof histime.
18)

d) By Lai-fu (Plates 2-3):

a. onechihly_portfolio,
Describes
depicting
Arhats,
"Buddhas,
Bodhisattvas,
thepainting
the
the
its
Praises
etc."
various
coloring, shimmer
ofthegilding, viewer's
exquisite
patriarchs,
stilltheT'ien-chai
librarian
thework's
sense
greatrarity.Theowner
present,
actually
ofbeing
another
Datedi38o.Sekiguchi
bythesamemonk,
reproduces
colophon
[Te]-t'aiofTung-Shan.
intheSeikadP
toa "Seven
Tjkyd.
hesignshimself
Sages"
Lai-fu,though
Foundation,
painting
to
a
take
to
tobecalled thecapital
wasdistinguished
asaformer
high
enough
hermit,
postinthe
In
asa colleague
there
theBuddhist
of Tsung-lo's.
serving
regulating
government
Church;
office
ibhewasexecuted
theemperor.
thatapoemhehadcomposed
onthegrounds
offended
3

(Plate3):
e) ByTseng-ying
Praises
onechihportfolio
depicting
holyiconsof Buddhas
andBodhisattvas,
shimmering,
...
and
Li
Ku
men
as
Kung-lin. "T'aithe
etc.,capable
ofvying
withsuch
K'ai-chih
dagzling,
it in tenthisscrollin thecourse
librarian,
of histravels,andtreasured
of TungShanacquired
Yearswentby,andhepassedon,andthescrollfellintootherhands.Now it
fold wrappings.
backbytheSuperior
andbrought
thatit wasa
notforgetting
Chin-ming,
hasbeenrepurchased

Dated1413.
relicofhislateteacher."

dated4,y9(Plate4):
nameis illegible,
f) Bya writerwhose

thepainting
as onechih
mentioned
above,
describing
of ownership
Refersto thechanges
thethenprior
wassweptaway.Fortunately
In 1449ina sudden
portfolio.
floodtheportfolio
thatthe
it outagain,savingall thepictures;butit wasso watersoaked
snatched
Ching-k'ung

a scholar
notstandfurther
to comeapartandwould
scrollbegan
of the
inspection.
Through
andmadeintoa chihportfolio.
it wasremounted
neighborhood

andthe
obliterated
thatat thistimethecompletely
believes
partswerediscarded
Sekiguchi

was
it wasthenthatMiao-kuang's
Presumably
up wherenecessary.
colophon
otherstouched

labels.It is ofcourse
theidentifying
scribe
rewritten,
bythesameaccomplished
whoreworked
tofirstas a hand-scroll,
bereferred
that
chiian,andthenas
should
tantalizing thepainting
as botha chihanda chiian.
chih,andthenin theI4Oycolophon
whatI havecalledaportfolio,

of chihseeR.H.vanGulik,ChinesePictorialArtas Viewedby the

(Forthemeaning

Connoisseur,Roma,Iy;8, pp.

-1,
216-7,

yf2:

Thecaseis not
hecallsit a book-cover.)

thenormal
clearuntilCh'ien
for an
of176 (q.v.,below),
inscription
character
where
Lung's
earlier.(For ts'e
therestoration
carried
outthreecenturies
album,ts'e @, is usedto describe
seeVan Gulik,pp.go, 218, y:7.)
folded
thattheworkwasanaccordion-like
Li Lin-ts'an(Englishsummary,
p. &8)believes

alternating
divided
byborder
thefactthatitisregularly
book
fromthestart:thisprimarilyfrom

motifs
width,withtheborder
a standard
motifs,andthatfor themostparteachgroupoccupies
at
twodeitiesorgroupsofdeities
usethiswould
haveoffered
In normal
above
andbelow.
oncenter
at thestartofferstheclearest
procession
a timeto theworshipper's For Li theimperial
gaze.
upintogroups
is madeupofsix units,but"isbroken
ofhispoint.Theprocession
substantiation
no
of theunitsso thatnosinglefgure-especially
together
at thecenters
whicharegathered
ofthetwounits."
face-occursat thejuncture
186

titleandinscription7s.
Ch'ien-lung's
A Paintingof Buddhist76Images,the Workof ChangSheng-wenof the Ta Li Kingdom,in

SungTimes.
of theTa Li kingdomarenot to be seeneveryday;in collections
Paintings
of paintings
of
different
therearefewattributed
men
of
that
in
dynasties,
Now
the
Palaceis kept
[to
country].
a longrollof Buddhist
a manof TaLi.Onit thereareinscriptions,
imagesbyChangSheng-wen,
oneby themonkMiao-kuang
writtenin thefifthyearof ShengTe, the cyclicalyearkeng-tzu,
andone by SungLienwhichstatesthatthisdatecorresponds
to thefourthyearof ChiaHsi
duringthe reignof Li Tsungof the Sungdynasty[A.D. 1240].

I sawin ChangChao'sCollection
Formerly
of Essaysa eulogyof a picturescrollbyan unknownartistof theFiveDynasties,
andI amnotsurethattheauthormaynothavebeenreferring

to the samepainting,as he had madea thoroughstudyof the Ta Li style.

notereferred
toH.A. Giles'ChineseBiographical
original
Chapin's
LonDictionary,
189
no.
a
account
don, , 23,for brief
of ChangChao.He "wasnumbered
byCh'ienLung

among
his'FiveMenof Letters';in

waspresident
andin
of theBoardof Punishments;
z733
execution
to
narrowly
the
escaped
the

for hisfailure arrunge management

of aboriginal

'735 in
territories
Kueichou."
Chang( I6-174f)

is alsothesubject
of a longer
precis
biographical

inA. W.Hummel,
ed.,EminentChineseof theCh'ingPeriod,Washington,
D. C.,
1943,
I, pp.24-2f. He wasa highofficial,
andantiquarian.
His name
poet,painter,calligrapher,
thelistsof thecompilers
twogreatcatalogues,
theShihch'i paochi
heads
of Ch'ien
Lung's
to
and
and
the
secularpaintingcalligraphy, exclusively
Buddhist devotedprimarily
7i &
TaoistPi tienchulin a
4 . It is nowcertain
thathewrote
theeulogy
towhich
Ch'ien-

lungrefersin 1727,for thepicture-scroll

andBuddealing
withthejointbeginnings
of royalty
saw
in
the
Yamanaka
store
in
New
dhismin Yfinnan,
York
in z93;2andpubwhichChapin
lishedunderthetitle "TheNan-chaot'u chuian"in her"Ydnnanese
images",
pp. if9-7I;
andwhichis nowin thesemi-private
in Kyto: seemyForeword
Fujii Yfrinkancollection
above,
pp.zo,2o.

At thebeginningof thiseulogyis giventhe date,thefirstyearof theperiodWen-ching

of
theusurper
TuanSsu-ying,
whichhasbeenfoundto correspond
withthethirdyearof K'ai-yiin
of the PosteriorChin,[A.D.946]77.
Now the roll underdiscussion
is a productof Southern
Sungtimesandthusdatessome300years
recordsa paintingof theA-ts-o-yeh
later7,.[Chang]

pl @1 g
Kuan-yin79;

-.

The colophonby Ch'ien-lungwas not includedin the set of photographsof the "long roll"takenby the Freer
Galleryteam,nor is it illustratedin Li's and Sekiguchi'sarticles:sictransitgloriamundi.The text will be foundprinted
with the descriptionof the scrollin Ku Kungshubualu.
76The characterused is fan *, which probablyderivesfrom the Sanskritand is explainedas meaningpure.It is commonlyusedto indicatethe Sanskritlanguage.[Otherwnise]
its use is almostentirelyrestrictedto the indicationof anything
Buddhist,a temple,a prayer,etc. (thoughnot a Ch'anpainting).As employedhereit suggeststhe Indianderivationof
the divinitiesdepicted.
s75[ACS]:

77 There is a mistake of one

year here: according to the NCYS. Ch., i, pp. 34b-35 a (Fr., p.9o0)the period Wen-ching

commencedduringthe secondyearof K'ai-ytin,i.e. A.D. 945.

78Ch'ien-lungis
reckoningthe dateaccordingto Sung Lien's[erroneous]
as 1240.
interpretation,
79This nameis of coursea transliteration.
I dot not know to whatit refers.

I87

totheworks
Better:His scrollwasa memorial
oftheA-ts'o-yeh
Kuan-yin;
andother
theArhats,theEightClassesso,
butthispaintingof Buddhas,
Bodhisattvas,
Brahma,
it
clear
the same
is
that
Thus
this
is
not
divinitiesdoesnot includeanyA-ts'o-yeh
Kuan-yin.
paintingasthatseenbyChangChao.
occursseveraltimesin the YamanakaTheA-ts'o-yehepithetnoticedby Ch'ien-lung
Y#rinkan
text roll.I havesuggested
thatit is a phonetic
transcription
of theSanskritAjaya,

likeAll-Victorious.
SeeExcursus,
meaning
something
p. zg.
well executedin colorsand
In thisrollthe variousdivinitiesaresplendidin appearance,
gold,andfullof vitality.
iconsin therollshowsthemto befair andstatelyin
Better:Inspection
of thevarious
andvariegated.
aremostdelicate
Thecoloring
andgilding
together
appearance.
is of excellentqualityandold;thoughfinein texture
Thepaper,madefromthemulberry,
An old painting,so well
it is durable.It maybe comparedwith the old Chin-su-chien
paper81.
preservedas this, shouldindeedbe esteemedandtreasured.Thefactthatthe workwas doneby

shouldnot causeanyoneto regardit lightlys*.

a foreigner

limneramong
Better:Thefactthattheworkwasdonebyaprofessional
southern
thefaroff
...
natives
The variouspartsof the paintingare sadlyout of place. By examiningthe eulogiesand

we learnthatin thetimeof Hung-wuof the Mingdynastythispaintingwasin the

criticisms,
formof a long roll andwas keptin the T'ien-chiehTempleby the monkTe-t'ai.At the timeof

therollwasdamaged
bywaterandwasmadeupintoanalbum,[ts'e].It
Cheng-t'ung
[1436-49]

is not knownat whattimeit was againmountedas a roll andthus restoredto its earlierform.
At the beThe mountingand remountinggave opportunitiesfor mistakesin arrangement.

himself
andtheEmperor
in procession,
andretainers
ginningof therollarethestandard-bearers
in anattitudeof reverence.
holdinganincense-burner
of
in anattitude
holding
anincense-burner
of therulerof thatcountry,
Better:Thelikeness

andincense.
attributes
reverence,
ofcrown
withhisawesome

Mutualrelationshipsare not properlyindicated,for at the end of the roll are paintedthe

kings of sixteencountriesin India. The monk Tsung-lo says that these kings are Outside
The Eight Classes, Pa Pu A F),[veryfrequentlymentionedas beingpresentin the audiencesassembledto hear Sakyamuni
preach],comprise: Deva (gods); Niga (serpents or dragons, half-human,half-divine); Yakpa(nature spirits); Gandharva
(celestial musicians, usually half-bird, half-human); Asura (Titans or giants); Garuda (bird-like beings, enemies of the
Ndga); Kimnara(beings sometimes pictured as human with horses' heads, sometimes like fairies); and Mahoraga(beings
half-python, half-human or divine).
A
s8 yellow paper made during the T'ang dynasty and used for writing Buddhist canonical works.
82 Ch'ien-lung regards the people of the semi-independent kingdoms of the south before [the Mongolconquest]of 1253 as
foreigners, and indeed the vast majority of the inhabitants must have been at that time non-Chinese. The civilization,
too, must have been strongly tinged with Indian and Nepalese influences.
[ACS]: If Chang Sheng-wen was the actual painter of the best parts of the scroll, and not merely a court official who
superintended its execution, he was almost unquestionably a Chinese. Possibly he came from the same adjacentChinese
province, Szechwan, which in the Nan Chao period had furnished great numbers of skilled male and female craftsmen.

80

188

At MyorderTing
Guardiansof the Law.Individualsof the sameclassshouldbe put together83.
Kuan-p'engT 6 l has copiedthis painting,stylinghis copy a pictureof a foreignking worAftertheFourGuardian
comethevariousBuddhas,PatrishippingBuddhistdivinities84.
Kings85s
the
to
two
and
on
Thus,doing eachfigureseparately,
Bodhisattvas,
archs,
preciousbanners86.
he has copiedthe scroll.I havehadthesetwo rolls,the sourceandthe streamof the Worldof
the Law, treasuredtogetherso that the roll mayneveragainbe wronglyremountedwith its
partsin disorder,but thatthis originalscrollmaybe as it was of old.
thatTingKuan-p'eng
it hasbeenordered
Better:Therefore
shalldoa picturein imitation
theBuddha.Thenhe is
a southern
nativekingworshipping
of thestyleof thisone,showing
to thetwoTreasure
down
the
Four
Guardian
to copyeverything
Kings...
elsefrom
separately
Theexistenceof thesetwowill
to depictthesourceandflowof the Dharma-world.
Standards,
disorder...
preventfurther
and othermasterswho
In ancienttimes therewere [Wu]Tao-tzuand [Lu] Leng-ch'iehs8
chose Buddhistsubjectsfortheirpaintings.So splendidlydid theysucceedin realizingthegranthattheirworkshavebeencopiedwithoutend.
deurandmajestyof the variousmanifestations
in [the
andotherswhoaspainterswereversed
Better:TherewereTao-tzu,Leng-ch'ieh,
stitrahavebeenimitated
to theAvatarihsaka
art of] teaching
byimages.Theirillustrations
timeandagain.
I havenot heardthaton the Lion Throneorin the DeerParkthereweretracesof vulgaritys.
ss The characterfor "Outside", wai C, is used for heterodox, and may mean that these kings were Brahmins converted to
Buddhism. This whole passage may mean that Ch'ien-lung believed that the [Hou Li] emperor and his retinue should
be placed at the end of the roll with the 16 kings, or it may mean that they should follow him and precede the pantheon.
Since it would be unseemly indeed to make the emperor turn his back on the divinities, I have given Ch'ien-lung the
benefit of the doubt. He is no doubt correct in stating that the remounting gave occasion for changes in arrangement.
[ACS]: Tsung-lo was the writer of the colophon dated I378 which I have numbered (c). As to the position of the 16
kings, it should be noted that they follow a group of divine protectors--a reasonable relationship--and that the top
border motif in each of their frames is the same in-curving double vajrathat is used throughout the divine protector
series. The double vajrafound at the start of the scroll and used through frame 115 is conspicuously different.Chapin's
use of the word "Brahmin"is loose, particularlysince the first of the 16 must have been intended to representthe emperor
of China.
84 Ting Kuan-p'eng was a well known painter at the court of Ch'ien lung. In the Palace Museum collection Isaw many
paintings by him, but not the copy of this long roll which Ch'ien lung tells us he made at the Imperial command.
[ACS]: Li Lin-ts'an, p. x9 top, says that unfortunately the Ting versions were not taken to Taiwan, and so cannot be
compared. They have never been published.
s85In the painting as I saw it, not the Four Guardian Kings but two red Vajrapini preceded the various Buddhas and
Bodhisattvas.
86 At the end are painted two large banners, on which are Sanskrit inscriptions. A copy of these was sent to Baron von
Stadl Holstein for translation by the officials of the Museum--or was to be sent; I have not heard the result. Unfortunately I did not complete my description of the painting, made at the Palace Museum in Peking in the winter of 1931-32,
having to leave China before I reached the banners. [ACS]: See discussion under frames I29 and I30.
87 Lu Leng-ch'ieh was probably the most important of the immediate followers of Wu Tao-tzu. He painted landscapes
also, but was best known for his pictures of Buddhist subjects; the most famous was called "The 16 Arhats crossing the
Sea." See Waley, Index, p.65, and Introduction,
p. 53....The name Leng-ch'ieh is a
pp.I 18-19; also Giles, Introduction,
transliteration of the Sanskrit LafAikS.
[ACS]: The dots indicate that an obsolete reference has been omitted.
88 Sgkyasimha, the Lion of the Sdkyas, is one of the names of Sdkyamuni Buddha, and he is frequently represented as
seated on a Lion Throne. The "Deer Park" is doubtless the Deer Park at Benares, where he preached his first sermon.
[ACS]: It is a remarkabletribute to the strength of the aesthetic code followed by Ch'ing scholars that their Manchu
emperor found it necessary to defend Buddhist themes from the imputation of theircardinal sin, "vulgarity".

I89

Althoughthe Buddhais withouttheillusionsof thesocialselfor of theego;andalthough

in theworldas Sikyamuni
or someother
whetherunitedor separated
[i.e. whethermanifested
in theDharmakdya]
or unmanifested
he hasno ideaof distinguishing:
neverManusa
Buddha,
thelesswein thisworldof desire,if wewishto suggestbypainting
thepeacethatpassethundermustseekto do so bysymbolslikeMountSumeru
andthefragrant
seathatsurrounds
standing,
it. Thusevenone dropin thetideof phenomena
we naturally
into
separate thepureandthe
ordinary.
in theyearkuei-wei
I haverecorded
thepreceding
of thereignof Ch'ien-lung
[A.D. 17631,
thetenthmonth,thefifteenth
withthreeseals,
brushandstamped
day.Writtenbytheimperial
one Ch'ien,
oneLung,andone Teta tzu-tsai.
aboutthesesealsis of course
notstilla
Theinformation
partof thecatalogue
description,
fromtheemperor.
quotation
DESCRIPTIONOF THE PAINTING
TheImperial
(Plates5, 6):
procession
A muchwornlabelatthefarupperleftreads:
1-6

Li-chenHuangTi P'iao-hsinhua; i.e. "The EmperorLi-chen,[the P'iao-hsin],had this

paintingmade.

intheleftmargin
arebased
Thenumbers
onthesystem
ofcounting
foundhereafter
byframes
andSekiguchi.
the
iconic
series
byLi Lin-ts'an
Beginning
adopted
withthenextsection,
where
thiswentastray
afterno.29:
starts,Chapin's
count
willalsobeused.In theoriginal
"group"
a signofhuman
inretrospect
"inexcusable"
shefound
frailtywhich
Theprocession
consistsof sixgroups,asfollows:
i) Eightbarefootedwarriorswith halberdsandstickswith fur (?) on top.
carryinga huge dragonshieldin his left hand;attendedby four offi2) A standard-bearer,

anda boywith
kindof spearorothertallweapon,a falconer,
cials(?),eachbearinga different
a water-pot.The boy is the only one of the groupwho wearsshoes89.
3) Sevenofficialswithverytallblackhatsedgedwith gold, one carryinganink slabandtwo
brushes.All wearelaboratecostumesandshoes.
4) Anothergroupof officials,fourin number,threewith tallblackhats,one of whomholds
a banneror ribbon.The fourthis dressedin a tiger-skincoat pipedwith red,with a redcrenellatedborder.
The Emperorin gorgeousrobes,wearinga veryhigh redandgold crownandredshoes.
5)
On his robearethe ancient[royal]symbolsdescribedin the Shuching,mountains,a hatchet,the
ya sign, grainsof rice,a pairof dragons,andthe sun andmoon. Boththe latterarerepresented
by disks:thatof the sun is red andhas a crow in it, while the moon's is white,enclosedby a
89 Even today several of the indigenous tribes of the South, for example the Miao -, do not wear shoes. Needless to
say, shoes are a very important part of their dress to the Chinese, who-men or women-never exhibit the bare foot in
public. [ACSJ: Li Lin-ts'an also emphasizes this non-Chinese trait: English summary p.72, Chinese p. 52.

I9o

in his
carries
anincenseburner
ringof silver,andhaseithera toadora rabbitinit. TheEmperor
attended
by twomen,
righthandanda rosaryin hisleft,asbefitsa devotee.Heis immediately
a hugefanor banneron a pole;andbytwoboys
eachwearinga blackandredhatandcarrying
anddrum(orcup?),theotherholdingin bothhands
withbobbedhair,onebearinga fly-whisk
in clothgo.
whichlookslikea swordwrapped
something
in
a
official
a tallhat,black,red,andgold withtwo black
In
the
front
of
ruler, high
6)
a swordin hislefthandandlookingbackatthe
dressedin gorgeousrobes,carrying
streamers;
Withhimarea monkholdinga beggingbowl,anda smallboyin a goldcoatwitha
Emperor.
anddeeply
indented
inthe"cloud-collar"
collar,[cusped
style].
account
a summary
teamhaspublished
A Communist
ofa cavesitewithrock-cut
survey
two
includes
in Chien-ch'uan
)o km.northof TaLi, which
sculptures
hsienj] jiI V, about
andvoluminous
crown
robes:
a talltiara-like
ona throned,
niches
wearing
frontal
centering
flgure
shihbooklet
Chien-ch'uan
seethereportinWenwu, r97, 4, 46f., andthepocket-sited
PP.

Thetwohavethesametext,bySungPai-yin fl, except

k'uja j1115F , Peking, ;fS8.
ruler(forsoheseems,
Thedeified
comments
omitted
in thebooklet.
includes
thatthereport's
thantheotherwise
moreelaborate
thana god)of Cave2 is much
rather
verysimilarpersonage
on
ribbons
either
his
with
i.
The
Cave
side,looksvery
tiara,
upward
of
styleof
flaring
stylized,
muchlike thatof theHouLi rulerin thescroll.As weshallsee,thescrollin itsframe o3

andregalia
thatmusthave
costumes
indifferent
asworshippers,
alltheNanChaorulers
shows
inwhich
andcrown
weare
Thetypeofgarment
toactualfashions.
tocorrespond
beenintended
therefirst appearson thepersonof thetenthruler,ChaoCh'engHuangTi
nowinterested

onthelast,Chung
T Qf
Hsing.IntheYamanaka(r.824-,9); andlessemphatically,
BE
but
wearthesamecrowns,
Yirinkan
handscroll,
however,
HsingandhisTaLi successor
Chung
in T'angstyle.Theverylongsleeves
shortsleeves
theirrobeshaverelatively
of thetwocave
andthe"long
roll"aremorereminiscent
oftheSungstandard.
figures
anaccount
theChien-ch'uan
whovisited
Li Lin-ts'an,
of his
cavesin ir939,haswritten
thatthe
k
in Ta-lutsachihAimpressions
, XXI, zi6o, 1-2, PP.34ff.He argues
90 In the Yiinnanese painted scroll fromerly in the possession of Yamanaka and Co., which I saw in New York and of
which I have photographs, the minister of the ruler Shun-hua-chen 4 4f P, or Chung Hsing
PC, is represented
t
carrying a sword which the text, i.e. an inscription on the painting, tells us was handed down from Chang Lo-chinch'iu J A & *. [The latter], according to the NCYS (Ch., i, p.9a; Fr., p. 3) received the investiture from T'ang
T'ai Tsung in 649 of Shou-ling Ta Chiang-chiin, or Grand MarshalCommander-in-chief. Shun-hua-chen [the last Nan
Chouruler], ruled 897-902. It is possible that this is the same sword. [See "Yiinnanese
images",p. 170 andpl. i3; or Soper,
"Foreword",fig. 7.1
[ACSJ: This was in every way an ill-starred digression for Chapin. To begin with, the minister in question is shown
following not "Chung Hsing Huang Ti", the last Nan Chao ruler, but a taller royal figure who heads the next group
called "Wen Wu Huang Ti Sheng-chen" A j&& g
. Chapin'sn. 136 in "Yiinnanese images" admits her inability
((r.937-44);
to identify this personage. Li, p.49, makes him the founder of the Ta Li regime, Tuan Ssu-p'ing JE
referred to in the label by a posthumous honorific. This indicates that the extant Yamanaka-Yifirinkanhand-scroll is a
Ta Li period copy, done after 944, of the original executed in 898. The name of the Ta Li minister with the sword, Li
reads as Yang Pao-hsing Q g f. In addition, Chapin's translation of the label at the top of her p. 170, "Observe the
Minister" etc., which she admits was tentative, is badly garbled. I do not understand it either, but am sure that the
name [Chang] Lo-chin-ch'iu of Pai-yai-the last chief of the Pai ?] regime that was supplanted by the Nan Chao-is
and
immediately followed not by two names but by one, Chang Hua-ch'ang, that of the chief minister under the
and
3rd Nan Chao kings, who was sent as ambassador to T'ang in 714: see Soper, "Excursus", p. 26. Perhaps the label was
incorrectly written. In that case the extant scroll might be not a first copy, executed under Yang Pao-hsing's orders, as
its format suggests, but a second or third, made after Yang had been forgotten.

IgI

thefifthNanChaokingKo-lo-feng
rulerof Cave2 (hisno.7)represents
morerichly
garbed
titlecallshim,whostoodoff
as hisposthumous
warrior"
aaN (r.748-777),the"divine
in
aretwosuch
in
Burma.
Sincethere
asPyR
asfar south
andraided
theT'angarmies
figures
I
onein Cave Ko-lo-feng
I should
twoseparate
(thelower
preferto makethesimpler
caves,

in thescroll's
crown,morelikea bishop's
mitre,is likethatwornbyKo-lo-feng
framelo03);

Thesculptures
theotherwithhisaggressive
andto identify
successor,
maywell
ChaoCh'eng.
butalsothe
notonlytheverylongsleeves,
havebeendoneundertheTa Li orHou Li regimes;

would
backs,
granted
dynasty
Sung.No Chinese
pointtoward
highthrone
have
suchdangerous
roll"
the
but "long testifies
it hadreplaced;
totherulers
againandagain
oftheregime
honors
aspossible
courttodrawasmuch
tothewillingness
fromthegreat
ofthe12thcentury
prestige
ageofNanChao.
7-8 ThePantheon;
(Plate7)
thefirstgroup
Thelabels,partlyillegible,read:Ta ShengTsoChih ? ? andTa ShengYu Chih ? ? In
all probability
the two blanksin eachcaseshouldbe filledby the characters
Chin-kang
,. WiNi
would
be
read
then
The
thunderbolt.
to
the
Sanskrit
respecinscriptions
Vajra,
corresponding
of
the
Great
Left"
and
"The
of
the
"The
Great
HolyVajrapdni Right."
tively:
HolyVajrapdni
with
with
a
white-skinned
attendant
each
each
Twored
stand
other,
facing
figures
Vajrap.ni
red hairin armorand anotherdwarfattendant(one white, the otherred), and a white lion.
Eachgroupis on a conventionalized
rockneara river(?) bank.
9 Thesecondgroup
(Plate7)
Thescene,whichis notlabelled,showsatthetop
TheTemptation
of the Buddhaby
M.ra.
mudrd
manydemonswith variouskindsof weapons.The Buddhais seatedin bhbimisparsa
on kusagrasson a throneupheldby two small
thegesture
theEarthtowitness],
[making
ofcalling
In front,apparently
attendants.
The BodhiTreeis not represented.
runningaroundon the
theEarthgoddess,whom
of thebaseof thethrone,is seena femalefigure,probably
extension
To theproperrightis a torchbearer;to
the Buddhahasjustcalledto witnesshisworthiness.
theirweaponsandtakingto flight.Below,in
theproperleft,aredemonsin theactof dropping
inthe centre,Mdra,in armor,is seated,writingon the ground.In India,Dr.Coomaraswamy
WithMdra,aresevenladies,
formsme,thisattitudeis a markof failure,of disappointment.
probablyhis daughters(suggestingthe sevenpassions),althoughmost accountsof the Temptationmentiononly three. Below,to the left, area manwith a bow andtwo children;to the
right,arethreeseatedfigures,possibly-if the sevenarenot-intended for Mira'sdaughters.
TheBuddha
is shown
withtherounded
baldareaat thebaseof hisusnisawhichis a hallmarkof Chinese
iconography
fromLate T'angons.
Thereareprobably
onlythreedaughters,
shown
morethanonce;whatlookslikeafourthin
theupper
in anattitudeofworship.
Mara,if he
grouponthespectator's
rightis anattendant
is themailed
in
the
middle,
seems
to
be
sinking
into
the
an
wayof
personage
ground: unusual
91[ACS]: See Soper,"SomelateChinesebronzeimagesin the Avery Brundagecollection,"Art.Asiae,XXXI, i, 1969,
P*34.

192

instead
andterror
at
demonstrating
ofshowing
bysurprise
hisdiscouragement,
himprostrated
voice,
great praising
thesound
"theBodhisattva"9".
of theEarth-spirit's
io Thethirdgroup
(Plate8):
Thecentraldivinity,givena naturalfleshcolor,hasfourheads,eachwiththreeeyes,and
in whichareseenbirds'heads,surrounds
him.Thetwotophands
eightarms.A [fieryaureole]
hold swords[crossing
toforma V overhead].
Eachsecondhandholdsa [double-ended,
clawed]
each
a
fourth
while
the
two
are
in
a
mudrd.
He
two
has
vajra; third, spear[heldvertically];
joined
andanklets.Hehasfourattendants,
twoof whomare:Brahma,
legsandwearssnakebracelets
witha conch,he shouldholda mirror;andIndrawithflowers.Bothof thesehaveheaddresses
In frontis a dishcontaining
of a typewhichoccursin the Tun-huang
paintings.
jewels.
I canseenoreason
to deifytheattendants,
andlackhaloes.Therock
whoareplainlydressed

tomany
base
lookproper
terrible
inthe
beings,
giventhegodhasthebuilding-block
mostfamiliar

esoteric
art. Bird-head
throneof Fudi MyMT Wi
flamesareseenin the
in inJapanese
aureole
intheorthodox
ofFudiasheisshown
TaizjkaiMandara
(MochiZuki,
Bukky6daijiten,
is cusped
likea T'angbronzelobedmirror.
V, p. 4488andp. 4486,fig.) Thepedestalproper

group(Plate8):
x Thefourth
Thelabelreads:Tso chihch'inglung,i.e. the GreenDragonon the left,[or whorulesthe
standsona rock
left].Thedragonking,in humanform,dressedin armorandholdinga halberd,
in the midstof a bluesea.Besidehimis the GreenDragon.He is attendedby a white,[frogfaced]monsterholdinga vase, and a beautifulwomanin the lower right corner,who raisesa

dishof lotuspetals.Abovearethe windandthundergods-the latterwithbat'swings--and

thelightninggoddess,LiehCh'tieh?q%,claspingthemirrorsby whichshedirectsflashesto
her victims.In the grouparealsoa whiskeredgentleman
[in T'angdress]witha brushand
man
witha bowlandgrasses(?) or a
a
old
scroll,to the left; andon the right white-haired
willowbranch(?), perhapsa raingod.
TheGreenDragonpresidedovertheEast[inpre-Buddhist
mythology].

Thefifthgroup(Plate8):
Thelabelreads:Yu chihpalhu,i.e. theWhiteTiger[whorulestheright].
Thetwolabelsmusthavebeencarelessly
or mistakenly
interchanged.
It is unmistakably
a
stripedtiger,standing
ontheground,
withafelinetailinthefrstframe,anda scalyflyingdragon
a
tail
with snake's in thesecond.
Theorderis thusWest-East.
The Tiger King standson anotherrock in the samesea, facingthe GreenDragon.He is
dressedin armorandholdsa nakedswordin his righthand.Abovehim soarsthe WhiteTiger,
lookinglike a dragonexcept he has hairinsteadof scales.The king is attendedby a manin a
blackandtop-boots,who holdsan open scrollin his hands,andby a Nigini (a feminineNiga,
92 [ACS]: The attitude of disappointment is described by A.Foucher in retelling the Mira story in La vie du Bouddha
de l'Inde, Paris, 1949, pp. I56-60: "Triste, d6courag6, le cceurbrilant d'une
blesd'aprisle textes et les monuments
des lignes sur le sol: le religieux Gaoutamasecr.te
va d6truire
sure, songeait -'16cart en tragant avec la pointe d'une
fl.che
mon empire."

193

halfserpent,halfhumanor divine),dressedin white,with a singlewhitesnake--ajewelon its

a largejewel.The
head-risingbehindandaboveherhumanhead.Sheholdsa dishcontaining

manattendantis in the lowerleft corner;abovehim is a humanfigurewith threebird'sheads

onitssinglebody,holdinga bottle(?) madeoutof a tigerskin.TheNiginistandsonthewater

to theproperleftof theking.
theWest;
TheWhiteTigeris, of course,oneof theGodsof theFourDirections,
guarding
twoof thesearemissing,togetherwithtwoof thegroupof theEightGreatDragon
butbecause
withtheGreenDragonof theEast,amongtheEightGreatDragon
Kings,heis hereincluded,
Kings.
inthisportion
thata number
Theassumption
oftherollare"missing"
oftheicongroups
theclassic
atthemostseven
involve
would
scenesfrom
eightthatsumupSdkyamuni's
life(leaving
thetortoise
andthebird;and
theAssaultofMdra); twoofthecreatures
oftheFourQuarters,

at thebeginning
twooftheEightDragon
oftherollthe
Kings.Ontheotherhandwepossess
state.
one
would
able
in
its
No
must
be
royalprocession,
wellpreserved
which
original
havebeen
nearNankingwhere
theCh'anmonastery
torestore
it afterit reached
orhavewanted
SungLien
andsincetherollmay
sawit at thebeginning
afterits execution;
of Ming,sometwocenturies
treasures
thatwould
verywellhaveformedpart of theroyalhousehold
havebeenseizedat the
orrepainting
is narrowed
restoration
in 12f.3, theperiod
timeoftheMongol
ofpossible
conquest

is a reasonable
oneinterms
order
toaround
ofthepictures
years.Inaddition
thepresent
eighty
alternate
border
regularly-bell,
vajra,bell,vajra-from
ofthetopandbottom
motifs,
which
and
the
the
thestartof theroyalentourage
Kings"
meeting,
through "Dragon
Indra-Brahmd
22
but
into
that
alternation
continues
the
all.
in
series,
maybedisfor frames
(The
Arhat
wasnotably
Sincetherestorer
of whomCh'ienLungcomplained
regarded
for themoment.)
is
laterin thescroll,it seemsto melikelythattheexistingsequence
careless
injustthisrespect

aretheresultof unusual
The"omistheoriginal
one,andthatitspeculiarities
requirements.
to
court
theMongol
tomeexplainable
sions"
seem
bythecharacter
ofYiinnanese Buddhismprior
itsprideinthenation's
thewarlike
itsclosetiestotheroyalhouse;
pastunder
kings
conquest:
and
and
national
intense
awareness
its
Nan
ofbeing
separate different; its
of
of
Chao;
identity,
thatwerethefirstoutward
landmarks
wonder
andlove
for thegreatnatural
signsofthatdiffertoexplain
I shalltry,therefore,
thechoices
themountains,
lakes,andrivers.
ence,
ofsubjectsfor
asa demonstration
thatfollownos.7 and8, thetwoVajrapdni,
thetenframes
ofthisnational
fervor,
carried
outin several
ways.
different
TheassaultofMirais themost
familiarandsimple
presentation
ofthetheme
oftheBuddha
as conqueror:
withthattriumph
andtheEnlightenment
thatdirectly
followedit, he became
monarch
of all theuniverse,
thecosmic
prototype
for all thevictorious
anddevout
rulersof this
world.
Thenextframe,withits terribledeity,wouldbyitselfbedifficultor evenimpossible
to
explain.In its context,however,
it perhapsstands
for theprowess
of theYiinnanese
king,expressedin thevocabulary
developed
in NepaleseandTibetanBuddhism.
It is notable
thatthe
and
its
weapons,
the
crossed
swords
and
the
vertical
lances,
are
static
and
symmetrical
to
figure
a degree
rareorperhapsunique
amongBuddhist
guardians.
Thisformalqualitymayjustposfromtheotherdirection
fromwhichmajorcultural
to Yiinnan,
influencespenetrated
siblyderive
fromChina.It maybea reminder,
thatis tosay,ofthecentrality
andimmobility
oftheChinese
I94

likethemotionless
PoleStarovera stateaudience.
Thesmall,entirely
conemperor,
presiding

thatwrithe
ventional
between
theswords,
oneither
sideofthedeity's
head,
dragons
topmost
may
bea specific
linkwithChinese
Another
be
the
and
imperial
may
dishwithpeaches
symbolism.
afungus,onaxisat thebottom;
theseareconventional
a
kind
visible
symbols
of longlife,
of
Banzai!Theyoung
in
like
look
devotees
attendants,
wholly
ofthesame
Chinese type,
highborn
Taoistcultoflonglifefor theruler.There
clueintheoddrowofovalsat
maybesome
further
none.
thetopoftheframe,butI cansuggest
asplausibly
aspossible,
constructed
thisexplanation
Having
byanother.
Ifindit challenged
As willbeseenbelow,
I amconvinced
thatthefollowing
nine
frames,zz through
iy, present
ancient
some
the
equivalents
for
of major
factsof
Strangely
symbolic
geography.
Yfinnanese
inparticular
to Tien-tsang
lackingin thatpartof theseriesarethemountains,
anyreference

Shana
thelakeplain,thatencloses
theTa
range
rising
dr,theformidable
7ooofeetabove
thatthismountain
onthewest.Wecanonlyimagine
theawesome
musthave
position
Li region

heldin earlyYiinnanese
andthetightening
of Buddhism
priorto thecoming
of contacts
religion,

withT'angChina.Twostriking
tributes
arerepaidto it bytheNan Chaoregime
official
theemotional
thatprompted
bothsuperficially
themmusthave
corded;
though
pressure
Chinese,
W
been
In784theambitious
sixthNanChaoruler,
one
indigenous.
I-mou-hsiin* -, usurped
setof FiveGreat
anojficial
emperor
bydesignating
of theage-oldprerogatives
of theChinese
Ssu T'u N g. TheCentralPeakin
Peaks,WuFeng- g, andFourGreatWaterways,

above
thecapital
thegroup,
thefocusoftheroyalcult,wasMountTien-tsang,
towering
cityand
his
return
to
an
alliance
with
itslake.InthenextyearI-mou-hsun
T'ang,
formutual
signalized
a solemn
oathwiththeChinese
thethreatof Tibetan
invasions,
byswearing
against
defense
down:"Onewastreasured
onthesamemountain.
Fourcopiesof theoathwerewritten
emissary,
in a 'stonechamber'--a
god;onewassunkin theHsi
grotto?-in theshrineof the[mountain]
theTa Li lake];onewasplacedin theroyalancestral
ErhShuiENg 7J,[theriverthatfeeds
the
Son
was
sent
to
and
one
back
shrine;
of Heaven93."

twoof thebizarre
concocted
linkedtheroyal
In addition
byYiinnanese
legends
Buddhists
Oneof themanylocalstories
mountain
andlakewithdivine
importance.
persons
of supreme
thatthatdeityoncoming
Indiahadclimbed
claimed
tothe
about
fromCentral
Avalokitejvara
inmeditation
towinoverthe
tosit cross-legged
summit
before
beginning
ofMountTien-tsang,
masters.
Theclaimis corroborated
Raksaswhohadbeenitsprevious
landfromtheogre-like
by
a pieceofgeographical
fantasy:at thattimeTa Li Pu wasa properpartof India,knownas
the"wondrously
fragrantrealm",Gandhak By thesamesortof equation
wearetoldthat
.ti. a g, theDivine
MountTienTsangwasthencalledLing Chiu
Peak.
Thefnal
Vulture
An
audacity
is theassertion
that"Sdkyamuniproved
hisBuddha-hood
a
g byLakeErho4."
TheAvalokiteivaralegendis interesting
to usprimarilyin connection
withthefamiliar
storyof thefounding
of theNan Chaokingdom,
oneof thecentralthreads
of HelenChapin's
93

[ACS]: The Peaks and Waterways are recorded in NCYS, Ch. i, p. i6,a; Fr., p.48. The oath-taking is described in the
New T'ang history, T'angshu,ccxxii, 2, p. 8,a. In the modern, Taipei facsimile of the Wu-ying-tien edition this becomes
p.2563.

94 [ACS]: Taken from a short travel record by Ch'enTing

@ of the Ch'ing,the TienChienchi-yu.[
p 4
;
reprinted in Yiin-nanpei chengchib,xiv, p. 19,a. Useful comments on these and other Buddhist legends are found in Hsti
b
Chia-shui's
- article (in Chinese) on "Later religion in Nan Chao," in Tung-fangtsa-chih
agfA
g g , xliii, 1942,
pp.42ff.

195

Oneofthemostinteresting
Thetwostandinsharpcontrast.
research.
aspects
of thefounding
Li
"Indian
the
monk"
to
do
Ta
The
it
that
is
the
legend fact
hadnothing with
neighborhood.
ontwodifferent
ascends
andis worshipped
of Avalokitelvara
whoturnsoutto beanincarnation

Theversion
wearenowmeeting
seems
mountains,
far awayfromthecapitales.
Yiinnanese
toappropriate
asmuch
asnecessary
tobeanattempt
region
ofthecapital
byBuddhists
clearly
it
the
deserved.
own
Tien
to
their
mountain, Tsang, authority
ofthestory give
it mustbea claimthatthegreatdefeatofMdara
was
aboutSdkyamuni,
As for thesentence

reenacted-at
theheartofroyalYfinnan.
out-orperhaps
carried
mysteriously
is a
in whichthesetwofragments
thesource
of localpietyareexhibited
Unfortunately
a byCh'en
travel
theTienCh'ienchi-yut R ?EM
record,
TingMW.There
Ch'ing
dynasty
tHM, TheSdkyamuni
onthe
to a tradition
theKuan-yin
sentence,
storyis attributed
merely

a nowlostaccount
thePaiku t'ungchi
ofantiquities,
otherhand,is saidto betakenfrom
names
oneofthearchaistic
o aI e; Paibeing
usedfortheregime
thatpreceded
for Yiinnan,
noearlier
thanMing(being
citedby
andwasitselfperhaps
theNanChao.Thisis undatable,
withother
about
writers
The
legends
of thattimein connection
antiquarian
Avalokitelvara).
that it brought
imagination
mayof course
feats of Yiinnanese
Buddhist
together
havetaken

anillustration
agooddealearlier.
roll"juxtaposes
ofthe
shape
Perhaps
thefactthatthe"long
ofthenuminouspower
staged,
of theTaLi
defeatofMira,conventionally
withapersonification

tofindthattheconnection
wemayexpect
been
drawn
at
is thebestargument
region
hadalready
thelevelofcourtBuddhism
bythetwelfth
century.
zo
than
Peak,rather
If thefierce
frontal
forthe
deityofframe stands
fortheroyalCentral

stillbenatural
it would
to explainsomeof its detailsas borrowingsfrom
warrior
kinghimself,
theimmobility,
thesymmetry,
thedragon
would
theregaliconography:
motif.Therockpedestal

thefungiandpeaches
arestandard
inthe
bea wholly
beginning;
ofimmortality
appropriate

Aboveall thestrange
inwhich
loreofsacred
mountains.
theweapons
areheld,
Chinese
fashion
nowserve
lances
could
as aformalized
andthecrossed
reminder
thetwovertical
swords,
ofthe
shan[?.
formountain,
character
11and12: I believe
tothe"long
roll"andtoframes
notthattwooftheoriginal
Toreturn
wereeverpainted,
werelost,butthatonlythetwoherevisible
"GodsoJtheFourDirections"
listsof theFourNuminous
thesymbols
rulingWestandEast. TheChinese
for thepowers
Ones,SsuLing q E, runin theorder:GreenDragon(East); WhiteTiger(West); Red
Thedifference
Bird(South);and"DarkWarrior"
couple).
(North,thetortoise-and-serpent
of whatone
is thereverse
andtheirorder,Tiger-Dragon,
hereis two-fold:
onlytwoareshown,
wouldexpect.As wehaveseen,thewriterof thelabelsreturned
to theorthodox
sequence,
withouttroubling
himself
abouttheactualcontents
ofthetwoframes.Perhaps
asa Chinese
scribeof
theNanking
region
at themidfifteenth
century,
calledin to doajobofrestoration,
hecould
imagine
onlyoneproperorder,andthought
hewascorrecting
anerror.Originally,
however,
the
pair, in whichthewestern
twogodsmusthavebeenmeantto standfor a specialYiinnanese
member
tookprecedence
overtheeastern,
andsowasplaced
frst. Thiswastruein thecaseofthe
twoNan Chaoroyalcities,TaLi onitsear-shaped
lake,theErhHai, tothewestandthemuch
moreancient
capital,Tien--recently
calledYiin-nan
Fu or K'un-ming-onits Lake Tiento
95

[ACS]: Chapin, "Yiinnanese images," pp.164-65, names the mountains in translating the labels on the YamanakaYilrinkanpicturescroll. For the geographical factor made clear by the text roll, see Soper, Excursus,pp. 23, 28.

196

theeast.From784 onTa Li wasthepoliticalandreligious

someof thelastNan
center,
though

toliveinthe"Eastern
Under
theTuan
preferred
Chaomonarchs
Capital".
family,ofcourse,
Ta Li gaveits nameto thedynasty.

In thetwopictures,
seethemartial
virtues
thatsustained
thetwoYfinthen,weprobably
asdivine
nanese
thetwocities.Eachpicture
guarding
regimespersonified
warriors
hasinaddition
anopenscrollof records.
of thecivilauthority,
a representative
holding
Eachhasa reminder
of

itscity'slake,inthefrstframeafrog-like
inrobes
creature
holding
a bigconch
shell,andinthe
second
a Ndginiattendant.
In whatI taketobetheTaLipicture,
thestorm
deities
at thetop
tribute
to thetempest-breeding
looklikeapicturesque
powers
of Tien-tsang
Shan,thefamous
mountain
barrier
thelakeplain.Pushing
thislineofargument
stillfarther,
risinghighabove
onemightevenclaimthatthebeauty
inlongrobes,offering
a bowlofwater-lilies
(?), whostands
in thefrontcorner
intopotholes
of theTa Li group,ona rocklappedbywavesanderoded
like

t M ~f, represents
thefamous
stones
thesmalllakeisletthatholds(or
fromLakeT'ai-hu
usedto hold)a shrine
to Kuan-yin96.
I shallhavemoreto sayaboutthesucceeding
groupof
orNigarajas,
below.
kings",
"dragon

13 Thesixthgroup(Plate9):
Thelabelreads:Pai-nan-to
LungWang,i. e. theDragonKing[orNdgaradja]
Upinanda.
The
has
a
human
anda hoodof fivesnakes,eachheadsurmounted
dragonking
body,gold-colored,
a
He
is
in
seated
on
his
own
tail,whichrestson thesurfaceof thewater.He
by jewel.
lalitdsana
holdsa clusterof flowersin his righthand.In attendance
on himaretwo Ndgaswithheavy
andbeards,whosenoseshavea Jewishcontour;andfourNdginis,of
eyebrows,mustaches,
whomtheprincipal
wifealonehasthreesnakeheadsaboveherhumanone,theothershaving
arefleshonlyoneeach.Sheholdsin bothhandsa vasecontaining
jewels.All theseattendants
colored.
Belowaretwo servants:to theviewer'sright,a cock-headed
individual
holdinga dishof
in
his
hand
and
in
a
his
and
to
the
a
left;
jewels(?)
left, Ndgaholdinga redbox(?).
right
spear
Betweenthemis a Ndga'shead(?) appearing
abovewater.
group(Plate9):
I4 Theseventh

Thelabelreads:So-chiehHaiLungWang,i.e. theDragonKingof the So-chieh[SSigara]

Sea.This[monarch]
is like the precedingone exceptthathe hasninesnakeheadsabovehis
humanoneinsteadof five,andis attended
by sixN-ginis,oneof whomhasthreesnakeheads
aboveherhumanone. Sheholdsa redvasefull of jewels.Immediately
in frontarethe sametwo
attendantsas in the precedingpicture,in this casefarenoughabovethe surfaceof the waterto
show theirbodiesmerginginto thoseof snakes.The cock-headedpersonageis holdinga spear
in his righthandandthreejewels,withouta dish,in his left. The Niga holdsa dishof jewels.
Betweenthe two is a conchshellfromwhicha snake'sheademerges.
Below to the viewer'srightis an ox-headed, red-bodied,hairyindividualholdinga trident
in his left hand.To the rightis a flesh-coloredpersonagewith a tiger'shead;both sit on rocks.

If thesefirsttwoNigarajasbelong
to thegroupofeightwhose
locus classicusis thefrst

of theLotusstitra--there
named
aspart ofSikyamuni's
audience-their
choice
is not
chapter
96 [ACS]J: Illustrated by C.P.Fitzgerald, The Towerof the Five Glories,London, 1941, plate facing p.94.

197

at all self-explanatory.
Theyarenos.2 and3 in thegroup.Upinanda
is usually
pairedwith

no.I, his"elder
Nanda;nowasfierce,turbulent
powers
brother"
whoarereckless
enough
to
are
and
the
attacktheBuddha's
entourage
by sorcerer-disciple
quelled
withfire,
MahdMaudgal-

andnowas meekandlovingconverts,
No.3, Sagara,
whobathetheinfantGautama.
yadyana;

thetwenty-eight
onhisownaccount
asa rain-maker,
andis named
among
hasbeenworshipped
onAvalokitesvara.
attendants
(SeeMochizuki,
demigod
Bukky6daijiten,
pp.42,9-20o).
His nameis saidtomeansea;in Chinese
thecharacter
hai @4alsomeans
a largelake.Thelake

to Sdgara,
theEightGreatNigarajas:
in addition
oneamong
no.6,
factoris a noticeable
lakesonamed
is saidtoliveinthemythical
at thecenter
oftheearth,highinthe
Anavatapta,
alsohasa "BlueLotusLake"named
andno.8, Utpalaka,
Himalayas;
afterhimashishome.
In viewof thehistoric
andemotional
importance
of theirtwolakesto theYiinnanese,
I
to referbothto the
wereintended
thatthese
Kings"
thinkit notunlikely
firsttwo"Dragon
in Lake Tienand
to
the
Buddhist
and
ancient
residing
supernaturalpowers
India,
of
legends
LakeErh.
weseeinthetwoNdgapictures
attendants
Theforeground
whom
Assuming
that
arepuzgling.
thesnakeheadis thesame,theyrecurmuchlaterinframe123, incompany
witha Niga queen.

members
Arethey
ofbothspace
godiac,
forthedivisions
oftheAsiaticanimal
perhaps
symbols
?
localwater
deities
andtime Theox-andtiger-headed
beings,
whositondryland,areperhaps
who
toallthis
onthenorth
andeastshores
inshrines
were
oftheTa-lilake.I shallreturn
worshipped
indiscussingframe
I23.
15--18

toeleventh
Theeighth
(Plates9, Io):
groups
These groupsare unlabelled,and the centralfigureof eachis a DragonKing. They may

thanthepreceding
theyarelessstained
possiblebetouchedup,ortheymayonlyseemsobecause
different
styleandmaybe entirelyfrom
figures,fortheworkis good.Theyarein a somewhat
anotherhand.All fouraremuchfurtherfromIndianmodelsthantheonesjustdescribed.
The
firstof thesefour,thefifthof theEightDragonKings,is infullhumanform-no snakeheadsclothedin armor,andwearsblackbootsupto
witha whitebeardandwhitehair.Heis partially
circular
hisknees.Heholdsa macein hisrighthandanda transparent
objectin hisleft.Beside
him is a grey dragon,and behindhim is a dragon-likeyet half-humanindividual,holdinga
dragonbanner.In the lower right corner,a peculiarkind of sea monsterholds a transparent
bowl in whicha numberof jewelsmaybe seen.
My notes do not give detaileddescriptionsof the otherDragonKings.
As Chapin
says,these
fromthefrst twoNigarajas,primarily
four
flguresareverydifferent
because
theyarecastin theroleof theChinese
ratherthanthatof theIndiandemigod.
dignitary
I believe
thatthisis sobecause
theyrepresent
water
forceslocalized
in thehalf-Sinicized
landof
: speci
ically,four Yzinnanese
rivers.As wehaveseen,a setof FourGreatWaterways
Yiinnan
wasnamed
alongwiththeFive GreatPeaksin 784 byKingI-mou-hsiin
(theNan Chaoruler
whoreestablished
militaryandpoliticalrelations
withthe T'angcourt,to counterbalance
the
greater
threatthenposed
byTibet).Thetranslated
edition
oftheNanChaoyeh shihdesignates
thewaterways,
orrivers,in thisorder:
97

[ACS]:

See T.R.Tregear, A Geography

of China,Chicago, 1965, pp.264-70.
198

i) TheChin-sha-chiangje j- or UpperYangtse.
.UjRAj orMekong.
2) TheLan-ts'ang-chiang

Xi 5 ; i.e. theYang-pi-chiang
a "45, a tributary
of the
j) TheHei-hui-chiang

Mekongthatjoinsit at apointaboutRokmsouthof Ta Li; oneof its ownaffluents

theErhHai lake.
theriverthatdrains
being
4
or
river,theSalween.
4) TheNu-chiang jT angry

arewildtorrents,
andtheSalween
unsuitable
for naviOf thesetheYangtze,theMekong,

wasthemostclosely
associated
withTaLi asroyalcapital.
I assume
that
gation.TheHei-hui
inframe16, wherethe"king"is shownin something
likeregalstate,wearing
it is represented

some
onajewelled
throne.
aurawasimagined
aformalrobeandseated
Perhaps
partoftheroyal
downstream
intotheMekong;
courtrobewitha dragon
as moving
hence
that"king's"elaborate

andthegirlattendant,
across
thefront,thesecretary
withthescroll,
theseatis
though
blazoned
a rock.TheYangtze
andSalween
arepictured
as unmitigatedly
wild,andso theirdemigods
sit onrocks,andhavemonstrous
weararmor,
attendants.
thatthewaterways
in a different
Thissupposition
beidentified
thatin
requires
orderfrom
theNanChaoyehshih,buta more
accurate
animaginary
one,moving
along
literally
arcfrom

northto southwest,
Ta Li.
passingthrough

group(Platei 1):
ig9-20zoThetwelfth
Thelabelreads:T'ienWangTi-shihchung,i. e. the HeavenlyKingIndraandhissuite.Indra,
in flowingrobes,holdinganincenseburnerin hislefthand,advances
toward[theviewer's]
left,
six ladies,andan official.Mostof the figuresandfacesin the
attendedby a standard-bearer,
is originaland is very expressiveand
group have been touchedup, but the standard-bearer

good;as is Indrahimself,I think.

group(Platei i):
z21-22zzThethirteenth
The label reads:Fan Wang Ti-shih,i.e. King BrahmdSakra.Brahmsadvancesto meet

six ladies,andan
Indra,carryinga fanin his righthandandattendedby a standard-bearer,
faceandthatof theofficialseemto be originalwork;theothers
official.Thestandard-bearer's
areshownflyingthroughtheair.
Musicalinstruments
areretouched.
It maybeworthwhileto comment
thatthesetwogroups
endtheroll'sroyalprelude
by
thetwoheavenly
monarchs
of earlyBuddhist
legend.
introducing

I99