Search Results

Modern art history practice often treats Buddhist icons or ritual objects as unique objects, focusing on their originality and uniqueness. This text investigates how the paradoxical Buddhist doctrine of ‘the one and the many’ was translated into visual language through manipulation of the relationship between copies and the original. It analyses the different tactics and strategies formulated around given socio-historical frameworks to visualise the notion of infinity, and ultimately the structure of the universe, and suggests that multiple copies of a single design were more potent a vehicle than single objects in expressing ideas related to the Buddhist metaphysics.

This chapter examines the history of Chan Buddhism in relation to transmission records and factional motives contained in the Jingde Transmission of the Lamp or the Jingde Chuandeng lu. It suggests that the Jingde Chuandeng lu was a major landmark for the Chan movement because prior to it Chan transmission records were primarily regional documents compiled under the auspices of local authorities. It contends that the inspiration for its text began in the revival of Buddhism in the Wuyue region mounted under the Chan banner and its real story concerns how the Wuyue-based Chan movement became integrated with the larger aims of the Song and developing Song policy toward Chan.

Chapter 2 examines how the Tang–Five Dynasties transition impacted Buddhist monastics, their traditions, and regional religious cultures. With the onset of the Five Dynasties, just as some southern rulers recruited former Tang officials and local leaders to their administrations, they also appointed Chang’an’s displaced court clerics and prominent native monks to the abbacies of major monasteries in their territories. Traditions of learning and practice popular in the northern capitals during the late Tang were disseminated to and reconstituted in the capitals of southern kingdoms, most notably Shu and Wuyue. The continuity of elite Tang Buddhist traditions is then contrasted with the elevation of local clerics, many of whom belonged to Chan lineages, in less developed regions like Jiangxi and Fujian. The political empowerment and economic development of southeastern regions situated resident Chan monks at the centers of newly sovereign states.

Wuyue’s first kings nurtured an eclectic array of Buddhist and Daoist monks and monasteries; it was only during the reign of the last king, Qian Chu, that court patronage was channeled primarily to monks affiliated with specific sub-branches of Xuansha Shibei’s lineage—primarily the dharma-descendants of Fayan Wenyi. As in the Southern Tang, where many of these monks had initially trained, the teachings and practices of Chan clerics in Wuyue encompassed a spectrum of normative Buddhist traditions—from classic zhiguan meditation, to Avata?saka and Lotus Sutra devotion, to Pure Land faith and esoteric practices. The broad interests of this closely connected network of clerics highlight the ecumenical and inclusive nature of Wuyue’s Buddhist culture, but they also raises questions about the function of lineage and the nature of Chan identity—issues that are explored in detail in this chapter.

This chapter delves into the histories and stories of Yue, particularly the legends of the Yue king Goujian. It talks about King Wuyue of Yue, which includes the myths and tales of Yu, the legendary ruler from high antiquity, and the ancestor of the Yue people. It also reviews the mythical birth of Yu, whose mother was impregnated by swallowing a pearl barley grain and gave birth to Yu by opening her side. The chapter looks at lost Han chenwei writings that adopted stories about Yu's dream of a spirit that told him the location of the mountain god's text for regulating flooding, and the nine-tailed white fox who helped Yu make his marriage decision. It examines Sima Qian's record of Yu, in which the author relied heavily upon Shangshu and The Book of Antiquity.