Page 165 - Ming_China_Courts_and_Contacts_1400_1450 Craig lunas

changjuan tu 普渡明太袓長卷圖) in the Tibet Museum. It
recordsthe miraculous occurrences during memorial
services performed by the Fifth Karmapa in 1407 at
Nanjing’s largest imperially sponsored temple, Linggusi
靈谷寺 (Numinous Valley Monastery), for the Hongwu
emperor and Empress Ma, along with Hongwu’s parents, in
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a series of 49 narrative scenes (see Pl. 14.4a–c). On one
level this painting can be viewed as containing an ulterior
motive, as rumours circulated of Yongle’s possible Mongol or
Korean ancestry after he seized the throne from his nephew
with assistance from Mongol cavalry in 1402. Questioning
Yongle’s ethnicity – denying his very Chinese identity – has
also been a typical means by which to isolate and
marginalise his interests in Tibetan Buddhism. The
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manner in which Yongle came to power naturally put a
cloud over his reign and made him concerned about the
image of his own legitimacy. The handscroll had a clear
political agenda in confirming the legitimacy of Yongle’s
reign, and made use of similar strategies that the Mongol
court employed to project power across Asia, such as the
multilingual inscriptions found on this handscroll, as also
seen on Yuan public works such as the aforementioned
Juyong Pass.
Beyond such well-publicised projects is the 1413 missive
scroll which the Yongle emperor sent to the Fifth Karmapa
describing the famous eunuch admiral Zheng He’s 鄭和
(1371–1433) voyage to Sri Lanka and capture of the Buddha’s Plate 17.5 Vajrabhairava, dated 1512. Ink and colour on silk, height
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tooth relic. The scroll mentions the participation of the 129.5cm, width 99cm. University of California, Berkeley Art Museum
eunuch Hou Xian 侯顯 (active 1403–27), Yongle’s main and Pacific Film Archive, Gift of James and Dorothy Cahill (1982.13)
envoy to the Tibetans and bearer of the 1413 letter, who had
already been in Tibet for four years before the voyage. In it of the Seventh Karmapa (1454–1506). Far from wishful
the emperor also describes his own visionary experiences, thinking on the part of Tibetans, this assertion, and the
which clearly went beyond the bounds of what would be mission of the eunuch envoy who carried these tidings, was
required in diplomacy. Therefore to limit Ming received rather coldly by the Karmapa’s court. Testament
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motivations in the patronage of Tibetan art to politics alone to some of Zhengde’s religious interests are found in the form
is to limit our own view, for religious faith and political of an invitation sent with the eunuch Liu Yun 劉允 in 1515 to
acumen are not mutually exclusive, and it would be a the Eighth Karmapa (1507–54) with many gifts. The letter of
mistake to project 21st-century cynicism on to the 15th invitation in Chinese and Tibetan was preserved at Tsurphu
century. Monastery. A detailed Tibetan account of this ill-fated
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mission is also recorded in A Scholars’ Feast (mKhas pa’i dga’ ston,
The Zhengde emperor 1545), which further relates that the Chinese were insulted by
While discussions of Ming court interest in Tibetan the cold reception they received and took back all the gifts,
Buddhism tends to be limited to the Yongle emperor, he only to be robbed on their return trip. This is one of the few
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was by no means the most extreme among Ming rulers in Chinese missions for which there is a detailed record in
his adoration of Tibetan Buddhism. Tibetan art continued Tibetan sources, and it is especially valuable as it was
to receive significant court patronage, especially under recorded by a firsthand witness; the author Pawo Tsuklak
emperors Xuande and Chenghua 成化 (r. 1465–87), but the Trengwa (dPa’ bo gTsug lag phreng ba; 1504–66) was one of
Zhengde 正德 emperor (r. 1506–21) was an enthusiastic the Eighth Karmapa’s own disciples. The account even
patron of Tibetan Buddhism who took his zeal to a level includes an incredulous Tibetan explanation of what a
few had dared. According to the Qing dynasty Wuzong waiji eunuch is. The very concept must have been alien to a culture
武宗外紀 (Unofficial History of the Emperor Wuzong): ‘At that where a sizeable percentage of the male population was
time the emperor studied Tibetan scripture, and converted celibate without resorting to mutilation.
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to that religion. He dressed as a Tibetan monk, and Richardson thus identified the Tibetan name Rinchen
practised Dharma at court.’ He was also proficient in the Palden 領占班丹 on thangkas such as the one illustrated here
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Tibetan language, kept many Tibetan monks around him, (Pl. 17.5) as none other than the emperor himself. Marsha
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and built a Tibetan Buddhist temple within the Forbidden Weidner (Haufler) has further contextualised this painting
City. by identifying the occasion of its commission as the
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According to Tibetan sources Zhengde adopted the emperor’s birthday. As we can see, demand for Tibetan
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Tibetan name Rinchen Palden (Rin chen dpal ldan) and, objects within the Ming court was strong, and the impetus
incredibly, even went so far as to style himself an emanation for their creation multivariate.

The Early Ming Imperial Atelier on the Tibetan Frontier | 155