Page 153 - China, 5000 years : innovation and transformation in the arts

compassion, bodhisattvas are usually represented in
graceful postures, dressed in elegant garments with
sophisticated drapery. They are adorned with
crowns and precious jewelry, and often they are
equipped with specific emblems and attributes
(cats. 163, 165, 166, 172-76). Some bodhisattvas are
depicted riding on a powerful animal (an elephant
or lion, for example), indicating the irresistible
nature of the Buddhist Law. Others appear with
multiple heads or arms to signify their limitless
compassion and their suprahuman potential as
beneficent intercessors (cat. 164). Perhaps the single
most popular focus of Buddhist art and devotion is
Avalokitesvara (C: Guan[shi]yin or Guanyin; "One
Who Perceives [with compassion] the Sounds [of
the suffering world]"). Religious imagination has
endowed this widely adored bodhisattva with the
Nogreatest variety of attributes and manifestations.
less than thirty-three forms became canonized in
the Lotus Sutm.They are indications oi his
compassionate omnipotence to save sentient beings
in different states of existence. As a benign
emanation and agent of Amitabha, the Buddha of
the Western Paradise (cat. 160), he has a small image
of this Buddha in his crown. This image alone
suffices to identify him as Guanyin (cat. 176).
Like the bodhisattvas, the vidyarajas ("Bright Kings
[of Esoteric Wisdom]"; C: mingwang) are easily
recognized. The vidyarajas, however, are wrathful
deities, terrifying in appearance and often depicted
in belligerent poses, with abnormal multiplication
of limbs and heads, ferocious facial expressions,
threatening weapons in their hands, and flame-
edged halos (cat. 170). But their anger is beneficent.
They embody the militant energy and retaliatory
power of the Tathagatas when confronted with such
evils as heresy, ignorance, illusion, passion, and other
spiritual obstacles. Tathagatas are a class of fully
enlightened Buddhas.The Chinese epithet, rulai,
means something like "he who has thus come," that
is, like other Buddhas before him. Although the
Five Bright Kings, their names, and their function
are of Indian origin, they were probably conceived
as a distinct group of five in Chinese Esoteric
Buddhism during the seventh to eighth centuries.
The Five Bright Kings, or protectors of faith,
correspond to the Five Tathagatas, just as the five
cosmic elements, the five cardinal points, the five
transcendental wisdoms, the five senses, the five
colors, the five vitality centers, and the five viscera
of the human body do. These Tathagatas of the Five
Wisdoms (wuzhi rulai) were thought of as spiritual
principles constituting the body of the universe;
and the relationship among them was clarified by
the use of schematic diagrams, known as mandalas.
Such formal geometric diagrams, depicting
Buddhist deities in a highly abstract theological
schema, originated in India. In China mandalas of
painted or sculptural images were employed in
TRANSFIGURING DIVINITIES: BUDDHIST SCULPTURE IN CHINA
liturgies and special rituals, such as ordination and
baptism, and also as aids to private exercises such as
the visualization of deities.
The cosmic All-Buddha Mahavairocana ("Great
Radiance of Illumination"; C: Dari) was established
as the highest of these principles, penetrating with
his light the darkness of ignorance. Each Tathagata
had a particular bodhisattva and vidyaraja as his pair
of agents, representing his benign (sauta) and
wrathful (krodha) aspects. Practitioners of the mijiao,
or "Secret Teachings," believed that each person's
body, mind, and speech were inherently divine and
that his or her deeds, thoughts, and words were
actually those of Mahavairocana. Through such
ritual practices as incantations, recitation of magic
spells, mystical hand gestures, and trances the deities
—could be constrained to fulfill material goals cure
illness, defeat one's enemies, protect the state and
— —government and spiritual goals hasten one's
enlightenment or progress to a higher state of
consciousness. Correct performance of such rituals
was beheved to offer access to the power of the
expansive Buddhist pantheon. That pantheon was
systematically defined and organized into a highly
intricate and complex schema, more elaborate than
any previously known in the Buddhist world.
Picturing that pantheon presented a new challenge
to the imagination and skill of Chinese artists of
the Tang dynasty.
A large class of lesser deities, or devas (C: tiari), rank
just below vidyarajas in the order of sanctity (cats.
167, 169). Among them are the belligerent
dvarapalas, who evolved out of Indian demonic
creatures (yakshas) and Chinese warrior heroes and
who protected the entrance of a sanctuary. In
China they became known as envang ("Two
Kings"), a pair of guardian deities. Four lokapalas, or
"Divine Kings" (C: tianwang) were responsible for
protecting the Buddha and his Law, the sanctuary,
and the Buddhist congregation from dangers and
threats of evil forces arising from the four cardinal
directions of the compass. Their images became
standard furnishing on a Buddhist altar platform
and at the four corners of a stupa or a mandala.
Symbolically, figures on the human level of
existence, such as arhats (C: luohan; supran.itur.il
persons who, having attained enlightenment, will
enter into nirvana after death) and the Buddha's
major disciples, were more important as .1 group
than as individuals. Arhats received .1 much simpler
iconographical treatment than bodhisattvas.
vidyarajas, and other suprahuman beings: on the
other hand, they were represented with greater
artistic and doctrinal freedom. The legendary.
wonder-working arhats were often depicted .is .1
—group groups of eight, sixteen, or five hundred
being the most tr.ulition.il. Arhats are frequently
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