Page 154 - China, 5000 years : innovation and transformation in the arts

accompanied by animals and other companions
(cat. 177). Originally worshiped as saints of the
Hmayana pantheon, in China by the fifth century
the sixteen arhats would become guardians of
Mahayana Buddhism. Their names and abodes
appear in a scripture translated into Chinese in 654
by the famous pilgrim-monk Xuanzang (600-664).
According to this text, the Buddha advised the
arhats to remain in this world to await the advent
of the redeeming Buddha, Maitreya.
COMMISSIONING AND INSCRIBING
BUDDHIST IMAGES
Despite the great variety of savior figures, the scope
of artistic creativity and innovation in Buddhist
imagery was limited on the whole by iconographic
and iconometric constraints. Needless to say, statues
were appreciated not primarily as art objects but as
sacred icons. Nevertheless, such variables as the
nature and intensity of piety in various parts of the
vast country; locally available materials; patrons'
preferences; the function, purpose, placement, and
installation of a given icon; as well as adaptations of
Indian and Central Asian aesthetics and stylistic
traits to traditional Chinese taste and modes of
representation brought about a surprising variety in
Buddhist sculpture.
—If we are able despite the canonical uniformity
to perceive connections and variations in the
process by which Buddhist art was slowly
assimilated in China and in the complicated
development of style and iconography, it is largely
owing to the Chinese urge for accurate
documentation. Dates, names, and facts were
inscribed on Buddhist sculptures with such
thoroughness that, with the aid of more or less
accidentally surviving material, we can reconstruct
almost uninterrupted chronological sequences of
dated works. This, at any rate, is generally the case
in northern China, where the new religion and its
arts were strongly supported by the Tuoba, the
foreign rulers of the Wei dynasties (386-557). In
southern China many of the ancient Buddhist
monuments have not survived. Besides the date of
completion or consecration of an icon and the
names of its donors and beneficiaries, inscriptions
often indicate the dual motivation for
commissioning a Buddhist statue. The devotee
intended to provide a main object of worship and
at the same time to incur the manifold blessings
promised by the sacred texts to those who, solely or
jointly, sponsored the making of an icon. In
compliance with the doctrine of karma, the pious
donor could even transfer or extend merits and
—virtues to others to the imperial house, to
ancestors, to living members of the family, to "all
sentient beings."
"The Scripture on the Production of Buddha
TRANSFIGURING DIVINITIES: BUDDHIST SCULPTURE IN CHINA
Images" (Z110 fo xingxiang jing) elaborates in great
detail on the marvelous rewards that may be
expected in a future life by those who make and
commission sacred icons. This short text is among
the most popular and earliest Buddhist scriptures to
be translated into Chinese, perhaps in the first half
of the third century. Virtually nothing is known of
its provenance or translators. The scripture does not
give any ritual, artistic, or technical instructions on
the actual making of Buddhist icons. But it provides
the background for the production of the first
"authentic" Buddha image, the earliest known
reference to the mysterious Udayana statue:
The king addressed the Buddha further saying:
"When people perform virtuous acts they gain
good fortune, but where does this lead them? I
dread no longer being able to look upon the
Buddha after the Buddha is gone. I want to
produce an image of the Buddha to venerate
and bequeath to later generations. What sorts of
good fortune will I obtain thereby? I ask the
Buddha to take compassion upon me and
explain this matter, as I earnestly desire to
understand."'"
What follows is a list of salvific aspects of rebirths
to be gained through the production of sacred
icons. One of these promulgations reads:
One who produces an image ot the Buddha
will, in a later life, always honour the Buddha
and revere his scriptures. He will continually
make offerings to the relics of the Buddha of
variegated silk, fine flowers, exquisite incense,
lamps, and all the precious jewels and rare
objects of the world. Afterward for innumerable
aeons he will practice the path to nirvana.
Those who aspire to present precious jewels to
the Buddha are not common men; they have all
practiced the Buddhist path in previous lives.
Such is the fortune obtained by one who
produces an image of the Buddha.' 7
On the pedestal of a gilded bronze altar of the Sui
dynasty (581—618), representing the Buddha
Amitabha and his retinue, we find a long engraved
inscription (cat. 160). This masterwork of bronze
casting, made up of twenty-three components, once
served a pious person and his family members for
their private worship. It was discovered in 1974 near
the village of Bali on the outskirts of Xi'an, in
Shaanxi Province. The beginning of the inscription
is almost formulaic: "On the fifteenth day of the
seventh month in the fourth year of the Kaihuang
[era, i.e., 584] the general of Ningyuan and deputy
district magistrate ofWujiang [in present-day Hebei
Province, by the name of] Dong Qin had this
Amitabha image made, so that His Majesty the
emperor and his inner circle above and father and
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