Page 241 - Christies March 15 2017 Fujita Museum

BUDDHISM:

THE LIGHT OF ASIA

Included amongst the Chinese works of art from the Fujita Museum are three rare Buddhist stone
steles that in their day would have served as the focus of worship, the small, 526-dated stele likely
placed on an altar in a Buddhist temple or perhaps in the private chapel of a wealthy family, and the
two pillar-form steles set either in a temple or possibly in a public square. Dating from the Northern
Wei (AD 386–534), Sui (AD 581–618), and Tang (AD 618–907) dynasties, the three steles claim
increasing numbers of fgures and increasingly complex iconographic programs. This short essay
will introduce the steles’ iconography and briefy examine the evolution of sculptural styles from the
Northern Wei into the Tang, as exemplifed by these three sculptures.1

Chinese Buddhist steles, which frst appeared during the Northern Wei period, trace their origins to
both Indian Buddhist steles and traditional Chinese steles, or bei (碑). Well-known since Han times
(206 BC – AD 220), the latter were large, vertically-set, round-topped, rectangular blocks of stone
inscribed with a funerary, commemorative, or edifying text. By contrast, Indian Buddhist steles were
pictorial, presenting images of the Buddha and associated deities. Some Chinese Buddhist steles,
like the 526-dated example from the Fujita Museum, represent a Chinese transformation of the Indian
stele type; others, such as the Sui and Tang Fujita steles represent a reinterpretation of the traditional
Chinese stele, retaining the upright, rectangular form with rounded top but replacing text with
Buddhist images.2

Although typically exhibited one-by-one in museums and galleries, works of Buddhist art in fact
almost always appeared in groups in their original contexts. Because they feature intact groupings
of Buddhist deities, steles convey insight into both the fgures typically presented in those groupings
and the traditional arrangement of those fgures. Such groupings usually include an odd number of
fgures, and they are hierarchically arranged, with a Buddha at the center fanked on either side by a
bodhisattva, perhaps with a disciple tucked between the Buddha and each bodhisattva, and perhaps
with a guardian fgure at each outer edge of the assemblage. Akin to angels, celestial fgures termed
apsaras, or feitian (飛天), frequently hover above, venerating the Buddha, playing musical instruments,
or making oferings of alms or fowers.

1 For books on Buddhism and its history, particularly in China, see: Kenneth K.S. Chen 陳觀勝, Buddhism: The Light of Asia 佛
教: 亞洲之光, (Woodbury, NY: Barron’s Educational Series), 1968; Arthur F. Wright, Buddhism in Chinese History, (Stanford,
CA: Stanford University Press), revised edition, 1971 [Available in Chinese translation as (美)芮沃壽著, 中國歷史中的佛教, 北
京市: 北京大學出版社, 第1版, 2009]; Kenneth K.S. Chen 陳觀勝, The Chinese Transformation of Buddhism, (Princeton, N.J.:
Princeton University Press), 1973; Erik Zürcher, The Buddhist Conquest of China: The Spread and Adaptation of Buddhism in
Early Medieval China, (Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill), 3rd edition, 2007.
2 For information on the development and evolution of Chinese Buddhist steles, see: Dorothy C. Wong, Chinese Steles: Pre-
Buddhist and Buddhist Use of a Symbolic Form, (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press), 2004.

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