Page 37 - Sothebys Sutra Auction Hong Kong

The present albums are identically executed as the albums wenwu, op.cit., cat. no. III-7; similar illustrations can also be
in the two Sutras preserved in Taipei, written and illustrated seen in a woodblock-printed Buddhist text produced for the
in the same style, with the same gold ink on the same paper. court in 1417, in the National Palace Museum, ibid., pl. IV-5, or
These ten albums appear to be the only surviving volumes of a printed edition of the Flower Garland Sutra of 1419, included
the erstwhile 600 albums of the Prajnaparamita Sutra, which in the British Museum’s Ming exhibition, op.cit., p. 217, ‰g. 187
the Xuande Emperor had commissioned the monk Huijin (g. 3).
to prepare, together with the other three Sutras mentioned The ‰rst album of our set opens with a gilt-etched stele
above. The Avatamsaka Sutra appears to be lost.
inscribed with a long prayer for the bene‰t of the nation,
The Kangxi Kangyur contains Kangxi versions of both the headed by the words yu zhi (‘made to imperial order’), and
Prajnaparamita Sutra (ibid., cat. no. II-2) and the Avatamsaka surrounded by six ‰ve-clawed imperial dragons amidst
Sutra (ibid., cat. no. II-4) rather than the Xuande companions ˜aming pearls and clouds, rising above a steep rock washed
of the other two Sutras in Taipei; and the Qianlong inventory of round by waves. Very similar gold-engraved (qiangjin)
1793 lists nine goat-brain paper Sutras of various dates in the dragons, pearls and clouds can be seen on red lacquer
collection of the Qianlong Emperor, which also do not include Sutra boxes, which might have held similar Sutras, such as
Xuande versions of the Prajnaparamita and Avatamsaka the (slightly smaller) example in the Metropolitan Museum
Sutras. It is therefore likely that both had already left the of Art, New York, which is attributed to the Yongle period,
palace collection by the early Qing dynasty. Unlike the Taipei illustrated in James C.Y. Watt and Denise Patry Leidy, De„ning
Sutras, the present volumes do not bear Qianlong seals. Yongle. Imperial Art in Early Fifteenth-Century China, The
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2005, pl. 21 (g. 4).
The fourth Sutra of the original commission, the Avatamsaka
Sutra, which appears to be completely lost, may have been This stele correlates to those in the Taipei Xuande Sutras of
given to the Dachongjiaosi in Gansu province, which was built 1430, but di¯ers from those in the Yongle versions mentioned
in 1429 under imperial sponsorship by Palden Tashi (dPal above. Lotus ˜owers, as here depicted raining from Heaven
ldan bkra shis, 1377 – after 1452), Abbot of the Huayan school above the stele, are very similarly seen on a silk-damask
and friend of Huijin. Since this Sutra was important for the temple hanging, also in the Metropolitan Museum, illustrated
doctrine of the Huayan school, it may have been donated to ibid., pl. 33 and on the cover.
the monastery, where the existence of such a Sutra in the The ‰rst album continues with a spectacular gilt-etched
Medicine Buddha Hall is recorded. The hall, however, burnt illustration of a Buddhist pantheon composed of forty
down twice and with it probably the Xuande Avatamsaka celestial beings, which is impressive in its overall composition,
Sutra. captivating in its ‰ne detail, and exquisite in its elegant,
pencilled style of drawing – a dramatic imperial work of art
Our ten books are produced as leporello albums and are
handwritten and illustrated in gold ink on indigo-coloured in its own right. The corresponding illustrations of the two
paper that has been treated on the upper side to obtain a companion sutras of 1430 in Taipei are stylistically very close
shiny black, lacquer-like surface. This so-called goat-brain and clearly done in the same imperial workshop, but deviate
paper is a mineral-blue paper coated on one side with a slightly in the composition of ‰gures and the iconography.
mixture of goat brain and ink to make it smooth and glossy, The central ‰gure of Shakyamuni seated on a lotus pedestal
and thus particularly suitable for inscriptions or decorations on a shaped throne in front of an openwork torana is the very
in gold. Since it was not only visually striking but also image of the period’s gilt-bronze sculptures: two famous
particularly long-lasting, it was the court’s preferred material examples of Yongle mark and period have been published,
for the copying of Buddhist scriptures. The text is written one included in the exhibition De„ning Yongle: Imperial Art in
in gold ink in impeccable calligraphy, in the style known as Early Fifteenth-Century China, op.cit., catalogue p. 69, pl. 24,
‘eminent court o¬cial style’ (taige ti), which is associated with and sold in these rooms, 7th October 2006, lot 808 (g. 5);
court calligraphers such as Shen Du (1357-1434) and was the other in the British Museum and included, together with
also practised by the Emperor himself. A Sutra manuscript the present Sutra, in the Museum’s Ming exhibition, op.cit.,
transcribed by Shen Du in 1428 is illustrated in Yuan cang p. 227, ‰g. 195. The latter sculpture and its stylistic details,
Zang chuan fojiao wenwu, op.cit., cat. no. IV-9, and an imperial which closely relate to the present image, are discussed in
edict written by the Emperor in this calligraphic style, was David Weldon, ‘Yongle Period Metalwork: The British Museum
included in the British Museum’s exhibition Ming: Fifty Years Shakyamuni’ (http://www.asianart.com/articles/yongle/
That Changed China, The British Museum, London, 2014, index.html). In order to render the body of the Buddha in our
pp. 170-71, ‰g. 146. The illustrations, however, are delicately manuscript in gold, the respective area of the image was fully
engraved into the ‘lacquered’ black surface of the goat-brain carved out of the paper surface and ‰lled in in gold.
paper and the grooves ‰lled in in gold, like in the qiangjin Tibetan Buddhist iconography is most complicated and
technique used for gilt-etched lacquer.
variable, but for this period we are lucky to have closely
The overall execution, which is identical to that of the 1430 related renderings of the Buddhist pantheon in the almost
Sutras in Taipei, follows models from the Yongle period and is contemporary murals and sculptures of the Fahaisi, the
closely related, for example, to a gold-script, goat-brain paper important Buddhist monastery outside Beijing, which was
Sutra dated in accordance with 1418, also preserved in the completed between 1439 and 1443. The monastery was
National Palace Museum, see Yuan cang Zang chuan fojiao founded by the Grand Eunuch Li Tong, who was in charge

THE LOST WISDOM SUTRA A TREASURE FROM THE GOLDEN AGE OF XUANDE 35