Page 472 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

beings served in Chan temples as exemplars, derives from that lineage. With his plain robe
patrons, and guardians of the faith. connoting a simple life free from worldly vanity,
Iron appears in Chinese art at least as early as and his sunken cheeks and lean neck suggesting
the fourth century B.C. , when it was used to make a meager diet, the luohan sits with disciplined
belt-hooks as well as tools and weapons. During intensity, his moral and intellectual strength
the Han dynasty Emperor Gao Zu (r. 206-195 immediately apparent. While Yao Jushi may well
B.C.) instituted the practice of conferring iron have despaired of equaling such an exemplar,
tallies at enfeoffment ceremonies; these were his meritorious donation must still redound to
inscribed in gold with a pledge of allegiance his credit. H.R.
enduring "until the Yellow River becomes a belt
and the Tai Mountains a whetstone" (see cat. 289).
By the tenth century the tallies were also granted
in recognition of meritorious service and carried
with them such extraordinary privileges as legal 319
immunity from the death penalty. The founder of
the Ming dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang (1328-1398, r. VlRUPAKSHA
1368-1398), often compared himself with Han
Gao Zu and, probably to further the comparison, i$th century
Chinese Lamaist
workshop
he revived the practice of granting iron tallies gilt copper, hollow cast, with silver, turquoise, coral,
very early in his reign. Imperial iron foundries as and lapis inlays
well as imperial kilns were established, and iron height 68.5 (27)
as well as ceramics became important factors in references: Gordon 1959, 3-7, 92; Von Schroeder
international trade. 1981, 502-513, 524-525; Snellgrove 1987
An inscription cast into the back of the
luohan reads: Musee des Arts Asiatiques-Guimet, Paris

Made during [the year 1497] of the Hongzhi Virupaksha, one of the four Guardian Kings of the
reign-era [1488-1505] of the Great Ming Four Directions (S: lokapdla), watches over the
318 dynasty for donation by eunuch Yao Jushi. west. The architectural model of a stupa-pagoda,
here held in his right hand, is one of his Lamaist
LUOHAN Other iron luohan images bearing dates include attributes; as king of the nagas (serpent deities)
a set of four made in 1477 (Rosshka Museum,
dated to 1497 Goteborg), a single figure cast in 1482, and a fig-
Chinese ure with partially obliterated Chenghua reign-
cast iron
height 112 (44 Vs] date (1465-1487; Kimbell Art Museum, Fort
inscription Worth, Tex.). The Kimbell sculpture was cast in
Baoding District, near Beijing. Since Yao Jushi
Palace Museum, Beijing likely lived in Beijing, the present piece may have
been made in Baoding as well. The observable
Shaven head and plain robes identify this figure popularity of iron images during the fifteenth
as a Buddhist monk, seated with legs crossed in century may be related to a well-known group of
the posture of meditation, his hands extended in a large-scale glazed ceramic images of luohan from
gesture of revelation and his head slightly bowed. Eight Luohan Mountain near Yizhou, immedi-
Beneath bushy brows the eyes are narrowed to ately to the south of the capital. Although the clay
slits, the mouth is set, and the neck tendons are figures were first dated to the Tang dynasty, they
strained, all being outward manifestations of have more recently been ascribed to the eleventh
inner resolve, strength, and concentration. Partic- or twelfth century, and an even later dating is far
ularly striking are the elongated earlobes and the from impossible.
circular protrusion in the center of the forehead, Its selection as capital of the Yuan dynasty
both attributes of the Buddha himself but used greatly expanded Beijing's population and econ-
here to manifest the Enlightenment, or Buddha- omy, which would surely have spurred local
hood, of one of his disciples, or luohan (S: arhat). artists and artisans to greater and more ambitious
Entering the Buddhist record as sixteen disci- efforts. This creative impulse continued into the
ples of Sakyamuni Buddha, the luohan increased Ming dynasty and was likely the impetus for the
in number as Buddhism moved eastward, first to iron luohan.
eighteen, then to five hundred, ultimately total- The high degree of verisimilitude that charac-
ing as many as twelve hundred. Since luohan terizes this entire group of ceramic and iron
attained spiritual perfection by their own efforts, luohan distinguishes them from pre-Song images,
they played a major role in the limited pantheon when luohan were portrayed with distinctly
of Chan Buddhism, which emphasizes individual otherworldly, often grotesque, physiognomies.
effort and responsibility, and which became one of Creation of a more serene, humane image is usu-
the major Chinese schools of Buddhism from the ally credited to the literati painting master Li
tenth century onward. Images of these perfected Gonglin (c. 1049-1106), and the present piece

TOWARD CATHAY 471