Amy McNair is associate professor of

Chinese art at the University of Kansas.

chinese art | religion

Of related interest

Mirror of Morality

donors of longmen

the dedicatory inscriptions reveal not only

how much was spent but also the rhetoric
appropriate to the donors station in life,
gender, and intended audience. McNair argues that donors made conscious decisions
regarding the style of their sculpturesa
lively interplay between native Chinese
imagery and icons and styles of art from
the Buddhist holy land of Indiaso as to
imbue the images with meanings that were
immediately comprehensible to their contemporaries.
Through her sensitive and well-informed exploration of Longmens huge
repository of remarkable early sculpture,
McNair gives voice to a wide array of medieval believers, many of them traditionally excluded from history. Hers will be the
definitive work on Longmen for years to
come.

McNair

(Continued from front flap)

Chinese Narrative Illustration

and Confucian Ideology
Julia K. Murray

2007, est. 208 pages, color & b/w illus.

Cloth ISBN 978-0-8248-3001-4
Mirror of Morality takes an interdisciplinary look at
an important form of pictorial art produced during
two millennia of Chinese imperial rule. Ideas about
individual morality and state ideology were based on
the ancient teachings of Confucius with modifications by later interpreters and government institutions.
Throughout the imperial period, members of the elite
made, sponsored, and inscribed or used illustrations
of themes taken from history, literature, and recent
events to promote desired conduct among various social groups. This dimension of Chinese art history has
never before been broadly covered or investigated in
historical context.

University of
Hawaii Press

Faith,
Politics, and
Patronage
in Medieval
Chinese
Buddhist
Sculpture

Honolulu, Hawaii 96822-1888

Jacket art: Bodhisattva, northwest corner,

Great Vairocana Image Shrine. Photo, the
author, 1994.

donors of longmen

Jacket design: April Leidig-Higgins

www.uhpress.hawaii.edu

Amy McNair

Donors of Longmen is the first work in a

Western language to re-create the history
of the Longmen Grottoes, one of Chinas
great stone sculpture treasure houses.
Longmen, a UNESCO World Heritage site
located near the old capital of Luoyang in
modern Henan Province, consists of thousands of ancient cave chapels and shrines
containing Buddhist icons of all sizes that
were carved into the towering limestone
cliffs from the fifth to the eighth centuries.
Beyond its superb sculpture, Longmen
also preserves thousands of engraved
dedicatory inscriptions by its donors, who
included emperors and empresses, aristocrats, court eunuchs, artisans, monks,
nuns, lay societies, female palace officials,
male civil and military officials, and ordinary lay believers.
Based on wide reading of both Asianand Western-language scholarship and
careful analysis of the architecture, epigraphy, and iconography of the site, Amy
McNair provides a rich and detailed examination of the dynamics of faith, politics,
and money at Longmen, beginning with
the inception of the site at Guyang Grotto
in 493 and concluding with the last major
dated project, the forty-eight Amitbhas
added to the Great Vairocana Image Shrine
in 730. Believers sponsored statues and
cave shrines as public acts of giving (dna)
and merit (karma) to generate social credit
in the political realm and karmic merit
in the spiritual. Although donors choices
of icons reveal the changes in Buddhist
religious concerns over the 250-year life of
the site, the discussions of expenditure in

(Continued on back flap)

Donors of Longmen

Donors of Longmen
Faith, Politics, and Patronage in
Medieval Chinese Buddhist Sculpture

Amy McNair

University of Hawaii Press | Honolulu

 2007 University of Hawaii Press

All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
12 11 10 09 08 07 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
McNair, Amy.
Donors of Longmen : faith, politics, and patronage in
medieval Chinese Buddhist sculpture / Amy McNair.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-8248-2994-0 (hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-8248-2994-8 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. Gods, Buddhist, in art. 2. Sculpture, Buddhist
ChinaLongmen Caves. 3. Sculpture, Chinese
ChinaLongmen CavesThree kingdoms-Sui dynasty,
220618. 4. Sculpture, ChineseChinaLongmen
CavesTang-Five dynasties, 618960. 5. Buddhist
art and symbolismChinaLongmen Caves. 6. Art
patronageChina. I. Title.
NB1912.B83M43 2007
730.951'18dc22
2006024200
Frontis: A honeymooning couple poses in Tang costume as
donors of Longmen. Photo, Jin Yini, 1999.
University of Hawaii Press books are printed on acid-free
paper and meet the guidelines for permanence and durability
of the Council on Library Resources.
Designed by April Leidig-Higgins
Printed by Thomson-Shore, Inc.

For Harrie Vanderstappen

Contents

List of Illustrations ix

Acknowledgments xi

Introduction 1

One

Emperor as Tathgata 7

Two

The Mechanics of a Karmic Gift of Sculpture 31

Three

The Rhetoric of Expenditure 51

Four

The Politics of Filial Piety 75

Five

Cnasthna Preserves the Dharma 89

Rouge and Powder Money 111

Six

Seven

The Satellite Grottoes 123

Eight

Salvation for One 143

Epilogue: The Later Life of the Site 157

Appendix: Chinese Texts of Longmen Inscriptions 167

Notes 181

Bibliography 213

Index 237

List of Illustrations

1.1. Guyang Grotto 8

1.2. Buddha triad, Guyang Grotto 8
1.3. North wall shrines, Guyang Grotto 9
1.4. South wall shrines, Guyang Grotto 9
1.5. Duke of Shiping inscription, Guyang Grotto 10
1.6. Bodhisattva, Guyang Grotto 13
1.7. Huichengs shrine for the Duke of Shiping, Guyang
Grotto 14
1.8. Standing Buddha, Cave 16, Yungang Grottoes 15
1.9. Large Buddha shrine, Cave 16, Yungang
Grottoes 15
1.10. Apsarasas and ribbon halo, Fashengs shrine,
Guyang Grotto 16
1.11. N4, Guyang Grotto 18
1.12. The Sun Qiusheng shrine, Guyang Grotto 20
1.13. Wei Lingzangs shrine 22
1.14. Flying celestial, Danyang County, Jiangsu
Province 25
1.15. Auspicious ram and qi clouds, Suide County,
Shaanxi Province 26
1.16. Shrine of Yang Dayan, Guyang Grotto 27
2.1. Seated kyamuni, Binyang Central Grotto 32
2.2. Courtyard of the Binyang trio of grottoes 33
2.3. Guardian, Brahm bodhisattva, and apsaras,
Binyang Central 35
2.4. Floor, Binyang Central 36
2.5. Ceiling, Binyang Central 37
2.6. Bodhisattva, Binyang Central 38
2.7. East wall reliefs, Binyang Central 39
2.8. Silver dish with Dionysus and Twelve Gods of
Mount Olympus, Jingyuan County, Gansu 40
2.9. Emperor procession, Binyang Central 41
2.10. Empress procession, Binyang Central 42
2.11. Vimalakrti, Binyang Central 46
2.12. Vimalakrti and Majur, Cave 6, Yungang 47
3.1. North wall, Lianhua Grotto 54
3.2. Maitreya bodhisattva, Cixiang Grotto 58
3.3. Map: Longmen (4) 65

3.4. Queen Mother of the West and King Father of

the East, Huoshao Grotto 66
3.5. West wall, Huangfu Grotto 68
3.6. Pensive prince with lotus flowers and worshiping
Brahm, Huangfu Grotto 69
3.7. First Meditation, Lianhua Grotto 70
3.8. The Offering of the Bowl of Food, Lianhua
Grotto 71
3.9. Worshiper procession, Huangfu Grotto 72
3.10. Worshiper procession, Huangfu Grotto 73
4.1. Map: Longmen (1) 79
4.2. South wall shrines, Binyang South Grotto 80
4.3. Bodhisattva, Binyang South Grotto 81
4.4. Buddha, Binyang South Grotto 82
4.5. Sishun Ward shrine, Binyang South Grotto 83
4.6. Amitbha shrine of Li Fu, Shentong Monastery,
Shandong 84
4.7. Shrine of Nanping princess, Shentong Monastery,
Shandong 85
4.8. Buddha, Qianxisi Grotto 87
5.1. The medieval Chinese travelers India 95
5.2. Seated Buddha, Leigutai South Grotto 97
5.3. King Udayana Buddha figures, Grottoes 305
and 306 100
5.4. Seated Buddha, possibly Srnth 100
5.5. Map: Jingshan Monastery Grotto area 101
5.6. Standing Buddha, Binyang South Grotto 102
5.7. Guardian, Jingshan Monastery Grotto 105
5.8. Amitbha, Jingshan Monastery Grotto 105
5.9. Seated bodhisattvas around monk worshiper,
Jingshan Monastery Grotto 106
5.10. Amitbha and the fifty-two bodhisattvas, Zitong
County, Sichuan 107
5.11. Stele from Mohammed Nari 108
6.1. Great Vairocana Image Shrine 112
6.2. Map: Longmen (3) 112
6.3. Vairocana, Great Vairocana Image Shrine 113
6.4. Bodhisattva, Great Vairocana Image Shrine 113

 6.5. Vairavan.a and dvrapla seen from the side,

Great Vairocana Image Shrine 114
6.6. Vairavan.a and dvrapla seen from intended
angle, Great Vairocana Image Shrine 115
6.7. Buddhas on lotus petals, Great Vairocana Image
Shrine 116
6.8. Gandhran Buddha from Loriyn-Tangai 121
7.1. Map: Longmen (2) 124
7.2. Map: Satellite grottoes to Great Vairocana Image
Shrine 124
7.3. Paired Grottoes, North 125
7.4. Paired Grottoes, South 125
7.5. Maitreya, Huijians Grotto 128
7.6. Throne back, Huijians Grotto, and throne back
from The First Sermon, Museum of Archaeology,
Srnth 129
7.7. Save-from-Suffering Guanyin, Qingmingsi
Grotto 131
7.8. North-wall forecourt, Wanfo Grotto 133

 | i l l u s t r a t i o n s

7.9. South-wall forecourt, Wanfo Grotto 134

7.10. Fifteen Thousand Buddhas and King Udayana
Buddha figure, Wanfo Grotto 136
7.11. Amitbha assembly, Wanfo Grotto 137
7.12. Court lady worshiper between disciple and
bodhisattva, Wanfo Grotto 138
7.13. Amitbha and the fifty-two bodhisattvas, Wanfo
Grotto 139
8.1. Map: Lower terrace of Great Vairocana Image
Shrine 144
8.2. Amitbha figures, Great Vairocana Image
Shrine 146
8.3. Standing Buddhas, interior of Grotto 1250 152
8.4. Trio of Amitbha figures, Pure Land Hall of the
Northern Market Damask Silk Guild 153
8.5. Amitbha, Grotto 105, Xumishan 155
9.1. Chu Suiliang, The Stele for the Yique Buddha
Shrine, detail 161
9.2. Wei Lingzangs inscription, detail 163

Acknowledgments

For financial support of this project, I gratefully acknowledge the award of a J.Paul Getty Postdoctoral Fellowship
in the History of Art, in 19951996, and a Research Grant
from the National Endowment for the Humanities and a
Fellowship from the Howard Foundation, Brown University, both awarded in 20012002. With no less gratitude, I
acknowledge the General Research Fund of the University
of Kansas, the International Travel Fund of the KU Center for Research and the Kress Foundation Department
of Art History Faculty Travel Fund for assistance with
travel to Longmen in the summers of 1994, 1996, 1999, and
2004. I am also grateful for receiving the Vice Provost for
Research Book Subvention Award from the University of
Kansas in 2006.
My dear colleague Robert Harrist was kind enough to
read and comment on draft chapters of this book, and Joanna Williams directed me to sources in Indian sculpture.
For much-needed clarification on matters Buddhistic, I
thank the anonymous readers for the University of Hawaii
Press, and for help with Japanese materials, I am grateful
to Sherry Fowler. My greatest debt, however, is to Audrey
Spiro, who read practically every word of the much-toolong draft manuscript and whose good advice and enthusiasm came at just the right time. I also learned a great deal
from the fine work of the students in my graduate seminar
on Longmen in 1997: Michael Bass, Karil Kucera, Ling-en
Lu, Karen Mack, Bruce MacLaren, Theresa Shetler, Hans
Thomsen, Wang Hui, and Suhn Nyung Yi. It continues to

be a pleasure to work with our bodhisattva, Patricia Crosby,

executive editor at the University of Hawaii Press.
My thanks to Li Wensheng and Fan Qingcheng, formerly of the Longmen Grottoes Research Academy, for
their helpful conversation, and thanks also to Ning Qiang
for inviting me to lecture at the academy, along with Wang
Zhenguo, Yang Chaojie, and Gu Yanfang, as part of Dunhuang Art and Society: The Third International Seminar
in 2004.
For invaluable assistance with archival images, I want to
thank Wendy Holden, archivist, Asian Art Photographic
Distribution, University of Michigan, and Colleen Hennessey, archivist, Freer Gallery of Art. For information
concerning their holdings of Longmen sculpture, I thank
my former student, Jason Steuber, assistant curator of early
Chinese art at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. At the
University of Kansas, we art historians are fortunate to
work with Susan Craig, art and architecture librarian par
excellence, and Mark Olson, visual resources curator in the
Art History Department. For help with historical sources,
I thank Mr. Qin Huanming of the Tang Studies Hotline,
Sarasota, Florida.
Let me end this in the Chinese style with a rhetorical
question: what surpasses a friend who would willingly
spend time in humid, smoggy central China, patiently discuss minutiae of interpretation and half-baked theories,
and take your nonsense as seriously as you do?

Introduction

he limestone cliffs that flank the Yi River some

twelve kilometers south of the modern city of
Luoyang, Henan Province, are carved with
2,345 grottoes, which bear nearly 3,000 votive
inscriptions and contain more than 100,000 individual
Buddhist statues, ranging in size from a few centimeters
in height to over seventeen meters. Longmen, the Dragon
Gate, was considered an auspicious place for sponsoring Buddhist icons for about 250 years, from the time the
Northern Wei (386534) capital was relocated to Luoyang
in 494 until the sack of the city in 755 during the An Lushan
Rebellion, under the Tang dynasty (618907). The people
who paid to have the statues and grottoes produced are the
focus of this reconstruction of the history of Longmen. My
interest was not only in finding out who these donors were,
but also in why they undertook the expense of a donation.
Thanks to the proximity of the site to the capital, the donors
of Longmen came from an extraordinarily broad range of
society, including emperors, empresses, empress dowagers,
other members of the royal family, the aristocracy, court
eunuchs, women palace officials, imperial artisans, monks,
nuns, lay societies, civil court officials, military officials,
wealthy local men of influence, local government functionaries, and members of commercial guilds. The most
remarkable thing about Longmen, however, is that many
of these people wrote or commissioned dedicatory inscriptions that were engraved near their donations. Some are
lengthy eulogies written in fancy parallel prose by famous
literati, while others are merely a name, but many were
composed by the donor and reveal his or her beliefs and
motivations for commissioning an icon. Herein lies the
unique suitability of Longmen for a case study in patronage. While other cave-shrine sites have had longer lives or
their grottoes contain more elaborate programs of painting

and sculpture, Longmen alone has preserved the voices of

hundreds of medieval donors.
Long abandoned as a site of worship, Longmen was
discovered at the very end of the nineteenth century by
students of art from abroad. In 1894, on his return from
a trip to China, the arts educator Okakura Kakuzo lectured with his lantern slides of Binyang Central Grotto,
thereby introducing the site to other scholars in Japan.
Sekino Tadashi surveyed the site in 1906 and again in 1918,
documenting it in his multivolume Shina bukky shiseki
(Buddhist monuments of China) of 19261931. A French
mining engineer, F.Leprince-Ringuet, brought back photographs and ink rubbings taken at the site in 1899, inspiring douard Chavannes, the great Sinologist of the Collge de France, to spend twelve days surveying Longmen
in the summer of 1907. Chavannes published his superb
translations of 550 inscriptions, along with ink rubbings,
photographs of the statuary, and his descriptive notes, in
his multivolume Mission archologique dans la Chine sep
tentrionale (Archeological expedition in northern China,
19091915). The American industrialist and art collector
Charles Lang Freer traveled to Longmen in 1910, and the
glass photonegatives taken by the photographer Utai are
now preserved in the Freer Gallery Archives, Washington,
D.C. Continuing the nineteenth-century Chinese interest
in Longmen as a site for epigraphy study, Guan Baiyi made
ten research trips there in the 1920s and 1930s. In 1935, he
published his list of over 2,200 inscriptions, with selected
photographs and ink rubbings, as Yique shike tubiao
(Charts of the stone inscriptions of Yique). In 1936, the Japanese archeologists Mizuno Seiichi and Nagahiro Toshio,
professors from the Institute of Oriental Culture, Kyoto,
spent a momentous six days at Longmen, under armed
guard, producing photographs, notes, and ink rubbings,

all of which were published in 1941 as the three-volume

Rymon sekkutsu no kenky (Research on the grottoes of
Longmen), which was for many decades the authoritative
work on the site.
The early-twentieth-century documentation of the site
proved to be a two-edged sword, however. Publication of
the sculptures was soon followed by the looting of the site
in the 1920s and 1930s, a venture accomplished by local
stonecutters, an unscrupulous antiquities dealer in Beijing, and Western collectors and museum curators. Portions of the early-sixth-century relief murals from Binyang Central Grotto are now found in the Nelson-Atkins
Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and
the Freer Gallery of Art, while all manner of fragmented
hands, heads, and figures are displayed in museums in
China, Japan, North America, and Europe. From the perspective of the twenty-first-century scholar, however, the
irony is that the very photographs that inspired the mercenary pillaging of the site are now the only record of its
earlier appearance.
After the Chinese regained control of their country, an
initial inventory of the site was undertaken in 1954 by the
newly instituted Longmen Caves Cultural Relics Management and Conservation Office. Its name was changed to
the Longmen Grottoes Research Institute in 1990, and in
2002, it became the Longmen Grottoes Research Academy.
The fruit of decades of work by the archeologists of Longmen includes a map book showing every grotto labeled
by number (Longmen shiku kukan bianhao tuce, 1994), a
two-volume compilation of all the inscriptions (Longmen
shiku beike tiji huilu, 1998), a twelve-volume catalogue of
the site, with each grotto described in words, drawings,
and small black-and-white photographs (Longmen shiku
zonglu, 1999), and a ten-volume color photographic record
of all the statuary at Longmen (Longmen shiku zaoxiang
quanji, 2002).
Interpretive studies by Chinese scholars began with
Gong Dazhongs detailed and knowledgeable book of
1981, in which he discussed the iconography, dating, and
patronage of several major grottoes, and it continued
with extensive archeological reports on individual grottoes, such as Wen Yuchengs painstaking work on Guyang
Grotto and the Paired Grottoes, which focused on identifying the iconography and determining the timeframe for
production of undated statuary through typological and
 | i n t r o d u c t i o n

statistical data derived from large numbers of dated intrusive shrines. Chang Qing produced fine studies of the iconography of the Pure Land Hall of the Damask Silk Guild
and of Yaofang Grotto and useful iconographical studies
on spirit kings, Dizang bodhisattva, and Esoteric imagery
at Longmen, while Liu Jinglong has written a thorough
survey of the Great Vairocana Image Shrine.
Scholars from Japan and the West have focused more
on issues of development of sculptural style posed by the
site, especially the issue of the Sinicization of style during the Northern Wei. Important articles by Yoshimura
Rei and Ishimatsu Hinako deal with the development of
style at Longmen in the Northern Wei, especially with
regard to the sculpture of Yungang and the art of the
southern dynasties (317589), and Alexander Soper and
Emma Bunker have argued for influences from the south
on both style and iconography during the late Northern
Wei. Recently, Katherine Tsiang has described how the
Sinicization of style formed a part of Emperor Xiaowens
political policies, while Stanley Abe has analyzed the assumption of the superiority and dominance of southern
Chinese culture on the part of modern scholars in Japan
and the West.
Ink rubbings of the inscriptions at Longmen have been
collected as art objects since the Qianlong period (1736
1795), and the Northern Wei inscriptions in Guyang Grotto
have been taken as sources for creative interpretation in
the stele studies (beixue) school of calligraphy from the
nineteenth century to the present. As the Northern Wei inscriptions also contain a wealth of variant characters, they
were studied by philologists in the late Qing (16441911).
Deeper delving into their content only began in the twentieth century. The inscriptions have been mined for revelations concerning the development of Buddhism in the
Northern Wei and Tang dynasties, notably in the work
of Tsukamoto Zenry and Li Yukun. Since many of the
inscriptions are dated, they have also been used to reconstruct the history of the site, though this is not always a
simple matter. As one example, various problems with the
dates of the earliest inscriptions in Guyang Grotto have
sparked considerable debate about the original date of the
grottoes, and theories have been proposed by Katherine
Tsiang, Zhang Naizhu, Liu Jinglong, Wen Yucheng, Sofukawa Hiroshi, and Long Hui. Li Yukun wrote several
articles relating to the religious and political content of

the inscriptions, while Yan Wenru deciphered the inscriptions relating to the Great Vairocana Image Shrine and the
forty-eight Amitbhas added to it. Sun Guanwen analyzed
the inscriptions according to various categories, such as
donor, beneficiary, and purpose.
In the West, the only work on patronage at Longmen was
Alexander Sopers 1960 article Imperial Cave-Chapels of
the Northern Dynasties: Donors, Beneficiaries, Dates, in
which he combined detailed information on the political
situation in the Northern Wei with what little was known
about Longmen then to offer his theory of the patronage
of the Binyang grottoes. No one had yet investigated the
donors of other major Northern Wei grottoes or the thirty
or so substantial Tang grottoes, including the Great Vairocana Image Shrine. When I was in graduate school at
the University of Chicago, participating in Father Harrie
Vanderstappens seminar on Chinese Buddhist sculpture
in 1983, I read Zhang Ruoyus groundbreaking 1980 article
on the completion of Binyang South Grotto. Zhang combined a very close reading of Li Tais dedicatory inscription with an analysis of the grottos program of sculpture
and knowledge of the political events of the time to argue
that Li Tais motivation lay in the politics of his campaign
to become heir apparent. Zhangs persuasive methodology
sparked my interest in the issue of patronage. As I pursued
further study of the donors of Longmen, I also relied on
Wen Yuchengs work on patronage in his lengthy articles
Research on Guyang Grotto and Survey of Statues at
Longmen by People Found in the Two Tang Histories.
It is abundantly evident from the contents of this book
that I could have written little of it without an unremitting reliance on the extraordinary body of scholarship on
Longmen produced by the great Sinologists, archeologists,
and art historians of Asia and the West. I owe a particular
debt to three substantial surveys of the Tang sculpture at
Longmen published between 1979 and 1991. The first was
Ding Mingyis article Periodization and Categorization
of the Tang Dynasty Sculpture at Longmen Grottoes, in
which he classified dated Buddha and bodhisattva figures
into seven stages of development by changes in such iconographic elements as robes, mudrs, and thrones, from
which he postulated three phases of activity at Longmen
in the early Tang and asserted that the schools of Buddhism represented there included Pure Land, Huayan,
Three Levels Teachings, Chan, and Esoteric. Sofukawa

Hiroshis book-length article of 1988, Research on the

Tang Dynasty Sculpture of Longmen Grottoes, is a
comprehensive study of most of the major Tang dynasty
grottoes, in which he explored their patronage and iconography within the context of the political and religious
trends of the time, based on his extensive knowledge of
the Buddhist canon, the dynastic histories, the monastic
biographies, and the writings of such medieval figures as
the great pilgrim Xuanzang. Yen Chan-ying of Academia
Sinica, Taiwan, is to be commended for translating the entire work into Chinese. From 1987 to 1991, Okada Ken published a three-part article, On the Early Tang Sculpture
of Longmen Grottoes, in which he carefully analyzed selected Tang projects such as the finishing of Binyang South
and North and the making of Jingshan Monastery Grotto,
the King Udayana figures, Wanfo Grotto, Qingmingsi
Grotto, and the Great Vairocana Image Shrine, arguing
for a continuing developmental relationship between the
early Tang sculpture of Longmen and contemporaneous
sculpture from the Western Capital at Changan. One of
Okadas most important contributions was to point out
the relationship between the periodic presence of the imperial court in Luoyang and donations at Longmen.
My study differs in its emphasis on understanding the
site through its donors. Every grotto at Longmen is unique
and hence must represent a unique situation with regard to
the beliefs, motivations, and choices of its patron. To understand the donors purpose in commissioning a shrine,
I have worked to consider all factors, both intramural and
extramural. Intramural factors include the choice of the
primary icon, the style of the icon, the program of the
grotto, the size of the shrine, the quality of the carving,
the content of the dedicatory inscription, the placement
of the shrine, and its proximity to commissions by related
donors. Extramural factors include the donors beliefs,
relationship to the beneficiary, role in society, and relationships with influential clerics, as well as the social and
political events of the time, trends in religious belief, the
presence of the court in Luoyang, and conditions among
the population of Luoyang.
The structure of this book is narrative and chronological, beginning with the inception of the site at Guyang
Grotto around 493 and concluding with the last major
dated project, the forty-eight Amitbhas added to the
Great Vairocana Image Shrine in 730. Chapter 1 introi n t r o d u c t i o n |

duces monk Huicheng, a member of the Northern Wei

royal family who joined with several local men of wealth
and influence to sponsor the opening of Guyang Grotto
with a colossal Buddha triad on the back wall and eight
large Buddha shrines on the side walls. This program was
designed to generate karmic merit for the Northern Wei
state and Emperor Xiaowen and, in particular, embodies
the identification of the emperor with the Buddha. In the
year 500, just after his accession to the throne, Emperor
Xuanwu determined to dedicate a pair of grottoes for
the karmic benefit of his late parents, Emperor Xiaowen
and Empress Dowager Wenzhao. The social and spiritual
functions of Binyang Central Grotto as a karmic gift are
the subject of chapter 2. Chapter 3 discusses the actual cost
of having a grotto produced and how it was paid for, as
well as the rhetoric of expenditure used in the dedicatory
inscriptions and how it was conditioned by gender and
status. Here I describe the patronage of Empress Dowager
Hu, the last effective ruler of the Northern Wei. After the
forced evacuation of Luoyang in 534, donations at Longmen practically ceased until 637, when Emperor Taizong
of the Tang dynasty returned to Luoyang. Though he was
not a believer, many of his children and consorts were, and
chapter 4 describes their donations at Longmen in the 640s
and 650s, particularly Prince Li Tais finishing of the abandoned Binyang South Grotto in honor of his late mother
in 641, in which he was supported by his sisters, the Yuzhang princess and the Nanping princess, and the latters
husband, Liu Xuanyi. As Zhang Ruoyu demonstrated, Li
Tais purpose in dedicating the grotto to the late empress
was largely to impress his father with his filial piety, in
pursuit of the goal of being named to replace his brother
as heir apparent. Chapter 5 examines a broad array of early
Tang donors whose commissions reveal a reaction to notions of the disappearance of the Buddhas teachings that
arose in the sixth century. Their anxieties about the ability
of their icons to survive the scourging of the world at the
end of the age are expressed in their dedications, in which
they extol the durability of the stone at Longmen, and in
their decisions to reproduce specific Indian icons. The
King Udayana image of kyamuni, Amitbha and the
Fifty-Two Bodhisattvas, and the kyamuni figure from
Mahbodhi Monastery in Bodhgay were believed to be
original, authentic artifacts of the Dharma, in addition to
being of supernatural manufacture. The vogue for copying
 | i n t r o d u c t i o n

Indian icons reached its apogee in the Gandhran-style

Buddha at the center of the colossal Great Vairocana Image
Shrine of Fengxian Monastery, sponsored by Emperor
Gaozong and Empress Wu, which is the subject of chapter 6. Various theories concerning the iconography, dates,
patron, and purpose of this monument are surveyed here,
while I propose that the shrine was begun around 660 by
order of the emperor only to be abandoned by the ailing
ruler around 665, then taken up by the empress in 672,
and completed in 676. In chapter 7, I describe how several
large grottoes north of the Great Vairocana Image Shrine
were produced at the same time, as satellite commissions.
Known donors include Abbot Huijian, one of the clerical advisors for the Vairocana shrine, and the sponsors of
Wanfo Grotto: the female palace official Yao Shenbiao and
the Palace Chapel nun Zhiyun. I propose that Qingmingsi
Grotto was sponsored by Shandao, the other cleric credited on the Vairocana shrine, and argue that the Prince
of Zhou, son of Emperor Gaozong and Empress Wu, donated the Paired Grottoes in honor of his parents. Smaller
grottoes and shrines were also produced at this time by
people associated with the throne, including a vice director for palace buildings, an illustrious general, a monastic
imperial envoy to India, and an imperial artisan. Chapter
8 examines forty-eight life-size figures of Amitbha added
to the Great Vairocana Image Shrine in 730. The donors
were the court eunuchs who served Emperor Xuanzong,
headed by Gao Lishi, the director of the Palace Domestic Service. The figures represent the forty-eight vows of
Amitbha and refashion the Vairocana shrine into a Pure
Land representation whose sole beneficiary was the reigning emperor. The statues may have been intended for worship, or they may have functioned as vows to effect the
conversion and salvation of the unbelieving emperor.
More than once during the course of writing this book,
I have been asked if such a study is really art history.
While I could have simply replied that Buddhist icons are
an important component of the visual culture of China
and objects whose function is intimately tied up with religious practices of seeing and visualization, the answer I
prefer is that this study demonstrates how the donors of
Longmen made conscious decisions concerning the style
of their icons to imbue them with meanings that were immediately comprehensible to their contemporaries. Analysis of meaning conveyed through style is the essence of

what I was trained to understand as art history, and in

this book, I argue that the donors of Longmen made all
manner of choices concerning the style of their icons. At
the turn of the fifth century, in the period of transition
between the Central Asian mode inherited from the earlier Yungang grottoes and the Sinicized style taken from
the south, it appears that donors considered the older style
to represent the past rulers of the dynasty, while the new
Sinicized style represented the present and future rulers.
Imitation of the style of a certain icon or program carved
earlier at Longmen was likely done to associate the donor
with the preceding, higher-status patron. Examples of this
include the arriviste Huangfu Dus imitation of the imperial program of Binyang Central Grotto and the deliberate
reproduction of the distinctive facial features of the imperial Vairocana image on the Maitreya figure sponsored by
the imperial cleric Huijian. Special spiritual efficacy was
surely imputed to the icons at Longmen that closely replicate Indian sculptural modes, such as the Srnth-style
King Udayana kyamuni figures and the Gandhranstyle Vairocana. Though the donors of Longmen never
referred to their icons as works of art, they were quick to
praise them as marvelous or majestic, suggesting that
aesthetic effects, although unquestionably in the service of
karmic function, were consciously sought.
Behind the meanings conveyed by choices of style are
the issues of purpose and motivation on the part of the
donors. By my estimation, the cost of a small sculpture
grotto in the late Northern Wei was equal to half a years
salary for an official in the central government, and the
high level of expense for these projects reinforces my sense
of a high degree of intentionality on the part of the donors.
There is no evidence that any ritual activity other than offering worship before icons was performed in the grottoes
of Longmen, indicating that the primary spiritual function of the site was the generation of merit through the
making and worshiping of icons. Nothing suggests that
large spaces were created for social or ritual activities or
that grottoes were revisited by generations of clansmen of
the original donors, as one sees at the Mogao Grottoes of
Dunhuang. In short, it would appear that the main action
performed by most donors at Longmen was to commission a statuary grotto that was dedicated and then left to
operate in the spiritual realm as an engine of karma, fueled by the worship offered by later visitors. This idea that

the statues were either meant to generate karma for the

beneficiaries once, at the moment of their dedication, or
that they operated on their own, in perpetuity, is found in
the donors inscriptions, which reveal several different religious reasons why donors sponsored statuary grottoes.
The donors of Longmen believed their icons would
function to transmit the Dharma, preserve the Dharma,
serve as a repository for the dharmakya (the Buddhaprinciple), edify the faithful, convert the unbelieving, galvanize the deities to rescue those reborn in undesirable
paths, and generate karmic merit. They had faith that their
dedicatory inscriptions would operate to transfer merit to
the beneficiaries named therein, and they trusted in the
limestone cliffs to endure through the worlds destruction
at the end of the age. Equally clear is that many donors had
specific social goals that were also met by the sponsorship
of an icon or shrine. Longmen was a public place and easily accessible from the capital. Though the absence of intrusive shrines in the imperial grottoes (Binyang Central,
Huoshao, and the Great Vairocana Image Shrine) suggests
they were off-limits to other donors, the other large grottoes were open for people to enter and offer worship or to
add their own shrines. Not only does the stream of dated
inscriptions testify to the traffic out to Longmen, but we
know from historical records that royal parties visited
there repeatedly. Tang poetry describes literati and government officials stopping at the monastic establishments
in the hills and tells of fashionable young people from the
metropolis picnicking there at Qingming Festival time to
enjoy the pleasures of springtime in a romantic natural
setting.
The public nature of Longmen also made it a suitable
venue for the traditional social purposes of mortuary
stone monuments, and though they were expressed in the
vocabulary of Buddhism, political messages of filial piety
or loyalty to the throne could be easily conveyed through
the dedication of a shrine. Self-serving exhibitions of loyalty to the throne are commonly seen among donors who
were employed by the palace, such as the monks and abbots who were patronized by the emperor, the nuns of the
Palace Chapel, and the court eunuchs. Although many
donors dedicated the merit from their shrines to the emperor or their parents with simple statements of gratitude,
the seeking of social credit for virtue is more apparent in
those dedications where the donors emphasize their dna,
i n t r o d u c t i o n |

or giving, by commenting on the expense of the shrine. A

prince demonstrated his filial piety to all when he claimed
he opened his treasury and was liberal with tortoise shells
and cowries for his late mother, while two laymen recognized by the state for loyalty stated they had exhausted
our families wealth on behalf of the imperial house, and
an aristocratic young laywoman said she had parted with
half my hairpins and girdles for her late father, recently
executed for plotting against the prince-regent. Even in
a case where no dedicatory inscription survives, a royal
patron used imagery to claim credit for self-sacrificing expenditure on behalf of his late parents. Two jtaka tales are
carved inside Binyang Central Grotto; in one, the prince
gave away all his possessions as charity, while in the other,
he offered his own body to save another being. One might
expect this rhetoric of expenditure to be hyperbole, yet

 | i n t r o d u c t i o n

it would appear from surviving evidence that donors did

indeed spend all they had. Both the evidence of ruinous
expense and its description connect the donors of Longmen directly to traditional burial practices in which costly
monuments were sponsored to display unimpeachable expressions of filial piety and loyalty.
I am convinced that these beliefs and motivations are
embodied in the images and inscriptions of Longmen, but
since a study such as this is necessarily interpretive, overreading or misreading evidence is an attendant danger. In
the following pages, where speculation is involved, I have
endeavored to make that clear, but the reader should be
warned that I have chosen not to err on the side of caution. My intent is to allow the donors of Longmen to
speak, but if my voice has misrepresented theirs, I welcome correction.

One Emperor as Tathgata

Emperor Taizu is a living Tathgata of the present age.Superintendent Faguo (ca. 342before 423)1

tanding in the open mouth of Guyang Grotto,

the visitor looks into a huge, dark stone chamber
whose walls are a jumble of image shrines of different sizes, extending from the floor up into the
ceiling eleven meters overhead and almost twelve meters
deep into the living rock of the cliff (figure 1.1). Embedded
in the welter of dozens of smaller shrines is a matrix of
three registers of large shrines, each about three meters
high. The lowest register is sunk partially below the floor,
the middle is somewhat higher than eye level, and the
highest is far overhead. The ceiling is honeycombed with
large and small shrines and carpeted with rows of hundreds of square niches containing a single Buddha figure
each. The archeologists of the Longmen Grottoes Research
Academy count 1,350 individual shrines within Guyang
Grotto along with 685 dedicatory inscriptions.
In the darkness at the back of the cave, a colossal seated
Buddha figure in very high relief seems to float at the top
of the wall; two standing bodhisattva figures that attend
him project from the side walls as if suspended in midair (figure 1.2). They were carved during the initial phase
of the grottos excavation, when the floor lay just below
the top register of large shrines.2 Around 508, the floor
was lowered and the second register carved; the floor was
lowered yet again and the third register carved around
518. The commanding size of the Buddha trio suggests the
donor was an emperor. The fine quality, detail, and variety
of the sculpted shrines do little to contradict that view, but
since the inscriptions in the grotto are problematic and no
external historical record ascribes it to an imperial patron,
identifying the donor or donors has been the subject of inquiry and controversy since the early twentieth century.

The Problem of the Original Program

Identifying the donor is intimately bound up with determining the original program of sculpture, yet not only
the composition of an original program, but also its dates,
iconography, and political significance have been disputed. The evidence in the grotto is at once rich, partial,
and contradictory. Many dedicatory inscriptions are long
and complex, yet their wealth of information is strained
by the terseness of literary language and the hyperbole
typical of eulogy as well as their ruinous condition and
the possibility of original errors and omissions. Stylistic
and iconographic relationships to the sculptures immediate predecessor, the grottoes of Yungang, are inconsistent
and complicated. As a result, scholarly interpretations vary
widely. In this chapter, I present my theories concerning
the original program and the religious and political goals
of the original donors, with reference to the ideas of scholars from China, Japan, and the West.
I propose that the original program of Guyang Grotto
consisted of the eight large Buddha shrines in the top register of the side walls and the colossal Buddha triad on
the back wall. The original donor was the Buddhist monk
Huicheng, a member of the royal family, who worked in
concert with a group of nonroyal donors, some of whose
names survive in inscriptions.3 Of the eight shrines, Hui
cheng specifically dedicated the one nearest the entrance
on the north wall (N1) (figure 1.3). All eight are the same
size, about two and a half meters high and a meter and a
half across, and contain a central seated Buddha flanked
by two standing bodhisattvas. The Buddhas hands are
folded together in the lap in dhyna mudr, and the robe
is worn with the right shoulder bare, in the so-called Cen-

Figure 1.1. Guyang Grotto. Photo, Jin Yini, 2004.

Figure 1.2. Buddha triad, west wall, Guyang Grotto. From

Longmen shiku, ed. Longmen wenwu baoguansuo and Beijing
daxue kaoguxi, v. 1, pl. 132.

tral Asian costume. The only exception is N4, the shrine

on the north wall nearest the back, in which the Buddha
wears the Chinese costumean open robe with lapels
over a belted under-robe. This shrine has no dedicatory
inscription. The other three on the north wall have long
inscriptions, engraved on relief steles carved to the right
of each shrine. N3 was dedicated by General Yang Dayan
around 504, N2 by the layman Wei Lingzang around 502,
and N1 by monk Huicheng in 498. On the south wall, the
shrine nearest the back (S4) and the shrine nearest the
entrance (S1) lack inscriptions, while S3 has a dedication
by Sun Qiusheng and a lay Buddhist society in 502, and
S2 was dedicated by the monk Fasheng in 504 (figure 1.4).

Only three of these inscriptions are dated, yet even these

dates are highly problematic. Further, internal evidence
reveals the shrines completed in 504 were not finished by
their original sponsors.
Monk Huichengs statement as a patron is given in his
inscription, a uniquely beautiful work of engraved calligraphy (figure 1.5). Unlike all other inscriptions at Longmen, which are carved in intaglio, the characters are in
relief, with a bold angularity that is intentionally aesthetic.
Even the grid the characters are set within is carved in
relief, and the name of the calligrapher is given at the end
of the inscription, which is also quite rare. The time and
money spent on this unnecessarily expensive type of carv-

 | e m p e r o r a s t a t h g a t a

Figure 1.3. North wall shrines,

Guyang Grotto: (N1) Huicheng, (N2)
Wei Lingzang, (N3) Yang Dayan, (N4)
Anonymous, (1) Lady Yuchi, (2) Wife
Yifu, (3) Yuan Xiang, (4) Xie Boda, (5)
Gao Shu, (6) Huile, (7) Wang Shiping,
(8) Huigan, (9) Dang Faduan, (10) Zhao
Shuangzhe, (11) Fawen and Falong, (12)
Daojiang. Adapted from Ishimatsu
Hinako, Rymon sekkutsu koyd
zz k, fig. 6.

Figure 1.4. South wall shrines,

Guyang Grotto: (S1) Anonymous, (S2)
Fasheng, (S3) Sun Qiusheng group, (S4)
Anonymous, (1) Gao Chu, (2) Yuan
Xie, (3) Zheng Changyou, (4) Ma Zhenbai, (5) Yuan You, (6) Great Consort
Hou, 502, (7) Great Consort Hou, 503,
(8) Daosong, (9) Cixiang, (10) Zhao
Ahuan, (11) Du Yongan. Adapted from
Ishimatsu Hinako, Rymon sekkutsu
koyd zz k, fig. 6.
e m p e r o r a s t a t h g a t a |

Figure 1.5. Duke of Shiping inscription, Huichengs shrine,

498, Guyang Grotto. From Liu Jinglong, ed., Longmen ershipin:
Bei Wei beike zaoxiang juzhen, fig. 64.

ing, in addition to the engagement of an accomplished

calligrapher, suggest the high status of the donor and the
importance of the inscription.
The heading reads: A Single Image for the Duke of
Shiping. The duke was the late father of the monk Hui
cheng, to whom the karmic merit generated by this shrine
was dedicated. The text opens with an apology for imagemaking, then devotes the grotto to the state, dedicates
the shrine to the late Duke of Shiping, and concludes with
a benediction, the names of the calligrapher and the author, and a date, which is now partially ruined.4 The inscription begins as follows: Were the Divine Traces [not]
10 | e m p e r o r a s t a t h g a t a

made manifest, then one could scarcely know where to

find a master to which one could cling. Were images of the
Countenance not displayed, then reverence for it would
surely [wane]. That is why the True Visage [was revealed]
to former ages, and the form He left behind has been
transmitted to later generations. And so, in the time of
the Great Dai (i.e., the Northern Wei dynasty), this work
of merit was undertaken (1A).
This is a justification for the making of Buddhist icons. If
images of the Buddha were not produced, how would people be converted to Buddhism, and how would it continue
as a religion? Just as the Buddha-nature (dharmakya)
took the form of kyamuni in ancient times, so also
have images of kyamuni been created since then for it
to occupy. The living body and the effigy serve the same
purposeto manifest and propagate the doctrine of Buddhism. The apology for image-making is a typical opening for the lengthy dedications at Yungang and Longmen
as well as freestanding image steles in the fifth and sixth
centuries, but since Buddhist images had been produced
in China since the fourth century, it may seem strange
that the practice required defending. Alexander Soper believed the apology for image-making was an attempt to
bridge the distance believers felt between the ineffable
transcendence of the Buddha himself and the crudeness
of mundane effigies.5 Yet there were other problems facing
image-making, as well. Certain scriptures seem to scorn
believers who need a concrete image of the Buddha. In the
Diamond Stra, for example, the Buddha says:
Who sees me by form,
Who seeks me by sound,
Perverted are his footsteps upon the Way,
For he cannot perceive the Tathgata.6

In another apology for image-making, the literatus Shen

Yue (441513) offered a kind of solution to this problem:
The dharmakya has no image; it is eternal and formless.
(But though) the ultimate principle is nothingness, it yet
responds. (Though) the true wisdom was annihilated (in
nirvn.a), it (still) produces supernatural manifestations.7
Shen Yues view was typical of his time. The Tathgata,
or incarnate Buddha, kyamuni had passed into nirvn.a
and ceased to exist physically, so his body was no longer
a place for the dharmkaya to occupy. Although it could
be considered courting sacrilege to give form to some-

thing formless and to revive what had been released from

samsra by creating an effigy of the Tathgata, still the
dharmakya will emanate to occupy the effigy.8 Were this
not an accepted belief, there would be no Buddhist icons,
yet tension over this issue must have been felt from the
beginning of the faith because there is an early scripture
that answers this very concern: the Stra on the Produc
tion of Buddha Images, which was first translated into
Chinese around the third century.9 This scripture promises marvelous rebirths to any believer who has an image
produced.
This tension was also exploited by the enemies of Buddhism. In a debate of 578, Emperor Wu of the Northern
Zhou (r. 560578), explaining his intention to suppress
Buddhism and destroy all scriptures and icons, stated that
the true Buddha is beyond representation. In defense,
one brave monk replied: It is by relying on the scriptures,
or by listening to the Buddha, or with the aid of images,
that the truth is made manifest. If they are now to be done
away with, there will be no way to arouse devotion.10
Justification of art by its didactic powers was not confined to Buddhist sculpture in this period, however, but
was typical in discussions of the arts. The first lines of the
Old Record of the Classifications of Painters, by Xie He, a
portrait painter who wrote in the early sixth century, offer
a moral justification for the art of painting: But of all who
draw pictures there is not one but may illustrate some exhortation or warning, or show (the causes for) the rise and
fall (of some dynasty), and the solitudes and silences of a
thousand years may be seen as in a mirror by merely opening a scroll.11 The ubiquity of justifications of art-making
and art appreciation indicates many people in the Northern and Southern Dynasties period (420589) still believed
in a Han dynasty (206 B.C.E.220 C.E.) Confucian world
view that required art to serve morality. It was not a great
leap of imagination for Buddhist apologists to borrow this
same polemical device to solve their own tension between
morality and art. The perceived problems concerning the
representation of the Buddha could be solved by a similar
appeal to the soteriological power of images.
Monk Huichengs inscription continues: Since the
shadow (of the Buddha) has purified the deep current (of
the Buddhist order), and he has had the good fortune to
encounter this glorious epoch, monk Huicheng, resolved
to give the greatest testimony to his sincerity, had a Stone

Grotto [Monastery] made for the state, in this way to respond to the August (Emperors) grace and to give encouragement to future works (of the same kind).
I interpret this as a claim by Huicheng to have sponsored
the excavation of the original grotto, which he calls Stone
Grotto Monastery.12 Huicheng says he made it for the
state, which suggests the grotto was produced at a time
when Huicheng believed the ruling family and the Wei
state needed spiritual support, such as when the capital was
being relocated, as it was from 493 to 495, which was a controversial and difficult undertaking. Huicheng also gave
two additional reasons why he sponsored the grotto. The
first was to respond to the august grace, or the physical presence of the emperor. In my view, this reveals that
Huicheng made the grotto as a loyalist, merit-generating
response to Emperor Xiaowens decision to come to Luo
yang and relocate the capital there. Huichengs second
reason was to give encouragement to future works (of
the same kind). Future works likely refers to the other
shrines in the top register of the grotto, which were sponsored by other patrons whom Huicheng was advising and
whom he wished, naturally enough, to encourage in seeing their projects through to completion.
Since Huicheng stated only that he sponsored the grotto
and a single shrine for his father, while giving encouragement to future works, the theory that he conceived the
program of the grotto to encompass all eight large Buddha
shrines is debatable. The eight large shrines do not match
in every detail, so it is possible they were produced one at
a time, in successive imitation of each other, and not designed as a group by a single patron. This seems unlikely,
however. The shrines match in overall design, in size, and
in their principal iconography, which suggests a complete plan devised at the beginning of the project, with
the shape of the niches and the size and posture of the
main Buddha figures sketched out together. Where they
do not match is in the peripheral areas: the backgrounds
of niches, the lintel carvings, and the inscriptions. Unfinished carvings in this grotto reveal that niches and lintels
were embellished last, while inscriptions were carved after
the shrines completion, if at all. Thus, it seems likely the
eight shrines were all sketched out and begun at the same
time, around 493 when the decision was made to move the
capital, even though they were finished at different times,
from 498 to around 504.
e m p e r o r a s t a t h g a t a | 11

Another indication the eight large shrines were started

as a set is that smaller intrusive shrines with completion
dates of 495 onward are fitted around them. On the north
wall, the small shrine of Xie Boda, dated to before 499, is
wedged between the large shrines of Huicheng (N1) and
Wei Lingzang (N2), while the small shrine of Wife Yifu
of 496 was set above and between the large shrine dedicated by General Yang Dayan (N3) and the large anonymous shrine N4. The evidence on the south wall is the
same. Gao Chus small shrine of early 498 sits between the
large shrine dedicated by monk Fasheng (S2) and the large
anonymous shrine S1. This strongly suggests the sketch
of all eight large shrines was already made on the walls
before shrines that were completed in 495 onward were
even begun.
Larger shrines sponsored by aristocrats follow the same
pattern. Lady Yuchis Maitreya shrine of 495 is placed
above the large Buddha shrine by Wei Lingzang (N2),
while the Maitreya shrine of 498 sponsored by the Prince
of Beihai (Yuan Xiang, 476504) is squeezed above Lady
Yuchis.13 It is hard to imagine why these nobles would
place their shrines so far from view if there were space
available on the main portion of the side walls, unless perhaps the ceiling was considered a place of higher status.
This does not appear to have been the case, however. Lady
Yuchi (454519) was the wife of Mu Liang (451502), the
aristocratic official in charge of the capital, and she occupied the apex of Northern Wei society, yet the shrine by
plain Mr. Ma Zhenbai and his modest lay society, for example, is at about the same height in the ceiling as hers.
In my view, the colossal Buddha triad on the west wall
was also part of Huichengs original program, even though
it is different in costume mode from the eight Buddha
shrines on the side walls. In fact, this contrast contributes
to the meaning of the entire program, as the following detailed descriptions should show. The 4.85-meter-tall Buddha figure is quite worn, and the lower parts of the figure
and the platform on which he sits have been shored up by
stone blocks added in later centuries (see figure 1.2). Narrow-shouldered, with an angular form and thin legs in
the cross-legged pose of meditation, he wears the costume
seen on the Buddha in N1, an open robe that hangs from
both shoulders over an undergarment tied at the waist,
and his hands are in dhyna mudr. He is likely intended
to represent the historical Buddha, kyamuni. The left
12 | e m p e r o r a s t a t h g a t a

side of his tall, narrow head is broken, but his crescentshaped eyes and triangular nose are still readable. The full
lips compressed into a gentle smile create a joyful expression, conveying the compassion of the Buddha as he contemplates the world he comes to enlighten.
The standing bodhisattvas to either side are 3.7 meters
tall and proportionately smaller than the Buddha (figure
1.6). They wear flowered and jeweled crowns, pendant
necklaces, long ropes of jewels, armbands, and bracelets.
Curling strands of hair fall over their shoulders, which are
covered by the flaring edges of long scarves that fall from
their shoulders to cross over their bellies, passing through
a circular jade ring. This manner of rendering the scarves
over the shoulders is considered to be Han Chinese in
mode, in contrast to the bare shoulders of the Central
Asian mode. A long flowing skirt, or dhoti, covers their
lower bodies in narrow folds that flare away from the body
and drape into stylized zigzag folds at the lower border to
display their bare feet. The inside hands of both figures
are now shattered, but it appears they were held against
the chest, possibly grasping a lotus bud. The outside hand
of the south wall bodhisattva holds a spade-shaped fan
inside of which is a half-length image of a person rising
from a lotus flower, which probably represented a believer
being reborn in paradise.14 The bodhisattva on the north
wall holds a kundik, the water vase for ritual ablutions.
Haloes are carved in low relief into the walls behind them,
with an inner band of lotus petals, a center band filled
with apsarasas (flying celestial beings), circumscribed by
strings of jewels, and an outer band of flames representing
radiant light.
In short, the west-wall triad figures are colossal, project
in high relief, and are elaborately detailed. The Buddha
figure is imposing, being significantly larger and taller
than the bodhisattvas. His majestic singularity makes
him seem imperial. The haloes and nimbuses are carved
in very low relief, and their decoration is linear and patterned, qualities that are hallmarks of Chinese sculptural
style. The costumes are also in the Chinese mode. Overall,
the main impression left with the viewer is of Chinesestyle, imperial-sized figures.
By contrast, the immediate effect of the large Buddha
shrines is more Central Asian: figures wear less drapery,
their limbs are more rounded, and the poses of the background figures are more open with a livelier sense of move-

Figure 1.6. Bodhisattva, north wall, Guyang Grotto. From

Liu Jinglong, ed., Longmen ershipin: Bei Wei beike zaoxiang
juzhen, fig. 7.

ment. All but one of the kyamuni figures wear the Central Asian style of robe, that is, one shoulder covered and
the other bare, and the hem of the robe crosses diagonally
over the chest with the folds described in an arcing zigzag
line (the exception is N4). The cavernous backgrounds of
all the niches are alive with haloes filled with apsarasas,
flamboyant nimbuses, and ranks of monk disciples and
gandharvas (celestial musicians) elaborately carved in
raised lines.
Huichengs shrine itself is one of the most Central Asian
in feel, owing to the sharp undercutting, intricate detail,
and vivid sense of movement in the relief carvings of the
niche and its background (figure 1.7). The faade of the
platform on which the Buddha sits is carved with an al-

ternating series of bas-relief roundels containing garudas,

mythical birds that protect the Buddha, and bust-length
images of a pair of people being reborn in paradise from
lotus flowers.15 The roundels are separated by bas-relief
trefoil shapes. Below the platform is a censer in high relief, with two dragons entwined around it and two small
figures kneeling in worship, who may be monastics representing Huicheng. Flanking the censer are four larger
figures in northern dress kneeling in worship to the Buddha, hands clasped in ajali mudr, who may represent
Huichengs father, uncles, or brothers. The faade of the
platform they kneel on is incised with grapevines bearing
clusters of grapes.16 Grapes came to China from the western regions during the Han dynasty and so are symbolic
of the Indian prince kyamuni, the savior from the West
whose teachings came to China in Han times. Flanking
the worshipers are two seated lions, who symbolize the
royal-born Lion of the kya Clan. Above them is a pair
of four-armed guardian figures, clothed only in dhotis,
necklaces, and jeweled armbands, with one foot planted
on the back of a small, doubled-over figure. These guardians of the Buddhist Dharma who trample the demons of
ignorance serve as caryatid figures. With one pair of arms,
they plant their hands on their hips in a pose of victory;
with the other, they hold a small platform over their heads.
The faades of these platforms are incised with a delicate
honeysuckle vine pattern,17 and crouching on this platform are the forelegs of a dragon, whose back extends upward to form the arch of the niche. The dragon turns his
head backward to bite the dangling end of a garland of
woven flowers draped over the lintel of the arch. On the
lintel, the garland is held in crossed swags by jeweled celestial beings, whose upper bodies emerge from the stone
as if flying toward the viewer as they present these festoons
to the Buddha. Alternating with the round haloed heads of
these apsarasas are round lotus flowers rising from leafy
stems. Such is the lavishly carved frame of the niche.
Behind the now-missing head of the Buddha is carved
a halo in three bands, the innermost as the petals of a
lotus flower encircled by a string of pearls or jewels, the
middle bearing ten apsarasas kneeling in adoration, and
the outer a strand of jewels and another twelve apsarasas.
Ten are flying and holding offerings to the Buddha, but the
two that flank his head are kneeling on lotus flowers connected by their stems to a point outside the Buddhas nime m p e r o r a s t a t h g a t a | 13

Figure 1.7. Huichengs shrine for the Duke of Shiping, 498,

Guyang Grotto. From Zhongguo shiku diaosu quanji, v. 4:
Longmen, ed. Wen Yucheng, pl. 14.

bus. These figures were probably not intended to be read

as part of the halo but as figures flying in front of the halo,
in the same space as the Buddha. In bronze sculptures,
this effect of floating figures can be created by suspending
them from wires, but in stone it can only be suggested by
such illusionistic means, which were likely increased with
contrasting colors of paint. The nimbus flares up to the
ceiling in rivulets of flame, described by concentric raised
lines, with small, leaping dragons at the base. In the ceiling
above the Buddha are nine gandharvas, playing drums,
flutes, and stringed instruments as they fly. The overall effect is of the Buddha sitting quietly amidst a swirl of lively
14 | e m p e r o r a s t a t h g a t a

movement, suggesting the idea of a Buddha realm more

than the awesome presence of a majestic individual.
The contrast between the Central Asian mode of the
shrines and the Chinese mode of the colossal triad was
made intentionally, in my view, in imitation of Cave 16 at
Yungang. Five large Buddha shrines are arrayed across the
west, south, and east walls of Cave 16, carved in the late
460s or early 470s in the Central Asian mode before the
grotto was temporarily abandoned, while on the back wall
is a colossal standing Buddha in Chinese costume, likely
finished after the appearance of the Chinese costume on
Buddha figures at Yungang in 489 (figure 1.8).18 I propose
Huicheng designed the eight shrines in imitation of the
set of five large Buddha shrines in Cave 16, with a similar
colossal Buddha figure in Chinese costume on the wall between them. Further, I suggest that he modeled the shrine
for his father on Shrine 4, the westernmost large Buddha
shrine on the south wall of Cave 16 (figure 1.9). At the base
of the niche in Shrine 4 is a panel of worshipers, while the
sides of the niche are caryatid figures that hold up the front
feet of the addorsed dragons that form the lower border
of an ogive lintel. Inside the lintel are kneeling celestial
worshipers in raised relief, with the full, round limbs, torsos, and faces of the Central Asian figure type. The central
seated kyamuni figure is flanked by two standing bo
dhisattvas, and the back of the niche is filled with the Buddhas halo and nimbus, containing lively celestial figures
in low relief. The Buddha wears the Central Asian costume
with zigzag folds of the hem falling across the chest, and
the folds of the robe pleat over the exposed foot and spill
onto the floor of the niche. The head is quite round and the
face is full, with a swelling rounded torso and round arms
that hang gently away from the body.
Although Huichengs shrine uses the same vocabulary
of forms and the Central Asian costume, the difference in
the figural style reveals a later date. Huichengs Buddha
is proportionally taller and more angular; the limbs are
thinner, longer, and less rounded; and the torso is flatter,
less full. These differences reveal the changes in style from
the mid-480s onward that resulted from the Northern
Wei policies of Sinicization, which only increased with the
move of the court southward. Huichengs Buddha is more
advanced in style than Shrine 4, but by how much is open
to interpretation.

Figure 1.8. Standing Buddha, back wall, Cave 16, Yungang

Grottoes, Datong, Shanxi. Photo, the author, 1999.

Figure 1.9. Large Buddha shrine, south wall, west side (Shrine
4), Cave 16, Yungang. From Mizuno Seiichi and Nagahiro
Toshio, Yn-kang (Unk sekkutsu): The Buddhist Cave-Temples
of the Fifth Century A.D. in North China, v. 11, pt. 2, pl. 91.

The Ruined Date

the character for two can still be read, but between them
the stone is broken away. Since the Great Peace era lasted
twenty-three years, the effaced character could have been
ten or twenty, making the date either the twelfth year
(488) or the twenty-second year (498). Turning to the epigraphy catalogues of the nineteenth century for early transcriptions, we find them divided over the reading of the
date. One school, starting with Sun Xingyan, whose Rec
ords of Visiting Steles throughout the Realm was published
in 1802, recorded the date as 488, while the other, beginning with Wang Chang, who published his Compilation of

Clearly, my argument that Guyang Grotto imitates Cave

16 at Yungang holds only if it was produced after Cave 16
was completed, which was sometime between 489 and the
move of the capital in 493, when large-scale projects at
Yungang ceased. The date of Huichengs shrine, however,
is a point of controversy. One of the dozens of diagonal
cracks that score the walls of Guyang Grotto runs through
the date at the end of the inscription. The name of the reign
period Taihe, or Great Peace, is unaffected, and below it,

e m p e r o r a s t a t h g a t a | 15

Epigraphy in 1805, recorded it as 498.19 The modern scholar

Gong Dazhong tentatively stated that, from his scrutiny of
Qing dynasty ink rubbings of the inscription, the mystery
character suggested ten, while Wen Yucheng, by contrast, says that early rubbings preserve the character for
twenty.20 To my eyes, the remains of the character on the
well-known mid-nineteenth-century ink rubbing held by
the Beijing Library are unreadable.21
This difference of a decade is important since in 488 the
capital was still located at Pingcheng, the grottoes at Yungang were being excavated, and the costume on Buddha
figures was still Central Asian, while by 498 the capital
had been moved to Luoyang, and the imperial design for
cultural and political Sinicization of the Northern Wei was
far advanced. The official view of the Longmen Grottoes
Research Academy is that the grottoes were begun after
the move of the capital in 493 and that the date therefore
could only be 498.22 I agree with this view, but interesting arguments for a date of 488 have been made by Zhang
Naizhu, a researcher at the academy, and Katherine Tsiang
of the University of Chicago. To Zhang, the floor-level position of the niche, which forced Lady Yuchis shrine of
495 and the Prince of Beihais shrine of 498 to be placed
in the ceiling, indicates that Huichengs shrine must have
been done before 495, and further, the Buddha figure is
wearing the old-fashioned, one-shoulder-bare Central
Asianstyle robe that was replaced by Chinese costume in
the sculpture at Yungang beginning around 489.23 Tsiang
made a case for a completion date of 488 based on the stylistic similarities between the eight large Buddha niches
and developments at Yungang in the 480s.24 She notes that
the Huicheng shrine has a nimbus flame pattern carved
in a linear fashion, where those on the other large shrines
are drawn in bands, like ribbon. This corresponds to the
development she sketches from linear flame patterns to
ribbon flame patterns at Yungang, with the linear appearing in Caves 9 and 10, which she dates to around 470 to
480, and the ribbon appearing in Caves 5 and 6, which she
dates to around 490. Thus, she believes the linear flame
pattern used on Huichengs shrine means it was begun
earlier than 486.
A change from the linear flame pattern to the ribbon
pattern did take place in Guyang Grotto, but not during the
480s. Rather, the evidence from dated shrines clearly reveals a sudden shift in the summer of 502. The linear flame
16 | e m p e r o r a s t a t h g a t a

Figure 1.10. Apsarasas and ribbon halo, Fashengs shrine,

504, Guyang Grotto. From Liu Jinglong, ed., Longmen ershipin:
Bei Wei beike zaoxiang juzhen, fig. 182.

pattern is seen on all the earliest dated shrines, beginning in

495 and including most of those dated to 502. They include
Lady Yuchis shrine of 495, Xie Bodas shrine of before 499,
Zheng Changyous shrines of 501, and shrines offered by
three donors in 502: Gao Shu (fifth month), monk Huigan
(fifth month), and Great Consort Hou (eighth month).
Around this time, the transition occurred, and the ribbon
flame pattern is seen in Sun Qiushengs shrine, which was
finished in the fifth month of 502; Fashengs shrine of early
504 (figure 1.10); Yang Dayans shrine, finished around 504;
Yuan Xies shrine of 507; and Yuan Yous shrine of 517. In
short, since the linear flame pattern was used in shrines

dated from 495 to 502, its presence on Huichengs shrine

cannot argue for the early date of 488. In fact, it reconfirms
a reading of 498.

Reading the Program

The sketching of the eight shrines around 493 is also
consonant with the meaning of the eight large Buddha
shrines, which I consider were intended to represent the
seven rulers of the Northern Wei and the heir apparent.
This idea was already expressed at Yungang. Scholars
generally agree that the five Buddha statues planned by
superintendent monk Tanyao (ca. 410ca. 486) at Yungang were intended to stand for the five emperors who
had ruled the Northern Wei up to 460 (that is, Emperor
Daowu, r. 386409; Emperor Mingyuan, r. 409423; Emperor Taiwu, r. 423452; Emperor Jingmu, the posthumous honorary title given to the heir apparent Tabgatch
Huang, d. 451; and the reigning emperor Wencheng, r.
452465), in line with the bronze kyamuni statues cast
in 454 on behalf of the five emperors from Taizu (Daowu)
on down and the ideological equation between emperor
and Buddha promoted by superintendent monk Faguo (ca.
342before 423), who famously pronounced that Emperor
Daowu is a living Tathgata of the present age.25 The
five shrines inside Cave 16 may well have been intended
to represent the five emperors as well.26 At the time the
Tanyao grottoes were made, five emperors had ruled the
Northern Wei, but by Huichengs day, two more had held
the throne: the late emperor Xianwen (r. 465471) and the
current ruler, Emperor Xiaowen (r. 471499). I propose
that in Huichengs design, the seven Buddhas in Central
Asian costume represented the seven emperors. Veneration of the seven emperors by the Buddhist establishment
was not uncommon at this time. In 492, a monk sponsored
three colossal bronze figures in honor of the Seven Emperors.27 In the same year, a Maitreya image was made
for the Temple of the Seven Wei Emperors in Dingxian,
Hebei Province, and in 495 an inscription was carved for
Seven Emperors Monastery.28 Huichengs statement that
his grotto was made for the state was embodied in the
representation of the entire line of Northern Wei emperors, past and present, in the large Buddha shrines.
The eighth shrine is the anomalous N4, in which the
Buddha wears Chinese costume (figure 1.11). It has been

assumed the reason for the Chinese costume is that this

figure was finished later than the other seven. At Yungang,
the Central Asian style of robes is seen on Buddha figures
produced through 489, while Chinese-style robes are seen
from then on (although since so little is dated at Yungang,
this may be an oversimplification of developments there).
Applying this same scheme of development, the seven Buddhas in Central Asian costume would be earlier than the
one in Chinese costume. As with the transition from the
linear to the ribbon mode of flame patterns, however,
the evidence of the dated shrines shows a transition from
Central Asian to Chinese costume in 502, the date of both
the earliest Buddha in Chinese costume and the latest one
in Central Asian costume.29 Hence, if both Central Asian
and Chinese modes were produced in 502, the Chinese costume of N4 does not necessarily make it later than the
other large Buddha shrines in Central Asian costume.
Since the change to Chinese costume had already been
made at Yungang by 489, the sculptors at Longmen were
not locked into an evolution of style but were capable
of making conscious choices that conveyed meaning. To
Huicheng, the Central Asian costume may have been associated with tradition and the past as well as with the
Five Tanyao Grottoes at Yungang and the emperors who
ruled from the old capital of Pingcheng, while the Chinese
costume was seen as contemporary, even future-oriented,
and was representative of the new capital at Luoyang and
Emperor Xiaowens policy of Sinicization. Despite the
difference in costume, much about N4 suggests it was
conceived of and begun at the same moment as the other
seven shrines. Not only are the size and shape of the niche
and the main Buddha figure the same as the others, but
one detail is particularly convincing: the apsarasas in the
halo are in the Central Asian mode, just as in all the other
large shrines, which suggests N4 was begun at the same
time as the other seven.
As a further anomaly, other elements of N4 suggest a
Maitreya shrine. On the base of the niche, instead of the
panels containing worshiper figures found on the other
shrines, N4 has a platform holding two seated lions who
turn their heads back in toward the main figure. As Katherine Tsiang has pointed out, this is similar to the typical
lower portion of a Maitreya bodhisattva shrine in Guyang
Grotto, where the lions turn to adore the figure of Maitreya and an earth spirit holds up the feet of the crosse m p e r o r a s t a t h g a t a | 17

Figure 1.11. N4, Guyang Grotto. From Zhongguo shiku diaosu

quanji, v. 4: Longmen, ed. Wen Yucheng, pl. 17.

ankled figure. Reading the broken carving between the

lions as the remains of a caryatid bust-length earth spirit,
she proposed that N4 originally held a cross-ankled Maitreya bodhisattva figure, which was later recarved into
a Buddha in Chinese costume.30 Were that the case, the
original program of the eight large shrines would have
been the Seven Buddhas of the Past and Maitreya, Buddha of the Future, a well-known theme on votive stone
stpas in the fifth century.31 Although recent photographs
of N4 taken from above show the broken carvings to be
two kneeling worshipers flanking a censer, still the lions at
the figures knees are unquestionably typical of a Maitreya
shrine.32 Further, a small niche in the center of the lintel
18 | e m p e r o r a s t a t h g a t a

contains figures of kyamuni seated side by side with

Prabhtaratna, a Buddha of the Past, as described in chapter 11 of the Lotus Stra. kyamuni and Prabhtaratna
are often grouped with Maitreya at this time, so the presence of this pair further suggests a deliberate association
of the N4 Buddha with Maitreya.
I propose that the Maitreya-related elements of N4
were intended to suggest the ruler-to-be, even though the
figure is a Buddha. If the seven Central Asianstyle Buddhas represent the seven emperors of Northern Wei, the
N4 Buddha should represent the ruler to come, that is,
the heir apparent. The emperors first son, Tabgatch Xun
(482497), was designated the heir apparent in 493.33 An
inauguration date of around 493 for N4 as the shrine representing the heir apparent would match this historical
situation.
We could extend this level of specificity to the other
seven shrines. According to Ishimatsu Hinako of Jissen
Womens University, the eight shrines vary in the ratio of
Central Asian to Chinese costume worn by the Buddha,
bodhisattva, and apsaras figures.34 Through careful analysis, she observes that the highest percentage of Central
Asian costume is in S4, the innermost shrine on the south
wall, whose Buddha, bodhisattvas, and apsarasas are all in
what she calls the Western mode. Slightly more Chinese
is S1, the outermost shrine on the south wall, which has
a Western-style Buddha and apsarasas, with bodhisattva
figures that combine Western and Chinese features (the
ribbons on the crown are Western, while the sashes crossing the body are part of the Chinese mode). S3 (completed
502) and S2 (completed 504) have Chinese bodhisattvas
but still mix Chinese and Western elements in their lintel carvings. Ishimatsu considers Huichengs shrine (N1)
more Chinese than S4 and S1, since the bodhisattvas are
entirely in the Chinese mode (the scarves cover the shoulders). N2 is also all Chinese-mode except for the main
Buddha and the apsarasas in the halo, as is N3, which was
finished around 504. N4 is entirely Chinese except for the
apsarasas in the halo. In short, the percentage of Chinese
elements seems to increase continuously, if a bit unevenly,
starting with the entirely Central Asianmode S4 and
moving counterclockwise through the eight shrines to the
almost entirely Chinese-mode N4. If the most Chinesemode shrine were intended to represent the newest ruler,
the heir apparent, perhaps the most Central Asianmode

shrine was intended to represent the oldest ruler, Emperor Daowu, with the other shrines representing the other
rulers in between, in chronological order.

The Duke of Shiping

To return to monk Huichengs inscription, he next dedicates the karmic merit earned from the production of the
shrine to his late father:
My fatherthe Duke of Shiping, Grand Master for Splendid
Happiness, Regional Inspector of Luozhou, and Commissioned with Extraordinary Powerspassed away suddenly.
Looking up at his kindly face, my whole being was overcome
by sadness, and ominous birds (seemed) to fill the sky. As a
result, for my late father, I have had made a single stone image.
I pray that my late fathers spirit will fly over the three worlds,
the five circuits (of cause and effect), and the ten stages (of the
bodhisattvas enlightenment).

No one has successfully identified the Duke of Shi

ping, but his status in life can be surmised from his titles.
The aristocratic title of duke was held only by members
of the royal family. The prestige title Grand Master for
Splendid Happiness and the post of Regional Inspector
of Luozhou could have been held in life or awarded posthumously, while the special designation Commissioned
with Extraordinary Powers was not a post in itself but an
enhancement of authority in a particular position. Identifying the Duke of Shiping has exerted a magnetic attraction on those who study Longmen, but though many have
attempted it, few feel confident they have found him.35
Some proposed candidates are so wide of the mark that I
began to think of searching for the duke, humorously, as
one of the proverbial three signs of senility in a Sinologist.
I had no intention of searching for the Duke of Shiping,
but I, too, was hooked when I saw the epitaph of one Yuan
Yan.36 Yuan Yan was buried in Luoyang on December 30,
498. His brief epitaph records that he died on July 11, 498,
at which time he was given the posthumous prestige title
of Superior Grand Master of the Palace. In life, he was
appointed General for Pacifying the West in 492, at which
time he already held the position of General for Pacifying
the North, Commissioned with Extraordinary Powers,
and the aristocratic title of Duke of Shiping. In 496, after
the move of the capital, he was appointed Commandant

of the Capital Gates. This is not a definitive identification, however, since although Yuans title of nobility was
Duke of Shiping and he had the special designation Commissioned with Extraordinary Powers, his posthumous
prestige title was Superior Grand Master of the Palace,
not Grand Master for Splendid Happiness. Moreover, his
epitaph says nothing about being awarded the post of Regional Inspector of Luozhou. Nevertheless, it is intriguing
that Huichengs moving farewell to his father was written out in the ninth month of 498, three months after the
death of Yuan Yan.
Even without finding the Duke of Shiping, the search
for his identity reveals the depth of fascination with donors and beneficiaries and the value of the donors inscriptions at Longmen. The inscriptions are not simply
religious boilerplate but genuine artifacts of religious and
social practice that indicate what the donors thought important to tell their contemporaries, posterity, and the
karmic mechanism. Further, that the identity of the Duke
of Shiping cannot be established through the standard
dynastic histories reconfirms the importance of archeological documents, such as the dedicatory inscriptions
of Longmen and the epitaphs recovered from the aristocratic tombs in the Mang Mountains north of Luoyang.
Such texts contain information not found in the standard
histories written by Confucian-educated literati, which
routinely ignored or deprecated self-willed women, charismatic religious people, wealthy merchants, and court
eunuchs, and they relate information about people and
events that is uncorrupted by later editing or censorship.
Lastly, work on identifying such unknown donors and
beneficiaries as Huicheng and the Duke of Shiping is important as a corrective to the human tendency to ascribe
all impressive projects to the throne. Not every imperialsized statue was sponsored by the emperor.
Huichengs inscription concludes with a final benedic
tion:
In the evening, may there be an illumination of mystery such
that the myriad sentient beings may have enlightenment,
and in the morning, may there be an echo of wisdom such
that the universe will be awakened. May those of previous
.
generations, my teachers in the sangha, my parents, and my
dependent relatives, soar like the phoenix to the place of enlightenment and rise like the divine luan bird up to the Tu-
e m p e r o r a s t a t h g a t a | 19

Figure 1.12. The Sun

Qiusheng shrine, 502,
Guyang Grotto. From
Liu Jinglong, ed., Longmen ershipin: Beike
yu zaoxiang yishu.

s.ita Heaven. If they should awaken still fallen in this mortal

realm, (may it be in the courtyard where) the three acacia
trees flourish in splendor and the nine date trees spread out
like clouds.37 May all living beings of the five realms of existence share in this prayer.

At the end of the inscription a separate line reads: Finished on the fourteenth day of the ninth month of the
[twenty-]second year of the Taihe era. Calligraphy by Zhu
Yizhang, text by Meng (Guang)da. The great majority of
inscriptions at Longmen are anonymous, so the naming
of the calligrapher and the author is quite unusual and a
further indication the patron intended this shrine as an
artistic production of the highest aesthetic quality. Zhu
Yizhang, the expert calligrapher of this inscription, is otherwise lost to history, but Meng Guangda wrote a second
20 | e m p e r o r a s t a t h g a t a

inscription in Guyang Grotto, which dedicated S3, traditionally called the Sun Qiusheng shrine.

The Sun Qiusheng Shrine

Donated by a lay society of over 140 Buddhist devotees,
the Sun Qiusheng shrine is practically identical to Hui
chengs shrine in size and style, differing only in some
motifs (figure 1.12). Details on the lintel and shrine wall
show Buddhas and apsarasas in the Central Asian mode,
indicating the shrine was begun with Huichengs, but the
completion date of 502 is confirmed by the flames in the
nimbus, which were carved in the ribbon mode. To the left
of the shrine is a large relief stele bearing the dedication.
The heading states the lay society was led by two local officials: Sun Daowu, governor of Yingyang, and Wei Baidu,

governor of Yingchuan. Yingyang was the closest commandery to the east of Luoyang, about seventy-five kilometers away, while Yingchuan was a local district seat,
about seventy-five kilometers southeast of Yingyang.38
The inscription reads:
In the seventh year of the Taihe era of the Great Dai (483),
Sun Qiusheng, Military Aide of Xincheng District, Liu Qizu,
Military Aide of Xincheng District, and two hundred others
reverently made one stone image.39 We pray that the imperial
house forever flourish and the Three Jewels increase in brilliance. May those disciples offering this prayer bloom luxuriously like flowers in spring and come to be in the courtyard
of the acacia trees that thrive in splendor. May the orchid (of
the Dharma) diffuse its fragrance in this flourishing age, and
may its golden light broadly illuminate this time of our Sage
(Emperor). May our living relatives (enjoy) myriad blessings
that gather around them like clouds and have red-wheeled
carriages in great numbers.40 May the souls of our departed
parents and other disciples, in future incarnations, vault up to
the ninth heaven and their footsteps ascend the ten stages (of
the bodhisattvas path to enlightenment), and may all sentient
beings in the five realms of existence share in this prayer. Text
by Meng Guangda; calligraphy by Xiao Xianqing. (One hundred forty names of the society members are listed.) Finished
on the twenty-seventh day of the fifth month, in which the
first day was a wuzi day, in a renwu year, the third year of the
Jingming era (July 17, 502).41 (1B)

The date of 483 given as the inaugural year of the shrine

is the earliest date at Longmen and has given rise to much
controversy and theorizing. Those who accept the date as
given include Tsukamoto Zenry, Yan Wenru and Chang
Qing, and Katherine Tsiang.42 I consider 483 too early for
royal donors and experienced sculptors to be present in
Luoyang, and I see no historical impetus then for the donation of a grotto to the state. Since the sack of Luoyang in
the early fourth century, it languished under a succession
of minor northern states, and even when it was brought
into the Northern Wei empire, the government further
depleted it by removing some of the populace north to
Pingcheng. When Emperor Xiaowen determined to relocate the capital to Luoyang in the autumn of 493, he had
to rebuild and repopulate the city. Moreover, as Ishimatsu
has demonstrated, there is no evidence of any production

of stone sculpture in the Luoyang area before 500, probably because of the lack of a significant elite population.43
The most likely explanation for this implausible date is
that the character for ten was accidentally omitted, and
the inaugural date was actually 493.44 One might think
that great care was taken with the accuracy of the inscriptions at Longmen, but in fact, errors are rife. Instances
where characters were accidentally left out in Northern
Wei inscriptions include the second character in the reign
period in Song Jingfeis inscription, the middle character
of Meng Guangdas name in Huichengs inscription, and
the name of the town where Zheng Changyou was governor.45 The year 493, when the emperor suddenly arrived in
Luoyang and announced the move of the capital, would
have been an auspicious time for local people of influence
to welcome the emperor with a public display of loyalty
and piety.
The official titles borne by Sun Qiusheng and Liu Qizu
also suggest why they were eager to demonstrate their loyalty to the emperor. A regularly appointed district military aide served as an adjutant in a military commanders
headquarters, which is a relatively low-ranking post, but
honorary titles of District Military Aide were bestowed
by the Northern Wei court on local men of wealth and
power to gain their allegiance.46 The Xincheng District
seat was located five kilometers south of the modern town
of Yichuan, just south of Longmen, which suggests Sun
and Liu were given this honorary title because they were
local men of importance whom the Northern Wei wished
to enlist in their cause. They were probably also wealthy,
and they may have been listed prominently in the inscription because they donated the largest amount of funds for
the project.
Occupying the lower three-fourths of the stele is the list
of the societys members, an examination of which reveals
that some were sponsors of other shrines in Guyang Grotto
and some were related to sponsors of other shrines. For
example, Gao Wenshao, Gao Tianbao, and Gao Zhenbao
also cosponsored a Buddha shrine dedicated by Gao Shu
and a group of thirty-two believers, which was completed
at the same time, in the fifth month of 502.47 Eight men of
the Wei clan also participated in the Sun Qiusheng shrine,
including a Wei Baier, who must have been a brother or
cousin of Wei Baidu, the governor of Yingchuan, while
e m p e r o r a s t a t h g a t a | 21

Figure 1.13. Wei Lingzangs

shrine. From Zhongguo shiku
diaosu quanji, v. 4: Longmen,
ed. Wen Yucheng, pl. 15.

one Wei Lingqiu was quite likely the brother or cousin of

the sponsor of N2, Wei Lingzang.

Wei Lingzangs Shrine

The large Buddha shrine sponsored by Wei Lingzang (N2)
closely resembles Huichengs (N1), which suggests it was
begun around 493, and the shrine sponsored by Sun Qiu
shengs group (S3), which suggests it was finished around
502. The main Buddha figure, though unique in bearing a
bas-relief svastika inside a flaming disc on the chest, wears
the same Central Asian costume with the robe in zigzag
folds across the chest (figure 1.13) as the Buddha in N1 and
S3, while the halo, the halos apsarasas, the attendant bodhisattvas, and the size and shape of the niche are also
quite similar. Other details, however, agree more with the
Sun Qiusheng shrine, which suggests a date of completion close to 502. Evidently, the sculptors usually left the
carving of the back wall of the niche to last, as seen in the
22 | e m p e r o r a s t a t h g a t a

unfinished niche attached to Great Consort Hous shrine

of 502 and in the unfinished upper niche background in
the Sun Qiusheng shrine. As such, the style of the interior
background carvings allows for a tentative date for the
completion of the shrine. Here in Wei Lingzangs shrine,
the Buddhas nimbus is not the linear flame type, but the
barbed ribbon flame type that appeared in mid-502. Further, the apsarasas in the niche interior are the type with
long, slender arms and legs that bend sharply, also introduced in 502 (discussed below).
The dedication is on a relief stele topped by twining
dragons of the same design as the Sun Qiusheng group
stele, to the right of the niche. In a peaked rectangle at
the top are large characters reading kyamuni Image,
flanked by the two names Wei Lingzang and Xue
Fashao. Most of the inscription is now broken off, but the
text is preserved in old ink rubbings.48 The opening lines
read as follows:

Whenever the Divine Traces have been widely encountered,

they have always manifested the evidence of something brilliant and great, and wherever the profound work of merit has
already spread, it has also shown acts rarely seen in our world.
When, under the twin sala trees, there was a change in the
light (in the world, when the Buddha passed into nirvn.a),
the universe held in its bosom the sorrow of being in the confusion of twilight, and when the Sun of Wisdom veiled its brilliance, all living beings held in their hearts the pain of thinking
with regret of the Way. This is why the arhat (Maudgalyyana),
pained by the insufficient support of the Three Vehicles, rose
into the Heaven (of the Thirty-Three Gods) in order to carve
an image (of the Buddha).49 Now (this custom) has come down
to later generations, and thus this image was made. (1C)

The next section is the dedication:

Wei Lingzang of Julu and Xue Fashao of Hedong, we two,
seeking the favor of the brilliance from the (white curl of)
hair (i.e., the rn between the Buddhas eyebrows that emits
light) illuminating the East and lacking the advantage of (the
future Buddha Maitreya having descended from) the Tus.ita
Heaven and (being reborn on earth in) Ketumati, we made
bold to exhaust our families wealth to make one stone image
such that none of the auxiliary figures have been omitted. We
pray the imperial house may long flourish and the myriad
regions render homage and bring tribute. We pray that (Wei
Ling)zang and the others will stand like the three acacias on
a solitary peak and flourish like the nine date trees in a magnificent garden. May their perfumed fruits multiply more
and more, their thorny branches especially thrive, their entire families blossom gloriously, and their blessings flow over
onto their descendants.50 After their lives have ended, may
they fly to encounter the Thousand Holy Ones, their souls rise
to the six supernatural powers (acquired by a Buddha), and
their intellects embrace the three aspects of the omniscience
(of a Buddha). In their existences in the generations to come
and their relatives in their former lives, if they are released
from the hundred obstacles, then may they, like the roc, perch
in the Dragon Flower (Tree, to hear Maitreya preach on earth
and thereby gain enlightenment), and if they are enlightened
and freed from all rebirths, may they, like the phoenix, mount
up to the bodhi tree. May the sentient beings in the five paths
(of rebirth) all share in this felicity.

Wei Lingzangs inscription is structurally similar to the

inscriptions for Huicheng and the Sun Qiusheng group,
and it includes an initial dedication to the imperial house.
The use of the pre-Buddhist imagery of fabulous birds that
fly up to heaven and the classical metaphor of the three
acacias and nine date trees further suggests this inscription was also written by Meng Guangda.
The end of the inscription reads: Wei Lingzang, Military Aide of Luhun District. Luhun District was about
fifty kilometers southwest of Longmen. Hence Wei Lingzang was likely another local man of influence who was
given the honorary title of District Military Aide by the
Northern Wei government. It is entirely likely, therefore,
that Wei Lingzangs motivation in sponsoring this shrine
was to make an offering of merit to reciprocate the imperial favor, while his inscription made a public record of his
honorary title and his reciprocal gift.

A Consortium of Donors
Several factors suggest that Huicheng, Sun Qiushengs lay
society, and Wei Lingzang donated in concert. First, their
dedications are similar in content, structure, and language, suggesting they asked Meng Guangda to write their
inscriptions corporately. Second, Wei Lingqiu, who participated in the Sun Qiusheng group shrine, was probably
closely related to Wei Lingzang. Third, the social status of
these donors probably worked symbiotically. Sun Qiusheng
and Wei Lingzang were local men important and wealthy
enough to be given titles by the court to secure their loyalty and support, and were probably already established in
the Luoyang area when the emperor determined to move
the capital in 493. As the son of a duke, Huicheng had the
high rank necessary to be granted permission to make and
dedicate a grotto to the state and the prestige to galvanize
a group of local donors. As a Buddhist monk, he also had
the spiritual authority to design the program of imagery.
He had probably lived in Pingcheng before the move of the
capital and likely saw the grottoes at Yungang. In fact, it is
hard to imagine why he would have had a grotto created
near Luoyang if he had not seen the grottoes at Yungang.
Lastly, these three may have been linked by motivation.
Emperor Xiaowens decision to move the capital to Luo
yang aroused feelings of betrayal among many Northern
e m p e r o r a s t a t h g a t a | 23

Wei Xianbei elites and contributed to the rebellion of the

heir apparent, Tabgatch Xun.51 In such an atmosphere, a
public statement of loyalty to the throne would be a wise
action. Sun Qiusheng and Wei Lingzang had already accepted the imperial grant of the title of District Military
Aide, which their dedications acknowledge, in a reciprocal statement of loyalty. As a member of the royal family, Huicheng was part of the group whose allegiance was
even more suspect at this time. With his dedication of the
grotto, Huicheng demonstrated his loyalty to the state
and his support for the Sinicization policies of Emperor
Xiaowen.
The large Buddha shrines could have had as many as
eight original donors, though only Huicheng, Wei Lingzang, and the Sun Qiusheng group are still known. Of the
remaining five shrines, two were finished by donors who
were unlikely to have been part of the original group: monk
Fasheng, who dedicated S2 in 504 to the Prince of Beihai,
and General Yang Dayan, who finished N3 around 504 for
the late emperor Xiaowen. The other three shrines, S4, S1,
and N4, were not separately dedicated, and since they lack
steles, it is possible they were never intended to have their
own inscriptions. They may have had individual sponsors
who, for some reason, elected not to engrave a dedicatory
inscription, or as Stanley Abe has proposed, perhaps Hui
cheng was the donor of the four corner shrines.52 He may
have claimed them as a framework and invited others to
donate the shrines in between.

The Colossal Triad

The other component of the grottos original program is
the colossal Buddha triad in Chinese costume on the main
wall. In his inscription, Huicheng stated that he had a
Stone Grotto [Monastery] made for the state, in this way to
respond to the August (Emperors) grace. In my view, the
eight large shrines and the colossal Buddha correspond
to this dedication. The eight large shrines represented the
seven emperors of the Northern Wei state and the heir
apparent in combinations of Central Asian and Chinese
modes and were intended to honor and bless the Tabgatch imperial line, that is, the state, while the colossal
Buddha represented the living emperor Xiaowen in pure
Chinese mode and was intended to exalt and prosper him
personally.
24 | e m p e r o r a s t a t h g a t a

Although dated intrusive shrines confirm the colossal

triad was complete by 505, I believe it was begun as a gift
to the living ruler before his death in 499. This is based
on Wen Yuchengs theory that the triad was completed
around the year 500. As he argued, certain novel motifs
seen in this triad were used experimentally by the sculptors of various shrines finished in 502, and since shrines
completed in 502 would likely have been started in 500 or
501, it suggests the colossal triad would have to have been
finished around the year 500 to serve as their model.53
The triad has four new features: the colossal figures wear
Chinese costume, all the nimbuses contain the barbed ribbon flame pattern, the bodhisattvas haloes have the flying celestial type of apsarasas, and the scarves on the bodhisattvas pass through a jade ring. These features appear
suddenly in 502 on intrusive shrines. As discussed above,
the ribbon flame pattern is first seen in Sun Qiushengs
shrine of 502, while the earliest Buddha figure in Chinese
costume is in the shrine of Zhao Shuangzhe, dated to July
20, 502, and the earliest dated bodhisattva figures wearing
scarves that pass through a jade ring are in monk Huigans
shrine, finished also on July 20, 502.54 All apsarasas made
before 502 in Guyang Grotto fly in an outstretched position with legs extended and are depicted in high relief,
with rounded limbs, just as they were at Yungang (see
figure 1.7). The latest dated example of this Central Asian
type is seen in the shrine dedicated by Gao Shu in the fifth
month of 502. The earliest dated example of the long, slender apsarasas in low relief that fly upright with legs bent
sharply up behind is in the panels of the trabeated arch of
the shrine dedicated by Great Consort Hou in the eighth
month of 502.55 From that moment onward, all apsaras
figures made in Guyang Grotto were this type. Other examples are in the 503 shrine of Ma Zhenbai, the 504 shrine
of Fasheng (see figure 1.10), and the shrine of Yang Dayan,
finished after 504.56
Two facts should be noted about the dated shrines of the
summer of 502. One is that entirely old-fashioned shrines
were also produced for the last time at this same moment.
For example, the Gao Shu shrine, finished on July 20, 502,
has a Central Asianstyle Buddha, the old-fashioned ap
saras figures, and the linear flame pattern in the nimbus.
The other fact is that none of the shrines of 502 has all four
of the new features. Great Consort Hous shrine, for example, which boasts the earliest new apsaras type, also bears

Figure 1.14. Flying celestial, west wall

of tomb of Emperor He (Xiao Baorong),
Wu Family Village, Danyang County,
Jiangsu Province. Ink rubbing. From
Liuchao yishu, fig. 198.

the old-fashioned linear mode of nimbus flame pattern.

From this we can conclude there was not a wholesale intrusion of a new group of sculptors for the smaller shrines.
Evidently, the sculptors who were already working at Longmen saw something that did have all these motifs, and they
began to incorporate one or two tentatively into the kinds
of statuary they already knew how to make.
The colossal Buddha triad was capable of introducing
several new motifs because it was produced intentionally
with a different vocabulary. To represent the Sinicizing
emperor Xiaowen, it had to be made in the most Chinese
manner possible, and indeed, the sources for the new motifs were all from Chinese art, either contemporaneous or
classical. Yoshimura Rei has demonstrated that the new
style of apsaras was borrowed from native funerary art
of the contemporary Southern Qi dynasty (479502).57
The new style of apsarasas in Guyang Grotto (see figure
1.10) compare closely to the flying celestials depicted on
molded tiles in Southern Qi imperial tombs found near
the southern Chinese capital of Jiankang (near modern
Nanjing) (figure 1.14). These small flying figures flutter
above the larger figures of a winged immortal traversing
the heavens with a tiger. The example here is from the west
wall of an imperial tomb in Danyang County identified as
belonging to the last ruler of the Southern Qi, Emperor

He (r. 501502).58 Both the apsaras of the Fasheng niche

and the celestial from the Southern Qi tomb fly forward in
an upright posture, in three-quarter view, with the body
outlined by the backward-flying robes down to the knees,
below which the lower limbs are lost in the streaming
drapery. Scarves fly back from the shoulders and arms,
fluttering upward behind the figures. The other Southern
Qi imperial tombs that contain these flying celestials were
produced from 493 to 501, in other words, at the same time
as the earliest shrines in Guyang Grotto.59
The source for the scarf passing through the jade ring
was art of the Later Han dynasty (25220), when it was
carved on stone funeral steles and spirit road gates in
Sichuan, with the ends of the scarf bitten by a dragon.60
Something similar to the barbed ribbon flame pattern is
seen in Later Han art as well, as Katherine Tsiang has observed.61 On the carved bas-relief stone panels of a tomb
recently excavated in Shaanxi Province, the figure of an
auspicious ram is surrounded by arcing flat, ribbonlike
bands whose edges are silhouetted with rounded hooks
(figure 1.15). These were probably intended to be clouds,
or qi (life-breath), used to indicate a celestial or immortal
setting. With a little imagination, an artist could transform these qi clouds into the flames of the Buddhas radiance (see figure 1.10).
e m p e r o r a s t a t h g a t a | 25

Yang Dayans Shrine

Contemporaries recognized the colossal Buddha as Emperor Xiaowen. This is revealed by the inscription with
which General Yang Dayan (d. ca. 509) dedicated the
completion of N3. The general was the last patron to dedicate one of the eight large Buddha shrines, but he was not
an original donor, since his inscription makes clear he
did not conceive of sponsoring a shrine before the colossal Buddha was complete. N3 has the same size and shape
of niche and a nearly identical Buddha in Central Asian
dress (figure 1.16), indicating it was probably begun with
the original plan, but several elements on the back wall
indicate it was only finished around 504, such as the halo
centered on a bas-relief seated Buddha over the head of
the main Buddha, also seen in S2, finished in 504, and
the southern type of apsaras that appeared around 502.
Its stele was planed down and reengraved, suggesting the
shrine was abandoned before the general adopted it.
The purpose of Yangs sponsorship of a preexisting
(probably abandoned) Buddha statue is revealed in the
dedication, which opens with the familiar defense of
image-making:
Figure 1.15. Auspicious ram and qi clouds, west wall of a tomb,
Later Han, Suide County, Shaanxi Province. Ink rubbing.
From Zhongguo meishu quanji, hui hua 18: Huaxiangshi
huaxiang, pl. 79.

The sculptors who introduced these traditional Chinese

motifs must have known late Han funerary imagery and
Southern Qi pictorial tomb tiles. Alexander Soper has
suggested that artisans in the Southern Qi city of Yuzhou
(modern Shouxian, Anhui) would have been quite familiar with the art styles current at the Southern Qi capital of
Jiankang, which was just two hundred kilometers to the
southeast. Yuzhou was turned over to the Northern Wei
by its Southern Qi governor, Pei Shuye (438500), in 500.62
If they or other artisans like them came to Luoyang, surely
Huicheng would have been quick to retain them to produce the colossal triad on the back wall. If his intent was
to honor the Sinicizing emperor Xiaowen with Chinesestyle figures, who better to employ than artisans from the
south?

26 | e m p e r o r a s t a t h g a t a

If the Divine Brilliance had not been illuminated, the universe

would have kept in its bosom the sadness of eternal night. If
the [Sacred] Traces had not been encountered, perishable beings would have kept in their mouths (without expressing it)
their repentance for deeds that hinder the truth. That is why
the Tathgata responded to all these causes in manifesting
himself in his traces (his physical body). Thus through the
following generations, images were produced, continuing
down to our era of latter-day rulers, when this work of merit
was made.63 (1D)

The inscription continues with a biography of the donor:

Yang Dayan of Chouchi, Bulwark-General of the State, Zhige
General [four effaced characters], Senior Rectifier of Liangzhou, enfeoffed as Dynasty-Founding Viscount of Ancheng
District, received at birth an inheritance of dragon resplendence, as the offspring, following at a distance, of one who
was in accord with celestial portent (his grandfather Yang
Nandang). He was endowed in his youth with extraordinary
qualities, and he surpassed the crowd (of his contemporaries)
when he was first capped (on attaining the age of majority).
Later, he drew down a reputation for humaneness such as had

Figure 1.16. Shrine of Yang Dayan, ca. 504, Guyang Grotto.

From Liu Jinglong, ed., Longmen ershipin: Bei Wei beike zao
xiang juzhen, fig. 98.

never been heard of before. When he stirred up his glory, he

crushed a million (enemies) in the palm of his hand. When
he thundered with his exceptional bravery, the nine regions
of the empire were all frightened (into submission). When
he stayed before the emperor to give him counsel, court and
countryside were obedient to him. He cleared the royal route
of the three obstacles that blocked it, and he swept the clouds
and monsters from Heavens way.

Amazingly, this bombast concurs with Yangs biography

in The History of the Northern Wei, which says he was the

grandson of Yang Nandang, a chief of the Di nationality.64

As a boy, he displayed great bravery and physical prowess,
and as a young man, he enjoyed an extraordinarily successful military career under Emperor Xiaowen, whom he
served with on the campaigns against the state of Southern Qi. The general was especially solicitous of his troops,
addressing them as his sons and weeping at the sight of
their injuries. He was with his troops, in fact, when he arrived at Longmen. The following section of the inscription is important to establishing the date of the shrines
completion: When the mess in the south was cleared up,
he reorganized the troops and returned to (Yi)que. The
army encamped [one effaced character]. By the side of the
road was Stone Grotto (Monastery).
Stone Grotto Monastery was Guyang Grotto, while
the mess in the south must be a euphemism for one of
the military missions Yang led south of Luoyang. Wen
Yucheng has put forward two possibilities for identifying
the campaign. Early in 500, Yang Dayan was ordered to
lead his troops to Yuzhou to reinforce Governor Peis recent decision to turn the city over to the Northern Wei.65
This hardly qualifies as a mess, however, since Pei died
before the army had even crossed the Huai River.66 The
more likely possibility is the campaign against a rebel of
the Man nationality named Fan Jian.67 The army under
Yang Dayan defeated Fans troops in the first month of 504
in East Jingzhou, a small region south of Luoyang, which
lay on the border with Southern Qi. After the defeat of
the rebels, Yangs army would have come back through
the pass at Yique (Longmen) to return to Luoyang. It
was probably in 504, then, that he determined to sponsor
a shrine for the late emperor, asked the stoneworkers to
finish N3, and employed a literatus to write a dedication.
Although the voice is clearly his own, he could not have
written the inscription himself since he was illiterate.68

What the General Saw

Yang Dayan was an eyewitness to the program of Guyang
Grotto in the early sixth century. What exactly did he see?
His inscription continues:
Contemplating the brilliant traces (zong) of the former August (Emperor), gazing upon the beautiful traces (ji) of the
magnificent Holy (sheng) (Buddha), he fixed his eyes upon
e m p e r o r a s t a t h g a t a | 27

(this sight) all through the night, and in tears, his emotions
flowed. And so, for the August Emperor Xiaowen, he had a
single stone image made such that none of the auxiliary figures have been omitted. He engraved stone to record this
work of merit that it may be shown.

The interpretation of this passage is contested. Most agree

that the former August (Emperor) refers to the late emperor Xiaowen, but the phrase I have translated as the
beautiful traces of the magnificent Holy (sheng) (Buddha)
could also be translated as the beautiful traces of the
flourishing Sage (Emperor), since sheng can mean sage,
as an epithet of the emperor, or holy, as a description of
a Buddhist deity.
One possibility is that the brilliant traces of the former
August (Emperor) meant the inscriptions dedicated to
Emperor Xiaowen, and the beautiful traces of the magnificent Holy (Buddha) referred to all the Buddha figures
within the grotto. In this case, the general would have
been moved by the sight of all the carving in the grotto,
including the eight large Buddha shrines on the side walls,
the many Maitreya shrines in the ceiling, and the colossal
Buddha triad on the back wall. Since the grotto was created during Xiaowens reign, perhaps the general thought
of the grotto as a relic of the glorious Taihe era. This theory, however, does not take into account the specific language of the inscription, which we will explore below, and
it does not fit the mind of Yang Dayan. He was a man who
wept over people, and he was illiterate. It is hard to believe
he would mourn for his old friend at the sight of a cave
filled with indecipherable inscriptions.
The Longmen Grottoes Research Academy has recently
published an interpretation in terms of the generals career
under the late emperor:
Contemplating the brilliant achievements (zong) of the former August (Emperor) is a euphemism for Emperor Xiaowen
having the vision to use a great hero like Yang Dayan. Gazing upon the beautiful achievements (ji) of the flourishing
Sage (sheng) (Emperor) is praise for Emperor Xiaowens great
achievements in moving the capital to Luoyang and completing the great undertaking of unification. As a result, he fixed
his eyes all through the night, and in tears, his emotions
flowed, and for Emperor Xiaowen, he made this statue.69

28 | e m p e r o r a s t a t h g a t a

In this interpretation, sheng is read as meaning the emperor, and both phrases refer solely to Emperor Xiaowens
political exploits. The generals thoughts were of his glorious career under the late emperor and of the emperors ambitious designs for the empire. This is based on an understanding of the terms zong and ji as achievements rather
than as traces, as I have translated them. Zong and ji both
have the same range of meanings. From their fundamental meaning of footprint, by extension they mean footsteps, traces, external indications, or achievements.
One problem with this interpretation is that it ignores
the religious function of image worship entirely in favor
of a secularized reading of the generals project. Yang had
a very emotional response to the experience of seeing a
Buddha image, and he then determined to reciprocate by
sponsoring another Buddha image within the same grotto.
His shrine was not a monument to his own career or even
to the career of the late emperor; rather, it was an attempt
to act on his feelings for his beloved commander through
the posthumous generation of merit for him. The elite patrons of Longmen were often focused on the politics of
public sponsorship, it is true, but they also shared an unquestioning belief in the power of image worship to generate merit and in the magical efficacy of statues. Hence, I
cannot accept an interpretation that eliminates the power
medieval Chinese people ascribed to images in favor of
simple political calculation.
Another interpretation sees the inscription as ascribing
the sponsorship of the grotto to the emperor.70 In the
opinion of Long Hui, the word zong should be read literally, as footprints, and the entire first phrase should
mean that Emperor Xiaowen went out to Longmen in person to order the making of Guyang Grotto. Long states
that the Chapter on Buddhism and Daoism in the His
tory of the Northern Wei says, Each time an emperor ascended the throne, at a stone cliff near the capital, they
would make a stone grotto for the emperor and empress
and engrave Buddhist images.71 From this, he speculates
that the emperor sponsored the excavation of Guyang
Grotto near the new capital in accord with an old Tabgatch
custom, arguing that moving the capital would have been
seen as analogous to an emperor ascending the throne. He
argues further that since Emperor Xiaowen personally
took the ancestral spirit tablets from the imperial ances-

tral temple in Pingcheng at the end of 494 and had a new

temple built for them in Luoyang, within the realm of
Buddhist belief, the emperor would wish the new capital
to have its own cave-shrine, just as Pingcheng had the grot
toes of Yungang. As for who the beneficiary might have
been, Long points out that the emperor established Baode
Monastery south of Luoyang for the posthumous merit
of Empress Dowager Feng, Emperor Xiaowens late regent, and he suggests that Guyang Grotto was also made
to commemorate her.
An accurate understanding of the inscription comes
from a correct reading of the words zong and ji. The conventional meanings of footprints, achievements, or
even traces, understood in a secular way, were not intended, and the generals inscription cannot be made to
prove that Emperor Xiaowen was the patron of Guyang
Grotto. The use of zong and ji in a religious sense is made
clear by General Yangs inscription itself, in the opening
apology for image-making. It states that the dharmakya
manifested itself originally in a body, the Sacred Traces of
kyamuni, but now that the Buddha is gone, it must be
manifested in statues of the Buddha: If the [Sacred] Traces
(zong) had not been encountered, perishable beings would
have kept in their mouths (without expressing it) their repentance for deeds that hinder the truth. That is why the
Tathgata responded to all these causes in manifesting
himself in his traces (ji) (his physical body). Thus through
the following generations, images were produced. The
terms zong and ji here mean the physical body of the Buddha, and in the later part of the inscription where Yang
described what he saw in the grotto, the meaning remains
the same.72 Zong and ji should continue to be translated as
traces because they still refer to a body or in the case of
someone who is deceased, an image of him.
In yet another interpretation, Wen Yucheng believes
the inscription refers to the colossal triad and reveals the
triad was begun by order of Emperor Xiaowen and completed by his son, Emperor Xuanwu (r. 499515).73 The
brilliant traces of the former August (Emperor) means
the late emperor Xiaowen was the original patron of the
large Buddha triad on the west wall, while the beautiful traces of the flourishing Sage (Emperor) indicates
the work was continued by the living sovereign, Emperor
Xuanwu. This theory has great psychological appeal. The

size of the Buddha triad seems imperial, while its central

position on the back wall echoes the design of the colossal
Buddhas in the imperially sponsored Tanyao grottoes at
Yungang. Emperor Xiaowen was a great ruler, responsible
for great projects, and he could certainly have produced
a cave-shrine had he so desired. Indeed, he did visit Yungang several times as a child, under the wing of his regent,
Empress Dowager Feng (441490), and may well have
been responsible for Caves 5 and 6 there.74 The emperor
sponsored other Buddhist projects and was personally involved in the reestablishment of imperial ritual practices
in the new capital. Therefore, the notion that he would
want to establish an imperial cave-shrine site near Luo
yang seems rational. Yet there is no record of the emperor
visiting Longmen, as there is for the other Northern Wei
imperial donors Emperor Xuanwu and Empress Dowager Hu (ca. 493528), and there is no evidence of imperial
sponsorship for Guyang Grotto. All inscriptional evidence
indicates the grotto was made for Emperor Xiaowen, not
by him. The dynastic history does record that Emperor
Xuanwu went to Longmen in mid-January of 505, but I
suspect that was done to find out what was going wrong
with the excavation of his project, the two grottoes now
called Binyang Central and Binyang South.75

Emperor as Tathgata
I agree with Wen Yucheng that Yang Dayan was looking
at the colossal Buddha, but I do not believe he was addressing the issue of patronage or that his inscription can
support the notion that he referred to two emperors. Between the characters for former and August, the writer
left a space. Leaving a space before someones name is the
traditional way of showing respect for that person. In the
second phrase, no space was left between the words magnificent and sheng. The absence of this traditional sign of
respect in front of sheng strongly suggests the writer was
not referring to a ruler and that the term sheng should be
translated as Holy, meaning the Holy Buddha.
My theory is that Yang Dayan was speaking simultaneously of one emperor and one Buddha statue. He said,
Contemplating the brilliant traces (zong) of the former
August (Emperor), gazing upon the beautiful traces (ji)
of the magnificent Holy (sheng) (Buddha), I fixed my eyes
e m p e r o r a s t a t h g a t a | 29

upon (this sight) all through the night, and in tears, my

emotions flowed. When someones eyes are fixed, he is
looking at a single thing, and when a military mans eyes
are fixed, he is standing at respectful attention before his
commander. Surely General Yang had his eyes fixed on the
most singular body in the grottothe colossal Buddha
on the back wall. Why would looking at a Buddha image

30 | e m p e r o r a s t a t h g a t a

cause him to weep for the late emperor? It would have to

be because Yang Dayan believed the image of the Buddha
was also an image of the emperor. The two phrases concerning the emperor and the Buddha actually describe the
same thing: the colossal Buddha image on the back wall.
This is a concrete example of the Northern Wei belief in
the equation of emperor and Tathgata.

Two The Mechanics of a Karmic Gift of Sculpture

In any society it is in the nature of the gift in the end to being its own reward.Marcel Mauss1

he first imperially sponsored cave-shrine at

LongmenBinyang Central Grottois featured in nearly every textbook of Chinese art
as a monument of late Northern Wei art. In
Laurence Sickmans words, not only is it lucid and coherent in plan, but also it seems to represent in stone a close
approximation to the interior of freestanding temples of
the early sixth centuryall of which have disappeared
centuries ago.2 The sculpture, moreover, is considered
peerless (figure 2.1). Sickman wrote of the main image:
This kyamuni Buddha, the central deity, is in many respects, the supreme example of the archaic Buddha image
preserved in China. On body and arms the enveloping mantle
lies in formal folds like overlapping scales, curves over the
legs and falls in flat, sinuous pleats above the lion-guarded
throne. Powerful hands in abhaya and varada mudrs are
rendered large to emphasize the mystic gestures. The neck
is like a truncated cone, supporting an almost rectangular
head on which the protuberances of the us. n.s.a and the large
ears are joined like the elements of an integrated, architectural form. The abstract treatment of the body and robe taken
together with the large, generalized features, lighted by the
archaic half-smile, result in an icon of profound sincerity.3

Despite the universal admiration for this rare showcase

of late Northern Wei sculpture, the question of why it was
produced has not been satisfactorily answered, nor has the
question of how it functioned been raised. Yet the grotto
itself reveals that the donor invested considerable thought
and expense in its design in order for it to function in
the spiritual realm as a karmic gift to the beneficiaries.
A careful examination of all elements of this complexly
constructed shrine will show how a visitor was intended
to read and interact with the sculptural program of the

grotto in a particular sequence of stages through space

and time, not only to understand the self-presentation
of the donor and his relationship to the beneficiaries, but
also more importantly, to offer worship before the icons
to generate merit that the rest of the grotto program was
designed to transfer.4

History of the Binyang Grottoes

Unlike Guyang Grotto, the three Binyang grottoes are
described in the dynastic histories. The Chapter on Buddhism and Daoism in The History of the Northern Wei
records:
Early in the Jingming era (500503), Emperor Shizong
(Xuanwu) ordered Bai Zheng,5 the director of the Palace Domestic Service, to construct two stone grottoes in the mountains at Yique, south of the Luo (River), on behalf of Emperor
Gaozu (Xiaowen) and Empress Dowager Wenzhao, taking as
his standard the stone grottoes of Lingyansi (Yungang) at the
capital city Dai (Pingcheng).6
In the beginning, when the construction was begun, the
ceilings of the grottoes were to be 310 chi from the ground.
By the second year of the Zhengshi era (505), they had begun
to cut into the mountain at twenty-three zhang (230 chi). At
this time, Wang Zhi, the director of the Palace Domestic Service, saying that where they were cutting into the mountain
was too high and the (necessary) expenditure of labor would
be difficult to achieve, memorialized for permission to seek a
lower, more level spot (for the grottoes).7 (The new site) was to
be 100 chi from the ground and 140 chi from north to south.
In the Yongping era (508512), the palace governor Liu
Teng memorialized to make another stone grotto for Emperor
Shizong (Xuanwu), for a total of three.8 From the inaugural

Figure 2.1. Seated kyamuni,

west wall, Binyang Central
Grotto. From Longmen shiku,
ed. Longmen baoguansuo (1961).

year of the Jingming era (500) through the sixth month of the
fourth year of the Zhengguang era (July 523), the expenditure
for this work of merit was 802,366 (cash).9

Although this record is marvelously detailed, it does

not identify the specific grottoes produced. It does say,
however, that the final site was over twenty-seven meters
(100 chi) from the ground and thirty-nine meters (140 chi)
from north to south, and that three grottoes were made.10
Only one spot at Longmen meets this description (figure
2.2).11 The three Binyang grottoes face onto a courtyard
that is a little over thirty meters from north to south, and
the ceilings range between nine and ten meters in height,
putting them about twenty meters from the base of the
cliff.
Only the grotto known as Lingyansi, the middle one

now called Binyang Central Grotto, was finished in the

Northern Wei.12 The other two were evidently abandoned
in 523, when the court eunuch Liu Teng (463523) died,
and only finished in the seventh century by unrelated patrons. The mate to Binyang Central was probably Binyang
South, which contains Northern Wei motifs that match
those in Binyang Central, including the celestial musicians
in the ceiling and the spirit kings carved on the east wall.13
Binyang Central is thought to have been dedicated to the
late emperor Xiaowen, since it was finished first, with Binyang South intended for the emperors late mother. Since it
lacks any Northern Wei elements inside, Binyang North is
believed to have been the third grotto, begun in 508 by Liu
Teng in honor of the living emperor Xuanwu.14
A large stele was carved in relief immediately to the
left of the entryway to Binyang Central, probably to bear

32 | m e c h a n i c s o f a k a r m i c g i f t o f s c u l p t u r e

Figure 2.2. Courtyard of the Binyang trio of grottoes: (104) Binyang North, (118) Elders of Luozhou shrine, 637, (140) Binyang
Central, (A) Stele for the Yique Buddha Shrine, 641, (159) Binyang South, (176, 192, 194) King Udayana Buddha shrines. Drawing
adapted from Longmen shiku kukan bianhao tuce, ed. Longmen shiku yanjiusuo and Zhongyang meishu xueyuan meishushi xi,
Xishan limian tu 3.

the emperors dedication. If an inscription was engraved,

however, there is no telling now; the stele has borne a
Tang princes dedication of the finishing of Binyang South
Grotto since 641. If any information from the lost inscription does survive, it may be in the record from the History
of the Northern Wei given above.

An Imperial Buddhist Patron

All evidence suggests this project was dear to the heart of
the young emperor. The order was given in the first year
of his reign, and four years later, when little progress had
been made, he paid a visit to Longmen.15 His mother, Lady
Gao, had been murdered during the move of the capital

to Luoyang in 494 (some said by henchmen of her rival,

Lady Feng), when he was only twelve.16 As soon as the boy
ascended the throne in 499, he granted his mother the
posthumous title of Empress Dowager Wenzhao, and he
granted fiefs to her living relatives and posthumous honors to the dead.17 His father, Emperor Xiaowen, was only
thirty-three when he fell ill on campaign. On his deathbed, he called for his son to be brought to him to take the
throne, and he appointed two Tabgatch princes as the
boys regents and secretly ordered that his consort Lady
Feng be granted suicide to spare him her domination.18
As a result, the transfer of power went relatively smoothly,
and Emperor Xuanwu began to hold court on his own in
501, at the age of eighteen.19 One can scarcely imagine the

m e c h a n i c s o f a k a r m i c g i f t o f s c u l p t u r e | 33

young mans feelings for his late parents, but likely they
consisted not only of a traditional filial desire to recompense their gift of life to him, but also of a sense that their
souls, given the unfortunate manner of their deaths, were
in grave need of karmic rescue.
Like his father, Emperor Xuanwu had an intellectual
interest in Buddhist thought, though he was more active
as a public patron of Buddhism. While Emperor Xiaowen
had been a student of the Satyasiddhi stra (Cheng shi
lun) and was said to have been devoted to meditation, Emperor Xuanwu lectured annually on Buddhist scriptures
and commentaries in assemblies of learned monks.20 He
had a special interest in the Vimalakrti Stra, and it is recorded that in 509 the emperor summoned all the monks
and courtiers to the Shiqian Palace, where he expounded
upon the stra.21 The emperor welcomed the Indian monk
Bodhiruci to Luoyang in 508 and sponsored his activities
as a translator. Bodhiruci and his team produced translations of thirty-nine stras and commentaries, including
influential texts such as the Daabhmika-stra stra.
The emperor also sponsored a rival translation of this text,
done by the Indian monk Ratnamati, and the two translations were kept in separate halls in the palace, under
armed guard. He also ordered Ratnamati to expound on
the Avatamsaka Stra at court and commanded the Buddhist hermit Feng Liang to come to court to lecture on
Daabhmika-stra texts.22 When Feng refused, the emperor built him a monastery on nearby Mount Song as a
retreat, echoing his fathers order to build Shaolin Monastery on Mount Song for the Western monk Bhadra, whose
teachings he had revered.23
Emperor Xuanwu also funded an imperial Buddhist
monastery south of the city walls. Emperor Xiaowen had
sponsored Baode Monastery for the posthumous generation of merit for his regent, Empress Dowager Feng.24
Emperor Xuanwu began his reign with the building of
Jingming Monastery, for which no beneficiary is known.25
Emperor Xuanwu also sponsored Yaoguang Convent, situated in the western part of the city, between the central
Palatine City and the Jinyong Citadel in the citys northwest corner.26 By analogy to his grotto project, the emperor may have dedicated Jingming Monastery to his late
father and Yaoguang Convent to his beloved mother.

The Mechanics of the Binyang

Central Grotto Program
Binyang Central Grotto has a unified and complex program of iconography that expresses a unique relationship
between the emperor as donor and his parents as beneficiaries, and since no religious advisor was cited for the
project, it seems likely the program should be credited
to the emperor himself. Further, while not an exact recreation of any one grotto at Yungang, the program accords with the emperors stated goal of taking as his standard the stone grottoes of Lingyansi. The history of the
fifth-century grottoes at Yungang is encapsulated in the
Binyang grotto, yet restated in an orderly and monumental way. The jubilant riot of figures and crowded compositions characteristic of the Yungang caves have been transformed into a measured space where symmetry and unity
reign. Finally, I believe the evidence reveals the program
was designed to be read and activated in three stages. The
first is at the faade and the entryway, as the visitor approaches. The second is in the interior, when the visitor
enters the grotto to offer worship. The final stage is the
reading of the east wall, seen when the visitor has turned
from his or her obeisance before the main Buddha figure
on the west wall and walks the path to the doorway. Each
stage has a discrete iconography designed for a particular
expression of the donors intent and a specific role within
the karmic function of the grotto.
To begin the experience of the grotto, the visitor climbs
up to the courtyard in front of the grotto and confronts a
huge open doorway cut into the cliff face. The lintel overhead is composed of a band of honeysuckle vine centered on
a faintly visible kirtimukha over addorsed dragons, above
which rise the flames of the Buddhas radiance. Columns
flanking the doorway are topped with unusual scrolled
capitals reminiscent of the Ionic order, surmounted by
palmettes, while to each side a huge niche, topped with
a sculpted imitation-tile roof, shelters a colossal, barechested dvrapla, or door guardian (only the northern
figure survives). The jambs of the entryway are carved in
three registers of reliefs. At the bottom are three-meterhigh multiarmed guardian figures (figure 2.3).27 The north
jamb figure is largely ruined, but the multiheaded figure on
the south jamb is still intact, though marred by having a

34 | m e c h a n i c s o f a k a r m i c g i f t o f s c u l p t u r e

channel for a door frame carved down the center. His four
arms brandish weapons as he stands in a bent-knee pose
of triumph on an earth spirit or dwarf yaks.a who holds
up his feet. The breastplate, belly plate, and shin guards
of his armor are carved with the faces of fanged deities,
elephants, and fierce beasts. Scarves swirl around him, suggesting a frenzy of motion. In the second register, above the
head of the viewer, are a standing bodhisattva and a figure
of Brahm, turning in toward the interior of the grotto and
making offerings toward the figures inside.28 A flying ap
saras fills the top register of each jamb.
Imitating the entrance to a monastery image hall, the
faade is the site of several functions. As at the entrance to
an image hall, a stele is inscribed with words to announce
the patronage and purpose of the shrine to mortal viewers and to the karmic machinery. The architectural function of the faade is to divide mundane space from sacred
space, and the disposition of the sculpted figures transitions the pilgrim from the outside inward. The guardian
figures face outside to protect the worshiper, who will be
rendered vulnerable by entering a sacred space of worship.
The worshiping bodhisattvas, Vedic gods, and apsarasas
at the top of the door jambs face in toward the Buddha
realm inside, directing the entry into sacred space, where
karmic merit can be generated. The sculptural elements
on the faade were also intended to recall the grottoes of
Yungang, thereby connecting this imperial project with
its illustrious predecessor at the old capital. Doorjambs
elaborately carved in registers, gigantic door guardians,
and multiarmed Vedic gods are found on the faades of
the earliest paired grottoes at Yungang, Caves 7 and 8.29
Entering the grotto, the visitor begins the second stage.
The interior measures 11.4 meters across and 9.85 meters
deep, and the wide rectangular floor is carved with a pathway leading from the doorway up the center of the grotto
to the altar on the back wall (figure 2.4). To each side are
two large lotuses, around which are swirling vines and
flowering vegetation. This design may have been intended
to suggest a carpet design or real plants in a pond. It certainly was intended to direct the visitors experience of the
grotto, leading him from the doorway straight to the main
Buddha figure and then back out along the same axis.
The ceiling is even more elaborate (figure 2.5). In the

Figure 2.3. Guardian, Brahm and bodhisattva, and apsaras,

south doorjamb, Binyang Central. Photo, the author, 2004.

m e c h a n i c s o f a k a r m i c g i f t o f s c u l p t u r e | 35

Figure 2.4. Floor, Binyang Central.

Drawing from Mizuno Seiichi and
Nagahiro Toshio, Rymon sekkutsu
no kenky, v. 1, fig. 13.

center is a large, high-relief lotus, with a seed pod in the

center surrounded by a double row of petals. It is circled
by eight gandharvas, celestial musicians who face toward
the main Buddha on the back wall and converge on the
upper tip of his nimbus. Each plays a different instrument: reed pipe, bamboo flute, baoruan (a plucked string
instrument), waisted drum, chime stone, panpipes, zheng
(a twenty-five-stringed zither), and brass cymbals.30 Below
the gandharvas are two kinnaras, heavenly beings who
excel at singing and dancing and who protect the Buddha.
At the edge of the nimbus, they fly toward the Buddha,
holding dishes of fruit. Around the celestial figures, who
are flying amidst swirling cloud patterns, is a border of
flowers alternating with feather fans, ringed by bands of
repeated shapes of ancient coins, scale patterns, and tall,
narrow triangles. This is intended to represent the interior
of a canopy.
This view is dominated by the colossal Buddha figure
seated cross-legged on a low throne against the back wall

(see figure 2.1). At 8.42 meters tall, it is the largest figure

in the grotto. His costume is in the Chinese mode, and
though, as Sickman noted, the figure received an abstract
treatment, the hem of the outer robe is described in curving folds that are evenly spaced yet not rigidly symmetrical, allowing for some slight sense of movement. The face
is composed of simple shapes: semicircular eyebrows, crescent eyes, triangular nose, and small mouth curved into
the smile of compassion. Around the halo of lotus petals
is a pattern of twining, flowering vines, while the nimbus
is composed of an inner band containing flying apsarasas
and a large outer band filled with a flame pattern.
Smaller high-relief figures of the elder disciple Kyapa
and the younger nanda stand to either side, 4.78 meters
and 4.88 meters tall, respectively. Flanking the disciples at
the edge of the wall are two large attendant bodhisattvas,
6.13 meters high (figure 2.6). Their faces are essentially the
same as the Buddhas, but they wear high jeweled crowns,
pendant necklaces, bracelets, and long strands of jewels

36 | m e c h a n i c s o f a k a r m i c g i f t o f s c u l p t u r e

Figure 2.5. Ceiling, Binyang Central.

Drawing from Mizuno Seiichi and
Nagahiro Toshio, Rymon sekkutsu
no kenky, v. 1, fig. 14.

that loop and cross at their knees. Robes cover both shoulders, over an under-robe tied at the waist. Each holds a
lotus bud in the upraised right hand and a small fan in the
lowered left hand. Their bare feet are widely spaced, while
their bodies taper upward, giving them a kind of triangular shape when seen from the front. As with the Buddha
figure and the disciples, the upper part of their bodies and
their heads are carved more forward than the lower part of
their bodies, so they lean outward from the wall over the
worshiper. This is a simple but effective device to bring the
heads and hands, the most expressive part of the figure,
closer to the viewer, counteracting the effect of diminution of the head and upper body caused by the height of
the figures.
On each side wall is a standing Buddha figure, flanked
by two attendant bodhisattvas, whose head, halo, and
nimbus match those of the seated Buddha on the main
wall.31 The program of the main statuary, then, is the
Buddhas of the Three Periods. The attendance of disciples

on the seated Buddha indicates he was likely intended to

depict kyamuni, as the representative of the thousand
Buddhas of the Present Kalpa (eon). The standing Buddha
on the south wall displays the same mudr as the seated
Buddha, while the left hand of the Buddha on the north
wall extends the first two fingers instead of just the index
finger.32 I suspect this slight difference in mudr was intended to identify one Buddha as the representative of the
thousand Buddhas of the Kalpa of the Past and the other
of the thousand Buddhas of the Future Kalpa, but such an
identification is now lost. The Buddhas of the Three Periods are venerated in the Lotus Stra and other associated
texts. In one such scripture, translated by Superintendent
Tanyao in the fifth century, the supplicant says: I focus
my heart on mindfulness of all the Buddhas of the Past,
all the Buddhas of the Future, and all the Buddhas of the
Present, the unsurpassed dharmarjas. Thus to all the
Buddhas of the Three Ages I entrust my life, and in all of
them I take refuge.33

m e c h a n i c s o f a k a r m i c g i f t o f s c u l p t u r e | 37

his commentaries, saying: The later Buddhas ability to

convert is solely based on the ability of earlier Buddhas.
What is the reason? The later Buddhas are because of the
earlier Buddhas. This is like the succession of one emperor
to the next.36 Hence, the imagery of the Buddhas of the
Three Periods would have been just as suitable in terms of
political symbolism for Emperor Xuanwu as for his greatgrandfather. Third, beyond the functional attraction of
being able to represent and worship all the Buddhas of all
time with the simple device of three figures, great benefits are promised to rulers who worship the Buddhas of
the Three Periods. The Stra of Golden Light, for example,
says: If you worship all the Buddhas of the Past, Present,
and Future, then you will accumulate unlimited and unimaginable merit. For this reason, rulers ought to support
this, and all their princes, queens, consorts, and palace
women also ought to support this, so that decline and
worry will be extinguished, while happiness and joy will
flourish. Their palaces and halls will be peaceful and pure,
with no catastrophes.37
The function of the colossal images of the Buddhas of
the Three Periods in this grotto is exactly as described
in the Stra of Golden Light. The statues were created to
provide a location for the generation of unlimited and
unimaginable merit through worship. The final stage of
the grotto experience, however, makes clear that mere accumulation of merit was not the ultimate purpose of the
grotto; rather it was the transfer of merit.
Figure 2.6. Bodhisattva, south wall, Binyang Central. Photo,
the author, 2004.

The Exit Wall Reliefs

The relevance of this imagery to Emperor Xuanwu was

multivalent. First, this program was already associated
with the imperial family. The Buddhas of the Three Periods was the program of the three largest grottoes at Yungang sponsored by the emperors great-grandfather and
designed by Superintendent Tanyao.34 According to Liu
Huida, an archeologist at Beijing University, this iconography was produced in the imperial grottoes of the 460s
because of Tanyaos study and translation of the Lotus
Stra and related texts.35 Second, it is likely that the idea of
the Buddhas of the Three Periods, who follow upon each
other, was associated with the idea of the imperial succession. Tanluan (476542) articulated this notion in one of

In contrast to the fine state of preservation of the rest of

the grotto, the east wall relief carvings have been ruined
by looting, so the final stage must be reconstructed (figure 2.7). The reliefs were executed in four registers on both
sides of the doorway, a design that mimics the composition of the exit wall of Cave 6 at Yungang, likely the latest
imperial commission before the move of the capital (see
figure 2.12). The Cave 6 design leads from standing worshipers at the base of the wall up through one register of
scenes of the life of Siddhrtha and another of the Buddhas
enlightenment and preaching, to a depiction of the debate
between Vimalakrti and Majur over the doorway. In
the bottom register of Binyang Centrals exit wall are ten
spirit kings, five on each side, and above them were two

38 | m e c h a n i c s o f a k a r m i c g i f t o f s c u l p t u r e

Figure 2.7. East wall reliefs, Binyang Central. Drawing from Mizuno Seiichi and Nagahiro Toshio, Rymon sekkutsu no kenky,
v. 1, figs. 18 and 19.

life-size processions of imperial worshipersthe men on

the north side of the doorway (the viewers left), the women
on the south. Above the processions was a narrower register containing stories from the Buddhas previous lives:
the story of Prince Mahsattva and the starving tigress
and the story of what happened when Prince Sudna gave
away the white elephant.38 The top register contained the
debate between Vimalakrti and Majur, with Majur
seated on the north side of the doorway, facing across toward Vimalakrti.
At the base of the north wall, the fish spirit king holds a
fish with a ferocious open mouth. The tree spirit king holds
a flaming jewel, flanked by a tree, while the lion spirit king

wears a lion-head helmet, and the dragon spirit king confronts a small dragon. The figure embracing a large bag as
his hair streams out behind him is the wind spirit king. No
inscriptions identify these figures, but Emma Bunker has
compared them to the spirit kings on an Eastern Wei stele
of 543 in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, on which
they are identified.39 On the south side, the figure with the
head of a rooster represents the bird spirit king, while the
elephant-headed figure next to it is the elephant spirit king
(see figure 2.10 below). Next is a flame-headed figure holding a flaming object, then a figure spitting pearls into his
hand, and finally one supporting a miniature landscape in
a dish. They are the fire, pearl, and mountain spirit kings.

m e c h a n i c s o f a k a r m i c g i f t o f s c u l p t u r e | 39

Figure 2.8. Silver dish with

Dionysus and Twelve Gods of Mount
Olympus, eastern Roman empire,
secondthird century, found in
Jingyuan County, Gansu. Drawing
from Lin Meicun, Zhongguo jingnei
chutu daimingwen de Posi he Zhong
Ya yinqi, Wenwu 1997.9: fig. 5.

Spirit kings (shen wang) are not attested in scripture or

discussed in inscriptions. Their significance can only be
deduced from their role in surviving stone monuments,
where they were invariably placed at the base of walls
and steles, suggesting a vestigial caryatid function from
architecture. They are also reminiscent of the semihuman dwarf figures commonly encountered on the base
of sculptural objects from the Han dynasty onward. This
supportive position may indicate a protective function as
well, or the figures may simply be at the base of the wall
because they are lowly nature deities. As such, their proper
position would be below the socially and spiritually superior figures of the royal family, the princes who were the
Buddhas former incarnations, and the enlightened beings
Vimalakrti and Majur.40
Spirit kings enjoyed a vogue for about a century in central China and then faded away.41 They were carved for the
first time in the Binyang Central Grotto, then slightly later
at two other cave-shrine sites in the Henan area, Gong

xian and Xiangtangshan, and on steles produced under

the Eastern Wei (534550) and the Northern Qi (550577)
dynasties. They were depicted through the sixth century,
only to disappear forever in the Sui dynasty (581618). Another group of weird nature deitiesthe so-called thunder monstersalso appeared around this time, carved on
epitaph steles in the south and on tomb epitaphs in the
north.42 As Shi Anchang has shown, the thunder monsters were Sogdian in origin.43 Similarly, as Bunker notes,
spirit kings are not native and must derive from some foreign source. Not only were spirit kings always produced as
a set, which suggests the Chinese encountered them as a
preexisting group, but they also hold or wear attributes.44
A gilded silver platter of eastern provincial Roman manufacture found in southern Gansu Province was probably
made in the second or third century and later exported
to Bactria, whose capital lay near what is now Mazar-isharif, Afghanistan.45 The platter was then taken along the
Silk Road into China proper. In the center is the figure of

40 | m e c h a n i c s o f a k a r m i c g i f t o f s c u l p t u r e

Figure 2.9. Emperor procession, north and east walls, Binyang Central. Photo, ca. 1920. From Friedrich Perzyski, Von Chinas
Gttern: Reisen in China, pl. 28.

Dionysus, reclining on a lion (figure 2.8). The outer band

of decoration is filled with a pattern of ivy and grapevines
with grape clusters, occupied by birds, insects, and reptiles, while the inner band of decoration features the heads
of the twelve gods of Mount Olympus, each one closely adjoined with their symbolic attributes, such as a bird or an
animal. Such a set of Roman deities with attributes might
well be a source for the spirit kings, perhaps seen by the
Chinese in compositions mixed with the Zoroastrian and
other deities that were also worshiped in Bactria and Sogdiana (modern-day Uzbekistan).

The Imperial Processions

The imperial processions depicted large, richly dressed
aristocratic figures with servants bringing offerings for
worship. On the north side a large male figure wearing vo-

luminous robes and a pearl-fringe crown is attended by

three servants before him (figure 2.9). Several attendants
clustered behind him hold up two large feather fans and a
large tasseled umbrella and carry other ritual implements.
He places a piece of incense into a censer held out for him
by a servant. This largest figure is nearly six feet high, while
the other figures around him are all smaller. Because of his
costume and comparative size, this figure seems certain to
represent the emperor. The procession moves from left to
right, as if entering the grotto and approaching the colossal seated Buddha figure on the west wall, and is usually
interpreted as the emperor and his retinue approaching the
Buddha to offer worship. The tops of three trees set amidst
these figures may signify the countryside setting at Yique,
indicating the royal party had arrived and was about to
enter the grotto.
Facing the men on the other side of the doorway was

m e c h a n i c s o f a k a r m i c g i f t o f s c u l p t u r e | 41

Figure 2.10. Empress

procession, east and south
walls, Binyang Central.
Photo, 1910, glass negative.
Charles Lang Freer Papers,
Freer Gallery of Art and
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
Archives, Smithsonian
Institution, Washington,
D.C. Gift of the Estate of
Charles Lang Freer. Photog
rapher: Utai, pl. 93.

a company of women (figure 2.10). The figure closest to

the viewer leads the procession, which though appearing
to move toward the left was probably also understood to
be moving inward toward the main Buddha on the back
wall. This lady wears elaborate, pleated robes, cloud-toed
shoes, and a broad, flamboyant lotus crown. She extends
her left hand away from her body, while her right holds up
a slender stick of incense to place in the censer held by a
servant in front of her. Two female attendants are directly
to her right and left, one of whom holds a large lotus flower
aloft, and she is surrounded by a circle of a half-dozen female servants, some of whom hold other offerings, such
as a tray of fruit. Behind her, servants attend to a second,
smaller woman dressed in royal apparel. To the right of
this woman was the smallest royal figure, in a more modest crown, yet wearing cloud-toed shoes and attended by
her own servants. At the extreme right stood two women
servants holding two large feather fans upright in a stationary position.

Portions of the imperial processions are now in the

United States. Laurence Sickman acquired the empress
procession in the 1930s for the Nelson-Atkins Museum of
Art in Kansas City. When he first went to Longmen in
the fall of 1931, he had ink rubbings made of the reliefs,
which were then intact.46 In December of the same year,
however, he saw fragments of sculpture from Longmen in
the art markets of Beijing, and on his next visit to Longmen, in March of 1933, he observed that a large section of
the Empress relief and several isolated heads were gone.
On his last visit, in 1934, the relief was almost completely
gone. Sickman soon discovered that the fragments were
in various hands, mostly in Beijing, Zhengzhou, Kaifeng,
and Shanghai but some as far away as Germany. After he
returned to take a curatorial position at the Nelson Gallery in 1935, Sickman spent the next several years gathering pieces, large and small, and only in the winter of
19391940 did the museum commence the laborious
project of reconstruction. Based on the ink rubbings he

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had fortuitously taken in 1931 and with the assistance of

the sculptor Wallace Rosenbauer, the mural was reconstructed. The missing pieces of drapery were replaced
in plaster, as was the head of the figure on the lower left
and the figure and the upraised hand in the upper right
corner. The mural was placed on display in 1941. Sickman
described the final effect memorably: The work is rather
like a person who has suffered a very severe accident. The
skill of the facial surgeon may make him recognizable to
his friends but he is never quite the same....All who are
concerned with the cultural traditions of China would far
rather wish that the relief of the empress were still in faroff Ho-nan province, an integral part of the Pin-yang cave
for which it was made.
By contrast, the acquisition of the emperor procession for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York
is described by American and Chinese sources as a case
of premeditated international art theft. As curator of Far
Eastern Art in the early 1930s, Alan Priest requested to be
sent to China. Hearing that the relief sculptures of Binyang Central Grotto were being looted, he wanted to obtain some of them. According to his letters, Priest knew
the empress procession had been dismantled, and he had
an idea that Sickman was gathering the pieces.47 Rather
than wait for the emperor procession to be taken apart by
local stonecutters and run through the Beijing art market, however, Priest made a contract with the antiquities
dealer Yue Bin in the autumn of 1934.48 The contract stated
that Priest would pay $4,000 for six heads already in the
possession of Yue, who further agreed to provide an additional thirteen heads for a complete price of $14,000. The
contract noted that if things occurred at the mountain
(i.e., Longmen) and conditions no longer obtained, the
contract was void. This strongly suggests the other pieces
had not yet been stolen.
His contract notwithstanding, Priest had great difficulty in getting the heads and the remainder of the mural.
He complained often that he was being sent fakes of the relief. In his correspondence, he was concerned with obtaining twenty-one key pieces.49 Since there are twenty-one
heads in the emperor procession, these may be the pieces
Priest considered most important. They seem to have come
to him first, yet his efforts to obtain the entire mural may
not have been as successful. Even a casual observer in the
Chinese sculpture galleries of the Metropolitan Museum

can see the difference in color between the heads and the
rest of the reconstructed mural. Gong Dazhong wrote that
when Beijing was taken by the Communists in 1949, pieces
of the emperor procession were found at Yue Bins house.50
Reassembly proved them to be the procession, minus the
heads.
As it is displayed in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art,
the empress procession constitutes about two-thirds of the
original composition, that is, only the section from the east
wall, comprising the first two royal ladies and their attendants. The third royal lady, her six attendants, and the two
servants with the large feather fans on the south wall were
not acquired by Sickman.51 Gong Dazhong wrote that the
pieces from the south wall were also found in Yue Bins
house and were returned to Longmen.52 By contrast, the
emperor procession represents the entire original composition, yet the manner in which the mural has been reconstituted and displayed in the Metropolitan Museum obscures the original construction. The entire length of the
mural has been flattened into a single plane, but old photographs make clear that the figures from the right edge to
the trees were on the east wall, while the figures from the
trees to the left end of the composition were on the north
wall. The trees were originally in the corner, serving as a
transitional device from the east wall to the north. The
way the heads angled toward each other across the corner
suggested separate but related groups, as if the sculptors
wanted to create a relationship between the two groups
on the two walls but also perhaps to suggest that they were
somehow different. The figures on the north wall are more
densely clustered from top to bottom, suggesting a crowd
of officials, not just a single file of worshipers.
Alexander Soper thought the imperial processions
represented the donor, Emperor Xuanwu, and his concubine Lady Hu, who became Empress Dowager Hu shortly
after his death in 515.53 Two reasons why this is unlikely
are given here, and I discuss the issue further in the following chapter. In the only Northern Wei procession at
Longmen where the participants are labeledthe large
Buddha shrine of 504 dedicated by monk Fasheng in Gu
yang Grottothe lay worshipers in the procession are
also the shrines beneficiaries.54 Based on this precedent,
the figures in the imperial processions are more likely to
be the intended beneficiaries, Emperor Xiaowen and Empress Dowager Wenzhao. The second reason relates to

m e c h a n i c s o f a k a r m i c g i f t o f s c u l p t u r e | 43

the religious function of these processions. The purpose

of representing people in a grotto is to direct the merit
generated there to their souls. If Emperor Xuanwu dedicated the Binyang grottoes to his late parents, why would
he have himself depicted and accrue the merit to himself?
The gift-giving action of the grottoes is performed toward
the beneficiaries representation inside the grotto, which
is the pictorial equivalent to dedicatory inscriptions that
transfer merit to the beneficiary by name.
The figure of the emperor must represent the late emperor Xiaowen, the father of Emperor Xuanwu. His face
is mature yet youthful, befitting a man who died at the
age of thirty-three. The leading royal female figure must
represent the emperors late mother, Lady Gao, ideally
young and beautiful. She appears to be depicted as an
empress, which would have been a posthumous elevation
in rank as well as a posthumous Sinicization of that role
since Emperor Xiaowen followed the Tabgatch tradition
and did not appoint an empress. The other two aristocratic
women, however, are not likely to be the other consorts of
Emperor Xiaowen, since Lady Lin died before Emperor
Xuanwu was born, while Lady Feng was suspected in the
death of his mother and had been granted suicide by the
emperor on his deathbed. The other consort known as
Lady Feng was the younger sister of the first, and she had
already been poisoned for having an affair. More likely
the second and third women were the two sisters of Lady
Gao.55 Their inclusion as beneficiaries of this grotto would
be consonant with the honors and perquisites bestowed on
Emperor Xuanwus maternal relatives when he succeeded
to the throne.

The Jtaka Illustrations

Above the imperial processions, the story of Prince
Mahsattva and the starving tigress is depicted on the left
side of the doorway, while scenes from the story of Prince
Sudna are found on the other side. The Chinese versions
are rather different in content from the old Pli jtaka
tales and the refined Sanskrit recensions in the courtly
fourth-century Jtakaml.56 The Vivantara jtaka narrative, for example, was transformed by monk Shengjian
of the Western Qin dynasty (385431) into The Scripture
of Prince Sudna.57 The Mahsattva jtaka narrative is
found in at least six texts in the Chinese Buddhist canon,

but only one version is set in a bamboo grove, as illustrated

here.58 This version is as follows:
Once there was a king named Mahratha, who had three
sons, the youngest of whom was named Mahsattva. One
day, when the three princes were on an excursion in the
imperial park, on their return home they saw a tigress with
cubs several days old. Drawing around them, they could see
the tigers were on the verge of starvation. Mahsattva said,
What type of food does this tiger usually eat? The eldest
brother replied, It only eats fresh, warm flesh and blood.
Mahsattva then asked, Who here can give this tiger
something to eat? The second brother replied, Whoever
is able to give up concern for his life. Perceiving the dread
in the minds of his brothers, Mahsattva said, Brothers,
please return to my family what the tigress leaves of me.
So saying, he stripped off his clothes, hung them on bamboo branches, and placed himself before the tigress. She
was too weak to eat him, so Mahsattva cut his throat with
a dry stalk of bamboo and threw himself down from a high
hill. At this great act of charity, the earth shook, the skies
went dark, and a rain of flowers and fragrance fell. The
tigress then consumed his flesh and blood, leaving only
his bones. Seeing this, the two brothers threw back their
heads and wailed. When the queen heard the news, she
went with the king into the hills to meet the two brothers.
In the bamboo grove, they collected Mahsattvas bones
and raised a seven-jeweled stpa over them for worship.
The Binyang illustrations read from right to left. On the
right, the two brothers stand in the bamboo grove, talking
to each other, their foreign royal status signified by their
headdresses, which imitate the distinctive crescent-moon
crown of Persian royalty.59 Prince Mahsattvas clothes
hang from bamboo branches nearby. One brother gestures toward the scene on the left, in which the disrobed
Mahsattva kneels before the tigress. Since she is too weak
to eat him alive, he is cutting his throat. Farther to the
left, he is seen again, leaping from a high hill to his death
below. The rest of the panel on the north wall is the imperial parka hilly landscape with trees.
The illustrations of the Prince Sudna story are to be read
left to right. On the left, Prince Sudna (Skt. Vivantara)
and his wife Mandi take leave of his parents, the king and
queen. The prince had devoted his life to charity, giving
away food, clothing, and money to all who asked. He never
refused a request. The king of an enemy state, taking ad-

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vantage of Sudnas charitable nature, sent envoys to ask

him for the kings giant lotus-treading white elephant.
When the king found out his son had given away the protection of their state, he was terribly dismayed, but not
wishing to harm his son, he banished him for twelve years
to faraway Mount Dantaloka. The first scene shows the
young couple offering obeisance to the king and queen before departing. The next scene shows Sudna and Mandi
carrying their children, a boy and a girl, into a mountain
landscape. They left the capital riding in a horse-drawn
carriage, but the prince gave away the horses and the carriage to those who asked. After he had given away everyones clothes, too, with peaceful countenances and filled
with joy, the family entered the mountains.
The third scene shows the family standing before a
giant figure with a staff. Behind him, an immortal-like
figure seated in a cave is the five-hundred-year-old monk
Acyuta, whom Sudna encountered on Mount Dantaloka.
When the monk asked him what he sought in the mountains, Sudna replied that he sought Mahyna enlightenment. Foreseeing that Sudna would be reborn in his
very next life as Prince Siddhrtha and become the Buddha, the monk said: Your works of merit are so extensive
that it will not be long now before you attain Mahyna
enlightenment. When the prince attains unsurpassed and
perfect enlightenment, I would like to become your first
disciple.60 The large figure with the staff is the god Indra,
putting Sudnas charity to a final test.61 After Sudna gave
away his children to be servants, Indra disguised himself
as a Brahmin and came to ask Sudna for his beloved wife
Mandi. When Sudna, with a willing heart, gave her away,
heaven and earth quaked with the magnificence of such
an act of charity. Indra walked seven steps with Mandi,
then turned and released her to Sudna. He then revealed
himself in splendor. Mandi offered him worship and asked
him to grant three wishes: that her children be restored,
that they not suffer hunger or thirst, and that she and her
husband soon return to their home. The scene in the relief
shows Mandi with her hands clasped together, making her
requests to Indra.
The story has a happy ending. The children were recognized in the public market and reported to the king, who
immediately ransomed his grandchildren and, stricken
with remorse, sent for Sudna and Mandi. They were met
on the road by the white elephant, decked out in a harness

of silver and gold, returned by the enemy state as a gesture

of friendship to bear Sudna home. The people welcomed
him with flowers and incense, and he made his obeisance
before his father and mother in the palace. The king then
turned over his treasury to his son, whose desire to give
was even greater than before. Sudna gave without ceasing
until he became the Buddha.
These two stories were closely related in the minds of
the Northern Wei faithful. The events were believed to
have occurred in the same region. When the pilgrims Song
Yun and Huisheng were sent to the West to obtain scriptures in 518, in their account of the country of Udyna,
they noted that this was the place where Vivantara gave
up his children and where Mahsattva threw his body to
the ground.62 Southeast of the capital, they saw the very
spot where Mahsattva had sacrificed himself to the tigress, while on the mountain was the Monastery of the
Collected Bones. Southwest of the capital, they traveled
to Mount Dantaloka, where they saw Prince Sudnas
thatched cottage, the tree the children had run around
while trying to escape, and the cave of the five-hundredyear-old monk Acyuta.63 To a Northern Wei visitor to the
Binyang grotto, the two stories connected in space and
time. Further, the point of both stories was the same: to
celebrate the virtue of giving (dna) and to illustrate the
limitless compassion and generosity of the bodhisattvaprince, the Buddha-to-be.

The Icon of Vimalakrti and Majur

The debate between the Indian layman Vimalakrti and
the bodhisattva Majur is depicted in the top register,
high over the viewers head. Majur is on the left side
of the doorway, sitting cross-legged, wearing the flowing
scarves and robes of a bodhisattva, facing across the exit
toward Vimalakrti.64 Behind Majur stand two bodhisattvas on lotus bases, while in front of him is the Buddhas disciple riputra, gesturing toward the goddess in
Vimalakrtis retinue. On the right, Vimalakrti reclines
in a curtained bed, against a plump bolster, holding a large
feather fan in his right hand (figure 2.11).65 Next to his bed
stand two women of his household, while in front of him
is the goddess, who is teaching riputra a lesson.66
These are the principal figures in an episode in chapter
7 of the Vimalakrti-nirdea Stra, or Stra on the Exposi

m e c h a n i c s o f a k a r m i c g i f t o f s c u l p t u r e | 45

tions of Vimalakrti, translated by Kumrajva in 406. This

scripture, which teaches the doctrine of nonduality, centers on the figure of Vimalakrti, a wealthy householder
living in Vaisali during the time of the Buddha, who was
renowned for his wise understanding of the Dharma
and his invincibility in religious debate. According to
the scripture, seeing the sickness of the world caused
Vimalakrti to feign illness, to give the Buddha the opportunity to ask his company of bodhisattvas and disciples to
visit Vimalakrti and be taught by him. Each gave the Buddha a harrowing description of his last visit, when he tried
to discuss the Dharma with Vimalakrti and was found
deficient in understanding. None could bring himself to
visit the invalid. Only the bodhisattva Majur, the most
sagacious of all bodhisattvas, agreed to lead the others to
call on Vimalakrti. The company discussed the doctrine
of nonduality, that is, the idea that enlightenment consists
in understanding the error of making distinctions, since
all things are but temporary phenomena. Asking each
of the bodhisattvas in turn for his definition of nonduality, Vimalakrti demolished every one. Finally, when
Majur asked him how he would define it, Vimalakrti
simply maintained an unbroken silence, thereby producing a perfect expression of nonduality and winning the
debate.

Reading the Reliefs

Although a modern visitor might need some time to make
sense of the sequence of elements on the exit wall, a Northern Wei viewer would have been able to read it quickly as
she left the grotto in a ritual procession walking up the
center path toward the doorway. The relief carvings on the
back of a Maitreya stele of 471, now in the Forest of Steles,
Xian, reveal that the composition of the panels on the east
wall was already conventional for Northern Wei viewers.67
At the base of the 471 stele are four seated figures of bo
dhisattvas. In the panels above, the jtaka tale of Sumedha
and the Dpan.kara Buddha is told in several scenes over
five registers. The narrative device is the boustrophedon (as
the ox plows), that is, the action proceeds from right to left
in the lowest register, then from left to right in the register
above it, and so on. At the top of the stele in a single panel
is the climax of the story, where Sumedha is later reborn
as Siddhrtha, shown as a large standing figure. The exit

Figure 2.11. Vimalakrti, east wall, Binyang Central. Photo,

ca. 1920. From Friedrich Perzyski, Von Chinas Gttern: Reisen
in China, pl. 27.

wall of Binyang Central is similarly arranged. Using the

south side as an example, at the base of the wall are several
seated, nonnarrative figures, the spirit kings. Above them,
the narrative action begins at the right with the women
fan bearers of the empress procession, which moves to
the left, with the leftward movement of the royal ladies
and their servants. Above the women, the jtaka story of
Prince Sudna begins at the left and moves to the right. In
the panel at the top, the large figure of Vimalakrti, seated

46 | m e c h a n i c s o f a k a r m i c g i f t o f s c u l p t u r e

Figure 2.12. Vimalakrti and Majur on exit

(south) wall, Cave 6, Yungang. From Zhongguo
shiku: Yungang shiku, v. 1, pl. 110.

at the right, and the goddess both face and gesture toward
Majur on the left.
The debate of Majur and Vimalakrti was as immediately recognizable as any single icon. In the Northern Wei,
this scene was invariably placed at the top of an arch, the
two figures facing each other. At Yungang, in Cave 6, for
example, the facing figures of Majur and Vimalakrti
are situated over the doorway, to be seen as the worshiper
exited (figure 2.12), while in the shrines in Guyang Grotto,

the two are found either on the inside spandrels of the

niche or on the faade, but always above and flanking the
main Buddha figure, facing each other. Thus, the Majur
and Vimalakrti figures in Binyang Grotto are situated
and oriented to be instantly recognized by the contemporaneous viewer. Thanks to the conventional layering of
the iconic image of Majur and Vimalakrti over two
boustrophedon registers and a base of caryatid figures, no
matter which side of the procession the aristocratic wor-

m e c h a n i c s o f a k a r m i c g i f t o f s c u l p t u r e | 47

shiper was on, she could run her eyes up the wall and read
the reliefs easily, without having to crane her neck and
peer at the images like a country bumpkin.
The sculptors also used certain devices in their carving to ensure the reliefs were readable by the natural light
filtering through the doorway. For example, the noses of
the figures in three-quarter view were carved frontally.
This intentional distortion is best observed in the emperor procession in the Metropolitan Museum of Art,
where the panel is lit from above and the noses stand out
rather weirdly. By contrast, in the sculpture gallery of the
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, the lighting of the empress
procession is set to imitate the shaft of light that came
through the open doorway to the left. Here the viewer can
observe the intended effect: the noses cast deeper shadows
across the faces, which prevents them from disappearing
and creates a fuller sense of three-dimensionality in the
faces. A second device is the use of undercutting to project
certain elements forward. For example, the layered petals
that make up the headdresses of the two royal ladies in
the empress procession are deeply undercut at the sides in
order to make each layer of the petals appear to be coming
forward toward the viewer. The sides of their cloud-toed
shoes are also rendered in this fashion, which creates a
sense of volume with effects of light and shadow.
Optical illusions were produced on a larger scale as well.
The relief panels on the left side actually wrap onto the
north wall, while the panels on the right side wrap onto
the south wall. The sculptors designed the imagery on
the north and south walls to pull the figures in the eastwall sections forward toward the viewer. In the Majur
panel, for instance, the two attendant bodhisattvas are
placed high on the north wall in a standing position, while
Majur is seated lower, on the east wall. Thanks to the
viewers mental understanding that things higher in the
composition should be read as behind things positioned
lower, Majur comes forward to sit in front of the
standing bodhisattvas. The Vimalakrti panel is particularly clever in this regard. Vimalakrti himself is depicted
on the east wall, but the bolster against which he leans is
on the south wall so that it appears to emerge from behind
him toward the viewer. The frame of the bed also extends
onto the south wall, with its curtains swinging onto the
south wall, further creating a three-dimensional setting.
The area behind the two women who attend him on the

south wall is deeply carved away, creating the sense they

are in the viewers space.
The two jtaka stories also make use of the division into
two areas. In the tigress story on the left, the cliff from
which the prince throws himself is in the corner, while
the leaping figure of the prince is on the east wall. To a
viewer exiting the grotto, it would appear that the prince
was hurling himself forward from the north wall into the
space of the grotto itself. In the Prince Sudna story, the
mundane settings where the prince and his family are
banished from court and sent into exile in the mountains
are depicted on the east wall, closer to us in the human
realm, while the supernatural figures of Indra and the ancient monk are on the south wall, as if in the depths of the
mountains, in a sacred space.
In the empress procession, the first two royal women
and their attendants are on the east wall, while the third
royal lady, her attendants, and the two attendants holding the tall feather fans are on the south wall. The south
wall section repeats many of the east-wall elements, such
as the turning of the heads at various angles to create psychological space and a royal lady shown in an elaborate
crown and holding a lotus flower aloft. This section also
functions separately to bring the crowd of women into our
space and to bracket the group by means of the stationary attendants with the large feather fans. In the emperor
procession, the two sections are divided by a column of
layered tree crowns in the corner. The heads of the northwall group of men rise higher on the wall, and they are
more densely crowded together, which gives the impression they are moving forward into the viewers space. The
last three men on the left, who all face toward the doorway,
constitute the left bracket for this panel.
All these devices demonstrate that the sculptors designed the east-wall reliefs to be read by someone exiting the grotto along the path engraved on the floor of the
grotto. Such a viewer, walking in a ritual procession, would
not have the opportunity to examine the east wall and the
side walls separately, but would have a single oblique view
in her peripheral vision that would merge the two into a
three-dimensional space. All the devices work together to
create the illusion of three-dimensionality and realism,
which indicates the difference in function between the
reliefs and the colossal icons.
According to traditional five phases ideas about sym-

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pathetic resonance, the closer an image is to the true appearance or nature of the thing depicted, the more likely the
spirit of the thing is to respond to and occupy the effigy.68
This accorded with contemporaneous Buddhist thought,
which held that just as the dharmakya had manifested
itself in the human form of kyamuni Buddha in the past,
now it manifested itself in man-made images of the Buddhas body. If the statue has a light-emitting rn, glowing
deep-blue hair, and radiant golden skin (as the scriptures
describe the Buddha), and if its inscription claims it manifests the thirty-two laks.ana on its body, the donor can feel
confident that her statue is sufficiently a Buddha body
for the dharmakya to manifest in the icon.69 These beliefs are expressed in the apology for image-making that
opens almost all of the substantial Northern Wei dedications at Longmen, and they explain why so many dedicatory inscriptions at Longmen assert the accuracy and
completeness of their image of the Buddha.70
In contrast to the ideal qualities Buddha figures had to
possess in order to get the response of the dharmakya,
in terms of the spiritual function of the grotto, it was important that the effigies of the emperor and empress be
realistic, which is why they are life-size, wear contemporary costume, and gesture convincingly. The purpose of
placing images of the late emperor Xiaowen and Dowager
Empress Wenzhao in the grotto was to identify them as
the sole beneficiaries to whom the merit generated there
was transferred. As such, their images should be as lifelike
as possible so that the merit would be transferred precisely
to them. The sculptors did everything they could to attain
this goal through sculptural means, but no doubt the final
effect of lifelikeness was realized with paint and gilding.
Were we able to see these figures as they were originally
decorated, the effect would have been quite convincing.

The Karmic Gift

The imperial procession scenes constituted the endpoint
of the great act of charity on the part of Emperor Xuanwu,
for this is where the merit is credited. From the moment
of the grottos completion onward, anyone entering the
grotto and offering worship to the Buddha figures within
would generate merit.71 By producing simulacra of his late
parents, the emperor guaranteed that the merit would be
transferred to benefit the souls of his parents, as surely

as if he had done so by listing their names in an inscription.72 Moreover, the act of transferring merit also earns
merit.73 It is even possible that medieval believers considered the sculpted images of the imperial couple to be making merit, since they were obviously depicted in the act of
offering worship. In sum, the grotto embodies as many
as five different avenues of merit generation: sponsoring
icons, charitable giving, transferring merit, worshiping
before icons, and perhaps even images of people offering
worship.
Equally, there is a portrait of the donor in the grotto, for
in Marcel Mauss memorable words: to give something
is to give a part of oneself.74 Ilana Silber has called this
sociological observation the deep intermingling of the
donors identity with the gift that is transferred.75 In my
opinion, the reliefs on the east wall were not only intended
to direct a karmic gift to the donors late parents, but also
to represent Emperor Xiaowen as a patron of Buddhism
and the emperor of all China, while depicting Emperor
Xuanwu himself as filial, wise, compassionate, and generous. Let us review the relief panels from the perspective
of self-representation and self-reward. In the traditional
caryatid role, the spirit kings represent the submission
of all other faiths to the Buddha and elevate Emperor
Xiaowen into a royal protector of the faith. Further, as
foreign images set beneath the imperial figures, they represent the traditional submission of foreign states to the
emperor of China. This positioned Emperor Xiaowen in
the never-realized role of the ruler of a reunified China,
the attainment of which was his purpose in adopting policies of Sinicization, relocating the capital to Luoyang, and
warring against the Southern Qi.
Giving (dna) is the greatest of all merit-making activities, and the greater the cost, the greater the merit.
The intended impression that the emperor had spared
no expense in his gift to his parents was suggested by the
ultimate acts of charity in the two jtaka tales, in which
Prince Mahsattva gave his body and Prince Sudna gave
all his possessions. These stories present a totality of Buddhist giving. Together they represent the two fundamental
types of giving (the gift of material goods and the gift of a
person) and the two acceptable motivations (to help others
and to attain Buddhahood).76 Again, however, this great
gift returns to the giver, since the comparison of Emperor
Xuanwus act of charity to his late parents with the great

m e c h a n i c s o f a k a r m i c g i f t o f s c u l p t u r e | 49

sacrifices of the bodhisattva-princes not only emphasizes

his royal station and his faith, but also shows him as a
paragon of filial piety.
In the top register is the debate of Majur and Vima
lakrti. Vimalakrti was a wealthy layman who attained
such wisdom that he could defeat enlightened beings in
debate, yet he never left his home and family to enter the
monastic life. He was wise and compassionate, yet he lived
in the world as a wealthy and powerful man. As such, he
was a natural model for aristocrats hoping for enlightenment in lay life. Everyone at court knew the Vimalakrti

Stra was a particular favorite of Emperor Xuanwu, so the

contemporaneous aristocratic visitor might easily have
seen him represented in the figure of Vimalakrti.
Taken overall, the message of the east wall reliefs is
that an expensive act of charity has been carried out for
the late emperor of China, a powerful international ruler
and protector of Buddhism, by his filial son, the wisest
and most compassionate of Buddhist laymen, a generous
bodhisattva-prince. The east wall completes the donors
gift to his parents and his reward to himself.

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Three The Rhetoric of Expenditure

Princes, aristocrats, and noble officials donated elephants and horses as if they were slipping shoes off their feet. Commoners and
wealthy families parted with their possessions and their wealth as a person leaves behind his footprints on the road. As a result,
Buddhist monasteries were built side by side, and jeweled pagodas rose up in row after row. People competed among themselves
in copying images of the Buddha.Yang Xuanzhi, 5491

hat price salvation? Chinese Buddhists

believed that acts of merit generate karmic benefits that can be credited toward
a salvation conceived of commonly as rebirth in a paradise or Pure Land, where one could see the
Buddha and hear the Dharma directly, or less commonly
as the attainment of enlightenment and nirvn.a from this
existence. Acts of merit included a variety of faith-filled
actions intended to propagate the Buddhist Dharma, such
as establishing monasteries, building pagodas, setting up
dhran. pillars, copying stras, painting icons, and carving statuary. As most believers were not artisans, they
could not produce such objects themselves. Thus, to generate acts of merit, the believer had to spend money.2
The inscriptions of Longmen tell us about beliefs and
practices concerning expenditure for one particular type
of merit generationthe carving of a shrine or grotto in
stone. That the cost was cited is worth note and suggests
there were perceived spiritual and social benefits to the
donor for stating how much he or she spent. About a dozen
dedicatory inscriptions and records mention the cost of
making a shrine or grotto at Longmen. Many speak in
general ways, and the language used could be dismissed as
figures of speech or hyperbole, but I have chosen to take the
statements of the donors at face value and, from what they
say, to explore certain questions. Was a shrine supposed to
be expensive? Who was the social audience for information
about the cost of a shrine? Was the level of expenditure
and the rhetoric used to describe it conditioned by gender?
What was used to pay for a shrine? Why were lay societies

formed to produce a shrine? To whom did the donors give

the fee? How much did a grotto cost?
As to whether shrines were supposed to be expensive, an
inscription by the monk Daoxing indirectly answers in the
affirmative. Speaking on behalf of the society of laymen he
headed, Daoxing wrote a lengthy dedication of a kyamuni
shrine added to Yaofang Grotto in 575.3 The inscription
opens with the traditional apology for image-making, in
which Daoxing made this argument: If there is not a spilling out of valuables to create an image, how can we be illuminated by those posthumous rays of light (from the Buddha)? (3A). Daoxing meant to say that icons help people
have faith, but his languagea spilling out of valuables
reveals that paying for a statue was not a routine expenditure. Not only was making statues expensive, it was supposed to be expensive. Of the groups traditionally called
the four assemblies of believerslaymen, laywomen,
nuns, and monkslet us begin with laymen in lay socie
ties to examine the rhetoric they employed in discussing
their expenditures, what they really did spend, and whom
they intended to inform.

Laymen Donors
Donations by laymen most readily reveal who the social
audience was for information about the expense of a shrine
because laymen had traditionally borne the burden of
public demonstration of filial piety, and this task seems to
have carried over into Buddhist practice as a motivation
for producing a shrine. In the Han dynasty, the desire to

make a public spectacle of filial piety resulted in the practice known as rich burials. The sons of prominent people
were expected to bankrupt themselves in producing the
most lavish possible funeral service and tomb for their
late parents since the amount the son spent was considered a tangible measure of his love and respect for them.
Attending the funeral service and viewing the contents of
the tomb were public events, and it was upon the public
response to the expenditure of the son that his reputation
would rest.4 The fine quality of the tomb and its expense
were described in the inscriptions carved on the pillars
and steles set up at the burial site.5 This traditional urge
to extol the quality and expense of the project was easily
expressed in Buddhist dedications.
Good examples of filial-son lay society donors are Wei
Lingzang and Xue Fashao, since their large Buddha shrine
in Guyang Grotto was probably the most expensive shrine
by a layman group in the Northern Wei (see figure 1.13
above). The niche is two and a half meters high, large
enough to be a good-sized small grotto on its own.6 Moreover, it is elaborately carved with large high-relief figures
and broad areas of low-relief decor, with a large dedicatory
stele that bore a lengthy inscription. Such a large amount
of skilled labor must have been very expensive. Wei Lingzang and Xue Fashao dedicated the merit from this large
shrine first to the imperial house, then to themselves and
to their families.7 Of their expenditure, they said: We
made bold to exhaust our families wealth to make one
stone image such that none of the auxiliary figures have
been omitted (1C).
The phrase, we exhausted our families wealth, occurs consistently in dedications by societies of laymen.
A lay society of thirty-five members, headed by their society leader Zhao Ahuan, said: Having experienced the
border between life and obliteration, and understanding
the divide between going and staying, we know the body
is a floating cloud and our lives are like frost and dew.
Therefore each of us has exhausted his familys wealth to
make one statue of Maitreya (3B).8 Another lay society of
more than twenty men said in their inscription in Lianhua Grotto, Each one exhausted his own and his familys
valuables (3C).9 In his inscription, monk Daoxing praised
the generosity of his lay societys members, saying, Everyone (in the society) released marvelous [wealth], reverently
to have made one image of kyamuni...that this slight
52 | r h e t o r i c o f e x p e n d i t u r e

act of sincerity may aid and benefit our society members

spiritual leaders, parents, and seven generations of ancestors to take refuge in the truth (3D).10
The clichd nature of these statements could suggest
that claims of lavish expenditure were hyperbole, but it
should be noted that the merit from these shrines was
usually transferred to the parents and ancestors of the patrons, so although the mechanism for blessing them was
Buddhist, the motivation was the demonstration of filial
piety. Therefore, it is more likely these laymen were actually making a public display of lavish expenditure in the
same way their ancestors had drained their finances in the
practice of rich burials. An imperial edict issued in 472
expressed concern that believers were indeed exhausting
the family wealth:
The inhabitants of the capital and the provinces are devoted
to establishing merit-making enterprises and to creating
towering and magnificent pagodas and monasteries, worthy
of glorifying the supreme doctrine of the Buddha. However,
some ignorant followers assert their pride in surpassing one
another. Poor and rich compete with each other in expending
and exhausting their wealth and property....We are father
and mother to the people, and compassion and nurture is
Our task. From now on, this practice is to stop.11

Evidently, believers were ruining themselves to pay for acts

of merit, and this must have been commonplace, or the
throne would not have issued such a proclamation. The social purpose for this excessive spending on Buddhist projects appeared to be the same as for rich burialsthat is,
gaining social credit through the public demonstration of
the patrons filial dedication to the posthumous welfare of
his parents. In addition to making his expenditure manifest through a magnificent project, in the text that accompanied the commission, the patron further reinforced the
impression that nothing was spared in providing for the
deceased, stating in his dedicatory inscription that he exhausted the family wealth.
The lay society patrons assertions that they had exhausted their families wealth may have been particularly
vehement because they were concerned they would be perceived as miserly for having joined a society in order to be
a donor. Still, there were practical and spiritual functions
particular to lay societies that made them highly advantageous to donors and beneficiaries. Jacques Gernet de-

scribed two reasons why believers would group together

to finance an act of merit.12 The first reason is the most
practicalthe desired project was simply too expensive
for any individual to bear on his own. Even if someone
gave all his wealth, he still could not afford to have a
statue made; only by joining with others could he become
a sponsor. The second reason is that giving in groups was
believed to generate more merit than giving individually.
According to a mid-sixth-century indigenous scripture,
the Buddha said:
Son of good family! Even if, moreover, there were a person
who, with his abundant wealth, carried out giving singlemindedly from the time of his birth until old age, [his charity
still would] not be as good as a multitude of people, regardless of whether they are poor or rich, noble or lowly, clergy
or laity, together exhorting and influencing one another to
each take a little of their resources and accumulate them at
one place and, as needed, donate them....The merit thus acquired will be extremely great.13

Here, the amount of money donated was not the issue.

What was important was that these people joined together
to build up each others faith and make public witness of it,
which generated merit as surely as did the making of the
statue. Perhaps part of this process of mutual edification
was for all to declare that their sacrifices were equal and
total. Hence, another audience for the donors statement
concerning expenditure might have been themselves, to
the benefit of their faith.
Lay individuals, by contrast to lay societies, did not
confess that they exhausted the familys wealth. Instead,
they said they had parted with their own belongings or
their own private funds. Inscriptions in which an individual layman discussed expenditure are rare, but one
by a Northern Wei man named Du Yongan said, Then
I parted with my money and property, to make a Measureless Life Buddha (3E).14 Although Dus prayer that
all sentient beings ascend to the marvelous land of the
Measureless Life Buddha and all his ancestors and living
relatives attain enlightenment at the three assemblies of
Maitreya is not exceptional for the year 519, the phrase
money and property (zi chan) is unusual, and it suggests
Du sold or traded some material goods.

Laywomen Donors
Individual laywoman donors spoke of giving their belongings to finance a shrine. The kyamuni shrine dedicated
by a laywoman named Song Jingfei is the most widely
known intrusive shrine at Longmen, thanks to its publication in Sherman Lees popular textbook A History of Far
Eastern Art.15 Lee chose this shrine of 527 to illustrate late
Northern Wei sculptural style, principally the cascade or
waterfall effect of the drapery in the robe spilling over the
Buddhas knees and down the front of the shrine.16 What
the textbook does not reveal is that the shrine is eighty
centimeters in height and is situated on the north wall of
Lianhua Grotto, to the lower right of the colossal attendant
bodhisattva (figure 3.1).17 The inscription is at the bottom
of the niche, just a few inches above the erosion that has
claimed the lower part of the grotto. It reads:
On the eighth day, a gengzi day, of the fourth month, in which
the first was a guisi day, of the third year of the Xiao(chang)
era of the Great Wei, a guiwei year (May 23, 527), Laywoman
Song Jingfei, whose poor karma from former incarnations
has left my fortune shallow and dirty, was born (on the continent of) Jambudvpa and received the form of a woman. I
relied on my late parents, who compassionately raised me
with profound kindness, until I attained maturity. My insignificant self, looking respectfully upon their labor to raise me,
but lacking the means to recompense them, has now parted
with half my hairpins and girdles, and respectfully, for my
late father and mother, has reverently had made one image of
kyamuni. With this bit of merit, I pray that my late father
and mother may be reborn in the land of marvelous joy in the
West, there to meet Buddha and hear the Dharma, then to see
Maitreya manifest in the world.18 May all those with form
share in this blessing.19 (3F)

Although her shrine is typical, Song Jingfeis inscription is unusual in discussing how she paid for it. I have
now parted with half my hairpins and girdles indicates
she had no money of her own and had to give some of
her personal possessions in order to finance the shrine,
and since she cites no husband, living or dead, she was
not a married woman with control over the household finances but a young woman from an aristocratic family
who had been orphaned before marriage and was using
what she had to produce this act of merit. That she had
r h e t o r i c o f e x p e n d i t u r e | 53

Figure 3.1. North wall,

Lianhua Grotto, shrine
of Song Jingfei in lower
right, 527. Photo,
H.Iwata, Peking, ca.
1920s. AAAUM slides
#44,855. Courtesy of the
Asian Art Archives,
University of Michigan,
Ann Arbor.

hairpins and girdles worth selling, however, suggests she

was the daughter of a family of some means, and she may
well have been the younger daughter of Song Wei (d. 525),
a hereditary aristocrat who served as Regional Inspector
of Luozhou.20 If so, she would have been about twelve or
thirteen when she sponsored her shrine in 527, and though
it might seem precocious to us that Jingfei said she had attained maturity, actually she would have been considered
an adult woman in Northern Wei society.21
Another laywoman who used her own property was
an elderly woman named Zhu Zhunian, who sponsored a
small shrine containing a seated Buddha triad in Yaofang
Grotto in 650.22 Below the shrine, which is only twentythree centimeters in height, is an engraved inscription,
which reads:
On the twenty-third day of the first month of the inaugural year of the Yonghui era of Great Tang (March 1, 650), the
Pure and Faithful Woman Zhu Zhunian, approaching old age
and having received an imperial grant of figured silk, now
has had made one Amitbha shrine. Reverently, to repay (the
imperial) kindness and largesse, I first (transfer the merit) to
aid the emperor and next (transfer it) to all sentient beings.
Together may they pass out of the gates of suffering and all
ascend that other shore.23 (3G)

Zhu Zhunians property was a grant of silk, which the state

routinely bestowed on persons who had reached the ages
of sixty, seventy, or eighty, and she responded by spending
the silk on an act of merit to transfer the merit directly to
the personage who had given it to her. Silk was used as
money in medieval China, since its quality and quantity
could be easily determined, and it was durable and lightweight. It was also used as a standard of value throughout
the country, although in the north, merchants also used
lead and iron, while in the south, gold, silver, cinnabar,
and ivory were also used for trade.24 Only in 732 was a
cash economy encouraged by the government issue of
coin. Hence Zhu undoubtedly paid for her shrine with the
silk itself. This issue of forms of payment raises a related
question: whom did the donors pay?
What little information there is on to whom the money
and goods were paid suggests patrons contacted sculptors.
The only records I have found at Longmen in which a patron describes interaction with someone responsible for
his or her shrine are the inscription for the Sishun Ward

shrine in Binyang South Grotto and Lady Yuchis inscription in Guyang Grotto.25 The first states we commissioned inspired craftsmen (5C), while Lady Yuchi said,
I have asked the artisans to engrave stone to make this
image of Maitreya (3H). Although her statement could be
taken as a figure of speech, if taken at face value, it would
mean Lady Yuchi, or more likely her factotum, negotiated directly with the sculptors to have her shrine made.
Monk Fasheng, in his dedication at Maijishan, also said,
I humbly asked the good workmen.26 There is no indication that monks operated as go-betweens for patrons and
stoneworkers. One reason may be that no monks were
resident at Longmen before the Tang dynasty.27 The emperor did not go through clerical intermediaries either; his
orders for a grotto were carried out by the director of the
Palace Domestic Service, the court eunuch in charge of
imperial building projects.
Laywomen donors seem to describe their expenditure in accord with the size and quality of their projects.
Chen Yun, who was married to an important military official named Li Changshou (d. 535), sponsored a modest
kyamuni shrine on the upper part of the south wall of
Yaofang Grotto.28 The carving is rather shallow and not of
particularly high quality, and the shrine gives no indication of having been expensive.29 The truth of this is hinted
at in the inscription, which was carved to the left of the
shrine in a crudely planed area. The dedication reads:
Chen Yun, the wife of Li Changshou, Superior Grand Master of the Palace, General for the Pacification of the South,
Southern Area Commander in Chief, and Dynasty-Founding
Duke of Qingshui District, who in the past was not the legal
wife, for the house of Li and in reverence to the good wife (Lis
late wife), makes known her intention that she (the late wife)
be released into enlightenment. Thus I have parted with the
family wealth to have made one kyamuni image shrine. I
vow that the favor my lord received from the August Emperor
Gao (Emperor Xiaowen) be remembered.
Further, I pray for myself, my late son, my grandson in the
army, and all those living that they have peace. May the holy
saints protect and aid us so my family members have security
and tranquility and their lives ascend to heavens level, and
may those to come all agree with this prayer. This record prepared on the thirteenth day of the sixth month of the third
year of the Yongan era (July 23, 530).30 (3I)
r h e t o r i c o f e x p e n d i t u r e | 55

A careful reading of Chen Yuns language shows that

she did not say she exhausted the family wealth; rather
she parted with the family wealth, which implies that
she spent some money but did not bankrupt herself or her
family with this commission. This does not indicate any
lack of desire to honor her predecessor, Li Changshous
late first wife, since the decision to earn merit for that lady
was presumably Chen Yuns anyway. Rather, as a second
wife who had come up in the world, she made a modest
statement to match the plainness of the project and the
humility expected of a second wife spending her husbands money.
A laywoman donor who did control her own money
was Dang Faduan, who was employed as a palace director.31 Under Emperor Xiaowen, the positions in the
womens bureaucracy were graded into five ranks among
which the position of director was near the top, at rank
2, so Dang was a person of some consequence who had a
salary from the government. She sponsored a substantial
Buddha shrine on the north wall of Guyang Grotto with
the following dedication:
The Pure and Faithful Woman and Buddhist Disciple, Palace
Director Dang Faduan, was not fortunate enough to die in old
age, but she had gathered her lifes earnings in anticipation of
this inspired plan (to sponsor a shrine). For this reason, Si Yun,
the Supervisor of the Entourage in the Court of the Womens
Chambers, for (her) has had made one image of kyamuni
with two bodhisattvas. I pray that Duan be reborn directly in
the land of marvelous bliss. I further pray that the imperial
influence be increasingly magnified, the Great Wei abound
in successions and draw a sequence of a thousand reigns, and
blessings be garnered for myriad generations. Completed on
the nineteenth day of the third month, in which the first day
was a bingyin day, in the third year of the Zhengshi era, a
bingxu year, of the Great Dai (April 27, 506).32 (3J)

The inscription reveals that Dang Faduan had passed away

before the shrine was commissioned and that the commission was actually carried out by a eunuch official in the
palace womens quarters who was her coworker. Si Yun
must have been her friend, as well, for he rather touchingly
refers to her by the nickname Duan. He transferred the
merit first to her and then to their employer, the royal
house of Wei, which makes the social audience for his
statement quite obvious: the imperial family.
56 | r h e t o r i c o f e x p e n d i t u r e

The eunuchs dedication says that Dang Faduan entrusted him with her lifes savings to have a shrine made at
Longmen. Is this hyperbole, or was the shrine that expensive? Her shrine is impressive in its size130 centimeters
high and 84 centimeters wideand it was placed in a very
visible spot above N1 (see figure 1.3). Although the large
seated Buddha figure in the center has been stolen, the
large standing attendant bodhisattvas are still there, and
there is considerable detail in the relief carvings, including the disciples and apsarasas in the ceiling of the shrine.
Compared to the shrine donated by Great Consort Hou
in 503, it has more detail and is actually somewhat larger
than the other shrine, which is 110 centimeters high. That
Dang could have produced a shrine larger and finer than
one made for a member of the royal family suggests a substantial expenditure of funds. I suspect that the information provided by Si Yun was not hyperbole and that Dang
did indeed spend her lifes savings for this shrine.

.
Sangha Donors
With regard to expenditure by members of the Buddhist
.
sangha, it would appear that Chinese monks and nuns, like
their counterparts in India, donated their private wealth
for sculpture.33 The Maitreya shrine dedicated by the nuns
Fawen and Falong in Guyang Grotto is inscribed:
On the twenty-fifth day of the fourth month of the second
year of the Yongping era, a jichou year (May 29, 509), nuns
Fawen and Falong, awakened (to the fact that this is) not an
eternal world, deeply expressed our sincere vow, and parted
with and exhausted our private wealth, each for herself, reverently to have made a single Maitreya image. We pray it
may cause all who pass by and see it to be saturated with the
moisture of the Dharma rain and all who offer worship to it
to share in unsurpassed joy. At the three sermons under the
Dragon Flower (Tree), we pray we may take our place in the
stream (of those who achieve enlightenment). May all sentient beings universally share this blessing.34 (3K)

The shrine is approximately seventy-five centimeters

high, or about two-thirds the size of the shrines sponsored by Palace Director Dang Faduan and Great Consort
Hou, and although the Maitreya bodhisattva and the inscription below have been stolen, the remaining niche is
finely carved and includes bas-relief images of the nuns.35

Thus, it would seem that Fawen and Falong probably donated either as Dang Faduan did, giving everything they
had, or as Great Consort Hou did, from the riches of a
princely treasury. Even without this explicit reference to
private wealth, the evidence of Guyang Grotto alone
indicates some members of the Buddhist order had considerable funds at their disposal. Huicheng produced the
entire grotto, for example, while Fasheng sponsored a
large shrine (S2). Even those who seemed to play down
their wealth, however, are contradicted by the evidence of
their projects. Monk Huile wrote, Now I follow with my
meager funds...and with sincerity I have had one image
made (3L), yet his meager funds produced a shrine
as large as the one by his patron, the Prince of Beihai.36
Huiles inscription says the Prince of Beihai was instrumental in his conversion to Buddhism and that the prince
was mindful of him day and night, an intimacy that suggests Huile was a member of the princes household before
.
he entered the sangha. If so, then Huiles meager funds
were those of an aristocrat.
Another monk who alluded to his poverty may have
been more truthful. Monk Daosong of Taoquan Monastery in Qingzhou (in modern Shandong Province) sponsored a small shrine in 508 on the south wall of Guyang
Grotto.37 In his dedication below the shrine, he wrote,
From this world of Jambudvpa, I was blessed to be able
to take refuge in the Three Jewels, (so with my) begging
bowl leftovers, I have had a Maitreya made and Seven Buddhas with two bodhisattvas such that their appearances
are complete, and I take this slight blessing and extend it
universally to all sentient beings (3M). Daosongs statement that he came to Buddhism after having lived in the
world suggests he became a believer as an adult and may
have already possessed the financial means to travel to
Longmen and produce a shrine. His shrine is quite small,
wedged in below the draperies of the colossal bodhisattva
on the south wall, and at thirty-seven centimeters high, it
was not likely to have been very expensive, although the
inscription must have raised the price somewhat. Small
as his shrine is, however, it still cost something, and what
that reveals of his possession of personal money the pious
language in his inscription seems to excuse.
.
One member of the sangha who apparently felt no need
to disguise her wealth and status was the nun Cixiang. She
had a small grotto produced on her own (no. 660), sev-

eral meters to the north of Lianhua Grotto, in 520. A cube

about a meter and a half in all dimensions, the grotto has
no east wall and is open to the daylight. Its floor is about
four meters above the path at the base of the cliff, and since
there is no stairway up to it, to see into the shrine the visitor must step on the low retaining wall of the pond at the
cliff base, stand on tiptoe, and peer upward, taking care
not to fall into the pond. Not only is it a good-sized grotto,
its program is one favored by the elite: the Buddhas of the
Three Periods. On the altar on the back wall is a seated
Buddha figure with hands in dhyna mudr flanked by
small standing attendant disciple and bodhisattva figures.
He depicts kyamuni as representative of the Thousand
Buddhas of the Present Kalpa, while seated on the north
wall is a similar Buddha who is likely one of the Buddhas
of the Past, and on the south wall is a seated, cross-ankled
Maitreya, intended to represent the Thousand Buddhas of
the Future Kalpa (figure 3.2).
Further expense was added to the grotto with the basrelief carvings on the walls above the attendant figures
and on the ceiling. Directly above the attendant figures
is the debate between Vimalakrti and Majur. Above
Vimalakrti are two large lotus flowers floating in the
air, while above Majur is a lotus with elaborately articulated petals, rather like a snowflake, flying on clouds.
Above these are a couple of small apsarasas whose scarves
flow into the swirl of the three large apsarasas around the
large lotus in the middle of the ceiling. On the face of the
main wall altar is the inscription:
Record of a single grotto made by the bhiks.un Cixiang Huizheng on the twenty-first day of the third month of the third
year of the Shengui era of Great Wei (April 24, 520).
Though it is the case that spiritual enlightenment is vast
and profound, and the incorporeal is true and far-reaching, it
is traces that establish the Way, their sublimity expressing an
unvarying model.38 Without them, how could we know how
to symbolize and praise its profound principles? For this reason, we revere and thirst for the Dharma ford. Though this reflection (of the Buddha) image is constructed small, the forms
of blessings (it engenders) will be extensive. As I have been
born in this troublesome body, I pray I may vault to a realm
without obstacles (to enlightenment), where I will receive the
favor of immersion and the enrichment of all beings in the
Dharma realm. I have had stone carved to realize the true
r h e t o r i c o f e x p e n d i t u r e | 57

Figure 3.2. Maitreya

bodhisattva, south wall,
Cixiang Grotto, 520.
From Liu Jinglong, ed.,
Longmen ershipin: Beike
yu zaoxiang yishu.
(image) and engraved this act of merit (to last) eighty(-four)
thousand (years). May it extend unto the thrice-obedient, and
may they dare to share in this blessing.39 (3N)

Two concepts expressed by Cixiang are specific to her

as a woman and require explanation. The first is in her
statement as I have been born in this troublesome body,
I pray I may vault to a realm without obstacles. What
was troublesome about her body was its female form:
the Buddhist tradition held that a woman could not be reborn directly into paradise and attain enlightenment but
would have to pass through rebirth as a man first. A glorious transcendence of this problem is found in chapter 12 of
the Lotus Stra in the well-known story of the daughter of
Sgara, the dragon king. After Majur announced that
the eight-year-old girl had learned the Lotus Stra and attained enlightenment, riputra said to her:
You suppose that in this short time you have been able to attain the unsurpassed way. But this is difficult to believe. Why?
Because a womans body is soiled and defiled, not a vessel
for the Law....Moreover, a woman is subject to the five obstacles.40 First, she cannot become a Brahm in the Brahm
58 | r h e t o r i c o f e x p e n d i t u r e

Heaven. Second, she cannot become an Indra, king of the

gods. Third, she cannot become a Mra in the heaven of the
Mras. Fourth, she cannot become a cakravartin universal
monarch. Fifth, she cannot become a Buddha.41

In response to this, instantly the dragon kings daughter

changed into a male form, carried out all the practices of
a bodhisattva, was seated on a lotus throne in the Spotless
World of the south, attained complete enlightenment, and
expounded the Dharma to all sentient beings. This story
would seem to be what Cixiang alluded to in her prayer.
Though she had the troublesome body of a woman, her
desire was to vault to a realm without obstacles, just as
the dragon kings daughter did.
The other concept Cixiang used is the thrice-obedient
as a metonym for women, based on the notion that a woman
is always obedient to a man in all three stages of her life: to
her father as a girl, to her husband as a wife, and to her son
as a widow. This normative idea of women as thrice-obedient is asserted in both Indian Buddhist scriptures and
native Confucian thought.42 Cixiang dedicated the merit
from her shrine specifically to the thrice-obedient, or

women as a class. She may have believed that since she was
born in the form of a woman, she was uniquely positioned
to come to the spiritual rescue of the class of creatures to
which she belonged. This idea is embodied by the heroine
of the Vimalakrti Stra. After the goddess had bested the
monk riputra in debate by changing his form to hers and
back again, the sage Vimalakrti revealed to riputra that
the goddess not only was already an enlightened being but
that she had chosen to refrain from entering nirvn.a to
help sentient beings in the form of a woman. Vimalakrti
said: She has fulfilled all that she vowed, has accepted the
truth of birthlessness, and dwells in a state from which
she will never regress. Because of her original vow, she can
show herself anytime she wishes and teach and convert
living beings.43 In other words, the goddess was a bodhi
sattva, who could become a Buddha whenever she chose.
As a bodhisattva, she had chosen to inhabit a bodily form
in order to help relieve the sufferings of sentient beings,
and given her ability to choose any form she wanted, obviously it was her choice to assume a female body, which
would be especially efficacious in rendering aid to other
beings in female bodies.44 Hence, I suspect Cixiang also
identified with the goddess, since she used her female incarnation to help other women, in her case, dedicating the
merit from her grotto to all womankind.
Lest the modern reader consider Cixiang unconventional, however, it should be noted that she also sponsored
a Maitreya bodhisattva shrine on the south wall of Gu
yang Grotto with a typical dedication to the emperor, her
parents, and all sentient beings.45 Not only her selection
of the elite subject matter of the Buddhas of the Three Periods, but also her possession of the money to sponsor a
medium-sized intrusive shrine and a small grotto on her
own suggests that Cixiang was the daughter of an aristocratic clan or the royal family.

The Price of a Grotto

Although Cixiang did not discuss expenditure in her inscription, an estimate of the price of her grotto can be extrapolated from the information we have concerning the
making of the three Binyang grottoes, which were produced around the same time. The History of the Northern
Wei records the cost of the Binyang trio as 802,366 cash.46
To arrive at a rough estimate of a unit of cost for grotto pro-

duction, I divided the total amount by the floor area of the

three grottoes. The floor of Binyang Central Grotto measures 11.4 meters by 9.85 meters, which is about 110 square
meters, and Binyang South and Binyang North are roughly
the same size, yielding a total floor area of about 330 square
meters. Dividing the approximate cost of 800,000 cash by
the total floor area of 330 square meters, the resulting unit
of cost is about 2,400 cash per square meter of grotto floor.
The floor of Cixiangs grotto measures 1.65 meters by 1.87
meters, for a total area of about 3.1 square meters. Multiplying this area by 2,400 cash gives a rough-estimate cost of
around 7,400 cash for Cixiangs grotto.
How much was 7,400 cash worth in the late Northern
Wei dynasty? According to the Chapter on Food and
Commodities in The History of the Northern Wei, a bolt
of silk was worth two hundred cash at that time.47 This
history also records that by the late Northern Wei, official
salaries had risen to seven bolts of silk (I take this to be per
month) so that an official salary would be worth 16,800
cash per year. Thus, Cixiangs grotto cost about half the
annual salary of a government official.48 A married couple
who worked the land probably earned the equivalent of
something between 2,200 and 6,600 cash per year.49 Ci
xiangs grotto was worth as much as three times their annual income. In sum, it seems safe to say that patrons assertions that they exhausted the familys wealth or spent
their lifes earnings were nothing short of the truth.
Substantial as Cixiangs expenditure was for a woman,
it was paltry compared to the huge amounts donated for
Buddhist monasteries in Luoyang by wealthy and powerful men. In his Record of Monasteries in Luoyang, Yang
Xuanzhi quoted from an inscription listing the funds
given by government officials:
Zhengshi Monastery was founded (through the contributions of) various government officials. It was built during the
Zhengshi era, hence the name....It had a stone stele on the
back of which was an inscription (listing donations by various officials). Cui Guang, the Chief Palace Attendant, donated
four hundred thousand cash, while Li Chong, Marquis of
Chenliu, donated two hundred thousand cash. Other officials
contributed in amounts appropriate to their rank, and the
smallest amount came to no less than five thousand cash.50

Except for the inhabitants of the palace, these two

men would have been among the most able to engage in
r h e t o r i c o f e x p e n d i t u r e | 59

paroxyms of dna.51 Cui Guang (450523) was not only a

pious and learned Buddhist who lectured and wrote commentaries on the Vimalakrti Stra and the Daabhmi
Stra, but also arguably the most powerful Chinese official
of the late Northern Wei and consequently quite wealthy.52
Li Chong (455525) was a member of the royal family who
had served three emperors in numerous high positions of
responsibility, and he was famous for his love of material
possessions and his fabulous wealth.53 The language of the
inscription clearly intends to impress the reader with the
hugeness of the sums donated by Cui and Li, and although
the inscription describes the lesser officials donations as
appropriate to their rank, not as exhausting the family
wealth, it still suggests that even five thousand cash is an
impressive amount. Indeed, it might have been a third of
a years salary for some.
The cost to build this substantial metropolitan monastery was probably roughly comparable to the price of
a grotto.54 The record of Zhengshi Monastery states that
the two most prominent donors together gave six hundred
thousand. If there were twenty or more other officials involved, each contributing from five to ten thousand cash
apiece, the total cost would have been eight hundred thousand or more. The Binyang trio, which when abandoned
consisted of one completed grotto (Binyang Central) and
two half-finished grottoes (Binyang South and North), cost
802,366 cash. Thus, a large grotto (or one finished and two
unfinished) probably cost about what a large monastery
cost. If it required a group of officials to fund the building of a monastery, it would take a group of individuals to
produce a substantial grotto, unless the donor had access
to the state treasury.
There was only one higher level of ostentatious expenditure for merit, which was to sponsor both a monastery and
a grotto. Only one class of person was able to do sothe
inhabitants of the palace. Emperor Xuanwu had at least
two monasteries built in Luoyang: Yaoguang Convent and
Jingming Monastery. He also had two grottoes excavated
at Longmen: Binyang Central and Binyang South. The
eunuch Palace Governor Liu Teng sponsored Changqiu
Monastery, a large, lavish monastery in Luoyang, and he
also ordered the excavation of Binyang North Grotto. Empress Dowager Hu sponsored more building projects than
either of these two men. In Luoyang, she sponsored the
Yongning Pagoda, a building at Yaoguang Convent, and
60 | r h e t o r i c o f e x p e n d i t u r e

two monasteries for her late parents. I will argue that she
also sponsored a grotto at Longmen.

Empress Dowager Hu as Donor

Empress Dowager Hu was thoroughly suited to be a patron
of Buddhism by virtue of her birth and education.55 Her
mother, Lady Huangfu (d. 502), came from the Huangfu
clan of Anding Commandery, in Gansu Province, whose
illustrious history could be traced back to the Later Han
dynasty (25220). Lady Huangfu died young, likely before her daughter entered the palace as a concubine. Her
father, Hu Guozhen (437518), belonged to the aristocratic
Hu clan, also of Anding Commandery, who had served
the Northern Wei government in high positions since the
early fifth century.56 The Hu and Huangfu clans were Han
Chinese and devout Buddhists. Hu Guozhens sister was a
Buddhist nun, while Hu himself, as an old man of eighty,
actually perished from overexertion the day after piously
following the procession of icons on the birthday of the
Buddha for too great a distance.57
The young Lady Hu entered the palace as a result of the
efforts of her aunt. This nun was invited to teach Buddhist
scriptures in the palace womens quarters soon after Emperor Xuanwu ascended the throne in 499, and over the
next few years, she talked up her nieces gracious comportment to the palace women. Word of her charms finally
got to the emperor, and he ordered the young woman to
enter the imperial apartments as a Chenghua Hereditary
Consort, an attendant to the empress.58
In 510, Lady Hu bore a son, Yuan Xu, and was upgraded
in rank to Lady of Complete Loveliness, one of the Nine
Concubines. This boy was the emperors only son. Empress
Yu had given birth to a boy, Yuan Chang, but he was killed
in 508, five months after his mother was murdered by the
emperors second consort, Empress Gao. It was rumored
that the imperial favorite Gao Zhao (d. 515), who was uncle
to both the emperor and Empress Gao, was involved in
the death of Yuan Chang. By 510, Emperor Xuanwu was
twenty-eight years old and fearful he would have no heir,
so he had the baby removed from the womens quarters
and placed with trustworthy wet-nurses in a separate palace. Neither Empress Gao nor his mother was allowed to
see the child.
When Emperor Xuanwu died, Lady Hus five-year-old

son ascended the throne, becoming Emperor Xiaoming

on February 11, 515, in a hasty midnight ceremony while
Gao Zhao was away in Sichuan.59 The Tabgatch princes
and the Chinese officials briefly put aside their differences in order to eliminate this hated man, and when he
returned to court, he was strangled by the court eunuchs.
When Lady Hu was given the title Imperial Mother, Empress Dowager Gao tried to kill her, but the plot was foiled
by Liu Teng, who spirited Lady Hu away into the depths
of the palace, where she was sheltered for the next few
months by the anti-Gao consortium. Empress Gao was
deposed and forced to live as a nun in Yaoguang Convent,
where she was eventually murdered in 518. A government
was formed, and on August 30, Lady Hu was formally appointed empress dowager.60 She immediately granted honors to her supporters, while her father was given a higher
prestige title. Soon, however, because of various squabbles
between the Chinese officials and the Tabgatch princes,
Empress Dowager Hu was asked by the Chinese court officials to take the reins of government herself, and she began
to hold court on September 18.61
The empress dowager immediately dismissed her chancellor to the provinces and moved the chancellery operations to her palace, whence she issued imperial edicts in
her own hand. She traveled around Luoyang in a specially
made carriage to receive petitions from the populace and
personally interviewed candidates for office and officials
from the provinces. She sponsored archery contests and
poetry competitions in which she awarded prizes of silk
cloth. As generous as she was to the populace and the
courtiers, she was all the more so to her family. Her father was made Palace Attendant and enfeoffed as Duke of
Anding Commandery, given a fine mansion, and lavished
with silk, grain, slaves, carriages, horses, and oxen.62 He
was quickly given the highest policy-making position, Secretariat Supervisor, and the lofty prestige title Unequaled
in Honor. Her maternal uncle Huangfu Du (d. 528) was
granted the absurdly high positions of Left Vice Director
of the Department of State Affairs and Left General of the
Guards, which were no doubt sinecures.63 Her half-brother
Hu Xiang was given a succession of exalted positions, including Palace Directorate Minister, Secretariat Supervisor, and Palace Attendant, and enfeoffed as Duke of Dongping Commandery, and her cousin Hu Sengxi was also
made a Secretariat Supervisor and Palace Attendant.64

As soon as she took power, the empress dowager initiated

several large Buddhist projects in Luoyang. In 516, she led a
host of officials to a site just south of the imperial palace for
a public ceremony to mark out the boundaries of a monastery to be called Yongning Monastery.65 Not coincidentally, this was the name of the imperial monastery in the
old capital of Pingcheng.66 Then she ordered the building
of an extraordinary nine-story pagoda. This remarkable
edifice was the first building described in Yang Xuanzhis
Record of Monasteries in Luoyang. He wrote of it:
Within the precincts [of the monastery] was a nine-story pagoda built with a wooden frame. Rising nine hundred feet
above the ground, it formed the base for a mast that rose another hundred feet. Together they soared one thousand feet
above the ground. You could see it even at a distance of a
hundred li from the capital. In the course of excavating for
the construction of the monastery, thirty golden statues were
found deep underground. The empress dowager regarded
them as proof of the sincerity of her faith. As a result, she
spent all the more lavishly on its construction.
On the top of the mast was a golden vase inlaid with precious stones, with a capacity of twenty-five piculs. Underneath the jeweled vase were thirty tiers of golden plates for
collecting the dew. Golden bells hung from each of the plates.
In addition, chains linked the mast with each of the four corners of the pagoda. Golden bells, each about the size of a onepicul jar, were also suspended from the link works.
There were nine roofs, one for each story, with golden bells
suspended from the corner of each one, totaling one hundred
twenty in all. The pagoda had four sides, each having three
doors and six windows, all painted in vermilion lacquer. Each
door had five rows of gold studs. Altogether there were 5,400
studs on twenty-four panels of twelve double doors. In addition, the doors were adorned with gold ring knockers. The
construction embodied the best of masonry and carpentry,
and its design reached the limit of ingenuity. Its excellence as
Buddhist architecture was almost unimaginable. Its carved
pillars and gold door-knockers fascinated the eye. When the
bells chimed in harmony deep in a windy night, they could
be heard over ten li away.67

Yangs account was written from memory and was

surely somewhat exaggerated, since his description of the
pagodas height as a thousand Northern Wei feet would
equate to about 278 meters, which is impossibly high for a
r h e t o r i c o f e x p e n d i t u r e | 61

structure in earth and wood. Yet a modern reconstruction

of the pagoda resulted in a figure of 147 meters in height,
over twice the height of the eleventh-century pagoda at
Yingxian, the tallest wooden building in the world.68 Such
a fantastically high structure could only have been built by
someone of extraordinary skill. Indeed, the designer and
builder was the imperial architect An Guoxing.69
In a series of excavations that took place in 19791981,
1994, and 20002001, the foundations of the pagoda and
of the monasterys gates, walls, and main Buddha hall were
thoroughly explored. Not surprisingly, the Chinese archeologists discovered that the great wooden pagoda stood
at the center of the complex. In the foundations were the
remains of polychrome clay sculptures, entirely reduced
to fragments.70 Some Buddha figures were larger than life
size, while others were about life size, and the archeologists
concluded that the figures were arranged in shrines, with
a central Buddha figure flanked by figures of bodhisattvas
and disciples, around which were relief scenes from the
life of kyamuni and miracle stories. Many figures represented aristocratic donors and civil officials.
The Yongning Pagoda might have been a public attraction, to be climbed by a grateful populace, but such was
not to be its purpose. This eighth wonder of the world
was for the exclusive use of the empress dowager and her
guests: After the ornamentation was finished, Emperor
Xiaoming and the empress dowager ascended (the pagoda)
together. They looked down into the palaces as if into the
palms of their hands and gazed out upon the capital as if
it were their own courtyard. To keep the interiors of the
palaces from public view, people were denied access to the
pagoda.71
Empress Dowager Hu also sponsored a project at Yaoguang Convent, which had been established by the late
emperor Xuanwu and was situated in the western part of
the city, between the palace district and the Jinyong Citadel in the citys northwest corner. No record specifically
states what kind of building the empress dowager ordered
there, but a memorial of around 516, which is presented
in its entirety below, makes clear that some kind of substantial building was sponsored by the empress there. It
may have been a pagoda. The description of the Yaoguang
Pagoda given in the Record of Monasteries in Luoyang suggests it was the most spectacular building on the grounds:
There was a five-story pagoda that rose five hundred feet
62 | r h e t o r i c o f e x p e n d i t u r e

from the ground. Its immortals palms soared into the

sky; its bells hung from the clouds. The dexterity of workmanship was comparable in beauty to the Yongning Monastery Lecture Hall.72 If the workmanship of the pagoda
was the same as that of Yongning Monastery, it was probably also designed by the imperial architects and built by
the artisans in the Imperial Manufactories, which means
the empress dowager was the sponsor. Although it may be
unfair to speculate that the empress dowager had a purpose in building a pagoda at Yaoguang Convent that went
beyond a desire to propagate the faith, perhaps she desired
to eclipse, once again, the glory of a site associated with
her late husband. Another possibility suggests itself, however. Yaoguang Convent was where her enemy Empress
Gao was immured and where she was murdered by the
empress dowagers agents in 518. Perhaps the murder took
place under cover of the building of the pagoda.
The empress dowagers other substantial Buddhist projects were the two monasteries established for the karmic
benefit of her late parents. The monastery for her mother
was built in the eastern suburbs of the city, a luxurious
area where the estates of several high officials were located,
and it was named after the presumptuous posthumous
title the empress dowager had granted her, Grand Duchess of Qin.73 It was reported to be decorated as lavishly as
the Yongning Monastery. The establishment honoring her
father was equally grand, and it was paired with a second
monastery built by the empress dowagers younger sister,
the Lady of Pingyi. The Monasteries of the Two Sisters
were located in the southern suburbs of Luoyang, in the
vicinity of the old ruined Imperial Observatory and the
third-century Biyong Hall for Confucian ritual education,
and they were supported by state funds. These were the
only monasteries to which palace eunuchs were dispatched
to provide the six monthly vegetarian feasts.74
The amounts spent by the empress dowager on all these
projects must have been stupendous. If Zhengshi Monastery, sponsored by a consortium of government officials,
cost something in the neighborhood of 800,000 cash,
given the astonishing amounts of gold used in the ornamentation of the Yongning Pagoda, which must have been
spectacular, even accounting for any exaggeration caused
by Yang Xuanzhis memory, it alone would have cost over
one million cash and quite possibly a great deal more. If the
Yaoguang Pagoda and the two monasteries for her parents

also cost nearly one million apiece, the total sum could
have been four million cash or more. Such an amount
could scarcely have come from her private funds.
As head of the realm, the empress dowager controlled
the silk and other commodities sent as tribute and taxes
that were stored in the capital. The History of the Northern
Wei stated: Since the power of the Wei was known far
and wide, the western regions and the eastern barbarians
sent their treasures as tribute, and they were plentiful in
the imperial storehouses. In the Shengui and Zhengguang
eras (518525), the imperial storehouses were full to overflowing. The empress dowager once ordered all the high
officials to carry off as much as they could.75 The last line
is a reference to a notorious incident that took place at the
eastern imperial storehouse:
Later (in 519), she visited the eastern storehouse with over one
hundred princesses, concubines, and others accompanying
her. There, she ordered all of them to take as much silk for
themselves as they could carry out. Many people took over
two hundred rolls. Everyone took at least a hundred rolls.
However, the Princess of Changle only took twenty rolls of
silk, which showed she was no different from anyone else and
could not get rewards without working for them. Everyone
praised her incorruptibility. Li Chong, the Duke of Chenliu,
and Yuan Yong, the Prince of Zhangwu, both fell over because they were carrying too much.76

While I agree with Jennifer Holmgrens interpretation

that the empress dowager deliberately created a situation
where courtiers and ministers had to jostle and elbow each
other in an undignified scramble to grab as much as they
could, this anecdote also illustrates the fact that she controlled the state treasury and readily disbursed it to gain
the favor of her contemporaries.77
I believe the empress use of state funds also extended to
sponsoring a grotto at Longmen but that this fact has been
obscured by misunderstanding of the notice of her visit to
Longmen in The History of the Northern Wei. It records
that on the yimao day of the fourth month (late May 517),
the empress dowager graced Stone Grotto Monastery at
Yique, and the same day she returned to the palace.78
Alexander Soper advanced the theory that Empress
Dowager Hu went to Longmen to see the finished Binyang
Central Grotto: Lady Hus excursion in 517...must have
been to inspect a newly completed wonder, the shrine of

her father-in-law, Kao Tsu (the late emperor Xiaowen).79

More specifically, she went to view the changes she had
made to the grottos original program. Soper added: I
believe that Lady Hu not only came to pay her respects
at Kao Tsus cave-chapel in 517, but that she had in the
previous months directed its completion according to
her own wishes. Specifically, she had seen to it that the
shrine should contain a permanent, visible record of her
relationship: her portrait as worshiper and donor....The
great donor procession...I take to be a representation of
Hsan Wu Ti (Emperor Xuanwu) and Lady Hu, advancing in full state panoply to pray for Kao Tsus soul.80
Soper apparently believed the empress dowager chose
to depict her relationship as empress to her late husband
and dutiful daughter-in-law to the late emperor Xiaowen
by creating the empress procession, but this theory faces
several problems. First, the empress dowager never filled
either of these roles since she had yet to enter the palace
when Emperor Xiaowen passed away, and she was only a
concubine when her husband died. Further, an image of
herself as a part of the Tabgatch royal family would not
only have been a mendacious view of her past, but also
have been completely out of character for a woman who
sponsored nothing in honor of her late husband or his father. On the contrary, her purpose in life was to magnify
the Hu and Huangfu clans. Moreover, the empress dowager might have had an outright aversion to the Binyang
grottoes, since Binyang South was intended for the late
empress dowager Wenzhao, ne Gao, who was the aunt
of the empress dowagers mortal enemy, Empress Gao. In
addition, the function of Binyang Central as a karmic gift
to the donors parents required that the people in the imperial processions be the grottos beneficiaries: Emperor
Xiaowen and Empress Dowager Wenzhao. Lastly, merely
adding relief panels to someone elses grotto was hardly
ostentatious enough for the empress dowager. Why would
a woman who had sponsored the Yongning Pagoda, the
most magnificent building ever seen, content herself with
merely amending someone elses project? Why would
someone who believed that money could buy salvation
spend less than her predecessors? Surely she would have
her own grotto created at Longmen, and it would be the
largest, the finest, and the most expensive.
I propose that when Empress Dowager Hu went to Long
men in 517, she visited the grotto she was having made. I
r h e t o r i c o f e x p e n d i t u r e | 63

derive this from an admonitory memorial to the throne in

which the author complained about the expense of three
projects the empress dowager was pursuing in 516: the
pagoda of Yongning Monastery, a building at Yaoguang
Convent (probably its pagoda), and something called
Stone Grotto Monastery. In his memorial, Li Chong said:
Thirty years have elapsed since Gaozu (Emperor Xiaowen)
relocated the capital, and the Hall of Light has not been restored, the National University has fallen into disrepair, and
the city walls, tower gates, offices, and courts are also ruined.
This is not the way to carry on the imperial inheritance or set
a good model for all nations. Now, although nominally there
are educational officials for the sons of state, in reality, they
have no instructors. How will (the students) know how to be
discerning about rabbit silk (which is a plant, not silk), swallow wheat (which is a weed, not wheat), the southern winnowing basket, and the northern dipper (which are names
of constellations, not actual utensils)? As two endeavors cannot flourish at once, one must advance while one retreats. It
would be appropriate to stop the wasteful and extravagant use
of the Imperial Manufactories, to reduce the labor in earth
and wood for the Yongning (Pagoda), to decrease the industry in timber and tile at Yaoguang (Convent), and to cut back
on the work of chiseling and carving Stone Grotto (Monastery). As far as all endeavors for which the use of corve labor
is not urgent, these many things should be worked on in the
slack season for agriculture. Such would make the face of our
nation majestic and brilliant. As for the civilizing influence of
ritual giving rise to our conduct, that should never cease!81

For Li Chong to complain about Stone Grotto Monastery in the same breath as the Yongning Pagoda and the
Yaoguang Convent building means it was at the same level
of exorbitant expenditure in his mind and was likely an
equally large and expensive project.82 This Stone Grotto
Monastery must have been an entirely new cave-shrine,
not some carving added to a preexisting grotto, and if the
expense was comparable to ostentatious monastic buildings in the capital, this cave-shrine would have to have
been a spectacular presence at Longmen.

Huoshao Grotto
There is one Northern Wei grotto larger than Binyang Central. We do not know what it was called originally, but it is
64 | r h e t o r i c o f e x p e n d i t u r e

now known as Huoshao Grotto, or the Grotto Destroyed

by Fire, a name that describes its present appearance.
Sometime after the statuary program inside was completed, the interior was destroyed. Almost all the carving
inside has crumbled or been broken away, and the exterior
statues were also shattered, with only the partial figure of
one colossal guardian remaining by the entryway. What
happened to this grotto is a mystery. Some believe it was
struck by lightning and incinerated, while others suggest it
was deliberately destroyed.83
The original program on the back wall of the grotto was
centered on a figure of kyamuni Buddha, seated crosslegged with hands in dhyna mudr. Two lions sat at the
corners of his throne, evinced by the paws and the tail that
remain, while the two disciple figures are also completely
ruined, except for bare feet standing on round bases. The
same is true for the colossal attendant bodhisattvas flanking them: all that can be seen are outlines on the wall and
bare feet on double-petal inverted lotus bases. In the center of the south wall is a ruined relief stele, of which only
the lower part remains. It must have been comparable in
size to the stele outside Binyang Central and was surely
intended to bear the dedication, but it may never have
been carved, since the surface is covered with about two
dozen bas-relief figures of female worshipers labeled with
the names of a local laywomens society.84
I propose that Huoshao Grotto was Empress Dowager
Hus Stone Grotto Monastery.85 It must have been the most
expensive of the Northern Wei grottoes. At 10 meters high,
9.5 meters across, and 12 meters deep, it is slightly larger
than Binyang Central Grotto, which is 9.3 meters high,
11.4 meters across, and 9.85 meters deep.86 The interior of
Binyang Central was necessarily that large in order to accommodate its program of eleven figures arrayed on three
walls, but the interior of Huoshao Grotto is ostentatiously
large, which is to say, it is unnecessarily large for its program. Its pentad was on the back wall and did not require
side walls as deep as it has. The faade is also conspicuously large. The entryway is six meters high, and the carving on the lintel reaches nearly four meters higher, which
is comparable to the imperial Binyang Central Grotto,
whose entryway is 6.9 meters high, with a more modest
lintel of around two meters in height.
Part of the expense of the grotto resulted from its height
on the cliff face. The floor of Huoshao Grotto is nearly

Figure 3.3. Longmen

(4): (25) Yaofang Grotto,
(26) Guyang Grotto, (27)
Huoshao Grotto, (28)
Huangfu Grotto. Adapted
from map in Rymon sek
kutsu, ed. Longmen wenwu
baoguansuo and Beijing
daxue kaoguxi, endpaper.

thirty meters above the base of the cliff, which makes it

the highest Northern Wei grotto (figure 3.3). Work higher
on the cliff face meant more difficulty and danger for the
workers, making the project more expensive in terms
of time, lives, and materiel. The Binyang grottoes were
started too high on the cliff face, at about sixty-four meters,
and later begun again at the more feasible height of about
twenty meters. Since the ceiling is ten meters higher than
the floor, the height for cutting Huoshao Grotto (starting
at the ceiling) would have been almost forty meters. It
would appear the goal was to make the grotto the highest
one on the cliff, which is rather like building a pagoda that
was the tallest ever seen.
The most unusual aspect of this grotto is the huge faade,
which is very eye-catching from the vantage point of the
river or the eastern hills. The design around the entryway
arch is unique: riding on dragons amidst flowing clouds
are the Queen Mother of the West (Xiwangmu), wearing her distinctive crown, and the King Father of the East
(Dongwanggong) (figure 3.4).87 At the head of the Later
Han dynasty pantheon of native Chinese deities, the
Queen Mother of the West and the King Father of the East
dwell in the land of the immortals. Paired to represent yin
and yang, they are most commonly encountered in traditional Later Han funerary contexts, on funerary shrines or

bronze mirrors placed in tombs.88 This kind of immortality imagery entered the Northern Wei artistic repertory
in a mortuary context also, and dragon-riding immortals
were depicted on Northern Wei sarcophagi placed in the
royal tombs constructed in the Mang Mountains, north
of Luoyang.89
As the unique appearance of the Queen Mother of the
West and the King Father of the East at Longmen, the imagery must have been highly significant to the donor. Since
these immortals are not part of the Buddhist pantheon but
belong to native Chinese mortuary belief, their presence
suggests the patron was a Han Chinese person who well
understood the funerary connotations of this imagery and
used it to signal that the project was dedicated to a deceased relative. In 517, the empress dowagers father was
still living, but her mother had died in 502. As soon as she
was made regent in 515, she granted her mother the posthumous title of Lady of Jingzhao Commandery and resettled ten households to maintain her tomb, while in 518, she
changed her mothers title to Grand Duchess of Qin and
enlarged the grounds of her tomb, setting up watchtowers,
steles, and columns in the manner of the spirit roads of
royal tombs.90 Lady Huangfu was granted a posthumous
epithet as if she had been an empress, and thirty households were moved to her tomb to provide maintenance and
r h e t o r i c o f e x p e n d i t u r e | 65

Figure 3.4. Queen Mother of the West and King Father of the East, faade, Huoshao Grotto. Photo, the author, 2004.

sacrifices. In line with these posthumous benefices created

within the native Chinese tradition and the building of
the Grand Duchess of Qin Monastery, I propose that the
imagery of the Queen Mother of the West and the King
Father of the East indicates that Huoshao Grotto was also
constructed for her posthumous benefit. Moreover, it was
likely intended also to be a public monument, since the
bold design would have been immediately legible to any
contemporaneous viewer, its immortality imagery signaling the grottos purpose as a funerary monument.
Inscriptions on intrusive shrines in Huoshao Grotto
also suggest it was the empress dowagers grotto, by their
absence and by their presence. The earliest shrines were
added only during the years she was out of power. In 520,
her son reached the age of ten, the legal age to rule in his
own right, and the retirement of his regent mother was expected. All signs, however, indicated she had no intention
of doing so. She was at that time coregent with her lover
Yuan Yi (486520), Prince of Qinghe, but Yuan Cha, who
was married to her sister, set himself up as coregent with
Yuan Yong, Prince of Gaoyang, and Liu Teng locked the
empress dowager in the northern palace to keep her from
contact with her son.91 After Lius death in 523, however,
Yuan Cha grew lax. The empress dowager pleaded for an
audience with her son on the pretext of getting his permission to enter a convent on nearby Mount Song. Yuan Yong
then invited her and the emperor to his private residence,
where they plotted to trick Yuan Cha into relinquishing his
military positions. After Yuan Cha was further stripped of
66 | r h e t o r i c o f e x p e n d i t u r e

his civilian positions, his brother threatened to revolt, and

Cha was ordered to commit suicide. Empress Dowager Hu
then resumed the regency on May 24, 525.
Huoshao Grotto has no intrusive shrines dated to before 520, suggesting the grotto was off-limits to anyone
but the empress and her guests, in the same manner as
the Yongning Pagoda, until her fall from power in 520.
Shortly thereafter, the sculptors began adding intrusive
niches to the open space on its walls. These smaller shrines
inside the grotto are mostly in ruins, too, but some of the
inscriptions have survived. Seven of them have dated inscriptions, which all fall between 522 and May 16, 525.92 No
more were added after she returned to power on May 24,
525, until after her death in 528.93
A final connection to Empress Dowager Hu within
Huoshao Grotto is a large shrine on the west wall with an
inscription that reads:
In the [three illegible characters] year, the seventh month, the
[illegible character]teenth day, the Pure and Faithful Woman
and Buddhist disciple Hu Zhi[illegible character], Consort
of the Prince [of Qinghe, reverently] made one [kyamuni]
image. I pray that the state [will prosper] without limit and
there be security and peace within the four seas [and that all
sentient beings have] eternal joy.
Yuan Shanjian serves the Buddha.
Yuan Jingsun serves the Buddha.
[Yuan?] Zhonghua serves the Buddha.94 (3O)

This laywoman donor was a member of the empress

dowagers paternal clan whose identity is made clear by
the name of one of the worshipers listed: Yuan Shanjian.
This boy would have a short and harrowing life as the
puppet Emperor Xiaojing of the Eastern Wei (523551, r.
534550).95 The use of his personal name in the inscription
indicates the shrine was produced sometime between his
birth in 523 and his elevation to the Wei throne in 534. His
father was Yuan Dan (d. 536), who had succeeded his father Yi as Prince of Qinghe, and his mother was Hu Zhi(?),
a daughter of Hu Ning, who was a paternal cousin of Empress Dowager Hu.96 That the empress dowagers niece
placed her shrine in Huoshao Grotto is one more piece
of evidence suggesting the grotto was sponsored by the
empress dowager herself.

Huangfu Grotto
One last external factor to consider is Huangfu Grotto,
dedicated by Lady Huangfus brother, the empress dowagers uncle. Located just a dozen meters to the south of
Huoshao Grotto, the grotto is not on an imperial scale,
but it has a complex, coherent plan and detailed, exquisite
carving that is ostentatious, assumes the imperial manner, and promotes the empress dowagers maternal clan.97
A very large relief stele carved just south of the entryway
bears the longest dedication at Longmen, over two thousand characters in length. Long inscriptions were usually
written by famous literati, and this one is no exception.98
The stele is now almost entirely effaced except that, by a
happy twist of fate, the date of 527 and the name of the author are preserved. Yuan Fan (475528) was the most celebrated literatus of the Xiaochang era (525528), employed
in high positions at court for his learning and literary ability. He was much admired by Empress Dowager Hu, who
once toasted him during a banquet in Hualin Park, and it
has been suggested that her influence was used to get Yuan
Fan to write the Huangfu Grotto inscription.99
The name of the patron survives only in the ruined
heading, the last three columns of which read Stele of the
Stone Grotto of Defender in Chief Lord Huangfu. Chavannes was the first to identify this man as Huangfu Du (d.
528), maternal uncle of Empress Dowager Hu.100 Further,
Sofukawa Hiroshi reads two of the first three columns as
Palace Attendant of the Wei and Minister of Works,

which were the posthumous titles given to Huangfu Ji, the

elder brother of Huangfu Du, who died in 521. Sofukawas
theory is that the grotto was produced by Huangfu Du but
was intended also to honor the late Huangfu Ji and that it
was, in effect, a family grotto.101
Huangfu Du was the most egregious example of Empress Dowager Hus inappropriate promotion of her family members.102 On her initial accession to power, he was
granted the lofty positions of Left Vice Director of the Department of State Affairs and Left General of the Guards.
When she was immured in 520, Yuan Cha attempted to
send Huangfu Du out to a provincial post, but so obstinately did he refuse that he was simply allowed to stay in
the capital, without position. When the empress dowager
regained power in 525, he was again crowned with such
sinecure posts as Minister of Works, General of the Palace
Guard and Palace Attendant. Aware of Huangfus wrath
over his attempt to send him to the provinces, Yuan Cha
actually bribed Huangfu and his wife Lady Chen not to
assassinate him. Huangfu continued to pester his niece for
greater honors and positions, particularly those with the
greatest potential for graft. She knew him to be incompetent yet was unwilling to refuse a family member. By 527,
he was at the height of his wealth and influence.
The faade of Huangfu Grotto has an ornate design,
with a dragon-arch lintel and a pair of gigantic gandhar
vas playing a four-stringed crookneck pipa and a transverse flute under an imitation roof, complete with carved
eaves, roof tiles, acroteria, and a colossal bird perched on
the ridgepole. As with Huoshao Grotto, the faade looks
like a funerary shrine and projects the aura of a Chinese
mortuary monument. Inside, the design of Huangfu
Grotto is so similar to that of Binyang Central as to suggest a deliberate imitation. The ceiling has flying gandhar
vas playing musical instruments surrounding a central
lotus, while the floor is carved with a pathway leading to
the altar, flanked by rows of lotus flowers. The main program is also the Buddhas of the Three Periods, although
it is important to note that the side-wall Buddhas are depicted as specific seated deities, rather than as the nonspecific standing Buddhas of Binyang Central. As in Binyang
Central, the west-wall Buddha is kyamuni, the Buddha
of the Present (figure 3.5). The Buddha of the Past, however, is specifically Prabhtaratna, identifiable by his representation within the standard pairing of kyamuni and
r h e t o r i c o f e x p e n d i t u r e | 67

Figure 3.5. West wall,

Huangfu Grotto, 527.
From Zhongguo shiku
diaosu quanji, v. 4:
Longmen, ed. Wen
Yucheng, pl. 71.

Prabhtaratna, which is further reinforced by the Seven

Buddhas of the Past overhead. These two are flanked by a
figure of Brahm (figure 3.6), likely intended to echo the
same figure on the entryway jambs of Binyang Central.103
The south-wall figure is a large seated bodhisattva, with
elaborate scarves, jewelry, and a crown, seated on an altar
flanked by lions. His bare right foot dangles slightly over
the cascading draperies that spill in front of the altar, as if
it had just been pulled up from a cross-ankled position.104
This blend of attributes could have been meant to encompass Maitreyas transformation from the bodhisattva now
in Tus.ita Heaven to the Buddha of the Future on earth.
Nevertheless, although the iconographic specificity of the
figures may have aided the viewer in identifying them as
the Buddhas of the Past, Present, and Future, such specificity interrupted the grottos imitation of Binyang Central.
This may explain the presence of the two standing Buddha
figures flanking the entryway inside, each with hands in
abhaya and varada mudrs, similar to the standing sidewall Buddhas in Binyang Central. Perhaps the designer
added them in order to have all elements of the Binyang
Central program present.
Huangfu Grotto also shares with Binyang Central sculp68 | r h e t o r i c o f e x p e n d i t u r e

tural indicators of ritual worship performance. One of

the most striking components of the grottos program is
the large pair of pensive prince (siwei taizi) figures on the
altar. Dressed as bodhisattvas, they sit with one ankle resting on the opposite knee and one hand held to the cheek,
under gingko trees arching overhead. Beside the northwall pensive prince illustrated here (see figure 3.6) is a
relief carving of a large lotus plant in a vase, its broad leaves
seen from the side. The lotus flowers are in all stages of
bloom, from bud to blossom to seedpod, and a soul being
reborn in paradise rises from the top flower. I suspect these
two figures had a special significance in terms of worship
offered before the statuary in the grotto.
Though pensive bodhisattvas in conjunction with Maitreya bodhisattva can represent the inhabitants of the Tus.ita Heaven who wait with Maitreya for his advent on earth,
since these figures flank an image of kyamuni, it is more
likely they represent the pensive Prince Siddhrtha.105 By
comparison with another pair of such figures in a contemporaneous kyamuni shrine in Lianhua Grotto, we can
identify these two figures as Siddhrtha in the First Meditation and Siddhrtha receiving the offering of a bowl of
food. In the scene of the First Meditation, Siddhrtha is

Figure 3.6. Pensive prince with lotus flowers and worshiping Brahm, northwest corner, Huangfu Grotto, 527. From
Zhongguo shiku diaosu quanji, v. 4: Longmen, ed. Wen
Yucheng, pl. 75.

seated in the pensive pose under a gingko tree as the

sun sets into a range of mountains in the distance (figure 3.7).106 Kneeling before the prince is his father, King
uddhodana, wearing the robes and pearl-fringe crown
of a Chinese ruler, who raises his hands in worship. Behind him stand four attendants in Chinese robes, holding the accouterments of Chinese royalty: an umbrella, a
large feather fan, a banner, and a scepter or weapon. This
is the final scene of the story, in which Prince Siddhrtha
went with his father the king to the annual plowing ceremony.107 Moved to compassion by seeing the onerous toil

of the ox and the plowman, the young man further observed that as the soil was turned up, the exposed insects
were swiftly eaten by birds. Filled with pity for the misery
of living beings, the prince began to meditate under the
shade of a jambu tree. All day, while the sun crossed the
sky, the shade of the jambu tree miraculously held still, to
protect him from the burning rays of the sun. At the end
of the day, his father found him still under the tree, and
recognizing that a miracle had taken place, uddhodana
knelt in worship before his son.
In the matching scene in the upper right spandrel of the
shrine, a pensive Siddhrtha sits under a gingko tree next
to which is a vase holding a lotus plant with flowers (figure
3.8).108 Facing the seated prince is an aristocrat in a tall
cap, kneeling in front of the prince, making an offering of
a large bowl. Behind the nobleman stand three attendants.
The first, who wears Chinese robes, holds an umbrella over
the head of his master, while the other two, in northern
costume with trousers, hoist a huge feather fan and a large
axe. The offering of a bowl of food was an event related
to the second and final meditation of Siddhrtha.109 After
his long years as an ascetic, Siddhrtha decided to eat one
more meal to gain the strength necessary to enter the final
meditation that would result in his enlightenment. Two
merchants offered him a meal, but he could not accept it,
since it was not offered in a begging bowl. Next, the Four
Heavenly Kings offered him food, but he could not accept
four bowls, so he magically joined them into one. In this
representation in Lianhua Grotto, the Indian merchants
and the heavenly kings were replaced by the figure of a
Northern Wei aristocrat.
The Huangfu Grotto pensive prince figures have the
gingko tree and the vase of lotus flowers of the meditation
scenes in the Lianhua Grotto shrine, but they lack the worshiping emperor and aristocrats. I suggest that the missing
figure of the royal worshiper was filled by Huangfu Du
himself, as he came to worship in his grotto. In addition to
playing the imperial role in offering obeisance to the Buddhas of the Three Periods, as Emperor Xuanwu had done
in Binyang Central, playing the role of King uddhodana
as the Chinese emperor in offering worship before the
pensive prince figures would surely have appealed to
Huangfu Dus insatiable desire for self-aggrandizement.
As a further imitation of Binyang Central, worshiper
processions are carved under the two side wall niches.
r h e t o r i c o f e x p e n d i t u r e | 69

Figure 3.7. First

Meditation, Lianhua
Grotto, late Northern
Wei. Ink rubbing. From
Liu Jinglong, ed., Lianhua
dong: Longmen shiku di
712 ku, fig. 59.

Under the south wall niche, three adult men holding lotus
flowers face the entrance of the grotto (figure 3.9). Walking behind the now-broken image of a monk, the leading male is the tallest, while the second figure is smaller,
and the third smaller yet. According to Gu Yanfang of the
Longmen Research Academy, the first figure represents
Huangfu Du, while the other two are the sons of the late
Huangfu Ji: Huangfu Zixi, whom Huangfu Du raised as
his own son, and Huangfu Yong.110 The long faces and
high cheekbones of these men are a different facial type
than the rounded youthful faces of the emperor and his
courtiers in the Binyang Central emperor procession, although likely no less idealized. Huangfu Du was probably
in his fifties in 527, so he would not have been represented
with the full face of the late Emperor Xiaowen, who died
at thirty-three, but rather with the more gaunt face of age.
The long head may be an idealized representation, however. To the people of the Northern Wei period, an elongated head was considered a sign of good health and sound
pedigree, so perhaps the sculptors blessed the patrons with
physiognomies they did not actually possess.111
70 | r h e t o r i c o f e x p e n d i t u r e

Facing the Huangfu men on the south wall is a nun

leading a procession of two adult women holding lotuses,
accompanied by servants bearing fans. The two processions converge on a half-length caryatid guardian figure
that holds up a large tray containing lotus flowers and a
jewel. Gu Yanfang has identified them as representing
Lady Chen and the other women of the Huangfu household. We know who these women were because, two years
earlier, their female spiritual advisors had sponsored a
project in Lianhua Grotto on their behalf. The dedication
reads:
The nuns of Zhongming Convent, Daoyang, Daoji, and Daobao, relying on the vaipulya (Mahyna teaching) to follow
the Way, vowed to make the Thousand Buddhas of the Present
Kalpa.112 Further we pray (on behalf of) Minister of Works
Huangfu Du and Lady Chen, Lady Xiong, Lady Jian, Lady
Liu, and all the concubines and the Consort of the Prince of
Beihai, ne Fan, that reverently, for the emperor and the empress dowager, all teachers of distant kalpas, seven generations of ancestors, living parents, living dependents, Dharma

Figure 3.8. The Offering of

the Bowl of Food, Lianhua
Grotto, late Northern Wei.
Ink rubbing. From Liu Jing
long, ed., Lianhua dong: Long
men shiku di 712 ku, fig. 60.

realms of all directions, and those born in the path of the

heavens, in rebirth after rebirth, generation after generation,
may they serve the Thousand Buddhas of the Present Kalpa,
and whether they have a mind for good or for evil, at the three
assemblies of Maitreya, we pray they may ascend at the head
of the first group and at once become Buddhas. Completed
on the thirteenth day of the eighth month of the inaugural
year of the Xiaochang era of the Great Wei (September 15,
525).113 (3P)

In the north-wall procession in Huangfu Grotto, three

nuns place incense in a censer, while behind them are a
mature woman and a young couple, holding lotus flowers,
along with several attendant servants (figure 3.10).114 In
Gu Yanfangs view, the mature woman represents Empress
Dowager Hu, who was around thirty years of age in 527,
while the young man would be Emperor Xiaoming, aged
seventeen.115 The young woman was probably his principal consort, a daughter of the empress dowagers cousin
Hu Sheng, selected by the empress to consolidate power

within the family.116 Gu Yanfang has also argued that

the nun next to the empress dowager represents her aunt
ne Hu, the Buddhist nun who helped her enter the palace.117 If these identifications are correct, and Huangfu Du
did represent his own family together with the empress
dowagers family, it reinforces my notion that the nearby
colossal grotto now called Huoshao was produced by his
niece. Moreover, that his grotto honors his late brother
and transfers merit to his nephews also accords with my
theory that the empress sponsored Huoshao Grotto to
honor her late mother, their sister.

Monasteries in Ashes
After the empress dowager resumed the regency in 525,
it became clear to all that her only desire was to retain
power for herself.118 She surrounded herself with favorites,
while the emperors intimates, by contrast, were quickly
murdered. By 528, the emperor was a man of eighteen,
frustrated by his mothers illegal hold on power and her
r h e t o r i c o f e x p e n d i t u r e | 71

Figure 3.9. Worshiper

procession, south wall,
Huangfu Grotto, 527.
From Zhongguo shiku
diaosu quanji, v. 4:
Longmen, ed. Wen
Yucheng, pl. 73.

sycophantic Chinese advisors. Early in the spring, he sent

a secret order to the fearsome northwestern general Erzhu
Rong (492530) to bring his cavalry to liberate him and
imprison his mother, but she got wind of the order, and
the young emperor died suddenly. The next day, the empress dowager put an infant child of the emperor on the
throne in order to calm the populace, only to reveal the
following day that the child was actually a girl and that
a new heir would have to be found. She then enthroned a
boy of three, a great-grandson of Emperor Xiaowen.
Erzhu Rongs horsemen soon reached the Yellow River.
He and his advisors selected Yuan Ziyou (506530), the
son of the Prince of Pengcheng, to rule. Hearing that a new
emperor had been enthroned, the officials in charge of the
fortifications north of the river opened the gates, and when
this news was learned in Luoyang, the empress dowagers
favorites began to slip away in the night. Summoning the
women of the rear palace, the empress dowager ordered
them all to become nuns. She also cut her own hair.
72 | r h e t o r i c o f e x p e n d i t u r e

Erzhus cavalry crossed the river and waited on the

plain at Heyin, just beyond the Mang Mountains north
of the capital. On May 16, Erzhu ordered the metropolitan
officials out to Heyin to greet the new emperor. When they
arrived, bearing the imperial seals to offer him and accompanied by a group of Buddhist monks, they were told
to gather in order to offer sacrifices to Heaven. As they did,
the ranks of armored horsemen closed around them, and
they were harangued for causing disorder throughout the
realm and blamed for the violent death of the emperor.
Then the mounted soldiers cut them down. Over two thousand people died at Heyin, including most of the Northern
Wei aristocracy. Erzhu sent riders into the capital to seize
the empress dowager and the child pretender and bring
them to Heyin. The empress dowager pleaded with Erzhu
at length, but he merely whisked off his sleeve and rose.
She and the child were drowned in the Yellow River.
The empress dowagers awesome works scarcely outlasted her. Six years later, the Yongning Pagoda went up in

Figure 3.10.
Worshiper procession, north
wall, Huangfu
Grotto, 527. From
Zhongguo shiku
diaosu quanji, v.
4: Longmen, ed.
Wen Yucheng,
pl. 72.

flames, apparently struck by lightning. In Yang Xuanzhis

account:
In the second month of the third year of the Yongxi era
(March 534), the (Yonging) pagoda was destroyed by fire.
Emperor (Xiaowu, r. 532534) ascended the Cloud-Breaching Tower to watch the blaze. He dispatched Yuan Baoju,
Prince of Nanyang, and Zhangsun Zhi, the Overseer of the
Department of State Affairs, with a thousand men of the Forest of Plumes Guard to fight the fire. Everyone was so saddened that they went away in tears. The fire had started in
the eighth story, and by dawn it was raging. The sky was dark
with thunder clouds, and sleet and snow were falling. The
common people and the monks and lay believers all came to
see the fire, and the sound of wailing shook the capital. Three
monks hurled themselves into the conflagration and died.
The fire lasted three months before going out. It went into the
ground, seeking the foundation piles, and smoke wafted out
for a whole year.119

In 534, the strongman Gao Huan, who controlled the

puppet Wei emperor, the young son of the late empress
dowagers niece, ordered the capital moved north to the
city of Ye and gave the half million residents of Luoyang
three days to evacuate. The only people left behind were
the monks and nuns of the citys four hundred monasteries. A few months later, thousands of corve laborers

entered Luoyang to strip the palaces of building materials, which were transported to build the Eastern Wei capital at Ye. In 538, the rebel general Hou Jing burned what
remained of the government buildings and residences of
Luoyang. Finally, even the Jinyong Citadel was destroyed
in the struggle between Eastern Wei (534550) and Western Wei (535556) forces.
In 547, when Yang Xuanzhi passed through Luoyang on
government business, he described it as follows:
The outer and inner city walls lay in ruins, palaces were
toppled, temples and monasteries were in ashes, and pagodas were no more than deserted graves. Walls were covered
with wild vines, and streets were dotted with thorny bushes.
Wild beasts lived under deserted stairways, and mountain
birds nested in courtyard trees. Wandering youngsters and
cowherds walked back and forth through the intersections
of the city, while farmers and ploughmen grew crops on the
grounds where palace towers once stood.120

A few intrusive shrines were added to Huoshao Grotto

in the mid-seventh century. Were they added to a grotto
that was already in ruins? One theory holds that this
grotto was destroyed during the holocaust that took place
in 955, when Emperor Shizong (r. 954959) of the Later
Zhou ordered an official persecution of the Buddhist establishment. For three days, the skies over Luoyang were red,
r h e t o r i c o f e x p e n d i t u r e | 73

as wooden monastery buildings went up in flames, and it

was said there was much destruction of the statuary out at
Longmen.121 This theory, however, does not explain why
this particular grotto was destroyed, when more accessible grottoes, such as the Binyang trio, were not harmed.
Another theory holds that it was deliberately demolished
when the Western Wei took control of the Luoyang area
in 538. Angered perhaps by an ostentatious grotto sponsored by the woman who had lost the dynasty, which

74 | r h e t o r i c o f e x p e n d i t u r e

also contained a shrine donated by the mother of the puppet ruler of the opposing Eastern Wei, the Western Wei
troops may have smashed up all the statuary.122 Perhaps,
less dramatically, the carved surfaces of the grotto simply
exfoliated slowly over the centuries, quietly shattered by
the subtle expansion and contraction of the damp limestone. However it happened, the only legible remains of
the original program inside this chapel are the bare feet
of bodhisattvas.

Four The Politics of Filial Piety

At the time of the semblance dharma age...there will be sentient beings who will see other ancient reliquaries, images, and
scriptures that are ramshackle or ruined, but will be unwilling to repair them. Then they will say: These were not built by my
ancestors. What is the use of fixing them? I would much rather build a new one myself. Son of good family! It is better that
sentient beings repair old ones than build new onesthe merit [of the former] is extremely great.
Xiangfa jueyi jing, mid-sixth century1

ust south of the entryway to Binyang Central

Grotto is a gigantic Northern Wei relief stele. In
all likelihood, it was originally carved to bear
Emperor Xuanwus dedication of the Binyang

grottoes to his late parents, but now it bears the
abraded remains of an early Tang dynasty (618907) inscription titled The Stele for the Yique Buddha Shrine
(see figure 2.2 above).2 The author was Cen Wenben (595
645), a historian, memorialist, and close advisor to Emperor Taizong (r. 626649), who was known for his moral
uprightness and extreme frugality.3 Despite Cens skill
with language, or perhaps because of it, the scope of the
work dedicated and the real motivation of its donor remain ambiguous.
The inscription opens with an elaborate panegyric to
the superiority of the Buddhist doctrine, then elides into a
rationale for image-making:
Nevertheless, when the merit (of the Buddha) attained to perfection beneath the tree of enlightenment, this was not the
commencement of the refinement of gold (the final product of
the alchemist). When the traces (of the Buddha) disappeared
under the steadfast grove (of sla trees, when he attained
nirvn.a), how could this be the end signified by the breaking
of a record tally? When his merit attained perfection, there
followed beneficent rules written to transmit his precepts (i.e.,
the scriptures were written). When his traces disappeared, we
made use of the divine countenance to represent his excellence (i.e., icons were produced). Thus, gold and jade (statues)
were carved to enlarge his transformative power in Kapila-

vastu (capital of the state ruled by the kya clan), and the
reds and blues (i.e., painting) are employed to manifest his
goodness in Cnasthna (China). Ever unceasing! The power
of their expediency is unsurpassed! Ever majestic! The significance of their fecundity is great! (4A)

The Beneficiary
The inscription follows with a long paean to the virtues of
the late empress Zhangsun. The companion of Emperor
Taizongs youth, she was a learned woman with whom he
enjoyed discussing literature and history. Although Cen
Wenbens language is high-flown, his description of her
selfless character accords with the image given in her biographies in the Tang dynastic histories.4 The inscription
continues:
The Cultured and Virtuous Empress had a Way higher than
the star Xuanyuan and a Virtue that poured out over the
earth. Her kind saintliness was manifested without limits; her
gentle clarity reached to the heavens. (The collapse of Mount)
Shalu multiplied her blessings.5 (The daughter of the Prince
of) Tushan issued (her) an auspicious omen.6 She helped
the family and the state, inheriting the good renown (of the
mother of the emperor) and assisting the imperial enterprise.7
She practiced well the feminine skills, and, as principal wife,
she collaborated with the emperor in his rule. In seeking out
worthy men (for office), she demonstrated (an intelligence) as
bright as the two orbs (of the sun and moon), and in reaching
out to the people, she was commended for a virtue that was

generous and capable of supporting them (like the earth).8

Her loyal plans were manifest in the quarters of the palace,
while her filial respect was displayed in the sacrifices to the
ancestors.
Such was the influence exercised by her utter sincerity that
she rendered the dark moon clear in the heavens. Such was
the extent of her gentleness that she could dispel the troubles
and confusions of the world. Her heart was always engaged
(in helping with) the sorrows and toil (of others). Her conduct was ever thrifty and moderate. The education she received from her mothers womb was classical, and she was
thoroughly crowned by the Three Dynasties. The governance
of the womens quarters was orderly, and the palace women
were more splendid than in the time of the two nan.9 Disdaining embellishments of brocade and embroidery, she was
comfortable in plain silk. Scorning jewelry of pearl and jade,
it was her intent never to wear valuable ornaments. The nine
generations of her relatives were thereby increased in their
closeness, and the myriad states were thereby able to attain
the Way.
She had studied a great many drawings and writings, and
she took pleasure in the arts and literature. She meditated
on the purity and calm extolled by Huangdi and Laozi, and
she had a deep knowledge of the vast (doctrine) of the Book
of Odes and the Book of History. The abundance of the virtues she established matched in extent the heavens and the
earth, and the elegance of the words she established equaled
in brilliance the five planets. On the strength of the causes she
planted all along in her previous existences, in this (lifetime),
they bore fruitthe spirit of the woman on the bank of the
River Wei (the wife of King Wen of Zhou) descended on her
that she might understand the Four Noble Truths in order
to be cut off from future rebirths, and the traces of (the Han
imperial concubine of) Zhaoyang responded to her that she
might gallop with the three vehicles in order to be saved from
the bonds of existence.10 Therefore, throughout the land, she
showed (support for) the monasteries, covering them in gold
as Sudatta did with (Prince Jetas) Grove, and (from) high in
the air, she scattered flowers, where they leaped into appearance as at the stpa of Prabhtaratna.11 Her sincerity in highly
esteeming the four dhyna (heavens) (made us) take lightly
Queen Mallik (the pious wife of King Prasenajit of Kosala),
and her entering deeply into the eightfold canon (made us)
regard slightingly Queen rml (the learned daughter of
King Prasenajit and Queen Mallik).12 How could we suffice
76 | P O L I T I C S O F F I L I A L P I E T Y

it to say that, as one whose heart was prepared to be given (in

marriage) to depend as an ornament (to her husbands rule),
she surpassed the two women of the River Gui (the daughters
of the legendary ruler Yao, who were loyal to their husband
Shun), and as one who undertook to offer sacrifices to the
ancestors and to hand down substantial offspring, she was
superior to the four consorts of Gaoxin (the wives of the legendary ruler Ku, each of whom bore an illustrious son)? (4B)

In short, the late empress possessed all the traditional

feminine virtues and abilities. Kind and gentle, loyal and
filial, she was also a tireless and intelligent helpmeet to her
husband. Modest and thrifty, orderly and well educated,
she was not only learned in the arts and literature but was
well versed in the documents of Daoism, Confucianism,
and Buddhism. Her good deeds in previous lives came to
fruition in this existence, in which she compares favorably to the great women of the classical Three Dynasties in
China and the Indian Buddhist queens who were contemporaries of kyamuni. Lastly, her greatest achievement
was to give birth to several sons.
In 636, after months of nursing the emperor through an
illness, she fell ill herself, only to die that summer at the
age of thirty-six sui. With the posthumous title of Cultured
and Virtuous Empress, she was buried in Zhaoling, the
emperors mountain mausoleum northwest of Changan.
The emperor had a multistory tower built in the palace
garden, from which he could see Zhaoling, and he invited
his old friend and advisor Wei Zheng (580643) to climb
the tower to see it with him. Gently admonishing him to
ignore his personal pain for the sake of his rule, Wei said:
I think what Your Highness sees is Xianling (his fathers
tomb). If it were Zhaoling, surely I would see it, too. The
emperor wept, but he heeded the admonition and had the
tower taken down.13 At the beginning of the following
year, the emperor departed Changan for Luoyang.

The Donor
The next section of the inscription extols the attainments
of the sponsor. Despite reading one hundred chapters and
writing three essays every day, prince Li Tai (618652)
thought of his late mother continually, and the inscription
says he wished to show the pain in his heart in the same
way as the one who climbed the bare hill. This line alludes

to a poem in the Book of Odes in which a homesick young

soldier climbed a bare hill to look far off in the direction
where his mother lived, a reference designed to touch the
heartstrings of the emperor.14 As a result of his continual
longing for her, the prince determined to establish a memorial to his late mother. Cen Wenben then described
why Li Tai chose Longmen as the site:
He made an extensive search to find the ford (that would
allow him) to acknowledge the kindness (of his mother). He
reviewed all locations in order to choose the region where
the divine influences are concentrated. He considered that,
among all the sovereigns who have established a state, those
who had a grand plan ruled from the Central Region (Henan
Province). He further considered that the thousand Buddhas
who have taken form could not have attained enlightenment
in a borderland.15 It is this region of the three rivers (Yi, Luo,
and Huang) that is truly where the six directions of space are
gathered together. The royal city (of Luoyang) was established
in a strong strategic position, for this was the site where (the
Prince of) Qufu (the Duke of Zhou) planned to set up the
tripods. The pass on the Yi River (Longmen) is encircled by
countryside, for it was opened by Wenming (the legendary
Great Yu) to channel the waters that were submerging the
hills. Its lofty arches rise as high as the sky, its mountains so
precipitous that light cannot reach into them. Its deep forests attract hermits; its grottoes store (statues of) gold. The
mists born in the verdant valley are arrayed as canopies over
the rock chambers (of its grottoes), while the colored clouds
spreading over the red peaks lie like banners on the pine
gates (of its monasteries). The majestic base (of these mountains) confronts Mount Song and resembles the Snowy Peaks
(the Himlayas). The current (of the Yi River) flows into the
Virtuous River (the Yellow River) and resembles the River
Nairajan (that flows past Bodhgay). Certainly this place is
as famous among the religious as among the laity, a favorite
spot as much for men as for divinities. (4C)

Cen Wenben began his case for the site of Longmen

by arguing the virtues of the city of Luoyang. Traditional
ideas associated with Luoyang about ruling from the
center were joined with the idea that the enlightenment
of the Buddhas also took place in a central region. Tang
Chinese believers thought of the contemporaneous Indian
state of Magadha, where many of the holy sites of Buddhism were, as Central India (Zhong Tianzhu).16 Nearby

Longmen shares the geopolitical advantages of Luoyang,

yet it is also a numinous natural place, an appropriate setting for eremitic immortals and for Buddhist enlightenment. As his grand conclusion, Cen conflated the cliffs at
Longmen with the Himlayas and the Yi River with the
River Nairajan, relocalizing Indian sites of Buddhist
enlightenment into the heartland of China.

The Problem of the Project

The following section is the most important for understanding the exact nature of the project Li Tai undertook
at Longmen. It opens with an assertion of the great expense Li Tai bore and with the image of two clever and
tireless strategists of the Warring States period, whose exploits are offered as a flattering metaphor for Li Tais exertions in having this project executed for his late mother.
Following that is a description, of a sort, of what work was
actually done:
The prince then poured out his heart to demonstrate his love of
charity, and opening his treasury, he was liberal with tortoise
shells and cowries. (Lu) Ban, in the state of Chu, expended his
ingenuity, even as (Mo) Di, in the state of Song, gave free rein
to his cleverness.17 Dividing the sheer walls to the outer edge
of the (constellation) Jade Cord, the sacred shrines are ranged
like stars. Carved in the [dark?] stone beyond the moonlight,
the venerable visage rises like the moon. Where the old remained, (Li Tai) added to its magnificence; where the new was
made, it reached the utmost in marvelousness. The flow of
brilliance from the white tuft (the rn between the Buddhas
eyes) eclipses the beauty of the lotus flower. The spread of light
from his dark blue hair distinguishes his sandalwood grove
(monastery) companions. This is why, when one looks closely
at the precious special marks (laks.an.a), (the statue) is as majestic as if the entire person of the Buddha (were present).
When one sees from afar its divine light, it is as clear as his
shadow left behind (in the cave at Nagarahra). (Creating) derision for the inferior quality of carved jade and scorn for the
imperfect art of engraved sandalwood, (this Buddha image) is
brilliant as the sun, surpassing the solar orb resplendent in the
Long River (the Milky Way), and lofty as a mountain, exceeding the golden Mount (Sumeru) shining on the Great Valley
(the oceans). Gr.dhrakt. a lies before your eyes; Nagarahra
can be imagined.
P O L I T I C S O F F I L I A L P I E T Y | 77

Precious flowers rain down auspicious blessings, hiding

the colors of the five clouds. Heavenly musicians strike up
their music, competing with the sound of the myriad pipes
(of nature). Thus it is that gazing on the marvels of (this image
made to house) the dharmakya, the eight difficult (conditions under which to see a Buddha) are ended, and hearing the sound of the supreme enlightenment (of scriptures
chanted in this grotto), the six devalokas (the heavens above
Mount Sumeru) may be ascended. If this is not (an image of)
He who is correct and straight, to what can it be compared?
Benevolently, (Li Tai) established this Buddhist work in order
to reciprocate the kindness of (his mothers) upbringing. Generously, (Li Tai) constructed this field of blessing in order to
aid the cause of bodhi. If this is not one who is pure and filial,
to whom can he be compared? (4D)

The merit generated by worship in this place will be

transferred to the soul of the late empress Zhangsun, and
the credit for this monumental act of giving goes to Li Tai,
whose lavish expenditure reveals his piety, but the question remains: what place is being described? Certain key
phrases help identify the grotto. The first is: Dividing the
sheer walls to the outer edge of the (constellation) Jade
Cord, the sacred shrines are ranged like stars. Carved in
the [dark?] stone beyond the moonlight, the venerable visage rises like the moon. The first sentence describes grotto
walls that have been carved into smaller intrusive shrines,
which extend from the floor to a height on the wall marked
with a line that is euphemistically called the Jade Cord, a
constellation, while the second indicates that the face of
the main Buddha figure is far over the head of the viewer,
like the moon in the sky. This must be a description of a
large grotto, since both the extent of the shrines and the
face of the statue are described as being high overhead,
like celestial bodies. Another key phrase is Where the
old remained, (Li Tai) added to its magnificence; where
the new was made, it reached the utmost in marvelousness. These lines suggest Li Tai refurbished sculpture
made in an earlier dynasty, perhaps repairing it, or simply
repainting and regilding it, while he also ordered some
new sculpting, so the grotto in question should contain
both pre-Tang and early-Tang sculpture. While this may
have made for a quicker and less expensive project, the
indigenous scripture quoted at the beginning of this chapter reveals that such an act of refurbishment was actually
78 | P O L I T I C S O F F I L I A L P I E T Y

credited with even greater merit than an original venture.

The inscription also says: The flow of brilliance from the
white tuft (the rn between the Buddhas eyes) eclipses
the beauty of the lotus flower. The spread of light from his
dark blue hair distinguishes his sandalwood grove (monastery) companions. This special emphasis on the head
of the Buddha implies Li Tai felt especially proud of the
work done on it, and the way these lines follow directly
from the line about the marvelousness of the new carving suggests the Buddha head was the finest part of the
new. It may well have been the most expensive. The inscription describes the light shining from the rn and the
hair as brighter than the paint on the lotus flower carved
in the ceiling overhead and strong enough to illuminate
the figures of the monk disciples (his sandalwood grove
companions) flanking the Buddha, which suggests that
a costly jewel was set into the statue for the rn and the
hair was painted with an expensive pigment such as lapis
lazuli. Further descriptive lines describe a ceiling with
a central lotus flower, surrounded by swirling clouds, in
which flying gandharvas play musical instruments: Precious flowers rain down auspicious blessings, hiding the
colors of the five clouds. Heavenly musicians strike up
their music, competing with the sound of the myriad
pipes (of nature). In sum, the inscription identifies a large
grotto with flowers, clouds, and celestial musicians in the
ceiling and many intrusive shrines cut to a great height on
the walls, in which some carving had already been completed and to which more carving was added, especially
on the head of the main Buddha.
In the early twentieth century, the Japanese scholars
who first surveyed and studied the Longmen grottoes believed Li Tais inscription referred to Qianxisi Grotto.18
Since it lies some thirty meters to the north, however, this
idea is not persuasive (figure 4.1). Further, as Zhang Ruoyu
has since pointed out, the interior of Qianxisi Grotto does
not match the descriptions given in Li Tais inscription.19
The grotto has no ceiling decoration, its walls have no intrusive shrines, and it also lacks any carving done in earlier dynasties. I might add that the main Buddha figure
does not have a circular indentation carved between the
eyes to hold a precious stone for the rn.
Zhang Ruoyu proposed that the inscription refers to
Binyang South and Binyang Central grottoes, arguing that
precious flowers and heavenly musicians refer to the

Figure 4.1. Longmen (1): (1) Qianxisi, (2) Binyang North, (3) Binyang Central, (4) Stele for the Yique Buddha Shrine, (5) Binyang
South, (6) Grotto 305 in King Udayana Buddha shrine area, (7) Madame Hans Grotto (no. 331), (8) Jingshan Monastery Grotto
(no. 403), (9) Cliff-Carved Three Buddhas. Adapted from map in Rymon sekkutsu, ed. Longmen wenwu baoguansuo and Beijing
daxue kaoguxi, endpaper.

lotus flowers and gandharvas carved into the ceilings of

both Binyang South and Binyang Central grottoes in the
Northern Wei. He also translated the line that Chavannes
read as Gr.dhrakt.a est devant nos yeux; Nagarahra peut
tre rpresente in a different way. Zhang read qishe as
gijjhas, or vultures, instead of Gr.dhrakt.a (Vulture Peak),
and najie as nagas, or snakes, not as an abbreviation for
Nagarahra, the place of the famous dragon cave containing the image of the Buddhas shadow. Zhang read these
lines as Gijjhas are there to be seen; nagas can be envisaged and interpreted gijjhas and nagas, or vultures and
snakes, as the birds and dragons involved with the Northern Wei spirit king figures carved at the base of the east
walls in both Binyang South and Binyang Central.
I think Chavannes reading of Gr.dhrakt.a and Nagara
hra is accurate. The lines in question come at the end of
a long description of the statue that is intended to impress
the viewer with the realism and magnificence of the main
Buddha statue. The idea is that the statue is so convincing that the viewer could imagine he was in the presence
of kyamuni himself, preaching at Vulture Peak, or seeing an image made from the person of the Buddha, as the
shadow image in the cave at Nagarahra was universally
believed to be. It would contravene the structure of Cen
Wenbens essay to devolve suddenly from a description of

the grand Buddha image to mention the lowly carvings of

nature spirits at the base of the wall.
Since Binyang South and Binyang Central grottoes
seemed to be a pair, on the evidence of their matching
ceilings and spirit king images, Zhang interpreted the
crucial lines Where the old remained, (Li Tai) added to
its magnificence; where the new was made, it reached the
utmost in marvelousness as referring to Binyang South
and Binyang Central. The old meant the Northern Wei
Binyang Central, which Li Tai had repaired, repainted,
and regilded, to add to its magnificence, while the
new meant Binyang South, the grotto left incomplete at
Liu Tengs death in 523, which Li Tai had finished in the
early Tang style. In Zhangs interpretation, Li Tais project
actually resulted in a pair of grottoes.20
In my opinion, Li Tais inscription refers only to Binyang South. First, there was no mention of two grottoes,
and surely such an ambitious politician would want recognition for as large a project as possible. For example,
he seems to claim credit for the intrusive shrines on the
side walls, when the inscriptions on them plainly reveal
they were sponsored by other people. Second, the descriptions uniquely match Binyang South. The line Dividing
the sheer walls to the outer edge of the (constellation)
Jade Cord, the sacred shrines are ranged like stars deP O L I T I C S O F F I L I A L P I E T Y | 79

Figure 4.2. South wall shrines, Binyang

South Grotto. From Zhang Naizhu,
Longmen fojiao zaoxiang, pl. 172.

picts the situation only in Binyang South. The side walls

of that grotto are carved into hundreds of smaller intrusive shrines, with over 160 votive inscriptions (figure 4.2).
Many were dedicated by Tais friends and relatives in 641,
including shrines by his sister, the Yuzhang princess, and
Cen Wenben, the author of his inscription.21 They fill the
walls up to the line demarcated by the edge of the canopy
carved into the ceiling in the Northern Wei, which the
inscription euphemistically called by the name of a constellation, the Jade Cord. Binyang Central, by contrast, has
only two dozen minor intrusive carvings, none of them
dated to 641. Lastly, the name of the project also suggests it
was Binyang South alone. According to its inscription, the
name of Li Tais project was the Yique Buddha Shrine.
A very similar name is seen inside Binyang South itself, in
80 | P O L I T I C S O F F I L I A L P I E T Y

the dedication for a shrine added to the north wall in 646.

A man named Han Wenya and his wife parted with their
purified wealth and, in Yique Monastery, reverently had
made one shrine in stone.22 Binyang South was apparently called Yique Monastery or Yique Buddha Shrine,
while Binyang Central was probably still known by its old
Northern Wei name of Lingyansi. Therefore, I think the
old and new in Li Tais inscription were both found in
Binyang South.

Early Remains in Binyang South

If the inscription does refer to old Northern Wei sculpture and new work done in the early Tang, the grotto itself should contain both elements. Since the Northern Wei

Figure 4.3. Bodhisattva, south wall, completed 641, Binyang

South Grotto. From Longmen shiku, ed. Longmen baoguansuo
(1961), pl. 89.

sculpture was done as part of Emperor Xuanwus project

to make a matched pair of grottoes for his parents, it not
only should look Northern Wei in style but should match
the sculpture in Binyang Central, while any work ordered

by Li Tai, being produced over a hundred years later,

should be different in style. According to the archeological examination carried out by Wen Yucheng, the remains
of Northern Wei sculpture in Binyang South are in three
areas.23 One is the jeweled canopy carved in the ceiling,
which includes a central lotus surrounded by flying gand
harvas and kinnaras as in Binyang Central, bordered by
lotus petals and a pattern of triangular tassels. Another
comprises two of the spirit kings carved at the base of the
east (interior) wall: the mountain spirit king at the south
wall and the wind spirit king at the north wall. He considers the others to be Tang. The third is the low altar on the
floor in front of the main wall and two side walls on which
the figures stand.
I suspect the Buddha and bodhisattva figures were also
partly carved in the Northern Wei. The south-wall bodhisattva in Binyang South (figure 4.3) is virtually a perfect
match to the main-wall bodhisattvas in Binyang Central
(see figure 2.6), and the thick, squarish feet, the upwardtapering triangular form of the figure, the double strand of
jewels, the necklace, the shoulder scarves, and the gestures
of the hands are all the same. The north-wall bodhisattva
in Binyang South is not an exact match to the south-wall
bodhisattva in the details of its jewelry, but the form of the
figure, the distinctive feet, the arrangement of the jewelry
and scarves, and the specific gestures of the hands (right
hand holding a lotus bud up to the chest, left hand bent
down holding a fan) are the same. While these elements
suggest the figures were roughed out in the Northern Wei,
other elements are later in style, such as the faces of the
bodhisattvas, which lack the characteristic Northern Wei
smile. The south-wall bodhisattva has a heavy, squarish
face with thick features, while the north-wall figure has
a rounder face with smaller features. They do not match
each other, nor do they particularly resemble the main
Buddha. These mismatched faces are in stark contrast to
the consistent style of faces seen in Binyang Central, which
makes them unlikely to have been a part of the original
and perfectly coordinated Northern Wei plan for the imperial pair of grottoes. Moreover, both bodhisattvas have
the triple-ringed neck, that is, a neck carved with three
shallow folds suggesting fleshiness. This is not a feature of
the Binyang Central figures and was probably also done
later.
It would appear the main Buddha was at least roughed
P O L I T I C S O F F I L I A L P I E T Y | 81

(see figure 2.1). The sculptors of the Binyang South Buddha

were able to create a slight sense of the underlying bone
structure of the face around the eyes, while suggesting
fleshiness in the cheeks and under the chin. The proportions of the figure are also taller and narrower, and the
proportion of the head to the body is generally more realistic. The chest is higher and fuller; consequently, the
drapery hangs across it in a more natural swag, and the
fabric appears to pucker in a convincing way where the belt
is tied across the abdomen. More details of the drapery
are depicted, as in the places below the proper right hand
and above the left hand where it is gathered into folds with
a clasp. It is clear the sculptors attitudes toward the function of drapery and the depiction of anatomy were different from those of the Northern Wei.

The Later Completion of Binyang South

Figure 4.4. Buddha, west wall, completed 641, Binyang South

Grotto. From Longmen shiku, ed. Longmen wenwu baoguansuo (1980), pl. 118.

out in the Northern Wei, since the size, posture, and even
the mudrs are the same as those of the main Buddha in
Binyang Central, suggesting that a basic form created and
abandoned in the Northern Wei was too far advanced for
the later sculptors to alter in anything but the surface details (figure 4.4). As with the bodhisattvas, however, the
face lacks the Northern Wei smile, and the head is flatter
and squarer, with a nose and lips that are more naturalistically described than the cylindrical face and simple geometric facial features seen on the Binyang Central Buddha
82 | P O L I T I C S O F F I L I A L P I E T Y

Prominent scholars of Chinese Buddhist sculpture have

argued that the main Buddha in Binyang South was finished in the Sui dynasty (581618).24 There are several reasons for this view. First, no revolution in art accompanied
the change in dynasty, and late Sui sculptural style is not
strikingly different from early Tang. Further, more grotto
sculpture is extant from the late Sui period than from the
early Tang, so the natural tendency was to compare Binyang South to the larger body of Sui material. Lastly, only
with Zhang Ruoyus important article of 1980 was a convincing argument made for the idea that Li Tai sponsored
the completion of Binyang South in 641.
I accept the Longmen Grottoes Research Academy assessment of 641 for the finishing of the Binyang South
main figures.25 First, the production of shrines dated to
641 by friends and relatives of Li Tai strongly suggests the
grotto was finished at that time. Two were produced by
the princes sister and female members of her staff. The
Yuzhang princess had a special motivation for adding a
shrine to the grotto dedicated to the late empress Zhangsun, for after the girl lost her mother, she was raised by
Empress Zhangsun as if she had been her own daughter.26
The princess first shrine has a composite dedication: On
the tenth day of the third month of the fifteenth year of the
Zhenguan era (April 25, 641), the Yuzhang princess reverently had made one image shrine, praying for peace
and security for herself and for all sentient beings. The

Figure 4.5. Sishun Ward shrine, 648,

north wall, Binyang South Grotto. From
Zhongguo shiku diaosu quanji, v. 4:
Longmen, ed. Wen Yucheng, pl. 95.

princess wet-nurse Sa prays for herself and her son. Jiang

Xiuzi and five other people also share in the making of
the image shrine.27 May all sentient beings attain to true
enlightenment (4E).28 The other shrine was dedicated
three months later by another wet-nurse employed by
the princess.29 Another small shrine was made by one Lu
Shengu, who served as a director in Li Tais Princedom of
Wei, and a double shrine was dedicated by Cen Wenben
and a relative.30
Other shrines of around the time are similar in style to
the main Buddha and reinforce dating it to 641 on stylistic
grounds. In the lower center of the north wall is a large
shrine, 2.33 meters high, made in 648 by a lay society called
The Old and Young of the Sishun Ward, Henan District,

Luozhou.31 Over a hundred men and women from the

Sishun Ward, located on the western edge of the Southern Market in the southeast section of Luoyang, joined in
this society to produce a shrine dedicated to the imperial
house.32 The main figure is a pendant-legged Maitreya
Buddha, flanked by pairs of disciples, attendant bodhisatt
vas, and guardians (figure 4.5). The style of the Maitreya
is very close to that of the Binyang South Buddha.33 The
head has the same squarish shape, and the face has a similar type of fleshiness, while the chest and shoulders of the
figure are larger and more rounded than on a comparable
Northern Wei figure. Though the body sits rather stiffly
upright, the sculptors showed a modest interest in naturalistic description of drapery. In all these things, the Sishun
P O L I T I C S O F F I L I A L P I E T Y | 83

Figure 4.6. Amitbha shrine of Li Fu, 658, Thousand Buddha Cliff, Shentong Monastery, Shandong. From Osvald Sirn, Chinese
Sculpture, pl. 518.

Ward Maitreya is quite close in style to the Binyang South

Buddha. It, too, could be mistaken for a work of the late
Sui were it not for the inscribed date of 648.

Early Tang Sculpture at Shentong Monastery

Despite the dearth of early Tang sculpture, two statues
survive that are remarkably close in style to the Binyang
South Buddha. This pair of Amitbhas is found at an early
Tang site called Thousand Buddha Cliff (Qianfoya), about
forty kilometers south of the modern city of Jinan, Shandong Province.34 A sixty-five-meter-long limestone cliff
sits high above the ruined Shentong Monastery in the valley of the Jinyang River, which flows north from Mount
Tai, carved with about 220 statues ranging in size from
84 | P O L I T I C S O F F I L I A L P I E T Y

seven or eight feet in height to only a foot or so.35 There

are forty-three dedicatory inscriptions, of which ten are
dated, all within the seventh century.36 At the northern
end of the site is a double-niche shrine, containing two
seated figures (figure 4.6). The one on the left is 2.65 meters high, and next to its proper left shoulder on the back
wall is the following inscription: In the third year of the
Xianqing era of the Great Tang Dynasty (658), the Pure
and Faithful Buddhist disciple Fu, Prince of Zhao, acting
prefect of Qingzhou, for the Cultured Emperor Taizong
has reverently had made an image of Amitbha. I pray that
the barbarians of the four quarters obey the (imperial) decrees, that family and state be peaceful and tranquil, and
that all sentient beings in the Dharma realm ascend to the
Way of the Buddha.37

Figure 4.7. Shrine of Nanping princess,

657, Thousand Buddha Cliff, Shentong
Monastery, Shandong. From Osvald
Sirn, Chinese Sculpture, pl. 517.

The Prince of Zhaos figure and its mate are similar to

the Binyang South Buddha in both costume and sculptural style. The most striking detail of costume is the way
the mantle is swagged up to the left shoulder and held by
a clasp on all these statues. In terms of style, the princes
Amitbha has the squarish head, slightly fleshy face, and
benign expression of the Binyang South Buddha as well
as the wide-shouldered torso. There is the same tentative
exploration of volume in the chest and the attempt to have
the drapery wrap the body enough to reveal something of
its underlying form. The Prince of Zhaos statue is dated by
inscription to 658, and its similarities to the Binyang South
Buddha further reinforce a date of 641 for that figure.
The patron of these figures was also closely related to Li
Tai. Li Fu (d. 670), Prince of Zhao, was Tais younger half-

brother.38 As his inscription reveals, Li Fu was serving as

prefect of Qingzhou (modern Yidu, Shandong), which was
only about 120 kilometers east of the Thousand Buddha
Cliff site. Li Fu may have traveled to Shentong Monastery
and the Thousand Buddha Cliff as a pilgrimage, but he
might also have gone to visit his sister, the Nanping princess, as she and her husband were then living in Qizhou,
the prefecture where the Thousand Buddha Cliff was situated. The princess husband, Liu Xuanyi, was serving as
prefect of Qizhou.39
The Nanping princess and Liu Xuanyi also sponsored
statues at the Thousand Buddha Cliff at the same time.
In 657, the Nanping princess sponsored a small shrine
south of Cave 6, at the southern end of the site (figure 4.7).
The dedication reads: In the second year of the Xianqing
P O L I T I C S O F F I L I A L P I E T Y | 85

era of the Great Tang dynasty (657), the Nanping Grand

Princess, for the Cultured August Emperor Taizong, reverently made one image.40 In this inscription, Nanping
calls herself Grand Princess because her father had
passed away in 649. She was no longer the daughter of the
reigning emperor but the elder sister of one, and her title
was altered to reflect this status. Her father was referred
to by his posthumous epithet, Cultured August Emperor
Taizong. That she dedicated a shrine to her father at all
may indicate the emperor was indeed converted to Buddhism in the last year of his life by the great pilgrim Xuan
zang (596664).41
In the following year, Liu Xuanyi sponsored a shallow
shrine, just eighty-five centimeters high, now designated
Cave 4. A Maitreya Buddha figure seated with legs pendant and right hand raised in abhaya mudr occupies a
shrine of idiosyncratic design, its square opening flanked
by columns made up of four layers of bundled lotuses,
which support the spiral ends of the lintel above. To the
right of the shrine, a single guardian stands with one arm
and one knee raised in a pose of victory. To the left is one
small lion, above which is inscribed the dedication: On
the fifteenth day of the ninth month of the third year of
the Xianqing era of the Great Tang dynasty (October 16,
658), the Prefect of Qizhou, Supreme Pillar of State, Commandant-Escort, and Duke of Yuguo, Liu Xuanyi, reverently made (this shrine) and offered worship.42
Liu Xuanyi was also a patron at Longmen. On the east
wall of Binyang South is an Amitbha shrine one and a half
meters high that he dedicated in 650.43 Another project he
sponsored was rediscovered when the old Qing dynasty
archways were removed from the faades of the Binyang
trio in 1978.44 In Binyang South, just inside the north face
of the entryway on the interior wall, is a muscular, seminude guardian figure, 2.7 meters tall, with an inscription
high above his left shoulder that reads: On the fifth day of
the tenth month of the inaugural year of the Yonghui era
(November 3, 650), the Prefect of Ruzhou, CommandantEscort, and Duke of Yuguo, Liu Xuanyi, reverently made
this vajra guardian (4F).45
The Nanping princess may also have been a patron at
Longmen, and just as she and her husband both donated
shrines at the Thousand Buddha Cliff of Shentong Monastery when he was posted to Qizhou, it is likely they both
sponsored sculpture at Longmen when he was serving
86 | P O L I T I C S O F F I L I A L P I E T Y

as prefect of Ruzhou, just fifty kilometers to the southeast, around 650. I propose the Nanping princess was the
sponsor of the Qianxisi Grotto, and the beneficiary was
her recently deceased father, Emperor Taizong. Qianxisi
is the first grotto the visitor encounters after entering the
Longmen precinct from the north end of the site, and it
is impressively large. On the back wall is a colossal seated
Buddha, 7.8 meters in height, flanked by disciples, attendant bodhisattvas, and guardians (figure 4.8). The Buddha
has a rounded head with large features and a prominent
triple-ringed neck. The shoulders and chest are broad and
swelling, far more so than on the Binyang South Buddha,
and this greater sense of naturalism suggests it was produced a few years later, around 650 or so. It is very similar
in style to the Buddha sponsored by the Nanping princess
in Shandong in 657. The figures even wear the same type of
costume: a one-shoulder robe, tied at the waist, over which
a simple mantle is drawn up over the figures left shoulder
and down over the right.

The Outcome of the Struggle

Let me return to Binyang South, where no matter what Li
Tai was actually responsible for, he produced a spectacular
finale to the project in 641 with his inscription. The calligraphy was done by Chu Suiliang (596658), who had just
come to prominence at court, having been recommended
by Wei Zheng to replace the late Yu Shinan (558638) as
the calligraphy connoisseur to the emperor (see figure 9.1
below).46 That he employed his fathers leading memorialist as author and his fathers personal calligraphy tutor as
transcriber strongly suggests Li Tai intended to impress
the reader with the imperial air of his inscription and to
create an impression of the inevitability of his succession.
In 636, when Emperor Taizong sent his sons and brothers out to serve in the provinces (probably to keep them
from conspiring against him), only one was given special
permission not to take up his post: Li Tai.47 Even though
Tai was not the heir apparent but the second son of Emperor Taizong and Empress Zhangsun, he was encouraged
by his father to set up an Institute of Literary Attendants
at his residence and recruit literati to staff it, although this
institution is traditionally found only in the establishment
of the heir to the throne. Indeed, it was the act of setting up
such an institute that had triggered the succession struggle

Figure 4.8. Buddha, west wall, Qianxisi Grotto. From Longmen shiku, ed. Longmen wenwu baoguansuo (1980), pl. 127.

between Emperor Taizong and his own elder brother not

twenty years before. The emperor showed Tai many special favors, such as allowing him to ride in a small cart
within the palatine city, since his corpulence made it difficult for him to walk, and in 640, the emperor made a visit
to Tais residence in Changan, afterward canceling that
years taxes on the citizens of his ward and granting gifts
of silk to the officials in Tais retinue. The emperor began
to support Tai on a grander scale than the heir apparent,
and he even proposed that Tai move into the palatine city,
though this idea was scotched by Wei Zheng.
Over the same period, the heir apparents behavior increasingly alienated his father.48 According to the dynastic

histories, Li Chengqian was a bright child who grew into

a young man addicted to music and sensual pleasures. At
court, he acted the part of the filial and loyal son, but it was
said that in private he spoke of his father with contempt,
and relations between the two were not improved when his
affair with a beautiful singing boy was discovered and his
father had the boy killed. Chengqian raised a shrine to the
dead youth, where he often sacrificed and wept, and gave
illness as an excuse for not attending court, while hundreds of musicians played day and night, so loudly that the
music could be heard beyond the walls of his palace.
The struggle polarized the court. Both young men actively drew people to their cause, and the court officials
and members of the royal family were all enlisted in one
camp or the other. Public opinion mattered a great deal
in the contest between the two young men, and visible
expressions of filial piety were an important part of the
battle. After his wifes death, the emperor returned to
Luoyang, which had been his loyal military base during
the wars that established the Tang. Li Tai likely accompanied his father to Luoyang in 637, when he may have
become aware of the grottoes of Longmen and conceived
a plan to make a very public display of filial piety there.49
The prince was too clever to focus it on the unbelieving,
even anti-Buddhist, emperor himself, but chose a person
very dear to the emperors heart.
Apparently, the project was a success. Emperor Taizong
went on a hunting expedition to Yique at the end of 641.50
Quite likely he visited the grotto dedicated to his late wife
there, intended as a proof of Li Tais filial piety and a demonstration of his moral qualifications to replace his brother
as heir apparent. The incumbent, by contrast, was going
from bad to worse.51 After the death of his amoureux, Li
Chengqian began to affect Turkish clothes and braid his
hair in the barbarian manner. Within his palace, he built
a kind of Turkish encampment to live in, where he uttered
wild threats about what atrocities he would commit when
he was made emperor. Finally, he plotted with one of the
emperors brothers to make an assault on the imperial palace and usurp the throne. In 643, one of the conspirators
confessed the plot, and Chengqian was degraded to commoner status and exiled to faraway Qianzhou in the south,
where he died two years later.
Cen Wenben and others were in favor of making Li Tai
the new heir apparent, but his uncle Zhangsun Wuji (ca.
P O L I T I C S O F F I L I A L P I E T Y | 87

600659) was in favor of his other nephew, Li Zhi, the

third son of the late empress Zhangsun.52 When Li Tai
heard the emperor was considering making Li Zhi the new
heir apparent, he insinuated that Zhi had been a part of
Chengqians plot against their father. When the emperor
was told of this, he saw that Tai was like him in every way,
even willing to eliminate his brothers to reach the throne.
This the emperor could not bear. Tai was removed from
his official posts, his aristocratic title was reduced, and he
was sent far away to the southeast of the capital to live in
Yunxiang District on the River Han. Li Zhi was appointed
heir apparent.
Emperor Taizong died on July 10, 649, and Li Zhi became the third emperor of the Tang dynasty. As his father had hoped, the new ruler did not take revenge on his
brother. Instead, the young Emperor Gaozong kept Li Tai

88 | P O L I T I C S O F F I L I A L P I E T Y

in distant Yunxiang, granting him a princely establishment, complete with a retinue of officials, chariots, robes,
and special foods. Li Tai died there in 652, at the age of
thirty-five. Many years later, probably in the 670s, Li Tais
widow returned to Longmen to sponsor a small grotto.53
Yan Wan was the eldest daughter of Yan Lide (d. 656),
the eminent imperial architect who supervised the construction of the mausolea of Xianling and Zhaoling.54 Her
grotto was excavated not far south of the Great Vairocana
Image Shrine, which was sponsored by Emperor Gaozong
(see chapter 6). Perhaps her shrine was so situated as an
expression of loyalty to her merciful brother-in-law. Evidently, she believed Longmen to be a place of peace, for
after she died in the town where her son was officially
posted, her coffin was transported back to Luoyang, and
she was buried just north of Longmen.

Five Cnasthna Preserves the Dharma

All those who devote themselves to making images of the Buddha before my Dharma is extinguished will be liberated at the first
of Maitreyas assemblies.Foshuo dacheng zaoxiang gongde jing, Tang dynasty1

n the century between the evacuation of Luoyang

in 534 and the recommencement of patronage
under the Tang in 637, the iconography of Longmen altered dramatically. No Tang donor commissioned images of Vimalakrti and Majur, the pensive
prince, or kyamuni and Prabhtaratna. The number of
conventional kyamuni statues dwindled from 50 dated
examples made in the Northern Wei to only 11 made in the
Tang. All 35 dated Maitreya figures produced under the
Northern Wei are seated cross-ankled bodhisattvas, while
the 15 dated examples from the early Tang are all seated
pendant-legged Maitreya Buddhas. No images of Amitbha
were sponsored during the Northern Wei, while 274 inscribed Amitbha Buddha figures were produced in the
early Tang dynasty plus hundreds more that can be identified by iconography.2

The Decline of the Dharma

The revolution in imagery at Longmen can be explained
as a response to the events of the sixth century. Although Buddhism had strong imperial sponsors in the
north and south who supported Indian translators such
as Narendrayaas (516589), while more adherents were
gained among the citizenry and Buddhist beliefs became
deeply ingrained in the culture of China, it seems that
Buddhist thinkers were affected more by the persecution
of the faith by Emperor Wu of the Northern Zhou, from
574 to 577, and the destruction of the Buddhist establishment in northwestern India by the Hephthalite invader
Mihirakula (502542) in the early sixth century.3 By the
end of the sixth century, Chinese Buddhist intellectuals
believed their religion had entered a period of decline,

and a pervasive apocalyptic mood prevailed throughout China.4 Despite the continued burgeoning of the faith,
this dark tone persisted through the Sui dynasty and into
the Tang.
Chinese Buddhist intellectuals developed new beliefs
in accord with this sense of impending doom. One of
these was the history of the decline of the Dharma.5 Various schemes and prophecies were outlined in indigenous
Chinese scriptures and polemical religious writings, based
on disparate creative interpretations of Indian stras and
prophetic texts.6 Although schemes of five periods were
current, equally prevalent were histories of a decline in
three periods. To describe one of these very generally, following the nirvn.a of kyamuni was the period of the
True Dharma (zhengfa), during which the Dharma was
extremely efficacious and believers could attain enlightenment by following the Buddhas instruction. Next came
the Semblance Dharma (xiangfa), in which kyamunis
teachings began to lose their power, and though believers engaged in religious behavior, few were able to attain
true enlightenment. Last, in the period of the Ending of
the Dharma (mofa), the teachings of the Buddha are but
a mere echo of what they once were, and the spiritual capacity of human beings is so degraded that the original
teachings of Buddhism are of little help. By the end of this
period, the Dharma of kyamuni will have disappeared.
The first person on record to describe such a history of
the decline of the Dharma was the monk Huisi (515577),
in a work completed in 558.7 Huisi gave the duration of
the True Dharma as five hundred years, the Semblance
Dharma as one thousand years, and the Ending of the
Dharma as ten thousand years. By Huisis calculations,
kyamuni entered nirvn.a in the year 1068 B.C.E., which

meant the Ending of the Dharma had begun more than a

hundred years before, in 433 C.E. As one who had endured
the warfare between the northern dynasties and repeated
attempts on his life by rival monks, Huisi could scarcely
have been surprised to find that the world had already entered the period when the Dharma would disappear. Daochuo (562645) articulated a history of the decline of the
Dharma, as well, but he also promoted a theory of suitable
practices. Buddhism would pass through five periods of
five hundred years each, and in each period, a particular
religious activity would be most efficacious. Based on his
belief that the nirvn.a of the Buddha took place in 949
B.C.E., Daochuo considered himself to be living in the
fourth period, in which the most appropriate soteriological behavior was to construct monasteries and other religious artifacts, for penance and to gain merit.8 His student
Shandao (613681), whom we will meet in the next chapter
as an imperial religious advisor, was renowned for just this
kind of merit-making production of scriptures and icons,
especially for transcribing the Amitbha Stra and painting murals of Amitbhas Pure Land.
The early Tang donors of Longmen did not accept the
disappearance of kyamunis Dharma as a natural prelude to the advent of Maitreya, however, but as a catastrophe they were appointed to prevent. Kumrajva (344413)
had written that a stra says that in the end, there will
be in the East a bodhisattva who protects the dharma,
and it would appear that many ordinary lay believers took
upon themselves the task of that eastern bodhisattva.9
This protective response is evident in two ways at Longmen. Dedications by Tang donors put a special emphasis
on the durability of their icons, especially their preservation through the destruction at the end of the age, and
they sponsored copies of images they considered original
Indian icons: the King Udayana Buddha, the kyamuni
of Mahbodhi Monastery, and Amitbha and the Fifty Bo
dhisattvas. Icons from the holy land were likely considered
the most deserving of preservation.

A Lay Society Sponsors an Enduring Image

A large Maitreya Buddha shrine in Binyang South Grotto,
sponsored by a lay society from Luoyang called The Old
and Young of the Sishun Ward in 648 (see figure 4.5), has
a long inscription that is typical of early Tang dedications
90 | c n a s t h n a p r e s e r v e s t h e d h a r m a

in its language and its religious concerns.10 For this reason, I would like to look at it carefully. The first section
is a rationale for the making of the statue, followed by a
dedication that includes a description of Longmen and
the Maitreya figure and claims a superior endurance for
carving in stone over paintings and freestanding statues
of precious materials. The third section is a restatement of
the themes in the first section in verse, and at the end are
the donors names. The inscription begins:
Now we have heard, even though the Ultimate Truth is mysterious and subtle, surpassing the realm of words and images,
and the True Body is lost in the distance, having emerged in a
land too far away to see or hear, that the Able Man (kyamuni)
descended into his traces (a physical body) and in accord with
prior causes was advantageously made manifest. When (He
with) the reddish(-gold) appearance was born in the West,
then the pearl-strands of stars concealed their brilliance, and
when the white horse galloped to the east, then the golden
man appeared in (the emperors) dream.11 This caused the
axles of the three vehicles to advance together and the gates
of the Noble Eightfold Path to be opened all the way through,
and the benefits (provided) to everyday life could be summarized in words. Before the conversion of the three-thousandfold (world system), the light of Buddha-truth was drawn (to
inhabit the form of kyamuni). Then after the eighty(-four)
thousand stpas were filled (with kyamunis relics by King
Aoka), it returned to the quiescence of nirvn.a.
What a pity that a Buddha-sun is so difficult to encounter,
it has been compared to tossing (a mustard seed and hitting
the point of) a needle. In the human realm, things are very
changeable, so in accord with this, we carve stone (to make an
unchangeable Buddha image). Why do this? kyamuni was
manifest in the past, and though we may look for him anxiously, we cannot search back (and find him). Maitreya will descend in the future, and though we may bow our heads in expectancy, it is difficult to wait (for him to come). Living before
or after (a Buddha) creates obstacles; going forward or backward, no one will encounter (a Buddha). All (living) memory
of his words has perishedhow deeply we sigh! (5A)

This seems a different sentiment from the Northern Wei

apology for image-making, which defended against the
possibility of sacrilege in representing the person of one
who had passed into nirvn.a. Instead, the Sishun Ward
inscription describes a series of historical events leading

from the person of kyamuni to themselves as contemporary believers. The dharmakya assumed the human
body of kyamuni, whose mind attained release through
enlightenment and whose body died and was divided
into relics. His teachings were then transmitted to China,
where they gained believers. These believers, however, are
marooned in a world that has never seen a Buddha and is
unlikely to see one soon. The solution for those living in
a world in which no Buddha is seen is to make an image
of one.
The dedication follows: Now together with over a hundred others with the same intention, we first prayed that
the imperial family be forever steadfast, lofty as the heavens
in their enlightened rule. Next (we prayed) for the commencement of dawn over the dark paths, that hastening
to the other shore, those in them may rise purified. To fulfill this (vow), at this mountain ridge, we reverently had
made one Maitreya image shrine (5B). The dedication to
the imperial family is not unusual, particularly since this
shrine was made inside Binyang South Grotto, which had
just been rededicated to the late empress Zhangsun. What
is different is the dedication to the relief of all beings reborn
in the dark paths, which are the three undesirable realms
of rebirthas an animal, a hungry ghost, or a being in hell.
In this, Tang believers differed from their predecessors. In
the Northern Wei, donors prayed that their beneficiaries
not be reborn in one of the three evil destinies, but they
rarely gave any indication they believed anyone they knew
had already been reborn there and required rescue.12
The next section describes the site of Longmen, beginning with a simple physical description of the limestone
cliffs rising on either side of the Yi River but ending grandly
with a reading of the site as an eastern relocalization of the
sacred geography of Buddhist India. This device was used
in the inscription for Binyang South Grotto, where Cen
Wenben compared the cliffs at Longmen to the Himlayas
and the Yi River to the River Nairajan, which flows past
Bodhgay. Surely the author of the Sishun Ward inscription was eager to harmonize with the majestic inscription
outside the grotto, and he actually seems more apt in his
choice of comparisons:
The land rises in twin watchtowers, their walls reflecting the
sun for a thousand yards. The stream below is clear and flowing, guided by the pair of peaks. Encircled by dense forest,

(Longmen) is close to the capital, resembling Gr.dhrakt.a

(Vulture Peak) in nearness to the royal city (Rjagr.ha) and
the Jetavana to the capital of rvast. To contribute to this
beautiful place, we commissioned inspired craftsmen to cut
into (the cliff) and carve and engrave (a work) of complete
subtlety and marvelousness. On the eighth day of the fourth
month of the twenty-second year of the Zhenguan era of
Great Tang (May 5, 648), we had it ornamented to complete
it. (5C)

Next, the main icon is described. It represents Maitreya

as the next Buddha, after he has been reborn on earth from
the Tus.ita Heaven. The Maitreya scriptures predict he will
do all the things that kyamuni did, including attaining
enlightenment while in seated meditation under a sacred
tree.13 The inscription continues:
Thus, when this venerable image was first manifest, it was as
if (Maitreya) had descended from his palace in Tus.ita, and
when its marvelous laks.an.a were initially complete, it was as
though he was under the bodhi tree. With an rn like moon
light and dark blue hair like mist crystallized, his lotus eyes
seem to move, while his fruit(-red) lips appear to speak. Of
those who offer worship at the feet of this Buddha and look
up with reverence at this venerable face, none will fail to have
their hair stand on end in awe and their hearts open in comprehension. This is what Indra and Brahm took refuge in,
what dragon kings and devas guard and protect.
Those (icons) in reds and blues (i.e., paintings) are made
brilliant in vain, for as soon as they appear, they are destroyed.
Gold and jade (statues) may be precious, but it is easy for them
to be scattered and lost. And so it is that because this mountain
has been made solid, with the same endurance as heaven and
earth, we have carved its stone into (an image of) purityfor
how could these hills and valleys ever change? (5D)

The author maintains this grotto image will outlive paintings and freestanding images in precious materials, and
the statue will endure because the cliffs at Longmen
will endure, for how could these hills and valleys ever
change? No Northern Wei donor concerned himself with
the durability of the stone at Longmen or entertained notions of the earth changing. Apparently, this Tang writer
had considered the possibility that something cataclysmic
could happen to the world.
c n a s t h n a p r e s e r v e s t h e d h a r m a | 91

The Eschatology of Lady Li

would be reborn in her next life in the Tus.ita Heaven to

wait with Maitreya Bodhisattva for his advent on earth.
In 683, the sixty-four-year-old Li Guanding sponsored a When Maitreya is reborn on earth to become the next
small grotto for Emperor Gaozong (r. 649683) and Em- Buddha, she will be reborn there as well, thus living in
press Wu (624705).14 Her late husband, Lu Kang, was a the time of a Tathgata, which will greatly increase her
high-ranking member of the nobility, while she was one of chances of attaining enlightenment. She hopes to attend
the Lis of Longxi and an aristocrat in her own right.15 The one of Maitreya Buddhas three assemblies under the
calligraphy of her dedication is a fine imitation of the writ- Dragon Flower Tree, when all who hear his message will
ing of Chu Suiliang, whose slender, flowing style was then attain enlightenment. By this means, she will depart
in vogue, practiced by such court favorites as Xue Ji (649 forever from the sea of suffering, which may mean she
713).16 Although the text is anonymous, the literary struc- will become a Buddha or her soul will pass into nirvture is quite formal, strictly adhering to four-character n.a.19 If she believed the promise given in the Tang scripand six-character lines of parallel prose. It begins:
ture cited at the beginning of this chapter, her donation
of a statue would ensure that she departed with the very
On the thirtieth, a dinghai day, of the fourth month, in which
first assembly.
the first was a wuwu day, in the second year of the Yongchun
After she leaves this earth for the last time, however,
era, a guiwei year, of Great Tang (May 31, 683), the wife of the
the fires of the kalpa of destruction will burn. Lady Lis
late Lord Lu, Grand Master of Imperial Entertainments with
eschatology makes distant reference, I think, to ideas conSilver Seal and Blue Ribbon, Acting Left Assistant Director of
cerning the evolution of the cosmos produced by the later
the Department of State Affairs, Aide to the Commander in
Indian exegetes. The most elaborate presents a scheme of
Chief of the Superior Area Command of Yangzhou, and Duke
cosmic oscillation in four kalpas, or eons of time. Durof Weijian, Lady Li, the Lady of [two effaced characters], reving the kalpa of destruction, the world as we know it is
erently had made one Maitreya Buddha image assembly.
progressively destroyed. This is followed by the kalpa of
We commenced by carving the [fine/dark?] stone, thus to
the duration of destruction, during which the universe is
open this beautifully painted shrine. These marvelous traces
entirely nonmanifest; the kalpa of renovation, in which
are superior to carved sandalwood, and their ingenious workthe universe gradually reappears and is repopulated; and
manship surpasses paintings on cloth. Following my heart,
the kalpa of the duration of renovation, during which the
I first prayed that my sights be on ascending to the Tus.ita
universe remains manifest and filled with sentient life.20
Heaven, (from there) to follow the Buddha when he is reborn
The world and its history, as we know it, have all existed
on the earth, and that my thoughts be on dwelling at the
during the kalpa of the duration of renovation, which is
Dragon Flower Tree, (from there) to depart forever from the
subdivided into twenty periods of increase and decrease.21
sea of suffering.
The kalpa begins at the pinnacle of the first period of inEternally solid is this mountain of compassion. Though it be
crease, when a golden-wheel cakravartin rules, the human
brushed with a deva-garment (i.e., worn down over the centulife span is at its height of 84,000 years, people are 8,400
ries), it will be perpetually preserved, and though the fires of
feet tall, and life is easy. Things then begin to deteriorate.
the kalpa of destruction burn, it will not be extinguished.17
By the end of the period of decrease, the human life span
Humbly I pray for the Celestial Emperor and Celestial Emhas been reduced to just ten years, and the human body
press (Emperor Gaozong and Empress Wu), who are sagahas shrunk to one foot in height. War, famine, and disease
cious and divine. With the Wisdom-sun may they perpetuprevail. After an intense period of fighting, the period of
ally shine, and by the Dharma-cloud may they be together
decrease will end and a period of increase begins.
shaded. In all the lands of the ten directions, may all sentient
It was believed that the average span of life was one
beings plant good (seeds of) causation, and may all arrive at
hundred years during the time of kyamuni, which sugthe scene of blessing.18 (5E)
gested the period of decrease had been well advanced
Lady Li expressed a clear sense of the sequence of events in his day and was even more so by the time Buddhism
she envisioned would take place after her death. First, she reached China. Perhaps people such as Lady Li considered
92 | c n a s t h n a p r e s e r v e s t h e d h a r m a

the incessant warfare of the sixth century to constitute the

Age of Fighting at the end of the period of decrease, however, and that the period of increase had just begun. If so,
it would explain why she felt Maitreyas time was drawing
closer. The scriptures prophesy that Maitreya will appear
on earth when the period of increase has come to its height
and a cakravartin rules.22 Lady Li prayed to be reborn in
the Tus.ita Heaven to wait for that time in peace. She also
prayed that when Maitreya descends, she will be reborn
with him to gain enlightenment. Should all this come to
pass, her soul would be liberated before the destruction of
the world at the end of the present kalpa.
At the end of the kalpa of the duration of renovation,
the kalpa of destruction will commence, and the world
will be destroyed by fire, wind, and water. These grand
cosmic events are larger than the person or the teachings of any incarnate Buddha. Instead of accepting the
notion that the truths of Buddhism were retained within
the dharmakya during the time when the universe was
nonmanifest, to be revealed again when the earth was renewed, Chinese believers clung to their self-appointed role
as guardian of the Dharma of kyamuni, fearing that a
Dharma committed only to pieces of paper or to human
memories had scant likelihood of surviving the destruction of the world. If Lady Lis prayers were granted, her
soul would already be gone from the earth by the time the
kalpa of destruction arrived, but her statueher image of
the Dharmawould be left behind. How would her effort
to preserve the Dharma fare?
Lady Li believed she was having her statue created in
imperishable stone in order to survive the fires of the
kalpa of destruction. I suspect the Sishun Ward inscription was also referring to this world cataclysm when it
asked, How could these hills and valleys ever change?
That they planned for their statues to survive the kalpa
of destruction, however, suggests that Chinese believers
did not really think the world as they knew it would be
destroyed, but more that it would be ravaged by fire, wind,
and water. A statue in stone, especially one in a grotto,
could be considered likely to survive a scourging by fire
and wind, while a grotto carved high and deep in the cliff
face, as was Lady Lis, could be presumed to be secure
against flood.

Preserving the Dharma in Stone

Early Tang donors disparaged paintings and freestanding
statues as ephemeral. The popular observation was that
paintings were quick to decay, as pigments flaked or faded,
cloth rotted, and the plastered walls of monastery buildings crumbled. Freestanding statues could be stolen, especially if they were made of precious materials, or they could
be destroyed in a fire or flood.23 The Sishun Ward inscription says: Those (icons) in reds and blues (i.e., painting)
are made brilliant in vain, for as soon as they appear, they
are destroyed. Gold and jade (statues) may be precious,
but it is easy for them to be scattered and lost. Instead,
the donors of Longmen put their faith in the endurance
of stone. A local official wrote: Since I believe that [this]
stone cannot be destroyed, while reds and blues (paintings) will grow dark, I have reverently had one kyamuni
image shrine made in stone at Yique....Though sand and
dust (i.e., this world) may be transformed, the marvelous
form (of this statue) will be forever preserved, and by carving (it in) this dark stone, it will be endlessly transmitted
without decay (5F).24
Faith in the endurance of stone was hardly unique to
Buddhist believers at this time; many sixth-century epitaphs assert their capacity to survive because they are
carved in stone.25 The donors of Longmen differ, however,
in asserting that the cliffs themselves, along with everything carved into them, will survive. In his dedication,
the high official Lu Zheng (737800) put it simply: Since
the mountain will not decay, the image will also be preserved forever (5G).26 These donors were not referring to
slow processes such as erosion and exfoliation. They had in
mind the cataclysmic oscillations of the universe, in particular, the far-distant yet inevitable kalpa of destruction.
This is why both Lady Li and the Wang brothers, whom
we meet below, had their grottoes placed high on the cliff.
They believed the stone of Longmen would be proof against
fire and wind, while a grotto placed high enough could
escape the raging waters. Xu Qian, who wrote his own inscription, said of his statue and all the icons at Longmen:
Even though they be brushed with a deva-garment, these
majestic laks.an.a will scarcely be destroyed, and though
the fires of the kalpa of destruction will burn, how could
this legion of images be extinguished? (5H).27
This emphasis on the eternal preservation of images of
c n a s t h n a p r e s e r v e s t h e d h a r m a | 93

the Dharma seems to be particular to Chinese Buddhist

practice. There are hints that the preservation of statuary
was related to notions of a declining Dharma in Indian belief, at least as reported by the seventh-century Chinese observer Xuanzang, although it may be that Xuanzangs own
beliefs influenced what he heard. At Bodhgay, Xuanzang
was told a prophecy about two statues of Avalokitevara
that had been set up years before to demarcate the north
and south boundaries of the Diamond Throne area where
kyamuni gained enlightenment. Xuanzang said the elderly folk there believed that as soon as the figures of this
Bodhisattva sink in the ground and disappear, the law of
Buddha will come to an end, and he reported that the
figure at the south angle is now buried up to its breast.28
This prophecy refers to the decline of the Dharma as
measured by the disappearance of the statues, yet there
seems to have been little Indian interest in making a statue
that could survive the kalpa of destruction and endure
eternally.
Chinese Buddhist believers fixation on the eternal
preservation of images of the Dharma seems related to
the indigenous cult of immortality, in particular, the belief in the durability and preservative power of stone. The
relationship between the afterlife and elaborately worked
stone objects is seen in the earliest of Chinese cultures.
The exquisite workmanship of the jade articles placed in
elite tombs of the Liangzhu (ca. 35002000 B.C.E.) and
Hongshan (ca. 40002500 B.C.E.) cultures of the Neolithic period clearly involved considerable expenditure of
time and money. A religious purpose is obvious from their
nonfunctional, enigmatic forms, such as the pig-dragon
hoops, hooked-cloud ornaments, and horse-hoof-shaped
tubes found in Hongshan Culture burials and the bi discs
and cong tubes found in Liangzhu Culture tombs.29 Other
symbols of life and rebirth found in these tombs suggest
the association of jade with beliefs about eternal life in
the underworld and nascent notions of immortality. This
tradition culminated in the production of jade suits in
the Han dynasty (206 B.C.E.220 C.E.), which were fitted onto the bodies of deceased members of the Han royal
family in their tombs. Wu Hung has convincingly argued
that these suits were actually one layer in a system of
jade encasement believed to transform the body of the deceased into an immortal body of jade, so that the bodies of
the Han royalty became eternal bodies of stone, intended
94 | c n a s t h n a p r e s e r v e s t h e d h a r m a

to survive for all time.30 It was in the Han dynasty that

Buddhism entered China. Beliefs about the immortalizing
power of stone for human bodies were readily transferred
to images of the body of the Buddha, and stone statues of
the Buddha were intended as eternal, immortal bodies for
the Dharma. In the same way in which the jade suits
were believed to block the operation of physical decay on
the body, so the stone bodies of the Buddha were believed,
by the early Tang, to be able to withstand the phases of
destruction in the oscillation of the cosmos.
Creating imperishable Buddha icons was paralleled by
carving his words in stone. Beginning in the mid-sixth
century, scriptures were carved at cave-shrine sites, such
as Northern Xiangtangshan, in Hebei Province, and on
mountainsides and in dry stone riverbeds.31 In 579, a lay society in Zou County, southern Shandong, engaged a monk
calligrapher to write out a section of the Mahsamnipta
Stra on a fifty-three-meter section of a granite slope carved
to resemble a colossal relief stele.32 In 589, the monk Lingyu
(518605) established himself at the site of Baoshan, near
Anyang, Henan Province, where he excavated the Dazhu
sheng Grotto, carved with icons of Rocana, Amitbha, and
Maitreya, along with a procession of twenty-four Indian
patriarchs in low relief. The exterior walls he had engraved
with Buddhanma scriptures, for the penitential recitation
of Buddha names, and some of the scriptures that formed
the basis for Dharma decline theory, such as the Nirvn.a
Stra and the Yuezangfen portion of the Mahsamnipta
Stra.33 During the Daye era of Sui (605617), the monk
Jingwan began a project to engrave the entire Buddhist
canon in stone at Fangshan, some seventy-five kilometers
southwest of modern Beijing.34 According to Jingwans
original plan to protect the True Dharma, for the far distant time when there is no Buddhist Dharma, the stones
bearing the scriptures were sealed in nine caves cut in the
cliff high above Yunju Monastery and buried in a chamber beneath its pagoda.35 Carving stras in grottoes and
on stone slabs for interment had the same goal as sculpting
stone statues within grottoesthat by the work of their
hands, Chinese believers could make the Dharma survive.

Wang Xuance, Imperial Envoy to India

In 1976, the archeologists of the Longmen Cultural Relics Management and Conservation Office found a previ-

Figure 5.1. The medieval Chinese travelers India

ously overlooked inscription in Binyang South Grotto, in

the lower south corner of the west wall.36 The shrine is
quite ruined and only parts of the inscription are still legible, but it can be reconstructed as follows: Wang Xuance,
[vowing first to aid the imperial house] and next for all
sentient beings in the Dharma realm, reverently made one
Maitreya image assembly, on the fifteenth day of the ninth
month of the second year of the Linde era (October 29,
665) (5I).37
Wang Xuance served as imperial envoy to India under
Emperors Taizong and Gaozong. On his first mission,
Wang was assistant envoy under Vice Minister of the Court
of Imperial Regalia Li Yibiao.38 The delegation of twentytwo was dispatched by Emperor Taizong early in 643, to
return with the Indian envoys sent to the Chinese court
by the King of Magadha on a reciprocal diplomatic visit.39

By years end, the Chinese party reached Magadha, and in

the first month of 645, they climbed Vulture Peak, where
Li set up a stele engraved with his Inscription on Ascending Mount Gr.dhrakt.a.40 The following month, they arrived at Mahbodhi Monastery in Bodhgay, where they
set up another stele, and they returned to China that year.
On his second mission, from 647 to 648, Wang Xuance
served as chief envoy. The friendly king of Magadha had
passed away, however, and his usurping prime minister
sent his troops to attack Wang and the Chinese delegation.
Wang fled to the Tibetans, and with their help he defeated
the usurper and brought him back in fetters to Changan,
to the delight of Emperor Taizong. Wang was sent on his
third mission by Emperor Gaozong, departing in 658 and
traveling to India by way of Tibet and Nepal (figure 5.1).41
He was warmly received again at Mahbodhi Monastery
c n a s t h n a p r e s e r v e s t h e d h a r m a | 95

in 660 and returned to China in 661 with a relic of the

Buddhas skull from Udyna (modern northern Pakistan),
which he presented to the emperor at court.42 His now-lost
ten-volume memoir, titled Record of Journeys in Central
India (Zhong Tianzhu xing ji), was presented to the throne
along with three volumes of illustrations, probably drawn
by Song Fazhi, the master craftsman who traveled with the
first Tang delegation.43 Undoubtedly, many of his drawings depicted Indian Buddhist icons.
Wang Xuances image at Longmen is no longer recognizable, but it might have been a replica of a statue from
India. In the few historical materials on Wang that have
come down to us, there are two records of his involvement with Indian sculpture. In one, he participated in the
copying of a sacred Buddhist image in India, while in the
other he was put in charge of recreating an Indian image
in Luoyang. It was owing to the efforts of travelers such as
Wang that Tang donors desire to preserve the most authentic expression of the Dharma by means of copies of
Indian images could be realized.

The kyamuni Image of Mahbodhi

Monastery, Bodhgay
Although Wang Xuances Record of Journeys in Central
India is lost, information from it is preserved in certain
Tang sources, especially Fayuan zhulin (The pearl grove
of the Dharma garden), the encyclopedia of Buddhism
compiled by Daoshi in 668. Here is found the record concerning the famous statue of kyamuni in Mahbodhi
Monastery in Bodhgay.44 Daoshis anecdote begins with
a quotation from Wang Xuances book:
In the Western Countries auspicious images are innumerable, yet I (here) set down (the story of) the image of the
Mahbodhi tree as follows....When the image of the deity
on the Diamond Throne was originally to be built, a certain
stranger came and spoke to the great congregation of monks,
saying: I have heard you have been seeking good artisans to
make an image. My skill is such that I am able to make this
image. The great congregation answered him, saying: What
materials will you require? He answered: I will only need
some incense, water, fuel for a lamp, oil, and moxa. When
these materials were ready, he said to the monks: I must do
my work with the doors closed. For the next six months, you
96 | c n a s t h n a p r e s e r v e s t h e d h a r m a

must be careful that no one opens the doors. Also you need
not trouble to bring me any food or water. Once the man
entered, he did not come out again. But when there were only
four days left before the six months would have passed, the
great congregation of monks got into an uproar, some saying,
This pagoda is so narrow inside, he should have showed himself, and How could it be that he has never appeared after
so many months? Suspicious about what he was doing, they
opened the doors to the pagoda. They did not see the artisan,
but the image was finished. Only above the right breast there
was a small place still incomplete. Later a god spoke from out
of the sky and startled the great congregation, saying: I am
the Bodhisattva Maitreya.45

The monks of Mahbodhi Monastery evidently told the

same legend of their statues divine genesis to all Chinese
pilgrims. It was also recorded by Xuanzang in his Da Tang
xi you ji of 648, with one further telling detail.46 Xuanzangs
description of the statue as sitting cross-legged with the
right hand extended downward identifies it as kyamuni
reaching toward the earth, calling her to witness to end the
temptation of Mra, just before he attained enlightenment.
The next section is a paraphrase of Wangs account of
the Chinese delegations encounter with the statue:
Ever since Maitreya personally made this image, all the religious and laymen had measured it for molds and copied it
in drawings, but the Sacred Mutations are hard to fix, and
no one had ever been able to copy them successfully. When
Ambassador Wang arrived there, he begged of the congregation of monks to be able to do this. All the delegation entreated (the Bodhgay monks) with the utmost sincerity and
earnestness, and spent many days in circumambulation ceremonies, confessions, and repentance, while also explaining
why they had come. Only then were they able to make a picture (of the image) whose resemblance was perfect....Song
Fazhi and the other artisans were ingenious enough to render
completely the Sacred Visage and to copy the Sacred Countenance. When the picture arrived at the capital (Changan),
religious and laymen vied with one another in copying it.

It is not clear if the pious demonstrations of the Chinese

delegation convinced the Indian monks to allow a copy
to be made or if their piety convinced the Sacred Mutations to allow themselves to be copied accurately, but the
artisans strong desire to make a correct copy of the statue

re-created in Changan by command of the throne.

Around 664, the sculptor Song Fazhi was ordered to
erect the armature for the Bodhi image in the Jiashou Palace.48 Since this was recorded in the biography of Xuanzang, who brought a copy of the Mahbodhi Monastery
kyamuni image back to China, and the sculptor was the
same Song Fazhi who copied the image in 645, the Bodhi
image made for the Jiashou Palace was probably a replica
of the famous image from Mahbodhi Monastery. The description of the statue as beginning with an armaturea
skeletal framework made of wood or bamboomeans
the exterior of the figure was modeled in dry lacquer or
clay, and although this perishable statue has probably
long since disappeared, re-creations of this famous Indian image may still exist. In 695, the great pilgrim Yijing
(635713) brought back to Luoyang yet another copy of
the True Image of the Diamond Throne Buddha, that is,
the Mahbodhi Monastery statue.49 Professor Luo Shiping
of the Central Arts Academy has argued that early Tang
images of a crowned Buddha with its right hand in the
earth-touching mudr are replicas of this Indian statue.50
One of these is the large crowned and jeweled Buddha in
Leigutai South Grotto, on the east side of Longmen, probably produced in the early eighth century based on Yijings
copy (figure 5.2).51

The Maitreya Image of Jingai Monastery

Figure 5.2. Seated Buddha, freestanding, Leigutai South
Grotto, late seventhearly eighth c. Photo, the author, 1994.

is evident. Only a faithful copy could capture the efficacy

of this icon. In what lay the statues great spiritual power?
The scriptures say Maitreya attended kyamunis assemblies and spoke with him face to face.47 Hence, although
it was certainly marvelous that the statue was produced
by divine hands, its real power lay in the fact that it was
an image made by one who had actually seen the Buddha. The icon made by Maitreya was an express image of
the Dharma. When this perfect and hard-won copy of the
portrait-icon arrived in Changan, it was seen as especially
potent. No wonder Chinese believers strove to make their
own copies.
The image from Mahbodhi Monastery was evidently

Wang Xuance was also put in charge of re-creating an Indian icon. Zhang Yanyuans Lidai minghua ji of around
847 contains the other surviving anecdote concerning
Wang Xuance and Buddhist statuary:
Jingai Monastery (of Luoyang). Within the Buddha Hall was
an image modeled in clay of Maitreya bodhisattva under the
bodhisattva tree. The drawing of the bodhisattva image that
Wang Xuance had obtained in the western regions was issued from the palace in the second year of the Linde era (665)
and used as the model. (The craftsmen Zhang Shou and Song
Chao did the modeling, Wang Xuance directed the work,
and Li An pasted on the gold [leaf].) In the eastern bay was
a Maitreya image. (It was modeled by Zhang Zhizang, who
was the younger brother of Zhang Shou. It was finished by
Chen Yongcheng.) In the western bay was a Maitreya image.
(It was modeled by Dou Hongguo. The haloes and the transc n a s t h n a p r e s e r v e s t h e d h a r m a | 97

formation-born beings [huasheng]52 on all three images were

carved by Liu Shuang.)53

According to this record, in 665, the throne released

a drawing by Song Fazhi from the Imperial Archives to
serve as a model for a statue at Jingai Monastery. Wang
Xuance was put in charge of the re-creation project, directing the work of the sculptors and the gilder. It is likely
he was asked to do this because he had seen the original
statue. Song Fazhi was not involved in this project, but
perhaps the craftsman Song Chao cited here was his son.
Two identifications are possible for the central statue
in the Buddha Hall of Jingai Monastery. Although Zhang
Yanyuan described an image modeled in clay of Maitreya bodhisattva under the bodhisattva tree, there is
no such thing as a bodhisattva tree. If Zhang meant the
bodhi tree, then the image could have been kyamuni
gaining enlightenment under the bodhi tree, in which
case, the phrase should be read instead as the image (of
kyamuni) under the bodhi tree modeled in clay by Maitreya bodhisattva. Were this the case, the central statue in
Jingai Monastery would have been a copy of the statue in
Mahbodhi Monastery in Bodhgay, which was believed
to have been miraculously produced (and almost finished)
by Maitreya bodhisattva.
The statue was more likely Maitreya, as Zhangs record
states, although not Maitreya bodhisattva. Maitreya was
always portrayed as a Buddha by Tang sculptors at Longmen and probably also in this image hall.54 As William
Acker pointed out, Zhang likely referred to the figure as
a bodhisattva because contemporaneous belief held that
Maitreya was still waiting in the Tus.ita Heaven as a bodhisattva, even though the statue actually depicted Maitreya
as a Buddha. If so, then what Zhang called the bodhisattva
tree would have been the Dragon Flower Tree, under
which Maitreya Buddha will preach to the three great assemblies. Finally, the identification of the main figure as
Maitreya is confirmed by the designation of the figures
in the east and west bays as Maitreya. An assembly of a
kyamuni flanked by two Maitreyas is scarcely seen,
but a program of three Maitreya figures is well attested at
Longmen, Dunhuang, and elsewhere.55 It represents Maitreya Buddha Preaching to the Three Assemblies.
The purpose of the statue is unknown, as is the donor
98 | c n a s t h n a p r e s e r v e s t h e d h a r m a

on whose behalf the throne released the drawing, although

the donor was probably imperial. Jingai Monastery itself
was sponsored by the heir apparent Li Hong (652675), in
657, when he was five years old, on behalf of his parents,
Emperor Gaozong and Empress Wu.56 While to a modern
reader it may seem precocious for a boy of five to conceive
of such a thing, it should be noted that in medieval times
it was not unusual for children to decide on the monastic
life at six or seven years of age.57 Given his status as the
heir apparent in this all-powerful family, the childs wish
to present a loving gift to his doting parents would have
been carried out with all the resources of the realm. Indeed, the name of the monastery reveals such a purpose.
The Stra of the Buddha of Measureless Life teaches that
the appropriate behavior for family members is to show
each other reverence and love (jingai).58 Reverence and
Love (Jingai) Monastery was perfectly named as a public
declaration of the boys filial devotion to his parents.
The sponsor of the Maitreya figure, or the entire hall, was
likely another imperial child, Li Xian (656710), Prince of
Zhou and future Emperor Zhongzong (r. 684, 705710).
In his discussion of the Maitreya hall, Zhang Yanyuan
conflated it with the Jingai Monastery, which he mistakenly stated was established by Emperor Zhongzong for
his mother, Empress Wu.59 In 665, Emperor Zhongzong
was a prince of nine, but out of respect, no doubt, Zhang
Yanyuan referred to Li Xian by his future imperial title.
Probably Zhang meant that Li Xian had dedicated the
Maitreya figure. His choice of Maitreya was likely influenced by his tutor Xuanzangs devotion to that deity.60

The Maitreya of Wang Xuance

As Wangs Maitreya shrine at Longmen is ruined, it is impossible to say what it looked like or what relationship it
bore to the statue at Jingai Monastery, also long since lost.
If it was produced by the Longmen stone carvers without any special direction, it could have looked much like
the Chinese-style Maitreya Buddhas produced for Lady
Liu in 637 and the Sishun Ward in 648 (see figure 4.5).61
Wang had just supervised the reconstruction of an Indian
image for the throne, however, and might have wished to
have that image reproduced at Longmen. A clay statue in
a wooden hall in a bustling city was quite vulnerable, so if

Wang shared the eschatological mind-set of his contemporaries, he might have chosen to have the image reproduced in imperishable stone.
The Indian icon reproduced at Jingai Monastery might
well have been the colossal Maitreya at Darl. This famous
statue of Maitreya Buddha was admired by Chinese pilgrims from the year 400 onward, since Darl was on the
route into northern India through the ancient kingdom
of Udyna (see figure 5.1). The colossal gilded sandalwood
figure was estimated variously as eighty or a hundred feet
in height (twenty-two to twenty-eight meters). Faxian (ca.
400), Fasheng (ca. 404), and Xuanzang (ca. 630) related
similar versions of the legend in which an arhat transported a skilled artisan up to the Tus.ita Heaven to study
Maitreya in detail. Back on earth, the artisan modeled an
image of the deity that was perfect in all its laks.an.a. Wang
Xuance might also have seen the Maitreya of Darl, as the
records say he brought back a relic of the Buddhas skull
from Udyna.
Part of the significance of the Maitreya of Darl was
its association with the spread of Buddhism to China. Fa
xian reported that the monks of this monastery believed
that when the Maitreya was made, monks from India then
began to travel through the Darl valley on their way to
spread the Dharma to the east. Xuanzang also reported
that from the time of the execution of this image, the
streams of the law began to flow eastward.62 The fame
of this colossus in China combined with its association
with Buddhism coming to China made it unique. For this
reason, I suspect this is the Maitreya image Song Fazhi
copied in the western regions, which was reproduced in
a hall at Jingai Monastery in Luoyang and even, perhaps,
reproduced at Longmen by Wang Xuance.

A Thousand Years after My Nirvn.a,

You Will Be Found in China
Walking on the path along the cliff face from the Binyang
trio courtyard southward, the modern visitor to Longmen may be startled by a series of unusual Buddha statues whose appearance is unmistakably Indian (figure 5.3).
Each sits upright on a square seat, with legs pendant. The
robe clings smoothly to the body, with only the hemline
indicated and no drapery folds. The right shoulder is bare.

The head is oval, with a smooth cap of hair, and the lips
are quite full, especially the lower lip. These figures appear
to be Chinese imitations of a late-Gupta-period (ca. 320
647) Buddha figure from Srnth (figure 5.4).63
By the latest count of the Longmen Grottoes Research
Academy, there are nearly one hundred of these figures,
which are practically identical. All are about one meter
in height and make the same version of the dharmacakra
mudr: the right hand is raised with the forefinger and
thumb pressed together, while the left hand rests, palm up,
on the leg, again with the forefinger and thumb pressed
together.64 Most are found in open niches that measure
about a meter and a half in all dimensions, with the great
majority found in the area around Binyang South Grotto
and the Jingshan Monastery Grotto (figure 5.5). Variations
include throne backs etched into the back wall of the niche
or the addition of attendant disciples and bodhisattvas.65
Happily, these mysterious figures are identified by inscription. The earliest dated figure is inscribed: Monk [two
illegible characters], for his late parents, reverently had
made one King Udayana image. May the Dharma realm
all share in this blessed deed. Fifteenth day of the tenth
month of the sixth year of the Yonghui era (November 18,
655) (5J).66 Despite the abbreviation used in the inscription, the image is not of King Udayana, but of kyamuni.
Sometime after his enlightenment, kyamuni ascended
to the Trayastrims Heaven to preach the Dharma to his
mother, Queen My, who had been reborn there. While
he was away, however, his faithful follower, King Udayana
of Kaumb, began to suffer from the Buddhas absence.
According to the version told in the Record of the Buddhas
Journeying in India, the king determined to have an image
made of kyamuni:
In his longing for the World-Honored One, (King Udayana)
asked the great disciple Mah Maudgalyyana to take thirtytwo skilled craftsmen and fragrant sandalwood up to the
palaces of heaven, where they carved the thirty-two perfect
attributes. (This done), they returned to the world and installed (the statue) in the original vihra (in the Jetavana),
where there had been no throne for the Buddha. Later, when
the World-Honored One finally descended from heaven, the
image emerged of itself, bowed its head...and stood humbly
in attendance on Him. Thereupon the Lord deigned to pat its

c n a s t h n a p r e s e r v e s t h e d h a r m a | 99

Figure 5.3. King Udayana Buddha figures, Grotto 305 (above)

and Grotto 306 (below). Photo, the author, 1996.

head and made for it a prophecy, saying: A thousand years

after My Nirvn.a, you will be found among the Eastern Xia
(i.e., in China), where you will bring great benefits, far and
wide, to men and gods.67

The significance of this well-known legend was considerable. Not only did it justify image-making, especially the
patronage of statuary by royalty, but it also established the
existence of a veritable icon of the Buddha taken from
life, which was perfectly produced by divine process.68
As such, it was an express image of the Dharma. Lastly,
100 | c n a s t h n a p r e s e r v e s t h e d h a r m a

Figure 5.4. Seated Buddha, sandstone, from

Eastern India, possibly Srnth. Gupta period,
fifth century. Copyright the Trustees of
the British Museum.

it embodied the transmission of the Dharma from India

to China, even signifying that kyamuni intended Buddhism to be transmitted to the Chinese.
Western scholars argue this legend provided scriptural
authority for a cult of the statue of King Udayana that already existed in China by the fourth century.69 This earlier statuary type is exemplified by the late-tenth-century
wooden statue in the Seiry-ji, Kyoto, identified by documents inside it as a copy of the King Udayana image
made by Chinese sculptors for the Japanese monk Chnen
(9381016). The Seiry-ji figure is a standing image with

Figure 5.5. Jingshan Monastery Grotto area: (305, 306, 308, 309, 312, 332, 335, 354, 356, 358, 379, 411, 429, 440) King Udayana
Buddha shrines, (306) earliest dated King Udayana Buddha shrine, (331) Madame Hans Grotto, (358) Wang Brothers Grotto,
(403) Jingshan Monastery Grotto. Drawing adapted from Longmen shiku kukan bianhao tuce, ed. Longmen shiku yanjiusuo and
Zhongyang meishu xueyuan meishushi xi, Xishan limian tu 3.

U-shaped drapery folds on the torso, whose style is Central Asian, with antecedents in Mathuran sculpture.70 It is
dramatically different from the seated Srnth-style King
Udayana figures at Longmen.71 The Longmen patrons were
probably well versed in the legend of the statues making
and were likely familiar with the Seiry-ji type of image,
since a very large early-seventh-century example stands
prominently on the north wall of Binyang South (figure
5.6). Therefore, they must have deliberately chosen to copy
a very different image for particular reasons.
The King Udayana Buddha figures at Longmen are identical, indicating they were all copies of the same particular
image, and several Japanese scholars have espoused the

idea that the Longmen figures are copies of a statue Xuanzang brought back to China in 645.72 Xuanzang returned
with copies of seven statues from the West, including one
carved sandalwood Buddha image, a copy of the carved
sandalwood icon that described the True (Image of the
Buddha), which King Chuai (i.e., Udayana) of Kaumb
(had made because) he longed for the Tathgata. The height
(of the copy) from base to halo is two feet and nine inches
(about eighty-six centimeters).73 In his diary, Xuanzang
reported that he did not find the King Udayana image in
the Jetavana in rvast, which was supposedly its location
according to scripture.74 Instead, arriving in Kaumb, he
saw the Buddha figure carved of sandalwood...that was
c n a s t h n a p r e s e r v e s t h e d h a r m a | 101

Points in favor of Xuanzangs copy as the source include

the brief period in which the Longmen statues were all
produced. The earliest were made in 655, just ten years
after Xuanzangs return, and the last in 680, which corresponds to the short time Xuanzang and his disciples
were prominent. On his return to China, Xuanzang was
welcomed by Emperor Taizong and given a monastery
in Changan and a staff to help carry out his vast translation project, but after Xuanzangs death in 664, Emperor
Gaozong abandoned support for his followers.76 The style
of the figures also argues in favor of identification with
Xuanzangs copy. Kaumb was only about one hundred
kilometers west of Srnth, so it is likely a statue from
Kaumb would be in the late-Gupta Srnth style, as the
figures at Longmen are.
How Xuanzangs King Udayana image could have arrived at Longmen can only be the subject of speculation.
The copies of famous Indian images he brought back
were displayed for public viewing in Hongfu Monastery
in Changan, but Xuanzang was also summoned to Luo
yang by Emperor Taizong shortly after his return, to brief
the emperor on the climate, products and customs of
India.77 Xuanzangs native place was a town southeast of
Luoyang, and he had been ordained in Jingtu Monastery
in Luoyang, where his brother was a monk.78 If Xuanzang
brought his copy of the King Udayana statue to Luoyang,
it could have been copied by monastic associates or family members and by this route become the model for the
Longmen figures.
Figure 5.6. Standing Buddha, north wall, Binyang South
Grotto, seventh century. From Zhongguo shiku diaosu quanji,
v. 4: Longmen, ed. Wen Yucheng, pl. 90.

made by King Udayana. From its divine attributes there

arises a supernatural radiance, which from time to time
shines forth. The rulers of various lands have sought to
carry it off by force; but though many men have tried, they
have not been able to move it. In the end they have made
representations of it for worship, which are always called
authentic; but if one wishes to speak of the original, it is
this image here.75 Clearly, Xuanzang believed strongly
that the Kaumb statue was the authentic image, which
makes it likely to be the statue he copied and took back
to China.
102 | c n a s t h n a p r e s e r v e s t h e d h a r m a

Related Patrons of the King Udayana Image

High above the Binyang South Grotto faade, a small,
cubic grotto containing a King Udayana Buddha figure
was carved in 656.79 The inscribed dedication on the south
wall reads:
The wife of Xin Shizu, ne Sun, knowing her body was not
eternal, and her husband having predeceased her, on the fifteenth day of the fourth month of the inaugural year of the
Xianqing era (May 14, 656), made a vow reverently to make a
King Udayana image shrine. This had not come to pass when
we heard that Mrs. Sun had passed away on the fourth day of
the fifth month of that year (June 1). She is succeeded by her

dependents Cuan Xie, Xin Xin, Sun Xin, and others who have
taken over (this project). Now it has come to pass. We pray
for the deceased that their souls be reborn in the Pure Land,
that they be cut off from the three obstructions, and we further pray that all sentient beings attain true enlightenment.
(Hence, we have) engraved this record.80 (5K)

Mrs. Sun appears to have been part of a local group that

sponsored King Udayana Buddha images. Cuan Xie, identified here as one of her dependents, is probably the Cuan
Junxie who had a King Udayana Buddha image made for
his late wife in 659.81 His statue is situated in a very long
niche nearby that contained a row of nine King Udayana
Buddhas made between 659 and 661 (Grotto 356 in figure
5.5).82 The dedications reveal that some were sponsored
by Elder Daughter Li, Fourth Daughter An, Xu Qide and
his wife Elder Daughter Cao, and Huangfu Wengang and
his wife. Two more were sponsored by Second Daughter
Gao for her late younger brother Gao Xuda and her whole
family.83
The dedication by Second Daughter Gao is of particular interest for its possible connection to another nearby
long row of connected niches containing thirteen King
Udayana Buddha figures. One is inscribed: Reverently
made by Gao Shunda for his late wife.84 Gao Shunda was
probably the brother of Gao Xuda and Second Daughter
Gao. Other donors in this row included three members of
.
the sangha: Fazang, who sponsored three figures; Mingru,
who sponsored five; and Fasheng, who sponsored one.85
The latter two clerics also sponsored other King Udayana
figures, and Fasheng also sponsored the other two statues
in the grotto where a laywoman Li had a King Udayana
Buddha and an Amitbha made for her late husband in
660.86 She may also be the Elder Daughter Li who sponsored the statue in the Cuan Junxie group in 659.87 Further, the cleric named Mingru not only sponsored the five
figures in the Gao Shunda group, he or she also sponsored
a King Udayana Buddha figure in a trio of niches carved
directly below the Cuan Junxie groups shrines.
A tentative conclusion to draw from this web of connections is that a small group of related people donated most
of these King Udayana Buddha figures. The twenty-nine
discussed here were produced by only eighteen donors.
This small coterie of people may have been especially interested in this figure because they had direct contact with

its model. They might have seen Xuanzangs copy of the

King Udayana statue if they were friends and relatives, or
if they were lay congregants or monks of the Jingtu Monastery. The Abbot of Jingtu Monastery sponsored a statue
at Longmen in 650.88 Perhaps some patrons of King Uda
yana figures were also monks of Jingtu Monastery, such
as the earliest donor of 655, a monk whose name is lost, or
others such as Fasheng or Mingru.

The Wang Brothers Sponsor King

Udayana and Amitbha Figures
In the summer of 659, two brothers named Wang, who
were former local civil officials, dedicated a small grotto
about a meter and a half in all dimensions to benefit the
souls of their late parents. The grotto was placed quite high
on the cliff face, over thirty meters above the base of the
cliff, in the highest register of shrines above the Jingshan
Monastery Grotto. The dedication is partly ruined, but
from what remains it seems their father was a military general, while their mother, whose surname was Li, held the
title of Commandery Mistress of Yuyang, indicating she
was a member of the imperial family. The younger brother,
Wang Youfang, was the author of the inscription in fourcharacter verse, in which he revealed that the grotto was
placed so high to preserve it through the floods of the
kalpa of destruction:
The numinous shrine reclines against the moon;
a cassia palace suspended amidst the stars.
Rising into the void to excavate the stone,
[illegible character] the mountain ridge, a lofty chamber.
The grotto is high and hidden in the earth,
(safe from) waves agitating up to the heavens.
Thus we followed by carving and engraving,
in [illegible characters] year.89 (5L)

The remains of the two seated Buddha figures on the

back wall have been identified as an Amitbha and a King
Udayana Buddha.90 At first glance, this pairing seems
unorthodox. The riddle is not solved by the dedication,
since it neither identifies the figures nor directs prayers to
any particular deity, but the answer may be found in the
short scripture titled The Stra on the Production of Bud
dha Images, a text thought to have been translated near
the end of the Later Han that was popular in the Tang dyc n a s t h n a p r e s e r v e s t h e d h a r m a | 103

nasty.91 Its subject is the favorable rebirths to be attained

by anyone who produces an image of the Buddha. The
scripture opens with the Buddha arriving in the country
of Kaumb, where he was met by King Udayana, who
was then fourteen years old. The young king greeted and
made obeisance to the Buddha, then said: 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?92 The Buddha replied, I will teach you of the
good fortune to be gained by one who produces an image
of the Buddha. He then enumerated all the wonderful rebirths to be expected, including rebirth with a handsome
reddish-gold appearance, rebirth in the seventh Brahm
Heaven, rebirth in a rich and noble family, and rebirth as
an emperor or cakravartin monarch. The donor of a statue
will never be reborn in one of the evil destinies. The scripture ends with these lines: The Buddha told the king: To
produce an image of the Buddha is a worthy deed, and the
good fortune obtained thereby is, without exaggeration,
such as I have explained. The king was pleased and bowed
before the Buddha, touching his forehead to the Buddhas
feet. The king and all his ministers then bowed to the Buddha and took their leave. At the end of their long lives they
were all reborn in the land of Amitbha Buddha.
This scripture, whose sole message is the good fortune to
be obtained by sponsoring an image of the Buddha, agrees
with the program of the Wang brothers grotto. The opening dialogue between kyamuni and King Udayana is
represented by the grottos King Udayana Buddha figure,
while the happy fate of the king and his ministers (and,
by extension, any donor) at the end is to be reborn in the
land of Amitbha. Since this program of sculpture literally embraces the entire scripture, the grotto functions to
generate all the benefits listed in the scripture, which the
Wang brothers transferred to the souls of their departed
parents by inscription.93

Amitbha and the Fifty Bodhisattvas

After passing several King Udayana figures in open shrines
south of the Binyang courtyard, the visitor arrives at the
portico in front of the Jingshan Monastery Stone Image
Grotto. A large bodhisattva in high relief, over two meters high, stands against each side wall, while the faade of
the grotto bears a pair of vigorously gesturing guardians
104 | c n a s t h n a p r e s e r v e s t h e d h a r m a

flanking the entryway. The very fine quality of the carving

is immediately striking, especially the crisp detail of the
jewelry strands and necklaces on the figures and the elaborate description of musculature, and the three-dimensionality of the guardians and their dramatic hip-shot posture
show more naturalism than any sculpture seen so far at
Longmen (figure 5.7). The exquisite quality of carving continues inside the grotto, whose walls are filled with figures,
large and small. Against the west wall is a seated crosslegged Buddha figure, two and a half meters high, on an
octagonal throne with two small crouching lions carved
in the lotus petals at the base. The broken hands were in
abhaya and varada mudrs. The present head is a clumsy
replacement, but the original has a subtly modulated face
with deeply set lips that dimple the cheeks, and the eyes
are cast down in a meditative gaze, with a slight curve to
the eyelids in imitation of the Gupta reverse-curve eye
(figure 5.8).94 In his halo are seven Buddhas, presumably
representing the Seven Buddhas of the Past, while flanking the nimbus are a pair of small standing worshiping
bodhisattvas. On the inner edge of the south wall stands
the large figure of nanda, with Kyapa facing him from
the northern wall. Bracketing them are a pair of smaller
worshiping monastics, who face inward toward the Buddha figure. On the north wall is a nun; on the south wall
is a monk. These in turn are flanked by large standing bodhisattva figures, both with crude replacement heads.95
Next to them, right by the entryway, is a pair of lokapla
figures rendered in low relief. Each wears jeweled armor
and short robes, stands on a pair of seated dwarf yaks.a
figures, and brandishes a sword.
Everything here suggests the main Buddha represents
kyamuni except for the dozens of smaller, high-relief
bodhisattva figures that surround it, seated in various
postures on lotus seats that are connected by their stems
to the larger figures of the standing bodhisattvas and the
disciples (figure 5.9). The number of figures has been given
variously.96 They are difficult to tally because some have
been stolen and other similar small figures are mixed in
with them, but by my count, there are eight figures on the
back wall, seventeen on the north wall, fourteen on the
south wall, and about a dozen on the east wall, for a total
number of approximately fifty. This number is significant.
It indicates the program of the grotto is Amitbha and the
Fifty Bodhisattvas.

Figure 5.7. Guardian, faade of Jingshan Monastery Grotto.

Photo, the author, 2004.

This program is not identified by its inscription, but the

Chinese scholar Li Sisheng has found it compares closely
with a grotto of 634 in Sichuan, where a similar arrangement of numerous small seated bodhisattva figures surrounding an Amitbha triad is found on the back wall (figure 5.10).97 Its dedicatory stele bears the title The Record
of Amitbha Buddha and the Fifty-Two Bodhisattvas.98
The inscription begins as follows:
The image of Amitbha and the Fifty Bodhisattvas is an auspicious image from the western regions. The tradition says, at
Kukkutrma Monastery in India, a bodhisattva possessed
of the five supernatural powers went to the World of Joy and

Figure 5.8. Amitbha, west wall, Jingshan Monastery Grotto.

Photo, ca. 1936. From Mizuno Seiichi and Nagahiro Toshio,
Rymon sekkutsu no kenky, v. 3.
said to Amitbha Buddha, World-Honored One, all sentient
beings of the Sah World pray to be reborn in the Pure Land,
but without an image of the Buddhas form, their prayers
and entreaties lack a cause. Please let it fall and descend to
that place. The Buddha said, Before you leave here, it will be
instantly manifested there. By the time the bodhisattva had
returned (to the monastery), the image was already there. It
consisted of one Buddha and fifty bodhisattvas, each seated
on a lotus flower, (as if) on the leaves of a tree.99

There is no scriptural source for this story, and evidently

this stele is the earliest extant record for this image, since
it appears that monk Daoxuans (596667) later record
c n a s t h n a p r e s e r v e s t h e d h a r m a | 105

Figure 5.9. Seated bodhisattvas around monk

worshiper, bodhisattva, and lokapla, north wall,
Jingshan Monastery Grotto. From Liu Jinglong, ed.,
Longmen shiku zaoxiang quanji, v. 2, pl. 485.

of this story was actually taken from this inscription.100

When Xuanzang wrote about visiting Kukkutrma Monastery, near Pt.aliputra, he did not mention this story or
any image of Amitbha and fifty bodhisattvas (although it
seems unlikely Xuanzang would have done much to promote Amitbha worship). Thus one is tempted to consider
the story an indigenous fabrication designed to substantiate a new type of Indian imagery coming into China by
way of Sichuan.
Although the Chinese style of the main Buddha figure
in Jingshan Monastery Grotto is consonant with other
central Buddha figures from the same time in the grot106 | c n a s t h n a p r e s e r v e s t h e d h a r m a

toes adjacent to it, the bodhisattvas do imitate Indian figural style in their graceful, swaying postures, the curving
arms and legs, and especially the gently nodding head on
several figures.101 Moreover, there is an interest in unusual
postures that also recalls Indian art. A good example is the
bodhisattva seated with his back to the viewer, an unusual
pose for a Chinese figure, which is found not only on the
south wall of the Jingshan Monastery grotto, but again on
the south wall of the adjacent grotto, the Liang Wenxiong
Grotto (no. 363), which borrows the fifty bodhisattvas
imagery, even though the main Buddha on the back wall
is a pendant-legged Maitreya Buddha figure.102 Two contemporary grottoes nearby, the Yuan Hongji Grotto (no.
362) and Grotto 394, also contain the Amitbha and Fifty
Bodhisattvas program, but the carving is not as good and
has little indication of an attempt at Indian style.103
A type of the Indian source for this program can be
seen in the stele from Mohammed Nari, now in the Lahore
Museum, probably produced in the fourth century (figure
5.11). John Huntington has argued that this Gandhran
stele represents Amitbha Buddha in Sukhvat, surrounded by twenty-five bodhisattvas and reborn beings.104
Whether that was the original subject matter of the stele
or not, its composition and style do correspond well to
the imagery depicted in the Jingshan Monastery Grotto.
A large Buddha figure is seated in the center of the stele,
on an upturned lotus-petal throne, while seated around
him on lotus-flower bases are an array of figures of bo
dhisattvas, donors, Buddhas, and reborn souls. The active
variety of the postures and gestures is remarkablesome
figures sit pensively, with chin in hand, or clasp their
hands around one knee, while others reach upward or
turn to the side and gesture. One bodhisattva is seen in
a back three-quarter view. These are the same postures
seen in the bodhisattva figures on the walls of the Jingshan Monastery Grotto, so even though the legend of the
statue has no basis in scripture, the similarities in style between the bodhisattvas in the Jingshan Monastery Grotto
and the stele from Mohammed Nari suggest the Chinese
Amitbha and the Fifty Bodhisattvas imagery did derive
from an Indian icon.
Amitbha and the Fifty Bodhisattvas offered the same
benefits to the Chinese believer as the King Udayana figure. Its story established its origin in India, it was probably
copied from some Indian original, and it looked Indian in

Figure 5.10.
Amitbha and
the fifty-two
bodhisattvas,
Cave 3, Mount
Wolong, Zi
tong County,
Sichuan. From
Zhongguo shiku
diaosu quanji,
v. 8: Sichuan,
Chongqing, ed.
Liu Changjiu,
pl. 155.

style. Not only was it an image from the holy land, but it
was also a divine image, generated by Amitbha himself
and magically produced on earth. It was the express image
of Amitbha. As the King Udayana image was considered
to be the first image made of kyamuni, so this icon was
considered the earliest image of Amitbha in his Pure
Land. No other image of Amitbha could have greater efficacy, and no other could be as deserving of preservation.

Lady Wei as Patron of a Grotto

and a Monastery
Engraved on a planed stele-shaped area on the north face
of the portico is the Inscription and Preface for the Stone
Image of Jingshan Monastery.105 Jingshan Monastery
stood in the east hills of Longmen, on the northern end.
No archeological remains have been found to date, but its
location was determined by the 1981 discovery of the tomb
of a wealthy Sogdian man named An Pu (601664) and
his wife ne He (622704) in the northern part of the eastern hills. His epitaph states the tomb was located east of

Jingshan Monastery, south of Luoyang, in the hills two li

from the Yi River.106 The monastery had already been in
existence since at least 650.107 The poets Li Deyu (789849)
and Liu Cang (jinshi 854) described its cassia trees and
lofty towers in the mid-ninth century, but it probably did
not survive the fall of the Tang.108
The inscription identifies Lady Wei, a consort of the late
emperor Taizong, as the sponsor of the grotto and further
suggests she was also a patron of Jingshan Monastery, but
the author of the inscription was Li Xiaolun, who served
as a secretarial aide to her son, Li Shen (d. 687), Prince
of Ji, which suggests he was the sponsor of the inscription. It describes Lady Weis activities as a patron, often
in unusual literary language, and though the preface begins with the typical rationale for image-making, note the
unconventional opening reference to Queen My giving
birth to the Buddha:
As for (Queen My grasping) the silver branch to propagate
the blessing, its consequence was (the Buddhas) numinous
resemblance appearing in the garden (purchased for him
c n a s t h n a p r e s e r v e s t h e d h a r m a | 107

Figure 5.11. Stele from

Mohammed Nari, fourth
century. Lahore Museum.
From Kurita Isao, Gandara
bijutsu, v. 1, pl. 395.

from Prince Jeta by covering it in) gold (coins). His swordrain dispelled noxious vapors and let fly the flux of wisdom
over worlds as numerous as the sands (of the Ganges). Since
his form was hidden in the Grove of Cranes (at his nirvn.a,
the trees burst into white blossom, resembling a flock of cranes),
and his traces were hoarded at Chicken(foot) Mountain (where
Kyapa holds his robe, waiting to give it to Maitreya), we fashion his sagacious image in pure gold and carve his auspicious
visage in excellent jade. That his influence and his ways are not
lost is because of this. (5M)

108 | c n a s t h n a p r e s e r v e s t h e d h a r m a

Then Lady Wei is described in eulogistic language, which

suggests she had already passed away, although that is not
certain:
Lady Wei, Great Consort of the Princedom of Ji, was from
Jingzhao (Changan). Her chalice-vine manner contained a
rich beauty, showering brilliance over the palace women. Her
orchid appearance was steeped in elegance, succeeding the
goodness of (the woman gathering) duckweed at the bend
of the river.109 Her thoughts were concerned with red sand,
pouring waves of true brilliance over the five swords. Her

spirit dwelt in white clouds, extending its marvelous action

to the three pearls.110 As a result, she selected this beautiful
metropolitan area in which to have this numinous image
made. (5N)

Wei, while the second appears to be the type of sketch

of the rise and transmission of Buddhism from India to
China found in other early Tang inscriptions. It opens as
follows:

Next, the writer describes the painted and gilded Buddha

statue inside the grotto:

The inscription says:

The two souls have already dispersed, but the body has
not yet dissolved. (When) flora and fauna increase in number (i.e., are born), objects and their images come together.
(In death,) affections are discarded at the marchmount, and
memories float down the breeze. When in the end we are
sunk in our [eternal?] home, what can illuminate the three
immaterialities?
When Mahvra (kyamuni) descended into his traces,
the mysterious ford was thereby opened. The propitious
stream was pure and flowing, and the auspicious mountain
was cleft into spires. The youth of the Himlayas (the Buddha
in a previous incarnation) fought to the victory, and the san.
dalwood forest (the sangha) assisted his goodness. The Revelation of Meaning was proclaimed in the west, after which
the marvelous Wheel (of the Law) rolled to the east. (5R)

Its substance is as brilliant as the colors of the coiled dragon;

its resemblance duplicates (the original form of the Buddha) as the fabulous luan bird taking flight (is echoed by its
shadow below). As the moon reunites with the river of the
immortals, it divides over the red-blue brows (of the statue),
making them gush with color. As the stars glide through the
garden of the firmament, they wander over the violet pupils,
making volant their brilliance. The absolute sincerity (of the
donor) is completely expressed, and her flourishing meritorious achievement has been accomplished. (5O)

Following this are lines describing the donor, which may

allude to Lady Wei entering a convent after the death of
Emperor Taizong
Like a transformed bird (an immortal who has taken the
form of a crane), she has distinguished herself as one who
has crossed the sea (to the islands of immortality). Like the
tortoise hidden (inside its shell), she showed clearly the results
of having drawn herself in from the dust. (5P)

after which the author praises the grotto and the site
and asserts the durability of the imperishable stone of
Longmen:
So brilliant is this lofty endeavor, it is hard to describe in
words. Moreover, solid stone underlies its foundation, and an
even bed of rime marks the place. The river freshens the verdure of the garden of paulownias, and the breeze carries the
fragrance of the mountain of apricots. Although this place
of purity displays a gilded (statue), one might worry that it
is out of keeping with the [transformations] of the mulberry
(fields) into the (blue Eastern) sea (and back again over eons),
and so, following a great plan, this stone was carved with the
confidence that it will endure for the period of time (it takes
to empty) a city (one hundred yojanas square by extracting)
a mustard seed (once every century). (5Q)

Following the preface is the inscription, in rhymed couplets. The opening couplet may tell of the death of Lady

The third stanza is a paean of praise for the spiritual purpose of the statuary inside Lady Weis grotto:
What had been at the Place of the Glossy Leaves (the place
of the bodhi tree, i.e., Bodhgay), Cnasthna (China) now
shelters.111 (For those) hoping for the image (of the Buddha),
(here it is) completely pictured, and (those who) seek for the
light will surely assemble here. It is a virtuous model, from
which we may continually investigate subtle mysteries! If we
should ever be unmindful of his attaining enlightenment, (we
have but) to gaze reverently upon this visage to sigh! (5S)

The last two stanzas appear to describe other patronage

by Lady Wei:
Pearls and gems, she removed these baubles, and from her
treasure of silver, exhausted her funds. In the grove, a pagoda
was modeled, while beyond the clouds, the towers rose. The
rn looks down like the full moon; the eyelids are dazzling
like lotuses opening. The smoke of incense rises in clouds,
while Buddhist chanting shakes the earth.
From the south, (pilgrims) are drawn down the Luanchuan
(the Yi River), and from the north, they gallop in the royal
chariots (from the palaces in Luoyang). (As they sail by), they
turn and look intently at the myriad chambers, while (those
c n a s t h n a p r e s e r v e s t h e d h a r m a | 109

traveling by land) halt in their journey (to donate money for)

the four necessities of religious life. There the causes they
have planted together will be nurtured, and scriptures will
be opened that they may share in enlightenment. Like unto
the sun, may (the Buddhist faith) eternally reign on high, and
as are the mountains, may it be forever firm! (5T)

The activities described are those of a monastery: building pagodas and multistory halls, making statuary, chanting stras and burning incense, reading scriptures, and
performing other merit-making activities, which suggests
Lady Wei was a patron of Jingshan Monastery. This would
explain the unusual presence of the large pair of monk and
nun worshipers on the side walls of the grotto, who must
be representatives of the monasterys clerics.112 After the
death of Emperor Taizong in 649, Lady Wei apparently
retired to Jingshan Monastery or somewhere near it and
devoted herself to a religious life. It is likely she had her
grotto produced as an auxiliary image hall for Jingshan
Monastery, and after her death, her son had a memorial
inscription added.113 The unusual reference to Queen
My giving birth to the Buddha suggests the relationship
of mother and son. Li Shen was also the patron of other
Buddhist projects, including a stele bearing a section of the
Visualization Stra, produced in 674, and a large shrine at
the grotto site of Xuanwushan, in Hebei Province.114 No
beneficiary of the Jingshan Monastery Grotto was named
in the inscription, but Gong Dazhong has advanced the
theory that Lady Wei had the grotto produced for her
beloved daughter-in-law, Li Shens wife.115 Lady Lu died
in 665, in Zezhou, at the age of thirty-five. Her epitaph
states that when Lady Wei, in Luoyang, heard the news of
her daughter-in-laws death, she was very distressed. Psy-

110 | c n a s t h n a p r e s e r v e s t h e d h a r m a

chologically, it would make sense that Lady Wei had the

grotto produced for her late daughter-in-law, but there are
at least two problems with this theory: Lady Lu is never
mentioned in the inscription, and Lady Weis grotto was
probably begun in the early 650s, when Lady Lu was still
alive.116

The Dharma Preserved

In the end, Tang Chinese believers were successful at the
task they had set themselves, to preserve the Dharma in
the East. Not only are many stras extant in the Chinese
Buddhist canon that do not survive as Sanskrit originals,
but Tang Buddhist intellectuals added to the body of the
Dharma with the composition of indigenous scriptures.117
The scriptures carved in stone at Baoshan and Fangshan
are still there, largely unchanged by time, now protected by
the government.118 King Udayanas image of kyamuni
does not exist in India, if it ever did, but now dwells at
Longmen, in the Seiry-ji, and throughout East Asia.
Amitbha and the Fifty Bodhisattvas images may once
have been made in Gandhra, but they are known only in
China and Japan now.119 The gigantic gilded sandalwood
Maitreya of Darl disappeared long ago, and even in this
century the annihilation of the Dharma in its homeland
continues, with the deliberate destruction by rocket fire
of the towering cliff-carved Buddhas of Bamiyan, in what
was once Gandhra.120 In China, by contrast, the colossal
figures at cave-shrine sites throughout the country have
been protected and restored by the government, while
the Longmen Grottoes recently earned designation as a
UNESCO World Heritage Site.121 Cnasthna continues
to preserve the Dharma.

Six Rouge and Powder Money

Besides, in my devotion to the temple of my God I now give my personal treasures of gold and silver to the temple of my God, over
and above everything I have provided.King David, 1 Chronicles 29:3

or most tourists to Longmen, the highlight of

their visit is seeing the colossal figures of the
Great Vairocana Image Shrine (figure 6.1). As
with any other effective theatrical experience,
the shrine is situated so as to build up a sense of anticipation by delaying and controlling the experience of seeing
it. The modern-day visitor enters the northern precinct
of the Longmen cliffs from the northwhich was quite
likely the experience of anyone approaching by land from
Luoyang during the Tang dynastyand amidst the flocks
of tourists from Japan, Europe, and elsewhere walks along
the stone-paved pathway that runs between the river and
the base of the cliff, then climbs several meters up the cliff
face on the modern concrete stairs to pause at the solitary
Qianxisi Grotto with its huge seated early Tang Buddha,
and then continues south several meters to enter the deep
Binyang courtyard with its arcade of three colossal entryways (see figure 4.1). Descending the stairs to a lower level
of the cliff face, the visitor passes small grottoes containing King Udayana Buddhas and climbs up to the large
Jingshan Monastery Grotto, with its finely carved bodhisattvas and guardians on the faade. Continuing to walk
the path across the cliff face past yet more open shrines,
the visitor arrives at the Cliff-Carved Three Buddhas,
a seven-meter-high open niche containing several large
unfinished figures that marks the end of the northern
precinct. A couple hundred meters south, the grottoes
of the southern precinct begin with the Paired Grottoes
and other large early Tang grottoes, and farther on, famous Northern Wei shrines such as Cixiangs Grotto and
Lianhua Grotto, which are marked by placards, are surrounded by thousands of unmarked grottoes and shrines

that perforate the cliff wall like dark windows (see figure
7.1 below).

Meeting the Gaze

After walking south the better part of a kilometer (figure
6.2), the visitor arrives at the stairs leading to the Vairocana shrine, which were restored to something like their
original Tang dynasty design in 1991.1 The old stairs were
zigzagged to allow an easier ascent up to the floor of the
grotto, which is almost thirty meters above the base of the
cliff, but that design ruined what had been an intentionally
hidden and controlled view. Although the shrine has no
faade to screen the statues, it is cut thirty-six meters deep
into the cliff, so the sculpted figures on the back wall are
not visible from the pathway at the base of the cliff. Now,
the visitor begins the approach to the shrine by climbing a short flight of stairs set parallel to the cliff face and
then turning ninety degrees to face a sheer wall cut into
a two-story stairway to the shrine. Slowly ascending the
precipitous steps, the visitors first sight over the top of the
stairs is the majestic head of the central Buddha, whose
eyes appear to fix the viewers in their gaze. As the visitor
continues to climb, the body of the Buddha comes into
view, and the standing disciples and bodhisattvas flanking
him on the back wall appear. Looming to the right and the
left are colossal guardians on the side walls of the shrine,
who gesture and glare ferociously. At last, the visitor steps
up onto the floor of the shrine to enter its space.
In the center of the back wall is the seated figure of Vairocana Buddha, measuring over seventeen meters from the
grotto floor to the tip of the halo (figure 6.3). The Vairocana

Figure 6.1.
Great Vairocana
Image Shrine,
676. Restored,
19711973. Photo,
Jin Yini, 1999.

Figure 6.2.
Longmen (3): (21)
Putai Grotto, (22)
Cleft Grotto, (23)
Weizi Grotto, (24)
Great Vairocana
Image Shrine.
Adapted from
map in Rymon
sekkutsu, ed.
Longmen wenwu
baoguansuo and
Beijing daxue kao
guxi, endpaper.

has a penetrating expression that represents samdhi, or

absorption, a state of intense meditation. The symmetrical concentration of the face and the perfect immobility of
the torso, draped entirely in a single robe, are heightened
in their effect by the ruined state of the body. The stone of
the front of the statue sheered off long ago, so the hands
112 | r o u g e a n d p o w d e r m o n e y

and legs are no longer there to distract from the expression

of the face.2 To the right of the Buddha stands the shattered figure of the older disciple Kyapa, while to the left
is the youthful figure of nanda. Both are more than ten
meters high. In each corner where the back and side walls
meet stands an elaborately jeweled bodhisattva figure,

Figure 6.3. Vairocana, west wall, Great Vairocana Image

Shrine. Photo, Jin Yini, 1999.

Figure 6.4. Bodhisattva, northwest corner, Great Vairocana

Image Shrine. Photo, the author, 1994.

each over thirteen meters high (figure 6.4). As the main

Buddha represents Vairocana, the bodhisattvas must be
Samantabhadra and Majur, though which one is which
is no longer known.3 These five figures are contained in a
huge shallow niche cut into the back wall of the grotto.
The side walls were also cut into shallow niches, and at
the inner edge stands a worshiper some six meters high
who faces in toward the Buddha figure. Next to the worshiper, facing outward in defense of this Buddha-realm
and all worshipers in it, stands a ten-meter-high lokapla
figure, in a pose of victory over a dwarf demonic nature
deity, and a similarly large dvrapla, who raises his arms
in a martial gesture. The north-wall lokapla holds up a

small pagoda on his right hand, which identifies him as

Vairavan.a, guardian of the north. The lokapla on the
south wall has been ruined by the elements, but he was
likely Virdhaka, guardian of the south.

Controlling the View

The control of visual effect in this shrine is not limited to
governing the sight of the shrine. The proportions of the
figures were also manipulated by the sculptors to counteract two different optical effects.4 One is the apparent
distortion of colossal figures when seen from below. If the
figures were of normal proportions, the heads would apr o u g e a n d p o w d e r m o n e y | 113

Figure 6.5. Vairavan.a and dvrapla seen from the side, north wall, Great Vairocana Image Shrine. Photo, the author, 1996.

pear ridiculously small and distant. The ideal beauty of

the bodhisattvas heads and their compassionate expressions convey the essential meaning of these salvic deities,
so for the heads to be lost from view would render their
identities void. A normally proportioned figure is seven
heads high, but to counteract the effect of diminution, the
sculptors made the bodhisattvas scarcely five heads high,
shortening the bodies to bring the heads down to where
the viewer can see their expressions. In a similar fashion,
the upper torsos of the bodhisattva figures are disproportionately broad, in order to support the heads and to
serve as a backdrop for the lavish and detailed jewelry and
the beautiful plump hands held in vitarka mudr (silent
teaching). The Indian style of the jewelry and the mudrs
signify the authenticity and efficacy of the icon and must
be clearly readable.5
114 | r o u g e a n d p o w d e r m o n e y

The other optical effect the sculptors countered was

the tendency for relief sculptures to become contracted
and unreadable when viewed from an oblique angle. The
most obvious example of the sculptors altering the figures
to compensate for this tendency is seen in the side wall
lokapla and dvrapla figures. Looking directly at the
north wall reveals that the figures have been intentionally
broadened, with an almost grotesque wideness to the hips
and shoulders (figure 6.5). Their left shoulders are higher
and wider than their right, and the left side of their necks
is extended rather weirdly. When the statues are seen from
the front of the shrine at the oblique angle intended, however, the excessive width on the left sides of the figures
evens out the visual effect of contraction, and the figures
look quite normal (figure 6.6). A similar strategy was used
on the bodhisattva figures as well. Looking at them di-

vas in the corners at about a twenty-five-degree angle, so

that they appeared to be leaning gently toward her, while
the guardians were seen at about a forty-five-degree angle,
where their proportions would have contracted to a normal appearance and their glaring eyes would be focused
slightly behind the pilgrim to defend her. To complete this
imaginary Tang dynasty experience, we should envision
the figures with their original colorationgolden necklaces set with jewels of bright blue and green, white skin,
red lips, dark blue hair, and pupils quickened with black
glass.6

Iconographic and Inscriptional Evidence

Figure 6.6. Vairavan.a and dvrapla seen from intended

angle, Great Vairocana Image Shrine. Photo, the author, 1994.

rectly, the viewer can tell the bodhisattvas are a little larger
on the outside half of their bodies and seem to lean in that
direction, yet when seen from the front of the shrine, the
upper body seems to be moving slightly toward the viewer,
and the overall effect is of the gentle sway of the tribhanga
(triple-bend, or hip-shot) pose.
The evidence of the sculpture suggests the intended
view of the shrine was from the front, not far from the
point where the visitor steps up onto the threshold. At
this spot, the Tang dynasty visitor looked straight up into
the face of the Buddha and directly ahead to the frontally
presented figures of the disciples. She saw the bodhisatt

The massive throne on which the main Buddha sits, though

shattered, has an elaborate sculptural program that is still
legible. The octagonal waist of the throne is set onto a wide
pedestal bordered with lotus petals, and at each corner of
the five visible faces stands a caryatid guardian figure in
a triumphant pose on a pair of dwarf demon nature deities. Between the guardians, on each face of the waist is a
lokapla wearing armor, seated upon two dwarf demons.
The seat of the throne above them is almost entirely broken
away, yet a small section of the original carving remains,
adjoining the back wall on the south side of the throne.
Here one can still make out a few upturned lotus petals,
and centered in each is a small seated Buddha figure (figure 6.7). It is likely the entire platform of the throne was
carved as a multipetal lotus flower, each petal containing a
seated Buddha figure.
Traces of an early inscription remain on the south side
of the throne, which was evidently ruined by the elements
soon after it was made and later reengraved on the north
side.7 The text must have been written after Emperor Gao
zongs death in 683, since it employs his posthumous title,
but before it was reengraved around 723. It was not the dedication. Rather, it was a record of the making of the shrine,
of the later establishment of the imperial Great Fengxian
Monastery, by which name the shrine was known then as
now, and the history of the monks who practiced there.8
The inscription begins by describing the shrine:
On the sunny side of the Longmen hills, the Great Vairocana
Image Shrine was established by the Celestial August Great
Emperor Gaozong of Great Tang.9 The body of the Buddha,
r o u g e a n d p o w d e r m o n e y | 115

Figure 6.7. Buddhas on

lotus petals, south face of
throne, Great Vairocana
Image Shrine. Photo,
Jin Yini, 2004.

from halo to base, is eighty-five chi (25 meters) in height, while

the two bodhisattvas are seventy chi (20 meters) in height, and
Kyapa, nanda, the vajra (guardians, i.e., the dvraplas)
and the shenwang (the lokaplas) are each fifty chi (almost
15 meters) in height. On the first day of the fourth month of
the third year of the Xianheng era, a renshen year (May 3,
672), the August Empress Wu aided (this project) with twenty
thousand strings of her rouge and powder money. In obedience to an imperial decree, the clerics in charge were Meditation Master Shandao of Shiji Monastery and Dharma Master
Huijian, abbot of Fahai Monastery, of the Western Capital.10
The commissioner in charge was Wei Ji, Chief Minister of the
Court of the National Granaries, while the vice commissioner
was Fan Xuanze, Supreme Pillar of State and Director of the
Eastern Parks. The artisans were Li Junzan, Cheng Renwei,
Yao Shiji, and others. This work of merit was completed on
the thirtieth day of the twelfth month of the second year of
the Shangyuan era, an yihai year (January 20, 676).11 (6A)

Although the inscription explicitly names the Buddha

as Vairocana, it was composed at least seven years after the
shrines completion, which makes the identification less
than certain. Evidence to confirm it, however, is found
in the remaining lotus petals on the southern edge of the
116 | r o u g e a n d p o w d e r m o n e y

throne, which bear figures of seated Buddhas. Sofukawa

Hiroshi, of the Institute for Research in Humanities at
Kyoto University, has observed that the second chapter
of the Fanwang jing describes a thousand-petal, thousand-Buddha Vairocana.12 Although the Fanwang jing
(Scripture of Indras net) is introduced by kyamuni, its
principal deity is Vairocana, with whom the Tathgata
kyamuni shares an interchangeable identity. kyamuni
says: I am now Vairocana, seated on a lotus-flower throne,
and surrounding me on a thousand petals are manifest a
thousand kyamunis. Each petal (also) holds ten billion
lands, and each land a single kyamuni. Each sits under a
bodhi tree, and in a single moment each attains enlightenment. Thus, these thousand and these ten billion are the
original body of Vairocana, while the thousand and the
ten billion kyamunis each receive countless sentient
beings.13 Although the Fanwang jing is a fifth-century
indigenous scripture, it contains elements based on Indian scriptures, such as the Mahparinirvn.a Stra, and
it was considered authentic by Tang dynasty exegetes.14
Its vision of Vairocana as the original embodiment of
the dharmakya is shared by the Avatamsaka Stra (Ch.
Huayan jing, or Flower Ornament Scripture), which further illustrates the interrelatedness of kyamuni and

Vairocana with the metaphor of the jeweled net of Indra,

in which the universe is compared to a vast net.15 At each
knot is a jewel, which not only reflects the net as a whole,
but also every other jewel in the net individually. All phenomena are like these jewels in that each phenomenon in
the universe can be seen as reflecting the whole (a whole
that has both unity and multiplicity) even as it preserves
its own unique, yet not separate, identity.

The Problem of the Purpose

Since the choice of Vairocana as the principal icon for
a shrine was practically unprecedented at Longmen, it
must have been highly significant to the donors, and yet
the most prevalent theory at present ignores any religious
meaning or function of a Vairocana figure per se and asserts that the purpose of the shrine was political.16 Despite the explicit statement that the emperor established
the shrine and the empress aided the project with her personal funds, several scholars are convinced that the original sponsor was Empress Wu. Gong Dazhong, a scholar
who worked at the Longmen Cultural Relics Management
and Conservation Office in the 1970s, believed that the
creation of the Fengxian Monastery Shrine had Empress
Wu, as the wielder of state authority, as its behind-thescenes backer.17 He indicted her as a great supporter of
Buddhism, no matter the waste of money and manpower,
saying she built monasteries, excavated cave-shrines, and
made colossal sculptures as monuments to herself.18 Convinced that the empress had the shrine made to her own
political and religious glory, he offered the opinion that
the Vairocana figure was her portrait. Contravening the
traditional belief that all Buddhas and bodhisattvas are
male, he said, the main figure was boldly given a feminine
appearance.19 He noted that the Taiping princess was described as having a square forehead and broad cheeks
and that the empress had always favored her daughter because the princess resembled her in appearance.20 Hence,
the face of the empress was almost exactly in accord with
the appearance of the Vairocana. We might say the Vairocana is to some degree a portrayal of the image of Wu
Zetian or, some might say, an effigy of her.
This notion was elaborated by other scholars in the
1980s. Li Yukun flatly stated the shrine was sponsored by
Wu Zetian for political reasons, while Zhang Naizhu ar-

gued that she consciously used Buddhism, the Buddhist

establishment, and Buddhist building projects to deify
herself and that she began this career practically from the
moment she was made empress in 655.21 Her self-representation as Vairocana in the 670s at Longmen was an early
step in the religious and political scheme that culminated
in her self-declaration as a golden-wheel cakravartin in
693 and then as the Benevolent One, or Maitreya, in 694.
Okada Ken, of the Institute for Research in Humanities of
Kyoto University, wrote that Empress Wu used the emperors name to issue the edict to produce the shrine and that
her monetary contribution to the project was part of her
plan to usurp political power.22
One voice to sound against this chorus is that of Wen
Yucheng, who accepts the statement made in the inscription that the shrine was initiated by Emperor Gaozong.23
He further rebuts the idea that the Vairocana was a portrait
of Empress Wu and that she was the behind-the-scenes
backer. He notes first that the inscription clearly states
Emperor Gaozong had the Vairocana shrine made, while
Empress Wu merely helped pay for it, and second, that if
this project had been begun soon after she was installed as
empress, she would not have tested her husbands faith in
her by erecting images of herself. How and why would she
turn a statue the emperor had made for posthumous merit
into her effigy? Finally, Wen questions Gong Dazhongs
comparison of the description of the Taiping princess and
her mother to the face of the Vairocana by noting that a
square forehead and broad cheeks is one of the eighty traditional beautiful signs of the Buddha.24
This is not to say that Empress Wu would balk at any action that would accomplish her goals.25 It can scarcely be
argued that after the death of her husband in 683, she kept
her sons from ruling and held the upper bureaucracy in
check through the use of spies, secret denunciations, and
judicial murder. In 690, she did usurp the throne, inaugurating the Zhou dynasty (690705), with herself in the
role of emperor. Her self-aggrandizement continued to become more grandiose, culminating in the assumption of
the titles of cakravartin and Maitreya. Yet, although from
the start of her career she evinced the kind of amoral ambition necessary to control the throne in medieval times
(the same kind that allowed Emperor Taizong to murder
his brother with his own hands), the phases of her path to
supreme power are distinct. Having originally been a conr o u g e a n d p o w d e r m o n e y | 117

cubine of Emperor Taizong, she began her ascent by reentering the palace as a concubine of Emperor Gaozong. She
then framed, supplanted, and murdered Empress Wang
and had her own son installed as heir apparent. She was
elevated to empress in 655, and those who opposed her,
such as Chu Suiliang and Zhangsun Wuji, were banished,
to die in exile.
In the realm of political theater, Empress Wu played the
role of supporting her husband, while actually functioning as his equal, and from 655 to 683, her goals were to
control the emperor by eliminating competing interests
and to put herself on a par with him. Beginning in 664,
court business was conducted with the empress seated
behind the emperor, screened by a curtain, whence she
issued orders. They were called the Two Sages.26 When the
emperor ascended Mount Tai with male officials on the
first day of 666 to perform the feng and shan sacrifices, in
which he announced to heaven and earth the success of his
reign, the empress led a parallel group of women to perform complementary rituals. When droughts and other
calamities struck the nation in 670, she offered to resign
her position in expiation, as a kind of substitute for the
emperor. In 674, she issued a twelve-point memorial for
reforms throughout the realm. In addition to condemning
extravagance in the construction of palace buildings and
wasteful use of corve labor, she also advocated universal
study of the Daoist classic Dao de jing.27 This last point was
clearly intended to express support for the emperors personal beliefs and for the traditional connection between
the royal house of Li and Daoism. As T.H.Barrett has said,
She had learned during the course of her marriage the art
of reconciling family, state and church interests.28
The behavior deemed appropriate for empresses was
to use personal funds to provide aid for the emperors
projects, not to initiate projects with government money.
Empress Dowager Hu of the Northern Wei, for example,
was criticized by her ministers for supporting her Buddhist projects with the state treasury. Conversely, an example of acceptable behavior was shown by Empress Xiao
of the Sui dynasty. When Emperor Yang went to inspect
the engraving of stras in stone at Fangshan, he was accompanied by Xiao Yu, the empress younger brother.
Returning to the palace, he told the empress about this
work. The empress donated a thousand rolls of silk and
118 | r o u g e a n d p o w d e r m o n e y

other wealth and materials in order to aid its completion,

while Yu also donated five hundred rolls of silk. When all
in court and countryside heard of this, they competed to
offer donations, and thereby (Jing)wan gained what he
needed to continue his work of merit.29
Empress Wus mother, Lady Yang, was descended from a
collateral branch of the Sui royal line, so although she and
her daughter were not directly related to Empress Xiao,
her behavior would still have stood as a kind of maternal
example for them. Indeed, offering aid in support of the
emperors projects is the rhetorical model that Empress
Wu adhered to from 655 to 683. In 659, for example, Emperor Gaozong ordered the imperial commissioner Wang
Changxin and the palace monk Zhizong to go to Famen
Monastery in Fufeng to request that the finger-bone relic
of the Buddha be brought to Luoyang. The following year,
it was worshiped at the palace and paraded through the
streets. Empress Wu is said to have had gold inner-coffin
and silver outer-coffin reliquaries produced to house it.30
Now whether the idea to bring the relic to Luoyang was
originally hers or the emperors, we cannot know. We can
ascertain, however, the empress public posture concerning patronage, which was to support her husband in his
projects and to use personal funds for her own projects. In
670, for example, when she sponsored the establishment
of monasteries in honor of her late mother, she used her
own funds.31
Is the Vairocana a portrait of Empress Wu? Ideally beautiful and majestic, its rounded face might seem feminine,
even as its implacable expression could suggest the ruthless usurper. Glamorous as the idea might be that in looking on this seventh-century face we see the very features of
the only woman to rule China in her own right, a colossal
portrait seems to fit better the reputation for megalomania
she earned at the end of her life and not the role she sought
at the time the shrine was made. Every public act she performed while the emperor was alive was done in the rhetorical posture of aiding or supporting him. As there is no
evidence the empress intended to usurp the throne in 672
or required the legitimizing aura of deification to maintain
her place on it, as she apparently did in 694, the theory
that the empress would have her features reproduced in
the Vairocana statue is unconvincing.

The Choice of a Vairocana

The inscriptions statement that Empress Wu paid for the
completion of the shrine, however, is convincing, and
there is much evidence that a Vairocana figure would
have had a personal appeal. Kang Fazang (643712), the
great systematizer of Huayan thought and tireless writer
of commentaries and treatises on the Avatam
saka Stra,
held a uniquely influential position with the empress.32
His great-grandfather and his grandfather both served as
prime ministers in Sogdiana, whence the latter emigrated
to serve at the court of China.33 Fazangs father served
Emperor Taizong, while his younger brother Kang Baozang was an official with a reputation for loyalty and filial piety. At the age of seventeen, Fazang set out to learn
Buddhist teachings, and he studied for several years at a
monastery on Mount Taibai in the Zhongnan Mountains
southwest of Changan. Subsequently, he studied Huayan
scripture with the master Zhiyan (600668) in Changan.
At Zhiyans death, Fazang was still a layman, though Zhiyan considered him learned enough to be his successor,
and he remained so until 670, when Empress Wus pious
mother passed away. Desirous of generating merit for
Lady Yangs posthumous benefit, the empress determined
to have worthy men ordained to practice at the monastery
she established at her mothers former home. The emperor
accepted the recommendation that Fazang be ordained,
and he was established as the abbot of Taiyuan Monastery
in Luoyang.34 So precipitate was his ordination that he did
not possess the robes of a monk when he arrived, so the
empress herself supplied him with five sets along with a
personal letter.
Fazangs relationship with the empress continued to
flourish over the years the shrine was produced. In 674,
Empress Wu ordered ten senior monks in Changan to administer the highest ordination to him, and she granted
him the honorific title Xianshou Guoshi, or National
Teacher Chief-in-Goodness.35 At her order, he lectured
on the Avatam
saka Stra at the imperial Foshouji Monastery (the former Jingai Monastery) in Luoyang, and it was
there that he and iks.nanda later produced a new translation of the Avatam
saka Stra during the Zhou dynasty,
for which the empress wrote a preface.36 To the empress he
delivered his famous statement of Huayan concepts, the

Treatise on the Golden Lion, so it seems quite possible

that if he were consulted on the matter, he would advocate
for the statue to represent Vairocana.37
The interpretations Fazang offered on the image of the
jeweled net of Indra could have served the empress as a
Buddhist ideology of rule, which might explain why a figure of Vairocana would appeal to her. He read the jeweled
net as a symbol of the universal sovereignty of the cakra
vartin. In a treatise titled Cultivation of Contemplation of
the Inner Meaning of the Huayan: The Ending of Delusion
and Return to the Source, Fazang wrote: This refers to
the precious jewel of the blessed universal monarch with
a pure jewel net. That is to say, the essential nature of the
jewel is penetratingly bright; the ten directions are equally
illumined, as tasks are accomplished without thinking.
Thoughts all acquiesce. Though manifesting extraordinary
accomplishments, the mind is without cogitation.38
Not only would the empress have been pleased to see
herself as the cakravartin with the precious jewel and the
jewel net, but also the description of extraordinary accomplishments produced without thinking, by a mind
without cogitation, is so similar to Daoist ideas about inaction (wuwei) as the highest form of government that it
would be hard to imagine it not appealing to a Chinese
ruler. She would also likely have been attracted by the description of self as principal at the end of Fazangs treatise: Sixth is the contemplation of the net of Indra, where
principal and satellites reflect one another. This means
that with self as principal, one looks to others as satellites
or companions; or else one thing or principle is taken as
principal and all things or principles become satellites or
companions; or one body is taken as principal and all bodies become satellites.39

Rouge and Powder Money

Empress Wus affiliation with Fazang and his development of Huayan thought may explain her choice, if indeed she made it, of a Vairocana figure, but it does not
explain why she became involved in the project and had
the shrine finished. I suspect the designation of the icon
was secondary; what was primary was to demonstrate
her power and effectiveness by donating a stunning sum.
Just as Li Tais inscription boasted that he poured out his
r o u g e a n d p o w d e r m o n e y | 119

heart to demonstrate his love of charity, and opening his

treasury, he was liberal with tortoise shells and cowries,
and Song Jingfei confessed, I have now parted with half
my hairpins and girdles, so the only fact stated in the Vairocana inscription concerning the empress was that she
gave twenty thousand strings of her rouge and powder
money. Seizing the opportunity to make a public display
of ostentatious expenditure at the imperial cave-shrine
site, in the rhetorical posture of supporting her husband,
seems strikingly similar to her idea to sponsor gold and
silver reliquaries for the Famen Monastery finger-bone
just a few years before.

A Scenario for the Shrine

I propose a scenario in which the Vairocana shrine was
inaugurated by the emperor around 660 and completed
by the empress from 672 to 676.40 In 660, the emperor and
empress traveled to Bingzhou (modern Taiyuan, Shanxi
Province). Wenshui District, south of Bingzhou, was Empress Wus home place, and when the imperial couple arrived in Bingzhou in the second month of 660, the empress
gave a lavish banquet for all her relatives there.41 According to a record preserved in Daoshis Fayuan zhulin of 668,
during this trip, the emperor and empress traveled west of
Bingzhou to a mountain sanctuary called Tongzi Monastery. There they saw the colossal seated image said to be
over 170 chi in height (about 50 meters).42 They also visited
Kaihua Monastery in the valley to the north, which had a
colossal image 200 chi in height (over 59 meters). There, the
imperial couple offered worship before the statue. According to Daoshi: They performed the rituals with reverence,
and gazing up at the statue, they sighed at its rarity and
extraordinariness. They made a great donation of precious
jewels, expensive objects, and clothing, and the consorts,
concubines, and women of the inner palaces each parted
with her personal donation. The emperor ordered the vice
magistrate Dou Gui to have the Holy Image refurbished
and redecorated.43 When the royal couple returned to
Luoyang two months later, in my scenario, the emperor
issued an order to commence the carving of a colossal
Buddha shrine at Longmen, in response to the excitement
engendered by his experience of the colossal statues in
Bingzhou. I suspect the purpose was to effect his healing.
The emperor suffered from chronic illness from at least 657
120 | r o u g e a n d p o w d e r m o n e y

onward, and in 660, he experienced what modern scholars

think was the first of a series of strokes.44 The emperor
had previously supported merit-making building projects
in pursuit of healing. In 656, he established the Buddhist
Western Brilliance Monastery (Ximingsi) and the Daoist
Eastern Brilliance Temple (Dongmingguan) in Changan
for the recovery of the four-year-old heir apparent.45 He
also turned to Indian healers for himself. Around 664, a
Brahmin presented at court was sent back to India with
a Chinese delegation to obtain an herb of long life without aging.46 So eager was the emperor to obtain it that
when some time had passed, he dispatched the Chinese
monk Xuanzhao, who had studied at monasteries in India
for years and was fluent in Indian languages, to retrieve
the drug. It is quite possible the figure was not a Vairocana when it was started but could have been intended
as kyamuni, Amitbha, or even Yaoshi, the Buddha of
Healing, any of which could have been suggested to the
emperor by his clerical advisors, Shandao and Huijian.
An inaugural date of 660 is also suggested by evidence
at Longmen. Late in 659, the imperial court came to Luo
yang, not to depart until early 662, and during this period
several dedications were made at Longmen by persons
connected with the court.47 All the inscribed intrusive
shrines in 659 were produced by local people, but in 660,
a shrine was sponsored by a eunuch palace receptionist,
while in 661, one shrine was sponsored by the attending
physician to the heir apparent and another by a eunuch
official of the Office of Imperial Parks Products of the
Court of National Granaries.48 In 662, a trio of officials
who worked for the Prince of Zhou (Li Xian, the six-yearold future Emperor Zhongzong) dedicated an Amitbha
shrine to His Majesty the Emperor and all sentient beings.49 After the departure of the court from Luoyang in
early 662, patronage at Longmen promptly returned to the
hands of the local population.
An inaugural date of around 660 also fits with the vogue
for re-creating Indian icons that swept Longmen at this
time. Donors began to sponsor copies of the Srnth-style
King Udayana Buddha in 655, while the first re-creation
of the Gandhra-style Amitbha and the Fifty Bodhisatt
vas icon was produced in Lady Weis grotto around 660.
It is likely the designs for all the figures in the Vairocana
shrine at Longmen were derived from drawings or copies of statues brought from India and kept in the imperial

Figure 6.8. Gandhran Buddha from

Loriyn-Tangai, Calcutta Museum.
From Kurita Isao, Gandara bijutsu,
v. 1, pl. 334.

archives, but this seems especially probable for the Buddha, since several aspects are clearly derived from seated
Buddha figures from Gandhra, especially the fully covering robe, waving hair, and broad face. Comparing it to
the Gandhran kyamuni in seated meditation from
Loriyn-Tangai, now in the Calcutta Museum (figure 6.8),
we see the same manner of drapery, with a single robe
covering the body and draped from the Buddhas proper
right shoulder over to the left. The Vairocana head is very
similar also, in its large, broad proportions, wavy hair,

wide cheekbones, long eyes, and bowed lips. If nonelite

patrons had already begun to copy Indian icons, when the
imperial donors commissioned a design, why would they
do any less?
Just a few years later, the emperor may have given up on
the project, and whatever work had begun on the Vairocana shrine ceased. He abandoned other ventures around
this time. Several important literary compilations were
produced under his guidance in the years between 656
and 663, including substantial works on statecraft, hisr o u g e a n d p o w d e r m o n e y | 121

tory, and literature, and he continued to support the great

Buddhist scripture translation project under the direction
of Xuanzang. After Xuanzangs death in 664, however,
the emperor stopped sponsoring his followers translation work, and his support for secular scholarship also
ceased.50 Perhaps the emperors interest in creating a colossal assembly at Longmen failed at the same time he lost
interest in other activities he had previously patronized.

122 | r o u g e a n d p o w d e r m o n e y

Then, in the fourth month of 672, the empress came to

Longmen with her husband, who is reported to have gone
hunting south of the Luo River.51 Seeing the derelict site,
she determined to donate the vast sum of money needed to
finish the shrinetwenty thousand strings of her rouge
and powder moneyand it was completed nearly four
years later, in January of 676. One can scarcely imagine
the splendor of the dedication ceremonies.

Seven The Satellite Grottoes

The net of Indra, where principal and satellites reflect one another.Fazang1

everal of the largest and most opulently carved

grottoes at Longmen were excavated during the
years the Great Vairocana Image Shrine was
produced. Clustered together, they are situated
about 150 meters north of the imperial shrine, but they
are not hidden high on the cliff face; rather, they stand at
the base of the cliff, with their fine sculpture and elaborate programs on display (figure 7.1). The Paired Grottoes
consist of one grotto containing a Buddhas of the Three
Periods assembly and another with a Maitreya Buddha
and the Thousand Buddhas of the Present Kalpa. Qingmingsi Grotto contains a seated Amitbha flanked by two
standing bodhisattvas, while Huijians Grotto has a seated
Maitreya Buddha with disciples, bodhisattvas, and guardians. Wanfo Grotto combines two seemingly unrelated
programs: the Fifteen Thousand Buddhas and Amitbha
and the Fifty-two Bodhisattvas. Though each grotto is
unique, the donors were all related in some way to the imperial couple, and a history of their patronage reinforces
the chronology for the making of the Great Vairocana
Image Shrine described in the previous chapter (original
sponsorship by the emperor around 660 and regeneration
of the project by the empress in 672) and for the inauguration and dedication of the Great Fengxian Monastery by
the emperor in 679 and 680.

The Paired Grottoes

A beginning around 660 for the Vairocana shrine is reinforced by the evidence in the twin cave-shrines now called
the Paired Grottoes. Sharing a broad portico over six meters wide, the double entrances were flanked by guardian
figures, now missing or ruined (figure 7.2). Since the porch
is only about two meters above the normal level of the Yi

River, these grottoes have been flooded many times over

the centuries, and the surface details on the faade are
worn smooth. Both grottoes are narrow and deep, extending about seven meters into the living rock. On the back
wall of the northern chamber is a seated, cross-legged Buddha flanked by nanda and Kyapa, while against each
side wall stand a bodhisattva, a Buddha, a bodhisattva, and
a lokapla (figure 7.3).2 This program should represent the
Buddhas of the Three Periods, with kyamuni on the back
wall as the Buddha of the present and the Buddhas of the
past and future on the side walls. The southern grotto has
a keyhole-shaped plan with a long, narrow front corridor
whose walls are carved with nearly eight hundred small
seated Buddhas in low relief representing the Thousand
Buddhas of the Present Kalpa. One Buddha in the center
of each wall is seated with legs pendant, to represent Maitreya, who will be the fifth Buddha of the Present Kalpa.
At the back is a rounded rectangular chamber about two
and a half meters wide, which contains a two-meter-high
Maitreya Buddha figure seated on a square throne against
the back wall, originally flanked by monk disciples and
bodhisattvas (figure 7.4).3
The meaning of the Paired Grottoes imagery has been
subject to speculation. Wen Yucheng suggested it was related to the Tiantai School, noting that the imagery of the
Buddhas of the Three Periods, the Thousand Buddhas of the
Present Kalpa, and Maitreya all come from the Lotus Stra,
which was specially promoted by the Tiantai School during the Sui and Tang dynasties.4 He observed that Fengxue
Kezhen (642725), who would later be called the seventh
patriarch of the Tiantai School, resided at White Horse
Monastery in Luoyang. Problems with this theory include
the lack of a known connection between Fengxue Kezhen
and Longmen and the fact that interest in the Lotus Stra

Figure 7.1. Longmen (2): (11) Paired Grottoes, North, (12) Paired Grottoes, South, (13) Cai Daniang Grotto, (14) Wanfo Grotto, (15)
Qingmingsi Grotto, (16) Huijians Grotto, (17) Bianzhou Grotto, (18) Cixiangs Grotto, (19) Laolong Grotto, (20) Lianhua Grotto.
Adapted from map in Rymon sekkutsu, ed. Longmen wenwu baoguansuo and Beijing daxue kaoguxi, endpaper.

Figure 7.2. Satellite grottoes to Great Vairocana Image Shrine: (521) Paired Grottoes, North, (522) Paired Grottoes, South, (543)
Wanfo Grotto, (557) Qingmingsi Grotto, (565) Huijians Grotto. Drawing adapted from Longmen shiku kukan bianhao tuce, ed.
Longmen shiku yanjiusuo and Zhongyang meishu xueyuan meishushi xi, Xishan limian tu 7.

Figure 7.3. Paired

Grottoes, North. Photo,
the author, 1996.

Figure 7.4. Paired Grottoes, South.

Photo, the author, 1994.

was not confined to one group. Zhang Naizhu, by contrast,

suggests the Paired Grottoes were sponsored by Empress
Wu and that the subject matter of the two grottoes taken
together expresses the idea that Maitreya is of equal importance to kyamuni.5 He believes the kyamuni was
made for Emperor Gaozong and the Maitreya for Empress
Wu, in accord with the empress other activities designed
to equate herself with her husband, such as the unprecedented parallel rituals at Mount Tai in 665. One problem
with this interpretation is that it ignores the belief in the
spiritual function of statuary grottoes to generate karmic
merit. Tang people did not believe icons were simply public monuments, and no medieval donor would sponsor a
statuary grotto merely to his or her own glory. What public
acclaim is achieved comes in terms of a reputation, usually
for filial piety, earned by spending an exorbitant amount of
money and effort on producing icons in order to generate
karmic merit to be transferred to the deceased parent, the
emperor, or another worthy beneficiary in a parental role.
This is evident not only in claims such as Li Tais that producing a shrine to repay his mothers kindness showed that
he was pure and filial, but also in the very names given
to the imperial monasteries dedicated to parents, such as
Reverence and Love Monastery (Jingaisi), Compassion
and Kindness Monastery (Ciensi), and Honoring the Ancestors Monastery (Fengxiansi), which broadcast the filial
piety of the donor child.
The similarities in the size of the statues, the type of
drapery, details of jewelry, and the gestures of the hands
reveal that the Paired Grottoes were executed at the same
time, but since the dedicatory inscription does not survive, the chronology for these two grottoes can only be
determined by stylistic analysis and evidence from intrusive shrines. The earliest dated one is a half-meter-high
Amitbha triad placed prominently on the faade between
the entrances in early 674, which would suggest the grottoes were completed sometime around then, but according
to Wen Yuchengs detailed archeological report, they were
actually finished earlier.6 He believes the earliest intrusive
shrines are found in the north grotto, and it was finished
first. Though undated, their similarities to small shrines
dated to 666 in Binyang South and in Lianhua Grotto and
to others dated to 669 suggest a range from 666 to 670 for
the earliest additions. Since it would have taken several
126 | s a t e l l i t e g r o t t o e s

years to finish grottoes this large, Wen thinks the Paired

Grottoes were begun around 661 to 664 and completed
sometime between 666 and 668.
With regard to their donor, Wen wrote of the grottoes:
They are larger than the Jingshan Monastery Grotto,
which was excavated by Lady Wei, the mother of Li Shen,
Prince of Ji, and it was a more extensive project than the
main-wall pentad in Binyang South that Li Tai had carved
for his late mother, the Wende empress, which makes it
clear that the donor of the Paired Grottoes was certainly
no ordinary person.7 By association with Li Shen and Li
Tai, Wen seems to suggest the donor was a royal prince. A
pair of grottoes is naturally reminiscent of the only other
pair at the site: the Binyang grottoes, which were dedicated by the teenaged Emperor Xuanwu for his late father
and mother. Moreover, the program of Binyang Central
was the Buddhas of the Three Periods. Given such a precedent, a pair of large grottoes containing Buddhas of the
Three Periods imagery is strongly suggestive of a princes
dedication to his parents, and I propose that the patron of
the Paired Grottoes was Li Xian, Prince of Zhou. The beneficiaries would have been his parents, Emperor Gaozong
and Empress Wu.
The boys presence at Longmen to inaugurate a project shortly after 660 is suggested by an intrusive shrine
added to the north wall of Binyang South in 662. The inscription for this Amitbha shrine reads as follows: On
the twentieth day of the first month of the second year
of the Longshuo era (February 13, 662), Liu Yuanli of the
Revenue Section of the Establishment of the Prince of
Zhou, Wang Jifu of the Personnel Evaluation Section, and
Zheng Xingyan of the War Section reverently made one
Amitbha image shrine. We pray for Your Majesty the
Emperor and all sentient beings that they may obtain this
blessing (7A).8 These officials of the Prince of Zhou were
likely at Longmen as part of his retinue in 662, at which
time they took the opportunity to create their own small
shrine.
Another inscription that suggests the princes involvement is the dedication to Huijians Grotto of 673, in which
the prince is mentioned by name. Sofukawa Hiroshi has
pointed out that while the usual formula in dedicatory
inscriptions was to the emperor, the empress, the heir
apparent, and all the princes, Huijian listed just two

princes: the heir apparent and the Prince of Zhou.9 The

heir apparent in 673 was Li Hong, the first son of Emperor
Gaozong and Empress Wu (the emperors fifth son), while
the Prince of Zhou was Li Xian, the emperors seventh son
and the second or third son of Empress Wu.10 In my opinion, Huijian made this unusual reference to the Prince of
Zhou because the boy was the sponsor of the Paired Grottoes, situated just a few yards away from Huijians grotto.
Li Xian was particularly likely to have been a donor at
Longmen. His official position was metropolitan governor
of Luozhou, so he had a special connection with Luoyang
and its environs.11 Xuanzang served as his religious tutor
for the first eight years of his life, at his mothers special
request, and the boy had been pledged to enter the monastic order.12 He remained a patron of Buddhism all his life,
and when he finally reascended the throne in 705 at the
age of forty-nine, he continued his mothers patronage of
the Huayan scholars Fazang and iks.nanda, and he carried out a number of pious acts, including taking the bodhi
sattva precepts and making a visit to Xiangshan Monastery
at Longmen in the year of his accession.13 As a donor, he
seemed to have an affinity for his tutors special deity, for
he appears to have been the patron of the Maitreya figure
made for the Jingai Monastery in Luoyang in 665. If the
grottoes were his donation, the iconography might be interpreted as follows: the Buddhas of the Three Periods had
a long-standing association with imperial patronage and
may well still have symbolized the idea of the succession
to the throne in Tang times. Since Maitreya will be next in
the succession of the Buddhas of our kalpa, so the program
of the two grottoes in total may have comprised a prayer
for the eternal continuation of the Tang imperial line.

Huijians Grotto
Another grotto likely begun around the same time was
sponsored by one of the clerical advisors for the Vairocana
shrine. As the floor of Huijians Grotto is about two meters
above the pathway at the base of the cliff and there is now
no porch or walkway in front of it to herald its presence,
the visitor walking south on the path is surprised by the
sudden appearance, slightly above eye level, of an open
grotto containing a large Maitreya figure seated with legs
pendant on a square throne (figure 7.5). Its face is wide and

full, with crisply cut reverse curve eyes gazing downward, in the state of samdhi, over a long, high-ridged nose
and deeply set bowed lips. This visage bears an unmistakable resemblance to the face of the Vairocana.
Flanking the three-meter-high Maitreya on the low
altar against the back wall were disciple figures (the one
on the right is missing), and at the corners of the altar
stand two attendant bodhisattvas, with exquisitely carved
tasseled necklaces, elaborately woven strands of jewels,
and scarves complexly knotted around jade discs.14 The
side walls once held guardians and lokaplas, but these
have been eliminated by wind and water over the centuries, and only their haloes remain etched in the walls. The
program was originally a nine-figure assembly like that of
the Vairocana shrine.
The back of the throne is topped by an arch formed of
scallops punctuated with lotus flowers, and along each
side is a kneeling caryatid figure holding up an orb, above
which is a hybrid beast, or vylaka, rearing on its hind
legs. At the upper corners are makara heads, with curling
snouts raised and mouths open wide. Unaware that ma
karas were derived from needle-nosed crocodiles in India,
the Chinese sculptors gave them the tusks and trunks of
elephants. In the top panels of the throne and above them,
flanking the halo, are two sets of discs representing the
sun and the moon. The origin of this throne dcor is found
in seated Buddha figures from Srnth, such as the famous
late-fifth-century First Sermon, now in the Museum of Archaeology, Srnth, which has vylakas surmounted by
makaras carved at the sides of the seated Buddha (figure
7.6).15 The Srnth throne was first used on the Srnthstyle King Udayana figures here, but the large Maitreya
Buddhas that were produced later in Longhua Monastery
Grotto and Leigutai Central Grotto also have them.16 Only
these two types of pendant-legged Buddha figures have the
Srnth throne. It is unclear what special meaning it had
to Tang patrons, but perhaps its principal attraction was
its unmistakably Indian flavor.
On the south wall of the grotto is the dedicatory inscription, which reads:
On the seventh day of the eleventh month of the fourth year
of the Xianheng era of the Great Tang (December 20, 673),
monk Huijian of Fahai Monastery in the Western Capital, for

s a t e l l i t e g r o t t o e s | 127

Figure 7.5. Maitreya,

Huijians Grotto, 673.
From Longmen shiku,
ed. Longmen wenwu
baoguansuo and Beijing daxue kaoguxi,
v. 2, pl. 88.

Figure 7.6. Throne

back, Huijians
Grotto, and throne
back from The First
Sermon, Museum of
Archaeology, Srnth.
Drawings from Longmen shiku yanjiusuo,
Longmen 565 hao ku
(Huijian dong) diaocha
jianbao, fig. 3, and Li
Sisheng, Yi Fo wushi
pusa he pusa zhuang
Fo, fig. 7.

the August Emperor, the August Empress, the Heir Apparent, and the Prince of Zhou, reverently dedicates a Maitreya
image shrine, with two bodhisattvas and pairs of shenwang
(i.e., lokaplas and dvraplas), to complete this meritorious
accomplishment. I humbly pray for the imperial enterprise a
flourishing of sageliness without limit and, for the heir apparent and all the princes, blessings extending for ten thousand
generations.17 (7B)

At the time Huijians grotto was dedicated, he was actually the abbot of Fahai Monastery, which was located in
the Buzheng Ward of Changan District, west of the Street
of the Vermilion Bird Gate, the central north-south thoroughfare.18 Although he was not a Palace Chapel monk,
he must have served as a religious advisor to the emperor,
if not the empress, since he is credited as an advisor for
the Vairocana project in its inscription. Some scholars
consider Huijians choice of Maitreya for the icon in his
shrine an attempt to curry favor with Empress Wu.19 I
regard this as anachronistic, since although the empress
added the epithet Benevolent One, or Maitreya, to her title

for the span of a few months in late 694 and early 695,
nothing suggests the empress identified with Maitreya in
the 670s. Further, I agree with Antonino Fortes view that
she never did have any particular affinity for Maitreya but
may have been advised by the monks of the Palace Chapel
to take the title as a way to accrue to herself the popular
messianic associations with the name of Maitreya.20 When
the only evident result of doing so was the inauspicious
burning of her Mingtang complex, she quickly dropped
the name, while retaining the title of cakravartin, which
was much more central to the legitimating ideology of the
Commentary on the Great Cloud Stra, in which the notion of a female cakravartin ruling over a Buddhist utopia
was promoted.21 Moreover, the making of Maitreya Buddha figures at Longmen long predated the patronage of the
empress. Maitreya Buddha shrines were sponsored in 637
by Lady Liu and in 648 by the Sishun Ward, both of which
are too early to have had anything to do with Empress
Wu. Others were made after she became empress, such
as Liang Wenxiongs Grotto, a medium-sized shrine datable to the early 660s, but Liang was apparently related on
s a t e l l i t e g r o t t o e s | 129

his mothers side to Lady Wei, the concubine of Emperor

Taizong who sponsored the Jingshan Monastery Grotto.22
In short, there are no Maitreya shrines at Longmen that
can be proven to have anything to do with the empress or
her later self-identification with Maitreya. This is not to
say that Huijian was averse to association with the throne,
however. The imitation of the assembly of nine figures in
the Great Vairocana Image Shrine and particularly the
replication of the Vairocanas features in the face of his
Maitreya were likely intended to associate his grotto with
the imperial shrine. A metropolitan abbot such as Huijian
would scarcely have allowed such mimicry if it were likely
to give offense to his patrons.

The Qingmingsi Grotto

The Qingmingsi Grotto sits between Huijians Grotto and
the Paired Grottoes at the base of the cliff. While no dedication remains, evidence in the grotto suggests the donor
was an important person from Changan with an allegiance to Pure Land worship. A substantial cube 2.8 meters deep, 2.3 meters wide, and 2.45 meters high, the grotto
is entered through a shallow courtyard and a short entrance corridor. The main sculptural program is extremely
simple, consisting of a seated cross-legged Buddha on the
back wall flanked by two standing bodhisattvas, one of
whom holds a kundik water vase and willow branch, the
traditional attributes of the Save-from-Suffering Guanyin
(figure 7.7).23 Although the heads of the figures are now
missing, the high quality of the carving is still evident,
particularly in the realistically rendered drapery. There
is absolutely no controversy on the identity of the icons.
Lacking attendant disciple figures and a Seven-Buddha
halo, the Buddha must be Amitbha and the bodhisattvas
Avalokitevara (as the Save-from-Suffering Guanyin) and
Mahsthmaprpta, his principal attendants according to
Pure Land scripture.
Not only is the grottos main program composed of Pure
Land imagery, but most of the added shrines are as well.24
In addition to the Amitbha of 675 donated by the layman
Wang Renke and nine other Amitbha shrines, carved in
relief on the south wall of the courtyard is a large pagoda,
with an Amitbha assembly in the bottom story, donated
by a laywoman.25 All the other dated intrusive shrines of
the 670s contain figures of Guanyin, and there are seven
130 | s a t e l l i t e g r o t t o e s

later or undated inscribed images of Save-from-Suffering

Guanyin.26 Some are joined with figures of Amitbha,
while others are coupled with Yaoshi (the Buddha of
Healing) and Dizang bodhisattva, who was worshiped
as a guide through the paths of rebirth and prayed to for
healing.27 Like Guanyin, Yaoshi and Dizang can be appealed to for help in the human realm and for rescue in the
others.28 Half these dedications are by women, and since
neither they nor any of the male sponsors cite official titles,
the patronage of the added shrines appears to be entirely
nonelite, which seems appropriate for the single gate of
the Pure Land, that is wide open (for everybody).29
Other early intrusive shrines were added by donors
from Changan. On the upper left of the grotto faade is
a stele-shaped inscription listing the names of twentynine donors from Changan, which appears to dedicate
the large intrusive shrine to its left, completed in 675.30
Given the prominence of this shrine, this group of men
from Changan might have been connected to the original sponsor of the Qingmingsi Grotto. Seven other dedications, produced from 678 to 690, were added to this
grotto by men and women who also identify themselves
as Changan citizens.
Another early intrusive shrine was dedicated by a nun
who was likely also from Changan. Nun Bazheng sponsored a pair of standing figures in the entryway, inscribed
simply with the date of 678 and her name, nun Bazheng of
Qingming Convent.31 This nun sponsored a total of three
shrines at Longmen, including one in the neighboring
Wanfo Grotto and another in the old Huoshao Grotto.32
Qingming Convent is not recorded in the standard sources
on the history of Changan and Luoyang, but another nun
from Qingming Convent, named Huijing, dedicated an
Amitbha figure in 681, also in Wanfo Grotto.33 The fact
that two different nuns from this same convent produced
multiple commissions might suggest Qingming Convent
was in Luoyang; however, a clay brick excavated in Xian,
stamped with a Buddha figure on the obverse and an inscription on the reverse, implies otherwise.34 The inscription reads: The good karma (clay image) of nun Bazheng,
Abbess of Qingming Convent, of the Great Tang, (dedicated to) all sentient beings. These stamped bricks with
Buddha figures and inscriptions were known as good
karma clay images because they were molded from clay
mixed with the ashes of a monk or nun cremated after

Stra one hundred thousand times and to have painted

more than two hundred Pure Land frescoes. These activities accorded with his teacher Tanluans dictum that constructing monasteries and other religious artifacts was the
correct religious activity for the present period, and it was
said of Shandao that whenever he noticed a temple or pagoda in bad condition, he never neglected to repair it.37 The
Qingmingsi Grotto is unusual in having an Amitbha as its
main image, and it is crowded with later Pure Land shrines,
several offered by citizens of Changan. The grotto is directly adjacent to the grotto sponsored by Huijian, which
is the same size and quality and was produced around the
same time. It could very well be Shandaos commission.

Reflecting the Empress

Figure 7.7. Save-from-Suffering Guanyin, north wall, Qing

mingsi Grotto. From Zhongguo shiku diaosu quanji, v. 4,
Longmen, ed. Wen Yucheng, pl. 132.

death.35 It would appear this brick found in Xian was produced from the ashes of nun Bazheng, which suggests that
she died in Changan, probably at the convent of which she
was abbess. If Bazheng was indeed a prominent cleric who
lived in Changan, that suggests the donor of Qingmingsi
Grotto was one also.
Although Bazhengs Qingming Convent gave its name
to this grotto, she was not its original donor. I propose that
it was the other clerical advisor for the Vairocana shrine:
monk Shandao, who lived at Shiji Monastery in Changan.36
Shandao was not only a tireless promoter of devotion to
Amitbha, but also he was said to have copied the Amitbha

Evidence at Longmen also supports the theory that Empress Wu became involved in the Vairocana project only
in 672, when she gave her rouge and powder money. She
is cited in an inscription for the first time in 673, in the
dedication of an Amitbha shrine by one Niu Yide.38 In
666, when he held the post of Scribe of the Eastern Tower,
Niu dedicated a shrine to the emperor, the heir apparent, and all the princes, but in 673, sometime after he had
been promoted to Vice Director for Palace Buildings, his
inscription for another shrine read: in offering to the emperor, the empress, the heir apparent, and all the princes
and imperial relatives by marriage.39 Quite likely a man
serving as Vice Director of Palace Buildings would have
played a significant role in the production of the Great
Vairocana Image Shrine. He may have attended the empress when she went out to Longmen in 672, which may
be when his modest shrine was begun.
The second shrine finished in 673 to be dedicated to
the empress as well as the emperor was made by the renowned general Xue Rengui. As the hero of the battle to
capture Pyongyang in 668, Xue was placed in charge of
the Andong Protectorate established there after the fall
of the Korean state of Koguryo. Then, in 670, Tibetan
armies captured Kucha and Karashahr on the northern
edge of the Tarim Basin in Central Asia, and the Chinese
were forced to give up control of the Silk Road and the
Central Asian territories west of Turfan. To counter this
new threat, Xue was dispatched as commander in chief of
the Tang forces to subdue the Tibetans, but the Chinese
s a t e l l i t e g r o t t o e s | 131

armies were routed, with extensive losses, and Xue barely

escaped with his life. He was returned to the capital in fetters but was spared death and dismissal.40 At Longmen,
he made the following dedication: Xue Rengui, for the
emperor and empress, reverently dedicates an Amitbha
image and two bodhisattvas. May all sentient beings in
this Dharma realm share in this blessing. Made in the fifth
month of the fourth year of the Xianheng era (MayJune,
673) (7C).41 Xues inclusion of the empress in his dedication suggests he was responding to her contribution to the
Vairocana shrine, and he too could have been in an imperial party that went out to the site in 672, which may have
prompted him to sponsor a shrine for the royal couple.
From this moment on, listing the empress as the second
beneficiary in elite dedications at Longmen became standard. After the emperor died in 683, the empress dowager was often listed as the first beneficiary, ahead of her
son, the nominal ruler, and after she usurped the throne
in 690, she was generally listed first, as Sage and Divine
August Emperor.42
A grotto that was likely produced in response to the empress appearance at Longmen is Zhou Yuanzhis Grotto,
which lies about thirty meters south of the Vairocana
shrine, at the same height on the cliff face. About one and
a half meters in each dimension, the grotto once held a
seated Buddha and two standing attendants on the back
wall altar, which are now gone.43 The altar faade bears
a cintman.i jewel on a pagoda-shaped support, flanked
by two worshipers and six children sitting or standing on
lotus flowers, who probably represent souls being reborn
in the western paradise. On the south wall is engraved the
Text of the Amitbha Image, the dedicatory inscription
for the main program, which is quite long, especially for
a grotto of this modest size. After an opening section extolling belief in Amitbha, the inscription announces the
patrons and purpose of the grotto:
The disciple Zhou Yuanzhi, a Court Gentleman for Manifesting Rightness, and the others all expectantly hoping to pass
over (the sea of suffering) to the shore of the Dharma now join
in making a vow (to be reborn in the paradise in) the West.
We all rely upon the forty-eight great vows (of Amitbha) so
that we may congregate in that assembly (in his Pure Land
of Sukhvat). Now, the dark paths are illuminated by a mirror, as the Wisdom-sun is supported in the lofty sky, and the
132 | s a t e l l i t e g r o t t o e s

way to enlightenment has reopened that the six senses may

be cleansed in the good sea. Finally, to enrich this great enterprise (the imperial rule), we think of our responsibilities
constantly and profoundly. To exhaust our ritual duty as officials, we have portrayed the True Visage, and to extend filial
piety and humaneness, we have depicted the Pure Land. In
offering to the Celestial Emperor, Celestial Empress, heir apparent, all the princes, all the monks of distant kalpas, and
seven generations of ancestors, we reverently made a shrine
(containing) a stone image of Amitbha....We make use of
this act of merit to protect and bless the imperial throne, and
may the dead and the living together take refuge in the sea of
blessings....This act of merit was completed on the eighth
day of the twelfth month of the second year of the Shangyuan
era of the Great Tang (December 29, 675).44 (7D)

Zhou Yuanzhis inscription is unusual in explicitly stating that it was the government officials Confucian duty
to generate karmic merit for the throne through a Buddhist project. In a novel interpretation of the Confucian
dictum that the gentleman expresses himself through
ritual, Zhou asserted that the Confucian virtues of ritual
duty (li), filial piety (xiao), and humaneness (ren) could be
exercised through the dedication of Buddhist merit to the
imperial family (Emperor Gaozong and Empress Wu took
the titles of Celestial Emperor and Celestial Empress in the
eighth month of 674).45 This intent to bless the royal family
and the fact that Zhou Yuanzhis Grotto was dedicated just
twenty-two days before the Great Vairocana Image Shrine
strongly suggest this grotto was also produced in response
to the imperial project.

Wanfo Grotto
The last grotto started in the mid-670s is Wanfo Grotto,
which sits between the Paired Grottoes and Huijians
Grotto, about eight or ten meters above the pathway at the
base of the cliff. Diagonal grooves and large beam holes cut
into the side walls indicate the forecourt once had a constructed roof of timber and tile, and although the modern
stairway is made of concrete, it likely replicates an original
staircase of wood. The faade was elaborately carved with
huge figures around which are packed dozens of intrusive
shrines added even before the grotto was dedicated. Each
side wall once bore a seated lion in relief, about two me-

Figure 7.8. North wall

forecourt, Wanfo Grotto,
680. Photo, 1910, glass
negative. Charles Lang
Freer Papers, Freer Gallery
of Art and Arthur M.
Sackler Gallery Archives,
Smithsonian Institution,
Washington, D.C. Gift of
the Estate of Charles Lang
Freer. Photographer: Utai,
pl. 101.

ters high, and flanking the entryway are giant muscular

guardian figures, wearing only a dhoti, a necklace, and a
double rope of jewels falling from the shoulders.46
The walls of the forecourt and the faade are filled with
representations of nuns and with shrines donated by nuns.

Although many were pilfered in the 1920s and 1930s, at

least a dozen niches on the north wall of the forecourt held
images of nuns (figure 7.8). Some contain a single figure,
but others hold a pair, with a larger figure in front of a
smaller figure. While these have been identified as a monk
s a t e l l i t e g r o t t o e s | 133

Figure 7.9. South wall

forecourt, Wanfo Grotto.
Xuzhou nun Zhenzhis
Save-from-Suffering
Guanyin, 681, is at center
right. Photo, 1910, glass
negative. Charles Lang
Freer Papers, Freer Gallery
of Art and Arthur M.
Sackler Gallery Archives,
Smithsonian Institution,
Washington, D.C. Gift of
the Estate of Charles Lang
Freer. Photographer:
Utai, pl. 106.

and a nun by their respective sizes, I wonder if they were

not meant as two nuns, such as an elder and a novice.47 Titles used in the inscriptions for these images, such as stha
viras (monastic elders) and zhu (abbot or abbess), are gender neutral, so while we may have a socially conditioned
134 | s a t e l l i t e g r o t t o e s

tendency to read an inscription as by Shanxiang, abbot of

Yongyao Monastery, for example, it is entirely likely that
Shanxiang was the abbess of Yongyao Convent.48
Several intrusive shrines were commissioned by nuns
here as well, far more than at any other grotto.49 The largest

and most beautiful of these on the faade contains an elaborately jeweled Save-from-Suffering Guanyin in a graceful tribhanga pose, dangling a kundik water vase from
his left hand and holding up a willow branch in his right,
dedicated by a nun from nearby Xuzhou in late May of 681
(figure 7.9).50 Some nuns made their donations around the
time the grotto was dedicated, in late 680, while others donated the following year, around the time of the birthday
of the Buddha, traditionally the eighth day of the fourth
month, which fell on May 1 in 681, according to the Western calendar.51 This suggests Longmen was a pilgrimage
site during this particular holy day and that this grotto
was considered a desirable site for patronage by the nuns
who had come to Longmen from other districts in Henan
Province, such as Xuzhou and Tangzhou, and from the
Qingming Convent, which was probably in Changan.52

A Palace Chapel Nun as Donor

The prevalence of nun patronage at this grotto may be explained by an inscription carved in large characters at the
top of the north jamb, which a visitor could easily read
as she entered the grotto: raman.a Zhiyun, in offering
to the Celestial Emperor, the Celestial Empress, the heir
apparent, and all the princes, reverently makes one shrine
of fifteen thousand honorable images (7E).53 Here Zhiyun simply identified herself as a raman.a, or monastic,
but we know she was actually a nun at the Palace Chapel
in Changan because of an inscription in the burial cave
of another nun named Huideng (650731), a relative of
Empress Wu, that reveals that as a teenager Huideng had
been called to court by the empress to serve as a disciple
of the Palace Chapel nun Zhiyun.54 Thus, Zhiyun was a
nun at the Palace Chapel from at least 665 onward, and
the empress was fond enough of Zhiyun to make her the
teacher of her young relative. Considering that Zhiyun
served in the palace, she could have initiated her project
only when the imperial court was in Luoyang, and given
the fact that she refers to the imperial couple as Celestial Emperor and Celestial Empress, it was likely in the
period when the court was in Luoyang from late 674 into
early 676. Since it lacks a date, I interpret Zhiyuns inscription as a kind of inaugural announcement. It might have
been carved in January of 676, when the imperial party
went out to Longmen to dedicate the Vairocana shrine,

since the empress would have been attended by her Palace

Chapel nuns at such an event.

The Fifteen Thousand Buddhas

Wanfo Grotto matches Zhiyuns description in that it is
a single vast chamber (one shrine), approximately six
meters in each direction, and on the side walls are the fifteen thousand honorable images, or Buddhas, carved in
rows from floor to ceiling (figure 7.10). According to the
Longmen Grottoes Research Academy, the north wall has
7,361 figures, while the south wall bears 7,929.55 The total
count of 15,290 figures reveals that, although the grotto is
now called Wanfo, or Ten Thousand Buddhas, which is a
secular term signifying innumerable Buddhas, actually
the program was the Fifteen Thousand Buddhas.
As Sofukawa has pointed out, this iconography is specifically identified in a grotto excavated in the eastern hills
at Longmen a decade later, although this grottos original program is also now obscured by its popular name,
Leigutai Central Grotto.56 Over its entrance are carved
large characters reading Great Fifteen-Thousand-Buddha
Shrine. As with Wanfo Grotto, it has a complex program,
including a large Maitreya assembly on the main wall and
a procession of twenty-five Indian patriarchs in relief in
the lower register of the main and side walls, in addition
to the thousands of small seated Buddhas in relief covering the upper walls and the ceiling, which are identified
by inscription. A cartouche in the ceiling is inscribed all
Buddhas of Above, while around the top of the side walls
are others with all Buddhas of the South, all Buddhas
of the Southeast, and so on, with one for each of the ten
directions of the Buddhist cosmos. These Buddhas of all
directions are the Fifteen Thousand Buddhas.
Sofukawa found a scriptural basis for this iconography in the twelve-chapter version of the Stra of Buddha
Names as Expounded by the Buddha (Foshuo foming jing),
translated in Luoyang by Bodhiruci (d. 535) during the
late Northern Wei.57 This stra opens with kyamuni
promising salvation to the assembled host if they chant
the names of all the past, present, and future Buddhas of
all the directions. Although it contains only 11,093 Buddha
and bodhisattva names, beginning with Aks.obya, Buddha
of the East, surviving noncanonical versions of it now in
the Stein collection of Dunhuang manuscripts are titled
s a t e l l i t e g r o t t o e s | 135

gram, with a large seated Buddha at the center of a field of

small relief Buddhas, is also found in an early Tang shrine
in Guyang Grotto, which contains a King Udayana figure surrounded by the Thousand Buddhas, while at the
nearby cave-shrine site of Gongxian, about fifty kilometers east of Luoyang, is a shrine dated to the Qianfeng
era (666668) in which a monk named Sicha dedicated
a King Udayana figure centered between rows of relief
depictions of the Thousand Buddhas.59 Sichas inscription
quotes from the section of the Foshuo foming jing in which
kyamuni preaches salvation in chanting the names of all
the Buddhas.60 Since the hands of the King Udayana figures are in the dharmacakra mudr, the gesture of preaching, this program should represent kyamuni preaching
the Foshuo foming jing, with the myriad small relief Buddha figures portraying the Buddhas named in the stra.
The purpose of the Buddhanma scriptures was for the
penitential recitation of the names of all the Buddhas, and
Sofukawa has suggested that carving the fifteen thousand
Buddhas produced the same karmic effect as chanting
their names.61 As a gift to the imperial family, the amount
of merit generated by this imperishable, hence perpetual,
chanting of names must have been deemed great.

Amitbha and the Fifty-Two Bodhisattvas

Figure 7.10. Fifteen Thousand Buddhas and King Udayana

Buddha figure, south wall, Wanfo Grotto. Photo, the author,
1994.

Stra of the Names of the Fifteen Thousand Buddhas (Wan

wu qian foming jing). This group is also seen in the SevenRoster Buddhanma, written by Xinxing (540594) in the
late sixth century, as Aks.obya, Buddha of the East, and
the Fifteen Thousand Buddhas.58 By comparison with
these scriptural sources and the inscribed cartouches in
Leigutai Central Grotto, Sofukawa believes the fifteen
thousand Buddhas represented in the Wanfo Grotto were
intended to represent all the Buddhas of the ten directions
and of the past, present, and future.
High in the center of each side wall is a niche containing a King Udayana kyamuni figure. This type of pro136 | s a t e l l i t e g r o t t o e s

The huge and elaborately carved main-wall program must

have required several years work and considerable expense, and one wonders who Zhiyun must have been in lay
life to afford such a thing. In high relief on the back (west)
wall, the central Buddha figure is an imposing 5.65 meters
tall, seated on a lotus-base, octagonal pedestal throne (figure 7.11). nanda, in ajali mudr to the Buddhas proper
right, is 3.4 meters tall, as is Kyapa, while the bodhisattvas in each corner are about 3.6 meters tall. On the
Buddhas proper left, the Save-from-Suffering Guanyin
holds a kundik vase in his lowered left hand, while the
right drapes a willow branch over the right shoulder. In
the other corner, Mahsthmaprpta holds a lotus pod
before his chest in his left hand, while his lowered right
hand once held a large fan, now broken. Not only their
broad necklaces with pendant rows of ornaments and
double strands of jewels descending from the shoulders
and knotted over the belly, but also the scarves that fall
from the shoulders to swag across the upper legs and again

Figure 7.11. Amitbha assembly, west wall, Wanfo Grotto. Photo, the author, 1994.

at the knees are remarkably similar to the costumes of the

bodhisattvas in the Vairocana shrine.
The composition of the back wall is unusual in having
two different sets of worshipers in addition to the typical complement of paired disciple and bodhisattva figures. One set of small kneeling figures is at the base of
the Buddhas nimbus. The worshiper on the Buddhas
proper left wears the ks.ya of a raman.a and has hands
pressed together in ajali mudr, while the opposite figure is dressed as a bodhisattva, with a necklace across the
chest and scarves draped over the belly, holding a censer
or an offering. Flanking the disciples is another matching pair of worshipers, about two meters high, turned in
three-quarter view toward the Buddha. Both wear the
full-length voluminous robes and cloud-toed shoes of
women of the Tang court. The heads of the figures are now

shattered, but in old photographs of Wanfo Grotto taken

in the 1920s, they were still intact, revealing full faces with
the calm, aristocratic expression and elaborately dressed
hair of court women (figure 7.12).
Above the main Buddha, the upper wall is filled with bodhisattva figures seated in a variety of open poses, on lotus
bases joined by lotus stems (figure 7.13). There are twentyeight bodhisattvas north of the Buddha and twenty-four
to the south, for a total of fifty-two, which reveals that
the program is actually the Indian icon Amitbha and
the Fifty-Two Bodhisattvas. There is a further suggestion
that this Amitbha image may also have been intended
as a representation of Amitbhas paradise of Sukhvat,
since the two small bust-length figures set in hemispheres,
flanking the tip of the nimbus, probably represent souls
being reborn from lotus buds there.62
s a t e l l i t e g r o t t o e s | 137

Figure 7.12. Court lady worshiper between disciple and

bodhisattva, Wanfo Grotto.
Photo, H.Iwata, Peking, ca.
1920s. AAAUM slides #44,884.
Courtesy of the Asian Art
Archives, University of
Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Looking up into the ceiling, the viewer sees the customary lotus flower carved into the center of the ceiling, surrounded by relief figures of flying apsarasas, but here the
lotus is encircled with a flat band bearing an inscription
in very large characters, which can be read by someone
standing inside the doorway, looking toward the main
Buddha on the back wall, without having to move around.
It begins at about the seven oclock position and runs
counterclockwise to the two oclock position, where it
breaks off (due to a natural fissure in the rock) and then
takes up again at the ten oclock position. It reads: Director Yao Shenbiao and Meditation Master (Zhi)yun of
138 | s a t e l l i t e g r o t t o e s

the Palace Chapel completed the Fifteen Thousand Honorable Images Shrine on the thirtieth day of the eleventh
month of the inaugural year of the Yonglong era of the
Great Tang (December 26, 680) (7F).63
Zhiyuns previously unnamed cosponsor, Yao Shenbiao, is something of a mystery. If the title Director is
the Director for the Palace Buildings, a position named in
662, then that would mean Yao was a male official in the
court bureaucracy.64 Gong Dazhong, however, considered
Director a title for a female palace official, which I accept.65 Moreover, as Sofukawa noted, all titles altered in
662 were changed back in 670. Hence, in 680, there was no

Figure 7.13. Amitbha and the

fifty-two bodhisattvas, upper west
wall, Wanfo Grotto. Photo, the
author, 2004.

such title within the male-staffed bureaucracy. More important, since Zhiyun was a nun, the only socially appropriate cosponsor would have been another woman.66 As a
nun of the Palace Chapel, Zhiyun would have been well
acquainted with the women of the palace bureaucracy.

Two Programs in One Grotto

Another mystery of the dedication is why it identifies the
grottos program as the Fifteen Thousand Buddhas and
makes no mention of the Amitbha and the fifty-two bo
dhisattvas on the main wall. It appears the donors pro-

duced two different merit-generating projects for two different sets of beneficiaries, one named and one not. One
project was the Fifteen Thousand Buddhas, a program
consistent with grottoes dedicated on behalf of the imperial family, which tend to feature imagery that represents
all the Buddhas of space and time, such as Vairocana or
the Buddhas of the Three Periods. It was based on scripture and dedicated by text to the royal family, by individuals who cite their names and official titles. The Indian
Amitbha image, by contrast, with its added rebirth in
paradise imagery, is an expression of popular belief in
rebirth in Sukhvat that relies as much on the perceived
s a t e l l i t e g r o t t o e s | 139

efficacy of original, Indian icons as it does on the specific

dictates of Pure Land scriptures. This second project relies
on visual imagery to make its statement, and it uses the
language of representational imagery to depict the donors
making a dedication to a different group of beneficiaries.
In my view, the beneficiaries of the Amitbha scene
are represented in the form of the two court women worshipers. Women were a special class within the hierarchy
of Buddhism, and educated women were quite aware of
both the freedom the Buddhist monastic institution allowed them in terms of thought and learning as well as
the inferior status they were accorded with regard to enlightenment and rebirth. As Song Jingfei wrote of herself,
My poor karma from former incarnations has left my
fortune shallow and dirty, so I was born in Jambudvpa
and received the form of a woman.67 As a result, some
women determined to produce and transfer merit to all
womankind. The nun Cixiang wrote: I have had stone
carved to realize the true (image) and engraved this act of
merit....May it extend unto the thrice-obedient (i.e., all
women).68 In this same spirit, Yao Shenbiao and Zhiyun
appear to have dedicated the Pure Land scene to womankind, represented in the only guise acceptable to them, as
ladies of the court. Not only were the beneficiaries depicted
pictorially, but Zhiyun and Yao Shenbiao also portrayed
themselves as donors by means of imagery. I propose they
are represented as the two kneeling worshipers at the base
of the Buddhas nimbus: the nun Zhiyun as the raman.a
and the court woman Yao Shenbiao as the bodhisattva.

The Great Fengxian Monastery

In 679, three years after the completion of the Vairocana
shrine, the emperor ordered the construction of the Great
Fengxian Monastery, and I propose that certain shrines
were sponsored as a result. The site of this monastery, just
south of the western cliffs, has been identified and excavated recently by a joint Chinese-Italian team of archeologists.69 The second part of the inscription on the Vairocana throne relates its origins, and the emphasis on the
monks who served there suggests it was written by one of
their own. It says:
On the fifteenth day of the eighth month of the inaugural
year of the Tiaolu era, a jimao year (September 25, 679), in
140 | s a t e l l i t e g r o t t o e s

obedience to an imperial decree, to the south of the Great

Image was established the Great Fengxian Monastery. Two
groups of seven eminent monks who were equally perfect in
the practice (of good conduct) and the understanding (of sacred texts) were chosen and summoned to form the (monastic) foundation. Only those who were vigilant in observing
the religious rules and who excelled in monastic discipline
were named abbot. On the fifteenth day of the first month
of the second year (of the Tiaolu era, February 20, 680), the
Great Emperor wrote out the plaque (for the front gate of the
monastery). From first to last, sixteen monks have been specially ordained here and all of them maintained the prohibitions and practices with purity and their priestly duties with
vigilance. Fearing that as the years stretched on, the fragrant
record (of their virtues) would no longer be handed down,
we have engraved this eulogy so that it may be bequeathed
through eternal kalpas. (7G)

Although the inscription never states why the monastery was built, its purpose is revealed in its name. As
Antonino Forte has shown, the name Fengxian is not
Buddhist but comes from the Book of Documents, where
the phrase Feng xian si xiao can be translated When
honoring your ancestors, think how you can prove your
filial piety.70 In a Buddhist context, honoring ancestors
would mean the shrine was produced for the generation of
merit for the donors late parents. In Fortes opinion, it was
very probable that the Feng-hsien Monastery in Lungmen had from its start the same function as a Buddhist
ancestral temple of the Wu family.71 The evidence does
not support this idea, however, since not only is Empress
Wu not connected with the monastery in the inscription, but the shrines established for her late mother were
named Taiyuan Monastery, after the Wu familys place of
enfeoffment. The lack of any geographical or other specific
marker in the monasterys name means it could only refer
to the imperial line.
Wen Yucheng believes the emperor intended it for post
humous merit for his late father, Emperor Taizong, noting
that 679 was the thirtieth anniversary of his death, with
which I agree.72 The emperor had previously made public demonstrations of filial piety through merit-making
projects. In 648, he established Great Compassion and
Kindness Monastery (Da Ciensi) in Changan for the posthumous karmic benefit of his late mother, Empress Zhang-

sun, who died in 636, while in 656, he established a Daoist

temple called Sovereign Heaven Temple (Haotian Guan)
in memory of his late father.73 No record exists, however, of
any Buddhist monastery having been established for Emperor Taizong, so perhaps the emperor intended Honoring
the Ancestors Monastery for his father, as the mate to the
one in Changan for his mother.74

Xuanzhao, Monastic Envoy to India

One of the shrines that came into being because of the imperial monastery is a small Guanyin shrine on the faade
of Wanfo Grotto, at the edge of the doorway, dedicated by
one of the emperors monastic envoys not long after the
completion of the Fengxiansi: On the fifteenth day of the
seventh month of a gengchen year, the second year of the
Tiaolu era of the Great Tang (August 14, 680), Xuanzhao
reverently made one Guanshiyin bodhisattva image, praying for the rescue of all sentient beings of this Dharma
realm who through transmigration, sins, and obstructions
now live in distress, that they may all attain to their cessation (7H).75 Xuanzhao studied Indian languages at the
imperial Da Xingshan Monastery in Changan during the
reign of Emperor Taizong, and sometime around 647, he
was sent to Tibet to escort the Wencheng princess, who
was married to the Tibetan king Srong-btsan-sgam-po,
on a journey to Northern India.76 Xuanzhao then took
up residence and studied for years at Nland Monastery,
just north of Rjagr.ha. He also passed several summers
at Mahbodhi Monastery in Bodhgay, staying in India
around fourteen years in all. After the imperial envoy
Wang Xuance reported on Xuanzhaos achievements,
Emperor Gaozong sent Wang back to India to retrieve
Xuanzhao for service at court, and he arrived in Luoyang
at the beginning of 665. He was then ordered by Emperor
Gaozong to go back to India to retrieve the Brahmin who
had promised the emperor the herb of longevity. Xuanzhao eventually died in India, but he must have been in
China around 680, on the evidence of his dedication at
Longmen.

The Yulanpen Festival

Xuanzhaos shrine was dedicated on the fifteenth day of
the seventh month, that is, on the day of the Yulanpen Fes-

tival. After the monks end their summer retreat, people at

all levels of society bring bowls of food and other offerings
.
to the monasteries on this day. These gifts to the sangha
were made to generate karmic merit for deceased ancestors for seven generations back, with the particular goal of
releasing those in the three undesirable realms of rebirth.
The sending of the yulan bowls to the monasteries was a
festive event, with the offerings borne along in processions
of musicians singing and drumming and believers carrying banners and flowers.
The Yulanpen Festival day was a very popular date for
the dedication of merit-producing shrines at Longmen,
second only to the eighth day of the fourth month, when
the birthday of the Buddha was celebrated. In the late Sui
dynasty, on the Yulanpen Festival day of 616, a local man
dedicated two shrines on the north wall of Binyang South
Grotto for the souls of his two deceased sons.77 This suggests ceremonies were being performed at Longmen then,
perhaps at the old Northern Wei Xiangshan Monastery.78
A number of inscriptions dated to the festival day in the
year 666 strongly suggest the Yulanpen Festival was taking place at Longmen in the Tang, perhaps at the Jingshan
Monastery.79
The government regularly sponsored the Yulanpen
Festival at major monasteries in the capital, for the blessing of the realm, and government officials and musicians
were dispatched to deliver the yulan bowls prepared by
the throne to the monks.80 The services included a communal banquet and prayers and offerings made before
statues of Buddhist deities. In 692, for example, Empress
Wu sent out yulan bowls from the palace at Luoyang to
imperially sponsored monasteries in the city. The event in
this particular year was recorded because of the beautiful rhapsody written by Yang Jiong to commemorate it,
but it was evidently an annual occurrence.81 The ancestral
orientation of the festival is shown in the description of
its celebration in 768 by Emperor Daizong (r. 762779).82
After having the spirit tablets of the previous emperors
brought to the Palace Chapel, the emperor offered lavish
yulan bowls and prayers to them. Draped in pennants and
dragon parasols, the spirit tablets were then delivered to
a host of officials waiting at the palace gate, who accompanied them on a tour of the citys Buddhist monasteries
and Daoist temples. The procession next passed through
the city walls out to Zhangjing Monastery, which had been
s a t e l l i t e g r o t t o e s | 141

established the year before in honor of the emperors late

mother, the Zhangjing empress. This part of the ceremony
was for the particular benefit of his mother, since she could
not be, as a woman, included in the ancestral ceremonies
in the palace. Of this event, it was recorded: In the seventh month, (the emperor) sent special yulan bowls to
Zhangjing Monastery, which had recently been completed.
To supplement (his repayment of) the unbounded kindness (that his mother had bestowed on him), he decreed
that all of the officials go to the monastery in a procession
with incense.83
Xuanzhao served the royal house as monastic envoy, so
he may have been at Longmen on the Yulanpen Festival
day of 680 in order to accompany an official procession of
yulan bowls from the palace in Luoyang out to the newly
finished imperial Great Fengxian Monastery. From a Buddhist perspective, the soul of Emperor Taizong required a
great deal of spiritual intervention. He had the blood of
his brothers on his hands, not to mention the karmic responsibility for the deaths of the soldiers who fought in the
armies that established the Tang.84 His pious son, comparatively innocent of bloodshed, must surely have believed
.
his father needed the prayers of the sangha to keep him
out of the hells. This may have been the reason Fengxian
Monastery was built and why an imperial yulan bowl procession would be sent out from Luoyang to the monastery
with Xuanzhao in an official role.

142 | s a t e l l i t e g r o t t o e s

An Artisans Grotto
Finally, not only did the existence of the imperial monastery create opportunities for patronage on festival days,
but the craftsmen who built it also had a chance to become donors. Li Junzan is cited as one of the artisans responsible for the Great Vairocana Image Shrine, and five
months after the Fengxian Monastery was completed,
he dedicated a very small grotto about ten meters to the
north of Zhou Yuanzhis Grotto.85 His inscription reads:
Li Junzan, [after?] constructing the Purple Cassia Palace,
[in order that] safety and security may come to my family,
reverently made a Guanyin bodhisattva on the thirtieth
day of the sixth month of the second year of the Tiaolu
era (July 31, 680) (7I).86 Purple Cassia Palace was built in
the summer of 679, and the Fengxian Monastery was established or instituted soon after, on September 25, 679,
so my guess is that Li returned to Longmen to work on it
after the palace was completed.87 While he was there that
autumn, or perhaps on the day in February of 680 when
the emperor wrote out the plaque for the monastery gate,
this artisan sponsored the excavation of a small grotto for
the benefit of his family, which was dedicated in July of
that year.

Eight Salvation for One

The convergence of text and reader brings the literary work into existence, and this convergence can never be precisely
pinpointed, but must always remain virtual, as it is not to be identified either with the reality of the text or with the
individual disposition of the reader.Wolfgang Iser1

fter the deaths of Empress Wu in 705 and Emperor Zhongzong in 710, there was a hiatus
in imperial followers of Mahyna Buddhism
and imperial sponsorship for Buddhist projects. Emperor Ruizong (r. 684690, 710712) and his son
Emperor Xuanzong (r. 712756) were adherents of Daoism, the religion favored by the Li family at the beginning
of the Tang dynasty.2 The only type of Buddhism that
interested Emperor Xuanzong was the Esoteric School,
likely because its emphasis on identification with and
invocation of deities through magical gestures (mudrs),
chanted Sanskrit syllables (mantras and dhran.s), and
procedures for meditation (sdhanas) was in some ways
similar to Daoist practices. Among the famous Esoteric
masters patronized by the emperor were the Chinese astronomer and mathematician Yixing (672717), the Indian magician Vajrabodhi (670741), and the great Indian
translators ubhkarasimha (637735) and Amoghavajra
(705774).3 Despite his sponsorship of these individual
clerics, Emperor Xuanzong was eager to curb the power of
the Buddhist establishment. In 714, he placed a ban on the
building of new monasteries and ordered that inspection
and permission were necessary before replacing decrepit
buildings at existing monasteries.4 In the 720s, the government began to register monastery lands and to compile a
roster of all Buddhist monks and nuns, to establish their
status and prevent ordinations by purchase. In 736, these
functions were moved to the Court of State Ceremonial,
the government bureau responsible for court receptions of
foreign dignitaries, which lowered the status of Buddhism
to a foreign faith.5

The Act of Merit by the Palace

Domestic Service
It is with some surprise, then, that we find a dedicatory inscription transcribed by Emperor Xuanzong on a large relief stele carved into the lower north wall of the Great Vairocana Image Shrine (figure 8.1). Although the stele face
is cracked and worn, much of the inscription can still be
discerned.6 A title in large regular-script characters reads
Stele of the Act of Merit by the Palace Domestic Service
of the Great Tang. The name of the author has been worn
away, but the term imperially transcribed means the
calligrapher was none other than the reigning emperor.7
Emperor Xuanzong was an accomplished calligrapher, as
were his father, his grandfather, and his great-grandfather,
and the text is written in a fluid running script. The remains of the opening lines of the inscription appear to be a
paean to the Buddha, followed by a list of donors that runs
for thirteen columns and comprises, by my count, as many
as 111 names.8 All were court eunuchs, high-ranking members of the Palace Domestic Service. The first was General
of the Palace Gate Guard of the Right, in charge of the
affairs of the Palace Domestic Service, Supreme Pillar of
State, and Dynasty-Founding Duke of Bohai Commandery, Palace Servitor Gao Lishi. Gao Lishi (691762) was
the first eunuch in the Tang dynasty to attain a position
of real power and the first for whom Emperor Taizongs
rule about eunuchs not being appointed to offices above
rank 4 was broken.9 Gaos titles were the highest possible:
the post of General of the Palace Gate Guard of the Right,
rank 3a1, indicated he was responsible for the defense of

Figure 8.1. North wall, lower terrace

of Great Vairocana Image Shrine.
Stele of the Act of Merit by the Palace
Domestic Service of the Great Tang
(A), Lady Nius Stele (B), Amitbhas
dedicated by the Palace Domestic
Service (C), Yang Sixus Grotto (1255).
Drawing adapted from Longmen shiku
kukan bianhao tuce, ed. Longmen
shiku yanjiusuo and Zhongyang meishu xueyuan meishushi xi, futu 15.

the palace, while the statement that he was in charge of

the affairs of the Palace Domestic Service meant he functioned as the head of the three thousand or more court
eunuchs.10 His merit title Supreme Pillar of State was rank
2a, and his title of nobility, Dynasty-Founding Duke of
Bohai Commandery, also ranked 2a and was the highest of such titles available to persons not of the imperial
family. Palace Servitor was simply the title given all officially appointed eunuchs. The name of the next donor,
who appeared to have been the General of the Palace Gate
Guard of the Left, has been worn away, but he was likely
either Liang Yishen or Li Shancai, both of whom served as
the Acting General of the Palace Gate Guard of the Left
around 724.11 The third donors name and titles do remain:
Grand Master for Splendid Happiness, Acting Palace Attendant of the Palace Domestic Service, Supreme Pillar of
State, and Dynasty-Founding Duke of Hongnong Commandery, Palace Servitor Yang Sixu. Yang Sixu (654740)
had been in charge of the Palace Domestic Service under
Emperor Zhongzong, but even though he was no longer
in that position, his rank remained high. Grand Master
for Splendid Happiness was a rank-2b prestige title, and
he held the same rank-2a merit title and title of nobility as
144 | S A L VA T I O N F O R O N E

Gao Lishi. Following these three were the names of other

high eunuch officials, in descending order of rank, men
with rank-5 prestige titles who held offices such as Palace
Eunuch Attendant-in-Ordinary, Eunuch Ceremonial Secretary, or director of one of the six palace services staffed
by eunuchs. Listed after them are dozens of names of men
without prestige titles, who served as Palace Receptionist or Palace Servitors within the six services: the Palace
Treasury Service, the Menials Service, the Palace Gates
Service, the Livery Service for the Empress, the Female
Services, and the Inner Quarters Service.12 They were responsible for the imperial storehouses, palace slaves and
laborers, the inner palace doors, the horses and carriages
of the empress, the sericulture and other work of the palace women, and the establishment of the heir apparent,
respectively.13
At the end of this great host of names is the dedication:
established in offering to the Divine and Martial August
Emperor of the Opened Prime Era of the Great Tang.
The beneficiary was none other than the living monarch,
Emperor Xuanzong.14 The body of the dedication is only
partly legible, but enough remains to tell what the eunuchs
dedicated to the emperor:

We prostrate ourselves in order that [even though we find ourselves?] together in this ending period of the Dharma,15 Samantabhadras supernatural power may still be encountered
in the good scriptures, (which allow us to) think respectfully
of the compassion of the Holy Lord, and assist in expounding
the transformative power of the Benevolent King.16 Incense
Mountain is silent, almost imaginary, yet one can smell the
fragrance of the campaka flower (that is, the merit and virtue
of the Buddha).17 The Himlayas goad our sense of reality, yet
there is found the taste of clarified butter (that is, the perfect
Buddha-truth).18 Even if the longevity of the Dharma be concealed, we trust that the four stpas (where the Buddha was
born, gained enlightenment, preached, and entered nirvn.a)
will continue to be transmitted, and although the pure origin
may be obscured, we see as not far away that (future) certainty (of rebirth in Sukhvat). By carving and engraving to
make images, all people...By coloring and painting to depict
forms, all will find refuge in the middle way. How much more
so this revered mountain...virtuous stone will remain, and
though it may pass through the fires of the kalpa of destruction, [it will not be destroyed?], and though it may undergo
the calamity of destruction by wind, such will not reach it.
Hence, this (act of merit) becomes an inexhaustible blessing.
How could anything disturb it! Humbly we have ventured to
use collectively our hearts engrossed (in the Buddha-truth)
and together to create this Pure [Land]....[To plant] good
roots (whose fruit will be reaped later) by all sentient beings,
reverently we have made nineteen entities of assemblies of the
Measureless Life (Amityus) Buddha of the West. (8A)

The inscription opens with common sentiments voiced

in other early Tang inscriptions: although the Dharma has
entered the period of decline, it still has power for salvation, and even though India and kyamuni are far away
in space and time, believers in China can still hold to the
truth of his teachings. The donors assert their faith in the
efficacy of icons to promote Buddhist belief and in the ability of the stone at Longmen to endure the destruction of
the world at the end of the age, yet at the close of the dedication, the donors describe the icons they sponsored with
the curious statement that they have made nineteen entities of assemblies of Measureless Life Buddhas (Amityus,
or more commonly, Amitbha). This term entities (shi,
usually translated as affair or thing) is highly unusual
in the inscriptions at Longmen and must indicate an un-

usual circumstance. Whatever the eunuchs sponsored was

something other than a typical trio of Amitbha flanked
by bodhisattvas.

Forty-Eight Amitbhas
Surrounding the original colossal figures of the Great
Vairocana Image Shrine are dozens of slightly larger than
life size (1.9 to 2 meters) standing Buddha figures, set in
shallow niches that contain from one to five figures each
(figure 8.2 and figure 6.5 above). Counting these figures is
more difficult than might be imagined, but by my calculation, there are three niches and six figures on the south
wall, six niches and fourteen figures on the west wall, and
eleven niches and twenty-eight figures on the north wall,
for a total of twenty-one niches containing forty-eight
figures.19 It seems likely the term nineteen entities used
in the inscription was an approximate description of the
twenty-one niches. As for the forty-eight individual figures, based on the association with the forty-eight vows
of Amitbha found in the Stra of the Buddha of Measure
less Life, scholars generally accept that they constitute the
Measureless Life Buddha project sponsored by the court
eunuchs.20 The forty-eight Amitbha figures are considered hypostases of the forty-eight vows of Amitbha.
The last four columns of the inscription are almost totally ruined, making the date difficult to decipher, even
though it was given in two places. In the first, the inscription says, This work of merit is now completed in
dun zang zhi ci yue. Yan Wenru interpreted this archaic
phrase as follows. Dun zang means in a cyclical wu year.
In the Kaiyuan era (713742), there were two wu years: 718
(a wuwu year) and 730 (a gengwu year). Yan took ci yue as
the second month so that the entire phrase reads in the
second month of a wu year. In the second place where the
date is given, all that remains is the seventh day, a renxu
day...in the Kaiyuan era. By combining these two bits of
partial information, a single year can be identified. In the
year 730, the second month began with a bingchen cyclical
day, which means that the seventh day was a renxu day.
This corroborates 730 as the correct year.21 In the Western
calendar, the seventh day of the second month equates to
February 28, 730.
The last lines of the inscription reveal that the palace
eunuchs coordinated the project with the monks of the
S A L VA T I O N F O R O N E | 145

Figure 8.2. Amitbha

figures, north wall, Great
Vairocana Image Shrine.
Photo, the author, 1999.

imperial monastery: By special appointment...the official in charge was Grand Master for Proper Consultation,
acting Palace Attendant of the Palace Domestic Service,
Supreme Pillar of State, [Palace Servitor name]....The
monks in charge were raman.a Daojie and raman.a
Wenji of the Great Fengxian Monastery (8B). Since a
high-ranking eunuch official and two monks from the
imperial monastery shared responsibility for the project, it
appears the Great Vairocana Image Shrine was still under
the jurisdiction of the Great Fengxian Monastery in 730
and that the eunuchs required the cooperation, if not the
permission, of the abbot to add their figures to the imperial assembly. Since it was an imperial shrine, perhaps they
needed the emperors permission too. That they obtained
it seems implicit in the fact that he wrote out their dedicatory inscription for them.

How the Eunuchs Got Permission:

The Second Inscription
We may wonder what event gave rise to the opportunity
for the court eunuchs to sponsor this elaborate project.
Something must have happened in the imperial domain to
which they were allowed to respond, since reciprocation
is the appropriate rhetorical posture of court eunuch donors, just as aid is the appropriate role for empresses as
sponsors. Moreover, because of the emperors edict forbidding any new building, the eunuchs project would have
to be done under the rubric of refurbishment. The answer
seems to lie in a second inscription engraved on the throne
of the Vairocana statue. As we know, the first inscription
stated that Emperor Gaozong established the shrine, with
Empress Wu aiding the project in 672 with twenty thousand strings of her rouge and powder money, and that
it was completed in 676. The second inscription on the
north face was written from left to right, in contravention
of normal practice, which suggests there was something
unusual about its content, and indeed, it consists of three
separate documents, each composed at a different time by
a different author, but all transcribed in the same hand
and apparently engraved at once.22 The first document is a
copy of the original inscription. The second is a rhyming
paean of praise for the Vairocana statue, which tells of the
refurbishment of the shrine by imperial order.23 Although

unsigned, it was probably written by monks of the Great

Fengxian Monastery:
None is superior to Buddha, for the Dharma world is his
body.
He condescended to take form to convert all beings and
lowered himself into his traces to become like men.
Where there is stimulus (from human need), he (responds
by) manifesting himself; where there is no sin, he will
draw close.24
Those in ignorance and error are forever separated from
him; all one can rely upon is faith and (planting the seeds
of) causality (in good works).
In truth, it is thanks to our August (Emperor), who made
the plan to beautify this entity, with its rare laks.an.a and
vyajana and majestic countenance without peer.25
Great in love, great in compassion; like the moon, like the
sun.
Gaze upward into his face and all filth is wiped away.
Offer worship with sincerity and all prayers will be fulfilled.
Since the True Religion flowed eastward, it has been over
seven hundred years, yet of all the eminent shrines (made
for) merit, this one is the greatest. From side to side (it
measures) twelve zhang; from top to bottom, it is one
hundred and forty chi.26 (8C)

The third document is an official letter sent by the District Defender of Henan (Luoyang) to Fengxian Monastery in 723, which reads as follows:
By imperial command, Longhua Monastery is to join with
and become Fengxian Monastery. Fifth day of the twelfth
month of the tenth year of the Kaiyuan era (January 16, 723).
Official letter from Henan District to Fengxian Monastery:
The official letter: I have been informed by sealed missive of
the aforementioned imperial edict. I have been requested to
take a copy and forward it to the director (of the monastery)
for him to carry it out. This official letter of mine, I communicate it officially to those in the monastery for their conformation. Now, that edict is the subject of this official letter. When
you receive this official letter, you will follow that edict, and it
is for this reason I have sent you this official letter.
Official letter written by Shi Fanzong on the twelfth day of
the twelfth month of the tenth year of the Kaiyuan era (January 23, 723). Signature of the District Defender.27 (8D)

S A L VA T I O N F O R O N E | 147

This document informed the monks that the emperor

had decreed they were to move into the Longhua (Dragon
Flower) Monastery complex. The imperially established
Fengxian Monastery had priority over the nonimperial
Longhua Monastery, which was compelled to cede its
property and cease to exist.28
The order for Fengxian Monastery to take over Longhua Monastery came about a year after a flood devastated
the area on February 23, 722.29 The emperor was in Luo
yang at the time and was no doubt apprised of the disaster
out at Longmen, since the flood of the Yi River had also
displaced several thousand families in the Luoyang area.30
Apparently the ruin of the imperial monastery drew attention to the condition of the imperial shrine, which was,
by this time, nearly fifty years old. It is likely the original
paint and gilt had disappeared, and the statues were in
need of refurbishment. Sofukawa Hiroshi has suggested
that the eunuchs sponsorship of the forty-eight Amitbha
figures was related to the refurbishment of the Vairocana
shrine.31 In my view, the ruin of the monastery allowed
the eunuchs to order the shrine renovated, which created
a convenient screen for their own project. The sequence of
dates also corroborates such a relationship. In 722, the Yi
River flooded the Great Fengxian Monastery, and in 723,
an imperial edict ordered its monks to take over Longhua
Monastery. In 730, the eunuchs completed their addition of
the forty-eight Amitbhas to the Vairocana shrine. Sometime between 723 and 730, the shrine was refurbished; the
paean of praise was composed; and the old inscription, the
paean, and the edict were engraved together on the north
face of the throne.

Gao Lishi
Although the monks of the imperial Fengxian Monastery credited the emperor with the order to refurbish the
shrine, it seems quite likely to have been the work of Gao
Lishi. According to his biographies in the dynastic histories, Gao received all memorials at court and made decisions on all cases that were not of major importance.32
Moreover, the eunuchs were in charge of merit-making
Buddhist activities for the throne.33 Certainly the emperor
was not ignorant of the project, since he wrote out the
eunuchs dedicatory stele inscription. Transcribing their
dedication was no evidence of faith in Buddhist teachings,
148 | S A L VA T I O N F O R O N E

however, but a performance of calligraphy by the ruler in

the traditional role of cultural exemplar and the act of a
friend to the donors.
Emperor Xuanzong had friendships with several court
eunuchs, but his relationship with Gao Lishi was extremely
close.34 Gao was especially solicitous of him when he was
young, earning his special regard, and when the prince
was made heir apparent, Gao was transferred to work in
the Inner Quarters service, where he was in daily personal
attendance on him. As Zhao Junping has observed, the dynastic histories overemphasize Gaos loyalty to the emperor
and filial piety toward his mother, to the exclusion of other
less servile qualities.35 What the histories failed to record
are the facts of his background and education that show
Gao to have been a suitable friend and counselor for the
emperor, rather than merely a devoted servant to whom
the emperor delegated an unseemly degree of power. According to his recently excavated epitaph, three generations of Gaos family had served the Tang in the far south,
beginning with his great-grandfather Feng Ang, who was
appointed commander in chief of Gaozhou.36 His grandfather and two great-uncles served as prefects of Panzhou,
Gaozhou, and Enzhou, the coastal areas between modern-day southern Guangzhou and Hainan Island, and his
father inherited the title of Prefect of Panzhou, as was the
custom in the south. Disaster struck the clan sometime
around 697, however, when a surveillance commissioner
secretly lodged a charge against Gaos father. Feng Junheng
was apparently executed, the family was enslaved by the
state, and the children were scattered. The local military
commissioner had the youngest of the three sons castrated
and sent as tribute to the throne. After the boy arrived
at the palace, he was adopted by the eunuch official Gao
Yanfu (660724), whence his new family name.37 Given a
literary education in the palace and trained in the martial
arts, Gao proved to be a particularly fine marksman with
the bow and arrow. In short, he was the kind of intelligent,
educated, and vigorous young man who suited the young
emperors temperament well. They were close in age, Emperor Xuanzong being but six years older, and the emperor
had also known harsh treatment and the loss of his mother
as a child, after Lady Dou was executed by Empress Wu in
693 and her children imprisoned.38
The official biographies of Gao Lishi also do not fully
describe the nature of his relationship with Empress Wu.

According to Gaos epitaph, the empress was extremely

kind to the boy when he arrived at court. She made sure
he regained his strength and placed him under the care of
one of the palace women to be raised. She ordered his education, and she changed his personal name from Yuanyi
to Lishi.39 The name Lishi, which means guardian, such
as the figures who flank the entrance to Buddha shrines,
suggests the boy was indoctrinated into the empress faith
at this time and undoubtedly given to understand that
his new role in life was to interpose his body between his
Buddhathe emperorand all danger. This acknowledgment of the empress in Gaos epitaph was consonant
with the strong filial feelings he expressed for the maternal women in his life. He offered obeisance to the wife of
the eunuch who adopted him as if she were his mother,
and when Gaos biological mother was located in Panzhou
many years later and sent to him at court in Changan, he
attended to both ladies with every kindness. Surely this
piety toward maternal figures extended to the memory of
Empress Wu and her monuments. It is hard to imagine it
would not have given Gao considerable satisfaction to have
lavished money on her Vairocana shrine, both to refurbish
it with gilt and paint and to add to it the grand project of
forty-eight Amitbhas.
Gao served the Tang ruler exactly as the empress wished.
Soon after the prince was made emperor in 712, Gao was
put in charge of the Palace Domestic Service. Over the
next fifty years, he gave the emperor advice on countless
occasions and more than once put his life at risk to defend
him. Gao cut down the high officials Xiao Zhizhong and
Cen Xi during the attempted coup of the Taiping princess
in 713, in 752 he led the eunuch cavalry against the mutiny
of Wang Hong, and during the retired emperors exile in
Sichuan in the late 750s, Gao put down a rebellion among
the troops.40 In civil affairs, he once persuaded the emperor
not to allow the great statesman Zhang Yue (667730) to
be impeached, and he advised the emperor on the selection
of the heir apparent.41 The emperor famously said, With
Lishi working for me, I can sleep soundly.42 His importance to the emperor was not only known but accepted, for
Gao was given a satellite burial at Tailing, the emperors
mausoleum.43 Given this relationship, it is scarcely surprising that Gao would organize a project whose sole beneficiary was his lord.

Yang Sixus Grotto

The court eunuchs donation of hypostases of the fortyeight vows of Amitbha is unique at Longmen. Before
discussing its function, I would like to illustrate how it
differs from two types of related projects: statuary grottoes
sponsored individually by Gao Lishi and Yang Sixu, and
other projects containing hypostases of Amitbha.44 On
the north wall of the lower terrace of the Vairocana shrine,
between the easternmost Amitbha niche and the Palace
Domestic Service stele, is a medium-sized grotto now
called Grotto 1255 (see figure 8.1).45 On the ruined faade
are muscular, half-nude guardians flanking the doorway,
standing on mountain rocks. The interior is empty, but
each side-wall altar has a square depression that originally
held the base for one of the two figures described in the
dedicatory inscription. Centered over the entryway, the
inscription was composed by an official of the Academy of
Scholarly Worthies, and although the calligrapher is not
credited, the running script is said to be that of the famous
official and calligrapher Xu Hao (703782).46 Though ruinous, enough remains to learn it was dedicated by Yang
Sixu, now Duke of Guoguo. The author extols the power
of the Dharma for salvation and offers an admiring tribute
to Yangs military prowess and filiality before asserting the
durability of the images in stone and dedicating them to
Yangs late father and mother, with a pure filial piety.47
The date of the inscription is missing, except for the reign
period of Kaiyuan, but an approximate date of 735 has been
suggested.48 By this estimation, the grotto was produced
shortly after the refurbishment of the Vairocana shrine
and the completion of the forty-eight Amitbhas in 730.
According to the inscription, the original program in
side the grotto was one figure each of the bodhisattvas
Dizang and Eleven-Headed Guanyin. Although this pair
is unusual at Longmen, the combination of Dizang and
a standard Guanyin was produced many times in the
early Tang dynasty.49 The prayers attached to these images typically concern healing for the donor and karmic
aid for the donors deceased relatives.50 Yang Sixus motive
appeared to be the karmic rescue of his late parents, as
suggested in the gth at the end of the inscription, which
says that only by these two supreme bodhisattvas can the
great host of sentient beings attain deliverance and that
Yang exhausted his strength in the depth of his pure filS A L VA T I O N F O R O N E | 149

ial piety.51 According to his epitaph, his filial piety was

indeed of a high degree.52 His fifth-generation ancestor,
one Su Mi, was sent to be an official in Hanoi, and from
then on, the family was registered in Shicheng, Luozhou,
which was near modern-day Lianjiang, Guangdong Province. Four generations of his paternal relations served as
chieftains in Luozhou, down to his father, Su Li. As his
youngest son, Yang Sixu was apparently young enough to
be castrated and sent to court following whatever disaster
overtook this southern family. At court, he was adopted by
a eunuch official surnamed Yang, but after Yang Sixu had
gained high position for his military service to the state,
his father was granted the posthumous title of Prefect of
Guozhou, his late mother was made Lady of Xuguo, and
he had their graves moved to just outside Changan, close
to his mansion in the Yishan Ward, so that he could visit
and sweep their graves morning and night.

Yang Sixu and the Tower of Seven Treasures

We can speculate on why Yang Sixu sponsored the unusual
figure of Eleven-Headed Guanyin at this time.53 In 724,
just before this grotto was produced, Yang was involved
in the refurbishment of the Qibaotai, or Tower of Seven
Treasures, in Changan. According to Yen Chan-yings
admirable reconstruction study of this lost monument, in
703 a consortium of Palace Chapel monks, high-ranking
officials, and metropolitan elites donated bas-relief stone
shrines as facing slabs for the central pillar of the Qibaotai, which Empress Wu ordered built on the grounds of
Guangzhai Monastery, itself established in 677 after the
discovery of buried Buddhist relics in the Guangzhai
Ward, just east of the Taiji Palace in the northern part of
the capital.54 Two subsidiary buildings were dedicated to
the worship of Samantabhadra and Majur, the principal bodhisattvas of the Avatam
saka Stra, so Yen believes
the main Buddha hall must have been for the worship of
Vairocana.55 As she reconstructs it, the Qibaotai was a tall,
octagonal tower with windows open to the four directions,
which stood in the center of Guangzhai Monastery. Murals
were painted on the interior walls by the most celebrated
figure painters of the day, Yuchi Yiseng (ca. 650710) and
Wu Daozi (ca. 673760), while in the center of the tower
was a four-sided hollow pillar, each face set with three registers of stone panels carved with Buddha assemblies and
150 | S A L VA T I O N F O R O N E

images of bodhisattvas. The panels on the sides depicted

seated Buddhas, while each corner was composed of two
standing Eleven-Headed Guanyin panels set at a ninetydegree angle. Their function is suggested by an event that
occurred in 697. After a disastrous defeat of Tang forces by
Khitan fighters in 696, Empress Wu requested her trusted
cleric Fazang to set up an Eleven-Headed Guanyin altar
for the chanting of dhran.s to prevent a Khitan invasion
of Tang. The dhran.s chanted by Fazang were likely those
found in the Stra of the Divine Dhran. on the ElevenHeaded Avalokitevara Spoken by the Buddha, which had
been translated into Chinese in the latter half of the sixth
century.56 One of the ten rewards promised by this scripture is being able to overcome all enemies. When the
Khitans were soon defeated by the Turks, the empress was
overjoyed and proclaimed a new reign period called Divine Act of Merit.57 Based on the close historical precedent
of the success of the Eleven-Headed Guanyin altar for the
protection of the state, Yen argues the Eleven-Headed
Guanyin figures of the Qibaotai functioned as guardian
figures. Indeed, one of them was inscribed by the man in
charge of the Qibaotai project, Degan (ca. 650710), a bha
danta monk of the Palace Chapel, saying, In offering to
the state, I reverently had made one figure of the ElevenHeaded Guanyin image, with the humble prayer that the
imperium be forever stable and the longevity of the Sage
(Empress Wu) be lengthened.58
In 724, Yang Sixu and a group of twenty eunuch officials
undertook to renovate the Qibaotai, with the merit to be
returned to Emperor Xuanzong. Since their names were
carved into the original stone panels, we know that some
of them also participated in the forty-eight Amitbhas
project of 730.59 Indeed, the two projects are strikingly
similar: in both, a consortium of eunuch patrons refurbished a Huayan monument associated with Empress Wu
and dedicated the merit to Emperor Xuanzong.60 Having just seen these Eleven-Headed Guanyin figures, Yang
might have been inspired to sponsor a similar figure in his
own grotto at Longmen.61 Even though the Eleven-Headed
Guanyin was used in the capital for Esoteric rituals to safeguard the state, it was also suitable for the karmic rescue of
deceased parents. Among the rewards listed in the Stra of
the Divine Dhran. on the Eleven-Headed Avalokitevara
are never falling into hell and being reborn in the land
of the Buddha Amityus.62 The association of the Eleven-

Headed Guanyin with the security of the state was appropriate for Yang, too. From their childhood, eunuchs were
prevented from looking to their natural parents for protection and support. Their parent was the state, embodied in
the person of the ruler. Yang first came to be appreciated
by the throne for killing the general Li Duozuo during the
rebellion of the heir apparent in 707, for which Emperor
Zhongzong put him in charge of the Palace Domestic
Service.63 Assassinations and military campaigns of colonization on behalf of the throne constituted the services
for which Yang is remembered. For helping the future
Emperor Xuanzong murder Empress Wei in 710, he was
made General of the Palace Gate Guard of the Left.64 Then,
during the early years of Xuanzongs reign, Yang was sent
on one campaign after another into the far south, the region that is now southern Guangxi and Guangdong provinces and northern Vietnam. Not incidentally, this was
the area where Yang was born. The savage ferocity that he
displayed against a succession of southern rebel forces
was directed at his own people, in the service of the Son of
Heaven. That he had chosen the state and the emperor as
his parent was clear.

Gao Lishi as Donor

Gao Lishi was not involved in the refurbishing of the Qibaotai in 724, but he may well have watched it being constructed. One of the original sponsors was a man named
Gao Yangui, from Bohai, the Chinese name for the Korean
state of Parhae (roughly modern Jilin Province, in southern Manchuria). It has been proposed that this Gao Yangui was a relative of Gao Yanfu, the eunuch official who
adopted Gao Lishi after he arrived at court.65 Gao Lishi
came to court in 697 and would have been twelve years old
when the Qibaotai was completed in 703. As an adult, Gao
took a personal interest in Buddhist art and was notorious as a sponsor of Buddhist projects.66 His epitaph states:
The magnanimousness of his generosity, the singularity of his abilities and achievements, his talent for selfless
care for (the emperor), and the traces of his gifts of charity
were those contained in the discourses (or, the Analects) of
the honorable man and very much of the customs (or, the
Odes) of the men of antiquity.67 Traces is the same word
used in many Longmen inscriptions to mean the body of
the Buddha, either of flesh or of stone, so this might be

an allusion to the forty-eight Amitbhas at Longmen, although Gao also sponsored other ostentatious projects,
such as a sumptuously decorated chapel he built next to the
palace, where he engaged in the practice of acts of merit,
and a Buddhist shrine in the Laiting Ward of Changan,
described as having precious towers and jeweled rooms,
more expensive than the state could afford. When the bell
was completed, Gao Lishi held a banquet for the lords and
ministers. For each strike on the bell, he would donate a
hundred thousand cash, so those sycophants who wished
to please him struck the bell twenty times, though no one
struck it fewer than ten.68
Because the forty-eight Amitbhas were not done for
Gaos personal benefit, we should look for the grotto he
ordered for himself. Immediately west of the eunuchs
stele is a medium-sized grotto now designated Grotto
1250, whose faade exactly matches the stele in height and
placement on the cliff face.69 The grotto is 2.55 meters wide
and 2.25 meters deep, with a vaulted ceiling 2.74 meters
high, making it rather larger than Yang Sixus grotto.70
On the low altar against the back wall stand three ruined
figures (figure 8.3). Only their robes retain any detail, but
the drapery is very similar to one of the types of robe seen
on the forty-eight standing Amitbha figures, a distinctive
design in which the hem of the fully covering robe hangs
in a sharp point below the knees. Moreover, the figures are
about 1.8 meters tall, close to the height of 1.9 or 2 meters
for the forty-eight Amitbhas, all of which suggests they
were produced at the same time. I propose this grotto was
sponsored by Gao as his own project.

Three Standing Amitbhas

The meaning of three standing Amitbha figures can be
discerned from an earlier example, a shrine containing a
trio of Amitbhas carved on the north wall of the forecourt
of the Pure Land Hall sponsored by the Damask Silk Guild
of Luoyang in 694 (figure 8.4). The trio is also standing,
unaccompanied by attendant figures, with seven-Buddha
haloes, and their hands are in abhaya and varada mudrs.
They also wear fully covering robes that fall in V-shaped
folds down the front. The overall program of the Pure
Land Hall represents the process of rebirth in Sukhvat,
and the three standing Amitbhas in the shrine represent
the three possible manifestations of Amitbha to the dying
S A L VA T I O N F O R O N E | 151

Figure 8.3. Standing Buddhas,

interior of Grotto 1250. Photo,
the author, 1999.

believer on earth, which is the beginning of that process.

In the Stra of the Buddha of Measureless Life, kyamuni
describes three types of believers in Amitbha. Persons of
superior faith are those who have entered the monastic
life, while persons of middling faith are exclusively devoted to Amitbha and have dedicated toward being reborn in Sukhvat the merit earned by observing the eight
precepts during the four periods of fast, by sponsoring pagodas and images, by giving food to the monks (as at the
Yulanpen Festival), and by raising banners, lighting lamps,
strewing flowers, and burning incense before icons. Persons of inferior faith, though they have done absolutely
nothing in their lives to gain merit, have brought to mind
Amitbha, even if it is only for one moment of thought.
In accord with their level of belief, Amitbha will appear
in one of three forms to believers on the point of death, in
order to lead them away to rebirth in Sukhvat. To those of
superior faith, the actual Amitbha will appear; to those of
middling faith, he will manifest an illusory body; while
those of inferior faith will see this buddha in a dream.71 I
152 | S A L VA T I O N F O R O N E

propose the three Amitbha figures in the shrine represent

these three manifestations of Amitbha.

The Twelve Buddhas of Light

Not only does the set of forty-eight hypostases of Amitbha
differ from the eunuch officials personal statuary grotto
projects, but it also differs from a set of twelve, such as
those carved on the faade of the Pure Land Hall. A row
of twelve seated Buddhas was carved above the entryway
as part of the original program and another set was carved
on the two side walls of the forecourt as an intrusive project by a monk donor. They represent the Twelve Buddhas
of Light, which are hypostases of the Twelve Names of
the Buddha of Light, the epithets of Amitbha found in
the Stra of the Buddha of Measureless Life. They represent the radiant light of Amitbha that now shines over
endless Buddha-fields following the fulfillment of his
forty-eight vows and the purification of his own Land of
Peace and Happiness in the West. The forty-eight vows of

Figure 8.4. Trio

of Amitbha figures, north wall
forecourt, Pure
Land Hall of the
Northern Market
Damask Silk Guild,
694. Photo, the
author, 1999.

Amitbha and the Twelve Buddhas of Light are found in

the same scripture, the first heralding the enlightenment
of Amitbha and the creation of his Pure Land, the second
representing its establishment. From the point of view of
the eunuch donors, however, the forty-eight vows have a
different purpose and function.

The Forty-Eight Vows

Unlike the vows of Guanyin in the Lotus Stra, Amitbhas
forty-eight vows are not for the rescue of sentient beings
in this life; rather, they are for better rebirths in the future, in particular, rebirth in his paradise of Sukhvat.
The first vow pledges that there are no hells or realms of
hungry ghosts or animals in Sukhvat, while the second
promises that no believer reborn there will ever be reborn
on earth in any of those three evil paths. The thirty-fifth
vow is that no believer will have to be reborn as a woman.
While these vows promise deliverance from bad rebirths,
others emphasize the ease of being reborn in Sukhvat.

The eighteenth vow, which Luis Gmez calls the core vow
in the interpretive tradition, says that anyone who can
think of being reborn in Sukhvat for even ten moments
will be reborn there.72 The nineteenth vow has also been
important historically, since it promises that Amitbha
will appear to the believer at the moment of his death,
while the twentieth vow promises that any who fix their
thoughts on rebirth in Sukhvat and direct all the merit
they have earned toward rebirth there will achieve that
goal. Several other vows describe the unlimited beauty
and purity of Sukhvat and the supernatural powers and
virtues of those reborn there, including the promise that
they will attain enlightenment there.73 All these promises
are for believers, but provision is also made for nonbelievers to hear the name of Amitbha and be inspired to call
on him, for in the seventeenth vow, Amitbha promises
that innumerable Buddhas will in every way praise and
proclaim my name.

S A L VA T I O N F O R O N E | 153

Reading the Forty-Eight Amitbhas

Gao Lishi likely intended the forty-eight Amitbhas for
the salvation of his friend and benefactor the unbelieving Emperor Xuanzong. Although I consider this the purpose of the project, I wonder how these unusual figures
were believed to function or if indeed we can know. In
Wolfgang Isers essay called The Reading Process: A Phenomenological Approach, he describes a theory of reader
response to literature that has considerable applicability
to our understanding of how the content, or meaning, of
a work of art is created within Chinese Buddhism. Iser
wrote, The work is more than the text, for the text only
takes on life when it is realized, by which he meant that
reading a novel creates its meaning.74 Unlike a modern
novel, however, a Buddhist icon can not only be read (as a
text), it can also be viewed (as a material object) and worship can be offered before it (functioning as a repository
of the dharmakya and a device for the generation of karmic merit). Where Iser wrote, Reading causes the literary work to unfold its inherently dynamic character,75
we could say that with regard to Buddhist sculpture, it is
reading, viewing, and worship that cause an icon to unfold
its inherently dynamic character.
To explore the spiritual function of the eunuchs project,
let us examine it from the point of view of reader, viewer,
and worshiper. To read this project as a text, we might
begin by counting the figures, which produces a number
that leads to a canonical text, the Stra of the Buddha of
Measureless Life. With knowledge of that text, the reader
understands the figures to function as embodiments of the
forty-eight vows of Amitbha. The projects other text is
the dedicatory inscription, which informs the reader concerning the donors, the beneficiary, the iconography, the
date, and the spiritual purpose of the project. The inscription is explicit about the spiritual function of the project,
saying the donors have created this Pure Land. Within
the context of a Pure Land, a place in which the vows of
Amitbha have all been fulfilled and his blessings may be
encountered, the statues were likely believed to embody
all forty-eight vows and make them spiritually operative
on behalf of the emperor as well as perpetually available
to him. They comprise not only the vows about rebirth in
Sukhvat and the appearance of Amitbha at the believers deathbed, but also the promise that unbelievers will be
154 | S A L VA T I O N F O R O N E

able to hear the name of Amitbha and be brought to a desire to be reborn in Sukhvat. Collectively, they amount
to a permanent prayer for the salvation of the emperor.
Looking at it as a work of visual representation, a viewer
could understand the Vairocana shrine rather differently
after the addition of the Amitbha figures. Sponsored by
Emperor Gaozong for his imperial ancestors, the colossal
Vairocana was established in living memory as a representation of the emperor. Moreover, the shrine was complete in all its necessary figures and required no further
work. In terms of design, the added Amitbha figures were
not only unnecessary, but genuinely intrusive, especially
where their niches cut into the original carving. Certain
evidence, however, suggests they might have been created
with the goal of a meaningful visual relationship to the
main Buddha. The Vairocana is colossal and singular.
From a traditional Chinese visual perspective, it could
only represent the emperor. The Amitbhas are many,
they are smaller, and they all stand stock still, undemonstrative and unobtrusive, some with their hands at their
waists or their sides. Perhaps they were meant to represent the relationship of the court eunuchs, who are many
and insignificant, to the colossal and unique figure of the
emperor. One detail that reinforces this interpretation is
the hand gestures of the Amitbhas. On standard Buddha
icons, the hand gestures are mudrs that signify some action or message of the Buddha, but the gestures of many
of the Amitbhas are not standard. While several hold
their hands in recognizable abhaya and varada mudrs,
others simply stand with one arm bent and the hand held
at the waist (see figure 8.2 above). I suspect they are not
mudrs at all. Rather, they could be the hand gestures of
someone who is in waiting, such as a eunuch who attends
his master.
Anyone who offered worship in front of these figures
would generate karmic merit. The worshiper would receive
some certainly, but some would also go to the beneficiary,
which the inscription names as the emperor. Since the emperor was not a believer, the merit could only be directed
toward his salvation, which in this case, was probably simply construed as calling on the name of Amitbha. As long
as the statues remain and worshipers generate merit, the
merit transferred to the person of the emperor can only
increase. Hence the probability of the emperors salvation
grows greater the longer the statues stand there.

Figure 8.5. Amitbha, Grotto 105, ca. 700, Xumishan, Ningxia. From Zhongguo shiku diaosu quanji, v. 5: Shaanxi,
Ningxia, ed. Han Wei and Chen Yuexin, pl. 217.

Although the roles of reader, viewer, and worshiper can

be adopted in order to imagine meanings or functions for
the project, reader-response theory does not take into account the existence of another actor beyond the reader, the
author, and the work. For Buddhist sculpture, that actor
(more a law than a person) is the karmic mechanism. If the
role of reader is already filled by the karmic mechanism,
then we would do well to ask, Does Buddhist sculpture require a mortal reader? Let us now reexamine the internal
evidence of the project to consider the possibility that the
eunuch donors did not believe a human reader was nec-

essary to the success of their project. Further, aspects of

the work imply that no viewer or worshiper was needed
either.
The manner in which the forty-eight figures are dispersed throughout the Vairocana shrine makes them difficult to recognize as a particular grouping in the same way
that grid patterns full of small Buddhas would instantly
convey the Thousand Buddhas. Moreover, it is curious
that the inscription never declares that forty-eight figures
were made, nor does it refer to Amitbhas vows. Neither
the design nor the inscription seeks to inform a reader of
what would seem to be the essential nature of the project.
Who was the intended reader of the inscription? The emperor had already read it, and there is no indication he was
present at any dedication ceremony where the inscription
would be unveiled. Further, what reader were the eunuchs
informing that they had converted the shrine into a Pure
Land? We should consider the possibility that the only audience was the karmic mechanism, the conduit by which
merit is transferred and credited. In terms of the spiritual efficacy of the project, perhaps it was only the karmic
mechanism that needed to know that the shrine was now a
Pure Land and that the beneficiary was the emperor.
From the perspective of the viewer, the arrangement
of the added Amitbha figures is not attractive, nor does
it add to the shrine in any aesthetic way. In fact, it ruins
some of the existing carving and spoils the symmetry of
the design, since most of the figures are on the north wall.
Others are practically hidden, either behind the throne or
too high on the west wall to see clearly. The Amitbhas do
not relate, by gesture or posture, to the existing statues, as
for example, by looking at or turning toward the colossal figures. They do not relate to them in any iconic way
either. In the original shrine, for example, the disciples attend the Buddha on either side, and their smaller size and
subordinate position are appropriate visual expressions
of their relationship to the Buddha, as understood from
the scriptures. The comparative size and position of the
Amitbhas, by contrast, conveys no sense of relationship
between them and the Vairocana, and indeed, Vairocana
does not figure in the Stra of the Buddha of Measureless
Life. Perhaps there was no design principle other than fitting the figures into available open spaces and no intention to integrate the Amitbhas into a Vairocana shrine,
only to overlay the Huayan schema with a Pure Land.
S A L VA T I O N F O R O N E | 155

Perhaps the eunuchs had no romantic notion of their figures waiting in attendance on the colossal figure of the
Vairocana-emperor, but instead, the figures were meant
simply to beplaced at the shrine because that was the
site the eunuchs had been permitted to refurbishnot to
be viewed, alone or as part of the Vairocana assembly. Medieval Buddhists believed the making of icons generated a
substantial amount of merit, so perhaps the eunuchs did
not perceive any need for anyone to offer worship to their
figures. It is possible they considered the amount of merit
generated by the mere making of the statues to be more
than sufficient for the purpose.
We could even ask if these Amitbhas are meant to be
worshiped as Buddhist icons. Though identified in the inscription as Amitbhas, the fact of having forty-eight means
they must actually represent the forty-eight vows, rather
than the unique being named Amitbha who rules over his
Pure Land in the West. It is not immediately evident how a
believer would offer worship to forty-eight figures scattered
over three huge walls. Though they look like Buddha icons,
they may not have functioned as Buddha icons. Perhaps
they functioned simply as hypostases for the vows.
In view of the notion of the statues functioning as the
vows, we can reinterpret the curiously noncanonical hand
gestures of the Amitbhas in terms of a spiritually active
waiting for the emperors decision to call on Amitbha.
In the Visualization Stra, Amitbha says to the dying
believer, I have come to welcome you and, with a thousand incarnate Buddhas, to offer you my hand.76 In line
with the three similar standing Amitbha figures in Cave
1250, which likely represent the three possible appearances of Amitbha to believers at the end of their lives,
I propose that the manifest gestures of waiting made by
some of the forty-eight Amitbha figures were intended

156 | S A L VA T I O N F O R O N E

to suggest an incipient gesturethe extended hands

as a gesture of welcome that Amitbha will make upon
greeting the dying believer. This gesture is not seen at
Longmen, but it is depicted in a three-meter-high figure
of Amitbha carved around 700 at the cave-shrine site
of Xumishan, near Guyuan, Ningxia Province (figure
8.5).77 Standing without attendant figures, this Buddha
has the same round head with finely waving hair as the
forty-eight Amitbhas at Longmen and the same distinctive type of robe that comes to a V-shaped point between
the lower legs. The Xumishan figure, however, opens its
arms outward, its hands stretched forward in a gesture
of welcome. The Guyuan area was well trafficked in Tang
times, and this gesture of welcome would likely have been
known by a contemporaneous audience in central China
as well. Hence I propose that the anomalous gestures made
by many of the forty-eight Amitbha figures would have
suggested to early-eighth-century believers the welcoming gesture of the extended hands. The social and political reality of the relationship between servant and master,
however, was such that the eunuchs probably dared not
represent the Amitbha figures as actually welcoming the
emperor on his deathbed to rebirth in Sukhvat. Such an
overt act of proselytization made by having the figures
arms outstretched would likely have been unacceptable to
the beneficiary. Instead, the figures hands are represented
in an attitude of waiting. The hypostases of the forty-eight
vows were nothing less than a prayer by the eunuchs that
the unbelieving emperor call on Amitbha and be reborn
in his paradise in the West. If it took a lifetime for this
prayer to be answered, they had made adequate provision,
for the longer the statues stood waiting, the greater the
chance that the gesture of welcome would be made toward
the emperor by Amitbha himself.

Epilogue: The Later Life of the Site

he donors of Longmen ceased sponsoring

statuary grottoes over a thousand years ago,
but the site itself has survived to the present
day, perceived and treated very differently by
various types of visitors over the centuries. This epilogue
presents the later life of Longmen broadly, from three perspectives, each illustrated by selected vignettes. From the
perspective of religion, the monasteries of Longmen continued to be lively sites of Buddhist practice until sometime
around the thirteenth century, while their hospitality made
the hills of Xiangshan an attractive destination for landscape lovers and pleasure seekers. By Chinese intellectuals,
Longmen was seen as a source of historical documents. In
the Qing dynasty (16441911), Longmen was rediscovered
by scholars as an archeological site, and its inscriptions
were collected as ink rubbings and studied for their historical and calligraphic interest. Interpretation of the Longmen inscriptions as historical, philological, and artistic
documents continues today. A third perspective was inaugurated by Western viewers. Beginning at the turn of the
twentieth century, Longmen attracted visitors from Japan
and the West, and photographs of the statues published in
the West caused them to be seen, for the first time, as art.
Local stonecutters, eager to earn money from Chinese dealers and Western art collectors, looted the statuary through
the 1930s. After the establishment of the Peoples Republic
in 1949, the government made it a priority to restore the
grottoes and promote Longmen as a site for tourism.

The Later Life of Longmens Monasteries

In the winter of 755, the general An Lushan turned the
Tang armies under his command against the dynasty, and
they moved quickly from his headquarters in the north
to take the Eastern Capital. The rebel troops laid waste to

Luoyang, then marched to the west and seized Changan,

driving Emperor Xuanzong into exile. From that moment
onward, patronage at Longmen practically ceased. A few
small shrines were added here and there, but no more grottoes were produced, and no elite donors commissioned any
substantial projects. Longmens function as a site for the
sponsorship of shrines and icons for merit came to an end,
but the life of its monasteries continued until the Mongol
conquest of China in the thirteenth century.
As a young man, the poet Du Fu (712770) traveled to
Longmen, where he spent the night at the imperial Feng
xian Monastery, just south of the western cliffs. Roaming Fengxian Monastery at Longmen was written in 736.
Included in his evocation of the numinous qualities of
the place is a reference to the limestone cliffs, or watchtowers, that gave the site its original name of Yique, or
Watchtowers on the Yi. His wish to engage in quiet sitting all night for self-reflection is a touching presage to the
events of twenty years later, when the horrors of the An
Lushan Rebellion did indeed cause Du Fu to look deeply
into the human heart and, in his later poetry, to reflect
with melancholy on what he saw there.
After roaming the grounds of the monastery,
I spent the night within its confines.
The shadowy valley emitted sounds from within,
while the moonlit forest cast clear shadows.
The heavenly watchtowers reached to the constellations,
and as I lay among the clouds, my robes grew cold.
I wanted to stay awake until I heard the morning bell,
for doing so can make a man examine himself deeply.1

In 829, the poet Bai Juyi (772846) was appointed to

a position in the Eastern Capital and came to live in Luo
yang. The following year he was promoted to serve as governor of Henan. He spent the remaining years of his life in

Luoyang, often going out to Longmen to stay at Xiangshan

Monastery in the eastern hills. As a devout Buddhist, he
was pained by the decrepit state of the hundred-year-old
monastery, but as the following record of repair indicates,
he was given a gift that enabled him to sponsor its refurbishment. Bai Juyis love for the place is evident in this
record, and accordingly, after his death in Luoyang in 846,
he was buried next to the pagoda of monk Ruman (b. 752)
at Xiangshan Monastery.
Record of the Repair of Xiangshan Monastery
Of all the scenery in the environs of Luoyang, Longmen has
the best, and of all the scenic spots to visit among the ten
monasteries of Longmen, the best is Xiangshan Monastery.
Yet Xiangshan Monastery was for a long time in ruins. Its
towers and pavilions were broken and tumbled down, its (images of) Buddhas and disciples cruelly exposed. What was
painful to gentlemen pained me too, and what was disgraceful to the Buddhas followers was a disgrace to me as well.
When I was put in charge of the Eastern Capital, since it is in
my nature to enjoy leisure excursions, as soon as I came here,
with my sons and friends, I explored all the numinous traces
and beautiful scenery out here. Every time I came to this
monastery, I prayed with a sad heart that it would be restored.
It has been seven or eight years since I had the good fortune to
be made master of this area, but it was only this autumn that I
could make good on my first intention and fulfill that prayer.
It appeared to be fate that this result should be realized.
Alas! When I was young, the late minister of state Yuan
Weizhi and I formed a friendship for life, with profound feelings that were predestined by cause and effect. In the autumn
of last year, when Weizhi was going to be buried, I was entrusted with composing the text of his tomb epitaph. After I
had finished it, his father, Mr. Yuan, sent his slaves to bring
me a horse saddle made of silk brocade and silverplate with a
jade belly band, which was worth about sixty or seventy thousand (cash), as a gift to thank me for the epitaph. As I thought
about how our lives were now separated, though I could never
have refused to write the epitaph, I could not accept this gift.
So it went back and forth a couple of times between Qin and
Luo, until in the end there was no alternative (but to keep it),
and so I donated it to this monastery.
After I asked the wise monk Qingxian to manage it, he appointed some competent men to make all the arrangements
(for the refurbishment). They started with the pavilion in
158 | e p i l o g u e

front of the monastery, the bridge that leads up to the monastery, and the seven-bay covered walkway that leads from the
bridge, then they went on to the stone tower and the six-bay
covered walkway that leads to the stone tower, then on to the
eleven-bay great hall on the east that holds the Buddha shrines,
then next to the hall for guests on the south, which has seven
rooms of different sizes. Everything that had fallen was set
aright, everything missing was replaced, tumble-down walls
were built back up, and every leak was patched. The work with
tile molds and trowels was very fine, and the decorations in
red earth and white clay were well made. Although it seemed
like it was refurbished in just a day, it took more than three
months to complete. This is just like when the leader on the
bad road, out of pity (for his followers), guided them to the
Magic City (that he had just conjured up).2
Now the shrines and images are no longer in danger of being
cracked or broken by heat and moisture, and the monks of the
monastery have a safe place to dwell and practice. Now visitors
can rest here, and viewers have something worth seeing! The
prospect of the cliffs on the pass, the view of the dragon pool,
the springs and rocks of Incense Mountain, the breeze and the
moon from (the monasterys) stone tower, all these were made
new for those who come here. Now gentlemen and Buddhas
followers are freed from any reason for pain or disgrace. The
virtuous monk Qingxian, Weizhi, and I were friends in our
previous lives, and we know this because of the power of our
vow of friendship. Thinking with gratitude of times then and
now, with great joy I say these words of praise: all these benefits (to the monastery) are counted as merit, and this merit
we return to Weizhi that it may extinguish his former life and
recommend him for blessings in his next life. In response, I
say: Alas! Thanks to this merit, how do we know but what in
another time we will not meet Weizhi in another existence
on this earth? Because of the vow and the actions taken here,
how do we know that we will not travel again together to this
monastery in another life? As I say these words, my tears are
flowing!
Recorded by Bai Juyi of Taiyuan, Governor of Henan, on
the first day of the eighth month of the sixth year of the Taihe
era of Tang (832).3

In the Tang dynasty, it was the custom of the fashionable elite young people of Luoyang to go out for parties at
Longmen on Qingming Festival day in the spring, to picnic in the eastern hills, listen to music, write poetry, and

roam along the paths between the monasteries. A piece

of light verse describing this scene, titled Rhapsody on
Longmen, was written by Lu Jing, who served as district
defender of Henan during the Tang.4 A few lines are translated here:
Twenty li south of the gates of the capital,
the paired watchtowers so lofty flank the River Yi.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The youth and maidens of Luoyang love Qingming time,
and theyve heard its more enjoyable at Longmen.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Keys open the iron gates and brazen locks,
and jeweled horses and perfumed carriages emerge from
the city.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Through the valleys and the hills, they roam through all
the scenic spots;
their fragrant boats decked out in reds and greens.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Look southward, and grasses and trees screen the countryside in spring,
gaze to the north, and towers and terraces rise halfway to
the sky.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Hearing old tunes played on marvelous pipes and a multitude of strings,
new poems are written in colored inks on flowered paper.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Though Wangzi Jin and Fuqiu Bo in days of yore welcomed
feathered guests at the Yi River,
how could it be like this mornings banquet along the
fragrant paths?5
And even when Li Yuanli and Guo Linzong sailed the Luo
River in immortals boats in olden times,
how could that be likened to the assembly in the meditation
halls today?6
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Grottoes of stone, images of gold, half-hidden, halfseenwe gaze at them from a distance.
The river below, the hills above, climb here or play here
onceyoull never go home!

In 855, the Japanese monk Enchin (814891) made a

pilgrimage to Longmen. Enchin was an important cleric
of the Tendai School, who succeeded Ennin (793864) as

abbot of Enryaku-ji on Mount Hiei near Kyoto. The purpose of his visit was to offer worship at the pagoda housing
the relics of the great Indian translator ubhkarasim
ha
(637735), which was built in the hills north of the western cliffs in 739. In 758, the famous Tang general Guo Ziyi
(697781) requested that a monastery be built around the
pagoda of ubhkarasim
ha. Called Guanghua Monastery, it
was a site for the burial of other Tang clerics of the Esoteric
School into the tenth century. In the record of his journeys
through China between 853 and 858, Enchin wrote: Stepping through snow and sinking up to our knees, we went
to Guanghua Monastery on the western side of the Yi River
at Longmen, of the Eastern Capital, where we offered ritual
obeisance to the relic pagoda of Tripit.aka ubhkarasim
ha.
raman.a Daoyuan wrote a Stele of the Tripit.aka Monk,
which we transmitted back with us to Japan.7
The pagoda of ubhkarasim
ha was still a place of pilgrimage in the eleventh century. In the spring of 1011, in
response to a drought that gripped the land, Emperor
Zhenzong (r. 9981022) went to Longmen to have incense
and prayers for rain offered at his pagoda, invoking the
Esoteric masters legendary magical ability to bring rain.8
The emperor wrote out a Eulogy for Longmen, which
was carved into a grotto on the eastern side.9 It opens with
a brief essay extolling the beauty of the site, its proximity
to the ancient royal capital, and the venerable image(s)
of Mahvra, which may have been a reference to the colossal Vairocana, the image most readily visible from the
east side of the river. Evidently, his journey to Longmen
made the emperor aware of the dilapidated state of the site
because he ordered the repair of the statuary in 1015. According to the thirteenth-century chronicle Fozu tongji:
At the Longmen Hills of the Western Capital, the Buddhas in the stone shrines had been abandoned and in a
ruinous state for many years, so the emperor commanded
the monk Xiyan to supply artisans to repair and decorate
a total of 17,339 figures.10
It seems this was the last time the statuary at Longmen
was repaired by imperial order. Even before the fall of the
Northern Song government in 1127, the Luoyang area had
come under the control of the Jin dynasty (11151234).
The poems of several Jin writers, such as Yuan Haowen
(11901257), reveal that the Baoying and Qianxi monasteries still functioned, but certain lines suggest the statuary
had been left to the elements:
e p i l o g u e | 159

The middle of the mountain streams with water, never dry;

the heads of the Buddhas are dripping, soaked and green
(with moss).11

In the fourteenth century, the Muslim poet Sadula (Sa

Tianxi, ca. 13001380), who served in the Mongol government of the Yuan dynasty (12791368), traveled to Longmen. Perhaps his religious abhorrence of idols caused
Sadula to exaggerate the dereliction of the site, but his
description likely had some truth in it:
About eight miles south of Luoyang are two mountains facing
each other, sheer cliffs with rock walls, called Dragon Gate.
The Yi River flows out between them northward into the Luo
River....Along both river banks, men in the past bored into
the rock to make large caves and small shrines no fewer than
one thousand in number. They sculpted out of the rock sacred
images of various Buddhas, bodhisattvas, mahasattvas, arhats, indestructibles, heavenly kings, and Dharma-protecting
gods. There are full-length statues and busts projecting from
the cliff. The large ones are some sixteen feet tall; the smallest ones are but slightly more than an inch. Those seated
cross-legged, standing, and in attendance are also no fewer
than ten thousand in number. But all of these stone statues
were damaged long ago. They have been defaced by people.
Some have heads broken off; some have lost their bodies; their
noses, ears, hands, and feet are missing, either partially or
completely. The gold and jade ornaments have been scraped
off; few are completely intact.
In the past, there were eight temples; not one remains
today....There are many stone steles. Most are lying on the
ground; only one or two remain standing. The inscriptions,
all sayings of Buddha, were obliterated and cannot be read. I
had no time to determine their origin. From observing their
design, it would seem that they were not produced in a single
period. The cost of such efforts must be unknown millions.
Undoubtedly, the largest sculptures must have been commissioned by sovereigns; the next size must have been by princes,
dukes, and other members of the aristocracy; and the next
size must have been commissioned by wealthy persons in
order for them to have been created.
Although I am ignorant of Buddhist books, I have heard
that kyamuni was a sage from the western regions who
was born in a royal palace, the crown prince of a country.
He abandoned his noble status and took up a humble life,
forsaking his grand residence for a lowly abode, abandoning
160 | e p i l o g u e

elegant beauty for unadorned clothes, disliking the rich and

attractive while preferring the plain and simple. His mind
was totally devoid of desires, so how could he have wanted to
waste other peoples wealth, exhaust their energies, chisel and
carve into the structure of mountains, mutilate their Primal
Energy, and take senseless rocks, decorate them with gold,
and paint them in colors in order to frighten people?12

By the early twentieth century, the state of dissolution

was such that not only were the statues in disrepair, but
the moral condition of the few remaining monks, who
may have been Buddhist or Daoist, was utterly abased. According to Chavannes, the monks had turned the grottoes
into opium dens, and his student Spuyt wrote that they
had to step over the bodies of the drug users in order to
inspect the grottoes.13

The Inscriptions of Longmen as Epigraphy

Longmen was rediscovered and admired by scholars of the
Northern Song dynasty (9601127) not for its Buddhist
statuary, but for its inscriptions. Much as the study of early
ritual bronze vessels was taken up in the eleventh century
because of the inscriptions cast into them, it was the presence of the dedications carved at Longmen that made the
site worthy of interest to the literati. The statesman and litterateur Ouyang Xiu (10071072) was the first person on
record to have collected an ink rubbing of one.14 As a young
man, he was posted to Luoyang, where he served under the
metropolitan governor from 1031 to 1034. As the governor
was less interested in administration than in hosting literary parties and viewing scenery in the local mountains
with the talented young poets who served as his junior officers, Ouyang was free to make pleasure trips throughout the region.15 In his poetry, he fondly recalled staying
at the Xiangshan and Guanghua monasteries of Longmen
with friends.16 Although Ouyang frequented monasteries and even had respect for certain learned monks, he
was opposed to Buddhism.17 Hence, when it came to his
study of epigraphy, of the one thousand ink rubbings of
engraved inscriptions that Ouyang collected, only one was
taken from Longmen: the 641 dedication of Binyang South
Grotto (figure 9.1). Ouyangs aversion to Buddhism was
likely overcome in this singular case because the inscription was composed by the eminent official Cen Wenben

and transcribed by Chu Suiliang, the upright official who

was considered one of the Four Great Masters of Early Tang
in calligraphy. On this ink rubbing, Ouyang wrote:
To the right is the Record of the Three Grottoes, written by the
vice director of the Secretariat, Cen Wenben, and transcribed
by the imperial diarist, Chu Suiliang, in the Tang dynasty.
The characters and brushstrokes are particularly unusual
and grand. At the Longmen Mountains in Henan, where the
hills press in on the Yi River, both sides are quite admirable.
The eastern hills are popularly known as Xiangshan (Incense
Mountain), while the western hills are called Longmen (The
Dragon Gate). At the Longmen Mountains, the stone of the
cliff face has been carved into hundreds and hundreds of
Buddha images, large and small, produced in the Latter Wei
and Tang dynasties. The images of the Three Grottoes are the
largest. They were made by Tai, Prince of Wei, for Empress
Zhangsun.18

Ouyangs comments reveal some misunderstandings.

He misattributed all three Binyang grottoes to the sponsorship of Li Tai, probably because Tais inscription was
carved on the Northern Wei stele that stands between
Binyang Central and Binyang South, a mistake the great
Sinologist Chavannes was to repeat nearly nine hundred
years later.19 Further, his description of the statues in the
three Binyang grottoes as the largest at Longmen makes
one wonder how closely he observed the grottoes! In addition, his praise for a work of Tang dynasty calligraphy
is indicative of the Song dynasty taste for the canonical.
When the study of epigraphy revived in the Qing dynasty,
later epigraphers and calligraphy amateurs admired the
unorthodox writing from the northern dynasties instead.
Gu Yanwu (16131682) was evidently the first Qing dynasty epigrapher to note the inscriptions of Longmen, in
his Records of Epigraphical Writings. One he described
simply as a dedication in regular script dated to the sixth
year of the Wuping era of the Northern Qi dynasty (575),
carved in a grid. This information is enough to identify
it, however, since the only inscription of 575 set in a grid
is the one sponsored by the lay society headed by monk
Daoxing, which was carved into the north door jamb of
Yaofang Grotto.20 Gu apparently believed that Empress
Dowager Hu was responsible for the inauguration of the
site by donating a dozen or more grottoes, thereby setting
a dubious example for foolish people of later times. His

Figure 9.1. Chu Suiliang, The Stele for the Yique Buddha
Shrine, 641, ink rubbing, detail. From Zhongguo shufa quanji
(Beijing: Rongbaozhai, 1991), v. 22, color pl. 1.

e p i l o g u e | 161

disdain for Buddhism, women donors, and female rulers

is evident in his record, which reads as follows:
Twenty-five li southwest of Luoyang are the hills of Yique,
also known as Longmen. The Zuozhuan refers to them as
Quesai (Duke Zhao, year 20). The two hills face each other,
with the Yi River emerging from between them. Springs
emerge from openings in the stone and flow downward into
the Yi River. In ancient times, this was one of the Sanctified
Capitals famous scenic places. Empress Dowager Hu of the
Latter Wei was devoted to the Buddha, and she had the cliff
excavated to make grottoes inside which were carved Buddha
images. The largest of these was over ten feet high, and there
were more than ten of these grottoes. Later people followed
her in having them made, and though practically all of them
are worn down, the carving of Buddha images has not ceased
even now. Most of the ignorant folk who consider the carving of a Buddha to be a work of merit that will result in the
reciprocation of blessings are women. I once went there and
had a look around, though I did not see everything.
The calligraphy of this inscription of 575 is unusual, and it
is set in a grid like a chessboard. Half of it has already been
worn away. Most inscriptions here were by Tang people, dating from the Zongzhang era (668670) to the reign periods
of Empress Wu (690705). Hence, we know that during the
time of the three dynasties of Northern Wei, Northern Qi,
and Tang, there was always a female ruler who made these
things for worship and adornment.21

Huang Yi (17441802) was one of many scholars involved in the new intellectual trend called kaozheng, or
evidential research through textual analysis, in which
archeology and epigraphy were central disciplines.22 When
Huang served as an official in Shandong in 1786, he supervised the excavation of the Han dynasty Wu family
shrines, small buildings composed of stone slabs carved
with narrative reliefs representing Confucian exemplars,
mythical beings, and traditional mortuary scenes. In the
autumn of 1797, Huang toured Henan Province looking
for ancient stone monuments and inscriptions to study.
He collected over four hundred ink rubbings of inscriptions and documented his experiences in a diary called
Visiting Stone Steles in the Mount SongLuo River Area.
In the diary, Huang described his activities at Longmen.23

162 | e p i l o g u e

Although it contains some errors of fact, his description

of the site and how the ink rubbings were made reveals an
eighteenth-century approach to the site:
On the twenty-first, Qiusheng, Xugu, Qiaoxin, and I left
through the southern suburbs (of Luoyang) and crossed the
Luo River....Then we visited the Binyang Grottoes at Longmen, and we looked at all the Buddha images, which were majestic and extensive. Many had inscriptions next to them. On
the cliff face outside the grottoes were the Qi dynasty Elders
of Luozhou Buddha Stele and the Tang dynasty Record of the
Three Shrines by Cen Wenben. A monk told me the Record
of the Three Shrines used to have Chu Suiliangs signature on
it, but that piece of stone had shattered and fallen off. In the
old days, it was kept in the monastery, but it has since been
lost. The old monk Xiecao had seen it. We had a meal in a
small pavilion that faced the river, looking toward Xiangshan,
which looked like a painting. After eating, we followed the
mountain southward, and the grottoes carved into the cliff
could scarcely be numbered. We climbed up to Laojun (Gu
yang) Grotto and looked at all the inscriptions from the Wei
and Qi dynasties. An old hermit named Woodcutter Wang
lived in the grotto. He said he was ninety-three. Some say he
is an immortal, but Scholar Jiang was the only one to pay him
reverence. By then, the sun was already setting, so we did not
go over to Xiangshan but returned.
On the twenty-third, Qiusheng and Xugu went ahead of
me back to Yan(shi), while I spent the night at Longmen Village. I supervised the artisans who were making ink rubbings
of all the inscriptions. Many of the Buddha grottoes were at
the midpoint of the mountainside. Xugu wanted to climb up
to the highest one, the Nine-Bay Hall (the Great Vairocana
Image Shrine), to see the inscription for Lady Nius image
shrine written by Zhang Jiuling (673740), but his strength
gave out, and he could not make it. I eventually climbed up
there. The Great Vairocana Buddha image is eight zhang, five
chi in height. The vast, open stone terrace was the foundation for the Tang Fengxian Monastery. In the tenth year of
the Dali era (775), the Stele for the Great Vairocana Image
was made. The Stele of the Act of Merit by the Palace Domestic Service, the Record of the Image Shrine of Lady Niu,
the ruined Stele for the Duke of Guoguo (Yang Sixu) and the
inscription by Ding Yu of the Song dynasty are all carved into
the cliff there.24

Figure 9.2. Wei Lingzangs inscription, ink

rubbing, detail. From Longmen ershipin: Bei
Wei beike zaoxiang juzhen, fig. 95.

On the twenty-fourth, we crossed the Yi River to visit

Xiangshan Monastery.25 At the peak, we gazed back at Longmen Mountain. The stone cliffs were precipitous, and the
carved Buddhas were like a forest. The Great Vairocana Buddha image was seated in the middle of the mountain, as was
Jingxiang Monastery (Cliff-Carved Three Buddhas?), which
has no ancient inscriptions.
On the twenty-fifth, I supervised the artisans making ink
rubbings of the Longmen inscriptions. The mountain monk
Guhan, who was skilled at making rubbings, also came to
help us. This monk knew that in the ceiling of the Yique
Grotto were some small shrines with inscriptions from the
Kaiyuan era (713741). Climbing up like a monkey, he was
able to do them in one sheet. Although we could not even see

the encomium written by Qiu Yue and transcribed by (Wei)

Lishe (in 715), this monk was still able to get to it.26
On the twenty-sixth, we wanted to travel on but were
stopped by rain. The paper the artisans had brought to make
rubbings with had gotten damp from the rain, so I dried it by
the fire. We were able to get all the inscriptions on Xiangshan,
including the inscriptions by Dang Ye and Xin Bi, who were
men of the Tang.27 All we missed was one inscription from
the Dazu era (701). In the ceiling of one grotto at Longmen
(Wanfo Grotto), one can see the words Yonglong era of the
Great Tang written in large characters in a circle. There are
inscriptions all over the ceiling of Laojun (Guyang) Grotto,
but the wooden scaffolding was so high and dangerous we
were unable to take any rubbings. All we could do was to sigh.

e p i l o g u e | 163

We stayed at Longmen for six days and made over three hundred ink rubbings of steles.

Following the rediscovery of the inscriptions of Longmen, the calligraphy of the Northern Wei dedications
began to be admired in aesthetic terms. The appreciation
of the evidential research scholars for engraved writings
as pristine historical documents appeared also to loosen
the hold that the southern dynasties style of calligraphy, as
epitomized by the brush writing of Wang Xizhi (307365),
had exercised on the practice of calligraphy for the last
millennium, and carved characters from the Han and the
northern dynasties began to be seen as attractive in their
own right, as a legitimate part of the history of Chinese
calligraphy and as a source for creative reinterpretation
by calligraphers in the Qing. During the Qianlong and Jia
qing periods (17361820), ink rubbings of the four longest
Northern Wei inscriptions in Guyang Grotto were collected and circulated; some of these are now in the Beijing
Library.28 They were the dedications for the shrines of Sun
Qiusheng; Duke of Shiping; Yang Dayan; and Wei Lingzang (figure 9.2). The earliest record of their appreciation
as calligraphy is found in A Pair of Oars for the Boat of Art,
a volume of collected essays and art criticism of the epigraphy scholar Bao Shichen (17751855). In 1819, the same year
that Bao traveled in Shandong Province looking for northern stele inscriptions, he wrote about some Northern Wei
inscriptions, including three from Longmen: Though the
Paean for Zhang Gongqing (Zhang Menglong); the (Stele
for) Jia Shijun (Jia Sibo); and the dedicatory inscriptions
of Wei Lingzang, Yang Dayan, and the Duke of Shiping
are each unique, they all derive from the (third-century)
Stele for Kong Xian and take its dragonlike majesty and
tigerlike awesomeness as their model.29
When Yan Delin served as governor of Henan, he had
ink rubbings made of the inscriptions in Guyang Grotto
and Cixiangs Grotto. Those he considered of the highest
aesthetic quality he canonized as the Ten Works of Longmen in an inscription that he had carved on the south wall
of Guyang Grotto itself in 1870. The inscription reads:
In the second month of the ninth year of the Tongzhi era of
the Great Qing (1870), Delin of Yanshan offered sacrifices and
made an announcement to the mountains, the river, and the
Buddhas in the grottoes, then set up great timbers, raising
scaffolding up high (in the grotto) to make ink rubbings of
164 | e p i l o g u e

the Wei dedicatory inscriptions in Laojun (Guyang) Grotto. I

have selected the best of them and designated them the Ten
Works of Longmen. My colleague was the monk Liaoliang,
and the makers of the ink rubbings were the monk Hainan
and the commoner Yu Fengming.30
Grandson Bao (Gao Jiaofangs shrine for her late grandson Yuan Bao)
Great Consort Hou (Great Consort Hous shrine for her
descendants, 503)
Helanhan (Great Consort Hous shrine for her late husband Tabgatch Helehan, 502)
Cixiang (nun Cixiangs dedication for Cave 660, 520)
Yuan Xie (shrine by Yuan Xie, Prince of Anding, 517)
Dajue (shrines by monk Daojiang, ca. 500504)
Niujue (Lady Yuchis shrine for her late son Niujue, 495)
Gao Shu (the shrine by the lay society headed by Gao Shu,
502)
Yuan Xiang (the Prince of Beihais shrine for his mother,
Gao Jiaofang, and himself, 498)
Earl of Yunyang (shrines by Zheng Changyou, Earl of
Yunyang, 501)

Yan Delin must have deliberately excluded the four

long inscriptions that had been collected since the mideighteenth century in order to compile his own unique
list, while other scholars had a slightly different roster. The
art collector and epigrapher Fang Ruo (d. after 1945) observed that the original Ten Works, ink rubbings of which
had circulated for a long time, were the four long dedications from Guyang Grotto plus those by Lady Yuchi, Gao
Shu, monk Huigan, monk Daojiang, Great Consort Hou,
and nun Cixiang.31 The set he called the Twenty Works of
Longmen consisted of Yan Delins list of ten works above,
the four long inscriptions, and the following six from Gu
yang Grotto:
Xie Boda (before 499)
Yifu (wife of Zhang Yuanzu, 496)
Monk Huigan (502)
Monk Fasheng (504)
Yuan You, Prince of Qijun (517)
King Udayana image (early Tang)

All but one of these inscriptions belong to the canonical

group accepted today. Although Kang Youwei (18581927)
considered the King Udayana inscription a poor work,

calling it a weed that needed to be dug out, it was Fang

Ruo who recognized that the inscription was actually
produced during the Tang and did not fit with the other
inscriptions, which were Northern Wei.32 Fang proposed
that the Ma Zhenbai inscription of 503 be substituted for
the King Udayana inscription, and this revised list is the
one that now holds sway as the canonical Twenty Works of
Longmen.33 Although visitors cannot simply walk into the
grottoes of Longmen and produce their own ink rubbings
today, good-quality ink rubbings of the Twenty Works, the
Fifty Works, and the Hundred Works have been photoreproduced in deluxe publications in China and Japan. Inexpensive printed reproductions of the Twenty Works are
also widely available in copybook format, on sale in the
art sections of most bookstores in China and in Chinese
bookshops throughout the world.

The Reclamation of Longmen

in the Twentieth Century
According to Sadulas fourteenth-century account, the
statues of Longmen had already been vandalized by that
time. The comprehensive theft of heads, hands, and figures
to be sold on the international art market, however, occurred in the first third of the twentieth century. Stanley
Abe has described the origins of this trade:
Ironically, it was the publication of the Buddhist sculpture in
the Guyang Cave that contributed to what must have been a
lucrative enterprise involving local agents who would supply sculpture to middlemen for sale to art dealers in Beijing,
Xian, and other citieswho in turn found buyers in foreign
collectors, dealers and museum representatives. The scholarly
work of sinologists such as Chavannes, Sirn, and others inadvertently provided photographic catalogs from which foreign buyers could choose works to pursue on the open market
or in some cases special orderthat is, indicate to their
agents in China which pieces in situ they were interested in
acquiring.34

Although the Nationalist government did not prevent

the looting of the sculptures, in the mid-1930s, the National Commission for the Preservation of Antiquities
determined to restore the site, although not much, if anything, was done.35 Only after the Communist Party gained
control of the country in 1949 did the government begin to

rehabilitate the site in earnest. In 1953, the Longmen Caves

Cultural Relics Management and Conservation Office was
founded, and the restoration commenced with an initial
site survey in 1954. In 1961, the grottoes were named in
the first group of important cultural protection units by
the national government. The following year, the site was
more fully surveyed by Professor Yan Wenru of Beijing
University. By 1965, the extent of the damage to the site
had been carefully documented, and suggestions for the
refurbishment of the site were solicited from Professors
Liang Sicheng and Yang Tingbao and the engineer Chen
Mingda.
Many modern visitors assume the widespread damage to the site was caused during the Cultural Revolution
(19661976), but the grottoes apparently passed through
it without further harm. According to one recent account:
After the Cultural Revolution had begun, one day in June
of 1966, the afternoon of the same day on which White
Horse Monastery was smashed up, the municipal Party
committee secretary L Yingji ordered the teachers and
students of the Luoyang Agricultural Machinery Academy to station themselves at the Longmen Grottoes that
very night, to protect them around the clock.36
After the worst of the Cultural Revolution had passed, a
consortium of government agencies began the refurbishment of the statues in the Great Vairocana Image Shrine.
According to Wen Yucheng:
In 1971, repairs and partial restoration work were carried
out on the south wall lokapla and dvrapla figures and
the figure of Kyapa by the Longmen Caves Cultural Relics
Management and Conservation Office, the Henan Provincial Museum, and the Cultural Relics Protection Science and
Technology Research Institute of the National Cultural Relics
Bureau. In 1972, the north wall dvrapla was reinforced. In
1973, a complete reinforcing and partial restoration was carried out on the Vairocana statue, with very good results that
achieved the goal of making the old as good as new.37

These repairs involved the injection of epoxy resins and

the insertion of iron rivets into the stone. After the work
on the Great Vairocana Image Shrine statues was completed in 1974, the original V-shaped drainage channels in
the rock above the shrine were restored. The Yique Buddha
Shrine stele was repaired in 1975, and the Binyang grottoes
and the Qianxisi Grotto were restored in 1976.38 Watere p i l o g u e | 165

preventive shields have been created over many grottoes,

and many statues were sprayed with organic silicon as a
waterproofing measure. In the early 1980s, grottoes on the
east side were repaired, and in the late 1980s, a system of
walkways across the western cliff face was begun, to give
visitors visual access to the higher grottoes, while spiked
gates went up in front of all the entryways. Old Qing dynasty brick faades were removed from the fronts of the
Guyang, Yaofang, and Binyang grottoes, revealing statuary and inscriptions long hidden. In the 1990s, the governments of Japan and Italy helped the restoration efforts
with funds and expertise.

166 | e p i l o g u e

After Longmen became a popular tourist destination

for the local population, with hundreds of thousands of
visitors every year, the authorities decided to make a bid
for greater international recognition. In 1999, the itinerant souvenir vendors were banned, the price of admission
went up steeply, and the huge concrete dragon that was
the centerpiece of the amusement park just south of the
cliffs was dynamited in a midnight ceremony that was
broadcast live on local television. In November 2000, the
Longmen Grottoes were designated a World Heritage Site
by UNESCO and granted over a million dollars toward
further restoration.

Appendix: Chinese Texts of Longmen Inscriptions

1a
A Single Image for the Duke of Shiping
Were the Divine Traces [not] made manifest, then one could
scarcely know where to find a master to which one could cling.
Were images of the Countenance not displayed, then reverence
for it would surely [wane]. That is why the True Visage [was
revealed] to former ages, and the form He left behind has been
transmitted to later generations. And so, in the time of the
Great Dai (i.e., the Northern Wei dynasty), this work of merit
was undertaken. Since the shadow (of the Buddha) has purified
the deep current (of the Buddhist order), and he has had the
good fortune to encounter this glorious epoch, monk Huicheng, resolved to give the greatest testimony to his sincerity,
had a Stone Grotto [Monastery] made for the state, in this way
to respond to the August (Emperors) grace and to give encouragement to future works (of the same kind). My father
the Duke of Shiping, Grand Master for Splendid Happiness,
Regional Inspector of Luozhou, and Commissioned with Extraordinary Powerspassed away suddenly. Looking up at his
kindly face, my whole being was overcome by sadness, and ominous birds (seemed) to fill the sky. As a result, for my late
father, I have had made a single stone image. I pray that my
late fathers spirit will fly over the three worlds, the five circuits
(of cause and effect), and the ten stages (of the bodhisattvas enlightenment). In the evening, may there be an illumination of
mystery such that the myriad sentient beings may have enlightenment, and in the morning, may there be an echo of wisdom
such that the universe will be awakened. May those of previous
generations, my teachers in the sangha, my parents, and my dependent relatives, soar like the phoenix to the place of enlightenment and rise like the divine luan bird up to the Tusita

Heaven. If they should awaken still fallen in this mortal realm,

(may it be in the courtyard where) the three acacia trees flourish in splendor and the nine date trees spread out like clouds.
May all living beings of the five realms of existence share in
this prayer. Finished on the fourteenth day of the ninth month
of the [twenty-]second year of the Taihe era. Calligraphy by
Zhu Yizhang, text by Meng (Guang)da.

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1b
Image by the Society Members
Society Leaders: Grand Master of Palace Leisure and Governor
of Yingyang, Sun Daowu (and) General for Pacifying the Distant, Grand Master of Palace Leisure, Governor of Yingchuan
and Magistrate of Ancheng, Wei Baidu.
In the seventh year of the Taihe era of the Great Dai (483),
Sun Qiusheng, Military Aide of Xincheng District, Liu Qizu,
Military Aide of Xincheng District, and two hundred others
reverently made one stone image. We pray that the imperial
house forever flourish and the Three Jewels increase in brilliance. May those disciples offering this prayer bloom luxuriously like flowers in spring and come to be in the courtyard of
the acacia trees that thrive in splendor. May the orchid (of the
Dharma) diffuse its fragrance in this flourishing age, and may
its golden light broadly illuminate this time of our Sage (Emperor). May our living relatives (enjoy) myriad blessings that
gather around them like clouds and have red-wheeled carriages
in great numbers. May the souls of our departed parents and
other disciples, in future incarnations, vault up to the ninth
heaven and their footsteps ascend the ten stages (of the bodhisattvas path to enlightenment), and may all sentient beings in
the five realms of existence share in this prayer. Text by Meng
Guangda; calligraphy by Xiao Xianqing. (One hundred forty
names of the society members are listed.) Finished on the
twenty-seventh day of the fifth month, in which the first day
was a wuzi day, in a renwu year, the third year of the Jingming
era (July 17, 502).

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1c

Sakyamuni Image
Wei Lingzang
Xue Fashao
Whenever the Divine Traces have been widely encountered,
they have always manifested the evidence of something brilliant
and great, and wherever the profound work of merit has already spread, it has also shown acts rarely seen in our world.
When, under the twin sala trees, there was a change in the light
(in the world, when the Buddha passed into nirvana), the uni
verse held in its bosom the sorrow of being in the confusion of
twilight, and when the Sun of Wisdom veiled its brilliance, all
living beings held in their hearts the pain of thinking with regret of the Way. This is why the arhat (Maudgalyayana), pained
by the insufficient support of the Three Vehicles, rose into the
Heaven (of the Thirty-Three Gods) in order to carve an image
(of the Buddha). Now (this custom) has come down to later
generations, and thus this image was made. Wei Lingzang of
Julu and Xue Fashao of Hedong, we two, seeking the favor of
the brilliance from the (white curl of) hair (i.e., the urna between the Buddhas eyebrows that emits light) illuminating the
East and lacking the advantage of (the future Buddha Maitreya
having descended from) the Tusita Heaven and (being reborn

on earth in) Ketumati, we made bold to exhaust our families

wealth to make one stone image such that none of the auxiliary
figures have been omitted. We pray the imperial house may
long flourish and the myriad regions render homage and bring
tribute. We pray that (Wei Ling)zang and the others will stand
like the three acacias on a solitary peak and flourish like the
nine date trees in a magnificent garden. May their perfumed
fruits multiply more and more, their thorny branches especially
thrive, their entire families blossom gloriously, and their blessings flow over onto their descendants. After their lives have
ended, may they fly to encounter the Thousand Holy Ones,
their souls rise to the six supernatural powers (acquired by a
Buddha), and their intellects embrace the three aspects of the
omniscience (of a Buddha). In their existences in the generations to come and their relatives in their former lives, if they
are released from the hundred obstacles, then may they, like
the roc, perch in the Dragon Flower (Tree, to hear Maitreya
preach on earth and thereby gain enlightenment), and if they
are enlightened and freed from all rebirths, may they, like the
168

appendix

phoenix, mount up to the bodhi tree. May the sentient beings

in the five paths (of rebirth) all share in this felicity. Wei Lingzang, Military Aide of Luhun District.

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1d
Image by the Society Members
[Record of an Image] Made for the August Emperor Xiaowen
by Society Leader Yang Dayan of Chouchi
If the Divine Brilliance had not been illuminated, the universe
would have kept in its bosom the sadness of eternal night.
If the [Sacred] Traces had not been encountered, perishable
beings would have kept in their mouths (without expressing it)
their repentance for deeds that hinder the truth. That is why
the Tathagata responded to all these causes in manifesting himself in his traces (his physical body). Thus through the following generations, images were produced, continuing down to
our era of latter-day rulers, when this work of merit was made.
Yang Dayan of Chouchi, Bulwark-General of the State, Zhige
General [four effaced characters], Senior Rectifier of Liangzhou, enfeoffed as Dynasty-Founding Viscount of Ancheng
District, received at birth an inheritance of dragon resplendence, as the offspring, following at a distance, of one who was
in accord with celestial portent (his grandfather Yang Nandang). He was endowed in his youth with extraordinary qualities, and he surpassed the crowd (of his contemporaries)
when he was first capped (on attaining the age of majority).
Later, he drew down a reputation for humaneness such as had
never been heard of before. When he stirred up his glory, he
crushed a million (enemies) in the palm of his hand. When he
thundered with his exceptional bravery, the nine regions of the
empire were all frightened (into submission). When he stayed
before the emperor to give him counsel, court and countryside
were obedient to him. He cleared the royal route of the three
obstacles that blocked it, and he swept the clouds and monsters
from Heavens way. When the mess in the south was cleared

up, he reorganized the troops and returned to (Yi)que. The

army encamped [one effaced character]. By the side of the
road was Stone Grotto (Monastery). Contemplating the brilliant traces of the former August (Emperor), gazing upon the
beautiful traces of the magnificent Holy (Buddha), he fixed his
eyes upon (this sight) all through the night, and in tears, his
emotions flowed. And so, for the August Emperor Xiaowen, he
had a single stone image made such that none of the auxiliary
figures have been omitted. He engraved stone to record this
work of merit that it may be shown. Wu.

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3a
If there is not a spilling out of valuables to create an image,
how can we be illuminated by those posthumous rays of light
(from the Buddha)?

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3b

act of sincerity may aid and benefit our society members spiritual leaders, parents, and seven generations of ancestors to take
refuge in the truth.

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.

3e
Then I parted with my money and property, to make a Measureless Life Buddha.

3f
On the eighth day, a gengzi day, of the fourth month, in which
the first was a guisi day, of the third year of the Xiao(chang) era
of the Great Wei, a guiwei year (May 23, 527), Laywoman Song
Jingfei, whose poor karma from former incarnations has left
my fortune shallow and dirty, was born (on the continent of)
Jambudvpa and received the form of a woman. I relied on my
late parents, who compassionately raised me with profound
kindness, until I attained maturity. My insignificant self, looking respectfully upon their labor to raise me, but lacking the
means to recompense them, has now parted with half my
hairpins and girdles, and respectfully, for my late father and
mother, has reverently had made one image of Sakyamuni.
With this bit of merit, I pray that my late father and mother
may be reborn in the land of marvelous joy in the West, there
to meet Buddha and hear the Dharma, then to see Maitreya
manifest in the world. May all those with form share in this
blessing.

Having experienced the border between life and obliteration,

and understanding the divide between going and staying, we
know the body is a floating cloud and our lives are like frost
and dew. Therefore each of us has exhausted his familys
wealth to make one statue of Maitreya.

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3c
Each one exhausted his own and his familys valuables.

3d
Everyone (in the society) released marvelous [wealth], reverently to have made one image of Sakyamuni . . . that this slight

On the twenty-third day of the first month of the inaugural

year of the Yonghui era of Great Tang (March 1, 650), the Pure
and Faithful Woman Zhu Zhunian, approaching old age and
having received an imperial grant of figured silk, now has had
made one Amitabha shrine. Reverently, to repay (the imperial)
kindness and largesse, I first (transfer the merit) to aid the emperor and next (transfer it) to all sentient beings. Together may
they pass out of the gates of suffering and all ascend that other
shore.
appendix j

169

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first day was a bingyin day, in the third year of the Zhengshi
era, a bingxu year, of the Great Dai (April 27, 506).

I have asked the artisans to engrave stone to make this image of

Maitreya.

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3h

3i
Chen Yun, the wife of Li Changshou, Superior Grand Master
of the Palace, General for the Pacification of the South, Southern Area Commander in Chief, and Dynasty-Founding Duke
of Qingshui District, who in the past was not the legal wife, for
the house of Li and in reverence to the good wife (Lis late
wife), makes known her intention that she (the late wife) be
released into enlightenment. Thus I have parted with the family
wealth to have made one Sakyamuni image shrine. I vow that
the favor my lord received from the August Emperor Gao (Emperor Xiaowen) be remembered. Further, I pray for myself, my
late son, my grandson in the army, and all those living that
they have peace. May the holy saints protect and aid us so my
family members have security and tranquility and their lives
ascend to heavens level, and may those to come all agree
with this prayer. This record prepared on the thirteenth day of
the sixth month of the third year of the Yongan era (July 23,
530).

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3j
The Pure and Faithful Woman and Buddhist Disciple, Palace
Director Dang Faduan, was not fortunate enough to die in old
age, but she had gathered her lifes earnings in anticipation of
this inspired plan (to sponsor a shrine). For this reason, Si
Yun, the Supervisor of the Entourage in the Court of the
Womens Chambers, for (her) has had made one image of
Sakyamuni with two bodhisattvas. I pray that Duan be reborn
directly in the land of marvelous bliss. I further pray that the
imperial influence be increasingly magnified, the Great Wei
abound in successions and draw a sequence of a thousand
reigns, and blessings be garnered for myriad generations. Completed on the nineteenth day of the third month, in which the
170

appendix

On the twenty-fifth day of the fourth month of the second year

of the Yongping era, a jichou year (May 29, 509), nuns Fawen
and Falong, awakened (to the fact that this is) not an eternal
world, deeply expressed our sincere vow, and parted with and
exhausted our private wealth, each for herself, reverently to
have made a single Maitreya image. We pray it may cause all
who pass by and see it to be saturated with the moisture of the
Dharma rain and all who offer worship to it to share in unsurpassed joy. At the three sermons under the Dragon Flower
(Tree), we pray we may take our place in the stream (of those
who achieve enlightenment). May all sentient beings universally share this blessing.

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3l
Now I follow with my meager funds . . . and with sincerity I
have had one image made.

....

3m
From this world of Jambudvpa, I was blessed to be able to take
refuge in the Three Jewels, (so with my) begging bowl leftovers,
I have had a Maitreya made and Seven Buddhas with two
bodhisattvas such that their appearances are complete, and I
take this slight blessing and extend it universally to all sentient
beings.

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3n
Record of a single grotto made by the bhiksun Cixiang Hui
zheng on the twenty-first day of the third month of the third
year of the Shengui era of Great Wei (April 24, 520).

Though it is the case that spiritual enlightenment is vast and

profound, and the incorporeal is true and far-reaching, it is
traces that establish the Way, their sublimity expressing an
unvarying model. Without them, how could we know how to
symbolize and praise its profound principles? For this reason,
we revere and thirst for the Dharma ford. Though this reflection (of the Buddha) image is constructed small, the forms of
blessings (it engenders) will be extensive. As I have been born
in this troublesome body, I pray I may vault to a realm without
obstacles (to enlightenment), where I will receive the favor of
immersion and the enrichment of all beings in the Dharma
realm. I have had stone carved to realize the true (image) and
engraved this act of merit (to last) eighty(-four) thousand
(years). May it extend unto the thrice-obedient, and may they
dare to share in this blessing.

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3o
In the [three illegible characters] year, the seventh month, the
[illegible character]teenth day, the Pure and Faithful Woman
and Buddhist disciple Hu Zhi[illegible character], Consort of
the Prince [of Qinghe, reverently] made one [Sakyamuni] image. I pray that the state [will prosper] without limit and there
be security and peace within the four seas [and that all sentient
beings have] eternal joy.
Yuan Shanjian serves the Buddha.
Yuan Jingsun serves the Buddha.
[Yuan?] Zhonghua serves the Buddha.

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3p
The nuns of Zhongming Convent, Daoyang, Daoji, and Daobao, relying on the vaipulya (Mahayana teaching) to follow the
Way, vowed to make the Thousand Buddhas of the Present
Kalpa. Further we pray (on behalf of) Minister of Works
Huangfu Du and Lady Chen, Lady Xiong, Lady Jian, Lady Liu,
and all the concubines and the Consort of the Prince of Beihai,
nee Fan, that reverently, for the emperor and the empress dow-

ager, all teachers of distant kalpas, seven generations of ancestors, living parents, living dependents, Dharma realms of all
directions, and those born in the path of the heavens, in rebirth
after rebirth, generation after generation, may they serve the
Thousand Buddhas of the Present Kalpa, and whether they
have a mind for good or for evil, at the three assemblies of
Maitreya, we pray they may ascend at the head of the first
group and at once become Buddhas. Completed on the thirteenth day of the eighth month of the inaugural year of the
Xiaochang era of the Great Wei (September 15, 525).

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4a
The Stele for the Yique Buddha Shrine
Nevertheless, when the merit (of the Buddha) attained to perfection beneath the tree of enlightenment, this was not the
commencement of the refinement of gold (the final product of
the alchemist). When the traces (of the Buddha) disappeared
under the steadfast grove (of sala trees, when he attained
nirvana), how could this be the end signified by the breaking

of a record tally? When his merit attained perfection, there followed beneficent rules written to transmit his precepts (i.e.,
the scriptures were written). When his traces disappeared, we
made use of the divine countenance to represent his excellence
(i.e., icons were produced). Thus, gold and jade (statues) were
carved to enlarge his transformative power in Kapilavastu (capital of the state ruled by the Sakya clan), and the reds and blues
(i.e., painting) are employed to manifest his goodness in Cnasthana (China). Ever unceasing! The power of their expediency
is unsurpassed! Ever majestic! The significance of their fecundity is great!

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4b
The Cultured and Virtuous Empress had a Way higher than the
star Xuanyuan and a Virtue that poured out over the earth. Her
kind saintliness was manifested without limits; her gentle clarity reached to the heavens. (The collapse of Mount) Shalu mulappendix j

171

tiplied her blessings. (The daughter of the Prince of) Tushan

issued (her) an auspicious omen. She helped the family and
the state, inheriting the good renown (of the mother of the emperor) and assisting the imperial enterprise. She practiced well
the feminine skills, and, as principal wife, she collaborated
with the emperor in his rule. In seeking out worthy men (for
office), she demonstrated (an intelligence) as bright as the two
orbs (of the sun and moon), and in reaching out to the people,
she was commended for a virtue that was generous and capable
of supporting them (like the earth). Her loyal plans were manifest in the quarters of the palace, while her filial respect was
displayed in the sacrifices to the ancestors.
Such was the influence exercised by her utter sincerity that
she rendered the dark moon clear in the heavens. Such was the
extent of her gentleness that she could dispel the troubles and
confusions of the world. Her heart was always engaged (in
helping with) the sorrows and toil (of others). Her conduct
was ever thrifty and moderate. The education she received
from her mothers womb was classical, and she was thoroughly
crowned by the Three Dynasties. The governance of the
womens quarters was orderly, and the palace women were
more splendid than in the time of the two nan. Disdaining
embellishments of brocade and embroidery, she was comfortable in plain silk. Scorning jewelry of pearl and jade, it was her
intent never to wear valuable ornaments. The nine generations
of her relatives were thereby increased in their closeness, and
the myriad states were thereby able to attain the Way.
She had studied a great many drawings and writings, and she
took pleasure in the arts and literature. She meditated on the
purity and calm extolled by Huangdi and Laozi, and she had a
deep knowledge of the vast (doctrine) of the Book of Odes and
the Book of History. The abundance of the virtues she established matched in extent the heavens and the earth, and the
elegance of the words she established equaled in brilliance the
five planets. On the strength of the causes she planted all along
in her previous existences, in this (lifetime), they bore fruit
the spirit of the woman on the bank of the River Wei (the wife
of King Wen of Zhou) descended on her that she might understand the Four Noble Truths in order to be cut off from future
rebirths, and the traces of (the Han imperial concubine of)
Zhaoyang responded to her that she might gallop with the
three vehicles in order to be saved from the bonds of existence.
Therefore, throughout the land, she showed (support for) the
monasteries, covering them in gold as Sudatta did with (Prince
Jetas) Grove, and (from) high in the air, she scattered flowers,
where they leaped into appearance as at the stupa of Prabhutaratna. Her sincerity in highly esteeming the four dhyana
(heavens) (made us) take lightly Queen Mallika (the pious wife
of King Prasenajit of Kosala), and her entering deeply into the
eightfold canon (made us) regard slightingly Queen Srmala
(the learned daughter of King Prasenajit and Queen Mallika).
172

appendix

How could we suffice it to say that, as one whose heart was

prepared to be given (in marriage) to depend as an ornament
(to her husbands rule), she surpassed the two women of the
River Gui (the daughters of the legendary ruler Yao, who were
loyal to their husband Shun), and as one who undertook to
offer sacrifices to the ancestors to hand down substantial offspring, she was superior to the four consorts of Gaoxin (the
wives of the legendary ruler Ku, each of whom bore an illustrious son)?

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4c
He made an extensive search to find the ford (that would
allow him) to acknowledge the kindness (of his mother). He
reviewed all locations in order to choose the region where the
divine influences are concentrated. He considered that, among
all the sovereigns who have established a state, those who had
a grand plan ruled from the Central Region (Henan Province).
He further considered that the thousand Buddhas who have
taken form could not have attained enlightenment in a borderland. It is this region of the three rivers (Yi, Luo, and Huang)
that is truly where the six directions of space are gathered together. The royal city (of Luoyang) was established in a strong
strategic position, for this was the site where (the Prince of)
Qufu (the Duke of Zhou) planned to set up the tripods. The
pass on the Yi River (Longmen) is encircled by countryside,
for it was opened by Wenming (the legendary Great Yu) to
channel the waters that were submerging the hills. Its lofty
arches rise as high as the sky, its mountains so precipitous that
light cannot reach into them. Its deep forests attract hermits; its
grottoes store (statues of) gold. The mists born in the verdant
valley are arrayed as canopies over the rock chambers (of its
grottoes), while the colored clouds spreading over the red
peaks lie like banners on the pine gates (of its monasteries).
The majestic base (of these mountains) confronts Mount Song
and resembles the Snowy Peaks (the Himalayas). The current

(of the Yi River) flows into the Virtuous River (the Yellow
River) and resembles the River Nairanjana (that flows past
Bodhgaya). Certainly this place is as famous among the religious as among the laity, a favorite spot as much for men as
for divinities.

established this Buddhist work in order to reciprocate the kindness of (his mothers) upbringing. Generously, (Li Tai) constructed this field of blessing in order to aid the cause of bodhi.
If this is not one who is pure and filial, to whom can he be
compared?

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4d
The prince then poured out his heart to demonstrate his love
of charity, and opening his treasury, he was liberal with tortoise
shells and cowries. (Lu) Ban, in the state of Chu, expended his
ingenuity, even as (Mo) Di, in the state of Song, gave free rein
to his cleverness. Dividing the sheer walls to the outer edge of
the (constellation) Jade Cord, the sacred shrines are ranged
like stars. Carved in the [dark?] stone beyond the moonlight,
the venerable visage rises like the moon. Where the old
remained, (Li Tai) added to its magnificence; where the new
was made, it reached the utmost in marvelousness. The flow of
brilliance from the white tuft (the urna between the Buddhas
eyes) eclipses the beauty of the lotus flower. The spread of light
from his dark blue hair distinguishes his sandalwood grove
(monastery) companions. This is why, when one looks closely
at the precious special marks (laksana), (the statue) is as majes
tic as if the entire person of the Buddha (were present). When
one sees from afar its divine light, it is as clear as his shadow
left behind (in the cave at Nagarahara). (Creating) derision for
the inferior quality of carved jade and scorn for the imperfect
art of engraved sandalwood, (this Buddha image) is brilliant as
the sun, surpassing the solar orb resplendent in the Long River
(the Milky Way), and lofty as a mountain, exceeding the
golden Mount (Sumeru) shining on the Great Valley (the
oceans). Grdhrakuta lies before your eyes; Nagarahara can be

imagined.
Precious flowers rain down auspicious blessings, hiding the
colors of the five clouds. Heavenly musicians strike up their
music, competing with the sound of the myriad pipes (of nature). Thus it is that gazing on the marvels of (this image made
to house) the dharmakaya, the eight difficult (conditions under
which to see a Buddha) are ended, and hearing the sound
of the supreme enlightenment (of scriptures chanted in this
grotto), the six devalokas (the heavens above Mount Sumeru)
may be ascended. If this is not (an image of) He who is correct
and straight, to what can it be compared? Benevolently, (Li Tai)

4e
On the tenth day of the third month of the fifteenth year of the
Zhenguan era (April 25, 641), the Yuzhang princess reverently
had made one image shrine, praying for peace and security for
herself and for all sentient beings. The princess wet-nurse Sa
prays for herself and her son. Jiang Xiuzi and five other people
also share in the making of the image shrine. May all sentient
beings attain to true enlightenment.

,,
. .
..

4f
On the fifth day of the tenth month of the inaugural year of
the Yonghui era (November 3, 650), the Prefect of Ruzhou,
Commandant-Escort, and Duke of Yuguo, Liu Xuanyi, reverently made this vajra guardian.

,
.

5a
Stele of the Maitreya Image
The Old and Young of Sishun Ward, Henan District, Luozhou,
universally for the Dharma realm, reverently made one Maitreya image shrine, below this stele, close by to the east.
Now we have heard, even though the Ultimate Truth is mysterious and subtle, surpassing the realm of words and images,
and the True Body is lost in the distance, having emerged in a
land too far away to see or hear, that the Able Man (Sakya-

appendix

173

muni) descended into his traces (a physical body) and in accord with prior causes was advantageously made manifest.
When (He with) the reddish(-gold) appearance was born in
the West, then the pearl-strands of stars concealed their brilliance, and when the white horse galloped to the east, then the
golden man appeared in (the emperors) dream. This caused
the axles of the three vehicles to advance together and the gates
of the Noble Eightfold Path to be opened all the way through,
and the benefits (provided) to everyday life could be summarized in words. Before the conversion of the three-thousandfold (world system), the light of Buddha-truth was drawn (to
inhabit the form of (Sakyamuni). Then after the eighty(-four)
thousand stupas were filled (with Sakyamunis relics by King
Asoka), it returned to the quiescence of nirvana.

What a pity that a Buddha-sun is so difficult to encounter, it

has been compared to tossing (a mustard seed and hitting the
point of) a needle. In the human realm, things are very changeable, so in accord with this, we carve stone (to make an
unchangeable Buddha image). Why do this? Sakyamuni was
manifest in the past, and though we may look for him anxiously, we cannot search back (and find him). Maitreya will
descend in the future, and though we may bow our heads
in expectancy, it is difficult to wait (for him to come). Living
before or after (a Buddha) creates obstacles; going forward or
backward, no one will encounter (a Buddha). All (living) memory of his words has perishedhow deeply we sigh!

,
.
,,,,
,.,,
,.,,
.,,
,.,.
,.? ,.
,.,
.,.

5b
Now together with over a hundred others with the same intention, we first prayed that the imperial family be forever steadfast, lofty as the heavens in their enlightened rule. Next (we
prayed) for the commencement of dawn over the dark paths,
that hastening to the other shore, those in them may rise purified. To fulfill this (vow), at this mountain ridge, we reverently
had made one Maitreya image shrine.

,
,.,
.,.
174

appendix

5c
The land rises in twin watchtowers, their walls reflecting the
sun for a thousand yards. The stream below is clear and flowing, guided by the pair of peaks. Encircled by dense forest,
(Longmen) is close to the capital, resembling Grdhrakuta (Vul

ture Peak) in nearness to the royal city (Rajagrha) and the

Jetavana to the capital of Sravast. To contribute to this beautiful place, we commissioned inspired craftsmen to cut into (the
cliff) and carve and engrave (a work) of complete subtlety and
marvelousness. On the eighth day of the fourth month of the
twenty-second year of the Zhenguan era of Great Tang (May 5,
648), we had it ornamented to complete it.

,.,.,
,,.
,.
.

5d
Thus, when this venerable image was first manifest, it was as if
(Maitreya) had descended from his palace in Tusita, and when

its marvelous laksana were initially complete, it was as though

he was under the bodhi tree. With an urna like moonlight and
dark blue hair like mist crystallized, his lotus eyes seem to
move, while his fruit(-red) lips appear to speak. Of those who
offer worship at the feet of this Buddha and look up with reverence at this venerable face, none will fail to have their hair
stand on end in awe and their hearts open in comprehension.
This is what Indra and Brahma took refuge in, what dragon
kings and devas guard and protect.
Those (icons) in reds and blues (i.e., paintings) are made
brilliant in vain, for as soon as they appear, they are destroyed.
Gold and jade (statues) may be precious, but it is easy for them
to be scattered and lost. And so it is that because this mountain
has been made solid, with the same endurance as heaven and
earth, we have carved its stone into (an image of) purityfor
how could these hills and valleys ever change?

[],,,,
.,,,.
[][],[],
.,.,
.,.,
,,[]?

5e
On the thirtieth, a dinghai day, of the fourth month, in which
the first was a wuwu day, in the second year of the Yongchun
era, a guiwei year, of Great Tang (May 31, 683), the wife of the
late Lord Lu, Grand Master of Imperial Entertainments with

Silver Seal and Blue Ribbon, Acting Left Assistant Director of

the Department of State Affairs, Aide to the Commander in
Chief of the Superior Area Command of Yangzhou, and Duke
of Weijian, Lady Li, the Lady of [two effaced characters], reverently had made one Maitreya Buddha image assembly.
We commenced by carving the [fine/dark?] stone, thus to
open this beautifully painted shrine. These marvelous traces
are superior to carved sandalwood, and their ingenious workmanship surpasses paintings on cloth. Following my heart,
I first prayed that my sights be on ascending to the Tusita

Heaven, (from there) to follow the Buddha when he is reborn

on the earth, and that my thoughts be on dwelling at the
Dragon Flower Tree, (from there) to depart forever from the
sea of suffering.
Eternally solid is this mountain of compassion. Though it be
brushed with a deva-garment (i.e., worn down over the centuries), it will be perpetually preserved, and though the fires of
the kalpa of destruction burn, it will not be extinguished.
Humbly I pray for the Celestial Emperor and Celestial Empress (Emperor Gaozong and Empress Wu), who are sagacious
and divine. With the Wisdom-sun may they perpetually shine,
and by the Dharma-cloud may they be together shaded. In all
the lands of the ten directions, may all sentient beings plant good
(seeds of) causation, and may all arrive at the scene of blessing.

,
,,,
[ ][ ].[ ],
.,.
,,,.
.,.

.,.
,.

5f
Since I believe that [this] stone cannot be destroyed, while reds
and blues (paintings) will grow dark, I have reverently had one
Sakyamuni image shrine made in stone at Yique. . . . Though
sand and dust (i.e., this world) may be transformed, the marvelous form (of this statue) will be forever preserved, and by
carving (it in) this dark stone, it will be endlessly transmitted
without decay.

[ ],,
.,,,.

5g
Since the mountain will not decay, the image will also be preserved forever.

5h
Even though they be brushed with a deva-garment, these majestic laksana will scarcely be destroyed, and though the fires of

the kalpa of destruction will burn, how could this legion of
images be extinguished?

,,,?

5i
Wang Xuance, [vowing first to aid the imperial house] and
next for all sentient beings in the Dharma realm, reverently
made one Maitreya image assembly, on the fifteenth day of the
ninth month of the second year of the Linde era (October 29,
665).

[?][?][?][?][?][?][?],
[][],.

5j
Monk [two illegible characters], for his late parents, reverently
had made one King Udayana image. May the Dharma realm
all share in this blessed deed. Fifteenth day of the tenth month
of the sixth year of the Yonghui era (November 18, 655).

[ ][ ][].
..

5k
The wife of Xin Shizu, nee Sun, knowing her body was not
eternal, and her husband having predeceased her, on the fifteenth day of the fourth month of the inaugural year of the
Xianqing era (May 14, 656), made a vow reverently to make a
King Udayana image shrine. This had not come to pass when
we heard that Mrs. Sun had passed away on the fourth day of
the fifth month of that year (June 1). She is succeeded by her
dependents Cuan Xie, Xin Xin, Sun Xin, and others who have
taken over (this project). Now it has come to pass. We pray for
the deceased that their souls be reborn in the Pure Land, that
they be cut off from the three obstructions, and we further
pray that all sentient beings attain true enlightenment. (Hence,
we have) engraved this record.

,
.
.,,.
.,,
..

,.
appendix

175

5l
The numinous shrine reclines against the moon;
a cassia palace suspended amidst the stars.
Rising into the void to excavate the stone,
[illegible character] the mountain ridge, a lofty chamber.
The grotto is high and hidden in the earth,
(safe from) waves agitating up to the heavens.
Thus we followed by carving and engraving,
in [illegible characters] year.

,.,[ ].,
.,[ ][ ].

5m
Inscription and Preface for the Stone Image of the Jingshan
Monastery. Written by Li Xiaolun, Court Gentleman of Manifest Virtue and Acting Secretarial Aide.
As for (Queen Maya grasping) the silver branch to propagate
the blessing, its consequence was (the Buddhas) numinous
resemblance appearing in the garden (purchased for him
from Prince Jeta by covering it in) gold (coins). His sword-rain
dispelled noxious vapors and let fly the flux of wisdom over
worlds as numerous as the sands (of the Ganges). Since his
form was hidden in the Grove of Cranes (at his nirvana, the

trees burst into white blossom, resembling a flock of cranes),

and his traces were hoarded at Chicken(foot) Mountain (where
Kasyapa holds his robe, waiting to give it to Maitreya), we fashion his sagacious image in pure gold and carve his auspicious
visage in excellent jade. That his influence and his ways are not
lost is because of this.

..,
.,.,
.,.

5n
Lady Wei, Great Consort of the Princedom of Ji, was from
Jingzhao (Changan). Her chalice-vine manner contained a
rich beauty, showering brilliance over the palace women. Her
orchid appearance was steeped in elegance, succeeding the
goodness of (the woman gathering) duckweed at the bend of
the river. Her thoughts were concerned with red sand, pouring
waves of true brilliance over the five swords. Her spirit dwelt in
white clouds, extending its marvelous action to the three
pearls. As a result, she selected this beautiful metropolitan area
in which to have this numinous image made.

.,.
176

appendix

,.,.,
.,.

5o
Its substance is as brilliant as the colors of the coiled dragon; its
resemblance duplicates (the original form of the Buddha) as
the fabulous luan bird taking flight (is echoed by its shadow
below). As the moon reunites with the river of the immortals,
it divides over the red-blue brows (of the statue), making them
gush with color. As the stars glide through the garden of the
firmament, they wander over the violet pupils, making volant
their brilliance. The absolute sincerity (of the donor) is completely expressed, and her flourishing meritorious achievement
has been accomplished.

,.,.
,.,.

5p
Like a transformed bird (an immortal who has taken the form
of a crane), she has distinguished herself as one who has
crossed the sea (to the islands of immortality). Like the tortoise
hidden (inside its shell), she showed clearly the results of having drawn herself in from the dust.

..

5q
So brilliant is this lofty endeavor, it is hard to describe in
words. Moreover, solid stone underlies its foundation, and an
even bed of rime marks the place. The river freshens the verdure of the garden of paulownias, and the breeze carries the
fragrance of the mountain of apricots. Although this place of
purity displays a gilded (statue), one might worry that it is out
of keeping with the [transformations] of the mulberry (fields)
into the (blue Eastern) sea (and back again over eons), and so,
following a great plan, this stone was carved with the confidence that it will endure for the period of time (it takes to
empty) a city (one hundred yojanas square by extracting) a
mustard seed (once every century).

,.[],.
,.,[ ]
.,.

5r
The inscription says:
The two souls have already dispersed, but the body has
not yet dissolved. (When) flora and fauna increase in number

(i.e., are born), objects and their images come together. (In
death,) affections are discarded at the marchmount, and memories float down the breeze. When in the end we are sunk in
our [eternal?] home, what can illuminate the three immaterialities?
When Mahavra (Sakyamuni) descended into his traces, the
mysterious ford was thereby opened. The propitious stream
was pure and flowing, and the auspicious mountain was cleft
into spires. The youth of the Himalayas (the Buddha in a previous incarnation) fought to the victory, and the sandalwood
forest (the sangha) assisted his goodness. The Revelation of
Meaning was proclaimed in the west, after which the marvelous Wheel (of the Law) rolled to the east.

:
,.,.,
.[ ],.,.
,.,[].
,.

5s
What had been at the Place of the Glossy Leaves (the place of
the bodhi tree, i.e., Bodhgaya), Cnasthana (China) now shelters. (For those) hoping for the image (of the Buddha), (here it
is) completely pictured, and (those who) seek for the light will
surely assemble here. It is a virtuous model, from which we
may continually investigate subtle mysteries! If we should ever
be unmindful of his attaining enlightenment, (we have but) to
gaze reverently upon this visage to sigh!

,.,.[]
,.,.

5t
Pearls and gems, she removed these baubles, and from her
treasure of silver, exhausted her funds. In the grove, a pagoda
was modeled, while beyond the clouds, the towers rose. The
urna looks down like the full moon; the eyelids are dazzling
like lotuses opening. The smoke of incense rises in clouds,
while Buddhist chanting shakes the earth.
From the south, (pilgrims) are drawn down the Luanchuan
(the Yi River), and from the north, they gallop in the royal
chariots (from the palaces in Luoyang). (As they sail by), they
turn and look intently at the myriad chambers, while (those
traveling by land) halt in their journey (to donate money for)
the four necessities of religious life. There the causes they have
planted together will be nurtured, and scriptures will be
opened that they may share in enlightenment. Like unto the
sun, may (the Buddhist faith) eternally reign on high, and as
are the mountains, may it be forever firm!

,.,.,
.,.,.
,.,[].
,.

6a
On the sunny side of the Longmen hills, the Great Vairocana
Image Shrine was established by the Celestial August Great
Emperor Gaozong of Great Tang. The body of the Buddha,
from halo to base, is eighty-five chi (25 meters) in height, while
the two bodhisattvas are seventy chi (20 meters) in height, and
Kasyapa, Ananda, the vajra (guardians, i.e., the dvarapalas) and
the shenwang (the lokapalas) are each fifty chi (almost 15
meters) in height. On the first day of the fourth month of the
third year of the Xianheng era, a renshen year (May 3, 672), the
August Empress Wu aided (this project) with twenty thousand
strings of her rouge and powder money. In obedience to an
imperial decree, the clerics in charge were Meditation Master
Shandao of Shiji Monastery and Dharma Master Huijian, abbot
of Fahai Monastery, of the Western Capital. The commissioner
in charge was Wei Ji, Chief Minister of the Court of the National Granaries, while the vice commissioner was Fan Xuanze,
Supreme Pillar of State and Director of the Eastern Parks. The
artisans were Li Junzan, Cheng Renwei, Yao Shiji, and others.
This work of merit was completed on the thirtieth day of the
twelfth month of the second year of the Shangyuan era, an
yihai year (January 20, 676).

.,,
.
.
,.,
.,,
..

7a
On the twentieth day of the first month of the second year of
the Longshuo era (February 13, 662), Liu Yuanli of the Revenue
Section of the Establishment of the Prince of Zhou, Wang Jifu
of the Personnel Evaluation Section and Zheng Xingyan of the
War Section reverently made one Amitabha image shrine. We
pray for Your Majesty the Emperor and all sentient beings that
they may obtain this blessing.

, ,
.
.

appendix j

177

7b

merit was completed on the eighth day of the twelfth month of

the second year of the Shangyuan era of the Great Tang (December 29, 675).

On the seventh day of the eleventh month of the fourth year of

the Xianheng era of the Great Tang (December 20, 673), monk
Huijian of Fahai Monastery in the Western Capital, for the
August Emperor, the August Empress, the heir apparent,
and the Prince of Zhou, reverently dedicates a Maitreya image
shrine, with two bodhisattvas and pairs of shenwang (i.e.,
lokapalas and dvarapalas), to complete this meritorious accomplishment. I humbly pray for the imperial enterprise a flourishing of sageliness without limit and, for the heir apparent
and all the princes, blessings extending for ten thousand generations.

..
(=),.
..
.,.,
,,,,
. ,.
[].

,,,,
.
().

Sramana Zhiyun, in offering to the Celestial Emperor, the Ce

lestial Empress, the heir apparent, and all the princes, reverently makes one shrine of fifteen thousand honorable images.

7c
Xue Rengui, for the emperor and empress, reverently dedicates
an Amitabha image and two bodhisattvas. May all sentient
beings in this Dharma realm share in this blessing. Made in
the fifth month of the fourth year of the Xianheng era (May
June, 673).

,.
,..

7d
The disciple Zhou Yuanzhi, a Court Gentleman for Manifesting Rightness, and the others all expectantly hoping to pass
over (the sea of suffering) to the shore of the Dharma now join
in making a vow (to be reborn in the paradise in) the West. We
all rely upon the forty-eight great vows (of Amitabha) so that
we may congregate in that assembly (in his Pure Land of
Sukhavat). Now, the dark paths are illuminated by a mirror,
as the Wisdom-sun is supported in the lofty sky, and the way
to enlightenment has reopened that the six senses may be
cleansed in the good sea. Finally, to enrich this great enterprise
(the imperial rule), we think of our responsibilities constantly
and profoundly. To exhaust our ritual duty as officials, we
have portrayed the True Visage, and to extend filial piety and
humaneness, we have depicted the Pure Land. In offering to
the Celestial Emperor, Celestial Empress, heir apparent, all the
princes, all the monks of distant kalpas, and seven generations
of ancestors, we reverently made a shrine (containing) a stone
image of Amitabha. . . . We make use of this act of merit to protect and bless the imperial throne, and may the dead and the
living together take refuge in the sea of blessings. . . . This act of
178

appendix

7e

,,,
.

7f
Director Yao Shenbiao and Meditation Master (Zhi)yun of the
Palace Chapel completed the Fifteen Thousand Honorable
Images Shrine on the thirtieth day of the eleventh month of
the inaugural year of the Yonglong era of the Great Tang (December 26, 680).

,,,
.

7g
On the fifteenth day of the eighth month of the inaugural year
of the Tiaolu era, a jimao year (September 25, 679), in obedience to an imperial decree, to the south of the Great Image
was established the Great Fengxian Monastery. Two groups of
seven eminent monks who were equally perfect in the practice
(of good conduct) and the understanding (of sacred texts)
were chosen and summoned to form the (monastic) foundation. Only those who were vigilant in observing the religious
rules and who excelled in monastic discipline were named abbot. On the fifteenth day of the first month of the second year
(of the Tiaolu era, February 20, 680), the Great Emperor wrote
out the plaque (for the front gate of the monastery). From first
to last, sixteen monks have been specially ordained here and all
of them maintained the prohibitions and practices with purity
and their priestly duties with vigilance. Fearing that as the years
stretched on, the fragrant record (of their virtues) would no
longer be handed down, we have engraved this eulogy so that
it may be bequeathed through eternal kalpas.

..
.
.
,.
,.

7h
On the fifteenth day of the seventh month of a gengchen year,
the second year of the Tiaolu era of the Great Tang (August 14,
680), Xuanzhao reverently made one Guanshiyin bodhisattva
image, praying for the rescue of all sentient beings of this
Dharma realm who through transmigration, sins, and obstructions now live in distress, that they may all attain to their cessation.

,
..

7i
Li Junzan, [after?] constructing the Purple Cassia Palace, [in
order that] safety and security may come to my family, reverently made a Guanyin bodhisattva on the thirtieth day of the
sixth month of the second year of the Tiaolu era (July 31, 680).

[ ],[ ],[
].

8a
Stele of the Act of Merit by the Palace Domestic Service of the
Great Tang
. . . General of the Palace Gate Guard of the Right, in charge of
the affairs of the Palace Domestic Service, Supreme Pillar of
State, and Dynasty-Founding Duke of Bohai Commandery,
Palace Servitor Gao Lishi . . . Grand Master for Splendid Happiness, Acting Palace Attendant of the Palace Domestic Service,
Supreme Pillar of State, and Dynasty-Founding Duke of Hongnong Commandery, Palace Servitor Yang Sixu . . .
. . . established in offering to the Divine and Martial August
Emperor of the Opened Prime Era of the Great Tang. We prostrate ourselves in order that [even though we find ourselves?]
together in this ending period of the Dharma, Samantabhadras
supernatural power may still be encountered in the good scriptures, (which allow us to) think respectfully of the compassion
of the Holy Lord, and assist in expounding the transformative
power of the Benevolent King. Incense Mountain is silent, almost imaginary, yet one can smell the fragrance of the campaka flower (that is, the merit and virtue of the Buddha). The
Himalayas goad our sense of reality, yet there is found the taste
of clarified butter (that is, the perfect Buddha-truth). Even if

the longevity of the Dharma be concealed, we trust that the

four stupas (where the Buddha was born, gained enlightenment, preached, and entered nirvana) will continue to be trans
mitted, and although the pure origin may be obscured, we see
as not far away that (future) certainty (of rebirth in Sukhavat).
By carving and engraving to make images, all people . . . By coloring and painting to depict forms, all will find refuge in the
middle way. How much more so this revered mountain . . .
virtuous stone will remain, and though it may pass through
the fires of the kalpa of destruction, [it will not be destroyed?],
and though it may undergo the calamity of destruction by
wind, such will not reach it. Hence, this (act of merit) becomes
an inexhaustible blessing. How could anything disturb it!
Humbly we have ventured to use collectively our hearts
engrossed (in the Buddha-truth) and together to create this
Pure [Land]. . . . [To plant] good roots (whose fruit will be
reaped later) by all sentient beings, reverently we have made
nineteen entities of assemblies of the Measureless Life (Amitayus) Buddha of the West.

...,[ ][ ],,
, ...
...,,,,
...
...[ ][ ].[ ][ ]
[ ][ ][ ][ ],,
,.,
.[ ][ ][ ].
.[ ][ ],
.[ ][ ][ ][ ]
..!
[][ ][ ][ ][ ].[ ][ ],
.

8b
By special appointment . . . the official in charge was Grand
Master for Proper Consultation, acting Palace Attendant of the
Palace Domestic Service, Supreme Pillar of State, [palace servitor name]. . . . The monks in charge were sramana Daojie and
sramana Wenji of the Great Fengxian Monastery.

..., , ...
.

8c
None is superior to Buddha, for the Dharma world is his body.
He condescended to take form to convert all beings and lowered himself into his traces to become like men.

appendix j

179

Where there is stimulus (from human need), he (responds

by) manifesting himself; where there is no sin, he will draw
close.
Those in ignorance and error are forever separated from him;
all one can rely upon is faith and (planting the seeds of) causality (in good works).
In truth, it is thanks to our August (Emperor), who made the
plan to beautify this entity, with its rare laksana and vyan
jana and majestic countenance without peer.
Great in love, great in compassion; like the moon, like the sun.
Gaze upward into his face and all filth is wiped away.
Offer worship with sincerity and all prayers will be fulfilled.
Since the True Religion flowed eastward, it has been over seven
hundred years, yet of all the eminent shrines (made for) merit,
this one is the greatest. From side to side (it measures) twelve
zhang; from top to bottom, it is one hundred and forty chi.

,.,.,
.,. ,
.,.,.
,.,.
.,.

8d
By imperial command, Longhua Monastery is to join with and
become Fengxian Monastery. Fifth day of the twelfth month of
the tenth year of the Kaiyuan era (January 16, 723).
Official letter from Henan District to Fengxian Monastery:
The official letter: I have been informed by sealed missive of
the aforementioned imperial edict. I have been requested to
take a copy and forward it to the director (of the monastery)
for him to carry it out. This official letter of mine, I communicate it officially to those in the monastery for their conformation. Now, that edict is the subject of this official letter. When
you receive this official letter, you will follow that edict, and it
is for this reason I have sent you this official letter.
Official letter written by Shi Fanzong on the twelfth day of
the twelfth month of the tenth year of the Kaiyuan era (January
23, 723). Signature of the District Defender.

. .
.
.

180

appendix

Notes

Chapter 1: Emperor as Tathgata

1. Wei Shou, Weishu (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1974) (hereafter Weishu), ch. 114, p. 3031.
2. The triad is generally considered to predate 505 because the
Wang Shiping inscription of 505 is curved to fit along the outer
edge of the bodhisattvas lower scarves (see Liu Jinglong and Li
Yukun, eds., Longmen shiku beike tiji huilu, 2 v. [Beijing: Zhongguo da baike quanshu chubanshe, 1998] [hereafter Tiji], no.
1852), while the Sun Daguang inscription of 506 (Tiji, no. 1856)
is wedged in between the bodhisattvas robe and the scarves.
For a reproduction, see Liu Jinglong, ed., Longmen ershipin: Bei
Wei beike zaoxiang juzhen (Beijing: Zhongguo da baike quanshu
chubanshe, 1997), pl. 7.
3. Scholars who also take this view include Ishimatsu Hinako,
in Rymon sekkutsu koyd zz k, Bukky geijutsu 248 (Jan.
2000): 1351; and Wen Yucheng, in Guyang dong yanjiu, in
Longmen shiku yanjiu lunwenxuan, ed. Longmen shiku yanjiusuo
(Shanghai: Shanghai renmin meishu, 1993), pp. 143212. Those
with a different view include Katherine Tsiang (Jiang Renhe), in
Jiang Renhe, Zaoqi foxiang huoyan shiwen shenguang zhi yanbian ji Guyang dong qiyuan de yixie tanxiang (Some thoughts
on the origin of the Guyang cave and the evolution of flame
patterns in early Buddhist nimbuses), in Longmen shiku yiqian
wubai zhounian guoji xueshu taolunhui lunwenji, ed. Longmen
shiku yanjiusuo (Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, 1996), p. 218; and
Stanley Abe, Ordinary Images (Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 2002), pp. 251256.
4. Tiji, no. 1842. In my translations, brackets enclose words
supplied for effaced characters and parentheses enclose words
added to help the reader make sense of the meaning. Designations such as (1A) following the translations correspond to the
texts, in Chinese and English, in the appendix. I am greatly
indebted to the translation in douard Chavannes, Mission
archologique dans la Chine septentrionale, 2 v. (Paris: Ernest
Leroux, 1909, 1913, and 1915), v. 1, pt. 2, pp. 475476, as well as
that in Alexander Coburn Soper, Literary Evidence for Early
Buddhist Art in China (Ascona: Artibus Asiae Publishers, 1959),
pp. 135136.
5. Soper, Literary Evidence, p. 138.
6. A.F.Price and Wong Mou-lam, trans., The Diamond Sutra

and the Sutra of Hui-neng (Boston: Shambhala, 1990), ch. 26,

p. 47.
7. Adapted from Soper, Literary Evidence, p. 72.
8. The problem with worshiping the relics or an image of the
Buddha, as Nancy Falk puts it, arises precisely at this point, for,
according to the teachings of much of the tradition, such a continued presence was impossible. The Buddhas final achievement
had been to remove himself totally and permanently from any
involvement in the world. See Nancy Falk, To Gaze on Sacred
Traces, History of Religions 16, no. 4 (May 1977): 284.
9. For Robert Sharfs translation into English, see Religions of
China in Practice, ed. Donald S. Lopez, Jr. (Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 1996), pp. 261267.
10. Soper, Literary Evidence, p. 119.
11. William R.B. Acker, Some Tang and Pre-Tang Texts on
Chinese Painting, 2 v. (Leiden: E.J.Brill, 19541974), v. 1, p. 3.
Earlier, Cao Pi (187226) offered a moral and spiritual defense
of literature: Literature is no less noble an activity than the governing of a state; it is also a way to immortality (Siu-kit Wong,
Early Chinese Literary Criticism [Hong Kong: Joint Publishing
Co., 1983], p. 21). This echoes the defense of poetry offered by the
anonymous author of the preface to the Mao text of the Book
of Odes: Nothing rights what is wrong, nothing moves heaven
and earth, nothing touches the gods and the spirits as much as
poetry can (ibid., p. 2).
12. Wen Yucheng, the former director of the Longmen Grottoes Research Institute, lists three records that call Guyang
Grotto by the name Shikusi, or Stone Grotto Monastery (Gu
yang dong yanjiu, p. 202). They are two inscriptions in Guyang
Grotto itself, by General Yang Dayan and a lay society of 514
(Tiji, nos. 2023 and 2241), and chapter 5 of The Record of Monas
teries in Luoyang. I agree the first two records refer to Guyang
Grotto. As I propose in chapter 3, however, after 516, the name
Shikusi referred to Empress Dowager Hus grotto. Thus, since
The Record of Monasteries in Luoyang was written around 549, I
think it does not refer to Guyang Grotto.
13. The truncated figures in the procession scene at the base
of the princes shrine reveal that it was fitted, not very skillfully,
above Lady Yuchis shrine.
14. Diana P. Rowan has convincingly identified this object as
a small, hand-held fan in Identifying a Bodhisattva Attribute:

Tracing the Long History of a Small Object, Oriental Art 47

(2001), 1:3136.
15. This identification is from Longmen shiku zhuangshi
diaoke, ed. Li Wensheng (Shanghai: Shanghai renmin meishu
chubanshe, 1991), p. 68.
16. These plants are identified as pomegranates in Liu Jing
long, Longmen ershipin: Bei Wei beike zaoxiang juzhen, no. 5
and no. 6.
17. Mizoguchi Saburo says the honeysuckle vine design is
sometimes called the palmette pattern, which may represent
the hemp palm with its symbolic connotations of victory and
triumphal glory. See Seiroku Noma, Arts of Japan 1 (Tokyo:
Weatherhill and Shibundo, 1973), p. 23. Thanks to my student
Karen Mack for this reference.
18. I agree with the argument put forward in Yoshimura Rei,
Dony gokutsu zei shidai, Bukky geijutsu 212 (1994): 2629.
19. See Sun Xingyan, Huanyu fangbei lu (1802, Taibei: Taiwan
Shangwu yinshuguan, 1968), ch. 2, p. 24; and Wang Chang, Jin
shi cuibian (1805, N.p.: N.p., 1921), ch. 27, p. 5a. Somewhat earlier,
in the inscription to his 1797 painting of Guyang Grotto, Huang
Yi read the date as 488 (see Zhongguo gudai shuhua tumu, 23 v.
[Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, 19862000], v. 23, Jing 16030.22).
20. Gong Dazhong, Longmen shiku yishu (Shanghai: Shanghai
renmin chubanshe, 1981), p. 212; Wen Yucheng, Guyang dong
yanjiu, p. 197.
21. See the two ink rubbings said to be in the Beijing Library
reproduced in Longmen ershipin (Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe,
1980), no. 3. One is an integral ink rubbing, with colophons dated
to the Xianfeng era (18511862); the other is a patchwork edition made up of characters cut from several ink rubbings. The
integral ink rubbing is also reproduced in Visible Traces: Rare
Books and Special Collections from the National Library of China,
edited and compiled by Philip K. Hu (New York: Queens Borough Public Library/Beijing: National Library of China, 2000),
pp. 134135, where the editor reads the character as nian, or
twenty.
22. See Li Wensheng, in Longmen shiku, 2 v., ed. Longmen
wenwu baoguansuo and Beijing daxue kaoguxi (Beijing: Wenwu
chubanshe, 19911992), v. 1, p. 276; Wen Yucheng, Guyang dong
yanjiu, p. 197; Tiji, v. 1, p. 25.
23. Zhang Naizhu, Longmen shiku Shipinggong xiangkan zao
xiang niandai guankui, Zhongyuan wenwu 1983.3: 9193. The
change in costume is generally attributed to the edict of 486 mandating Chinese official garb at court (Weishu, ch. 7 xia, p. 161).
24. Jiang, Zaoqi foxiang huoyan shiwen shenguang zhi yanbian, pp. 213215.
25. See James O. Caswell, Written and Unwritten: A New His
tory of the Buddhist Caves at Yungang (Vancouver: University of
British Columbia, 1988), p. 21, translated from Weishu, ch. 114,
p. 3031.
26. Caswell believes they were intentionally carved in the 480s
182 | n o t e s t o pa g e s 1 3 1 9

in an old-fashioned style to replicate the Five Tanyao Grottoes

(Written and Unwritten, pp. 44 and 89).
27. Ibid., p. 27, after Sato Chisui, The Character of Yn-kang
Buddhism, The Memoirs of Ty Bunk 36 (1978): 3983, esp.
pp. 7376.
28. For the first, see Beijing tushuguan cang Zhongguo lidai
shike taben huibian, ed. Beijing tushuguan, 100 v. (Beijing: Zhong
zhou guji chubanshe, 19891991), v. 3, p. 22; and, for the second,
see Soper, Literary Evidence, p. 101.
29. For the former, the Zhao Shuangzhe shrine, see Wen Yu
cheng, Longmen beichao xiaokan de leixing, fenqi yu dongku
painian, in Longmen shiku, ed. Longmen wenwu baoguansuo
and Beijing daxue kaoguxi, v. 1, p. 212; Tiji, no. 1848. For the latter, the Gao Shu shrine, see Liu Jinglong, Longmen ershipin: Bei
Wei beike zaoxiang juzhen, no. 12.
30. Jiang, Zaoqi foxiang huoyan shiwen shenguang zhi
yanbian, p. 216. See also Katherine R. Tsiang, Disjunctures
of Time, Text, and Imagery in Reconstructions of the Guyang
Cave at Longmen, in Between Han and Tang: Religious Art and
Archaeology in a Transformative Period, ed. Wu Hung (Beijing:
Cultural Relics Publishing House, 2000), pp. 339340.
31. For example, see Abe, Ordinary Images, pp. 125 and 135,
figs. 3.15 and 3.23.
32. Zhongguo shiku diaosu quanji, v. 4: Longmen, ed. Wen
Yucheng (Chongqing: Chongqing chubanshe, 2001), pl. 17.
33. Weishu, ch. 22, pp. 587589.
34. Ishimatsu, Rymon sekkutsu koyd zz k, pp. 20
26.
35. Wen Yucheng catalogued several of these theories in his
Guyang dong yanjiu, pp. 204205. mura Seigai proposed
Yuan Xiuyi, Prince of Ruyin, as the Duke of Shiping. His grandson, Yuan Xiaoju, inherited the title of Duke of Shiping District
during the Western Wei period (535556), so mura speculated
his grandfather might have held this title, too (Shina bijutsu shi
chso hen [Tokyo: Bussho kankkai zuzobu, 1915], p. 196). The
problem with this theory is that Yuan Xiuyi was still alive at
the end of the Taihe era and had not yet been made Regional
Inspector of Luozhou (see Wang Chang, Jinshi cuibian, ch. 27, p.
5b). Tsukamoto Zenry proposed Yuan Xu (449507), who was
Regional Inspector of Luozhou after 500 (Tsukamoto Zenry,
Shina bukkyshi kenky: Hokugi hen [Tokyo: Kbundo shob,
1942]). This man, however, was not Duke of Shiping and lived
long after 498. Nakata Yujiro suggested Jia Juan, who was Regional Inspector of Luozhou for five years before the move of
the capital to Luoyang (Rymon zz daiki, ed. Nakata Yujiro
[Tokyo: Ch kornsha, 1980]). Again, this man was still alive
after 498 and did not have the title of Duke of Shiping. Gong
Dazhong identified a man named Si Nixu, who had the title
of Duke of Shiping (Gong Dazhong, Longmen shiku yishu, p.
213). See the epitaph of Si Nixus royal grandson Yuan Ning
(464524), in Han Wei Nanbeichao muzhi jishi, ed. Zhao Wanli

(Beijing: Kexue chubanshe, 1956), pl. 197. Si Nixus other titles are
different, however, and he never was Regional Inspector of Luozhou. Jin Weinuo states that Huicheng was a cousin of Emperor
Xiaowen but gives him no secular name (Longmen shiku, ed.
Longmen baoguansuo [Beijing: Wenwu, 1961], p. 1).
Both Katherine Tsiang and Lin Sishui have suggested that
Feng Xi (d. 495) was the Duke of Shiping (Lin Sishui, Bei Wei
shufa daolun [Taibei: Lin Wu Lengleng, 1972]; Jiang Renhe,
Zaoqi foxiang huoyan shiwen shenguang zhi yanbian, p.
217; and Katherine R. Tsiang, Changing Patterns of Divinity
and Reform in the Late Northern Wei, Art Bulletin 84 (June
2002), no. 2: 245, n. 72). Feng Xi was the elder brother of Empress
Dowager Wenming (441490), the regent for Emperor Xiaowen
at the beginning of his reign. When the child took the throne
in 471, many felt that Feng Xis influence as a maternal relative
was too great, so he was sent south to serve as Regional Inspector of Luozhou in the 470s (Weishu, ch. 83 shang, p. 1819). Once
there, he revealed a lack of talent for government and a superabundance of Buddhist piety, devoting himself to the building
of Buddhist pagodasseventy-two in alland the copying of
stras. Many of the monasteries and pagodas he sponsored in
the area were built on high peaks, with considerable loss of life.
When the monks he had gathered asked him to stop the work, he
replied: When this is complete, people will see only the pagoda.
They will never know that men and oxen were killed. Feng Xi
died in 495 in the old capital. The most substantial problem with
this theory is that he was never enfeoffed as Duke of Shiping.
36. Beijing tushuguan cang Zhongguo lidai shike taben hui
bian, v. 3, p. 35; also transcribed in Han Wei Nanbeichao muzhi
jishi, pl. 115.
37. The Zhouli relates that these trees stood in the courtyard of
the Zhou kings. Under the three acacias, the Three Dukes were
positioned, and under the nine date trees to the right and left,
the nobility and officials took their places. Thus three acacias
and nine date trees is a metaphor for serving as an official at
court. See Zhouli, Qiuguan, Chaoshi, in Shisan jing, 2 v. (Beijing: Beijing yanshan chubanshe, 1991), 1:483484.
38. Zhongguo lishi ditu ji, ed. Tan Qixiang. 8 v. (Shanghai:
Ditu chubanshe, 1982), v. 4, map 4647 (3) 5.
39. Writing the character for Dai as fa appears to be a graphic
variant at Longmen, which persisted into the Tang dynasty, as
in Tiji, nos. 0670 and 0779.
40. I read zhu for red, instead of zhu for the Zhu River. Red
wheels on a carriage indicated noble rank (see Zhongwen daci
dian [Taibei: Zhonghua xueshuyuan, 1973], no. 14779.755).
41. Tiji, no. 2296; Chavannes, Mission archologique, v. 1, pt.
2, pp. 479481.
42. See Tsiang, Disjunctures of Time; and Yan Wenru and
Chang Qing, Longmen shiku yanjiu, ed. Xu Ziqiang and Longmen shiku yanjiusuo (Beijing: Shumu wenxian chubanshe, 1995),
p. 21.

43. According to her exhaustive research, the earliest extant

Buddhist stone statuary from this area is dated to the year 500.
She found two stone image steles dated to 500 as well as another
dozen dated between 501 and 533, suggesting that Guyang Grotto
initiated a tradition of Buddhist stone sculpture in the Luoyang
area, beginning shortly after the completion of Huichengs shrine.
See Ishimatsu Hinako, Hokugi kanan no ikk sanson z, Th
gakuh 69 (1997): 247286; and in Chinese, Bei Wei Henan
shidiao san zun xiang, Zhongyuan wenwu 2000.4: 4860.
44. This view is held by Wen Yucheng, Li Yukun, Long Hui,
Mizuno Seiichi and Nagahiro Toshio, Yoshimura Rei, and Ishimatsu Hinako, according to Hyun-sook Jung Lee, The Longmen Guyang Cave: Sculpture and Calligraphy of the Northern
Wei (386534) (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Pennsylvania,
2005), p. 108.
45. Tiji, nos. 1137, 1842, and 2520.
46. Liu Jinglong, ed., Longmen ershipin: Beike yu zaoxiang
yishu (Beijing: China Esperanto Press, 1995), no. 1.
47. Ibid., no. 8.
48. Tiji, no. 2024; Chavannes, Mission archologique, v. 1, pt.
2, pp. 487489.
49. This is a reference to the story of the Buddha image of King
Udayana, in which the arhat took artisans up to the Heaven of
the Thirty-Three Gods, where kyamuni was preaching to his
mother, to make an image of the Buddha for King Udayana, who
longed for his presence. See Martha L. Carter, The Mystery of
the Udayana Buddha (Naples: Istituto universitario orientale,
1990).
50. Chavannes notes that the acacia and the date tree are
thorny (Mission archologique, v. 1, pt. 2, p. 488, n. 12).
51. Tabgatch Xun had the poor judgment to allow himself to
be involved in plots against his father, who finally and reluctantly ordered his suicide in 497 (Weishu, ch. 22, pp. 587589).
52. Abe, Ordinary Images, pp. 250256.
53. Longmen shiku, ed. Longmen wenwu baoguansuo and Beijing daxue kauguxi, v. 1, p. 212.
54. For the former, see Wen Yucheng, Longmen beichao xiao
kan de leixing, fenqi yu dongku painian, in ibid., v. 1, p. 212;
Tiji, no. 1848. For the latter, see Longmen ershipin: Bei Wei beike
zaoxiang juzhen, no. 13; Tiji, no. 1846.
55. See also the drawing in Longmen shiku, ed. Longmen wenwu
baoguansuo and Beijing daxue kaoguxi, v. 1, p. 212, fig. 96.
56. The former is reproduced in Longmen ershipin: Bei Wei
beike zaoxiang juzhen, fig. 167, and the latter in figs. 181 and 182.
57. Yoshimura Rei, Nanchao tianren xiang dui Beichao yiji
zhouwei zhuguo de chuanbo, trans. Xie Jianming and Ruan
Rongchun, Dongnan wenhua 1992.2:3445. See also Yoshimura
Rei, Rymon koyd butsugan ni mirareru sgon ish no igi,
Bukky geijutsu 250 (May 2000): 1352.
58. Nanjing bowuguan, Jiangsu Danyang Huqiao, Jianshan
liang zuo Nanchao muzang, Wenwu 1980.2: 116.
n o t e s t o pa g e s 1 9 2 5 | 183

59. See Audrey Spiro, Contemplating the Ancients: Aesthetic

and Social Issues in Early Chinese Portraiture (Berkeley and Los
Angeles: University of California Press, 1990), p. 124; Audrey
Spiro, Shaping the Wind: Taste and Tradition in Fifth-Century
South China, Ars Orientalis 21 (1991): 95; and Machida Akira,
Nan Qi di ling kao, trans. Lao Ji, Dongnan wenhua 2 (Oct.
1986): 4363. I am indebted to Audrey Spiro for these references
on the Southern Qi tombs.
60. See the Governor of Yizhou stele (ca. 155 C.E.) and the
spirit road gates of Shen Fujun, illustrated in mura, Shina bi
jutsu shi chso hen, pl. 178 and 180.
61. Tsiang, Changing Patterns of Divinity and Reform, pp.
234235.
62. Alexander Soper, South Chinese Influence on the Buddhist Art of the Six Dynasties Period, Bulletin of the Museum
of Far Eastern Antiquities 32 (1960): 79.
63. Tiji, no. 2023; Chavannes, Mission archologique, v. 1, pt.
2, pp. 486487.
64. The Di people lived in what is now Gansu and Sichuan
provinces. Yangs biography is in Weishu, ch. 73, pp. 16331636.
65. Wen Yucheng, in Longmen shiku, ed. Longmen wenwu
baoguansuo and Beijing daxue kaoguxi, v. 1, p. 211. See the biography of Pei Shuye, Weishu, ch. 71, p. 1565, and the biography of
Yang Dayan, Weishu, ch. 73, p. 1634.
66. Weishu, ch. 71, p. 1567.
67. Wen Yucheng, Guyang dong yanjiu, p. 202. See Weishu,
ch. 8, p. 197, and ch. 73, p. 1634.
68. Weishu, ch. 73, p. 1636.
69. Liu Jinglong, ed., Longmen ershipin: Bei Wei beike zao
xiang juzhen, no. 8.
70. Long Hui, Xiaowendi yu Longmen shiku de kaizao, in
Longmen shiku yiqian wubai zhounian guoji xueshu taolunhui
lunwenji, ed. Longmen shiku yanjiusuo (Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, 1996), p. 4.
71. I have yet to find this reference in that chapter. Perhaps the
line in ch. 108.1 is meant: When the Wei first dwelled in Youdu,
they chiseled stone to make temples for ancestral worship northwest of the land of Wuluohou (Weishu, ch. 108.1, p. 2738).
72. According to William Chu, the teachings of the Buddha
were often referred to as traces of [the Buddhas] footsteps or
tracks (pratipad), but I think it is clear that teachings would
not be a correct translation here. See Path, in The Encyclopedia
of Buddhism, ed. Robert E. Buswell, 2 v. (New York: Macmillan,
2004), v. 2, p. 635.
73. Wen Yucheng, Guyang dong yanjiu, p. 202; and Wen
Yucheng, in Longmen shiku, ed. Longmen wenwu baoguansuo
and Beijing daxue kaoguxi, v. 1, p. 211.
74. In 480, 482, and 483; see Weishu, ch. 6, p. 130, and ch. 7,
pp. 152 and 154.
75. Weishu, ch. 8, p. 198.

184 | n o t e s t o pa g e s 2 5 3 3

Chapter 2: The Mechanics of a Karmic

Gift of Sculpture
1. The Gift: Forms and Functions of Exchange in Archaic Socie
ties, trans. Ian Cunnison (Glencoe, Ill.: Free Press, 1954), p. 34.
2. Laurence Sickman and Alexander Soper, The Art and Archi
tecture of China, 3rd ed. (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books Ltd.,
1968), pp. 97 and 101.
3. Ibid., pp. 9899.
4. The human experience of a grottos program in space and
time simultaneously illustrates Mikhail Bakhtins notion of
chronotopic. See, for example, Aesthetic Visualizing of Time/
Space: The Chronotope, in The Bahktin Reader, ed. Pam Morris (London: Edward Arnold, 1994), pp. 180187; and Eugene Y.
Wang, Grotto-Shrine as Chronotope and the Working of Analogous Iconography: The Sixth-Century Sculptural Program in
Cave 38 at Yungang in Perspective, in Between Han and Tang:
Religious Art and Archaeology in a Transformative Period, ed.
Wu Hung (Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, 2000), pp. 279312.
5. The eunuch Bai Zheng was made director of the Palace Domestic Service in the latter part of the Taihe era (477499). See
Weishu, ch. 94, p. 2026.
6. Su Bai and James Caswell agree that contemporary evidence
shows that in the late Northern Wei the name Lingyansi meant
all of Yungang. See Caswell, Written and Unwritten, p. 110.
7. The eunuch Wang Zhi was made director of the Palace Domestic Service after a long career of devoted service to Emperor
Xiaowen (Weishu, ch. 94, p. 2025).
8. Liu Tengs biography is in Weishu, ch. 94, pp. 20272078.
9. Weishu, ch. 114, p. 3043.
10. One chi equated to 27.881 centimeters in the Northern Wei,
as given in Yang Hongxun, Guanyu Bei Wei Luoyang Yong
ningsi ta fuyuan caotu de shuoming, Wenwu 1992.9: 82.
11. For a summary of various earlier theories concerning which
grottoes were sponsored by the emperor, see Alexander Soper,
Literary Evidence for Early Buddhist Art in China (Ascona: Artibus Asiae, 1959), pp. 102103.
12. Yang Xuanzhi, Luoyang qielan ji, in Fan Xiangyong, Luo
yang qielan ji jiaozhu (Shanghai: Gudian wenxue chubanshe,
1958), ch. 5, p. 350. Binyang is a modern name.
13. Zhang Ruoyu, Yique fokan zhi bei he Qianxisi, Binyang
dong, Wenwu 1980.1: 1924.
14. Longmen shiku, ed. Longmen wenwu baoguansuo and Beijing daxue kaoguxi, v. 1, pp. 265266.
15. The entry in The History of the Northern Wei is extremely
terse: On the jihai day (of the twelfth month of the first year of
the Zhengshi era) (mid-January 505), (the emperor) temporarily
graced Yique (Weishu, ch. 8, p. 198).
16. Weishu, ch. 13, p. 335.
17. Weishu, ch. 8, p. 191; Weishu, ch. 83 shang, p. 1829.

18. The transition between the two reigns is thoroughly discussed in Jennifer Holmgren, Princes and Favourites at the
Court of Emperor Shih-tsung of Northern Wei, c. 500510,
Journal of Oriental Studies 20, no. 2 (1982): 95127.
19. Weishu, ch. 8, p. 193.
20. See W.J.F.Jenner, Memories of Loyang (493534) (Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1981), p. 133; and Weishu, ch. 114, p. 3042.
21. Weishu, ch. 8, p. 209.
22. On Xuanwu and Ratnamati, see Tang Yongtong, Sui Tang
fojiao shigao (Taibei: Foguang, 2001), p. 230.
23. Weishu, ch. 90, p. 1931, and ch. 114, p. 3040.
24. Fan Xiangyong, Loyang qielan ji jiaozhu, ch. 3, p. 145. See
also Jenner, Memories of Luoyang, p. 212.
25. Fan Xiangyong, Luoyang qielan ji jiaozhu, ch. 3, p. 132;
Jenner, Memories of Loyang, p. 207; A Record of Buddhist Mon
asteries in Lo-yang, by Yang Hsan-chih, translated by Yi-tung
Wang (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984), p. 124.
26. Fan Xiangyong, Luoyang qielan ji jiaozhu, ch. 1, p. 46; Jenner, Memories of Loyang, p. 166; A Record of Buddhist Monaster
ies in Lo-yang, p. 46.
27. These are identified by the Chinese archeologists as Indra
and Brahm but without any iconographic substantiation (Long
men shiku, ed. Longmen wenwu baoguansuo and Beijing daxue
kaoguxi, v. 1, p. 265). My thanks go to David Efurd of Ohio State
University for discussing this issue with me.
28. Wen Yucheng suggests these four figures may represent the
four sons of Emperor Xiaowen (Zhongguo shiku diaosu quanji,
v. 4: Longmen, ed. Wen Yucheng, p. 8), based on the Singapore
scholar Gu Zhengmeis proposed identification of the six worshipers below the south wall window in Cave 8 at Yungang as the
six sons of Emperor Xianwen (Gu Zhengmei, Guishuang fojiao
zhengzhi chuantong yu dacheng fojiao [Taibei: Yunchen wenhua, 1993], ch. 8). The four Binyang figures have haloes, however,
which signify divinity, not royalty, but the more usual identification as bodhisattva figures should perhaps be amended to figures
of Brahm with a bodhisattva, according to Lena Kim (personal
communication, June 28, 2004). See Lena Kim, Guanyu 6 shiji
Zhongguo qi zun xiang zhong de luoji xiang zhi yanjiu, trans.
Hong Qilong, Dunhuang yanjiu 1998.2: 7279 (originally published in Bukky geijutsu 219 [March 1995]: 4055); and Xiang
tangshan shiku: Liushi haiwai shike zaoxiang yanjiu, ed. Zhang
Lintang and Sun Di (Beijing: Waiwen chubanshe, 2004), p. 50.
29. Wen Yucheng thinks Binyang South and Binyang Central
were done in imitation of Caves 7 and 8, based on the similarity
of their depiction of Vedic deities and guardian figures on the
exterior and the general structure and iconographic program
on the interior (Zhongguo shiku diaosu quanji, v. 4: Longmen,
p. 8). Following Harrie Vanderstappens view that Caves 7 and 8
could have been constructed as early as the 430s, I believe Cao
Yans (1147) statement about Yungang, Hence, the Tongle Tem-

ple was begun under Emperor Mingyuan, Emperor Wencheng

followed him by establishing the Lingyan and Huguo temples,
while Tiangong temple was built under Xiaowen and Chongfu
temple was completed by (the eunuch official) Qianer, indicates
that Caves 7 and 8 were sponsored by Emperor Mingyuan, Caves
1620 were sponsored by Emperor Wencheng, and Caves 5 and
6 were donated by Emperor Xiaowen, while Caves 9 and 10 were
commissioned by the eunuch official Qianer Qingshi. See Victor
Mair, Review of Written and Unwritten: A New History of the
Buddhist Caves at Yungang, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies
52 (June 1992): 345361; and Harrie A. Vanderstappen, Review
of Written and Unwritten: A New History of the Buddhist Caves
at Yungang, Ars Orientalis 19 (1989): 125127. This is a complex
issue that I will treat more fully elsewhere.
30. As identified by Wen Yucheng in Longmen shiku, ed. Longmen wenwu baoguansuo and Beijing daxue kaoguxi, v. 1, p. 215.
31. According to the Longmen Grottoes Research Academy,
the head of the east bodhisattva from the south wall is now in the
Osaka City Museum, while the head of the west bodhisattva from
the south wall is in the Tokyo National Museum. See Longmen
liusan diaoxiang ji/Lost Statues of Longmen Cave, ed. Longmen
shiku yanjiusuo (Shanghai: Shanghai renmin meishu chubanshe,
1993), pp. 32 and 36. The Osaka head and other sculptures from
Longmen and other Chinese cave-shrine sites were exhibited
at the Osaka City Museum in 1995. See Liu Xiaolu, Dongying
yizhu: Zhuangyan de qidao, Shoucangjia 32 (1998), no. 6: 3436.
See also the catalogue of the exhibition of sculptures from Longmen Grottoes and the Fengxian Monastery site at the Miho Museum: Miho Museum, Rymon sekkutsu/Longmen Caves (Shigaken: Miho Museum, 2001). My thanks go to my colleague Sherry
Fowler for kindly informing me about this exhibition.
32. This mudr is also seen on the seated Buddha dated to 483
of the Southern Qi era unearthed in Chengdu, Sichuan, reproduced in Matsubara Sabur, Chgoku bukky chokoku shiron
(Tokyo: Yoshikawa kbunkan, 1995), v. 1, pl. 68a.
33. Da ji yi shen zhou jing, in Taish shinsh daizky (Tokyo:
Taish issaiky kankkai, 19241932), v. 21, no. 1335, p. 568a.
34. Many scholars consider the core group to be Caves 18, 19,
and 20, which were likely finished during the years between 460
and Emperor Xianwens visit in 467. See Yoshimura Rei, Dony
gokutsu zei shidai.
35. Liu Huida, Bei Wei shiku zhong de san fo, Kaogu xue
bao 1958.4: 91101. It should be noted, however, that the Buddhas
of the Three Periods had already been the subject of royal study
in the early fifth century, and images representing them had already been produced in Grotto 169 at Binglingsi before 420. See
Wen Yucheng, Zhongguo zaoqi shikusi yanjiu de jidian sikao,
Dunhuang yanjiu 2000.2: 5455.
36. Tanluan, Le lun Anle Jingtu yi, Taish shinsh daizky,
v. 47, no. 1957, p. 3a.

n o t e s t o pa g e s 3 3 3 8 | 185

37. Jinguangming jing, ch. 2, Taish shinsh daizky, v. 16,

no. 663, p. 342a.
38. To speculate on a relationship between the two stories
and the two imperial processions, perhaps the story featuring
the self-sacrifice of a young man matched better with the male
procession in the Northern Wei mind, while the one that culminated in Mandi pleading with Indra for her children would go
best with the empress procession. Further, the story begins with
the giving away of a white elephant, which viewers might associate with the white elephant entering the womb of Queen My at
the Buddhas conception, even though it is not depicted here.
39. Emmy C. Bunker, The Spirit Kings in Sixth Century Chinese Buddhist Sculpture, Archives of the Chinese Art Society of
America 18 (1964): 2637.
40. In Laura Heyrmans view, the spirit kings represent the
gods of the earth, the gods of the desire-world, and the gods
of the material world who were attracted to the house of
Vimalakrti (The Meeting of Vimalakrti and Majur: Chinese Innovation in Buddhist Iconography [Ph.D. dissertation,
University of Minnesota, 1994], p. 194). Extending this interpretation, we could see the spirit kings and the Vimalakrti panels
as the lower and upper parts of a single composition and so read
the east wall reliefs as the Vimalakrti story framing the jtaka
stories and the imperial processions. Such an interpretation
would agree more with Judy Hos conclusion that the east wall
reliefs as a whole were designed to illustrate the compassion of
the bodhisattva and the bodhisattva ideal taught by Mahyna
scriptures (Judy Chungwa Ho, Tunhuang Cave 249: A Representation of the Vimalakrtinirdea [Ph.D. dissertation, Yale
University, 1985], pp. 160162).
41. According to Jin Shen, Guanyu shenwang de tantao,
Dunhuang xue jikan 1995.1: 5562, and Zhao Xiurong, Bei Chao
shiku zhong de shenwang xiang, Dunhuang xue jikan 1995.1:
6371, although Yin Guangming relates them to fifth-century
miniature stpas in Shilun Bei Liang shi ta jizuo xiang yu shenwang, Dunhuang yanjiu 1996.4: 821.
42. See Susan Bush, Thunder Monsters, Auspicious Animals, and Floral Ornament in Early Sixth Century China, Ars
Orientalis 10 (1975): 1933; and Susan Bush, Thunder Monsters
and Wind Spirits in Early Sixth Century China and the Epitaph
Tablet of Lady Yan, Boston Museum Bulletin 72, no. 367 (1974):
2554.
43. Shi Anchang, Bei Wei Gou Jing muzhi ji wenshi kao,
Gugong bowuyuan yuankan 1998.2: 2129; and Shi Anchang,
Bei Wei Feng Yong qi Yuan shi muzhi wenshi kao, Gugong bo
wuyuan yuankan 1997.2: 7385.
44. Chang Qing proposes individual Buddhist scriptural
sources for each spirit king. He equates them with the Eight
Classes of Divinities (tianlong babu) in protective function and
suggests an Eastern Jin influence, owing to the similarity between
spirit kings and thunder monsters. See Chang Qing, Beichao
186 | n o t e s t o pa g e s 3 8 4 4

shiku shenwang diaoke shule, Kaogu 1994.12: 11271141. In

my opinion, these figures cannot be explained piecemeal from
scripture because they are always portrayed in a set.
45. Chinese reports include Chu Shibing, Gansu Jingyuan
xin chu Dong Luoma liujin yin pan lekao, Wenwu 1990.5: 19;
and Lin Meicun, Zhongguo jingnei chutu daimingwen de Posi
he Zhong Ya yinqi, Wenwu 1997.9: 5565. See also Nicholas
Sims-Williams, as quoted in catalogue entry no. 115 by Judith
A. Lerner in Annette L. Juliano and Judith A. Lerner, Monks
and Merchants: Silk Road Treasures from Northwest China (New
York: Asia Society, 2001), pp. 321322. The piece was also exhibited in China: Dawn of a Golden Age at the Metropolitan
Museum, New York.
46. Laurence Sickman, Mid-Western Perspective: Gallery
Director Recalls Art Rescuethe True Story Refutes Chinese
Propaganda, Kansas City Star, Jan. 29, 1967. I am very grateful
to Marilyn Gridley for kindly bringing this article to my attention and providing me with a copy.
47. Warren I. Cohen, East Asian Art and American Culture
(New York: Columbia University Press, 1992), pp. 117118.
48. The contract is reproduced in Gong Dazhong, Longmen
shiku yishu, pp. 100101.
49. Cohen, East Asian Art and American Culture, p. 119.
50. Gong Dazhong, Longmen shiku yishu, p. 101, n. 2.
51. The best reproduction of this section is Guan Baiyi, Yique
shike tubiao (Kaifeng: Henan shengli bowuguan, 1935), pl. 13.
52. Gong Dazhong, Longmen shiku yishu, pp. 100101.
53. Alexander Soper, Imperial Cave-Chapels of the Northern Dynasties: Donors, Beneficiaries, Dates, Artibus Asiae 28
(1966), no. 4: 248.
54. Longmen ershipin: Bei Wei beike zaoxiang juzhen, ed. Liu
Jinglong, no. 17.
55. Lady Gao was one of three daughters of Gao Yang. They
and his sons Gao Yan (d. 486) and Gao Zhao (d. 515) were all
born in Korea. See Weishu, ch. 13, p. 335.
56. For the former, see E.B.Cowell, ed., The Jtaka, or Sto
ries of the Buddhas Former Births, 6 v. (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 18951907). The Vivantara jtaka is no. 547, v.
6, pp. 246305. The Mahsattva jtaka is not found in the Pli
canon. For the Jtakaml versions, see Once the Buddha Was
a Monkey: rya ras Jtakaml, trans. Peter Khoroche (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989), where they are called
the Tigress and Vivamtara.
57. Taizi Xudana jing, in Taish shinsh daizky, v. 3, no.
171, pp. 418424. According to Mizuno Seiichi and Nagahiro
Toshio, the story is also in Liudu ji jing, ch. 2, and Pusa benyuan
jing, ch. shang (Rymon sekkutsu no kenky, 3 v. [Tokyo: Zauh
kankkai, 1941], v. 1, p. 21).
58. Mizuno and Nagahiro list them in Rymon sekkutsu no
kenky, v. 1, p. 24, n. 34. This version is from chapter 4 (Sacrificing Oneself) of the Stra of Golden Light, translated by Dhar-

maksema (385433) (Taish shinsh daizky, v. 16, no. 663, pp.

354345).
59. One possible source for this iconography is the Persian rulers wearing crescent-moon crowns depicted on contemporary
Sassanian (224651) coins used along the Silk Road. Silver coins
depicting the Sassanian kings Bahram V (r. 420438), Peroz (r.
457484), and Kavad I (r. 488496, 499531) are illustrated in
Roman Ghirshman, Persian Art: The Parthian and Sassanian
Dynasties, 249 B.C.A.D. 651, trans. Stuart Gilbert and James
Emmons (New York: Golden Press, 1962), figs. 317319. Discovered in the foundation deposits of the pagoda at Dingxian were
coins of the reign of Yazdgard I (r. 438457) and Peroz (Michael Alram, Coins and the Silk Road, in Juliano and Lerner,
Monks and Merchants, pp. 274275). Another source has been
suggested by Liu Yongzeng as in the depiction of royal figures in
earlier jtaka illustrations, such as in the Deer Jtaka painted in
the Northern Wei Cave 257 at Dunhuang (personal communication, Dunhuang Research Academy, July 14, 2004. See his Cave
158 at Mogao and the Funeral Customs of Sogdians, Dunhuang
yanjiu 2004.2).
60. Taizi Xudana jing, in Taish shinsh daizky, v. 3, no.
171, p. 421.
61. Mizuno and Nagahiro, Rymon sekkutsu no kenky, v. 1,
p. 21.
62. Fan Xiangyong, Luoyang qielan ji jiaozhu, ch. 5, p. 298.
63. Ibid., p. 300; see A Record of Buddhist Monasteries in Loyang, pp. 232234.
64. The panel depicting Majur is basically whole (see Long
men shiku diaoke, ed. Su Bai, Wen Yucheng, and Li Wensheng,
Zhongguo meishu quanji, diaosu pian, 11 [Shanghai: Shanghai
renmin meishu chubanshe, 1988], pl. 45), except for the loss of
the heads and the figure of the monk riputra, but the figure
of Vimalakrti has been stolen entirely. Formerly in a private
collection in New York, it is now in the Freer Gallery of Art,
Washington, D.C. For a reproduction, see Chang Qing, Search
and Research: The Provenance of Longmen Images in the Freer
Collection, Orientations 34, no. 5 (May 2003): fig. 12.
65. See the reproduction in Zhang Naizhu, Longmen fojiao
zaoxiang, v. 6 of Fojiao meishu quanji (Taibei: Yishujia chubanshe, 1998), p. 67.
66. The goddess switched her female form with his male form
and back again, in order to illustrate the doctrine of nonduality.
See Burton Watson, trans., The Vimalakirti Sutra (New York:
Columbia University Press, 1997), pp. 8691.
67. See Audrey Spiro, Hybrid Vigor: Memory, Mimesis, and
the Matching of Meanings in Fifth-Century Buddhist Art, in
Culture and Power in the Reconstitution of the Chinese Realm,
200600, ed. Scott Pearce, Audrey Spiro, and Patricia Ebrey
(Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Asia Center, 2001), pp.
125148.
68. See Robert Sharf, Chinese Buddhism and the Cosmology

of Sympathetic Response, in his Coming to Terms with Chinese

Buddhism (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2002), pp.
77133.
69. An example of this belief was stated by the fifth-century
writer Wang Yan, who said, In the West there are two images, a
kyamuni and a Maitreya, that are as gloriously efficacious as
if they were real; the reason being that they possess the proper
body attributes (Soper, Literary Evidence, p. 270).
70. A Northern Wei example is General Yang Dayans inscription in Guyang Grotto; a Tang example is the Stele for the Yique
Buddha Shrine (Tiji, nos. 2023 and 0074).
71. The fact that there are no intrusive shrines in Binyang
Central dated to the Northern Wei suggests it was off-limits to
unofficial visitors. By contrast, Guyang Grotto was probably
open to all, as is implied by the statement made for the shrine
sponsored there by the nuns Fawen and Falong: We pray it may
cause all who pass by and see it to be saturated with the moisture
of the Dharma rain and all who offer worship to it to share in
unsurpassed joy (Mizuno and Nagahiro, Rymon sekkutsu no
kenky, v. 2, no. 606).
72. This suggests the ruin of the gift caused by the removal
of the imperial processions from the grotto. If the figures of
the emperor and empress are separated from the Buddhas by
thousands of miles, can the merit generated in the grotto still
be transferred to them? This is not to mention the violence to
the relief carvings themselves, which were shattered by their
removal from the walls, and the destruction of the grottos program and content.
73. John S. Strong, Merit: Buddhist Concepts, in Encyclope
dia of Religion, Mircea Eliade, editor in chief, 16 v. (New York:
Macmillan, 1987), v. 9, p. 383.
74. Mauss, The Gift, p. 10.
75. Ilana Silber, Modern Philanthropy: Reassessing the Viability of a Maussian Perspective, in Marcel Mauss: A Cente
nary Tribute, ed. Wendy James and N.J.Allen (New York and
Oxford: Berghahn Books, 1998), p. 138.
76. See John S. Strong, Rich Man, Poor Man, Bhikkhu, King:
Quinquennial Festival and the Nature of Dna, in Ethics,
Wealth, and Salvation: A Study in Buddhist Social Ethics, ed.
Russell F. Sizemore and Donald K. Swearer (Columbia, S.C.:
University of South Carolina Press, 1990), pp. 107 and 111; and
Reiko Ohnuma, Gift, in Critical Terms for the Study of Bud
dhism, ed. Donald S. Lopez, Jr. (Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 2005), pp. 115116.

Chapter 3: The Rhetoric of Expenditure

1. Yang Xuanzhi, Luoyang qielan ji, in Fan Xiangyong, Luo
yang qielan ji jiaozhu, preface, p. 1. For the sake of brevity, this
translation is adapted from A Record of Buddhist Monasteries
in Lo-yang, translated by Yi-tung Wang, p. 5, and Jacques Gern o t e s t o pa g e s 4 4 5 1 | 187

net, Buddhism in Chinese Society: An Economic History from the

Fifth to the Tenth Centuries (New York: Columbia University
Press, 1995), p. 232; however, it should be noted that the last line
actually reads: People competed in replicating the appearance
(of the Buddha) in the sky and contended in copying the shadow
(of the Buddha) in the (cave in the) mountains (of Nagarahra).
Yang refers to two famous Indian images of kyamuni: it was
believed that Buddha sent Rhula to manifest his appearance in
the sky to convert the king of Khotan (see Fan, Luoyang qielan
ji jiaozhu, ch. 5, p. 271; A Record of Buddhist Monasteries in Loyang, p. 221), and the shadow of the Buddha remained in the
stone in a cave at Nagarahra after he had vanquished a Nga
king (see Fan, Luoyang qielan ji jiaozhu, ch. 5, p. 341; A Record
of Buddhist Monasteries in Lo-yang, p. 244; Soper, Literary Evi
dence, pp. 265268).
2. Copying stras was one activity literate believers could do
themselves, without having to pay an artisan. Thanks to the illiterate majority, however, there was a brisk trade in stra copying
in small shops and homes in the neighborhoods around Buddhist monasteries, certainly by the Tang dynasty and perhaps
earlier, as suggested by the many Wei period stras found in the
sealed Cave 17 at Dunhuang. For example, see the reproductions
of Wei scrolls in Dunhuang yishu shufa xuan (Lanzhou: Gansu
renmin chubanshe, 1985), pp. 1146. See Wang Yuanjun, Tang
Stra Scribes and Stra Calligraphy, in Tangren shufa yu wen
hua (Taibei: Dongda tushu gongsi, 1995), pp. 127147.
3. The inscription is recorded in Tiji, no. 1741.
4. See Martin J. Powers, Social Incentives for the Consumption of Funerary Art, in Art and Political Expression in Early
China (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1991), pp. 136141.
5. A good example is the 147 C.E. inscription on the west
gate-pillar at the Wu Family shrines, in which the filial son Wu
Shigong and his younger brothers announced the cost of the
pillars as 150,000 cash. See Recarving Chinas Past, ed. Cary Y.
Liu, Michael Nylan, and Anthony Barbieri-Low (Princeton: The
Art Museum, 2005), no. 1.43 on p. 187.
6. In accord with the Longmen Grottoes Research Academys
scale: large grottoes are those that measure over 350 centimeters
in any one direction, small grottoes measure over one meter in
any direction, and small shrines are smaller than one meter. See
Longmen shiku diaoke, p. 19.
7. Tiji, no. 2024.
8. In Guyang Grotto, dated 520 (Tiji, no. 2322). See the translation by douard Chavannes in Mission archologique, v. 1, pt. 2,
pp. 504505.
9. Tiji, no. 1165, dated 533.
10. Tiji, no. 1741, dated 575.
11. Adapted from Gernet, Buddhism in Chinese Society, p. 234,
quoting Weishu, ch. 114, p. 3038.
12. Gernet, Buddhism in Chinese Society, pp. 271 and 276.
13. Kyoko Tokuno, The Book of Resolving Doubts Concern188 | n o t e s t o pa g e s 5 1 5 5

ing the Semblance Dharma, in Buddhism in Practice, ed. Donald S. Lopez, Jr. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995),
p. 262.
14. In Guyang Grotto, dated 519 (Tiji, no. 2316).
15. Figure 202, identified as Sculptured wall niche, Cave 13
(Sherman Lee, A History of Far Eastern Art, 5th ed. [New York:
Harry N. Abrams, 1994]).
16. Ibid., p. 159.
17. See the western half of the north wall in Liu Jinglong, ed.,
Lianhua dong: Longmen shiku di 712 ku/Lotus Cave: Cave 712
of Longmen Grottoes (Beijing: Kexue chubanshe, 2002), pl. 33,
an ink rubbing on p. 126, and the chart on p. 178, where Song
Jingfeis shrine is labeled as 54.
18. The inscription literally reads jian Mi shi le, which I take
to be a garbled version of jian Mile chushi, or to see Maitreya
manifest in the world, that is, to be reborn when Maitreya bo
dhisattva comes to earth to become the next Buddha and preach
to three great assemblies. See Foxue dacidian, ed. Ding Fubao
(1922, rpt. Shanghai: Shanghai shudian, 1991), p. 2764b.
19. Tiji, no. 1137.
20. An epitaph dated to 533 records the brief life of a married woman named Song Lingfei (513533), who held the title of
Lady of Guangping Commandery and was the eldest daughter
of Song Wei (Beijing tushuguan cang Zhongguo lidai shike taben
huibian, v. 5, pp. 177178). Lingfeis epitaph tells how she lost her
father and mother at an early age, after which she took care of her
younger sisters and then died, in Luoyang, at the age of twenty.
I suspect that Song Jingfei was a younger sister of Song Lingfei
by virtue of their rhyming names, their residence in Luoyang,
the premature death of their parents, and their apparent wealth.
For earlier plotting against Yuan Yi, Prince of Qinghe, Song Wei
was granted suicide in 525, just two years before Song Jingfeis
inscription for her parents. In 527, the elder sister Lingfei would
have been fourteen years old.
21. To cite a typical example, Empress Dowager Wenzhao was
thirteen when she entered the palace womens quarters as a concubine (see Weishu, ch. 13, p. 335).
22. The shrine, designated N16 on the north wall, is twentythree centimeters high, sixteen centimeters wide, and three centimeters deep. See Liu Jinglong and Yang Chaojie, eds., Longmen
shiku zonglu, 12 v. (Beijing: Zhongguo da baike quanshu chubanshe, 1999), v. 8, p. 68.
23. Zhu Zhunian sponsored this shrine N16 on the north wall,
another similar one on the south wall (S28, in Liu and Yang,
Longmen shiku zonglu, v. 8, p. 74), and possibly a third, since the
text of Tiji, no. 1715, is very similar to her two known dedications (Tiji, nos. 1679 and 1714) but is missing the patrons name.
The translation here is a combination of the texts of Tiji, no.
1679, which dedicates her shrine on the north wall, and no. 1714,
which dedicates her shrine on the south wall.
24. See Cao Erqin, Tang Changan de shangren yu shangye,

in Tangshi luncong, ed. Shi Nianhai (Xian: Shaanxi renmin chubanshe, 1987), v. 2, p. 128.
25. Tiji, no. 1840.
26. Tiji, v. 1, p. 60.
27. The two Northern Wei histories that mention Longmen,
The History of the Northern Wei and The Record of Monasteries
in Luoyang, both refer only to Stone Grotto Monastery and
Lingyan Monastery, which we know were not regular monasteries but simply Guyang Grotto and Binyang Central Grotto,
respectively. Although later records of repair for monasteries at
Longmen state there were eight Northern Wei monasteries in
the eastern hills at Longmen, there is no corroborating evidence
in the Northern Wei inscriptions at Longmen (Tiji, v. 1, p. 81).
The Longmen monastery names in the Longmen inscriptions
are all from the Tang (see Tiji, v. 1, p. 38 and pp. 8085).
28. Li Changshous story is told in the biography of his son, Li
Yansun, in Linghu Defen, Zhoushu (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju,
1974), ch. 43, p. 773.
29. Within an undecorated arched niche, sixty-six centimeters
high, a seated Buddha figure is flanked by disciples and bodhisattvas, under which are a group of three female worshipers with
three female servants on the left side facing three male worshipers on the right (reproduced in Longmen shiku, ed. Longmen
wenwu baoguansuo and Beijing daxue kaoguxi, v. 1, pl. 100; and
Liu and Yang, Longmen shiku zonglu, v. 8, pl. 421).
30. Tiji, no. 1712.
31. Gong Dazhong found the title director in the description
of the official roles for empresses and other women that opens
the biographies of the empresses in Weishu, ch. 13, p. 321. See
Gong Dazhong, Longmen shiku yishu, p. 152.
32. Tiji, no. 1855.
33. See Gregory Schopen, Whats in a Name: The Religious
Function of the Early Donative Inscriptions, in Buddhist Monks
and Business Matters (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press,
2004), pp. 382394.
34. Mizuno and Nagahiro, Rymon sekkutsu no kenky, v. 2,
no. 606.
35. An old ink rubbing shows three figures of nuns to the left
of the inscription and one to the right (Beijing tushuguan cang
Zhongguo lidai shike taben huibian, v. 3, p. 125); the stolen figure and inscription are now in a private collection, according to
Ishimatsu, Rymon sekkutsu koyd zz k, fig. 41.
36. Tiji, no. 1850. Yuan Xiangs Maitreya shrine is immediately
above Lady Yuchis on the north wall of Guyang Grotto.
37. See Liu and Yang, Longmen shiku zonglu, v. 9, p. 120, designated S205; Tiji, no. 2305.
38. Reading chongkuang for chongri because the character ri is
positioned as if it were a left-hand radical, while the remainder
of the character was never carved.
39. I use the transcription in Liu Jinglong, ed., Longmen er
shipin: Beike yu zaoxiang yishu, no. 20, in preference to Tiji, no.

934, and Liu Jinglong, ed., Longmen ershipin: Bei Wei beike zao
xiang juzhen, no. 20. See the translation by Chavannes in Mis
sion archologique, v. 1, pt. 2, p. 504. Chavannes translated kan
gong ba wan as le travail de sculpture (a cout) 80,000 (pieces
de monnaie). Much as I would like to agree, I see two problems.
First, that would mean Cixiangs small grotto cost one-tenth of
the three huge Binyang grottoes, which seems too expensive.
Second, the term ba wan, eighty thousand, is used in other
Longmen inscriptions as an abbreviated term for eighty-four
thousand (e.g., the Sishun Ward inscription of 648, Tiji, 0077).
Eighty-four thousand is an Indian notion signifying the total
number of units in a body, such as the eighty-four thousand
atoms in a human being, so I must regretfully conclude that by
eighty thousand Cixiang meant eighty-four thousand years,
that is, forever. See the examples from the Huayan jing quoted
in Foxue dacidian, v. 1, p. 141 xia.
40. The notion of the five obstacles is expressed in a number
of other scriptures as well. See Shi Yongming, Fojiao de nxing
guan (Gaoxiong: Foguang, 1990), p. 93 and n. 2. See also Masatoshi Ueki, Gender Equality in Buddhism (New York: Peter
Lang, 2001), ch. 6, The Three Types of Obedience and the Five
Obstacles for Women.
41. Translation adapted from Burton Watson, The Lotus Sutra
(New York: Columbia University Press, 1993), p. 188, with reference to Luis O. Gmez, The Land of Bliss: The Paradise of the
Buddha of Measureless Light (Honolulu: University of Hawaii
Press, 1996), p. 79.
42. For an example in Buddhist thought, see Foshuo Yuye n
jing, in Taish shinsh daizky, v. 2, no. 412, p. 864a, where the
Buddha says the law of womankind is that she has three obstacles to attaining enlightenment as herself. These are that when
she is small, her parents are the obstacle; when she is married,
her husband and lord is the obstacle; and when she is old, her
sons are the obstacle. For the Confucian statement that an unmarried woman obeys her father, a married woman obeys her
husband, and a widow obeys her son, see Yili, Sangfu, ch. 11, in
Shisan jing 1:611.
43. Watson, Vimalakirti Sutra, p. 92.
44. Ueki, Gender Equality in Buddhism, p. 73. The best-known
case of a bodhisattva assuming a certain form appropriate for
the needs and capacities of those who call on him is that of
Guanyin in the Lotus Stra, who assumes no less than seven different feminine forms to help female believers. See Robert Ford
Campany, The Earliest Tales of the Bodhisattva Guanshiyin,
in Religions of China in Practice, ed. Donald S. Lopez, Jr. (Prince
ton: Princeton University Press, 1996), p. 83.
45. What remains of the inscription, Tiji, no. 2371, reads:
In the...year...Cixiang [Huizheng] had made a Maitreya image...for the emperor [and empress dowager?]. I
pray that...world...parents...Buddha...all sentient beings...share this...[blessing]... Her shrine is designated S70
n o t e s t o pa g e s 5 5 5 9 | 189

in Liu and Yang, Longmen shiku zonglu, v. 9, p. 93 and pl. 58. At

eighty-seven centimeters high, it is large and detailed, containing a cross-ankled Maitreya on a lion throne, flanked by two
disciples and two bodhisattvas, and an inscription, flanked by
five worshiper figures.
46. Weishu, ch. 113, p. 3043, literally says the expenditure
for this work of merit was 802,366 but gives no unit of what
was spent. Alexander Soper supplied work-days, but Jacques
Gernet had cash (Soper, Literary Evidence, p. 102; Gernet,
Buddhism in Chinese Society, p. 15, n. 76). I agree with Caswells
argument that since the Zhengshi Monastery record (see below)
indicates cash, the figure in the record of the Binyang trio should
also be for cash (Caswell, Written and Unwritten, p. 190, n. 7).
47. See Weishu, ch. 110, pp. 2852 and 2866.
48. My estimate may be conservative compared to late-Han
practices. For example, in the year 158, a man named An Guo
paid 27,000 cash for a carved stone funerary shrine, and a family
in Qufu paid 50,000 cash for an engraved stone tomb, at a time
when salaries of officials ranged from 1,300 to 6,000 per month.
See Powers, Art and Political Expression in Early China, p. 134.
49. I derive this from Jenners estimate of their tax burden. See
Jenner, Memories of Loyang, p. 122.
50. Fan Xiangyong, Luoyang qielan ji jiaozhu, ch. 2, p. 99;
adapted from Record of Buddhist Monasteries in Lo-yang, pp.
9091.
51. Gustavo Benavides, Economy, in Critical Terms for the
Study of Buddhism, ed. Donald S. Lopez, Jr. (Chicago: University
of Chicago Press, 2005), p. 89.
52. See his biography in Weishu, ch. 67, p. 1499.
53. See his biography in ibid., ch. 66, p. 1473.
54. Yang Xuanzhi stated he only recorded the largest monasteries in Luoyang (Fan Xiangyong, Luoyang qielan ji jiaozhu,
preface, p. 2; Record of Buddhist Monasteries in Lo-yang, p. 7).
55. Empress Dowager Hus biography is in Weishu, ch. 13, pp.
337340. See the translation in Jennifer Holmgren, Empress
Dowager Ling of the Northern Wei and the To-pa Sinicization
Question, Papers on Far Eastern History 18 (1978): 160170.
56. See the biography of Hu Fanghui in Weishu, ch. 52, p.
1149.
57. See the biography of Hu Guozhen in ibid., ch. 83 xia, p.
1833.
58. Weishu, ch. 13, p. 337; Holmgren, Empress Dowager Ling,
pp. 160 and 163.
59. Weishu, ch. 108, pt. 4, p. 2806.
60. Jenner, Memories of Loyang, p. 66; Sima Guang, Zizhi
tongjian (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1956), ch. 148, p. 4614.
61. Sima Guang, Zizhi tongjian, ch. 148, p. 4618.
62. Weishu, ch. 83 xia, p. 1833.
63. See the biography of Hu Guozhen in Li Yanshou, Beishi
(Shanghai: Zhonghua shuju, 1936), ch. 80, p. 13a.
64. Weishu, ch. 83 xia, p. 1836.
190 | n o t e s t o pa g e s 5 9 6 4

65. Ibid., ch. 114, p. 3042.

66. See ibid., ch. 114, pp. 3037 and 3039, for descriptions of the
imperial activities at the Yongningsi in Pingcheng.
67. Fan Xiangyong, Luoyang qielan ji jiaozhu, ch. 1, pp. 12;
translation adapted from Jenner, Memories of Loyang, p. 148,
and Record of Buddhist Monasteries in Lo-yang, pp. 1516.
68. Yang Hongxun, Guanyu Bei Wei Luoyang Yongningsi
ta fuyuan caotu de shuoming. Yang Hongxuns reconstruction
drawing is also reproduced in Robert L. Thorp and Richard Vinograd, Chinese Art and Culture (New York: Harry N. Abrams,
2001), fig. 5-13. See also Su Bai, Luoyang diqu Beichao shiku de
chubu kaocha, in Longmen shiku, ed. Longmen wenwu baoguansuo and Beijing daxue kaoguxi, v. 1, pp. 236239.
69. Weishu, ch. 91, p. 1972.
70. See Qian Guoxiang, The Remaining Site and Artifacts of
the Northern Wei Luoyang Period Yongningsi Temple, in Miho
Museum, Rymon sekkutsu, pp. 150154.
71. Fan Xiangyong, Luoyang qielan ji jiaozhu, ch. 1, p. 5;
adapted from Record of Buddhist Monasteries in Lo-yang, p. 20.
72. Fan Xiangyong, Luoyang qielan ji jiaozhu, ch. 1, p. 46;
adapted from Record of Buddhist Monasteries in Lo-yang, p. 48.
Immortals palms refers to the dishes for collecting dew held
in the hands of statues of immortals.
73. Fan Xiangyong, Luoyang qielan ji jiaozhu, ch. 2, p. 94;
Record of Buddhist Monasteries in Lo-yang, pp. 8385. On these
invented titles being considered presumptuous, see Weishu, ch.
94, p. 2027.
74. Fan Xiangyong, Luoyang qielan ji jiaozhu, ch. 3, p. 140;
Jenner, Memories of Loyang, p. 210; Record of Buddhist Monas
teries in Lo-yang, p. 132.
75. Weishu, ch. 110, p. 2858.
76. Weishu, ch. 13, p. 338; translation adapted from Holmgren,
Empress Dowager Ling, p. 165.
77. Holmgren, Empress Dowager Ling, p. 133 and n. 11; Sima
Guang, Zizhi tongjian, ch. 149, pp. 46454646.
78. Weishu, ch. 9, p. 225.
79. Soper, Imperial Cave-Chapels of the Northern Dynasties, p. 247.
80. Ibid., p. 248.
81. Sima Guang, Zizhi tongjian, ch. 148, pp. 46284629.
82. The irony of Li Chong complaining about the expenditure
of money for Buddhist projects is too much to let pass without
comment. This is the same man who not only gave 200,000
cash for the Zhengshi Monastery but, through greed, injured
himself in the silk giveaway ordered by the empress dowager at
the eastern storehouse. Both he and Cui Guang never missed an
opportunity to lecture on Confucian morality to the empress
dowager, no doubt as a way to control this woman to whom they
had given so much power. The record suggests she never heeded
any of their memorials.
83. For the former view, see Li Wensheng, in Longmen shiku,

ed. Longmen wenwu baoguansuo and Beijing daxue kaoguxi,

v. 1, p. 277; for the latter, see Zhongguo shiku diaosu quanji, v.
4: Longmen, ed. Wen Yucheng, p. 15. Su Bai offered the perhaps
contradictory observations that the carving on the back wall of
the grotto was deliberately destroyed before the north and south
walls could be finished, sometime before 522 (Luoyang diqu
Beichao shiku de chubu kaocha, in Longmen shiku, v. 1, p. 227),
but also that the intrusive shrine by Hu Zhi was shattered under
the Western Wei dynasty when they took control of the Luoyang
area from 538 to 543 (p. 229 and n. 21).
84. The inscriptions are recorded in Tiji, nos. 25912611. An
ink rubbing of the figures and inscriptions is in Tiji, v. 2, p. 565,
and the sculpture is reproduced in Longmen shiku, ed. Longmen
wenwu baoguansuo and Beijing daxue kaoguxi, v. 1, pl. 182.
85. Su Bai seems to hint at such an attribution: The largest
nearly-oval large-scale rectangular grotto at LongmenHuoshao
was likely begun at the start of Emperor Xiaomings reign. The
Annals of Emperor Suzong in The History of the Northern Wei
record that in the fourth month of the second year of the Xiping
era (517 C.E.), on the yimao day, the Empress Dowager graced
the Stone Grotto Monastery at Yique and the same day returned
to the Palace. It is possible it could have appeared under these
conditions. See Luoyang diqu Beichao shiku de chubu kaocha, in Longmen shiku, ed. Longmen wenwu baoguansuo and
Beijing daxue ka0guxi, v. 1, p. 227.
86. This description of the grotto is taken from Longmen
shiku, ed. Longmen wenwu baoguansuo and Beijing daxue kao
guxi, v. 1, pp. 277278.
87. Longmen shiku diaoke, ed. Su Bai, Wen Yucheng, and Li
Wensheng, text p. 14 and catalogue p. 19 and pl. 57. For detailed
photographs, see Wen Yucheng, Longmen shiku zaoxiang de
xin faxian, Wenwu 1988, no. 4: 2126, figs. 2 and 3; and Liu Jing
long and Yang Chaojie, Longmen shiku zonglu, v. 10, pl. 244 and
246.
88. A good example, dated to 174, in the Freer Gallery is illustrated in Lee, A History of Far Eastern Art, pl. 92.
89. Those now in the Kaifeng Municipal Museum and the
Minneapolis Institute of Arts are reproduced in Eugene Y. Wang,
Coffins and Confucianism: The Northern Wei Sarcophagus in
the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Orientations 30, no. 6 (June
1999): 5664, figs. 4ab and 5.
90. Weishu, ch. 83 xia, pp. 18331834.
91. Sima Guang, Zizhi tongjian, ch. 149, pp. 46574658.
92. Tiji, nos. 2578, 2582, 2583, 2584, 2613, 2614, and 2615.
93. One was added in 532 (Tiji, no. 2616).
94. The Tiji transcription, no. 2580, does not account for all
the illegible characters at the top of the ink rubbing shown; each
full column should contain seven characters, not six. The shrine
is designated W16 in Liu Jinglong and Yang Chaojie, Longmen
shiku zonglu, v. 10, p. 40. Now ruined, it is 114 centimeters high,
80 centimeters wide, and 6 centimeters deep and contained a

seated Buddha, flanked by disciples, bodhisattvas, and guardians. The ceiling bears relief carvings of sixteen seated Buddhas,
Majur, disciples, and stories of the Buddhas life. The inscription is below the shrine.
95. Weishu, ch. 12, p. 304. Tsukamoto Zenry believed that
Jingsun and Zhonghua were Shanjians younger brothers (Mi
zuno and Nagahiro, Rymon sekkutsu no kenky, v. 1, p. 172).
96. Weishu, ch. 12, p. 297.
97. Compare it to Putai Grotto and Weizi Grotto, contemporaneous grottoes with the same plan, which lack a complex
program or similarly fine carving.
98. Tiji, no. 2628, in Grotto 1609. Other examples of long
inscriptions written by famous literati include Li Tais 1,700character inscription by Cen Wenben (595645) (Tiji, no. 74)
and Lady Nius 600-character inscription by Zhang Jiuling
(673740) on the north wall of the lower terrace of the Great
Vairocana Image Shrine (Tiji, no. 1634).
99. Weishu, ch. 69, pp. 15431544. See Sofukawa Hiroshi,
Rymon sekkutsu ni okeru hokuch zz no sho mondai,
in Chgoku chsei no bunbutsu, ed. Tonami Mamoru (Kyoto:
Kyto daigaku jinbun kagaku kenkysho, 1993), p. 198.
100. Chavannes, Mission archologique, v. 1, pt. 2, p. 508.
101. Sofukawa, Rymon sekkutsu ni okeru hokuch zz no
sho mondai, pp. 198199.
102. Huangfu Dus career is described at the end of Hu Guozhens biography in Li Yanshou, Beishi, ch. 80, p. 13ab.
103. This figure is now missing its head, which once bore a
conical hairstyle, as the photographs of 1935 made by Mizuno
and Nagahiro reveal. See Kim, Guanyu 6 shiji Zhongguo qi zun
xiang zhong de luoji xiang zhi yanjiu.
104. This pose of the foot is not unique to this grotto. It also
appears on the south wall Maitreya bodhisattva in Weizi Grotto
(reproduced in Longmen shiku, ed. Longmen wenwu baoguansuo and Beijing daxue kaoguxi, v. 1, pl. 89) and on the contemporaneous Maitreya bodhisattva long held in White Horse
Monastery of Luoyang and now belonging to the Museum of
Fine Arts, Boston (reproduced in Selected Masterpieces of Asian
Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston [Boston: Museum of Fine Arts,
1992], pl. 27).
105. This is convincingly argued in Junghee Lee, The Origins
and Development of the Pensive Bodhisattva Images of Asia,
Artibus Asiae 53 (1993), no. 3/4: 311357. For more freestanding
Chinese examples, see Xu Rucong, Pusa zhuang Shijia taizi
xiang, Shoucangjia 22 (April 1997): 4143.
106. See the chart in Liu Jinglong, Lianhua dong, p. 179 (where
it is no. 41 on the south wall), ink rubbings on pp. 163164, photographs in pl. 141, and text on p. 189.
107. This account of the First Meditation is taken from Lee,
The Origins and Development of the Pensive Bodhisattva Images, pp. 312313.
108. Two more examples are on the north wall of Weizi Grotto,
n o t e s t o pa g e s 6 4 6 9 | 191

reproduced in Longmen shiku, ed. Longmen wenwu baoguansuo

and Beijing daxue kaoguxi, v. 1, pl. 9293.
109. Nicole de Bisscop, in The Buddha in the Dragon Gate:
Buddhist Sculpture of the 5th9th Centuries from Longmen,
China, ed. Jan Van Alphen (Antwerp: Etnografisch Museum,
2001), p. 186.
110. Gu Yanfang, Huangfu Gong ku san bi kan xiang ji li fo
tu kaoshi, Dunhuang yanjiu 2001.4: 89.
111. A northerner said of the southern emperor, He does
not appear to have that elongated head [we associate with good
breeding] (Record of Buddhist Monasteries in Lo-yang, p. 114).
112. Here I read fangdeng (from Sofukawa, Rymon sekkutsu
ni okeru hokuch zz no sho mondai, p. 199) instead of fang
zhi (Tiji, no. 1133 transcription). For a reproduction of the Thousand Buddhas, see Longmen shiku, ed. Longmen wenwu baoguansuo and Beijing daxue kaoguxi, v. 1, pl. 4950. The patron
of Lianhua Grotto remains a mystery. Lianhua Grotto is about
two-thirds the size of Huoshao Grotto but is similar in having
a kyamuni pentad on the back wall and a deep rectangular
space. Lianhua Grottos earliest intrusive shrine is dated to 521,
so it may have been finished around the same time as Huoshao
Grotto. The prominent placement of the Thousand Buddhas
by the nuns of Zhongming Convent over the main figures in
the grotto suggests the patron of the grotto was someone in the
Huangfu or Hu clan, perhaps the empress dowagers father Hu
Guozhen or her sister, the Lady of Pingyi.
113. From Tiji, no. 1133, with reference to the ink rubbing reproduced in Sofukawa, Rymon sekkutsu ni okeru hokuch
zz no sho mondai, fig. 8.1. Lady Fans husband, Yuan Hao,
who inherited the title Prince of Beihai from his father Yuan
Xiang, was frequently on military campaign at this time, which
may explain why his wife lived with the Huangfu clan (see Wei
shu, ch. 21 shang, p. 564).
114. These may be nuns of Zhongming Convent, which Sofukawa suggests may have been patronized by the Huangfu clan
(Rymon sekkutsu ni okeru hokuch zz no sho mondai,
p. 200).
115. Gu Yanfang, Huangfu Gong ku san bi kan xiang ji li fo
tu kaoshi, p. 90.
116. Weishu, ch. 13, p. 340.
117. Gu Yanfang, Guanyu Longmen Weizidong de jidian
sikao, Zhongyuan wenwu 2002.5: 78.
118. The following account is taken from Sima Guang, Zizhi
tongjian, ch. 152, pp. 47374742.
119. Fan Xiangyong, Luoyang qielan ji jiaozhu, ch. 1, p. 12;
translation adapted from Jenner, Memories of Loyang, p. 162, and
Record of Buddhist Monasteries in Lo-yang, pp. 4041.
120. Fan Xiangyong, Luoyang qielan ji jiaozhu, preface, p. 2;
translation adapted from Record of Buddhist Monasteries in Loyang, p. 6.
121. Wang Zhenguo, Longmen shiku pohuai canji diaocha,
192 | n o t e s t o pa g e s 6 9 7 5

in Longmen liusan diaoxiang ji, p. 108, quoting from a manuscript by Guo Yutang called Luoyang guwu ji. The persecution
is described in Xue Juzheng, Jiu Wudai shi (Beijing: Zhonghua
shuju, 1976), ch. 115, pp. 15291531.
122. Wang Zhenguo, in Longmen liusan diaoxiang ji, p. 108,
with reference to Su Bai, Luoyang diqu Beichao shiku de chubu
kaocha, in Longmen shiku, ed. Longmen wenwu baoguansuo
and Beijing daxue kaoguxi, v. 1, p. 229 and n. 21.

Chapter 4: The Politics of Filial Piety

1. Kyoko Tokuno, The Book of Resolving Doubts Concerning
the Semblance Dharma, pp. 261262.
2. Although the inscription is hardly legible today, it was still
readable when it was recorded in Qinding Quan Tang wen, ed.
Dong Gao (Taipei: Huiwen shuju, 1972), ch. 150, as Longmen shan
san kan ji, or Record of the Three Grottoes at Longmen Mountain. I use here the transcription in Tiji, no. 0074.
3. This information is no longer on the stele but was recorded
by Ouyang Xiu (10071072) in his Jigulu bawei (N.p.: San zhang
wu zhao congshu, 1844), ch. 5, pp. 11b12a. For Cen Wenbens
biographies, see Liu Xu et al., Jiu Tang shu (Beijing: Zhonghua
shuju, 1975), ch. 70, pp. 25352539; and Ouyang Xiu and Song Qi,
Xin Tang shu (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1975), ch. 102. Cen died
at the age of fifty-one, faithfully following Emperor Taizong on
a military campaign to conquer Korea.
4. Liu Xu et al., Jiu Tang shu, ch. 51, pp. 21642167 and Ouyang
Xiu and Song Qi, Xin Tang shu, ch. 76, pp. 34703472.
5. According to Chavannes, Mission archologique, v. 1, pt. 2,
p. 335, n. 9, Mount Shalu collapsed in 646 B.C.E. (as reported in
The Spring and Autumn Annals, fourteenth year of Duke Xi).
This event gave rise to a prediction that 645 years later, a woman
of perfect virtues would appear. According to The History of the
Former Han Dynasty, it was said this prediction had come true
in the person of the wife of Emperor Yuan of Western Han (r. 6
B.C.E.1 C.E.), who was the aunt of the usurper Wang Mang (r.
923 C.E.). From this, the name Shalu came to evoke the idea of
the prediction of a perfect woman.
6. According to Chavannes, Mission archologique, v. 1, pt. 2,
p. 335, n. 10, the historian Sima Qian recorded that the legendary
Great Yu of the Xia dynasty married a daughter of the Prince of
Tushan. Hence Tushan also alludes to the notion of a virtuous
woman. Tushans appearance on the lacquer screen found in the
tomb of Sima Jinlong, datable to 484, indicates she was well known
as a paragon of feminine virtue. My thanks to Audrey Spiro for
this reference; see her Creating Ancestors, in Gu Kaizhi and the
Admonitions Scroll, Colloquies on Art and Archaeology in Asia,
no. 21 (London: British Museum Press, 2003), p. 57, color plate 14.
Perhaps most significantly to Li Tai, Tushan was the mother of Qi,
who succeeded his father Yu on the throne of Xia.
7. According to Chavannes, Mission archologique, v. 1, pt. 2,

p. 335, n. 11, Ode 6 of the Daya section of the Book of Odes says
the wife of King Wen of Zhou had the same fine reputation as
his mother.
8. A reference to the line for the hexagram kun (earth) in the
Book of Changes, the earth is generous and capable of supporting living things. Earth imagery was considered appropriate to
the empress, as was heaven imagery for the emperor.
9. According to Chavannes, Mission archologique, v. 1, pt. 2,
p. 336, n. 2, this alludes to the virtuous women celebrated in the
first odes in the Zhou nan and Shao nan sections that commence
the Book of Odes. They are also extolled in the Lun yu, ch. 17. See
Shisan jing 2:2086.
10. Heaven gave the wife of King Wen of the Zhou dynasty
to him on the bank of the River Wei. See Chavannes, Mission
archologique, v. 1, pt. 2, p. 336, n. 5, citing the Book of Odes,
Daya, Ode 6. Zhaoyang is the name of a palace the Han emperor
Cheng (r. 326 B.C.E.) built for his concubine Zhao Hede. See
Zhongwen dacidian, no. 14172.141, no. 2.
11. The first reference is to the story of Sudatta purchasing
Prince Jetas grove for the Buddha by covering it in gold coins
(Nirvn.a Stra, ch. 29). The second reference is to the spontaneous appearance of flowers when Prabhtaratnas stpa manifested itself in the sky above kyamuni (Lotus Stra, ch. 11).
Empress Zhangsun probably scattered flowers over portable
statues from a palace gate above them, as the Northern Wei emperors were said to have done. See Weishu, ch. 114, p. 3032.
12. King Prasenajit and Queen Mallik were believed to have
been contemporaries of the Buddha, while the identity of their
daughter is not so well established. See The Lions Roar of Queen
rml, trans. Alex Wayman and Hideko Wayman (New York:
Columbia University Press, 1974), p. 3. She is the heroine of the
well-known scripture The Lions Roar of Queen rml, and
the obvious point here is the comparison of Empress Zhangsun with these famous royal Indian women of the faith, to her
advantage.
13. Sima Guang, Zizhi tongjian, ch. 194, p. 6123. Howard
Wechsler interpreted this comment by Wei Zheng as meaning
that Wei was pointing out that Xianling was smaller than Zhao
ling as a criticism of Emperor Taizongs lack of filial piety, but I
think it was meant to redirect the emperors attention from his
personal sorrow over the death of his wife to the business of the
royal family, which was ruling the nation. See The Cambridge
History of China, volume 3: Sui and Tang China, 589906, Part
I, ed. Denis Twitchett and John K. Fairbank (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979), v. 3, p. 187.
14. This allusion to the fourth poem of the Odes of Wei was
identified by Chavannes, Mission archologique, v. 1, pt. 2, p. 338,
n. 10.
15. A borderland is a place where the Dharma is not encountered because sentient beings are spared from suffering.
See Gmez, The Land of Bliss, p. 287.

16. Luoyangs central location as the most appropriate site for

the rule of China was articulated in the first century B.C.E.: The
rulers of the Three Dynasties of antiquity had all situated themselves between the (Yellow) River and the Luo (River). See Sima
Qian, Shiji (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1959), ch. 28, p. 1371.
17. Chavannes, Mission archologique, v. 1, pt. 2, p. 340, n. 2,
describes how Lu Ban and Mo Di were famous for their ingenuity. A commentary to the Lshi chunqiu tells how Lu Ban, in
service to the king of Chu, attacked the ramparts of the capital
of Song nine times with all the resources of his talents as a strategist. Mo Di was the tireless and clever defender.
18. Mizuno and Nagahiro, Rymon sekkutsu no kenky, v. 1,
p. 11. They followed the earlier theory put forward by Tadashi
Sekino.
19. Though not the first to connect Li Tais inscription to the
Binyang South Grotto, Zhang certainly made the most thorough argument. See his Yique fokan zhi bei he Qianxisi, Binyang dong. See also Wang Qufei, Guanyu Longmen shiku de
jizhong xin faxian ji qi youguan wenti, Wenwu cankao ziliao
1955.2: 120127.
20. In my article Early Tang Imperial Patronage at Longmen, Ars Orientalis 24 (1994): 6581, I accepted Zhang Ruoyus
theory that the project involved both grottoes, and it seemed to
me that Li Tai had deliberately attempted to match the finishing
of Binyang South to Binyang Central to make a pair of grottoes.
As a result of more intensive study of the revised transcription
of Li Tais inscription (Tiji, no. 0074), however, I no longer agree
that Binyang Central was involved.
21. Also on the south wall is shrine S60, dedicated by the
Huainan princess, a sister of Emperor Taizong (Tiji, no. 0183).
The shrine is sixty-four centimeters high and contains a single
standing bodhisattva. See Liu Jinglong and Yang Chaojie, Long
men shiku zonglu, v. 1, p. 76 and pl. 441.
22. Tiji, no. 0076.
23. See Wen Yucheng, Longmen Tang ku painian, in Long
men shiku, ed. Longmen wenwu baoguansuo and Beijing daxue
kaoguxi, v. 2, p. 175.
24. See Mizuno and Nagahiro, Rymon sekkutsu no kenky,
v. 1, pp. 2728; Longmen shiku, ed. Longmen baoguansuo (Beijing: Wenwu, 1958), p. 3; Gong Dazhong, Longmen shiku yishu,
pp. 122123; Marylin M. Rhie, Late Sui Buddhist Sculpture: A
Chronology and Regional Analysis, Archives of Asian Art 35
(1982): 33.
25. Wen Yucheng, Longmen Tang ku painian, in Longmen
shiku, ed. Longmen wenwu baoguansuo and Beijing daxue kao
guxi, v. 2, p. 176.
26. Sima Guang, Zizhi tongjian, ch. 194, p. 6120.
27. Xiuzi literally means cultivator of sons, so perhaps Jiang
was the nanny for the princess or her children.
28. Tiji, no. 0149. Shrine S19 is 64 centimeters high, 50 centimeters wide, and 6 centimeters deep, containing a seated crossn o t e s t o pa g e s 7 5 8 3 | 193

legged Buddha flanked by two standing bodhisattvas, with the

inscription below. The carving is fairly simple. See Liu Jinglong
and Yang Chaojie, Longmen shiku zonglu, v. 1, p. 70 and pl. 397.
29. Tiji, no. 0151. Shrine S25 has the same composition as S19
but is a little smaller, at forty-three centimeters in height. See
Liu Jinglong and Yang Chaojie, Longmen shiku zonglu, v. 1, pp.
7172 and pl. 403.
30. Tiji, no. 0150. Lus is a modestly carved shrine, forty-four
centimeters high, containing a seated cross-legged Buddha
flanked by two standing bodhisattvas, designated S24. See Liu
Jinglong and Yang Chaojie, Longmen shiku zonglu, v. 1, p. 71
and pl. 402. It is immediately to the west of S25, sponsored by
Zhu Putou, wet-nurse for the children of the Yuzhang princess.
Cens is Tiji, no. 0152, identified in Liu and Yang, Longmen shiku
zonglu, v. 1, pp. 7273 and pl. 410 as a single shrine, S32, containing a seated cross-legged Buddha flanked by two standing
bodhisattvas.
31. Tiji, no. 0077. The shrine is reproduced in Liu Jinglong and
Yang Chaojie, Longmen shiku zonglu, v. 1, pl. 572; and Zhongguo
shiku diaosu quanji, v. 4: Longmen, ed. Wen Yucheng, pl. 95.
32. See the map of the outer city of Luoyang in Xu Song, Tang
liang jing cheng fang kao (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1985), front
matter.
33. As proof that Li Tai finished the main figures in Binyang
South in 641, Okada Ken argues for the stylistic similarity of
four shrines in Binyang South that he dates to 648: the Sishun
Ward Shrine, the large standing Udayana-type Buddha and
the large seated Buddha pentad on the north wall, and the gigantic shrine on the south wall. See Okada Ken, Rymon sekkutsu sho-T sz ronsono ichi, Bukky geijutsu 171 (March
1987): 95100.
34. On the sculpture at this site, see Sakai Takashi, Shintsji
senbutsu gake no tdai shoki zz ni tsuite, Bukky geijutsu
159 (1985): 6376.
35. See F.S.Drake, The Shen-tung Monastery and the Beginning of Buddhism in Shantung, Monumenta Serica 4
(19391940): 5.
36. Simenta yu Shentongsi, ed. Jinan shi bowuguan (Beijing:
Wenwu, 1981), p. 11.
37. Ibid., p. 16.
38. See Liu Xu et al., Jiu Tang shu, ch. 76, pp. 2647 and 2665;
Ouyang Xiu and Song Qi, Xin Tang shu, ch. 80, p. 3579.
39. On the Nanping princess, see Ouyang Xiu and Song Qi,
Xin Tang shu, ch. 83, p. 3645. On Liu Xuanyi, see Liu Xu et al., Jiu
Tang shu, ch. 58, p. 2313, and Xin Tang shu, ch. 90, p. 3768. Sponsorship of Buddhist projects while serving as the local prefect
was not unusual for the children of Emperor Taizong. Li Zhen,
Prince of Yue, sponsored a pagoda for an illustrious Buddhist
master at Baoshan, near Anyang, Henan Province, in 647, while
serving as prefect of Xiangzhou (see Ouchi Humio, Hzan reisenji sekkutsu tmei no kenky [A Study of the Buddhist Pa194 | n o t e s t o pa g e s 8 3 8 8

goda Inscriptions in the Baoshan Lingquansi Grottoes], Th

gakuh 69 (1997): 337).
40. Yan Wenru, Zhongguo shiku yishu zonglun (Tianjin: Tianjin guji chubanshe, 1987), p. 344.
41. On Taizongs apparent conversion, see Stanley Weinstein,
Buddhism under the Tang (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1987), pp. 2627.
42. Yan Wenru, Zhongguo shiku yishu zonglun, pp. 343344,
n. 20.
43. Tiji, no. 0164, mistakenly cited as on the south wall.
44. See Li Wensheng, Longmen shiku de xin faxian ji qita,
Wenwu 1980.1: 15.
45. Tiji, no. 0208.
46. His earliest extant work possesses an atypical angularity that may represent an early manner or an attempt to echo
Northern Wei style. Chus characteristic fluid style is seen in his
most famous work, the Preface to the Holy Teachings (Sheng jiao
xu), composed by Emperor Taizong to introduce the translation
activities of the great Buddhist pilgrim Xuanzang. This stele of
653 can still be seen, set into the wall by the doorway to the Great
Wild Goose Pagoda in Xian. For a reproduction of an ink rubbing, see Nakata Yujiro, Chinese Calligraphy (New York: Weatherhill/Tankosha, 1983), pl. 38. See Chus biographies in Liu Xu et
al., Jiu Tang shu, ch. 80, pp. 27292739; Ouyang Xiu and Song
Qi, Xin Tang shu, ch. 105, pp. 40254029.
47. Sima Guang, Zizhi tongjian, ch. 194, p. 6119.
48. See Chengqians biographies in Liu Xu et al., Jiu Tang shu,
ch. 76, pp. 26482649; and Ouyang Xiu and Song Qi, Xin Tang
shu, ch. 80, pp. 35643565.
49. The earliest Tang dynasty dedications at Longmen were
made in 637, when the emperor returned to Luoyang for the first
time. The earliest is Grotto 118, a large, shallow shrine carved at
the base of the cliff face between Binyang North and Binyang
Central grottoes, dedicated on the Stele of the Buddha by the
Elders of Luozhou City (Tiji, no. 0048). An early-twentiethcentury photograph is reproduced in Tokiwa Daij and Sekino
Tadashi, Shina bukky shiseki, 6 v. text and 6 v. portfolios
(Tokyo: Bukky shiseki kenkykai, 19261931), v. 2, pl. 55, no. 1,
while modern photographs of the shrine and its inscription are
found in Liu Jinglong and Yang Chaojie, Longmen shiku zonglu,
v. 1, pl. 213214. The other is a large Maitreya shrine in the Cleft
Grotto (Poyao, Grotto 1069), dedicated by Great Consort Liu,
a consort of Emperor Gaozu (r. 618626) (reproduced in Long
men shiku, ed. Longmen wenwu baoguansuo and Beijing daxue
kaoguxi, v. 2, pl. 107). It is no. 82 in Liu and Yang, Longmen shiku
zonglu, v. 7, p. 9, and the inscription is given in Tiji, no. 1466.
50. Liu Xu et al., Jiu Tang shu, ch. 3, p. 53.
51. Ibid., ch. 76, pp. 26482649; Ouyang Xiu and Song Qi, Xin
Tang shu, ch. 80, p. 3564.
52. Ouyang Xiu and Song Qi, Xin Tang shu, ch. 80, p. 3571.
53. Grotto 1499; Tiji, no. 2539. Now empty, the grotto is 110

centimeters high, 90 centimeters wide, and 80 centimeters deep.

For reproductions of it and the inscription, see Liu Jinglong and
Yang Chaojie, Longmen shiku zonglu, v. 10, pl. 131132. For her
epitaph, see Sofukawa Hiroshi, Tangdai Longmen shiku zao
xiang de yanjiu, trans. Yen Chan-ying, Yishuxue 8 (Sept. 1992):
101, n. 261.
54. Liu Xu et al., Jiu Tang shu, ch. 77, p. 2679.

Chapter 5: Cnasthna Preserves the Dharma

1. Taish shinsh daizky, v. 16, no. 694, p. 791a.
2. For these statistics, see the charts in Tiji, v. 1, pp. 6870.
Eight dated figures labeled Wuliangshou (Amityus) were made
in Northern Wei, but none called Amituofo (Amitbha). At
Longmen, any Tang Buddha with two bodhisattvas who lacks
disciple figures is likely Amitbha with Avalokitevara and
Mahsthmaprpta.
3. Around the year 400, the pilgrim Faxian described the
Buddhist establishment of the country of Udyna (anciently
northwest India, now northern Pakistan) as very flourishing,
while Xuanzang described it, around 630, as now generally
waste and desolate. See Samuel Beal, trans., Si-yu-ki: Buddhist
Records of the Western World (London: Kegan Paul, 1884), pt. 1,
pp. xxxx xxi and p. 120. The translation of Lianhua mian jing by
Narendrayaas contained a description of Mihirakulas persecution of Buddhism. See Jamie Hubbard, Absolute Delusion, Perfect
Buddhahood: The Rise and Fall of a Chinese Heresy (Honolulu:
University of Hawaii Press, 2001), p. 62, n. 24; and Jan Nattier,
Once Upon a Future Time: Studies in a Buddhist Prophecy of De
cline (Berkeley: Asian Humanities Press, 1991), pp. 111117.
4. Hubbard, Absolute Delusion, p. 17. This apocalyptic mindset was much influenced by the messianic trend of contemporaneous Daoism.
5. See Nattier, Once Upon a Future Time, pp. 65118.
6. See, for example, Jan Nattier, A Prophecy of the Death of
the Dharma, in Buddhism in Practice, ed. Donald S. Lopez, Jr.
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995), pp. 249256; and
Tokuno, The Book of Resolving Doubts Concerning the Semblance Dharma.
7. Nanyue Si Dachanshi li shi yuan wen, Taish shinsh
daizky, no. 1933, pp. 786bff. Huiyuan (523592), the Dilun
School thinker, also wrote on the decline of the Dharma and
agreed with Huisis dating of the three periods (Wuliangshou
jing yi shu, Taish shinsh daizky, no. 1745, p. 116a), and Jizang (549623), a Sanlun school exegete, scoured the scriptures to collect all possible dating schemes for the decline of the
Dharma (Zhong guan lun shu, Taish shinsh daizky, no. 1824,
p. 18ac).
8. This is the timetable found in the Yue zang fen. See Hubbard, Absolute Delusion, p. 72, n. 52.
9. Hubbard, Absolute Delusion, p. 65.

10. Tiji, no. 0077.

11. The earliest records of these semilegendary events are
found in the late Han Mouzi Li huo lun, the Preface to the Stra
in Forty-two Sections, and the Scripture on Laozi Converting the
Barbarians. Emperor Ming of the Han dynasty (r. 5875) had a
dream in which a golden man appeared, sixteen feet tall, flying
in front of the palace. His body glowed with a brilliant light. The
next day, the emperor asked his courtiers for an interpretation
of this dream. One informed him that in India there was an enlightened being who flew through the air and whose body glowed
with light. Foreigners called this deity Buddha. The emperor sent
Zhang Qian and others as envoys to seek him. In later versions,
such as Wang Yans late-fifth-century Ming xiang ji, the envoys,
now headed by Cai Yin instead of the anachronistic Zhang
Qian (2nd c. B.C.E.), returned with the Indian monks Kyapa
.
Mtanga and Dharmaratna, with scriptures and images borne
on a white horse. The emperor set up White Horse Monastery in
Luoyang to house them while they translated the scriptures. To
believers, these stories signified the entrance of Buddhism into
China. For a thorough discussion of the many versions, see Tang
Yongtong, Han Wei Liang Jin Nanbeichao fojiao shi, 2 v. (Taibei:
Foguang, 2001), v. 1, pp. 2126. The golden man and white
horse stories are conflated by Yang Xuanzhi in his Record of
the Monasteries of Luoyang. See Fan Xiangyong, Luoyang qielan
ji jiaozhu, pp. 197198, n. 2. The present inscription makes it
clear that the conflated version was in the minds of early Tang
believers.
12. One exception to this generalization is a dedication of 525
in which a nun prayed for the release of those resting in hell or
reborn as hungry ghosts (Grotto 870, Tiji, no. 1333).
13. Maitreya is to attain enlightenment under the nga tree, a
fine point lost on believers such as the author of this inscription.
See Padmanabh S. Jaini, Stages in the Bodhisattva Career of the
Tathgata Maitreya in Maitreya, the Future Buddha, ed. Alan
Sponberg and Helen Hardacre (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988), p. 74.
14. Grotto 1049 is high up the cliff face directly over the entrance to the Zhao Keshi Grotto (no. 138). Its round-arch entryway is about a meter high, and the faade is visible in Longmen
shiku, ed. Longmen wenwu baoguansuo and Beijing daxue kao
guxi, v. 2, pl. 105.
15. Lady Li died later in 683. For her epitaph, see Beijing tushu
guan cang Zhongguo lidai shike taben huibian, v. 17, p. 16. See
also Li Yukun, Longmen beike yanjiu, in Longmen shiku yanjiu
lunwenxuan, ed. Longmen shiku yanjiusuo, p. 215; Zhang Naizhu, Cong Longmen zaoxiang shiji kan Wu Zetian yu Tangdai
fojiao zhi guanxi, Shijie zongjiao yanjiu 1989.1: 47; and Luoyang
shi zhi, volume 15: Baimasi, Longmen shiku zhi, ed. Luoyang shi
difang shizhi bianzuan weiyuanhui (Zhengzhou: Zhongzhou
guji chubanshe, 1996), p. 247.
16. An ink rubbing is reproduced in Tiji, v. 2, p. 328.
n o t e s t o pa g e s 8 9 9 2 | 195

17. The reference to the deva-garment is an allusion to the

passage in the Mahprajpramit stra that says, If a great
stone, let it be one, two, or even forty li square, be brushed with
a fine-weight deva-garment once in a hundred years until the
stone be worn away, the kalpa would still be unfinished. See
Foxue dacidian, v. 1, 468 xia.
18. Tiji, no. 1443. The same sentiments are expressed in Tiji,
no. 1467, for a kyamuni shrine sponsored by a group of brothers in 654.
19. For a survey of beliefs about being reborn with Maitreya,
see Jan Nattier, The Meanings of the Maitreya Myth, in Mai
treya, the Future Buddha, pp. 2347.
20. This scheme comes from chapter 3 of the Abhidharmakoa
stra, written by Vasubandhu around the fifth century. See Nattier, Once Upon a Future Time, pp. 1516.
21. Nattier, Meanings of the Maitreya Myth, p. 27.
22. Ibid., p. 46, n. 60.
23. This sentiment concerning icons was the same with regard to the scriptures. Tang Yong, the Northern Qi sponsor of
the stone-carved scriptures at Northern Xiangtangshan, wrote,
Since writing silk gets ruined and bamboo strips do not last
long, while gold tablets are hard to find and vellum and paper
are easy to destroy...I have engraved (the scriptures) upon this
famous mountain (Fangshan Yunjusi shijing [Beijing: Wenwu
chubanshe, 1978], p. 2).
24. Tiji, no. 1475.
25. See the epitaphs of Xing Wei (d. 514), Helian Ziyue (d.
573), and Fan Cui (d. 575), for example, transcribed in Han Wei
Nanbeichao muzhi huibian, ed. Zhao Chao (Tianjin: Tianjin guji
chubanshe, 1992), pp. 78, 463, 470. My thanks to Robert Harrist for bringing out this point with these examples in his The
Landscape of Words: Stone Inscriptions from Early and Medieval
China (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2007).
26. Tiji, no. 2830, dated 791.
27. Tiji, no. 1129, dated 696.
28. Beal, Si-yu-ki, v. 2, p. 116.
29. See Jessica Rawson, Mysteries of Ancient China: New Dis
coveries from the Early Dynasties (London: British Museum
Press, 1996).
30. Wu Hung, The Prince of Jade Revisited: The Material
Symbolism of Jade as Observed in Mancheng Tombs, in Chi
nese Jades, Colloquies on Art and Archaeology in Asia, no. 18,
ed. Rosemary E. Scott (London: Percival David Foundation of
Chinese Art, 1977), pp. 147170. For another view, see Miranda
Brown, Did the Early Chinese Preserve Corpses? A Reconsideration of Elite Conceptions of Death, Journal of East Asian
Archaeology 4, nos. 14 (2003): 201223.
31. See Katherine R. Tsiang, Monumentalization of Buddhist
Texts in the Northern Qi Dynasty: The Engravings of Stras in
Stone at Xiangtangshan and Other Sites in the Sixth Century,

196 | n o t e s t o pa g e s 9 2 9 7

Artibus Asiae 56 (1996), no. 3/4: 253254; Tiji, v. 1, pp. 3536; and
Fangshan Yunjusi shijing, p. 1.
32. See Robert E. Harrist, Jr., The Virtual Stele on Tieshan
and the Engraved Stras of Shandong Province, Oriental Art
49, no. 4: 213.
33. See Tokiwa Daij, Sangaiky no bodai toshite no Hzanji, Shky kenky 4, no. 1 (1927): 2556; and Ouchi Humio,
Hzan reisenji sekkutsu tmei no kenky.
34. Fangshan Yunjusi shijing, p. 3. See also Lothar Ledderose,
Thunder Sound Cave, in Between Han and Tang: Visual and
Material Culture in a Transformative Period, ed. Wu Hung (Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, 2003), pp. 235265.
35. Fangshan Yunjusi shijing, pp. 23.
36. See Li Yukun, Longmen shiku xin faxian Wang Xuance
zaoxiang tiji, Wenwu 1976.11: 94.
37. Tiji, no. 0145. Shrine W20 is 100 centimeters high, 50 centimeters wide, and 20 centimeters deep. The inscription is on
the south side of the niche. See Liu Jinglong and Yang Chaojie,
Longmen shiku zonglu, v. 1, p. 49.
38. This narrative is taken from Tiji, v. 1, pp. 5556.
39. Feng Chengjun, Wang Xuance shiji, Qinghua xuebao 8,
no. 1 (1932): 13.
40. The text of the inscription is preserved in Qinding Quan
Tang wen, ch. 162.
41. This information comes from a cliff inscription in Chinese titled Record of the Great Tang Envoys to India Leaving
(China), discovered in 1990 about five kilometers north of Gyi
rong, Tibet, just seventy kilometers from the border with Nepal.
See Huo Wei, Da Tang Tianzhu shi chu ming ji qi xiangguan
wenti de yanjiu, Th gakuh 66 (1994): 253270.
42. Feng Chengjun, Wang Xuance shiji, p. 10; Sun Xiushen,
Wang Xuance shiji gouchen (Urumqi: Xinjiang renmin chubanshe, 1998), p. 279.
43. Liu Xu et al., Jiu Tang shu, ch. 46, p. 2016. The erstwhile
existence of the three volumes of drawings is recorded by the
ninth-century writer Zhang Yanyuan in Lidai minghua ji (Beijing: Jinghua chubanshe, 2000), ch. 3, section 5, p. 41.
44. Xuanzhao was said to have vowed it would be his lifes regret if he did not see the Mahbodhi Monastery image. When he
got there, he circumambulated the Diamond Throne. See Yijing,
Da Tang xiyou qiufa gaoseng zhuan, Taish shinsh daizky, v.
51, no. 2066, pp. 12.
45. Daoshi, Fayuan zhulin, ch. 29, Taish shinsh daizky,
no. 2122, pp. 502c503a. Translation adapted from Acker, Some
Tang and Pre-Tang Texts, v. 1, pp. 337342.
46. See Beal, Si-yu-ki, v. 2, pp. 120121; and Acker, Some Tang
and Pre-Tang Texts, v. 1, pp. 334337.
47. In the Stra of the Buddha of Measureless Life, for example,
Maitreya and kyamuni discuss the paradise of Amitbha. See
Gmez, The Land of Bliss, pp. 217219.

48. See Feng Chengjun, Wang Xuance shiji, p. 12, quoting

chapter 10 of Da Tang Daciensi Sanzang Fashi zhuan. Xu Song
recorded the existence of the Jiashou Palace but did not know its
location. See Tang liang jing cheng fang kao, ch. 1, p. 7.
49. Zhipan, Fozu tongji, ch. 39. Yijings remains were interred
in a pagoda on a high ridge north of Longmen. See Longmen
shiku, ed. Longmen wenwu baoguansuo and Beijing daxue kao
guxi, v. 2, p. 232, quoting Song Gaoseng zhuan, ch. 1.
50. Luo Shiping, Guangyuan Qianfoya Puti rui xiang kao,
Gugong xueshu jikan 9, no. 2: 117138. This is in contrast to the
view that this is an Esoteric Mahvairocana figure. For a discussion of this issue, see Chang Qing, Shi lun Longmen chu Tang
mijiao diaoke, Kaogu xuebao 2001.3: 354356. Janice Leoshko
notes that the Buddha in bhmispara mudr at the Mahbodhi
Monastery does not appear in a jeweled form there until the
eleventh century, but she does not dispute Xuanzangs description of the statue he saw as jeweled. See Janice Leoshko, Pilgrimage and the Evidence of Bodhgayas Images, in Function
and Meaning in Buddhist Art, ed. K.R.van Kooij and H.van der
Veere (Groningen: Egbert Forsten, 1995), pp. 4557.
51. This statue was displayed in the United States in the China:
Dawn of a Golden Age exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum
of Art, New York, in the winter of 20042005. Additionally, Luo
demonstrates this type of icon was also reproduced in Sichuan.
See Luo Shiping, Sichuan Tangdai fojiao zaoxiang yu Changan
yangshi, Wenwu 2000.4: 53.
52. An example of this kind of birth by transformation
(huasheng) is the future rebirth on earth of bodhisattvas now
residing in the Tus.ita Heaven, probably represented around the
statue in Jingai Monastery.
53. Translation adapted from Acker, Some Tang and Pre-Tang
Texts, v. 1, pp. 307310.
54. With the exception of the transitional (that is, commonly seen in Northern Qi sculpture) pendant-legged Maitreyas
in bodhisattva costume in the Wu Shangxi grotto (Grotto 308)
of 659 and another outside Binyang South Grotto. See Okada
Ken, Rymon sekkutsu sho-T sz ronsono ni, Bukky
geijutsu 186 (Sept. 1989): 105107, figs. 5354, 58.
55. There is an early Tang grotto, ca. 650674, at Longmen
with a three Maitreyas program (Longmen shiku, ed. Longmen wenwu baoguansuo and Beijing daxue kaoguxi, v. 2, p.
185) and a small early Tang shrine on the north wall of the Cleft
Grotto with three Maitreya Buddhas. See the reproduction in
Zhang Naizhu, Longmen fojiao zaoxiang, p. 159. I agree with
Ackers reading of the program, based on Matsumoto Eiichis
study of several Maitreya Pure Land scene murals in Caves
117, 8, 74, and 12 at Dunhuang, in which he concluded they all
represented Maitreya Buddha preaching on earth (Tonk ga
no kenky of 1937, quoted in Acker, Some Tang and Pre-Tang
Texts, v. 1, pp. 347350). In the Dunhuang murals, a large crowd

is centered on an enthroned figure of Maitreya, who makes the

vitarka mudr (thumb and forefinger touching), indicating he
is preaching. In the background are mountain ranges and the
city of Ketumat, where Maitreya will be reborn on earth, and
.
in the foreground is King ankha, the cakravartin under whose
reign Maitreya will be born, and the house of Maitreyas Brahmin parents. Some murals have cartouches identifying the subject matter, all of which are based on the Maitreya-vykaran. a
Stra, which describes Maitreyas advent on earth. In one late
Tang example, on the south wall of Cave 12, groups of men and
women are depicted converting to Buddhism and taking the
tonsure as Maitreya preaches, while in a series of panels below
the main composition are scenes from the life of Maitreya on
earth. See Dunhuang shiku yishu: Mogaoku di jiu ku, di yier ku,
ed. Duan Wenjie (Nanjing: Jiangsu meishu chubanshe, 1994), pl.
132, 141145. Acker made the further observation that Maitreya
sits under a tree, often symbolized by a baldachin covered with
blossoms, and that the murals also contain two seated Buddha
figures flanking the main seated Maitreya image. Actually, in
Cave 12, the two flanking figures are dressed as bodhisattvas,
not Buddhas, but their pendant-legged posture is that of Maitreya Buddha. Acker concluded that each of the three enthroned
figures represented Maitreya and that the subject was Maitreya
Preaching to the Three Assemblies. Based on this identification
from the Dunhuang murals, he suggested the Jingai Monastery
program consisted of one central Maitreya seated under a tree
flanked by two Maitreyas and was intended to represent Maitreya Preaching to the Three Assemblies (Some Tang and PreTang Texts, v. 1, pp. 351352).
56. Wang Pu (922982), Tang hui yao (Taibei: Shijie shuju,
1968), ch. 48, p. 848.
57. See, for example, the biography of the nun Zhisheng
(427492), who decided on the religious life at the age of six,
in Kathryn Ann Tsai, trans., Lives of the Nuns: Biographies of
Chinese Buddhist Nuns from the Fourth to Sixth Centuries (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1994), p. 73.
58. See Foxue dacidian, v. 2, p. 2444a.
59. Acker, Some Tang and Pre-Tang Texts, v. 1, p. 307.
60. See Li Xians biography in Liu Xu et al., Jiu Tang shu, ch.
7, pp. 135151.
61. The Maitreya shrine of Great Consort Liu, consort of the
late emperor Gaozu (r. 618626) and the mother of Li Yuanqing,
Prince of Dao (b. ca. 620664), was the first shrine carved in the
Cleft Grotto (Podong, or Poyao, Grotto 1069), one of the large
natural caves at Longmen. Situated prominently on the back
wall, the seated Maitreya is nearly one meter high. See Long
men shiku, ed. Longmen wenwu baoguansuo and Beijing daxue
kaoguxi, v. 2, pl. 107; Liu Jinglong and Yang Chaojie, Longmen
shiku zonglu, v. 7, p. 9, no. 82; Tiji, no. 1466.
62. For Faxian, see Beal, Si-yu-ki, v. 1, p. xxx; for Xuanzang,

n o t e s t o pa g e s 9 7 9 9 | 197

see ibid., v. 1, p. 134. See also Alexander Soper, Literary Evidence,

pp. 268270.
63. Marylin Rhie has written that though the source of the
style of these Buddhas may ultimately be the Srnth school,
the particular details seem to be closer to the special interpretation of that school in the sculptures of Southeast Asia dating
from ca. 6th7th century. See Marylin M. Rhie, Interrelation
ships between the Buddhist Art of China and the Art of India and
Central Asia from 618755 A.D. (Naples: Istituto universitario
orientale, 1988), p. 42.
64. On most of the figures, the hands are ruined, but they
remain readable on the figure in Grotto 440, dedicated to his
late wife by Shen Bao (or Nang), reproduced in Longmen shiku,
ed. Longmen wenwu baoguansuo and Beijing daxue kaoguxi, v.
2, p. 184, fig. 46 and pl. 50.
65. For the former, see Inamoto Yasuo, Aiku z tden
kChgoku sho-Tki o chshin ni, Th gakuh 69 (1997):
374377. A good example of the latter is Grotto 332. See Okada
Ken, Rymon sekkutsu sho-T sz ronsono ni, fig. 52.
66. Tiji, no. 0338, in Grotto 306.
67. Translated by Faxian (active ca. 399416) and the Western
monk Buddhabhadra; adapted from Soper, Literary Evidence,
p. 261.
68. See Latter Days of the Law: Images of Chinese Buddhism,
8501850 (Lawrence, Kans.: Spencer Museum of Art/Honolulu:
University of Hawaii Press, 1994), cat no. 1, pp. 221225. On
page 222, please emend Marco Polo to Bole.
69. Carter, The Mystery of the Udayana Buddha; Caswell,
Written and Unwritten, p. 41.
70. Gregory Henderson and Leon Hurvitz, The Buddha of
Seiryji: New Finds and New Theory, Artibus Asiae 19 (1956),
no. 1: 555.
71. See the article by my student Hsieh Shihying, Longmen
shiku de Youtianwang zaoxiangbie yu Riben Qingliangsi
zhi Youtianwang zaoxiang, Lishi wenwu 6, no. 2 (April 1996):
2639.
72. Sofukawa Hiroshi, Tangdai Longmen shiku zaoxiang de
yanjiu, pp. 193194; Inamoto, Aiku z tden kChgoku
sho-Tki o chshin ni, pp. 362368; Hida Romi, Sho-T jidai
ni okeru Aiku z, Bijutsu shi 120 (April 1986): 8194.
73. The list of statues Xuanzang brought back from the western regions is given in Da Tang Daciensi Sanzang Fashi zhuan,
Taish shinsh daizky, v. 50, no. 2053, p. 252bc. The height
is calculated at 29.5 centimeters per chi (foot), as in Wan Guo
ding, Tang chi kao, in Zhongguo gudai duliangheng lunwenji
(Zhengzhou: Zhongzhou guji chubanshe, 1990), p. 119.
74. Xuanzang did see a statue in the ruins of the Jetavana,
but it was called the statue that King Prasenajit had fashioned
at the time when the Buddha ascended into the Heaven of the
Thirty-three to preach to His mother, on hearing of the sandalwood figure carved by King Udayana (Soper, Literary Evidence,
198 | n o t e s t o pa g e s 9 9 1 0 4

p. 262). The legend of King Prasenajit making a statue in gold to

rival King Udayanas is found in chapter 28 of the Ekottargama,
translated in 384385. See Hida, Sho-T jidai ni okeru Aiku
z, 87; Soper, Literary Evidence, p. 259.
75. Soper, Literary Evidence, p. 262.
76. Alan Sponberg, Hsan-tsang, in Encyclopedia of Reli
gion, p. 481.
77. Stanley Weinstein, Buddhism under the Tang, 24; Da Tang
Daciensi Sanzang Fashi zhuan, Taish shinsh daizky, v. 50,
no. 2053, p. 253a. Okada Ken insists that Xuanzang did not brief
the emperor in Luoyang until 657, which was after the date of
the first King Udayana statue, and he argues against Xuanzangs
copy as the source for the Longmen King Udayana statue. See
Okada Ken, The Longmen Caves in the Tang Dynasty, in Miho
Museum, Rymon sekkutsu, pp. 146147.
78. Beal, Si-yu-ki, p. xviii.
79. Grotto 192. The King Udayana figure, ninety centimeters
high, and the inscription are reproduced in Liu Jinglong and
Yang Chaojie, Longmen shiku zonglu, v. 2, pl. 78 and 79.
80. Tiji, no. 0257.
81. Tiji, no. 0409.
82. The statues are reproduced in Liu Jinglong and Yang Chao
jie, Longmen shiku zonglu, v. 2, pl. 410416.
83. Tiji, nos. 04080416.
84. Tiji, no. 0253, in Grotto 176.
85. Tiji, nos. 02440256. This Fazang is likely Kang Fazang
(643712), the brilliant promoter of the Huayan doctrine, who
served Empress Wu. The King Udayana figures in Grotto 176 are
reproduced in Liu Jinglong and Yang Chaojie, Longmen shiku
zonglu, v. 2, pl. 3438.
86. Tiji, no. 0497.
87. Tiji, no. 0408.
88. An Amitbha in Laolong Grotto (Grotto 669), Tiji, no.
0995. He also sponsored a large, undated Maitreya Buddha
shrine, nearly two meters in height, in Tangzi Grotto (no. 1192),
which occupies the middle register of the south wall (Tiji, no.
1592). See Liu Jinglong and Yang Chaojie, Longmen shiku zonglu,
v. 7, pl. 511512.
89. Tiji, no. 0420, in Grotto 358. An ink rubbing is reproduced
in Beijing tushuguan cang Zhongguo lidai shike taben huibian,
v. 13, p. 110.
90. Longmen shiku, ed. Longmen wenwu baoguansuo and Beijing daxue kaoguxi, v. 2, p. 184. See the reproduction of the west
wall in Liu Jinglong and Yang Chaojie, Longmen shiku zonglu,
v. 2, p. 73 and pl. 424.
91. See Robert H. Sharf, The Scripture on the Production of
Buddha Images, p. 263.
92. Ibid., p. 265.
93. The Wang brothers grotto is not unique. Another example
was sponsored in 660 (Tiji, no. 0497).
94. Stolen in the 1930s, it is now in the collection of the Osaka

City Museum. Reproduced in Osaka City Museum, Zui T no

bijutsu (Tokyo: Heibonsha, 1978), pl. 268.
95. What is believed to be one of the original bodhisattva
heads is reproduced in Okada Ken, Rymon sekkutsu sho-T
sz ronsono san, Bukky geijutsu 196 (May 1991): fig. 32.
96. Liu Jinglong and Yang Chaojie, Longmen shiku zonglu, v.
3, p. 10, give a total of sixty-one, while Gu Yanfang and Li Wensheng counted thirteen on the north wall, sixteen on the east
wall, and over twenty on the south wall (Longmen shiku, ed.
Longmen wenwu baoguansuo and Beijing daxue kaoguxi, v. 2, p.
258). Wen Yucheng gives a total of fifty in Zhongguo shiku diaosu
quanji, v. 4: Longmen, p. 26.
97. Li Sisheng, Yi Fo wushi pusa he pusa zhuang Fo, Dun
huang yanjiu 1991.2: 54. For a reproduction of Cave 3 at the Thousand Buddha Cliff of Mount Wolong, in Zitong County, Sichuan,
see Zhongguo shiku diaosu quanji, v. 8: Sichuan, Chongqing, ed.
Liu Changjiu (Chongqing: Chongqing chubanshe, 1999), pl. 155.
Another Tang dynasty re-creation of this icon has a more strikingly unified composition, as if it imitated a single sculpted object; it is on the north wall, Cave 1, Thousand Buddha Grottoes,
Junxian, Henan Province (ibid., v. 6, pl. 74).
98. The total of fifty-two is reached when Amitbhas two attendant bodhisattvas, Avalokitevara and Mahsthmaprpta,
are added.
99. The inscription was transcribed by Katsuki Genichiro in
Chgoku ni okeru Amida sanzon goj bosatsu zu no zuz ni
tsuite, Bukky geijutsu 214 (1994): 68. I have translated it with reference to the very similar record in Daoxuan, Ji Shenzhou Sanbao
Gantonglu, ch. 2 (Taish shinsh daizky, v. 52, p. 421), as quoted
in Sofukawa, Tangdai Longmen shiku zaoxiang de yanjiu, p.
229, n. 247. Daoxuan also describes a Northern Qi tradition of
depicting this image in painting, but the emphasis on threedimensional poses in space in the Sichuan and Longmen examples suggests a different tradition in sculpture for this icon.
100. Katsuki, Chgoku ni okeru Amida sanzon goj bosatsu
zu no zuz ni tsuite, pp. 6869.
101. A good comparison is the grotto of Madame Han (Grotto
331) a few meters to the north, which has a dedicatory inscription dated 661 (Tiji, no. 0387). See the reproduction in Longmen
shiku, ed. Longmen wenwu baoguansuo and Beijing daxue kao
guxi, v. 2, pl. 47.
102. Liang Wenxiongs grotto was created on behalf of his parents, who are depicted in an attitude of worship on the side walls
and identified by inscription (Tiji, nos. 439440). His mothers
surname was Wei, which prompted Mizuno and Nagahiro to
declare Liang Wenxiong a relative of Lady Wei. See Mizuno and
Nagahiro, Rymon sekkutsu no kenky, v. 1, p. 30.
103. Situated just north of the Jingshan Monastery Grotto,
the Yuan Hongji Grotto is 2.2 meters high, 2.1 meters deep, and
2.5 meters wide and was certainly completed by the time Yuan
Hongji, whose name has been given to this anonymous grotto,

added his intrusive Guanyin shrine above the entrance in 665. See
Longmen shiku, ed. Longmen wenwu baoguansuo and Beijing
daxue kaoguxi, v. 2, pp. 183184 and 188; and Okada, Rymon
sekkutsu sho-T sz ronsono ni, pp. 100103. Grotto 394 is
about ten meters above the Jingshan Monastery Grotto and is a
horseshoe-shaped grotto 148 centimeters high, 160 centimeters
wide, and 163 centimeters deep. The west wall bears the main
Buddha on an octagonal lotus throne, while the bodhisattvas
are carved beside the Buddha and on the side walls. See the reproductions in Liu Jinglong and Yang Chaojie, Longmen shiku
zonglu, v. 3, pl. 5153, and Liu Jinglong, ed., Longmen shiku zao
xiang quanji, 10 v. (Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, 2002), v. 2, pl.
458. The similarity of the sculpture to Madame Hans Grotto of
661 suggests a date in the 660s.
104. John C. Huntington, A Gandhran Image of Amityus
Sukhvat, Annali dellIstituto Orientale di Napoli 40 (n.s. 30,
1980), no. 4: 651672. I am grateful to Joanna Williams for
bringing this stele to my attention.
105. Tiji, no. 0465.
106. See Longmen shiku, v. 2, ed. Longmen wenwu baoguansuo and Beijing daxue kaoguxi, p. 230.
107. The earliest dedicatory inscription at Longmen to mention Jingshan Monastery is dated to 650 (Tiji, no. 0946). The
other grotto self-identified with the Jingshan Monastery is
Grotto 401, dated to 669. Its dedication is titled Inscription with
Preface for the Images of Amitbha Buddha and the Two Bodhisattvas Avalokitevara and Mahsthmaprpta in the Stone
Shrine of the Jingshan Monastery at Longmen. This is a smaller
grotto, high on the cliff face, almost directly above Lady Weis
grotto. Its patron was the wife of a certain Lord Qian, and although the inscription is fairly ruined, it is evident that she, too,
was an aristocrat (Tiji, no. 0464; Liu Jinglong and Yang Chaojie,
Longmen shiku zonglu, v. 3, pl. 6972). There is also an undated
shrine sponsored by a raman.a of Jingshan Monastery, one Tan
xiang, which contains a seated pendant-legged Maitreya Buddha
flanked by two disciples and two bodhisattvas. The shrine E3 is
found on the east wall, on the north side of the door, of Binyang
South Grotto and is very large, being 175 centimeters high and
135 centimeters wide. See Liu and Yang, Longmen shiku zonglu,
v. 1, p. 81 and pl. 597; and Tiji, no. 0235.
108. See Longmen shiku, ed. Longmen wenwu baoguansuo
and Beijing daxue kaoguxi, v. 2, p. 230; and Luoyang Longmen
shi xuan, ed. Li Xianqi (Beijing: Zhongguo lyou chubanshe,
1986), p. 51.
109. According to Chavannes, Mission archologique, v. 1, pt.
2, p. 362, n. 8, this is an allusion to the woman described in the
Book of Odes, Guofeng section, 11, ode 4, line 1.
110. Chavannes considered the term red sand to refer to the
Daoist alchemical use of cinnabar. He thought the first sentence
indicated Daoism and the second indicated Buddhism (Mission
archologique, v. 1, pt. 2, p. 362, n. 9 and 10).
n o t e s t o pa g e s 1 0 4 1 0 9 | 199

111. This is one guess for the meaning of the term yerun, literally leaves glossy. The leaves of the bodhi tree are usually
described as glossy and evergreen. The parallel prose of the text
requires it to be read as a place-name, but I have been unable
to find it in standard sources. Another possibility is to read the
character ye as the Sanskrit pattra and take it as the authors
abbreviated reference to Pt.aliputra, where Kukkutrma Monastery was located. Then the phrase might be translated, What
adorned Pt.aliputra (i.e., the image of Amitbha and the fifty
bodhisattvas at Kukkutrma Monastery near there), Cnas
thna now shelters.
112. Wen Yucheng believes they represent the donor (Long
men shiku, ed. Longmen wenwu baoguansuo and Beijing daxue
kaoguxi, v. 2, p. 187).
113. Li Shens biographies are in Ouyang Xiu and Song Qi, Xin
Tang shu, ch. 80, pp. 35773578; and Liu Xu et al., Jiu Tang shu,
ch. 76, pp. 26642665.
114. For the stele, see Wen Yucheng, Longmen suojian liang
Tangshu zhong renwu zaoxiang gaishuo, in Longmen shiku yi
qian wubai zhounian guoji xueshu taolunhui lunwenji, p. 127. For
the shrine, see Yan Wenru, Zhongguo shiku yishu zonglun, p. 41.
115. Gong Dazhong, Longmen shiku yishu, p. 128.
116. Based on the dates of nearby inscriptions, it seems Lady
Weis grotto was probably begun in the early 650s and completed
around 660. Her grotto and the one immediately adjoining it to
the south, Grotto 404, are the largest grottoes in this area. From
the outside, they appear to have been intended as a matched pair,
since the faades and entryways are identical in size and shape.
An intrusive shrine inscription in Grotto 404 is dated to 653, so
these two grottoes were likely begun a little before that time. The
two grottoes directly north of Lady Weis (Grottoes 365 and 366)
have dates of 662 and 661, respectively. This suggests that Lady
Weis grotto was finished around 660, making it possible then
for other patrons to have shrines added close to hers. Further, an
inscription elsewhere by one Wang Xingbao, Commandant of
the Guards for the Prince of Ji, is dated to 660 (Tiji, no. 1426). If
he was part of a royal group including the prince and his mother
who came to Longmen to dedicate her grotto, this also suggests
a date of completion around 660.
117. Some notable examples of the former include not only
.
the Lotus Stra, but also the Vimalakrti Stra, Srangamasamdhi Stra, Mahparinirvn.a Stra, the complete text of
the Avatam
saka Stra (see Thomas Cleary, Entry into the In
conceivable: An Introduction to Hua-yen Buddhism [Honolulu:
University of Hawaii Press, 1983], p. 171), The Stra of Queen
rml Who Had the Lions Roar (see Diana Y. Paul, Women
in Buddhism, 2nd ed. [Berkeley: University of California Press,
1985], p. 290), and the Bhadra-kalpika Stra, Mahmy Stra,
Dharmaguptaka Vinaya, and Mahsak Vinaya (see Nattier,
Once Upon a Future Time, p. 23, n. 30; p. 50, n. 61; p. 29, n. 4; p.
29, n. 5).
200 | n o t e s t o pa g e s 1 0 9 1 1 4

118. Fangshan was designated a National Important Cultural

Relics Protection Unit in 1961 (Fangshan Yunjusi shijing, p. 1).
119. This program is seen not only in Sichuan and at Longmen,
but also in murals at Dunhuang, such as on the east wall of Cave
332. In Japan, Katsuki argues it is seen in Mural 6 of the Hry-ji
Kondo in Nara (Chgoku ni okeru Amida sanzon goj bosatsu
zu no zuz ni tsuite, pp. 6365). We might also note that the
Amida statue in the Phoenix Hall of the Byd-in, Uji, is surrounded by fifty bodhisattva figures on the side walls.
120. According to Finbarr Barry Floods analysis, the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas by the former Taliban government
of Afghanistan was a political act directed against the West, not
an instance of Islamic iconoclasm. See Between Cult and Culture: Bamiyan, Islamic Iconoclasm, and the Museum, The Art
Bulletin 84, no. 4 (December 2002): 641659. From a disinterested Buddhist perspective, however, the Taliban were merely bit
players in the cosmic drama of the disappearance of the Dharma
of kyamuni that must precede the advent of Maitreya.
121. See the announcement of November 2000 in Longmen shiku shenbao Shijie Wenhua Yichan huode chenggong,
Zhongyuan wenwu 2001.1: 39.

Chapter 6: Rouge and Powder Money

1. Liu Jinglong, Fengxiansi (Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, 1995),
p. 17.
2. Judging from the angle of the arms, the proper right hand
was held higher than the left, so the hands were not folded in the
lap in dhyna mudr. They may have been in abhaya and varada
mudrs, though I think it more likely they were in vitarka or
dharmacakra mudr, since the attendant bodhisattvas hands
are in vitarka mudr.
3. These are the two bodhisattvas featured most prominently
in the Avatam
saka Stra, which is centered on Vairocana. Zhang
Naizhu identifies the south wall bodhisattva as Samantabhadra
but gives no reason why (Longmen shiku Da Lushena xiang
kan kaocha baogao, Dunhuang yanjiu 1999.2: 126).
4. This was first observed by Gong Dazhong (Longmen shiku
yishu, pp. 146147) and is discussed in Okada Ken, Rymon
sekkutsu sho-T sz ronsono san, pp. 115116; and Ohashi
Katsuaki, in Longmen shiku, ed. Longmen wenwu baoguansuo
and Beijing daxue kaoguxi, v. 2, pp. 238239.
5. Denise Leidy offers a telling comparison between a set of
jade plaques, with bronze and turquoise fittings, of midTang
dynasty manufacture and a necklace excavated from the tomb
of the Sui dynasty princess Li Jingxun (d. 608), consisting of
twenty-eight gold beads inlaid with pearls, a multi-part clasp
set with lapis lazuli, five stones en cabochon, and a pale blue
stone pendant, which she believes was likely made in northwest
India, i.e., Gandhra. See Denise Patry Leidy, Avalokiteshvara
in Sixth-Century China, in The Flowering of a Foreign Faith:

New Studies in Chinese Buddhist Art, ed. Janet Baker (Mumbai: Marg Publications, 1998), p. 102, figures 2c and 2d. In a recent catalogue, the necklace is described as Sassanian Empire
(The Glory of the Silk Road: Art from Ancient China, ed. Li Jian
[Dayton, Ohio: The Dayton Art Institute, 2003], cat. 114), but the
point remains the same: the necklaces worn by the Vairocana
shrine bodhisattvas are not native Chinese style, but Western.
6. This color scheme was used for bodhisattvas in early Tang
murals at Dunhuang, such as those in Cave 220. For reproductions, see Dunhuang shiku quanji, ed. Duan Wenjie, 10 v. (Hong
Kong: Commercial Press, 2002), v. 2, pl. 108109. On the glass
remains found in the pupils of the Vairocana, see Liu Jinglong,
Fengxiansi, p. 4. Zhang Naizhu reports that around the pupils of
the south wall bodhisattvas eyes were found some bits of a dark
green mineral (Longmen shiku Da Lushena xiang kan kaocha
baogao, p. 126).
7. The inscription on the north face is not visible at present,
having been cemented over for its protection. See Antonino
Forte, Marginalia on the First International Symposium on
Longmen Studies, Studies in Central and East Asian Religions
7 (1994): 7576.
8. Not only is the shrine commonly referred to as Fengxiansi
today, but an inscription dedicating a nearby grotto in 683 refers to the shrine as Fengxian Monastery (Grotto 1371; Tiji, no.
1654), and since the donor was a eunuch palace official, he would
hardly have called it by the wrong name. Because of the square
holes punctuating the walls of the shrine to anchor the wooden
beams of an architectural faade, many have thought the shrine
was the Fengxian Monastery. The inscription itself (as discussed
in the following chapter) says, however, that the monastery was
built to the south of the cliffs. The architectural faade was
added later, perhaps in the Northern Song (9601127) or Jin dynasties (11151234). See Gong Dazhong, Longmen shiku yishu,
p. 137; and Wen Yucheng, Letan Longmen Fengxiansi de jige
wenti, Zhongyuan wenwu 1984.2: 57, which quotes the unpublished opinion of Cai Xuechang. Cai believed the distribution of
the beam holes in the wall and the holes for columns cut in the
floor of the shrine were consistent with Song architectural ideas;
moreover, since the beam holes ruined the design of the sculpture, they would hardly have been cut during the Tang dynasty.
As Wen points out, quoting Fozu tongji, the throne ordered the
repair of statues at Longmen in 1015, which may be when the
architectural faade was added to the Vairocana shrine. That
the shrine was designed to exist without a roof or faade is also
suggested by the 120-meter, V-shaped trench originally cut into
the rock above the shrine, which served to shunt water away.
See Gong, Longmen shiku yishu, p. 137; and Jing Luo, Wenbo
jianxun: Henan sheng (On 1971 restoration of Fengxiansi),
Wenwu 1972.3: 7475.
9. Longmen was originally known as Yique, or the Watchtowers on the Yi, but from the mid-seventh century onward, it

was more often called Longmen, or the Dragon Gate. According to the early-ninth-century Yuanhe junxian tuzhi, when Emperor Yang of Sui (r. 604617) traveled to Luoyang to consider
it for his new capital, he climbed the Mang Mountains north of
Luoyang and looked south toward the cliffs at Yique. Turning to
his ministers, he said: Is this not a Dragon Gate? What is the
reason that since antiquity no one has built a capital here? His
official Su Wei replied: It has not been unknown since antiquity. It was simply waiting for Your Majesty. The emperor was
pleased with this response and discussed situating his capital in
Luoyang (Yan Wenru, Longmen shiku mingming zhi youlai,
in Longmen shiku yanjiu lunwenxuan, p. 3). He soon issued an
edict that the Eastern Capital be established at the confluence
of the Yi and Luo rivers (Sima Guang, Zizhi tongjian, ch. 180, p.
5615), in accord with medieval notions of geomancy (fengshui).
It was sited with its back to the Mang Mountains as a protective
barrier to the north, while the waters of the Chan River flowed
on the east, and the current of the Jian River ran on the west
(ibid., ch. 180, p. 5618), to corral the qi, or cosmic life-breath,
which flowed through the mountains and pooled at their base,
so that its energy could quicken the city and its inhabitants. The
citys southern aspect was also intended to conform to Han dynasty notions of imperial city design, which mandated alignment on a north-south axis. The Sui-Tang city of Luoyang was
intentionally built about nine kilometers west of the old Luoyang
city walls of the Han and Northern Wei dynasties, specifically
in order to line up the north-south axis of the city with the cliffs
at Yique. This axis ran from the Yingtian Gate in the southern
wall of the Palatine City southward through the Duan Gate in
the Imperial City wall and the Dingding Gate in the outer city
wall to the cliffs facing each other like gates across the River Yi.
This perception is confirmed by certain inscriptions at Longmen
that relate to the Dingding Gate, such as one for Grotto 1917,
dated 697, which situates the grotto facing north to the Ding
Gate (Tiji, no. 2730), while the Wei Muqian Family Shrine dedication of 717 places its grotto in the suburbs of the Dingding
Gate (Tiji, no. 1399). By relocating the capital, the Dragon Gate
became the first southern gateway on the northward approach
to the imperial city, the city of the dragonthe emperor. See
the map showing the axis from the Mang Mountains through
Luoyang to Yique in Heng Chye Kiang, Cities of Aristocrats and
Bureaucrats: The Development of Medieval Chinese Cityscapes
(Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1999), fig. 7.
10. The Shiji Monastery site was excavated recently. See Li
Jianchao, Sui Tang Changan cheng Shijisi yizhi chutu wenwu,
Kaogu 1988.4.
11. Translation based on Tiji, no. 1635, with reference to Tiji,
no. 1637; the annotations in Wen Yucheng, He Luo shangdu
Longmenshan zhi yang da Lushena xiangkan ji zhushi, Zhong
yuan wenwu 1984.3: 99100; and the translation in Chavannes,
Mission archologique, v. 1, pt. 2, pp. 254256. See also Okada
n o t e s t o pa g e s 1 1 4 1 1 6 | 201

Ken, Rymon sekkutsu sho-T sz ronsono san, pp. 118

119, n. 8.
12. Sofukawa, Tangdai Longmen shiku zaoxiang de yanjiu,
pp. 214215.
13. Taish shinsh daizky, v. 24, no. 1484, pp. 1003c1004a.
14. Paul Groner, The Fan-wang ching and Monastic Discipline in Japanese Tendai: A Study of Annens Futs jubosatsukai kshaku, in Chinese Buddhist Apocrypha, ed. Robert E.
Buswell, Jr. (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1990), pp.
252255. Many thanks to Kyoko Tokuno for this reference.
15. The translation of the Avatam
saka Stra used in the 670s
was the sixty-fascicle version made by Buddhabhadra (359429).
See Cleary, Entry into the Inconceivable, p. 171.
16. Other theories include Tanabe Saburosukes idea that
the thousand-petal lotus throne indicates the figure is Vairocana, while the presence of nanda and Kyapa and the Seven
Buddhas of the Past in the halo reveal that the figure is also
kyamuni. Such a double deity would be the lord of this world
and the controlling principle of the universe and, in Tanabes view,
as an expression of state Buddhism, would represent the supreme
political power held by the emperor and empress. See Tanabe Saburosuke, Rymon sekkutsu hsenji d honzon, Rushanabutsu
z, Kokka 1128 (1989): 4346. There is also Lokesh Chandras
idea that the Vairocana was created for the tantric protection of
the nation after the military losses to the Tibetans in 670 and 671.
See The Role of Tantras in the Defence Strategy of Tang China,
in Kusumajali, 2 v., ed. M.S.Nagaraja Rao (Delhi: Agam Kala
Prakashan, 1987), 1:5359. See my article, The Fengxiansi Shrine
and Longmen in the 670s, Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern
Antiquities, Stockholm 68 (1996): 325392.
17. Gong Dazhong, Longmen shiku yishu, p. 141.
18. Ibid., p. 138.
19. Ibid., p. 141.
20. Ibid., p. 142, quoting from Sima Guang, Zizhi tongjian,
ch. 204, p. 6466.
21. Li Yukun, Cong Longmen zaoxiang mingji kan Tangdai
fojiao, Shijie zongjiao yanjiu 1985.3: 3439; and Zhang Naizhu,
Cong Longmen zaoxiang shiji kan Wu Zetian yu Tangdai fojiao
zhi guanxi.
22. Okada, Rymon sekkutsu sho-T sz ronsono san,
pp. 107108.
23. See Wen Yucheng, Tang Gaozong li Dalushena xiangkan, Zhongguo shi yanjiu 1985.2: 155156; and Wen Yucheng,
Letan Longmen Fengxiansi de jige wenti, p. 54.
24. Wen Yucheng, Letan Longmen Fengxiansi de jige
wenti, p. 55, quoting Fayuan zhulin, ch. 9, zhanxiang bu.
25. The following summary of the empress career is based on
Cambridge History of China, v. 3, pp. 244273.
26. Sima Guang, Zizhi tongjian, ch. 201, p. 6343.
27. Cambridge History of China, v. 3, p. 268.

202 | n o t e s t o pa g e s 1 1 6 1 1 9

28. T.H.Barrett, Taoism under the Tang (London: Wellsweep

Press, 1996), p. 39.
29. Fangshan Yunjusi shijing, p. 1, quoting from Tang Lin (7th
c.), Ming bao ji (Taish shinsh daizky, v. 51, no. 2082, p. 789).
Tang Lin sponsored an Amitbha grotto at Longmen (Grotto
291; Tiji, no. 0381).
30. Li Faliang, Famensi zhi (Xian: Shaanxi renmin chubanshe, 2000), p. 331.
31. Antonino Forte, Il Monastero dei Grandi Chou a Loyang, Annali dellIstituto Orientale de Napoli, n.s. 23 (1973): 419,
425.
32. For a survey of Fazangs writings, see Cleary, Entry into the
Inconceivable, pp. 1314.
33. See Yan Chaoyin, Da Tang Da Jianfusi gu Dade Kang
Fazang shi zhi bei and Choe Chiwon, Tang Tae Chonboksa
kosaju pongyong taedok Popchang hwasang chon, in Taish
shinsh daizky, v. 50, no. 2054, pp. 280286. Annotated versions of these two texts appear in Fazang, Huayan Jin shizi
zhang jiaoshi, ed. Fang Litian (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1983),
pp. 172190.
34. Some sources say Fazang served at the Western Taiyuan
Monastery in Changan, but I agree with Yen Chan-ying that
it was the Eastern Taiyuan Monastery in Luoyang. See Yen
Chan-ying, The Sculpture from the Tower of Seven Jewels:
The Style, Patronage and Iconography of the Monument (Ph.D.
dissertation, Harvard University, 1986), pp. 2122. Wang Pu
said the Taiyuan Monastery in Luoyang (also called the Fuxian
Monastery and Weiguo Monastery) was established in Lady
Yangs residence, which agrees with the statement in Fazangs
biography that the empress established the Taiyuan Monastery
by donating her mothers house. See Wang Pu, Tang hui yao, ch.
48, p. 848.
35. Weinstein, Buddhism under the Tang, p. 46. Chief in
Goodness is the title of book 12 of the Avatam
saka Stra. See
Thomas Cleary, trans., The Flower Ornament Scripture (Boston
and London: Shambhala, 1993), p. 330.
36. Fazang, Huayanjing zhuanji, in Taish shinsh daizky,
v. 51, no. 2073, p. 155a. The empress preface is found in Qinding
Quan Tang wen, ch. 97, pp. 10011002.
37. However, the shrines he dedicated at Longmen earlier
contained an Amitbha and several King Udayana images. The
Amitbha pentad (forty-two centimeters high) with donor portraits on the west wall of Weizi Grotto is inscribed: Fazang, for
his parents, brothers and sisters, and also for Shengman, reverently had made one Amitbha shrine on the fifteenth day of
the fourth month of the second year of the Qianfeng era (667)
(Tiji, no. 1521). Wen Yucheng believes Shengman was his wife.
See his Zhongguo shiku yu wenhua yishu (Shanghai: Shanghai
renmin meishu chubanshe, 1993), p. 313. Fazang also dedicated
three King Udayana figures above the Yique Buddha Shrine

Stele (Grotto 176; Tiji, nos. 0245, 0255, 0256) and as Kang Fazang
joined with a group to dedicate two King Udayana shrines north
of Laolong Grotto (Grottoes 676677; Tiji, nos. 11201121).
38. Cleary, Entry into the Inconceivable, p. 163.
39. Ibid., p. 168.
40. The length of time required to produce the Vairocana
shrine has been the subject of considerable speculation. Of various time frames, the shortest is the three years and nine months
from the moment of Empress Wus donation of her rouge
and powder money in 672 to the completion of the project on
January 20, 676, as first expressed by the Buddhist historian
Zhipan in 1269, who stated unequivocally that in 672 an order
was issued to excavate a stone shrine at Longmen containing a
Vairocana image eighty-five chi in height (Fozu tongji, ch. 39).
Jin Weinuo, Wen Tingkuan, and Jing Luo, the first twentiethcentury Chinese experts to write on Longmen, agreed with this
statement, although Professor Jin expressed astonishment that
so large a project could have been completed in three years and
nine months. See Jin Weinuo, introduction to Longmen shiku,
ed. Longmen baoguanso (1961); Wen Tingkuan, Woguo beibu
de jichu shiku yishu, Wenwu cankao ziliao 1955.1: 6994; Jing
Luo, Wenbo jianxun: Henan sheng, pp. 7475. Mizuno and
Nagahiro also held this view, which was followed by other Japanese scholars into the 1980s (Rymon sekkutsu no kenky, v. 1,
p. 141; Sofukawa, Tangdai Longmen shiku zaoxiang de yanjiu,
1:210; and Tanabe, Rymon sekkutsu hsenji d honzon, p. 43).
Mizuno and Nagahiro advanced the theory that the Vairocana
shrine was constructed on the original, abandoned site of the
Binyang grottoes, since there must have been a large excavation left behind when the original site was deserted, and yet, a
large half-excavated area of this kind does not exist at Longmen.
Hence, it must have disappeared as the area was excavated deeper
to produce the Vairocana image shrine. Okada Ken took issue
with Mizuno and Nagahiros theory (Rymon sekkutsu sho-T
sz ronsono san, p. 105). Believing that the site of the Vairocana shrine could not have been the spot deemed too high for
the Binyang grottoes, since the successfully completed Northern
Wei Huangfu Grotto is at exactly the same height, he climbed
up on the cliff face above the current location of the Binyang
grottoes and found what he considers to be the traces of their
original site. Even though the Vairocana shrine must have been
created entirely in the Tang, then, he felt that three years and
nine months would not have been adequate, and he proposed
a theory that the project must have been begun around 671, by
considering the number of inscribed intrusive shrines produced
in certain years in correlation with events in Luoyang, especially
the periodic arrival of the imperial court from Changan. First,
he noted the dearth of inscriptions at Longmen in the early 670s.
There are no inscriptions dated to 670, although Okada attrib
utes that fact to the crushing effect of the nationwide drought

that peaked in that year. As a consequence of the famine conditions in the Guanzhong area, the imperial court did leave
Changan for Luoyang in 671, which is when Okada believes the
Vairocana project was begun. Only a dozen inscribed shrines
were produced in the five years from 671 through 675, a remarkably low total compared with the two dozen produced in 668
and 669 alone. Okada considers this lack of inscribed shrines
in the early 670s as evidence that a vast imperial project had
commandeered all available workers. If the project were begun
around 671, it would have taken about five years to complete.
Another theory has been proposed by Ohashi Katsuaki (Long
men shiku, ed. Longmen wenwu baoguansuo and Beijing daxue
kaoguxi, v. 2, p. 238). In a very close reading of the sequence of
facts stated in the Vairocana shrine inscription, Ohashi observes
that the wording suggests the empress made her donation to a
project that was already under way in 672. The statement about
her aiding the project follows so closely after the statement that
the emperor established the shrine, however, that it suggests the
shrine was not established very long before 672. Ohashi estimates the project was begun about five or six years before 672,
so that the total length for the project would have been between
eight and ten years. No justification for this estimation is given,
but to extrapolate from his estimate of duration would mean the
shrine was begun around 665 or 666, and indeed, the court was
in Luoyang for most of 665. During this period, shrines were
sponsored at Longmen by persons associated with the court,
including Wang Xuance, the imperial envoy to India, and Feng
Shiliang, a eunuch secretary to the empress (Tiji, nos. 0145 and
0141). After surveying the theories of Wen Tingkuan and others who argue for 672, Gong Dazhongs theory of 655, and Li
Yukuns theory of pre-662, which has been disproved, Zhang
Kaisheng, who is on the staff of the Henan Provincial Museum,
offers his own theory of 666 as the inaugural date, based in part
on the participation of Wei Ji. See Zhang, Luoyang Longmen
Fengxiansi Daxiangkan kaizao niandai qianshuo, in Longmen
shiku yiqian wubai zhounian guoji xueshu taolunhui lunwenji,
ed. Longmen shiku yanjiusuo, pp. 151156. An even longer period was proposed by Gong Dazhong, who felt that if the Northern Wei Binyang trio was worked on for eighteen years, with
only one of them being finished, then surely the much larger
Vairocana shrine would have taken as long or longer and was
begun shortly after Wu Zetian was made empress in 655 (Gong,
Longmen shiku yishu, pp. 134135). This view is echoed in Wen
Yucheng, Tang Gaozong li Dalushena xiangkan, p. 156.
41. Sima Guang, Zizhi tongjian, ch. 200, p. 6319.
42. These conversions use a Tang standard of 29.5 centimeters
per chi. See Wan Guoding, Tang chi kao, p. 119.
43. Daoshi (d. 683), Fayuan zhulin (Rpt. Shanghai: Shanghai
guji chubanshe, 1991), ch. 14, p. 117.
44. Cambridge History of China, v. 3, p. 255.

n o t e s t o pa g e s 1 1 9 1 2 0 | 203

45. Chang Qing, Binxian Dafosi zaoxiang yishu (Beijing:

Xiandai chubanshe, 1998), p. 247, quoting Da Ciensi sanzang
fashi zhuan with regard to the Ximingsi. On the Dongming
guan, see Wang Pu, Tang hui yao, ch. 50, p. 869. Also see Barrett, Taoism under the Tang, pp. 3031. The Ximing Monastery
site was excavated recently. See Zhongguo shekeyuan kaogusuo
Tangcheng gongzuodui, Tang Changan Ximingsi yizhi fajue
jianbao, Kaogu 1990.1.
46. See Tiji, v. 1, p. 5657, quoting Cefu yuangui, ch. 46, and
Yijings biography of Xuanzhao in Da Tang xiyou qiufa gaoseng
zhuan. In the end, since no one could figure out what it was
made of, the emperor did not take the drug. Edward Schafer
recorded an anecdote about a compounder of drugs named
Nryanasvmin, who was brought to Gaozongs court from
Magadha by Wang Xuance in 648. See The Golden Peaches of
Samarkand: A Study of Tang Exotics (Berkeley and Los Angeles:
University of California Press, 1963), p. 50. The Indian claimed
to be able to prepare the elixir of immortality, but when the emperor asked him to do so, it proved ineffective.
47. Sima Guang, Zizhi tongjian, ch. 200, pp. 6318 and 6329.
48. Tiji, nos. 1433, 0951, and 1038.
49. Tiji, no. 0092.
50. Cambridge History of China, v. 3, pp. 262263.
51. Ouyang Xiu and Song Qi, Xin Tang shu, ch. 3, p. 70, reading jiaolie for jiaoqi.

Chapter 7: The Satellite Grottoes

1. Fazang, Cultivation and Contemplation of the Inner
Meaning of the Huayan, in Cleary, Entry into the Inconceiv
able, p. 168.
2. Only the south wall lokapla remains, the north wall figure
having been stolen sometime before 1933. See Wen Yucheng, Luo
yang Longmen Shuangyao, Kaogu xuebao 1988.1: 106, n. 4.
3. The bodhisattva that stood against the south wall was stolen
in 1935 (ibid., p. 106, n. 3).
4. Ibid., p. 129. See also Wen Yucheng and Yang Shunxing,
Du Fengxue qizu Qianfeng baiyun chanyuan ji bei hou,
Zhongyuan wenwu 1984.1: 3538, 41.
5. Zhang Naizhu, Cong Longmen zaoxiang shiji kan Wu Zetian yu Tangdai fojiao zhi guanxi, p. 51.
6. Wen, Luoyang Longmen Shuangyao, pp. 125127.
7. Ibid., p. 129.
8. Tiji, no. 0092. Shrine N114 is located at the floor level of
the grotto. It is 52 centimeters high, 56 centimeters across, and
10 centimeters deep and contains a seated cross-legged Buddha
flanked by two standing bodhisattvas, with the inscription to the
east. See Liu Jinglong and Yang Chaojie, Longmen shiku zonglu,
v. 1, p. 67 and pl. 589.
9. Sofukawa Hiroshi, Tangdai Longmen shiku zaoxiang de
yanjiu, esp. pt. 1, p. 218.
204 | n o t e s t o pa g e s 1 2 0 1 2 9

10. There are two views as to whether the emperors sixth

son, Li Xian, was also Empress Wus second son. Twitchett and
Wechsler state that Li Xian (Prince Zhanghuai) was her second
son (Cambridge History of China, v. 3, pp. 270271), but Sofukawa bases his argument that Huijian sycophantically prayed
only for Li Hong and Li Xian (Prince of Zhou) on the belief that
only Li Hong and the Prince of Zhou were her sons. Richard
Guisso also states that Prince Zhanghuai was not her son. See
R.W.L.Guisso, Wu Tse-tien and the Politics of Legitimation in
Tang China (Bellingham, Wash.: Western Washington University Press, 1978), p. 23.
11. See his biography in Liu Xu et al., Jiu Tang shu, ch. 7, pp.
135151.
12. Weinstein, Buddhism under the Tang, p. 48.
13. Liu Xu et al., Jiu Tang shu, ch. 7, p. 141; Weinstein, Bud
dhism under the Tang, pp. 4849; Shi Xiaoyun, Tang Zhong
zong, Tang Ruizong (Changchun: Jilin wenshi chubanshe, 1995),
pp. 130135.
14. Where a figure of Kyapa is expected on the right, there
are only contemporaneous intrusive shrines, suggesting that
something went wrong in the planning of the grotto that left
inadequate space. Perhaps a freestanding image was placed there
instead. See Longmen shiku yanjiusuo, Longmen 565 hao ku
(Huijian dong) diaocha jianbao, Zhongyuan wenwu 2001.5: 12.
15. See the reproduction in Lee, A History of Far Eastern Art,
pl. 148.
16. For extensive discussions of the transmission of the
Srnth throne decorations, see Inamoto Yasuo, Aiku z tden
kChgoku sho-Tki o chshin ni, Th gakuh 69 (1997):
357457; and Li Sisheng, Yi Fo wushi pusa he pusa zhuang
Fo.
17. Tiji, no. 0779, translating hai si fa as Fahai si.
18. Its name derived from the fact that in the early Sui dynasty,
the residence of the Duke of Qinghai was turned into a monastery for a certain monk Fahai. See Longmen shiku yanjiusuo,
Longmen 565 hao ku (Huijian dong) diaocha jianbao, p. 12,
quoting the Song dynasty Changan zhi and the biography of
Daoying in ch. 18 of Zanning, Song Gaosengzhuan.
19. Longmen shiku yanjiusuo, Longmen 565 hao ku (Huijian
dong) diaocha jianbao, p. 13. Others consider the Moya sanfo
(Cliff-Carved Three Buddhas) to have honored the empress.
Wen Yucheng and Li Wensheng see the central Maitreya as a
sycophantic reference to Empress Wu, started and abandoned
by Xue Huaiyi, the burly drug vendor whom she ordained for
service in the Palace Chapel and made abbot of White Horse
Monastery, sometime between 690 and 695. See Longmen shiku
diaoke, ed. Su Bai, Wen Yucheng, and Li Wensheng, p. 41, notes
to pl. 123.
20. Antonino Forte, Political Propaganda and Ideology in
China at the End of the Seventh Century (Naples: Istituto universitario orientale, 1976), pp. 136, 142, and 158.

21. On August 16, 690, ten bhadanta monks of the Palace

Chapel in Luoyang presented a copy of the Great Cloud Stra to
the empress with their new Commentary on the Meaning of the
Prophecy about Divine and August in the Great Cloud Stra,
which highlighted the prophecy in the stra that spoke of a female ruler who would be a cakravartin and a bodhisattva, ruling
over a Buddhist utopia on the southern continent of Jambudvpa.
It identified this figure as Empress Wu. See Forte, Political Pro
paganda, pp. 52 and 183.
22. Mizuno and Nagahiro, Rymon sekkutsu no kenky, v. 1,
p. 30.
23. See Chn-fang Y, Kuan-yin: The Chinese Transformation
of Avalokitevara (New York: Columbia University Press, 2001),
p. 537, n. 15.
24. Sofukawa, Tangdai Longmen shiku zaoxiang de yanjiu,
pt. 1, p. 220.
25. Tiji, no. 0759.
26. Tiji, nos. 0703, 0708, 0720, 0724, 0748, 0749, 0750, 0760,
0761, and 0763.
27. Examples include Tiji, no. 0718, in the early Tang Grotto
557; Tiji, no. 0674, in the early Tang Grotto 555; Tiji, no. 2563, in
the early Tang Grotto 1508; and Tiji, no. 0659.
28. See, for example, Tiji, no. 2743.
29. Julian Pas, Visions of Sukhvat: Shan-Taos Commentary
on the Kuan Wu-Liang-Shou-Fo Ching (Albany: State University
of New York Press, 1995), p. 63.
30. Tiji, no. 0747.
31. Tiji, no. 0724. See the reproduction in Longmen shiku, ed.
Longmen wenwu baoguansuo and Beijing daxue kaoguxi, v. 2,
pl. 85. The figure on the left is a Save-from-Suffering Guanyin,
while the one on the right holds both hands out, grasping its
scarves. This is considered by most scholars to be another figure
of Guanyin, although it is more likely to be Yaoshi, the Buddha
of Healing, by comparison to a very similar pair of figures in a
Zhou dynasty (690705) shrine on the west wall of Qingmingsi
Grotto, which is identified by inscription as Yaoshi and Guanyin
(Tiji, no. 0710). For a reproduction, see Zhongguo shiku diaosu
quanji, v. 4: Longmen, ed. Wen Yucheng, pl. 132.
32. Tiji, nos. 0589 and 2617. See also Tiji, v. 1, pp. 6162.
33. Tiji, no. 0634.
34. Chen Zhi, Xian chutu Sui Tang ni fo xiang tongkao,
Xiandai foxue 1963, no. 3.
35. For the definition of this term, see Zhongwen dacidian, no.
3975.245. Another of these bricks is reproduced in Matsubara
Sabur, Chgoku bukky chkoku shiron, pl. 610c and d. One
excavated in 1985 at the Da Cien Monastery in Xian is reproduced in T no jotei Sokuten Buk to sono jidaiten: Kytei no
eiga/Tang Dynasty Empress Wu and Her Times: The Glory of the
Court (Tokyo: NHK Puromshon, 1998), no. 107.
36. Wen Yucheng, Gu Yanfang, and Li Wensheng think the
grotto was excavated from around 670 to 674 (Longmen shiku,

ed. Longmen wenwu baoguansuo and Beijing daxue kaoguxi, v.

2, pp. 186 and 261262). Those who date it around 675 include
Sofukawa, in Tangdai Longmen shiku zaoxiang de yanjiu, pt.
1, p. 222; and Okada Ken, in Rymon sekkutsu sho-T sz ron
sono san, p. 102.
37. Pas, Visions of Sukhvat, p. 94.
38. Zhang Naizhu, Cong Longmen zaoxiang shiji kan Wu
Zetian yu Tangdai fojiao zhi guanxi, pp. 4244.
39. Tiji, no. 0032, in Binyang North Grotto. For his inscription
of 666, see Tiji, no. 0095, in Binyang South Grotto.
40. Cambridge History of China, v. 3, pp. 285286; and Sima
Guang, Zizhi tongjian, ch. 201, pp. 63646365.
41. Mizuno and Nagahiro, Rymon sekkutsu no kenky, text
877. This inscription is said to have been in Lianhua Grotto but
is now lost. See Wen Yucheng, Longmen suojian liang Tangshu
zhong renwu zaoxiang gaishuo, p. 134. An ink rubbing is reproduced in Beijing tushuguan cang Zhongguo lidai shike taben
huibian, v. 15, p. 194.
42. See Zhang Naizhu, Cong Longmen zaoxiang shiji kan
Wu Zetian yu Tangdai fojiao zhi guanxi, pp. 4850.
43. Grotto no. 1497. See Longmen shiku, ed. Longmen wenwu
baoguansuo and Beijing daxue kaoguxi, v. 2, p. 192.
44. Tiji, no. 2537.
45. Sima Guang, Zizhi tongjian, ch. 202, p. 6372.
46. The lion from the south wall is now in the Museum of Fine
Arts, Boston, while its mate is on display in the Nelson-Atkins
Museum of Art, Kansas City. The missing dvrapla head is in
the Shanghai Museum.
47. See Li Yuzhen, Tangdai de biqiuni (Taibei: Taiwan xue
sheng, 1989), p. 227, n. 99. I wonder if a monk and a nun represented in close physical proximity would have appeared unseemly to a Tang audience.
48. Shanxiang was head of the Yongyaosi (Tiji, no. 0615),
which may well be the same convent as the Yongyaosi established by the Palace Chapel nun Huideng (Tiji, no. 1650).
49. The unusually high level of patronage by nuns at Wanfo
Grotto is made evident by comparison with the Paired Grottoes,
which were produced around the same time, where only one out
of the fifty-four intrusive shrines was sponsored by a donor who
explicitly identified herself as a nun (less than 2 percent), while
in Wanfo Grotto at least fourteen of the eighty-nine intrusive
shrines were donated by nuns (nearly 16 percent).
50. Tiji, no. 0635.
51. For the first, see Tiji, nos. 0581 and 0582. For the latter, see
Mizuno and Nagahiro, Rymon sekkutsu no kenky, texts 882
and 883, neither of which is recorded in Tiji, perhaps because
they were attached to images of nuns on the faade that were
stolen after 1936. We know that nun Zhenwu of text 883 was at
Wanfo Grotto, however, because of another short inscription on
the faade that gives her name (Tiji, no. 0648). Also see Tiji, nos.
0631, 0635, 0632, and 0634, for which see also Li Yukun, Longn o t e s t o pa g e s 1 2 9 1 3 5 | 205

men zakao, Wenwu 1980.1: 29; an ink rubbing is reproduced in

Beijing tushuguan cang Zhongguo lidai shike taben huibian, v.
16, p. 152.
52. Tiji, nos. 0635, 0637, and 0634.
53. Tiji, no. 0620.
54. Huidengs burial cave (Grotto 1336) is south of the Vairocana shrine. The inscription (Tiji, no. 1650) was not recorded by
Mizuno and Nagahiro but is discussed in Wen Yucheng, Longmen suojian liang Tangshu zhong renwu zaoxiang gaishuo, p.
131. See also Sofukawa, Tangdai Longmen shiku zaoxiang de
yanjiu, pt. 1, p. 224. The burial caves at Longmen held cremated remains, not corpses, and should therefore properly be
called cineraria. See Zhang Naizhu, Longmen shiku Tangdai
yiku de xin faxian jiqi wenhua yiyi de tantao, Kaogu 1991.2:
160169; and Li Wensheng, Longmen shiku fojiao yizang xingshi de xin faxian, Yishuxue 11 (1994): 718.
55. Liu Jinglong and Yang Chaojie, Longmen shiku zonglu, v. 3,
pp. 72 and 74. I assume this number includes the thirty rows of
figures around the lokaplas on the front interior walls.
56. Sofukawa, Tangdai Longmen shiku zaoxiang de yanjiu,
pt. 1, pp. 225226.
57. Ibid., 226. In an unpublished seminar paper, Ling-en Lu
notes the initial contribution to this identification of Fifteen
Thousand Buddhas and the Bodhiruci translation in the work
of Kobayashi Taichiro, Yamatoe shiron (Osaka: Zenkoku shobo,
1946), ch. 5 (Lu, The 15,000 Buddhas at Wanfo Grotto and Lei
gutai Central Cave, University of Kansas, 1997).
58. On the south wall of Binyang South Grotto is a small
shrine containing five Buddha figures, under which are three
brief inscriptions, including the following: Wang Xinxing for
[three illegible characters] and [three illegible characters] for
their release, reverently had made one image. (This shrine, S45,
is mistakenly called S46 under the reproduction in Liu Jinglong
and Yang Chaojie, Longmen shiku zonglu, v. 1, pl. 424. Wang Xin
xings inscription is reproduced in Tiji, no. 0198, Yang Fuyins is
no. 0190, and Yang Sengweis is no. 0158.) Several factors suggest
this patron may have been Xinxing, the founder of the Three
Levels teachings. His family name was Wang, and at the end of
his life, he gave up the monastic precepts, although he continued
to live as a monk. Further, Xinxing lived most of his life in Ye
(near modern Anyang, Henan), the capital of the Eastern Wei
and the Northern Qi dynasties, which lay about two hundred
kilometers north of Luoyang. Ye was the city to which the residents of Luoyang were hastily removed in 534, so people in Ye
were quite likely to know about the grottoes of Longmen. Lastly,
Xinxing died during the early Sui dynasty, and Binyang South
and Central are the only grottoes containing Sui dynasty inscriptions. Arguing against this, however, the dedication of three of
the figures by a layman named Yang Sengwei was made in 644,
so if the Wang Xinxing inscription was made around 644, he
could not have been the founder of the Three Levels teachings.
206 | n o t e s t o pa g e s 1 3 5 1 4 1

59. For the Guyang shrine, see Rymon Kyken sekkutsu, ed.
Kuno Takeshi and Sugiyama Jir (Tokyo: Roppyo, 1982), pl. 118.
For Sichas shrine on the faade of Cave 5, see Gongxian shiku si
(Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, 1989), p. 287, text 114, reproduced
in pl. 251.
60. Hida Romi,Sho-T jidai ni okeru Aiku z, p. 91.
61. Sofukawa, Tangdai Longmen shiku zaoxiang de yanjiu,
pt. 1, p. 227.
62. Gu Yanfang and Li Wensheng, Longmen shiku zhuyao
Tang ku zongxu, in Longmen shiku, ed. Longmen wenwu baoguansuo and Beijing daxue kaoguxi, v. 2, p. 260.
63. Tiji, no. 0602. See the ink rubbing in Beijing tushuguan
cang Zhongguo lidai shike taben huibian, v. 16, p. 137.
64. Li Yukun, Longmen xukao, Wenwu 1983.6: 32.
65. The basis for this idea is that the title Dajian appears in
The History of the Northern Wei as an office in the female palace
bureaucracy, and apparently it continued to be used in the Tang.
See Gong Dazhong, Longmen shiku yishu, p. 152. On the organization of the palace women during the Tang, see Gao Shiyu,
Tangdai fun (Xian: San Qin chubanshe, 1988), pp. 1230.
66. Sofukawa, Tangdai Longmen shiku zaoxiang de yanjiu,
pt. 1, pp. 223225 and n. 225.
67. Tiji, no. 1137.
68. Liu Jinglong, Longmen ershipin: Beike yu zaoxiang yishu,
no. 20.
69. This is probably the second site of the monastery. In 722,
the Yi River flooded and ruined the original Fengxian Monastery (see chapter 8). The Longhua Monastery was ordered to
join with the Fengxian Monastery, meaning that the Longhua
Monastery became the Fengxian Monastery. My sincere thanks
to Aurora Testa, a member of the excavation team, for giving
me a copy of her detailed report, Sculptures Unearthed at the
Fengxiansi Monastery, Longmen, Annali dellIstituto Orien
tale de Napoli 62 (2002): 125166. Chinese reports and studies
include Fengxiansi yizhi fajue gongzuodui, Luoyang Longmen Fengxiansi yizhi fajue jianbao, Zhongyuan wenwu 2001.2:
1020; Fu Andun, Longmen Da Fengxiansi de qiyuan ji diwei,
Zhongyuan wenwu 1997.2: 8392; and Wen Yucheng, Longmen
Fengxiansi yizhi diaocha ji, Kaogu yu wenwu 1986.2: 2729.
70. Forte, Political Propaganda and Ideology in China, p. 97, n.
116. From Shujing, Shangshu, Taijia 2, in James Legge, trans., The
Chinese Classics, 5 v. (Rpt. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University
Press, 1960), v. 3, p. 208.
71. Forte, Political Propaganda and Ideology in China, p. 97,
n. 116.
72. Longmen shiku diaoke, p. 21; Wen Yucheng, Tang Gaozong
li Dalushena xiangkan, p. 156; Wen Yucheng, Letan Longmen
Fengxiansi de jige wenti, p. 54.
73. On the Da Ciensi, see Weinstein, Buddhism under the
Tang, pp. 2627. On the Haotian Guan, see Wang Pu, Tang
hui yao, ch. 50, p. 869. T.H.Barrett considers the naming of

the Haotian Guan for Emperor Taizong to be a deliberate step

which united symbolically the Taoist church, the state cult and
the family line (Taoism under the Tang, p. 30).
74. Wang Pu, Tang hui yao, ch. 48 gives a list of imperially
sponsored Buddhist monasteries in the Tang. None are dedicated to Emperor Taizong.
75. Tiji, no. 0603.
76. This rsum of Xuanzhaos career is taken from Yijing, Da
Tang xiyou qiufa gaoseng zhuan, Taish shinsh daizky, v. 51,
no. 2066, pp. 12.
77. Tiji, no. 0075.
78. According to the Song dynasty author Chen Zhensun,
Xiangshan Monastery was established in 516, during the Northern Wei (quoted in Longmen shiku, ed. Longmen wenwu baoguansuo and Beijing daxue kaoguxi, v. 2, p. 218).
79. For example, an Amitbha shrine added to Lianhua Grotto
by a court official (Tiji, no. 1179) and a corporate dedication of
three Amitbhas by officials from Changan in Grotto 679 (Tiji,
no. 1123, in Grotto 679). See Guan Baiyi, Yique shike tubiao, ink
rubbing no. 70.
80. Stephen F. Teiser, The Ghost Festival in Medieval China
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988), pp. 66 and 68.
81. Ibid., pp. 7172.
82. Ibid., pp. 7982.
83. Ibid., p. 81 (translation adapted).
84. This moral culpability was felt by Emperor Taizong himself. In 630, he had seven monasteries established at the sites of
his most important victories, dedicated to the soldiers who perished there. The edict said, Virtuous monks should be invited to
these temples, and with their help the departed souls should be
saved. See the translation of the record in Zhipans Fozu tongji
in Jan Yn-hua, A Chronicle of Buddhism in China, 581960 A.D.
(Calcutta: Visva-Bharati Santiniketan, 1966), pp. 2526.
85. On Li Junzan, see Li Yukun, Longmen shiku lingshi,
Zhongyuan wenwu 1986.1: 118.
86. Tiji, no. 2536, in Grotto 1490.
87. Purple Cassia Palace was built west of the town of Minchi, which lay seventy-five kilometers west of Luoyang. See Sima
Guang, Zizhi tongjian, ch. 202, p. 6390.

Chapter 8: Salvation for One

1. In Wolfgang Iser, The Implied Reader (Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1974), p. 274.
2. Cambridge History of China, v. 3, p. 361.
3. Ibid., p. 412, from Chou I-liang, Tantrism in China, Har
vard Journal of Asiatic Studies 8 (1945): 241332.
4. Sima Guang, Zizhi tongjian, ch. 211, p. 6696.
5. Cambridge History of China, v. 3, p. 411.
6. Tiji, no. 1632. An ink rubbing is reproduced in v. 2, p. 377,
but it is too small for legible reproduction here.

7. In this, I follow Mizuno and Nagahiro, Rymon sekkutsu

no kenky, v. 1, p. 76. Chavannes states that the inscription was
composed and transcribed by the emperor, but the fact that the
word zhuan (composed by) appears many spaces before the
phrase imperially transcribed suggests that someone else,
whose name is now missing, was the author. See Chavannes,
Mission archologique, v. 1, pt. 2, p. 458.
8. The transcription in Tiji gives the total number of participants as 160, but Mizuno and Nagahiro (Rymon sekkutsu no
kenky, v. 1, p. 76), Yan Wenru (Longmen Fengxiansi san zao
xiang beiming kaoshi, in Longmen shiku yanjiu lunwenxuan,
p. 21), and Wen Yucheng (Zhongguo shiku diaosu quanji, v. 4:
Longmen, p. 38) all give the number as 106, which is closer to my
estimate of 111 names at most.
9. On Emperor Taizongs prohibition, see Sima Guang, Zizhi
tongjian, ch. 210, p. 6686; and Liu Xu et al., Jiu Tang shu, ch. 184,
p. 4754. Gaos dates are usually given as 684762, but his epitaph
states that he died in 762 at seventy-three sui, not seventy-nine,
as given in his biography. Compare Ouyang Xiu and Song Qi,
Xin Tang shu, ch. 207, p. 5860, to Zhao Junping, Tang Gao Lishi
muzhi juewei, Shufa congkan 70 (2002), 2:18.
10. Sima Guang, Zizhi tongjian, ch. 210, p. 6686.
11. These men held this title, according to the list of eunuch
donors in the inscription made during the refurbishment of the
Qibaotai sculptures in 724. See Yen Chan-ying, Wu Zetian yu
Tang Changan Qibaotai shidiao foxiang, Yishuxue (Study of
the Arts), 1 (1987): 61.
12. The inscription is so ruined that only the names of the Palace Treasury Service, the Menials Service, and the Palace Gates
Service can be made out with certainty, but it seems likely that
members of all six services would have been involved in this
project.
13. See Charles O. Hucker, A Dictionary of Official Titles in
Imperial China (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1985), nos.
4173, 3012, 3495, 2253, 4227, and 4175.
14. This title was taken by Emperor Xuanzong on November
27, 713 (Ouyang Xiu and Song Qi, Xin Tang shu, ch. 5, p. 122).
15. This is one of the very rare (possibly unique) usages of the
term mofa in the Longmen inscriptions.
16. In Amitbhas twenty-second vow, in the Stra of the Bud
dha of Measureless Life, he refers to Samantabhadra (whose
name means Universally Virtuous) as the archetype of one undertaking the bodhisattva path to enlightenment. See Gmez,
The Land of Bliss, p. 168.
17. Incense Mountain was a mythical mountain of Jambudvpa,
believed by the Chinese to be in the Kunlun Mountains. See
Foxue dacidian, v. 2, p. 1611b. The overpowering scent of the cam
paka flower is compared in the Vimalakrti Stra to the overwhelming merit and virtue of the Buddha (ibid., p. 2815b).
18. The references to Incense Mountain and the Himlayas
play on the theme of the relocalizing of holy Indian sites at Longn o t e s t o pa g e s 1 4 1 1 4 5 | 207

men. The eastern hills were called Xiangshan, or Incense Mountain, while the western cliffs were compared to the Himlayas in
Cen Wenbens inscription of 641.
19. Sofukawa Hiroshi counts a total of forty-nine figures. He
says, There are those who say there are forty-eight figures. However, according to old photographs (meaning Chavannes, Mis
sion archologique, pl. 225), to the east of the south-wall guardian
figure, above the shrine with three Buddhas in it, there was one
niche with a Buddha in it, which has been left out. See Tangdai
Longmen shiku zaoxiang de yanjiu, pt. 2, p. 126. Wen Yucheng
says there are three to the south of the Vairocana, eleven on the
north side, seven on the south wall, and twenty-seven on the
north wall, for a total of forty-eight. See Longmen suojian liang
Tangshu zhong renwu zaoxiang gaishuo, p. 136.
20. Sofukawa, Tangdai Longmen shiku zaoxiang de yanjiu, pt. 2, pp. 126129; Wen Yucheng, Longmen suojian liang
Tangshu zhong renwu zaoxiang gaishuo, pp. 135136.
21. Yan Wenru, Longmen Fengxiansi san zaoxiang bei-
ming kaoshi, pp. 2223. Tiji, no. 1632, has mistranscribed the
seventh day as the seventh month. Wen Yucheng (Zhongguo
shiku diaosu quanji, v. 4, p. 38) and Chavannes (Mission ar
chologique, v. 1, pt. 2, p. 458) also have 730.
22. The inscription is currently cemented over, but an ink rubbing is reproduced in Rymon zz daiki, no. 49.
23. Wen Yucheng believes this means the statues were refurbished by Emperor Xuanzong (He Luo shangdu, pp. 99100).
24. On the subject of stimulus and response in Buddhist belief, see Robert H. Sharf, Coming to Terms with Chinese Bud
dhism, esp. pp. 120122.
25. These are the thirty-two major marks and eighty minor
signs on the body of the Buddha.
26. Using a Tang standard of 29.5 centimeters for one chi (ten
chi make one zhang), 12 zhang equals a width of 35.4 meters, while
140 chi equals a height of 41.3 meters. See Wan Guoding, Tang
chi kao, p. 119. Modern measurements of the shrine vary. Zhang
Naizhu gives a width of 33.5 meters for the shrine and 49.38 meters as the height of the top of the shrine from the base of the
cliff (Longmen shiku Da Lushena xiang kan kaocha baogao,
p. 122). Liu and Yang give the dimensions of the shrine proper as
19.68 meters high, 38 meters wide, and 36 meters deep. See Liu
Jinglong and Yang Chaojie, Longmen shiku zonglu, v. 8, p. 25.
27. I rely on the translation in Chavannes, Mission archolo
gique, v. 1, pt. 2, p. 456.
28. Wen Yucheng, in Longmen shiku, ed. Longmen wenwu
baoguansuo and Beijing daxue kaoguxi, v. 2, p. 221. There is
only one mention of a Longhua Monastery in the inscriptions at
Longmen. That was made in 533 at Yaofang Grotto, but it could
have referred to one of the two Longhua monasteries established
in Luoyang in the late Northern Wei (Tiji, v. 1, pp. 3839).
29. According to the account in Liu Xu et al., Jiu Tang shu,
Wuxing zhi, ch. 37, p. 1357: The Yi River overflowed and de208 | n o t e s t o pa g e s 1 4 5 1 4 9

stroyed the Tianzhu (India) and Fengxian monasteries at Longmen, south of the capital city, ruining everything up to the
southeast corner of the citys suburbs. The height of the water
was over six feet...houses and trees were submerged.
30. Ouyang Xiu and Song Qi, Xin Tang shu, ch. 5, p. 129; Sima
Guang, Zizhi tongjian, ch. 212, p. 6749.
31. Sofukawa,Tangdai Longmen shiku zaoxiang de yanjiu,
p. 128.
32. Liu Xu et al., Jiu Tang shu, ch. 184, p. 4757; Ouyang Xiu and
Song Qi, Xin Tang shu, ch. 207, p. 5858.
33. They were put in charge specifically of the purchase of
birds and animals to be used for the release of living creatures.
See Liu Xu et al., Jiu Tang shu, ch. 184, p. 4757; and Ouyang Xiu
and Song Qi, Xin Tang shu, ch. 207, p. 5858.
34. See Gao Lishis biography in Liu Xu et al., Jiu Tang shu, ch.
184, pp. 47574759, esp. p. 4757.
35. Zhao Junping, Tang Gao Lishi muzhi juewei, p. 17.
36. Apparently, it was found or excavated illegally in Shaanxi
Province and then returned to the Pucheng Cultural Relics
Management Office. See Zhao Junping, Tang Gao Lishi muzhi
juewei, p. 16. See also the epitaph of Gaos father, written by the
eminent official Zhang Yue, likely at Gao Lishis request, after the
death of his mother, ne Mai (642729), transcribed in Tangdai
muzhi huibian xuji, ed. Zhou Shaoliang and Zhao Chao (Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 2001), Kaiyuan 092, p. 516.
37. On Gao Yanfu, see Du Wenyu, Gao Lishi jiazu ji qi yuanliu, Tang yanjiu 4 (1997): 175197, esp. pp. 186187.
38. Cambridge History of China, v. 3, p. 334.
39. Zhao Junping, Tang Gao Lishi muzhi juewei, p. 16.
40. Ibid., p. 17.
41. Cambridge History of China, v. 3, pp. 389, 413.
42. Liu Xu et al., Jiu Tang shu, ch. 184, p. 4757; Ouyang Xiu and
Song Qi, Xin Tang shu, ch. 207, p. 5858.
43. For the text of Gao Lishis Spirit Road Stele at Tailing, see
Du, Gao Lishi jiazu ji qi yuanliu, pp. 175176.
44. Eunuch sponsorship of single Amitbha statues is not unusual. Fifty percent of dated shrines from the early Tang contain
an Amitbha figure, and of the ten eunuch dedications at Longmen where the image can be identified, either by iconography or
by inscription, five are for Amitbhas. These are the eunuch ceremonial secretary Feng Shiliangs large shrine in Binyang South
Grotto, done in 665; three small shrines in Grotto 355, done in
the 660s by low-ranking eunuchs (Tiji, nos. 0402, 0406, and
0403, comparing the last with Liu Jinglong and Yang Chaojie,
Longmen shiku zonglu, v. 2, p. 70); and the small cave dedicated
by the acting director of the Palace Gates Service Mo Guyin to
the imperial family in 684, just north of Guyang Grotto. Tiji
identifies it as Grotto 1430; Longmen shiku zonglu has Grotto
1437 (v. 8, p. 114, pl. 568).
45. Liu Jinglong and Yang Chaojie, Longmen shiku zonglu, v.
8, p. 19, pl. 121124.

46. In the opinion of Yan Wenru (Longmen Fengxiansi san

zaoxiang beiming kaoshi, p. 21), this Zhang could have been either Zhang Yue (667730) or Zhang Jiuling (673740), but Wen
Yucheng argues that this Zhangs rank-5 merit title was too low
for him to have been either of those eminent men (Longmen
suojian liang Tangshu zhong renwu zaoxiang gaishuo, p. 136).
On the calligrapher, see ibid, p. 136, n. 129, quoting Zhu Jianxin,
Jinshixue (Shanghai: Commercial Press, 1940), pp. 274275. The
inscription is 50 centimeters high and 130 centimeters wide and
was recorded in Wang Changs Jinshi cuibian, ch. 77.
47. Tiji, no. 1633. Yen Chan-ying points out that this inscription is recorded in Quan Tang wen erroneously under the name
of Xu, in ch. 959, p. 20 (Wu Zetian yu Tang Changan Qibaotai,
p. 53, n. 73).
48. The Academy of Scholarly Worthies gained that name in
725 and Yang died in 740, but Wen Yucheng considers the grotto
to have been completed by 735, based on the way the altars extend outside the grotto (Longmen shiku, ed. Longmen wenwu
baoguansuo and Beijing daxue kaoguxi, v. 2, p. 203).
49. Only one other is identified by inscription: Tiji, no. 1383, in
Shiniuxi (Grotto 883), the natural crevice carved with Northern
Wei and Tang dynasty shrines. Chn-fang Y has written that
because of the similar savior role played by these two bodhisatt
vas, Ti-tsang and Kuan-yin began to be linked together in ritual
and art in the late Tang, but the evidence of Yangs grotto suggests they were already linked by the early eighth century. See
Y, Kuan-yin, p. 323. At least eleven Dizang-Guanyin pairs are
identified by inscription at Longmen, with many more produced
that were not inscribed. See Chang Qing, Longmen shiku Dizang pusa ji qi youguan wenti, Zhongyuan wenwu 1993.4: 32.
50. See, for example, Tiji, no. 0718, in the early Tang Grotto
557, and Tiji, no. 0674, in the early Tang Grotto 555.
51. All that remains of the name of the first beneficiary is the
character lie, which I take to be the first part of liekao, my illustrious late father. Next, it says, my late mother, the Lady
of... (Tiji, no. 1633).
52. His epitaph is transcribed in Tangdai muzhi huibian, ed.
Zhou Shaoliang and Zhao Chao (Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 1992), pp. 15091510.
53. There is also an Eleven-Headed, Thousand-Armed Guanyin on the south wall of Grotto 571, above Huijian Grotto. The
standing Guanyin figures on the main and north walls have
the normal number of arms and heads. See Chang Qing, Shi
lun Longmen chu Tang mijiao diaoke, p. 343. The head of an
Eleven-Headed Guanyin from the Leigutai North Grotto, on the
east side, is now in the Ohara Museum of Art, Kurashiki (reproduced in Miho Museum, Rymon sekkutsu, p. 65), which was
part of an Esoteric program of three Buddhas carved around 692
(Li Wensheng, Longmen Tangdai mizong zaoxiang, Wenwu
1991.1: 64).
54. See also Chen Jinhua, arra and Scepter: Empress Wus

Political Use of Buddhist Relics, Journal of the International As

sociation of Buddhist Studies 25 (2002), nos. 12: 80103.
55. Yen, Wu Zetian yu Tang Changan Qibaotai, p. 46.
56. Ibid., p. 54.
57. Yen, Wu Zetian yu Tang Changan Qibaotai, p. 45; Choe
Chiwon, Tang Tae Chonboksa kosaju pongyong taedok Popchang hwasang chon, Taish shinsh daizky, no. 2054, p.
283c; and Fazang, Huayan Jin shizi zhang jiaoshi, p. 182.
58. Yen, Wu Zetian yu Tang Changan Qibaotai, p. 57. The
text is transcribed on p. 58.
59. They include not only Yang Sixu, but also Mo Shunzhi, Lin
Chaoyin, and Li Shancai.
60. Not only might the Qibaotai have served for Tantric protection of the state, but Lokesh Chandra has offered the theory
that the Great Vairocana Image Shrine was also established for
the same reason. See Lokesh Chandra, The Role of Tantras in
the Defence Strategy of Tang China.
61. Yangs tomb, excavated in 1958, suggests he had a particular
affinity for sculpture; it contained a pair of warriors or eunuch
guardsmen carved of marble, a material rarely used for tomb figures. One of these finely carved figures, forty centimeters high,
is reproduced in color in The Glory of the Silk Road: Art from An
cient China, cat. no. 94. Both are reproduced in China: Dawn of
a Golden Age (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2004),
cat. no. 203, and in Kaogu jinghua: Zhongguo shehui kexue yuan
kaogu yanjiusuo jiansuo sishi nian jinian (Beijing: Kexue chubanshe, 1993), pl. 252.
62. Y, Kuan-yin, p. 54.
63. Liu Xu et al., Jiu Tang shu, ch. 184, p. 4755. According to
Hucker (A Dictionary of Official Titles, no. 4141), the man who
held the position of Palace Eunuch Attendant-in-ordinary was
the actual head of the Palace Domestic Service. Yangs biography is also the first in the section on eunuch officials in both Jiu
Tang shu and Xin Tang shu.
64. Ouyang Xiu and Song Qi, Xin Tang shu, ch. 207, p. 5857.
65. Yan, Wu Zetian yu Tang Changan Qibaotai, p. 52, n. 62,
in which she quotes Sugiyama Jir, Hkeiji sekkoku kenky
josetsu, Tokyo Kokuritsu Hakubutsukan ky, no. 13 (1978): 241
291.
66. According to a ninth-century source, during Emperor
Xuanzongs reign, the governor of Yizhou, Sichuan, submitted
a volume of painting designs to the throne, which the emperor
later gave to Gao. See Luo Shiping, Sichuan Tangdai fojiao zao
xiang yu Changan yangshi, p. 55, n. 38, quoting Duan Chengshi, Sitaji, ch. 2, entry for Yishan Ward.
67. Zhao Junping, Tang Gao Lishi muzhi juewei, pp. 3940.
68. Ouyang Xiu and Song Qi, Xin Tang shu, ch. 207, p. 5859.
69. Wen Yucheng, Longmen shiku zaoxiang de xin faxian,
p. 24.
70. Liu Jinglong and Yang Chaojie, Longmen shiku zonglu, v.
8, p. 17, pl. 114.
n o t e s t o pa g e s 1 4 9 1 5 1 | 209

71. Gmez, The Land of Bliss, pp. 187188.

72. Ibid., p. 139.
73. Ibid., p. 167.
74. Iser, The Implied Reader, p. 274.
75. Ibid., p. 275.
76. Foshuo guan Wuliangshou fo jing, in Taish shinsh
daizky, v. 12, no. 365, p. 345a.
77. According to her work on this site, my student Lisanne
Pluth has argued for a date of around 700 for Cave 105 (Lisanne
Pluth, The Xumishan Grottoes and the Iconography of Tang
Dynasty Dizang, Ph.D. dissertation, University of Kansas,
2004).

Epilogue: The Later Life of the Site

1. Du Fu quanji (Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 1996),
p. 2. See also douard Chavannes, Le dfil de Long-men dans
la province de Ho-nan, Journal Asiatique, series 9, v. 20 (July
August 1902): 154155.
2. This is a reference to the story of the Magic City in the Lotus
Stra. See The Lotus Sutra, trans. Burton Watson (New York:
Columbia University Press, 1993), pp. 135136.
3. Xiu Xiangshan ji, in Bai Juyi ji, 4 v. (Beijing: Zhonghua
shuju, 1979), v. 4, pp. 14411443.
4. Part of the treasure trove of manuscripts found in 1900 in
the sealed Cave 17 at the Mogao Grottoes of Dunhuang, Longmen fu is partially transcribed in Zhongguo shiku diaosu quanji,
v. 4: Longmen, pp. 3839. Another poem on this subject, written
by a more famous Tang poet, Li Qiao (645714), is transcribed
in Luoyang Longmen shi xuan, ed. Li Xianqi (Beijing: Zhongguo
lyou chubanshe, 1986), pp. 12.
5. Wangzi Jin was a Later Han man who was famous for his
ability to conjure phoenixes with his flute playing. He and Fuqiu
Bo were friends who roamed around the Yi River and Luo River
area together. See Zhongwen dacidian, no. 21295.33.
6. Li Ying (Yuanli) and Guo Tai (Linzong) were good friends
who lived in the Luo River area during the Later Han period.
One day when they were boating together, the other guests at
the party remarked that they looked like a pair of immortals. See
Zhongwen dacidian, nos. 14819.1765 and 40338.27.
7. See Ennins Diary: The Record of a Pilgrimage to China in
Search of the Law, trans. Edwin O. Reischauer (New York: Ronald Press, 1955), p. 3; and Longmen shiku, ed. Longmen wenwu
baoguansuo and Beijing daxue kaoguxi, v. 2, p. 229.
8. See the poem by the academician Song Xiang (9961066)
called On the Offering of Prayers for Rain at the Pagoda of
ubhkarasim
ha at Longmen, in Luoyang Longmen shi xuan, pp.
5758. According to his biography, ubhkarasim
ha magically
produced rain to ease a drought at the request of the emperors
representative, the chief eunuch Gao Lishi. See Zanning, Song
Gaoseng zhuan (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1987), ch. 2, p. 21.
210 | n o t e s t o pa g e s 1 5 2 1 6 4

9. Grotto 2211; Tiji, no. 2842. For an annotated version of the

poem section, see Luoyang Longmen shi xuan, pp. 5556.
10. See Wen Yucheng, Letan Longmen Fengxiansi de jige
wenti, p. 57, quoting Zhipan, Fozu tongji, ch. 44, Taish shinsh
daizky, no. 2035, v. 49, p. 405c.
11. From Longmen, by Wei Boxiao, in Luoyang Longmen shi
xuan, p. 106.
12. Translation modified slightly from Richard E. Strassberg, Inscribed Landscapes: Travel Writing from Imperial China
(Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California, 1994), pp.
266267.
13. See Antonino Forte, Marginalia on the First International
Symposium on Longmen Studies, p. 73.
14. See the list of books containing entries on Longmen in
Rymon zz daiki, pp. 119121.
15. Ronald C. Egan, The Literary Works of Ou-yang Hsiu
(10071072) (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984), p. 3.
16. See the poems in Luoyang Longmen shi xuan, pp. 7982.
17. James T.C. Liu, Ou-yang Hsiu: An Eleventh-Century NeoConfucianist (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1967), pp.
165166.
18. Ouyang Xiu, Jigulu bawei, ch. 5, pp. 11b12a.
19. See Audrey Spiro, Forty Years On: Art History, Methodology, and How a Great Scholar Came to Make a Small Error,
Oriental Art 36 (1990), no. 3: 130137; and Chavannes, Le dfil
de Long-men, p. 146.
20. Tiji, no. 1741.
21. Gu Yanwu, Jinshi wenzi ji, ch. 2, pp. 1718, in Shike shiliao
xinbian (Taibei: Xinwenfeng, 1977), v. 12, p. 9219.
22. Qianshen Bai, Fu Shans World: The Transformation of
Chinese Calligraphy in the Seventeenth Century (Cambridge,
Mass.: Harvard University Asia Center, 2003), p. 164.
23. Huang Yi, Song Luo fang bei riji, pp. 911, in Shike shiliao
xinbian: di san ji, v. 29, pp. 601602.
24. Tiji, nos. 1632, 1634, 1633, and 1639, respectively.
25. This would have been the present Xiangshan Monastery,
which was rebuilt in 1708 by Tang Youzeng and sits opposite
the grottoes on the western side, not the Tang dynasty complex
known to Bai Juyi that stood at the southern end of the eastern
hills.
26. Tiji, no. 1112, in Cave 670, above Laolong Grotto, written
in 715.
27. Dang Yes grotto is Cave 2125 on the east side, Tiji, no.
2800, dated 772; Xin Bis inscription is Tiji no. 2823, dated 818,
in Cave 2158.
28. Longmen ershi pin, pp. 7 and 14.
29. Bao Shichen, Li xia bi tan, in Zhu Jia, ed., Yizhou shuangji
shucheng (Taibei: Huazheng shuju, 1980), p. 38. Details of the
Stele for Zhang Menglong, dated 522, are reproduced in Shod
zensh, 3rd ed., 26 v. (Tokyo: Heibonsha, 19661969), v. 6, pl.
2429; details from the Stele for Jia Sibo (Jia Shijun), dated 519,

are reproduced in v. 6, pl. 2223; and details from the Stele for
the Enfeoffment of Kong Xian as Marquis of Zongsheng, dated
221, are reproduced in v. 3, pl. 5960.
30. Tiji, no. 2337.
31. Fang Ruo and Wang Zhuanghong, Zeng bu Jiao bei sui bi
(Shanghai: Shanghai shuhua chubanshe, 1981), p. 241.
32. Zhu Jia, ed., Guang Yizhou shuangji shuzheng (Hong Kong:
Zhonghua shuju, 1979), ch. 19, p. 175. The King Udayana figure
was produced from an abandoned Northern Wei shrine in the
lowest register of Guyang Grotto, on the north wall beneath Wei
Lingzangs shrine.
33. See, for example, Liu Jinglong, Longmen ershipin: Beike yu
zaoxiang yishu; and Longmen ershipin.

34. Abe, Ordinary Images, p. 191.

35. Gustav Ecke, On a Wei Relief Represented in a Rubbing,
Monumenta Serica 2 (19361937): 205207. My thanks go to my
student Jason Steuber, assistant curator of early Chinese art at
the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, for providing me with this
reference.
36. Longmen liusan diaoxiang ji, p. 107.
37. Wen Yucheng, Letan Longmen Fengxiansi de jige wenti,
p. 57.
38. Liu Jinglong, The Preservation of the Longmen Caves, in
Miho Museum, Rymon sekkutsu, p. 156.

n o t e s t o pa g e s 1 6 4 1 6 5 | 211

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225

Index

Page numbers in italic refer to figures.

Amitbha: belief in, 131, 156, 196n. 47; and
the fifty (or fifty-two) bodhisattvas, 4,
90, 104107, 107, 110, 120, 123, 136140;
images of, 89, 103, 105, 106, 120, 130,
131, 155, 156, 195n. 2
Amitbhas, forty-eight, 3, 4, 144, 145151,
146
Amitbha shrines, 55, 8486, 120, 123,
126, 130, 132, 169, 198n. 88, 199n. 197,
202nn. 29, 37, 207n. 79
Amitbhas, three, 151152, 152, 153
Amitbhas, twelve, 152153
Amitbha Stra, 90, 131
An Lushan, 1, 157
art: Buddhist view of, 5, 11, 31, 35, 49, 109,
126, 140, 154156; Confucian view of,
11, 132
artisans, 1, 51, 55, 96, 116, 142, 170
Avalokitevara, 94, 130, 199n. 98
.
Avatamsaka Stra, 34, 116, 119, 150,
200nn. 117, 3
Bactria, 40, 41
Bai Juyi, 157158, 210n. 25
Bai Zheng (court eunuch), 31, 184n. 5
Bamiyan, 110
Baode Monastery, 29, 34
Bao Shichen, 164
Bazheng (abbess), 130131
Binyang Central Grotto, 1, 2, 46, 3150,
32, 33, 3539, 41, 42, 46, 59, 60, 63, 64,
67, 68, 70, 75, 7883, 161, 165166
Binyang North Grotto, 32, 59, 60, 165166
Binyang South Grotto, 3, 32, 55, 59, 60,
7883, 8082, 86, 91, 95, 101, 126, 160,
165166
Bodhgay, 77, 94, 95, 98, 109, 141, 171, 177
Bodhiruci, 34
Brahm, 35, 68, 69, 91, 185nn. 27, 28
Buddhanma scriptures, 94, 136
Buddhas of the Three Periods, 37, 38, 57,
59, 6769, 123, 126, 127, 139, 185n. 35
Buddhism, schools of. See Chan school;

esoteric imagery; Huayan; Pure Land;

Three Levels Teachings; Tiantai
cakravartin, 58, 92, 93, 104, 117, 119, 129,
205n. 21
Cen Wenben, 75, 77, 79, 80, 83, 8791,
160, 162, 191n. 98, 192n. 3
Changqiu Monastery, 60
Chan school, 3
Chen Yun (laywoman), 55, 56, 170
chongkuang (chongri), 189n. 38
Chu Suiliang, 86, 92, 117, 161, 161, 162,
194n. 46
Cixiang (nun), 9, 5759, 164, 170, 189nn.
39, 45
Cixiangs Grotto, 5759, 58, 111, 164
Cliff-Carved Three Buddhas, 79, 111, 163,
204n. 19
cost of a grotto, 5, 59, 60
Cui Guang, 59, 60, 190n. 82
Cultural Revolution, 165
Dai, 183n. 39
dna (giving), 5, 45, 49, 60
Dang Faduan (female palace official), 9,
56, 170
Daodejing, 118
Daoism, 76, 118, 119, 143, 160, 195n. 4,
199n. 110, 207n. 73
Daojiang (monk), 9, 164
Daosong (monk), 9, 57
Daoxing (monk), 51, 52, 161
Daoxuan, 105, 199n. 99
Daabhmika Stra, 34, 60
daughter of dragon king, 58
Dharma, 5; artifacts of, 4; decline of, 89,
94, 145, 195n. 7; Ending of the, 89, 90,
145, 179, 200n. 120; guardians of, 13.
See also mofa; xiangfa; zhengfa
dharmakya, 5, 10, 11, 29, 49, 78, 91, 93,
116, 154, 171
Diamond Stra, 10
diminution, counteracting effects of, 37,
114
Director (Dajian), 189n. 31, 206n. 65

Dizang bodhisattva, 2, 130, 149, 209n. 49

Du Fu, 157
Dunhuang. See Mogao Grottoes of
Dunhuang
dun zang zhi ci yue, 145
Du Yongan (layman), 9, 53
Emperor Daizong of Tang, 141
Emperor Daowu of Northern Wei, 17, 19
Emperor Gaozong of Tang, 4, 88, 92, 95,
98, 102, 115122, 126, 140, 147, 177, 178
Emperor He of Southern Qi, 25, 25
Emperor Mingyuan of Northern Wei, 17,
185n. 29
Emperor Shizong of Later Zhou, 73
Emperor Taiwu of Northern Wei, 17
Emperor Taizong of Tang, 4, 75, 84,
8688, 95, 102, 107, 110, 118, 119, 130,
140, 141, 143, 194n. 41
Emperor Wencheng of Northern Wei, 17,
185n. 29
Emperor Wu of Northern Zhou, 11, 89
Emperor Xianwen of Northern Wei, 17,
185n. 34
Emperor Xiaowen of Northern Wei, 4,
17, 21, 2325, 2729, 3134, 43, 49, 56,
63, 70, 168170, 185n. 29
Emperor Xuanwu of Northern Wei, 4,
29, 3134, 38, 43, 44, 49, 50, 60, 63, 69,
75, 81, 126
Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, 143144,
147151, 154, 157, 208n. 23
Emperor Zhenzong of Song, 159
Empress Dowager Feng, 29, 34
Empress Dowager Hu, 4, 29, 43, 6067,
7172, 118, 161162, 191n. 85
Empress Dowager Wenzhao (Lady Gao,
mother of Emperor Xuanwu), 4, 3133,
43, 44, 63, 186n. 55, 188n. 21
Empress Gao (wife of Emperor
Xuanwu), 6063
Empress Wu of Tang (Wu Zetian), 4, 92,
98, 116122, 126, 129, 131, 132, 135, 140,
141, 143, 147150, 162, 177, 178, 203n. 40,
205n. 21

Empress Zhangsun (the Wende empress), 7576, 78, 82, 86, 91, 126, 140
141, 161, 171173
Enchin, 159
epigraphy, 160165
esoteric: imagery, 2, 150; school, 3, 143,
150, 159
eunuch officials, 56, 61, 62, 143144, 150;
in charge of Buddhist projects, 31,
55, 56, 120, 143156; as donors, 1, 5,
143156, 179, 207n. 11, 208n. 44
expenditure: complaints about, 64, 117;
rhetoric of, 4, 6, 51, 56, 120, 147; statements of, 32, 51, 52, 59, 77, 109, 116,
119120, 188n. 5, 190n. 46
fa (graphic variant for Dai), 183n. 39
Faguo, 7, 17
Fahai Monastery, 127, 129
Fangshan (Yunju Monastery), 94, 110,
118
Fanwangjing, 116
Fasheng (Northern Wei monk), 8, 9, 12,
16, 16, 24, 25, 43, 55, 56, 164
Fasheng (Tang cleric), 103
Fawen and Falong (nuns), 9, 56, 57, 170,
187n. 71
Fayuan zhulin, 96, 120
Fazang (Kang Fazang), 103, 119, 127, 150,
198n. 85
Fengxian Monastery, 4, 115, 123, 126,
140142, 147148, 157, 162, 178180,
201n. 8, 206n. 69
feng xian si xiao, 140
Fifteen Thousand Buddhas, 123, 135136,
136, 139, 178, 206n. 57
filial piety, 5, 6, 51, 52, 76, 87, 126, 132, 140,
149, 150
First Meditation, 6869, 70, 191n. 107
five phases theory, 4849
Freer Gallery, 1, 2, 187n. 64, 191n. 88
Gao Chu (layman), 9, 12
Gao Lishi (eunuch official), 4, 143144,
148149, 151, 154, 179, 210n.8
Gao Shu (layman), 9, 16, 21, 24, 164,
182n. 29
Gongxian grottoes, 40, 136
good karma clay images, 130131
Great Vairocana Image Shrine: frontis
piece, 35, 111122, 112116, 123, 127, 130,
132, 137, 140, 143, 145, 154, 159, 162, 163,
165, 177
228 | i n d e x

Guanyin, 130, 141, 142, 149, 153, 179;

Eleven-Headed, 149151, 209n. 53.
See also Avalokitevara; Save-fromSuffering Guanyin
guilds as donors, 1, 2, 151
Guyang Grotto, 24, 7, 8, 9, 9, 13, 15, 17,
18, 24, 28, 29, 43, 47, 52, 5557, 59, 136,
162166
Gu Yanwu, 162163
hai si fa as error for Fahai si, 204n. 17
Heaven of the Thirty-Three Gods, 23, 168
Hou, Great Consort, 9, 16, 22, 24, 56, 57,
164
Huangfu Du (uncle of Empress Dowager
Hu), 5, 61, 6771, 171, 191n. 102
Huangfu Grotto, 6771, 68, 69, 72, 73
Huangfu, Lady (mother of Empress
Dowager Hu), 60, 62, 65
Huang Yi, 162163, 182n. 19
Huayan, 3, 119, 150, 155
Hu Guozhen (father of Empress Dowager Hu), 6062, 192n. 112
Huicheng (aristocrat-monk), 4, 78, 11
13, 23, 24, 57, 167
Huichengs shrine, 9, 10, 1314, 14, 1617
Huigan (monk), 9, 16, 24, 164
Huijian (abbot), 4, 116, 120, 126130, 177
Huijians Grotto, 123, 124, 126130, 128,
129, 132
Huile (monk), 9, 56
Huoshao Grotto, 5, 6467, 66, 71, 7374,
130, 191n. 85
icons: Indian, 4, 96, 97, 99107, 100, 108,
121, 127, 129, 137, 139140; magical efficacy of, 28, 49; supernatural, 4, 99,
100, 102, 105, 107
illusions, optical, 14, 37, 48, 113115
immortality imagery, 6566, 94
immortals, 65, 77, 109, 162, 176, 190n. 72,
210n. 6
imperially transcribed, 207n. 7
India, 95; envoys to, 9496, 141142,
196n. 41; famous images from, 4, 96,
97, 102, 105, 120, 127, 137, 195n. 11, 197n.
50, 198nn. 73, 74; healers from, 120,
141, 204n. 46
Indra, 45, 48, 91, 116, 117, 119, 174,
185n. 27
jtaka tale: of Prince Mahsattva, 39, 44,
48, 49; of Prince Sudna, 39, 44, 45, 46,

48, 49; of Sumedha and the Dpan.kara

Buddha, 46
jewelry, Indian style of, 114, 200n. 5
ji (traces), 2729
Jingai Monastery, 9799, 119, 126, 127
Jingming Monastery, 34, 60
Jingshan Monastery, 107, 141, 199n. 107
Jingshan Monastery Grotto, 3, 101, 104
111, 105, 106, 126, 130, 176, 200n. 116
Jinyong Citadel, 34, 62, 73
kalpa of destruction, 9294, 145, 175, 179
kan gong ba wan (engraved this act of
merit [to last] eighty[-four] thousand
[years]), 189n. 39
Kang Youwei, 164
karma, 5. See also merit
karmic benefit, 62, 142; function, 5, 34,
49; gift, 49, 50; machinery, 35, 155;
rescue, 34, 130, 140, 142
King Father of the East, 65, 66
King Udayana, 99, 102, 104, 183n. 49,
211n. 32
King Udayana Buddha figures, 35, 33,
90, 99104, 100102, 110, 111, 120, 127,
136, 164, 175, 183n. 49, 202n. 37
Leigutai Central Grotto, 127, 135, 136
Leigutai South Grotto, 97, 97
Liang Wenxiong Grotto, 106, 129, 199n.
102
Lianhua Grotto, 52, 53, 54, 57, 6870, 70,
71, 111, 126, 192n. 112
Li Chong, 59, 60, 63, 64, 190n. 82
liekao (my illustrious late father), 209n.
51
Li Fu, Prince of Zhao, 8485
Li Guanding (laywoman), 9293, 174
Li Hong, the heir apparent, 98, 127
Li Junzan (imperial artisan), 116, 142,
177, 179
Li Shen, Prince of Ji, 107, 110, 126
Li Tai, Prince of Wei, 3, 7683, 8688,
126, 161, 171
Liu, Lady (Great Consort of late Emperor
Gaozu), 129, 194n. 49, 197n. 61
Liu Qizu (layman), 21, 167
Liu Teng, 31, 32, 60, 61, 66, 79
Liu Xuanyi (imperial son-in-law), 4, 85
86, 171, 194n. 39
Li Xian, Prince of Zhou (Emperor
Zhongzong of Tang), 4, 98, 120, 126,
129, 143, 204n. 10

Longhua Monastery, 127, 147, 148, 180,

208n. 28
looting, 2, 43, 56, 133, 157, 165, 187n. 72,
198n. 94
Lotus Stra, 37, 38, 58, 123124, 153, 193n.
11, 200n. 117, 210n. 2
loyalty, 5, 6, 11, 21, 23, 24
Luoyang, 1, 3, 11, 16, 17, 21, 29, 34, 49, 60,
73, 74, 76, 77, 83, 87, 89, 102, 118120,
127, 135, 141, 147, 148, 151, 157, 171, 193n.
16, 201n. 9
Magadha, 77, 95
Magic City, 158
Mahbodhi Monastery, 90, 95, 196n. 44,
197n. 50
Mahparinirvn.a Stra, 116, 200n. 117
Mahsamnipta Stra, 94
Mahsattva jtaka, 44, 186n. 56
Maijishan grottoes, 55
Maitreya, 23, 90, 92, 93, 96, 97, 117, 127,
129, 168, 169, 171, 195n. 13, 196n. 19
Maitreya bodhisattva: figures of, 17, 18,
46, 52, 5557, 59, 68, 89, 169, 170, 187n.
69, 191n. 104, 197n. 55
Maitreya Buddha: figures of, 5, 83, 86,
8991, 95, 98, 99, 123, 135, 194n. 49,
197nn. 55, 61, 198n. 88; Three Assemblies of, 53, 89, 92, 98, 171, 197n. 55
Majur, 58, 113, 150
Maudgalyyana, 23, 168
Ma Zhenbai (layman), 9, 12, 24, 165
Measureless Life Buddha (Wuliangshou), 53, 145, 179, 195n. 2
men as donors, 1, 5153, 57, 59, 103, 150
Meng Guangda (text author), 20, 21, 23,
167
merit: acts of, 51, 53, 132, 143145, 150,
151, 162, 167, 171, 179; making of, 5, 28,
49, 51, 52, 75, 78, 110, 118, 120, 126, 136,
139141, 148, 154, 156; transfer of, 5, 19,
28, 29, 31, 49, 55, 126, 132, 136, 155
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New
York, 2, 43, 48
Mihirakula, 89, 195n. 3
.
Mingru (sangha donor), 103
mofa (Ending of the Dharma), 89, 207n.
15. See also Dharma, Ending of the;
kalpa of destruction
Mogao Grottoes of Dunhuang, 5, 98, 135,
200n. 119, 210n. 4
money, 53, 63; personal valuables as, 51,
53, 118, 120, 158, 169171, 177; private,

56, 57, 60, 63, 80, 111, 116118, 170, 171;

silk as, 55, 59, 63, 118, 169; state, 62, 63,
118
monks as donors, 1, 5, 56, 99, 103, 150
Moya sanfo. See Cliff-Carved Three
Buddhas
Mu Liang, 12
Muslim belief, 160
najie (nagas or Nagarahra), 79
Nanping princess (daughter of Emperor
Taizong), 4, 8586, 194n. 39
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2, 42, 43,
48, 205n. 46, 211n. 34
Nirvn.a Stra, 94
Niu Yide (male official), 131
nuns as donors, 1, 4, 5, 5659, 130, 133135,
138140, 170, 171, 189n. 35, 192n. 112,
195n. 12, 205nn. 49, 51
offering of the bowl of food, 69, 71
Ouyang Xiu, 160161, 192n. 3
Paired Grottoes (Shuangyao), 2, 111, 123
127, 124, 125, 130, 132
Palace Chapel: monks of, 118, 119, 127,
150, 205n. 21; nuns of, 5, 135, 138, 139,
205n. 48
parents: as beneficiaries, 5, 3334, 43,
65, 66, 77, 81, 142, 149151, 199n. 102;
posthumous transfer of merit to, 10,
19, 49, 52, 53, 62, 78, 140, 142, 149150;
state as, 151
pensive prince (siwei taizi), 6869, 89
persecution of Buddhism, 11, 73, 192n.
121, 195n. 3
Pingcheng, 16, 17, 23, 29, 31
Prince of Beihai, 24, 56. See also Yuan
Xiang
Pure Land: belief, 3, 130, 153, 156; rebirth
in, 103, 104, 153, 156, 169, 178; representations, 4, 90, 130132, 140, 145, 152
155, 178
Pure Land Hall of the Damask Silk
Guild, 151152
Qianxisi Grotto, 78, 86, 87, 111, 165
Qibaotai (Tower of Seven Treasures),
150, 151
Qingming Convent, 130131
Qingming Festival, 5, 158159
Qingmingsi Grotto, 3, 4, 123, 124, 130
131, 131

qishe (gijjhas or Gr.dhrakt. a), 79

Queen Mother of the West, 6566
Ratnamati, 34
rich burials, 52
kyamuni, 10, 12, 13, 89, 90, 92, 94, 104,
109, 116, 135, 145, 160, 171, 176; images
of, 10, 13, 17, 22, 29, 31, 52, 53, 55, 57, 62,
64, 89, 93, 99104, 120, 169171, 174,
187n. 69, 196n. 18; Indian images of,
90, 121, 188n. 1; Mahbodhi Monastery
image of, 4, 90, 9698, 196n. 44
kyamuni and Prabhtaratna, 18, 67,
89, 193n. 11
Samantabhadra, 113, 145, 150, 179, 200n.
3, 207n. 16
Sanjiejiao. See Three Levels Teachings
Satyasiddhi stra, 34
Save-from-Suffering Guanyin, 130, 135,
136, 205n. 31
sculptural devices, 37, 48, 113115
Seiry-ji, 100101, 110
Seven Buddhas of the Past, 18, 68, 104,
170, 202n. 16
Seven Emperors of Northern Wei, 1718
Shandao, 4, 90, 116, 120, 131, 177
Shaolin Monastery, 34
sheng (sage or holy), 2729
Shentong Monastery, 8486, 84, 85
Shen Yue, 10
shi (entities), 145
Shiping, Duke of (father of monk Hui
cheng), 10, 19, 164, 167, 182n. 35
Sinicization, 2, 5, 44; policies of, 14, 16,
17, 24, 49; of style, 14, 25, 26
Sishun Ward of Luoyang (lay society),
55, 8384, 83, 9091, 93, 129, 173,
194n. 33
Si Yun (eunuch official), 56, 170
societies, lay, 1, 8, 12, 20, 21, 23, 5153, 64,
168
Sogdian deities, 4041
Song Jingfei (laywoman), 21, 54, 54, 55,
169, 188n. 20
Southern Qi dynasty, art of, 2527, 49
spirit kings, 3840, 49, 81, 186nn. 40, 44
Stone Grotto Monastery: Guyang
Grotto, 11, 27, 168, 181n. 12, 189n. 27;
Huoshao Grotto, 64, 181n. 12, 191n. 85
.
ubhkarasimha, 143, 159, 210n. 8
Sukhvat, 106, 132, 137, 139, 145, 151153,
178, 179
i n d e x | 229

Sun, Mrs. (laywoman), 102103, 175

Sun Daowu (local governor), 20, 167
Sun Qiusheng (layman), 8, 9, 16, 2024,
20, 164, 167
Stra of Buddha of Measureless Life, 145,
152155, 196n. 47
Stra of Buddha Names, 135136
Stra of the Divine Dhran. on the
Eleven-Headed Avalokitevara, 150
Stra of Golden Light, 38
Stra on the Production of Buddha Im
ages, 11, 103104
sympathetic resonance, 4849
Tabgatch Huang, 17
Tabgatch Xun, 18, 24, 183n. 51
Taiyuan Monastery, 119, 140, 202n. 34
Tanluan, 38, 131
Tanyao, 17, 37, 38
Thousand Buddhas, 23, 37, 71, 77, 123, 136,
155, 156, 168, 171, 172, 192n. 112
Three Levels Teachings, 3, 206n. 58
thrice-obedient, 58
Tiantai, 123
Tus.ita Heaven, 19, 23, 68, 91, 92, 99, 167,
168, 174
Udyna, 45, 96, 195n. 3
Vairocana, 116, 117, 139, 150, 155, 202n. 16;
images of, 5, 111122. See also Great
Vairocana Image Shrine
Vairavan.a, 113
Vimalakrti, 46, 50, 59, 186n. 40, 187n. 64
Vimalakrti and Majur, 3840, 4548,
50, 57, 89
Vimalakrti Stra, 34, 45, 50, 59, 60, 187n.
66, 200n. 117, 207n. 17
Visualization Stra, 110, 156
Vivantara jtaka, 44, 186n. 56
vows, forty-eight, 132, 145, 149, 152, 156, 178
Wanfo Grotto, 3, 4, 123, 124, 130, 132141,
133, 134, 136139, 163

230 | i n d e x

Wang Shiping (layman), 9, 181n. 2

Wang Xuance (imperial envoy), 9499,
175, 203n. 40, 204n. 46
Wang Youfang (layman), 103
Wang Zhi (court eunuch), 31, 184n. 7
Wei, Great Consort (concubine of Emperor Taizong), 107110, 130, 176, 199n.
102
Wei Baidu (local governor), 2021, 167
Wei Ji (Wei Hongji, male official), 116,
177, 203n. 40
Wei Lingzang (layman), 8, 9, 12, 22, 22,
23, 52, 163, 164, 168
women as donors, 1, 4, 5359, 6667, 130,
162
wu years: gengwu year, 145; wuwu year, 145
xiangfa (Semblance Dharma), 75, 89
Xiangshan (Incense Mountain), 145, 157,
158, 161163, 179, 208n. 18
Xiangshan Monastery, 127, 141, 158, 160,
163, 207n. 78, 210n. 25
Xiangtangshan grottoes, 40, 94
Xie Boda (layman), 9, 12, 16, 164
Xie He, 11
Xinxing (founder of Three Levels Teachings), 136, 206n. 58
Xiwangmu. See Queen Mother of the
West
Xuanwushan grottoes, 110
Xuanzang, 3, 86, 94, 96, 97, 99, 102103,
106, 122, 127, 197nn. 50, 62, 198nn. 73,
74, 77
Xuanzhao (imperial envoy), 120, 141142,
178, 196n. 44
Xue Fashao (layman), 22, 23, 52, 168
Xue Rengui (general), 131132, 178
Xumishan grottoes, 155, 156
Yang Dayan (general), 8, 9, 12, 16, 24,
2630, 27, 164, 168
Yang Sixu (eunuch official), 144, 149151,
162, 179
Yan Wan (wife of Li Tai), 88

Yaofang Grotto, 2, 51, 55, 161, 166

Yaoguang Convent, 34, 6062, 64
Yao Shenbiao (female palace official), 4,
138, 140, 178
Yaoshi, the Buddha of Healing, 120, 130,
205n. 31
Yifu, Wife (laywoman), 9, 12, 164
Yongning Pagoda, 6064, 66, 7273,
190n. 70
Yongyaosi, 205n. 48
Yuan Hongji Grotto, 106, 199n. 103
Yuan Shanjian, Emperor Xiaoming of
Eastern Wei, 66, 170, 191n. 95
Yuan Xiang, Prince of Beihai, 9, 12, 16,
164, 171, 192n. 113
Yuan Xie, Prince of Anding, 9, 16, 164
Yuan Xu, Emperor Xiaoming of Northern Wei, 6062, 71
Yuan Yan. See Shiping, Duke of
Yuan You, Prince of Qijun, 9, 16, 164
Yuchi, Lady (wife of Mu Liang), 9, 12, 16,
55, 164
Yulanpen Festival, 141142
Yungang grottoes, 2, 5, 7, 10, 1417, 15, 23,
24, 31, 34, 38, 47, 47
Yuzhang princess, 4, 80, 8283, 173
Zhao Ahuan (lay society leader), 9, 52
Zhaoling, 76, 88, 193n. 13
Zhao Shuangzhe (layman), 9, 24, 182n. 29
Zheng Changyou, Earl of Yunyang, 9,
16, 21, 164
zhengfa (True Dharma), 89
Zhengshi Monastery, 59, 60, 62
Zhiyun (Palace Chapel nun), 4, 135136,
138, 140, 178
Zhongming Convent, 70, 171
Zhou Yuanzhis Grotto, 132, 142, 178
zhu (red), 183n. 40
zhu (Zhu River), 183n. 40
zhuan (composed by), 207n. 7
Zhu Yizhang (calligrapher), 20, 167
Zhu Zhunian (laywoman), 55, 188n. 23
zong (traces), 2729

A bou t the Author

Amy McNair, who received her doctorate in art history from
the University of Chicago, is associate professor of Chinese art
at the University of Kansas, where she has taught the history of
early and medieval Chinese art since 1992. She is the author of
The Upright Brush: Yan Zhenqings Calligraphy and Song Literati
Politics, published by the University of Hawaii Press in 1998.

Production Notes for McNair | donors of longmen

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