Donors of Longmen: Faith, Politics, And Patronage in Medieval Chinese Buddhist SculptureDonors of Longmen is the first work in a Western language to re-create the history of the Longmen Grottoes, one of China's 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 Asian and 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 Amitabhas added to the Great Vairocana Image Shrine in 730. Through her sensitive and well-informed exploration of Longmen's 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. |
Contents
One Emperor as Tathāgata | 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 Cīnasthāna Preserves the Dharma | 89 |
Seven The Satellite Grottoes | 123 |
Eight Salvation for One | 143 |
Chinese Texts of Longmen Inscriptions | 167 |
213 | |
227 | |
Other editions - View all
Donors of Longmen: Faith, Politics, and Patronage in Medieval Chinese ... Amy McNair Limited preview - 2006 |
Common terms and phrases
According Amitābha appear base Beijing believed Binyang Binyang Central Binyang South bodhisattva body Buddha Buddhist capital carved Cave century China Chinese cliff completed containing court dated dedicated described Dharma donors dynasty early east Emperor empress enlightenment established eunuchs evidence face father figure Grotto Guyang Grotto halo hands head height History icons imperial inscription Lady Land late later living Longmen shiku lotus Luoyang Maitreya means merit meters Monastery monk month mother mountain Northern Wei offered official original pair Palace period Press Prince produced record represent River Śākyamuni says scriptures sculpture seated seen shrine side Song south wall sponsored standing statue stele stone suggests Sūtra Taizong Tang thousand throne Tiji tion University Vairocana wall Wang wenwu worship Yucheng Zhang