recontextualizing kanjingsi: finding meaning in the emptiness at longmen

Recontextualizing Kanjingsi: Finding Meaning in the Emptiness at LongmenAuthor(s): Karil KuceraSource: Archives of Asian Art, Vol. 56 (2006), pp. 61-80Published by: University of Hawai'i Press for the Asia SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20111337 .

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Recontextualizing Kanjingsi: Finding Meaning in the Emptiness at Longmen*

Karil Kucera

St. Olaf College

V_yn the east side of theYi River at Longmen, a side which

has historically received less scholarly attention than the more

intensely carved west side, there are several impressive tem

ples and cave-temples, most of which were produced during the reign of Empress Wu (684-705).The largest of those, the

cave-temple Kanjingsi, is approximately 11 meters square and

Fig. i. Exterior view of Kanjingsi Cave, Longmen. Tang dynasty

(618-907). Luoyang, China. Stone; approx. 11 m. square. Photograph

by Dr. Amy McNair.

at present lacks a dominant Buddha grouping such as is seen

at most other caves at Longmen and elsewhere (Fig. 1).

Kanjingsi is largely empty except for a band of life-size relief

figures of monks stretching along its back and side walls

(Figs. 2,3).1 Above these figures the walls are patterned with remnants of multiple small seated-Buddha images, extend

ing up toward a lotus carved high above.2 The "emptiness" of the cave appears to point to a function different from that

of other, more iconographically apparent grottoes and niches at Longmen. Although the name Kanjingsi translates as

"Reading Scriptures Temple," this name was not ascribed to

the cave until the Qianlong reign-period (1736-1796).3 Previous scholarship has focused largely on interpreting

the emptiness of the cave, and has given scant consideration

Fig. 2. Patriarchs, south interior wall, Kanjingsi Cave, Longmen.

Photograph by author.

61



Fig. 3. Patriarchs, north interior wall, Kanjingsi Cave, Longmen.

Photograph by author.

to the ways in which Kanjingsi may have functioned with in the Longmen complex and especially within a larger

Tang societal framework. Scholars have analyzed the monk

figures within the cave primarily in conjunction with its

emptiness, in an effort to affiliate Kanjingsi with the Chan Buddhist sect. This study seeks to present Kanjingsi as an

element in the multilayered and complex reality of actual

practice at Longmen during the Tang. It synthesizes recent

scholarship on the lineage schemes being formulated

during the Tang, in order to reinterpret the production, patronage, and use of the cave.

REPRESENTING THE SA?GHA

The obvious source for the band of life-size relief figures of

monks encircling the side and back walls of Kanjingsi are

the omnipresent disciple figures ?nanda and Mah?k?syapa, whose depiction within main Buddhist groupings serves to

reflect the importance of the sa?gha, or monastic commu

nity, within the Buddhist faith. Earlier grotto works at

Longmen present this pair flanking the Buddha while the rest of the Ten Disciples look on; in later grottoes ?nanda and Mah?k?syapa alone serve to signify all Ten Disciples and,

by extension, the sa?gha.

62

No precedents for the Kanjingsi series of monk images exist on the earlier more heavily carved west side of

Longmen. The only similar grouping occurs within the

nearby east-bank cave of Leigutai Central.4 A plausible rationale for representing such a multitude of monks with

in the east-side caves is that the east side of the Yi at

Longmen was largely utilized by the monastic community;

during the Tang dynasty (and earlier) the east side was the

site of several large monastic complexes as well as the

burial ground for numerous illustrious members of

Longmen s monastic community.5 I shall argue that the

preponderant monastic presence on the east bank was

considered to require a different visual program than that

necessary for the pilgrims who patronized the west-bank caves and niches.

Yet there are notable differences between the two caves.

At Leigutai Central the cave program follows a more stan

dard design formula: the focus of the space is a Maitreya Buddha triad carved in high relief on the back wall

(Fig. 4). Covering the upper part of the walls is a diaper pattern of seated Buddha figures; carved on the side walls

and skirting below the Maitreya Buddha are relief figures of monks (Fig. 5). The Leigutai monk images are smaller,

only half-size versus life-size at Kanjingsi. They are also

4m 1 Mah?k?syapa

2 Ananda

3 Madhyantika

4 Sana ka vasa

5. Upaj?upta

6. Dhrtaka

7 Mikkaka

S. Buddhanandi

9 Buddhamitra

10 Parana

11 l*unyayasas

12 AsvaghiKa

13 Kapwmala

14 Nla?aquna

15 Kanadeva

16. Kahulata

17 San^hanandi

1H Gayasata

19 Kumarata

20 Jayata

21 Vasubandhu

22 Manortnta

23 Ya<?

24 Heklc-na

25 Aryasimha

Fig. 4. Floor Plan of Leigutai Central Cave, Longmen. Tang dynasty

(618-907). Luoyang, China. After Longmen Shiku, vol. 2 (Beijing: Wenwu Chubanshe, 1991-1992), pi. 282.



Fig. 5. Overview of Leigutai Central Cave, Longmen.T?ng dynasty

(618-907). Luoyang, China. From Mizuno Seiichi and Nagahiro

Toshio, Rytimon Sekkutsu no Kenkyil, vol. 3 (Tokyo: Zauho Kank?kai,

1941; reprint, Kyoto: D?h?sha, 1980), pi. 99.

fewer?twenty-five at Leigutai Central, twenty-nine

at

Kanjingsi. In a further difference from Kanjingsi, the

Leigutai reliefs are flanked by carved identifying inscrip tions (Fig. 6).

Leigutai Central Cave provides a variety of aid to the

greater understanding of Kanjingsi. Most useful is Leigutai Centrals indisputable date within the Zhou dynasty of

Empress Wu (690-705), established by the presence within

the Leigutai Central inscriptions of special characters

promulgated at this time.6 The presence of these charac

ters, which were no longer in use after 705, throughout

Leigutai Central?they also occur within four Buddhist

texts carved at the entrance to the cave?confirms that

the monk figures perambulating the lower registers of the

walls were conceived within the overall program of

the cave.7 Another fortuitous aspect of Leigutai Central is

found in the content of the inscriptions flanking the

carved monk-figures. The rather lengthy carved texts

follow "captions" that name the monk figures, and can be

traced back to a late fifth-century work entitled Fu Fazang

Yinyuan Zhuan (History of the Transmission of the Dharma

Store)? Despite its questionable origin, the Fu Fazang

Yinyuan Zhuan is generally accepted within the field of

Buddhist studies as one of two works promulgated by the

Tiantai school of Buddhism in China to substantiate its

claim to a religious genealogy leading back to the histori

cal Buddha S?kyamuni.9 The images depicted at Leigutai Central appear to follow the genealogy laid out in the

s?tra, albeit with large portions of narrative omitted from

the inscriptions and one additional individual, the twenty third figure, inserted, in what appears to have been a

misreading of the s?tra.10

PATRIARCHS OR LUOHAN?ISSUES OF LEGITIMATION

Identification of the monk figures within Leigutai Central

and Kanjingsi as patriarchs rather than luohan is based on

subtle but crucial differences in the meaning of the two

terms. Although often used interchangeably, patriarch implies a lineage schema?an actual or retroactively devised

leadership descent within a given Buddhist school, where

as luohan more generally means "worthy ones," individuals

who have attained Enlightenment mainly through their own

efforts.11 Thus, all patriarchs are luohan, but not all luohan

are patriarchs.

In both caves we are looking at patriarchs. Principal sup

port for this assertion is that, beginning in the late sixth

century and gaining momentum in the eighth, Buddhist

devotees of various persuasions began to make a conscious

effort to gain authenticity by reconnecting themselves

with their Indian origins. To that end, individual monks

drew from extant s?tras and created their own texts as

well, in order to claim for their particular set of beliefs and

practices a line of patriarchs stretching back to the histor

ical Buddha S?kyamuni. In fact, the aforementioned Fu

FazangYinyuan Zhuan is considered to have been compiled in China.12

Lineage sch?mas were not entirely new in the Tang, and

rationales for creating them varied. Their proliferation

during the Tang might have occurred partly as a response to

imperial pressures. Such pressure is apparent in the ongoing call for monks to adhere to Confucian Chinese social stan

dards. In 662, Emperor Gaozong reopened the controversy

regarding whether monks should recognize their social

obligations by paying homage to their parents as well as to

the emperor.13 Although the initial conclusion was no, this

push toward Confucian proprieties was later renewed, and

by 714 Emperor Xuanzong effectively decreed that all

monks were required to perform filial obeisance.14 Such

political maneuvering highlighted the very vital gap in

Buddhisms dealings with its Sino-Buddhist congrega tions?an insufficient accounting of Buddhisms "ancestral"

lineages.

63



Fig. 6. Rubbing of Inscription for Twenty-Third Patriarch, Leigutai Central Cave, Longmen. Tang dynasty (618-907). Luoyang, China. Paper and ink.

Reprinted with permission from Edouard Chavannes, Mission arch?ologique, vol. 3 (Paris: ?cole Fran?aise d'Extr?me Orient, 1909-1915),

pi. DLXXXVII. Patriarch, Leigutai Central Cave, Longmen,Tang dynasty (618-907). Luoyang, China. Photograph by Dr. Amy McNair.

Historically, Buddhist orders were organized in a famil

ial fashion, leaders being referred to as zu, "grandfather" or

"patriarch," with pupils as dizi, "younger brother" or

"son," while the various schools themselves became

known asjia, or "houses." Over time Buddhist monks also

gradually appropriated duties associated with ancestor

worship, including functioning as "priests" for the ancestral

cults of their patrons.15 Dating from as early as the

Northern Wei dynasty (386-535), the Chinese Buddhist

clergy took on many of the trappings of Confucian ances

tor ritual, such as mourning for their deceased masters as a

son would mourn a father, and promoting burial rather

than the customary cremation.16 Concurrent with a rising literati interest in genealogy, Buddhist monastic communi

ties began to express concern with their own lineages, a

concern that is credited with bringing about the resurrec

tion of earlier translated works in order to substantiate

these later legitimation claims.

Economics always played a large role in the motiva

tion of various Buddhist activities. Thus lineage sch?mas

can further be seen as created in response to patrons' demands. Beginning just prior to the Sui reunification of

China, recipients of donations shifted from a Buddhist

institution as a whole to specific members of the sa?gha.

64



Emperors and nobility donated estates or tax bases often to the teachers of specific theoretical systems or orders;

hence,

monastic property came to be jealously guarded by being passed on to the heir or senior disciple of the abbot. This tendency became marked in the Sui dynasty (581-618 CE), and it must have

produced a nexus between doctrine, monastic property, and line

ages of succession.17

The first such schema to emerge was that of the Tiantai

school, which in the late sixth century created a lineage based on the Fu Fazang Yinyuan Zhuan and the Mohe

Zhiguan (The Great Calming and Contemplation), a text writ ten by the sect's founder Zhiyi (538?597).18 It is argued that

this family line extending back to India was constructed in

response to new donations given to the school by Emperor Wendi of the Sui dynasty in the form of land grants and

tax revenue from Tiantai County; in order to maintain the

prosperity of the order, a set patriarchal lineage schema and order of future succession had to be created.19 Other

orders were quick to follow suit, clearly recognizing the

economic value inherent in linking living Chinese Buddhist

monks with an Indian patriarchal line stretching back to

S?kyamuni. The currents of the times also clearly created a demand

for lineage programs. In the final defining years of the

imperial legitimation struggles of the early eighth century,

Empress Wu schemed to occupy the throne in her own

right, overriding traditional Confucian legitimation formulae to do so.20 The Buddhist church had been

instrumental in helping her, and the significance of what

Empress Wu was attempting could not have been lost

upon the Buddhist community as a whole. It was the

Northern school of Chan's supposed connections with

Empress Wu and her "materialistic" lot, engaged in temple

building, icon construction, s?tra copying, etc., that were

excoriated by the Southern school of Chan Buddhism in

732 in its battle for supremacy over the Northern school.21

Although few today would agree that the Southern Chan branch of Buddhism was quite so distinctly separate or so

truly iconoclastic at this early date, the issue of lineage clearly was of considerable concern to both sides of the debate.

The heart of the Southern school's argument centered

upon Confucian dictates for legitimate rule, but was

couched in Buddhist terminology and in retrospect was

clearly designed to create a singular lineage transmission

model for Chan. Shenhui, leader of the Southern school,

designed a multipronged attack on the teachings and prac tices of Shenxiu and the Northern school, yet the critical issue was the illegitimacy of more than one ruler or patri arch existing at one time. Empress Wu had reigned as

emperor in her own right while her two sons, clearly the

legitimate heirs to the throne, were capable of doing so.

This had created "two suns in the sky," which was not

possible under the Confucian mandate. Shenhui carefully drew the analogy to his own cause, highlighting the prem ise that two Chan masters could not coexist within one

generation:

So the succession to the throne of the Chakravartin King is like

the transmission of the patriarchs of the Chan lineage through the

generations to only one heir, who is called the true son.22

Shenhui's attack on the Northern school of Chan, and his

promotion of himself and the Southern school as "rightful heirs" to the Buddhist law, was clearly the culmination of

years of struggling with legitimation concerns within the Buddhist monastic community as a whole. Although the Chan school's legitimation struggles have historically received the most attention, evidence for other sectarian

schisms can be found in documents dating from the reign of Tang Xuanzong (713-756) that describe debate over the Chinese portion of the lineage scheme of the Tiantai

school.23

THE TRANSMISSION OF THE LAW

Examples of representations depicting lineages, or the

"transmission of the law," are obviously rare for these early years; one clear example, however, does remain, dating from the Sui dynasty.24 Carved just inside the doorway to

the Dazhusheng Cave at Lingquansi is a floor-to-ceiling stele-like carving divided into twelve registers of alter

nating text and image (Fig. 7). The carving's near-pristine condition is due in large part to Lingquansi's remote

location outside Anyang in Henan Province.25 The text of the Dazhusheng carving clearly designates the individu

als portrayed as Mah?k?syapa transmitting the Law to

?nanda, who in turn passes it down the generations to the

twenty-fourth disciple listed, Aryasimha. The images placed above the text repeat the motif of two men seated in

conversation, highlighting the master-disciple relationship. In order to signify the Buddhist Law being transmitted, and thus the lineage extended, the artist has chosen to

place either a jewel in the lotus or a mushroom-like moun

tain shape between each pair of conversing figures throughout the entire sequence. There appears to have been a certain amount of latitude in form for both images,

with the jewel-in-the-lotus motif rendered in shapes as

disparate as an egg resting on a feathered fleur-de-lis or

a pineapple upright on a bed of leaves. The mountain

imagery, which also appears to have been used as a border, is represented in the second register of images as a craggy rock with prominent outcroppings, while in the fifth reg ister the central mountain form suggests more a column

than a mountain.

An image similar to the jewel-in-the-lotus motif pres ent in the Dazhusheng Cave relief carving can be seen at

65



Fig. 7. Stele Depicting the Transmission of the Law at Dazhusheng Cave.

589. Stone. Reprinted with permission from Zhongguo Meishu

Quanji, vol. 13 (Beijing: Wen wu Chubanshe, 1989)^1.214.

Leigutai Central. A pair of figures carved on the south

wall immediately inside the entrance carries a table bear

ing what appears to be a heavily stylized and eroded

jewel-in-the-lotus form (Fig. 8).26 Although this motif is

not repeated, as the jewel-in-the-lotus is at Lingquansi, its placement at the head of the procession makes evident

its great importance. To the figures depicted in the

Leigutai Central processional, i.e., monks, who have

given up their worldly possessions in search of

Enlightenment, an object requiring special handling and

transport can only be the Buddha s Law. By the promi nence of their position these figures and their precious

Fig. 8. Servants in Front of First Patriarch Carrying Jewel-in-the-Lotus,

Leigutai Central Cave, Longmen. Photograph by Dr. Amy McNair.

cargo strengthen the argument that Leigutai s monk

figures imply a lineage schema.

The combination of the jewel-in-the-lotus motif with

the inscriptions flanking the named and numbered

monk-figures at Leigutai Central strengthens the inter

pretation of the monastic procession as a depiction of the

transmission of the Law, and thereby an illustrated lineage. Each inscription begins with a brief "caption," first nam

ing the patriarch being depicted and then numbering him

within the lineage.The "captions" in these inscriptions are

not part of the recognized canonic text, and thus can be

seen as an aid to worshippers in identifying the accompa

nying images.27 Within the cave at Kanjingsi this formula is further

abstracted. No longer is there a jewel-in-the-lotus motif, but simply a lotus, represented first in the hands of

Mah?k?syapa, then in the hands of ?nanda (Fig. g). From

the careful positioning of the lotus in the open palm of

each figure, with the same lotus drooping lazily to one

side, it appears as if Mah?k?syapa has handed the lotus to

?nanda, who will in turn pass it on. ?nanda looks over

his left shoulder to Mah?k?syapa, who gazes back at

him meaningfully. Mah?k?syapa offers the lotus of the

Law with his left hand, ?nanda receives it in his right. At Kanjingsi the uniform depictions of the lotus and

the absence of further representations of the motif among the grouping of patriarchs suggests that the literal depic tion of the lotus being passed all the way down the

lineage was no longer necessary for later Tang-dynasty devotees. The transmission of the Law, and the lineage it

implied, had clearly become an accepted concept and a

recognizable motif.

66



Fig. 9. Carvings of ?nanda and Mah?k?syapa in Kanjingsi Cave at

Longmen. From Mizuno Seiichi and Nagahiro Toshio, RyUmon Sekkutsu no KenkyU, vol. 3 (Tokyo: Zauho Kank?kai, 1941; reprint,

Kyoto: D?h?sha, 1980), pi. 82.

CHAN AND TIANTAI

The two distinct iconographie programs seen at Leigutai Central and Kanjingsi help to reveal the diversity of reli

gious activity within Longmen during the late seventh

and early eighth centuries. The eclecticism of the age is

highlighted by the variety of Buddhist factions that are

mentioned by scholars in discussing these two caves.The

multiple Buddha imagery of Leigutai Central Cave has

led scholars to at least two different hypotheses regarding the cave s iconographie program. One hypothesis suggests the Three Stages and the other the Pure Land movement

as source of the Leigutai imagery.28 Kanjingsi's iconog

raphy, most scholars have agreed, is related to Chan. This

conclusion is based on the combination of the afore

mentioned vast emptiness of the cave, which has been

perceived as reflecting Chan's iconoclastic nature, and on

the number of patriarchs depicted lining the interior

walls. But neither of these two aspects definitively points to Chan patronage.29

If one views these two caves as extensive projects under

taken at considerable expense, thereby entailing wealthy patronage, then the number of possible religious affiliations

is somewhat diminished. Let us first consider Leigutai Central. Certain facets of the Three Stages ideology may make that movement a promising prospect for Leigutai Central's patronage. Specifically, the Maitreya imagery found within Leigutai Central, in conjunction with the texts related to the decline of the Law inscribed at the

entrance, point to a tradition that may have encompassed Three Stages philosophies.30 Furthermore, there is the

possibility that the 15,000 Buddhas imagery carved

throughout the cave was related to penitential rites involv

ing recitation of the Buddhanama scriptures; these rites were a central tenet of the Three Stages movement.31

Yet it has been documented that the Three Stages movement was proscribed during the reign of Empress Wu, one of a series of proscriptions that eventually

brought about its demise.32 Furthermore, the followers of

the Three Stages movement did not promote a lineage schema, having been in existence for a relatively short

span of time prior to its initial proscription. Thus follow ers of Three Stages ideology would not be a likely source

of patronage for a cave of this scale, and within which

patriarch imagery was such an important component of

the iconographie program.

Iconographically, the Pure Land movement may help to

explain the multiple Buddha imagery at Leigutai Central, but the presence of the patriarch imagery as well as the

dominant Maitreya Triad does not make the program

clearly Pure Land. Although Pure Land programs were

thought to be popular at Longmen, Sofukawa Hiroshi has

effectively documented that the majority of Pure Land

works were smaller niches, with very few major caves

having Pure Land images as their main icon.33

Given its acknowledged ideologically syncretic quality, Tiantai would make the most probable source for the

imagery found at Leigutai Central. The Tiantai system

during its revival under Empress Wu and her successors

freely accommodated diverse scriptures as suited their

needs.34 The text fundamental to Tiantai belief, the Mohe

Zhiguan, allowed for a variety of Buddhist practices,

including practices as diverse as Chan meditation, Esoteric

Buddhist rites, and Pure Land worship, the combination of

which would help to explain the unusual convergence of

imagery within the cave.35 Tiantai was also the first group to promote a distinct patriarchal lineage based on the

"Western patriarchs" and the "Eastern masters."36 Their

use of the Fu FazangYinyuan Zhuan to define the Western

patriarchs would serve to explain the text's presence in the

carved inscriptions at Leigutai Central.

67



Tiantai is also a logical choice when patronage is con

sidered. Although Tiantai virtually dropped out of sight

following the demise of the Sui dynastic house, the Tiantai

teachings were never out of circulation, as evidenced by their being brought to Japan by visiting Chinese monks.

Empress Wu, in a move perceived as serving to distance

herself from Buddhist factions patronized by earlier Tang

emperors, chose a Tiantai monk to serve as Precepts Master to the court. Wu is also thought to have favored

Tiantai due to her familial ties to the Sui royal household, which had historically been supportive of Zhiyi and

Tiantai.37 Based upon ideology as well as patronage, the

Tiantai Buddhist monastic community seems a more plau sible supporter of the production of Leigutai Central than

either Three Stages or Pure Land.

Now let us look at the evidence for possible patrons of

Kanjingsi. Like Tiantai, Chan enjoyed the support of the

aristocrats of Luoyang, including Empress Wu. It is known

that as early as 695, Empress Wu had established close rela

tions with various meditation masters, a number of whom

would later be incorporated into written Chan lineage sch?mas. One of the most compelling stories related to

Empress Wu describes the empress kneeling in respect before the Chan master Shenxiu, aged ninety-five, who had

come to the capital at Wu's invitation.38 Chan monks are

documented as having lived at Longmen or in the sur

rounding area, and numerous famous Chan monks, among

them the Chan master Shenhui, are buried there.39

Patronage of Chan continued through the Tang period, as

evidenced by the nobility's interest in Shenxiu's Chan suc

cessor, Puji, and by failed attempts of Emperors Ruizong and Zhongzong to bring Puji to court.40

The main evidence for the identification of Kanjingsi as

a Chan cave lies in the number of patriarchs represented.41

Only Chan would claim for its lineage twenty-eight Indian patriarchs extending back to S?kyamuni, and gen

erally credit Bodhidharma as the first Chinese patriarch

despite his Indie origins.Written sources incorporating the

Chinese patriarchs into an overarching lineage schema

postdate the 684?705 period during which Kanjingsi was

constructed, but not by very long. According to the

chronology provided by Faure, the earliest of the Chan

patriarchal histories can be dated to sometime between

710 and 720, even though it was not until the tenth

century that the famous "transmission of the lamp" texts

became canonized.42 The carved figures at Kanjingsi

may well represent one of the earliest representations of

the Chan lineage schema, one not yet incorporating the

Chinese patriarchs, and not yet divided by later internal

Chan sectarian quarrels.

Illustrating the patriarchy was fundamental to Chan. The

Chan movement's emphasis on an unbroken lineage

helped to set Chan apart from the many other competing

lineages, whereas Chan's promotion of meditation as a

means to Enlightenment by itself could not. With aristo

cratic patronage of Chan evident in Luoyang, and the

Chan movement beginning to be enmeshed in its own

legitimation struggles, one might see the depictions of

carved patriarchs at Kanjingsi as an effort by Chan adher ents to not only set the school apart from the neighboring

Tiantai lineage of Leigutai Central, but also to confirm the

validity of Chan's own existence within the Buddhist

monastic community as a whole.

In the Kanjingsi Cave there are no extant inscriptions

identifying the individual patriarchs. Scholars have argued that this very lack of inscriptional evidence points toward

the Chan school as the source for the iconography. Yet

modern studies of Chan during the medieval Chinese

period have now disproved the notion that the Chan sect

always minimized dependence on scriptural works. If

Kanjingsi was a Chan-supported construction, its function

and feel greatly transcended its present emptiness. Though its depiction of a set of patriarchs presents visual evidence

for early Chan lineage sch?mas, equally important is the

evidence the cave provides of a Chan community engag

ing in a wide variety of Buddhist practices beyond simple meditation.

THE THREEFOLD PATH OF KANJINGSI

Sofukawa Hiroshi has noted that the purpose of the patri archs within Leigutai Central was to represent the "human

realm" within the greater program of the cave, which he

conceives to be that of the 15,000 Buddhas, encompassing the Buddhas of the Ten Directions, as is implied from

inscriptions on the walls and ceiling as well as from the

name carved above the cave entrance.43 I agree with

Sofukawa's contention that the patriarch imagery at Leigutai Central represents the human realm, but question why it

was felt necessary to consciously depict the human realm

so explicitly. This question may be addressed by moving our atten

tion back to the patriarchs of Kanjingsi. Within the cave's

present emptiness, the images seem to proceed around the

room, and indeed Sofukawa, among other scholars, has

characterized Kanjingsi as a direct representation of the

"transmission of the Law"; in other words, of the lineage of patriarchs from S?kyamuni to Bodhidharma. Most

scholars tend to see the procession of patriarchs as moving counterclockwise from the south wall to the north wall,

thereby beginning with Mah?k?syapa and ?nanda and

proceeding to what is considered to be a representation of

Bodhidharma (Figs. 10, 11) .44

Sofukawa argues that in fact the transmission begins with a niche situated on the inside of the doorway, which

depicts a standing Buddha figure flanked by two bod

hisattvas (Figs. 12,13).45 Although this would fit neatly into

the preconceived lineage schema, it is my contention that

68



? 19 IS 17 16 13 H 13 12 11 10

21

22

23

24

23

26

27

28

29

X

Fig. io. F/oor P/?w, Kanjingsi Cave, Longmen. After Mizuno Seiichi and

Nagahiro Toshio, Ry?mon Sekkutsu no Kenkyi?, vol. i (Tokyo: Zauho

Kank?kai, 1941; reprint, Kyoto: D?h?sha, 1980), flg. 108.

this is in fact an intrusive niche, an opinion based largely on the inferior quality and smaller size of the figures with

in the niche compared with the patriarchs. It would have

been highly improbable to expend a great amount of time,

money, and energy carving truly superlative patriarch

images, only to create a clearly inferior Buddha triad.46

Indeed, the carvings at Kanjingsi depict a lineage, and if

numbers are to be believed, specifically a Chan lineage, but

it can be further argued that these figures served multiple purposes, all fundamentally didactic, each created for a dif

fering level of understanding. One purpose might have been to serve as models for emulation. This can be supported by their life size, and by their actions?each is doing some

thing, be it holding a sacred scripture, chanting, clutching rosary beads, or simply gazing off into space (Figs. 14, 13).

Each of these objects or actions figures in the story, known to devotees, of a given patriarch's Enlightenment. Chan

devotees using the cave would therefore have permanent visual signifiers of how they too could join the illustrious

group of men therein depicted. Not only does, each patri arch have unique characteristics, but the carver(s) attempted to convey individual personalities. Even without inscribed

names, each individual patriarch would have been known

and his story taught, in order to show the variety of meth

ods whereby practitioners could arrive at Enlightenment. The idea of belonging to a lineage would be further rein

forced as monks in Tang China perceived their link to

Bodhidharma, the man responsible for the Chan move

ment's presence in China, and, as they circled clockwise

Fig. ii. Drawing of Twenty-Nine Patriarchs in Kanjingsi Cave at

Longmen. After Mizuno Seiichi

and Nagahiro Toshio, RyUmon Sekkutsu no Kenky?, vol. i

(Tokyo: Zauho Kank?kai, 1941;

reprint, Kyoto: D?h?sha, 1980),

fig. no.

69



Fig. 12. Buddha Niche on West Interior Wall, Kanjingsi Cave at Longmen. From Longmen Shiku (Beijing: Wen wu Chubanshe, 1980), pi. 190.

around the room, traveled across time and space back to

?nanda and Mah?k?syapa (Fig. 16). So the carved patriarchs of Kanjingsi, themselves "circumambulating" the cave,

Fig. 13. Detail of Buddha Niche on West Interior Wall, Kanjingsi Cave at

Longmen. From Mizuno Seiichi and Nagahiro Toshio, RyiJmon Sekkutsu no Kenkyi?, vol. 3 (Tokyo: Zauho Kank?kai, 1941; reprint,

Kyoto: D?h?sha, 1980), pi. 97.

Fig. 14. Detail Showing Image of Patriarch in Worship, Kanjingsi Cave at

Longmen. From Mizuno Seiichi and Nagahiro Toshio, Ry?mon Sekkutsu no KenkytJ, vol. 3 (Tokyo: Zauho Kank?kai, 1941; reprint,

Kyoto: D?h?sha, 1980), pl. 94.

70



Fig. 15. Detail Showing Image of Patriarch in Worship, Kanjingsi Cave at

Longmen. From Mizuno Seiichi and Nagahiro Toshio, RyiJmon Sekkutsu no KenkytJ, vol. 3 (Tokyo: Zauho Kank?kai, 1941; reprint,

Kyoto: D?h?sha, 1980), pl. 84.

Fig. 16. Detail of Carved Bodhidharma Image from Kanjingsi Cave at

Longmen. Photograph by author.

71



would in turn inspire their Tang followers to perform ritual

circumambulation.47

Although rituals of any sort seem incongruous in light of modern Chan religious practice, it must be remembered

that Chan practices of the eighth century differed greatly from today's highly distilled worship. Moreover, practices

within the various orders of Tang-dynasty Chan were

vastly discrepant; in the Yuanquejing Dashu Chao (Collected

Writings on the Great Commentary on the "Sutra of Perfect

Enlightenment"), the eighth-century monk and scholar

Zongmi described the doctrines and practices of seven of

the ten houses of Chan. Zongmi states, "Some carry out

all practices, while others disregard even the Buddha."48

Zongmi, who himself claimed to belong to the supposedly iconoclastic, nonmaterialistic Southern school of Chan, further recorded detailed instructions involving the texts

of litanies for services and ceremonies of repentance,

hymns of praise, offerings, s?tra chanting, meditation, and

so on.49

Early photos taken by Mizuno and others show the

Kanjingsi cave with a central Buddha statue placed on a

low, broad platform (Fig. 17).This statue is often dismissed

as irrelevant by modern scholars, who focus instead on the

carved patriarch imagery.50 I contend that in fact this work

(or one very much like it) was an original component of

the Kanjingsi cave program.51 As a central, free-standing

sculpture, it would have been easily circumambulated,

and, as tradition directed, in a clockwise direction.

Consequently, the circumambulating religious would have

begun their traversal of the patriarchs with Bodhidharma, who was closest to them in time and who brought Chan

to China, and ended with Mah?k?syapa, who was chrono

logically the most remote.52

Evidence for painted depictions of monks circumambu

lating an enclosed area occur in two different Tang-dynasty textual sources?one, the Lidai Minghuaji (Record of Famous

Painters of Successive Dynasties), completed by Zhang

Yanyuan in 847; the other, Ennins Diary, the account by a

Japanese monk (794-864) who traveled extensively

throughout the Buddhist establishments of Tang China

prior to and during the years of anti-Buddhist persecution. Both these texts record images of monks performing

ritual circumambulation at temples in Luoyang and

Chang'an; Zhang Yanyuan lists eight temples in Chang'an and two in Luoyang specifically containing depictions of "circumambulating monks," or "monks painted all

around."53 Within some temple precincts, notably

Qianfusi in Chang'an and Qin'gaisi in Luoyang, Zhang documented numerous areas where monks performing

ritual circumambulation were painted: "On the west side

of the walk outside the gate of the Dhyana Precinct are

monks performing the pradaksina ("circumambulation")

ceremony"; "In the southern intercolumnar space of the

eastern cloister corridor and on the south wall of the east

Fig. 17. Main Buddha Statue in Kanjingsi Cave at Longmen. From

Mizuno Seiichi and Nagahiro Toshio, Ryilmon Sekkutsu no Kenkyl?, vol. 3 (Tokyo: Zauho Kank?kai, 1941; reprint, Kyoto: D?h?sha,

1980), pl. 81.

gate are paintings of circumambulating monks. They turn

their eyes to look at people."54 Sculpted as opposed to

painted representations of monks performing circumam

bulation also existed in the former Silla Kingdom (in

present-day South Korea). Besides the well-known

mid-eighth?century grotto of Sokkuram, which features

the Ten Main Disciples of the Buddha carved circling a

central Buddha statue, there exists an eighth-century stone pillar carved on all sides with walking monks car

rying ritual objects (Fig. 18). The varied locations and

placement within those locations of both the painted and

sculpted images of circumambulating monks make it

apparent that such images were not limited to any one

sect or section of the monastic community, but rather

were ubiquitous, which reinforces the hypothesis that

72



Fig. 18. Carved Pillar Showing Monks Circumambulating. 8th c. Ky?ngju, South Korea. Stone. Photograph by author.

they were meant to be emulated by the monks in their

day-to-day devotions.

Documented images of circumambulating patriarchs are

fewer; but the use of "cult" portraits of the patriarchs is

mentioned many times. Zhang's description of one area

within Qianfusi is particularly compelling: "On the boards

of the circumambulation pagoda are the cult portraits of

the twenty-four Disciples who transmit the Dharma."

These depictions were painted on the interior of the walls

of a pagoda built specifically for the performance of a cir

cumambulation ceremony.55

Ennin notes seeing numerous portraits of famous local

priests and patriarchs.56 Although not depictions of ritual

circumambulation, one group of works described by Ennin suggests highly interactive paintings of monks: "As

for the countenances of the sages and saints, some were

gazing into the distance, others looking to the side

seemed to be speaking, and others with lowered visages

regarded the ground."57 That patriarch portraits existed

earlier is evidenced by a passage from Huineng's

(638-713) introduction to the Platform SiJtra of the Sixth

Patriarch: "At that time there was a three-sectioned corri

dor in front of the Master's hall. On the walls were to be

painted pictures of stories from the Lank?vat?ra Sutra,

together with a picture in commemoration of the five

patriarchs transmitting the robe and the Dharma, in order

to disseminate them to later generations and preserve a

record of them."58

Two specific aspects of the Kanjingsi carvings, one sty listic and the other iconographie, point toward their use as

prompts to ritual circumambulation. The first is the sense

of movement inherent in the patriarchs who line the back

and side walls. Rarely are they depicted frontally; rather

they are carved predominantly in three-quarter view and

with their feet slightly splayed, leaning on the left, or for

ward-moving, foot.59 Although his feet have eroded,

Mah?k?syapa, who leads the group, retains the distinctive

attitude of leaning back on his left leg, suggesting that he

is in motion.60 The artist has heightened the sense of

movement of the line of figures by occasionally depicting a patriarch with head turned backward in conversation

while his body leans forward (Fig. ig). These suggestions of movement and conversation also serve to continue

the motif of the transmission of the Law, a transmission

signified here not by a lotus, but rather through teacher

disciple interaction. The randomly scattered carved con

versations express the necessity for study under a master in

order to achieve Enlightenment, a later tenet of Chan

Buddhism.

Fig. 19. Patriarchs in Conversation in Kanjingsi Cave at Longmen. From

Mizuno Seiichi and Nagahiro Toshio, RyHmon Sekkutsu no Kenkyil, vol. 3 (Tokyo: Zauho Kank?kai, 1941; reprint, Kyoto: D?h?sha,

1980), pi. 91.

73



Iconographically supporting the hypothesis that the

patriarchs are engaged in ritual circumambulation are the

objects that they carry. In his in-depth study of the

Kanjingsi figures, Chen Qingxiang catalogues those

objects and remarks that they reveal the types of objects in use by the Buddhist monastic community during the Tang

dynasty.61 The items include long-handled censers, s?tra

rolls, a s?tra press, water vases, rosary beads, and walking

sticks. Yet these objects were not exclusively patriarchal attributes, since similar objects were also excavated from

nonpatriarchal Chan graves exhumed at Longmen in

1984. These types of ritual objects are also seen carved in

the lineage depiction at Leigutai Central. Chen notes that

comparable monk images found at other sites, such as the

carvings of monks at Xiangtangshan, do not depict such

objects in active use.62

The performance of ritual circumambulation can also

be related to patronage at Kanjingsi. Although the modern

conception of Chan prefers to place it outside the realm of

materialism and money, Kanjingsi was clearly an extensive

undertaking, and therefore not only practice but patronage

might have affected iconography. For the patron, the ulti mate purpose of the sculpted patriarchs at Kanjingsi may have been to confer merit. To view the patriarchs carved

in stone at Kanjingsi as being in perpetual motion around a central icon is to add the concept of perpetuity to the

perception of circumambulation. An almost unimaginable amount of merit was thus accrued over time by the donor, and by extension also by all who came into contact with

this stream of eternally merit-producing images. Buddhist

ritual circumambulation for merit production clearly was

tinged with magical as well as philosophical beliefs, which

would have appealed to wealthy donors seeking salvation

by any means; magic potency would not have been out

side the purview of a Chan school in the early stages of

legitimation, especially as it sought economic backing for

continued success.

Final proof that the figures are circumambulating and

that a large central icon existed at Kanjingsi can be seen

on the ceiling of the cave (Fig. 20). Carved at the exact

center is an eight-lobed lotus, encircled by six apsarases, or

heavenly dancers. Every other major cave project at

Longmen that has a lotus of any magnitude carved on the

ceiling has or had at least one dominant Buddha icon

within the cave.63 If indeed the Chan adherents at

Kanjingsi had been attempting to break with earlier

iconographie trends and to embrace "emptiness," exclud

ing such standard features as the ceiling lotus and its sur

rounding apsarases would have been an easy and obvious

choice. It stands to reason that the lotus and its attendant

figures would not have been carved there had they not

been necessary within the larger program and greater function of the Kanjingsi cave.

Fig. 20. Carved Ceiling Lotus, Kanjingsi Cave at Longmen. Photograph

by author.

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS

The east side of Longmen presents the modern scholar with a wide variety of valuable evidence despite its paucity of

carvings. First, it highlights a thriving and complex Buddhist

monastic community, concerned with issues of legitima tion very similar to the struggles that were ongoing at the

time within Tang imperial society. These concerns can

be seen reflected in the movements that were successful in gathering patronage and constructing Kanjingsi and

Leigutai Central.

Moreover, the carvings found at these two large caves

must be viewed among the earliest formulations of

Buddhist lineage schemes, predating written sources. The

transmission of the Law as depicted within Kanjingsi? distilled into the single lotus exchange?clearly demon strates that the monks active at Kanjingsi were familiar

with these types of sch?mas, and did not need explicit

74



visual references or textual explication such as occur in the

carvings of Leigutai Central.

The series of men carved at Kanjingsi must also be seen

as serving different purposes for different classes of viewers,

creating a more complex portrait of Chan activities during this period. To the patron, the series of carved patriarchs found at Kanjingsi represented a continuous stream of

merit, symbolized by the implication of constantly flowing circumambulation. To the monastic community at

Longmen, the patriarchal lines fulfilled a desire to "connect"

and identify with the Buddha as a source of personal

Enlightenment; they also legitimated the community. The

original signifiers, ?nanda and Mah?k?syapa, were suitable

substitutes for a very abstract conception of the monastic

community, yet over time had come to be viewed as insuf

ficient, being too far removed from seventh-century China

in both time and space. To the individual novice, the lives of

these men who had overcome great obstacles in their per sonal quests for Enlightenment provided a deeply inspiring

message to be emulated. Thus, the carved patriarchs of

Kanjingsi served to fill an emptiness much greater than that

of the Kanjingsi cave itself.

75



Notes

* An earlier version of this paper was first presented at the ASPAC 2000

conference in Eugene, Oregon. I thank my colleagues in the field of

religious studies as well as art history for their suggestions and clarifica

tions since then. Their useful comments, along with those of the two

anonymous Archives readers, prompted further re-evaluation of the

previous scholarship in light of more recent work done in other fields,

i. This cave is number 2194, according to Longmen Shiku Kukan

Bianhao Tu Ce {Volume of Numbered Diagrams of the Caves and Niches

at the Longmen Stone Grottoes), ed. Longmen Shiku Yanjiusuo and

Zhongyang Meishu Xueyuan Meishushi Xi (Beijing: Renmin Meishu

Chubanshe, 1994). At the time of the first surveys of Kanjingsi, in the

early twentieth century, the cave was being used for storage, and a

second-story wooden floor was put in place, resulting in scattered holes

carved higher up on the walls.

2. It is not clear whether the small carved Buddhas were part of the

original design of the cave, like the 15,000 Buddha motif at nearby

Leigutai Central Cave and elsewhere at Longmen, or were carved after

ward. No inscriptional evidence remains on this point, and the images themselves have been greatly abraded over time, making an accurate

dating difficult. At present the small Buddhas appear in somewhat

randomly scattered patches throughout the Kanjingsi cave.

3. Mizuno Seiichi and Nagahiro Toshio, Ryumon Sekkutsu no Kenky?

{Research on the Stone Grottoes of Longmen), vol. 1 (Tokyo: Zauho

Kank?kai, 1941; reprint, Kyoto: D?h?sha, 1980), p. 115, n. 1. Mizuno

actually specifies the thirty-fourth year of the reign of Qianlong, 1770,

but does not cite his source for this. Edouard Chavannes notes that at

the turn of the century the Kanjingsi was a Daoist temple, which may also point to earlier Daoist participation in the naming of the cave. See

Chavannes, Mission arch?ologique dans la Chine septentrionale, vol. 2 (Paris: Ecole Fran?aise d'Extr?me Orient, 1909-1915)^. 526.

4. An alternate name for this grotto is the Great 15,000 Buddhas

[DaWanwu Fo] Grotto. This name is carved above the entrance to the

grotto, in clear reference to the iconographie program above the series

of monk figures. 5. Wei Xiang and Lu Zhilu, Luoyang Xianzhi {Gazetteer of Loyang

County) (1813 ed.), section 22, p. 14, lists ten temples or monastic com

plexes in total at the site.

6. For more on the special characters, which replaced characters that

were taboo during the Zhou dynasty of Empress Wu, see Antonio

Forte, Political Propaganda and Ideology in China at the End of the Seventh

Century: Inquiry into the Nature, Authors and Function of the Tunhuang Document S.6502, with annot. trans. (Naples: Istituto universitario orien

tale, Seminario di studi asiatici, 1976); also Dong Zuobin and Wang

Hengyu, "Tang Wuhou Gaizi Kao" ("An Examination of the Altered

Characters under the Tang Empress Wu"), Bulletin of the Institute of

History and Philology, vol. 34 (Acad?mica Sinica, 1963), pp. 447?76.

7. See Chavannes, Mission arch?ologique, pp. 531-5. The carved texts

found originally at the entrance to Leigutai Central included

the Sukh?vat?vy??ha, the Vajracchedik? Prajn?p?ramit? Sutra, the Sanmukhi

dh?rani, and the Praj??p?ramit?hrdaya S?tra. Owing to the extensive

reconstruction of the facade of Leigutai Central Cave, these inscriptions are only partially extant.

8. Taish? Shinshu DaizU KyU {The Taish? Tripitaka), 159 vols. (Tokyo: Taish? Shinsh? Daiz? Ky? Kank?kai, 1988), vol. 50, no. 2058,

pp. 297-322.

9. Several other texts were promoted by the Tiantai school, includ

ing a version of the transmission story in which the two Chinese Tiantai

patriarchs, Huisi and Zhiyi, were present at S?kyamuni's exposition of

the Lotus S?tra, which gave them a direct connection to the historical

Buddha. See John McRae, The Northern School and the Formation of Early Ch'an Buddhism, Kuroda Institute Studies in East Asian Buddhism

(Honolulu: Univ. of Hawai'i Pr., 1986), p. 82.

io. Chavannes notes that not only is the twenty-third figure not

appropriate vis-?-vis known extant versions of the text, but also the

passage inscribed next to the twentieth figure actually applies to the

eighteenth. See Chavannes, Mission arch?ologique, pp. 527-30. 11. William Edward Soothill and Lewis Hodous, A Dictionary of

Chinese Buddhist Terms with Sanskrit and English Equivalents and a Sanskrit

Pali Index (reprint,Taipei: Zhongwen Publishing Co., 1976), pp. 290a or

472a re "luohan," and 22b or 334a re "patriarch." 12. For complete details on the Fu FazangYinyuan Zhuan as a com

pilation rather than a translation, see Henri Maspero, "Sur la date et

l'authenticit? du Fou fa tsang yin yuan tchouan" ("On the Date and

Authenticity of the History of the Transmission of the Dharma-Store") in

M?langes d'Indianisme offerts par ses ?l?ves ? Sylvain L?vi (Paris: E. Leroux,

1911), pp. 129-39.

13. Stanley Weinstein, "Imperial Patronage in the Formation of

T'ang Buddhism," in Perspectives on the T'ang, eds. Arthur F. Wright and

Denis Twitchett (New Haven and London: Yale Univ. Pr., 1973), p. 266.

14. Weinstein, "Imperial Patronage," p. 266. It is worth noting that

Emperor Gaozong's original proposal was defeated with the aid of the

mother of Empress Wu.

15. John Jorgensen,"The 'Imperial' Lineage of Ch'an Buddhism:The

Role of Confucian Ritual and Ancestor Worship in Ch'an's Search for

Legitimation in the Mid-T'ang Dynasty," in Papers on Far Eastern History, no. 38 (March 1987), p. 96. Other scholars agree with Jorgensen's assess

ment that ancestral relationships played a key role in the development of

group identity and sectarian lineage sch?mas. See Bernard Faure, The

Will to Orthodoxy: A Critical Genealogy of Northern Chan Buddhism, trans.

Phyllis Brooks (Stanford: Stanford Univ. Pr., 1997); Chen Jinhua, Monks

and Monarch, Kinship and Kingship (Kyoto: Scuola italiana di studi

sull'Asia Orientale, 2002); and Linda Penkower, "In the Beginning . . .

Guanding (561-632) and the Creation of Early Tiantai," fournal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, vol. 23, no. 2 (2000),

pp. 245-96. 16. Jorgensen, "The 'Imperial' Lineage of Ch'an Buddhism," p. 97.

17. Jorgensen, "The 'Imperial' Lineage of Ch'an Buddhism," p. 99.

18. The Mohe Zhiguan [T 46, no. 1911) was first preached by Zhiyi in 594, but the lineage schema was introduced in a late sixth-century/

early seventh-century addition by Zhiyi s disciple Guanding (561?632). For an in-depth discussion of why Tiantai moved toward a lineage

schema, and how theirs is unique among lineages, see Linda Penkower s

article "In the Beginning . . . ," pp. 245?96.

19. Jorgensen, "The 'Imperial' Lineage of Ch'an Buddhism," p. 100.

20. Weinstein, "Imperial Patronage," p. 297. For an extremely

thorough reconstruction of Empress Wu and her rise to power, see

R.W.L. Guisso, Wu Tse-t'ien and the Politics of Legitimation in T'ang China

(Bellingham: Western Washington Univ. Pr., 1978). 21. The Southern school came into existence through the efforts of

Shenhui (684-758), a disciple of Huineng (638-713), but who had also

practiced meditation with Shenxiu (d. 708) briefly in 699?701. At

a "Great Dharma Assembly" held on 15 January 732, at a temple in a

place called Huatai in Hunan Province, Shenhui announced that the

unbroken succession of Dharma transmission from Bodhidharma had

been passed from Hongren (601-675) to the Sixth Patriarch, Huineng. 22. Shenhui's argument as quoted by Zongmi (Jorgensen, "The

'Imperial' Lineage of Ch'an Buddhism," p. 108).

23. WenYucheng and Yang Shunxing, "Du Fengxue qizu Qianfeng

Baiyun Chanyuan Ji Bei Hou" ("A Study of the Record of the Seven

Patriarchs of the Fengxue, Qianfeng, Baiyun Meditation Monastery"),

Zhongyuan Wenwu, vol. 1 (1984), pp. 35-38, 41.

24. Ouchi Humio dates the Dazhusheng Cave to 589. His article,

"A Study of the Buddhist Pagoda Inscriptions in the Baoshan

Lingquansi Grottoes and Baoshan Lingquansi of the Sui and Tang

Dynasty," T?h? Gakuh?, vol. 69 (March 1997), p. 287-355, highlights the

roughly one thousand years of monastic activity at Anyang, with the

earliest inscriptions dating from 546 and the latest from 1511. The study

76



is a comprehensive survey of the inscriptions found on huishenta or

"ash-body pagodas" of the monks and nuns interred at Baoshan. The

majority are laudatory memorials and lifestories.

25. For reproductions and a brief description of the Dazhusheng

Cave, see Gongxian, Tianlongshan, Xiangtangshan, Anyang Shiku Diaoke

{The Carvings at Gongxian, Tianlongshan, Xiangtangshan, and Anyang

Grottoes), vol. 13 of Zhongguo Meishu Quanji (Shanghai: Shanghai Renmin Meishu Chubanshe, 1989). Sofukawa Hiroshi also reproduces

this work, pi. 74, and discusses it in his article "Tangdai Longmen Shiku

Zaoxiang deYanjiu?Xia Pian" ("Research on the Tang Imagery at the

Longmen Grottoes?II"), trans. Yan Juanying, Yishuxue, vol. 8

(September 1992), p. 118.

26. My thanks to Prof. Amy McNair for allowing me access to slides

taken during her 1996 visit to Longmen.

27. Taish? Shinshu Daiz?ky?, vol. 50, no. 2058, pp. 297-322.

28. Sofukawa Hiroshi, "Tangdai Longmen Shiku?II," p. 115; Wen

Yucheng and Yang Shunxing, "Record of the Seven Patriarchs of the

Fengxue," p. 206. See Sofukawa Hiroshi, "Tangdai Longmen Shiku

Zaoxiang deYanjiu?Shang Pian" ("Research on the Tang Imagery at

the Longmen Grottoes?I"), trans. Yan Juanying, Yishuxue, vol. 7

(March 1992), pp. 163-267, and Yishuxue, vol. 8 (September 1992), pp.

99-164, and Sofukawa's Longmen Shiku {The Stone Grottoes of Longmen), vol. 2 (Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, 1991-1992). Sofukawa combines an

analysis of the inscribed texts at the entrance with the imagery inside

to argue for the Three Stages school, omitting a rationale per se for the

carved patriarchs and inscriptions below the multiple Buddha motif and

around the central Maitreya icon.

29. Most scholars cite as the source for the twenty-nine patriarchs a

section taken from the Lidai Fabaofi (Record of the Dharma fewel Through the Ages), which is thought to have been written between 714 and 774,

and specifically lists the twenty-nine sequentially from Mah?k?syapa to

Bodhidharma. Aside from the appropriate number, there exists no

inscription or textual source from Longmen pointing definitively to the

Lidai Fabaofi as the source for the Kanjingsi carvings, and the cave may in fact have been based on another, no longer extant, text.

30. Jamie Hubbard, Absolute Delusion, Perfect Buddhahood (Honolulu: Univ. of Hawai'i Pr., 2001), pp. 55-75, gives a thorough overview of

how the doctrine of decline figured within the Three Stages school.

31. Hubbard, Absolute Delusion, pp. 19-30.

32. Weinstein,"Imperial Patronage," pp. 268-300, and Kenneth Chen,

Buddhism in China (Princeton: Princeton Univ. Pr., 1964), pp. 298-300.

Hubbard, Absolute Delusion, pp. 189-222, gives an exhaustive account of

the five imperial proscriptions of the Three Stages school that took place between 600 and 725, specifically highlighting the difficulties suffered by the school under the reign of Empress Wu (pp. 203?8).

3 3. This information was gathered by analyzing the data presented in

Sofukawa Hiroshi, "Longmen Grottoes?I & II," in Yishuxue, vols. 7, 8.

34. Neal Donner and Daniel B. Stevenson, The Great Calming and

Contemplation: A Study and Annotated Translation of the First Chapter of Chih-i's "Mo-ho chih-kuan" (Honolulu: Univ. of Hawai'i Pr., 1993), p. 42.

35. Donner and Stevenson, The Great Calming, p. 42.

36. Donner and Stevenson, The Great Calming, pp. 33?34; see also

n. 18. "Western patriarchs" here refers to an unbroken lineage of trans

mission of the dharma in India; "Eastern masters" refers to Tiantai's

unique set of Chinese patriarchs, connected with their Western coun

terparts spiritually, not physically or geographically. See Penkower, "In

the Beginning ..." pp. 260-68.

37. Guisso, Wu Tse-t'ien and the Politics of Legitimation, p. 27, and

Weinstein, "Imperial Patronage," pp. 297?99. Both authors note that

Empress Wu's maternal grandfather appears to have been a member of

the Sui imperial house. But they supply no documentation.

38. Weinstein, "Imperial Patronage," p. 299. A very comprehensive overview of Shenxiu's rise to power within the Chan movement, and

his prominence at court, can be found in chap, one, "Shenxiu and His

Times," of Bernard Faure's, The Will to Orthodoxy.

39- John Jorgensen, "The 'Imperial' Lineage of Ch'an Buddhism,"

pp. 93, 118-19. Items from Shenhui's tomb on the east side of Longmen have been exhumed (see Jan van Alphen, Buddha in the Dragon Gate:

Buddhist Sculpture of the 3th through 9 Centuries from Longmen (Antwerp:

Ethnografisch Museum, 2001).

40. Bernard Faure, quoting from the J/w Tang Shu, p. 511 (see Will to

Orthodoxy, pp. 129-30).

41. Although all sources claim twenty-nine images total at Kanjingsi, in photos as well as in Mizuno's drawings only twenty-eight appear; the

missing patriarch (now destroyed) would have been found in the south

east corner, number nine on the south wall, Buddhamitra.

42. Faure, Will to Orthodoxy, p. 2. See McRae's discussion of the devel

opment of the "Transmission of the Lamp" histories, chap, four in The

Northern School and the Formation of Early Ch'an Buddhism, pp. 73?97.

43. Sofukawa Hiroshi, Longmen Grottoes?II, pp. 113-17.

44. Sofukawa Hiroshi, Longmen Grottoes?77, p. 123, and Mizuno

Seiichi and Nagahiro Toshio, Stone Grottoes of Longmen, p. 117

Although Bodhidharma may be more a product of legend than fact, it

is important to note that his position as founder of his particular style of Chan was acknowledged as early as 645, as recorded by the monk

Daoxuan (596?667) in his Xu Gaoseng Zhuan (Continued Biographies of Eminent Monks), in Taish? Shinsh? Daiz?ky?, vol. 50, p. 2060.

45. Sofukawa Hiroshi, Longmen Grottoes?II, p. 125. Apparently another intrusive niche was placed on the inside of the doorway on the

north side, containing a Buddha pentad, little of which remains extant.

See Gu Yanfang and Li Wensheng, "Longmen Shiku Zhuyao Tangku

Zongxu" ("A Summary of the Main Tang Caves at the Longmen

Grottoes"), in Longmen Shiku, vol. 2 (Beijing: Wenwu Chubanshe,

1991-1992), p. 272. Sofukawa does not deal with this apparent anomaly.

46. This opinion is also held by WenYucheng, who argues that there

never was a main votive statue at Kanjingsi, but that the cave was a large meditation hall (see "Chan Gu, Kanjingsi, Longmen, yu Chan Zong"

["Chan Caves, Kanjingsi, Longmen, and the Chan Sect"], in Zhongguo Shiku yu Wenhua Yishu [Shanghai: Shanghai Renmin Meishu

Chubanshe, 1993], p. 319).

47. Ritual circumambulation may have also been one of the rites

performed at Leigutai Central.

48. T. Griffith Foulk, "The 'Ch'an school' and Its Place in the

Buddhist Monastic Tradition," (PhD diss., Univ. of Michigan, 1987),

p. 228. Faure, The Will to Orthodoxy, p. 7, notes that in his writings as well

as actions, Bodhidharma, like the Tiantai monk Zhiyi, attempted to rec

oncile the theoretical with the practical. For several collected essays on

Chan ritual activities, see Chan Buddhism in Ritual Context, ed. Bernard

Faure (London: Routledge Curzon, 2003).

49. Foulk, "The 'Ch'an school'," p. 270.

50. Chen Qingxiang, "Longmen Shiku Kanjingsi Dong Luohan

Qunxiang Tantao" ("An Inquiry Into the Luohan Statues of Kanjingsi at the Longmen Grottoes"), in Longmen Shiku Yiqian Wubai Zhounian

Guoji Xueshu Taolunhui Lunwenji, ed. Longmen Shiku Yanjiusuo

(Beijing: Wenwu Chubanshe, 1996), and Wen Yucheng, "Chan Gu,"

make no mention of this statue or any other being in place previously at Kanjingsi; Sofukawa Hiroshi, Longmen Grottoes?II, p. 123, states

definitively that originally there was no central statue.

51. This particular statue was for a long time on display in the Leigutai

Gallery at Longmen, where it still stood in the winter of 1999-2000; by the time of the author's return to Longmen in the summer of 2004, the

statue had been returned to Kanjingsi for unstated reasons. Other

portable "iconic" images, such as a pagoda, might also have been placed

centrally within the Kanjingsi cave. The open aspect of the cave could

accommodate a wide variety of forms of the Buddha, and theoretically could have allowed the central figure to be changed for different ritual

activities.

52. Wen Yucheng alludes to this practice in his brief statement

describing Kanjingsi as "originally having a square alter on which a

Buddha statue was placed which believers could go around in worship,

77



but today this statue no longer exists." See Wen Yucheng and Li

Wensheng, eds., Longmen Shiku Diaoke (The Carvings of the Longmen

Grottoes), vol. n of Zhongguo meishu quanji (Shanghai: Shanghai Renmin Meishu Chubanshe, 1988), p. 2 5. Wen Yucheng would appear to

refute this very statement in his 1993 work ("Chan Gu"), without

explaining why he does so.

53. Zhang Yanyuan s Lidai Minghua fi, in William Reynolds Beal

Acker, Some T'ang and Pre-T'ang Texts on Chinese Painting (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1954), pp. 258-327.

54. Acker, Some T'ang and Pre-T'ang Texts, pp. 319, 270.

55. Acker, Some T'ang and Pre-T'ang Texts, p. 284, and 284, n. 2.

56. Ennin, Ennin's Diary: The Record of a Pilgrimage to China in Search

of the Law, trans. Edwin O. Reischauer (New York: Ronald Pr. Co.,

1955), pp. 64, 67, 71, 217, 224-25, 230-31, 265.

57. Ennin, Record of a Pilgrimage, pp. 72?73.

58. Philip B.Yampolsky, The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch (New York: Columbia Univ. Pr., 1967), pp. 128-29, with minor modifications

based uponYampolsky's n. 28, p. 129, citing an alternative reading of the

passage as "a reference to some kind of genealogical chart, showing the

succession of the Five Chinese Patriarchs through Hongren."

59. In both Kanjingsi and Leigutai Central, two aspects of the patri archs' attire are noteworthy. One, most of the patriarchs represented in

both caves are wearing not the off-shoulder Indian k?s?ya, or monk's

robe, as would befit their Indian origins, but rather the later, Chinese, version of Buddhist attire; two, both sets of patriarchs are depicted

wearing shoes, with the Kanjingsi patriarchs' cloud-shaped shoes per

haps intended to reinforce the extraordinary (dare one say "royal")

quality of the men depicted. 60. No photos taken in the early part of the 20th century show

Mah?k?syapa with his lower body intact, nor are there any references to

the position of his feet or to the type of shoes he may have been wear

ing. The upper part of the figure was removed in 1936, and is now in a

private European collection. See Longmen Liusan Diaoxiangji {Collection

of Lost and Dispersed Carvings and Sculptures from Longmen) (Shanghai:

Shanghai Renmin Meishu Chubanshe, 1993), p. 79.

61. Chen Qingxiang, "Longmen Shiku Kanjingsi Dong Luohan

Qunxiang Tantao," p. 186. All of these ritual objects could easily have

been carried by the monks as they circumambulated the central votive

figure either prior to or after performing a ceremony; moreover, ritual

circumambulation with the objects in hand may well have been an

important part of the ceremony to be performed. 62. Chen, "Longmen Shiku Kanjingsi Dong Luohan Qunxiang

Tantao," pp. 186-87.

63. The author has limited this survey of lotus ceiling imagery to

Longmen, as local practices may have affected the specific aspects of

other local carving programs.

78



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recontextualizing kanjingsi: finding meaning in the emptiness at longmen

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