Chinese Steles: Pre-Buddhist and Buddhist Use of a Symbolic Form (review)

The collecting of Chinese stele inscriptions (beiwen) began as early as the Tang dynasty, when connoisseurs made rubbings from these giant monolithic stones. Both early collectors and later commentators often focused on the calligraphic, literary, or historical value of the stones. Beginning in the early twentieth century, however, Japanese and Western scholars began studying the relationship between the text and inscribed images rather than simply portraying stele inscriptions as a genre of historical writing. In Chinese Steles: Pre-Buddhist and Buddhist Use of a Symbolic Form, Dorothy Wong interprets the social and religious import of textual and artistic representations in Six Dynasties Buddhist steles. Wong limits her study to Buddhist steles erected for commemorative functions during the Northern Wei dynasty because she asserts that these inscriptions show how Buddhists "appropriated" an "indigenous" form of expression that could be successfully integrated into Chinese culture. The newly formed Chinese Buddhist communities chose the commemorative bei inscription as a vehicle to express collective notions of their religious identity.

Wong begins her study by noting the functions of early bei stele inscriptions. As early as the Zhou dynasty, stele inscriptions were a medium employed by a community to commemorate their sacrifices to local earth gods (she). By the Han dynasty, the stele inscription became a status marker in ancestor rituals, court ceremonies, and military celebrations; Wong asserts that the bei stele inscription became the ultimate symbol in these ceremonies, in which a community projected their norms of behavior and shared values via a public medium. Whereas stele inscriptions from the early part of the Han dynasty stressed the central bureaucratic behavioral norms, inscriptions from the later half of the dynasty tended to exalt the leaders of the local administrative districts. Wong posits that when Buddhist devotional societies emerged in the early Six Dynasties period they perceived the stele inscription as a vehicle whereby they could likewise express their local religious identity.

Before addressing how Buddhist communities in the Northern Wei dynasty "appropriated" the Chinese bei inscription, Wong provides a broad political and social backdrop to the Northern Wei dynasty and the emergence of widespread Buddhist art during the same period. Wong's narration of the Northern Wei strays little from master narratives found elsewhere. The foreign Toba rulers rose to power by "implementing a Chinese-style administration" and "adopted the Buddhist religion" as a base to further their control. Under the Northern Wei, this reified Buddhist religion "flourished" in China and hoped to "penetrate" the countryside by "integrating and making use of" the Chinese tradition. Grassroots Buddhist devotional societies modeled themselves after the traditional she communities and henceforth used the common medium of communal ritual expression, the bei commemorative stele.

In the second part of her book (chapters 4-10), Wong interprets multiple examples of Buddhist stele inscriptions from the early Six Dynasties period. Before delving into the regional variations of the Buddhist commemorative stele inscriptions, she first describes their general characteristics. She notes that recovered Buddhist steles are found at major crossroads or in temple courtyards. The steles come in all shapes and sizes; some have dragons carved on the top with a Buddhist image in a recessed niche, while others display many small Buddha images in precise rows. These votive steles were often commissioned by devotional societies to commemorate the communal faith of the group. The key figures of a community, the religious leaders and significant donors, often left their mark by having their name and rank inscribed on the stele. From this information we are able to construct the social and hierarchical makeup of the groups in question. The most peculiar aspect of Wong's introduction to Buddhist steles is her lack of explanation as to why one should consider possible influences on Chinese Buddhist steles from other parts of the world. She briefly notes that similar upright stones were erected in India, Thailand, Egypt, South America...