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

Chapter Five: The Initial Flourishing of Buddhist Steles in Shanxi

T his chapter examines the initial flourishing of Buddhist steles in the Shanxi region, the center of the Northern Wei empire’s political rule as well as religious and artistic enterprise. This group of votive steles from Shanxi, circa 500–530, exhibits a broad range of form and an iconographic and stylistic idiom characteristic of late Northern Wei Buddhist art. After a summary of the historical and geographical background of Shanxi, selected examples of the following categories are discussed: the Thousand Buddhas stele (qianfobei), the four-sided stele (simian xiangbei), the monumental complex stele, and the funeral Buddhist stele. Iconographically, these examples portray the popular figures of Śâkyamuni and Maitreya, in conjunction with motifs such as those of the Thousand Buddhas and Buddhas of the Three Ages, both motifs being proto-Mâhâyana themes that articulated the concept of succession and thus the notion of the eternity of buddhahood. Representation of the debate between Mañjuśrî and Vimalakîrti, an indigenous Chinese Buddhist motif that first appeared in the last quarter of the fifth century, also became a regular component in late Northern Wei Buddhist art. Stylistically, this group of Shanxi steles retains some elements established in the Yungang style of about 450–490, but generally conforms to the late Northern Wei style in its more sinicized interpretation of form— namely, slender, attenuated figures and flattened surfaces. A commingling of native and foreign motifs also characterizes Buddhist art of this period. The inscriptions on these monuments are concerned with key issues pertaining to the character of Buddhist steles; some of these inscriptions are examined in detail below (especially those on the V & A stele and the MFA stele). Although formulaic , these inscriptions express the Buddhist perspective on the role of word and image in propagating the Buddhist doctrine . The terminologies used and the rationale given provide clues to understanding how, at the philosophical level, Buddhism interacted with the indigenous traditions of Daoism and Confucianism. The inscriptions also reveal how the three traditions explored their common ground on issues such as the concept of rulership (both divine and secular) and the symbolic value attached to stone. In giving detailed records of the donors, including their imagery, the steles provide firsthand information on the religious groups that commissioned such monuments, their organization and relationship to Buddhist temples, and the kinds of activities they sponsored. Comparisons of steles also illustrate how some groups were more elaborate and hierarchapter five THE INITIAL FLOURISHING OF BUDDHIST STELES IN SHANXI 72 initial flourishing of buddhist steles in shanxi chical than others, and the parallels they shared with indigenous Chinese she organizations. Occasionally, the inscriptions give incidental information on the production of steles. the shanxi school Beginning in the latter part of the Han dynasty, nomadic peoples began to migrate south, and many are known to have settled in the mountainous terrain in central Shanxi. The Northern Wei’s establishment of its capital at Datong in northern Shanxi brought a greater presence of the Xianbei and other nomadic groups to the region. The intermingling of nomadic and Chinese populations and their respective cultures, coinciding with the spread of Buddhism under the aegis of the Northern Wei, created fertile conditions for the rise of Buddhist steles. The yiyi Buddhist devotional associations that appeared in the last quarter of the fifth century had already participated in image-making activities at Yungang, and soon they became the main sponsors of this new type of monument. The production of Buddhist steles was focused in the southern parts of the province where the Han population was concentrated . The persistence of a conservative Han culture perhaps accounted for the custom of erecting steles, a type of monument that provided some continuity between indigenous practices and the new foreign faith. Geographically Shanxi consists of a great raised plateau, broken into a series of fault trenches and valleys down the middle of the province. Running from northeast to southwest map 2. Stele Sites in Shanxi. 1820 province boundaries. “CHGIS, Version: 1.0.” Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Yenching Institute, April 2002. initial flourishing of buddhist steles in shanxi 73 through central Shanxi is the Fen River, which eventually turns due west to join the Yellow River below Longmen, the Dragon Gate. Above Longmen, the rivers draining the Lüliang Range and the plateau west of the Fen River flow directly into the Yellow River, which rushes southward to Tongguan Pass before making a...