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S ince the first century c.e., the Chinese have used steles, or flat stone slabs, as symbolic monuments. The adap tation of these slabs for Buddhist purposes in the fifth and sixth centuries represented only a brief episode in the long history of the Chinese stele tradition. All Chinese stone slabs, whether they were of the traditional type or Buddhist ones, served many of the same social and religious functions. In fact, it is impossible to account for the widespread popularity of Buddhist steles without recognizing the indigenous stele tradition that antedated by centuries the coming of Buddhism . Both traditional Chinese steles and their Buddhist counterparts shared several Chinese terms of varying antiquity, namely, “She” or “she,” “yi,” “li” (hamlet), “li” (ritual), and “bei.” The oldest, She , originally referred to the ancient Chinese earth god, first known as a tutelary deity worshiped by the Shang people. Throughout the Shang and the succeeding Zhou dynasties, She played an important role in state cults. When the ancient feudalistic society made a transition to an imperial empire with a centralized administration in the Qin and Han dynasties, the status of the earth god diminished but remained tied to the territorial and social aspects of communities. The worship of She was institutionalized and became intertwined with terms designating communities: “yi” (a town, also an ancient term) or “li” (a hamlet, a later but also pre-Han term). Local religious and social organizations responsible for worship activities were called “yishe” and “lishe” . These organizations were antecedents of the religious groups that customarily erected steles both in non-Buddhist and Buddhist contexts. Beginning in the first century c.e., Chinese used dressed stone slabs, or tablets, called bei for funerary or commemorative functions. Members of a clan or a community raised steles to honor individuals or events. These monuments espoused the values of Confucianism, and their production conformed to the Confucian concept of li , or ritual. Erected in public spaces, the steles stood as emblems of a community’s collective identity. Chinese steles were widely adapted for Buddhist use from the late fifth through the sixth century, and lingered on in later times. Buddhist steles served many of the same commemorative functions as traditional tablets. The majority of them were commissioned by local religious groups called yi, yiyi , or she. Thus it is apparent that many of the customs and practices surrounding the use of Buddhist steles originated in the indigenous Chinese stele tradition. chapter one ANCIENT ROOTS OF THE CHINESE STELE TR ADITION This chapter investigates the etymology of the terms “She”/“she,” “yi,” “li” (town), “li” (ritual), and “bei” in their historical, social, and cultural contexts, and the ritual use of bei in pre-Han times. Such an analysis sheds light on the origins and intrinsic meaning of these symbolic stones and is crucial to understanding the later Buddhist adaptation of this Chinese symbolic form. the worship of she, the earth god, in ancient china Since ancient times the Chinese worshiped the god of earth or soil, called She, as one of their most important deities.1 Associated with agriculture and fertility, the earth spirit was revered in a primeval form of nature worship common to most ancient civilizations. Etymologically, the character She consists of two radicals: the left radical shi is a pictograph of an altar, while the right element tu means “earth” or “land.” The character She therefore means “the deified earth, worshiped at an altar.” Evidence for the worship of She dates back as far as the Shang dynasty. Inscriptions on oracle bones record that the Shang people worshiped a panoply of deities, including an anthropomorphic supreme deity known as Shangdi (the God on High), mythical ancestors, and a host of nature deities. Among the nature deities, She was the most important. As a life-sustaining force essential to the well-being of the whole community—and, by extension, the state—the earth spirit was worshiped as a tutelary deity. In Shang state cults, She’s significance was on a par with ancestor-spirits, who were worshiped as dynasty founders for their primeval procreative power. Ancestor-spirits and the earth god were in fact the twin foci of Shang worship. They were often perceived to have gender: ancestor-spirits were seen as male and were associated with yang, while the earth spirit was sometimes perceived as female and was associated with yin.2 The Shang kings and nobles performed lavish rituals, including the offering of human and animal sacrifice to...

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