In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Reviewed by:
  • Buddhist Stone Sutras in China: Shandong Province ed. by Wang Yongbo and Lothar Ledderose
  • Bart Dessein (bio)
Wang Yongbo and Lothar Ledderose, editors. Buddhist Stone Sutras in China: Shandong Province, volume 1. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2014. xxvi, 508 pp. 206 illustrations, 6 maps. Hardcover €158.00, isbn 978-3-447-06931-1.

This book is part of the outcome of the five-year research project Chinese-German Cooperation in Research and Survey of Stone Sutras from the Northern Dynasties in Shandong, itself the result of a cooperative agreement between the Shandong Museum of the Art of Stone Carving and the Heidelberg Institute for East Asian Art History. The project that was officially launched in 2004 undertook research on the epigraphic sources (polished rocks, caves, and stelae) in twenty-one sites in Shandong Province: Mount Hongding, Mount Sili, and Mount Yin in Dongping; Mount Tie, Mount Gang, Mount Ge, Mount Yi, Mount Jian, and Mount Yang in Zoucheng; Stone Sutra Valley at Mount Tai; Mount Culai in Xintai; Mount Tianchi, East Mount Shuyuan, Mount Dazhai, Mount Ergu, and Mount Yuncui in Pingyin; Mount Fenghuang in Ningyang; Mount Shuiniu in Wenshang; Huangshi Cliff in Jinan; and Mount Tao and Mount Long in Tengzhou. The present volume is a description and study of the sites in Dongping and Pingyin, that is, the area on the northwestern edge of the highlands around Lake Dongping. Three more volumes will be dedicated to the other sites in Shandong Province.

Of the different sites in Dongping and Pingyin, the Mount Hongdong site—only discovered in the 1980s—is by far the most vast and most important one. It is to this site that the bulk of the present volume is devoted (pp. 50–308). Also included in this volume are discussions on Mount Tianchi (pp. 310–332), East Mount Shuyuan (pp. 333–339), Mount Ergu (pp. 340–359), Mount Yuncui [End Page 407] (pp. 360–379), Mount Dazhai (pp. 380–387), Mount Sili (pp. 388–433), and Mount Yin (pp. 434–451). A separate section addresses the stelae found in the region (pp. 451–489).

While all cliff inscriptions belong to the period of the Northern Dynasties (439–589), with the Northern Qi (550–577) and the Northern Zhou (557–581) which overpowered the Northern Qi in 577 as the most important ones, the inscriptions on movable stones are dated as late as the eleventh century. The co-presence of movable epigraphs and immovable ones makes the area particularly interesting for sketching a history of Buddhism in the area. Such a study—a comprehensive analysis of and research into the historical, political, religious, and artistic significance of the inscriptions (names of the Buddha, sutra passages, colophons), along with a study of the location, topography and spatial grouping, place-names, and related monasteries and persons—is provided in the first part of this volume (pp. 1–47). This study thus provides insight into how primary inscriptions were appreciated through history, that is, how after Buddhism was promoted in the Northern Qi dynasty, a persecution of Buddhists followed in the Northern Zhou, and a renewed support for Buddhism followed in the Sui dynasty (581/589-618). Further taking archaeological evidence into account, the authors reflect on how the topography of the sites may have changed, and through an analysis of the encomiums to the two Buddhist monks Seng’an Daoyi and Fahong, they supply an appreciation of the position of Buddhism in the area and time period.

A philosophical/religious culture in which, with the installment of Confucian bureaucracy in the Han dynasty (206 b.c.e.-c.e. 220), Confucianism became the norm according to which other traditions were judged and to which other traditions had to adjust or adapt, and a concomitant historiographical culture that has been dominated by official history writing by a Confucian elite, almost inevitably renders a biased picture of historical developments. This phenomenon is clearly visible from the study of the inscriptions contained in this volume: of the monks, donors, and patrons mentioned in the cliff inscriptions, only very few are also known through the traditional historical sources. This book thus helps to draw a more nuanced picture of the history...

pdf