Buddhist Stone Sutras in China. Sichuan Province, ed. by Claudia Wenzel and Sun Hua (review)

Errata

With this volume of the series published under the chief editorship of Lothar Ledderose, we return to the “Grove of the Reclining Buddha” (Wofoyuan) situated in Ziyang City, Anyue County, in the eastern part of Sichuan Province, to which the first volume of the series on Sichuan was also dedicated. (My review of this first volume was published in 2013 in China Review International 20, nos. 3&4.) Whereas the first volume on Sichuan presented and interpreted the northern side of the “Grove of the Reclining Buddha,” the present volume turns our attention to a cluster of caves (caves 46, 51, and 58, in section C) on the southern side. As in all other volumes of this fully bilingual series, a topographical introduction to the caves under discussion is followed by a detailed discussion of the different engraved texts (pp. 2–173); a technical description of the caves (pp. 184–191 for cave 46, pp. 393–394 for cave 51, and pp. 429–430 for cave 58) giving details on measurements, types of walls, location of inscriptions on the walls, and so on; photographs of all inscriptions (pp. 194–339 for cave 46, and pp. 396–417 for cave 51); and a full transcription of the texts, where possible with a comparison with the Taishō edition of the Buddhist canon (pp. 342–389 for cave 46, and pp. 420–427 for cave 51). This is followed by a discussion of the caves in the existent academic literature (pp. 434–440), a table of selected variant characters used in the engraved texts (pp. 441–471), and a bibliography (pp. 472–486).

The layout of the three caves, with sculptures between caves 46 and 51 and between caves 51 and 58, hints that the three caves were designed as a tripartite group. The central figure of the cluster of relief sculptures between caves 46 and 51 most likely is the Medicine Buddha Bhaiṣajya-guru, probably carved in the eighth century. The central figure carved between caves 51 and 58 is the bodhisattva Kṣitigarbha, a figure who was popular in the tenth century. These two figures that are some of the finest relief sculptures in the whole Grove area complement each other. The central figure of a third relief cluster is Sāhasrabhūjasāhas-ranetrāvalokiteśvara (Thousand-Armed Thousand Eyed Perceiver of the World’s Sounds), who stands in the upper half of the western end wall of the passageway that connects the caves (p. 33). A fourth cluster of relief sculptures is centered on a dhāraṇī pillar with a banner and two colophons adjacent to it (p. 32). One is dated to 959, and the other one to 961. Martin Bemmann (p. 61) suggests that the banner itself may date from the early or middle Tang dynasty and that it may be a Life Prolonging Banner, which would link it to the presence of the figure of Bhaiṣajya-guru mentioned above. The oldest colophon on the precinct is found in cave 46. It was engraved in 723 during the Kaiyuan era (713–741) of the Tang dynasty. The youngest colophon found on the site is probably dated to 1228 (p. 41). Activity on the site must therefore have been going on at least into the early Song dynasty. This is consonant with the likely dating of the relief figures of Bhaiṣajya-guru and Kṣitigarbha. The relief cluster centered on Kṣitigarbha also comprises a shrine for sūtras that embody the Buddha’s teaching. This is the only sūtra shrine chiseled into a Buddhist cave known in China. It may have been intended to contain all texts that were to be engraved in the cave walls in the course of time (pp. 29–32).

The importance of the caves in section C is...