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Shakyamuni, Laozi and Confucius (Khan Academy)

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Shakyamuni, Laozi and Confucius (Khan Academy)

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The painting describes a gathering underneath a pine tree next to a bridge. Reading from left to right, the three figures are: Laozi, founder of Daoism; Siddhartha Gautama, also known as Shakyamuni, founder of Buddhism; and Confucius, founder of Confucianism. Confucius approaches from the right, folding his hands in a bow to Shakyamuni, the Historical Buddha. Shakyamuni, barefooted, wears a red robe. He can be easily identified by his usnisa, a cranial bump symbolizing wisdom. Laozi stands behind Shakyamuni and looks at him with a happy smile. He holds a roll of book in his hands, most likely his Daodejing (The Classic of the Way and Virtue).

The composition of the painting seems to have borrowed depictions of the Three Laughers of Tiger Creek, a popular allegorical story about the meeting of three famous figures. The Buddhist monk Huiyuan (334-416) lived in a temple as a recluse. He had vowed never to cross the stone bridge over Tiger Creek. One day, the Confucian poet Tao Yuanming (365-427) and the Daoist philosopher Lu Xiujing (406-477) came to visit him. The three men became so deeply absorbed in conversation that when Huiyuan eventually walked with his friends to say farewell, he crossed the bridge without noticing it. Hence the three men laughed together, which signifies the harmony among the three main religions of the time. The artist here has cleverly replaced the three historical figures with the three spiritual founders.

and

are the two great indigenous philosophical traditions of China. Confucianism became accepted as state ideology in the Han dynasty (206 B.C.E.-220 C.E.). Daoism came to the fore as a popular belief system around the same time. Meanwhile, Buddhism was introduced to China from India. The three beliefs had since then both conflicted with and complemented each other. The actual blending of the three philosophies did not initiate until the tenth century. During the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), when this painting was created, the harmony among the three faiths became a prevalent thought.

This resource was developed for Teaching China with the Smithsonian, made possible by the generous support of the Freeman Foundation

For the classroom

Write your own narrative version of the Three Laughers of Tiger Creek story. What might the philosophers have been talking about?

The moral of the Three Laughers of Tiger Creek story reminds us that rules we make for ourselves can be too constraining or unhealthy, and this limits our knowledge or ability to grow. List some ways people may impose unrealistic or unhealthy expectations for themselves. List healthy behaviors they could engage with instead.

Choose one of the three religious and moral leaders depicted here-Laozi, Siddhartha Gautama, and Confucius-read about their life and teachings, and take notes of what you consider to be most important. Then, gather with a small group of classmates who picked one of the other figures. Together, discuss and share what you learned.

Research the practices and continuing influence of each of these three religious and philosophical traditions (Daoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism) in China today.

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Shakyamuni, Laozi, and Confucius (article) | Khan Academy

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Learn for free about math, art, computer programming, economics, physics, chemistry, biology, medicine, finance, history, and more. Khan Academy is a nonprofit with the mission of providing a free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere.

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Buddha (c. 500s BCE), Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

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Buddha (c. 500s BCE), Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

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The historical Buddha, also known as Gotama Buddha, Siddhārtha Gautama, and Buddha Śākyamuni, was born in Lumbini, in the Nepalese region of Terai, near the Indian border. He is one of the most important Asian thinkers and spiritual masters of all time, and he contributed to many areas of philosophy, including epistemology, metaphysics and ethics. The Buddha's teaching formed the foundation for Buddhist philosophy, initially developed in South Asia, then later in the rest of Asia. Buddhism and Buddhist philosophy now have a global following.

In epistemology, the Buddha seeks a middle way between the extremes of dogmatism and skepticism, emphasizing personal experience, a pragmatic attitude, and the use of critical thinking toward all types of knowledge. In ethics, the Buddha proposes a threefold understanding of action: mental, verbal, and bodily. In metaphysics, the Buddha argues that there are no self-caused entities, and that everything dependently arises from or upon something else. This allows the Buddha to provide a criticism of souls and personal identity; that criticism forms the foundation for his views about the reality of rebirth and an ultimate liberated state called "Nirvana." Nirvana is not primarily an absolute reality beyond or behind the universe but rather a special state of mind in which all the causes and conditions responsible for rebirth and suffering have been eliminated. In philosophical anthropology, the Buddha explains human identity without a permanent and substantial self. The doctrine of non-self, however, does not imply the absolute inexistence of any type of self whatsoever, but is compatible with a conventional self composed of five psycho-physical aggregates, although all of them are unsubstantial and impermanent. Selves are thus conceived as evolving processes causally constrained by their past.

Table of Contents

1. The Buddha's Epistemology

1. The Extremes of Dogmatism and Skepticism

2. The Role of Personal Experience and the Buddha's Wager

3. Interpretations of the Buddha's Advice to the Kālāma People

4. Higher Knowledge and the Question of Empiricism

2. The Buddha's Cosmology and Metaphysics

1. The Universe and the Role of Gods

2. The Four Noble Truths or Realities

3. Ontology of Suffering: the Five Aggregates

4. Arguments for the Doctrine of Non-self

5. Human Identity and the Meaning of Non-self

6. Causality and the Principle of Dependent Arising

3. Nirvana and the Silence of the Buddha

1. Two Kinds of Nirvana and the Undetermined Questions

2. Eternalism, Nihilism, and the Middle Way

4. Buddhist Ethics

1. Interpreting the Historical Buddha

a. Dates

There is no complete agreement among scholars and Buddhist traditions regarding the dates of the historical Buddha. The most common dates among Buddhists are those of the Theravāda school, 623-543 B.C.E. From the middle of the 19th century until the late 20th century, Western scholars had believed the dates of the Buddha to be ca. 560-480 B.C.E. However, after the publication in 1991-2 of the proceedings of the international symposium on the date of the historical Buddha held in Göttingen in 1988, the original consensus on these dates no longer exists.

Although there is no conclusive evidence for any specific date, most current scholars locate the Buddha's life one hundred years earlier, around the fifth century B.C.E. Some of the new dates for the Buddha's "death" or more accurately, for his parinirvāṇa are: ca. 404 B.C.E. (R. Gombrich), between 410-390 B.C.E. (K.R. Norman), ca. 400 B.C.E. (R. Hikata), ca. 397 B.C.E. (K.T.S. Sarao), between ca.400-350 B.C.E. (H. Bechert), 383 B.C.E. (H. Nakamura), 368 B.C.E. (A. Hirakawa), between 420-380 B.C.E. (A. Bareau).

b. Sources

The historical Buddha did not write down any of his teachings, they were passed down orally from generation to generation for at least three centuries. Some scholars have attempted to distinguish the Buddha's original teachings from those developed by his early disciples. Unfortunately, the contradictory conclusions have led most scholars to be skeptical about the possibility of knowing what the Buddha really taught. This however, does not mean that all Buddhist texts that attribute teachings to the Buddha are equally valuable to reconstruct his thought. The early sūtras in Pāli and other Middle Indo-Aryan languages are historically and linguistically closer to the cultural context of the Buddha than Mahāyāna sūtras in Sanskrit, Tibetan, and Chinese. This does not imply that later translations of the early sūtras in Chinese (there are no Tibetan translations of the early sūtras) are less authentic or useless in reconstructing the philosophy of the Buddha. On the contrary, the comparative study of Pāli and Chinese versions of the early sūtras can help to infer what might have been the Buddha's position on a number of issues.

Following what seems to be a growing scholarly tendency, I will reconstruct the philosophy of the historical Buddha by drawing on the Sutta Piṭaka of the Pāli canon. More specifically, our main sources are the first four Pāli Nikāyas (Dīgha, Majjhima, Saṃyutta, Aṅguttara) and some texts of the fifth Pāli Nikāya (Dhammapada, Udāna, Itivuttaka, and Sutta Nipāta). I do not identify these sources with the Buddha's " ipsissima verba," that is, with "the very words" of the Buddha, even less with his "actual" thought. Whether these sources are faithful to the actual thought and teachings of the historical Buddha is an unanswerable question; I can only say that to my knowledge there are not better sources to reconstruct the philosophy of the Buddha.

According to the traditional Buddhist account, shortly after the Buddha's death five hundred disciples gathered to compile his teachings. The Buddha's personal assistant, Ānanda, recited the first part of the Buddhist canon, the Sūtra Piṭaka, which contains discourses in dialogue form between the Buddha, his disciples, and his contemporaries on a variety of doctrinal and spiritual questions. Ānanda is reported to have recited the sutras just as he had heard them from the Buddha; that is why Buddhist sutras begin with the words "Thus have I heard." Another disciple, Upāli, recited the second part of the Buddhist canon, the Vinaya Piṭaka, which also contains sutras, but primarily addresses the rules that govern a monastic community. After the recitation of Ānanda and Upāli, the other disciples approved what they had heard and communally recited the teachings as a sign of agreement. The third part of the Buddhist canon or Abhidharma Piṭaka, was not recited at that moment. The Theravāda tradition claims that the Buddha taught the Abhidharma while visiting the heaven where his mother was residing.

From a scholarly perspective, the former account is questionable. It might be the case that a large collection of Buddhist texts was written down for the first time in Sri Lanka during the first century B.C.E. However, the extant Pāli canon shows clear signs of historical development in terms of both content and language. The three parts of the Pāli canon are not as contemporary as the traditional Buddhist account seems to suggest: the Sūtra Piṭaka is older than the Vinaya Piṭaka, and the Abhidharma Piṭaka represents scholastic developments originated at least two centuries after the other two parts of the canon. The Vinaya Piṭaka appears to have grown gradually as a commentary and justification of the monastic code (Prātimokṣa), which presupposes a transition from a community of wandering mendicants (the Sūtra Piṭaka period ) to a more sedentary monastic community (the Vinaya Piṭaka period). Even within the Sūtra Piṭaka it is possible to detect older and later texts.

Neither the Sūtra Piṭaka nor the Vinaya Piṭaka of the Pāli canon could have been recited at once by one person and repeated by the entire Buddhist community. Nevertheless, the Sūtra Piṭaka of the Pāli canon is of particular importance in reconstructing the philosophy of Buddha for four main reasons. First, it contains the oldest texts of the only complete canon of early Indian Buddhism, which belong to the only surviving school of that period, namely, the Theravāda school, prevalent in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia. Second, it has been preserved in a Middle Indo-Aryan language closely related to various Prakrit dialects spoken in North of India during the third century B.C.E., including the area where the Buddha spent most of his teaching years (Magadha). Third, it expresses a fairly consistent set of doctrines and practices. Fourth, it is strikingly similar to another version of the early Sūtra Piṭaka extant in Chinese (Āgamas). This similarity seems to indicate that a great part of the Sūtra Piṭaka in Pāli does not contain exclusively Theravāda texts, and belongs to a common textual tradition probably prior to the existence of Buddhist schools.

c. Life

Since the Pāli Nikāyas contain much more information about the teachings of the Buddha than about his life, it seems safe to postulate that the early disciples of the Buddha were more interested in preserving his teachings than in transmitting all the details of his life. The first complete biographies of the Buddha as well as the Jātaka stories about his former lives appeared centuries later, even after, and arguably as a reaction against, the dry lists and categorizations of early Abhidharma literature. The first complete biography of the Buddha in Pāli is the Nidānakathā, which serves as an introduction to the Jātaka verses found in the fifth Pāli Nikāya. In Sanskrit, the most popular biographies of the Buddha are the Buddhacarita attributed to the Indian poet Aśvaghoṣa (second century C.E), the Mahāvastu, and the Lalitavistara, both composed in the first century C.E.

The first four Pāli Nikāyas contain only fragmented information about the Buddha's life. Especially important are the Mahāpadāna-suttanta, the Ariyapariyesanā-suttanta, the Mahāsaccaka-suttanta, and the Mahāparinibbāna-suttanta. According to the Mahāpadāna-suttanta, the lives of all Buddhas or perfectly enlightened beings follow a similar pattern. Like all Buddhas of the past, the Buddha of this cosmic era, also known as Gautama (Gotama in Pāli), was born into a noble family. The Buddha's parents were King Śuddhodana and Queen Māyā. He was a member of the Śakya clan and his name was Siddhartha Gautama. Even though he was born in Lumbinī while his mother was traveling to her parents' home, he spent the first twenty-nine years of his life in the royal capital, Kapilavastu, in the Nepalese region of Terai, close to the Indian border.

Like all past Buddhas, the conception and birth of Gautama Buddha are considered miraculous events. For instance, when all Buddhas descend into their mothers' wombs from a heaven named Tuṣita, a splendid light shines forth and the entire universe quakes; their mothers are immaculate, healthy, and without pain of any sort during their ten months of pregnancy, but they die a week after giving birth. Buddha babies are born clean, though they are ritually bathed with two streams of water that fall from the sky; they all take seven steps toward the north and solemnly announce that this is their last rebirth.

Like former Buddhas, prince Siddhartha enjoyed all types of luxuries and sensual pleasures during his youth. Unsatisfied with this type of life, he had a crisis when he realized that everything was ephemeral and that his existence was subject to old age, sickness, and death. After seeing the serene joy of a monk and out of compassion for all living beings, he renounced his promising future as prince in order to start a long quest for a higher purpose, nirvāṇa (Pali nibbāna), which entails the cessation of old age, sickness and death. Later traditions speak of the Buddha as abandoning his wife Yaśodharā immediately after she gave birth to Rāhula, the Buddha's only son. The Pāli Nikāyas, however, do not mention this story, and refer to Rāhula only as a young monk.

According to the Ariyapariyesanā-suttanta and the Mahāsaccaka-suttanta, the Buddha tried different spiritual paths for six years. First, he practiced yogic meditation under the guidance of Ālāra Kālāma and Uddaka Rāmaputta. After experiencing the states of concentration called base of nothingness and base of neither-perception-nor-non-perception, he realized that these lofty states did not lead to nirvana. Then the Buddha began to practice breathing exercises and fasting. The deterioration of his health led the Buddha to conclude that extreme asceticism was equally ineffective in attaining nirvana. He thus resumed eating solid food; after recovering his health, he began to practice a more moderate spiritual path, the middle path, which avoids the extremes of sensual self-indulgence and self-mortification. Soon after, the Buddha experienced enlightenment, or awakening, under a bodhi-tree. First he was inclined to inaction rather than to teaching what he had discovered. However, he changed his mind after the god Brahmā Sahampati asked him to teach. Out of compassion for all living beings, he decided to start a successful teaching career that lasted forty-five years.

d. Significance

It would be simplistic to dismiss all supernatural aspects of the Buddha's life as false and consider historically true only those elements that are consistent with our contemporary scientific worldview. However, this approach towards the Buddha's life was prevalent in the nineteenth century and a great part of the twentieth century. Today it is seen as problematic because it imposes modern western ideals of rationality onto non-western texts. Here I set aside the question of historical truth and speak exclusively of significance. The significance of all the biographies of Buddha does not lie in their historical accuracy, but rather in their effectiveness to convey basic Buddhist ideas and values throughout history. Even today, narratives about the many deeds of Buddha are successfully used to introduce Buddhists of all latitudes into the main values and teachings of Buddhism.

The supernatural elements of the Buddha's life are as historically significant as the natural ones because they help to understand the way Buddhists conceived - and in many places continue to conceive - the Buddha. Like followers of other religious leaders, Buddhist scribes tended to glorify the sanctity of their foundational figure with extraordinary events and spectacular accomplishments. In this sense, the narratives of the Buddha are perhaps better understood as hagiographies rather than as biographies. The historical truth behind hagiographies is impossible to determine: how can we tell whether or not the Buddha was conceived without sexual intercourse; whether or not he was able to talk and walk right after his birth; whether or not he could walk over water, levitate, fly, and ascend into heaven at will? How do we know whether the Buddha was really tempted by Māra the evil one; whether there was an earthquake at the moment of his birth and death? The answers to these questions are a matter of faith. If the interpreter does not believe in the supernatural, then many narratives will be dismissed as historically false. However, for some Buddhists the supernatural events that appear in the life of Buddha did take place and are historically true.

The significance of the hagiographies of the Buddha is primarily ethical and spiritual. In fact, even if the life of Buddha did not take place as the hagiographies claim, the ethical values and the spiritual path they illustrate remain significant. Unlike other religions, the truth of Buddhism does not depend on the historicity of certain events in the life of the Buddha. Rather, the truth of Buddhism depends on the efficacy of the Buddhist path exemplified by the life of the Buddha and his disciples. In other words, if the different Buddhist paths inspired by the Buddha are useful to overcome existential dissatisfaction and suffering, then Buddhism is true regardless of the existence of the historical Buddha.

The fundamental ethical and spiritual point behind the Buddha's life is that impermanent, conditioned, and contingent things such as wealth, social position, power, sensual pleasures, and even lofty meditative states, cannot generate a state of ultimate happiness. In order to overcome the profound existential dissatisfaction that all ephemeral and contingent things eventually generate, one needs to follow a comprehensive path of ethical and mental training conducive to the state of ultimate happiness called nirvana.

2. The Buddha's Epistemology

a. The Extremes of Dogmatism and Skepticism

While the Buddha's view of the spiritual path is traditionally described as a middle way between the extremes of self-indulgence and self-mortification, the Buddha's epistemology can be interpreted as a middle way between the extremes of dogmatism and skepticism.

The extreme of dogmatism is primarily represented in the Pāli Nikāyas by Brahmanism. Brahmanism was a ritualistic religion that believed in the divine revelation of the Vedas, thought that belonging to a caste was determined by birth, and focused on the performance of sacrifice. Sacrifices involved the recitation of hymns taken from the Vedas and in many cases the ritual killing of animals.

Ritual sacrifices were offered to the Gods (gods for Buddhism) in exchange for prosperity, health, protection, sons, long life, and immortality. Only the male members of the highest caste, the priestly caste of Brahmins, could afford the professional space to seriously study the three Vedas (the Atharva Veda did not exist, or if it existed, it was not part yet of the Brahmanic tradition). Since only Brahmins knew the three Vedas, only they could recite the hymns necessary to properly perform the ritual sacrifice. Both ritual sacrifice and the social ethics of the caste system were seen as an expression of the cosmic order (Dharma) and as necessary to preserve that order.

Epistemologically speaking, Brahmanism emphasized the triple knowledge of the Vedas, and dogmatic faith in their content: "in regard to the ancient Brahmanic hymns that have come down through oral transmission and in the scriptural collections, the Brahmins come to the definite conclusion: 'Only this is true, anything else is wrong' " (M.II.169).

The extreme of skepticism is represented in the Pāli Nikāyas by some members of the Śramanic movement, which consisted of numerous groups of spiritual seekers and wandering philosophers. The Sanskrit word " śramana " means "those who make an effort," and probably refers to those who practice a spiritual discipline requiring individual effort, not just rituals performed by others. In order to become a śramana it was necessary to renounce one's life as householder and enter into an itinerant life, which entailed the observance of celibacy and a simple life devoted to spiritual cultivation. Most śramanas lived in forests or in secluded places wandering from village to village where they preached and received alms in exchange.

The Śramanic movement was extremely diverse in terms of doctrines and practices. Most śramanas believed in free will as well as the efficacy of moral conduct and spiritual practices in order to attain liberation from the cycle of reincarnations. However, there was a minority of śramanas who denied the existence of the after life, free will, and the usefulness of ethical conduct and other spiritual practices. Probably as a reaction to these two opposite standpoints, some śramanas adopted a skeptic attitude denying the possibility of knowledge about such matters. Skeptics are described by the Buddha as replying questions by evasion (D.I.58-9), and as engaging in verbal wriggling, in eel-wriggling (amarāvikkhepa): "I don't say it is like this. And I don't say it is like that. And I don't say it is otherwise. And I don't say it is not so. And I don't say it is not not so" (M.I. 521).

b. The Role of Personal Experience and the Buddha's Wager

In contrast to Brahmanic dogmatism, the Buddha of the Pāli Nikāyas did not claim to be omniscient (M.I.482); in fact, he proposed a critical attitude toward all sources of knowledge. In the Majjhima Nikāya (II.170-1), the Buddha challenges Brahmins who accept Vedic scriptures out of faith (saddhā) and oral tradition (anussava); he compares those who blindly follow scripture and tradition without having direct knowledge of what they believe with "a file of blind men each in touch with the next: the first one does not see, the middle one does not see, and the last one does not see." The Buddha also warns Brahmins against knowledge based on likeability or emotional inclination (ruci), reflection on reasons (ākāraparivitakka), and consideration of theories (diṭṭhinijjhānakkhanti). These five sources of knowledge may be either true or false; that is, they do not provide conclusive grounds to claim dogmatically that "only this is true, anything else is wrong."

Dogmatic claims of truth were not the monopoly of Brahmins. In the Majjhima Nikāya (I.178), the Buddha uses the simile of the elephant footprint to question dogmatic statements about him, his teachings, and his disciples: he invites his followers to critically investigate all the available evidence (different types of elephant footprints and marks) until they know and see for themselves (direct perception of the elephant in the open). The Pāli Nikāyas also refer to many śramanas who hold dogmatic views and as a consequence are involved in heated doctrinal disputes. The conflict of dogmatic views is often described as "a thicket of views, a wilderness of views, a contortion of views, a vacillation of views, a fetter of views. It is beset by suffering, by vexation, by despair, and by fever, and it does not lead to disenchantment, to dispassion, to cessation, to peace, to higher knowledge, to enlightentment, to Nibbāna" (M.I.485).

Public debates were common and probably a good way to gain prestige and converts. Any reputed Brahmin or śramana had to have not only the ability to speak persuasively but also the capacity to argue well. Rational argument played an important role in justifying doctrines and avoiding defeat in debate, which implied conversion to the other's teaching. At the time of the Buddha many of these debates seem to have degenerated into dialectical battles that diverted from spiritual practice and led to disorientation, anger, and frustration. Although the Buddha of the Pāli Nikāyas utilizes reasoning to justify his positions in debates and conversations with others, he discourages dogmatic attachment to doctrines including his own (see the simile of the raft, M.I.135), and the use of his teachings for the sake of criticizing others and for winning debates (M.I.132).

Unlike the skepticism of some śramanas, the Buddha of the Pāli Nikāyas takes clear stances on ethical and spiritual issues, and rejects neither the existence of right views (M.I.46-63) nor the possibility of knowing certain things as they are (yathābhūtaṃ). In order to counteract skepticism, the Buddha advises to the Kālāma people "not go by oral tradition, by succession of disciples, by hearsay, by the content of sacred scripture, by logical consistency, by inference, by reflection on reasons, by consideration of theories, by appearance, by respect to a teacher." Instead, the Buddha recommends knowing things for oneself as the ultimate criterion to adjudicate between conflicting claims of truth (A.I.189).

When personal experience is not available to someone, the Buddha of the Pāli Nikāyas proposes taking into account what is praised or censored by the wise, as well as a method to calculate the benefits of following certain opinions called the incontrovertible teaching (apaṇṇakadhamma), which, in some ways, resembles Pascal's wager. According to the incontrovertible teaching, it would be better to believe in certain doctrines because they produce more benefits than others. For instance, even if there is no life after death and if good actions do not produce good consequences, still a moral person is praised in this life by the wise, whereas the immoral person is censured by society. However, if there is life after death and good action produce happy consequences, a moral person is praised in this life, and after death he or she goes to heaven. On the contrary, the immoral person is censured in this life, and after death he or she goes to hell (M.I.403). Therefore, it is better to believe that moral actions produce good consequences even if we do not have personal experience of karma and rebirth.

c. Interpretations of the Buddha's Advice to the Kālāma People

Some have interpreted the Buddha's advice to the Kālāma people as an iconoclast rejection of tradition and faith. This, however, does little justice to the Pāli Nikāyas, where the Buddha is said to be part of a long and respectable tradition of past Buddhas, and where the first Brahmins are sometimes commended by their holiness. The Buddha shows respect for many traditional beliefs and practices of his time, and rejects only those that are unjustified, useless, or conducive to suffering for oneself and others.

Faith in the Buddha, his teachings, and his disciples, is highly regarded in the Pāli Nikāyas: it is the first of the five factors of striving (M.II.95-6), and a necessary condition to practice the spiritual path (M.III.33). Buddhist faith, however, is not unconditional or an end in and of itself but rather a means towards direct knowledge that must be based on critical examination, supported by reasons, and eventually verified or rooted in vision (dassanamūlikā) (M.I.320).

Another common interpretation of the advice to the Kālāmas is that for the Buddha of the Pāli Nikāyas only personal experience provides reliable knowledge. However, this is misleading because analogical and inferential reasoning are widely used by the Buddha and his disciples to teach others as well as in debates with non-Buddhists. Similarly, analytical or philosophical meditation is a common practice for the attainment of liberation through wisdom. Personal experience, like any other means of knowledge is to be critically examined. Except in the case of Buddhas and liberated beings, personal experience is always tainted by affective and cognitive prejudices.

The Pāli Nikāyas might give the first impression of endorsing a form of naïve or direct realism: that is, the Buddha and his disciples seem to think that the world is exactly as we perceive it to be. While it is true that the Pāli Nikāyas do not question the common sense connection between objects of knowledge and the external world, there are some texts that might support a phenomenalist reading. For instance, the Buddha defines the world as the six senses (five ordinary senses plus the mind) and their respective objects (S.IV.95), or as the six senses, the six objects, and the six types of consciousness that arise in dependence on them (S.IV.39-40).

Here, the epistemology of the Buddha is a special form of realism that allows both for the direct perception of reality and the constructions of those less realized. Only Buddhas and liberated beings perceive the world directly; that is, they see the Dharma, whose regularity and stability remains independent of the existence of Buddhas (S.II.25). Unenlightened beings, on the other hand, see the world indirectly through a veil of negative emotions and erroneous views. Some texts go so far as to suggest that the world is not simply seen indirectly, but rather that it is literally constructed by our emotional dispositions. For instance, in the Majjhima Nikāya (I.111), the Buddha explicitly states that "what one feels, one perceives" (Yaṃ vedeti, taṃ sañjānāti). That is, our knowledge is formed by our feelings. The influence of feelings in our ways of knowing can also be inferred from the twelve-link chain of dependent arising, which explains the arising and cessation of suffering. The second link, saṅkhāra, or formations, conditions the arising of the third link, consciousness. The term saṅkhāra literally means "put together," connoting the constructive role of the mental factors that fall into this category, many of them affective in nature.

Similarly, the Buddha of the Pāli Nikāyas says that "with what one has mentally constructed as the root cause (Yaṃ papañceti tato nidānaṃ), perceptions, concepts, and [further] mental constructions (papañcasaññāsaṅkhā) beset a man with respect to past, future, and present forms...sounds...odours...flavors...tangibles...mind-objects cognizable by the eye...ear... nose...tongue...body...mind" (M.I.111-112). That is, the knowledge of unenlightened beings has papañca, or mental constructions, as its root cause. The word papañca is a technical term that literally means diversification or proliferation; it refers to the tendency of unenlightened minds to construct or fabricate concepts conducive to suffering, especially essentialist and ego-related concepts such as "I" and "mine," concepts which lead to a variety of negative mental states such as craving, conceit, and dogmatic views about the self (Ñāṇananda 1971).

It is precisely because our experiences are affectively and cognitively conditioned that the Buddha of the Pāli Nikāyas advocates a critical approach toward all sources of knowledge, including personal experience. Even the lofty experiences derived from meditation are to be analyzed carefully because they might lead to false opinions about the nature of the self, the world, and the after life. The epistemological ideal is to know things directly beyond mental constructions (papañca), which presupposes the "tranquilization of all mental formations" (sabbasaṅkhārasamatha).

d. Higher Knowledge and the Question of Empiricism

Contemplative experiences are of two main types: meditative absorptions or abstractions (jhāna), and higher or direct knowledge (abhiññā). There are six classes of higher or direct knowledge: the first one refers to a variety of supernatural powers including levitation and walking on water; in this sense, it is better understood as a know-how type of knowledge. The second higher knowledge is literally called "divine ear element" or clairaudience. The third higher knowledge is usually translated as telepathy, though it means simply the ability to know the underlying mental state of others, not the reading of their minds and thoughts.

The next three types of higher knowledge are especially important because they were experienced by the Buddha the night of his enlightenment, and because they are the Buddhist counterparts to the triple knowledge of the Vedas. The fourth higher knowledge is retrocognition or knowledge of past lives, which entails a direct experience of the process of rebirth. The fifth is the divine eye or clairvoyance; that is, direct experience of the process of karma, or as the texts put it, the passing away and reappearing of beings in accordance with their past actions. The sixth is knowledge of the destruction of taints, which implies experiential knowledge of the four noble truths and the process of liberation.

Some scholars have interpreted the Buddha's emphasis on direct experience and the verifiable nature of Buddhist faith as a form of radical empiricism (Kalupahana 1992), and logical empiricism (Jayatilleke 1963). According to the empiricist interpretation, Buddhist faith is always subsequent to critically verifying the available empirical evidence. All doctrines taught by the Buddha are empirically verifiable if one takes the time and effort to attain higher or direct knowledge, interpreted as extraordinary sense experience. For instance, the triple knowledge of enlightenment implies a direct experience of the processes of karma, rebirth, and the four noble truths. Critiques of the empiricist interpretation point out that, at least at the beginning of the path, Buddhist faith is not always based on empirical evidence, and that the purpose of extraordinary knowledge is not to verify the doctrines of karma, rebirth, and the four noble truths (Hoffman 1982, 1987).

Whether or not the Buddha's epistemology can be considered empiricist depends on what we mean by empiricism and experience. The opposition between rationalism and empiricism and the sharp distinction between senses and reason is foreign to Buddhism. Nowhere in the Pāli Nikāyas does the Buddha say that all knowledge begins in or is acquired from sense experience. In this sense, the Buddha is not an empiricist.

3. The Buddha's Cosmology and Metaphysics

a. The Universe and the Role of Gods

The Buddha of the Pāli Nikāyas accepts the cosmology characteristic of his cultural context: a universe with several realms of existence, where people are reborn and die again and again (saṃsāra) depending on their past actions (karma) until they attain salvation (mokṣa). However, the Buddha substantially modifies the cosmology of his time. Against the Brahmanic tendency to understand karma as ritual action, and the Jain claim that all activities including involuntary actions constitute karma, the Buddha defines karma in terms of volition, or free will, which is expressed through thoughts, words, and behavior. That is, for the Buddha, only voluntary actions produce karma.

Another important modification is that for the Buddha of the Pāli Nikāyas, saṃsāra refers primarily to a psychophysical process that takes place within the physical universe. For instance, when the Buddha speaks about the end of the world, he says that it cannot be reached by traveling through the physical universe, but only by putting an end to suffering (saṃsāra), where "one is not born, does not age, does not die, does not pass away, and is not reborn" Accordingly, salvation is not understood in world-denying terms or as an escape from the physical universe, but rather as an inner transformation that takes place within one's own psychophysical organism: "It is, friend, in just this fathom-high carcass endowed with perception and mind that I make known the world, the origin of the world, the cessation of the world, and the way leading to the cessation of the world." (S.I.62; A.II.47-9).

There are five kinds of destinations within saṃsāra: hell, animal kingdom, realm of ghosts, humankind, and realm of devas or radiant beings, commonly translated as gods (M.I.73). There are many hells and heavens and life there is transitory, just as in other destinations. In some traditions there is another destination, the realm of asuras or demigods, who are jealous of the gods and who are always in conflict with them.

The Pāli Nikāyas further divide the universe of saṃsāra into three main planes of existence, each one subdivided into several realms. The three planes of existence are sensorial, fine-material, and immaterial (M.I.50). Most destinations belong to the sensorial realm. Only a minority of heavens belong to the fine-material and immaterial realms. Rebirth in a particular realm depends on past actions: good actions lead to good destinations and bad actions to bad rebirths. Rebirth as a human or in heaven is considered a good destination; rebirth in the realm of ghosts, hell, and the animal realm are bad. Human rebirth is extremely difficult to attain (S.V.455-6; M.III.169), and it is highly regarded because of its unique combination of pain and pleasure, as well as its unique conductivity for attaining enlightenment. In this last sense human rebirth is said to be even better than rebirth as a god.

Rebirth also depends on the prevalent mental states of a person during life, and especially at the moment of death. That is, there is a correlation between mental states and realms of rebirth, between cosmology and psychology. For instance, a mind where hatred and anger prevails is likely to be reborn in hell; deluded and uncultivated minds are headed toward the animal kingdom; someone obsessed with sex and food will probably become bound to earth as a ghost; loving and caring persons will be reborn in heaven; someone who frequently dwells in meditative absorptions will be reborn in the fine-material and immaterial realms. Human rebirth might be the consequence of any of the aforementioned mental states.

Perhaps the most important modification the Buddha introduces into the traditional cosmology of his time was a new view of Gods (gods within Buddhism). In the Pāli Nikāyas, gods do not play any significant cosmological role. For the Buddha, the universe has not been created by an all-knowing, all-powerful god that is the lord of the universe and father of all beings (M.I.326-7). Rather, the universe evolves following certain cyclic patterns of contraction and expansion (D.III.84-5).

Similarly, the cosmic order, or Dharma, does not depend on the will of gods, and there are many good deeds far more effective than ritual sacrifices offered to the gods (D.I144ff). Gods for the Buddha are unenlightened beings subject to birth and death that require further learning and spiritual practice in order to attain liberation; they are more powerful and spiritually more developed than humans and other living beings, but Buddhas excel them in all regards: spiritual development, wisdom, and power. Even the supreme type of god, Brahmā, offers his respects to the Buddha, praises him, and asks him to preach the Dharma for those with little dust in their eyes (M.I.168-9).

Since the Buddha of the Pāli Nikāyas does not deny the existence of gods, only their cosmological and soteriological functions, it is inaccurate to define early Buddhism as atheistic or as non-theistic. The word atheistic is usually associated with anti-religious attitudes absent in the Buddha, and the term non-theistic seems to imply that rejecting the theistic concept of God is one of the main concerns of the Buddha, when in fact it is a marginal question in the Pāli Nikāyas.

b. The Four Noble Truths or Realities

One the most common frameworks to explain the basic teachings of early Buddhism is the four noble truths (ariyasacca, Sanskrit āryasatya). The word sacca means both truth and reality. The word ariya refers primarily to the ideal type of person the Buddhist path is supposed to generate, a noble person in the ethical and spiritual sense. Translating ariyasacca by 'noble truths' is somehow misleading because it gives the wrong impression of being a set of beliefs, a creed that Buddhists accept as noble and true. The four noble truths are primarily four realities whose contemplation leads to sainthood or the state of the noble ones (ariya). Other possible translations of ariyasacca are "ennobling truths" or "truths of the noble ones."

Each noble truth requires a particular practice from the disciple; in this sense the four noble truths can be understood as four types of practice. The first noble truth, or the reality of suffering, assigns to the disciple the practice of cultivating understanding. Such understanding takes place gradually through reflection, analytical meditation, and eventually direct experience. What needs to be understood is the nature of suffering, and the different types of suffering and happiness within saṃsāra.

A common misconception about the first noble truth is to think that it presupposes a pessimistic outlook on life. This interpretation would be correct only if the Buddha of the Pāli Nikāyas had not taught the existence of different types of happiness and the third noble truth, or cessation of suffering; that is, the good news about the reality of nirvana, defined as the highest happiness (Dhp.203; M.I.505). Since the Buddha of the Pāli Nikāyas teaches the reality of both suffering and the highest happiness, perhaps it is more accurate to speak of his attitude as realist: there is a problem but there is also a solution to that problem.

The second noble truth, or reality of the origin of suffering, calls for the practice of renunciation to all mental states that generate suffering for oneself and others. The mental state that appears in the second noble truth is taṇhā, literally "thirst." It was customary in the first Western translations of Buddhist texts (Burnouf, Fausboll, Muller, Oldenberg, Warren) to translate taṇhā by desire. This translation has misled many to think that the ultimate goal of Buddhists is the cessation of all desires. However, as Damien Keown puts it, "it is an oversimplification of the Buddhist position to assume that it seeks an end to all desire." (1992: 222).

In fact, there are many terms in the Pāli Nikāyas that can be translated as desire, not all of them related to mental states conducive to suffering. On the contrary, there are many texts in the Pāli Nikāyas that demonstrate the positive role of certain types of desire in the Buddha's path (Webster, 2005: 90-142). Nonetheless, the term taṇhā in the Pāli Nikāyas designates always a harmful type of desire that leads to "repeated existence" (ponobhavikā), is "associated with delight and lust" (nandirāgasahagatā), and "delights here and there" (tatra tatrābhinandinī) (M.I.48; D.II.308; etc). There is only one text (Nettipakaraṇa 87) that speaks about a wholesome type of taṇhā that leads to its own relinquishment, but this text is extra-canonical except in Myanmar.

The most common translation of taṇhā nowadays is craving. Unlike the loaded, vast, and ambivalent term desire, the term craving refers more specifically to a particular type of desire, and cannot be misinterpreted as conveying any want and aspiration whatsoever. Rather, like taṇhā in the Pāli Nikāyas, craving refers to intense (rāga can be translated by both lust and passion), obsessive, and addictive desires (the idiom tatra tatra can also be interpreted as connoting the idea of repetition or tendency to repeat itself).

Since craving, or taṇhā, does not include all possible types of desires, there is no "paradox of desire" in the Pāli Nikāyas. In other words, the Buddha of the the Pāli Nikāyas does not teach that in order to attain liberation from suffering one has to paradoxically desire to stop all desires. There is no contradiction in willing the cessation of craving. That is, for the Buddha of the Pāli Nikāyas it is possible to want, like, or strive for something without simultaneously craving for it.

The Pāli Nikāyas distinguish between three kinds of taṇhā: craving for sensual pleasures (kāmataṇhā), craving for existence (bhavataṇhā), and craving for non-existence (vibhavataṇhā). Following Webster, I understand the last two types of craving as "predicated on two extreme (wrong) views, those of eternalism and annihilationism" (2005:130-1). In other words, craving for existence longs for continued existence of one's self within saṃsāra, and craving for non-existence is a reversed type of desire or aversion to one's own destruction at the moment of death.

The underlying root of all suffering, however, is not craving but spiritual ignorance (avijjā). In the Pāli Nikāyas spiritual ignorance does not connote a mere lack of information but rather a misconception, a distorted perception of things under the influence of conceptual fabrications and affective prejudices. More specifically, ignorance refers to not knowing things as they are, the Dharma, and the four noble truths. The relinquishing of spiritual ignorance, craving, and the three roots of the unwholesome (greed or lobha, aversion or dosa, delusion or moha) entails the cultivation of many positive mental states, some of the most prominent in the Pāli Nikāyas being: wisdom or understanding (paññā), letting go (anupādāna), selflessness (alobha), love (avera, adosa, avyāpāda), friendliness (mettā), compassion (karuṇā), altruistic joy (muditā), equanimity (upekkhā), calm (samatha, passaddhi), mindfulness (sati), diligence (appamāda).

The third noble truth, or reality of the cessation of suffering, asks us to directly realize the destruction of suffering, usually expressed with a variety of cognitive and affective terms: peace, higher knowledge, the tranquilization of mental formations, the abandonment of all grasping, cessation, the destruction of craving, absence of lust, nirvana (Pali nibbāna). The most popular of all the terms that express the cessation of suffering and rebirth is nirvana, which literally means blowing out or extinguishing.

Metaphorically, the extinction of nirvana designates a mental event, namely, the extinguishing of the fires of craving, aversion, and delusion (S.IV.251). That nirvana primarily denotes a mental event, a psychological process, is also confirmed by many texts that describe the person who experiences nirvana with intransitive verbs such as to nirvanize (nibbāyati) or to parinirvanize (parinibbāyati). However, there are a few texts that seem to indicate that nirvana might also be a domain of perception (āyatana), element (dhātu), or reality (dhamma) known at the moment of enlightenment, and in special meditative absorptions after enlightenment. This domain is usually defined as having the opposite qualities of saṃsāra (Ud 8.1), or with metaphoric expressions (S.IV.369ff).

What is important to point out is that the concern of the Pāli Nikāyas is not to describe nirvana, which, strictly speaking, is beyond logic and language (It 37), but rather to provide a systematic explanation of the arising and cessation of suffering. The goal of Buddhism as it appears in the Pāli Nikāyas does not consist in believing that suffering arises and ceases like the Buddha says, but in realizing that what he teaches about suffering and its cessation is the case; that is, the Buddha's teaching, or Dharma, is intended to be experienced by the wise for themselves (M.I.265).

The fourth noble truth, or reality of the path leading to the cessation of suffering, imposes on us the practice of developing the eightfold ennobling path. This path can be understood either as eight mental factors that are cultivated by ennobled disciples at the moment of liberation, or as different parts of the entire Buddhist path whose practice ennoble the disciple gradually. The eight parts of the Buddhist path are usually divided into three kinds of training: training in wisdom (right view and right intention), ethical training (right speech, right bodily conduct, and right livelihood), and training in concentration (right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration).

c. Ontology of Suffering: the Five Aggregates

A prominent concern of the Buddha in the Pāli Nikāyas is to provide a solution to the problem of suffering. When asked about his teachings, the Buddha answers that he only teaches suffering and its cessation (M.I.140). The first noble truth describes what the Buddha means by suffering: birth, aging, illness, death, union with what is displeasing, separation from what is pleasing, not getting what one wants, the five aggregates of grasping (S.V.421).

The original Pali term for suffering is dukkha, a word that ordinarily means physical and mental pain, but that in the first noble truth designates diverse kinds of frustration, and the existential angst generated by the impermanence of life and the unavoidability of old age, disease, and death. However, when the Buddha of the Pāli Nikāyas mentions birth and the five aggregates of grasping, he seems to be referring to the fact that our psychophysical components are conditioned by grasping, and consequently, within saṃsāra, the cycle of births and deaths. This interpretation is consistent with later Buddhist tradition, which speaks about three types of dukkha: ordinary suffering (mental and physical pain), suffering due to change (derived from the impermanence of things), and suffering due to conditions (derived from being part of saṃsāra).

When the Buddha of the Pāli Nikāyas speaks about personal identity and the human predicament, he uses the technical expression "five aggregates of grasping" (pañcupādānakkhandhā). That is, the Buddha describes human existence in terms of five groups of constituents. The five aggregates are: material form (rūpa), sensations (vedanā), perceptions (saññā), mental formations (saṃkhāra), consciousness (viññāṇa). While the first aggregate refers to material components, the other four designate a variety of mental functions.

The aggregate material form is explained as the four great elements and the shape or figure of our physical body. The four great elements are earth, water, fire, and air. The earth element is further defined as whatever is solid in our body, and water as whatever is liquid. The fire element refers to "that by which one is warmed, ages, and is consumed," and the process of digestion. The air element denotes the breathing process and movements of gas throughout the body (M.I.185ff).

The aggregate sensations denote pleasant, unpleasant and neutral feelings experienced after there is contact between the six sense organs (eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind) and their six objects (forms, sounds, odors, tastes, tangible objects, and mental phenomena). The aggregate perceptions express the mental function by which someone is able to identify objects. There are six types of perceptions corresponding to the six objects of the senses. The aggregate formations express emotional and intellectual dispositions, literally volitions (sañcetanâ), towards the six objects of the senses. These dispositions are the result of past cognitive and affective conditioning, that is, past karma or past voluntary actions. The aggregate consciousness connotes the ability to know and to be aware of the six objects of the senses (S.III.59ff).

d. Arguments for the Doctrine of Non-self

The Buddha reiterates again and again throughout the Pāli Nikāyas that any of the five aggregates "whether past, future or present, internal or external, gross or subtle, inferior or superior, far or near, ought to be seen as it actually is with right wisdom thus: 'this is not mine, this I am not, this is not my self.' " When the disciple contemplates the five aggregates in this way, he or she becomes disenchanted (nibbindati), lust fades away (virajjati), and he or she attains liberation due to the absence of lust (virāgā vimuccati) (M.I.138-9).

The Buddha of the Pāli Nikāyas justifies this view of the five aggregates as non-self with three main arguments, which are used as a method of analytical meditation, and in polemics with members of other schools. The assumption underlying the Buddha's arguments is that something might be considered a self only if it were permanent, not leading to suffering, not dependently arisen, and subject to one's own will. Since none of the five aggregates fulfill any of these conditions, it is wrong to see them as belonging to us or as our self.

In the first and most common argument for non-self the Buddha asks someone the following questions: "What do you think, monks, is material form permanent or impermanent?" - "Impermanent, venerable sir." - "Is what is impermanent suffering or happiness?" - "Suffering, venerable sir." -Is what is impermanent, suffering, and subject to change, fit to be regarded as: "this is mine, this I am, this is my self?" - "No, venerable sir" (M.I.138, etc). The same reasoning is applied to the other aggregates.

The first argument is also applied to the six sensual organs, the six objects, the six types of consciousness, perceptions, sensations, and formations that arise dependent on the contact between the senses and their objects (M.III.278ff). Sometimes the first argument for non-self is applied to the six senses and their objects without questions and answers: "Monks, the visual organ is impermanent. What is impermanent is suffering. What is suffering is non-self. What is non-self ought to be seen as it really is with right wisdom thus: 'this is not mine, this I am not, this is not my self' " (S.IV.1ff).

The second argument for non-self is much less frequent: "Monks, material form is non-self. If it were self, it would not lead to affliction. It would be possible [to say] with regard to material form: 'Let my material form be thus. Let my material form not be thus.' But precisely because it is non-self, it leads to affliction. And it is not possible [to say] with regard to material form: 'Let my material form be thus. Let my material form not be thus' "(S.III.66-7). The same reasoning is applied to the other four aggregates.

The third argument deduces non-self from that fact that physical and mental phenomena depend on certain causes to exist. For instance, in (M.III.280ff), the Buddha first analyzes the dependent arising of physical and mental phenomena. Then he argues: "If anyone says: 'the visual organ is self,' that is unacceptable. The rising and falling of the visual organ are fully known (paññāyati). Since the rising and falling of the visual organ are fully known, it would follow that: 'my self arises and falls.' Therefore, it is unacceptable to say: 'the visual organ is self.' Thus the visual organ is non-self." The same reasoning is applied to the other senses, their objects, and the six types of consciousness, contacts (meeting of sense, object and consciousness), sensations, and cravings derived from them.

The third argument also appears combined with the first one without questions and answers. For instance, in (A.V.188), it is said that "whatever becomes, that is conditioned, volitionally formed, dependently arisen, that is impermanent. What is impermanent, that is suffering. What is suffering, that is [to be regarded thus]: 'this is not mine, this I am not, this is not my self.' "

If something can be inferred from these three arguments, it is that the target of the doctrine of non-self is not all concepts of self but specifically views of the self as permanent and not dependently arisen. That is, the doctrine of non-self opposes what is technically called "views of personal identity" or more commonly translated "personality views" (sakkāyadiṭṭhi). Views of personal identity relate the five aggregates to a permanent and independent self in four ways: as being identical, as being possession of the self, as being in the self, or as the self being in them (M.I.300ff). All these views of personal identity are said to be the product of spiritual ignorance, that is, of not seeing with right wisdom the true nature of the five aggregates, their origin, their cessation, and the way leading to their cessation.

e. Human Identity and the Meaning of Non-self

Since the Pāli Nikāyas accept the common sense usages of the word "self" (attan, Skt. ātman), primarily in idiomatic expressions and as a reflexive pronoun meaning "oneself," the doctrine of non-self does not imply a literal negation of the self. Similarly, since the Buddha explicitly criticizes views that reject karma and moral responsibility (M.I.404ff), the doctrine of non-self should not be understood as the absolute rejection of moral agency and any concept of personal identity. In fact, the Buddha explicitly defines "personal identity" (sakkāya) as the five aggregates (M.I.299).

Since the sixth sense, or mind, includes the four mental aggregates, and since the ordinary five senses and their objects fall under the aggregate of material form, it can be said that for the Buddha of the Pāli Nikāyas personal identity is defined not only in terms of the five aggregates, but also in terms of the six senses and their six objects.

If the meaning of non-self were that there is literally no self whatsoever, no personal identity and no moral agency whatsoever, then the only logical conclusion would be to state that the Buddha taught nonsense and that the Pāli Nikāyas are contradictory, sometimes accepting the existence of a self and other times rejecting it. Even though no current scholar of Buddhism would endorse such an interpretation of non-self, it is still popular in some missionary circles and apologetic literature.

A more sympathetic interpretation of non-self distinguishes between two main levels of discourse (Collins 1982). The first level of discourse does not question the concept of self and freely uses personal terms and expressions in accordance with ordinary language and social conventions. The second level of discourse is philosophically more sophisticated and rejects views of self and personal identity as permanent and not dependently arisen. Behind the second level of discourse there is a technical understanding of the self and personal identity as the five aggregates, that is, as a combination of psychophysical processes, all of them impermanent and dependently originated.

This concept of the self as permanent and not dependently arisen is problematic because it is based on a misperception of the aggregates. This misperception of the five aggregates is associated with what is technically called "the conceit I am" (asmimāna) and "the underlying tendency to the conceits 'I' and 'mine' " (ahaṃkāra-mamaṅkāra-mānānusaya). This combination of conceit and ignorance fosters different types of cravings, especially craving for immortal existence, and subsequently, speculations about the past, present, and future nature of the self and personal identity. For instance, in (D.I.30ff), the Buddha speaks of different ascetics and Brahmins who claim that the self after death is "material, immaterial, both material and immaterial, neither material nor immaterial, finite, infinite, both, neither, of uniform perception, of varied perception, of limited perception, of unlimited perception, wholly happy, wholly miserable, both, neither." The doctrine of non-self is primarily intended to counteract views of the self and personal identity rooted in ignorance regarding the nature of the five aggregates, the conceit "I am," and craving for immortal existence.

A minority of scholars reject the notion that the Buddha's doctrine of non-self implies the negation of the true self, which for them is permanent and independent of causes and conditions. Accordingly, the purpose of the doctrine of non-self is simply to deny that the five aggregates are the true self. The main reason for this interpretation is that the Buddha does not say anywhere in the Pāli Nikāyas that the self does not exist; he only states that a self and what belongs to a self are not apprehended (M.I.138). Therefore, for these interpreters the Buddha of the Pāli Nikāyas only claims that impermanent and conditioned things like the five aggregates are not the true self. For these scholars, the Buddha does talk about the true self when he speaks about the consciousness of liberated beings (M.I.140), and the unconditioned, unborn and deathless nirvana (Bhattacarya 1973; Pérez Remón 1981).

However, the majority of Buddhist scholars agree with the traditional Buddhist self-understanding: they think that the doctrine of non-self is incompatible with any doctrine about a permanent and independent self, not just with views that mistakenly identify an alleged true self with the five aggregates. The main reason for this interpretation relates to the doctrine of dependent arising.

f. Causality and the Principle of Dependent Arising

The importance of dependent arising (paṭiccasamuppāda) cannot be underestimated: the Buddha realized its workings during the night of his enlightenment (M.I.167). Preaching the doctrine of dependent arising amounts to preaching the Dharma (M.II.32), and whoever sees it sees the Dharma (M.I.191). The Dharma of dependent arising remains valid whether or not there are Buddhas in the world (S.II.25), and it is through not understanding it that people are trapped into the cycle of birth and death (D.II.55).

The doctrine of dependent arising can be formulated in two ways that usually appear together: as a general principle or as a chain of causal links to explain the arising and ceasing of suffering and the process of rebirth. The general principle of dependent arising states that "when this exists, that comes to be; with the arising of this, that arises. When this does not exist, that does not come to be; with the cessation of this, that ceases" (M.II.32; S.II.28).

Unlike the logical principle of conditionality, the principle of dependent arising does not designate a connection between two ideas but rather an ontological relationship between two things or events within a particular timeframe. Dependent arising expresses not only the Buddha's understanding of causality but also his view of things as interrelated. The point behind dependent arising is that things are dependent on specific conditions (paṭicca), and that they arise together with other things (samuppāda). In other words, the principle of dependent arising conveys both ontological conditionality and the constitutive relativity of things. This relativity, however, does not mean that for the Buddha of the Pāli Nikāyas everything is interdependent or that something is related to everything else. This is a later development of Buddhist thought, not a characteristic of early Indian Buddhism.

The most comprehensive chain of dependent arising contains twelve causal links: (1) ignorance, (2) formations, (3) consciousness, (4) mentality-materiality, (5) the six senses, (6) contact, (7) sensations, (8) craving (9) grasping, (10) becoming, (11) birth, (12) old age and death. The most common formulation is as follows: with 1 as a condition 2 [comes to be]; with 2 as a condition 3 [comes to be], and so forth. Conversely, with the cessation of 1 comes the cessation of 2; with the cessation of 2 comes the cessation of 3, and so forth.

It is important to keep in mind that this chain does not imply a linear understanding of causality where the antecedent link disappears once the subsequent link has come to be. Similarly, each of the causal links is not to be understood as the one and only cause that produces the next link but rather as the most necessary condition for its arising. For instance, ignorance, the first link, is not the only cause of the process of suffering but rather the cause most necessary for the continuation of such a process. For the Buddha of the Pāli Nikāyas, as well as for later Buddhist tradition, there is always a multiplicity of causes and conditions at play.

The traditional interpretation divides the twelve link chain of dependent arising into three lives. The first two links (ignorance and formations) belong to the past life: due to a misperception of the nature of the five aggregates, a person (the five aggregates) performs voluntary actions: mental, verbal, and bodily actions, with wholesome, unwholesome, and neutral karmic effects. The next ten factors correspond to the present life: the karmic effects of past voluntary formations are stored in consciousness and transferred to the next life. Consciousness together with the other mental aggregates combines with a new physical body to constitute a new psychophysical organism (mentality-materiality). This new stage of the five aggregates develops the six senses and the ability to establish contact with their six objects. Contacts with objects of the senses produce pleasant, unpleasant and neutral sensations. If the sensations are pleasant, the person usually responds with cravings for more pleasant experiences, and if the sensations are unpleasant, with aversion. Craving and aversion, as well as the underlying ignorance of the nature of the five aggregates are fundamental causes of suffering and rebirth: the three roots of the unwholesome according to the Pāli Nikāyas, or the three mental poisons according to later Buddhist traditions.

By repeating the affective responses of craving and aversion, the person becomes more and more dependent on whatever leads to more pleasant sensations and less unpleasant ones. This creates a variety of emotional dependencies and a tendency to grasp or hold onto what causes pleasure and avoids pain. The Buddha of the Pāli Nikāyas speaks about four types of grasping: towards sensual pleasures, views, rites-and-observances, and especially towards doctrines of a [permanent and independent] self (D.II.57-8).

The original term for grasping is upādāna, which also designates the fuel or supply necessary to maintain a fire. In this sense, grasping is the psychological fuel that maintains the fires of craving, aversion, and delusion, the fires whose extinction is called nirvana. The Buddha's ideal of letting go and detachment should not be misunderstood as the absence of any emotions whatsoever including love and compassion, but specifically as the absence of emotions associated with craving, aversion, and delusion. Motivated by grasping and the three mental fires, the five aggregates perform further voluntary actions, whose karmic effects perpetuate existence within the cycle of rebirth and subsequent suffering. The last two links (birth, aging and death) refer to the future life. At the end of this present existence, a new birth of the five aggregates will take place followed by old age, death, and other kinds of suffering.

The twelve-link chain of dependent arising explains the processes of rebirth and suffering without presupposing a permanent and independent self. The Buddha of the Pāli Nikāyas makes this point explicit in his passionate rebuttal of the monk Sāti, who claimed that it is the same consciousness that wanders through the cycle of rebirth. For the Buddha, consciousness, like the other eleven causal links, is dependent on specific conditions (M.I.258ff), which entails that consciousness is impermanent, suffering, and non-self.

Instead of a permanent and independent self behind suffering and the cycle of rebirth, the Buddha of the Pāli Nikāyas presupposes five psychophysical sets of processes, namely, the five aggregates, which imply an impermanent and dependently-arisen concept of 'self' and 'personal identity.' In other words, the Buddha rejects substance-selves but accepts process-selves (Gowans 2003). Yet, the Buddha of the Pāli Nikāyas explicitly refuses to use personal terms such as 'self' in technical explanations of rebirth and suffering, and he prefers to speak in terms of causes and conditions that produce other causes and conditions (S.II.13-4; S.II.62; M.III.19). But what happens to consciousness and the other aggregates when grasping no longer exists and the three mental fires have been extinguished? What happens when suffering ceases and the cycle of rebirth stops?

4. Nirvana and the Silence of the Buddha

a. Two Kinds of Nirvana and the Undetermined Questions

When the fires of craving, aversion, and ignorance are extinguished at the moment of enlightenment, the aggregates are liberated due to the lack of grasping. This is technically called nirvana with remainder of grasping (saupādisesa-nibbāna), or as later tradition puts it, nirvana of mental defilements (kilesa-parinibbāna). The expression 'remainder of grasping' refers to the five aggregates of liberated beings, which continue to live after enlightenment but without negative mental states.

The aggregates of the liberated beings perform their respective functions and, like the aggregates of anybody else, they grow old, get sick, and are subject to pleasant and unpleasant sensations until death. The difference between unenlightened and enlightened beings is that enlightened beings respond to sensations without craving or aversion, and with higher knowledge of the true nature of the five aggregates.

The definition of nirvana without remainder (anupādisesa-nibbāna) that appears in (It 38) only says that for the liberated being "all that is experienced here and now, without enchantment [another term for grasping], will be cooled (sīta)." Since "all" is defined in the Pāli Nikāyas as the six senses and their six objects (S.IV.15), which is another way of describing the individual psychophysical experience or the five aggregates, the expression "all that is experienced" refers to what happens to the aggregates of liberated beings. Since (It 38) explicitly uses the expression "here and now" (idheva), it seems impossible to conclude that the definition of nirvana without remainder is intended to say anything about nirvana or the aggregates beyond death. Rather (It 38) describes nirvana and the aggregates at the moment of death: they will be no longer subject to rebirth and they will become cooled, tranquil, at peace. The question is: what does this peace or coolness entail? What happens after the nirvana of the aggregates? Does the mind of enlightened beings survive happily ever after? Does the liberated being exist beyond death or not?

These questions are left undetermined (avyākata) by the Buddha of the the Pāli Nikāyas. The ten questions in the the Pāli Nikāyas ask whether (1) The world is eternal; (2) The world is not eternal; (3) The world is infinite; (4) The world is finite; (5) Body and soul are one thing; (6) Body and soul are two different things; (7) A liberated being (tathāgata) exists after death; (8) A liberated being (tathāgata) does not exist after death; (9) A liberated being (tathāgata) both exists and does not exist after death; (10) A liberated being (tathāgata) neither exists nor does not exist after death. In Sanskrit Buddhist texts the ten views become fourteen by adding the last two possibilities of the tetralema (both A and B, neither A nor B) to the questions about the world.

Unfortunately for those looking for quick answers, the Buddha of the Pāli Nikāyas does not provide a straightforward yes or no response to any of these questions. When the Buddha is asked whether the liberated being exists, does not exist, both, or neither, he sets aside these questions by saying that (1) he does not hold such views, (2) he has left the questions undetermined, and (3) the questions do not apply (na upeti). The first two answers are also used to respond to questions about the temporal and spatial finitude or infinitude of the world, and the identity or difference between the soul and the body. Only the third type of answer is given to the questions about liberated beings after death.

Most presentations of early Buddhism interpret these three answers of the Buddha as an eloquent silence about metaphysical questions due primarily to pragmatic reasons, namely, the questions divert from spiritual practice and are not conducive to liberation from suffering. While the pragmatic reasons for the answers of the Buddha are undeniable, it is inaccurate to understand them as silence about metaphysical questions. In fact, the Buddha of the Pāli Nikāyas does address many metaphysical issues with his teachings of non-self and dependent arising.

The answers of the Buddha to the undetermined questions are due not only to pragmatic reasons but also to metaphysical reasons: the questions are inconsistent with the doctrines of non-self and dependent arising because they assume the existence of a permanent and independent self, a self that is either finite or infinite, identical or different from the body, existing or not existing after death. Besides pragmatic and metaphysical reasons, there are cognitive and affective reasons for the answers of the Buddha: the undetermined questions are based on ignorance about the nature of the five aggregates and craving for either immortal existence or inexistence. The questions are expressions of 'identity views,' that is, they are part of the problem of suffering. Answering the questions directly would have not done any good: a yes answer would have fostered more craving for immortal existence and led to eternalist views, and a no answer would have fostered further confusion and led to nihilist views (S.IV.400-1).

In the case of the undetermined questions about the liberated being, there are also apophatic reasons for answering "it does not apply." The Buddha of the Pāli Nikāyas illustrates the inapplicability of the questions with the simile of the fire extinct: just as it does not make sense to ask about the direction in which an extinct fire has gone, it is inappropriate to ask about the status of the liberated being beyond death: "The fire burned in dependence on its fuel of grass and sticks. When that is used up, if it does not get any more fuel, being without fuel, it is reckoned as extinguished. Similarly, the enlightened being has abandoned the five aggregates by which one might describe him...he is liberated from reckoning in terms of the five aggregates, he is profound, immeasurable, unfathomable like the ocean" (M.I.487-8).

b. Eternalism, Nihilism, and the Middle Way

There are three possible interpretations of the simile of the extinct fire: (1) liberated beings no longer exist beyond death (2) liberated beings exist in a mysterious unfathomable way beyond death (3) the Buddha is silent about both the liberated being and nirvana after death. The first interpretation seems the most logical conclusion given the Buddha's ontology of suffering and the doctrine of non-self. However, the nihilist interpretation makes Buddhist practice meaningless and contradicts texts where the Buddha criticizes teachings not conducive to spiritual practice such as materialism and determinism (M.I.401ff). But more importantly, the nihilist interpretation is vehemently rejected in the Pāli Nikāyas: "As I am not, as I do not proclaim, so have I been baselessly, vainly, falsely, and wrongly misrepresented by some ascetics and brahmins thus: 'the ascetic Gotama [Buddha] is one who leads astray; he teaches the annihilation, the destruction, the extermination of an existing being' "(M.I.140).

The second interpretation appears to some as following from the Buddha's incontrovertible response to the nihilist reading of his teachings: since the Buddha rejects nihilism, he must somehow accept the eternal existence of liberated beings, or at least the eternal existence of nirvana. For eternalist interpreters, the texts in the Pāli Nikāyas that speak about the transcendence and ineffability of liberated beings and nirvana can be understood as implying their existence after or beyond death.

There are several eternalist readings of the Buddha's thought. We have already mentioned the most common: the doctrine of non-self merely states that the five aggregates are not the true self, which is the transcendent and ineffable domain of nirvana. However, there are eternalist interpretations within Buddhism too. That is, interpretations that are nominally consistent with the doctrine of non-self but that nevertheless speak of something as eternally existing: either the mind of liberated beings or nirvana. For instance, Theravāda Buddhists usually see nirvana as non-self, but at the same time as an unconditioned (asaṃkhata) and deathless (amata) reality. The assumption, though rarely stated, is that liberated beings dwell eternally in nirvana without a sense of "I" and "mine," which is a transcendent state beyond the comprehension of unenlightened beings. Another eternalist interpretation is that of the Dalai Lama who, following the standard interpretation of Tibetan Buddhists, claims that the Buddha did not teach the cessation of all aggregates but only of contaminated aggregates. That is, the uncontaminated aggregates of liberated beings continue to exist individually beyond death, though they are seen as impermanent, dependently arisen, non-self, and empty of inherent existence (Dalai Lama 1975:27). Similarly, Peter Harvey understands nirvana as a selfless and objectless state of consciousness different from the five aggregates that exists temporarily during life and eternally beyond death (1995: 186-7).

The problem with eternalist interpretations is that they contradict what the Pāli Nikāyas say explicitly about the way to consider liberated beings, the limits of language, the content of the Buddha's teachings, and dependent arising as a middle way between the extremes of eternalism and annihilationism. In (S.III.110ff), Sāriputta, the Buddha's leading disciple in doctrinal matters, explains that liberated beings should be considered neither as annihilated after death nor as existing without the five aggregates.

In (D.II.63-4) the Buddha makes clear that consciousness and mentality-materiality, that is, the five aggregates, are the limits of designation (adhivacana), language (nirutti), cognitions (viññatti), and understanding (paññā). Accordingly, in (D.II.68) the Buddha says it is inadequate to state that the liberated being exists after death, does not exist, both, or neither. This reading is confirmed by (Sn 1076): "There is not measure (pamāṇa) of one who has gone out, that by which [others] might speak (vajju) of him does not exist. When all things have been removed, then all ways of speech (vādapathā) are also removed."

Given the Buddha's understanding of the limits of language and understanding in the Pāli Nikāyas, it is not surprising that he responded to the accusation of teaching the annihilation of beings, by saying that "formerly and now I only teach suffering and the cessation of suffering." Since the Buddha does not teach anything beyond the cessation of suffering at the moment of death, that is, beyond the limits of language and understanding, it is inaccurate to accuse him of teaching the annihilation of beings. Similarly, stating that liberated beings exist after death in a mysterious way beyond the four logical possibilities of existence, non-existence, both or neither, is explicitly rejected in (S.III.118-9) and (S.IV.384), where once again the Buddha concludes that he only makes known suffering and the cessation of suffering.

If the eternalist interpretation were correct, it would have been unnecessary for the Buddha of the Pāli Nikāyas to put so much emphasis on the teaching of dependent arising. Why would dependent arising be defined in (S.II.17) as right view and as the middle way between the extremes of eternalism and annihilationism if the truth were that the consciousness of liberated beings or the unconditioned nirvana exist eternally? If knowing and seeing dependent arising precludes someone from speculating about a permanent self in the past and the future (M.I.265), why would the Buddha teach anything about the eternal existence of liberated beings and nirvana?

In order to avoid the aforementioned contradictions entailed by eternalist readings of the Pāli Nikāyas, all texts about nirvana and the consciousness of liberated beings are to be understood as referring to this life or the moment of death, never to some mysterious consciousness or domain that exists beyond death. Since none of the texts about nirvana and liberated beings found in the Pāli Nikāyas refer unambiguously to their eternal existence beyond death, I interpret the Buddha as being absolutely silent about nirvana and liberated beings beyond death (Vélez de Cea 2004a). In other words, nothing of what the Pāli Nikāyas say goes beyond the limits of language and understanding, beyond the content of the Buddha's teachings, and beyond dependent arising as the middle way between eternalism and annihilationism.

Instead of focusing on nirvana and liberated beings beyond death, the Buddha of the Pāli Nikāyas emphasizes dependent arising and the practice of the four foundations of mindfulness. Dependent arising is intended to avoid views about a permanent and independent self in the past and the future (M.I.265; M.III.196ff), and the four foundations of mindfulness are said to be taught precisely to destroy such views (D.III.141). That is, the Buddha's fundamental concern is to address the problem of suffering in the present without being distracted by views about the past or the future: "Let not a person revive the past, or on the future build his hopes; for the past has been left behind and the future has not been reached. Instead with insight let him see each presently arising state (paccuppannañca yo dhammaṃ tattha tattha vipassati); let him know that and be sure of it, invincibly, unshakeably. Today the effort must be made, tomorrow death may come, who knows?" (Bhikkhu Bodhi's translation. M.III.193).

5. Buddhist Ethics

Early Buddhist ethics includes more than lists of precepts and more than the section on ethical training of the eightfold noble path; that is, Buddhist ethics cannot be reduced to right action (abstaining from killing, stealing, lying), right speech (abstaining from false, divisive, harsh, and useless speech), and right livelihood (abstaining from professions that harm living beings). Besides bodily and verbal actions, the Pāli Nikāyas discuss a variety of mental actions including thoughts, motivations, emotions, and perspectives. In fact, it is the ethics of mental actions that constitutes the main concern of the Buddha's teaching.

Early Buddhist ethics encompasses the entire spiritual path, that is, bodily, verbal, and mental actions. The factors of the eightfold noble path dealing with wisdom and concentration (right view, right intentions, rights effort, right concentration, right mindfulness) relate to different types of mental actions. The term "right" (sammā) in this context does not mean the opposite of "wrong," but rather "perfect" or "complete;" that is, it denotes the best or the most effective actions to attain liberation. This, however, does not imply that the Buddha advocates the most perfect form of ethical conduct for all his disciples.

Early Buddhist ethics is gradualist in the sense that there are diverse ways of practicing the path with several degrees of commitment; not all disciples are expected to practice Buddhist ethics with the same intensity. Monks and nuns take more precepts and are supposed to devote more time to spiritual practices than householders. However, a complete monastic code (prātimoka) like those found in later Vinaya literature does not appear in the Pāli Nikāyas. The most comprehensive formulation of early Buddhist ethics, probably common to monastic disciples and lay people, is the list of ten dark or unwholesome actions and their opposite, the ten bright or wholesome actions: three bodily actions (abstaining from killing, stealing, sexual misconduct), four verbal actions (abstaining from false, divisive, harsh, and useless speech), and tree mental actions (abstaining from covetousness, ill-will, and dogmatic views).

The Buddha of the Pāli Nikāyas defines action in terms of intention or choice (cetanā): "It is intention, monks, what I call action. Having intended, someone acts through body, speech, and mind" (A.III.415). The Pāli Nikāyas define the roots of unwholesome (akusala) actions as greed (lobha), aversion (dosa), and delusion (moha). Conversely, the roots of wholesome actions are defined as the opposite mental states (M.I.47). Some scholars infer from these two definitions that Buddhist ethics is an ethics of intention or an agent-based form of virtue ethics. That is, according to these scholars, for the Buddha of the the Pāli Nikāyas, only the agent's intention or motivation determine the goodness of actions. This interpretation, however, is disproved by many texts of the Pāli Nikāyas where good and evil actions are discussed without any reference to the underlying intention or motivation of the agent. Consequently, the more comprehensive account understands intention not as the only factor that determines the goodness of actions, but rather as the condition of possibility, the necessary condition for speaking about action in the moral sense. Without intention or choice, there is no ethical action. Similarly, motivation, while a central moral factor in Buddhist ethics, is neither the only factor nor always the most important factor to determine the goodness of actions. Understanding Buddhist ethics as concerned exclusively with the three roots of the wholesome does not fully capture the breath of moral concern of the Pāli Nikāyas (Vélez de Cea 2004b).

The fundamental moral law of the universe according to early Buddhism is what is popularly called the "law of karma": good actions produce good consequences, and bad actions lead to bad consequences. The consequences of volitional actions can be experienced in this life or in subsequent lives. Although not everything we experience is due to past actions, physical appearance, character, lifespan, prosperity, and rebirth destination are believed to be influenced by past actions. This influence however, is not to be confused with fatalism, a position rejected in the Pāli Nikāyas. There is always room for mitigating and even eradicating the negative consequences of past actions with new volitions in the present. That is, past karma does not dictate our situation: the existence of freewill and the possibility of changing our predicament is always assumed. There is conditioning of the will and other mental factors, but no hard determinism.

A common objection to early Buddhist ethics is how there can be freewill and responsibility without a permanent self that transmigrates through lives. If there is no self, who is the agent of actions? Who experiences the consequences of actions? Is the person who performs an action in this life the same person that experiences the consequences of that action in a future life? Is it a different person? The Buddha considers these questions improper of his disciples, who are trained to explain things in terms of causes and condition (S.II.61ff; S.II.13ff)). In other words, since the Buddha's disciples explain processes with the doctrine of dependent arising, they should avoid explanations that use personal terms and presuppose the extremes of eternalism and nihilism. The moral agent is not a substance-self but rather the five aggregates, a dynamic and dependently-arisen process-self who, like a flame or the water of a river, changes all the time and yet has some degree of continuity.

The most common interpretations of early Buddhist ethics view its nature as either a form of agent-based virtue ethics or as a sophisticated kind of consequentialism. The concern for virtue cultivation is certainly prevalent in early Buddhism, and evidently the internal mental state or motivation underlying actions is extremely important to determine the overall goodness of actions, which is the most important factor for advanced practitioners. Similarly, the concern for the consequences of actions, whether or not they lead to the happiness or the suffering of oneself and others, also pervades the Pāli Nikāyas. However, the goodness of actions in the Pāli Nikāyas does not depend exclusively on either the goodness of motivations or the goodness of consequences. Respect to status and duty, observance of rules and precepts, as well as the intrinsic goodness of certain external bodily and verbal actions are equally necessary to assess the goodness of at least certain actions. Since the foundations of right action in the Pāli Nikāyas are irreducible to one overarching principle, value or criterion of goodness, early Buddhist ethics is pluralistic in a metaethical sense. Given the unique combination of deontological, consequentialist, and virtue ethical trends found in the Pāli Nikāyas, early Buddhist ethics should be understood in its own terms as a sui generis normative theory inassimilable to Western ethical traditions.

6. References and Further Reading

a. Primary Sources

All references to the Pāli Nikāyas are to the edition of The Pāli Text Society, Oxford. References to the Aṅguttara, Dīgha, Majjhima, and Saṃyutta Nikāyas are to the volume and page number. References to Udāna and Itivuttaka are to the page number and to Dhammapada and Sutta Nipāta to the verse number.

A. Aṅguttara Nikāya

D. Dīgha Nikāya

M. Majjhima Nikāya

S. Saṃyutta Nikāya

Ud. Udāna

It. Itivuttaka

Dhp. Dhammapada

Sn. Sutta Nipāta

b. Secondary Sources

Bechert, H. (Ed) 1995. When Did the Buddha Live? The Controversy on the Dating of the Historical Buddha. Selected Papers Based on a Symposium Held under the Auspices of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen. Delhi: Sri Satguru Publications. 1995.

Bhattacharya, K. 1973. L´Ātman-Brahman dans le Bouddhisme Ancien. París: EFEO.

Bhikkhu Ñānamoli and Bhikkhu Bodhi. 1995. The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha. A New Translation of the Majjhima Nikāya. Kandy: Buddhist Publication Society.

Bhikkhu Ñāṇananda. 1971. Concept and Reality in Early Buddhist Thought. Kandy: Buddhist Publication Society.

Cousins, L.S. 1996. "Good or Skillful? Kusala in Canon and Commentary." Journal of Buddhist Ethics.Vol. 3: 133-164.

Collins, S. 1982. Selfless Persons. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Collins, S. 1994. "What are Buddhists Doing When They Deny the Self?" In Religion and Practical Reason, edited by Frank E. Reynolds and David Tracy. Albany: SUNY.

Collins, S. 1998. Nirvana and other Buddhist Felicities. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Dalai Lama. 1994. The Way to Freedom. San Francisco: Harper.

Dharmasiri, G. 1996. Fundamentals of Buddhist Ethics. Singapore: Buddhist Research Society.

Fuller, P. 2005. The Notion of Diṭṭhi in Theravāda Buddhism. London: RoutledgeCurzon.

Gombrich, R. 1988. Theravāda Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benares to Modern Colombo. London: Routledge.

Gombrich, R. 1996. How Buddhism Began. London: Athlone.

Gethin, R. 2001. The Buddhist Path to Awakening. Richmon Surrey: Curzon Press.

Gowans, C. W. 2003. Philosophy of the Buddha. London: Routledge.

Hallisey, C. 1996. "Ethical Particularism in Theravāda Buddhism." Journal of Buddhist Ethics. Vol. 3: 32-34.

Hamilton, S. 2000. Early Buddhism: A New Approach. Richmon Surrey: Curzon Press.

Harvey, P. 1995. The Selfless Mind: Personality, Consciousness, and Nirvana in Early Buddhism. Richmon Surrey: Curzon Press.

Harvey, P. 1995. "Criteria for Judging the Unwholesomeness of Actions in the Texts of Theravāda Buddhism." Journal of Buddhist Ethics. Vol. 2: 140-151.

Harvey, P. 2000. An Introduction to Buddhist Ethics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Hoffman, F. J. 1987. Rationality and Mind in Early Buddhism. New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.

Hwang, S. 2006. Metaphor and Literalism in Buddhism: The Doctrinal History of Nirvana. London: RoutledgeCurzon.

Jayatilleke, K. N. 1963. Early Buddhist Theory of Knowledge. London: Allen & Unwin.

Johansson, R. 1969. The Psychology of Nirvana. London: Allen and Unwin Ltd.

Kalupahana, D. 1976. Buddhist Philosophy: A Historical Analysis. Honolulu: University Press of Hawai'i.

Kalupahana, D. 1992. A History of Buddhist Philosophy: Continuities and Discontinuities. Honolulu: University Press of Hawai'i.

Keown, D. 1992. The Nature of Buddhist Ethics. New York: Palgrave.

Norman, K. R. 1983. Pāli Literature: Including the Canonical Literature in Prakrit and Sanskrit of all the Hīnayāna schools of Buddhism. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz.

Norman, K. R. 1990-6. Collected Papers. Oxford: The Pāli Text Society.

Pande, G.C. 1995. Studies in the Origins of Buddhism. New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.

Pérez-Remón, J. 1980. Self and Non-Self in Early Buddhism. New York: Mouton.

Perret, R. 1986. "Egoism, Altruism, and Intentionalism in Buddhist Ethics." Journal of Indian Philosophy. Vol. 15: 71-85.

Premasiri, P. D. 1987. "Early Buddhist Concept of Ethical Knowledge: A Philosophical Analysis." Kalupahana, D.J. and Weeraratne, W.G. eds. Buddhist Philosophy and Culture: Essays in Honor of N.A. Jayawickrema. Colombo: N.A. Jayawickrema Felicitation Volume Committee. Pp. 37-70.

Ronkin, N. 2005. Early Buddhist Metaphysics: The Making of a Philosophical Tradition. London: RoutledgeCurzon.

Tilakaratne, A. 1993. Nirvana and Ineffability: A Study of the Buddhist Theory of Reality and Languague. Colombo: Karunaratne and Sons.

Vélez de Cea , A. 2004 a. "The Silence of the Buddha and the Questions about the Tathāgata after Death." The Indian International Journal of Buddhist Studies, no 5.

Vélez de Cea , A. 2004 b. "The Early Buddhist Criteria of Goodness and the Nature of Buddhist Ethics."Journal of Buddhist Ethics 11, pp.123-142.

Vélez de Cea , A. 2005. "Emptiness in the Pāli Suttas and the Question of Nāgārjuna's Orthodoxy."Philosophy East and West. Vol. 55: 4.

Webster, D. 2005. The Philosophy of Desire in the Pali Canon. London: RoutledgeCurzon.

See also the Encylopedia articles on Madhyamaka Buddhism and Pudgalavada Buddhism.

Author Information

Abraham Velez
Email: abraham.velez@eku.edu
Eastern Kentucky University
U. S. A.

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The historical Buddha, also known as Gotama Buddha, Siddhārtha Gautama, and Buddha Śākyamuni, was born in Lumbini, in the Nepalese region of Terai, near the Indian border. He is one of the most important Asian thinkers and spiritual masters of all time, and he contributed to many areas of philosophy, including epistemology, metaphysics and ethics.

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No one is sure who Wang Jie was or why he had The Diamond Sutra printed. But we do know that on this day in 868 A.D.-or the 13th of the 4th moon of the 9th year of Xiantong in Jie's time-he commissioned a block printer to create a 17-and-a-half-foot-long scroll of the sacred Buddhist text, including an inscription on the lower right hand side reading, "Reverently made for universal free distribution by Wang Jie on behalf of his two parents." Today, that scroll is housed at the British Library and is acknowledged as the oldest dated printed book in existence.

Chances are you know a little something about the Gutenberg Bible, the first book made with moveable type, which came along almost 600 years later. Bibliophiles might also have a working knowledge of other famous manuscripts like the Book of Kells, The Domesday Book, and Shakespeare's First Folio. Well, The Diamond Sutra should be in that pantheon of revered books, as well. Here's why:

Origins

The text was originally discovered in 1900 by a monk in Dunhuang, China, an old outpost of the Silk Road on the edge of the Gobi Desert. The Diamond Sutra, a Sanskrit text translated into Chinese, was one of 40,000 scrolls and documents hidden in "The Cave of a Thousand Buddhas," a secret library sealed up around the year 1,000 when the area was threatened by a neighboring kingdom.

In 1907, British-Hungarian archaeologist Marc Aurel Stein was on an expedition mapping the ancient Silk Road when he heard about the secret library. He bribed the abbot of the monastic group in charge of the cave and smuggled away thousands of documents, including The Diamond Sutra. The International Dunhuang Project is now digitizing those documents and 100,000 others found on the eastern Silk Road.

Content

The Diamond Sutra is relatively short, only 6,000 words and is part of a larger canon of "sutras" or sacred texts in Mahayana Buddhism, the branch of Buddhism most common in China, Japan, Korea and southeast Asia. Many practitioners believe that the Mahayana Sutras were dictated directly by the Buddha, and The Diamond Sutra takes the form of a conversation between the Buddha's pupil Subhati and his master.
Why is it Diamond?
A full translation of the document's title is The Diamond That Cuts Through Illusion. As Susan Whitfield, director of the Dunhuang Project explains, the sutra helps cut through our perceptions of the world and its illusion. "[W]e just think we exist as individuals but we don't, in fact, we're in a state of complete non-duality: there are no individuals, no sentient beings," Whitfield writes.

Why did Wang Jie commission it?

According to Whitfield, in Buddhist belief, copying images or the words of the Buddha was a good deed and way of gaining merit in Jie's culture. It's likely that monks would have unrolled the scroll and chanted the sutra out loud on a regular basis. That's one reason printing developed early on in China, Whitfield explains. "[If] you can print multiple copies, and the more copies you're sending out, the more you're disseminating the word of Buddha, and so the more merit you are sending out into the world," she writes. "And so the Buddhists were very quick to recognize the use of the new technology of printing."
What is one quote I should know from The Diamond Sutra?
It's difficult to translate the sutra word for word and still catch its meaning. But this passage about life, which Bill Porter, who goes by the alias " Red Pine," adapted to English, is one of the most popular:

So you should view this fleeting world-
A star at dawn, a bubble in a stream,
A flash of lightening in a summer cloud,
A flickering lamp, a phantom, and a dream.

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Five Things to Know About the Diamond Sutra, the World's Oldest Dated Printed Book

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Printed over 1,100 years ago, a Chinese copy of the Diamond Sutra at the British Library is one of the most intriguing documents in the world

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Confucius (551-479 BCE), Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

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Confucius (551-479 BCE), Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

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Better known in China as "Master Kong" (Chinese: Kongzi), Confucius was a fifth-century BCE Chinese thinker whose influence upon East Asian intellectual and social history is immeasurable. As a culturally symbolic figure, he has been alternately idealized, deified, dismissed, vilified, and rehabilitated over the millennia by both Asian and non-Asian thinkers and regimes. Given his extraordinary impact on Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and Vietnamese thought, it is ironic that so little can be known about Confucius. The tradition that bears his name - " Confucianism" (Chinese: Rujia) - ultimately traces itself to the sayings and biographical fragments recorded in the text known as the Analects (Chinese: Lunyu). As with the person of Confucius himself, scholars disagree about the origins and character of the Analects, but it remains the traditional source for information about Confucius' life and teaching. Most scholars remain confident that it is possible to extract from the Analects several philosophical themes and views that may be safely attributed to this ancient Chinese sage. These are primarily ethical, rather than analytical-logical or metaphysical in nature, and include Confucius' claim that Tian ("Heaven") is aligned with moral order but dependent upon human agents to actualize its will; his concern for li (ritual propriety) as the instrument through which the family, the state, and the world may be aligned with Tian's moral order; and his belief in the "contagious" nature of moral force ( de), by which moral rulers diffuse morality to their subjects, moral parents raise moral children, and so forth.

Table of Contents

1. The Confucius of History

Sources for the historical recovery of Confucius' life and thought are limited to texts that postdate his traditional lifetime (551-479 BCE) by a few decades at least and several centuries at most. Confucius' appearances in Chinese texts are a sign of his popularity and utility among literate elites during the Warring States (403-221 BCE), Qin (221-206 BCE), and Han (206 BCE-220 CE) periods. These texts vary in character and function, from collections of biographical and pedagogical fragments such as the Analects to dynastic histories and works by later Confucian thinkers.

The historical Confucius, born in the small state of Lu on the Shandong peninsula in northeastern China, was a product of the "Spring and Autumn Period" (770-481 BCE). We know him mostly from texts that date to the "Warring States Period" (403-221 BCE). During these eras, China enjoyed no political unity and suffered from the internecine warfare of small states, remnants of the once-great Zhou polity that collapsed after "barbarian" invasions in 771 BCE. For more than three hundred years after the alleged year of Confucius' birth, the Chinese would fight each other for mastery of the empire lost by the Zhou. In the process, life became difficult, especially for the shi ("retainer" or "knight") class, from which Confucius himself arose. As feudal lords were defeated and disenfranchised in battle and the kings of the various warring states began to rely on appointed administrators rather than vassals to govern their territories, these shi became lordless anachronisms and fell into genteel poverty and itinerancy. Their knowledge of aristocratic traditions, however, helped them remain valuable to competing kings, who wished to learn how to regain the unity imposed by the Zhou and who sought to emulate the Zhou by patterning court rituals and other institutions after those of the fallen dynasty.

Thus, a new role for shi as itinerant antiquarians emerged. In such roles, shi found themselves in and out of office as the fortunes of various patron states ebbed and flowed. Confucius is said to have held office for only a short time before withdrawing into scholarly retirement. While out of office, veteran shi might gather small circles of disciples - young men from shi backgrounds who wished to succeed in public life. It is precisely such master-and-disciple exchanges between Confucius and his students that the Analects claims to record.

2. The Confucius of the Analects

Above all else, the Analects depicts Confucius as someone who "transmits, but does not innovate" (7.1). What Confucius claimed to transmit was the Dao (Way) of the sages of Zhou antiquity; in the Analects, he is the erudite guardian of tradition who challenges his disciples to emulate the sages of the past and restore the moral integrity of the state. Although readers of the Analects often assume that Confucius' views are presented as a coherent and consistent system within the text, a careful reading reveals several different sets of philosophical concerns which do not conflict so much as they complement one another. These complimentary sets of concerns can be categorized into four groups:

3. Theodicy

Those familiar with Enlightenment-influenced presentations of Confucius as an austere humanist who did not discuss the supernatural may be surprised to encounter the term "theodicy" as a framework for understanding Confucius' philosophical concerns. Confucius' record of silence on the subject of the divine is attested by the Analects (5.13, 7.21, 11.12). In fact, as a child of the late Zhou world, Confucius inherited a great many religious sensibilities, including theistic ones. For the early Chinese (c. 16 th century BCE), the world was controlled by an all-powerful deity, "The Lord on High" ( Shangdi), to whom entreaties were made in the first known Chinese texts, inscriptions found on animal bones offered in divinatory sacrifice. As the Zhou polity emerged and triumphed over the previous Shang tribal rule, Zhou apologists began to regard their deity, Tian ("Sky" or "Heaven") as synonymous with Shangdi, the deity of the deposed Shang kings, and explained the decline of Shang and the rise of Zhou as a consequence of a change in Tianming ("the mandate of Heaven"). Thus, theistic justifications for conquest and rulership were present very early in Chinese history.By the time of Confucius, the concept of Tian appears to have changed slightly. For one thing, the ritual complex of Zhou diviners, which served to ascertain the will of Tian for the benefit of the king, had collapsed with Zhou rule itself. At the same time, the network of religious obligations to manifold divinities, local spirits, and ancestors does not seem to have ceased with the fall of the Zhou, and Confucius appears to uphold sacrifices to "gods and ghosts" as consistent with "transmitting" noble tradition. Yet, in the Analects, a new aspect of Tian emerges. For the Confucius of the Analects, discerning the will of Tian and reconciling it with his own moral compass sometimes proves to be a troubling exercise:

If Heaven is about to abandon this culture, those who die afterwards will not get to share in it; if Heaven has not yet abandoned this culture, what can the men of Guang [Confucius' adversaries in this instance] do to me? (9.5)

There is no one who recognizes me.... I neither resent Heaven nor blame humanity. In learning about the lower I have understood the higher. The one who recognizes me - wouldn't that be Heaven? (14.35)

Heaven has abandoned me! Heaven has abandoned me! (11.9)

As A. C. Graham has noted, Confucius seems to be of two minds about Tian. At times, he is convinced that he enjoys the personal protection and sanction of Tian, and thus defies his mortal opponents as he wages his campaign of moral instruction and reform. At other moments, however, he seems caught in the throes of existential despair, wondering if he has lost his divine backer at last. Tian seems to participate in functions of "fate" and "nature" as well as those of "deity." What remains consistent throughout Confucius' discourses on Tian is his threefold assumption about this extrahuman, absolute power in the universe: (1) its alignment with moral goodness, (2) its dependence on human agents to actualize its will, and (3) the variable, unpredictable nature of its associations with mortal actors. Thus, to the extent that the Confucius of the Analects is concerned with justifying the ways of Tian to humanity, he tends to do so without questioning these three assumptions about the nature of Tian, which are rooted deeply in the Chinese past.

4. Harmonious order

The dependence of Tian upon human agents to put its will into practice helps account for Confucius' insistence on moral, political, social, and even religious activism. In one passage (17.19), Confucius seems to believe that, just as Tian does not speak but yet accomplishes its will for the cosmos, so too can he remain "silent" (in the sense of being out of office, perhaps) and yet effective in promoting his principles, possibly through the many disciples he trained for government service. At any rate, much of Confucius' teaching is directed toward the maintenance of three interlocking kinds of order: (1) aesthetic, (2) moral, and (3) social. The instrument for effecting and emulating all three is li (ritual propriety).

Do not look at, do not listen to, do not speak of, do not do whatever is contrary to ritual propriety. (12.1)

In this passage, Confucius underscores the crucial importance of rigorous attention to li as a kind of self-replicating blueprint for good manners and taste, morality, and social order. In his view, the appropriate use of a quotation from the Classic of Poetry ( Shijing), the perfect execution of guest-host etiquette, and the correct performance of court ritual all serve a common end: they regulate and maintain order. The nature of this order is, as mentioned above, threefold. It is aesthetic - quoting the Shijing upholds the cultural hegemony of Zhou literature and the conventions of elite good taste. Moreover, it is moral - good manners demonstrate both concern for others and a sense of one's place. Finally, it is social - rituals properly performed duplicate ideal hierarchies of power, whether between ruler and subject, parent and child, or husband and wife. For Confucius, the paramount example of harmonious social order seems to be xiao (filial piety), of which jing (reverence) is the key quality:

Observe what a person has in mind to do when his father is alive, and then observe what he does when his father is dead. If, for three years, he makes no changes to his father's ways, he can be said to be a good son. (1.11)

[The disciple] Ziyu asked about filial piety. The Master said, "Nowadays, for a person to be filial means no more than that he is able to provide his parents with food. Even dogs and horses are provided with food. If a person shows no reverence, where is the difference?" (2.7)

In serving your father and mother, you ought to dissuade them from doing wrong in the gentlest way. If you see your advice being ignored, you should not become disobedient but should remain reverent. You should not complain even if you are distressed. (4.18)

The character of this threefold order is deeper than mere conventions such as taste and decorum, as the above quotations demonstrate. Labeling it "aesthetic" might appear to demean or trivialize it, but to draw this conclusion is to fail to reflect on the peculiar way in which many Western thinkers tend to devalue the aesthetic. As David Hall and Roger Ames have argued, this "aesthetic" Confucian order is understood to be both intrinsically moral and profoundly harmonious, whether for a shi household, the court of a Warring States king, or the cosmos at large. When persons and things are in their proper places - and here tradition is the measure of propriety - relations are smooth, operations are effortless, and the good is sought and done voluntarily. In the hierarchical political and social conception of Confucius (and all of his Chinese contemporaries), what is below takes its cues from what is above. A moral ruler will diffuse morality to those under his sway; a moral parent will raise a moral child:

Let the ruler be a ruler, the subject a subject, a father a father, and a son a son. (12.11)

Direct the people with moral force and regulate them with ritual, and they will possess shame, and moreover, they will be righteous. (2.3)

5. Moral force

The last quotation from the Analects introduces a term perhaps most famously associated with a very different early Chinese text, the Laozi (Lao-tzu) or Daodejing (Tao Te Ching) - de (te), "moral force." Like Tian, de is heavily freighted with a long train of cultural and religious baggage, extending far back into the mists of early Chinese history. During the early Zhou period, de seems to have been a kind of amoral, almost magical power attributed to various persons - seductive women, charismatic leaders, etc. For Confucius, de seems to be just as magically efficacious, but stringently moral. It is both a quality, and a virtue of, the successful ruler:

One who rules by moral force may be compared to the North Star - it occupies its place and all the stars pay homage to it. (2.1)

De is a quality of the successful ruler, because he rules at the pleasure of Tian, which for Confucius is resolutely allied with morality, and to which he attributes his own inner de (7.23). De is the virtue of the successful ruler, without which he could not rule at all.

Confucius' vision of order unites aesthetic concerns for harmony and symmetry ( li) with moral force ( de) in pursuit of social goals: a well-ordered family, a well-ordered state, and a well-ordered world. Such an aesthetic, moral, and social program begins at home, with the cultivation of the individual.

6. Self-Cultivation

In the Analects, two types of persons are opposed to one another - not in terms of basic potential (for, in 17.2, Confucius says all human beings are alike at birth), but in terms of developed potential. These are the junzi (literally, "lord's son" or "gentleman"; Tu Wei-ming has originated the useful translation "profound person," which will be used here) and the xiaoren ("small person"):

The profound person understands what is moral. The small person understands what is profitable. (4.16)

The junzi is the person who always manifests the quality of ren (jen) in his person and the displays the quality of yi (i) in his actions (4.5). The character for ren is composed of two graphic elements, one representing a human being and the other representing the number two. Based on this, one often hears that ren means "how two people should treat one another." While such folk etymologies are common in discussions of Chinese characters, they often are as misleading as they are entertaining. In the case of ren - usually translated as "benevolence" or "humaneness" - the graphic elements of a human being and the number two really are instructive, so much so that Peter Boodberg suggested an evocative translation of ren as "co-humanity." The way in which the junzi relates to his fellow human beings, however, highlights Confucius' fundamentally hierarchical model of relations:

The moral force of the profound person is like the wind; the moral force of the small person is like the grass. Let the wind blow over the grass and it is sure to bend. (12.19)

D. C. Lau has pointed out that ren is an attribute of agents, while yi (literally, "what is fitting" - "rightness," "righteousness") is an attribute of actions. This helps to make clear the conceptual links between li, de, and the junzi. The junzi qua junzi exerts de, moral force, according to what is yi, fitting (that is, what is aesthetically, morally, and socially proper), and thus manifests ren, or the virtue of co-humanity in an interdependent, hierarchical universe over which Tian presides.

Two passages from the Analects go a long way in indicating the path toward self-cultivation that Confucius taught would-be junzi in fifth century BCE China:

From the age of fifteen on, I have been intent upon learning; from thirty on, I have established myself; from forty on, I have not been confused; from fifty on, I have known the mandate of Heaven; from sixty on, my ear has been attuned; from seventy on, I have followed my heart's desire without transgressing what is right. (2.4)

The Master's Way is nothing but other-regard and self-reflection. (4.15)

The first passage illustrates the gradual and long-term scale of the process of self-cultivation. It begins during one's teenaged years, and extends well into old age; it proceeds incrementally from intention ( zhi) to learning ( xue), from knowing the mandate of Heaven ( Tianming) to doing both what is desired ( yu) and what is right ( yi). In his disciple Zengzi (Tseng-tzu)'s summary of his "Way" ( Dao), Confucius teaches only "other-regard" ( zhong) and "self-reflection" ( shu). These terms merit their own discussion.

The conventional meaning of "other-regard" ( zhong) in classical Chinese is "loyalty," especially loyalty to a ruler on the part of a minister. In the Analects, Confucius extends the meaning of the term to include exercising oneself to the fullest in all relationships, including relationships with those below oneself as well as with one's betters. "Self-reflection" ( shu) is explained by Confucius as a negatively-phrased version of the "Golden Rule": "What you do not desire for yourself, do not do to others." (15.24) When one reflects upon oneself, one realizes the necessity of concern for others. The self as conceptualized by Confucius is a deeply relational self that responds to inner reflection with outer virtue.

Similarly, the self that Confucius wishes to cultivate in his own person and in his disciples is one that looks within and compares itself with the aesthetic, moral, and social canons of tradition. Aware of its source in Tian, it seeks to maximize ren through apprenticeship to li so as to exercise de in a manner befitting a junzi. Because Confucius (and early Chinese thought in general) does not suffer from the Cartesian "mind-body problem" (as Herbert Fingarette has demonstrated), there is no dichotomy between inner and outer, self and whole, and thus the cumulative effect of Confucian self-cultivation is not merely personal, but collectively social and even cosmic.

7. The Confucius of Myth

While the Analects is valuable, albeit not infallible, as a source for the reconstruction of Confucius' thought, it is far from being the only text to which Chinese readers have turned in their quest for discovering his identity. During the Han dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE), numerous hagiographical accounts of Confucius' origins and deeds were produced, many of which would startle readers familiar only with the Analects. According to various texts, Confucius was a superhuman figure destined to rule as the "uncrowned king" of pre-imperial China. At birth, his body was said to have displayed special markings indicating his exemplary status. After his death, he was alleged to have revealed himself in a glorified state to his living disciples, who then received further esoteric teachings from their apotheosized master. Eventually, and perhaps inevitably, he was recognized as a deity and a cult organized itself around his worship. Feng Youlan has suggested that, had these Han images of Confucius prevailed, Confucius would have become a figure comparable to Jesus Christ in the history of China, and there would have been no arguments among scholars about whether or not Confucianism was a religion like Christianity.

To both ancient modern eyes, fantastic and improbable myths of Confucius should be added more recent myths about the sage that date from the earliest sustained contact between China and the West during the early modern period. The Latinization of Kong(fu)zi to "Confucius" originates with the interpretation of Chinese culture and thought by Jesuit missionaries for their Western audiences, supporters, and critics. Jesuits steeped in Renaissance humanism saw in Confucius a Renaissance humanist; German thinkers such as Leibniz or Wolff recognized in him an Enlightenment sage. Hegel condemned Confucius for exemplifying those whom he saw as "the people without history"; Mao castigated Confucius for imprisoning China in a cage of feudal archaism and oppression. Each remade Confucius in his own image for his own ends - a process that continues throughout the modern era, creating great heat and little light where the historical Confucius himself is concerned. Each mythologizer has seen Confucius as a symbol of whatever s/he loves or hates about China. As H. G. Creel once put it, once a figure like Confucius has become a cultural hero, stories about him tell us more about the values of the storytellers than about Confucius himself.

8. The Confucius of the State

Such mythmaking was very important to the emerging imperial Chinese state, however, as it struggled to impose cultural unity on a vast and fractious territory during the final few centuries BCE and beyond into the Common Era. After the initial persecution of Confucians during the short-lived Qin dynasty (221-202 BCE), the succeeding Han emperors and their ministers seized upon Confucius as a vehicle for the legitimation of their rule and the social control of their subjects. The "Five Classics" - five ancient texts associated with Confucius - were established as the basis for the imperial civil service examinations in 136 BCE, making memorization of these texts and their orthodox Confucian interpretations mandatory for all who wished to obtain official positions in the Han government. The state's love affair with Confucius carried on through the end of the Han in 220 CE, after which Confucius fell out of official favor as a series of warring factions struggled for control of China during the "Period of Disunity" (220-589 CE) and foreign and indigenous religious traditions such as Buddhism and Daoism rivaled Confucianism for the attentions of the elite.

After the restoration of unified imperial government with the Tang dynasty (618-907 CE), however, the future of Confucius as a symbol of the Chinese cultural and political establishment became increasingly secure. State-sponsored sacrifices to him formed part of the official religious complex of temple rituals, from the national to the local level, and orthodox hagiography and history cemented his reputation as cultural hero among the masses. The Song dynasty (969-1279 CE) Confucian scholar Zhu Xi (Chu Hsi, 1130-1200 CE) institutionalized the study of the Analects as one of "Four Books" required for the redesigned imperial civil service examinations, and aspiring officials continued to memorize the text and orthodox commentaries on it until the early twentieth century.

With the fall of the last Chinese imperial government in 1911, Confucius also fell from his position of state-imposed grandeur - but not for long. Within a short time of the abdication of the last emperor, monarchists were plotting to restore a Confucian ruler to the throne. Although these plans did not materialize, the Nationalist regime in mainland China and later in Taiwan has promoted Confucius and Confucianism in a variety of ways in order to distinguish itself from the iconoclastic Communists who followed Mao to victory and control over most of China in 1949. Even the Communist regime in China has bowed reverentially to Confucius on occasion, although not without vilifying him first, especially during the anti-traditional "Cultural Revolution" campaigns of the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Today, the Communist government of China spends a great deal of money on the reconstruction and restoration of old imperial temples to Confucius across the country, and has even erected many new statues of Confucius in areas likely to be frequented by tourists from overseas. Predictably, Confucius, as a philosopher, has been rehabilitated by culturally Chinese regimes across Asia, from Singapore to Beijing, as what Wm. Th. de Bary has called "the East Asian challenge for human rights" has prompted attempts to ground "human rights with Chinese characteristics" in an authentically traditional source. In short, Confucius seems far from dead, although one wonders if the authentic spirit of his fifth century BCE thought ever will live again.

9. Key Interpreters of Confucius

Detailed discussion of Confucius' key interpreters is best reserved for an article on Confucian philosophy. Nonetheless, an outline of the most important commentators and their philosophical trajectories is worth including here.

The two best known early interpreters of Confucius' thought - besides the compilers of the Analects themselves, who worked gradually from the time of Confucius' death until sometime during the former Han dynasty - are the Warring States philosophers " Mencius" or Mengzi (Meng-tzu, 372-289 BCE) and Xunzi (Hsun-tzu, 310-220 BCE). Neither knew Confucius personally, nor did they know one another, except retrospectively, as in the case of Xunzi commenting on Mencius. The two usually are cast as being opposed to one another because of their disagreement over human nature - a subject on which Confucius was notably silent ( Analects 5.13).

Mencius illustrates a pattern typical of Confucius' interpreters in that he claims to be doing nothing more than "transmitting" Confucius' thought while introducing new ideas of his own. For Mencius, renxing (human nature) is congenitally disposed toward ren, but requires cultivation through li as well as yogic disciplines related to one's qi (vital energy), and may be stunted (although never destroyed) through neglect or negative environmental influence. Confucius does not use the term renxing in the Analects, nor does he describe qi in Mencius' sense, and nowhere does he provide an account of the basic goodness of human beings. Nonetheless, it is Mencius' interpretation of Confucius' thought - especially after the ascendancy of Zhu Xi's brand of Confucianism in the twelfth century CE - that became regarded as orthodox by most Chinese thinkers.

Like Mencius, Xunzi claims to interpret Confucius' thought authentically, but leavens it with his own contributions. Whereas Mencius claims that human beings are originally good but argues for the necessity of self-cultivation, Xunzi claims that human beings are originally bad but argues that they can be reformed, even perfected, through self-cultivation. Also like Mencius, Xunzi sees li as the key to the cultivation of renxing. Although Xunzi condemns Mencius' arguments in no uncertain terms, when one has risen above the smoke and din of the fray, one may see that the two thinkers share many assumptions, including one that links each to Confucius: the assumption that human beings can be transformed by participation in traditional aesthetic, moral, and social disciplines.

Later interpreters of Confucius' thought between the Tang and Ming dynasties are often grouped together under the label of " Neo-Confucianism." This term has no cognate in classical Chinese, but is useful insofar as it unites several thinkers from disparate eras who share common themes and concerns. Thinkers such as Zhang Zai (Chang Tsai, 1020-1077 CE), Zhu Xi (Chu Hsi, 1130-1200 CE), and Wang Yangming (1472-1529 CE), while distinct from one another, agree on the primacy of Confucius as the fountainhead of the Confucian tradition, share Mencius' understanding of human beings as innately good, and revere the "Five Classics" and "Four Books" associated with Confucius as authoritative sources for standards of ritual, moral, and social propriety. These thinkers also display a bent toward the cosmological and metaphysical which isolates them from the Confucius of the Analects, and betrays the influence of Buddhism and Daoism - two movements with little or no popular following in Confucius' China - on their thought.

This cursory review of some seminal interpreters of Confucius' thought illustrates a principle that ought to be followed by all who seek to understanding Confucius' philosophical views: suspicion of the sources. All sources for reconstructing Confucius' views, from the Analects on down, postdate the master and come from a hand other than his own, and thus all should be used with caution and with an eye toward possible influences from outside of fifth century BCE China.

10. References and Further Reading

Allan, Sarah. The Way of Water and Sprouts of Virtue. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1997.

Allinson, Robert E. "The Golden Rule as the Core Value in Confucianism and Christianity: Ethical Similarities and Differences." Asian Philosophy 2/2 (1992): 173-185.

Ames, Roger T., and Henry Rosemont, Jr., trans. The Analects of Confucius: A Philosophical Translation. New York: Ballatine, 1998.

Ames, Roger T. "The Focus-Field Self in Classical Confucianism," in Self as Person in Asian Theory and Practice, ed. Roger T. Ames (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1994), 187-212.

Berthrong, John. "Trends in the Interpretation of Confucian Religiosity," in The Confucian-Christian Encounter in Historical and Contemporary Perspective, ed. Peter K. H. Lee (Lewiston, ME: Edwin Mellen Press, 1991), 226-254.

Boodberg, Peter A. "The Semasiology of Some Primary Confucian Concepts," in Selected Works of Peter A. Boodberg, ed. Alvin P. Cohen (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979), 26-40.

Brooks, E. Bruce and A. Taeko, trans. The Original Analects: Sayings of Confucius and His Successors. New York: Columbia University Press, 1998.

Chan, Wing-tsit, ed. A Sourcebook in Chinese Philosophy. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1963.

Cheng, Anne. "Lun-yü," in Early Chinese Texts: A Bibliographical Guide, ed. Michael Loewe (Berkeley: Society for the Study of Early China and the Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley, 1993), 313-323.

Creel, Herrlee G. Confucius and the Chinese Way. New York: Harper and Row, 1949.

Creel, Herrlee G. "Was Confucius Agnostic?" T'oung Pao 29 (1935): 55-99.

Csikszentmihalyi, Mark. "Confucius and the Analects in the Hàn," in Confucius and the Analects: New Essays, ed. Bryan W. Van Norden (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), 134-162.

Eno, Robert. The Confucian Creation of Heaven. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990.

Fingarette, Herbert. Confucius - The Secular as Sacred. New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1972.

Graham, A. C. Disputers of the Tao: Philosophical Argument in Ancient China. La Salle, IL: Open Court, 1989.

Hall, David L., and Roger T. Ames. Thinking Through Confucius. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1987.

Ivanhoe, Philip J. "Whose Confucius? Which Analects?" in Confucius and the Analects: New Essays, ed. Bryan W. Van Norden (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), 119-133.

Lau, D.C., trans. Confucius - The Analects. 2nd ed. Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 1992.

Legge, James, trans. Confucius - Confucian Analects, The Great Learning, and the Doctrine of the Mean. New York: Dover Publications, 1971.

Munro, Donald J. The Concept of Man In Early China. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1969.

Nivison, David S. "The Classical Philosophical Writings," in The Cambridge History of Ancient China: From the Origins of Civilization to 221 B.C., ed. Michael Loewe and Edward L. Shaughnessy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 745-812.

Nivison, David S. The Ways of Confucianism: Investigations in Chinese Philosophy. Ed. Bryan W. Van Norden. Chicago and La Salle, IL: Open Court, 1996.

Schwartz, Benjamin I. The World of Thought in Ancient China. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1985.

Shryock, John K. The Origin and Development of the State Cult of Confucius. New York: Century Company, 1932.

Taylor, Rodney L. "The Religious Character of the Confucian Tradition." Philosophy East and West 48/1 (January 1998): 80-107.

Tu, Wei-ming. "Li as a Process of Humanization," in Tu, Humanity and Self-Cultivation: Essays in Confucian Thought (Berkeley: Asian Humanities Press, 1979), 17-34.

Van Norden, Bryan W. "Introduction," in Confucius and the Analects: New Essays, ed. Bryan W. Van Norden (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), 3-38.

Waley, Arthur, trans. The Analects of Confucius. New York: The MacMillan Company, 1938.

Author Information

Jeff Richey
Email: Jeffrey_Richey@berea.edu
Berea College
U. S. A.

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Better known in China as "Master Kong" (Chinese: Kongzi ), Confucius was a fifth-century BCE Chinese thinker whose influence upon East Asian intellectual and social history is immeasurable. As a culturally symbolic figure, he has been alternately idealized, deified, dismissed, vilified, and rehabilitated over the millennia by both Asian and non-Asian thinkers and regimes.

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Bianzhong of Marquis Yi - Traditional Chinese Bells

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The Great Stupa at Sanchi has been the focal point of the Buddhist faith in the region since it was built by Emperor Ashoka in the 3rd century BC. The grand structure still inspires awe today and sits at the top of a hill, surrounded by the remains of smaller stupas, monasteries, and temples that were built as the religious community grew in the centuries after the site was founded.

Despite its impressive scale today, the original Ashokan stupa was about half the size and built from large bricks and mud mortar. It's believed it had raised terraces at the base, was enclosed by a wooden railing, and was crowned by a stone umbrella. The stupa was enlarged using local sandstone during the Sunga period, which began about 50 years after Ashoka's death. The elaborately-carved gateways were added later, in the 1st century BC.

The gateways and the stone balustrade were added after the stupa was enlarged following the death of Emperor Ashoka. - © Michael Turtle

The main body of the stupa symbolises the cosmic mountain. It is topped by a 'harmika' to hold the triple umbrella, or 'chhatraveli', which represents the three jewels of Buddhism - the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. The high circular terrace against the base is accessible by staircases and is designed for worshippers to be able to walk around the stupa. On the ground level, there is another procession path that is surrounded by stone balustrades.

A view of the rear of the northern gateway from the high terrace that encircles the stupa and is accessible by stairs from the ground level. - © Michael Turtle

The gateways at the four cardinal points are the highlights of the structure, with a series of detailed carvings showing Buddhist symbols and important historical and religious scenes. Interestingly, Buddha is always shown in these carvings as a symbol and not as a human. He is represented on the gateways as a horse without a rider, an umbrella above an empty throne, the Bodhi tree, or as footprints.

The sculpture of Buddha in dhyana-mudra at the eastern side of the stupa, added to the site in the 5th century AD by the Guptas. - © Michael Turtle

Through each of the gateway entrances is an image of Buddha in human form seated under a pillared canopy. They were added to the site in the 5th century AD, much later than the rest of the stupa's decorations, as the worship continued here. It's yet another demonstration of the endurance of devotion that Emperor Ashoka created at Sanchi.

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The Great Stupa at Sanchi | World Heritage Journeys Buddha

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The highlight of the region is the Great Stupa of Sanchi, founded thousands of years ago by Emperor Ashoka and decorated with some of the best Buddhist artwork in the world.

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Laozi (fl. 6th century BCE), Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

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Laozi (fl. 6th century BCE), Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

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Laozi is the name of a legendary Daoist philosopher, the alternate title of the early Chinese text better known in the West as the Daodejing, and the moniker of a deity in the pantheon of organized "religious Daoism" that arose during the later Han dynasty (25-220 C.E.). Laozi is the pinyin romanization for the Chinese characters which mean "Old Master." Laozi is also known as Lao Dan ("Old Dan") in early Chinese sources (see Romanization systems for Chinese terms). The Zhuangzi (late 4 th century B.C.E.) is the first text to use as a personal name and to identify Laozi and Lao Dan. The earliest materials to mention Laozi are in the Zhuangzi's Inner Chapters (Chs. 1-7) in the narration of Lao Dan's funeral in Ch. 3. Two other passages provide support for the linkage of Laozi and Lao Dan (in Ch. 14 and Ch. 27). There are seventeen passages in which Laozi plays a role in the Zhuangzi. Three are in the Inner Chapters, eight occur in chapters 11-14 in the Yellow Emperor sections of the text (chs. 11, 12, 13, 14), five are in chapters likely belonging to Zhuang Zhou's disciples as the sources (chs. 21, 22, 23, 25, 27), and one is in the final concluding editorial chapter (ch. 33). In the Yellow Emperor sections in which Laozi is the main figure, four passages contain direct attacks on Confucius and the Confucian virtues of ren, yi, and li in the form of dialogues. The sentiments expressed by Laozi in these passages are reminiscent of remarks from the Daodejing and probably date from the period in which that collection was reaching some near final form. Some of these themes include the advocacy of wu-wei, rejection of discursive reasoning and mind meddling, condemnation of making discriminations, and valorization of forgetting and fasting of the mind. The earliest ascriptions of authorship of the Daodejing to Laozi are in Han Feizi and the Huainanzi. Over time, Laozi became a principal figure in institutionalized forms of Daoism and he was often associated with the many transformations and incarnations of the dao itself.

Table of Contents

1. Laozi and Lao Dan in the Zhuangzi

2. Laozi and the Daodejing

3. The First Biography and the Establishment of Laozi as the Founder of Daoism

4. The Ongoing Laozi Myth

5. References and Further Reading

1. Laozi and Lao Dan in the Zhuangzi

The gives the following, probably fictional, account of Confucius 's impression of Laozi:

"Master, you've seen Lao Dan-what estimation would you make of him?" Confucius said, "At last I may say that I have seen a dragon-a dragon that coils to show his body at its best, that sprawls out to display his patterns at their best, riding on the breath of the clouds, feeding on the yin and yang. My mouth fell open and I couldn't close it; my tongue flew up and I couldn't even stammer. How could I possibly make any estimation of Lao Dan!" Zhuangzi, Ch. 14

Laozi's relationship to Confucius is a major part of the Zhuangzi's picture of the philosopher. Of the seventeen passages mentioning Laozi, Confucius figures as a dialogical partner or subject in nine. While it is clear that Confucius is thought to have a long way to go to become a zhenren (the Zhuangzi's way of speaking about the perfected person), Lao Dan seems to feel sorry for Confucius in his reply to Wuzhi "No-Toes" in Ch. 5, The Sign of Virtue Complete. Laozi recommends to Wuzhi that he try to release Confucius from the fetters of his tendency to make rules and human discriminations (for example, right/wrong; beautiful/ugly) and set him free to wander with the dao.

Lao Dan addresses Confucius by his personal name "Qiu" in three passages. Since such a liberty is one that only a person with seniority and authority would take, this style invites us to believe that Confucius was a student of Lao Dan's and thereby acknowledged Laozi as an authority. In one of these passages in which Lao Dan uses Confucius's personal name Qiu, he cautions Confucius against clever arguments and making plans and strategies with which to solve life's problems, telling him that such rhetoricians are simply like nimble monkeys and rat catching dogs who are set aside when unable to perform (Ch. 12, Heaven and Earth). And on another occasion, Qiu claims that he knows the "six classics" thoroughly and that he has tried to persuade 72 kings to their truth, but they have been unmoved. Lao Dan's reply is, "Good!" He tells Confucius not to occupy himself with such worn out ways, and to instead live the dao himself (Ch.14, Turning of Heaven).

In his later attempt to provide an actual biography of Laozi by Sima Qian (see below), Laozi's vocation as a librarian figures prominently. If the ultimate source of this tradition is the Zhuangzi, we should not forget that the context of this record is as a component in the theme that Laozi taught Confucius, who was confused and having no success with his own teachings. Accordingly, the point of the story that mentions Laozi's occupation as librarian or an archivist (ch. 13) is that Confucius' writings, offered to Laozi by Confucius himself, are simply not worthy to be put into a library. We cannot be sure, then, that there is any real memory of Confucius's occupation being preserved for us, as the story may be an entire fiction meant to make a point about the inadequacy of Confucius's teachings.

Finally, in Ch.14, Turning of Heaven, Lao Dan makes a direct attack not only on the rules and regulations of Confucius, but also the teachings of the Mohists, and the veneration of the ancient emperors and legendary sages of the past, displaying his preference for experiential oneness with dao to any teaching or tradition of philosophers or great minds of the past.

2. Laozi and the Daodejing

The ways in which expressions of Laozi in the seventeen passages in which he occurs in the Zhuangzi sound like sentiments in the Daodejing (hereafter, DDJ) represent collectively one basis for the traditional association of Laozi as author of the text. For example, at Laozi's funeral in Ch. 3, Qin Shi valorizes Laozi by saying that he accomplished much, without appearing to do so, which is a reference both to the Old Master's rejection of pursuit of fame and power and also praise for his conduct as wu-wei (effortless action) in oneness with dao. Qin Shi's praise of Laozi is also consistent with Laozi's teaching to Yangzi Ju in Ch. 7 not to seek fame and power. Such conduct and attitudes are encouraged strongly in DDJ 2, 7, 22, 24, 51 and 77. When Laozi tells Wuzhi to return to Confucius and set him free from the disease of problematizing life and tying himself in knots by helping him to empty himself of making discriminations ( Zhuangzi ch. 5), this same teaching shows up in the DDJ in many places (for example, chs. 5 and 18). Likewise, Laozi criticizes Confucius for trying to spread the classics (12 in number in ch. 13 and 6 in ch. 14) instead of valuing the wordless teaching, the DDJ has a ready parallel in Ch. 56. While Confucius is teaching his disciples to put forth effort and cultivate benevolence ( ren) and appropriate conduct ( yi), Laozi tells him that he should be teaching effortless action ( wu-wei) in Zhuangzi chs. 13, 14, and 21). This teaching also shows up in the DDJ (chs. 2, 3, 20, 47, 48, 57, 63, and 64). Finally, if we take Zhuangzi Ch. 33 as an original part of the work, then Lao Dan (Laozi) actually quotes DDJ 28.

However, the attribution of authorship of the DDJ to Laozi is much more complicated than it first appears. The DDJ has 81 chapters and about 5,000 Chinese characters, depending on which text is used. Its two major divisions are the dao jing (chs. 1-37) and the de jing (chs. 38-81). But actually, this division probably rests on nothing other than the fact that the principal concept opening Chapter 1 is dao (way) and that of Chapter 38 is de (virtue). Moreover, although the text has been studied by commentators in Chinese history for centuries, the general reverence shown to it, and the long standing tradition that it was the work of the great philosopher Laozi, were two factors militating against any critical literary analysis of its structure. What we know now is that in spite of the view that the text had a single author named Laozi, it is clear to textual critics that the work is a collection of smaller passages edited into sections and not the work of a single hand. Most of these probably circulated orally, perhaps as single teachings or in small collections. Later they were gathered and arranged by an editor.

The internal structure of the DDJ is only one ground for the denial of a single author for the text. The fact that we also now know there were multiple versions of the DDJ, even as early as 300 B.C.E., also suggests that it is unlikely that a single author wrote just one book that we now know as the DDJ. Consider that for almost 2,000 years the Chinese text used by commentators in China and upon which all except the most recent Western language translations were based has been called the Wang Bi, after the commentator who made a complete edition of the DDJ sometime between 226-249 C.E. Although Wang Bi was not a Daoist, the commentary he wrote after collecting and editing the text became a standard interpretive guide, and generally speaking even today scholars depart from his arrangement of the actual text only when they can make a compelling argument for doing so. However, based on recent archaeological finds at Guodian in 1993 and Mawangdui in the 1970s we have no doubt that there were several simultaneously circulating versions of the DDJ text that pre-dated Wang Bi's compilation of what we now call the "received text."

Mawangdui is the name for a site of tombs discovered near Changsha in Hunan province. The Mawangdui discoveries include two incomplete editions of the DDJ on silk scrolls (boshu) now simply called "A" and "B." These versions have two principal differences from the Wang Bi. Some word choice divergencies are present. The order of the chapters is reversed, with 38-81 in the Wang Bi coming before chapters 1-37 in the Mawangdui versions. More precisely, the order of the Mawangdui texts takes the traditional 81 chapters and sets them out like this: 38, 39, 40, 42-66, 80, 81, 67-79, 1-21, 24, 22, 23, 25-37. Robert Henricks has published a translation of these texts with extensive notes and comparisons with the Wang Bi under the title Lao-Tzu, Te-tao Ching.

The Guodian find consists of 730 inscribed bamboo slips found in a tomb near the village of Guodian in Hubei province in 1993. There are 71 slips with material that is also found in 31 of the 81 chapters of the DDJ and corresponding only to Chapters 1-66. Based on the probable date of the closing of the tomb, the version of the DDJ found within it may date as early as c. 300 B.C.E.

3. The First Biography and the Establishment of Laozi as the Founder of Daoism
We have now arrived at the stage where studies of Laozi's biography usually begin.
The first known attempt to write a biography of Laozi is in the Shiji ( Historical Records) by Sima Qian (145-89 B.C.E.). According to this text, Laozi was a native of Chu, a southern state of the Zhou dynasty. His surname was Li, and his personal name was Er, and his style name was Dan. Sima Qian reports that Laozi was a historiographer in charge of the archives of Zhou. Moreover, Sima Qian tells us that Confucius had traveled to see Laozi to learn about the performance of rituals from him. According to The Book of Rites ( Liji), a master known as Lao Dan was an expert on mourning rituals. On four occasions, Confucius ( Kongzi, Master Kong) is reported to have responded to questions by appealing to answers given by Lao Dan. The records even say that Confucius once assisted him in a burial service. Just what date we can put on this record from The Book of Rites is uncertain, but it may have informed Sima Qian's biography.

According to the biography, during the course of their conversations Laozi told Confucius to give up his prideful ways and seeking of power. When Confucius returned to his disciples, he told them that he was overwhelmed by the commanding presence of Laozi, which was like that of a mighty dragon. The biography goes on to say that Laozi cultivated the dao and its de. However, as the state of Zhou continued to decline, Laozi decided to leave China through the Western pass (toward India) and that upon his departure he gave to the keeper of the pass, one Yin Xi, a book divided into two parts, one on dao and one on de, and of 5,000 characters in length. After that, no one knew what became of him. This is perhaps the most familiar of the traditions narrated by Sima Qian and it contains the core of most every subsequent biography or hagiography of Laozi of significance. However, the biography did not end here. Sima Qian went on to record what other sources said about Laozi.

In the first biography, Sima Qian says some report that Laolaizi came from Chu, was a contemporary of Confucius, and he authored a work in fifteen sections which speaks of the practical uses of the Daoist teachings. But Sima Qian leaves it undecided whether he thinks Laolaizi should be identified with Laozi, even if he does include this reference in the section on Laozi.

Sima Qian adds another layer to the biography without commenting on the degree of confidence he has in its truthfulness, according to which it is said that Laozi lived 160 years or even 200 years, as a result of cultivating the dao and nurturing his longevity.

An additional tradition included in the first biography is that Dan, the historiographer of Zhou predicted in 479 B.C.E. that Zhou and Qin would break apart and that a new king would arise from Qin. The point of this tradition is that Dan (Lao Dan?) had the power to predict the political future of the people, including the fragmentation of the Zhou dynasty and the rise of the Qin in about 221 B.C.E. (that is, Qinshihuang, or the first emperor of China). But Sima Qian likewise refuses to identify Laozi with this Dan.

Finally, the first biography concludes with a reference to Laozi's son and his descendants. Another movement in the evolution of the Laozi story was completed by about 240 B.C.E. This was necessitated by Lao Dan's association with the grand historiographer Dan during the Zhou, who predicted the rise of the Qin state. This information, along with that of Laozi's journey to the West, and of the writing of the book for Yin Xi won a favorable position for Laozi during the Qin dynasty. The association of Laozi with a text (the DDJ) that was becoming increasingly significant was important. However, with the demise of the Qin state, some realignment of Laozi's connection with them was needed. So, Qian's final remarks about Laozi's son helped to associate the philosopher's lineage with the new Han ruling family. The journey to the West component now also had a new force. It explained why Laozi was not presently advising the Han rulers.

Overall, it seems that the earliest biography conforms closely to passages contained in Zhuangzi Chapters 11-14 and 26 in associating Laozi with the archivist or historiographer of Zhou, Laozi's rebuke of Confucius's prideful seeking of fame and pursuit of power, and the report that Confucius told his disciples that Laozi was like a great dragon. It is possible, then, that Zhuangzi is thus the ultimate source of Sima Qian's information.

Sima Qian also says, "Laozi cultivated the dao and its virtue ( de)." We recognize of course that " dao and its virtue" is Dao and de and that this phase is meant to solidify Laozi's association with the Daode jing. What the Zhuangzi, Hanfeizi and Huainanzi only alluded to by putting near quotes from the DDJ in the mouth of Laozi, Sima Qian now makes into an explicit connection. He even tells us that when the Zhou kingdom began to decline, Laozi decided to leave China and head into the West. When he reached the mountain pass, the keeper of the pass (Yin Xi) insisted that he write down his teachings, so that the people would have them after he left. So, "Laozi wrote a book in two parts, discussing the ideas of the dao and of de in some 5,000 words, and departed. No one knows where he ended his life." These remarks make an unmistakable connection between what Laozi is said to have delivered to Yin Xi and the two sectional divisions of the DDJ and a very close approximation to its exact number of characters.

Sima Qian classified the Six Schools as Yin-Yang, Confucian, Mohist, Legalists, School of Names, and Daoists. Since his biography located Laozi in a time period predating the Zhuangzi, and the passages in the Zhuangzi seemed to be about a person who lived in the time of Confucius (and not to be simply a literary or traditional invention), then the inference was easy to make that Laozi was the founder of the Daoist school.

4. The Ongoing Laozi Myth

Another important stage in the development of Laozi's place in Chinese philosophical history occurred when Emperor Huan (147-167 C.E.) built a palace on the traditional site of Laozi's birthplace and authorized veneration and sacrifice to Laozi. The "Inscription to Laozi" ( Laozi ming) written by Pian Shao in c. 166 C.E. as a commemorative marker for the site goes well beyond Sima Qian's biography. It makes the first apotheosis of Laozi into a deity. The text makes reference to the many cosmic metamorphoses of Laozi, portraying him as having been counselor to the great sage kings of China's misty pre-history. Accordingly, during this period of the 2 nd and 3 rd centuries, the elite at the imperial court divinized Laozi and regarded him as an embodiment or incarnation of the dao, a kind of cosmic emperor who knew how to bring things into perfect harmony and peace by acting in wu-wei.

The period of the Celestial Masters (c. 142-260 C.E.) produced documents enhancing the myth of Laozi who came then to be called Laojun (Lord Lao) or Taishang Laojun (Most High Lord Lao). Laojun could manifest himself in any time of unrest and bring Great Peace ( taiping). Yet, the Celestial Masters never claimed that Laojun had done so in their day. Instead of such a direct manifestation, the Celestial Masters practitioners taught that Laojun transmitted to them talismans, registers, and new scriptures in the form of texts to guide the creation of communities of heavenly peace. One work, very likely from the late 3 rd or early 4 th century C.E. entitled The Hundred and Eight Precepts Spoken by Lord Lao ( Laojun shuo yibai bashi jie) became the earliest set of behavioral guides for Celestial Masters communities. According to the text, Laozi delivered these precepts after returning from India and finding the people in a state of corruption.

During the reign of Emperor Huidi of the Western Jin dynasty (290-306 C.E.), Wang Fu, a master within the Daoist sectarian group known as the Celestial Masters, often debated with the Buddhist monk Bo Yuan about philosophical beliefs. As a result of these exchanges, scholarly consensus holds that Wang Fu compiled a one scroll work entitled Classic of the Conversion of the Barbarians ( Huahu jing, c. 300 C.E.). The work is also known by the title The Supreme Numinous Treasure's Sublime Classic on Laozi's Conversion of the Barbarians ( Taishang lingbao Laozi huahu miaojing). Perhaps the most inflammatory claim of this work was its teaching that when Laozi left China through the Western pass he went to India, where he transmorphed into the historical Buddha and converted the barbarians. The basic implication of the book was that Buddhism was actually only a form of Daoism. This work inflamed Buddhists for decades. In fact, both of the Tang Emperors Gaozong (649-683 C.E.) and Zhongzong (705-710 C.E.) gave imperial orders to prohibit its distribution. However, as bitter contention continued between Buddhism and Daoism, the Daoists actually expanded the Classic of the Conversion of the Barbarians, so that by 700 C.E. it was ten scrolls in length. Four of these were recovered in the Dunhuang cache of manuscripts. The much extended work came to include the account that Laozi entered the mouth of a queen in India and the next year was born from her right arm-pit to become the Buddha. He walked immediately after his birth, and "from then on Buddhist teaching came to flourish." To those familiar with the hagiographies of the Buddha, virtually all of this birth account is recognizable as associated with Buddha, not Laozi.

In the course of the production of polemical writings on the Buddhist side of the debate, attempts were made to turn the tables on the Daoists. Laozi was portrayed as a bodhisattva or disciple of the Buddha sent to convert the Chinese. This theory had other desirable extensions from a Buddhist viewpoint, because it was also applied to Confucius, enabling Buddhist rhetoricians to hold that Confucius was an avatar of Buddhism and that Confucianism was actually a form of distorted Buddhism.

Most later writings about Laozi continued to base their appeals to Laozi's authority on his ongoing transformations, but they likewise provide evidence of the growing tension between Daoism and Buddhism. The first mythological account of Laozi's birth is in the Classic of the Inner Explanation of the Three Heavens ( Santian neijie jing), a Celestial Master work dated about 420 C.E. In this text, Laozi has three births: as the manifestation of the dao from pure energy to become a deity in heaven; in human form as the ancient philosopher author of the DDJ; and as the Buddha after his journey to the West. In the first birth, his mother is known as "The Jade Maiden of Mystery and Wonder." In his second, he is born to a human woman known as Mother Li. This was an eighty-one year pregnancy, after which he was born from her left armpit (there is a tradition that Buddha had been born from his mother's right arm pit). At birth he had white hair and so he was called laozi (here meaning something more like lao haizi or Old Child). This birth is set in the time of the Shang dynasty, several centuries before the date Sima Qian reports. But the purpose of such a move in the Laozi legend is to allow him time to travel to the West and then become the Buddha. The third birth takes place in India as the Buddha.

In the Yuan dynasty (1285 C.E.), Emperor Shizu ordered the burning of the Daoist canon of texts, and according to lore, the first writing destroyed was the greatly extended version of Classic of the Conversion of the Barbarians in ten or more scrolls. Once again, though, the text and its story of Laozi seemed quite resilient. It reappeared in the form of an illustrated work entitled Eighty-one Transformations of Lord Lao ( Laojun bashiyi hua tushuo). The Buddhist thinker Xiangmai wrote a detailed, but polemical, history of this text and few scholars trust its reliability. Whether the Eighty-one Transformations of Lord Lao still survives is arguable, although a work entitled Eighty-one Transformations of the Most High Lord Lao of Mysterious Origin of the Golden Portal ( Jinque xuanyuan Taishang Laojun baishiyi hua tushuo) with illustrations and dating to 1598 is held in the Museum fur Volkerkunde in Berlin. The version in Berlin provides an illustration for each of Laozi's transformations, each accompanied by a short text. The first few depict his existence in cosmic time. It is not until the 11 th transformation that he enters historical time during the era of Fu Xi by the name Yuhuazi. In his 34 th transformation, Laozi sends Yin Xi to explain the sutras to the Indian barbarians. The 58 th transformation is Laozi's appearance in the clouds to Zhang Daoling, the founder of the Celestial Master Zhengyi sect of Daoism that still exists today.

Other reported manifestations of Laozi gave authority to new Daoist lineages or modifications of practice. For example, the Daoist master Kou Qianzhi reported a revelation received from Laozi in 415 C.E. which was a "New Code" for Daoist practitioners and communities. He wrote down the revelation in a text that became known as Classic on Precepts of Lord Lao Recited to the Melody of the Clouds ( Laojun yinsong jiejing). This text contains 36 moral precepts each of which trace their authority to the introductory phrase, "Lord Lao said...." Textual traces are not the only sources for the traditions and views of Laozi in Chinese philosophical history. Yoshiko Kamitsuka has done a study of how views about Laozi changed and been reflected in material culture, especially sculpture and inscription.

Laozi was also often looked to for political validation. Throughout most of the Tang dynasty (618-907 C.E.), Laozi was regarded as the protector of the state because of the tradition that both the Tang ruling family and Laozi shared the surname Li and because of many reports of auspicious appearances of Laozi at the inauguration of the Tang dynasty in which he pledged his support during the rise and solidification of the ruling bureaucracy.

The hagiography of Laozi has continued to develop, down to the present day. There are even traditions that various natural geographic landmarks and features are the enduring imprint of Lord Lao on China and his face can be seen in them. It is more likely, of course, that Laozi's immortality is in the mark made by the philosophical movement he has come to represent and the culture it created.

5. References and Further Reading

Ames, Roger. (1998). Wandering at Ease in the Zhuangzi. Albany: State University of New York Press.

Bokenkamp, Stephen R. (1997). Early Daoist Scriptures. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Boltz, William. (2005). "The Composite Nature of Early Chinese Texts." In Text and Ritual in Early China, ed. Martin Kern. 50-78. Seattle: University of Washington Press.

Csikszentmihalyi, Mark and Ivanhoe, Philip J., eds. (1999). Religious and Philosophical Aspects of the Laozi. Albany: State University of New York.

Giles, Lionel. (1948). A Gallery of Chinese Immortals. London: John Murray.

Graham, Angus. (1981). Chuang tzu: The Inner Chapters. London: Allen & Unwin.

Graham, Angus. (1989). Disputers of the Tao: Philosophical Argument in Ancient China. La Salle, IL: Open Court.

Graham, Angus. [1998 (1986)], "The Origins of the Legend of Lao Tan." In Lao-tzu and the Tao-te-ching, ed. Kohn, Livia Kohn and Michael LaFargue, 23-41. Albany: State University of New York Press.

Hansen, Chad. (1992). A Daoist Theory of Chinese Thought. New York: Oxford University Press.

Henricks, Robert. (1989). Lao-Tzu: Te-Tao Ching. New York: Ballantine.

Ivanhoe, Philip J. (2002). The Daodejing of Laozi. New York: Seven Bridges Press.

Kamitsuka, Yoshiko, (1998). "Lao-Tzu in Six Dynasties Taoist Sculpture." In Lao-tzu and the Tao-te-ching, ed. Kohn, Livia Kohn and Michael LaFargue, 63-89. Albany: State University of New York Press.

Kim, Tae Hyun. (2010). "Other Laozi Parallels in the Hanfeizi An Alternative Approach to the Textual History of the Laozi and Early Chinese Thought." Sino-Platonic Papers 199 (March 2010), ed. Victor H. Mair. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

Kohn, Livia (2008). "Laojun yinsong jiejing [Classic on Precepts of Lord Lao, Recited to the Melody in the Clouds]." In Encyclopedia of Taoism, ed. Fabrizio Pregadio. London: Routledge.

Kohn, Livia, (1998). "The Lao-Tzu Myth." In Lao-tzu and the Tao-te-ching, ed. Kohn, Livia Kohn and Michael LaFargue, 41-63. Albany: State University of New York Press.

Kohn, Livia, (1996). "Laozi: Ancient Philosopher, Master of Longevity, and Taoist God." In Religions of China in Practice, ed. Donald S. Lopez, 52-63. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Kohn, Livia and LaFargue, Michael. (1998). Lao-tzu and the Tao-te-ching. Albany: State University of New York Press.

Kohn, Livia and Roth, Harold (2002) Daoist Identity: History, Lineage, and Ritual. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.

Nylan, Michael and Csikzentmihalyi, Mark. (2003). "Constructing Lineages and Inventing Traditions through Exemplary Figures in Early China." T'oung Pao 89: 1-41.

Penny, Benjamin (2008). "Laojun bashiyi huatu [Eighty-one Transformations of Lord Lao]." In Encyclopedia of Taoism, ed. Fabrizio Pregadio. London: Routledge.

Penny, Benjamin (2008). "Laojun shuo yibai bashi jie [The 180 Precepts Spoken by Lord Lao]." In Encyclopedia of Taoism, ed. Fabrizio Pregadio. London: Routledge.

Smith, Kidder (2003). "Sima Tan and the Invention of Daoism, 'Legalism,' et cetera." The Journal of Asian Studies 62.1: 129-156.

Watson, Burton. (1968). The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu. New York: Columbia University Press.

Welch, Holmes. (1966). Taoism: The Parting of the Way. Boston: Beacon Press.

Welch, Holmes and Seidel, Anna, eds. (1979). Facets of Taoism. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Author Information

Ronnie Littlejohn
Email: ronnie.littlejohn@belmont.edu
Belmont University
U. S. A.

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Laozi is the name of a legendary Daoist philosopher, the alternate title of the early Chinese text better known in the West as the Daodejing, and the moniker of a deity in the pantheon of organized "religious Daoism" that arose during the later Han dynasty (25-220 C.E.).

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Taoism and the Arts of China, Asian Art Museum San Francisco, 2001

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Taoism and the Arts of China, Asian Art Museum San Francisco, 2001

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Exploring the conceptual and artistic achievements of the Taoist tradition, Taoism and the Arts of China features 150 rare works ranging in date from 500 BCE to 1800 CE, including an extraordinary array of paintings, sculptures, calligraphy, textiles, ritual objects, and scholar’s books.

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Taoist Immortals, The Tushanwan Jesuit Orphanage Wooden Screen

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Taoist Immortals, The Tushanwan Jesuit Orphanage Wooden Screen

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It was sent to San Francisco as part the Tushanwan exhibit at the Palace of Education for the Panama-Pacific International Exposition (P.P.I.E.) in 1915, which was a World's Fair in celebration of the completion of the Panama Canal and the rebirth of San Francisco after the great earthquake of 1906. The exhibit featuring the woodwork of the Tushanwan Orphanage attracted the attention of many elite art collectors, including Mrs. Marshall Field, who eventually acquired the screen and later donated it to the Field Museum.

The history of the orphanage is as fascinating as the screen itself: in addition to providing food, lodging, and education, boys received training in a skilled trade, such as carving. In addition to the Tushanwan woodshop, other workshops included printmaking, photography, publishing, painting, stained glass, and metal casting. The exact type of wood used to make the screen is unclear, but San Francisco Jesuit Denis Kavanagh, who was in charge of the exhibition, referred to the material of this and other furniture as "teakwood." The orphanage is no longer in operation; part of Shanghai's once-Catholic Xujiahui neighborhood, it closed in 1960.

The figures on the screen represent some of the legendary Taoist immortals. The Eight Immortals-seven male and one female-are said to have originated in the Han Dynasty (Western Han, 206 BC to 240 BC). Six of the eight immortals are depicted on this screen and are recognizable by these attributes:

He Xiangu is the female sage who assists in house management and is also called the Patroness of Housewives. Her emblem is the lotus blossom, though she is sometimes depicted holding a fly whisk and floating on a leaf.

Han Xiangzi is the Patron Saint of Musicians. He has the power to make flowers grow and blossom immediately. His emblem is a flute, which symbolizes harmony.

Lan Caihe is the Patron Saint of Florists and Protector of Horticulture. Either in the form of a woman or a young boy, she/he is the symbol of delusive (false or misleading) pleasure and usually carries a basket of flowers or a flute.

Cao Guojiu is the Patron Saint of the Theater. He often carries castanets as an emblem of music, or a jade tablet representing admission to the royal court.

Lu Dongbin is the Patron Saint of Barbers. He is often worshiped by the sick and honored as a scholar. He slays dragons and rids the world of evils, and his emblems are the fly whisk and a magic sword.

Li Tieguai is the Sage of Magicians and the Patron of the Sick. His emblems are an iron crutch and a gourd. Sometimes seen standing on a crab or beside a deer.

Please note: the Field Museum Library serves Museum staff, visiting scholars and the public. The Main Library is located in a non-public area on the Field Museum's third floor. Researchers with confirmed appointments may visit the Library Reading Room. Learn more about making an appointment.

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The Tushanwan Jesuit Orphanage Wooden Screen

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It was sent to San Francisco as part the Tushanwan exhibit at the Palace of Education for the Panama-Pacific International Exposition (P.P.I.E.) in 1915, which was a World's Fair in celebration of the completion of the Panama Canal and the rebirth of San Francisco after the great earthquake of 1906.

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Buddhist scripts printed from Tripitaka Koreana dried in sunlight (2021)

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Buddhist scripts printed from Tripitaka Koreana dried in sunlight (2021)

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Buddhist scripts printed from Tripitaka Koreana dried in sunlight for first time

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Giuseppe Castiglione (1688-1766) Qing court painter

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Giuseppe Castiglione (1688-1766) Qing court painter

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One of the key figures in establishing the new aesthetic at the Qing court was the Italian Jesuit Giuseppe Castiglione (1688-1766), whose illusionist approach to painting revolutionized Qing court art. Castiglione served at the Qing court for fifty years, working under the Chinese name Lang Shining. A master of vividly naturalistic draftsmanship and large-scale compositions (in Italy and Portugal he had worked as a muralist), Castiglione successfully combined Western realism with traditional Chinese conventions of brushwork in a manner that suited the imperial taste. Descriptively complex, technically finished, and monumental in scale, Castiglione's vividly realistic painting style perfectly served the emperor's documentary purposes as well as his predilection for self-promotion on a grandiose scale.

Born in Milan, Castiglione arrived in Beijing in 1715 as a young missionary of twenty-seven and was assigned to work as an artisan in the palace enameling workshop, but with the ascension of the Yongzheng emperor in 1723, his fortunes changed dramatically. In that year, he was commissioned to paint One Hundred Horses (final painting, below; detail of preparatory drawing, above). A large handscroll on silk measuring nearly eight meters in length, the painting took Castiglione five years to complete and is considered his greatest work. For some reason, the scroll was never viewed by Yongzheng. When, in late 1735, it was presented to the newly enthroned Qianlong Emperor, he declared it a masterpiece and named Castiglione his principal court painter.

Because painting on silk does not allow for correction or overpainting, Castiglione worked out every detail in a preparatory drawing on paper before he traced the design onto silk. This final draft has recently come to light, providing a unique opportunity to understand how Castiglione modified his style to suit his Chinese patrons. The full-scale drawing is executed in the Western manner, with figures sketched in charcoal and then precisely rendered in bold ink outlines drawn with a European pen rather than a Chinese brush. Castiglione's sharply defined horses inevitably recall those of Li Gonglin, the most revered Chinese master of this genre and the artist responsible for developing a distinctive baimiao, or monochrome drawing style. Compared with Li's lively calligraphic lines, however, Castiglione's drawing appears stiff and labored. The monumental pine trees, which serve to divide the composition into discrete sections, each with its own vanishing point, are another motif borrowed from Chinese sources, but in their complex branch structure, sophisticated foreshortening, and attention to surface textures they are distinctly European in feeling. Even minor details of vegetation, depicted with spontaneous arabesques and cross-hatching - traces of the artist's hand that would have been retained in a Chinese painting, but which are eliminated in Castiglione's finished work - are conceived as forms modeled by light and shadow, in the European manner, rather than through calligraphic conventions. If compared with contemporary European landscape sketches, however, Castiglione's scroll is notable for how much he has softened the Baroque tradition of dramatic chiaroscuro shading (the modeling of forms by the use of light and shadow) by minimizing the stark contrast between light and dark tonalities. Only the slightly greater density of texturing on the underside of some of the tree boughs and the traces of shadow under the horses' hooves betray the European convention of using a consistent light source as opposed to the arbitrary and schematic contrasts of light and dark in Chinese painting.

The creation of a drawing on paper in preparation for the finished version on silk was standard practice in Qing imperial commissions. For such projects, an artist would submit the draft version for imperial approval before beginning the final version, which in addition to being executed on a more precious material, employed expensive mineral colors and was much more detailed. Ultimately, however, this practice inhibited spontaneity. It also encouraged the participation of assistants. Castiglione's concern with descriptive realism rather than with calligraphic brushwork eventually led to a weakening of individual expression and a hardening into stylistic convention.

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The Grandeur of the Qing | Asia for Educators

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One of the key figures in establishing the new aesthetic at the Qing court was the Italian Jesuit Giuseppe Castiglione (1688-1766), whose illusionist approach to painting revolutionized Qing court art. Castiglione served at the Qing court for fifty years, working under the Chinese name Lang Shining.

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East Asia Resource Center - Jackson School of International Studies

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Providing K-12 educators with opportunities at the University of Washington since 1971 to deepen their knowledge of East Asia.

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National Consortium for Teaching about Asia

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National Consortium for Teaching about Asia

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NCT Asia|National Consortium for Teaching about Asia

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NCTA is a multi-year initiative to encourage and facilitate teaching and learning about East Asia in elementary and secondary schools nationwide. NCTA is a premier provider of professional development on East Asia courses.

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Haiensa Temple Janggyeong Panjeon, the Depositories for the Tripitaka Koreana Woodblocks

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Haiensa Temple Janggyeong Panjeon, the Depositories for the Tripitaka Koreana Woodblocks

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Outstanding Universal Value
Brief synthesis
The Janggyeong Panjeon in the Temple of Haeinsa, on the slopes of Mount Gayasan, is home to the Tripitaka Koreana, the most complete collection of Buddhist texts, laws and treaties extant, engraved on approximately 80,000 woodblocks between 1237 and 1248. The Haeinsa Tripitaka woodblocks were carved in an appeal to the authority of the Buddha in the defense of Korea against the Mongol invasions. They are recognized by Buddhist scholars around the world for their outstanding accuracy and superior quality. The woodblocks are also valuable for the delicate carvings of the Chinese characters, so regular as to suggest that they are the work of a single hand.

The Janggyeong Panjeon depositories comprise two long and two smaller buildings, which are arranged in a rectangle around a courtyard. As the most important buildings in the Haeinsa Temple complex, they are located at a higher level than the hall housing the main Buddha of the complex. Constructed in the 15th century in the traditional style of the early Joseon period, their design is characterized by its simplicity of detailing and harmony of layout, size, balance and rhythm.

The four buildings are considered to be unique both in terms of their antiquity with respect to this specialized type of structure, and for the remarkably effective conservation solutions that were employed in their design to protect the woodblocks from deterioration, while providing for easy access and storage. They were specially designed to provide natural ventilation and to modulate temperature and humidity, adapted to climatic conditions, thus preserving the woodblocks for some 500 years from rodent and insect infestation. The Haeinsa Temple complex is a famous destination for pilgrimages, not only among Korean Buddhists, but Buddhists and scholars from all over the world.

Criterion (iv): The depositories of the Haeinsa Temple are unique both in terms of their antiquity so far as this specialized type of structure is concerned, and also for the remarkably effective solutions developed in the 15th century to address the problem of storing and conserving the 80,000 woodblocks used to print the Buddhist scriptures ( Tripitaka Koreana) against deterioration.

Criterion (vi): The Janggyeong Panjeon and its unique collection of 13th century Tripitaka Koreana woodblocks, outstanding for their artistry and excellent execution of engraving techniques, occupy an exceptional position in the history of Buddhism as the most complete and accurate corpus of Buddhist doctrinal texts in the world.
Integrity
All components of the Haeinsa Temple complex, including the Janggyeong Panjeon and the Tripitaka Koreana woodblocks, are included within the boundaries of the designation.

The overall condition of the Janggyeong Panjeon is good, though continuous repairs are required to the woodblocks and to the shelves on which the woodblocks are stored.

The remarkably successful conservation solutions employed in the design of the depositories, which provide for natural ventilation and temperature and humidity control, have resulted in the protection of the woodblocks for over 500 years from rodent and insect infestation. Temperature and humidity levels should continue to be strictly monitored and controlled.

The woodblocks and depositories are of wood construction and are susceptible to fire damage and theft.
Authenticity
The temple complex, individual structures and woodblocks maintain a high degree of authenticity. The Janggyeong Panjeon continues to house the 80,000 woodblocks of the Tripitaka Koreana and maintains both their original form and function. Restoration of the four depositories was carried out during the past 30 years in order to conserve the buildings. The form, general layout and architectural detailing of the buildings have been preserved to this day without any major changes or damage.
Protection and management requirements
Haeinsa Temple is owned by the Korean Buddhist Jogye Order. The Daejanggyeongpan ( Tripitaka Koreana Woodblocks) and the Janggyeong Panjeon (the depositories) have been designated as National Treasures, under the Cultural Heritage Protection Act. The entire area of Haeinsa Temple is designated as a Historic Site and a 2,095 ha area around the temple complex including Mount Gayasan, is designated as a Scenic Site under the same Act. The entire area of Mount Gayasan surrounding the temple is designated and protected as a National Park by the Natural Parks Act, which acts as a buffer zone to the cultural heritage. Haeinsa Temple is also registered as a 'Buddhist Temple with historical significance' under the Traditional Buddhist Temple Preservation Law. These designations impose strict constraints on alterations to the property and buffer zone.

At the national level, the Cultural Heritage Administration (CHA) is responsible for establishing and enforcing policies for the protection of the temple complex and buffer zone, and allocating financial resources for the conservation of the Janggyeong Panjeon and the woodblocks. Gyeongsangnam-do Province provides additional financial support for the conservation of the temple and its woodblocks, and Hapcheon-gun County is directly responsible for the more specific operations of conservation and management. Haeinsa Temple is in charge of the day-to-day management and provides information on the woodblocks via its website. Regular day-to-day monitoring of the property is carried out and in-depth professional monitoring is conducted on a 3 to 4 year basis.

General conservation focuses on protecting the physical environment of the property together with various projects that concentrates on the documentary values of the Tripitaka woodblocks. Conservation work is conducted by Cultural Heritage Conservation Specialists who have passed the National Certification Exams in their individual fields of expertise. Although there is no specific management plan for the property, management policies of collaborating institutions under the various statutory designations provide the framework for conservation.

In order to protect the Janggyeon Panjeon and woodblocks from fire, full-time security guards and a 24-hour surveillance system are in place and a lightening rod has been installed. A mid-size fire pump truck is placed within the grounds of the temple for immediate response to fire. In order to control the temperature and humidity within the depositories, there are restrictions to visitor entry into the Janggyeong Panjeon.

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Haeinsa Temple Janggyeong Panjeon, the Depositories for the Tripitaka Koreana Woodblocks

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The Temple of Haeinsa, on Mount Gaya, is home to the Tripitaka Koreana , the most complete collection of Buddhist texts, engraved on 80,000 woodblocks between 1237 and 1248. The buildings of Janggyeong Panjeon, ...

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The Great Stupa at Sanchi (Smarthistory)

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The Great Stupa at Sanchi (Smarthistory)

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A mound of dirt or the body of the Buddha? These sacred sites give practitioners insight into the Four Noble Truths.

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Video: Haeinsa Temple Janggyeong Panjeon, the Depositories for the Tripitaka Koreana (UNESCO/NHK) 

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Video: Haeinsa Temple Janggyeong Panjeon, the Depositories for the Tripitaka Koreana (UNESCO/NHK) 

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Haeinsa Temple Janggyeong Panjeon, the Depositories for  ... (UNESCO/NHK)

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Ancient Chinese Art (Maxwell Hearn viewing a handscroll)

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Ancient Chinese Art (Maxwell Hearn viewing a handscroll)

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Arts: Ancient Chinese Art | The New York Times

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Outstanding Universal Value
Brief synthesis
The caves at Ajanta are excavated out of a vertical cliff above the left bank of the river Waghora in the hills of Ajanta. They are thirty in number, including the unfinished ones, of which five (caves 9, 10, 19, 26 and 29) are chaityagrihas (sanctuary) and the rest, sangharamas or viharas (monastery). The caves are connected with the river by rock-cut staircases. The excavation activity was carried out in two different phases separated by an interval of about four centuries. The first phase coincides with the rule of the Satavahana dynasty from about the 2nd century BCE to the 1st century BCE, while the second phase corresponds to the Basim branch of the Vakataka dynasty with their Asmaka and Rishika feudatories in the 5th to 6th centuries CE.

Altogether, six caves (caves 8, 9, 10, 12, 13 and 15A) were excavated in the first phase by Hinayana/Theravadin followers of Buddhism, wherein Buddha was worshipped in an aniconic/symbolic form. These caves are simple and austere, and carry mural paintings sparsely. The chaityagrihas are characterized by a vaulted ceiling and an apsidal end, the façade dominated by a horseshoe-shaped window, known as chaitya window. Internally, they are divided by colonnades into a central nave and side aisles, the latter continuing behind the apse for circumambulation. At the centre of the apse stands the object of worship in the form of a chaitya or stupa, also hewn out of the rock. The monasteries consist of an astylar hall meant for congregation, and range of cells on three sides serving as the dwelling-apartments (viharas) for monks.

In the second phase, the rupestral activity was dominated by the Mahayana followers of Buddhism, where Buddha was worshipped in an icon/idol form. The earlier caves were reused, and several new ones were excavated. The architectural forms of the earlier phase continued, however, with a renewed architectural and sculptural fervour. The walls were embellished with exquisite mural paintings, executed in tempera technique; and pillars, brackets, door jambs, shrines and facades were richly decorated with sculptural splendour. The unfinished caves (caves 5, 24, 29) provide excellent evidences of techniques and methodology employed in rock excavation.

Ajanta Caves exemplifies one of the greatest achievements in ancient Buddhist rock-cut architecture. The artistic traditions at Ajanta present an important and rare specimen of art, architecture, painting, and socio-cultural, religious and political history of contemporary society in India. The development of Buddhism manifested through the architecture, sculptures, and paintings is unique and bears testimony to the importance of Ajanta as a major hub of such activities. Further, the epigraphic records found at Ajanta provide good information on the contemporary civilization.

Criterion (i): Ajanta is a unique artistic achievement.

Criterion (ii): The style of Ajanta has exerted a considerable influence in India and elsewhere, extending, in particular, to Java.

Criterion (iii): With its two groups of monuments corresponding to two important moments in Indian history, this rupestral ensemble bears exceptional testimony to the evolution of Indian art, as well as to the determining role of the Buddhist community, intellectual and religious foyers, schools and reception centres in India during the Satavahana and Vakataka dynasties.

Criterion (vi): Ajanta is directly and materially associated with the history of Buddhism.
Integrity
Ajanta Caves includes all the elements necessary to express its Outstanding Universal Value, including the ensemble of these caves in its natural setting, sculptures, paintings, and epigraphs. It is of adequate size to ensure the complete representation of the features and processes that convey the intense art and architectural activity that continued for 800 years, reflecting Buddhist philosophy. It does not suffer from adverse effects of development and/or neglect. Interventions undertaken over the years were intended to strengthen the structure of the caves. Identified potential threats to the integrity of the property include visitor pressure in the painted caves, overall management of the protected site, structural stability of the caves including loose boulders, and capacity of the staff at the property.
Authenticity
The authenticity of Ajanta Caves is expressed through the architectural forms of chaityagrihas and viharas as well as the schemes used in decorating these spaces, such as sculptures and painted panels depicting various Buddhist traditions. Its location and setting, as well as its materials and substance, are likewise authentically associated with the history of Buddhism and with two important eras in the history of India.
Protection and management requirements
The management of Ajanta Caves is with the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), while the management of the buffer zone comes under stakeholders including the ASI, Forest Department, and Government of Maharashtra through various legislation such as the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act (1958) and Rules (1959), Indian Forest Act (1927), and Forest Conservation Act (1980). These regulate any type of activity in prohibited and regulated areas, which extend 100 m and 200 m respectively from the protected site. Implementation of a Comprehensive Conservation Management Plan for the property is under way.

Sustaining the Outstanding Universal Value of the property over time will require addressing vital issues such as controlling the visitor pressure in the painted caves; overall management of the protected site; structural monitoring in the caves, monitoring the loose boulders; and capacity building of the staff at the property.

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The first Buddhist cave monuments at Ajanta date from the 2nd and 1st centuries B.C. During the Gupta period (5th and 6th centuries A.D.), many more richly decorated caves were added to the original group. The ...

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One Hundred Horses, Giuseppe Castiglione

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One Hundred Horses, Giuseppe Castiglione

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Giuseppe Castiglione was born on July 19, 1688, in the central San Marcellino district of Milan, Italy, the site of a renowned Botteghe degli Stampator painting studio. As a youth, Castiglione learned to paint from Carlo Cornara at the studio, and he also came under the influence of the famous painter Andrea Pozzo, a member of the Society of Jesus at Trento. In 1707, at the age of 19, Castiglione formally entered the Society and traveled to the prosperous city of Genoa for further training. By this time, he had already achieved some repute as a painter and was invited to do wall paintings at Jesuit churches. At the age of 27, he received instructions to go to China, and, on the journey, did wall paintings in Jesuit churches in Coimbra ( Portugal) and Macao. Castiglione's style was based on the emphasis on color, perspective, and light found in Italian Renaissance art. In China, where Castiglione went by the Chinese name Lang Shih-ning, he came to the attention of the Chien-lung emperor (r. 1736-1795) and served as an artist for the court. Castiglione eventually became a respected painter and earned the appreciation of the Chien-lung emperor, which was a considerable honor for a foreign artist at the time.

Following the taste and tradition of painting in China, Castiglione was able to forge a new style that combined elements with his Western training in art. His paintings were done with Chinese materials but often incorporate Western techniques of shading and atmospheric perspective. In this long handscroll painting, for example, a hundred horses are shown in a variety of activities. Using perspective to suggest depth and shading for the effect of light, Castiglione has used Chinese materials and Western techniques to impart a sense of realism to this native theme. In addition to the shadows, Castiglione has adapted the traditional texture stroke methods of Chinese painting to give the objects even more substance. The emphasis on washes of color, however, still reveals the focus on native techniques. This painting, done in 1728, represents an early masterpiece in Castiglione's syncretic style of East and West.

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One Hundred Horses - Lang Shih-ning (Giuseppe Castiglione, 1688-1766) - Google Arts & Culture

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Giuseppe Castiglione was born on July 19, 1688, in the central San Marcellino district of Milan, Italy, the site of a renowned Botteghe degli Stampator pai...

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Kanishka I Gold Coin（Ancient Greek unit of gold coins）

Kushan empire ruled the north-west region of India, and its 4th King Kanishka (around 127-150) was heavily devoted to Buddhism. Buddhist art flourished mainly around Gandhara. Kushan empire casted high quality gold coins, and actively engaged in trade with the Roman empire in the Golden Age and Later Han dynasty. On the front of this coin is a text in Greek which reads "The king of kings, Kanishka", and an engraving of the King with his hands over the worship fire. On the back of the coin is a Buddha (inscribed ΒΟΔΔΟ), although it is common to have an image of the gods. The Buddha has a big nimbus. With the right hand, it forms the mudra of semui-in with the palm facing forward, and with the left hand it holds the edge of the garment. This image is similar to the Buddha standing statues that were created in Gandhara in that time. There are few golden coins in the world which are similar in type.

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平山郁夫シルクロードコレクション

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Kanishka I Gold Coin（Ancient Greek unit of gold coins）｜平山郁夫シルクロードコレクション

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Kanishka I Gold Coin（Ancient Greek unit of gold coins） Kushan empire ruled the north-west region of India, and its 4th King Kanishka (around 127-150) was heavily devoted to Buddhism. Buddhist art flourished mainly around Gandhara. Kushan empire casted high quality gold coins, and actively engaged in trade with the Roman empire in the Golden Age and Later Han dynasty.

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The Met's Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History

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Gandhara is the ancient name of a region in northwest Pakistan bounded on the west by the Hindu Kush mountain range and to the north by the foothills of the Himalayas. In 330 , Alexander the Great conquered this region and, together with the Indo-Greek kings that succeeded him, introduced classical traditions that became an important part of Gandhara's artistic vocabulary over the next seven centuries. This contact resulted in the establishment of overland trade routes through the Parthian empire and Indo-Greek cities like Ai-Khanoum in northern Afghanistan. Starting about 50 , this trade dramatically increased with the introduction of ocean routes employing monsoon winds to cross the Arabian Sea. These sea routes supplied an expanding overland trade network that passed through Gandhara and continued on to Central Asia and China. Gandharan control of the high mountain passes vital to this international commerce made the region wealthy; the resulting cosmopolitan elites became some of the most powerful Buddhist patrons in all of South Asia.

Luxury goods from the second to first century B.C. found in ancient fortified cities constitute some of the earliest remains from Gandhara attesting to contact with the Mediterranean world. Typical of this production is a stone dish ( 1987.142.307) that likely had a domestic religious function. Carved into the face is a representation of Daphne turning to look back at the approaching figure of Apollo, a composition that reveals the artist's familiarity with Hellenistic motifs and narrative structure, and perhaps even the story itself. Related in format is a silver roundel depicting the goddess Hariti ( 1981.460.2), a protector of children, only in this instance the linear treatment of drapery is stylistically akin to imagery of the Parthian empire. As is typical of many Gandharan compositions, Hariti wears jewelry and sits on a throne that has clear South Asian origins; this synthesis of foreign styles with Indian forms is typical of the multi-ethnic character of Gandharan taste.

Buddhism probably reached Gandhara as early as the third century B.C.; by the beginning of the second century B.C., archaeological remains begin to appear. It is not until the first century A.D., however, that this new religion received significant local patronage. Typically, a Buddhist center was comprised of monastic housing adjacent to a public sacred area that had at its center a stupa (a solid domed structure) containing relics of the Buddha. A reliquary in the Museum's collection ( 1987.142.70a,b) has an inscription that records its donation by a local prince, Indravarman, who in 5-6 A.D. brought relics of the lord Shakyamuni in procession and established them in a deep depository. The inscription tells us that he did this to earn merit for named members of his extended family and himself as well as to secure the happiness and welfare of his kingdom. The physical presence of the Buddha's holy relics were the primary focus for Gandharan lay and monastic veneration. These sacred areas empowered by relics served the local population and were vital centers of pilgrimage; over time, they attracted donations that often took the form of sculptural imagery. Some of the earliest examples are brackets with volutes that would have been attached to the drums of stupas to support garlands of flowers; a mid-first-century A.D. garland holder with a winged celestial emerging from acanthus leaves ( 1987.142.213) can be directly compared to the Hariti plaque in terms of date and Parthian stylistic affiliation. Also from around the first century A.D. is a stair riser with marine deities or boatmen ( 13.96.21) that shows connections with Greco-Roman art of the Mediterranean. The artist focused on the anatomy, though in a rather free manner; the figure on the far right is quite accurate, while the second from the left, with its exaggerated lumpy abdominal muscles, is more approximate.

Following Alexander's invasion, Gandhara's early history is characterized by political instability as successive groups took control of the prosperous region; they included the Indo-Greeks, Shakas, Parthians, Scythians, and ultimately, in the first century A.D., the Kushan dynasty, which captured this area as well as much of northern India and northern Afghanistan (ancient Bactria and Nagarahara). Most of the major Buddhist centers of Gandhara were founded during the second century A.D. under powerful kings like Kanishka ( 99.35.3024). Relics remained central to devotional practice, and stupas came to be embellished with narrative reliefs that recounted the Buddha Shakyamuni's miraculous life and emphasized his physical presence at the site. For example, a schist sculpture ( 1980.527.4) depicts Shakyamuni teaching the first sermon to five ascetics who become monks and establish the monastic order. The Buddha reaches down to set the wheel of the law in motion; by this time, the wheel was a well-established symbol of the Buddhist teachings, or dharma. Shakyamuni's death is the subject of another panel in the Museum's collection ( 2015.500.4.1), in which lay followers and monks are shown gesturing in grief. The Buddha's last convert, Subhadra, seated with his back toward us, is the only one who appears calm as he realizes that Shakyamuni has broken free of the cycle of rebirth and has reached nirvana.

The narrative tradition rapidly gave way to independent images that were better suited to devotional practices. One of the earliest examples is a small bronze Buddha ( 2003.593.1) that can be dated to the first or second century A.D. based on similarities with Roman portraiture in the time of Nero. The Buddha sits in a yogic posture and holds his hand in the abhayamudra (a gesture of approachability). Traces of gold in his robe and serrated radiating halo indicate that originally this figure would have had quite a different appearance, one that would have equated his enlightenment with light streaming out from these reflective gold surfaces. Such devotional imagery became immensely popular, and by the third century the sacred areas came to be populated with images of buddhas and bodhisattvas executed in schist. Maitreya ( 13.96.17) was a prominent subject-readily identifiable by his northern Indian princely garb rendered in a classical style and by the water flask held in his left hand. Maitreya is an enlightened bodhisattva who resides in Tushita Heaven waiting for the next Buddhist age, when, like Shakyamuni, he will be reborn on earth to spread the dharma as the next Buddha. The popular appearance of Maitreya marks a shift in Buddhist practice that emphasized the veneration of bodhisattvas; however, the Buddha's relics remained the primary devotional focus throughout the Gandharan tradition.

The third to mid-fifth centuries witnessed an incredible surge in the patronage of Buddhist sacred areas and monastic institutions, and most of the extant Gandharan architecture dates to this period; this includes the sites of Taxila as well as the massive monastic institutions of Takht-i-Bahi, Sahri-Bahlol, Jamal Garhi, Ranigat, and Thareli. The use of stucco largely replaces schist as the medium for sculpture, perhaps in response to the need to embellish these rapidly expanding centers. Stucco imagery, such as a head of a Buddha that is likely from Taxila ( 13.96.4), could be rapidly executed, molds could be employed, and the finished product was readily painted. Often such stucco imagery exhibits a spontaneous exuberance not seen in the more laboriously produced schist sculpture; a door guardian, or dvarapala, being a good example ( 1991.132).

Toward the end of this intense period of patronage in the fourth to mid-fifth century, monumental images of Buddhas and, to a lesser extent, bodhisattvas appear. A torso of a massive bodhisattva, which originally would have stood more than 10 feet tall, gives us a sense of the sophistication and quality of work being done in this late period ( 1995.419). The naturalistic treatment of the musculature and the drapery attests to the long-standing Gandharan taste for classical forms, even though such imagery had largely gone out of fashion in the Roman world. Stone sculptures of this scale are quite rare as such large pieces of schist were not readily available nor were they stable; this rock type easily broke along bedding planes. In this instance, the extensive losses have left us with little more than the figure's torso. Because of these limitations, most monumental images were done in clay, with stucco being used for the hands, feet, and heads ( 1977.191). Some of these Gandharan figures would have been more than 40 feet tall.

About the middle of the fifth century, Gandhara was conquered by groups of people often identified as the Huns or Hephthalites, thus bringing this major period of Buddhist patronage to a close. Still, a handful of objects attest to an ongoing Buddhist presence in Gandhara during the following centuries. A late sixth-century Buddha ( 1981.188ab) is a good example of the perpetuation of Gandharan-style images. However, important adjacent Buddhist communities continued to thrive in the Swat Valley, Kashmir, and Afghanistan. Not surprisingly, sculptural production seen in the Kabul Valley of Afghanistan follows the artistic tradition originally established in Gandhara. Like the monumental Gandharan torso, the sculpture found at Afghan sites such as Hadda, including a head of a bodhisattva ( 1986.2), is quite naturalistic. Still, the inset garnet eyes and elaborate hairstyle are elements not seen in Gandhara, but rather are an expression of Afghan taste. Ultimately, however, the stylistic roots of Buddhism in north India are reflected in another head from the site of Hadda ( 30.32.5) that takes on the formal stylized features of Gupta-period images found in the Ganges River basin. The taste for classical forms eventually fades, and by the eighth century, with the coming of Islam, the Buddhist tradition comes to an end in Afghanistan.

Behrendt, Kurt. "Gandhara." In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000-. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/gand/hd_gand.htm (April 2012)

Behrendt, Kurt. The Art of Gandhara in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2007. See on MetPublications
Behrendt, Kurt. Asia and the Ancient World.
Behrendt, Kurt. "Narrative Sequences in the Buddhist Reliefs from Gandhara." In South Asian Archaeology 2001, edited by Catherine Jarrige and Vincent Lefèvre, vol. 2, pp. 383-92. Paris: Éditions Recherche sur les Civilisations, 2005.

Casson, Lionel. The Periplus Maris Erythraei: Text with Introduction, Translation, and Commentary. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989.

Ingholt, Harald. Gandharan Art in Pakistan. New York: Pantheon Books, 1957.

Kuwayama, Shoshin. "Route Changes and the Decline of Gandhara." In Gandharan Buddhism: Archaeology, Art, Texts, edited by Pia Brancaccio and Kurt Behrendt. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2006.

Liu, Xinru. Ancient India and Ancient China: Trade and Religious Exchange, AD 1-600. Dehli: Oxford University Press, 1994.

Rhi, Juhyung. "Bodhisattvas in Gandharan Art: An Aspect of Mahayana in Gandharan Buddhism." In Gandharan Buddhism: Archaeology, Art, Texts, edited by Pia Brancaccio and Kurt Behrendt. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2006.

Rosenfield, John M. The Dynastic Arts of the Kushans. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967.

Taddei, Maurizio. "Afghanistan, Sculpture." In Dictionary of Art. New York: Macmillan, 1996.

Taddei, Maurizio. "Oral Narrative, Visual Narrative, Literary Narrative in Ancient Buddhist India." In India, Tibet, China: Genesis and Aspects of Traditional Narrative, edited by Alfredo Cadonna, pp. 71-85. Florence: L. S. Olschki, 1999.

Zwalf, Wladimir. A Catalogue of the Gandhara Sculpture in the British Museum. 2 vols.. London: British Museum Press, 1996.

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Gandhara | Essay | The Metropolitan Museum of Art | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History

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Synthesis of foreign styles with Indian forms is typical of the multi-ethnic character of Gandharan taste.

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Alexander the Great coin (British Museum)

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Alexander the Great coin (British Museum)

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Silver coin. (whole) Head of Alexander the Great, right, diademed and wearing a ram’s horn; dotted border. (obverse) Athena Nikephoros seated left; Nike in outstretched right hand crowning inscription with wreath; spear resting behind; left a…

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with Two Attendants is an early example of the Buddha shown in anthropomorphic (human) form. The historic Buddha, born a prince named Siddhartha Gautama, is believed to have lived and preached in the fifth century B.C.E. When he died, his relics and the stupas that came to symbolize the Buddha became the primary focus of devotion for his followers.

The Buddha was not shown in human form in early Indian art, but rather, in aniconic (symbolic) form. Stupas were adorned with visually engaging stories that celebrated the Buddha with symbols-footprints, thrones, and parasols, for example-that signified the presence of the Buddha and commanded the respect that the Buddha himself would receive.

The reasons for avoiding anthropomorphic representations of the Buddha in those early centuries may have centered on the belief that the Buddha-who had lived 550 lifetimes and had achieved the development of the anthropomorphic Buddha, devotees were given a new focus for their ritual practices in nirvana (liberation from the cycle of karmic rebirth)-was freed of the human form. By the turn of the shrines and monasteries. common era, however, Buddhist beliefs had changed. The Buddha was deified, and with

Smiling, the Buddha sits cross-legged and rests a closed fist on his left knee. Layers of cloth gathered on his left arm and shoulder fall gracefully down his back, while the curved indentation across his chest and across his calves suggests the lightness of his robe. The Buddha holds his right hand up in ) and The covered by a tightly twisted hair-bun and centered above the Buddha's head, while the abhaya mudra- a gesture of protection and reassurance. Wheels (marked on the palm of his hand and on his feet) and lotuses on his feet announce the Buddha's divinity. Other signifiers of his godliness, such as the (cranial protuberance, see image below was likely once a small rock crystal. The historic Buddha's life as a prince prior to his enlightenment is referenced by his elongated ears, which were caused by the heavy jewelry that he once wore. urna (auspicious mark on the forehead) have been lost over time. ushnisha would have been urna

Although the mottled red color of the stone in the Seated Buddha is striking, our attention is focused on the sculptors' meticulous carving. A close look at the Buddha shows carefully outlined fingers on his left hand and a beautifully detailed thumb and fingernail, a realistic portrayal of the knees and wrists, and a softly modeled stomach. The face is also particularly compelling, and we can almost see the Buddha's chin lift as he smiles.

The Buddha's Attendants

Gods and goddesses in Indian art are often accompanied by attendants, and here the Buddha has two. The artists have employed a technique known as hierarchic scaling to emphasize the Buddha's importance because the smaller scale of the attendant figures highlights his monumentality. Imagine how the Buddha would tower over his attendants if he were to stand! The attendants mirror one another in their stances and adornment, and they both carry a chauri (fly-whisk) in their right hand in a gesture that indicates their service to the Buddha . Subtle differences in their facial features and in their headdresses suggest individual personalities.

This type of representation of the Buddha appears to have been popular in the second century C.E. Comparing the Seated Buddha to similar stelae from the same period helps us determine its missing parts. Looking at a stele known as the Katra stele (after Katra, an archaeological site in Mathura, India) and another titled Stele with Bodhisattva and Two Attendants in the collection of the Harvard Art Museums, we can see that the upper portion of the Seated Buddha may have once had a large halo and flying celestial beings. Halos (referencing rays of light) and celestial beings signify divine radiance and the attendance of a heavenly retinue.

Inscriptions and dates

On the face of the carved dais are rampant leogryphs and a pair of attendants who flank a pillar. The Buddhist character of the pillar is evident by the wheel (the wheel symbolizes the Buddha's teachings) that is shown in profile at its summit. The pillar and the wheel represent the Buddha and his teachings, and are flanked by attendants just as the figure of the Buddha is above.

The relief panel is framed by two lines of text in Sanskrit. [1] Inscriptions such as these record donors' gifts for posterity and include the date of the donation. These dates followed the regnal years of the king who was in power at that time. The inscription on the Seated Buddha mentions the dedication of the image during the fourth year of the Kushan dynasty (c. 2nd century B.C.E.-3rd century C.E.) king Kanishka. Although scholars continue to refine the year in which Kanishka ascended the throne, the current consensus suggests that the image would have been dedicated in c. 132 C.E. Seated Buddha is one of only a few Buddha images that has been dated with an inscription to this early period in the common era. Having this frame of reference is invaluable because it helps scholars date stylistically similar images to this period.

Gandhara and Mathura

The sandstone from which Seated Buddha was carved was preferred by the artist workshops of Mathura, a city in northern India. Mathura and the Gandhara region (in present-day Pakistan) have yielded the earliest known anthropomorphic representations of the Buddha. Both Gandhara and Mathura were under the rulership of the Kushan kings at the turn of the common era and were important political centers; the Kushans' winter capital was located in Mathura and their summer capital in Gandhara.

Gandhara Buddha

The anthropomorphic form of the Buddha in Gandhara and Mathura developed simultaneously and yet resulted in remarkably distinct styles. [2] The Gandhara region's encounter with Alexander the Great in the fourth century B.C.E. and its history of Indo-Greek rulers in the centuries thereafter meant that a classical and Hellenistic (Greek) style of art and architecture was a part of the Gandhara region's artistic vocabulary. Buddhas from Gandhara show a familiarity with Greco-Roman styles of sculpture; this is apparent in the comparison below, for example, in the drapery, hair, facial features, and musculature of the Gandhara Buddha.

Mathura Buddha

As opposed to their Gandharan counterparts-with their inward-looking meditative expressions-Buddhas produced contemporaneously in Mathura look directly at us, as we see in the in striking contrast to the stylized hair of the Buddhas of Gandhara. They are also most often depicted wearing monastic robes (known as Seated Buddha. Their heads are smooth and topped with the kaparda (Sanskrit for a braided and coiled hairstyle ) sangati) with one shoulder left bare.

Artists in Mathura were inspired by the regional style of sculptures. Art historians have suggested that one inspiration for the Mathura style of the Buddha may be images of yakshas (male fertility spirits). A comparison of a standing yaksha image with a standing sculpture known as the Bala Bodhisattva reveals shared commonalities in their monumental size, columnar character, emphatically frontal attitude, and broad shoulders.

Artists would have refined existing sculptural forms (like that of the Yaksha figure) to create the newly popular anthropomorphic form of the Buddha. Although Bala Bodhisattva is identified not as the Buddha but rather as a bodhisattva (a being who is on the path to enlightenment) the iconographic treatment of the Buddha and bodhisattvas is identical in this early period.

Images produced in Mathura in the Gupta period (c. 4th-7th centuries C.E.), like this Standing Buddha, would develop the Mathura style of the Kushan period even further. The Buddha's facial features are softer, the folds on his robe (which will cover both of his shoulders) are a cascade of looped strings, his hair is beautifully coiled, and his eyes lower, looking inward.

Standing Buddha from the Gupta period and Seated Buddha with Two Attendants from the earlier Kushan period illustrate the development of the Buddha image in early history. Both images were produced in Mathura from the same stone and both represent a standard type of Buddha image from their respective eras. They are apt examples of how artistic processes and styles change over time.
Notes:
[1] In particular, a type of "Buddhist Sanskrit." See Gérard Fussman cited under References .

[2] The question of which style of Buddha came first (i.e., the Buddha from Mathura or Gandhara) and hence represents the earliest type of anthropomorphic Buddha image has been a long debated issue. See Ananda K. Coomaraswamy and Alfred Foucher cited below.
Additional resources:
Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, "The Origin of the Buddha Image," The Art Bulletin 9, no. 4 (1927): 287-329.

Vidya Dehejia, Indian Art (London: Phaidon Press, 1997).

Alfred Foucher, "The Greek Origin of the Image of Buddha." In Alfred Foucher, The Beginnings of Buddhist Art and other Essays in Indian and Central-Asian Archaeology (Paris: Paul Geuthner, 1997), pp. 111-137.

Gérard Fussman, "Documents épigraphiques kochans (V). Buddha et Bodhisattva dans l'art de Mathura: deux Bodhisattvas inscrits de l'an 4 et l'an 8," Bulletin de l'École française d'Extrême-Orient (1988), pp. 5-26.

Prudence R. Myer, "Bodhisattvas and Buddhas: Early Buddhist Images from Mathura," Artibus Asiae 47, no. 2 (1986): 107-142.

Sonya Rhie Quintanilla, History of Early Stone Sculpture At Mathura, ca. 150 BCE-100 C.E. (Leiden: Brill, 2007).

Ju-Hyung Rhi, "From Bodhisattva to Buddha: The Beginning of Iconic Representation in Buddhist Art," Artibus Asiae 54, no. 3 / 4 (1994): 207-225.

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Divinity in stone, an early Buddha from Mathura.

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The Gupta period saw tremendous advances in Indian art and architecture.

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Castiglione, One Hundred Horses drawing (MET)

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Castiglione, One Hundred Horses drawing (MET)

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Zurich. Museum Rietberg. "The Mandate of Heaven: Emperors and Artists in China," April 2, 1996-July 7, 1996.

Museum für Asiatische Kunst, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. "The Mandate of Heaven: Emperors and Artists in China," August 3, 1996-November 10, 1996.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "When the Manchus Ruled China: Painting under the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911)," February 2-August 18, 2002.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Chinese Painting, Masterpieces from the Permanent Collection," August 28, 2004-February 20, 2005.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Emperor's Private Paradise: Treasures from the Forbidden City," February 1-May 1, 2011.

Taipei. National Palace Museum. "Portrayals from a Brush Divine: A Special Exhibition on the Tricentennial of Giuseppe Castiglione's Arrival in China," October 8, 2015-January 4, 2016.

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Giuseppe Castiglione | One Hundred Horses | China | Qing dynasty (1644-1911) | The Metropolitan Museum of Art

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Inscription: No artist's inscription, signature, or seal Label strip Unidentified artist, 2 columns in standard script, 20th c. (printed): 日華古今繪畫展覽會出品 第 號 清 郎世寧 《百駿圖》 素描卷 Colophon 1

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Prior to their recent destruction, the 6th-7th century, rock-cut Buddha sculptures in the Bamiyan Valley of central Afghanistan were considered the largest in the world. Known collectively as the Bamiyan Buddhas, the two monumental sculptures have amazed both Buddhist and non-Buddhist visitors for more than a thousand years. Like many of the world's great ancient monuments, little is known about who commissioned the Bamiyan Buddhas or the sculptors who carved them. However, their very existence points to the importance of the Buddhist faith and the Bamiyan Valley during this period.

Buddhism along the Silk Route

Buddhism spread, in part, because it was not location specific. Believers did not need to worship at a particular temple or at a particular site as part of their practice. Worship could take place anywhere and at anytime. This freedom resulted in the emergence of Buddhist cave architecture throughout Asia. Indeed, if one visits Bamiyan today, one will see nearly 1000 Buddhist caves carved along 1300 meters of cliff face.[1] It is against this backdrop of carved caves that the two monumental Buddha images were carved.

Monumental Buddhas

Both images were carved into niches of the cliff side in high relief. The area near the heads of both Buddha figures and the area around the larger Buddha's feet were carved in the round, allowing worshippers to circumambulate. Circumambulation, which is the act of walking around an object such as a stupa (a reliquary mound) or an image of the Buddha, is a common practice in Buddhist worship.

Heavenly deities

Much of what we know about the monumental Buddha sculptures comes from the Chinese monk Xuanzang (Hsuan-Tsang) who traveled to Bamiyan in 643 and documented his travels in the text The Great Tang Records of the Western Regions (Da Tang Xiyu Ji). As the earliest text describing the Buddha images, Xuanzang's writings provide us with remarkable descriptions of the sculptures and the vibrant communities that inhabited the region. He wrote:

When merchants coming and going happen to witness visions of heavenly deities, whether as good omens or as predictions of disaster, they worship the deities to pray for blessedness. There are several tens of monasteries with several thousand monks, who follow the Hinayana teachings of the Lokottaravada school. To the northeast of the city, there is at a corner of the mountains a rock statue of the Buddha standing, one hundred forty or fifty feet in height, a dazzling golden color and adorned with brilliant gems. To the east there is a monastery built by a previous king of the country. To the east of the monastery there is a copper statue of the Buddha standing, more than one hundred feet tall. It was cast in separate pieces and then welded together into shape.[3]

While there is debate over the material and treatment of the Buddha's faces, we know that pigments were applied to the stucco that covered the stone surfaces of the sculptures. Stucco helped to even out the textured rock surface. One can imagine what a powerful impression these monumental Buddhas would have made on passersby and worshippers.

Destruction

Mullah Omar ordered Taliban forces to demolish the Bamiyan Buddhas in 2001. The destruction was complete. Only outlines of the figures and a few details remain. The direction to destroy the Buddha images was motivated, in part, by the Taliban's extreme iconoclastic campaign as well as their disdain for western interest and funding that had gone to protecting the images while there was an intense and growing need for humanitarian aid in the region. The Taliban's claim that destroying the Buddha sculptures was an Islamic act is belied by the fact that Bamiyan had become predominantly Muslim by the 10th century and that the sculptures had up until 2001 remained a largely intact.

The destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas was a huge loss for our understanding of human history. However, even in darkness light has a way of emerging. Since their destruction several new discoveries have been made near the sites of the Bamiyan Buddhas including the discovery of fragments of a 62-foot long reclining Buddha.

Essay by Dr. Melody Rod-ari

In 2001, Mullah Omar ordered Taliban forces to demolish the Bamiyan Buddhas. As reported in The Guardian, the destruction took several weeks, and the two figures "proved remarkably solid. Anti-aircraft guns had little effect, so the engineers placed anti-tank mines between their feet, then bored holes into their heads and packed them with dynamite." Only outlines of the figures and a few details now remain in place; fragments of them (including about 30% of the smaller Buddha) are piled nearby.

The Taliban's direction to destroy the Buddha images was motivated, in part, by the group's extreme iconoclastic campaign as well as their disdain for the fact that money from western countries was being spent on protecting the images while there was an intense and growing need for humanitarian aid in the region. It was also unquestionably an act designed to gain global media attention, as video and photographs of the destruction circulated quickly and were seen all over the world.

Bamiyan is now listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in Danger, and debates over how to restore the site connect to both national and international issues around what constitutes proper preservation, interpretation, and remembrance at former sites of violence. The questions that must now be answered about Bamiyan are: how do we preserve what is left at the site from further destruction or deterioration? How do we do so in a way that takes into account the needs and desires of the local, national, and international communities for whom this site holds meaning? And how do we properly memorialize the tragedy of the Buddhas' recent destruction?

The Taliban's claim that destroying the Buddha sculptures was an Islamic act is belied by the fact that Bamiyan had become predominantly Muslim by the tenth century and that the sculptures had up until 2001 remained a largely intact. Distinct, non-Buddhist local traditions had grown up around the two sculptures, with a legend characterizing them as doomed lovers who had pledged to live out their commitment to one another by standing together in stone for eternity. "Local people had completely forgotten they were figures of the Buddha," said the head of historical monuments in Bamiyan province.

Preservation efforts by an international team have been ongoing since 2001. The porous sandstone that makes up the site makes it vulnerable to quick erosion, and the niches, the cliff face, and the surrounding caves have needed to be shored up with props and grouting to prevent collapse. There has also been an ongoing debate over how and whether to reconstruct parts of the site. One proposal, backed most heavily by the German arm of ICOMOS (the International Council on Monuments and Sites, an international organization that supports preservation and monument protection) supports using the original fragments along with new material to reconstruct the smaller Buddha figure. Other experts oppose this idea, saying that the niches ought to be preserved as empty memorials to the sculptures' violent destruction, similar to other sites like the Genbaku dome in Hiroshima or the Gedächtniskirche in Berlin. In 2015, two Chinese documentary filmmakers used 3-D technology to project holograms of the Buddhas into their niches as a temporary monument to their loss, but no permanent solutions have yet been pursued. Work by a German ICOMOS team at Bamiyan was stopped in 2013 because it was suspected that they were already rebuilding the feet of the smaller Buddha from scratch, violating both an official 2011 decision to not rebuild the sculpture, as well as the terms of the international 1964 Venice Charter, which specifies that original material must be used in reconstructions. [6]

Recently, however, the government of Afghanistan has requested that the reconstruction of the smaller statue be undertaken, citing, among other reasons, the dire need for tourist income to Bamiyan. The Bamiyan area, one of the poorest in Afghanistan, is home to a distinct ethnic group, the Hazara, who resisted Taliban influence and have also long resented what they see as discrimination by the country's leaders in Kabul. However, how to reconstruct the Buddha figure is still the subject of debate. A UNESCO meeting of international experts in 2017 concluded that "any consideration of recovery and reconstruction should be based on thorough multi-disciplinary research and scientific analysis, to ensure an understanding of the structural, material and other characteristics of the damaged heritage property"-in other words, ample funding and time are needed in order to ensure that the work takes place in proper and ethical ways.

The destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas was a huge loss for our understanding of human history. However, even in darkness light has a way of emerging. Since their destruction, several new discoveries have been made near the sites of the Bamiyan Buddhas including the discovery of fragments of a 62-foot long reclining Buddha, as well as several caves with murals that may be the world's earliest examples of oil paint.

As the UNESCO 2017 report states, "the Bamiyan World Heritage property should be considered a place of collective identity and memory, particularly for the local communities; the archaeological remains cannot be separated from their natural and cultural landscape nor from local perspectives."

Backstory by Dr. Naraelle Hohensee

[1] Takayasu Higuchi and Gina Barnes, "Bamiyan: Buddhist Cave Temples in Afghanistan," World Archaeology, vol. 27, no. 2, Buddhist Archaeology (Oct., 1995), pp. 282-302.

[2] Llewelyn Morgan, Buddhas of Bamiyan: Wonders of the World (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2012), p. 7.

[3] Xuanzang, The Great Tang Dynasty Record of the Western Regions, translated Li Rongxi (Berkeley, CA: Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research, 1996), p. 38.

[4] Deborah Klimburg-Salter, The Kingdom of Bamiyan: Buddhist Art and Culture of the Hindu Kush (Naples and Rome: Instituto Universitario Orientale and Instituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente, 1989), 87-92.

[5] Finbarr Barry Flood, "Between Cult and Culture: Bamiyan, Islamic Iconoclasm, and the Museum," Art Bulletin, vol. LXXXIV, Number 4 (December 2002), p. 648.

[6] Constance Wyndham, "Reconstructing Afghan Identity: Nation-building, International Relations, and the Safeguarding of Afghanistan's Buddhist Heritage," in Museums, Heritage and International Development, ed. Paul Basu and Wayne Modest (Routledge. 2014), p. 126

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Bamiyan Buddhas (article) | Central Asia | Khan Academy

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Learn for free about math, art, computer programming, economics, physics, chemistry, biology, medicine, finance, history, and more. Khan Academy is a nonprofit with the mission of providing a free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere.

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Travels of Xuanzang (Google Arts & Culture)

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Travels of Xuanzang (Google Arts & Culture)

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TRAVELS OF XUANZANG (629-645 CE) - Google Arts & Culture

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Ten Thousand Miles Along the Silk Road and Indian Subcontinent

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China Online Museum - WelCOMe to the real COM!

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The British Museum in London is hosting a special exhibition of the nineteenth century China. Between 1796 and 1912 Qing China endured numerous civil uprisings and foreign wars, with revolution ultimately bringing an end to some 2,000 years of dynastic rule and giving way to a modern Chinese republic.

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Six Principles of Painting Xie He (6th century)

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Six Principles of Painting Xie He (6th century)

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Xie He, (flourished 6th century), Chinese figure painter and critic who is best remembered for collating or inventing the famous " Six Principles" ( liufa) of Chinese painting.

The "Six Principles" introduce Xie's Gu Huapin Lu ("Classified Record of Painters of Former Times"), which rates 27 painters in three classes of descending merit, each with three subdivisions. The "Six Principles" have inevitably acquired new and even different meanings through the ages, but generally they may be paraphrased as follows: creativity (or "spirit resonance"), structural use of the brush, proper representation of objects, specific coloration of those objects, good composition, and transmission of the old masters by copying them. These became the basic standards of both the Chinese painter's training and the critic's judgment.

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Xie He | Six Principles, Five Canons, Chinese Art

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Xie He, Chinese figure painter and critic who is best remembered for collating or inventing the famous "Six Principles" (liufa) of Chinese painting. The "Six Principles" introduce Xie's Gu Huapin Lu ("Classified Record of Painters of Former Times"), which rates 27 painters in three classes of

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Admonitions of the Instructress to the Court Ladies

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Admonitions of the Instructress to the Court Ladies

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This masterpiece is considered a milestone in Chinese painting history.

Traditionally attributed to Gu Kaizhi (about AD 345-406), it probably dates to between AD 400 and 700. Due to conservation precautions, it can only be displayed for six weeks a year.

The Admonitions Scroll depicts a poetic text composed by an official Zhang Hua (about AD 232-300) aimed at correcting the behaviour of an empress. The Scroll carries inscriptions by later collectors including the Qianlong emperor (r. 1736-1795). The British Museum purchased the Scroll from Captain Clarence Johnson (1870-1937) who was in Beijing in 1900 during the Boxer Rebellion (1899-1901). Originally a handscroll, the painting and later inscriptions were separated and mounted onto panels in 1914.

Also on display are two paintings by the modern artist Zhang Daqian (1899-1983) - Figure, Rock, and Bamboo and . Both paintings show the continued exploration of the brush-and-ink tradition during the twentieth century.

Booking information

Visiting information

from 8 July 18 August 2024. Visiting information will be available nearer the time.

Hand-held photography and video recording (without flash) is allowed in the gallery for private purposes only.

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Admonitions of the instructress to the court ladies

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A masterpiece of early Chinese figure painting, from the fifth to seventh century AD, displayed annually at the British Museum.

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Daoist mountain man, hermit, rustic, wine-lover-Fan Kuan has the reputation of having been truly unconventional. We know very little about this great artist, yet he painted the most majestic landscape painting of the early Song period. Everything about Travelers by Streams and Mountains, which is possibly the only surviving work by Fan Kuan, is an orderly statement reflecting the artist's worldview.

Fan Kuan painted a bold and straightforward example of Chinese landscape painting. After the long period of political disunity (the Five Dynasties period), Fan Kuan lived as a recluse and was one of many poets and artists of the time who were disenchanted with human affairs. He turned away from the world to seek spiritual enlightenment. Through his painting Travelers by Streams and Mountains, Fan Kuan expressed a cosmic vision of man's harmonious existence in a vast but orderly universe. The Neo-Confucian search for absolute truth in nature as well as self-cultivation reached its climax in the 11th century and is demonstrated in this work. Fan Kuan's landscape epitomizes the early Northern Song monumental style of landscape painting. Nearly seven feet in height, the hanging scroll composition presents universal creation in its totality, and does so with the most economic of means.

Immense boulders occupy the foreground and are presented to the viewer at eye level. Just beyond them one sees crisp, detailed brushwork describing rocky outcroppings, covered with trees. Looking closely, one sees two men driving a group of donkeys loaded with firewood and a temple partially hidden in the forest. In the background a central peak rises from a mist-filled chasm and is flanked by two smaller peaks. This solid screen of gritty rock takes up nearly two-thirds of the picture. The sheer height of the central peak is accentuated by a waterfall plummeting from a crevice near the summit and disappearing into the narrow valley.

The mountain form accurately captures the geological traits of southern Shaanxi and northwestern Henan provinces-thick vegetation grows only at the top of the bare steep-sided cliffs in thick layers of fine-grained soil known as loess. The mountains are triangular with deep crevices. In the painting they are conceived frontally and additively. To model the mountains, Fan Kuan used incisive thickening-and-thinning contour strokes, texture dots and ink wash. Strong, sharp brushstrokes depict the knotted trunks of the large trees. Notice the detailed brushwork that delineates the foliage and the fir trees silhouetted along the upper edge of the ledge in the middle distance.

To convey the sheer size of the landscape depicted in Travelers by Streams and Mountains, Fan Kuan relied on suggestion rather than description. The gaps between the three distances act as breaks between changing views. Note the boulders in the foreground, the tree-covered rock outcropping in the middle, and the soaring peaks in the background. The additive images do not physically connect; they are comprehended separately. The viewer is invited to imagine himself roaming freely, yet one must mentally jump from one distance to the next.

Central to understanding Neo-Confucian thought is the conceptual pair of li and qi. Li is usually translated as principles. It can be understood as principles that underlie all phenomena. Li constitutes the underlying pattern of reality. Nothing can exist if there is no li for it. This applies to human conduct and to the physical world. Qi can be characterized as the vital force and substance of which man and the universe are made. Qi can also be conceived of as energy, but energy which occupies space. In its most refined form it occurs as mysterious ether, but condensed it becomes solid metal or rock.

The Neo-Confucian theory of observing things in the light of their own principles ( li) clearly resonates in the immense splendor of Fan Kuan's masterpiece. Northern Song landscape painters did not paint as the human eye sees. By seeing things not through the human eye, but in the light of their own principles ( li), Fan Kuan was able to organize and present different aspects of a landscape within a single composition-he does this with a constantly shifting viewpoint. In his masterful balance of li and qi, Fan Kuan created a microcosmic image of a moral and orderly universe.

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Neo-Confucianism & Fan Kuan, Travelers by Streams and Mountains (article) | Khan Academy

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On a Mountain Path in Spring (山徑春行)

Ma Yuan (ca.1160-1225), Song Dynasty

Album leaf, ink and color on silk, 27.4 x 43.1 cm, National Palace Museum, Taipei

Emperor Ningzong's poem inscribed in the upper right corner reads, "The wild flowers dance when brushed by my sleeves. Reclusive birds make no sound as they shun the presence of people (觸袖野花多自舞，避人幽鳥不成啼)." The calligraphy is direct yet beautifully elegant. In the lower left is the signature of Ma Yuan, a court painter in the reigns of Emperors Guangzong (r. 1190-1194) and Ningzong (r. 1195-1224). These lines of poetry describe the stillness and tranquility of wild flowers, only to be disturbed by the intrusion of a lofty scholar taking a walk, a golden oriole responding by taking off in flight. The painting fuses lyrical meanings as stillness and activity intersect at this moment. As the bird takes flight, the branches of the weeping willow seem to blow in the breeze at the same time. A child attendant carries a wrapped zither proceeding to the middle of the painting while the lofty scholar seems to have stopped in mid-step to ponder the beauty of Nature. He twists his beard as if composing a verse, his view extending into the misty distance of the great void. The direction of the bird in flight and the movement of the willow branches naturally take the viewer's eyes to the imperial inscription and the poetic intent behind it.

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Ma Yuan: On a Mountain Path in Spring - China Online Museum

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Ma Yuan (ca.1160-1225), Song Dynasty Album leaf, ink and color on silk, 27.4 x 43.1 cm, National Palace Museum, Taipei Emperor Ningzong's poem inscribed in the upper right corner reads, "The wild flowers dance when brushed by my sleeves. Reclusive birds make no sound as they shun the presence of people (觸袖野花多自舞，避人幽鳥不成啼)."

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Catalogue Raisonné T. WU, Tales from the Land of Dragons, 1997, Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, pp. 197-201

Provenance 17th century, Geng Zhaozhong (b. 1640 - d. 1686), Shandong, China. 18th century, Emperor Qianlong (b. 1711 - d. 1799), Qing Dynasty; to Emperor Jiaqing (b. 1760 - d. 1820), Qing Dynasty; probably given by one of the later Qing emperors to Yixin, Prince Gong (b. 1833 - d. 1898) [see note 1]. 1917, Yamanaka and Co., New York; sold by Yamanaka to the MFA for $25,000. (Accession Date: June 14, 1917)

NOTES:
[1] See Zhang Hongxing, "The Nineteenth-Century Provenance of the Admonitions Scroll: A Hypothesis," in Gu Kaizhi and the Admonitions Scroll, ed. S. McCausland (London, 2003), p. 278.

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Catalogue Raisonné T. WU, Tales from the Land of Dragons, 1997, Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, pp. 197-201 Provenance 17th century, Geng Zhaozhong (b. 1640 - d. 1686), Shandong, China. 18th century, Emperor Qianlong (b. 1711 - d. 1799), Qing Dynasty; to Emperor Jiaqing (b. 1760 - d.

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Emperor Huizong, Auspicious Cranes, handscroll (article) | Khan Academy

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Learn for free about math, art, computer programming, economics, physics, chemistry, biology, medicine, finance, history, and more. Khan Academy is a nonprofit with the mission of providing a free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere.

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Sheep and Goat 二羊圖 is an object in the NMAA collection.

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Rivers and Mountains on a Clear Autumn Day, Dong Qichang

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Rivers and Mountains on a Clear Autumn Day, Dong Qichang

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River and Mountains on a Clear Autumn Day

Did you know?

The painting has an imprint of a Korean seal that reads "Seal of the king of Joseon."

Description

Dong Qichang had a tremendous impact on the artistic practices and historiography of later generations; his works and writings shaped literati aesthetics. Here, Dong places an abstract landscape composition diagonally across the picture plane, configured to recall earlier masters and simultaneously express his own personal style. Dong's inscription claims, Huang Gongwang's Autumn Day, looks like this. I truly regret the master has not seen my work. In fact, Dong Qichang may have had Dong Yuan's Xiao and Xiang Rivers in mind, a work he owned and considered a key work in Chinese art history.

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River and Mountains on a Clear Autumn Day

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The painting has an imprint of a Korean seal that reads "Seal of the king of Joseon." Dong Qichang had a tremendous impact on the artistic practices and historiography of later generations; his works and writings shaped literati aesthetics.

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The city of Dunhuang, in north-west China, is situated at a point of vital strategic and logistical importance, on a crossroads of two major trade routes within the Silk Road network. Lying in an oasis at the edge of the Taklamakan Desert, Dunhuang was one of the first trading cities encountered by merchants arriving in China from the west. It was also an ancient site of Buddhist religious activity, and was a popular destination for pilgrims, as well as acting as a garrison town protecting the region. The remarkable Mogao Caves, a collection of nearly 500 caves in the cliffs to the south of the city, contain the largest depositary of historic documents along the Silk Roads and bear witness to the cultural, religious, social and commercial activity that took place in Dunhuang across the first millennium. The city changed hands many times over its long history, but remained a vibrant hub of exchange until the 11th century, after which its role in Silk Road trade began to decline.

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Cave Temples of Dunhuang (The Getty Research Institute)

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Cave Temples of Dunhuang (The Getty Research Institute)

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Explore the religious, artistic, and cultural exchanges along the Silk Road through an exhibition of exquisite artworks and sculptures, a virtual immersive experience of an 8th century cave, and three spectacular full-size cave replicas from the Mogao Grottoes near Dunhuang, China.

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Sir Marc Aurel Stein (4 expeditions to Dunhuang)

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Sir Marc Aurel Stein (4 expeditions to Dunhuang)

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Sir Marc Aurel Stein was born in Budapest in 1862. He graduated in Sanskrit and Persian and received his Ph.D. from Tübingen, Germany in 1883. The following year he went to England to study oriental languages and archaeology, before setting out for a career in India. His formal positions from 1888 onwards were as registrar of Punjab University and principal of the Oriental College, Lahore and principal of the Calcutta Madrasah. But his real passion was the exploration of Central Asia, China, India and the Middle East.

Stein's Silk Road expeditions were funded by various institutions for which he promised to collect archaeological and textual artefacts. Stein's first expedition (1900 - 1) was funded by the Government of India and the Government of Punjab and Bengal, and it was agreed that the finds should be studied in London and allocated to specific museums later. The second expedition (1906 - 8) was funded 60% by the Government of India and 40% by the British Museum, and the finds were to be allocated accordingly. The third expedition (1913 - 16) was funded entirely by the Government of India. The intention here was that the majority of finds from this expedition should be the foundation of a new museum in New Delhi, and that representative specimen and 'literary remains' should be presented to the British Museum.

Stein was a meticulous early archaeologist. When arriving at a new archaeological site, he surveyed the area and the site itself, drawing a clear plan to scale of the major remains. Stein excavated each area in turn, making sure to note the layers at which objects were uncovered and making note of every find. Every object was then marked individually with a string of unique characters which defined its exact location in each site.

The V&A did not contribute financially to any of Stein's expeditions, but recognised the importance of the finds, and applied for a long term deposit. Close to 600 textile fragments were given on permanent loan by the Government of India in three instalments (1923, 1932 and 1933). Most of these were recovered in the second expedition, but also some from the third.

Stein adopted British nationality in 1904 and he was knighted for his contribution to Central Asian studies. In 1943, when he was in his 80s, Stein embarked on his long-awaited expedition to Afghanistan, but died in Kabul a week after his arrival in the country.

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Sir Marc Aurel Stein (1862 - 1943), a Hungarian-born, British archaeologist, is largely credited to have rediscovered The Silk Road.

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Tomb model of a Han dynasty watch tower (National Museum of Asian Art)

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Tomb model of a Han dynasty watch tower (National Museum of Asian Art)

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Tomb model of a watch tower is an object in the NMAA collection.

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Outstanding Universal Value

The massive Yungang Buddhist grottoes were cut from the mid-5 th Century to early-6 th Century AD. Comprising 252 caves and niches and 51,000 statues within a carved area of 18,000 square meters, the Yungang Grottoes represent the outstanding achievement of Buddhist cave art in China. The Five Caves created by Tan Yao are a classical masterpiece of the first peak of Chinese art, with a strict unity of layout and design. The will of the State is reflected in Buddhist belief in China during the Northern Wei Dynasty since the Grottoes were built with Imperial instructions. While influenced by Buddhist cave art from South and Central Asia, Yungang Grottoes have also interpreted the Buddhist cave art with distinctive Chinese character and local spirit. As a result, Yungang Grottoes have played a vitally important role among early Oriental Buddhist grottoes and had a far-reaching impact on Buddhist cave art in China and East Asia.

Criterion (i): The assemblage of statuary of the Yungang Grottoes is a masterpiece of early Chinese Buddhist cave art.

Criterion (ii): The Yungang cave art represents the successful fusion of Buddhist religious symbolic art from south and central Asia with Chinese cultural traditions, starting in the 5th century CE under Imperial auspices.

Criterion (iii): The power and endurance of Buddhist belief in China are vividly illustrated by the Yungang grottoes.

Criterion (iv): The Buddhist tradition of religious cave art achieved its first major impact at Yungang, where it developed its own distinct character and artistic power.
Integrity
The statues housed in the caves and niches are in good condition and all of the caves and statues have not suffered major damage from vandalism and/or natural disasters. Restoration and repair had been made on deficient parts of some statues in the past. All the necessary attributes demonstrating the Outstanding Universal Value of Yungang Grottoes are contained within the boundary of the property area. The buffer zone provides a necessary safe area for the conservation of the Grottoes, the setting and the historic environment. These measures have enabled the Yungang Grottoes to serve as one of the greatest ancient stone carving art treasure houses in the world.
Authenticity
The location, caves and statues of the Yungang Grottoes have retained their historic appearance. The eaves of wooden pavilions of the caves and the related historical remains have kept the distinctive character of the times when they were constructed. The daily maintenance and conservation intervention have been conducted following the conservation principle of minimal intervention in design, materials, methodology, techniques and craftsmanship.
Protection and management requirements
The Yungang Grottoes were listed by the State Council among the first group of State Priority Protected Sites in 1961. A number of laws and regulations including the "Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Cultural Relics", the "Regulations of Datong Municipality on Protection and Management of Yungang Grottoes" and the "Conservation Master Plan of Yungang Grottoes", have guaranteed the conservation and management of Yungang Grottoes.

A special organization (now known as the "Yungang Grottoes Research Academy") and professional team have been established to carry out protection, monitoring and regular daily maintenance for the past six decades. The environmental improvement projects have been implemented in recent years at the surrounding villages based on the "Conservation Master Plan of Yungang Grottoes", a commitment that the Chinese government has made in application for the inscription on the World Heritage List. Conservation intervention and maintenance have followed conservation principles, and some pilot protection programs have been carried out to counter the major threats including water seepage, rain erosion and weathering.

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The Yungang Grottoes, in Datong city, Shanxi Province, with their 252 caves and 51,000 statues, represent the outstanding achievement of Buddhist cave art in China in the 5th and 6th centuries. The Five Caves ...

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Made In Tokyo 　～Ukiyo-e Traditional woodblock prints～

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If you're seeing this message, it means we're having trouble loading external resources on our website.

If you're behind a web filter, please make sure that the domains *.kastatic.org and *.kasandbox.org are unblocked.

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Longmen Grottoes (UNESCO/NHK) (video) | Khan Academy

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Learn for free about math, art, computer programming, economics, physics, chemistry, biology, medicine, finance, history, and more. Khan Academy is a nonprofit with the mission of providing a free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere.

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Mapping

We strive to map Indigenous territories, treaties, and languages across the world in a way that goes beyond colonial ways of thinking in order to better represent how Indigenous people want to see themselves.

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Native Land is a resource to learn more about Indigenous territories, languages, lands, and ways of life. We welcome you to our site.

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Giuseppe Castiglione was 26 when he stepped off a trading ship from Lisbon into the docks of the Chinese port city of Guangzhou. It was 1714, and trade with China was just beginning. The young man was a Jesuit missionary and a painter, sent from his home in Italy to bring Jesus to the people of China. News of his arrival was sent to the Emperor Kangxi, in Beijing, who summoned Castiglione to the royal palace. We don't know what the emperor thought of Jesus, but he sure liked Castiglione's painting.

Giuseppe Castiglione spent the rest of his life in the courts of the Qing Dynasty, growing close with three different emperors, Kangxi, Yongzheng, and finally Qianlong, documenting their military successes, their favorite horses, and their families. Castiglione also took on a new name, Lang Shi'ning, and fused eastern and western painting styles. His paintings were prized by the emperors, who often added poems in their own calligraphy to the work. Late in his life, emperor Qianlong inscribed a hanging scroll titled Spring's Peaceful Message with this note: "In portraiture Shi'ning is masterful. He painted me during my younger days; the white-headed one who enters the room today does not recognize who this is."

Cite this page

Reed Enger, "Giuseppe Castiglione (郎世寧), A Jesuit missionary paints the emperor of China," in Obelisk Art History, Published May 14, 2016; last modified October 31, 2022, http://www.arthistoryproject.com/artists/giuseppe-castiglione/.

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Giuseppe Castiglione was 26 when he stepped off a trading ship from Lisbon into the docks of the Chinese port city of Guangzhou. It was 1714, and trade...

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National Palace Museum, Giuseppe Castiglione New Media Art Exhibition

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National Palace Museum, Giuseppe Castiglione New Media Art Exhibition

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Introduction

This exhibition has won the Grand Remi Award (category: Best of Show - Interactive) and the Gold Remi Award (category: Websites) at the 49th WorldFest-Houston International Film & Video Festival in 2016.

This exhibition has won the Silver Award (category: Interpretative Interactive Installations) at the 2016 (27th) MUSE Awards held by the American Alliance of Museums.

This exhibition has won the Innovation Gold Award (category: Top 100 Innovative Products) held by IT Month in 2016.

Three hundred years ago, Giuseppe Castiglione (1688-1766), a Jesuit missionary of Milan, Italy, came to China to preach and adopted a new name on Chinese ─ Lang Shining. Even though he came to China as a missionary, he became a full-time court painter thanks to his excellent art skills. As an artist, he served three Emperors, Kangxi (1661-1722), Yongzheng (1723-1735) and Qianlong (1736-1795) for 51 years. An oil painter by training, he absorbed Chinese traditional painting techniques at work. His works opened the eyes of Chinese painters which made his name known to all.

Three hundred years after his coming to China, the National Palace Museum brought his works to the digital world in a way that mingles the real with the virtual. In order to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the NPM in 2015, the NPM presents the exhibition " Giuseppe Castiglione－Lang Shining New Media Art Exhibition". In an interactive world full of multi-sensors, viewers shall be able to experience a new form of art made possible with innovative digital contents.

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giuseppe castiglione － lang shining new media art exhibition

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Giuseppe Castiglione － Lang Shining New Media Art Exhibition

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Giuseppe Castiglione － Lang Shining New Media Art Exhibition

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Printing a woodblock print (MIT Visualizing Cultures)

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Printing a woodblock print (MIT Visualizing Cultures)

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This step-by-step sequence demonstrates the successive stages in printing a woodblock print by Ohara Shoson (1877-1945) titled "Yanagibashi Bridge in the Snow." The sequence was issued in 1935 as a full-size accordion-style booklet by a source identified only as "the proprietor of the Wanatabe Colour-prints Shop."

Massachusetts Institute of Technology © 2008 Visualizing Cultures

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This step-by-step sequence demonstrates the successive stages in printing a woodblock print by Ohara Shoson (1877-1945) titled "Yanagibashi Bridge in the Snow." The sequence was issued in 1935 as a full-size accordion-style booklet by a source identified only as "the proprietor of the Wanatabe Colour-prints Shop."

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Woodblock prints in the ukiyo-e style, The MET

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Woodblock prints in the ukiyo-e style, The MET

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The Met's Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History

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Woodblock prints were initially used as early as the eighth century in Japan to disseminate texts, especially Buddhist scriptures. The designer and painter Tawaraya Sōtatsu (died ca. 1640) used wood stamps in the early seventeenth century to print designs on paper and silk. Until the eighteenth century, however, woodblock printing remained primarily a convenient method of reproducing written texts.

In 1765, new technology made it possible to produce single-sheet prints in a whole range of colors. Printmakers who had heretofore worked in monochrome and painted the colors in by hand, or had printed only a few colors, gradually came to use full polychrome painting to spectacular effect. The first polychrome prints, or nishiki-e, were calendars made on commission for a group of wealthy patrons in Edo, where it was the custom to exchange beautifully designed calendars at the beginning of the year.

Woodblock prints of the Edo period most frequently depicted the seductive courtesans and exciting Kabuki actors ( JP2822) of the urban pleasure districts. With time, their subject matter expanded to include famous romantic vistas and eventually, in the final years of the nineteenth century, dramatic historical events. These pictures could be made in great quantity and featured popular scenes that appealed in particular to the wealthy townspeople of the period.

Despite the fame of great print masters like Suzuki Harunobu (1725-1770) and Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858), each print required the collaboration of four experts: the designer, the engraver, the printer, and the publisher. A print was usually conceived and issued as a commercial venture by the publisher, who was often also a bookseller. It was he who chose the theme and determined the quality of the work. Designers were dependent on the skill and cooperation of their engravers and of the printers charged with executing their ideas in finished form.

A woodblock print image is first designed by the artist on paper and then transferred to a thin, partly transparent paper. Following the lines on the paper, now pasted to a wooden block usually of cherry wood, the carver chisels and cuts to create the original in negative-with the lines and areas to be colored raised in relief. Ink is applied to the surface of the woodblock. Rubbing a round pad over the back of a piece of paper laid over the top of the inked board makes a print.

Polychrome prints were made using a separate carved block for each color, which could number up to twenty. To print with precision using numerous blocks on a single paper sheet, a system of placing two cuts on the edge of each block to serve as alignment guides was employed. Paper made from the inner bark of mulberry trees was favored, as it was strong enough to withstand numerous rubbings on the various woodblocks and sufficiently absorbent to take up the ink and pigments. Reproductions, sometimes numbering in the thousands, could be made until the carvings on the woodblocks became worn.

Department of Asian Art. "Woodblock Prints in the Ukiyo-e Style." In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000-. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/ukiy/hd_ukiy.htm (October 2003)

Guth, Christine. Japanese Art of the Edo Period. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1995.

Illing, Richard. The Art of Japanese Prints. London: Octopus, 1980.

Kanada, Margaret Miller. Color Woodblock Printmaking: The Traditional Method of Ukiyo-e. Tokyo: Shufunotomo, 1989.

Mason, Penelope. History of Japanese Art. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2004.

Merritt, Helen. Modern Japanese Woodblock Prints: The Early Years. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1990.

Singer, Robert T., ed. Edo: Art in Japan, 1615-1868. Washington: D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 1998.

Thompson, Sarah E., and H. D. Harootunian. Undercurrents in the Floating World: Censorship and Japanese Prints. New York: Asia Society Galleries, 1991.

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Woodblock Prints in the Ukiyo-e Style | Essay | The Metropolitan Museum of Art | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History

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These pictures could be made in great quantity and featured popular scenes that appealed in particular to the wealthy townspeople of the period.

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Utamaro, Naniwa Okita Admiring Herself in a Mirror (c. 1790-5)

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Utamaro, Naniwa Okita Admiring Herself in a Mirror (c. 1790-5)

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Kitagawa Utamaro | Naniwa Okita Admiring Herself in a Mirror | Japan | Edo period (1615–1868) | The Metropolitan Museum of Art

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Use your arrow keys to navigate the tabs below, and your tab key to choose an item

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Fang Congyi, Cloudy Mountains (c. 1360-70)

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Fang Congyi, Cloudy Mountains (c. 1360-70)

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Inscription: No artist's inscription, signature, or seal

Frontispiece

Cheng Nanyun 程南雲 (active 1403-after 1440), 4 large characters in seal script and 1 column in standard script, undated; 1 seal:

A genuine work by Fanghu [Fang Congyi].
Inscribed by Cheng Nanyun, Vice Minister of Imperial Sacrifices [of the] secondary [capital, i.e. Nanjing] and Attendant Academician of the Classics Colloquium. [Seal]: Qing Xuan

方壺真跡
太常少卿兼經筵侍書程南雲題。 [印]: 清軒

Colophons[1]

1. Gao Gu 高榖 (1391-1460), 23 columns in standard script, dated 1447; 3 seals:

Cloudy Mountains was made by the lofty Daoist monk of the Shangqing [Temple], Fang Fanghu [Fang Congyi]. Connoisseurs collected it because they believed it to be a precious object. Judging from the dexterity of the brushwork and the depth of the conception, clearly [Fang's] paintings are of the same standard as those by Mi Nangong [Mi Fu, 1052-1107] and Gao Fangshan [Gao Kegong, 1248-1310]; they must not be compared to later artists who learned only the superficials. In this scroll, the layered peaks are tinted with the colors of a clear day, now hidden, now revealed by the drifting mist and clouds; the long strip of mountain slope looks like a sandy embankment. The gates of the mountain home seem so quiet, as if no one is there. This must be either a choice realm of the immortals, or some supreme view of the mortal world.

In my family there used to be a painting by Fanghu, although its composition, treatment of depth, and proportions cannot possibly rival this scroll, the excellence of the spirit and the nuance in its use of ink are certainly comparable. Alas, ink-wash paintings like those of Fanghu are not to be frequently seen, even though his paintings have circulated in the world for only seventy-some years. This cannot help but redouble one's feeling of admiration [for this work]. So I write a quatrain to commemorate this event:

The guest from Yingzhou cannot be seen;
His soundless poems give profound pleasure.
Intermittent clouds obscure the rustic cottage;
Distant trees girdle the mountain slopes.
Traces of the hermit are not to be found;
The woodcutter has finished his song.
Unrolling the painting, I imagine his loftiness,
How truly I long to be [in this place].

Composed on the thirteenth day of the intercalary fourth lunar month in the summer of the dingmao year, the twelfth year of the Zhengtong era [May 27, 1447], by Right Assistant Minister of Works [of the secondary capital], Academician Expositor-in-waiting in the Hanlin Academy [of the secondary capital] and Official of the Classics Colloquium, Gao Gu of Huainan [in Jiangsu Province][2] [Seals]: Weiyang, Shiyong, Yu Zhai

《雲山圖》 一幅，上清高士方方壺所作也，好事者藏之，以為珍玩。觀其筆法精到，意態悠遠，與米南宮、高房山同一軌度，非後來淺之為學者之比。然而晴嵐疊嶂掩映於煙雲縹緲之際，山坡一帶，長若隄築，巖扉幽邃，闃然無人，蓋仙家之勝境、塵坱之絕觀也。予家有方壺手跡一披，其布置遠近大小，雖不敢差肩於斯，而精神點染之妙，殆不可以優劣論。鳴呼！水墨之筆如方壺者不復多見矣，其流落人間，距今餘七十載，不能不使人重其景仰之思，因為五言律一，以紀其事云：
不見瀛洲客[點去]，無聲意趣多。
斷雲迷野墅，遠樹帶山坡。
木客深潛跡，樵人已罷歌。
披圖想高致，清興欲如何。侶
正統十二年歲在丁卯，夏後四月十有三日工部右侍郎兼翰林院侍講學士兼經筵官淮南高榖識。 [印]： 維揚、世用、育齋

2. Zhou Kai 周凱 (active early 15th c.), 13 columns in semi-cursive script, undated; 3 seals:

The lofty scholar of the Shangqing Temple, Fang Fanghu,
In what year did he paint this Cloudy Mountains?
How can his creativity be bound by common feelings?
This realm is far removed from the mortal world.
From Langfeng the path winds to the isle of Peng [-lai],
The ethereal vapors lead to Daxiabiao.
Rare grasses are fragrant, daylight lingers,
Ripened peaches confer youthfulness.
Towering palaces silhouetted against the azure sky,
White clouds and blue mists making an expansive haze.
As if seeing the shine of cinnabar within the caves,
Or hearing the chirping of orioles in the trees.
Guangcheng and An Qi, where are they?
Facing this painting increases my admiration [for Fang].
When will he return riding the wind
To relieve this dusty world of its deep ailments?
Zhou Kai from Yongjia [in Zhejiang Province]. [Seals]: Ouyue, Zhou shi Zhonglü, Yu zaowu you

上清高士方方壺，何年畫此雲山圖。
玄機豈為俗情繫，異境自與塵寰殊。
閬風逶迤接蓬島，弱水東連大霞表。
瑤草香生白日遲，蟠桃實熟青春好。
臺殿巍峨紫翠分，白雲蒼靄交氤氳。
丹光仿佛洞中見，鶯語依稀樹裏聞。
廣成安期在何處，對此令人益傾慕。
乘風便欲問大還，下與濁世蘇沈痼。
永嘉周凱 [印]： 甌越、周氏中律、與造物游

3. Gu Han 顧翰 (early 15th c.), 9 columns in semi-cursive script, undated; 3 seals:

The mountains green,
The waters vast.
Unrolling the painting feels like in the [region of the] Xiao and Xiang [Rivers].
It's been more than twenty years since I was there.
I hear the singing of the fishermen, the rain falling in the trees.
Now seeing this painting is like being in a dream;
Suddenly, I recall this land of seagulls and egrets.
When will I cast off these worldly cares?
Carrying the wine, I'll go back again to row a boat and enjoy my leisure.
Xuepo Daoren [Seals]: Xuepo, Xiaguo gongsun, Binghu qiuyue

山蒼蒼，水茫茫，披圖彷彿似瀟湘。
二十餘年我曾到，耳聞漁父雨鳴榔。
而今見畫恍若夢，偶然憶此鷗鷺鄉。
何時脫卻世塵慮，載酒重來鼓枻樂徜徉。
雪坡道人 [印]： 雪坡、夏國公孫、冰壺秋月

4. Wang Qian 王謙 (mid-15th c.), 6 columns in standard script, undated; 3 seals:

One shower in the mountains does away with dusty air;
A thousand cliffs and myriad ravines are half-hidden by clouds.
Rocks conceal the clear water of the flowing brook;
The path traversing the woods is obscure and hard to follow.
In high and low abodes the immortals dwell;
In various fields rest groups of cranes.
Someday, I will move my home to this place.
In spring, I will plow the land along the dikes.
Wang Qian from Qiantang [in Zhejiang Province] [Seals]: Wang shi, Muzhi, Wushan jiuyin

山中一雨絕塵氛，萬壑千崖半是雲。
石隱橫溪清易見，路穿深樹杳難分。
參差樓觀棲仙侶，遠近芝田下鶴群。
何日移家來此住，春風隴上課耕耘。
錢唐王謙 [印]： 王氏、牧之、吳山舊隱

5. Shen Chengzhang 沈成章 (mid-15th c.), 7 columns in semi-cursive/standard script, undated; 3 seals:

There is a lofty person who possesses the Way, whose sobriquet is Fanghu.
In his heart there is no trace of worldliness.
His brush, imbued with clouds and mist, seizes the force of Creation,
Like a whip that drives dragons and tigers.
Evoking the realm of vast ocean and continents,
The painting resembles Ten thousand miles along the Yangtze River.
The Yang family should treasure this scroll in its collection generation after generation.
After viewing and enjoying it, I write down my advice in an inscription.
Shen Chengzhang of Wujun [Suzhou, Jiangsu] [Seals]: Xuan Zhai, Da Ming jinshi, Chengzhang

高人有道號方壺，塵氣胸中半點無。
筆染雲煙藏造化，鞭驅龍虎捲江湖。
依稀大海三洲境，彷彿長江萬里圖。
楊氏珍藏宜世守，品題展玩屬吾徒。
吳郡沈成章 [印]： 玄齋、大明進士、成章

6. Qian Bo 錢博 (jinshi degree 1445; still active in 1460), 7 columns in semi-cursive/standard script, undated; 2 seals:

This secluded spot is no common place --
A Penglai realm on a foot-wide [picture] surface.
The huts in the deep woods are tranquil and quiet;
The flowing waters beneath the wilderness bridge are free.
The birds fly away into the distant sky;
Clouds drift among the mountains.
In this place traces of men are rare;
Along the pine-covered path light rain spots the moss.
Qian Bo of Yunjian [in Jiangsu Province] [Seals]: Quan shi yanxia, Yunxin songyi

絕境非凡境，蓬萊只尺間。
深林茅屋靜，流水野橋閑。
天迥鳥飛沒，山空雲自還。
地偏人跡少，松徑雨苔斑。
雲間錢博 [印]： 泉石煙霞、雲心松意

7. Zhan Jingfeng 詹景鳳 (1528-1602), 17 columns in standard script, dated 1597; 3 seals:

Former scholars titled this scroll by Fang Fanghu "Mountains of the Immortals." They truly are mountains of the immortals. Although I have seen many paintings by Fanghu, I have never seen a work carefully done, but this scroll is carefully done in particular. Works ion color are rare, but this handscroll is painted with translucent red wash. Being subtle, it is surpassingly excellent. Vaporous and indistinct, it is not concerned with formal likeness. The painting has color but the color is diffuse; it cannot be described in terms of color. The conception is misty and inexhaustible; in its mood, free and subliminal, there is profound feeling. Therefore, the conception is still more difficult to match. If the painter were not an enlightened person like Fanghu, he could not attain this. Now I know that those paintings by Fanghu that are often seen and appear coarse are not painted with care. This scroll and the painting of Mount Shu in my collection are both carefully executed. Together they should be treasured as a pair of rare and eternal jade disks. Composed on the ninth day of the ninth lunar month of the dingyou year in the Wanli era [October 19, 1597] by Zhan Jingfeng, Dongtu fu. [Seals]: Zhan Jingfeng yin, Dongtu fu, Dong xi nan bei zhi ren

方方壺此卷前秀名之為 《仙山圖》，真仙山也。余見方壺畫多矣，曾未見有精心之作，而而此卷特精心。希見有著色之作，而此卷獨淺絳。精而超妙，恍惚不涉于跡；色入無色，色不足以言之。意致縹緲無盡，寓蒼鬱沈深于瀟灑出塵之趣，則尤難逮矣，非化人烏足以及此。固知彼居常所見，多潦草而涉俗者，良非方壺用意筆耳。是卷與予所藏《蜀山圖》同一精心，可稱雙璧，並足照耀千古，為人世所希覯云。萬曆丁酉九月重九詹景鳳東圖父識。[印]： 詹景鳳印、東圖父、東西南北之人

8. Wu Hufan 吳湖帆 (1894-1968), 6 columns in semi-cursive script, dated 1949; 1 seal:

Fanghu's brushwork often appears wild with little restraint. Although his fame was high like divine peaks and jade forests, he could not avoid this [fault]. His brushwork in this scroll conveys substantiality. It captures the spirit of Songxue [Zhao Mengfu, 1254-1322] and evokes the paintings of Shuming [Wang Meng, ca. 1308-1385], and therefore is superior to Zhao Yuan [active ca. 1350-1375] and the likes. In the winter of the wuzi year [1948], my young colleague [Wang] Jiqian [1907-2003] returned from Beijing and brought this [scroll] back. Its return is worth a celebration. In spring, the first month of the jichou year [1949], Wu Hufan recorded this after borrowing it for viewing for some ten days.[3] [Seal]: Qian An

方壺用筆多涉狂放，雖名重如神嶽瓊林，亦未能免此。是卷筆致渾厚，頗得松雪翁神似，外表與叔明仿佛，然足勝趙元輩矣。戊子冬季遷大弟自平擕歸，堪慶所歸。己丑春正月吳湖帆假觀旬日記。[印]： 倩盦

Collectors' seals

Zha Shibiao 查士標 (1615-1698)
Shibiao 士標
Meihuo miwan 梅壑秘玩

Qing emperor Qianlong 清帝乾隆 (r. 1736-1795)
Shiqu baoji 石渠寳笈
Qianlong yulan zhi bao 乾隆御覽之寶
Shiqu dingjian 石渠定鋻
Baoji chongbian 寳笈重編
Chonghua Gong jiancang bao 重華宮鋻藏寳
Yi zisun 宜子孫
Sanxi Tang jingjian xi 三希堂精鋻璽
Qianlong jianshang 乾隆鑑賞

Qing emperor Jiaqing 清帝嘉慶 (r. 1796-1820)
Jiaqing yulan zhi bao 嘉慶御覽之寶

Qing emperor Xuantong 清帝宣統 (r. 1909-1911)
Xuantong yulan zhi bao 宣統御覽之寶
Xuantong jianshang 宣統鑑賞
Wuyi Zhai jingjian xi 無逸齋精鋻璽

Wang Jiqian 王季遷 (C. C. Wang, 1907-2003)
Zhenze Wang shi Jiqian shoucang yin 震澤王氏季遷收藏印
Huaiyun Lou jianshang shuhua zhi ji 懷雲樓鑑賞書畫之記
Ceng cang Wang Jiqian chu 曾藏王季遷處
Wang Jiqian yin 王季遷印
Huaiyun Lou 懷雲樓
Wang shi Jiqian zhencang zhi yin 王氏季遷珍藏之印
Jiqian jianding 季遷鑑定
Jiqian xinshang 季遷心賞

Unidentified
Linxi zhuren (three times) 林西主人
Biyun Xuan (twice) 碧筠軒
Huaiyin Yang shi 淮陰楊氏
Zonghao zhencang 宗浩珍藏

[1] Translations of the colophons are modified from those in Mary Gardner Neill, "Mountains of the Immortals: The Life and Painting of Fang Ts'ung-i," Doctoral dissertation, Yale University, 1981, pp. 262-65.
[2] The translation of this colophon also integrates phrases from that in Wen C. Fong, Sung and Yuan Paintings, with catalogue by Marilyn Fu, exhibition catalogue, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1973, cat. no. 22, p. 120 and in Sherman Lee and Wai-kam Ho, Chinese Art Under the Mongols: The Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368), exhibition catalogue, Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1968, cat. no. 268.
[3] Translation from Department Records.

Marking:

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Fang Congyi | Cloudy Mountains | China | Yuan (1271-1368) | The Metropolitan Museum of Art

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Inscription: No artist's inscription, signature, or seal Frontispiece Cheng Nanyun 程南雲 (active 1403-after 1440), 4 large characters in seal script and 1 column in standard script, undated; 1 seal: A genuine work by Fanghu [Fang Congyi]

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Nagoya City Museum. "Ukiyo-e from the Metropolitan Museum of Art," April 14, 1995-May 28, 1995.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Graceful Gestures: Two Decades of Collecting Japanese Art," 2007.

Chiba City Museum of Art. "Ukiyo-e Viewed through Japonism," January 12, 2022-March 6, 2022.

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Kitagawa Utamaro | Mother and Child | Japan | Edo period (1615-1868) | The Metropolitan Museum of Art

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Nagoya City Museum. "Ukiyo-e from the Metropolitan Museum of Art," April 14, 1995-May 28, 1995. New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Graceful Gestures: Two Decades of Collecting Japanese Art," 2007. Chiba City Museum of Art. "Ukiyo-e Viewed through Japonism," January 12, 2022-March 6, 2022.

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Nagoya City Museum. "Ukiyo-e from the Metropolitan Museum of Art," April 14, 1995-May 28, 1995.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "A Drama of Eyes and Hands: Sharaku's Portraits of Kabuki Actors," September 20, 2007-March 24, 2008.

Tokyo National Museum. "Tōshūsai Sharaku: His Art and Age," May 1, 2011-June 12, 2011.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Discovering Japanese Art: American Collectors and the Met," February 14 - September 27, 2015.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Japan: A History of Style," March 8, 2021-April 24, 2022.

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Tōshūsai Sharaku | Kabuki Actor Ōtani Oniji III as Yakko Edobei | Japan | Edo period (1615-1868) | The Metropolitan Museum of Art

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Nagoya City Museum. "Ukiyo-e from the Metropolitan Museum of Art," April 14, 1995-May 28, 1995. New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "A Drama of Eyes and Hands: Sharaku's Portraits of Kabuki Actors," September 20, 2007-March 24, 2008. Tokyo National Museum. "Tōshūsai Sharaku: His Art and Age," May 1, 2011-June 12, 2011.

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Houston. Institute for the Fine Arts, Rice University. "Art Nouveau," March 1, 1976-June 30, 1976.

Art Institute of Chicago. "Art Nouveau," August 1, 1976-October 31, 1976.

Sarasota Springs. Skidmore College. "A Survey of Japanese Prints: Moronobu to Nensho," February 14, 1980-March 2, 1980.

London. Royal Academy of Arts. "Katsushika Hokusai," November 15, 1991-February 9, 1992.

Dallas Museum of Art. "Katsushika Hokusai," May 24, 1992-July 19, 1992.

Nagoya City Museum. "Ukiyo-e from the Metropolitan Museum of Art," April 14, 1995-May 28, 1995.

Milan. Palazzo Reale. "Hokusai: Il Vecchio Pazzo per la Pittura," October 1, 1999-January 9, 2000.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "A Sense of Place: Landscape in Japanese Art," May 8-September 8, 2002.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Great Waves: Chinese Themes in the Arts of Korea and Japan I," March 1-September 21, 2003.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Poetry and Travel in Japanese Art," December 18, 2008-May 31, 2009.

Washington, DC. Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. "Hokusai: Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji," March 24, 2012-June 17, 2012.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Discovering Japanese Art: American Collectors and the Met," February 14 - September 27, 2015.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Making The Met, 1870-2020," August 29, 2020-January 3, 2021.

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Katsushika Hokusai | Under the Wave off Kanagawa (Kanagawa oki nami ura), also known as The Great Wave, from the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku sanjūrokkei) | Japan | Edo period (1615-1868) | The Metropolitan Museum of Art

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Houston. Institute for the Fine Arts, Rice University. "Art Nouveau," March 1, 1976-June 30, 1976. Art Institute of Chicago. "Art Nouveau," August 1, 1976-October 31, 1976. Sarasota Springs. Skidmore College. "A Survey of Japanese Prints: Moronobu to Nensho," February 14, 1980-March 2, 1980. London. Royal Academy of Arts.

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Created in 1935, Roar, China was reprinted on many newspapers at that time. Showing a male body cruelly tied up and blindfolded, humiliated and suffering, this piece draws on symbolism to represent a nation on the brink of letting out a roar and fighting back-this is a reference to the distressing circumstances of the Chinese people at that time, tormented by the oppression of powerful forces. The woodcut demonstrates the artist's stark, straightforward style as well as his meticulous artistic control, and furthermore, exhibits how he strives to use his woodcut technique to represent the national character. This piece, with its powerful visual impact, is a prime example of Chinese woodcutting in the 1930s.

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Roar, China - Li Hua - Google Arts & Culture

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Created in 1935, Roar, China was reprinted on many newspapers at that time. Showing a male body cruelly tied up and blindfolded, humiliated and suffering, ...

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The Printed Image in China, 8th-21st century (MET)

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The Printed Image in China, 8th-21st century (MET)

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The term "popular print" refers to mass-produced single-sheet color prints on auspicious or protective subjects that range from seasonal celebrations to figures from folk religion and popular literature. Due to their extraordinary popularity, prints made for the New Year's Festival constitute a special category: nianhua (New Year's pictures). Most common are images of door guardians thought to ward off evil spirits and bring good fortune to the family in the coming year.

Although successful designs were quickly copied, some workshops became known for their distinctive styles or technical refinement. Prints from Taohuawu, in Suzhou, for instance, are admired for their subtle coloration, those from Yangliuqing, near Tianjin, for their painterly execution, and those from Mianzhu, in Sichuan, for their bold, bright designs. In the early seventeenth century individual workshops in Yangliuqing produced more than a million sheets per year. The twentieth century witnessed the rise of Shanghai as a production center, where a vibrant poster industry developed.

The early years of the twentieth century were marked by a powerful revival of black-and-white woodcuts in China, with similar developments in Europe, Japan, and America. Most prints in this section of the exhibition date from the period of political and cultural turmoil that began with the collapse of the Qing dynasty in 1911 and continued through the Sino-Japanese War (1937-45).

In the late 1920s, the artist Li Shutong (1880-1942) and the writer Lu Xun (1881-1936) founded the Modern Woodcut Movement, championing pictorial prints as an ideal populist medium for advocating sociopolitical reforms. Breaking with traditional woodcut practices, artists assumed the heretofore separate roles of designer, carver, and printer while creating a new rustically expressive style. Early centers included Shanghai and Guangzhou. After the outbreak of war, left-leaning artists in Yan'an, the Communist base in the northwest, integrated folk-art elements to present idealized images of party heroes, while right-wing artists in Chongqing, the wartime capital in the southwest, called for resistance with compelling imagery marked by dramatic visual contrasts.

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The Printed Image in China, 8th-21st Century

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Hasui Kawase creating a woodblock print [English narration]

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Käthe Kollwitz, Woman with Dead Child, 1903

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Käthe Kollwitz, Woman with Dead Child, 1903

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Shiko Munakata (1903-1975) woodblock print artist

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Shiko Munakata (1903-1975) woodblock print artist

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Shiko Munakata is a woodblock print artist best known for his black and white prints and his expressive, sketch-like lines. Shop his artwork today.

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葛飾北斎画　「風流無くてなゝくせ」遠眼鏡

Title: Spying with a Telescope, from the series Seven Fashionable Bad Habits (Fūryū nakute nanakuse)

Artist: Katsushika Hokusai (Japanese, Tokyo (Edo) 1760-1849 Tokyo (Edo))

Period: Edo period (1615-1868)

Medium: Woodblock print (nishiki-e); ink, color, and mica on paper; vertical ōban

Dimensions: Image: 14 1/2 in. × 10 in. (36.8 × 25.4 cm)
Frame: 20 1/4 × 15 11/16 in. (51.4 × 39.8 cm)

Classification: Prints

Credit Line: Lent by Lee E. Dirks

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Katsushika Hokusai | Spying with a Telescope, from the series Seven Fashionable Bad Habits (Fūryū nakute nanakuse) | Japan | Edo period (1615-1868) | The Metropolitan Museum of Art

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葛飾北斎画　「風流無くてなゝくせ」遠眼鏡 Title: Spying with a Telescope, from the series Seven Fashionable Bad Habits (Fūryū nakute nanakuse) Artist: Katsushika Hokusai (Japanese, Tokyo (Edo) 1760-1849 Tokyo (Edo)) Period: Edo period (1615-1868) Medium: Woodblock print (nishiki-e); ink, color, and mica on paper; vertical ōban Dimensions: Image: 14 1/2 in. × 10 in.

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Japanese folding screen - Four Large Cities in the World

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Japanese folding screen - Four Large Cities in the World

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This couple of eight-panel screens, which depicts the world map and Four European cities (Lisbon, Seville, Rome, and Constantinople), were painted in Japan in the beginning years of the Edo period (early 17th century). They are thought that the world map was borrowed from a large decorative map of the world revised from a 1607 map by the Dutch chart maker Willem Janszoon Blaeu, and published in 1609 by the Dutch engraver Petrus Kaerius (Pieter van den Keere). Another screen that depicts four cities was probably based on illustrations in some European books like "Civitates Orbis Terrarum" first published by Georg Braun and Franz Hogenberg in 1572, which carries many plates of cityscapes in Europe, and in "Vita Beati Patris Iganatii Loyolae (the biography of Sent Ignatius of Loyola)" published in Antwerp in 1610.

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Four Large Cities in the World / Map of the World - Unknown Japanese Painter - Google Arts & Culture

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This couple of eight-panel screens, which depicts the world map and Four European cities (Lisbon, Seville, Rome, and Constantinople), were painted in Japan...

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Yokohama Boomtown: Foreigners in Treaty-Port Japan (1859-1872)

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Yokohama Boomtown: Foreigners in Treaty-Port Japan (1859-1872)

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Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Yokohama: Prints from Nineteenth-Century Japan, by Ann Yonemura. This unit was funded in part by The National Endowment for the Humanities, The d'Arbeloff Excellence in Education Fund, The Center for Global Partnership, and MIT iCampus Outreach.

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Art Gallery of New South Wales - Archive: Taisho chic: Japanese modernity, nostalgia and deco

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This exhibition features about 70 paintings, prints, textiles and decorative arts from the Taisho and early Showa eras from 1912 to the 1930s when Western-oriented ideologues championed avant-garde tastes from Europe and America. <br>
22 May - 3 August 2008

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Two years ago, when Korea was authorized to bring back the royal seal of King Deokjong (1438-57) from the Seattle Art Museum in the United States, the Cultural Heritage Administration (CHA) trumpeted the triumph of a seal created in 1471 finally coming home after being lost in the 1950-53 Korean War.

It turns out, that's not what came home. The seal was a reproduction from 1924, when Korea was under Japanese rule (1910-45). It was kept at the Seattle Art Museum since 1963, a year after an American art collector purchased it in New York and donated it to the museum.

Despite being informed of this embarrassing fact in February by the National Palace Museum, CHA kept it quiet, and only came clean on Friday, when the National Palace Museum held a press conference for a special exhibition on returned royal seals that is to kick off today.

Such opaqueness has put CHA under fire, damaging the credibility of the state-run organization that is at the top of managing articles of cultural heritage of Korea.

The royal seal of Deokjong was created on the order of Deokjong's son, King Seonjong (1457-94) in 1471 to honor his father posthumously. It was kept in the Jongmyo Shrine in central Seoul. It went missing in 1924, along with four other seals, when a theft occurred in the shrine.

"Last year, we conducted a non-destructive test to find out if the seal is original or not as we became aware only then of a newspaper article published in 1924 stating it was stolen," said Kim Yeon-su, director of the museum.

"We informed CHA in February that the seal we have is the reproduction and made corrections on our Website."
According to Kim In-kyu, an official in the museum's artifact research department, seals created in the 15th century did not use zinc. "But the seal returned from Seattle is 10 percent zinc. So we concluded that the seal is a reproduced version and not the original."

However, he sidestepped talk of the seal being "fake" or an "imitation." Kim said that "although the seal has been reproduced during the Japanese colonial era, it was remade at the order of King Sunjong (1847-1926) and has been officially recognized as a royal seal and kept in the Jongmyo Shrine."

"The Cultural Heritage Administration should make a public apology," said Buddhist monk Hye Moon, head of a private cultural organization known as the Cultural Asset Redemption Organization (CARO). "Being unaware of the fact that the seal is not original has damaged the reputation of the state organization. Moreover, the fact that they only disclosed it today means that they attempted to deceive the public."

The seal of Deokjong is currently on display at "The Return of the Royal Seals" exhibition that begins today and runs until Oct. 29 at the National Palace Museum inside Gyeongbok Palace in central Seoul.

Visitors can see 12 royal seals that have been returned to Korea since 2014 including the royal seal of Queen Munjeong and King Hyeongjong, which came back to Korea last month from the United States on President Moon Jae-in's presidential plane.

BY YIM SEUNG-HYE [sharon@joongang.co.kr]

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Ballyhooed returned seal is in reality a copy

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Two years ago, when Korea was authorized to bring back the royal seal of King Deokjong (1438-57) from the Seattle Art Museum in the United States, the Cultural Heritage Administration (CHA) trumpeted the triumph of a seal created in 1471 finally com

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Presented exclusively at the Asian Art Museum, Color Trip: Yoshida Hodaka's Modern Prints is the first ever solo exhibition in the United States by an influential pioneer of Japanese printmaking. Yoshida Hodaka (1926-1995), born into the celebrated Yoshida family of print artists based in Tokyo, was a leading figure of postwar Japanese printmaking known for his surreal, abstract, and arrestingly colorful prints. Rebelling against the Yoshida family artistic style of realistic woodblock prints, Hodaka forged his own path. His unique style of surreal landscapes and abstract forms was inspired by his globe-spanning journeys, photography, poetry, ancient art, and the inventive methods of contemporaneous art movements.

"Hodaka was a rebel in the best sense, someone who imagined a new way of seeing the world. By combining the centuries-old woodblock printing with the modern methods of photo etching and collage and contemporary influences like Pop art and foreign travel, Hodaka opened up a new frontier in Japanese printmaking that was completely original to him," says exhibition organizer Yuki Morishima, associate curator of Japanese art at the Asian Art Museum.

Hodaka's 1973 suite of 12 poster-size Zodiac Landscape prints will be on view together for the first time ever at the museum. As Morishima notes, "Hodaka playfully assembled and juxtaposed ordinary objects out of context, creating his surreal scenes with dreamlike atmospheres. Every time you look at these prints, you find something new and exciting hiding in the landscape." These deeply imaginative works, bursting with color and astrological mystique, provided inspiration for the exhibition's name.

The Asian Art Museum acquired Hodaka's prints in 2016 directly from his daughter Ayomi, who is also an artist the museum has exhibited as recently as 2017. As part of Color Trip 's immersion into the Yoshida milieu, Hodaka's sketchbooks will be presented for the first time in the United States. The exhibition will also feature more than a dozen artworks by Hodaka's father (Hiroshi), his mother (Fujio), his brother (Toshi), his wife (Chizuko), and Ayomi, giving audiences an unprecedented opportunity to chart Hodaka's changing course as an artist as well as his enduring connections to his family.
Color Trip: Yoshida Hodaka's Modern Prints is on view through May 1, 2023.

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Color Trip: Yoshida Hodaka's Modern Prints - Exhibitions - Asian Art Museum

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The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco houses one of the most comprehensive Asian art collections in the world, with more than 18,000 works of art in its permanent collection. Stroll through 6,000 years of art and culture.

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Old Summer Palace (MIT Visualizing Cultures)

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Old Summer Palace (MIT Visualizing Cultures)

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Massachusetts Institute of Technology © 2012 Visualizing Cultures

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Outstanding Universal Value
Brief synthesis
Established in the 8th century under the Silla Dynasty, on the slopes of Mount Tohamsan, Seokguram Grotto and Bulguksa Temple form a religious architectural complex of exceptional significance. Prime Minister Kim Dae-seong initiated and supervised the construction of the temple and the grotto, the former built in memory of his parents in his present life and the latter in memory of his parents from a previous life.

Seokguram is an artificial grotto constructed of granite that comprises an antechamber, a corridor and a main rotunda. It enshrines a monumental statue of the Sakyamuni Buddha looking out to sea with his left hand in dhyana mudra, the mudra of concentration, and his right hand in bhumisparsa mudra, the earth-touching mudra position. Together with the portrayals of devas, bodhisattvas and disciples, sculpted in high and low relief on the surrounding walls, the statues are considered to be a masterpiece of East Asian Buddhist art. The domed ceiling of the rotunda and the entrance corridor employed an innovative construction technique that involved the use of more than 360 stone slabs.

Bulguksa is a Buddhist temple complex that comprises a series of wooden buildings on raised stone terraces. The grounds of Bulguksa are divided into three areas - Birojeon (the Vairocana Buddha Hall), Daeungjeon (the Hall of Great Enlightenment) and Geungnakjeon (the Hall of Supreme Bliss). These areas and the stone terraces were designed to represent the land of Buddha. The stone terraces, bridges and the two pagodas - Seokgatap (Pagoda of Sakyamuni) and Dabotap (Pagoda of Bountiful Treasures) - facing the Daeungjeon attest to the fine masonry work of the Silla.

Criterion (i): The Seokguram Grotto, with its statue of Buddha surrounded by Bodhisattvas, the Ten Disciples, Eight Divine Guardians, two Devas, and two Vajrapanis all carved from white granite, is a masterpiece of East Asian Buddhist Art.

Criterion (iv): The Seokguram Grotto, with its artificial cave and stone sculptures, and the associated Bulguksa temple with its wooden architecture and stone terraces, is an outstanding example of Buddhist religious architecture that flourished in Gyeongju, capital of the Silla Kingdom in the 8th century, as a material expression of Buddhist belief.
Integrity
Seokguram Grotto portrays the enlightenment of Buddha and Bulguksa Temple represents the Buddhist utopia taking its form in the terrestrial world. The two sites are closely linked physically, historically and culturally and all of their key components are included within the boundaries of the property.

The most significant threats facing Seokguram Grotto are moisture and condensation, which cause the growth of mould, mildew and moss. Weather damage to the stone sculptures is another threat. The construction of a concrete dome between 1913 and 1915 resulted in humidity build-up and moisture infiltration. A second concrete dome was placed over the existing dome in the 1960s, to create a 1.2 m air space between them, control and adjust airflow, reduce the formation of mildew and prevent further climatic damage. A wooden antechamber was also added and the interior of the grotto was sealed off by a wall of glass to protect it from visitors and changes in temperature.

The 1913-15 alterations to the grotto's original structure and subsequent modifications to address the problems caused by it require further study. Temperature and humidity control, and water ingress are carefully monitored and managed, and mitigation measures implemented as required.

The main threats to the masonry components of Bulguksa Temple are acid rain, pollution, salty fogs originating from the East Sea and moss on the surface of masonry. These threats are continuously monitored and studied.

Fire is the greatest threat to the integrity of the wooden buildings of the Bulguksa Temple, calling for systems for prevention and monitoring at the site.
Authenticity
The main statue of the Buddha and most of the stone sculptures has preserved their original form. As a result of the partial collapse of the rotunda ceiling, the entire grotto was dismantled and rebuilt, and covered with a concrete dome between 1913 and 1915. A second concrete dome was added in the 1960s. These dramatic measures have diminished the authenticity of the form of grotto, and to a lesser extent its materials, although they were acceptable in their time and in the face of serious deterioration. There have been no changes to the function and size of the grotto.

The masonry structures within Bulguksa have maintained their original form, having undergone only partial repair. The wooden buildings have been repaired and restored several times since the 16th century. All restoration work and repairs have been based on historical research and have employed traditional materials and techniques.
Protection and management requirements
Seokguram Grotto has been designated as National Treasure and- Bulguksa Temple has been designated as a Historic Site under the Cultural Heritage Protection Act. Any alterations to the existing form of the site require authorization. They are included within the boundaries of Gyeongju National Park, in which there are restrictions on new construction. A Historic Cultural Environment Protection Area that extends 500 meters from the boundary of the site has also been established, in which all construction work must be pre-approved.

At the national level, the Cultural Heritage Administration (CHA) is responsible for establishing and enforcing policies for the protection of the property and buffer zone, allocating financial resources for conservation. Gyeongju City is directly responsible for overseeing the conservation and management of the property, in collaboration with the Korea National Park Service, whilst Bulguksa Temple is responsible for the day-to-day management. Regular day-to-day monitoring is conducted and in-depth professional monitoring is conducted on a 3 to 4 year basis.

Conservation work is conducted by Cultural Heritage Conservation Specialists who have passed the National Certification Exams in their individual fields of expertise. A ventilation fan in Seokguram Grotto, whose vibration posing a risk, has been removed, and the number of visitors is properly controlled. Within Bulguksa Temple, acidic rain, pollution, salty fogs originating from the East Sea and moss on the surface of the stone are carefully monitored and methods to relieve the problems are being continuously studied. To protect the wooden structures of the temple from fire, an overall Fire Risk Prevention System has been implemented for Bulguksa and CCTVs installed in various points in the temple.

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Established in the 8th century on the slopes of Mount Toham, the Seokguram Grotto contains a monumental statue of the Buddha looking at the sea in the bhumisparsha mudra position. With the surrounding portrayals of ...

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Top

introduction

Hōryūji: A Brief History

The grounds of Hōryūji (Hōryū Temple) house the world's oldest surviving wooden structures, conveying images of Japan as it existed more than 1,300 years ago, during the Asuka Period (A.D. mid 6th - beginning of 8th c.). The story of Hōryūji's founding can be discovered in the historical writings engraved on the back of the halo of the Yakushi Nyorai Buddha statue, located on the eastern side of the room in the temple's Main Hall, and in the official inventory of Hōryūji property holdings recorded in 747.
According to these records, the emperor Yōmei vowed to build a temple and an image of a Buddha as a form of prayer for his own recovery from illness-a vow he was never fated to fulfill, for he died shortly thereafter. These same writings state how Empress Suiko and Crown Prince Shōtoku fulfilled Emperor Yōmei's deathbed wish by building in 607 a temple and a statue of a Buddha, to which the temple was dedicated. The Buddha statue was of the Yakushi Nyorai (Bhaisajyaguru)―literally, "arrival as a healer"―and the temple was named the Ikaruga Temple (after the name of the location), or Hōryūji ("Temple of the Flourishing Law [of Buddhism]")
On the fateful night of April 30 in the year 670, however, a great blaze swept through the temple grounds, leaving "not a single building" standing, as it is recorded in the ancient Chronicles of Japan (Nihon Shoki). However, historians in the latter part of the 19th century began to cast doubt on the accuracy of this account of Hōryūji's destruction and to question whether or not the fire truly did occur. Although there are many questions that remain unanswered to this day, one thing certain is that Hōryūji boasts an illustrious 14 centuries of continuous observance of tradition since established by Prince Shōtoku, the great statesman and founder of Buddhism in Japan.
Today, Hōryūji is composed of the Western Precinct (Saiin Garan), which is centered around the Five-Story Pagoda (Gojū-no-Tō) and the Main Hall (Kondō), and the Eastern Precinct (Tōin Garan), which is arranged around the Hall of Visions (Yumedono). Throughout the 187,000-square-meter grounds are irreplaceable cultural treasures, bequeathed across the centuries and continuing to preserve the essence of eras spanning the entire journey through Japanese history since the 7th century. In fact, Hōryūji contains over 2,300 important cultural and historical structures and articles, including nearly 190 that have been designated as National Treasures or Important Cultural Properties. In December of 1993, Hōryūji, as a unique storehouse of world Buddhist culture, became the first treasure of any kind in Japan to be selected by UNESCO as part of the World Heritage.

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The palace of shame that makes China angry, BBC (2015)

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The palace of shame that makes China angry, BBC (2015)

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There is a deep, unhealed historical wound in the UK's relations with China - a wound that most British people know nothing about, but which causes China great pain. It stems from the destruction in 1860 of the country's most beautiful palace.

It's been described as China's ground zero - a place that tells a story of cultural destruction that everyone in China knows about, but hardly anyone outside.

The palace's fate is bitterly resented in Chinese minds and constantly resurfaces in Chinese popular films, angry social media debates, and furious rows about international art sales.

And it has left a controversial legacy in British art collections - royal, military, private - full of looted objects.

By coincidence, one of the story's central characters is Lord Elgin - son of the man who removed the so-called "Elgin marbles" from Greece.

But there's a twist - a hidden side to this story - which I've been exploring as it involved my ancestor, Thomas Bowlby, one of the first British foreign correspondents.

His torture and death at Chinese hands - and the revenge taken by Britain, destroying the old Summer Palace in Beijing in 1860 - was a moment, says one scholar, that "changed world history".

These days the site is just ruins - piles of scorched masonry, lakes with overgrown plants, lawns with a few stones scattered where many buildings once stood. The site swarms with Chinese visitors, taken there as part of a government-sponsored "patriotic education" programme.

As everyone in China is taught, it was once the most beautiful collection of architecture and art in the country. Its Chinese name was Yuanmingyuan - Garden of Perfect Brightness - where Chinese emperors had built a huge complex of palaces and other fine buildings, and filled them with cultural treasures.

A new digital reconstruction by a team at Tsinghua University gives a vivid idea of what this extraordinary place looked like when, 155 years ago, a joint British-French army approached Beijing.

The army was sent towards the end of the Opium Wars to force Chinese imperial rulers to open up their country further to Western trade and influence. In command on the British side was the 8th Earl of Elgin, from one of the most famous families in British imperial history.

With him was Thomas William Bowlby of The Times. Elgin described Bowlby as "remarkably agreeable" and saw him as good for his image back in Britain, "the means of diffusing sound information on many points". The two men bonded on their journey towards China as cultural tourists, visiting the pyramids in Egypt.

Once they had arrived in China Bowlby wrote in his newspaper reports and private diary of his admiration for aspects of Chinese life - its fine buildings and "admirably cultivated gardens".

But cultural admiration was mixed with the harsh reality of a brutal war. He also reported a very one-sided military campaign as the Anglo-French force relentlessly approached Beijing. The British army's new Armstrong gun, he noted, inflicted "perfectly awful wounds" on the Chinese. "It smashes whatever it comes in contact with."

Because of this military power, Bowlby was confident that imperial China's rulers - "effete and faithless Mandarins", he called them - would "soon be suing for mercy". Eager to witness the war's end, he set off with a delegation of British and French officials - as well as escorting Indian army troops - to negotiate what they assumed would be the Chinese surrender.

It was to prove a fatal miscalculation.

Meanwhile, French troops reached Beijing and the Summer Palace, where they began helping themselves to porcelain, silks and ancient books - or simply destroying what they found.

British troops joined in when they arrived shortly afterwards. "Officers and men seemed to have been seized with temporary insanity," said one witness. "In body and soul they were absorbed in one pursuit which was plunder, plunder." When Lord Elgin arrived, he initially recorded his horror in his diary. "War is a hateful business. The more one sees of it, the more one detests it."

But loot was an established part of army pay, and Elgin helped organise an auction of the many thousands of works of art and other objects that had been taken. The army tradition was to share out the spoils, with officers and other ranks taking their cut, and some of the cash used to compensate the families of dead or wounded soldiers.

That might have been the end of the pillaging and destruction. But then news emerged that the delegation that had gone to negotiate Chinese surrender had been taken prisoner. Some members, including the journalist Bowlby, were tortured and murdered.

"For three days the men were tied up, and for three days their bandages were soaked with water so that they would become tighter and tighter," says historian Vera Schwarcz. "Every time they begged for water their mouths would be filled with dirt." Eventually several prisoners died, their corpses hardly recognisable.

In response, Lord Elgin ordered the British troops to burn down the entire Summer Palace complex.

The destruction, he wrote later, was intended "to mark, by a solemn act of retribution, the horror and indignation... with which we were inspired by the perpetration of a great crime".

He was worried about his reputation back in Britain, too. "What would the Times (newspaper) say of me," he reportedly told a French commander, "if I did not avenge its correspondent?"

Burning all the magnificent buildings took several days.

"Whenever I think of beauty and taste, of skill and antiquity while I live, wrote James M'Ghee, chaplain to the British forces, "I shall see before my mind's eye some scene from those grounds, those palaces, and ever regret the stern but just necessity which laid them in ashes."

I visited the current Lord Elgin, at his ancestral home in Scotland, to ask how he explained what had happened in 1860. He showed me, from family archives, a picture sketched by a British officer of the return of Bowlby's mangled body in a coffin to British headquarters.

"There are things that perhaps you might have done differently," he says of his ancestor. "At the same time you've got to judge what was the feeling - intense feeling - at that particular moment."

China rejects such explanations.

"This is what they say to justify their actions," says Wang Daocheng, a leading Chinese scholar of these events. "That's the way they try to maintain the so-called moral high ground."

Soon after the Summer Palace's destruction in 1860, the 8th Earl of Elgin made a triumphant entry to the centre of Beijing, his procession symbolising British and Western domination - and Chinese humiliation.

For some time afterwards, memory of what happened faded in Chinese minds as the country went through modernisation, the end of imperial rule, war and communist takeover. Indeed in the communist-led Cultural Revolution of the 1960s, says historian Vera Schwarcz, "some remnants of the Summer Palace were literally slashed with knives by Red Guards". They hated reminders of the imperial past.

Since the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests against communist rule, however, China's leadership has tried to reinforce its authority by encouraging patriotic pride in the country's history - and teaching citizens that only strong government today can prevent a repeat of the 19th Century humiliation by outsiders. The ruined site of the old Summer Palace offers an ideal place to make this point.

China is also focusing increasingly on all the art that was looted by French and British forces - and taken to Europe. It was widely traded and still sits in all kinds of private and public collections.

A recent film by the martial arts star Jackie Chan has stirred up a sense of resentment in millions of Chinese minds. He plays a daredevil hero attempting to recover from evil Western collectors and museums a set of bronze carved zodiac animal heads - among the most famous items looted from the Summer Palace.

The real Chinese loot investigators appear no less determined, even if they don't resort to violence.

"We're making a plan to start a series of actions to recover these antiques and get them back to China," says Niu Xianfeng, general director of the National Treasures Fund, affiliated to the Chinese Ministry of Culture.

"China will never give up the right to bring these looted or stolen treasures back."

Liu Yang, a researcher who has spent 15 years tracking down the artworks, says "British museums never reply" when he writes to ask what they have. But he has collected hundreds of images of looted items on his computer.

He even has pictures of a Pekinese dog, taken by a British soldier from Yuanmingyuan, and given to Queen Victoria. It was the first of its breed to come to Britain - and was named "Looty".

A portrait of Looty is still in the Royal art collection, though later newspaper reports said the dog was ostracised by other royal dogs because of its "Oriental habits and appearance", and had to be moved from Buckingham Palace to Sandringham.

The Royal collection has several other items thought to be connected with the Beijing Summer Palace, including Chinese imperial sceptres, brass plaques and a mahogany screen.

The Wallace Collection in London has magnificent imperial vases from the palace.

British military museums have many items too. At the Royal Engineers' museum in Kent deputy curator James Scott showed me a beautiful jade ornament brought back from the 1860 campaign. There are also parts of a Chinese imperial throne acquired by the officer Charles Gordon (later famous for his death in Khartoum) - used for many decades as part of the furniture in the officers' mess.

Labelling these items is a sensitive matter. "We don't actually mention the word loot at all. We try to keep the interpretation as neutral as possible," says Scott.

Similar sensitivities are needed by auctioneers, who can make huge profits when items originally taken from the Summer Palace are re-sold today. Proof of their origin as part of the Chinese imperial collection - such as inscriptions by made by the soldiers who looted them - hugely increases their potential value.

Some newly wealthy Chinese have bid for such items. But having to pay for art that was stolen - as many Chinese see it - causes increasing resentment.

And what of the Elgin family? Does today's Lord Elgin think art should be returned to China?

"It's a very good arguing point" he concedes. But "the beauty of something is inherent in it wherever it happens to be".

At the family home, he showed me a magnificent pair of stork sculptures in bronze, originally given by the Japanese emperor to his Chinese counterpart, and then brought back by the 8th Earl of Elgin from Beijing after his China campaign.

"These things happen," he says of the 1860 events. "It's important to go ahead, rather than look back all the time."

And the British-Chinese relationship is certainly looking to a new future. It was symbolised for Lord Elgin when Chinese workmen arrived at Rosyth naval dockyard, very near his home, to install a huge crane, needed to build Britain's new aircraft carriers.

The workmen started helping themselves to Lord Elgin's oilseed rape crop - a Chinese delicacy. He objected at first, but then came to see it as a kind of "tit for tat".

But the Chinese want a lot more compensation than that for what happened in 1860.

They realise it will be very difficult, so long after the event, to retrieve what was taken from the Summer Palace, but they are keen, at least, for more open acknowledgement by Britain of what was done.

The French, who joined in the looting of the palace, have been more open about their regret. "We call ourselves civilised and them barbarians," wrote the outraged author, Victor Hugo, about the destruction of the Summer Palace. "Here is what Civilisation has done to Barbarity."

A recent French book, The Sack of the Summer Palace by Bernard Brizay, has been translated into Chinese and warmly received in China.

In the UK, the emphasis is overwhelmingly on the future - on Chinese investment and trade - not the past.

Prime Minister David Cameron has spoken of a new "partnership of mutual respect and understanding" with China and it's against this backdrop that the Duke of Cambridge will soon visit the country. But developing this relationship may one day mean engaging with the painful past that China has not forgotten.

Even in China, though, memory is selective.

Some of the 1860 history has already been buried, as I discovered when I went to look for Thomas Bowlby's grave. Instead of a cemetery, all I found was a golf driving range.

Listen to Chris Bowlby's Radio 3 documentary, Palace of Shame, on the BBC iPlayer

Subscribe to the BBC News Magazine's email newsletter to get articles sent to your inbox.

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The palace of shame that makes China angry

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There is a deep, unhealed historical wound in the UK's relations with China - one that most British people know nothing about.

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Old Summer Palace - The Garden of Perfect Brightness III, MIT Visualizing Cultures

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Old Summer Palace - The Garden of Perfect Brightness III, MIT Visualizing Cultures

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Massachusetts Institute of Technology © 2012 Visualizing Cultures

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Understanding Art Repatriation, Sotheby's 

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Understanding Art Repatriation, Sotheby's 

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CZ12 Official Trailer #1 (2013) - Jackie Chan Movie HD

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Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads by Ai Weiwei

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Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads by Ai Weiwei

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Ai Weiwei: Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads

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The Zodiac Project is Ai Weiwei’s first major public sculpture. For this monumental new work, Ai has recreated the famous twelve bronze animal heads that once adorned the Zodiac Fountain in Yuan Ming Yuan, the Old Summer Palace, in Beijing. Cast around 1750, the original heads were looted by Anglo-F…

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Ai Weiwei - Zodiac - Exhibitions - Vito Schnabel

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Vito Schnabel Gallery New York | St. Moritz

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Create a Simulated Woodblock Print (San Francisco Asian Art Museum)

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Create a Simulated Woodblock Print (San Francisco Asian Art Museum)

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Create a Simulated Woodblock Print - Education - Asian Art Museum

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The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco houses one of the most comprehensive Asian art collections in the world, with more than 18,000 works of art in its permanent collection. Stroll through 6,000 years of art and culture.