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Chan Eccentrics in the Art and Culture of Song and Yuan China

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Chan Eccentrics in the Art and Culture of Song and Yuan China Wandering Saints: Chan Eccentrics in the Art and Culture of Song and Yuan China Paramita Paul Printed at Wöhrmann Print Service, Zutphen, the Netherlands. On the cover:Hanshan reading a scrollby Luochuang. University ArtMuseum of the University of California (after Weidner 1994: cat. no. 72). 2 Wandering Saints: Chan Eccentrics in the Art and Culture of Song and Yuan China Proefschrift ter verkrijging van de graad van Doctor aan de Universiteit Leiden, op gezag van Rector Magnificus prof. mr. P.F. van der Heijden, volgens besluit van het College voor Promoties te verdedigen op dinsdag 3 november 2009 klokke 11.15 uur door Paramita Paul geboren te Amsterdam in 1979 3 Promotiecommissie: Promotor: Prof. dr. M. van Crevel Co-promotor: Dr. O.J. Moore Overige leden: Prof. dr. B.J. ter Haar Dr. M.J. Klokke Prof. dr. J. Murray (University of Wisconsin) Deze promotie is mogelijk gemaakt door een beurs van de Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO). 4 Acknowledgments This study would not have been possible without the support of many institutions, teachers, colleagues, friends and relatives. I would like to acknowledge the financial support of a research award fromthe Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research NWO). Material support came from the Leiden Institute for Area Studies (LIAS), and my thanks go to the LIAS secretaries Ilona Beumer and Wilma Trommelen. I am grateful to the Foguangshan Chan monastery, Gaoxiong, and Venerables Yifa and Huifeng for organizing the 2004 Woodenfish Project, which gave me a unique chance to experience Chan Buddhismfirst-hand. I would like to express my gratitude to Prof. Bi Fei of the Hangzhou Art Academy for his kind assistance. My thanks also go to Venerable Fayong and the library staff of the Lingyin Temple, Hangzhou, for providing me with invaluable sources. I am greatly indebted to Prof. Tomiya Itaru of Kyoto University for his continuous support. I would also like to express my gratitude to the curators Mr. Nishigami Minoru (Kyoto National Museum), Mr. Tomita Jun (Tokyo National Museum), Dr. Nishida Hiroko (Nezu Institute of Fine Arts), Mr. Kuroda Taizo (Idemitsu Museum of Arts), Ms. Kobayashi Yuko (Seikado Bunko Art Museum, Tokyo), Ms. Suita Shimako (Hatakeyama Memorial Museum, Tokyo), Mr. Yumino Ryuichi (Osaka Municipal Museum of Art), Mr. Uchida Tokugo (Mokichi Okada Foundation, Atami), Mr. Sato Toyozo (The Tokugawa Art Museum, Nagoya), Ms. Takahashi Noriko (Masaki Museum of Art) and Ms. Horike Hiroko (Egawa Museum of Art) for their generous assistance and helpful suggestions. I am grateful to Prof. Yoshiaki Shimizu of Princeton University for his encouragement, and I thank Ms. Yan Yang of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Stephen Allee of the Freer and Sackler Galleries, Washington D.C., and Fr. Emilio Iurman of the Museo d’Arte Cinese di Parma for their kind assistance. I thank Dr. Jeremy Tanner of the University College London, Prof. Albert Welter of the University of Winnipeg, Prof. Helmut Brinker of the Universität Zürich, 5 Prof. Uta Lauer of StockholmUniversity, Prof. Ankeney Weitz of Colby College and Prof. Barend ter Haar of Leiden University for their suggestions. Finally, throughout this study I have benefited greatly from the companionship of many friends and colleagues. Their support has been a tremendous inspiration. My deepest gratitude goes to my parents, who have been with me from the beginning. 6 Table of Contents Abbreviations 9 PREFACE 10 CHAPTER ONE THE CHAN ESTABLISHMENT AND THE CHAN ECCENTRICS IN THE SONG DYNASTY 13 1. INTRODUCTION 13 Buddhism in China 13 Early Chan 17 Song Chan 22 2. THE SONG CHAN ESTABLISHMENT 26 The Impact of the Song Chan Establishment on the Later Reception of Chan 26 Song Chan Literature 28 Song Chan Monasteries 39 3.THE CHAN ECCENTRICS 42 The Biographies of Hanshan, Shide and Fenggan 44 The Three Eccentrics as Recluses 48 Hanshan, Shide and Fenggan as Part of the Chan Tradition 57 CHAPTER TWO PORTRAITS AND PRESENCE: THE ECCENTRICS IN ART 62 1. THE ECCENTRICS IN ART 62 Hanshan and Shide, Attributed to Liang Kai 62 Paintings of Chan Eccentrics: The Corpus 63 Paintings of Chan Eccentrics: Groupings 75 2. ISSUES OF IDENTITY: FROM LIKENESS TO PRESENCE 87 Problems of Likeness in Chinese Portraiture 89 Art and Portraiture in China 94 Mimesis, Representation and Sign 105 3. CHAN ART AND PORTRAITURE RECONSIDERED 116 True Likeness and the Self: Interpreting the Visual Sign in Chan Commentaries 116 “Chan Art” 118 CHAPTER THREE ABBOTS AND ARTISTS: ASSESSING ECCENTRIC PAINTING 120 1. ENCOMIA ON ECCENTRICS IN CHAN TEXTS AND PAINTINGS 122 2. CHAN ABBOTS AND THE TRANSMISSION OF ART 126 3. THE “CHAN PAINTERS” 132 Painters of Chan Eccentrics 140 4. LITERATI ON BUDDHISM: IMAGE, TEXT AND CALLIGRAPHY 146 7 5. WORD AND IMAGE IN ENCOMIA ON ECCENTRICS 153 CHAPTER FOUR THE ECCENTRICS IN VISUAL AND TEXTUAL TRADITIONS 162 1. SCULPTURES AND RUBBINGS: THE ECCENTRICS IN STONE 162 Imperially Sponsored Cave Sites and the Cave Temples of Feilaifeng 163 Chinese Steles and the Fawang Temple Rubbing 174 2. THE ECCENTRICS IN SONG AND YUAN TEXTS 184 Tales of the Eccentric in Song and Yuan Literature 185 The Daoist Claim 194 CHAPTER FIVE CHAN, ART AND PRACTICE: VIEWING AND COLLECTING IMAGES OF WANDERING SAINTS 211 1. INTRODUCTION 211 2. THE HOLY MONK AND THE CHARISMA OF OTHERNESS IN CHAN MONASTIC CODES 214 The Rules of Purity for the Chan Monastery and the Holy Monk Pindola 214 The Law and the Lawless: The Holy Monk, Wandering Saints and the Centrality of the Other in Chan Practice 225 3. ART AND PRACTICE IN THE CHAN ESTABLISHMENT 229 Monastic Gazetteers and Art and Practice in the Jingci Temple 229 Portraits of Historical Abbots, Ox-herding Pictures and the Wandering Saints: Themes and Their Uses in Chan 237 4. RITUALS OF VIEWING AND COLLECTING IN CHINA AND JAPAN 244 The Art Market in Hangzhou and a Painting of Budai in the Collection of Wang Zao (1079-1154) 246 Ashikaga Shōguns and Zen Temples: The Wandering Saints in Muromachi Japan 255 CONCLUSION 259 BIBLIOGRAPHY 263 INDEX 275 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 280 ILLUSTRATIONS 283 Samenvatting 307 Curriculum Vitae 310 8 Abbreviations T.: Takakusu Junjirō 高楠順次郎 and Watanabe Kaigyoku 渡邊海旭, eds., 1924- 1934: Taishō shinshū daizōkyō 大正新修大藏經 (Revised Buddhist Canon of the Taishō era). Tokyo: Taishō issaikyō kankōkai. References are specified by ‘T.’ followed by the text number, volume, page and register. ZZK: Nakano Tatsue 中野達慧, ed., 1905-1912: Dainihon Zokuzōkyō 大日本續藏經 (Supplement to the Buddhist canon). Kyoto: Zōkyō Shoin. References are specified by ‘ZZK’followed by the series, case number, volume, page and register. 9 Preface To ascend this cold mountain path is to climb an incessant road along the endless valley, boulder-strewn, and across the wide river fringed with heavy reeds; the moss, withoutthe moisture of the rain, is treacherous and pines, without the urging of the wind, sing out: “Whoever dares to putthe world aside! come sit with us, amid white cloud!”1 This is one of the first poems in the collected writings of Hanshan 寒山, poet, recluse, alchemist, immortal and Chan eccentric monk, who allegedly lived in the Tiantai mountains in southeast China in the seventh or eighth centuries. This legendary saint has been to countless admirers and devotees a symbol of freedomand enlightenment. As recently as in the 1950s, Hanshan inspired the writers and poets of the Beat Generation in the United States. Indeed, few personalities compare to Hanshan and his fellow wandering saints, popularly known as the Chan eccentrics. Dressed in rags, these exceptional monks supposedly dwelled in uninhabited mountain regions as well as bustling cities and markets, where they spoke and behaved in extraordinary ways. While they did not belong to any particular tradition and propounded truths outside the norms of society, the eccentrics represented qualities that were valued by various social and religious groups, most prominently the Chan establishment. In the Song and Yuan dynasties (960-1368), the monks appear throughout Chan texts, and they become a popular and recurring theme in art. Remarkably, traditional and modern scholarship have rarely considered the theme of the Chan eccentric in Chinese art and culture, and most research has been limited to discussions of select paintings of the monks in catalogues of museum exhibitions. Yet, this important theme and its translation into texts and art holds clues to issues current in the fields of Chinese Studies, Art History and Chan Studies. It questions long-held notions of religion and art in China, including definitions of “religious belief”, “portraiture” and “Chan art”. 1 Hobson 2003: 16. 10 This study investigates the Chan eccentric across different types of text and artistic media. It recognizes the importance of the monks and their artistic representations for the Chan establishment, while also paying specific attention to situations where borders between religious traditions and artistic media are blurred. Such an approach allows for investigation of sources that are still largely neglected in the study of Chinese religion and art, including monastic codes and monastic gazetteers, and artistic media that are not generally associated with particular traditions, such as sculptures and steles in connection with Chan. I am indebted to previous scholarship for translations of Chan primary sources and traditional art- historical texts. Chapter One provides some central historical background on the Chan establishment in the Song dynasty, and considers controversial opinions in earlier scholarship with regard to the religious characteristics of Song Chan. It also introduces the Chan eccentrics and examines their position in connection with other groups of recluses in traditional China. In Chapter Two, I argue that portraits of Chan eccentrics are a unique category in the visual art of Song and Yuan China. This chapter defines the corpus of Chan eccentric portraits and distinguishes groupings within that corpus, comparing images of Chan eccentrics with other, contemporaneous types of painting and portraiture.
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