Realms Beyond Half-Open Doors in Chinese Funerary Art

Religion and the Arts 20 (2016) 59–91 RELIGION and the ARTS brill.com/rart

Fei Deng Fudan University

Abstract

This article explores a mysterious but well-studied pictorial subject in Chinese visual art, namely the half-open door. The scene often shows a female figure standing in or emerging from the middle of two door-leaves, suggesting a path or an access to a certain space and also indicating a view incompatible with what the viewer has already seen. This pictorial theme frequently adorns stone sarcophagi and tomb walls in northern China from the late eleventh to the thirteenth centuries. By examining the forms and meanings of the motif, this study attempts to demonstrate the ways in which the half- open door was employed in funerary art and helped people to visualize prevailing ideas about the afterlife.

Keywords

Song and Jin periods – northern China – funerary art – half-open door – heavenly worlds

Doorways constructed with stone or bricks are often seen in decorated tombs in northern China during the eleventh and thirteenth centuries. Decorated tombs are here defined as tombs that are adorned with elaborate facades in imitation of wooden architecture and with various indoor scenes on the tomb walls. In general, the tombs consist of a stepped path and a single or sometimes double burial chambers of varying sizes and layouts. Wooden architectural elements such as pillars, bracket sets, and eaves are simulated in brick and sometimes enhanced with color. The pictorial scenes in the tombs usually include ban- quets, indoor scenes, filial stories, and household furnishings.1 The decoration

1 In the last three decades, an increasing number of studies have discussed the materials. Most

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2016 | doi: 10.1163/15685292-02001004 60 deng may be entirely painted or constructed of bricks or may be a combination of various techniques. This style of tomb belongs to a continuous tradition of tombs decorated as aboveground timber-frame buildings.2 In such a tomb at Baisha in Henan, the tomb chamber is built entirely in brick, with reliefs carved into the brick presenting columns, beams, and brackets.3 The north wall has a brick-constructed half-open door. One leaf is ajar, with a sculpted figure of a woman standing in the aperture (fig. 1). The door is thus half-empty and half- solid. The woman appears to be peering out from the half-open door. Does she invite a viewer in, or allow the tomb occupants to enter the space outside the door? This scene is “highly suggestive and at the same time ambiguous” (Lin 27–28). This motif of half-open doors was common in burials during the Northern Song (960–1127), Liao (915–1125), Jin (1115–1234) and Yuan (1271–1368) dynasties. Half-open doors are often constructed on the back wall (north wall) in the tombs, showing the door leaves partially opened, with a female figure often presented standing in the middle of two leaves. Although it is unclear as to whether the woman is about to open the door or close it, the whole scene draws the viewer’s gaze to engage with this female figure. This scene raises questions: What is the role of this mysterious woman in burials? What does this pictorial theme symbolize? And where was the half-open doorway thought to lead? These issues are not only essential in understanding the meanings of this particular subject, but also elucidate the ways in which people visualized ideas about life after death in the tomb space. For this purpose, the present study focuses on half-open doors in funerary contexts and discusses how this motif indicates ideas relating to the afterlife.

studies about decorated tombs have focused on two major areas. First, many works discuss the geographic distribution and periodization of these tombs. Archaeological typology is the most common method used in these discussions. By applying this method, scholars have built up relative dating and chronological sequences for these tombs. Second, scholars also emphasize individual pictorial subjects in tombs. The major scenes in decorated tombs, such as images of tomb occupants at a banquet table, representations of theatrical performances, pictures of filial piety stories, and scenes of a woman standing in a half-open doorway, have all been discussed. For important studies, see Laing, “Patterns and Problems in Later Chinese Tomb Decoration” 3–20; Kuhn; Zhao 41–50; Qin 123–165; Li, “Kongjian luoji yu shijue yiwei” 329–362; Lin 3–36. 2 For a discussion of the tradition of using wooden architectural elements in Chinese burials, see Lin 3–18. 3 For the references to the Baisha tombs, see Su.

Religion and the Arts 20 (2016) 59–91 realms beyond 61 i Doorways in Burials

The idea of building and equipping tombs as actual dwellings developed in early China.4 Tombs present distinct spaces with distinct functions, both with actual physical spaces and with objects in them. Many burials of the Song, Liao, and Jin periods continued to be designed like houses in life, and were decorated with great attention to architectural detail and household setting. The whole tomb structure and decoration appear to provide a space in which the dead can dwell. For example, in a Song tomb found at Dengfeng, Henan, a brick door and two lattice windows as well as household furnishings are carved in detail. Architectural elements such as the bracket sets on the upper part of the tomb walls are made by square bricks and painted with color (Peng, Yu, and Yang 28–34). These features were used to create an underground building. Doorways, therefore, were thought to be essential in the tomb space. Several major types of doors appear.5 One type is comprised of ornate lattice doors, which appear on the east and west or sometimes each side of the tomb walls. This kind of door is usually divided into two vertical sections: the upper part is filled with a simple lattice design, and the lower one is sometimes decorated with floral patterns (fig. 2). They may indicate the doors of dwellings seen from a courtyard at the center of a house.6 Another representative type is a false two-leaf door, which is often constructed on the north wall in tombs. This form became popular from the eleventh century onwards. In a Song tomb found at Dengfeng, for instance, a two-leaf brick door with basic elements such as the door lintel and doorjambs

4 From the sixth century bce, the simple stepped pit of the early tomb type developed into comprised tombs. In comprised tombs, separate sections of rooms represent different functions, such as the Mancheng Han tomb in Hebei. People of the time seem to have seen these tombs as real dwellings. Such tendencies attained a certain degree of standardization in the middle Han period, with depictions of buildings, granaries, stoves, and wells and so forth. 5 In order to make the following arguments clear, according to the positions that doors appear in tombs, I here put them into two major categories: lattice doors and two-leaf doors. In most cases, two-leaf doors or half-open doors are often constructed on the north wall, while lattice ones may appear on the east, west or any other walls. A specific choice may have reflected different meanings of the two kinds of doors, as well as the preferences of the artisan or the patron. I have limited myself deliberately to the discussion of two-leaf doors and half-open doors in northern China, referring only occasionally to data concerning Sichuan and Gansu. 6 Lattice doors continued to be employed in the Jin period, notably in the area of present-day Shanxi province, and became more and more elaborate and intricate. For the discussion on Jin lattice doors, see Laing, “Chin ‘Tartar’ Dynasty Material Culture” 78–79.

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figure 1 Brick-constructed half-open door in the m1 tomb, Baisha, Henan, China, eleventh century courtesy wenwu press appears on the north wall. Ornaments imitating bamboo curtains hung above actual doors are also painted (Zhengzhou kaogusuo 83–86). A variation of the two-leaf door is a half-open door, which shows its leaves partially opened. Intriguingly, a female figure is often presented standing in the middle of the two leaves, offering a more complex subject. Quite a few half-open doors of the Song, Liao, and Jin periods have been excavated.7 Many

7 For a survey of this theme in the Song and Jin burials, see Yi, Dengfeng Heishangou Songmu

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figure 2 Bracket sets and lattice doors constructed on the north wall of a Song tomb, Xin’an, Henan, China courtesy luoyang ancient tombs museum, luoyang, henan of them can be seen in decorated tombs in the area of between the Eastern capital Kaifeng and the Western capital Luoyang of the Northern Song period.8 In most of these tombs, the half-open doors are positioned on the north wall, facing the tomb entrances on the south.9 The door leaves are usually depicted opening inwards. They are presented neither fully opened nor fully closed, suggesting a path or access to a certain space beyond the burial chambers. Although the figure standing in the door varies from tomb to tomb, most of them are female. In the m1 tomb at Baisha mentioned earlier, a half-open door is constructed on the north wall. One door leaf is partially open and a sculpted figure of a woman is seen behind the leaf. Brown curtains and blue ribbons are

tuxiang yanjiu Appendix 1. Moreover, many similar examples are found in Liao tombs in Hebei, see Fan 18–22. 8 The motif of half-open doors might have first appeared and developed in this area, and then gradually spread into the areas such as southern Shanxi, Shaanxi, and Gansu, where the doorways have many variations. 9 According to Fan’s study, more than 100 examples of half-open doors have so far been found in northern China, and most of them appear on the north wall, see Fan 8–10.

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figure 3 Painting on the north wall of the Lincun tomb, Xin’an, Henan, China courtesy luoyang ancient tombs museum, luoyang, henan

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figure 4 Half-open door constructed in a Jin tomb, Jishan, Shanxi, China, c. 1200ce. Jishan Jin Tombs Museum, Jishan, Shanxi. photo: xu hao painted above this door (see fig. 1) (Su). These half-open doors may be entirely painted, constructed of bricks, or a combination of various techniques such as brick relief, clay figurines, and line drawings on the surfaces of the tomb walls. For instance, female figures are sometimes painted, such as the woman peeking through a red brick door in the Lincun tomb at Xin’an, Henan (fig. 3).10 Moreover, this pictorial subject also occurs on stone sarcophagi. The front end of Zhang Jun’s sarcophagus dated to 1106 provides a scene where a female figure emerges from a half-open gate (Huang and Gong 79–81). Decorated tombs of the Jin period excavated in southern Shanxi at sites such as Jishan, Houma, and Xinjiang resemble the Song tombs in Henan in terms of tomb structure and decoration. Further, most of them contain the motif of a woman in the doorway, although this kind of scene is often represented in the form of brick relief and stone relief. These later examples show exquisite technical skill in molding the brickwork of the burial interiors into details of timber structure and decorative panels. The Macun m1 tomb found at Jishan in Shanxi provides an elaborate example. Not only is a woman peering out of a half-open doorway carved on the north wall, but the whole scene is also

10 For the report, see Luoyang gudai yishu bowuguan 410–413.

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figure 5 Male figure standing at a half-open door carved in the m5 tomb, Jishan, Shanxi, China courtesy jishan jin tombs museum, jishan, shanxi

Religion and the Arts 20 (2016) 59–91 realms beyond 67 covered with colors, conveying the sense of mystery (fig. 4) (Shanxisheng kaogu yanjiusuo 32). It should be noted that the female figure standing in a half-open doorway can sometimes be replaced by other figures. For instance, a male figure standing at a half-open door is carved in a tomb found at Jishan in Shanxi, showing a variant of this theme (fig. 5) (49). A later example is painted in a Yuan tomb at Jinan in Shandong. Here, a male wearing a Mongolian hat is presented standing in front of a half-open door-leaf.11 Moreover, such half-open doors with a male figure are frequently seen in Sichuan tombs.12 Although female figures are, in general, more common, these cases indicate that the gender may not be the key issue. A strong body of scholarship has examined this kind of door in which a female figure stands in Song, Liao, and Jin tombs. A group of archaeologists focus on what the doors represent. Su Bai’s pioneering work, for example, suggests that a half-open door indicates the existence of additional rooms behind the door.13 Following his idea, scholars further discuss the possible meanings of the additional rooms in tombs. For example, Liang Baiquan considers the additional rooms as an inner private space for the dead, and suggests that the whole scene may show a specific narrative.14 These views are useful, but it remains hard to explain the presence of the pictorial theme in other contexts, as half- open doors are not limited to burials.15 Meanwhile, another group of scholars concentrate on the image of the woman who stands on the threshold. They attempt to understand the identity and roles of the woman in tombs. For example, Paul Goldin thinks that this motif has something to do with the union of male and female.16 Liu Yi argues that female figures may indicate a concubine of the male tomb occupant.17 Other scholars tend to use this motif and especially the female figure in the doorway to explain the social status of women

11 For the reference to the Yuan tomb, see Liu and Wang 59–71. 12 See Sichuansheng wenwu kaogu yanjiusuo. 13 See Su, note 75. 14 For the discussion, see Liang. Li Qingquan’s recent work further suggests that the space behind the half-open door may symbolize qin, that is the inner space or bedroom of tomb occupants, and that such doorways might have also been associated with the ideas of attaining immortality (329–362). 15 Ellen Johnson Laing also thinks that the ideas about additional rooms seem to be simplis- tic (14). 16 For the discussion, see Goldin 539–548. 17 Zheng Mingluan follows this idea and suggests that the female figures in Liao tombs stand for both concubines and female attendants (see Zheng, “Xuanhua Liaomu furen qimen bihua xiaokao” 73–74).

Religion and the Arts 20 (2016) 59–91 68 deng during the Song and Liao periods.18 However, these approaches overlook the meanings of the doorways and also cannot explain special cases in which a man or a child emerges from a half-open gate. These studies have concentrated on the intended purposes and meanings of this pictorial subject. Some scholars consider it to be a generally common subject, and suggest that the meanings of the doorways may vary according to their historical, cultural, and religious contexts. For instance, Zheng Yan notes that half-open doors may be connected with their specific contexts, and that doorways can be regarded as an open-ended motif and changed to fit different contexts.19 This discussion sheds new light on the pictorial theme of half-open doors and indicates that scholars should examine gates and doorways within particular settings.20 Following Zheng Yan’s suggestion, Feng Enxue further discusses a variety of half-open doors represented in Liao tombs, and also considers such doorways as a general visual method during the Song, Liao, and Jin periods (Feng 30–34). To explore the diversity and complexity of this theme, I shall adopt Zheng Yan’s approach to analyzing half-open doors. Following this approach, the present study extends the range of the motif to various forms and contexts. Several aspects are discussed, such as a possible origin for half-open doors, the ways in which this subject was altered to fit various settings, and how and why half- open doors were used and incorporated into Buddhist, Taoist and funerary art. ii The Han Predecessors

The theme of a woman standing at a half-open door has predecessors in Chi- nese funerary art. A few earlier examples are known from the Han periods (202bce–220ce). For instance, half-open doors are carved on a tile pediment in a tomb at Luoyang, and at the Houchengzi tomb found at Yishui in Shan- dong.21 Later, they also appear as an important pictorial subject on tomb walls

18 See Deng Xiaonan 113–127; Zhang 102–108; and Li Hui 50–56. 19 See Zheng Luanming 92–93; and Zheng Yan, and “Lun ban qimen” 16–36. 20 The motif of half-open doors has recently been studied by quite a few young scholars, who provide some new perspectives for this pictorial subjects in burials. For instance, Yi examines the half-open doors in Song tombs found in Henan, and discusses the symbolic meaning of the doors on the north walls from the perspectives of geomancy (Yi, “Shixi Song Jin” 107–127). See also Yan; and Fan; Ding 81–91. 21 Both Paul Goldin and Sheng Lei have summarized the Han examples in burials, see Goldin 539–541; and Sheng 70–88.

Religion and the Arts 20 (2016) 59–91 realms beyond 69 and sarcophagi of the Eastern Han period (25–220ce) in Sichuan, although visual representations of the doorways in the southwestern China differed from the examples in Henan and Shandong. Starting from the late Eastern Han period, the image of a woman was frequently included in this scene. For example, the head panel of Wang Hui’s sarcophagus dated to 221ce found at Lushan, Sichuan, shows a winged figure emerging from a closed door-leaf that conceals part of her (fig. 6) (Gao 72). This theme in Han tombs has been much discussed. Although they vary in detail, scholars have generally agreed that this kind of door symbolizes an entrance to the space of death or immortality.22 Doorways may function as an intermediary stage between life and death, the world of the living and the realm of the deceased; figures who stand on the threshold may have played an important role in this process.23 This pictorial subject was not limited to burials in this region. Above-ground buildings and monuments like the stone watchtower of Gao Yi at Ya’an and the Jingyun stele at Guanghan all made use of half-open doors and other visual elements to represent the immortal world. Previous studies focus primarily on the meaning of the pictorial subject. Examples from the West may suggest a parallel tradition. Partially opened doors appear on Roman ash urns, funerary altars, and sarcophagi in the period from the third century bce to the first century ce. Such doors were a common symbolic motif within Roman sepulchral sculpture, indicating expectations of a life beyond death.24 Moreover, winged figures can also be seen in Western Asian pictorial traditions. It may seem somewhat implausible that Wang Hui’s sarcophagus owed anything to a distant area further west. However, there is a possibility that some Han tombs borrowed features from outside of China. Jessica Rawson notes that a wide variety of materials, objects and motifs were

22 Guo Moruo, first writing about Han tombs at Luoyang, believes the half-open door represents the Gate of Heaven (Guo Moruo 4). Following this interpretation, scholars such as Doi Yoshiko and He Xilin generally regard this kind of door as an entrance for the deceased to go to heavenly realms (see He 56–58; and Doi 253–292). 23 For the discussions, see Wu, Monumentality in Early Chinese Art and Architecture 259; Wu, “Myth and Legends in Han Funerary Art” 75. 24 For the study on half-open doors in the Roman funerary context, see Haarlov. Britt Haarlov discusses this theme on Roman sarcophagi and suggests that the kind of door with one door-leaf ajar is not as a motif that represents something static, but as a motif that stands for action. The doors can be opened, and the figures that sometimes occur in the doorways, tell us that this opening indicates not a way in, but a way out. Hope of salvation from death and of rebirth to new life has been given to the half-open doors. Moreover, Haarlov also notes that the door motif has been followed far and wide.

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figure 6 Rubbing of a winged female figure standing at a half-open door carved on the head panel of Wang Hui’s sarcophagus, Lushan, Sichuan, China, 221ce courtesy henan meishu press introduced from outside the central areas of the Qin and Han states and inte- grated into Chinese material culture during the Qin (221–207bce) and Western Han (202bce–8ce) periods. For example, mirrors, flasks, and incense burners may have come from the north or northwest; many images of animals were borrowed from different societies in Siberia and Western Asia. These foreign items were transformed and, in due course, accommodated within Chinese contexts.25 Might the door seen on Han sarcophagi have also derived from the West like many other elements in Han burials? Had any western half-open door been seen or known by the Chinese? Might they have believed that the pictorial theme of a figure standing at a half-open door from outside of China

25 Rawson, “Eternal Places of the Western Han” 21–30. Jessica Rawson has shown the ways in which China in the Qin and Han periods was part of a world that was entering early phases of globalization. New objects and motifs were brought into China through the contact between China and the borderlands and further west. The import of foreign items stimulated the ancient Chinese to create new and innovative materials.

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figure 7 A scene of a woman standing at a half-open door constructed above the entrance of the tomb of Li Maozhen, Baoji, Shanxi province, China, 925ce courtesy kexue press had acquired some association with spirit worlds that lay to the west, and would provide a benign outcome for the deceased?26 If so, the subject may have caused people of that time to incorporate it into traditional Chinese burial practices, and Chinese craftsmen replaced the Roman portal with a gate tower

26 Wu discusses representations of the Queen Mother of the West and Buddha found on Han tombs and coffins in Sichuan and suggests their association with spirit worlds in the west. See Wu “Myth and Legends in Han Funerary Art” 72–81.

Religion and the Arts 20 (2016) 59–91 72 deng that was much more common in China. Nevertheless, it is beyond the scope of the present study to consider further the relations between these two pictorial traditions. And there is little information on the routes by which this motif was introduced into China and penetrated Henan, Shandong, and Sichuan.27 Alternatively, there might not have been direct influence from the west to the east. Half-open doors in Roman and the Eastern-Han China might have been merely parallel developments. They were only similar ways of imagining and creating life after death in different cultures. Curiously, this pictorial theme rarely appears in the tombs from the Six Dynasties (222–589) to the Tang period (618–907).28 It appears again in burials of the tenth century. Both the tomb of Li Maozhen dated to 925 and the tomb of Feng Hui dated to 958 found in Shaanxi have scenes of a woman standing at a half-open door constructed above the tomb entrances (fig. 7).29 These scenes appear to be a part of architectural representations and consist of a gate tower with lattice doors and other elements. On the one hand, the half-open doors attempt to show the tombs as an aboveground building, and on the other hand the doorways may also have marked the beginning of the afterlife of the tomb occupants. From the tenth century onwards, half-open doors began to be widely employed in the funerary context. This phenomenon directly raises the question: why did this theme reappear in burials? Several possibilities may have brought about the revival of the motif. Excavations of earlier tombs or discoveries of Han sarcophagi might have affected people’s selections of tomb designs in the period. Many pictorial subjects related to Han funerary art can be seen in Song burials, including banquet scenes, half-open doors, and portrayals of filial piety. Instead of adopting wholesale subjects from Han tombs, the decoration in Song tombs appears to have been made selectively, with a sudden look backward to and a conscious revival of past motifs. Earlier pictorial subjects might have offered Song funerary specialists new opportunities. Many societies have made self-conscious use of the past and, in so doing, have effected major changes in the present. Indeed, a return to the past has often been an opportunity for creative innovation (Rawson, “The Many Meanings of the Past in China”

27 Linking China and the Mediterranean basin are the vast area of Central Asia and the steppes of present-day Russia and Mongolia, where mobile peoples and traders may have brought these two regions into contact with each other. For the discussion, see also Rawson, “Eternal Places of the Western Han” 21–30. 28 So far, only one example of the half-open door has been found on a Northern-Wei sarcophagus at Datong. 29 For the report of this tomb, see Xianyang wenwu kaogu yanjiusuo.

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397–400). However, the fact that the theme of the half-open door appeared in burials no later than the tenth century, and was so widespread in the Song period, suggests that there was more at work than simply the discovery of a past form. We also need to ask whether these earlier subjects brought along their ancient functions and associations when they were reproduced. But we should be wary of such assumptions. Motifs, when revived, do not necessarily retain their earlier meanings. iii Religious Influences

Religious influences may have been another stimulus of the revival of the motif of the half-open door. In fact, from the mid-Tang period onwards, such doors began to ornament pagodas, crypts, sutra pillars, and relic pillars in the areas of present-day Hebei, Shaanxi, and Shandong. A number of Tang, Liao, and Song pagodas provide examples of half-open doors.30 For instance, a scene of a figure standing in a partially opened door appears on the outer wall of a Tang pagoda at Zhuyuancun near Xi’an in Shaanxi. The Master Chonghui pagoda dated to the late Tang period in the Lingyan Monastery in Shandong also has half-open doors constructed on the north, east, and west walls. In one scene, a monk appears to be standing in the doorway.31 It is not easy to determine the exact meaning of this kind of scene, but it shows clearly that half-open doors were associated with Buddhist visual culture during the late Tang period. This motif is also seen in Buddhist caves of the Song Dynasty. The Beishan cave 176 at Dazu in Sichuan has a half-open door carved on the lower register of the west wall. This cave illustrates the Sutra on the Descent of Maitreya, and the scene of a woman standing in the doorway may be employed to visualize an entrance to the Pure Land in the West.32 This pictorial theme appears not only on Buddhist monuments but also on relic containers.33 Two miniature stupas dated to the early Song period, containing Buddhist relics, have been excavated from the crypt of the Jingzhi Monastery at Dingxian in Hebei. These stupas are both adorned with the motif of half-open doors on their lower parts (Hebei sheng wenwuju 47–48). A scene of a monk standing at a half-open door is carved on the front panel of a stone

30 Su has summarized these religious examples of the Song, Liao and Jin periods. See Su 42. 31 For the description of the pagoda, see Doi 288–289. 32 Wang Tianxiang and Li Qi have discussed this motif in the Beishan cave 176 at Dazu. See Wang and Li 107–110. 33 For the examples of relic containers, see Ding 88.

Religion and the Arts 20 (2016) 59–91 74 deng container excavated from the crypt of the Xinglong pagoda at Yanzhou in Shan- dong, offering an elaborate case in Buddhist visual culture (fig. 8) (Shandong sheng bowuguan 42–62). In addition, it is noteworthy that crypts of pagodas show similar architectural elements and decoration to tomb chambers. A half- open door is engraved on the north wall of the crypt of the West Pagoda, dated to 1069, in the Shuangta Monastery at Linyi in Shanxi (Qiao 35–53). Crypts functioned as sacred spaces for placing Buddhist relics. Although pagodas and tombs belong to different ideological groups, these two types of architectural spaces had parallel meanings. Pagodas, stupas, and crypts could, to a certain extent, be considered as burial spaces. Meanwhile, pagodas and tombs show similarities in terms of structure and decoration. As the pagoda was introduced into China, this form was not only incorporated into Chinese culture, but also had a significant impact on architecture and burial practice.34 Two observations may be pertinent about this impact. First, the way of simulating wooden architectural elements in brick in tombs of the late Tang and the Five Dynasties might have derived from the tradition of crypts and pagodas. Second, as pagodas with polygonal plans became popular in northern China during the Song, Liao, and Jin periods, polygonal chambers were also employed in burials during those times. As noted by scholars such as Nancy Steinhardt and Li Qingquan, octagonal or hexagonal tomb chambers were modelled on pagodas, and many elements originally associated with Buddhist ideas were included in Song and Liao burials.35 Indeed, polygonal plans and certain pictorial subjects in decorated tombs may be regarded as Buddhist influences, which helped to shape the burial practices of the times. Although half-open doors appeared as early as the Han period, Buddhism may have been

34 Buddhism not only brought a vast array of new concepts, doctrines, and beliefs, but also altered the material world of the Chinese, introducing new sacred objects, new symbols, buildings, ritual implements, and a host of other objects big and small. The impact of Buddhism on Chinese material culture began as early as the first century, and continued long after the twelfth. For instance, John Kieschnick give an overview of these developments by focusing on the histories of a number of objects that are representative of the major themes in the history of the influences of Buddhism on Chinese material culture. See Kieschnick. 35 Steinhardt 397–398; Li, Xuanhua Liao mu 294–317. Su first suggests that polygonal burial chambers derived from pagodas. Han Xiaonan also points out the Buddhist influences in Song tombs. See Su 111; and Han 95–99. Other Buddhist elements in Liao and Song tombs include bronze mirrors installed in the center of a lotus coffer on tomb ceilings, symbolizing the immeasurable light of Buddhist dharma, and ornamented sumeru bases on the surface of coffin beds.

Religion and the Arts 20 (2016) 59–91 realms beyond 75 an important reason why this motif has prevailed in different contexts since the tenth century. This pictorial theme might have been absorbed into Buddhism during the late Tang Dynasty or even earlier. As burials were influenced by religious ideas and art, this motif became a common decorative theme in burials. It seems possible that the doors originally carried Buddhist connotations, which may give the doors the indication of another world. This motif was employed in religious and funerary art. The connection between notions of supernatural agents and representations about death may take different forms, but there is always some connection. Most beliefs and representations about death are concerned with the transitional period between death and some further state (Boyer). Half-open doors allowed this invisible and inaccessible afterlife, as well as other supernatural realms, to be visualized and created. A sarcophagus dated to the middle eleventh century offers an intriguing case.36 The front panel of the sarcophagus depicts a monk standing at a half-opened door on a platform; the empty space recedes into an unknown depth, while the solid door-leaf blocks the spectator’s gaze from penetrating the hidden space. The monk holds the closed door-leaf; two bodhisattvas appear, one at each side of the door. The three figures all look forward as if to receive the deceased.37 This scene presented on the sarcophagus may indicate a specific entrance serving as a route from this world to the Sukhavati pure land. A Buddhist paradise seems to have been realized here. Nevertheless, this motif does not necessarily carry such meanings or connotations, as the scene of a woman standing at a half-open door can also decorate everyday objects. For example, pillows in the British Museum and Shanghai Museum display an open door with a figure on the lower sections (fig. 9) (Deng 88–95). These appear to be similar to the scenes of half-open doors in Song tombs, suggesting that the subject may have been generally common. The pictorial subject is also seen in Song, Jin, and Yuan mirrors. A scene of a half-open door, for instance, is carved on a bronze mirror of Song period found in Hubei. The back of the mirror shows trees, rocks, a bridge, and a building alongside this motif. Three other gilded mirrors found in a Song tomb at Delong in Ningxia carry the same design (fig. 10) (Zhong 54–59). According to Han Xiaonan’s study, the whole scene provides almost all the elements in Chinese popular

36 For the illustration see Orientations, June 1997. 37 In addition, incised decoration on an inner side of a stone sarcophagus in a Liao tomb m7 at Yemaotai, Liaoning, has male guards at either side of a partially open door with a figure looking out the door. Female entertainers and winged humans and animals including a frontal winged creature appear above the door. See Liaoning sheng bowuguan 35.

Religion and the Arts 20 (2016) 59–91 76 deng A scene of a monk standing at a half-open door carved on a stone container excavated from the crypt of the Xinglong pagoda, Yanzhou, Shandong, China, Northern Song Dynasty (960–1127ce) courtesy shandong provincial museum, jinan, shandong figure 8

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figure 9 Pillow displaying a half-open door and a figure on the bottom courtesy shanghai museum, shanghai literature describing the ways in which people would come upon an entry into an abode of immortals (Han 41–46). It is difficult for us to determine the meanings of half-open doors when they adorn everyday objects. Yet it is certain that the motif is sometimes only one visual element within a scene or picture and could be altered to fit various contexts. This kind of half-open door appears in the contemporary paintings as well and is documented in a text on paintings, Huaji (Painting Continued) by Deng Chun of the Song Dynasty. In a passage that praised a scroll done in the Painting Academy, Deng mentioned: “A red gate half-open, exposing half of the figure of a palace lady behind the door in the act of throwing away nut shells contained in a dustpan …” (Huangji, 10. 2b). In other words, the subject might be a conventional visual method, and this mode of visualization was related to a general phenomenon during the Song period. Various settings and forms of the half-open doors make this pictorial subject complicated in itself. The meanings of the doorways may sometimes vary according to their historical, cultural, and religious contexts. For this reason it is difficult for us to provide one single answer to the question of what the subject of door and figure signifies. The doors could be viewed as an open- ended and versatile motif during the Song period, and indeed at other periods.

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figure 10 Gilded mirror, Gushi, Ningxia, China, Song Dynasty courtesy ningxia provincial museum, yinchuan, ningxia

The subject was a visual method of referencing, perhaps, several situations.38 The doors may not always carry meanings, but in different ways, they provide clues as to what might be expected for the circumstances. iv Realms Beyond

An actual door or gate, in terms of spatial characteristics, generally appears to divide a space into two parts. To a certain extent, a door can be regarded as a

38 Zheng Yan, “Minjian yishu erti” 92–93; and “Lun ban qimen” 16–36.

Religion and the Arts 20 (2016) 59–91 realms beyond 79 boundary or interface, which defines dual spaces and times.39 Take a city gate as an example: on the one hand, it distinguishes the inner and outer areas of the city, but on the other hand it also connects the two areas. The gate has dual functions: separating and connecting. Psychologically, a door also implies a transition from one side to another. Doors constructed in tomb spaces, likewise, indicate a realm or space behind, and in the meanwhile the doors could be the passage by which the beings in the tomb can enter into another space. In a tomb dated to the early Jin period, for instance, a female figure crosses the two halves, exposing herself against an outer space but concealing her lower body behind a closed red door-leaf (see fig. 4).40 She stands in one space but also looks at the other.41 The solid door-leaf blocks the spectator’s gaze from penetrating the space behind. The figure, on the one hand, can be interpreted as receiving the deceased. On the other hand, she may suggest a role in guiding the deceased.42 She seems to invite the deceased to enter into the world beyond and also to make it available to him.43 As the motif of a figure standing in a half-open doorway may be a visual method of referencing different situations, the nature of the space behind the door sometimes does not depend on the scene itself, and its pictorial environment needs to be considered. This motif is often placed in the overall pictorial program in burials. Its meanings vary along with the combination of pictorial subjects in burials as well as the tomb con-

39 Wu has drawn attention to this kind of boundary and points out that it has multiple meanings. One the one hand, the boundary means the “end,” “termination,” “cessation,” and “expiration” of this world; on the other hand, it implies a “dividing,” “demarcating,” “joining,” and “juxtaposing” of this world and the underworld. See Wu, “The Transparent Stone” 81–82. 40 For the reference to this Jin tomb, see Shanxisheng kaogu yanjiusuo. 41 Wu calls the vision in such a position as a binary vision, as the figure can look in two directions at the same time. It might be a metaphor for the opposition between life and death. See Wu “The Transparent Stone” 58–86. 42 Lin suggests that this pictorial theme is very ambiguous, and it is this ambiguity that makes the motif of half-open door significant in these tombs, for it reveals the ontology of burial chamber in creating for the dead an ideal world of wonder and imagination. Lin, “Underground Wooden Architecture in Brick” 26–28. 43 In a Liao tomb at Xuanhua, there is a half-open door painted on the north side of a coffin bed, precisely facing another brick-constructed gate on the north wall. Li Qingquan argues that both doors were deemed to serve as an access or a pass, and the two opposite doors may have offered an invisible channel that the dead were thought to take. Although the door depicted on the coffin bed is not mentioned in the archaeological reports of the Xuanhua tombs, Li Qingquan discusses it and provides a sketch of the two gates, see Li, “Xuanhua Liaodai bihuamu sheji zhong de shijian yu kongjian guannian” 32.

Religion and the Arts 20 (2016) 59–91 80 deng tent. Half-open doors not only are employed to represent a space in vernacular dwellings, but also could realize a realm beyond the living world. A Song tomb found at Wenxi in Shanxi provides an intriguing example. According to the report, a landscape painting was seen between partially opened door-leaves constructed on the north wall of the tomb. Though the painting is destroyed now, the entire scene implies a sense of looking through a narrow entryway at a place that has large rocks and rivers (Li Quanshe 86–88). This scene seems to remind us of a well-known work by Tao Yuanming (365– 427), Taohua yuanji (The Tale of the Peach Blossom Spring). This tale describes the way in which a passage through a crack in rocks brought a simple fisherman into a world thought of as a lost paradise in a hidden garden:44

The grove ended at the stream’s source, and there the fisherman found a hill. In the hill was a small opening from which a light seemed to come. So he left his boat and went in through the opening. At first it was very narrow, barely allowing a man to pass, but as he went on for some tens of paces, it came out into the open air, upon lands level and wide with houses of a stately appearance. There were fine fields and beautiful pools, clumps of mulberries and bamboos …45

The poem shows that a fisherman was lost in search of the source of a river, entered a tunnel by way of a narrow aperture in a mountain, and then reached a separate world inhabited by refugees from a past age. In particular, the account seems to pay great attention to the way that the fisherman encountered another world, a topic richly taken up in Chinese stories of mysteries and marvels dating from the sixth to tenth centuries. Such encounters in literature always include a narrow entryway, mountains, rivers, and beautiful landscapes. The tale offers an early literary paradigm for a lost paradise. As suggested by Rolf Stein, the theme of a narrow or restricted entryway leading to another world is common in ancient Chinese culture.46 In most Song tombs, door leaves are usually depicted opening inwards. They are presented neither fully open nor fully closed, creating an aperture between the two door-leaves. This aperture seems to offer a very narrow entrance, which suggests a restriction to

44 Jessica Rawson suggests this view when she discussed a landscape screen in a Five Dynas- ties tomb. See Rawson, “The Origins of Chinese Mountain Painting” 14–16. 45 After A. R. Davis’s English translation, 195–197. 46 Rolf Stein has been concerned with the theme of separate worlds and notes that to escape from this world and to penetrate a hidden place of supreme artifice, people had to make themselves fit into and go through a narrow gateway (Stein 54–58).

Religion and the Arts 20 (2016) 59–91 realms beyond 81 the passage from one realm to the other. The narrow entryway gives a sense of a hidden place behind the aperture. Like the fishermen in the poem, one could pass through this narrow doorway and enter another world where there may be a realm far from this vulgar world. Another story collected in Guang bowu zhi (The Extensive Record of Natural History) illustrates such a narrow entryway when the major character encounters another realm.47 A half-open door is clearly mentioned in the narrative:

[Zhang Wulang] went further … the rocks of two sides were so steep and narrow that he could not see the sky when he looked up. He sidled through the narrow space, and suddenly heard sound of music. Zhang then went on for hundreds of paces. He found that sunshine was like threads, and a stone door was partially opened to the east. [Beyond the door], his view suddenly opened up with a different world, where there were four people wearing old-time dress. One was seated under a plum blossom tree, playing a se instrument; one sat on a rock near a river, playing a reed pipe wind instrument; one leaned on bamboo, beating a musical stone; the last one rode a white deer, holding a ruyi and singing … Guang bowu zhi 12.60b–61b

This narrative is somewhat similar to the poem of the Peach Blossom Spring. Both characters were brought into a secret place through a crack or a half-open door. But the latter story ends with Zhang finding out that the four people playing musical instruments were hermits, who had lived there for hundreds of years. The hermits also told Zhang that celestial beings came to visit them from time to time. All these accounts suggest that the hidden place beyond the half-open gate was an immortal land. The bronze mirror found at Gushi in Ningxia mentioned earlier further illustrates that this belief was implicated in the pictorial theme of half-open doors in Chinese culture (Zhong 54–59). Figure 10 shows a scene cast on the back of the mirror. Trees and rocks are visible on the left top of the scene. At the bottom left, a male figure led by a female figure is about to cross a bridge. Another female figure is seated on the other side of the bridge, and two attendants stand at either side of her. Behind the three figures, presumably celestial beings, is an imposing building at the top right. A half-open door, in

47 Guang bowu zhi is an encyclopedic work, edited by Dong Sizhang, of the Ming period. It records a number of anecdotes of mysteries and marvels from Tang to Southern Song Dynasties.

Religion and the Arts 20 (2016) 59–91 82 deng which a figure stands, appears in the middle of the building. This scene seems to have a certain sequence: the male figure on the left bottom may refer to a man who goes through a mountain grove and enters into a hidden place, as the fisherman does in the Tale of Peach Blossom Spring. The celestial maids invite him into another world; the grand building could be a heavenly palace. The whole scene provides almost all the elements in Chinese popular literature describing the ways in which people would come upon an entry into an abode of immortals. In fact, we can consider this scene as a conventional illustration of the living encountering immortals. What is more, in Chinese beliefs there is sometimes a cave or a grotto behind a narrow entrance or a half-open door. Other worlds were closely bound to caves and grottoes where supernatural beings, especially Taoist immortals, were thought to live. The term Dongtian denotes a Taoist grotto conceived of as paradise formed by a cave.48 From the fourth century onwards, there were various sayings about the thirty-six cave-heavens and the ten great ones in sacred mountains like Mount Tai and Mount Wangwu.49 These cave-heavens were thought to include palace, terraces, or abodes of immortals. They had to be approached by special means. In the tenth country, such beliefs can be found in the Taiping guanji (The Extensive Records Compiled in the Taiping Reign), which records a number of anecdotes in which people or Taoists found cave-heavens in mountains.50 In addition, a biography of immortals is collected in the Yunji qiqian (Seven Taoist Books in a Cabinet) of the Song period. This title clearly shows an association between immortals and caves.51 The caves were indeed regarded as a hidden realm, which immortals inhabit. A narrow entrance that lets in only one person may sometimes mark the beginning of this realm.

48 Franciscus Verellen discusses the notion of “cave-heavens” in its formative period from the fourth to the tenth centuries and examines the development of cave-heavens in Taoist cosmography and their significance as the epitome of interiorized ritual space. See Verellen 265–282. 49 The Taoist text, Yunji qiqian (Seven Taoist Books in a Cabinet), has sections headed “Ten Great Cave-Heavens” and “Thirty-six lesser Cave-Heavens,” which describe caves in sacred mountains. For a summary of these cave-heavens, see also Verellen 289–290. 50 For instance, a story illustrates how a man entered into an immortal realm in a big cave through a crack in rocks (Taiping guangji 47.286). 51 Yunji qiqian 110.2387–2427. Songshi (History of the Song Dynasty) also records music or songs titled Xiandong kai (opening the gate of an immortal cave), or Dongxian ge (the song of immortals’ caves), Songshi, 142.3355. Li Qingquan notes the belief of cave-heavens in the Liao culture. For the discussion, see Li Qingquan, Xuanhua Liao mu 206–207.

Religion and the Arts 20 (2016) 59–91 realms beyond 83

Although there is no direct evidence to sustain the association of half- open doors in tombs with cave-heavens, a Jin sarcophagus gives a clue to understanding the doors and the world of immortals. The sarcophagus of Feng Rong (1211) found in Shanxi has a door on the head panel. The surface outside this door is covered with incised texts of the tomb occupant’s epitaph. Interestingly, a blank space in the shape of a gourd is engraved in the center of the doorway (Xie and Yan 71–74). The distinctive shape of the gourd seems to suggest a particular connotation that the door may have carried. Rolf Stein has demonstrated that the association of a gourd with an immortal world had long existed in Chinese beliefs. Like the dongtian, the term hutian, literally the heaven within a gourd, also refers to heavenly sites in general or Taoist immortals’ realms in particular. Among many legends, for instance, a well- known story concerning Fei Zhangfang’s adventure inside a gourd belonging to an immortal captures the traditional imagination of the world of immortals that exists within a gourd. In the light of the idea about the hutian, it can be assumed that the door was made in a gourd shape so that Feng Rong would rest in a paradisiacal site, by transforming the interior of the sarcophagus into the heaven within a gourd.52 In other words, the sarcophagus for the tomb occupant’s body may have been equated with an immortal paradise. Here, no matter how the paradise was realized within the interior of a sarcophagus or the imagined space behind a half-open door on a tomb wall, a link between burials and heavenly sites is evident. In this cultural context, half-open doorways seen in many Song and Jin tombs may also have functioned as narrow entrances serving as a route from one world to another. It seems likely that the realm beyond the half-open doors was expected to be a residence of immortals, a heavenly place or a place of perpetual happiness. Although the association between half-open doors and heavenly sites may not explain some variations found in Liao tombs in Hebei and Jin tombs in Shanxi, it is helpful to take this view and consider the scene in burials to be related to a benign outcome. The form of presenting additional spaces on a two-dimensional surface seemed appealing, and thus half-open doors and figures were constantly used and altered to fit diverse contexts, indicating people’s attempts at visualizing a boundless space in a restricted burial chamber.

52 Jeehee Hong has noted this view and argues that the gourd gate of the sarcophagus is an icon that bears its visual index of ongoing process in which the dead is transforming into an immortal, connoting its symbolic discourse of body and death in the Daoist thoughts of the Song period. See Hong 212–215.

Religion and the Arts 20 (2016) 59–91 84 deng v Heavenly Worlds Provided for the Deceased

Visual evidence further reveals the intricate relation between the concept of heavenly sites and burials in Song and Jin tombs. A few tomb paintings directly show heavenly scenes. The Gaocun tomb at Dengfeng depicts tomb occupants standing above the clouds on the tomb walls, indicating that the deceased cou- ple was expected to visit the realm of immortals (Zhengzhou kaogusuo 62–88). The Heishangou tomb at Dengfeng also has images of celestial beings and a heavenly palace painted on the ceiling. Tomb ceilings are sometimes covered with pictorial subjects related to heavenly sites or paradises. The Beiyuan- cun tomb at Songxian offers another elaborate example (Li Xianqi, “Songxian Beiyuancun Songdai bihuamu” 37–42). The depictions on the tomb ceiling show a red lotus in the center of the ceiling. Outside the lotus, plaster was applied as a rendering, with a layer of azure pigment painted on it to represent the sky. Surrounding the lotus are drawings of auspicious clouds and eight cranes flying among the clouds.53 The outer circle carries eight vases with peonies. The entire scene seems to remind us of a cave-heaven as described in popular literature.54 These examples suggest that there was a common hope that the dead would find their way to paradise or the lands of immortals in the life after death. This wish may have influenced the concept of the afterlife, also shown in many aspects of burial practices of that time. According to a description in Liu Yaohui’s study of Song and Jin tombs in Shanxi, a joint burial of Yang family found at Xiangfen provides funerary texts to sustain this view. In this tomb, six tomb occupants are portrayed on the walls, and each image is accompanied with an inscription, such as “wish elderly Yang to ascend to heavenly realms soon.” The inscriptions clearly state the family’s hope for the deceased to reach a place of perpetual happiness.55 Owing to limited information on the understanding of death and tombs, it is difficult for us to be certain exactly what these heavenly scenes signify. But a Northern Song tomb found at Zhenyuan in Gansu provides us with evidence to

53 Immortals riding cranes as a continuous subject can be frequently seen in Chinese art. Textual sources also shed light on a connection between cranes and immortals. A section headed “Crane” in the Taiping yulan (Imperial Encyclopaedia Compiled in the Taiping Reign) offers several examples concerning this connection, see Taiping yulan, 561. 2b–8a. 54 Li Qingquan has drawn attention to similar pictorial scenes in Liao tombs and suggests that they were associated with cave-heavens of the time (see Xuanhua Liao mu 220–221). 55 This tomb has not been formally excavated nor reported yet. For the description, see Liu, Jinnan diqu Song Jin muzang yanjiu 40–41.

Religion and the Arts 20 (2016) 59–91 realms beyond 85 interpret immortal realms in burials. A land deed found in this tomb mentions that Bai brothers built the tomb as a Palace of Extreme Bliss and a Penglai Cave for their late father.56 Here, the Palace of Extreme Bliss may refer to the Sukhavati pure land, a Buddhist paradise;57 Penglai was long thought of as an abode of immortals.58 Hence the palace and the cave were thought to be associated with heavenly realms where gods or immortals dwell. By naming the tomb after these two specific sites, the brothers may have expected the dead to visit or to stay in these kinds of lands of immortals in the life hereafter. Moreover, a later tomb dated to 1226 found at Pengshan in Sichuan, offers a visual representation of such sites. The tomb of Yu Gongzhu consists of a double chamber. In the west chamber, a stone relief is carved on the back wall, showing a landscape painting in which auspicious cranes and deer appear. Likewise, a similar scene is seen on the back wall of the east chamber. In this scene, an entry to a cave appears on the top of a large rock and is accompanied by an inscription mentioning “Penglai.”59 This inscription emphasizes the denotation of the mountain and the cave and also suggests that the tomb would make the Penglai islands available for its occupants. Heavenly scenes in tombs were not only associated with Penglai but can be considered as a type of the world of immortals in general, for a few pictorial scenes relating to the Buddhist concept of heaven are also shown in Song and Liao tombs. Images of the Buddha and his attendants are shown on the ceiling of the Pingmo tomb at Xinmi, Henan (Zhengzhou kaogusuo 41–54). In some other cases, coffers in the shape of a lotus are painted or constructed in the center of tomb ceilings. This design is thought to derive from Buddhist ideas, and many direct parallels are provided in cave temples such as the Mogao caves at Dunhuang. The association of the lotus with the light of Buddhist paradises may have caused its presence and meaning in burials.

56 Kaogu yu wenwu 6 (1983): 41–42. 57 The Sukhavati pure land was believed to be a paradise of Buddha Amitabha in Mahayana Buddhism, and it is also called Western Land of Bliss, or Western Paradise. The Mahayana Buddhism first became prominent in China in 402, and quickly spread throughout China. In the Song dynasty, the religious movement spread to Japan, where people established Pure Land Buddhism as an independent sect. In its beliefs, entering the land is perceived as equivalent to the attainment of enlightenment. After practitioners attain enlightenment in the Pure Land, they have the choice of becoming a Buddha and entering nirvana. For a discussion about the land of Bliss, see Halkias. 58 Penglai is a mystical land found in Chinese mythology. It is said to be on an island in the eastern end of Bohai sea, along with other islands where the immortals lived. For an introduction of Penglai islands, see Pregadio 788–790. 59 For the report of the tomb of Yu Gongzhu, see Kuang 383–401.

Religion and the Arts 20 (2016) 59–91 86 deng vi Conclusion

The images of a figure standing in a doorway vary with the time, region, and pictorial program. Although half-open doors appeared as early as the Han period, the prevalence of this motif in different contexts from the tenth century onwards may have been influenced by Buddhist visual art. Consequently, this motif became a common decorative theme in burials. Though it is possible that half-open doors in later times were related to Han funerary art, this earlier subject did not bring back its ancient meanings. Half-open doors sometimes were employed to represent an entrance to additional rooms in vernacular dwellings, but in many cases the doors may have been associated with the heavenly realms. Architectural elements and indoor settings show that tombs were conceived as residences for the tombs’ occupants. Scenes of doorways suggest the concept of a tomb as a gateway to other parts of supernatural realms. The tomb was thought to be a dwelling where the dead stay, although they could visit celestial beings from time to time. Instead of considering heavenly scenes in tombs as an ultimate paradise, I would suggest that the scenes may have provided the realms of immortals for tomb occupants to visit.60 The half-open doorways constructed in tombs may have been an exit for the deceased to move between the realms available to them in the afterlife. In some instances, people may have thought that the dead would leave the tombs for a place of perpetual happiness; in other cases, when we consider the half-open door where a monk stands, the doorway could be viewed as an access to a Buddhist paradise.

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