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The Funerary Buddha: Material Culture and Religious Change In THE FUNERARY BUDDHA: MATERIAL CULTURE AND RELIGIOUS CHANGE IN “THE INTRODUCTION OF BUDDHISM TO CHINA” by Margarita Angelica Delgado Creamer B.A. in Philosophy, Catholic University of Peru, Lima, 1996 M.A. in Religious Studies, Queen’s University, Kingston, 2008 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2016 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH The Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences This dissertation was presented by MARGARITA ANGELICA DELGADO CREAMER It was defended on March 30, 2016 and approved by Clark Chilson, PhD, Associate Professor Katheryn Linduff, PhD, Professor Adam Shear, PhD, Associate Professor Dissertation Advisor: Linda Penkower, PhD, Associate Professor ii Copyright © by Margarita Angelica Delgado Creamer 2016 iii THE FUNERARY BUDDHA: MATERIAL CULTURE AND RELIGIOUS CHANGE IN “THE INTRODUCTION OF BUDDHISM TO CHINA” Margarita Angelica Delgado Creamer, Ph.D. University of Pittsburgh, 2016 How could Buddhism gain initial acceptance in China? This question has long perplexed scholars of Chinese religions mainly on account of (1) the alleged deep ethnocentrism of Chinese civilization—that should have prevented the acceptance of a “barbarian” religion and god—and (2) the dearth of reliable relevant information for the period (first through fourth centuries CE). On the basis of the fragmentary textual sources available, the traditional narrative resolved the first problem by arguing that the initial misunderstanding or assimilation of Buddhism in terms of Daoism was pivotal in the initial acceptance of the foreign religion. The second problem has been partially ameliorated by the archaeological discovery in the last decades of dozens of objects bearing recognizably Buddhist motifs that have been dated to this period. However, previous studies on this archaeological record have generally seen them as further confirmation of the tenet of the initial misunderstanding of Buddhism as Daoism. In contrast, this dissertation inquires primarily into the significance of the archaeological record and takes it as an opportunity to reassess the traditional narrative trope. Thus, rather than formulating the question in terms of historically and hermeneutically problematic reified units (i.e. Buddhism, Daoism and China), it approaches the issue from the perspective of the reception of elements of a foreign repertoire. It argues that situating the artifacts into their local cultural landscape reveals that the appropriation of the Buddha figure though geographically diffuse was much more organic than has heretofore been considered. Indeed, this dissertation contends that iv the earliest Chinese material Buddha images constituted an innovation that was both the consequence and trigger of further synergistic cultural interaction. This means that far from being only a case of cultural misunderstanding or random borrowing, these images gave expression to a re-envisioning of the relationship between human and supernatural beings, and contributed to effecting a lasting transformation in the Chinese religious praxis. v TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE ..................................................................................................................................... X 1.0 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................ 1 1.1 STATE OF THE QUESTION ............................................................................ 5 1.2 THE MATERIAL RECORD AND THE “FUNERARY BUDDHA” ............. 7 1.3 PREVIOUS SCHOLARSHIP AND SOURCES ............................................. 10 1.4 APPROACH AND OVERVIEW ..................................................................... 13 1.5 OUTLINE ........................................................................................................... 17 2.0 THE NARRATIVE OF “THE INTRODUCTION OF BUDDHISM IN CHINA” ………………………………………………………………………………………...20 2.1 DEFINITION AND CHRONOLOGY ............................................................. 22 2.2 THE STORY OF “THE INTRODUCTION” ................................................. 27 2.2.1 Dating the official introduction .................................................................... 31 2.2.2 Xiang Kai’s memorial (166 CE) ................................................................... 36 2.2.3 Pengcheng 彭城(modern-day Jiangsu area) ................................................ 41 2.2.3.1 The story of Liu Ying, King of Chu (65 CE) ................................... 41 2.2.3.2 Ze Rong’s pagoda............................................................................... 45 2.2.4 Pencheng and Chu 楚 ................................................................................... 49 2.3 “BUDDHISM” AS “DAOISM” AND THE BUDDHA AS LAOZI .............. 51 vi 2.3.1 The huahu 化胡 legend................................................................................. 52 2.3.2 Geyi 格義 ......................................................................................................... 63 2.4 CONCLUDING REMARKS ............................................................................ 68 3.0 THE MATERIAL RECORD .................................................................................... 72 3.1 MOTIFS OTHER THAN THE BUDDHA ...................................................... 77 3.1.1 Stupas/Pagodas .............................................................................................. 77 3.1.1.1 Maduizi 馬堆子, Sichuan................................................................... 78 3.1.1.2 Xiangfan 襄樊, Hubei ........................................................................ 80 3.1.1.3 Wu Liang Shrine, Shandong ............................................................. 81 3.1.2 Lotus designs .................................................................................................. 82 3.1.3 Elephants and relics....................................................................................... 85 3.1.4 Human figures ostensibly related to Buddhism .......................................... 87 3.1.4.1 Yi’nan pillar, Shandong .................................................................... 89 3.1.5 Kongwangshan 孔望山 .................................................................................. 89 3.1.6 Concluding remarks: Interpreting the motifs as material traces of Buddhism .................................................................................................................... 93 3.2 THE ISSUE OF TRANSMISSION AND MODES OF RECEPTION ......... 95 3.3 FUNERARY BUDDHA-FIGURES ............................................................... 100 3.3.1 Earliest traces: Sichuan in the Eastern Han ............................................. 101 3.3.1.1 Tomb carvings .................................................................................. 103 3.3.1.2 Money trees (yaoqianshu 搖錢樹) .................................................. 107 3.3.2 Concluding remarks .................................................................................... 109 3.4 WU KINGDOM: ARTIFACTS OF THE WUCHANG AREA .................. 113 vii 3.4.1 Bronze mirrors ............................................................................................. 114 3.4.1.1 The case of the Echeng mirror........................................................ 122 3.4.2 Glazed pottery Buddha figure .................................................................... 124 3.4.3 Gilt bronze belt buckle (262 CE) ................................................................ 126 3.4.4 Censer with Buddha figure (ca. 270-280) .................................................. 128 3.4.5 Concluding remarks .................................................................................... 129 3.5 WU KINGDOM AND JIN DYNASTY: ARTIFACTS OF JIANGNAN... 132 3.5.1 Figured jars (duisuguan 堆塑罐) ............................................................... 132 3.5.2 Covered jar (Lian 奩) .................................................................................. 136 3.5.3 Ewer .............................................................................................................. 137 4.0 THE MATERIAL RECORD AND “THE INTRODUCTION OF BUDDHISM” ………………………………………………………………………………………139 4.1 ZÜRCHER’S STUDY ..................................................................................... 140 4.2 THEORETICAL PROBLEMS ...................................................................... 144 4.2.1 The place of material culture in the study of religion .............................. 144 4.2.2 Syncretism as a model and a problem ....................................................... 148 4.3 REPERTOIRES AND SYNERGISTIC CULTURAL INTERACTION ... 158 5.0 THE WORLD OF THE FUNERARY BUDDHA ................................................. 161 5.1 CONTEXT AND GEOGRAPHY ................................................................... 162 5.2 THE FUNERARY WORLD ........................................................................... 166 5.2.1 The tomb: structure and iconography ....................................................... 168 5.2.2 The pantheon................................................................................................ 172 5.2.2.1 The case of the Buddha in the funerary setting ............................ 175 viii 5.2.3 Immortality .................................................................................................
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