BSTC2014 Chinese Buddhist Art (6 Credits) the Course Introduces

Undergraduate Courses offered by Centre of Buddhist Studies in 2021-2022

ELECTIVE COURSE (OPEN TO ALL FACULTIES)

BSTC2014 Chinese Buddhist art (6 credits)

The course introduces students to the rich world of Chinese Buddhist art from historical and thematic perspectives, through an examination of important Buddhist caves, paintings, sculptures, calligraphy, architecture, and renowned world cultural heritage sites in China. Starting with an introduction on Indian Buddhist art, this course comprises a series of thematically designed topics and issues from different historical periods and regions of China. In this course, students will be exposed to the ways Buddhism influenced Chinese art and come to appreciate how some distinct movements of Chinese Buddhist art, such as Pure Land, Lotus Sutra, Maitreya, Bodhisattva path, Chan, and Huayan, influenced East Asian art in general. This course will enable students to achieve visual literacy and gain a historical understanding of the origins and evolution of Chinese Buddhist art and iconography as a result of social, political and philosophical changes. Furthermore, they will learn to critically analyze how Buddhist art conveys the Buddhist teachings and serves as an instrument of propagation for Buddhism at large.

Offering Semester 1stSemester Lecturer Dr. TSUI Chung-hui Office C0407, 4/F, Jockey Club Tower, Centre of Buddhist Studies Tel 3917-5018 Email [email protected] Day of the week Thursday Time 1:30 pm-3:20 pm Assessment 100% coursework Class Venue CPD-LG.10

Objectives

Students are expected to obtain a general knowledge of Buddhist art through a broad understanding of the cultural context as well as the historical and geographical framework of major Buddhist sites. By the end of the course, students will be able to describe and explain the functions and meanings of fundamental Buddhist doctrine through major masterpieces of Buddhist art.

Assessment ratio

The final examination is based on one essay, quiz, one presentation and lecture participation. 100% coursework, including: (1) 50 % short essay with 2,500-3,000 words (deadline for submission: 30 Nov 2021) (2) 10 % one short quiz during mid-semester (3) 25 % presentation (25 Nov 2021), each student has three to five minutes (4) 15 % class participation

Faculty Grade Expectations: https://arts.hku.hk/grade_expectations.pdf

Plagiarism: Plagiarism is a serious academic offence. The University upholds the principle that plagiarism in any form is unacceptable and any student found plagiarizing is liable to disciplinary action in addition to failing the assessment concerned. Please read the following webpage on "plagiarism" for details: http://arts.hku.hk/current-students/undergraduate/assessment/plagiarism

Course Outline (tentative)

1. (Sep.2) Introduction (Chinese Buddhist Art and Archaeology) 2. (Sep.9) Early Buddhist caves in Xinjiang 3. (Sep.16) Silk Road and Early Buddhist caves in Gansu province 4. (Sep.23) Dunhuang art and culture 5. (Sep.30) Yungang & Longmen grottoes 6. (Oct.7) Buddhist caves in southern China (Oct.14) Reading week (No class) 7. (Oct.21) Buddhist sculptures and stelae (& Mid-term Quiz) 8. (Oct.28) Buddhist stūpas, pagodas and temples 9. (Nov.4) Flourishing of Buddhist art in Sui & Tang 10. (Nov.11) Chan Art in calligraphy & painting 11. (Nov.18) Chan monastic artists and figure paintings of Arhats 12. (Nov.25) Presentation

Required Readings 1. Awakawa, Yasuichi. Zen Painting. 1st Paperback ed. Tokyo]: Kodansha International, 1977. 2. Wang, Yaoting. “The Art of Line” in Looking at Chinese Painting. English 2nd ed. Tokyo: Nigensha, 2000. 3. Baker, Janet. The Flowering of a Foreign Faith : New Studies in Chinese Buddhist Art. New Delhi: Marg Publication, 1998. 4. Fisher, Robert E. Buddhist Art and Architecture. World of Art. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1993. 5. Foucher, A., L. A. Thomas, and Thomas, Frederick William. The Beginnings of Buddhist Art and Other Essays in Indian and Central-Asian Archaeology [electronic resource]. London: Humphrey Milford, 1917. 6. Ledderose, Lothar. Chinese calligraphy: Its aesthetic dimension and social function. Orientations Magazine, 17 (10) 1986: 35-50 7. Leidy, Denise Patry. The Art of Buddhism : An Introduction to Its History & Meaning. 1st ed. Boston: Shambhala : Distributed in the United States by Random House, 2008. 8. Whitfield, Roderick, Susan Agnew, Neville Conner, Lois Jian, Whitfield, Susan, Agnew, Neville, Conner, Lois, and Jian, Wu. Cave Temples of Dunhuang : Art and History on the Silk Road. London: British Library, 2000. 9. Zwalf, W. "The Buddha Image." in Buddhism--art and Faith. New York: Macmillan, 1985. 10. Wong, Dorothy C. Chinese Steles Pre-Buddhist and Buddhist Use of a Symbolic Form [electronic resource]. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2004.

Suggested Readings

Angela F Howard.“Buddhist Art in China” in China : Dawn of a Golden Age, 200- 750 AD. Edited by Watt, James C. Y., Prudence Oliver. Harper, and Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York : New Haven: Metropolitan Museum of Art ; Yale University Press, 2004. pp. 89-99.

Barnhart, Richard M. Three Thousand Years of Chinese Painting. The Culture & Civilization of China. New Haven : Beijing: Yale University Press ; Foreign Languages Press, 1997.

Ghose, Rajeshwari., and National Centre for the Performing Arts. Kizil on the Silk Road : Crossroads of Commerce & Meeting of Minds. Mumbai: Marg Publications on Behalf of National Centre for the Performing Arts, 2008.

Hallade, Madeleine., and Hans Hinz. The Gandhara Style and the Evolution of Buddhist Art. London: Thames & Hudson, 1968.

Juliano, Annette L., and Judith A. Lerner. “Buddhist Art in Northwest China” in Monks and Merchants : Silk Road Treasures from Northwest China Gansu and Ningxia Provinces, Fourth-seventh Century. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2001.

McArthur, Meher. Reading Buddhist Art : An Illustrated Guide to Buddhist Signs and Symbols. London: Thames & Hudson, 2002.

Rowland, Benjamin, and Asia House Gallery. The Evolution of the Buddha Image. New York: Society, 1963.

Sponberg, Alan., Helen Hardacre, and Princeton University. Maitreya, the Future Buddha. Cambridge [Cambridgeshire]: Cambridge University Press, 1988.

Whitfield, Roderick., and Anne. Farrer. Caves of the Thousand Buddhas : Chinese Art from the Silk Route. Edited by Anne Farrer with Contributions by S.J. Vainker and Jessica Rawson. 1st ed. New York: George Braziller, 1990.

Zürcher, E. The Buddhist Conquest of China : The Spread and Adaptation of Buddhism in Early Medieval China [electronic resource]. 3rd ed. Sinica Leidensia ; v. 11. Leiden: Brill, 2007.

Internet Resources

※ Database for Buddhist Cave Temples in China 中國石窟數據庫 http://dsr.nii.ac.jp/china-caves/ http://dsr.nii.ac.jp/china-caves/index.html.en

※ How to identify a Buddhist images https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-asia/beginners-guide-asian- culture/buddhist-art-culture/a/how-to-identify-a- buddha#:~:text=Buddha%20images%20vary%20greatly%20from,or%20a%20gold% 2Dcovered%20surface

Buddhist dictionaries

(1) A Dictionary of Chinese Buddhist Terms. Free for download. Edited by William Edward Soothill and Lewis Hodous. All the entries are in classical Chinese and the explanation is in English. You can download the entire dictionary from the following website for your private use: https://glossaries.dila.edu.tw/data/soothill-hodous.dila.pdf (2) Digital Dictionary of Buddhism, eds., Charles Muller. Free for online checkup. This is an internet based dictionary similar to Dictionary of Chinese Buddhist Terms, by Soothill and Hodous, but has much more entries. If you know the Chinese Buddhist technical terms, but do not know how to translate it into English, please visit Muller’s DDB website address: http://www.buddhism-dict.net/ddb/ Users can access the search function with the user ID of "guest" (case-sensitive, no quotes), leaving the password area blank allowing 20 searches in a 24 hour period. To search Sanskrit and other terms containing diacritics, type in the term in simple ascii.

(3) 《佛光大辭典》線上查詢 Free for online search for Chinese Buddhist Terms explained in traditional Chinese https://www.fgs.org.tw/fgs_book/fgs_drser.aspx (4) The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism Buswell, Robert E., and Donald S. Lopez. The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism [electronic resource]. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2014.

Encyclopedias

Buswell, Robert E. Encyclopedia of Buddhism [electronic Resource]. New York: Macmillan, USA, 2004. This encyclopedia describes the Buddhist world view, basic teachings and practices of Buddhism, as well as its different schools and sects.