Chinese Religious Art Chinese Religious Art Patricia Eichenbaum Karetzky LEXINGTON BOOKS Lanham • Boulder • New York • Toronto • Plymouth, UK Published by Lexington Books A wholly owned subsidiary of Rowman & Littlefield 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706 www.rowman.com 10 Thornbury Road, Plymouth PL6 7PP, United Kingdom Copyright © 2014 by Lexington Books All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Karetzky, Patricia Eichenbaum, 1947– Chinese religious art / Patricia Eichenbaum Karetzky. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-7391-8058-7 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-7391-8059-4 (pbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-7391-8060-0 (electronic) 1. Art, Chinese. 2. Confucian art—China. 3. Taoist art—China. 4. Buddhist art—China. I. Title. N8191.C6K37 2014 704.9'489951—dc23 2013036347 ™ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992. Printed in the United States of America Contents Introduction 1 Part 1: The Beginnings of Chinese Religious Art Chapter 1 Neolithic Period to Shang Dynasty 11 Chapter 2 Ceremonial Art of the Zhou Dynasty 39 Chapter 3 The Religious Art of the Chu Culture 55 Chapter 4 The First Emperor Qin Shihuangdi 73 Part 2: Confucian Art Chapter 5 The Development of Confucianism in the Han (206 BCE–220 CE) 79 Chapter 6 Confucian Art in Medieval China—Six Dynasties to Song Dynasty (220–1279) 101 Chapter 7 Confucian Art—Yuan to Qing Dynasties (1279–1912) 119 Chapter 8 Confucian Temples 131 Part 3: Daoist Art Chapter 9 Daoist Art of the Han Dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE) 149 Chapter 10 Daoist Art of the Medieval Period—Tang and Song Dynasties (618–1279) 171 Chapter 11 Daoist Art of the Yuan, Ming, and Qing Dynasties (1279–1912) 211 Chapter 12 Daoist Ritual and Temples 237 v vi Contents Part 4: Buddhist Art Chapter 13 Early Buddhist Chinese Art (386–618) 261 Chapter 14 Buddhist Art of the Tang Dynasty (618–907) 279 Chapter 15 Later Buddhist Art—Northern Song to Qing (960–1912) 305 Chapter 16 Buddhist Temples 339 Conclusion 355 Bibliography 359 Index 377 About the Author 387 Introduction This study concerns the origins and development of religious art in China. The sheer scope of the subject is daunting, and perhaps this is the reason others have not endeavored to cover a subject that is so complex, broad, and long in duration. In the last two decades, scholarship in the fields of Chinese religious studies and art has mushroomed, and though one cel- ebrates the wealth of information and new methods by which to analyze the great religious traditions of China, keeping up with the new materials is time-consuming and challenging. Notwithstanding the difficulty of the task, a sustained study is, nonetheless, worthwhile, for it allows us to view the development of Chinese religious art. In this overview, the interrela- tionship and interdependence of these traditions becomes readily appar- ent. Cultural context plays a significant role in the evolution of religious thought. Political circumstances and the wave-like patterns of Chinese history, with periods of foreign conquest and national restoration, have instigated vast changes in belief and expression. This book hopes to offer the first survey of the subject. Although the extant literature is rich, no works cover the whole of Chinese religious art. Those that explore Buddhist art, though insightful, are limited in scope. Often such works begin with the introduction of Buddhism into China and trace its interaction with Chinese culture and subsequent progress; scholarly efforts interpret the meaning of Buddhist iconography, the de- velopment of various schools, regional expressions, and stylistic evolution. Daoist art has only recently received the attention it richly deserves.1 The third religion under consideration, Confucianism, has only lately been treated as such, and few books are dedicated to its art.2 Confucius and the system of thought associated with him are not often discussed as a 1 2 Introduction religion. However, from the beginning Confucian principles were aligned with religious activities. And as C. K. Yang summarized, the early stages of Confucianism “contained a subsystem of religious ideals based on belief in Heaven, pre-determinism, divination, and the theory of Yin-yang and the Five Elements.”3 Traditionally, studies of Chinese religious art focus on the art of a specific religious tradition, or period, or type of art, and often the artwork is excerpted from its context. But consideration of the architectural envi- ronment is essential to a full appreciation of the manner in which viewers experienced murals, altars, and icons. So it seems important to consider architecture as the context for the art and rituals. This text also hopes to demonstrate the value of religious art to the field of religious studies. Pictorial traditions have only recently been addressed as a viable source of information, though still not as highly regarded as exegetical studies or field work. When images are employed they are often examined as the pictorial expression of some doctrine or ritual practice, while other insights and reflections of the religion and the culture in which it exists are not considered. Moreover, artistic or technical qualities are not taken into account. Two reasons for the emphasis on scriptures are the sacred nature of the texts and the fact that literary expression usually precedes visual expression by centuries, with the possible exception of esoteric art, in which images are considered an integral part of ritual. But as Poul An- dersen has explained, images also have a language that can be deciphered.4 In sum, this study of religious art presents a means of analyzing pictorial manifestations of the divine. There are four parts to this study. Part 1 concerns the earliest evidence of religious ideas that begins in the Neolithic period. Ancient religious expression is fundamental to the formation of a religious ideol- ogy and the world view that followed. One detects a continuity of these concepts in the material evidence. This section ends with the reign of the First Emperor Qin Shihuangdi (r. 221–210 BCE), for it is only after this era that Confucianism and Daoism undergo their first stage of develop- ment into institutional religions and one can analyze the nascent artistic expression of their traditions. Part 2 considers Confucianism, beginning with the Han dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE), as it became the basis of the state ideology. The emperor and his court took control of religious activ- ity on behalf of the state, setting a precedent that was largely observed for the next two thousand years. Confucianism can be viewed as a religious tradition based on sacred texts, rituals, liturgies, temples, icons, and pic- torial expression of its ideology. Confucianism also provides the broad Introduction 3 framework of Chinese aesthetics, which is the foundation of all subse- quent artistic expression, secular or religious. In this study, Confucianism comprises the teachings of Confucius, the imperial institutions and rituals associated with the state that were founded on its ideology, the canon of its texts (which was the basis for state bureaucratic examinations), and later a religious institution with temples and icons for reverence of the person of the sage. Part 3, “Daoist Art,” begins at the end of the Han dynasty with the birth of religious Daoism and its art. Later in the medieval period, several regional schools emerged, offering different transmissions of sacred texts and means for achieving spiritual unity with the universe. Monastic es- tablishments also appeared at that time. With the reunification of China under the native Tang dynasty (618–907), a growing conformity was observable among the variant schools. In the Song dynasty (960–1279) and Yuan dynasty (1279–1368) new sects developed, requiring differ- ent forms of art for their rituals. With the growth of Daoism and the burgeoning of artistic production in the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), the number and kinds of Daoist art proliferated in diverse formats and media; ceramic, lacquer, glass and wooden objects bear imagery associated with its practice. Buddhism, the subject of Part 4, was introduced into China during the late Han dynasty, but it was not until the medieval period that it enjoyed imperial support and commissions for large-scale projects. By the time Buddhism entered China, it was already a highly evolved and in- stitutionalized religion. Buddhism was not a monolithic entity but rather a conglomeration of teachings and practices; most schools of Buddhism shared a rich cultural package that included thousands of sacred texts, an iconic anthropomorphic tradition, and narrative art and several architec- tural forms including temples, stūpas, monasteries, and gardens. These had a palpable impact on the other religions. This overview of Chinese religious art considers changes in worship, icons, and architecture in tandem with a general appreciation of historical and political events. Also observed are artistic developments, for, as will be seen, there was a steady stream of formats and styles. This investigation begins with a chronological survey of developments in religious thought followed by a discussion of the art and architecture of the period. The last chapter of each section is given over to the most important or distinctive temples. Despite their great antiquity, many are recent constructions or ancient ones that have undergone extensive renovation. Naturally, for the earlier chapters material evidence is scanty, and in later periods, more ex- amples are available for analysis.