Chapter IV (4)

The subject of the silk painting (Ch. liii. 002) reproduced here on the scale of one-sixth is a Buddhist Heaven, and by evidence of the side-scenes preserved on the right, which are identical with those of the larger painting seen in Plates I and II, it can be recognized with M. Petrucci as another representation of Bhaiṣajyaguru’s Paradise. The reproduction in our Plate is too small to permit of close study of details. But it suffices to convey an adequate impression of the style and general arrangement which correspond closely to those of the larger painting fully discussed above. For these reasons my comments may be brief here.

Apart from the top and bottom portions and the side-scenes on the left, which are lost, our painting is in excellent condition and retains its colours in particular freshness. The colouring is rendered very distinctive by the large proportion of black and blue. The drawing is refined and the work well finished throughout.

In the centre we see the figure of the presiding Buddha in the same pose and dress as seen in Plate II; his flesh here, too, is yellow shaded with pink. The two enthroned Bodhisattvas on either side carry here purple or scarlet lotus buds in the hands nearest him and hold the others in the _vitarka-mudrā_. Immediately behind the central Buddha are seen four haloed monkish disciples with close-cropped black hair. The rest of the company on the main terrace is made up of twelve smaller Bodhisattvas seated with their hands in mystic poses or holding lotus buds, and two blue-haired nymphs kneeling in very graceful attitudes by the altar and holding offerings.

In front of the altar is seen a richly dressed dancer performing on a projecting terrace, attended by six musicians who are here of a masculine type with long hair like that of Bodhisattvas. Below at the sides remain in part the figures of two subsidiary Buddhas, probably seated, with attendant Bodhisattvas and elaborate canopies, like those shown above the enthroned figures in the centre. On the gangway leading down from the dancer’s terrace stands a peacock, and below it appear the heads of six of the Kings, probably twelve altogether, who were represented in the centre.

The lake of the Paradise is seen here only on the top of the picture about the piles supporting celestial mansions. These consist of a high-roofed central pavilion and two open hexagonal shrines with pagoda roofs. These are occupied each by a small seated Buddha and are joined to the central building by curving gangways which slope down steeply to the lake.

The marginal scenes on the right are drawn as always in purely Chinese style and correspond to those in Plate I, the connexion of which with the legend of Bhaiṣajyaguru’s last incarnation has already been touched upon.[77]

PLATE XXXVII

BANNERS WITH SCENES FROM THE BUDDHA LEGEND

In my preliminary comments on Plate XII I have already had occasion to discuss briefly the general characteristics of that interesting series of silk banners which illustrate the legendary life of Gautama Buddha and scenes closely connected with it.[78] This makes it possible to restrict my remarks on the paintings reproduced in our Plate mainly to the interpretation of the incidents and objects they are intended to represent.

The two banners (Ch. lv. 009–10) shown on the sides of the Plate on the scale of three-eighths form a pair exhibiting common characteristics in all externals and undoubtedly painted by the same hand.[79] But for the loss of all accessories and some damage to the top and bottom scenes they are both excellently preserved. The drawing is notable for its fine yet vigorous brush-strokes, the colours strong and clear. The painter’s skill displays itself particularly in the landscapes of the background, which convey a sense of great width and distance. Like the figures, architecture, spacing, &c., of these banners they are thoroughly Chinese in their treatment.

In the banner on the left (Ch. lv. 009) the topmost scene shows the meeting of Gautama Buddha in a former birth with Dīpaṅkara Buddha. In open country with mountains in the background the Buddha advances to the right followed by two attendants in dress of the Bodhisattva type. With his left hand he touches the head of the boy, the future Gautama, who bows down before him with hands joined in adoration. The boy wears a short deer-skin tunic and is bare-headed. The Buddha’s right hand is lifted in the gesture of ‘Protection’.

The scene next below, chronologically out of order, represents the first three of Prince Gautama’s famous ‘Four Encounters’ condensed, as it were, into one. It shows with much realism the sick man on his bedstead supported by an attendant, the old man being led by a boy, and the putrified corpse. The first two of these ‘Encounters’ we have already met with in Plate XII. From the corpse there rises a cloud carrying a small kneeling figure in Chinese secular dress with belted coat and tailed cap. The figure is turned towards a palace-like structure raised on clouds and representing an abode of the blessed.

That the figure of Gautama is absent from the scene may seem strange. But the omission of the ascetic’s figure is less surprising. In the fourth ‘Encounter’ of the legend he symbolizes the way of salvation, and for Chinese eyes this may seem appropriately replaced by the vision of a heavenly abode. The large paintings show us how completely the hope of Sukhāvatī, the Buddhist Paradise, has effaced the desire of Nirvāṇa in the minds of pious Chinese.

The succeeding scene represents the Bodhisattva’s miraculous Descent or Conception as revealed to his mother in her dream. In a court of the palace of Kapilavastu Queen Māyā is shown lying asleep upon a couch placed within a projecting apartment. Its green rush-blinds are partly rolled up. The infant Bodhisattva is seen kneeling with hands clasped on the back of the traditional white elephant, which gallops towards Māyā; two attendants kneel beside him. The whole group, enclosed within a circular space, is carried on a cloud and thus clearly marked as a vision.[80]

The bottom scene, which, unlike the rest, is not to be found among the very numerous representations of Gautama’s Nativity in Graeco-Buddhist sculpture, seems to show Māyā’s return to her father’s palace after the dream.[81] Māyā, distinguished by a golden ornament on her head, is seen walking with a woman attendant from the palace of Kapilavastu. Both wear wide-sleeved over-jackets in which they muffle their hands.

In the companion banner (Ch. lv. 0010) on the right we see scenes which continue the story of the Nativity in chronological sequence. The top scene shows Māyā asleep in the same pavilion and pose as in the ‘Descent’ scene, but with three figures kneeling outside to the left on a cloud and in adoring attitude. The interpretation is uncertain. The succeeding scene, though also absent in the Gandhāra relievos, is quite clear in its character. It presents to us Māyā on her way to the Lumbinī garden. She is seated in a gaily coloured palanquin carried by four bearers, whose rapid movement is excellently expressed. Two more men carry trestles on which to set the palanquin down.

Immediately below we see the miraculous birth of Gautama Bodhisattva, a familiar subject in Buddhist art of all times and regions. The child’s issue from the mother’s right flank and her pose grasping a bough are in close conformity with Indian tradition. But the ingenious use made of Māyā’s wide-hanging sleeve discreetly to screen the act of birth seems characteristically Chinese. The infant is springing downwards where a woman attendant kneels to receive him on a cloth. A white lotus appears where he is about to fall.

The ‘Nativity’ series is completed in the lowest panel by the famous incident of the Seven Steps, with lotuses springing up beneath where the Infant Bodhisattva has set his feet. To the right stands Māyā, with her hands muffled in her long sleeves and her head turned back towards the young child. To the left of him stands two women attendants with bowed heads and hands raised in wonder or adoration. Enough of the landscape remains to show that the scene was laid in the same grounds as the preceding two. The Chinese inscription in the cartouche confirms the interpretation.

The scene of the Seven Steps appears also at the bottom of the silk banner (Ch. 00114), which is shown in the middle of the Plate reduced to one-third of its size. It is painted in a more ornate style than the other two, but lacks their sense of life and space. Here the child steps forward with an air of difficulty but determination, the left arm stretched upwards. Four ladies bend over him in surprise and adoration. Behind to the left appear a fifth lady and a man wearing a belted yellow robe and tailed cap. Their identity is doubtful.

The scene is preceded by the Bath of the Infant. The newly born Bodhisattva stands in a golden laver, raised on a stand between two palm-trees. Their tops are lost in a curling mass of black cloud, and in this there appear, ranged archwise, the heads of the ‘nine Dragons of the air’, gazing down on the infant with open mouths. A well-known Buddhist tradition makes Nāgas or divinities of the thunder-clouds, i.e. ‘Dragons’ in Chinese eyes, perform the laving of the New-born. The descent of the water, which their mouths are supposed to pour forth, is not actually represented here. Five women stand round, one holding a towel.

The upper portion of the banner shows the Seven Jewels (_sapta ratnāni_) associated in tradition with Gautama. According to ancient Indian notions, the Seven Jewels, i.e. the best specimens of each kind that appear during the reign, appertain to every _Cakravartin_, or Universal Monarch, from his birth, and there is good reason to believe that the Predestined One was credited with this character and its attributes from an early date. We see them represented here in two groups: in the upper one the wheel, emblem of sovereign rule; the strong-box, symbolizing the jewel or treasure; the general and the wife; in the lower one the minister, the elephant, and the horse. They all stand on the curling white clouds, stylized in a peculiar fashion and edged in red, blue, and green. Flaming jewels adorn the wheel, the horse, and the elephant.

The general, clad in a coat of scale-armour and resembling a Lokapāla, holds with his right hand a narrow oblong shield and in his left a pennoned lance. The wife, Yaśodharā, is attired in a trailing skirt and wide jacket with sleeves reaching to the ground. Her hair, as usual with royal ladies represented in the Life scenes, is bound with a gold fillet and done in two high loops rising up from the crown. The minister’s dress is like hers, with a long terra-cotta band tied in a bow hanging down the back. In the white horse, with red mane and tail, we recognize, of course, Kaṇṭhaka, the Bodhisattva’s cherished steed, a favourite figure in the Life scenes of our banners.

PLATE XXXVIII

BUDDHA TEJAḤPRABHA AND AVALOKITEŚVARA AS GUIDE OF SOULS

The two silk paintings reproduced in this Plate on the scale of one-fourth, and originally mounted as Kakemonos, present special interest on account of their subjects and treatment. The one above (Ch. liv. 007), according to the Chinese inscription in the left-hand top corner, dates from A. D. 897, and yet is painted in a style which, as pointed out by Mr. Binyon,[82] looks distinctly earlier. It represents the Buddha Tejaḥprabha (‘radiant with light’) on a chariot which two bullocks draw, and surrounded by the genii of the five planets whom the inscription mentions. The same subject appears to be treated also in one of the finest of the wall-paintings of the Thousand Buddhas’ Caves.[83]

The Buddha is shown seated on a blue lotus which occupies the top of an open two-wheeled car. A draped altar placed in front of him across its shafts is decked with gilded vessels. Two elaborately decorated flags float behind the car, hung from slanting poles. The Buddha, whose figure alone in the picture shows distinct Indian convention, raises his right hand in the _abhaya-mudrā_. His flesh was originally gilded and his hair is shown blue. Rays of different colours radiate from his person, replacing a halo. Overhead a rich canopy waving in his advance symbolizes rapid movement. By the side of the trotting bullock strides a dark-skinned attendant, recalling the ‘Indian’ leaders of Mañjuśrī’s and Samantabhadra’s mounts, but carrying a mendicant’s staff instead of a goad and playing a sistrum with his left hand, as clearly seen in the original.

Of the genii represented two stand beyond the car dressed in Chinese official costume with trailing under-robes and wide-sleeved jackets. The one on the left carries a dish of flowers, and within the crown of his black head-dress appears a white boar’s head. The other on the right holds a brush and a tablet in his hands; between two loops of his elaborate head-dress there rises the figure of a monkey. A third, dressed all in white, plays upon a large lute with a very long plectrum;[84] his head is surmounted by a phoenix. The figure of the fourth divinity is of demonic type, four-armed, with fiery hair and grotesque features. The right hands carry sword and arrow, and the left hands a trident and bow; above his crown is seen a horse’s head.

With the comparative stiffness of the figures contrasts the freedom of the whirling mass of cloud upon which the whole group is shown sweeping past as in a vision. The colouring is strong, yet harmonious, and the workmanship careful.

The picture below (Ch. lvii. 002), which is in excellent preservation and still retained its original Kakemono mounting of brown silk, is a noble composition strikingly different in style and entirely Chinese in feeling. It shows the figure of Avalokiteśvara, as Guide of Souls, drawn with much dignity and grace, and behind him an attendant soul represented on a smaller scale in the guise of a Chinese woman.

The figure of Avalokiteśvara, who turns head and gaze backwards over the left shoulder, is in physical features and dress a fine specimen of the ‘Chinese’ Bodhisattva type already repeatedly noticed. In his right hand he carries a smoking censer, in his left a curving lotus spray and a waving white banner with triangular top and streamers, the whole exactly alike in shape to the silk banners brought away from Ch‘ien-fo-tung. In the dress of soft and harmoniously blended colours the elaborate rosettes of the borders may be noted as manifestly reproducing contemporary textile patterns.

The figure of the woman behind, with her head bowed and hands muffled in wide sleeves at her breast, well expresses devout reliance on the divine guide. Her attire, by the brilliant colouring of the robes and the absence of the elaborate metal head-dress, stands out in marked contrast to the costume familiar from the donor figures of our tenth-century paintings. The purple cloud which carries both figures sweeps up behind them to the top of the picture. There a Chinese mansion resting on conventional cloud scrolls represents the Paradise to which Avalokiteśvara leads his worshippers.

By the evidence of the dress and coiffure of the Bodhisattva’s attendant, which seem to belong to post-T‘ang times, the painting may be classed amongst the latest of the deposit. But what for our appreciation of this beautiful picture must matter far more than this chronological difference is the fact that the style of its design and its refined execution give full and exclusive expression just to those qualities which are characteristic of Chinese pictorial art at its best. As Mr. Binyon, when comparing this picture with another presentation of Avalokiteśvara, the one reproduced in our Plate XLII, has pregnantly put it, ‘we have [here] a sense of suavity and flexile movement. Flowers seem really to be floating down the air, and the cloud on which the votaress follows the Bodhisattva coils up with a wavering motion. We feel the presence of the Chinese genius, with its instinct for living movement, and its love of sinuous line, and its reticent spacing.’[85]

PLATE XXXIX

KṢITIGARBHA WITH THE INFERNAL JUDGES

The small picture (Ch. lxi. 009) reproduced here on half-scale is remarkable for its peculiar colour scheme and for its archaic appearance in composition and drawing. It represents Kṣitigarbha in his combined character as Patron of Travellers, Regent of Hell, and Lord of the Six Worlds of Desire. We have already above, when dealing with the paintings reproduced in Plate XXV, had occasion to indicate briefly the several functions which have made this Bodhisattva one of the most popular figures in the Buddhist Pantheon of the Far East.[86] Our observations here may, therefore, be restricted to particular features of his presentation.

The picture is painted on indigo blue silk which, though much broken, especially on the edges, yet retains the strong colours of the painting in great freshness. Kṣitigarbha in stiff hieratic attitude is seated on a red Padmāsana with his left leg resting on a small lotus and the right bent across. With his right hand raised he grasps the mendicant’s staff, while the left, palm uppermost, is held outwards empty. Over an under-robe of yellow with vermilion border he carries a maroon-bordered mantle of perished colour, while a traveller’s shawl of maroon covers head and shoulders. Gilded diamonds sprinkle shawl and borders. The face and breast are gilded, but the exposed portions of the limbs are painted light red.

From the large circular halo in blue, vermilion, and white spread out on either side three waving rays in the same colours, intended to bear figures representative of the Six Worlds (_gati_) as seen in Plate XXV; but these have not been drawn in. On either side of the Bodhisattva stands an amply robed figure with hands in adoration. From the fashion in which the hair of the figure on the left is done in two knobs it can be recognized as a man, while the hair descending in a roll on the neck of the other figure marks it as a woman. Whether the donor and his wife are intended is not certain.

In slanting rows descending from Kṣitigarbha’s lotus seat the Ten Infernal Judges are shown sitting on their heels, five on each side. They wear magisterial robes with head-dresses of varying shapes and carry narrow rolls of paper in their hands. Their faces, drawn in three-quarter profile, show some endeavour at individual characterization. Behind them on the right stand two men, with belted coats and wide-brimmed hats, holding a small and a very large roll of paper respectively. A third man, in a corresponding position on the left, carries what appears to be a writing-brush.

In the foreground we see again, crouching, a white lion, of very stylized form. A man’s figure, probably representing the soul of a departed, stands in adoring pose at its head, while on the opposite side another person with grotesque features raises his hands imploringly towards Kṣitigarbha. Both as regards its archaic style of design and its peculiar hard colouring the picture has no pendant in our collection. But, as Mr. Binyon has justly observed, it remains at present uncertain ‘whether the primitive features may not be due to provincial style preserving old tradition rather than to actual antiquity’.[87]

PLATE XL

KṢITIGARBHA AS PATRON OF TRAVELLERS

The painting (Ch. 0084) reproduced here on half the scale of the original also represents Kṣitigarbha, like the one in the preceding Plate, but shows striking differences of style in composition, drawing, and colouring. Simplicity of design, delicacy of line, and harmonious quiet of colours all combine to give to this picture a singular charm of its own, admirably expressive of serene beatitude. It is painted on pale green silk and, except where it is broken at the bottom, well preserved along with its border of greenish-blue silk.

We see the Bodhisattva seated cross-legged on an open lotus with gracefully pointed red petals. His face, round and youthful, bears an expression of benignant mildness. The eyes, long and straight, are cast slightly downwards. The right hand holds the mendicant’s staff and the left, resting on the knee, a flaming ball of crystal. He is dressed in a yellowish under-robe, apparently lined with pink, and a light green mantle which is barred and bordered with black. Head and shoulders are draped in a shawl of Indian red ornamented with a faint spot pattern in yellow.

The nimbus and circular halo are ornamented with elaborate ray and floral patterns in red and green and edged with flames. A broad band of white surrounds the whole figure and lifts it out of the green background. In the corners of this are seen floating sprays with red flowers.

Below in the left corner there remains the upper portion of the kneeling donor, recognizable as a boy by his features and the way in which his hair is dressed. In his joined hands he holds a lotus flower. His loose-sleeved red coat is sprinkled with a circular flower pattern in yellow and black. Red flowers on tall stems rise on either side of him. The cartouche to the right is left blank, and so, too, the remainder of the space probably intended for a dedicatory inscription.

PLATE XLI

AVALOKITEŚVARA AND TWO OTHER BODHISATTVAS

The three pictures which this Plate shows, reduced to one-half of the original in the case of the two on the sides and to three-eighths in that of the middle one, are characteristic specimens of those Bodhisattva banners on silk which are very frequent among our Tun-huang paintings.[88]

The banner in the middle (Ch. i. 0013) is completely preserved with its head-piece, streamers, and other accessories, and its painted portion, which alone is reproduced here, retains its colours in excellent condition. Its subject is easily recognized as Avalokiteśvara by the flask and the red lotus bud which he carries in his right and left hand respectively. The Bodhisattva’s figure is shown sweeping to the left with trailing draperies and the head slightly bent, gazing down at the lotus.

In features, dress, and general style of work it shares the characteristics of the ‘Chinese’ Bodhisattva type repeatedly referred to before; but the hollowed back gives a particularly graceful curve to the whole figure. Its special slimness and the wide semicircular line showing the setting of the eyes also deserve notice. The modelling of the flesh by pink shading is well marked. The parted mouth, showing white teeth, is unusual. The colours are very bright, and as the paint is applied very thickly, the opaque white of the girdle and streamers contrasts rather harshly with the strong blue of the stole.

The silk banner on the left (Ch. xxiv. 006) is also in excellent preservation, except for the lost accessories. The Bodhisattva who stands on a bluish-green lotus with hands in adoration remains in the absence of any particular indications unidentified. Figure, attire, and adornment conform to the ‘Chinese’ type of Bodhisattvas; but the skirt gathered up in front and showing bare legs is not usual. The colour scheme is rich but harmonious and the workmanship in general faultless, though confined to the familiar conventions of the type.

It is different with the fine Bodhisattva of the banner (Ch. i. 002) seen on the right. His figure is one of the most striking represented in the banners, remarkable for the skilful pose combining dignity with rapid movement, for the graceful sinuous lines of body and garments, and the pronounced and distinctly non-Chinese features of the Bodhisattva’s face. In view of a figure so distinctive and well defined, it is a matter of regret that there is no clue at present to its iconographic identity.

The Bodhisattva is seen walking away to the left, presenting a three-fourths back-view, with the head in profile over the left shoulder. With the left hand he gathers up the folds of the gracefully coiling stole, while the right, bent back at shoulder level, carries a pink lotus bud on the palm. The erect carriage of the body and its movement with the weight thrown forward on the right foot are admirably expressed. The canopy overhead, with its freely swinging tassels and bells, emphasizes the rapid movement which is suggested also by the feet being placed on two separate lotuses. The nimbus shown merely in outline as an elliptical black ring allows the back of the head and coiffure to be seen through.

The falling loops of the stole and the drapery tied in a knot at the neck hide details of the upper portion of the dress. But below it the waving folds of the glowing scarlet skirt are very skilfully rendered. A close-fitting cap of red, set with gold ornaments, covers the head, and from it projects at the back a large richly decorated gold ring apparently holding a tress of hair.

Special interest attaches to the Bodhisattva’s face. Distinctly non-Chinese features are the long and prominent nose, the marked depression below the low sloping forehead, the long and straight eye. The head is equally far removed from the classical type which Gandhāra art propagated. A curious scornful expression is imparted to the face by the eyelid drawn in a straight line across the half-closed eye and by the pouting mouth. Its strangely foreign look remains doubly puzzling where everything else bears so clearly the impress of Chinese workmanship.

PLATE XLII

AVALOKITEŚVARA, THOUSAND-ARMED, WITH ATTENDANT DIVINITIES

The large silk painting (Ch. xxviii. 006) reproduced in this Plate on the much-reduced scale of one-sixth is a fine illustration of that intermingling of art influences for which Tun-huang provided a classical meeting-place. It shows Avalokiteśvara with a thousand arms seated within a central disc, and outside this some attendant divinities symmetrically grouped. The scheme is thus closely akin to that of the Avalokiteśvara ‘Maṇḍala’ seen in Plate XVII and fully discussed above. But the number of divinities is much smaller and the composition in general less elaborate, though there is abundance of ornament in the details. The painting is complete except along its bottom, and its colours are remarkably fresh. The rich painted border of flower sprays which encloses the whole suggests the effect of naturalistic embroidery such as is found among the textile relics from the Thousand Buddhas.[89]

Avalokiteśvara’s figure single-headed appears here too, seated within a large circular halo formed by his ‘thousand arms’, each showing the symbolic open eye on the palm. Against this background are numerous inner arms, all except four in the centre line of the figure carrying a multiplicity of sacred emblems well known to Buddhist iconography, such as the discs of the Sun and Moon, trident, Vajra, &c. Owing to the excellent finish, the details of all these, as well as of the rich ornaments which deck the Bodhisattva’s body and head, can be made out clearly. In front of the high tiara appears the figure of Amitābha, his Dhyāni-buddha. The Bodhisattva’s flesh is shown dull yellow shaded with pink.

The nimbus is made up of a superimposed series of pointed rays brilliantly coloured. It is flame-edged like the border of the circular halo behind. The variegated petals of the lotus seat have also brilliant colours; gilding is used for their outlines as well as for all jewellery, the vessels on the altar in front, and the folds of Avalokiteśvara’s robes.

The background is divided into an upper and lower half. The upper, painted a thin light blue (now almost gone) and representing the sky, is sprinkled with small gilded stars and falling blossoms. In its top corners, to the right and left respectively, are shown the Bodhisattvas of the Sun and the Moon seated on their respective ‘Vāhanas’ of horses and geese, within red and white discs which piled-up clouds carry.

Against the lower half of the background, painted a deep blue and representing a tiled floor, are the haloed figures of the ‘Sage’ and the ‘Nymph of Virtue’, kneeling on lotuses to the right and left respectively. The former, an emaciated old man of ascetic type, yet wearing rich apparel, raises his right hand in salutation, and the ‘Nymph’ carries her dish of flowers, as also in Plate XVII. In the tank below we see again two armour-clad Nāgas holding up Avalokiteśvara’s disc. In front of the tank is an altar decked with draperies of exquisitely rendered floral designs and carrying gilt sacrificial vessels.

In the bottom corners stride in violent movement many-armed demonic Vajrapāṇis in red and blue against a vividly painted background of flames. With their fiery hair and grotesque features, and by the Tantric emblems they brandish in their hands, they show closest kinship to the monstrous divinities of Tantric origin in which the imagery of Tibetan Buddhism delights. Below them there kneel in adoration two small figures, one with an elephant’s head on the left and another with that of a rat on the right. In these we may, perhaps, recognize Gaṇeśa, familiar to Hindu mythology, and the ‘king of the sacred rats famous in Khotan local worship.[90]

In these figures and in a variety of other details to which Mr. Binyon has very justly called attention,[91] we have striking indications of that mixed style of painting to which Indian prototypes, Iranian and Central-Asian influences, and Tibetan taste have all contributed elements, albeit in very disparate proportions. Yet it does not need the Chinese inscriptions, found in a few of the cartouches and containing epithets of the respective divinities, to convince us that we owe this highly finished painting to Chinese workmanship. This has left its marks clearly in a mass of exquisite detail and in that perfectly mastered technique which accounts for the strong decorative effect of the whole.

PLATE XLIII

AVALOKITEŚVARA WITH LOKAPĀLA ATTENDANTS

The silk painting reproduced here with a reduction to one-third of the original (Ch. 00121) is a particularly fine example of Indian tradition preserved in Chinese Buddhist painting. The picture, damaged at the top and still more at its bottom, shows us Avalokiteśvara seated on a flat Padmāsana in the pose of ‘royal ease’. The shapely right hand hangs open over the raised right knee, while the left hand, now lost, evidently rested on the other knee and held the long spray of purple lotus which rises beside the head.

The figure of the Bodhisattva is presented in accordance with Indian iconographic canons. But the ease and distinction of the drawing, which the simplicity of the figure and the scarcity of colour make all the more noticeable, betoken the Chinese artist’s brush. The slender-waisted body leans towards the left shoulder; the limbs are long and slim; the head erect. The face is young and clean-shaven with an expression of serenity in the downcast slightly oblique eyes and the finely curved lips. The hair rises in a high cone above the three-leaved tiara, the front of which shows Avalokiteśvara’s Dhyāni-buddha, Amitābha. The flesh is left uncoloured.

The dress is confined to a short crimson laṅgōṭī wrapped about the loins, a thin transparent skirt hanging about the legs, and a narrow scarf entwined on the breast. The jewellery is of the type usual in ‘Indian’ Bodhisattvas, but plain. The elliptical nimbus and circular halo behind the figure are painted in pale blue and green. In the background are shown feathery floral sprays of a type common in printed silk fabrics from the Ch‘ien-fo-tung hoard.

In the top corners appear the small figures of two Lokapālas in mail armour, Vaiśravaṇa on the right and Virūpākṣa on the left, both seated on rocks. Corresponding figures of the other two Guardians of the Regions, no doubt, occupied the lost bottom corners.

PLATE XLIV

FRAGMENT OF STANDING AVALOKITEŚVARA

This Plate shows the remaining upper portion of a large silk painting (Ch. 00451, scale one-third) which represented Avalokiteśvara standing without attendants. Considerably broken as the painting is and injured in its surface, we recognize in it a fine pendant to the Avalokiteśvara picture reproduced in Plate XXI. Here, too, we see a figure of the conventional ‘Indian’ Bodhisattva type imbued with that grace and refined quality which Chinese mastery of fluid line and reposeful design is specially able to impart.

The physical type and the pose of the body, with its inclination to the left shoulder, closely correspond to those seen in Plate XXI. But here this line is counterbalanced by the pose of the head, which leans gently over the right shoulder. The eyes are turned back to the left proper and look down with an expression of mildness and compassion. They are almost straight, and the recurving line added to the eyelids is here absent. Of the willow spray in the right hand only a few faint indications remain.

The dress, jewellery, and colouring agree closely with those displayed by the figure in Plate XXI. But more remains here of the white shaded with pink which is used for the colouring of the body. The nimbus is made up of plain circular rings of dark olive, red, and white. The Chinese inscription of the cartouche to the right still awaits interpretation.

PLATE XLV

VAIŚRAVAṆA CROSSING THE OCEAN

The small Kakemono-shaped picture on silk (Ch. 0018) which this Plate shows with a reduction to two-thirds of its size is one of the most finished of our Tun-huang paintings. It presents Vaiśravaṇa, the Guardian-king of the North, as he advances on a cloud across the heaving sea, with an imposing suite of attendants, some human, some demonic, but all of them in striking attires. The painting was found in excellent preservation, still retaining its border of purple silk (omitted in the reproduction), and thus it is fortunately possible to appreciate in all details the high artistic merit of a work which clearly is from the brush of a master.

When dealing above with another presentation of Vaiśravaṇa’s Progress, the painting shown by Plate XXVI, we have already had occasion to refer to the special importance which the Protector of the Northern Region claims as chief among Lokapālas, and also to the reasons accounting for the popularity of his worship in Central Asia and the Far East. Hence we may turn here at once to the varied points of iconographic interest presented by our picture. The main figure of Vaiśravaṇa, disproportionately large in accordance with a convention familiar already to Graeco-Buddhist as well as to late Hellenistic art, strides ahead to the right, carrying the halberd, his characteristic emblem, in the right hand, and on a cloud rising from his left a small pagoda-shaped shrine, a secondary attribute, also otherwise attested. His face is heavy but not grotesque, with large oblique eyes and heavy eyebrows. The middle of the body is thrown out, giving to the pose an air of ponderous dignity.

His dress is that of a warrior king, as proper to all Lokapālas, but of a particularly elaborate type. His coat of mail reaches down almost to the knees. The arrangement of the scales, shown by a diaper of three-armed crosses, is the same peculiar one already noted in Plate XXVI. It appears also on the corslet, which is edged by bands of lacquered plate, while the forearm guards and what is visible of the greaves show oblong scales secured by transverse bands. The whole armour is gilded. Decorated flaps, probably of shaped leather, descend over the hips and are joined in front by a stomacher in the shape of a hawk or eagle mask. The shoulder-pieces end in a lion head, through the jaws of which the arm passes. Gilded shoes cover the feet.

The high three-leaved crown on Vaiśravaṇa’s head, with the wing-shaped ornament at the top and the white streamers flying up at the sides, unmistakably recalls the royal head-dress of Sassanian times.[92] The flames rising from his shoulders are an emblem also likely to have an Iranian origin.[93] Their flickering tongues, like the fluttering streamers and the freely floating stole, emphasize the Guardian-king’s rapid movement.

The same curling maroon cloud on which Vaiśravaṇa advances carries also his retinue of varied aspects. Before him to the right we see the graceful figure of a nymph bowing and presenting a dish of flowers. Her identity is uncertain; in form and attire she resembles the ‘Nymph of Virtue’ we have already met in the paintings of the Thousand-armed Avalokiteśvara.[94] Of her rich attire may be specially noted the wide sleeves which almost sweep the ground, the acanthus-like leaves covering her shoulders, and the wreaths thrown over her arms.

The _cortège_ behind the Lokapāla consists partly of demons, evidently representing the Yakṣas over whom he rules, and partly of figures purely human, which are clearly individualized but still await definite identification. Of the former, two in the background have the heads of monsters, with fiery hair and tusked jaws. One of them carries Vaiśravaṇa’s flag of the same elaborate design we have noted in Plate XXVI. Another demon in front of the pair, with brown skin, hairy arms, and animal-like head wrapped in a scarlet hood, carries a large round jar covered at its mouth. A fourth in the foreground, with ferocious animal head and long upstanding hair, carries a club and wears a Lokapāla’s armour over a richly embroidered scarlet coat.

Among the human attendants the most striking figure is that of a finely drawn aged man. He is clad only in a white skirt, with a scarf across the breast. His hair is tied in a topknot and is white, like his eyebrows and beard, all painted with minute care. His sunken features and the sidelong glance of his eyes are expressively rendered. In his right hand he carries a gilded cup (or Vajra?). Behind him we see a portly male figure with placid clean-shaven face and a high mitre-like head-dress from which drapery falls behind on the neck. He wears a green robe over what looks like a coat brocaded in a ‘Sassanian’ pattern and carries a flaming jewel on a gilded stand.

In the rear is a bearded muscular archer, preparing to shoot at a bat-like demon in the sky high up to the right. In the latter we can safely recognize a Garuḍa, the hunting of whom is a frequent motif in Turkestān frescoes, and whose winged figure is well known to Graeco-Buddhist sculpture also.[95] The drawing of the archer’s figure as he bends down to fit the arrow to the bow, while his gaze follows the flying Garuḍa, is remarkably firm and vigorous. On his head he carries a high conical cap of white, with metal boss at the top and wide upstanding brim. His dress comprises a blue tunic which leaves the right arm and breast bare, white breeches, and black top-boots. His purposeful figure in movement is cleverly set off by the serene appearance of a man standing in front with hands folded in adoration. He wears a full-sleeved maroon jacket over a flowing white under-robe and over his smooth black hair a gilded tiara of peculiar shape.

The special powers of Chinese pictorial art pervading the whole picture manifest themselves with particular clearness in the masterly spacing of the background. This shows the greenish-brown sea heaving in majestically rolling ridges of white-crested waves. Far away in admirably conveyed distance rises a range of blue and green mountains, probably meant to represent the fabulous Mount Meru where Buddhist mythology locates the Guardian-kings of the Regions.

Wherever the eye falls in this small but exquisite picture we may appreciate the sure drawing with its cleanness of touch, the harmonious colouring, and the highly finished workmanship. But it is in this background that we can realize best to what extent the artist shared that understanding of the Chinese genius for the control of ordered fluent line and the power of suggestion in spacing.

PLATE XLVI

FRAGMENT WITH CHILD ON DEMON’S HAND

The fragment of a large paper painting (Ch. 00373) reproduced here on the scale of three-fourths is of interest as it represents somewhat rare details in skilful execution, and also on account of its unusual technique. The picture, of which another fragment survives, has been drawn upon a fine ground laid over smooth buff paper. The colours delicately painted over this are bright and particularly pleasing by their softness, and I regret that their reproduction had to be forgone. The execution is more finished than that of any of the other paper paintings from Ch‘ien-fo-tung. Of the subject of the whole painting it is impossible to say more than that it probably represented the ‘Maṇḍala’ of a Buddha or Bodhisattva.

Our fragment shows on the left, against a background of large-leaved flowering trees, a demon of dark blue body and limbs holding up with his hands a naked infant who leans towards him smiling and with arms stretched out. The infant’s form and features are exquisitely drawn with fluent lines expressive of baby-like plumpness and shaded in pink and white. He has black hair and a red trefoil mark on his forehead. The reddish-pink face of the demon bears a cleverly conveyed tender expression, which contrasts with his fierce features and shock of red and green hair. We have already met with the figure of a similar demon holding an infant in the group attending the Bodhisattvas on the right in Bhaiṣajyaguru’s Paradise as shown by Plate I, and another is found among Vaiśravaṇa’s attendants in a woodcut from Ch‘ien-fo-tung.[96]

On the right is seen a many-tiered umbrella hung with streamers and tasselled chains, as found often over the chief Bodhisattvas in large Paradise paintings (see Plate I). In the middle of the bottom portion of the fragment appears the upper part of the halo, topknot, and tiara of a Bodhisattva. Above the central ornament of the tiara is seen the head of a white stag with antlers painted in silver.

PLATE XLVII

THREE LOKAPĀLA BANNERS

The three silk banners which this Plate reproduces on the scale of one-third all depict Virūpākṣa, the Guardian-king of the West and, after Vaiśravaṇa, the most popular of the Lokapālas. When describing above his fine picture as seen in Plate XXVII, I have already had occasion briefly to indicate the iconographic features which are common to all our Lokapāla representations, and to touch also upon those minor characteristics which allow us to distinguish certain groups among our numerous banners of these divinities.[97] Hence my account of those shown in our Plate may be restricted to individual points deserving of notice.

In the banner on the left (Ch. lv. 0020), which is well preserved except at the top where the painting has broken and been attached to the head-piece (not shown) by a patch of purple silk, we see a good example of the Lokapāla type designated above as ‘Chinese’. Virūpākṣa stands with his feet planted on the back and head of his crouching demon cognizance and holding the drawn sword upright in his left hand.[98] His face is middle-aged and serious, the oblique eyes slightly enlarged, and the iris painted a dark yellow. His coat of mail shows oblong scales all through from the shoulders to the skirt portion. The flesh is shaded light pink over the brownish white of the silk. The corslet is secured by broad shoulder-straps, probably of lacquer, here clearly marked. Beneath the hip-belt appear an apron and hip-flaps of shaped leather, providing additional protection. Round the lower edge of the belt hang loose rings, probably meant for the attachment of the scabbard and other equipment. The breeches are tucked into greaves, and the feet shod with plain sandals. The general colour effect is subdued owing to the prevalence of light brown and pale red tints.

The painting in the middle (Ch. lv. 0046) is broken at the top and has lost its banner accessories, but retains its colours in remarkable freshness. Virūpākṣa, turning slightly to the left, stands with his feet on the shoulder and knee of a squatting demon. He holds before him with both hands a long sword in a lacquered scabbard, whose point rests on the demon’s head. His face, large-cheeked and with strong chin, bears a pleasant expression. The oblique eyes with light iris gaze upwards.

The coat of mail painted yellow and red shows round-edged scales overlapping downwards as far as the hip-belt, while the skirt portion has oblong scales apparently overlapping upwards. Trefoil-shaped flaps of green leather give additional protection to the hips and abdomen. A sausage-shaped collar is fastened round the neck and over a brown mantle. Solid guards of lacquered leather protect both upper and fore arms. The legs are clad only in breeches tied below the knees and hanging loose to the ankles. The shoes of woven string are of some interest, as their make exactly corresponds to that of shoes brought to light by me from ruins of Han and later times.[99] The elaborately jewelled head-dress is fitted with a red ‘cock’s crest’ at the back, and the halo behind is flame-edged.

The Chinese inscription describes the Lokapāla correctly as Virūpākṣa, ‘celestial king of the Western Region’. The work is carefully finished throughout, and the colours harmonious, though more opaque than usual in these banners.

The banner (Ch. 0010), of which the painted portion is reproduced on the right, is complete and excellently preserved. Virūpākṣa’s figure combines here characteristics of that Lokapāla type which may conveniently be called ‘Central-Asian’ with a treatment and certain details not unlike those in the ‘Chinese’ type.

The Lokapāla stands facing the spectator on the head and knee of a contorted demon. His right foot is placed on a higher level than the other, and the weight of the body thrown on the left hip. The right hand holds the naked sword aslant across the body and the left supports it at the breast. The face is heavy and with the frowning forehead, the snarling mouth, and glaring eyes bears a fiercer expression than usual. The large round eyes are level and the iris green. The hair, shown light blue, is bunched back behind the ears. The flesh is painted a pinkish red with but little shading.

The coat of mail from shoulders to skirt is uniformly made up of round-edged scales overlapping downwards; but their colouring varies in different parts. A jerkin of blue leather elaborately ornamented with metal-work appears above and below the mail corslet. The forearms are swathed in red draperies, which also show above the knees. The white leg-coverings are tucked into greaves which display elaborately scrolled metal-work, manifestly painted in with an eye mainly to decorative effect. Similar metal-work is shown on the black shoes. The yellowish-brown colour of this metal-work, suggestive of bronze, is applied also to the solid metal tiara, with wing ornaments and high crown, which forms the head-dress.

Though the drawing is careful and the colours clear and fresh, much is lost in general effect through excessive concentration on detail and ornament. In the want of space and free line and in the resulting lack of spontaneity we are made to feel, as it were, the influence of non-Chinese models.

PLATE XLVIII

FRAGMENT WITH FIGURE OF DEMONIC WARRIOR

This fine fragment of a large silk painting (Ch. 0098), reduced here to three-fourths of the original, shows the head and upper part of the body of a figure demonic in look and of violent pose. No definite identification seems at present possible. If the trident-like weapon lifted up in the left hand might suggest a Lokapāla, there are to be noted against this the flames streaming back from the head and the total absence of armour. Again, if the ferocious look and pose would make us think of a Vajrapāṇi Dharmapāla, other difficulties arise from the unusual weapon, the fiery hair, and the want of exaggerated muscles. So it will be best to leave this fine figure unnamed and to rest content with an appreciation of its artistic merit.

The head, well preserved on the whole, shows a face demonic in features and convulsed with rage. It is painted dark grey with red lips and black hair. The eyes are distended and glaring in fury, the eyebrows contracted, and the forehead bowed with wrinkles. The widely grinning mouth shows the tongue and both rows of teeth. Excessively high cheekbones and nose, bushy eyebrows, a moustache sweeping fiercely upwards, and stiff spreading beard and whiskers add their quota to the terrifying appearance of the head. The hair on the forehead passes black under a jewelled tiara; but what streams up from the whole head is a cone of red flame.

From the rest of the fragment all paint is lost. The outline drawing, however, remains of a body vigorous and muscular. But for jewelled chains, necklace, &c., it is nude to the hip-belt, over which appears pulled the edge of a skirt-like garment. A stole is gathered over the right upper arm, and the right hand is held before the breast, with fingers stiffly upturned and palm downwards. The left arm is lost, but the hand appears above grasping the staff of a weapon with barbed points.

The whole figure is drawn with admirable verve and freedom. Fragmentary as it is, it allows us to surmise what we have lost here of a work of true Chinese genius—and at the same time to realize what we owe to the safe hiding-place the Caves of the Thousand Buddhas have provided for so many other relics of art.

INDEX

_ahhaya-mudrā_, 25, 27, 32, 51, 53.

acanthus leaves, 60.

Ajaṇṭā, frescoes of, 3, 8.

Ajātaśatru, legend of, 44.

Ākāśagarbha, 16, 17.

altar, valance of, 18.

Amitābha, Buddha, 4, 5, 11;
Western Paradise of, 5, 6, 11, 17, 18, 20, 21 sq., 44, 52;
triad of, 18.

Ānanda, legend of, 49.

Andrews, Mr. F. H., xii, 44.

Antioch, 4.

Apsaras, 12, 20, 22, 49;
_see_ Gandharvī.

Asuras, World of, 38.

Athene, on seal, 4.

Avalokiteśvara, Bodhisattva of Mercy (Kuan-yin; Kwan-non), 4, 13,
18, 20, 22, 27, 28, 49, 56, 58, 59;
guide of souls, 53;
six-armed, 35;
thousand-armed, 30, 57;
emblems of, 30, 57;
four forms of, 29;
male and female forms of, 4;
Maṇḍala of, 13, 30, 31;
paintings of, 6;
under willows, 36;
with willow spray, 31, 32;
worship of, 4.

Badakhshī breed of horses, 20.

banners,
on silk, 2, 23, 25, 40, 43, 51, 53, 56, 61;
groups of, 23;
on linen, 3.

Barnett, Dr. L. D., 47.

Bath, of Gautama, 52.

Benares, Deer Park of, 24.

Bhaiṣajyaguru, Buddha, Paradise of, 11 sqq., 14, 50.

Bhaiṣajyarāja, 5.

_bhūmisparśa-mudrā_, 27.

Bimbisāra, 44.

Binyon, Mr. L., ix, xi, xii, 13, 36, 37, 45, 53, 54, 55, 58.

boar, head of, 53.

boar-headed demon, 31.

Bōdh-Gayā, image at, 27.

Bodhisattvas, 4 sq., 11 sqq., and _passim_;
banners of, 56;
‘Indian’ and ‘Chinese’ types of, 14, 29, 56;
worship of, 28;
_see_ Avalokiteśvara, Kṣitigarbha, Mañjuśrī, Samantabhadra.

borders, of paintings, 2, 53, 55, 59.

Brahman, 12, 30.

British Museum,
paintings at, ix, xi;
Trustees of, xi.

Buddha, _see_ Gautama, Śākyamuni.

Buddhas, 4;
subsidiary, 13, 17;
‘of ten quarters’, 30.

Buddhism, spread of, into Central Asia and China, 3 sq., 7;
_see_ Mahāyāna.

Buddhist art, of China, 3, 6;
of India, 3 sq.;
of Japan, 4 sq.;
of Tibet, 9.

Buddhist Heaven, _see_ Paradise.

Buddhist images, from India, 6.

bullocks, 53.

_Butsu-yé_ 3.

_Cakravartin_, 53.

cangue, 35, 38.

cartouches,
inscribed, 23, 26, 29, 32, 49, 52, 58, 59;
uninscribed, 36, 38.

castanets, 12.

‘Caves of the Thousand Buddhas’, 1, 13, and _passim_.

celestial mansions, 11, 17, 18, 51, 54.

chain-armour, 42.

Chamberlain, the Right Hon. Mr. A., xi.

Chandaka, 24.

Chavannes, M. Éd., x, 16, 19.

_Ch‘ien-fo-tung_, Chinese for ‘Caves of Thousand Buddhas’, _passim_.

China, westward expansion of, 4.

Chinese art, 5, 6, 7, 8.

Chinese painting,
Buddha legend in, 8;
Central tradition of, 5;
style of, 54.

‘Chinese’ type of Bodhisattvas, 29, 32, 36, 43, 54, 56.

Christians, at Turfān, 5.

chronology, of paintings, 7, 16, 21, 50.

clappers, 12, 14, 16, 17, 18, 25, 36.

Clarendon Press, Delegates of, xi.

cleaning, of paintings, 2.

cloud scrolls, in textiles, 36.

coiffure, of donatrices, 16, 17, 19, 30, 38;
_see_ head-dress.

coins, Chinese, 48.

Conception, of Gautama, 52.

costume,
of donatrices, 16, 21, 22, 30, 50;
of donors, 17, 22, 36, 37, 38, 50, 56.

crane, 12, 18, 22.

crown, of Sassanian type, 39, 60.

dancer, 12, 15, 17, 18, 51.

Deer Park, Śākyamuni in, 27.

Delhi Museum, xi.

demons, 12, 15, 40 sq., 61, 62, 63;
Tibetan, 47;
World of, 38;
_see_ Yakṣas.

Dharmapālas, 43, 63.

Dhṛtarāṣṭra, 42.

Dhyāni-buddha (Amitābha), 4, 20, 28, 29, 32, 35, 57, 58.

Dīpaṅkara, Buddha, 51.

disciples, figures of, 17, 19, 21.

discs, of Sun and Moon, 17, 38.

distemper, painting in, 9, 46.

donors, in paintings, 7;
_see_ costume, portraits.

dragons, 12, 19, 48, 52.

drapery, Hellenistic, 20.

dress, _see_ costume;
magisterial, 19, 24, 44, 37, 55.

drums, 12, 45.

ducks, 22;
wild, 25.

embroidery picture, 10, 48;
remains, 44.

fan-bearers, 37.

First Sermon, _see_ Gautama.

flame streamers, 39, 60.

flask, of Avalokiteśvara, 36, and _passim_.

flutes, 12, 14, 18, 36, 45.

Foucher, M. A., 23, 27, 28, 31, 43.

‘Four Encounters’, _see_ Gautama.

Freer Collection, 7, 8.

Fu-hsi, Emperor, 48.

fungus sceptre, 38.

Gandhāra, Buddhist art of, 3, 4, 7, 49;
types from, 8.

Gandharvīs, 14;
_see_ Apsaras.

Gaṇeśa, 58.

Garuḍa, 12, 16, 17, 18, 60.

_Gatis_, _see_ Worlds of Desire.