Browse results
Abstract
The ritual daggers or stakes known as kīla in Sanskrit and phur pa or phur bu in Tibetan are most commonly found in Himalayan Buddhism. However, several such daggers dating to the Dali 大理 kingdom (937–1253) have been recovered from pagodas in the Dali capital. The Dali kingdom ruled a large swath of territory in what is now southwest China, centred in present-day Yunnan Province. Dali’s daggers display considerable continuities with their Himalayan counterparts, but they differ in one key way: all the Dali daggers are attached to rings, meaning that they could be slipped on a finger or looped on a cord. In addition, most Dali daggers feature the top half of a deity above and a blade below, which is less common in early Himalayan phur pa. This chapter uses Dali-kingdom daggers to demonstrate that the Dali kingdom participated in transmission routes that linked them to northeastern India, especially Bihar and Bengal, and to Java. Dali-kingdom examples also constitute an important but unstudied subtype of ritual dagger that circulated between the tenth and thirteenth centuries.
Abstract
This chapter examines how users engaged with scrolls as physical objects. The chapter opens by considering the hypothetical possibilities of how scrolls can be handled. These insights are then complemented by contemporary pictorial evidence from Dunhuang of officials utilising scrolls. Finally, the scattered texts on the verso of Dunhuang manuscript Pelliot chinois 3812 are compared and contrasted with the poetry anthology recorded on the scroll’s recto. In this case study, content on the verso of this manuscript indicates usage by students with different levels of literacy, who engaged with the main text found on the recto in various ways. By examining the exact placement and writing direction of content on the verso, the different methods for handling and using the scroll can be reconstructed. This contributes to ongoing scholarship assessing whether content on the verso is related to the main text on the recto or whether these additions constitute unrelated reusage of blank space on the scroll.
Abstract
Since the beginning of the twentieth century, archaeological missions in western China (i.e., western Gansu and the Hexi Corridor) have led to the discovery of written and non-written material remains belonging to the officials and soldiers who lived along the border of China’s Han empire. Summarising the history of archaeological expeditions and excavations in western Gansu, this chapter highlights how a focus on textual remains over non-textual objects has impacted the focus of archaeological missions, research, and understanding of this region during the Han period. This chapter then unites textual and non-textual remains to present a more complete picture of how these frontiers functioned on a daily basis. These sources amply evidence the harsh desert climate endured by garrisoned soldiers as well as the administrative system which they operated within.
Abstract
Only a few of the manuscripts from the sealed Cave 17, discovered in 1900 at the Mogao Caves 莫高窟 complex near Dunhuang 敦煌, do not relate to Buddhism. Among these, about a dozen deal with funerary geomancy, a divination art relating to what is colloquially referred to as fengshui 風水. The focal point of the present chapter is the scroll S.3877, acquired by the British-Hungarian explorer Marc Aurel Stein in 1907 and now held at the British Library. This manuscript offers guidance on where best to position a grave and is likely dated to the late-ninth to tenth centuries. The drawing on the recto, spanning its entire two-metre long surface, constitutes a rare illustration of funerary divination based on hill formations. In order to understand the function (or functions) the scroll may have served before being deposited in a cave for almost a thousand years, this chapter begins by investigating its various physical characteristics before honing in on its specific content, concluding by examining the possible circumstances of its circulation at Dunhuang.
Abstract
Starting from a codex completed in Lingzhou 靈州 in 982, this chapter reconstructs the movement of manuscripts and travellers along the Silk Roads in the tenth century by examining codices recovered from the Dunhuang 敦煌 Library Cave. Manuscript paper from the ninth and tenth centuries was mostly thick and coarse, featuring uneven fibre distribution and wide laid lines. The paper of a few tenth-century codices, however, has closely-packed, thin laid lines. These codices were possibly produced outside Dunhuang using paper from other regions. They constitute a small but valuable group of artefacts which shed light on the travels of manuscripts along the trade and diplomatic routes between Dunhuang and other regions in the ninth and tenth centuries.
Abstract
A series of understudied ceramics produced between c. 700–750 present fashionable Tang ladies perched on hourglass stools. The stool’s use in Buddhist iconography of the pensive bodhisattva and the postural similarities some of the women share with these Buddhist figures perhaps suggests the ceramics were pieces of religious art. This chapter discusses a number of these ceramics to argue, first, that women were involved in commissioning or using these figurines, which were likely intended to be placed in local tombs. Secondly, this chapter unravels the complex relationship between the hourglass stool’s production centres in the maritime south of China, its usage in Buddhist and Central Asian imagery from the overland Silk Roads, and the resultant mix of iconography in these ceramics of fashionable elite women. This chapter asserts that the concoction of iconography borrowed and adapted in these decidedly secular ceramics reflects artisans’ first attempts to pose fashionable elite women effectively on chairs, rather than being intentional pieces of religious art.
Abstract
Stein painting 14 (Ch.liv.006) stands out among paintings that survive from the so-called ‘Library Cave’ of Dunhuang 敦煌 due to the multiple inscriptions on its front and back, as well as the depiction of two figures next to Avalokiteśvara that are described as posthumous portraits in the inscriptions. The painting is also notable for being dating to the tenth year of the Tianfu 天復 reign era (910), which is a Tang 唐 dynasty (618–907) reign title. In the past, this has been interpreted as an indication of the isolation of Dunhuang from China proper in that it was unaware of the news of the collapse of the Tang dynasty in 907. This chapter reconsiders both the painting’s composition and its inscriptions to further understand the connection between the figures as well as the memorial function of the painting. It challenges the interpretation that the painting represents the isolation of Dunhuang and instead reconsiders the image as an expression of regional identity in the context of the short-lived Jinshan 金山 kingdom in tenth-century Dunhuang.
Abstract
Artefacts that evidence forms of long-distance connectivity tend to garner particular attention, especially those from Silk Roads sites such as the Kingdom of Kroraina (Shanshan 鄯善), which flourished in the third and fourth centuries CE in the southern Tarim Basin. The seals from this kingdom display an astonishing variety of designs drawing from a wide range of sources, including motifs from Classical myth such as Athena and Eros, Hellenistic-style portraits, Buddhist motifs, and seals carrying Chinese characters. Unsurprisingly, these exotic seals have seen the lion’s share of scholarly attention, while little has been said of the many more mundane seals from the kingdom. This chapter argues, however, that any attempts to understand the exotic seals of Kroraina must situate them within their local context. The chapter therefore attempts to establish a framework for understanding seals and sealing practices in Kroraina. It does so by exploring sealing systems, seal ownership, and the choice of seal designs, revealing well-developed local sealing practices and highlighting the important role seals played in local administrative and elite culture.
Abstract
In 2008, a rare Tang 唐 dynasty (618–907) silver dish was sold at Sotheby’s in London. The dish was one amongst the many masterpieces of Chinese precious metalwork from the collection of Dr. Johan Carl Kempe (1884–1967). With its simple elegant form and unusual decoration of a rhinoceros-like animal figure chased in gilt, the dish evidences the fine craftsmanship of Tang silversmiths and reflects the advanced metalworking techniques available at the time. This chapter seeks to unravel the possible life story of the Kempe dish, tracing its shifting associations with people and its environment from conception to production and distribution across continents. It attempts to understand the period and culture that affected the dish’s early life, and in doing so, explores the contribution made by foreign merchants and craftsmen living in China at the time. Arab and Persian communities in Tang China created a long-distance trading network for the production and distribution of artefacts, made in a hybrid style that catered to both Eastern and Western preferences, which were intended for both the domestic luxury market and for export trade.