A Study of the "Ox-Herding Theme" as Sculptures at Mt. Baoding in Dazu County, Sichuan

Abstract

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.. Artibus Asiae Publishers is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Artibus Asiae. Famous for its large number of Buddhist sculptures, the county of Dazu is situated among rolling hills in the eastern part of modern Sichuan province some 200 kilometers to the northwest of Chongqing. From the time of the late T'ang and up to the late Southern Song, Dazu was a flourishing Buddhist centre located on the main highway connecting the eastern and the western parts of the province. Sponsored by local rulers as well as lay Buddhist associations (yihui) a number of rockcarving projects were initiated in various locations in the country resulting in the creation of more than 5o,ooo religious sculptures, many of high quality craftsmanship.' The two largest and most important concentrations of sculptures are those of Mt. Bei (North Mountain), the site of a fortress located on the top of a small mountain about 2 kilometers to the north of the present town of Dazu, and Dafo Wan (Great Buddha Curve) on Mt. Baoding (Precious Summit Mountain), a partly manmade and hoof-shaped rock terrace in a large hollow on the top of the mountains some 15 kilometers to the north-east of Dazu. The sculptures in Dafo Wan are organized in 31 thematic and carefully arranged groups carved in a uniform style, which set them apart from most sculptural centres elsewhere in China.2 The area covered by the carvings measures 500 metres in combined length, and Abbreviations CDC Chodang chip DSY Dazu shike yanjiu JCL Jingde chuandeng lu (T.2076) SSD Sichuan shike diaosu (Zhongguo meishu quanji, Sculpture Section) Vol. 12 T. Taisho daizokyo ZZ Dai Nihon Zokuzokyo (revised edition in 90 vols., Tokyo, i98o-89) 1 During the past ten years a significant number of Mainland Chinese publications on the Dazu sculptures have appeared. Most of these are of a popular nature, but generally contain photographs of the most important groups of sculptures in Mt. Daoding and in Mt. Bei. Apart from this, substantial information has generally been rare. The most important picture books are Dazu shike, complied by Sichuan Meishu Xueyuan Daosu Xi, Beijing, 1962; Taisoku sekkoku geijitsu, compiled by Zhongguo Waiwen Chuban She. Mei nai mei, Kyoto, i98i; and the Dazu Grottoes, edited by Bai Ziran. Foreign Languages Press, Beijing, 1984. In 198 5 this situation changed with the appearance of the first scholarly catalogue on the Dazu carvings, the Dazu Shike yanjiu. Collected Works of the Researches on Dazu Stone Carvings. Compiled and edited by Liu Zhangjiu, Hu Wenhe, and Li Yongqiao. Chengdu, 1985 (hereafter DSY). This excellent compilation contains besides a number of leading articles on the carvings, detailed descript...

The Role of Cultural Sign in Cultivating the Dialogical Self: The Case ofThe Ox-Herding Pictures

“…A closer examination of the Chinese literature in Chan Buddhism reveals that there have been numerous versions of the pictures, including The Four Ox‐Herding Pictures by Settei, The Six Ox‐Herding Pictures by Jitoku, and The White Ox Pictures by Kotetsu, even though the original series of pictures no longer exists. It is also interesting to find that a set of ox‐herding pictures that resemble the Puming version, transformed into stone sculptures during the Southern Song dynasty (12th to 13th centuries), was preserved at Mount Baoding in the Dazu County of Sichuan (see Sørensen ).…”