A Study On The Belief Image Of The Ten Kings And K(?)itigarbha In The Tang And Song Dynasties

Based on the Chinese pseudo scripture "The Buddha Says that the Yama-raja bestows the Four Precepts of the Seven Lives of Pure Land Sutra",the belief in the Ten Kings was nurtured in the late Tang Dynasty and quickly became popular in Chinese.Subsequently,the combination of the Ten Kings Faith and the K(?)itigarbha Faith formed a common belief combination in later generations,the K(?)itigarbha Ten Kings Faith.Under the influence of the belief in the Ten Kings and K(?)itigarbha,the people of the Late Tang and Five Dynasties were enthusiastic about practicing the Ten Kings’ offerings,creating statues and writing scriptures,and adhering to the precepts,expressing a beautiful vision for the present,post death,and afterlife.And the creation of the Ten Kings and K(?)itigarbha are widely found in various regions through various forms such as scroll paintings,murals,and cave sculptures.In the process of development,the belief in the Ten Kings and K(?)itigarbha also integrated traditional Chinese ideas and customs,and corresponding folk customs emerged,presenting a rich and vivid picture of faith to future generations.The research of this paper will focus on the existing image sequences of the Ten Kings and K(?)itigarbha in the Sichuan region,attempting to reveal the development process of the Ten Kings and K(?)itigarbha faith from the late Tang and Five Dynasties to the Song Dynasty from two aspects: the evolution of the faith itself and the image representation.In the first part,the author provides a comprehensive presentation of the belief in the Ten Kings of and K(?)itigarbha and its images.Starting with relevant literature,the author deduces the approximate time of the emergence of the Ten Kings and K(?)itigarbha and the Ten Kings and K(?)itigarbha faith,attempting to determine the relationship between the combination of the Ten Kings and K(?)itigarbha’s appearance with the Scripture of K(?)itigarbha.At the same time,the author systematically sorts out the images of the Ten Kings and K(?)itigarbha.In the second part,the author takes the existing statues of the Ten Kings and K(?)itigarbha in Sichuan as the center,takes the geographical location of the statues as the main clue,and combines the historical background of the changes in the Shu region from the late Tang and Five Dynasties to the early Song Dynasty.Based on the previous studies,the author rearranges the statues of the Ten Kings and K(?)itigarbha in Sichuan,carefully examines and analyzes the development order and meaning changes of the images in the sequence of the Ten Kings and K(?)itigarbha in Sichuan.In the third part,based on the rules and conclusions obtained from the previous text,the author ponders the relationship between the changes in the meaning of the images of the Ten Kings and K(?)itigarbha and the changes in their beliefs themselves.The author believes that the combination of the belief in Dizang and the belief in the Ten Kings has long been embedded in the thought of karma in K(?)itigarbha.In the development process of the images of the Ten Kings and K(?)itigarbha,this important idea was gradually highlighted and emphasized,which also became the reason why the intention of the Ten Kings and K(?)itigarbha and the Ten Kings of the Studio shifted from the original recommendation of the deceased to the later emphasis on pre cultivation.From the perspective of the image of the Ten Kings and K(?)itigarbha and the evolution of faith,we can see the disputes and fusion of different sects,Buddhism,and Taoism in history.In conclusion,this paper will link certain social history backgrounds and religious development routes in the research,and try to explore and respond to the related issues of the belief in the Ten Kings and K(?)itigarbha in different contexts.