The beginnings of the Buddhist stele tradition in China

Chinese Buddhist steles represent the carving of Indian Buddhist images and symbols onto native stone tablets traditionally used for commemorative and funerary purposes. More than 200 such stone slabs of the fifth and sixth centuries are known to have survived in China. Ranging in height from one to two meters, many of them are of surpassing artistic beauty. They depict votive images of deities, relief carvings of events from the life of the Buddha, Pure Land scenes, and graceful depictions of donors. Handsome dragon forms are often placed at the top of the slabs. Long inscriptions give information about the religious outlook of donors and clergy and their social and ethnic make-up. The status of these steles in the history of Chinese art is equivalent to that of sculptures on Romanesque churches--eloquent expressions of an ardent popular religious faith.; Despite their abundance and high artistic quality, and the concrete evidence they provide for the overall chronology, iconography, and regional styles of Chinese Buddhist art, the stone steles have not been systematically studied. During this century, most Chinese intellectuals turned their backs on Buddhist art as a relic of old, superstitious ways. Japanese scholars conducted preliminary surveys before World War II, but after the war Japanese interest has waned. Western scholarship has been limited primarily to accounts in collection catalogues.; A full survey of this material is far beyond the scope of this dissertation. Instead it focusses on certain key early examples which outline major artistic and ideological issues. These include the development of a native Chinese idiom of Buddhist imagery based on both Indian prototypes and pre-existing Chinese forms, and the spread of the Buddhist faith through the north Chinese countryside. The dissertation emphasizes the fact that the great popularity of the steles was in part the result of a centuries' old Chinese custom of erecting such slabs to commemorate the achievements of high officials, to record important edicts, and to serve as funeral monuments. Easily adapted to the display of Buddhist symbols, the stone slabs became a most successful combination of Indian and Chinese artistic and cultural practices.