The picture of the Pure Land of the Northern Song Dynasty - Maitreya Shangsheng of Gaoping Kaihua Temple
Grand View of Fine Arts, 2021.05 Ruan Jinyi
[Abstract] In this paper, a comprehensive investigation of the pictorial history and the pictorial narrative mode is carried out by taking the existing Northern Song Dynasty mural Maitreya Shangsheng Sutra of Gaoping Kaihua Temple in Shanxi as the main research object. On the basis of the existing research, this paper further revises and deepens the understanding of some key figures or scene images in the Shangsheng Sutra of Kaihua Temple, and attempts to reveal how the mural depicts in the creative temporal narrative structure of the Buddhist believers in the Northern Song Dynasty and the southeastern Jin Dynasty of the beautiful imagination of the Pure Land of Maitreya Tushi and the ardent desire for spiritual rebirth.
On the mountainside of Gaoping City, southeastern Jin, sits a Buddhist temple building, Kaihua Temple, which is divided into east and west roads, and the Daxiong Treasure Hall in the middle of the axis of the west road is the core building of the entire courtyard (Figure 1). The main hall sits north and faces south, and in addition to the three rooms on the south wall, the hall is painted with murals, which is the only existing mural of the Northern Song Dynasty ground temple in China. The frescoes began to be made in the seventh year (1092) of the Northern Song Dynasty,092 and were completed in several years. Among them, on the east side of the north wall, a large-scale warp painting occupies a complete wall space, the overall color preservation is better, the scene is magnificent, the details are rich, and the close-up view of the real thing is quite shocking (Figure 2). Regarding the subject matter of this mural, there are three main research views in the past: in 1981, Mr. Liang Jihai opened the kaihua temple mural research, he believed that this mural was a Western Pure Land Change (1), and Mr. Jin Weinuo also held this view (2); Mr. Chai Zejun presumed it as a Guanyin Festival, and the first two views had a certain impact on later research (3); the third view combined with the existing inscription materials (4) and pictorial characteristics judged to be Maitreya Shangsheng Jingchang (5), which has been adopted by most scholars (6), which is also the basic point of this article.
Through literature combing and image perusal, this article believes that the murals painted on the east side of the north wall of the main hall of Kaihua Temple mainly contain three themes: one is that Shakyamuni is the public saying, the other is the various scenic scenes of the Tushi Heavenly Palace (described by Shakyamuni), and the third is that His Holiness answers the question of how the disciples can meet Maitreya in the upper life, that is, the presentation of the practice method. Corresponding to the textual narrative sequence of the Buddha's Sayings and Views on Maitreya Bodhisattva Shangsheng Tushi Tianjing (maitreya Shangsheng Sutra for short) (7), the author has produced a schematic diagram of the interpretation of Maitreya Shangsheng Sutra (Figure 3). In the picture, the uppercase letters represent the scene, the lowercase letters represent the characters, and the number ordinal numbers indicate the building.
One or three diagrams: constructing a new model of text time and space
Image BP-1 (Fig. 4) is exactly the scene at the beginning of the verse where Shakya gives a statement to the Garden of Solitude in the Gion tree of the Kingdom of Shewei. The painting of Shakyamuni in a double-collared drooping robe, with a knotted knee sitting on a lotus platform on his back, is a three-quarters silhouette of the figure. The image of the right column is severely overstretched due to rain leakage from the eaves pillar between the east and second quarters of the north wall, and only one statue of the Heavenly King on either side of the Buddha, and a monk standing with a clasp of palms, is clearer. Faintly discernible from the remaining details of the robe is another monk and the king behind the monk. Here, it should be noted that the two figures standing and kneeling before the confession, the figure a is three-quarters of the side, slightly bearded, it is Maitreya Bodhisattva, whose posture is consistent with the description in the Buddhist scriptures.
b is uboli. The "head salute" is the foot of my head to salute His Holiness, which coincides with the kneeling posture of the monk. The word "also" indicates simultaneity, thus painting Upolius and Maitreya in the same scene.
There was a bodhisattva named Maitreya in the meeting. Listen to what the Buddha said. Take the exam and get a billion dravidians. That is, from the seat to the whole dress. The forked hand clasped his hands together in front of the Buddha. Ershi Yubo also started from the seat. The head is saluted and the white Buddha speaks.
The scene of the Buddha's question appears twice in the scriptures.
Then Yubo got up from his seat, dressed his head in salute, and the white Buddha said, "WorldLy Dignity! It is such a wonderful pleasure in the heavens, when was the Great Master born in Yan Futi? ”
Another scene of Shakya's sayings is located in the left column. The position of the image BP-2 is flush with the image BP-1, and the structural layout is basically the same, and there are differences in the specific details of the Buddha's flesh bun (due to the damage of the BP-1 part of the picture, there is a certain difficulty in identification, but it can still be judged that there is no difference between the Buddha's head light, body light, robe style and lotus seat), canopy, offering decoration, and smelling figures. In the BP-2 scene, the kneeler z is replaced by a young monk, who should be Ananda. Looking back at the image of Uboli in the image BP-1, Upoli is from the Sudra caste and was originally a barber of the court, so it is very reasonable for the picture to show it as an elder with a darker complexion, and compared with the image of the kneeling disciple Ananda here, there is a clear difference, and it can also be seen that the painter accurately grasps the characteristics of the figure. Ananda's posture of kneeling before the Buddha is consistent with the scriptures, but the picture does not show the details of the forked hand ritual.
Then His Holiness Ananda rose from his seat and knelt down with his forked hands to white Buddha's words...
According to the Maitreya Sutra, "On the first night, His Holiness lifted himself up and shone with light, and his light was golden, circling the garden of Zoroastrianism for seven turns... There are now a thousand bodhisattvas here", and His Holiness and his dependents, the four congregations, the eight parts of the Heavenly Dragon, etc., at the end of the sutra, "When the Buddha said the words, the four disciples and the eight parts of the Heavenly Dragon, when they heard what the Buddha said, they all rejoiced and retreated from the Buddha", which shows that when Shakyamuni spread the Dharma, there were many people who heard the Dharma, and the scriptures detailed the names one by one. Although BP-1 and 2, two scenes of Shakya that are related in time, do not fully depict the images of bodhisa and the common eight parts of the heavenly dragon, if we look at the two together, the creative intention behind the images will quietly emerge.
In the context of the Chinese translation of the Buddhist scriptures, the Maitreya Sutra is peculiar in that its text has two main personalities—Shakyamuni shakyamuni who speaks of the sutra and Maitreya Bodhisattva who is narrated by Shakya and who is also speaking himself (9). Of course, there is more than one such classic, including the Buddha Said Maitreya Sutra, the Amitabha Sutra, etc., mainly Pure Land classics. In addition to the Shangsheng Sutra of Kaihua Temple, we see two main ways of expressing such classics: one is the representation of only the second main grid (the Zunge narrated by Shakya) represented by the Dunhuang Grotto murals, and the other is the case of simultaneous representation of two main personalities in a long horizontally unfolded scroll represented by the engraved Buddhist scriptures (10). However, even the Buddhist sutra prints only depict the "fields" of the two main teachings in a stacked way from the image, while the Maitreya Shangsheng Sutra of Kaihua Temple increases the possibility of temporal extension for the entire Pure Land Sutra through three "fields" of the Second Shakya Dharma Chart and the Maitreya Heavenly Palace Dharma Chart (Figure 3, BP-1, BP-2 and MP Scene). It can be said that such a unique design of the warp structure is almost not found in the changes of Maitreya in other regions and even in other themes.
The exquisite conception of Maitreya Shangsheng jingchang of Kaihua Temple goes beyond the metaphor of time dynamics, and the in-depth study of the two images on BP-1 also gives a vivid and delicate visual expression of the discourse space.
Image BP-1b: A tall red gate is recognizable, with an elephant man and two elephants walking out of the city, and the trunk bears a heavy object. Some distance apart are painted four seated statues of bodhisattvas. Along the outward line of the city wall, there are two inscription boxes, which have been studied to represent themes such as almsgiving.
Image BP-1a: Depicts three seated figures and a Hu man waiter. All three of the main figures have a caption box on the side of their heads, indicating that they are all important figures with clear identities and should have an important relationship with the entire mural. On the far right, a man dressed in yellow and red clothes, his head was slurred. In the middle is a long-bearded old man sitting cross-legged on a square stone platform, wearing a white robe and holding a staff in his left hand. The figure on the left looks younger than the other two, wearing a crown, and has similarities in both age and clothing to the image of Prince Zenyou in the west wall mural. The middle open space enclosed by the three people is covered with a red carpet, and the objects held by the waiter kneeling in the lower left corner and the items placed on the blankets have been artificially peeled, so we speculate that this is an object represented by gold leaf!
The BP-1a and BP-1b images seem to lack a direct link to scripture, and the image of the upper part of the city wall has been so badly damaged that the shape of the clothing of the three people sitting around them needs to be read with great care, so it has not been identified in previous studies. Ultimately, this article finds the answer to this puzzle in the title painting of Wu Shouzhen's Diamond Sutra in the second year (985) of The Seongyang-ji Temple in Kyoto. The right part of the title painting (picture perspective) depicts a tall city wall and depicts three figures, the Prince of Ghuta, the Lonely Elder, and the King of Shewei, and the print uses these pictorial elements with clear titles to show that Shakyamuni preached the Diamond Sutra, the place where Shakyamuni preached the Diamond Sutra, the Shewei State Gion Tree to the Garden of Solitude (Fig. 5). The Maitreya Sutra and the Diamond Sutra are said to be in exactly the same place, and it can be seen that the two images attached to BP-1 in the Kamisha Sutra of Kaihwa Temple depict some of the key features of the place of discourse. Compared with the prints, the mural depicts elephants using proboscis rolls to carry building materials through the city gate, trees donated by Prince Ghuta in the garden, and the elderly laying gold floors, and the storyline of the lonely elderly (that is, The Suda Jingshe) is depicted in greater detail.
Second, the interaction between the main characters in the Tushi Heavenly Palace and the spatial structure
The rich and changeable architectural space is an important pictorial feature of shangsheng and economic change. The description of the scenic scenery of the Tushi Heavenly Palace in the Maitreya Shangsheng Sutra begins with the scene of the heavenly wishes to incarnate the palace, and from the picture, it is located in the lower middle part of the middle hall image, that is, between the building (1) and (8). Along the outline of the lower roof, the clouds levitate, and on top of them support the ten celestial beings facing each other. In groups of five, they all presented treasures in the middle direction, which is exactly what the Buddhist scriptures call the "Crown of Chestnut Mani.". These ten celestial beings with different faces represent five million (million) billion Heavenly Sons.
In the heavens, there are five hundred billion Heavenly Sons...
The orbs and crowns held by each Tianzi hand emit a swirl of light to meet the building above (1), indicating that "the crowns of treasures are transformed into five hundred trillion treasure palaces" . The gallery with carved eaves and paintings is the palace of Tu Shi Tian. On both sides of it are painted seven treasure trees, the top of the tree soaring clouds, the upper heavenly people d, left and right three, behind the flying dragon, the two sides of the flying dragon posture is different, rich in variations, these six people should be "five billion dragon king", is raining seven treasures tree.
The narrative of the texts corresponding to the texts of the Buddhist scriptures corresponding to the generation of the various mysterious phases in the Tushi Heavenly Palace can be summarized as Table 1.
The above evidence about the identity of the five hundred billion heavenly sons and the five hundred billion dragon kings is relatively sufficient, and Mr. Gu Dongfang has clearly explained it in his article. However, around the treasure palace building of the manifestation of the Son of Heaven and the rain of the Dragon King, the author believes that there are still some issues that need to be rethought and discussed. The core question is: Which image is the god of fastness?
The description of the fastness of the Maitreya Sutra can be summarized in the following aspects. 1. He appeared after the five million (million) billion Heavenly Sons "made a palace with the power of heavenly blessings"; 2. The identity of The Fastness Batti was the "Great God", and he "made a vow: If I am blessed to build a good Dharma Hall for Maitreya Bodhisattva, so that the pearls will naturally appear on my forehead"; 3. After the Great God of Fastness made a wish, a series of miraculous scenes appeared. The progressive and extended linguistic logic between these scenes appears many times throughout the text, and its narrative technique is unified and harmonious, forming a layered rhetoric similar to a thimble, with a dense loop and climax, reflecting the fascinating Heavenly Palace victory. The level of textual advancement can be roughly summarized in Table 2.
Mr. Gu Dongfang believes that the image of the Heavenly King kneeling between the two groups of Tianzi numbered c with their backs to the viewer is the fastness of the Tretting (i.e. the image x), and this article believes that the actual situation may be more complicated. First of all, we need to pay attention to the fact that several keywords related to fastness practice are "beads on the forehead", "(Mani light) whirlwind", "railing bridge" and "song and dance". These objects and the god of fastness are the only correspondence with each other, that is to say, they appear only once in the scriptures—even if the word "song and dance" is mentioned many times in the text, but the only place where the "dancer" is bluntly said—is the object that is unique to the practice of fastness. However, the character x does not seem to have these features (Figure 6).
Next, two very important materials from the Ten Thousand Buddha Caves in the Wenshu Mountain Grottoes in Zhangye, Gansu (Figure 7) and the site of the Uighur Buddhist Temple in Gaochang, Beiting, Xinjiang (Figure 8), can help us better discuss this issue.
On the east wall of Wanfo Cave, there is a large-scale sutra painting of the Maitreya Shangsheng Sutra of the Western Xia Dynasty, which is 3.05 meters wide and 2.3 meters high (8). The painting can be divided into four sections in terms of layout, which is similar to the Shangsheng Jingchang of Kaihua Temple, but has more performance of the fourth column at the top of the picture for the apse. Specific to the image judgment of fastness, Korean scholar Heyryun Koh pointed out that in the Maitreya Sutra mural of the Ten Thousand Buddhas Cave on Manjushri Mountain, the kneeling image between heaven and man (Figure 7 "y text") is the great god Fastness Bati. And cited several examples of maitreya's female sculptures? It is argued that the image of the weak Leshansa at the foot of the class that separates the two rays of light is to express the fastness of the Bhatti, and the "beads on the forehead" are taken as an important symbol of the fastness of the Bhakti. This article argues that the pictorial presentation of religious art, although limited by classical rituals, also varies from time to time and from place to place. Only when a person or thing has a special one or several pictorial characteristics, it is possible for us to determine its identity or attributes, in other words, if we want to judge the identity of a human figure, we must assert that it has a certain core feature, and other formal changes or additions and deletions of artistic elements are secondary, secondary, and based on the identification of core features. In this regard, the Western Xia engraved Buddhist scripture title painting excavated in the BlackWater City of St. Petersburg, Russia, also has important reference value, and the inscription above the fastness practice in the painting reads: "The place where the forty-nine palaces of the Great God of Fastness are used to provide maitreya." "Due to the limited format of the engraving prints, all other inscriptions are four characters, except here at the expense of pen and ink to engrave the book 3721 words, which on the one hand reflects the image designer's belief that the fastness of the great deification of the present heavenly palace is the climax of the scriptures, which should occupy a central position in the entire picture, and on the other hand, it also emphasizes the typical image of the beads on the forehead of the fastness practice.
Compared with the limitations of the format of the sutra prints or the lack of detail in the local sculptures, the murals of Kaihua Temple, Wanfo Cave, and the site of the Goryeo Uighur Buddhist Temple in the North Garden, which will be explored in this article. There is a larger space to further vividly depict the Mani light of the orb swirling in the air, and the end of the swivel winds around the beams and pillars of the temple on both sides, symbolizing the heavenly palace. At the same time, these images, including the black waiyuan version of the engraved title, above the fastness of the mention are two female figures of dancing, and the dancers are on the outside of the dancers, who are in the same space, forming a stable combination: just in response to the unique connection between the former disclosure of the fastness practice and the "song and dance". However, the previous research only used "realizing the Heavenly Palace with the will power to realize the identity of the character between the ten heavenly sons" to determine that the identity of the character between the ten heavenly sons is fastness, ignoring the most iconic characteristics of the fastness god, and taking the secondary, vague and difficult to define image features as the only basis for judgment, which seems to be insufficient persuasiveness.
However, there are still some complications about the issue of fastness, which stems from the intervention of another character. Mr. Gu Dongfang judged another image of the Heavenly King sitting away from the x-shaped Fan Xiao as the fifth greatest god of the Heavenly Palace, based on its "water coming out of the water overhead to the jade girls on both sides". In fact, the two figures of x and y are remarkably similar in their kneeling posture and in their overall costume features (flying ribbons, rolled sleeves, draped drapes on both sides, etc.). If you do not carefully distinguish the decorative details of the armor, the difference in color, and ignore the nuances of body size, the two characters are almost the same. The descriptions of the two characters are also similar to a large extent in the text: First, both are gods. This determines the similarity of their costumes; Secondly, both are visions from one's own body, one "naturally appears on the forehead", and the other "flows out of the pores of the body"; In addition, the visions produced by both are ultimately related to the Tennō (Jade Girl) and music. These characteristics all set the stage for the possible image confusion or overlapping of characters between the two characters.
At this point, we compare the image elements of x and y in connection with the fastness summary summarized above, which one is more distinctly related to the objects such as "beads on the forehead", "Mani light swirling" and "column sparse dance"? Apparently y. Gu Wen's statement that the orthographic sound god "comes out of the water from the top of the head to the jade girls on both sides" is different from the scriptures), and the text points out that "a group of heavenly women in the courtyard make dance music, which is a common expression in the warp map, increasing the fun of the scene", dance music is indeed a common element in the warp map, especially in the Pure Land image, but the music and dance image here is only an interesting explanation, to some extent, the special relationship between the "song and dance" image and the god of fastness is severed.
Moreover, the spatial positional relationship between the character and the building is another piece of evidence for determining the identity of the person. In the past, we may have had a false tendency to think that the five billion heavenly sons and the fastness of the Bhagavad Gita appeared at the same time, and that together they would manifest a solemn and beautiful palace with their willpower. However, In the Sutra, Heiki clearly pointed out: "In the beginning, five billion Heavenly Sons created a palace of foreign treasures. The inner courtyard of the second great god-made Dharma Hall. The last five gods are strictly decorated in this second palace", it can be seen that the time and architectural nature of the palace between the god of fastness and the heavenly sons are different. There is no concept of "inner courtyard" and "outer courtyard" in the Maitreya Sutra, but a careful comparison of the texts shows that the crown of the Heavenly Sons is transformed into a "five-hundred-billion treasure palace", and the fastness of the Bhati is "the Mani light swirling in the air, turning into a forty-nine subtle treasure palaces (called 'Shanfa Hall')". Judging from the pictorial performance, the Tianzi who holds the Mani Crown of the Suntan Andi Crown should be in two different architectural spaces from the fastness of the Bhatti. As for the character x in the middle of the three transformation paintings of the Crown Heavenly Son, since "the five gods are strictly decorated in this second palace", it proves that the five gods can stay in the inner and outer courtyards, so it is not impossible to presume as one of the five gods.
In addition, there is a detail, because the six "great gods" are all manifested as the image of the heavenly king with armor, according to the weight of the other four gods in the heavenly palace, i, j, k, and l1, y's figure seems to be thinner, and x is more compatible with the other four gods.
So is it okay for us to reverse the identities of x and y in previous studies? It doesn't seem that simple. Because after the pores of the Zhengyin God came out of the water, the plots of "there are five billion hua on the water of Yiyihua, and there are twenty-five jade girls on Yiyihua" are not reflected in X. In connection with other materials, there is no doubt about the identities of the two people in the Blackwater City version of the engraving, because the layout of the picture is horizontally unfolded, which is completely different from the requirements of the mural production, and the identity of the characters is clearly defined through the title of the list (Figure 9 Local Fastness And the Five Gods). In the case of the Gaochang Uighur Buddhist Temple and the Manjushri Cave of Ten Thousand Buddhas, these two images partially "alleviate" this contradiction by drawing two figures with Manichaean light belts on their heads at the same time.
It is reasonable to speculate that the current misalignment of the image and the text may stem from the buddhist scriptures' highly similar representation of the identities and powers of the two great gods. On the one hand, perhaps the painter (intentionally or unintentionally) confuses the two identities; on the other hand, or because the fifth god in the fresco is also in the central axis, forcing the x and y figures to make a "compromise" for the art form, each showing only a part of the character. The reason why both are placed on the central axis of the picture is completely different from the first page print of the Buddhist scriptures in The Black Water City of The Western Xia Dynasty - the left side of the picture does not show the image of the great god, and Maitreya Bodhisattva only has one person left in the center of the Fastness Chart - In addition to the limitation of the size of the space, this structural arrangement is to form an artistic expression of symmetry through the wall, so as to outline the unique and beautiful scene of the Tushi Heavenly Palace, which makes people both convinced and respectful.
III. The Practice of the Pure Land of Past Lives: The Image of the "Six Things" Method
Regarding the N1-6 part of the image in the schematic diagram (Figure 3), Mr. Gu Dongfang's judgment of the overall subject matter is basically correct, but except for the two more certain scenes, the remaining scenes do not identify the specific text content corresponding to the plot, nor do they provide a particularly practical basis for the judgment2. It is true that none of the pictorial themes of the practice of practice have been seen in the murals of Maitreya's Sutras in the past, but fortunately, we have once again found relevant information in the printmaking materials. At the end of the inscription of the "Guan Maitreya Bodhisattva Shangsheng Tushi Tianjing" excavated from the black water city, there are 6 independent images, arranged in a vertical 2×3 form, and each picture is inscribed with a list title (Figure 9 to Figure 11). Based on these inscriptions, this article confirms the image content of Kaihua Temple N1-6 (Figure 12). The number 1-6 represents the order in which the practice appears in the text of the Maitreya Sutra3.
The Buddha told Upanishads: "It is Maitreya Bodhisattva who was not born in Yanfuti and did not give birth to the heavenly causes of Tushita. After the Buddha's demise, my disciples, if they have diligently cultivated all merits and honors, sweep the pagoda and paint the ground, make offerings with incense and wonderful flowers, practice the samadhi of the people to go deep into the right reception, read the scriptures, and if they are like this, they should be in their hearts, although they are constantly knotting the six links, they should recite the image of the Buddha, called Maitreya. ”
Image N1: This image was not read in previous studies. Because there is a clear list box here, we can infer that this is also a relatively independent scene, corresponding to one of the methods of sutra practice. The only recognizable person is a man dressed in green with his right hand raised on his chest, kneeling on the ground, staring at an image in front of him that appears to be on a pedestal. By contrasting it with the Shangsheng Scriptures and the Blackwater City Prints, the author speculates that the images here are "cultivating various merits", such as paintings and makeup Buddha statues.
Image N2: Depicts a building on the top of a hill, the snout is depicted in great detail, there is a seated Buddha statue in the temple, and the buddha roof radiates upwards to the outside of the temple, that is, the N2a image. N2a shows a sitting figure in a cloud with a headlight, but it is not recognizable due to the serious damage to the near-roof screen. Outside the hall, two people are painted on the left and right, the left two stand respectfully with their palms together, and the two people on the right make a dynamic Salute to the Buddha, one of whom bows to the ground. Compared with the Blackwater City prints, it can be inferred that the content of this image is "wei yi is not lacking".
Image N3: A multi-story pagoda depicted under a tree,
Inside the tower is a Buddha statue, and next to the tower is a scene of a man dressed as a laborer, sweeping the floor with a broom. The subject matter of the image is more obvious, and it should be "sweeping the tower and painting the ground".
Image N4: This scene was considered "not lacking in prestige" in previous studies. The painter cleverly uses a cloud to connect Figure N3 with Figure N4, and the texture of the cloud and the broom are fused together. At the other end of the cloud, a flat surface rock appeared, on which sat a monk, dressed in a burqa decorated with white dots in green space, his eyes closed, his demeanor calm, and he had entered a state of meditation.
Image N5: The composition of the figure is more complicated than the above two figures, because the right side is close to the corner, the rain is soaked, and only part of the building on the top of the hill can be seen, and a Buddha statue with a head light and a body light can be recognized in the temple, sitting on the base of the waist, similar to the image N2. Outside the temple, there were two women and two children, who seemed to be in the process of marching towards the temple. Among the two children, the girl in front of her was placing her hand on the desk in front of the temple, and the boy who was closely behind him was holding a double-headed tray above his head, and the plate was filled with small bottles and cups and other containers. The woman behind her, dressed in a sumptuous headdress, smiled and turned back to talk to the older woman who was walking at the end. Combined with the Blackwater City engraving, it can be speculated that this is a "floral offering", that is, "offering in the name of the fragrant flowers". The picture may depict a rich woman offering a variety of spices and flowers to practice pure karma.
Image N6: The bleeding is so severe that previous studies have not found images here. During the field investigation, the author found that in the upper position behind the ochre-clad man who was close to the sweeping tower, there was a turquoise case placed on the square carpet, and the color of the wall on the other side of the case was almost faded, revealing a white gray bottom. After repeated readings based on the silhouette, the author determined that this should be the image of a man with a crown sitting on his knees. Subsequently, the Blackwater City edition engraving confirmed the author's idea, and the image N6 was "reading the classics". Below the shoulders of the man wearing the crown, several very thin dark red parallel lines can also be faintly seen intersecting with the ink-colored vertical lines, which happen to be the fingers and warp shafts of the man holding the warp scroll.
epilogue
Different from the general sutra paintings that summarize the scene of the Shakya Festival with a single image of the discourse, the Maitreya Shangsheng Sutra of Kaihua Temple selects two successive time nodes within the narrative structure of the Buddhist scripture text, draws two relatively independent shakya diagrams, and places them on the left and right sides of the Tushi Tiangong diagram. Among them, the painter also uses characteristic pictorial elements to hint at the specific place where the Buddha said the Maitreya Sutra. The two Shakya images not only form a visual symmetry and balance, but also complement each other in the limited picture space, forming a special intertextual relationship, and to some extent realizing the visual materialization of the time flow. Combined with the Maitreya Bodhisattva Festival in the Tushi Heavenly Palace, the juxtaposition of the three Dharma diagrams cleverly hints at the time and space background framework of the entire Maitreya Sutra, which can be said to be the pioneering design of the Northern Song Mural of Kaihua Temple for the narrative mode of the Pure Land Sutra Change.
Within this framework, we analyze a series of questions surrounding the fastness of the Great God's pictorial history, and clarify the era cognition of the structure of the inner and outer courtyards of the Maitreya Tushi Heavenly Palace during the Northern Song Dynasty. The grand scene of the transformation of the fastness god "naturally appears on the forehead" and "The Mani light swirls in the air and turns into a forty-nine delicate treasure palace" is possible, which is also rich and delicately presented in the Shangsheng warp of the Western Xia and Gaochang Uighur periods, which is very different from the image structure of the Shangsheng warp in the Hexi region before the Song Dynasty. After completing the magnificent depiction of the picture of the Heavenly Palace, the Shangsheng Jingchang of Kaihua Temple also specially drew a "Picture Book of the Past Lives of believers", which not only enlightened the Pure Land with the pure land and the simple and vivid illustrations of the specific means of receiving the scriptures and cultivating merits, but also transformed it into an easy way to live in heaven. The production of such images is not seen in other mural paintings, but only in the Western Xia version of the engraved Buddhist scriptures, which have a very close relationship with individual chanting and meditation because of their portability. To this end, we can say that the Northern Song Dynasty Shangsheng Jingjing of Kaihua Temple not only created a picture of the Pure Land of Tushi with complete temporal and spatial relations and extremely infectious details, but also formed a close and effective interactive relationship with the believers, which may be an important reason why the providers were specially painted on this wall.
(Ruan Jinyi, Ph.D., School of Arts, Peking University)