Six Buddhist Symbols: An Analysis of a Poetical Image of Buddha’s Enlightenment from the Song Dynasty
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.4312/as.2020.8.1.237-266Keywords:
Buddhism, symbolism, Chinese poetry, Song dynasty, Su ShiAbstract
In the present article, I focus on six mutually interrelated Buddhist symbols, that occur in a poem written by Su Shi, a renowned Chinese official and poet from the Song dynasty. By developing an analysis of the background of individual iconographic motives and Buddhist symbols, all of which pertain to the iconography of the Buddha’s enlightenment, the article aims at revealing their inherent connections to certain segments of Chinese Buddhism, which were originally related both to the original (non-Chinese) Buddhist tradition as well as to Chinese native tradition. Consequently, in the subsequent discussion of the emergence and use of Buddhist symbolism in China, the article tries to shed some light on the particular manner in which, throughout many successive centuries, the Buddhist symbolism related to internal and external aspects of enlightenment were gradually entering into the domain of common poetic vocabulary, and hereby co-shaped the symbolic expressiveness of images used by the Chinese poet while disclosing the content of his inner world.
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References
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Harrist, Robert E. 1991. “Watching Clouds Rise: A Tang Dynasty Couplet and Its Illustration in Song Painting.” The Bulletin of Cleveland Museum of Art 78 (7): 301‒23.
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Quan Tang wen 全唐文. 1990. Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe.
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Su, Shi 苏轼. 1982. Su Shi shi ji 苏轼诗集 1‒8, uredil Wang Wengao. Beijing: Zhonghua shuju.
Taishō Shinshū Daizōkyō 大正新脩大藏經 1‒100. 1988. Tokyo: Daizō shuppan kabushiki-gaisha.
Xiao, Lihua 萧丽华. 1996. Tangdai shige yu foxue 唐代诗歌与佛学. Taibei: Dongda tushu gongsi.
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Williams, Charles A. S. 1974. Chinese Symbolism and Art Motifs; A Comprehensive Handbook on Symbols in Chinese Art Through the Ages. Tokyo: Tuttle Publishing.
Zhang, Gengguang 张耿光. 1991. Zhuangzi quanyi 庄子全译. Guiyang: Guizhou renmin chuban she.
Zürcher, Erik. 2007. The Buddhist Conquest of China: The Spread and Adaptation of Buddhism in Early Medieval China. Leiden: Bill.
Beer, Robert. 2003. The Handbook of Tibetan Buddhist Symbols. Chicago & London: Serindia.Benn, Charles. 2002. China’s Golden Age: Everyday Life in the Tang Dynasty. New York: Oxford University Press.
Brinker, Helmuth, Hiroshi Kanzawa in Andreas Leisinger. 1996. “Zen Masters of Meditation in Images and Writings.” Artibus Asiae 40: 3‒384.
Broughton, Jeffrey L. 1999. The Bodhidharma Anthology: The Earliest Records of Zen. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Bukkyō hiyu reiwa jiten 佛教比喩例話辞典, uredil Mori Shōji. 1987. Tokyo: Tōkyōdō Shuppan.
Chou, Yi-liang. 1945. “Tantrism in China.” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 8 (¾): 241‒332.
Dai Nihon Zokuzōkyō sōmokuroku 大日本續藏經総目録, uredil Eun Maeda. 1967. Tokyo: Zōkyō Shoin.
Eberhard, Wolfram. 1990. Dictionary of Chinese Symbols: An Essential Guide to the Hidden Symbols in Chinese Art, Customs and Beliefs. Singapore: Federal Publications.
Feng, Qi 冯契. 1998. Zhongguo gudai zhexue de luoji fazhan 中国古代哲学的逻辑发展 1., 2. in 3. del. Shanghai: Shanghai renmin chuban she.
Faure, Bernard. 1997. The Will to Orthodoxy: A Critical Genealogy of Northern Chan Buddhism. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Foguang da cidian 佛光大辞典, uredil Xing Yun. 2000. Taibei: Foguang chuban she.
Foxue da cidian 佛學大辭典, uredil Ding Fubao. 1925. Beijing.
Foxue jinghua 佛学精华 1‒3, uredil Fang Litian. 1994. Beijing: Beijing chuban she.
Grant, Beata. 1994. Mount Lu Revisited; Buddhism in the Life and Writings of Su Shi. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
Gulik, Robert van. 1939. “The Lore of Chinese Lute: An Essay in Ch’in Ideology.” Monumenta Nipponica 2 (1): 75‒99.
Harrist, Robert E. 1991. “Watching Clouds Rise: A Tang Dynasty Couplet and Its Illustration in Song Painting.” The Bulletin of Cleveland Museum of Art 78 (7): 301‒23.
Hawes, Colin S. 2005. The Social Circulation of Poetry in the Mid-Northern Song: Emotional Energy and Literati Self-Cultivation. New York: SUNY.
Ho, Peng Yoke, Thean Chye Goh in D. Parker. 1974. “Po Chu-i’s Poems on Immortality.” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 34: 163‒86.
Hsing, Yun. 2001. Describing the Indescribable. Boston: Wisdom Publications.
Huang, Chun-chieh. 2017. Dongya Rujia renxue shilun 東亞儒家仁學史論 (Zgodovina razprav o človečnosti v vzhodnoazijskih konfucijanstvih). Taibei: Taida chuban zhongxin.
Kalupahana, David J. 1992. A History of Buddhist Philosophy: Continuities and Discontinuities. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
Kieschnick, John. 2003. The Impact of Buddhism on Chinese Material Culture. Princeton, Oxford: Princeton University Press.
Lao Tzu. 2005. Tao Teh Ching, prevedel John C. H. Wu. Boston, London: Shambhala Classics.
Lai, Whalen. 1979. “Ch’an Metaphors: Waves, Water, Mirror, Lamp.” Philosophy East and West 29 (3): 243‒53.
Lavrač, Maja. 1999. Onkraj belih oblakov: Daoistična in budistična simbolika v poeziji kitajskega pesnika Wang Weija. Ljubljana: Založba Obzorja.
Liu, Heping. 2002. “The Water Mill and Northern Song Imperial Patronage of Art, Commerce and Science.” The Art Bulletin 84 (4): 566‒95.
Mu, Soeng. 2000. The Diamond Sutra: Transforming the Way we Perceive the World. Boston: Wisdom Publications.
Murck, Alfreda. 2000. The Subtle Art of Dissent; Poetry and Painting in Song China. Cambridge (Massachusetts) Harvard University Press.
Notz, Klaus-Josef. 2007. Herders Lexikon des Buddhismus. Erfstadt: HOHE.
Owen, Stephen. 2006. The Late Tang: Chinese Poetry of the Mid-Ninth Century (827‒860). Cambridge (Massachusetts) & London: Harvard University Asia Center.
Quan Tang shi 全唐詩 1‒25, uredil Pedng Dingqiu. 1979. Beijing: Zhonghua shuju.
Quan Tang wen 全唐文. 1990. Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe.
Schlütter, Morten. 2002. “Silent Illumination, Kung-an Introspection and the Competition for Lay Patronage in Sung Dynasty Chan.” V Buddhism in Sung, uredila P. Gregory in D. Getz, 109‒49. Kuroda Institute Studies in East Asian Buddhism 13. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
Sishu wujing 四书五经 (Štiri knjige in pet klasikov). 2012. Peking: Zhonghua shuju.
Songling ji 松陵集, uredila Lu Guimeng in Pi Rixiu. 1994. Shanghai: Shanghai shudian.
Su, Shi 苏轼. 1982. Su Shi shi ji 苏轼诗集 1‒8, uredil Wang Wengao. Beijing: Zhonghua shuju.
Taishō Shinshū Daizōkyō 大正新脩大藏經 1‒100. 1988. Tokyo: Daizō shuppan kabushiki-gaisha.
Xiao, Lihua 萧丽华. 1996. Tangdai shige yu foxue 唐代诗歌与佛学. Taibei: Dongda tushu gongsi.
Xuyangjing yangben 續藏經様本. 1923. Shanghai: Shangwu Yinshuguan.
Vrhovski, Jan. 2015. »Budistična ikonografija in simbolizem chana v Su Shijevi pesmi »Sliki Wang Erija in Wu Daozija««. V: Azijske študije, L. 3, Št. 2.
Williams, Charles A. S. 1974. Chinese Symbolism and Art Motifs; A Comprehensive Handbook on Symbols in Chinese Art Through the Ages. Tokyo: Tuttle Publishing.
Zhang, Gengguang 张耿光. 1991. Zhuangzi quanyi 庄子全译. Guiyang: Guizhou renmin chuban she.
Zürcher, Erik. 2007. The Buddhist Conquest of China: The Spread and Adaptation of Buddhism in Early Medieval China. Leiden: Bill.
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Published
10. 01. 2020
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Section
ASIAN STUDIES IN SLOVENIA
How to Cite
Vrhovski, Jan. 2020. “Six Buddhist Symbols: An Analysis of a Poetical Image of Buddha’s Enlightenment from the Song Dynasty”. Asian Studies 8 (1): 237-66. https://doi.org/10.4312/as.2020.8.1.237-266.
