Medieval Buddhist of the Day

[Twitter, 9/11/19] Medieval Buddhists of the Day, I finally got the kids to sleep edition: Di Longfu 邸龍副 and his daughter (Di) Ajin 阿盡. In 555 (N. Qi), Di Longfu commissioned a white marble image of Maitreya as the “pensive prince” under the naga-puspa tree 龍樹思惟. The image is one of the cache of white marble images found at Quyang in Hebei in the 1950s. His inscription makes clear he was fulfilling his daughter’s deathbed wish.

I don’t always transcribe the whole inscription, but it’s worth doing in this case: 天保六年七月十八日。佛弟子邸龍副息女阿盡，其年四月四日，不幸身喪命。鄰受終，仗憑父母姉妹等投奔三寶，願造長經一部、白玉像一軀。父子天性依口稱許，其年七月十五日造白玉龍樹思惟、長經一部，並各造。迄自今以始，惟願亡女神照淨境，託生佛國，見家眷屬同沾洪澤。”The eighteenth day of the seventh month of [555]. The Buddhist disciple Di Longfu’s daughter Ajin, on the fourth day of the fourth month of this year, unfortunately passed away. When she was nearing her end, in order that her parents and sisters should cleave to the Three Treasures, she entrusted them with her wish to make a copy of the Longer Sutra [i.e. the Dīrgha Āgama], and a a white marble statue. Her father naturally agreed to what she asked, and on the fifteenth day of the seventh month of that year he commissioned a white marble figure of the pensive prince under the naga-puspa tree, and a copy of the Longer Sutra, making each one [?]. So from this day forward, he wishes only that his late daughter should be bathed with holy light in the pure precincts, and be reborn in the Buddha’s land, and that his living relatives should together be bathed in the same great blessing.”

WHEW. Ajin’s deathbed wish is touching, as is her father’s eager agreement. In this it’s like the case of Dang Faduan 黨法端, an earlier MBOTD. Dang’s friend fulfilled her dying wish to sponsor an image; here it’s a father’s last duty to his daughter. But I’m struck by the dates mentioned, which give us a little sequential narrative of the production of the image in question. It’s unusual to have this.

Ajin died on 4/4, and while dying, expressed her wish to her father, to make an image and copy a sutra. By 7/15 the work of making (造) was complete. But there’s a third date here, a few days later: 7/18. I think this can only be the date of dedication of the image. It reminds us that the production of the image and its dedication were separate, and that a ceremony (probably called 開光明, implying the opening of the image’s eyes) was required to bring what was merely a product of the craftsman’s art to its full religious efficacy. The gap of three months and a bit is one example of the time it might take to move from the vow to sponsor an image to the image’s completion. Doubtless it might take more, if the donor had to scrape together the money or gather and then motivate a collective donation. Other examples record a gap of up to a couple of years. On the other hand, once your image was completed, it was evidently relatively easy to arrange the dedication ceremony, if a suitably auspicious day was imminent. It must have been a comfort to a grieving family.