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[Twitter, 3/13/23] Medieval Buddhists of the Day: The Zhu family of Qingyun county, Shandong, who donated a sculpture in 557, and who may be the new holders of the Rhetorical Flourish award for over-the-top claims. Last month I featured a group of donors, members of the Wang family. The Wang family’s inscription outright claims that
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[Twitter, 2/20/23] Medieval Buddhist of the Day: Zhai Man 翟蠻, the patron of a stele dated 520 in the collection of the Kyoto Museum, among whose wishes was to 使學問者聰明 “make those who study and inquire perceptive and intelligent.” Speaking for myself, hope his wish came true.
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[Twitter, 2/3/23] MBOTD: the 31 donors of a white marble statue dedicated in 549, unearthed in 1980 in Huanghualing Village in Hebei. Most of these donors appear to be from the Wang family, and include both men and women, plus at least one monk. (This is in 定州白石佛像 no. 123). As Amy McNair has observed,
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[Twitter, 1/30/23] MBOTD: Gao Guiyan 高歸彥, who sponsored a Sakyamuni figure in 543 under the E. Wei. I’m not sure it survives but several rubbings of its inscription do. It’s long and erudite, in keeping with his official titles which include Censor of Dingzhou 定州刺史 and several others. What interests me in particular about his
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[Twitter, 1/26/23] MBOTD: Wang Nüren 王女仁, who inscribed an image on her parents’ behalf in 543 during the Eastern Wei. Put that way, it seems unsurprising, but what’s interesting is that the image itself had been commissioned 23 years earlier, in 520 during the Northern Wei. Here it is, with classic late N. Wei drapery.
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[Twitter, 1/23/23] Medieval Buddhist of the Day: Lei Mingxiang 雷明香, who sponsored a stele in 571 under the N. Zhou. I’ve been thinking all week about visible and invisible women and Chinese Buddhist monuments; in particular about the way in which a closed oxcart can be a portrait. Lei Mingxiang’s stele is from Yaoxian 耀縣
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[Twitter, 1/17/23] Medieval Buddhist of the Day: Fengde, the oxcart groom. Fengde is commemorated on the N. Zhou stele of Wang Lingwei 王令猥 and family, dated 573, from Zhangjiachuan 張家川 county, now held by the Gansu Provincial Museum. Shown here: the back side of the stele. Today I’m principally interested in those oxcarts and mounted
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[Twitter, 1/12/23] Medieval Buddhist of the Day: Wang Zushi 王祖世, principal patron of a very nice seated bodhisattva of the “pensive prince” type (思維菩薩), dated 551, in the Avery Brundage collection at the AAM in San Francisco: This Qingzhou-type white marble piece is worth a look for any number of reasons including the rare (partial)
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[Twitter, 10/7/21] I’m not sure if this should be a Medieval Buddhist of the Day or not, especially since the inscription is undated (my source claims it’s Northern Dynasties), but I found this while looking for something else. I give you, in all its fuzzy screenshotted glory: 安公之碑 This belongs in the Extreme Punctuation division
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[Twitter, 12/16/20] Medieval Buddhist of the Day: Quan Daonu 權道奴, who with his family dedicated a stele in 563, near Tianshui in Gansu. It’s an odd stele in that the front is all text, so I’m showing you the back instead, which is more interesting. According to inscription, this stele accompanied his donation of a
Medieval Buddhist of the Day 