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[Twitter, 4/23/20] Medieval Buddhist of the day, I’m exhausted from chairing my department during a crisis edition: This is Guo Mozi 郭摩子, the daughter of Guo Si 郭思, who with his family dedicated a Sakyamuni figure whose base is in the Freer collection (F1909.94): Guo Si, his wife and two daughters appear as donors on
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[Twitter, 2/19/20] Medieval Buddhists of the Day (again): the Ning family donors from the AIC stele of 551 (see previous post). With over 800 donors, they can be the MBOD twice. So the Ning family stele has long lists of donors without any portraits. Most of the donor figures represent “special donors” who splashed out
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[Twitter, 2/18/20] Medieval Buddhists of the Day: 800 members of the Ning clan of Shanxi, who dedicated a stele in 551. It’s been in the Art Institute of Chicago since around 1927, and unlike many of the donors I have posted, it has been written about before, by Sonya Lee and Dorothy Wong among others.
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[Twitter, 10/18/19] Medieval Buddhist of the Day: the nun Faguang 法光, who commissioned two images in 532 (late N. Wei). It’s always interesting when a donor dedicates an image in honor of a living beneficiary. So many of them are given in honor of the dead that the living are the exception. The inscription is
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[Twitter, 10/11/19] Medieval Buddhist of the Day, post-High Holy Days edition: Han Xiaorong 寒小容. In 562 (N. Qi) she dedicated an image of Guanyin with what I *think* is a penitential vow, which is rather unusual. I could probably use a second opinion on how to interpret her dedication. The image was found in the
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[Twitter, 9/18/19] Medieval Buddhists of the Day: Jia Zikuan 賈子寬 and family. Jia dedicated a standing Guanyin image in 600, during the Sui dynasty. It’s now in the Eisei Bunko in Tokyo. Here’s what it looks like (photo after Jin Shen): The inscription reads 佛弟子賈子寬為亡父、現存母敬造玉像一軀… “The Buddhist disciple Jia Zikuan sponsored a marble image for
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[Twitter, 9/16/19] Medieval Buddhists of the Day: the Wang brothers. In 559 (N. Qi) they sponsored a Quyang marble figure of (Sakyamuni and) Prabhutaratna in honor of their deceased parents. They acknowledge themselves as 王和、王思和、道人智楞三兄弟. That’s “The three brothers Wang He, Wang Sihe, and the monk Zhileng.” It reminds us that though monastics were called
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[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
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[Twitter, 9/6/19] Medieval Buddhists of the Day: Wang Luohou 王羅侯 and his younger brother (Wang) Luowen 羅文, who dedicated a gilt-bronze image of Sakyamuni and Prabhutaratna for their deceased parents in 606, during the late Sui dynasty. It is now in the Tianjin Museum of Art. The inscription reads …王羅侯、弟羅文，為過亡阿耶，見存阿娘，敬造多寶像一軀。It’s quite straightforward: “…Wang Luohou and
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Medieval Buddhist of the Day: This happy little groom, with a horse that belongs to the Recorder Shi Wangnian 典錄師王輦, from a stele of 523 in the Yaowangshan collection. Not sure if that is the rope he is using to hold the horse or smoke from some kind of a spliff. Just kidding! There’s probably
Medieval Buddhist of the Day 