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[Twitter, 8/28/19] Medieval Buddhists of the Day: two women who dedicated a small image in the Huoshao Cave 火燒洞 at Longmen in 522. They write: 公孫合妻，公孫迴姬，為亡父母。。。造無量壽佛一軀 “The wife of Gongsun He and the concubine of Gongsun Hui dedicated an image of Amitayus in honor of their deceased parents.” It’s another example of the relationships between
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[Twitter, 8/19/19] Medieval Buddhist of the Night (insomnia edition): the nun Daowai 道外 and her many lay disciples. This is from a stone image dedicated in 571 (the Northern Qi) which survived only as a damaged image base when recorded in 匋齋臧石記卷13, and now only in rubbings IIRC. After a short introduction, the inscription reads:
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[Twitter, 8/12/19] Medieval Buddhist of the Day: the Northern Wei monk Seng’an 比丘僧安, who dedicated an image of Sakyamuni in the Huoshao Cave 火燒洞 at Longmen in 523. Here he is with possibly some other donors, saying …比丘僧安仰為師僧父母因緣一切含生敬造釋迦像一【軀】弟子生生尚得出家. Thus: “The monk Seng’an, for his monastic teachers, his parents, and all living beings enmeshed in causality,
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[Twitter, 8/7/19] Medieval Buddhists of the Day: Yao Renhui 姚仁惠 and his wife Lady Wang 王氏 – a tragedy in 35 characters. Their undated inscription appears in a small cave (no 1410) at Longmen, among others dated to the early Tang and the reign of Empress Wu, so probably near them in date. They write:
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[Twitter, 8/5/19] Medieval Buddhist of the Day: Song Jingfei 宋景妃. In 527 (N. Wei) she dedicated a niche for her deceased parents in the Lianhua Cave at Longmen. Amy McNair wrote about her already in “Donors of Longmen,” but I wanted to feature her because of how she describes herself. Here’s the relevant bit, omitting
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[Twitter, 8/1/19] Medieval Buddhist of the Day: the nun Sengda 僧達. In 525 (N. Wei) she dedicated a niche on the west cliff at Longmen (no. 652 in the cataloging system of the Longmen Research Institute). She wrote: 比丘尼僧達為亡息文殊造釋迦像，願亡者生天，面奉彌勒… “The nun Sengda commissioned a figure of Sakyamuni for her late son Wenshu [‘Manjusri’], in the
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[Twitter 7/30/19] I should preface this by saying this post involves an inscription that survives only in transcription in a 19th century catalog, in which the editor himself suggests there might be a transcription error (probably because of the ambiguities I’m about to point out). So this whole thing may be an artifact of mistranscription;
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[Twitter, 7/23/19] Bonus: Medieval Daoist of the Day: Zhang Luanguo 張亂國, from a Daoist stele dated 514 and also held at Yaowangshan. Noteworthy for both his surprising name (“cast the nation(s) into chaos”) and his impressive horse. This is how you make the most of what you’ve got.
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[Twitter 7/23/19] Medieval Buddhists of the Day: The female patrons from a stele dated to the Northern Zhou (557-581) by style, dedicated by 70+ patrons in a mixed-gender association (邑) that included donors with a wide range of surnames. The stele is now at the Yaowangshan 藥王山 museum. It’s not at all clear what held
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[Twitter, 7/17/19] Medieval Buddhist of the Day: Yang Baosheng 楊寶勝, who dedicated a series of three Maitreya figures on the north wall of the Guyang cave at Longmen. Her dedication is undated, but most Guyang dedications are pre-Tang, so I’m assuming hers is too. One of her Maitreyas is dedicated to Fagai 法蓋, from context
Medieval Buddhist of the Day 