Dharma And Orthodoxy

It is a crucially visual argument in Buddhist art history,as a Buddhist sanctuary,how Mt.Wutai’s visual imagery reproduced in East Asian Faith System.The visual imagery of Mt.Wutai is significant in studying the spread and process of acceptance for East Asian Buddhism,especially among cross-cultural and cross-lingual contexts.Through the support of the imperial court and the growth of Buddhist pilgrimage routes,the Manjusri Sect of Mt.Wutai was disseminated across East Asia.With worshippers coming from across the globe,the sect became widely distributed.During the Tang and Song Dynasties,Mt.Wutai appeared in Dunhuang,Korea,Japan and other places.This dissertation focuses on the spread of Buddhism in East Asia through visual media.Using the transmission of beliefs and visual imagery as my main perspective,I draw upon Dunhuang documents and the relationship between word and image to rethink the major role that the Wutai Sect played in art and religion of the period.The dissertation analyzes the primary causes and evolutionary development of the image of Mt.Wutai,as well as the spread of the Mt.Wutai Sect itself.I also focus on how the images of the Mt.Wutai sanctuary were reproduced in other locales,religions and peoples.Lastly,I address how the formation and transmission of the sacred space of Mt.Wutai also served to establish state and religious orthodoxy.This dissertation is organized around five chapters as follows:Introduction: “A Cool and Pure Holy Site: The Mt.Wutai Sect in East Asia,”focuses on the broader context of the establishment of the Mt.Wutai Sect and modes of communication in East Asia,as well as raising the key visual issues that will be analyzed.Chapter One: “Samdarsana and Testimonies: The Origins of Building the Holy Site,” addresses outside factors in the formation and development of the Mt.Wutai Sect,with special attention paid to the theoretical foundations,sources of influence,and other extenuating causes for the construction of the holy site.Chapter Two: “Pilgrimage and Witnesses: The Expansion of Mt.Wutai Sect,”focuses on the internal factors that led to the Mt.Wutai Sect exerting an important influence in the East Asian faith systems.In doing so,it addresses issues such as human capital and political interaction during the process of formation.Chapter Three: “Sacred Stones from Mt.Wutai: The Formation and Legitimacy of the Holy Site in Foreign Lands,” analyzes how Ennin reenacted the construction of Mt.Wutai in Japan by designing the Manjusri building of Enryaku-ji Temple.Moreover,through imperial patronage,he established Mt.Hieizan as the pulse of the orthodox religious tradition.Chapter Four: “Auspicious Copies of Buddhist Sculpture Sent Across the Sea:Cyonen and the Construction of the Japanese Qingliang temple(Seiryō-ji),” focuses primarily on the initiatives,ideas,and religious background of Cyonen—who tried to establish the Qinglang Temple in Japan through the timely placement of a sandalwood Shakyamuni Buddha statue and the Tripitaka.Chapter Five: “Visual Pilgrimage and Divine Guidance: The Spatio-temporal Logic of the Panoramic Mural Map of Mt.Wutai in the Mogao Grotto at Dunhuang,”argues that the panoramic mural operates as a source of divine guidance,thereby reproducing the visual field of Mt.Wutai and illustrating how the pilgrimage path was conceptualized.This chapter offers a new model of viewing and interpretation of the Dunhuang murals.The conclusion,“The Religion of Images,Refined and Rigorous: Cross-context Communication in Mt.Wutai and East Asia Buddhism,” rethinks the visual arguments of Mt.Wutai within the larger picture of East Asian Buddhism during Tang and Song dynasties.