| The Song dynasty (960--1279) and its northern neighbors of the "conquest dynasties" witnessed the circulation of new knowledge and techniques in divination and the astral sciences, and the widespread worship of astral deities. These elements cohered within the cult of the Tejaprabha Buddha, controller of the visible heavens. This dissertation examines how this cult transformed Chinese and Inner Asian visual culture. The corpus of materials it addresses, in particular from the Inner Asian kingdom of the Tangut Xixia (1038--1227), sheds new light on cultural development and interaction across Eurasia. In vivid detail, the paintings, sculptures, prints, and decorated grottoes reveal complex processes of reception, appropriation, translation, and world-making. They connect with a rich body of texts within the astral sciences, including Buddhist scriptures that are here studied closely. Examining not only the symbolic meaning of astral art but also its semiotic mechanisms, this dissertation demonstrates how the visible heavens as represented on earth came to constitute unique forms of visuality, and revisits foundational promises of art history as a modern discipline. |
