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Visual Evidence – Chapter 5
Merchants and Pilgrims on the Silk Road
2.2-B1
A Chinese Princess Escorted on the Silk Road
This image is an illustration from the famous Chinese poem, Eighteen Songs of a
Nomad Flute, a 2nd century poem that tells the tragic tale of the Chinese poetess
Cai Wenji, who was abducted by invading nomads and wedded to one of their
chieftains. She pined for home, found solace in the writing of poetry, but at the
same time, managed to create a life for herself in the community of her captors,
and bore two sons. Twelve years later, she returned home, but only after making
the difficult choice to leave her children behind. The story of Lady Wenji has
become a classic in China. Told and retold over the centuries, the scenes of this
tale have been depicted in detailed hand scrolls, in opera, in films. Insights into
the
relations between Han Chinese and nomadic tribes, Confucian thought, and the
significance of women in history can be gleaned by the study of this story.
In this panel from the full scroll, Lady Wenji is being taken from her home in
China
out into the deserts of central Asia along the Silk Road route. She is escorted by
her
central Asian captors.
excerpt from the poem accompanying this panel:
I was taken on horseback to the ends of the earth;
Tiring of life, I sought death, but death would not come.
The barbarians stink so. How can they be considered human?
Their pleasures and angers are like the jackal's and the wolf's - how unbearable!
We travel to the end of Tianshan, enduring all the frost and sleet;
The customs are rude, the land is desolate - we are near the nomads' territories.
An overcast sky stretches beyond ten thousand miles. Not a single bird is in
sight.
The cold sands are boundless: one can no longer tell the south from the north.
2.2-B2
A Merchant on the Silk Road
Tang dynasty terracotta figurine of a merchant on a camel loaded with trade
stuffs.
The two-humped Bactrian camel was not Chinese; it originated in the plains of
central Asia. This Bactrian merchant is bringing central Asian products into China
for trade. These foreign merchants became popular themes in Chinese art during
the Tang dynasty.
2.2-B3
Xuanzang
Xuanzang traveled through all the Buddhist Kingdoms along the Silk Road route
before turning south to India. He almost didn't make it to India, though, so intent
was the devout Buddhist King of the central Asian Kingdom of Gaochang to keep
Xuanzang there that the King tried to hold him hostage.
Xuanzang's great journey took him first across the desert Kingdoms and then to
Kashmir, which was a great center of Buddhist learning at the time. He continued
south where he ended up at Nalanda University in India. There he studied
Buddhist
philosophy, logic and Sanskrit. Returning to China, he hauled a library of books
back with him (see next image) and spent the remainder of his days teaching and
translating.
2.2-B4
The Return of Xuanzang to China
Xuanzang returned to China after many years of travel and study. He brought
with
him packloads of Buddhist manuscripts, mostly in the Indian languages of
Sanskrit
and Pali. He spent the next 20 years as a guest of the Emperor, translating the
scriptures into Chinese, a major stimulus to the spread of Buddhism in China.
2.2-B5
Two Buddhist Priests from the Silk Road
Ninth century fresco from the Bezeklik grottoes near Turfan, Tarim Basin, in
western China. The person on the left is an European/Western Asian priest or
monk
(distinguishable by his red hair, full beard and blue eyes), to the right an East
Asian
Buddhist monk.
The Transit of Religious Images Across the Silk Roads
(left)
Augustus as Pontifex Maximus,
This representation of Augustus signifies his role as the Chief Priest of Rome (in
addition to his role as Emperor).
(middle)
Gandharan Buddha, Kushan period, late 2nd-early 3rd century
The earliest images of the Buddha in human form are either in the Mathura style
of
central India or the Gandhara style of what is now Pakistan and Afghanistan.
This Gandharan statue shows the Buddha standing or seated, his robes in the
Graeco-Roman tradition of drapery in more or less realistic folds. The hair was
usually in wavy lines and the Buddha’s cranial bump was a bun. Comparisons
were made with the Greek ’Apollo’.
(right)
Buddha Maitreya, Northern Wei dynasty, China (386-534), dated 486
This sculpture is the largest-gilt bronze Buddhist image known from fifth-century
China. The rendering of the Buddha's physique derives from Indian prototypes,
but
the patterning of the shawl's folds into inverted crescents above the chest and
vertical pleats at the sides reflects Central Asian sources.
Devotion to Maitreya was widespread during the Northern Wei period. Maitreya is
worshipped as a bodhisattva in this world age and as a Buddha in the next. He
maintains and governs two perfected worlds: the Tushita heaven, which he
currently inhabits, and an earthly paradise known as Ketumati. The latter, in
which
Maitreya will serve as the teaching Buddha of a future age, is an ideal realm
conducive to the pursuit of enlightenment.
2.2-C2
Heracles and Vajrapani
(left)
Statue of Heracles, Roman copy of a Greek original, 216 CE
Statue of Heracles, one of the most famous depictions of him originally by
Lysippos
(Marble, Roman copy called Hercules Farnese, 216 CE). Typically, Heracles is
presented holding a lion skin and a club (by his left arm).
Heracles was a divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and Alcmene.
He
was the greatest of the Greek heroes, a paragon of masculinity and a champion
of
the Olympian order against chthonic monsters. In Rome and the modern West,
he
is known as Hercules.
Extraordinary strength, courage, ingenuity, and sexual prowess with both males
and
females were among his characteristic attributes. His iconographic attributes are
the lion skin and the club. By conquering dangerous archaic forces he is said to
have "made the world safe for mankind" and to be its benefactor. Heracles was
an
extremely passionate and emotional individual, capable of doing both great
deeds
for his friends (such as wrestling with Thanatos on behalf of Prince Admetus,
who
had regaled Heracles with his hospitality, or restoring his friend Tyndareus to the
throne of Sparta after he was overthrown) and being a terrible enemy who would
wreak horrible vengeance on those who crossed him, as Augeas, Neleus and
Laomedon all found out to their cost.
(right)
Vajrapani (on the right), as the protector of the Buddha, 2nd century CE
Gandhara, India
Several Buddhist deities may have been influenced by Greek gods. For example,
Heracles, with a lion-skin, served as an artistic model for Vajrapani, a protector of
the Buddha. In Japan, this expression further translated into the wrath-filled and
muscular Niō guardian gods of the Buddha, standing today at the entrance of
many
Buddhist temples.
• How does the image of the seated Buddha translate the role of Heracles as
protector?
• What aspects of the Roman Heracles statue are incorporated into the
Buddhist sculpture?
2.2-C3
Hariti and Kariteimo
(left)
Greco-Buddhist sculpture: Hariti with her children (2nd century C.E.)
Hārītī (Sanskrit), also known as Kariteimo in Japanese, is a Buddhist goddess for
the
protection of children, easy delivery, happy child rearing and parenting, harmony
between husband and wife, love, and the well-being and safety of the family.
Originally, Hariti was a cannibalistic demon, possibly derived from the Hindu
goddess Kali. She had hundreds of children whom she loved and doted upon,
but
to feed them, she abducted and killed the children of others. The bereaved
mothers
of her victims pleaded to Śākyamuni Buddha to save them.
Śākyamuni stole Aiji, youngest of Hariti’s sons, and hid him under his rice bowl.
Hariti desperately searched for her missing son throughout the universe. Finally,
she pleaded with Shakyamuni for help. The Buddha pointed out that she was
suffering because she lost one of hundreds of children, and asked if she could
imagine the suffering of parents whose only child had been devoured. She
replied
contritely that their suffering must be many times greater than hers, and vowed to
protect all children. She now feeds upon pomegranates as a substitute for
children's
flesh.
In Gandhara, depictions of Hārītī take on many attributes of the Greek goddess
Tyche; like Tyche, she is often depicted holding a cornucopia and dressed in
Greek
attire.
(right)
Kariteimo (Japanese, Heian period, 7th century C.E.)
The Japanese statue of Kariteimo, a Buddhist Goddess of Easy Delivery, Giver
of
Children, & Guardian of Children. She is often shown with Pomegranate in her
right hand (a symbol of fertility due to its many seeds).
Originally a child-devouring goddess from Hindu lore named Kali/Hāritī, she
repents and coverts to Buddhism. In Japan, the deity’s name was transliterated
as
Kariteimo or Karitei. Kariteimo is the protector of children and the goddess of
easy
delivery, child rearing, parenting, harmony between husband and wife, love, and
the well-being and safety of the family. Childless women also pray to Kariteimo in
hopes of becoming pregnant.
• What similar aspects of Hariti and Kariteimo are represented in these two
images, from west Asia and east Asia?
2.2-C4
Fresco from Dunhuang, China
The Silk Roads spread Buddhism as well as trade. Here - in a tenth-century
example of the thousands of devotional paintings merchants endowed at the
monastery of Dunhuang in Central Asia - a convert and his family pray at the feet
of a Bodhisattva. Many Chinese converts to Buddhism retained the family values
characteristic of Confucianism.
Confucianism embodied a strong identification with the family, including the
spirits
of the family’s departed ancestors (see Visual Evidence 2A). Thus this fresco
incorporates Buddhist elements (the top half) with Confucian elements (the
bottom
half).