Mount Wutai: Visions of a Sacred Buddhist Mountain

242 Pages·2018·31.654 MB·English

by  Wen-Shing Chou

Mount Wutai

Mount Wutai
Visions of a
Sacred Buddhist Mountain
Wen-shing Chou
Princeton University Press
Princeton and oxford
Copyright © 2018 by Princeton University Press
Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540
In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 6 Oxford Street, Woodstock,
Oxfordshire OX20 1TR
Portions of chapter 1 previously appeared in modified form in “Imperial Apparitions:
Manchu Buddhism and the Cult of Mañjuśrī” by Wen- shing Chou, Archives of Asian Art 65,
nos. 1 and 2, 2015, 139–1 79, © University of Hawai‘i.
Portions of chapter 4 previously appeared in modified form in “Maps of Wutai Shan:
Individuating the Sacred Landscape through Color” by Wen- shing Chou, Journal of the
International Association of Tibetan Studies no. 6, December 2011, © International
Association of Tibetan Studies; and “Ineffable Paths: Mapping Wutaishan in Qing- Dynasty
China” by Wen- shing Chou, Art Bulletin, March 2007, © CAA.
press.princeton.edu
Jacket illustrations: (front) Gelöng Lhundrub, Panoramic View of Mount Wutai (detail),
ca. 1846. Rubin Museum of Art, New York. C2004.29.1. (back) Rölpé Dorjé, 15th leaf,
Rebirth Lineage Album of Rölpé Dorjé, Qing court, China, 18th century. Color on silk;
quadrilingual verses inscribed with powdered gold on black ground ciqing paper. Individual
leaf: 42 × 27.2 cm. Ethnologisches Museum, Berlin.
Endpapers: Gelöng Lhundrub, Panoramic View of Mount Wutai (detail), ca. 1846.
Woodblock print on linen, hand-colored. Woodblocks from the Cifu Temple, Mount Wutai.
118 × 165 cm. National Museum of Finland, Helsinki.
All Rights Reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Chou, Wen- shing, author.
Title: Mount Wutai : visions of a sacred Buddhist mountain / Wen- shing Chou.
Description: Princeton : Princeton University Press, 2018. | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017013016 | ISBN 9780691178646 (hardcover : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Buddhist temples- - China- - Wutai Mountains. | Cultural landscapes- -
China- - Wutai Mountains. | Wutai Mountains (China)- - Symbolic representation. |
Buddhism and culture.
Classification: LCC BQ6345.W85 C49 2018 | DDC 294.3/435095117- - dc23 LC
Record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017013016
British Library Cataloging- in- Publication Data is available
Design by Yve Ludwig
This book has been composed in Adobe Jenson Pro
Printed on acid- free paper. ∞
Printed in China
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To my family

Acknowledgments ix
Introduction
1
1

Imperial Replicas
17

2

Miracles in Translation
51

3

Landscape and Lineage
79

4
Panoramic M aps
121
Coda
165
Appendixes 173
Notes 179
Bibliography 207
Index 223
Photo Credits 226

Acknowledgments
I express my gratitude for the hard work and generosity of so many who made this book
possible. My graduate advisor, Patricia Berger, at the University of California, Berkeley,
introduced me to the riches of Buddhist art; the breadth and depth of her scholarship
inspired me to conceive this project. May the finished work be a small testament to
what has been a most rewarding adventure that began under her supervision. I am also
indebted to my other teachers: Gregory Levine read the dissertation that was the seed
of this book with care and insight, Robert Sharf provided unfailing intellectual and
practical advice along the way, and Raoul Birnbaum saw the many lives of the project
with perceptive comments from start to finish. For the past decade, Isabelle Charleux
has enriched this project with her wealth of knowledge and thoughtful reading. I also
thank Wu Hung for setting me on the path of art history when I was an undergraduate
at the University of Chicago, and for sending me to Mount Wutai by suggesting that I
look into it as a dissertation topic.
Numerous institutions provided community, resources, and funding for the
completion of this project. The University of California, Berkeley, History of Art
Department, Institute for East Asian Studies, and Center for Chinese Studies; the
Ittelson Dissertation fellowship from the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual
Arts (CASVA), Washington, DC; and the Metropolitan Center for Far Eastern Art,
Kyoto, all funded the research and writing of my dissertation. My home institution of
Hunter College, as well as the larger system it belongs to — the City University of New
York (CUNY), awarded me with numerous grants for the research and publication
of this book. I am especially grateful to my chair, Howard Singerman, and colleagues
Nebahat Avcıoğlu, Emily Braun, and Cynthia Hahn for their guidance over the years;
ix