Descent of the Deities
Subtitle: The Water-Land Retreat and the Transformation of the Visual Culture of Song-Dynasty  Buddhism
Contributors: Wang, Eugene Y.; Lippit, Yukio; Robson, James
Published: 2013
Language: eng
Description: This dissertation identifies a paradox at the heart of the visual culture of Song-dynasty (960-1279) Buddhism. On the one hand, as the celestial pantheon expanded, it was conceptualized in ever more bureaucratic ways, mirroring the growth of the terrestrial government itself. On the other hand, the boundary separating that supramundane realm from the human world became decidedly more permeable; ghosts and deities became an omnipresent part of daily life. How to treat these two contradictory phenomena--one pointing to rational orderliness, the other pointing to unpredictable unruliness--posed a distinct problem for Song visual artists, spurring the development of new strategies of pictorial representation and forcing reflection upon the nature of representation itself. Chinese Buddhist art was never to be the same again.
Notes: Keywords: Buddhism, Chinese art, Ritual, Shuilu, Song dynasty, Water-Land Retreat.

Thesis Ph.D. Harvard University 2013