TY  - JOUR
SN  - 0004-4482
T1  - Icons of Contemplation: The Pensive Bodhisattva and Local Meditation Culture in Sixth-Century Hebei
AU  - Li-kuei Chien
Y1  - 2019
PY  - 2019
DA  - 2019
T2  - Asia Major
JF  - Asia Major
JO  - Asia Major
JA  - Asia Major
VL  - 32
IS  - 2
SP  - 57
EP  - 112
KW  - Siwei, Buddhist statue, Maitreya, Siddhƒrtha, Northern Qi dynasty
Y2  - 2019
N2  - The image of the pensive bodhisattva was widely reproduced in East Asian Buddhist art between the fifth and the eighth centuries, but the majority of surviving examples were carved at a small number of sites in central and southern Hebei over a period spanning just four decades (ca. 540–580). During this period, Hebei artisans elevated the pensive bodhisattva image to a new level of prominence by making it a central figure in their iconographic schemes. I argue on the basis of iconographic, epigraphic, and literary evidence that these innovative pensive bodhisattva images functioned as icons expressing patrons’ reverence for an ideal of meditative contemplation. Considered together with hagiographic accounts, this interpretation of the Hebei pensive bodhisattva images sheds new light on the history of Buddhist meditation by revealing the existence of a distinctive local culture of meditation practices and associated beliefs in sixth-century Hebei.
ER  -