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Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

Sec. viii]   PICTURES OF BUDDHIST HEAVENS   891

some secular, some celestial, which in parts it is difficult to demarcate, and the subject and general connexion of which still remain to be determined. A conspicuous feature of the whole is the absence of a predominant figure and of that rigid symmetry and centralization which characterize the other Sukhâvati compositions. It is curious to find the Paradise scene placed here behind a high battlemented wall. Other peculiarities will be found fully described in the List.

SECTION IX.—MISCELLANEOUS PAINTINGS, WOODCUTS, AND DECORATIVE

REMAINS

It still remains for me to pass in rapid view those paintings and drawings, almost all on.paper,

which either on account of their subjects or their form could not conveniently be brought into the

classes already described ; next, to give a brief account of the woodcuts ; and, finally, to refer to

a few miscellaneous decorative remains other than textiles, as well as to some wood carvings. In

the first place mention may be made of a small group of paper paintings which claim interest both •

by their subjects, in part non-Buddhistic, and by their artistic merit. Ch. 00380 (Thousand B., Buddhist

Plate xxXIII) presents an aged hermit walking with a tiger by his side, both figures drawn with paper

pamtmgs.

masterly skill. The identification of the subject is still uncertain ; but the appearance of a small Buddha on a cloud above proves that some Buddhist saint is intended. The same subject is shown also by the fragment Ch. 0037, but in rough work. In the case of two paintings, excellently executed by the same hand and reproduced side by side in Thousand B., Plate XXXII, Tibetan inscriptions, deciphered and fully interpreted by Dr. L. D. Barnett, clearly indicate the figures represented.' In Ch. 00376 we see- Kâlika, a disciple of Sakyamuni and well known to Mahayana tradition as the fourth of the great Apostles, or Sthaviras. The companion picture, Ch. 00377, represents a Bodhisattva, of ` Indian ' type and flanked, like an Avalokitegvara, by the discs of the Sun and Moon. The paper painting Ch. 00401, probably representing Tara, belongs to the same series.

Ch. 00150 seems of non-Buddhist character ; it shows in spirited drawing a bearded man, in Pictures

Chinese costume and in the act of writing, facing a dragon with the legs of a horse and with flames of non-

Buddhist

rising from head and wings.2 The suggested identification of the scene with the Chinese legend subjects.

of the ancient Emperor Fu-hsi receiving the first written characters ` from a supernatural being called the dragon-horse ' seems certainly tempting,3 but it leaves the string of coins lying between the two figures as yet unexplained. The figure of a monk seated in meditation, which appears in the fine drawing Ch. 00145 of pure Chinese style (Plate xcviI ; Thousand B., Plate xxviI), also remains to be identified. The vigorously drawn lion, also in Chinese style, of Ch. 00147 (Plate xCvii) deserves mention among smaller pieces.4,

In a second group may be classed illustrations belonging to illuminated Chinese manuscripts, illuminated

whether in roll, Pbthi, or book form. Thus we have numerous miniatures of small seated Buddhas Chinese

manuscripts.

in the rolls Ch. 00188, 00210 ; Xi. 003. a, b, all containing a treatise on the names of the Thousand Buddhas or portions thereof. Buddhas with varying attendants are shown in the illuminated Piithi book and leaves, Ch. 00226 (Plate xciv), 00399 ; xi. 001-2 (Plate XCII). The Piithi leaves, Ch. 00217. a–c (Plate XcvI), represent animal-headed female demons whom the Chinese and Brahmi inscriptions

For Dr. Barnett's notes, see Appendix K.

2 See Thousand .Buddhas, PL XXXIII.

Cf. Mayers, Chinese Reader's Manual, p. 48.

Cf. also Ch. 004 r 2. Ch. 00410, 00521 are fragments

of silk paintings with subjects such as a group of musicians on a bullock-cart, flowers with a butterfly, etc., the original association of which cannot be determined.

5 X 2