Tag: Khubilai

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Da huguo renwang si

Da Huguo Renwang Si 大護國仁王寺

The Da huguo renwang si was built during the years 1270 to 1274 on the Gaoliang river outside of Beijing. The temple owed its founding to the Empress Zhaorui shun-sheng (Mongolian Cabi or Cabui), the principal wife of Qubilai and mother of his chosen heir, Jinggim. Because of the generous patronage of the imperial family, the temple was extremely wealthy. In the Beijing metropolitan area it owned 28,633 qing 51 mou of irrigated fields and 34,414 qing 23 mou of dry fields, as well as the rights for forests, fisheries, moorings, bamboo and firewood in twenty-nine places. In also owned land in fifteen places around Beijing where jade, silver, iron, copper, salt and coal were produced, in addition to 19,061 chestnut trees and a wine-shop. In the Xiangyang region the temple owned 13,651 qing of irrigated and 29,805 qing 68 mou of dry fields. In Jianghuai it owned at least 140 wine shops. The temple also owned many houses and halls, and had a total of 37,059 tenant families as well as 17,988 families providing corvée labor. This list of property is drawn from an inscription written by Cheng Jufu, available in the Cheng Xuelou ji (see Franke 1984 for full reference).

In the fourth month of the Yuanzhen reign year yi-wei (1295), the Tibetan cleric (and posthumously declared Imperial Preceptor) Sga A gnyan dam pa kun dga’ grags (Ch. Gongjia ge la si or Dan pa 膽巴) received an imperial summons to become abbot in the Da huguo renwang temple. The Treasury (tai fu) was ordered to prepare an elaborate welcome ceremony on par with those prepared for the emperor himself, and many officials escorted Danpa/Dam pa Kun dga’ grags/Dan pa to the temple. Later Dan pa was also buried there in the Qing-an stupa. His relics were taken to the stupa by the mayor of Da du [Beijing], along with a retinue of servants and musicians, by order of the emperor Chengzong.

In 1311, An pu, son of the disgraced Yang, became commissioner of the Huifu yuan (會福院), the name by which Da huguo renwang si was known by between the years of 1310 and 1316. At the same time he was ennobled as the Duke of Qin and he was also once again holding the post of commissioner of the Bureau of Buddhist and Tibetan Affairs (Xuanzheng yuan 宣政院). An pu had been dismissed from this post in 1291 because of widespread resentment against his father, who had destroyed the tombs of the Song emperors during a zealous campaign to convert sites in Jiangnan into Buddhist temples.


Sources:

Franke, Herbert. 1984. “Tan-pa, a Tibetan lama at the court of the Great Khans,” Orientalia Venetiana, Volume in onore di Leonello Lanciotti. Firenze: Leo s. Olschiki Editore. pp. 157-180.
Franke, Herbert. 1983. “Tibetans in Yuan China,” in China among equals: the Middle Kingdom and its neighbors, 10th-14th centuries. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Sperling, Elliot. 1991. “Some Remarks on Sga A-gnyan dam-pa and the Origins of the Hor-pa Lineage of the Dkar-mdzes Region,” in Ernst Steinkellner, ed., Tibetan History and Language: Studies Dedicated to Uray Gyeaza on his Seventieth Birthday, Vienna. pp. 455-465.

Entry by Stacey Van Vleet, 2/4/07

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Da sheng shou wan an si

Da sheng shou wan an si 大聲壽萬安寺

The Da sheng shou wan an temple (大聲壽萬安寺) was built sometime between 1279 and 1288 in the western part of Beijing by order of Qubilai, and originally housed the renowned Sandalwood Buddha. The sandalwood statue was said to have been the only lifelike portrait of the Buddha, carved during his lifetime in 990 B.C. by his disciple Maudgalyayana. Its presence in Beijing greatly added to the prestige of the Yuan Mongol empire.

The planning of the Da sheng shou wan an si is attributed in his biography to the Nepali architect and sculptor A ni ge (阿尼哥), who came to work at the Yuan court in 1261 and died in 1306. The temple was also known as Baita si (白塔, Temple of the White Stupa), because it was built around the Baita (White Stupa), the oldest and highest stupa or pagoda in Beijing. The 167 foot high stupa was completed in 1279 and long dominated the skyline of the western part of the city.

Just before the Yuan Mongol court fled Beijing for the north, the Da sheng shou wan an si was struck by lightning. This was on June 20, 1368, and except for two halls, the temple burnt to the ground. The Sandalwood Buddha had been moved before this to a temple inside the imperial palace. The White Stupa still stands, although it has been renovated many times during the Yuan, Ming, Qing, and Republican periods. In 1457 a new temple was erected around the stupa and called the Miaoying si (妙應寺, Temple of Miraculous Evidence). Popularly, it was again known as the Baita si.


Sources:

Franke, Herbert. 1978. From tribal chieftain to universal emperor and god: the legitimation of the Yuan dynasty, Sitzungsberichte – Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philosophisch-Historische Klasse. Munchen: Verlag der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften.
Franke, Herbert, 1994, “Consecration of the ‘White Stupa’ in 1279,” Asia Major VII (Third Series) (1): 155-184

Entry by Stacey Van Vleet, 2/4/07

Stupa comparison–middle stupa is Anige’s

Stupa 2006, note layers of “13 wheels” under canopy

museum reconstruction of Yuan period monastery
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Yuan Buddhist Canon Printing

Yuan Buddhist Canon Printing

In the early fourteenth century the printing of two separate and massive Yuan editions of the Buddhist canon was finally completed in southeast China. The first was a Tangut edition, the Xixiazang (西夏藏) or Xixia Tripitaka, completed in 1302. The second was the “complete” Chinese edition known as the Jishazang (ji砂藏) or Qisha (or Jisha) Tripitaka. Carving the blocks for the Jishazang had extended over almost a century, between 1231 and 1322.

Both of these editions had been ordered by Khubilai Khan (r.1260-1294) but came to fruition only after his reign, under the supervision of the General Secretary of the Buddhist Clergy in Songjiang, named Guanzhuba (管主巴). Guanzhuba (interpreted as bka’ ‘gyur pa or bka’ rgyud pa in Tibetan) was either Tibetan or of Xixia descent with a Tibetan education. The Xixiazang was printed in 3620 chapters at the Dawanshou (大萬壽) Temple in Hangzhou. It was based on earlier texts in the Xixia script engraved and printed in Xixia before Chinggis Khan destroyed the dynasty in 1227. The Jishazang blocks were carved at the Yansheng Yuan (延聖院) monastery on Jisha Island near Suzhou and Hangzhou. Although work began in the fourth year of the Shaoding reign in the Song dynasty, it was not completed until the second year of the Zhizhi reign of the Yuan. The Yansheng Yuan caught fire in 1258, interrupting the work, which was not resumed until 1299. The blocks finished before the fire seem to have survived. Major work was accomplished between 1300 and 1301, and from 1306-1307 Guanzhuba reconstructed and printed “missing” esoteric sections of the canon for inclusion in this second edition. These sections may have been carved at the same workshop as the Xixiazang in Hangzhou. The text of a vow by Guanzhuba was found in the Mogao cave of Dunhang and dated to the twelfth month of the tenth year of Dade 1307 (another similar but shorter colophon exists in volume 562 of the Yingyin Song Jisha Zangjing 影印宋ji砂藏經). This vow states that Guanzhuba was responsible for carving and printing vast numbers of illustrated Buddhist texts. He further committed to distributing these texts to monasteries, including monasteries in the former Xi xia lands, with great fanfare including offerings, assemblies and teachings. In the Yingyin Song Jisha Zangjing, it also states that Guanzhuba himself donated two hundred silver ingots in the form of a money order, and later three hundred silver ingots for the engraving of the woodblocks.

In addition to the canon, a revised catalogue of the Tripitaka was also published during the twenty-second year of the Zhiyuan reign period, also by order of Khublai Khan. This catalogue, the Zhiyuanlu 至元录 [full name: Zhi Yuan Fa Bao Kan Tong Zhong Lu 至元法宝勘同总录 (A Revised General Catalogue of the Dharma-Treasure up to the Yuan)] is said to have been based on three years of work by several tens of Chinese, Tibetan and Uighur monks, using source material from 1440 books in 5580 volumes. They are also said to have drawn from both Chinese and Tibetan versions of the Tripitaka, as well as the Chinese catalogue Buddhist Sutras Catalogue made in the Kaiyuan Reign Period (Kaiyuan Shijiao Lu) and the Tibetan catalogue kept in the Sakya monastery. This comparative catalogue of Tibetan and Chinese Buddhist canons along with a reconstitution of Sanskrit titles was supported by Khubilai Khan (d. 1294) under the direction of ‘Phags pa and with the assistance of Chinese, Tibetan and Uighur Buddhists. It is preserved in the Chinese Buddhist canon, Taisho vol. 99, number 25, in ten juan.

The printing of the Xixia and Jisha Tripitaka show Tibetan Buddhist influence, with a high level of artistic maturity and technical skill, extending all the way to the seaboard of China during the Mongol Yuan dynasty. The texts also intimate the cooperation of Tibetan artists, Yuan Mongol patrons, and Chinese craftsmen during the long-running, expensive and ambitious project. The Xixia edition reveals the continuing importance of the Xixia people – as well as their models of legitimacy and governance – to the Yuan, and in addition, it can be noted that illustrations from the this canon were later replicated in another edition sponsored by the Yongle emperor of the Ming dynasty. Through the impeccable records kept and the obvious grandeur of the projects, it is clear that the printing of the Buddhist canon in Yuan dynasty China was aimed at making a contribution to the economy as well as building a sense of solidarity among subjects of the state and the legitimacy of the rulers.


Sources:

Patricia Berger. 1994. Preserving the Nation: The Political Uses of Tantric Art in China. In Latter Days of the Law: Images of Chinese Buddhism 85-1850. Lawrence: Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas. 89-125.
Heather Karmay (Stoddard). 1975. Early Sino-Tibetan Art. Aris and Phillips.
Rinchen Trashi. 1988. “Tibetan Buddhism and the Yuan Royal Court.” Tibet Studies 1-26.
Françoise Wang-Toutain, “Circulation du savior entre la Chine, la Mongolie, et le Tibet au XVIIe siècle. Le prince Mgon-po skyabs.” Études chinoises, vol XXIV, (2005), 57-111, which cites Huang Hao Zai Beijing de Zangzu wenwu (1993), p. 55.

Entry by Stacey Van Vleet, 1/30/07, with additions by Gray Tuttle 9/22/08

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‘Phags pa

‘Phags-pa

Following the religious preceptorship that emerged in Tangut state (Chin.: Great Hsia or Hsi Hsia 西夏, 1038-1227) as a model, Mongol rulers adopted this institution of imperial preceptorship (Chin.: ti-shih 帝師) as a means of dealing with the increasing multiethnic population within its territory. First Chinese Buddhism, and then Tibetan Buddhism won over the Mongol Royal family. ‘Phags-pa was a well known Tibetan scholar-monk who was recognized as “imperial preceptor” (1260) and “state preceptor” later by Kublai Khan.

‘Phags-pa (1235-1280) was a member of the Sa skya sect of Buddhism. ‘Phags-pa accompanied his uncle Kunga Gyaltsen, the fourth forefather of the Sa skya sect to Liangzhou for an interview with Prince Godan in 1244. After Kunga Gyaltsen died in Liangzhou in 1251, ‘Phags-pa remained in the Huanhua monastery in Liangzhou at his age of sixteen. ‘Phags-pa became an important historical figure since he had an interview with the then Prince Kublai on Mt. Liupanshan in 1253. Kublai received a Buddhist consecration (Abhiseka) by ‘Phags-pa in 1253 and treated him as his tutor thereafter. When Kublai ascended the throne, he granted ‘Phags-pa the title of “Imperial Preceptor” and gave him responsibility for Buddhist affairs within Yuan dynasty’s territory. Later, ‘Phags-pa was also granted a title “Great Treasure Prince of Dharma” due to his invention of a Mongolian script, called “’Phags-pa Script” nowadays, which was promoted throughout the state in the course of Yuan dynasty; and honored with the title of “Imperial Preceptor of the Yuan Dynasty”.

In addition to invent “’Phags-pa Script”, ‘Phags-pa also introduced the cult of Yamantaka into China, and it seems that ‘Phags-pa had knowledge of medicine as well. ‘Phags-pa, therefore, was not merely a powerful religious figure, but also was an important scholar in other areas. His huge influence on Mongol was mainly accomplished by tutoring or advising the member of the royal family, rather than the civilians within the state. Kublai’s choice of ‘Phags-pa remains controversial, in part due to the young age at which he was recognized as Kublai’s tutor. Nevertheless, ‘Phags-pa was a promising monk and the Mongolian influence on him was hugely important for Kublai to control the multiethnic state.

From the Tibetan perspective, ‘Phags-pa was a prominent Lama for many reasons. ‘Phags-pa went back to Sa skya in the summer of 1264 and he set up thirteen official posts. ‘Phags-pa came back Sa skya in 1274 due to the social disorder in Tubo, with the permission from Kublai Khan. He died in Sa skya on November 24, 1280. Ye Rinchen, ‘Phags-pa’s brother succeeded his position of Imperial Preceptor afterwards. ‘Phags-pa was granted posthumously a title of “Lord Under the Divine Sky, Propagator of Literature of the Court, Great Sage of the Highest Virtue, Profound Wisdom and Accomplished Enlightenment, Great Treasure Prince of the Dharma, Prince of the Deities of Paradise, Pandita the Imerpial preceptor.” by Kublai. In memory of ‘Phags-pa, Kublai ordered temples built for him in each prefecture and stupas in many areas; Significantly, the temples were supposed to be larger than that for Confucius, which signified the importance of Tibetan Buddhism as compared to the traditional Confucianism in the political realm of the Yuan dynasty.

Sources:
Petech, Luciano, Tibetan Relations with Sung China and with the Mongols, China among Equals: The Middle Kingdom and its Neighbors, 10th-14th Centuries. Morris Rossabi (ed.) UC.P. 172-203
Dunnell, Ruth, The Hsia Origins of the Yuan Institution of Imperial Preceptor, Asian Major, 3rd series, Vol. V, Part I, 1992, 85-111
Watt, James C.Y., Wardwell, Anne E., When Silk Was Gold: Central Asian and Chinese Textiles, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 95-99
Bechwith, Christopher I., Tibetan Science at the Court of the Great Khans, J Tib Society Vol.7, 1987, 5-7
Rinchen Drashi, Tibetan Buddhism and the Yuan Royal Court, Tibetan Studies, 1-26.
Herbert, Franke, From Tribal Chieftain to Universal Emperor and God: The Legitimation of the Yuan Dynasty, Munich, 1978, 58- 64;
Herbert, Franke, Consecration of the “White Stupa” in 1279, Asian Major, 3rd series, Vol, II, Part 1, 155-183

Entry by Lan Wu