Author Affiliations: Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities
關鍵詞
Stone sutras; sacred topography; Mañjuśrī veneration; Buddhist cave-temples; Buddhist mountains
摘要
During the earliest phase of the production of stone-carved Buddhist texts in China, only selected passages were carved. Most scholars understand these text selections as forerunners of much longer texts carved from the Northern Qi dynasty (550–577) onwards under the open sky on cliff surfaces as well as inside of caves. This paper explores another aspect of the carving of selected sutra passages prominent in Shandong Province during the second half of the sixth century by arguing that the repeated carving of the same short text in a variety of layouts helped to establish a regional network of sacred sites, where the words of the Buddha were imprinted on the living rock. Behind this network of sites was a social network of donors with a related doctrinal background. This early network of sites and selected texts was not restricted to Shandong Province, but also reached out to the border region of Hebei and Henan, in particular to the cave temples of Northern and Southern Xiangtangshan. Finally, the prominence of certain carved passages culled from the Sutra on the Great Perfection of Wisdom Spoken by Mañjuśrī (T no. 232) within this network was fundamental for the emergence of Mañjuśrī veneration on Mount Wutai in Shanxi.
