This paper is based on the study of a collection of paintings titled The Twenty-two Icons of Guanyin. This collection of paintings was done by the Tao-Buddhist painter, Ding Yunpeng (1547~1628), a renowned artist whose fame crossed over high-class art and mass culture. Even though the handwritings of the signatures on these paintings somewhat conflicted with the titles of Ding Yunpeng’s authentic works, according to experts’ inferences, they till categorized this collection as done by Ding Yunpeng. Based on the information on the numerous versions that the author has been able to collect, the collection of paintings has at least six versions. This paper will utilize the study of editions to analyze and comment on the artist and his painting’s artistic styles. From the perspective of common Ming-Dynasty artists, Ding Yunpeng was able to create what he deemed as natural and forthright images of the “Nan-hai Guanyin”. Besides inheriting the styles of the previous dynasty’s Guanyin images, what changes were shown on Ding’s highly “popularized” styles of the Guanyin collection? Also, what are the meanings behind these painting’s popularized styles？The main focus of this thesis is to discuss Ding Yunpeng’s Twenty-Two Icons of Guanyin based on “Debate about both Refined and Popular Tastes”, especially the images presented by this collection of Guanyin paintings, that is religious conscious images as a result of the combination of popular culture and Buddhist thoughts, which was common among later Ming Dynasty's popular arts. The unique Guanyin images in this collection have been influenced by the Buddhist thoughts of Ding's time (late Ming Dynasty), which was the combined thoughts of “simultaneous practice of Ch'an and Pure Land”, Pure-Land-inclined “Contemplation of the Buddha,” and “Unity of the Three Teachings.” This type of artistic image exemplified how Buddhism, on the forefront, usually utilize “popularized” expedient means to propagate the Dharma, for instance, the Buddhist influences from popular artistic creations to propagate the Dharma and further penetrate the entire social culture; internally, this type of artistic images have helped to establish a correlated relationship between mass culture, Buddhist thoughts and practicing the Dharma. Ding’s collection of Guanyin paintings, which later expanded to include 53 paintings in all called the Fifty Three Presense of the Goddess of Mercy, is a collection filled with sensibility, benevenonce, as well as activities found in daily lives. We could see from Ding’s collection that it is a collection of Guanyin paintings full of promising and developmental force in the propagation of the religious belief in Guanyin, this collection not only set the basis for the images of Guanyin in paintings, it also became a great influence to creations of Guanyin paintings from then on.
