The Sudhana is a type of concept that many Southeast Asian Buddhist countries, such as China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, and Nepal, all have in common. The style of this concept in Japan and Korea, all originates from the style used in China. The Sudhana concept dates back to the Tang and Five dynasty in ancient China, even though archaeologists to date have yet to find books and other written works in this type of style. The exploration of this concept has only been of it in the Song to Qing dynasties so far, and not in depth, but investigation of each individual case. Whereas the era which Japanese scholars mainly focus on is after the 12th century, with its discoveries being Japanese-made or Chinese-originating. Therefore, the investigation of the Sudhana in the Tang and Five dynasty period is worthy of note.
I made use of typology, iconography, stylistics, etc to investigate the Sudhana concept in the Tang and Five dynasty. The main points of research are as follows: 1. From which Buddhist scripture does the Sudhana originate from? 2. What other images came as a result of the Sudhana concept? 3. The roots as well as change along with its reason for each individual image? 4. The relations between each concept, and whether they effect each other? 5. The cultural background and meaning behind each image?
The focal point of this thesis is the artistic style of the Chinese exoteric buddhism system. The Sudhana of the Chinese exoteric buddhism system mainly draws on the Gaṇḍavyūha in Avataṃsaka Sūtra. The images here can be categorized into three sections: 1. The Sudhana in the Buddha world is place next to the Mañjuśrī and Samantabhadra. 2. In the paintings of Gaṇḍavyūha, the Sudhana takes on the role of a child. 3. If you look at the Sudhana on its own, it is an individual holy figure. Of the above three images, the first mentioned image is the
