Longmen's Stone Buddhas and Cultural Heritage: When Antiquity Met Modernity in China

315 Pages·2020·4.745 MB·English

by  Dong Wang

Longmen’s Stone Buddhas
and Cultural Heritage
Longmen in a local gazetteer, 1745, vol. 1, Tukao.
Source: Gong, Songlin, and Wang Jian, comp. Luoyang xianzhi (Luoyang gazetteer). u.p.:
1924, reprint of 1745 ed., 24 vols.
Longmen’s Stone Buddhas
and Cultural Heritage
When Antiquity Met Modernity
in China
Dong Wang
ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD
Lanham • Boulder • New York • London
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Available
Names: Wang, Dong, 1967– author.
Title: Longmen’s stone buddhas and cultural heritage : when antiquity met modernity in
China / Dong Wang.
Description: Lanham : Rowman & Littlefield, [2020] | Series: Asia/Pacific/perspectives |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020007284 (print) | LCCN 2020007285 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781538141106 (cloth) | ISBN 9781538141113 (paperback) |
ISBN 9781538141120 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Longmen Caves (China) | Cultural property—Protection—China—
Longmen Caves. | Cultural property—Protection—Social aspects. | Culture and
globalization. | China—Relations. | Civilization—Chinese influences.
Classification: LCC DS797.44.L84 W36 2020 (print) | LCC DS797.44.L84 (ebook) |
DDC 951/.18—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020007284
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020007285
∞ ™ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American
National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library
Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
This book is dedicated to the memory of Daniel H. Bays (1942–2019),
my mentor and friend who was an inspiration for me.

Contents
List of Figures ix
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction 1
1 How Longmen Was Remembered, Not Remembered, and
Misremembered as an Ancient Site in Premodern China 33
2 Shaping Chinese Modern Identity: Antiquities in
Public Opinion at the Turn of the Twentieth Century 65
3 Voices of Silence: European Discovery of Longmen 91
4 “An Influence of the Souls of These Stone Saints”:
Early American and Japanese Recognition, between
Universalism and Nationalism 115
5 Longmen and Osvald Sirén (1879–1966) 139
6 Blighted Beauty: Longmen and Cultural Heritage Law in
Early Twentieth-Century China 165
7 UNESCO’s Longmen and Chinese Urbanization:
Better City, Better Life? 201
Conclusion 221
Appendix: Luoyang as Capital: A Brief Timeline 227
Glossary 231
vii
viii Contents
Bibliography 237
Index 285
About the Author 295
List of Figures
Figure 0.1 Map of Luoyang’s Ancient Sites Including the Image
of Vairocana at the Center Bottom 2
Figure 0.2 Longmen’s Location in the City of Luoyang 5
Figure 0.3 Dong Wang (Right) and Her Classmate in 1982 at
Longmen on a School-Organized Spring Excursion 10
Figure 1.1 Xiangshan Monastery Original Site 46
Figure 2.1 Cartoon, “Fighting Bandits in Honan” 78
Figure 5.1 Juxtaposition of Longmen’s Vairocana Buddha and
Michelangelo’s Moses 142
Figure 5.2 Lomaland, San Diego, California, and the
reconstructed Greek Theater 152
Figure 5.3 The Binyang Trio Caves 153
Figure 5.4 Coolie and Longmen’s Buddhas (Moya sanfo) 155
Figure 6.1 Laurence Sickman in Luoyang, China, 1932 185
Figure 6.2 Yue Bin in the late 1930s, first from the left in
the back row 187
ix