THE JATAKA TALES OF THE MOGAO CAVES, CHINA IN ANTHROPOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE ...

428 Pages·2008·13.19 MB·English

THE JATAKA TALES OF THE MOGAO CAVES, CHINA IN ANTHROPOLOGICAL
PERSPECTIVE

By
MING-KUO WU

A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of
the requirements for the degree of

Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology

WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY
Department of Anthropology

May 2008

© Copyright by MING-KUO WU, 2008
All Rights Reserved
© Copyright by MING-KUO WU, 2008
All Rights Reserved
To the Faculty of Washington State University:

The members of the Committee appointed to examine the
dissertation of MING-KUO WU find it satisfactory and recommend that it
be accepted.

________________________________
Chair

________________________________

________________________________

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I am especially, and profoundly, indebted to the following publishers and their
series of volumes on the Mogao caves of Dunhuang that fueled my research: Dunhuang
wenwu yanjiusuo (Research Institute of Dunhuang Relics), Dunhuang yishu baoku (The
Treasure of Dunhuang Art) in five volumes; Commercial Press, Ltd, Dunhuangshiku
quanji (the Complete works of the Dunhuang Caves) in twenty-six volumes; Jiangsu
meshu chubanshe (Jiangsu Art Press), Dunhuangshiku yishu (the Arts of the Dunhuang
Caves) in twenty-two volumes; and Institute of History and Philology Academia Sinica,
Section and Plan Measurements of the Mogao Grottoes by Mr. Shih Changju, in three
volumes; and other books which are mentioned in reference and footnotes. Without the
careful and scholarly series of publications from these presses, it would have been
virtually impossible to write this dissertation.
The present work was aided immeasurably by the deep spiritual support and
financial help of the sponsors of my research, and is dedicated to all the people of my
temple, Yuan Heng Temple, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan. I thank them for supporting me in
every way to complete my education at Washington State University. I thank,
particularly, my Grandmaster, Ven. Pumiao and my Master, Ven. Huikuan. They gave
me encouragement and inspired me spiritually on the many occasions when I most
needed it. I am grateful to those individuals and members of the staff of the Yang Heng
Temple who provided me with information through e-mail and snail mail. Shih Huizhi, a
monk colleague, assisted me in compilation of the questionnaire data and the collection
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of other data in three Taiwan cities—Kaohsiung, Taichung, and Taipei. I am also greatly
indebted to all the responders, monks and nuns, at several temples in all three cities.
The Ci-Ren Cultural and Educational Foundation in Taiwan generously supported
me financially enabling me to study in pleasant surroundings at Washington State
University in Pullman, Washington. I am grateful to the Anthropology Department for
Teaching Assistantships and for an International Research Award which provided
traveling funds.
Finally, I owe a special debt to Charles and Shirley Cross for helpful comments
and corrections on an early draft of this dissertation. Also, I am grateful to Professor Jeff
Sellen, a Professor in the General Education Program at Washington State University, for
helping me correct my final dissertation. I am particularly indebted to my doctoral
committee members: Professor John Bodley, who supervised my dissertation, has given
me unstinting encouragement, support, and inspiration at every stage and has offered
instructive comments along with his enthusiasm. Professor Goodman has provided much
encouragement and criticism. Professor Ivory has discussed artistic terms, discussing the
idea of the murals of the Jataka tales, and improving my presentation. Before suffering
from ill health, Professor Linda Kimball, a Professor in the Department of Anthropology
at Western Washington University, constantly influenced my thinking during this
research project. I am grateful to her for all her help, as well as that of all of my
committee members.

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THE JATAKA TALES OF THE MOGAO CAVES, CHINA IN ANTHROPLOGICAL
PERSPECTIVE
Abstract

by Ming-kuo Wu, Ph.D.
Washington State University
May 2008

Chair: John H. Bodley

The Mogao caves of Dunhuang, Gansu Province, China were constructed and
decorated from the 4th to the 14th century and contain several genres of art, colored clay
sculptures, and narrative. One of these genres is the murals of the Jataka tales stories of
the Buddha’s previous lives as Bodhisattvas, those who represent specific goal-directed
behavior and perform the acts of a bodhisattva in order to reach the status of buddhahood.
The present research addresses the gap in scholarly knowledge about the murals of the
Jataka tales at the Mogao caves of Dunhuang in six domains. First, through publicly
available pictorial art data research, it presents the first-ever comprehensive, complete,
and accurate catalogue of where in the caves the Jataka tale motifs appear, and which
tales are depicted. Second, it formulates and uses a new conceptual-analytical paradigm,
the Jataka tale-scape. Third, a new analytical perspective is developed, that of cascade
altruism, which encompasses deeds done through many lifetimes in the Mahayana
Buddhist quest of bodhisattvas. Fourth, the power and scale analytical approach used
here compares the number and volume, in both absolute and annual rate of construction,
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of Jataka tale-containing caves and non-Jataka tale-containing caves made at Mogao in
each dynasty. Fifth, it shows that when there was dynastic unrest the artists produced
Jataka murals on the cave walls with greater frequency. During more peaceful dynasties,
particularly the Tang, the artists produced fewer or no Jataka scenes and usually relegated
them to insignificant locales in the caves. There exists a distinctive correlation between
the number and placement of the Jataka tale murals in the Dunhuang caves and the socio-
political situation of contemporary times. And sixth, it conducts the results of an open-
ended questionnaire with Taiwanese monks and nuns who preached and taught in several
temples in three cities in Taiwan. The survey results show that the Jataka tales that
transmitted Buddhist beliefs in medieval times are still important today.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................... iii
ABSTRACT .........................................................................................................................v
LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................... xiv
LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................ xvii
CHAPTER
1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................1
A. The cultural-geographic setting of the Dunhuang region ..........................4
B. The Mogao Jataka tale-scape as a conceptual paradigm ...........................9
1. Cascade altruism ...............................................................................11
2. Power and scale theory .....................................................................13
3. Emic and etic perspectives ...............................................................15
4. Two hypotheses ................................................................................17
2. HISTORICAL CHANGES IN THE PHYSICAL AND CULTURAL
GEOGRAPHY OF DUNHUANG FROM ANCIENT TO MODERN TIMES ..24
A. Dunhuang as a place for banished people ...............................................30
1. Early civilizations before the Xia Dynasty .......................................34
2. Archaeological evidence ..................................................................37
B. The riddle of Dunhuang ...........................................................................40
1. The first mention of Dunhuang ........................................................42
2. The interpretation of Dunhuang .......................................................45
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3. The heartbreak of Dunhuang ............................................................54
3. JATAKA TALES AS POPULAR BUDDHIST SERMONS ON NIKAYAS
AND VINAYAS...................................................................................................65
A. The uniqueness of the Buddha’s teachings ..............................................66
1. The doctrine of karma ......................................................................66
2. The concept of the bodhisattva in Jataka tales .................................67
3. The idea of rebirth ............................................................................68
4. The concept of merit .........................................................................69
5. The concept of miracle .....................................................................70
B. The origin and function of the Jataka tales ..............................................71
1. The decorated and dignified monasteries .........................................72
2. A memory of the Buddha recalled....................................................75
C. Favorite subjects in the Buddhist world ..................................................78
D. Transliterations of Jataka into Chinese characters ..................................81
E. The Meanings of Jataka ...........................................................................83
F. Jataka forms appearing in Nikaya Sutras and Vinayas ............................85
1. The forms and characters of Jataka in Nikaya Sutras .......................85
2. The forms and characters of Jataka in Vinayas ..............................101
a. The Jataka tales in the Great Canon of Monastic Rules .........103
b. The Jataka tales in the Ten Divisions of Monastic Rules .......108
c. The Jataka tales in the Fivefold Rules of Discipline ..............110
d. The Jataka tales in the Fourfold Rules of Discipline ..............112
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G. Comparative collections of Jataka tales between the structures of
Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism ...................................................115
4. ARCHITECTURAL FORMS OF THE JATAKA TALE CAVES ...................123
A. The cultural origin and the initial pilgrimage at the Mogao caves ........124
1. The dedication of the Mogao caves by two wandering monks ......124
2. A description of the existing Mogao caves ....................................126
B. The chronology of Jataka tales in time sequences .................................129
1. An idealized cave model ................................................................133
2. Chronology of constructions ..........................................................134
3. Four architectural features ..............................................................140
5. BUDDHISM AND IMPERIAL PATRONAGE AND PERSECUTION ..........159
A. The initial period of the Northern Liang Dynasty .................................161
B. The initial period of the Northern Wei Dynasty ....................................162
C. The initial period of the Western Wei Dynasty .....................................165
D. The initial period of the Northern Zhou Dynasty ..................................166
E. The developed period of the Sui Dynasty ..............................................169
F. The mature period ..................................................................................171
1. The Early and High Tang Dynasties ..............................................171
2. The Mid Tang Dynasty ...................................................................174
3. The Later Tang Dynasties ..............................................................177
G. The declining period of the Five Dynasties ...........................................180
H. The declining period of the Song Dynasty ............................................182
6. THE FIVE FAVORITE JATAKA TALES AT THE MOGAO CAVES ..........187
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