Written and unwritten : a new history of the Buddhist caves at Yungang /

An important new appraisal of the earliest surviving major monumentof Buddhist art in China, the Yungang cave-temples, this book contendsthat there are sharp temporal and conceptual distinctions between thefirst five caves and all the others. Basing his argument on changes invisual features and in patronage, James Caswell offers a new andchallenging interpretation of the history of the caves.

The Yungang caves, which are a major Chinese monument and touristattraction, were first begun in the 460's by the Northern Weirulers to emphasize the authority of the State and the Buddhist Church.In each cave-temple, carved out of the sandstone cliffs west of thecapital in northern Shanxi, were colossal, 50-foot images said torepresent simultaneoously the Buddha and each of the first fiveemperors of the dynasty. Following the initial imperial five, anothereleven, equally ambitious, caves were built.

Previous studies of the caves have assumed that the later ones werealso supported by the Court. However, the discovery by the Chinesescholar Su Bai of a twelfth-century record of a fifth-centuryinscription, the Jin Tablet, named a donor of a major cave pair anddated the carvings to the period 484-89. The donor was a eunuch at thecourt, but his inscription clearly indicated that he acted for himself.This finding set the stage for a re-examination of all the latercaves.

Caswell argues that the imperial caves were political statements,while all the others were expressions mainly of religious piety. TheCourt initially had endowed the site but later abandoned it as itsattention shifted to development of the capital city. Other patrons -court officers, rich merchants and landowners, women, monks and nuns,and the Church itself - then flocked to the site. In the brief periodca.484-89 a flurry of activity produced several more major caves andcarvings and later additional smaller caves and images.

More than a mere history of the caves, this book also propounds anew way of looking at the history of art - at the question of style andits development. Caswell notes that the sculptors of Yungang hadcertain formal modes in which they worked (one foreign-based and oneindigenous) and that certain stylistic qualities were associated witheach. The art did not evolve in a step-by-step fashion but erupted, andseemingly contradictory styles existed side by side. The history ofart, then, says the author, is one which requires looking beyondlogical expectations of what should be for what is or was.