GUANGSHENG MONASTERY: THE CREATION OF LOCAL IDENTITIES THROUGH ART AND ARCHITECTURE

Abstract

The Guangsheng Monastery, standing on a hill on the southern side of Mount Huo in Shanxi, has been recognized as a significant site in the history of later Chinese Buddhist art and architecture because of its large assembly of architecture and art dating from the Yuan (1279-1368) and Ming (1368-1644) dynasties. The site is also widely known to Western art historians and museum audiences; some of its murals were removed and are now in the collections of some major western museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri. Although much has been written on its Yuan dynasty architecture and art, this dissertation is the first effort to examine the sculptures, murals, and other objects inside each major hall as a whole and to interpret them within their original architectural and ritual settings. It is also the first attempt to understand the site within the local context and as a ground for the integration of local values and culture and mainstream religious and cultural traditions. The first part of the dissertation provides a general study of the site, examining the founding date of the monastery, the physical transformation of the site, the current layout, and the reconstruction of the halls. The second part studies the visual programs in the Main Hall of the Lower Monastery, the Hall of King Mingying at the Water God's Temple, the Varirocana Hall of the Upper Monastery, as well as the structure and glazed-tile decoration of the Flying Rainbow pagoda. This study demonstrates that the Upper Monastery was built in 769 and that the site underwent a continuous transformation over a period of fourteen centuries beginning in 563, when monk Zhengjue built a pagoda at the top of hill. It also shows that the Hall of King Mingying was dedicated to the Five Dragon Kings headed by King Mingying. This dissertation also reveals that the artworks in the Buddhist halls and the glazed-tile decoration on the pagoda illustrate the Esoteric-Huayan Buddhist tradition.