“Unnatural mountains”: Meaning of Buddhist landscape in the Precious Rain bianxiang in Mogao Cave 321

This dissertation explores a new way of looking at landscape depiction in Buddhist painting during the Tang dynasty (618–907). The materials are landscape features that appear as the background of the sutra illustrations called “bianxiang (transformation tableau)” in the Dunhuang Mogao Caves in northwestern China. They have long been subjected to the formalistic approach and linear historical perspective, and little attention has been paid to their symbolic meaning and function. This study attempts to show their iconological aspect as a means to make a substantial criticism on the monolithic presence of the modern view of landscape painting and its anachronistic imposition on pre-modern examples. This investigation is formulated as a case study on a painting dated as late seventh century, the Precious Rain bianxiang in Cave 321. The painting has the most elaborate landscape depiction among contemporary bianxiang and is associated with the dynamic historical events around the political empowerment of Wu Zetian (r. 684–705), the only female emperor in China\u27s history. The study includes careful observation on the formal and stylistic aspects of the painting and its landscape background, and relates them with the main themes and landscape references in the sūtra, along with the historical circumstances of the period, to draw religious and political meanings of landscape. My conclusion is that the landscape background in this painting played a most significant and effective role in conveying the religious and political messages of the painting. The title of the dissertation “Unnatural Mountains” refers to the two major points that this study is trying to make: (1) mountain landscape in the painting is not a direct transcription of the world but rather a sign embedded with meanings created within its religious and political contexts (2) illusory mountains in the painting is an imperial symbol of Wu Zetian that accords with her unique and unconventional political position as the only female emperor in China\u27s history