대불(大佛)로서의 운강 담요오굴 재고(再考) (Reassessing the Five Caves of Tanyao at Yungang Grotto as the Colossal Buddha)

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초록

This paper attempts to reassess the meaning and function of so-called Five Caves of Tanyao (hereafter Caves) built at the Yungang Grotto in the late fifth century CE. Individually enshrining gigantic statues measuring thirteen to seventeen meters high, the Caves have enjoyed a great deal of scholarly attention over the past century. As they were understood as the visual embodiment of the essence of Northern Wei Buddhism that is often characterized by the famous notion that the “Emperor is the living Tathāgata,” the major issue with regard to the Caves has been centered on the identification of the relationship between the five caves and the five Emperors from Taizu. In the face of the dominant interest, the fact that they were the first colossal statues ever created in China has rarely been discussed in terms of their art historical and religious sense. This paper pays attention to the unusual size of the statues in the Caves, along with other two significant sizes chosen in the series of Buddhist image-making by Emperor Wencheng (r. 452-465). Before Tanyao suggested to Emperor Wencheng to build cave temples at Wuzhou mountain in 460, the Northern Wei emperor had a stone image that should be in the likeness of himself fashioned in 452. Two years later, he ordered to have five gilt-bronze images of Śākyamuni cast, all sixteen feet high, on behalf of the five Emperors from Taizu. By investigating the origin and meaning of the three different sizes—identical to the emperor’s body, sixteen-foot, and colossal—chosen for Buddha images made before and after Wencheng’s reign, this paper argues that the choice of particular sizes in the making of Buddhist images was a serious matter, full of religious and historical connotations. Furthermore, it proposes that the gigantic size was chosen by Tanyao, or Emperor Wencheng, in the diverse backgrounds that cannot be limited to the often-mentioned foreign influence. In addition to the active exchanges between the West and the Northern Wei, this paper argues that the motivation for ancestor worship based on the Tuoba identity served as one of the significant factors in the making of the colossal statues at Yungang.

영어초록

This paper attempts to reassess the meaning and function of so-called Five Caves of Tanyao (hereafter Caves) built at the Yungang Grotto in the late fifth century CE. Individually enshrining gigantic statues measuring thirteen to seventeen meters high, the Caves have enjoyed a great deal of scholarly attention over the past century. As they were understood as the visual embodiment of the essence of Northern Wei Buddhism that is often characterized by the famous notion that the “Emperor is the living Tathāgata,” the major issue with regard to the Caves has been centered on the identification of the relationship between the five caves and the five Emperors from Taizu. In the face of the dominant interest, the fact that they were the first colossal statues ever created in China has rarely been discussed in terms of their art historical and religious sense. This paper pays attention to the unusual size of the statues in the Caves, along with other two significant sizes chosen in the series of Buddhist image-making by Emperor Wencheng (r. 452-465). Before Tanyao suggested to Emperor Wencheng to build cave temples at Wuzhou mountain in 460, the Northern Wei emperor had a stone image that should be in the likeness of himself fashioned in 452. Two years later, he ordered to have five gilt-bronze images of Śākyamuni cast, all sixteen feet high, on behalf of the five Emperors from Taizu. By investigating the origin and meaning of the three different sizes—identical to the emperor’s body, sixteen-foot, and colossal—chosen for Buddha images made before and after Wencheng’s reign, this paper argues that the choice of particular sizes in the making of Buddhist images was a serious matter, full of religious and historical connotations. Furthermore, it proposes that the gigantic size was chosen by Tanyao, or Emperor Wencheng, in the diverse backgrounds that cannot be limited to the often-mentioned foreign influence. In addition to the active exchanges between the West and the Northern Wei, this paper argues that the motivation for ancestor worship based on the Tuoba identity served as one of the significant factors in the making of the colossal statues at Yungang.

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