Harvard Art Museums > 1984.377: Dharani Sutra (Informally called the "Leifengta Sutra") Prints Collections Search Exit Deep Zoom Mode Zoom Out Zoom In Reset Zoom Full Screen Add to Collection Order Image Copy Link Copy Citation Citation"Dharani Sutra (Informally called the "Leifengta Sutra") , 1984.377,” Harvard Art Museums collections online, Dec 26, 2024, https://hvrd.art/o/201553. Reuse via IIIF Toggle Deep Zoom Mode Download This object does not yet have a description. Identification and Creation Object Number 1984.377 Title Dharani Sutra (Informally called the "Leifengta Sutra") Other Titles Alternate Title: Leifengta cang jing [Lei-feng-t'a ts'ang ching] Classification Prints Work Type handscroll Date dated 975 Places Creation Place: East Asia, China Period Five Dynasties period, 907-960 Culture Chinese Persistent Link https://hvrd.art/o/201553 Physical Descriptions Medium Woodblock printed sutra mounted as a handscroll; ink on paper (with modern frontispiece painted by Chen Zengshou [1878-1949] in ink and light color on paper). The printed sutra commissioned by Qian Hongshu (929-988; reigned as the fifth prince of the Wu-Yue Kingdom, 948-978). Dimensions H. 7.5 x W. 209.8 cm (2 15/16 x 82 5/8 in.) Provenance Recorded Ownership History Philip Hofer (1898-1984), Cambridge, MA, purchased in Hong Kong, March 1972; gift to Harvard Art Museum Acquisition and Rights Credit Line Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of Philip Hofer Accession Year 1984 Object Number 1984.377 Division Asian and Mediterranean Art Contact am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu Permissions The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request. Descriptions Description The printed inscription preceding this small sutra's frontispiece states that "the Prince of Wu-Yue, Qian Shu [Qian Hongshu], had 84,000 copies of this sutra printed in 975 for placement in the Xiguan brick pagoda." In fact, this and a large quantity of virtually identical sutras were found in the remains of the crypt of a tenth-century brick pagoda that collapsed on 25 September 1924--a pagoda that has been known at least since the eighteenth century as the Leifengta, or Thunder-Peak Pagoda. A devout Buddhist, Qian Hongshu had the pagoda built in 975 near West Lake in present-day Hangzhou, Zhejiang province; in addition, he commissioned the production of numerous printed sutras and other religious items with which to provision the pagoda's crypt. This scroll probably functioned more as a charm than as a strictly religious text; hence the Sanskrit name "dharani sutra," which means "charm text." Although the Chinese likely began to print with woodblocks in the sixth or seventh century, few examples of such early printing remain; in fact, this late tenth-century sutra ranks amongst the oldest specimens of Chinese printing in the United States. The frontispiece depicts the Buddha seated on a lotus pedestal before an altar; two bodhisattvas--or possibly disciples--flank the Buddha, who faces the sutra text, which he presumably is preaching. A pagoda, a temple building, and several other figures complete the composition. Publication History Pratapaditya Pal and Julia Meech, Buddhist Book Illuminations, Ravi Kumar (New York, 1988), p. 235, fig. 90 Eugene Wang, "Tope and Topos: The Leifeng Pagoda and the Discourse of the Demonic." In Writing and Materiality in China, ed. J.T. Zeitlin and L.H. Liu, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, Mass., 2003), pp. 488-552; p. 492, fig. 11.3, repr. Exhibition History 32Q: 2740 Buddhist II, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 06/12/2023 - 12/04/2023 Verification Level This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
