Beijing Cultural Relics and Masterpieces Series. Buddhist Sculptures (Part 2)

Author: Editorial Committee of "The Essence of Beijing Cultural Relics" Beijing Bureau of Cultural Relics
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2004-12-01
Features: The "The Essence of Beijing Cultural Relics" - Buddha Sculptures volume is divided into two parts. The first part includes Buddhist bronze sculptures from various dynasties in China, while the second part—this volume—collects 165 scroll-style Buddhist paintings from the Ming and Qing dynasties, including 121 water and land paintings from the Ming and Qing periods and 44 Tibetan tangkas from the Qing dynasty. This volume begins with bilingual (Chinese and English) indexes, followed by two thematic essays: "Water and Land Paintings in the Capital Museum" and "Tangka Art in Beijing during the Qing Dynasty." Next are the illustrations, followed by their captions. The illustrations are divided into two parts: water and land paintings and tangkas. In the water and land painting section, works from the Song, Ming, and Qing dynasties are listed in chronological order, with each era's works roughly categorized according to the deities in the water and land ceremonies. Tangka works are generally categorized according to the deities in Tibetan Buddhism.
Naming of the works: In water and land paintings, those with inscriptions are named according to the inscriptions. If a work has two inscriptions, they are combined into one. Works with multiple inscriptions are either named comprehensively based on their content or one inscription is selected with "etc." added at the end. Works without inscriptions are named based on their content. Tangka works are named based on their content.
In the captions, the Chinese name, era, and English name are listed first, followed by material, dimensions, collection, and a brief description of the work. Most water and land paintings and tangkas are anonymous works, so the "Author" field is not included. In cases where an artist's name is inscribed, it is recorded in the caption.
Imperial era dates and sexagenary cycle dates in the text are annotated with the corresponding Gregorian dates. Illegible characters in the works are represented in the text with "square." Variant characters in the original are standardized during transcription, while incorrect or borrowed characters are left unchanged.