Lintel of a Pagoda Doorway with Finely Engraved Illustration in the Linear Manner

Tang dynasty (618�907), undated

Hanging scroll, ink rubbed on paper; 126.9 x 135.6 cm

Date of rubbing unknown

Inventory number: Biaozhou 1

This rubbing was taken from a semicircular stone lintel probably placed over the entrance of a vaulted corridor in a Tang-dynasty pagoda.� Although the stone's origin cannot be identified, its style of illustration is characteristically Tang and similar to the type found in the north, south, and east doorways of the well-known Great Wild Goose Pagoda of Ci'en Temple in Xi'an.� Despite the lack of provenance, incised illustrations of this kind constitute valuable materials for the study of pictorial style, stone engraving, and Buddhist architectural ornamentation during the Tang period.

A long, very densely inscribed colophon is positioned at the lower center of the rubbing, where a missing piece of stone translated into a corresponding blank space.� The mass of very small characters was written by Yao Hua (1876�1930), an artist and devout Buddhist from Guizhou who resided at the Lotus Temple (Lianhua si) in Beijing.� The stone lintel was already damaged by the time the rubbing was taken, and since it did not bear any kind of inscription and was of unknown origin, Yao was unable to ascribe a date to the work, nor could he concretely identify the Buddhist image at the center.� However, he noted that the two small flanking figures are those of monks, the two figures with halos are bodhisattvas, and the two at either extremity are vajras (Buddhist temple guardians).� The one at right wields a jin'gang chu (diamond club) weighted at both ends to quell demons and is most likely a representation of the vajra Indra.