Synopsis "Buddhist Stone Sutras in China. Sichuan 6"
This sixth and last volume on the inscriptions carved in cave chapels at the Grove of the Reclining Buddha (Wofoyuan 卧佛院) in Anyue 安岳 County Sichuan, presents section H on the northeast shore of the Grove. In two of the 36 caves, sutra texts are engraved on a total of five walls with a, namely the sutra of the Great Skillful Means Sutra on the Buddha's Repaying Kindness (Da fangbian Fo bao'en jing 大方便佛報恩經). 30 of the caves are of normal size, like the two sutra caves, but empty. Pictures were later added to three of them. Cave 116 contains a small niche with four figures (116-1), an ensemble with three Buddha figures (116-2) and a seven-storey pagoda (116-3). In cave 118 there are twin Bodhisattva and in cave 119 an arrangement from the Buddhist and Daoist pantheons. Three caves are half the size (95-1, 95-3, 117). One of them is simply an unfinished niche (114). The possibility that the three smaller caves were used for burials is mentioned for the first time in this publication. As in the previous volumes, all engravings on the wall of the sutra caves are reproduced in detail by means of photographs. They are juxtaposed with photographs of ink rubbings or 3D laser scans. The texts are transcribed with a scholarly apparatus noting textual variants and deviant characters in the calligraphy. An essay by Lothar Ledderose and Suey-Ling Tsai presents section H, concentrating on its peculiarities and significance. In his study of the Great Skillful Means Sutra on the Buddha's Repaying Kindness, Richard Ryan Overbey presents a solid analysis of the textual history of the sutra. Liqun He and Suey-Ling Tsai give an overview of all the stupas and pagodas found in the Grove and highlight the relationship linking the early stupas, the half-size burial caves and the text in the sutra caves. Reflecting back on the term "Mahaprajnaparamita" 摩訶般若波羅蜜 carved in cave 46, wall d, Shifen Liu concludes - in the light of early Buddhist scriptures, other stone carvings and ritual manuals - that the term is a spell.
