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This presentation is a guide to the Buddhist temples and hermitages that existed in Dunhuang during the periods of the Tibetan and Guiyijun rule (851–1036?, 歸義軍, Return-to-Allegiance Army), and covers a timespan of roughly two hundred and fifty years, from the late 8th to mid-11th centuries. I provide as much primary data as possible on local Buddhist institutions, organised for easy reference. There is an entry for each temple that features a historical overview, monastic sustenance, including landholdings, buildings, libraries, scriptures, practices and rituals, important clerics, connections to the construction of caves at Mogao, and notes on location when available. Since previous presentations and documentation of Dunhuang’s temples and their activities in secondary literature are partial, fragmentary, and scattered, this is an attempt to bring together as much data as possible, in order to provide scholars with up-to-date access to the most important material. However, given the vast number of primary sources, not all of the relevant information is included here. Nonetheless, this is an easy-to-use tool to enable further studies.

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.. Artibus Asiae Publishers is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Artibus Asiae. Famous for its large number of Buddhist sculptures, the county of Dazu is situated among rolling hills in the eastern part of modern Sichuan province some 200 kilometers to the northwest of Chongqing. From the time of the late T'ang and up to the late Southern Song, Dazu was a flourishing Buddhist centre located on the main highway connecting the eastern and the western parts of the province. Sponsored by local rulers as well as lay Buddhist associations (yihui) a number of rockcarving projects were initiated in various locations in the country resulting in the creation of more than 5o,ooo religious sculptures, many of high quality craftsmanship.' The two largest and most important concentrations of sculptures are those of Mt. Bei (North Mountain), the site of a fortress located on the top of a small mountain about 2 kilometers to the north of the present town of Dazu, and Dafo Wan (Great Buddha Curve) on Mt. Baoding (Precious Summit Mountain), a partly manmade and hoof-shaped rock terrace in a large hollow on the top of the mountains some 15 kilometers to the north-east of Dazu. The sculptures in Dafo Wan are organized in 31 thematic and carefully arranged groups carved in a uniform style, which set them apart from most sculptural centres elsewhere in China.2 The area covered by the carvings measures 500 metres in combined length, and Abbreviations CDC Chodang chip DSY Dazu shike yanjiu JCL Jingde chuandeng lu (T.2076) SSD Sichuan shike diaosu (Zhongguo meishu quanji, Sculpture Section) Vol. 12 T. Taisho daizokyo ZZ Dai Nihon Zokuzokyo (revised edition in 90 vols., Tokyo, i98o-89) 1 During the past ten years a significant number of Mainland Chinese publications on the Dazu sculptures have appeared. Most of these are of a popular nature, but generally contain photographs of the most important groups of sculptures in Mt. Daoding and in Mt. Bei. Apart from this, substantial information has generally been rare. The most important picture books are Dazu shike, complied by Sichuan Meishu Xueyuan Daosu Xi, Beijing, 1962; Taisoku sekkoku geijitsu, compiled by Zhongguo Waiwen Chuban She. Mei nai mei, Kyoto, i98i; and the Dazu Grottoes, edited by Bai Ziran. Foreign Languages Press, Beijing, 1984. In 198 5 this situation changed with the appearance of the first scholarly catalogue on the Dazu carvings, the Dazu Shike yanjiu. Collected Works of the Researches on Dazu Stone Carvings. Compiled and edited by Liu Zhangjiu, Hu Wenhe, and Li Yongqiao. Chengdu, 1985 (hereafter DSY). This excellent compilation contains besides a number of leading articles on the carvings, detailed descript...

In the thirtieth chapter of the celebrated Ch'an Buddhist collection “Chingte ch'uan‐teng”al one finds a number of short texts of the g'tha (chia‐t'a)b type2 composed by various Ch'an masters. Among these often highly abstruse “songs” (ke)c is included one called “Hsin‐ming”d (Mind Inscription),3 which is attributed to Fa‐junge (594–657),4 the First Patriarch of the early Ch'an Buddhist denomination commonly known as the Niu‐t'ou Schoolf after the name of the mountain where the master dwelt,5 Before going on to a discussion of the text and its contents let us first take a brief look at the author and his brand of Ch'an Buddhism.

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