Vadas József (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 12. (Budapest, 1992)

FAJCSÁK Györgyi: Kínai sztúpa díszítése az i. sz. 7. századból

decoration (filling the whole surface with decorative motifs - horror vacui), reflects strong Islamic influences. The question as to whether active Muslim communities, wandering Central Asian craftsmen working at several cave-temples, or die flourishing trade routes could have influenced Chinese representational art has not been answered yet. Monsters and supernatural semi-divine beings of many kinds were represented in Chinese art.

24 The monsters and demons are described as half-animals or birds in die Shan-hai-jing "Book of Mountains and Seas" and were believed to bring calamity upon the human world. The "Book of Mountains and Seas" is very popular in China and may have been illustrated from the Jin dynasty (A.D. 265-420) onwards. The pictorial verse of the Shan-hai-jing was included in die tiiird volume of the famous catalogue "Record of Famous Paintings of Successive Dynasties (Li dai ming hua ji), edited by Zhang Yan-yuan in die midninth century A.D. Various series of the illustrations of the Book of die "Mountains and Seas" were often repeated after the Jin dynasty. An anthropomorphic monster face from a Han stone relief dated A.D. 171 of the Eastern Han dynasty shows close similarity to the monsters which appear in die Yi-nan tomb (Shandong province) dated from die later years of die third and the early fourth century' A.D. 25 From the Han examples we can suppose that the depiction of monster figures was fairly common in the representational art of that period. However, we know almost nodiing of the representation of monsters during die period from the mid-diird century until the early sixtii century A.D. It must be supposed that in the cultural sphere of the Southern Dynasties the traditions of the Chu Songs had been kept alive. We know that in monsters and their representation in the arts were significant aspects of die former Chu state. Evidence for diis is provided by the stone stele of Hong Liang, a nobleman of the Liang dynasty who died in A.D. 526. The stele is filled widi eight monstrous animals arranged one above the other on die sides of the stele. PI. 10. The monsters are executed in an elegant and a light touch. Comparing them to those 18 male monsters depicted on die tombstone of Lady Yuan of the Northern Wei dynasty (A.D. 522) Pl.ll. or to those stone monsters carved on a funerary bed of the first half of die sixdi century makes clear their differences. PI. 12. The carvings of Lady Yuan stele as well as on the funerary bed are refined enough, but fall behind that of die southern ones in the expression of spirituality and light movement. Some of these northern anthropomorphic monster figures, however, show similarities to tiiose found on the southern type were imported into die Northern Wei territory and copied by die northern artists. This southern type has never been found in the Yüngang and Longmen caves, although they do appear in the Gongxian caves (presumably they date from about A.D. 520). In the lower section of the wall decoration (Gongxian Caves 1, 4) monster figures arc depicted in various postures - cidicr fighting or supporting something. PI.

13. A rare and unusually fine piece of finegrained mortuary bed formerly belonging to die Avery Bnindage Collection shows that even when Buddhism was at its height, die decoration of diis mortuary bed remained under die influence of ancestor worship. Widi die exception of die lotus petals, distinctly of Buddhist origin, all other motifs - dragons, birds, various monsters, monster's masks, etc. enchanted by finely in-