Kuncan exemplifies the educated artists who lived through the fall of the Chinese-ruled Ming dynasty (1368–1644) and into the Manchu-ruled Qing dynasty (1644–1911). The Manchu conquest was a devastating event, yet outright protest was impossible. Becoming a recluse at a Buddhist monastery was one way of escaping the turmoil; indirect protest could be registered through the choice of a painting style and in the wording of inscriptions. This was the route chosen by Kuncan, who was eventually appointed abbot of a monastery near Nanjing.

Kuncan’s dry, rough style is personal, and it reflects something of his state of mind. In the painting’s long inscription, he openly expresses his emotions:

I grew weary of the city and retired to the riverside. Early in the morning, after bathing, I came to the famous Xiang River [in Hunan province] and sang sad songs to the cloudy mountaintops. This is the place where the Duke of Fan used to visit and hold gatherings. As I watched the dusty world, my mind reverted to a state of dejection and to the desolation of an unkempt garden. I became entangled in melancholy. When the immortal Wang Zijin attained the Way [of the Dao], he disappeared in scrolls of clouds. Phoenixes sang over the Yellow and Ren rivers, and cranes nested and stayed for an entire year. A cool wind rises, falters, and dies. The water in the creek is limpid. The swirling river then invades the creek’s boundaries. I forget my own existence to follow Ji and Yuan. They lived with ink slabs as neighbors and cared only for literary gems. The starving kite can only wail, but what is the use of just lamenting? Even if Heaven had kept secret the works of Zhong and Wang, the bones and flesh of their beings would have remained the same. When the heart is free from all impurities, genius is always clearly manifested.

Made the first day of the eighth month of xinchou [1661] while sitting in the Daxie Studio. Tianran, the Crippled Daoist of Stone Valley, Shixi Candaoren [one of the artist’s many artistic names].

An inscription on the foot of this plate indicates that it once belonged to the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan (reigned 1628-1658). Although numerous foreign luxury items were amassed by the Mughals, few Chinese porcelains can be linked definitively with them.

The designs on the vessel—three grape clusters encircled by twelve flowers and a border of waves—are among the decorative motifs associated with fifteenth-century Chinese blue-and-white porcelains. Production of these wares appears to have been especially stimulated by foreign demand. Apart from the Mughal emperors, the Ottoman sultans and the Persian Safavid shahs also prized Chinese porcelains. Their extensive royal collections were preserved, respectively, in the Topkapi Palace (Istanbul, Turkey) and in the Safavid dynastic shrine (Ardebil, Iran). The appeal of Chinese blue-and-white wares to all of these Muslim rulers lay in the wares’ visual beauty and relative scarcity as well as in the belief that their color would change if touched by poison.

This bottle, with its flared lower body and trumpetlike mouth, is decorated with painted designs in iron brown over white slip. The bottle’s white surface is divided into four bands with horizontal lines beginning at the neck. The first band is decorated with parallel broken vertical lines in iron pigment, the second with the double lotus leaf design, the third with a fluid scroll design. The fourth band, occupying the largest portion of the body, is decorated with a fish design interspersed with a long lotus stem with lotus buds.

Fluid and free brushlines evoking a sense of spontaneity and nonchalance indicate that a trained hand painted them. It is believed that buncheong wares painted with semi-abstract designs in iron pigment, such as these fish, were produced by Buddhist monks in the Mount Gyeryong area during the late fifteenth century. Fish might signify not only abundance, but also freedom from all restraints. The small foot is another characteristic of buncheong wares from this area.

In this sculpture, Brahma takes the form of a wild goose, the bird he usually rides, to fly upward, and Vishnu takes the form of a boar-headed human to dive downward. (In Vishnu’s third major incarnation, as a boar, he dives to the bottom of the sea to rescue the goddess of the earth.) Thus, Shiva, revealing himself in the limitless linga, or phallic emblem here conceived as a fiery pillar, shows his superiority over the other gods. Indeed, the story is told by those for whom Shiva is the supreme deity. Other Hindus, who hold other deities as supreme, would not accept its lesson.

Amida, lord of the Western Paradise, is seated in deep concentration with half-closed eyes and hands held in the gesture of meditation. During the eleventh and twelfth centuries, images like this were created in large numbers as a direct result of the popularity of Pure Land Buddhism in Japan. This teaching instructed believers about the horrors of Buddhist hell and celebrated the glories of the Western Paradise, which can be attained through meditation and recitation of Amida’s name.

Amitayus, the Buddha of infinite life, grants longevity and is widely worshiped by the followers of Tibetan Buddhism in China. He is revered for his ability to facilitate the attainment of perfect wisdom. Amitayus is shown here as a majestic deity wearing elaborate jewelry and seated in the full lotus position. His hands, in the gesture of meditation, once held a vase filled with the elixir of immortality. The worship of Amitayus was quite popular during the reign of the Qianlong emperor in China, when thousands of his images were created in metal, precious stones, wood, painting, and embroidery for birthday presents. This sculpture is coated with Chinese lacquer dyed red with cinnabar and was once gilded. An image of this size and quality is rare, and it may have been commissioned by the Qianlong emperor to invoke the blessings of long life for his mother or for himself. It later may have graced the altar of a royal chapel or a large monastery like the ones in Chengde.

According to the First Dalai Lama, White Tara is “the wisdom, compassion, and enlightened activity of all buddhas arising in the form of a beautiful goddess.” She is an important goddess in Nepal and Tibet, and worship of her dates from the 600s, when the two queens of the Tibetan king Songtsen Gambo (reigned approx. 627-649) were deified and worshiped as the two forms of Tara.

White Tara’s right hand, posed in the gesture of gift granting, indicates her gifts of spiritual attainments and buddhahood to disciples. Her left hand, posed in the gesture of dispelling fear, shows that she protects disciples from all dangers and disasters. The eyes on her palms and the soles of her feet show her mastery of the four doors of liberation through which she frees all beings from misery. Her graceful figure symoblizes both compassion and radiance. The sculpture is the product of the Newars of Kathmandu Valley, who remain among the best artists of Asia, excelling in bronze casting and repoussé work.

It is difficult to imagine the size of the body to which this head would have been attached, but such colossal works were not uncommon during the Northern Qi dynasty. Political and military events made this state in northeast China a major center for the development of Buddhism. The leaders of the Northern Qi court were fervent followers of Buddhism and were the patrons of innumerable building projects. A major focus of their efforts was the great rock-cut cave complex at Xiangtangshan on the border between Hebei and Henan provinces. It is possible that this head from a statue of Mahasthamaprapta (Chinese: Dashizhi) comes from that site. The rounded, rather youthful face and smooth contours of this piece are typical of stylistic developments during the Northern Qi dynasty.

The entrance to the tomb of a wealthy and highly placed member of the Tang aristocracy was elaborate. Leading to the tomb was a spirit path (shendao) flanked by pairs of stone animals and human attendants. A doorway marked the entrance to the tomb proper, and the path continued, in the form of a ramp, to the burial chamber. Guardians in clay flanked this ramp. This guardian is among the most elaborate.

In this tile, the arrival of a chariot, with its driver and aristocratic rider at guarded towers may represent the arrival of the deceased at a tomb or at one of the dwelling places of the dead. Pairs of this kind of tower, known in Chinese as que, stand guard at many tombs and other structures of the Han dynasty.