Legitimacy, genealogy, and the icon

This dissertation examines medieval Chinese representations of rulers and their images of gods. It studies visual claims of "Heavenly Mandate ( tianming )" vis-à-vis shifting assumptions about material representations of divine presence and their relationship to the sovereign. I focus on a group of caves that were completed during the Guiyijun (Return to Alliance Army) period (851-1002 C.E.), when Dunhuang was governed by local military warlords. A late ninth-century cave, Mogao Cave 9, functions as the centerpiece of the study. Chapter One , "Authorizing Space: Spatialization of 'Donor' Images," compares the configuration of worshipper portraits and title inscriptions in Cave 9 with those of its contemporary programs at Dunhuang. Certain patterns of distribution and revision emerge from the survey, revealing priorities that governed the social relations and hierarchy at Dunhuang. The patterns also help identify the patrons and honorees of Cave 9, as well as the most probable sequence of events that led to the completion of the program. Chapter Two , "Locating Authority: Imaging a Paradigm," conisders a genre of painting called "Oxhead image painting" I show that the most important element of the version in Cave 9, which articulates the soteriology of the mytho-historic kingdom of Khotan, is a modestly represented royal worshipper who is shown undergoing a process of enlightenment. The painting highlights the agency of the ideal Buddhist king (the cakravartin ) in his people's salvation, and argues that the sovereign's relationship to the icon is pivotal to the salvation of his people. Chapter Three , "Authorizing Allegoresis: Mandates Foreign and Native," argues that the visual soteriology of Khotan as narrated in the Oxhead painting in Cave 9 is presented as an allegory for the history of the Tang dynasty itself. The painting conflates the story of the Udayana Image with that of another sandalwood image associated with Khotan, and in effect conflates the myth about the Udayana Image's arrival in China with the salvific legend of the Khotanese kingdom. The Painting also references Early Chinese visual materials that discourse on the notion of xiangrui , or auspicious omen signifying Heaven's endorsement of the sovereign. The painting invites the viewer to see how the Khotanese legend prefigures the fate of the Tang dynasty. Chapter Four , "Localizing Authority: Legitimacy by Association," analyzes a painting in Cave 9 inscribed "the Heavenly King Vaisravana invites the Buddha to Nezha's assembly" in relation to a set of "A Thousand Buddhas" paintings. Together, the two components of the program articulate a biography of a legendary prince, whose genealogy restructures the hierarchy of India, China, and Khotan as topoi of religious authority. I analyze Nezha's visual biography in view of the patron family's insistence on its own imperial lineage. Finally, I consider the late Tang dynasty politics of genealogy in relation to a discernible shift in the medieval Chinese perception of original images and reproductions.