合川淶灘鷲峰禪窟內容探疑

An Investigation of the Chan Imagery in the Jiufeng Grottoes

The Jiufeng Chan grottoes of the Hechuan district, Laitan village, Chongqing are the only extant example in China of a Chan school cave from the Southern Song dynasty (1127–1279), with imagery based primarily on the Platform Sūtra. The textual material upon which the cave imagery is based differs greatly from that of other Buddhist caves. The present article undertakes a comparison between those textual source materials and the actual cave imagery, found in three main areas of the cave. It also refers to relevant materials. The article is composed of the following sections: 1. Preface; 2. Background; 3. Textual source materials; 4. Discussion of cave imagery; 5. Conclusion and issues requiring future research.