佛像网

尺寸：高157.5 cm
年代：北魏永兴三年(534年)
质地：石雕
风格：中原
来源：纽约大都会博物馆
参阅：外部链接
鉴赏：
Stele with Maitreya and attendant bodhisattvas

铭文:
“Under the great Wei, in the third year of the Yongxi [reign]…[the year cycle being jiayin] in the [third] moon…of which the first day is Gui wei on the fifth day …(the day called) Ling [hai]

Since the Sage (of the Sakyas) departed into the west it is only by relying on sacred images that [we become endowed with] the felicity [attendant on a sense of divine protection. Since the Hero (of the Law) resigned the world, it is only by maintaining the three vehicles that we can preserve his teachings. Unless we thus mirror from afar these mystical sources, how can we come to an understanding of what they were? We therefore…two hundred brethren, both ecclesiastical and lay, who know the ultimate origins and reverence the True Law…have sacrificed some of our material wealth in order to lay up, for his present Majesty, the Emperor and for our ancestors to the seventh generation, a measure of spiritual bliss. Having then sought out a [suitable] stone among solitary rocky hills, and hunted for [this treasure] in somber volleys, we [selected] a skillful hand to carve reverently a statue of the Buddha and of two attendant Bodhisattvas. Their majestic forms are beyond compare. Their coloring is as exquisite as that of gems from Mount Kunlun. Their radiance rivals the violet firmament; their brightness obscures the sunlight. The sublime likeness of this inspired work resembles closely the holy countenance itself. May [this] poor (offering) [bring about] our desire that the dead may roam at will the Western Paradise, the pure Law of the Buddha (Amitabha), that the living may share the bliss of everlasting [happiness] and that all created beings may receive the blessing of the [Law].

来源:
[ Tonying & Co. , New York, until 1919; sold to MMA]

著录:
Bosch Reitz, S. C. “A Votive Stone of the Wei Period.” The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 14, no. 4 (April 1919). pp. 90–93.
Ashton, Leigh. An Introduction to the Study of Chinese Sculpture. London: Ernest Benn, Ltd., 1924, pl. 18.
Matsubara Saburō 松原三郎. Zōtei Chūgoku Bukkyō chōkokushi kenkyū: toku ni kondōbutsu oyobi sekkutsu zōzō igai no sekibutsu ni tsuite 增訂中国仏教彫刻史研究 : 特に金銅仏及び石窟造像以外の石仏についての論考 (Chinese Buddhist sculpture: a study based on bronze and stone statues other than works from cave temples) Tokyo: Yoshikawa Kōbunkan, 1966.