Potent Matrix of Buddhist Merit-Making: The Rise and Fall of Imperial Calligraphy on Clay Tablets for the Great Goose Pagoda

Among the extraordinary deeds of Tripiṭaka master Xuanzang (602–664) were his activities that inspired pressed clay tablets at the Tang-dynasty capital of Chang’an. One clay form had Buddha imagery molded on one side and a twelve-character inscription stamped on the opposite side, replicating the graceful calligraphic style of Emperor Tang Taizong’s high official and imperial curator, Chu Suiliang (596–658). Clay-pressing holds great importance in Buddhist merit-making, but through “meta-material” visual analysis, this study reveals the existence of a twelve-character stamp in two editions. The stamp’s calligraphy style ties it to the Great Goose Pagoda of Chang’an, where Chu Suiliang’s calligraphy adorned a pair of limestone steles housed inside. The steles were carved with encomiums by two emperors commemorating the brick pagoda’s construction to enshrine the Buddhist texts and images Xuanzang had brought back from his pilgrimage to India. Given this commonality, the clay tablet stamps must also have been manufactured with court endorsement and collaboration.

The Great Goose Pagoda, two imperial encomiums transcribed by Chu Suiliang, two carved stone steles, calligraphy stamps, and a plethora of stamped clay tablets—altogether encompass a multi-medium, religio-artistic program for propagating meritorious action. The cumulative material authority facilitated by the potent matrixes of ink, stone, and clay is not prescribed in any text but was innovated to demonstrate aristocratic commitments to Xuanzang. Given the tight connection between imperial and Buddhist order, this project was susceptible to changing political winds. The purge of Chu Suiliang and other Xuanzang allies likely impacted the production of clay tablets imprinted with Chu’s calligraphy and the practice did not persist after Xuanzang’s death in 664 CE.

FOONG Ping is Foster Foundation Curator of Chinese Art at the Seattle Art Museum and Affiliate Associate Professor at the University of Washington. Dr. Foong received a Ph.D. from Princeton University, and her experience spans the academic and curatorial realms. She began her career at the Metropolitan Museum of Art as Jane and Morgan Whitney Fellow, and then taught at the University of Chicago as Assistant Professor and at the University of California, Berkeley. Her monograph on eleventh-century Chinese ink painting, The Efficacious Landscape: On the Authorities of Painting at the Northern Song Court won the Joseph Levenson Book Prize. An ongoing book project treats the titular recognition of painters and calligraphers as a facet of Chinese spatial imagination. Her present focus is on the material histories of medieval Buddhist calligraphy and their reception during the late Qing dynasty and early Republican era.

Dr. Foong oversees the SAM’s extensive collection of Chinese art, from historic to modern and contemporary, in its presentation, research, care, and interpretation. Alongside two co-curators, Foong led an extensive effort to expand and modernize the landmark 1933 art deco building of the Seattle Asian Art Museum. Envisioning its global future, the building reopened in 2020 with an innovative thematic presentation of the permanent collection. She is currently organizing Ai, Rebel: The Art and Activism of Ai Weiwei, the largest US retrospective exhibition on the acclaimed Chinese contemporary artist, opening soon in March 2025.

Sponsor(s): Center for Chinese Studies