**1. Introduction**

During the excavation of the site of the former Nanjing Da Bao'en Monastery in 2008, archaeologists discovered the cryp<sup>t</sup> of the True-Body Pagoda 真身塔 of the Changgan Monastery 長干寺built during the Song Dynasty. Through this excavation, the crypt, along with several Buddhist relics and over two hundred offering objects, was revealed to the public after an interval of nearly a thousand years. The crypt's airtight condition had helped to preserve the nested reliquaries and other precious objects therein for centuries, protecting them from natural and manmade destruction. As a result, most objects remained intact, and information on the cryp<sup>t</sup> is well preserved on a stone stele titled "A Record on the Stone Casket Encasing the Relics of the True-Body Pagoda of the Jinling (Nanjing) Changgan Monastery", 金陵長幹寺真身塔藏舍利石函記 (Qi and Gong 2011, 2012; Zeng 2011; Nanjing Municipal Institute of Archaeology NMIA 2015). Among the archaeological findings, the Seven-Jeweled A´soka Stupa (st ¯ upa: a dome-shaped structure that contains ¯ the relics of Buddha), also known as the Changgan stupa (now in the collection of Nanjing ¯ Museum), has attracted the most attention and discussion.

At present, scholarship on the Changgan cryp<sup>t</sup> is dominated by archaeologists, whose research concentrates on its history, structure, and extant objects. The most comprehensive publication is the excavation report by the Nanjing Municipal Institute of Archaeology (NMIA), covering the site's Buddhist history and functions as a monastery in the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644), as well as the crypt's structure and its nested reliquaries and their contents in grea<sup>t</sup> visual and textual detail (NMIA 2015). Several scholars have conducted

**Citation:** Dai, Yue. 2021. Secular Dimensions of the A´soka Stupa from ¯ the Changgan Monastery of the Song Dynasty. *Religions* 12: 909. https:// doi.org/10.3390/rel12110909

Academic Editors: Shuishan Yu and Aibin Yan

Received: 21 July 2021 Accepted: 5 October 2021 Published: 21 October 2021

**Publisher's Note:** MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

**Copyright:** © 2021 by the author. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).

more specific investigations into the archaic structure of the cryp<sup>t</sup> and the stele inscriptions (Qi and Gong 2011, 2012; Zeng 2011). By contrast, a few scholars, such as Katherine Tsiang and Hattori Atsuko 服 部 敦 子, have contextualized the Changgan stupa in relation to the ¯ history of the construction of A´soka stupas in China ( ¯ Hattori 2011; Tsiang 2017). Aside from this brief analysis, no comprehensive study of this reliquary's form, imagery, content, and inscription has so far been carried out.

In this paper, I intend to illuminate the stupa's secular dimensions by analyzing ¯ its unique features. By "secular", I refer to features of relic worship in Chinese Buddhist history that deviate from canonical rules and meet the worldly needs of devotees, including the political purposes of rulers and the personal interests of laypeople. More specifically, "secular" refers to the distinctive aspects of the Changgan stupa that do not conform to ¯ the strict regulations or conventions of reliquary-making in terms of scale, inscription, and functionality. Traces of public and governmental involvement can also be seen here and there, from the stupa's exterior ornament to its interior contents. In light of these features, ¯ the Changgan stupa is not merely a Buddhist reliquary, but a complex embodiment of ¯ religious devotion, political praise, and the wishes of individuals.

On one hand, a growing number of scholars agree that secular and sacred were not mutually exclusive in the Buddhist practices of medieval China.<sup>1</sup> "Secular" does not mean a complete deviation from canonic concepts, prescriptions, and traditions, employed without restrictions. On the contrary, many Buddhist practices in medieval China integrate religious theories, traditions, and up-to-date interpretations. In particular, laypeople would incorporate their daily experiences into religious activities, drawing on Buddhist language, images, and rites to meet their own needs. For example, Buddhist believers in Dunhuang were engaged in copying scriptures and building caves to attain merit and thereby bring blessings to their ancestors, families, and themselves.<sup>2</sup>

On the other hand, the secular dimension of relic worship was not new in the Song Dynasty, nor could it be used to differentiate between Song and pre-Song Buddhism. Prior to the Song Dynasty, both Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty 隋 文 帝 (541–604) and Wu Zetian 武 則 天 (624–705), the female emperor of the Zhou Dynasty (690–705), had identified themselves with the *cakravartin*, the wheel-turning king 轉輪 聖 王, and built A´soka stupas ¯ to legitimate their rule.<sup>3</sup> Three times during his reign, Emperor Wen sent more than one hundred relics in total to all the prefectures in the country and instructed special envoys, local officials, monks, and ordinary people to participate in the worship and enshrinement of these relics.<sup>4</sup> Judging from the historical records in these cases, large-scale relic worship probably often involved all classes of society, and the Changgan stupa was no exception. ¯

The Changgan stupa was the product of collective fundraising and donation collection, ¯ as its introductory stele indicates. In addition, the inscriptions that cover the stupa's surface ¯ are not limited to Buddhist expressions: they include blessings for the state and political leaders and votive offerings by individuals. Both aspects will be closely examined in the following sections. This kind of inclusiveness was not common in reliquary-making prior to this. In fact, the majority of A´soka stupas previously made in China were commissioned ¯ by and dedicated to individuals or their families only. The most representative of this kind were the miniature stupas favored by the ruling class and ordinary people during ¯ the Wuyue period. These stupas, which enshrined either bodily relics of the Buddha or ¯ sutra (Dharma relics), were inscribed with the donor's name and occupation, and the date. Though the Changgan stupa mimics the traditional form of the Wuyue st ¯ upas in terms of its ¯ square shape, tripartite structure, Jataka tale engravings, and other compositional elements, ¯ its unusual size (120 cm) and inscriptions for various subjects, as well as miscellaneous donations, make it different from its Wuyue prototype.

This study benefits from the rich collection of images and detailed textual materials provided by the archaeological report and uses them to study the site and reliquary. To explain these unusual features, I will start by introducing the history of relic worship at this site and the politico-religious tensions characteristic of its tenth-century historical context. On one hand, as many scholars have pointed out, the site of the Changgan Monastery had a long history of relic worship dating back to the late fourth century (Yang 2009; Qi and Gong 2011). This historical background explains the internment of Buddhist relics beneath the True-Body Pagoda of the Changgan Monastery. On the other hand, some scholars demonstrate that the Wuyue kings compared themselves to the Indian King A´soka (303–232 BCE) by copying his feat of constructing A´soka stupas on a large scale, seeking ¯ to demonstrate their political legitimacy under a religious guise (Brose 2015; Shen 2019; Lee 2021). This research, however, focuses on the Wuyue kings' actions of building of stupas, ignoring the later presence of A´ ¯ soka stupas in the early Song Dynasty. ¯

Unlike the Wuyue miniature stupas, the Changgan st ¯ upa embodies the various wishes ¯ of the regional Buddhist community, consisting of local officials, monks, and ordinary people. I articulate this idea through two comparisons. The first compares the Changgan stupa with the A´ ¯ soka stupas commissioned by Wuyue King Qianchu. Some scholars ¯ have conducted a visual analysis of Buddhist reliquaries in East Asia made during the tenth century (Choi 2003; Li 2009; Chen 2011). Their scrutiny of the details facilitates our comparison between the Changgan and Wuyue stupas, highlighting three major secular ¯ features in particular.

The second comparison is between the Changgan stupa and the Wuyue-style st ¯ upas ¯ made by the laity around the tenth century, according to which the unconventional features of the Changgan stupa can be explained secularly. It is in light of this social context, ¯ such as the intensified intervention of politics into religious practice, that the auspicious inscriptions blessing the emperor and his ministers can be largely understood. In addition, some scholars have shown that Chinese believers during the Tang and Song dynasties showed pragmatic and utilitarian tendencies when participating in Buddhist activities (Zheng and Lin 1996; Li 1999; Zhou 2005; Nakamura 2013). This unique characteristic is evident in the laypeople's inscriptions on and inside the Changgan stupa, engraved on the ¯ surfaces of their offering objects or written on their wrapping textiles.

The Changgan stupa is thus an eclectic product of secular and religious pursuits, ¯ created by the central governmen<sup>t</sup> and the local Buddhist community. For local devotees, the concept of the A´soka stupa changed from a pure reliquary to a materialized embodiment ¯ of political aspirations and ultimately laymen's wishes.

#### **2. The History of the Site of the Changgan Monastery**

The site of the former Nanjing Da Bao'en Monastery is in the southern part of today's Nanjing. It is just outside the ancient city wall, near the south city gate—now known as Zhonghua Gate 中 華 門—in a place formerly known as Changgan District 長 干 里. The bestknown Buddhist complex at this site is the Da Bao'en Monastery, with its world-famous Porcelain Pagoda 琉璃 塔 built during the reign of Emperor Yongle of the Ming Dynasty 永 樂(1360–1424, r. 1402–1424). This location had been occupied by a series of important Buddhist structures before the monastery was constructed. According to the *Liang shu* (History of the Liang Dynasty 梁 書), a small vihara (an early type of small-scale Buddhist monastery) with a stupa had been on this site since the Wu Kingdom (222–280), but was ¯ destroyed shortly after. In the Western Jin period (266–316), monks constructed a monastery with a stupa on the same site and named it the Changgan Monastery, after the district in ¯ which it was located. The most legendary episode that ever occurred on that site was during the reign of Emperor Xiaowu of the Eastern Jin Dynasty 東 晉 孝 武 帝(r. 372–396), when the monk Liu Sahe 劉 薩 訶 (active late fourth to early fifth century), sometimes confused with another monk, Huida 惠 達 (c. 342–423) in many Buddhist narratives, arrived in Nanjing. Seeing a strange light radiating from the Changgan District, Liu unearthed two true bodily relics of the Buddha—a fingernail and a thread of hair—that had been contained in nested reliquaries beneath the stupa of the Changgan Monastery. Liu's fruitful excavation was ¯ essentially due to his quick identification of the stupa as one of those commissioned by ¯ Indian King A´soka, built to enshrine the bodily relics of the Buddha (Yao, 1973, p. 791; Shi Huijiao, 1983; Jao 1990).<sup>5</sup> After this event, the stupa at the Changgan Monastery was ¯

regarded as one of the few of King A´soka's stupas in China in which relics of the Buddha's ¯ true body were enshrined.

From a present-day perspective, this episode of Liu's discovery of the bodily relics comes across as theatrical and thus of questionable reliability. More importantly, as a monk who had traveled throughout the central, eastern, and western regions of China and unearthed the bodily relics of the Buddha, Liu was constantly deified and idolized in a variety of narratives, ranging from officially codified history to popular folklore appearing shortly after his death. In some northwestern areas, such as Dunhuang, a cult of Liu Sahe that treated him as a Buddhist saint emerged alongside the cult of relic worship among local laypeople (Shang 2007). Despite Liu's widespread popularity, however, scholarship has long questioned the credibility of historical accounts regarding Liu and his miraculous deeds. As Wu Hung and Shang Lixin 尚 麗 新 point out, Liu Sahe played the role of a mysterious monk with supernatural powers ever since he appeared in the very early document *Gaoseng zhuan* (Biographies of Eminent Monks 高僧傳). In the historical narratives, the reality and fictionality of this figure are so deeply intertwined that even contemporaries could not overcome this mystification; they simply accepted him as a legendary figure, albeit to different degrees (Wu 1996, pp. 32–37; Shang 2007). Moreover, the later the documents were composed—such as the *Ji shenzhou sanbao gantong lu* (Collected Records of the Miracles of the Three Jewels in Shenzhou (China) 集 神 州 三 寶 感 通 錄), complied during the Tang Dynasty—the more legendary elements appeared in lieu of historical facts (Shang 2007, p. 81). Nevertheless, though Liu's discovery of relics might be exaggerated or even largely manipulated, this episode indeed helped to construct the reputation of the Changgan Monastery and its significance in relic worship. Famous people who accepted this story include Emperor Wu of the Liang Dynasty and senior monks such as Huijiao ( 慧 皎 497–554) and Daoxuan ( 道 宣 596–667) of later generations, as can be seen in the early document *Biographies of Eminent* Monks and the officially codified History of Liang Dynasty.

During the Liang Dynasty (502–557), Emperor Wu 梁 武 帝 (464–549), a pious Buddhist, unsurprisingly paid a grea<sup>t</sup> deal of attention to this place and initiated a project to repair the aged structures and expand the scale of the monastery.<sup>6</sup> He also reverently removed the relics from the stupa several times in order to worship them personally and then had them ¯ re-encased in a grand ceremony (Yao, 1973, pp. 789–93). According to the *Ji shenzhou sanbao gantong lu*, after the Six Dynasties (222–589), the relics once enshrined in the Changgan Monastery were removed and distributed to other places at different times, leading to the gradual decline and desolation of the site (Shi Daoxuan, 1983, pp. 405–6). Nonetheless, the site has been significant to Buddhists since the Eastern Jin. It is full of historic events and symbolic meanings, which have in turn fostered Buddhist beliefs and culture over the years in southeast China.

It was not until the early Song Dynasty, after multiple petitions to the central government, that local monks managed to reconstruct the Changgan Monastery. According to "A Record on the Stone Casket Encasing the Relics of the True-Body Pagoda of the Jinling (Nanjing) Changgan Monastery", engraved on a stone stele in the crypt, the cryp<sup>t</sup> was dedicated to enshrining the us.n.¯ıs.a (the round protuberance on the head of the Buddha)—one of the most precious relics of the Buddha donated by Western monk Danapala (?–1017), known as Shihu 施 護in Chinese.<sup>7</sup> With the permission of Emperor Zhenzong 宋 真 宗 (968–1022), local monks built a nine-story brick pagoda, the "True-Body Pagoda", a name granted by the court, completing the project in 1011. At the same time, they dug an earthen pit beneath the pagoda as a crypt. The cryp<sup>t</sup> enshrined the relics in nested reliquaries, one of them the Seven-Jeweled A´soka Stupa (Figure ¯ 1). After the Song Dynasty, no records of the cryp<sup>t</sup> or its true-body relics are found in historical documents or scholarly works. Despite how celebrated they had once been, both clergy and laity gradually forgot their existence.

**Figure 1.** Anonymous. The Seven-Jeweled A´soka Stupa, 1011. Sandalwood and gilt silver, 117 ¯ × 45 cm. Courtesy of Zhou Baohua 周保華.

The cryp<sup>t</sup> remained undisturbed, even when a majestic pagoda, commissioned by Emperor Yongle of the Ming Dynasty, was built on the site.<sup>8</sup> With the excavation of 2008, this invaluable construction recaptured the attention of both Buddhists and scholars whose research benefited from the intact status and complete state of the buried objects.

#### **3. The Association between the A´soka Cult and Relic Worship at the Site**

The history of the Changgan Monastery site shows it to be a site famed for Buddhist affairs in Southeast China, a site that had always been associated with the A´soka cult and relic worship. The ruling class also played an important role in the Buddhist projects at the site through personal direction, financial support, and political endorsement. According to this history, the moment at which the site achieved its symbolic meaning in the history of Chinese Buddhism was in the Eastern Jin period (317–420), when Liu Sahe discovered the relics of the Buddha's fingernail and hair hidden beneath the stupa of the Changgan ¯ Monastery. Since then, historical records of the site have usually gone hand in hand with descriptions of Buddhist activities centered on relic enshrinement and worship. For instance, after the distribution of the relics to other monasteries, ordered successively by Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty 隋煬帝 (569–618) and Li Deyu 李德裕 (787–850) of the Tang Dynasty, the monastery lost much of its past glory and was deserted.<sup>9</sup> Ownership of the relics, distinguished by their scarcity and numinous power, had had far-reaching effects on local Buddhists, and evidence suggests it was the bodily relics that determined the fate of the site.

The link between the Changgan stupa and the eighty-four thousand st ¯ upas commis- ¯ sioned by King A´soka also dates back to the mythical monk Liu Sahe's excavation of the stupa's bodily relics (whose housing was indeed a primary function of the A´ ¯ soka stupas). ¯ This particular role of the stupa at the Changgan Monastery has since been accepted and ¯ reinforced from time to time. In the "Foji xu lue" (Brief Preface to the Buddhist Anthology 佛集序略) to the *Guang hongming ji* (Expanded Collection on the Propagation and Clarification [of Buddhism] 廣弘明集), author Shen Yue (沈約, 441–513) details nineteen of the eighty-four thousand A´soka stupas located in Chinese territory. He frequently uses the ¯ words "aged" and "numinous signs" to describe them. Unsurprisingly, the stupa at the ¯ Changgan Monastery is on his list (Shen, 1983, pp. 201–2).

The very title of the "Seven-Jeweled A´soka Stupa" offers a clue to the function of ¯ the newly excavated stupa and contextualizes it in the tradition of the A´ ¯ soka cult at the Changgan Monastery. Unlike the A´soka stupas commissioned by Wuyue King Qian Chu, ¯ this A´soka stupa was not the product of a ruler's religio-political aspiration, the assumed ¯ primary motivation behind King A´soka's massive constructions of stupas ¯ 10 (which led rulers of later ages to legitimize and defend their political authority under the guise of devotion to Buddhism).<sup>11</sup> Instead, the Seven-Jeweled A´soka Stupa was a product of a ¯ public, collective Buddhist project, patronized by the local Buddhist community, which had a strong secular dimension.

#### **4. The Crypt of the Song Changgan Monastery**

The cryp<sup>t</sup> of the Song Changgan Monastery lies on the central axis of the former Da Bao'en Monastery, beneath the foundation of its Porcelain Pagoda (Figure 2). The cryp<sup>t</sup> is in the form of a round vertical earthen shaft measuring 6.74 meters deep, making it the deepest relic cryp<sup>t</sup> ever found in China (Figure 3).<sup>12</sup> The shaft features a deep pit without additional components, and so its structure is simpler than the horizontal crypts and underground palaces common at Tang Dynasty sites such as the Famen Monastery. Qi Haining 祁 海 甯 and Gong Juping 龔 巨 平 argue that this form was commonly adopted for crypts in the early Buddhist history of China, such as that of the Yongning Monastery 永 寧 寺 in the Western Wei period (386–534). Gradually, a more developed form—the horizontal brick chamber—replaced the previous plain form and dominated the spatial design of relic deposits from the Six Dynasties onwards. In Qi and Gong's opinion, the Changgan crypt's preference for the classical form suggests a revitalization of the ancient cryp<sup>t</sup> style of the Six Dynasties period (Qi and Gong 2012, pp. 76–81). In other words, the form was selected out of respect for the tradition of the A´soka cult and relic worship at the site.

**Figure 2.** Bird's-eye view of the foundation of the Porcelain Pagoda before excavation. From outer to inner parts: foundation slot, outer earth rim, sandwich stone rammed layer, inner earth rim, and crypt. Photo: courtesy of Zhou Baohua. Lines added by the author.

**Figure 3.** Profile of the cryp<sup>t</sup> structure. Photo: courtesy of Zhou Baohua. Texts added by the author.

At the bottom of the cryp<sup>t</sup> sits a large stone casket, 1.83 meters high, consisting of five stone slabs and a square stone base. The slab facing the northern wall is engraved with a lengthy inscription, "A Record on the Stone Casket Encasing Relics of the True-Body Pagoda of the Jinling Changgan Monastery", which functions as a merit-recording stone stele. Inside the stone casket and only slightly smaller is an iron casket in the form of a sealed cube. The most important object inside this is the Seven-Jeweled A´soka Stupa, ¯ measuring 117 centimeters high and 45 centimeters wide. The stupa has a sandalwood ¯ frame; its surface is entirely covered by sheets of gilt silver, richly decorated with a variety of jewels. The stupa is hollow and contains the u ¯ s.n.¯ıs.a of the Buddha, numinous-response relics 感應舍利, and the relics of holy monks, as well as some two hundred offering objects. The principal object of worship—the us.n.¯ıs.a—was put here with other relics in nested reliquaries, made of gold and silver and shaped like coffins. In short, the Seven-Jeweled A´soka Stupa is a masterpiece of Song Dynasty reliquary because of its impressive shape, ¯ precious material, elaborate ornaments, delicate craftsmanship, and abundant contents.

Since the cryp<sup>t</sup> safely kept its relics until modern times, most of its items remained untouched and in good condition. Hence, the inscription on the stone stele has become a useful textual reference for examining the cryp<sup>t</sup> and its buried objects and restoring them to their proper historical context. The inscription reads, in part:

... ... 大事既周,提河示寂,碎黃金相為設利羅,育王鑄塔以緘藏耶。舍手光 而分佈,總有八萬四千所,而我中夏得一十九焉。金陵長幹寺塔,即第二所也 ... 舊基空列於蓁蕪,峞級孰興於佛事。 每觀藏錄,空積感傷.。 聖宋之有天下,封禪禮周,汾陰祀畢,乃有講律演化大師可政,塔就蒲津,願興 墜典。言告中貴,以事聞天,尋奉綸言,賜崇寺、塔。 同將仕郎、守滑州助教 王文,共為導首。率彼眾緣,於先現光之地,選彼名匠,造建磚塔,高二百尺, 八角九層,又造寺宇。--進呈感應舍利十顆,並佛頂真骨洎諸聖舍利,內用金 ....

....

棺,周以銀槨,並七寶造成阿育王塔,-以鐵--函安置。 即以大中祥符四年太 歲辛亥六月癸卯朔十八日庚申,備禮式設闔郭大齋,於皋際,庶-名數,永鎮坤 維。

塔主演化大師可政。助緣管勾賜紫善來,小師普倫。導首將仕郎、守滑州助教王 文,妻史氏十四娘,男凝、熙、規、拯 ... 僧正賜紫守邈宣慧大師齊吉,賜紫文 仲,僧仁相,紹之。舍舍利施護、守正、重航 ... ... 13

... When his business (teaching the laws) was done, the Buddha entered nirva¯n. a. His golden body was broken to make Sar ´ ¯ıras (relics), and King A´soka constructed stupas to encase them. The st ¯ upas were broadly distributed and in the total ¯ number of eighty-four thousand, there are nineteen of them in our country— Zhongxia [China]. The stupa at Changgan Monastery of Jinling is the second ¯ [A´soka stupa of China] ¯ ... The old foundation of the stupa [pagoda?] was seated ¯ alone in the wild, and the grand scale indicated that thriving Buddhist affairs had oncetakenplace.WheneverIreaditscollections,Icoulddonothingbutlament.

Since the establishment of the sacred Song Dynasty, the Feng-Shan ceremony has been completed, and the Fen-Yin sacrifice has been finished. Then, the lawpreaching Yanhua master Ke Zheng noted the pagoda's tendency to decline and hoped for its revival for practicing rituals. He turned to dignitaries and let the heaven (emperor) know of his proposal. Consequently, Kezheng received the emperor's decree and gran<sup>t</sup> to revive the monastery and pagoda. With Wang Wen, a Jiang Shilang or assistant teacher in the Hua prefecture, Kezhang shared the role of head director. He led the laypeople and selected celebrated craftsmen to participate in the construction of the brick pagoda at the site where light had radiated throughout history. The pagoda is octagon-shaped and nine-storied, and is two hundred chi in height. Then, they continued to build structures in the monastery. -- presented ten numinous-response relics, as well as the us.n.¯ıs.a of the Buddha and relics of holy monks. The relics are placed in nested reliquaries, which are golden, silver coffins, the A´soka Stupa made out of seven jewels, and ¯ the iron casket, in an outward order. On June 18, 1011, rituals were prepared and a large Zhai ceremony for the whole city was held. Next to the water, the interment is in hope for eternity.

The Yanhua master Kezheng in charge of the pagoda; Administrator of Buddhist affairs Shanlai; Monk Pulun; Head director Jiang Shilang; Assistant teacher of Hua Prefecture Wang Wen; his wife Shi Shisiniang; his sons Ning, Xi, Gui, Zheng ... Monks: Qiji, Wenzhong, Renxiang, Shaozhi ... Relic-donators: Shihu, Shouzheng, Chonghang . . . (NMIA 2015, p. 22)

According to this inscription, the cryp<sup>t</sup> was made as part of the True-Body Pagoda of the Song Changgan Monastery and dedicated to enshrining the relics presented by Shihu and others. The entire project was long and complicated. The monk Kezheng first sought recommendations from influential officials, with which he submitted a proposal to the emperor at court. After obtaining the emperor's permission, construction began under the supervision of multiple local officials responsible for religio-cultural affairs. In fact, there were more people who participated in this project than whose names are engraved on the stele; more traces can be found of many dedicatory and votive inscriptions on other objects. In the brief excavation report, the authors provide excerpts from inscriptions on the buried objects. They consist of over twenty engraved inscriptions on the surface of the A´soka stupa, the dedicatory inscriptions on the bottom of the gold and silver coffins, the ink ¯ inscription on the textiles, and the engraved inscriptions on the bricks. The inscriptions on the stupa are especially distinguished by their quantity and rich content, as they intensively ¯ and evenly cover the surface, from the sides and top of the body to the foot of the chattra (a triple umbrella form on the top of the structure) and the inward-facing sides of the

acroteria. Based on this textual evidence, we can infer additional categories of participants who did not appear in the stele inscription, such as monks from other monasteries (e.g., Siqi from the Chongsheng Monastery 崇 聖 寺); laypeople grouped by family ties (e.g., Chen Zhihe's 陳 知 厚 entire family); and individual laity (e.g., Xu Shouzhong 徐 守 忠 and Liu Yiniang 劉 氏 一 娘).<sup>14</sup> They not only offered financial support for the project, but also generously donated valuable personal belongings. For instance, a bronze mirror tied onto the chattra of the stupa was donated by the Buddhist disciple Yinwen ¯ 印 文, according to the ink inscriptions on its surface. Therefore, at least one hundred locals took part in this unusual project, regardless of occupation, gender, or social status.

#### **5. The Analysis of the Seven-Jeweled A´soka Stupa ¯**

The stupa is a single-storied, square container, primarily composed of a base, body, ¯ and summit. The base is low and square-shaped, with a row of four seated Buddhas in relief on each side. The four reliefs are placed horizontally and evenly spaced, forming an elegant frieze. Above the base is a cube-like container, which is the reliquary body. Each of the body's sides is engraved with a scene from the Jataka tales, including Prince Mah ¯ asattva ¯ giving his body to the hungry tigers, King Sibi saving a dove, King Candraprabha sacri- ´ ficing his head to a brahmin, and King Sudhira donating his eyes. Besides the Buddhist icons and traditional Chinese patterns, dedicatory inscriptions and auspicious phrases take up the rest of the empty space on the surface. A capital in the shape of a garuda—a golden-winged bird in Buddhist mythology—is welded on each side of the body's edge. The cubic body is topped with a sloping cornice pointing upward. Each side of this cornice is decorated with two reliefs of seated Buddhas, echoing the base's design, but here the reliefs flank a lion-head pattern surrounded by auspicious phrases and votive inscriptions, illuminating the secular feature of this stupa. ¯

On the top of the cornice, four acroteria in the shape of banana leaves occupy the four corners, whose outward-facing sides are decorated with a total of nineteen narrative scenes chosen from the biography of Buddha. Each of the eight sides is engraved with two or three images, arranged vertically and divided by fine lines. Likewise, the acroteria's inward-facing sides are vertically composed, showing a figure image above and a brief inscription below. Unlike the outward sides, which focus on the Buddha himself, the four inward sides portray a variety of Buddhist icons, including standing and seated buddhas, bodhisattvas, and heavenly guardian kings. Each side is dedicated to a particular figure exclusively. A long pole stands in the center of the top, decorated with a lotus-shaped pedestal. The pole goes up to thread five tiers of disks topped by a flame-shaped orb. Four golden chains, hung with numerous celestial bells, bridge the central pole and the four acroteria at the corners. The base, body, and acroteria are hollow to hold as many relics as possible.

As a reliquary, the design of this A´soka stupa adopts the elements of the A´ ¯ soka stupas ¯ popular in the Wuyue period. The key features that distinguish the Wuyue stupas are a ¯ single story; a square shape; a three-part composition made of a base, body, and summit; scenes from the Jataka tales on the body's four sides; and Buddhist icons on the corner ¯ acroteria. Although the gilt bronze and gilt iron stupas slightly vary in the details of their ¯ formal design and decoration, the identifying features have been preserved and were also employed in the construction of the Changgan A´soka stupa. ¯ 15 The Changgan Monastery is in today's Jiangsu Province, a territorial neighbor to Zhejiang Province, the core of the Wuyue Kingdom. The year of its construction, 1011, was within fifty years of the surrender of the Wuyue king and the annexation of his kingdom by the Song. Given this temporal and spatial affinity, the Changgan stupa is likely a direct legacy of the Wuyue st ¯ upas, and ¯ is considered to be an ideal form to worship the bodily relics of the Buddha (Figure 4).

**Figure 4.** Distribution map of the Wuyue-style stupas created in the mid-tenth century. (Blue boundaries: administrative ¯ prefectures of the Wuyue Kingdom. Red dots: sites of the stupas. Feature map: ( ¯ CHGIS 2016)).

The unique form of stupa was termed as such due to its association with an Indian ¯ architectural style alien to the traditions of China. Zhang Yuhuan 張馭寰contends that the form of the Baoqieyin Stupa (A´ ¯ soka Stupa ¯ 寶篋印塔) originated from the stupas of India ¯ and was later influenced by the artistic style of Gandhara. The form diffused throughout ¯ north India, eventually arriving in China (Zhang 2000, pp. 119–20). By examining early Buddhist stupas in India (third century–first century BCE) and innovative Gandh ¯ aran ¯ stupas (first–fifth century CE), Alexander Soper argues that several distinguishing features, ¯ namely, the square-shaped body, garuda capitals, and even the four-sided Jataka tales, ¯ all derive from Gandharan artistic innovations. For instance, the Anda or hemisphere ¯ dome is the core component that distinguishes the early Indian stupas from their descen- ¯ dants. However, after this architectural style spread to northern areas, the dome was gradually transformed into a squarish base and body components (Soper 1940, pp. 652–60; Chen 2006, pp. 63–64). Since the first century CE, the Gandharan-style st ¯ upas featuring a ¯ squarish base gradually spread eastwards to the Tarim basin and then to Central China (Whitefield 2018, pp. 88–89).

During the Han Dynasty (202 BCE–220 CE), the enhanced, bilateral connections between China and Central Asia undoubtedly accelerated the spread of Buddhism and the Gandharan art to inner China. For instance, King A´ ¯ soka dispatched missionary campaigns traveling from India to the Tarim Basin in northwest China, during which they successfully converted lots of local people to Buddhism (Whitefield 2018, p. 83). Likewise, from the second century BCE onward, Chinese people and the governmen<sup>t</sup> tended to move westward by means of marching, trade, pilgrimage, and so forth.<sup>16</sup> According to *Han shu* (History of the Han Dynasty 漢書), the Han empire established its official connections with the kingdoms to its west after the reign of Emperor Wu漢武帝 (ca. 156–87 BCE). The number of these kingdoms grew from thirty-six to some fifties in decades (Ban, 1962, p. 3871), which promised safety and reliable supplies to the travelers between China and Central Asia. Consequently, international communication flourished, resulting in frequent exchanges of goods, valuable objects, and agricultural products between China and the West.

Monks were crucial to the eager travelers who traveled in both directions, accelerating the spread of Buddhism across vast areas (Nakamura 1984, pp. 11–12; Dong 2021, pp. 181–84). According to many historical records, these monks not only helped promote Buddhist scriptures and practices (Palumbo 2012), but introduced the Gandharan style to ¯ Chinese Buddhist architecture.<sup>17</sup> For instance, the squarish base and body of the Gandharan ¯ stupa contributed to the design of Chinese square-shaped st ¯ upas and pagodas, and the ¯ four-sided Jataka tales inspired Chinese art-making during the fifth and sixth centuries ¯ (Rhie 2010, p. 362). In Chinese pictorial art, the representation of square stupas, single- or ¯ multi-storied, appeared as early as the Northern Wei (384–534) and Northern Qi (550–577) periods (Wang 2012, pp. 115–16).<sup>18</sup> There is more evidence to strengthen this argument, and an excellent example is the stupa in Mao County ¯ 鄮縣, also considered one of the nineteen A´soka Stupas in China. ¯

Legend has it that the Mao County stupa was discovered when the monk Liu Sahe ¯ found it "growing out" of the earth. Liu claimed that the unusual form of this stupa ¯ was similar to those of the foreign kingdom of Khotan (known in Chinese as Yutian 于 闐), to be imitated by the Wuyue A´soka stupas. ¯ 19 More importantly, the Mao County stupa was transferred to the capital of the Wuyue Kingdom and became the property ¯ of Qian Liu 錢鏐(852–932), grandfather of Qian Chu. This episode serves as evidence for scholars who have speculated that the stupa was a prototype of the miniature A´ ¯ soka stupas mass produced by Qian Chu. ¯ 20 In this view, patrons considered the originality and iconography of the reliquary stupa as verifying its authenticity and superiority. In respect ¯ to the Changgan stupa, the selection of this form was intentional, so that people would ¯ associate it with the A´soka cult and relic worship, establishing the site's place in history.

Furthermore, the Changgan stupa aspired to the significance of the Wuyue A´ ¯ soka stupas, commissioned by the ruling class as well as ordinary people. In the chronicles ¯ of *Fozu tongji* 佛祖統紀, "Wuyue King Qian Chu was naturally disposed to have faith in Buddhism. Admiring A´soka's building of the stupas, he [commissioned craftsmen] ¯ to manufacture eighty-four thousand [miniature] stupas using gilt copper and fine iron; ¯ inside [each] was deposited the *Baoqieyin xinzhou jing* (Sutra on the Heart Mantra of the ¯ Precious Chest Mudra¯ 寶篋印心咒經). [The stupas] were widely disseminated throughout ¯ [the kingdom]. This took in all ten years to complete" (Shi Zhiqin, 2012, p. 1018).<sup>21</sup> So far, only around thirty-five of Qian Chu's stupas have been found, seeming to sugges<sup>t</sup> ¯ that the original "eighty-four thousand stupas" was an exaggeration or a metaphor for ¯ devotion. Apart from the silver stupas dedicated to the bodily relics of Buddha at the ¯ Leifeng Pagoda 雷峰塔, most of Qian Chu's stupas were made exclusively to enshrine ¯ Dharma relics, in particular the *Sutra on the Heart Mantra of the Precious Chest Mudr ¯ a¯*.<sup>22</sup> In the Wuyue Kingdom, the commission of the A´soka Stupa was not only a privilege of kings ¯ but a trend among the ordinary laity, who seemingly competed with the imperial project in terms of quantity. To date, at least twenty-three replica A´soka stupas built by the laity have ¯ been discovered. Most temporally and spatially overlap Qian Chu's project during the Ten Kingdoms (902–979) and the Song Dynasty, and most have been found in southeast China. Benefitting from the popularity of this particular form and its techniques, the Changgan A´soka stupa, constructed later, can be considered a legacy of the Wuyue st ¯ upas, favored ¯ by all social classes. More important, the stupa's official name—the Seven-Jeweled A´ ¯ soka Stupa—indicates that this is the most venerated st ¯ upa in the ¯ *Lotus Sutra ¯* , and therefore surpasses the value of the Wuyue ones.<sup>23</sup> According to the sutra, the st ¯ upa is adorned ¯ with seven jewels, the hardest and most imperishable materials in the world, radiating, and it miraculously appears in front of the audience. It is not surprising to see that the Changgan stupa largely fits into its description, and demands a proper treatment of "made ¯

offerings ... reverently worshipping it, holding it in solemn esteem, and singing its praises" (Hurvitz 1976, p. 183).

#### *Interpretation of Distinguished Features from a Secular Perspective*

Admittedly, the Changgan stupa was made in the tradition of Chinese reliquary st ¯ upas, ¯ but further questions about its nature require answers. What distinguishes this stupa from ¯ other A´soka stupas? What do these features imply? Based on visual characteristics and ¯ textual sources, we can conclude that the stupa has three notable features. First, the scale ¯ of the Changgan stupa is massive, much larger than the A´ ¯ soka stupas of the Wuyue ¯ period. According to previous scholarship, the average height of the A´soka stupas in the ¯ Wuyue period was 30 centimeters, making them portable reliquaries.<sup>24</sup> In contrast, the Changgan stupa is 120 centimeters tall, four times the size of the Wuyue st ¯ upas, making ¯ it less portable. Second, its surface is heavily covered with inscriptions, including both auspicious phrases and dedicatory inscriptions (Figure 5). Among the inscriptions are "Long live the emperor 皇 帝 萬 歲", "Praise to important officials for 1000 years 重 臣 千 秋", "Peace for the masses in this world 天 下 民 安", and "Timely wind and rain 風 調 雨 順". The dedicatory inscriptions offer a detailed record of benefactors—their names, occupations, and donated objects—that is absent from the A´soka stupas commissioned by Wuyue King ¯ Qian Chu. Third, as a reliquary stupa, the A´ ¯ soka stupa is dedicated to bodily or Dharma ¯ relics exclusively, in a narrow interpretation of its function, with other offering objects placed outside of it in the hollow body of a stone casket. However, given the considerable space in the body of the Changgan stupa reliquary, many other relics and offering objects ¯ were stuffed inside, violating the defined role of the reliquary stupa and obfuscating its ¯ functionality.

**Figure 5.** Anonymous. Dedicatory inscriptions on the Changgan stupa. Courtesy of Zhou Baohua. ¯

The A´soka stupas commissioned by Wuyue King Qian Chu appear to be more elegant ¯ but stylistically less sophisticated than the Changgan stupa. With the exception of Buddhist ¯ icons and traditional decorative patterns, no ornaments can be seen on its surface. The only engraved text is a short dedicatory inscription from Qian Chu on the bottom (Figure 6): "The king of Wuyue, (Qian) Chu, has reverently made 84,000 precious stupas as eternal ¯ offerings, recorded in 955 or 965".<sup>25</sup> The creators' lack of interest in additional inscriptions is obvious, with no textual information on the surface of the gilt silver A´soka stupas at the ¯ Leifeng Pagoda; only images are visible. The purpose of creating these A´soka stupas, as ¯ Shi Zhiru points out, was to stress the Wuyue king's devotion to Buddhism and embody his political legitimacy by repeating King A´soka's feat of building eighty-four thousand stupas. ¯ 26 As the only owner of merit, Qian Chu did not need to express his religio-political aspirations explicitly. Rather, he reinforced his political position by imitating King A´soka's act of building and charging certain stupas with symbolic meaning. ¯

**Figure 6.** Qian Chu (commissioner). The bottom side of the A´soka Stupa, 965. Iron, Huangyan ¯ District Museum (Li 2009, p. 38).

The richness of quantity and content, highlighted by the inscriptions on the Changgan stupa and the offering objects within, may be due to its secular dedication as a counterpoint ¯ to the ideology of the ruling class. As mentioned earlier, similar votive inscriptions were found on handwritten scriptures by laypeople of the Tang Dynasty at Dunhuang, seeking the Buddha's blessing for their ancestors, family, and themselves (Yu 2011, pp. 167–68). However, in contrast with these inscriptions—composed, displayed, and taking effect individually—the votive inscriptions of the Changgan stupa, seen in numerous places on its surface as well as on the donated objects inside, show a diversity of gender, provenance, social class, and identity, forming a heterogeneous network that embodied the collective participation of local believers. There are at least thirty inscriptions that can be categorized into two groups. The first are the dedicatory inscriptions, typical on the surface of A´soka stupas, recording the donor's name, occupation, and details surrounding the donation. ¯ For instance, an inscription on the bottom of the gold coffin states: "Four *liang* of gold, donated by Wang Wen, the head of the community for building the Pagoda of the Changgan Monastery, Jiang Shilang, assistant teacher in the Hua Prefecture, and his wife Shi Shisiniang; three *liang* of gold, donated by Shao [?], Chonghui master in charge of the first A´soka stupa". ¯

The second group consists of votive inscriptions, represented by ink inscriptions on the textiles used to wrap the objects. These add the donor's vows to the basic information stated in the dedicatory inscriptions. For example, an inscription on a yellowish-brown silk cloth states:

高 郵 軍 左 廂 招 賢 坊 弟 子 荀 懷 義 謹 舍 水 晶 杯 一 隻,碧琉璃 杯 一 隻,白硨磲 念 珠 一 串,幸 遇 皇帝建 金 陵 長 幹 寺 阿 育 王 所 造 釋 迦 佛 真 身 舍 利 塔,下 收 葬 供 養 舍 利。 所 願劫劫生生 長 承 佛 護。 時 大 宋 大 中 祥 符 三 年 - 月 - 日,弟 子 荀 - 記.

Xun Huai, a Buddhist disciple from Zhaoxian Lane, Junzuo Xiang of Gaoyou, reverently donated a crystal cup, a green-glass cup, and a string of prayer beads made of white shells. Fortunately, I had a chance to contribute to the construction of the True-Body Pagoda, built by King A´soka to intern the relics for enshrinement and worship, under the emperor's commission. I wish for the eternal protection of the Buddha, in the date [?] of 1010, recorded by the disciple Xun [?]. (Figure 7; NMIA 2015, p. 41)

**Figure 7.** Xun Huai (donor). Silk wrapping, 1011, yellowish-brown, Nanjing Museum. Courtesy of Zhou Baohua.

Other inscriptions include four-character auspicious phrases, such as "Long live the emperor" and a Buddhist poem.

Apparently, the local Buddhist community was inclusive, heterogeneous, and collective, its participants drawn from a wide swath of society, from local officials to monks and ordinary believers. The community was also cohesive and collaborated on this project under the guidance of its leaders, Kezheng and Wang Wen. Since the producers of merits were the entire community, the contributions of every member of the community, including their vows, needed to be clearly documented. This was different from what Qian Chu had done with his stupas. The contents of the votive inscriptions not only pertained to ¯ religious pursuits such as Buddha's protection and the rebirth of the deceased in Buddhist lands, but also revealed several secular hopes, such as good wishes for the emperor and the country's prosperity. These secular desires indicate the diverse expectations and feelings of the common people. Given that utilitarianism and practicality are prominent features of folk Buddhism, it is reasonable to suspect that ordinary people with limited education were not engaged with Buddhist theology. Rather, their emphasis was on Buddhist practices said to produce merit, to be rewarded either in this life or the afterlife.<sup>27</sup> The increasing and consistent participation of ordinary believers in Buddhist affairs accelerated the processes of simplification, socialization, and secularization in folk Buddhism.

Further evidence has been found to explain the uncommon features of the Changgan stupa by comparing it to other st ¯ upas or Buddhist projects locally commissioned during ¯ the Wuyue and Song eras. The imitation A´soka stupas, commissioned by Wuyue laity, ¯ share with the Changgan stupa the engraved inscriptions that provide patrons' names ¯ and occupations, dates, and the purposes of the commissions. For instance, two bronze A´soka stupas were excavated at the site of the Qiyuan Monastery ¯ 祇園寺 in Xiaoshan in 1966. A dedicatory inscription carved on the rim of the stupa body's top states that "the ¯ disciple Xia Chenghou and his wife Lin Yiniang, with their entire family, donated all their money to create the two stupas for true-body relics. In fear of the ample sinful and Dharma ¯ hindrance which we pray to eliminate, we hope to undertake the good and reach the pure land in the West; recorded on the 3rd of November, 958" (Figure 8; Chen 2011, p. 34). These inscriptions are similar to those on the Changgan stupa and offering objects in terms ¯ of their locations on the object, their medium, and their contents. The more people who participated in a project, the more diverse their hopes and wishes. Moreover, with more people involved, the roles of the reliquary became more complex, as we know from the Changgan stupa. In this sense, the reliquary st ¯ upa per se is no longer strictly defined as a ¯ container for relic deposits, but a container of laypeople's hopes.

**Figure 8.** Xia Chenghou (commissioner). The upper side of the body of the A´soka Stupa, 958. Bronze, ¯ Xiaoshan District Museum (Li 2009, p. 42).

The Changgan stupa needs to be temporally contextualized from a political and ¯ religious perspective so as to facilitate a better explanation of its uncommon features. In the early Song Dynasty, the emperors were often ambivalent about Buddhist affairs and enacted moderate policies towards them in order to maintain social stability and win the support of the people. In its first sixty or seventy years, the Song court also used Buddhism to link China and Central Asia, welcoming Western monks to China to promote Buddhism and translate sutras. Song Zhenzong, the third emperor of the Song Dynasty, was no ¯ exception. He was committed to reconciling Buddhism with Confucian ethics in order to cultivate society.<sup>28</sup> According to the stone stele of the cryp<sup>t</sup> and historical documents, we know that the us . n . ¯ ıs .<sup>a</sup> enshrined in the cryp<sup>t</sup> was a gift from the monk Danapala from Udgana in Northern India. This gift fits with Song Zhenzong's support for Western monks. However, at the same time, the Song court appeared more conservative in its approach to Buddhism, compared to many Tang emperors' devotion to Buddhism. In practice, the Song court intervened more in Buddhist activities and monastic management. For example, the Northern Song emperors inherited the policy of "Request and Grant Plaques" introduced by the Tang emperors to establish their authority in Buddhist affairs, which aimed to control the quantity and scale of monasteries.<sup>29</sup>

According to the stone stele of the crypt, the titles of Changgan Monastery and the True-Body Pagoda were granted by Song Emperor Zhenzong. Their construction and the relic worship subsequently associated with them could not have occurred without the emperor's endorsement. Under these circumstances, any Buddhist activities must have been dependent on political authority and demonstrated obedience to the ruling class. Therefore, it is understandable why the four auspicious phrases, though unrelated to Buddhism, appear prominently on the stupa. ¯

The first cave of the Gezitou Grotto 閣子頭石窟 was commissioned by laypeople and finished in 1112, near the end of the Northern Song Dynasty. In it, there are similar four-character auspicious phrases, including "Long live the emperor", "Praise ministers for a thousand years", "Stable state and peaceful life", and "Timely wind and rain", (Yuan 1986, pp. 12–13). These secular and political vows reflect the dependence of the local Buddhist community on imperial power, and the compromises they made in its name. They also reflect the extension of folk beliefs to the religious sphere.

Because of its scale, the construction of the cryp<sup>t</sup> and the enshrinement of the us.n.¯ıs.a must have involved a considerable number of participants. Their success likely lay in the organization and managemen<sup>t</sup> of the local Buddhist community. Beginning in the Tang Dynasty, with the spread of Buddhism and the urban population growth, relic worship evolved from an elite culture dominated by royalty and the aristocracy to a collective activity accessible to all social classes.<sup>30</sup> Important projects such as the worship of truebody relics demanded the collaboration of many to pool human, material, and financial resources. Since the late Tang, local Buddhist communities, called *Sheyi* 社邑, *Yiyi*邑義, or *Yihui*邑會, had emerged, forming a stable organization in the Northern Song Dynasty. These communities were often centered at a particular Buddhist monastery and engaged in organizing Buddhist activities, celebrating Buddhist festivals, or participating in the construction of Buddhist structures (Gao 2017, pp. 251–52; Teiser 2020, pp. 157–59). Since many communities maintained a high degree of inclusiveness and publicized their activities, membership included ordinary believers, lay Buddhists, and local officials. The inscriptions on the stele and other buried objects specify who held the positions of "head director" and "head of the community." Under their guidance and management, ordinary believers could contribute to and accelerate these projects.
