Baimiao Lohans,

1580

Figure painting of the Baimiao Lohan (luohan 羅漢) with attendants and auspicious animals in a baimiao 白描 fine-line style of gossamer fineness on a blank background. "Lohan" (Sanskrit: arhat) are enlightened personages entrusted by the Buddha to serve as worldly guardians of the Buddhist Law. The scroll begins at far right with two fierce guardians of the Buddhist Law dressed in martial costume. The second guardian can be identified as Weituotian or Skanda. The next scene centers on an elephant carrying scriptures symbolizing the Buddhist Law on its back with flanking foreign grooms and an young servant boy. After these introductory sections, starting from the sixth figure, the remaining scroll portrays the Eighteen Luohan with attendants, worshipers, and auspicious animals. The final two figures, at far left, portray a scholar with and attendant holding books, allowing the scroll to end as it began—with books. Prof. Richard Kent in his Princeton dissertation has suggested this last figure may be a "self-portrait, included by Ding immediately adjacent to his inscription in which he refers to himself as a 'Son of the Dharma-king' (Buddha)." The full inscription of eleven characters in a single column reads: "During the summer of the year 1580, respectfully painted by Ding Yunpeng, a Son of the Dharma-king."