The Eighteen Sages of the Lotus Society
Qing dynasty (1644–1911), 18th–19th century
- Medium
- Handscroll; ink and color on silk
- Classification
- Painting
- Dimensions
- 30 × 316.5 cm (11 13/16 × 124 5/8 in.)
- Culture
- China
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Arts of Asia
- Credit line
- Gift of Mrs. Chauncey McCormick
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Little Ones profiles and older: it shows gentle subjects for the very young. How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
This painting depicts a legendary gathering of the White Lotus Society, which was founded by a monk named Huiyan who lived during the Eastern Jin dynasty (317–420). He and his followers focused their practice on visualizing Buddha Amitābha. But surviving paintings of the White Lotus Society show the assembled members performing a ritual before Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī, who appears atop the lion he used as a vehicle. This confusion of the deities originated in the apocryphal text The Hagiographies of the Eighteen Noble Worthies of the Lotus Society, which served as the basis for this painting.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
