|
S19: "Homage to the bodhisattva Guanshiyin [a.k.a. Guanyin]" |
| Large image |
| Additional Scrolls |
| Main Gates |
| Comments |
You can zoom in and move around the image.Detailed instructionsUsing a mouse:Click anywhere on the image to zoom in. Hold the mouse button down and drag to move around the image, or click the control buttons at the bottom of the image window to zoom in, zoom out or pan around.Use the  button to return to the default view.Use the  button to view full screen (not in Flash version).Use the navigator in the top left corner to move around the image once zoomed in - just click inside the area highlighted in red and drag with your mouse to the section you'd like to view. Alternative keyboard shortcuts:
|
Single Scroll 19
Technically not a hell scroll but accidentally included among others I had purchased, this scroll is dedicated to Guanshiyin [a.k.a. Guanyin], its label reading "A place for paying homage to bodhisattva Guanshiyin." The last character meaning "place" or "placeholder" (wei) is regularly found at the bottom of spirit tablets that mark where that particular spirit will be honored, somewhat like a reservation card on a table at a restaurant. While Guanyin regularly appears as a savior figure in hell scrolls - see E1, I3, J9 and S18 for examples - her depiction here is somewhat different.
The ritual of feeding hungry ghosts 施食
In her book Kuan-yin: The Chinese transformation of Avalokitesvara (pp. 325-328), Chün-fang Yü describes how Guanyin became focal in a popular late-imperial ritual for feeding hungry ghosts. "Together with the ghost festival and plenary mass, the ritual of feeding hungry ghosts is one of the three major Buddhist mortuary rituals performed for the benefit of one's relatives as well as all sentient beings." The ritual began when Ananda was visited by a hungry ghost named "Burning Face" - Guanyin's wrathful manifestation - who scared Ananda into making a particular kind of food sacrifice that would "be the most effective means of delivering one's dead relatives from hell." Yü then explains:
If all these ritual procedures are properly performed, the hungry ghosts will be released from hell to be reborn as human beings or in the Pure Land. Kuan-yin's role is conspicuously prominent throughout the entire ritual. A picture of the hungry ghost Burning Face, the putative originator of the ritual, is placed on the altar facing the assembled monks. When the ritual begins, the Great Compassion Dharani and a hymn praising Kuan-yin are chanted before the altar enshrining the Burning Face. A hymn called "Pure Willow and Water" is then chanted to purify the ritual space....
This scroll seems to be the image that's placed on the altar, and Chün-fang Yü (through personal correspondence) agrees that this hypothesis seems likely, adding that this is the first painting of Guanyin's wrathful "Burning Face" avatar that she's seen. If so, Guanyin is here presumably holding a willow branch in her right hand and a bottle of purified water in her left, entirely appropriate for the "Pure Willow and Water" hymn being sung. The rest of the image is devoted to the ritual space.
(Image: 61 X 116 cm.)