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Tiangong Louge in Eastern Pure Land Illustrations You & Zhu

1.3 “Palace of the Heavenly Joy” in the billion Sons of Heaven, who build
Maitreya Pure Land illustration palaces with divine rapture to donate
There is a close relationship among the Maitreya Bodhisattva who is in the Stage
illustration of Maitreya’s Birth, the Western of One Life to Replacement.”
Pure Land illustration, and the Healing (2) When Maitreya was born by
Master of Sutra illustration. They are often transformation, “he sat on the lion seat in
arranged opposite one another in Dunhuang the Mani Hall in the Seven-Jewel-Tower
Cave. For details, see Appendix 2 in the in the Tuṣita Heaven and was suddenly
Research on Suo Yibian Cave of Dunhuang born by transformation, sitting cross-
Mogao Caves by Li Jinjuan: legged atop lotus flowers.”
“Correspondence Table of the North and (3) There is a deity named Rḍḍhibhadra. He
South Walls of the Main Chamber of Mogao built the “Good Dharma Lecture Hall”
Caves (after the Sui dynasty)” [5] . It can be (Sudharman) for Maitreya to preach the
seen that the Palace of the Heavenly Joy in the dharma.
illustration of Maitreya’s Birth, the “Void and
Adornment” in the Western Pure Land By rounding up these scripts, it can be
illustration and the Healing Master Sutra seen that there is a majestic palace in the
illustration are paralleled to tiangong louge in Tushita Heaven, which was built by 50 billion
Buddha niches in Yingzao Fashi. Sons of Heaven using bhagyata (luck, power
In Buddhism, “heaven” is divided into 28 of wisdom) to donate Maitreya Buddha and
levels. These 28 heavens exist within three has Mani Hall in it. The lion seat in the Seven-
different realms: the desire realm, the form Jewel Tower in the Mani Hall is where
realm, and the formless realm. The fourth Maitreya was born by transformation. He sat
heaven in the desire realm is Maitreya’s cross-legged atop lotus flowers the moment
“Heavenly Joy.” In the three realms of he was born. There is also the “Good Dharma
Buddhism, the formless realm cannot be Lecture Hall” (Sudharman) in the palace for
depicted graphically and the desire and form Maitreya to preach the dharma. As for
realms are basically nominal except individual buildings like the palace, the Mani
“Heavenly Joy.” “Heavenly Joy” had been Hall and the Good Dharma Lecture Hall in the
gradually understood in a Chinese way, for scripture, as Xiao Mo pointed out:
example, in the Romance of the Western For a majority of the pictures that depict
Chamber (Xixiang Ji) by Wang Shifu in the the image of buildings, their original aim is
Yuan dynasty (1271‒1368), there is a not to demonstrate buildings in man’s world,
dialogue: “This is Tushita Palace. Don't but to demonstrate the “Kingdom of Heaven”,
assume it to be the heaven of Separation's i.e., the Western Pure Land and the Tushita
Regret.” The heaven of Separation's Regret is Palace described in the Amitayurbhavana
the highest of the 33 heavens in Daoism, the Sutra, the Amitabha Sutra, the Previous Life
altar of the Supreme Venerable Sovereign of the Maitreya Bodhisattva Sutra…But the
(Taishang Laojun). In Wu Cheng'en’s novel root of the Kingdom of Heaven is not in
the Journey to the West (Xi You Ji) of the mid- heaven, but on Earth. The so-called Kingdom
Ming dynasty, the Supreme Venerable of Heaven is created by people according to
Sovereign was simply placed in the Tushita the mode of the real world. As a particular
Palace. mural image, they are even likely very
[7]
The depiction of “Tushita Palace” in the accurate reflection of real-world things .
illustration is mainly based on three passages Bai Huawen also argued that they were
in the Sutra of the Contemplation of Maitreya “mostly dramatized and idealized based on
Bodhisattva's Ascent to Tushita Heaven large Buddhist temple buildings between the
Spoken by the Buddha: Southern and Northern dynasties [420‒581]
[8]
(1) Maitreya was reborn in the Palace of the and the Sui and Tang dynasties [581‒907]” .
Heavenly Joy, where “there are 50 This means that buildings in illustrations like

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