● Silk
● Album leaf
● Significant Antiquity

The Śūraṅgama Sutra records how the Buddha asked bodhisattvas and arhats to teach his disciple Ananda their paths to enlightenment, or “perfect penetration”: six through sensory stimuli (the Six Dusts), six through sensory faculties (the Six Organs), six through consciousness (the Six Consciousnesses), and seven through the elements that compose the world (the Seven Elements). Together these bodhisattvas and arhats form a distinct group embodying the sutra's understanding of the origin of all things.

    This album was painted by Wu Bin, a devout Buddhist and one of the late Ming masters known for their eccentric and distorted style. His pattern-like forms capture the serene stillness these enlightened figures attain, reflecting both the sutra's popularity at the time and the way lay Buddhist painters gave visual expression to its teachings.

    The names and sequence inscribed on this album are not entirely accurate. This exhibition presents the paintings in two rotations, following the sequence introduced above. The first features the Six Dusts and the Six Organs, while the second features the Six Consciousnesses and the Seven Elements.
 
 

This piece was created by building up dozens of layers of red lacquer and then carving decorative patterns. The technique is commonly used to depict landscapes, flowers and birds, and figures, the knife taking the place of the brush to yield the beauty of both carving and painting. Here, crisp cuts render birds and flowers on the four sides, while the lid shows the Three Star Gods gazing upon a taiji diagram.

The three gods rose from discrete star worship traditions. Longevity is identified with Canopus, the Old Man Star of the South Pole, credited in early texts with governing long life; Fortune grew from the cult of Jupiter, later merged with the Taoist Celestial Official who confers blessings; Prosperity derives from the star god presiding over official rank. By the time of the Ming dynasty, the three had been combined into a single auspicious group, celebrated on stage in Zhu Youdun's play The Immortal Officials of Fortune, Prosperity, and Longevity Gather in Celebration  and widely taken up as a motif in painting and the decorative arts.

Shaped like a bamboo stalk, this ivory wrist rest bears the Star of Longevity on the outside. The inner surface, carved in high relief and openwork, depicts the Eight Immortals crossing the sea in a dense, lively composition of figures, rocks, and waves.

The term “Eight Immortals” appears in Lihuolun  (Treatise Settling Doubts), where it referred to immortals in general rather than a fixed group. From the Song and Yuan dynasties on, legends of individual immortals gradually coalesced into various groupings and were popularized through drama and fiction. By the time of the Ming dynasty, the group we are most familiar with today had taken shape, embodying seven types of identity: old, young, general, scholar, noble, sick, and woman, reflecting the era's varied visions of the path to immortality.

This piece incorporates the story of the Eight Immortals into a scholar's object that is both useful and delightful. The masterfully layered carving showcases the full refinement of the ivory-carving craft.
 

This work features two smiling monks facing each other. The standing figure holds a lotus, while the seated one leans against a round box. Together they form the Two Immortals of Harmony and Union, a traditional symbol of harmony between people and the joy of reunion.

The role was originally held by a single monk-deity Wanhui, who was believed to reunite families separated by great distances. By the Ming dynasty, he had given way to Hanshan and Shide, a pair of monks celebrated for their close friendship and revered as guardians of marital harmony and family happiness. In 1733, the Yongzheng Emperor formally titled them the Saint of Harmony and the Saint of Union, thus cementing their status. On this object carved from a bamboo root, the figures follow the material's natural form and grain. The masterful carving captures the pair's warm, animated expressions, embodying the harmony and joy they represent.

● Significant Antiquity
The two medallions on the vase's body each depict nine arhats, together forming the Eighteen Arhats. Each figure is holding a distinct object and gesturing differently, with richly varied expressions. Around the medallions, floral scrolls and brocade patterns fill the vase's surface in an opulent decorative style.
Arhats, or luohan, were originally practitioners who attained the highest stage of enlightenment within the Hearer vehicle, later revered as holy monks who remain in the world to protect the Buddhist teachings. The Record on the Duration of the Dharma , translated by Xuanzang in the seventh century, names sixteen arhats and became a key source for the arhat cult. The grouping of eighteen took shape later, with differing accounts of the two additional figures. From about the Yuan dynasty on, the most common Chinese versions include the Dragon-Subduing and Tiger-Taming Arhats, both depicted here.

This vase's enamel decoration was painted directly on its surface. The Qing court's painted enamel technique, inspired by European enamelware, was developed under the Kangxi emperor and furthered under Yongzheng and Qianlong. Qianlong-era works often favored figural subjects as decoration, as is shown on this vase.

 

Carved from smooth, lustrous jade, this lotus-shaped bowl has the images of seven Buddhas in the lotus petals on its body. The lid's petal-shaped surface is carved with the Wheel of Dharma, Conch Shell, Paired Fish, Parasol, Victory Banner, Endless Knot, and Treasure Vase, which, together with the bowl's lotus form, create the Eight Auspicious Symbols of Buddhism.

The seven Buddhas depicted are the “Seven Buddhas of the Past”: Vipashyin, Shikhin, Vishvabhu, Krakucchanda, Kanakamuni, Kashyapa, and Sakyamuni himself. The first three belong to the past Adornment Kalpa and the remaining four to the present Worthy Kalpa, expressing an unbroken succession of Buddhas and continuous transmission of the Dharma.

In 1757, while touring Suzhou, the Qianlong Emperor saw an ancient alms bowl at Kaiyuan Temple carved with the Seven Buddhas. Struck by its antique elegance, he ordered the imperial workshop to reproduce it, and other Seven Buddhas Themed objects in jade, wood, and other materials followed. This bowl is one such work.