Symbols and Rebuses in Chinese Art: Figures, Bugs, Beasts, and Flowers Book

The title of this book is a conundrum: two and a half millenia ago, Shakyamuni had a great insight that the understanding that all things are impermanent and that freedom lay in detachment. Art and architecture, things that last, would seem arguments against his perspective (although the Tibetans do create and destroy intricate mandalas). Buddhist history, on the other hand, provides some support for his original thought, since Buddhism can now hardly be found in the first two great cultures where it took hold, India and China. Even students of religion can find the history of Buddhism difficult, with its split between those who still hold individual enlightenment as the greatest goal and those who believe in more general salvation, including the tenets of Pure Land, which can look very much like Christian salvation; the elaborate pantheon of Tibet; the worship of relics in Southeast Asia; the "esoteric" sects with their emphasis on hidden knowledge; even the more familiar Zen branch, with its reverence for lineages of masters. Somehow, Fisher explains these very different interpretations springing from the same religious insight with great clarity. This is really not just an examination of the pleasures of Buddhist art but, quite simply, the best history of Buddhism itself that I have ever encountered.