Historical Studies (Chinese Edition)

No.3, 2018

 

From a Tribal Chieftain to a Huaxia Official: The Creation of the Shedigan Grotto and Tribal Memory (Abstract)

 

Wei Bin

 

Located at the Liangshanxia (two mountain gorges)in the north of Tangxian County, Hebei Province, the Shedigan Grotto was built in memory of their successful praying for rain by Shedigan, provincial governor of Dingzhou, and the monks under his leadership, in the third year of the Wuding reign of the Eastern Wei dynasty (545 C.E.). Its inscriptions on the tablet record the motivations for the building of the grotto monastery, as well as the history of the Shedigan clan. The grotto can be associated with the description of a lost statue in Liu Shipei’s collection of essays, Zuoanji. Thus it can be seen that the grotto was originally called the □Water Grotto Monastery (□shuishikusi), and the master of the temple was the Buddhist monk Daoneng. Its creation can be understood in the context of the traditions of official worship and temple construction that started in the Han and Jin dynasties. Underlying this was the continuation and transformation of the political culture of local officialdom under the influence of Buddhism. The tablet inscriptions narrate a history of the Shedigan clan in which locations, chiefdom and lineage are the main elements; they contain the memory ofthe tribal identity of a chieftain who led his people from Huaishuo Town. The Shedigan Grotto demonstrates the multi-layered connotations of official customs, Buddhist and local folk beliefs and customs, and memories of tribal history. As such, it is an important site for the observation and understanding of continuity and change in the historical landscapes of the Han and Jin dynasties under the influence of Buddhism and the northern tribes.