Cultural Notes

1. Apsara (Feitian):

The apsara is a classic image in Buddhist art, originating in the cultures of ancient India and the Western Regions, and blending into Chinese art as Buddhism spread eastward. The Mogao Caves of Dunhuang preserve a vast number of apsara murals spanning many dynasties, and as the eras passed, the apsara's clothing, poses, and style each took on their own distinct character. Among these, the apsaras of the Tang dynasty are especially renowned for their full, rounded forms, billowing sashes, and lively, graceful dance postures, and have become the most iconic representation of the Dunhuang apsara for later generations.

The "patron" (gongyangren) refers to those who funded the excavation and construction of a cave, offering it as an act of religious merit; their likenesses and inscriptions were often painted directly into the caves as well.

2. The Reverse-Pipa Apsara:

The apsara playing the pipa behind her back in this novel is modeled on the musician-deity depicted below the "Illustration of the Contemplation Sutra on the Buddha of Immeasurable Life" on the east side of the south wall of Cave 112 at the Mogao Caves, painted during the mid-Tang period. In it, the lead dancer holds her pipa turned backward, dancing and stepping in time to the music of the Pure Land, her sash unfurling as she moves, her expression and bearing full of life and grace, offering music and dance in devotion to the Buddha — one of the most iconic musician-deities found among all the murals of Dunhuang.

In its introduction to Cave 112, the Dunhuang Academy notes specifically: "Though no painter's name is inscribed, the work must surely have come from the hand of a great master."

"Apsara" (feitian) is, in fact, a fairly broad, general term. The celestial beings depicted in the Dunhuang murals take many different forms — scattering flowers, playing music, dancing — and those shown playing music and dancing are often referred to specifically as "musician-deities" (jiyuetian).

3. Zhuangzi, "The Secret of Caring for Life":

"When I first began cutting up oxen, all I saw was the ox itself, entire. After three years, I no longer saw the whole ox. Now, I meet it with my spirit, not with my eyes. My senses come to rest, and my spirit moves as it will..."

The Zhuangzi emphasizes transcending the divisions of the senses, so that mind and spirit might merge in harmony with all things. Buddhism, too, speaks of the "Dharma gate of nonduality," holding that one must transcend the opposition between self and other, subject and object. Wang Erlang's realization in the novel — that "it is one, not two" — draws on this very point of convergence shared between these two schools of thought.

4. Amrita and the Water of Eight Virtues:

What Buddhism calls "amrita" derives from the Sanskrit amṛta, meaning "deathless," and is described as the food of the heavenly beings, sweet as honey to the taste; Buddhist scriptures frequently use amrita as a metaphor for the Dharma and for nirvana itself. According to the Sutra on the Buddha of Infinite Life Praised and Received, translated by the monk Xuanzang, the seven-jeweled ponds of the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss contain "water of eight virtues," among whose virtues are counted "clarity," "sweetness," and "tranquility."