尺寸：Image: 72 3/8 × 44 1/8 in. (183.8 × 112.1 cm)
年代：明代(1593年)
质地：Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk
风格：明代宫廷 中原
来源：纽约大都会博物馆
参阅：外部链接
鉴赏：
Guanyin as the Nine-Lotus Bodhisattva

In the summer of 1586, nine lotus flowers in the Ming imperial palace issued double blooms, a rare occurrence that was seen as an auspicious omen. That the flowers bloomed in the residence of the Empress Dowager Cisheng, mother of the emperor, was particularly favorable, for Cisheng was a devout Buddhist who had dreamed of her own incarnation as Guanyin. This painting is one of several Cisheng commissioned to celebrate the occasion. The composition, which places the boy pilgrim Shancai (Sudhana, in Sanskrit) before a maternal bodhisattva in a palace setting, strongly suggests that we are meant to see Cisheng as Guanyin. The square red seals in the upper left belong to Cisheng and her son, Emperor Wanli.

1586年夏，明朝皇宫中有九株莲花绽放出双层花瓣，这一罕见景象被视为祥瑞之兆。尤为吉利的是，这些莲花盛开于皇帝生母慈圣皇太后的居所，而慈圣皇太后是一位虔诚的佛教徒，曾梦到自己转世为观音菩萨。这幅画作便是慈圣皇太后为庆贺此祥瑞而命人绘制的数幅画作之一。画作构图将少年行者善财（梵语为“苏达那”）置于宫殿中一位慈母般的菩萨像前，强烈暗示着慈圣皇太后被比作观音菩萨。左上角的方形红印为慈圣皇太后及其子万历皇帝所用之印。

铭文:
Artist’s inscription (1 column in standard script)

Made in the guisi year of the Wanli reign era of the great Ming dynasty [1593].

大明萬曆癸巳年製。

Collectors’ seals

Cisheng Empress Dowager 慈聖皇太后 (mother of the Shenzong Emperor, d. 1614)

慈聖宣文明肅皇太后之寶

Ming emperor Shenzong 明神宗 (r. 1572–1620)

讚曰：惟我聖母，慈仁格天。感斯嘉垂，闕產瑞蓮。加大士像，圖寫流傳。延國福民，齊壤同堅。

来源:
[Yamanaka & Co. , until 1918; sold to MMA]

展览:
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. “Manifestations of the Merciful Bodhisattva: Kannon,” 1989.
New York. Asia Society. “The Story of a Painting: The Korean Buddhist Treasure from the Burke Foundation,” April 23, 1991–July 28, 1991.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. “Traditional Scholarly Values at the End of the Qing Dynasty: The Collection of Weng Tonghe (1830–1904),” June 30–January 3, 1999.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. “The World of Scholars' Rocks: Gardens, Studios, and Paintings,” February 1–August 20, 2000.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. “A Millennium of Chinese Painting: Masterpieces from the Permanent Collection,” September 8, 2001–January 13, 2002.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. “Great Waves: Chinese Themes in the Arts of Korea and Japan II,” March 22–September 21, 2003.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. “Secular and Sacred: Scholars, Deities, and Immortals in Chinese Art,” September 10, 2005–January 8, 2006.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. “Another World Lies Beyond: Chinese Art and the Divine,” August 24, 2019–January 5, 2020.