明　佚名　李公麟 偽款　白蓮社圖　卷|White Lotus Society

Li Gonglin|Unidentified artist

14th or 15th century · Handscroll; ink on paper · Asian Art

In 386 CE, Huiyuan, founder of the Pure Land sect of Buddhism, built a monastery at the foot of Mount Lu in Jiangxi Province. This became the meeting point for his newly founded White Lotus Society—a group of scholars and monks from China, India, and Central Asia—to discuss and debate the Buddhist faith, which was still relatively new to China. Included in the group were men now best remembered for their poetry, including Tao Yuanming and Xie Lingyun. Images of the White Lotus Society later become popular as painting subjects; this copy, likely made in the fifteenth century, purports to preserve a version by the Northern Song master Li Gonglin.

Artist

Li Gonglin|Unidentified artist

Date

14th or 15th century

Medium

Handscroll; ink on paper

Culture

China

Department

Asian Art

Credit line

John Stewart Kennedy Fund, 1913