Material Evidence of an Apocryphon: Earliest Illustrations of the Visualization Sutra

A wall painting in Cave 20 at Toyuq in Turfan, Xinjiang and a stone relief in the Central Cave at Xiaonanhai in Henan are the earliest illustrations (6th century) of the Visualization Sutra. They offer new perspectives to understand the early practices of this apocryphon.
I argue the painting on the south wall of Cave 20 features the first seven visualizations as well as the twelfth visualization taught in the sutra, but not Manichean imageries. The inscriptions are not congruent to the scripture text as they were composed based on the need of visualization, not intended as sutra engraving. Moreover, the main wall demarcating the front and rear chambers, with an entrance opened on it, painted with various representations of “lotus pond with reborn figures,” embody the gateway toward the Western Pure Land. The back chamber was likely to have enshrined the images of the Amitābha Triad, aiding the four visualizations associated with them, namely the eighth, ninth, eleventh and thirteenth. The Impure Visualizations assisted by the painting on the north wall were performed as preliminary meditations to prepare the meditators for the Pure Land Visualizations, by improving their meditational concentration and karma.
By contrast, the Xiaonanhai relief emphasizes the final chapters of the sutra, the “Nine Grades of Rebirth,” which are not related to meditation. I consider the relief a didactic image to enhance practitioners’ confidence, under the idea of “the Ending of Dharma (mofa).” “Nine Grades of Rebirth” were possibly a Chinese interpolation, nurtured by such an anxiety.