Shaping the Lotus Sutra

This is an original, productive approach to the study of medieval sacred space, and the book makes good on its promise to propose new theoretical models to analyze spatial and conceptual continuity above and below ground. As always, Wang's approach is fresh and provocative: his trenchant phrasing offers a new, sometimes idiosyncratic perspective on old material.

Shaping the Lotus Sutra is a beautifully illustrated book that connects a dazzling array of visual objects under the intellectual auspices of notions of Chinese medieval world making. . . . it offers a fresh and at time provocative perspective on unsolved problems of Chinese Buddhist art. . . . it is certain to foster more lively discussion and debate. And that is no small achievement.

Shaping the Lotus Sutra provides novel perspectives for deciphering the medieval Buddhist representation.

Eugene Wang has written a challenging, clever, dense and provocative book that is bursting at the seams with insights and ideas. . . . The University of Washington Press deserves our thanks for producing this nicely-made book, which is profusely illustrated and not too expensive for what one gets.

Eugene Wang has succeeded in producing a careful examination of the creation of paradisiacal imagery in the Lotus Sutra..Wang's accomplishment is considerable. Deftly, he applies literary, historical, and scriptural references to visual materials..Wang has achieved visual literacy in reading representations of the Lotus Sutra in medieval China.

This book, abundantly illustrated, clarifies the intricate and complex relationships that link the Lotus Sutra with some of its medieval Chinese expressions. Exploration of these issues and themes would be enough to make this book a worthwhile study, but the real attraction here is the rich interpretive perspectives that Wang applies to medieval Chinese transformation tableaux. Staid scholarly views wither as he applies broad knowledge to his explication of Chinese imagery and the tangled relationship between text and image. This book is highly recommended for those who seek a markedly nuanced view of medieval Chinese Buddhist imagery, and its relationship to texts specifically and to medieval Chinese cultural more generally.

Wang's remarkable use of materials and sheer intellectual verve makes one almost feel as if the 1400-year-old Chinese mind has indeed been pried open and revealed its secrets.. Wang's elucidation of this world is a stunning work of intellectual bravado.

The scholarship embodied in Shaping the Lotus Sutra will have a significant impact on Buddhist art scholarship, raising it to a new level of sophistication, insight, and nuance.

The depth and breadth of the visual evidence [Wang] has marshaled is dazzling, as are the intricate connections he draws among the many sources, both literary and visual. . . . All in all, the book is an extraordinary achievement and a must for any collection with a global compass in religion and the arts.

Shaping the Lotus Sutra ranges over a dazzling array of topics, all of them fascinating and all tied to the central goal of illuminating the visual logic of medieval Buddhist art.

I react to Wang’s work like I do to Zizek's: I find it electrifying; it wakes me up to a whole new range of possibilities.

Shaping the Lotus Sutra explores what the medieval Chinese actually believed about spiritual matters, through careful analysis of artistic representations of its most beloved text, the Lotus Sutra, during the crucial early period of the development of Buddhism in China.

Ranges over a dazzling array of topics, all of them fascinating and all tied to the central goal of illuminating the visual logic of medieval Buddhist art.