BIANWEN
Until the early twentieth century, with the discovery
of a cache of important manuscripts at DUNHUANG,
Gansu Province, in the far northwest of China, bian-
wen (transformation texts) were completely un-
known to scholars. Once literary historians became
aware of them, however, they soon realized that these
texts, which date to the Tang (618–907) and Five Dy-
nasties (907–960) periods, filled a crucial gap in
scholarly understanding of the development of Chi-
nese popular literature. They are the earliest sub-
stantial specimens of vernacular writing in China, and
they represent the earliest examples of prosimetric
narratives in Chinese. That is to say, they are the first
Chinese texts that alternate sung, declaimed, or in-
toned verse and spoken prose to advance a narrative.
As such, they had an enormous impact upon virtu-
ally all later performing arts (including full-scale op-
eratic drama) and vernacular fiction in China. They
also provide vital evidence for the sources of many
popular tales of later times, and they embody first-
hand data about storytelling in medieval China. Al-
though the bianwenare not, as was once thought,
promptbooks used in performance, they bear the
marks of derivation from oral literature.
The wenin bianwenmeans text; the biancompo-
nent, however, caused tremendous confusion during
the first half-century of research on the genre. After
intensive investigation involving comparisons with
texts written in Sanskrit, Tibetan, and other lan-
guages, it has become clear that bianin bianwenrefers
to transformational manifestations evoked by spiri-
tually powerful individuals (comparable to the San-
skrit terms nirmanaand rddhi.) The oral precedents
of bianwenutilized picture scrolls as illustrative de-
vices to enhance the performance, and bianwenare
closely connected to the artistic genre known as
BIANXIANG(TRANSFORMATION TABLEAUX). The earli-
est bianwendescribe Buddhist subjects, but wholly
secular themes, both historical and contemporary in
nature, were soon added.
See also:Chinese, Buddhist Influences on Vernacular
Literature in; Entertainment and Performance
Bibliography
Mair, Victor H. T’ang Transformation Texts: A Study of the Bud-
dhist Contribution to the Rise of Vernacular Fiction and
Drama in China.Cambridge, MA: Council of East Asian
Studies, Harvard University, 1989.
Pai, Hua-wen. “What Is ‘pien-wen’?” tr. Victor H. Mair. Har-
vard Journal of Asiatic Studies44, no. 2 (1984): 493–514.VICTORH. MAIRBIANXIANG (TRANSFORMATION
TABLEAUX)It is commonly assumed that bianxiang(transforma-
tion tableaux) are the matching illustrations for BIAN-
WEN (transformation texts), a genre of popular
Buddhist narratives that was discovered at DUN-
HUANG. There are, indeed, many similarities. For ex-
ample, bianxiangare also associated with the cave
temples of Dunhuang, both genres flourished during
the medieval period, both were intended for the por-
trayal of Buddhist themes, and, above all, the bianof
both genre names means “transformation” or “trans-
formational manifestation.” There are, however, sig-
nificant differences. Whereas bianwensometimes dealt
with secular subjects, bianxiangare exclusively reli-
gious in nature. Furthermore, while bianwenare folk-
ish in nature, bianxiangare often the products of high
culture. Finally, whereas evidence for bianwenis re-
stricted almost exclusively to the manuscripts from
Dunhuang, evidence (largely textual) for bianxiangis
related to localities spread over the length and breadth
of China.
Bianxiangare also frequently confused with MAN-
DALA. Here, too, there are similarities and differences,
but the situation is more complex than with bianwen,
despite the fact that bianxiangand mandala are both
artistic genres, since bianxiangmay share features of
mandala and vice versa. Basically, whereas bianxiang
connotes a narrative moment, event, place, or se-
quence of moments, events, or places pictorially or
sculpturally represented, a mandala is an object or
icon, usually having a circular arrangement, intended
to serve as the focus of worship or meditation.
The chief subjects of bianxiangare paradise scenes
(especially the Western Pure Land), depictions of the
contents of famous sutras (particularly the LOTUS SU-
TRA), incidents from the life of the Buddha (especially
his NIRVANA), deeds of various BODHISATTVAS(partic-
ularly Avalokites ́vara) and ARHATS(e.g., S ́ARIPUTRA),
and so forth. Bianxiangwere favored by the adherents
of the CHAN SCHOOL, and the tradition of painting
bianxiangwas transmitted to Japan, where it became
an integral part of Buddhist popular culture. Vivid
records of the commissioning and actual painting ofBIANXIANG(TRANSFORMATIONTABLEAUX)