Staff Legends 103
monk’s symbol. Paintings of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas often have the deity’s
monkish attendant carry one or both of these monastic insignia. The Bodhi-
sattva of Medicine (Bhaiºajyaguru; Yaoshi), for instance, is flanked in an enor-
mous fourteenth-century wall painting by two monks, one carrying the bowl,
the other displaying the ring staff.^57 An earlier, Xixia period (1038 –1227) com-
position of the Bodhisattva Mañjušrî (Wenshu) has one monk carrying both
emblems (figure 20). The ring staff was even incorporated into the iconography
of deities. The Bodhisattva Kºitigarbha (Dizang pusa) is usually depicted as
brandishing it.
The emblematic Buddhist staff was not always fashioned in accordance
with monastic regulations. Some clerics retained it as a symbol of religious au-
thority, even as they dispensed—for practical or financial reasons—with its
rings. An impressive seventeenth-century portrait of the monk Yinyuan (1592–
1673) shows him holding an enormous wooden staff that is not adorned with
the prescribed rings (figure 21). Yinyuan’s seated posture, like his serene ex-
pression and grand monastic robes, suggest that the staff serves him not as a
weapon, but as a symbol of religious authority. However, devoid of its rings, his
emblematic staff is identical in shape to the one fighting monks employed in
Fig. 20. The ring staff
as the emblem of the
monk; detail of a
Xixia period (1038–
1227) wall painting
from the Yulin Caves,
Gansu.