to Art” that proved to be enormously influential. (Wa-
ley, as was typical at the time, uses the Japanese term
Zenrather than Chan,even when he is writing about
China.) In particular, Waley’s focus on the notion of
painting as a vehicle for the expression of religious
ideals provided a model approach that continues to be
employed in many discussions of Chan art, even if
some historians of art and religion have challenged
some of its underlying assumptions.
Following Waley’s example, it became common to
define Chan art primarily in terms of subject matter,
focusing on images (such as representations of
BODHIDHARMA, the putative founder of Chan in
China) that derive from Chan history and literature.
Such works often carry additional meanings relating
to Chan doctrine or ideology, as well. For example,
the great many surviving paintings that depict the
early Chan patriarchs might be interpreted as a pic-CHANART
Bodhidharma, putative fifth-century founder of Chan Buddhism, depicted during a legendary meditation in a cave, painted by a Japan-
ese Zen monk Fugai Ekun (1568–1654) who himself lived in caves. (Japanese, seventeenth century.) Freer Gallery of Art Library. Re-
produced by permission.