An Iconographic Investigation of Yuan Xue’s 袁雪 (1657+–1660+) Four Illustrations for the Jiaxing Canon Edition of Lengyan mengchao 楞嚴蒙鈔 [Notes to Explain the Confusion Among the Commentaries of the Lengyan jing]

This article investigates the iconography of four newly studied woodblock frontispiece illustrations from the Jiaxing Canon (Jiaxing zang 嘉興藏), which were custom-drawn by the Wumen literati–artist Yuan Xue 袁雪 (1657+–1660+) for Qian Qianyi’s 錢謙益 (1582–1664) Da fo dingshou lengyan jing shujie mengchao 大佛頂首楞嚴經疏解蒙鈔 [Notes to Explain the Confusion among the Commentaries of the Lengyan jing, hereafter Lengyan mengchao]. Descended from a prominent Suzhou artistic clan connected to Wen Zhengming’s 文徵明 (1470–1559) family, Yuan Xue collaborated with Qian Qianyi circa 1655–1660. He obtained a portrait eulogy (xiangzan 像讚) for his father Yuan Kongzhang 袁孔璋 (1575+–1631+) from Qian and, in turn, produced the frontispieces for Qian’s Lengyan mengchao. The four prints visualize Guanyin’s Thirty-two Manifestations (sanshi’er ying 三十二應), the sūtra’s translators–commentators (including Qian himself), key narrative episodes, and the Twenty-five Sages’ paths of perfect penetration (ershiwu sheng 二十五聖). Beyond displaying Yuan’s skills as a painter–engraver, these images materialize Qian’s doctrinal understanding of the Lengyan jing. They illuminate Jiangnan literati–artists’ participation in Buddhist print production and exemplify the artistic sinicization of Buddhist visual culture during the Ming (1368–1644)–Qing (1644–1912) dynastic transition.