CHINA ARQUEOLOGIA golden-age-chinese-archayeolog

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Crystal reliquary container in the shape
of a miniature sarcophagus
Height 7 (2 7s), length 10.5 (4 Vs)
Tang Dynasty, seventh century CE
From the pagoda of the Famen Monastery
at Fufeng, Shaanxi Province
Famensi Museum, Fufeng, Shaanxi Province
Houston and San Francisco only
In contrast to the 122 items listed in the inventory
tablet as having been offered to the true body relic
by Emperor Yizong and his son, the emperor Xizong,
only seven are noted as having been brought to the
palace in 873 from the Chongzhensi (as the Famen
Monastery was then called): "three jiasha (kasaya, or
monastic robes), an embroidered skirt of Empress
Wu [Zetian, d. 705], a lined jacket (pi'ao) embroidered
in gold and silver thread, a crystal sarcophagus,
and an iron casket." 1 It would appear that
these seven items had all been donated to the reliquary
deposit on earlier occasions, perhaps when
Empress Wu had the relics brought to Luoyang in
704. She herself would have seen the relics once
before, in 660, when she was already becoming a
powerful figure in the court of Emperor Gaozong.
The skirt donated by the empress, a devout Buddhist,
should be identified with the skirt, 16.5 by 7.2
centimeters, found with a set of miniature garments
inside a black lacquer box, in the inner chamber. It
may be that this entire set — which includes an
equally minuscule lined jacket, a tiny cushion, a
tiny anqun, or "altar skirt," and a kasaya measuring
470 EARLY IMPERIAL CHINA