Deities of the Syncretic Pantheon: Frontispiece Illustrations in Printed baojuan of the Sixteenth to Early Seventeenth Centuries

The earliest surviving woodblock-printed baojuan 寶卷 (precious scrolls) represent the literature of syncretic religious movements of the sixteenth century. Originally modeled on the editions of the Buddhist texts, these early editions of baojuan followed the Buddhist patterns of decoration, especially conspicuous in their frontispiece pictures of the Buddha’s preaching assemblies. This mode of decoration had connections with the origins of baojuan as a literary form, and also facilitated the initial transmission of the texts connected with the syncretic teachings. At the same time there was some variety in the composition and imagery of frontispieces since the very early period of baojuan printing. The tradition of printed Daoist texts of the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries also had a significant impact on the decoration of these editions. The variety of forms of these illustrations is related to the complex contents of baojuan and reflects the syncretic nature of their religious background.