{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,9]],"date-time":"2026-10-09T21:44:48Z","timestamp":1791582288760,"version":"4.3.4"},"reference-count":68,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"6","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2023,6,16]],"date-time":"2023-06-16T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1686873600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"MYRG research grant of University of Macau","award":["MYRG2022-00227-FAH"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["MYRG2022-00227-FAH"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Religions"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The Four Heavenly Kings, Sida Tianwang \u56db\u5927\u5929\u738b, are the guardians of the four quarters of the world in Buddhism. They are among the most frequently represented protective deities in Buddhist art across different traditions. In their standard iconographies developed in China popular during the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368\u20131911), they wear full armor, and each holds exclusive attributes\u2014lute (pipa \u7435\u7436), sword, snake, and parasol\u2014from the east, south, west, to the north respectively. There is no direct textual base in the Chinese cannon for such iconographies. Neither can we find prototypes in India or central Asia. Indeed, how did this iconographic group develop in China? In the past, since the standard iconographies of the Four Heavenly Kings are clear, and identification is no problem, comprehensive in-depth study on this is lacking. Actually, those attributes came from a Tantric tradition related to Tibetan Buddhism filtered through the Xi Xia (1036\u20131227) and Yuan (1206\u20131368). What revealed in the development of this iconography is the complex relationship among the Tibetan, Tanguts, Mongols, and Chinese Buddhism.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/rel14060798","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,6,16]],"date-time":"2023-06-16T10:19:22Z","timestamp":1686910762000},"page":"798","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":3,"title":["Lute, Sword, Snake, and Parasol\u2014The Formation of the Standard Iconography of the Four Heavenly Kings in Chinese Buddhist Art"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"14","author":[{"given":"Tianshu","family":"Zhu","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of History, University of Macau, Macau, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,6,16]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","unstructured":"Auboyer, Jeannine, and B\u00e9guin, Gilles (1977). 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