Shifting Identities in Wu Bin's Album of the Twenty-five Dharma-gates of Perfect Wisdom

Through a close reading of the ( ) and an iconographic study of the images, the author concludes that many of the current labels in Wu Bin's (Album of the twenty-five dharma-gates of perfect wisdom) are erroneous and proposes new identifications for these Buddhist sages. This paper modifies the well-accepted scholarly opinion that the album is a “free fabrication of absurdities” and shows that Wu Bin, a devoted (Buddhist layman) of the late Ming dynasty, correctly visualized the methods of enlightenment as described in the sutra with his album.