Surviving Nirvana seeks to prove that the nirvana motif in China “was often seized upon to recast a moment of loss and despair as a harbinger of hope and confidence” (p. 4). Using a core group of images dating from the sixth to the twelfth centuries, Sonya S. Lee tracks one singular motif, using what the author terms “the iconographic method” (p. 10), with no privileging of texts as the image “did not always function like a linguistic sign” (p. 11). Yet one of the great strengths of Surviving Nirvana is indeed Lee's copious translations of inscriptions related to the images. These are mainly donor inscriptions, the same individuals who in the end also serve as the audience for the works, despite hints early on that one will hear from others who came into contact with the nirvana images. Lee states that the evidence available to reconstruct meaning includes “documentations left by patrons, makers and viewers” (p. 4), but one is hard-pressed to find a voice other than that of the patron in Surviving Nirvana. Merit making is the most commonly stated purpose for making nirvana images, as Lee herself notes, but not the only one in her opinion. Yet in only two of the examples presented does this seem to be the case.

The first two chapters are hard to follow, incorporating different theories on various iterations of nirvana imagery. All are interesting in content, but fail to convince this reader that the nirvana image of sixth century China is indeed a “rupture with the motif's past” (p. 26). The sheer paucity of materials from India and Central Asia, also noted by Lee, makes such a bold statement problematic. The few items she presents to substantiate these claims, mainly steles from Henan and Shanxi and works found carved in situ at Yungang and Kongwangshan, seem disjointed and too scattered to be reflective of a conscious trend in nirvana imagery in China as a whole. The connecting of Shakyamuni to Maitreya is an interesting if not entirely original discussion of the coming of the next age, or mofa. Yet never quite answered is why the nirvana image would be vital to a “rhetoric of continuity” (p. 75) at all when other images would seem more pertinent to this project.

Chapter 2 discusses the nirvana story within narratives painted at the Mogao caves of Dunhuang and carved on several steles. A section of this chapter devoted to nirvana texts (pp. 87–94) will undoubtedly prove useful to students of Buddhism, outlining not only the various components of the nirvana texts but also the fragmentary nature in which they came to China. Of interest art historically is the emergence of Queen Maya as a main motif within the narrative works surrounding the nirvana image (pp. 94–118). The logic of the chapter could be more strongly articulated: as it stands, Lee's argument is difficult to follow. The illustrative materials, photos and diagrams of cave programs and steles, are exemplary, but Lee loses her focus at the end, moving into the politics of relic worship and away from nirvana imagery.

Chapters 3 and 4 are the most coherent. Lee is at her best when discussing imagery within a more specific historical circumstance. Her argument about the nirvana image as an allegory for survival makes the most sense with the caves constructed by the Li clan at Dunhuang, especially when accompanied by her copious reconstruction of the events related to the era preceding the Tibetan takeover. Lee's discussion of Cave 148 as a move away from earlier familial political statements is in-depth and well-organized. The final chapter presents new information regarding the relic deposits of the early Song era found near Dingzhou. Lee's argument that these deposits were created for future generations is plausible, and she does a wonderful job of translating the various inscriptions related to the Dingzhou relic sites as well as explaining the complex of motifs found in the deposit spaces. However, the end of the chapter digresses into the relationship between the relics of monks and accompanying nirvana imagery.

Overall, Surviving Nirvana is useful for scholars and advanced students of Buddhism or Chinese art history. Lee does her best to show that nirvana images came in a variety of guises, made as “cogent responses to the fundamental anxiety about the absence of the Buddha and the prospect of one's salvation” (cover). Yet Lee never quite succeeds in convincing this reader that this was the rule, and not just the exception, when it came to the historic concerns behind the creation of a nirvana image in China.