The arhat statues in the Baosheng Temple are in Wuxian County of Jiangsu Province.
In accordance withThe History of Fuli of Wuxian County, the temple was first built in the second year (503) of the Tianjian reign in the Liang Dynasty (502-557), and it was a large-scale temple. But according toThe History of Suzhou Governmental Office, it was first built in the Dazhong reign (847-860) of the Tang Dynasty (618-907) and rebuilt in the sixth year (1073) of the Xining reign of the Song Dynasty (960-1279). Zhao Mengfu, a famous chirographer of the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), wrote a couplet for the temple, which is still on the pillars of the temple: "Among Buddhist buildings, the temple in Fuli was No. 1 in the Liang Dynasty; among the Buddha statues, the arhat statues are No. 1 in southern China". The extant buildings in the temple mainly include the Temple Gate, the Heavenly King Hall and the Great Hall, etc.
Originally there were 18 arhat statues in the Great Hall, but owing to the chaos in the period of Republic of China, half of the hall fell and half of the statues were destroyed. Now there are only nine arhat statues. The statues were fixed on the wall, and the wall served as a background with carved patterns of clouds, waters and cliffs on it. The statues represent various famous arhats, such as Dharma (the founder of the religion), the Tanfu Arhat (bare-bellied arhat), the Xianglong (defeating dragon) Arhat, the Jiangjing (sermon) Arhat, and the Tingjing (listening to sermon) Arhat. These arhat statues are vivid in expression and properly proportioned, showing different characters and features. The ingenuity of the works lies in the fact that the sculptor had captured the moment of the expressions of those figures and exaggerated it in a typical way, then melted it into their own works. As it is said, they were works of Yang Huizhi, a famous sculptor in the Kaiyuan reign of the Tang Dynasty. But their looks were mostly thin and slim, quite different from the style of the Tang Dynasty, so they might be the relics of the beginning period of the Song Dynasty.
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