The arhat statues in the Baosheng
Temple are in Wuxian County of Jiangsu Province.
In accordance with The 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 to
The 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.