#Museum#In 1912, the Republic of China had just replaced the Qing Dynasty, and warlords were still at war everywhere. This turbulent era was the "golden age" of the "antique trade". Many foreign antique dealers also fish in muddy waters, searching around China for cultural relics. In the years of frequent wars, Yi County (known as Yizhou before 1913) attracted the attention of antique collectors around the world because of a storm of Buddha statues in the autumn of 1912. The storm was sparked by the German Perkinsky, who has been active in Beijing's antique market since the late 19th century, collecting ancient Chinese Buddhist statues. Later, he wrote about his experience in China into a book called "China Travels", which recorded his experience of finding the three-colored Arhat statue in Yi County.
Treasures are hidden in deep caves
In the summer of 1912, Parkinski saw a three-colored arhat in Beijing that amazed him. Because he has been immersed in this way for many years, he knows that there are few works created in ancient Chinese statues according to the proportions of the human body. The Buddha statue in front of him is life-size, with a calm and peaceful expression, a zen seal on his hands, a natural texture of the robe, and a majestic zen meaning. He immediately offered to buy it, but was told that the statue had been bought by the Japanese. In the face of such exquisite and rare statues, Perkinsky naturally refused to give up. After much inquiry, he eventually learned from the Japanese that the statue was from a cave in Bafowa, Yi County, Hebei Province, 130 kilometers southwest of Beijing.
In the autumn of that year, Perkinsky lived in the Yongfu Temple in the Qingxi Tombs of Yi County under the name of "recuperating from illness". Led by his guide, he and his interpreter wandered the mountains with compasses, telegraphs, and telescopes, trying to find a hidden "treasure cave." Returning to the temple in the evening, I marked the route I had taken to prepare for the next day. Finally, he climbed into the Cave of the Eyelids located halfway up the mountainside, but he was disappointed: there was not a single Arhat in the cave, only a Ming Dynasty statue of Maitreya and a statue of the Virtuous Fortune Virgin. The guide said that he had recently seen several exquisite statues of Arhats here. It turned out that another group of foreign antique dealers had already "swept up" this. Tempted by their high prices, the locals smuggled the statue of Luohan down the mountain at night. Due to the steepness of the mountain road, some of the arhat statues unfortunately broke in transit. The well-preserved statues of Luohan were sold to foreign antique dealers or hidden by locals for sale.
Not content to return empty-handed, Perkinsky asked his guide to find someone to continue to inquire about the statues. Soon it was learned that the local yamen had confiscated two statues of Arhats, which made Perkinsky both happy and worried. He wrote in the book: "When the local government learned of this, it also bluffed and took measures to arrest and punish a group of thieves who stole and hidden the statue of Luohan. When I first left Yi County, the magistrate ordered martial law and arrested the antique dealer I had sent to spy on. But soon after, the businessman was released. When I left Yi County for the second time, the local garrison also secretly searched my residence at Yongfu Temple and strictly forbade local villagers from selling me any cultural relics. In fact, local officials were red-eyed by the enormous benefits of the statue of Arhat and pretended to be self-thief.
Perkinsky wrote his discoveries as valuable as dunhuang documents and was proud of his discoveries and experiences. In the book, he strives to create an atmosphere of adventure, sometimes lamenting the scenery along the way, sometimes lamenting the untrustworthy informant. Behind the seemingly easy travelogue is his ambition to cover up. According to statistics, there are a total of 16 Liao Dynasty Sancai and other Luohan statues in this group of Yixian Suizi Caves, and at least 3 statues have been destroyed. At present, there are 10 surviving arhats in the collection of museums around the world. Eight of them are said to have been shipped overseas through The Papinsky. As soon as these statues were unveiled, they caused a huge sensation in the antique collection world.
It is now in the collection of 10 statues of Yixian Sancai Luohan in major museums. From left to right, from top to bottom, the collections are held in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (old), the Metropolitan Museum of Art (young), the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology of the University of Pennsylvania, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Royal Ontario Museum of Canada, the Museum of Modern Art in Japan, the Nelson Atkins Art Museum, the British Museum, the Hermitage In Russian, and the Guimet Museum in France.
Most of the statues of The Arhats we see on display in museums are laid on rocky pedestals, but Perkinsky did not have a pedestal when he resold the arhats, nor did he mention them in his book. However, judging from the size, style and color of these rocks, they are the original base of the Statue of Luohan. So where do these pedestals come from? This involves another person, Lu Qinzhai .
Lu Qinzhai . He built the famous "Red Chamber" in Paris and for a period of time, he sponsored a free lunch for Chinese students in the Red Chamber every day. He summed up his life full of contradictions, admitting that he had lost many national treasures overseas, and was glad that these national treasures were protected from war.
Lu Qinzhai is a native of Huzhou, Zhejiang Province, and a famous international antique dealer in the early twentieth century. It is said that half of the Chinese cultural relics that were sold overseas in the first half of the 20th century were by Lu Qinzhai and many of them belonged to China's national treasures, such as the murals of Cisheng Temple in the Five Dynasties period, the salu purple and fist hair in the six stone carvings of Zhaoling. When he saw that the three-colored Luohan statue in Yixian caused a sensation in Europe, he immediately went to Yixian county in Hebei Province to search for treasures. Here, Lu Found the Last Statue of Luohan left in Yi County (later collected by the Nelson Atkins Art Museum in the United States), and at the same time purchased some rock pedestals and sold them to major museums around the world.
The Buddha's Day Increases the Glory of the East and the West: The Artistic Value and Discontinuity of the Three-Colored Arhat Statue
"Arhat" is short for "arhat", a transliteration of the Sanskrit word "arhat" meaning "theworthyone". In Theravada Buddhism, the arhat is the highest attainment of one's attainment through practice. In the primitive Buddhist scriptures, the arhat attains nirvana, thus attaining eternal liberation (parinirvāa) and eternal freedom from samsara. During the Buddha's lifetime, arhats, as the most proud disciples of Shakyamuni, often possessed the highest level of knowledge and virtue, and after the Buddha's nirvana, they also assumed the responsibility of maintaining the Dharma in the world.
Since the Wei and Jin dynasties, great masters such as Ansko and Kumarosh have introduced Buddhist beliefs, philosophies, understandings of the cosmic world, and ways of practicing Buddhism into China through the translation of Buddhist classics. The 4th and 5th century translations mention that sixteen of the Buddha's 1250 disciples were the oldest and most fruitful, namely the Buddha's sixteen protectors or sixteen Brahmans. But it wasn't until the Tang Dynasty that the full list of the Sixteen Arhats appeared in the Chinese Buddhist scriptures. Because arhats possess supreme knowledge and spirit, they are regarded by their followers as practitioners with supernatural abilities. In the following centuries, as Buddhism became more and more Sinicized, it gradually became an important factor in folk beliefs, and people naturally became more and more respectful of Arhats. And the artistic embodiment of this religious development is the sixteen arhats in various forms.
Yixian Sixteen Arhats are three-color glazed porcelain that is hand-shaped and glazed. Although it is slightly larger than the life-size, it is very precise in the proportions and structure of the human body. The statue has a simple and peaceful face, and the robes naturally droop, leaking hands and feet. The two Yixian Luohans in the Metropolitan Museum's collection are perfectly matched and look at each other in the exhibition hall. The Hands of the Arhat Statue Knot Meditation Seal in the British Museum are the most outstanding. Westerners believe that these arhat statues are extremely rare Chinese realist statues, and in terms of artistic and technical level, they can be called the pinnacle of Chinese Buddhist statues. Therefore, this series of statues has been deeply concerned by the art historians since they were discovered.
During his studies at the University of Pennsylvania, Mr. Liang Sicheng once personally admired the Three Colored Luohan Statues in Yi County. In his History of Chinese Sculpture, Liang Sicheng wrote: "Its appearance is like a real face, and its clothes are also very realistic. ...... or graceful,...... Or frown as a earnest gesture, all of which have their own personalities, and are not in vain images of empty and illusory gods. Its miraculous portrait can be compared with Roman statues. Portraits are also caused by careful observation of the usual mood. Not only the appearance, that is, the structure of its body, the draping of its clothes, is mainly realistic; its third observation is subtle, so it becomes a faithful performance, no less than the most exquisite works of the Italian Renaissance. ”
The dating of these three-colored Arhat statues has also undergone several changes. Because the Statue of Luohan uses white pottery tires, the texture is tight, and the whole body is glazed with three colors, which is similar to the Tang Sancai, so it was originally considered to be a Tang Dynasty object. After a series of studies, experts have put forward a variety of different opinions on the age of the Luohan statue, from the Northern Song Dynasty to the Liao and Jin Dynasties, and some people even think that these statues may have been made in the Ming Dynasty. Until the end of the 1960s, the academic consensus was basically that it should be 950-1050 years old.
In 1996, Richard Smiths dated the statue to 836–1222 and the base 892–1260 by performing thermal emission tests on the Rohan in the Museum of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Therefore, he speculated that the age of the Statue of Luohan was between the 12th and 13th centuries, corresponding to the Liaojin period. Later, Stuart Fleming, the restorer of the statue, corrected this discontinuity. In his October 1997 letter to museum director Jennifer White, he argued that Smith's experiments underestimated the impact of the environment. Because of the sheer size of these Arhat statues themselves, the carcass has a counter-effect on γ radiation. Therefore, he prefers that the age of the statue of Arhat is around 1210 (i.e., between 1110 and 1310).
Scientists realized that thermal emission might work better on older sediments on artifacts. Independent scholar Dr. Eileen Hsiang-LingHsu (who is good at the study of inscriptions and Buddhist art) suggests that the use of light-based light-emitting may be tried, but no museum or ceramic expert has published an article on the study of this group of arhats. Although these arhat statues are quite similar to several Buddha statues in the Tang Dynasty in terms of raw materials, size, and production methods, scholars generally believe that these statues should be made in the Liao Dynasty. Although scholars are not much controversial about this era, why did such a high-quality lead-glazed porcelain statue appear in a cave in the deep mountains of Hebei? The explanations given by experts are not satisfactory.
The Jizo Sutra has a cloud: "When you encounter a pagoda temple, or a Buddha statue, or even a bodhisattva, a sound, a Buddha statue, a self-made operation, and an offering of alms." It is the king and so on, who deserve the three disasters to release the emperor and receive victory and happiness. If you can give alms in this way and return to the Dharma realm, you will be a great king, etc., and in the ten calamities, you will often be the great Brahma king. "Generally speaking, for this kind of statue, it will basically be enshrined in the temple, especially such a highly skilled arhat statue.
Although there have been examples of Buddhist caves built on mountainous bodies in China since ancient times, much depends on the topography. For example, Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes, the terrain is special, and the caves built according to the mountain body not only provide shelter for travelers in the desert, but also bring them a touch of soul comfort. Between the cliffs, it is an excellent place for monks to escape from the world. The Yungang Grottoes are directly based on the mountain, and the Buddha statue is directly carved on the mountain. However, in these grottoes, it is rare to find Buddha statues with porcelain tires.
The Temple Cave, where these three-colored arhat statues are hidden, is located in the middle of the Eight Buddhas Valley, at an altitude of about 500 meters. The mountain roads in this area are steep and rugged, and archaeologists from the Hebei Provincial Archaeological Institute are lightly armed and have also entered the cave after a three-hour climb. These statues of Arhats of equal size are huge and heavy, and it is not easy to place a dozen statues of Arhats in this cave. Moreover, after the field investigation of experts, no shortcuts were found in the Eight Buddhas Wa Mountain. The reason why these arhats live like this has become another interesting topic.
First, the Extinction of the Buddha said
Initially, some scholars speculated that this was related to the many extinctions of Buddhism in Chinese history. There have been four extinctions of Buddhism in Chinese history: during the reigns of Emperor Taiwu of Northern Wei, Yuwen Yong of Northern Zhou, Li Yan of Tang Wuzong, and Chai Rong of Later Zhou Shizong. Each movement abolished Buddhism nationwide, demolished temples and burned sutras, and burned Buddha statues. During the various dharma disasters, some monks also hid some Buddha statues and scriptures when they fled for their lives. However, as mentioned earlier, these statues should have been created in the Liao Dynasty, when Buddhism was in its prime, and there were no major Dharma difficulties after that. Therefore, it is really difficult to stand on its own.
Second, the war is chaotic
In contrast, in order to escape the chaos of war, the idea of hiding the statue of Arhat is much more reliable. Yi County, known as Yi Prefecture in ancient times, has been under the alternating control of the Central Plains regime and the Khitan regime since the fifth dynasty, and in the 11th and 12th centuries, the Liao, Song, and Jin states were established side by side, and there were often wars in this area. After 1125, after the Liao was destroyed by the Jin Dynasty, wars became more frequent, so the theory of avoiding chaos seems more credible.
However, some scholars believe that Buddhism was more prosperous at that time, and the general army would not take the initiative to destroy the Buddha statue. And in war, people may need religious solace more and pray for their peace. However, in real war situations, these exquisite and fragile statues are inevitably plagued by soldiers and horses.
Third, the practice of the saying
Of all the speculations, the practice is the most valid. In many grottoes, practice caves will be built for monks to practice Buddhism and retreats. Therefore, many scholars believe that the Cave is part of the temple under the Eight Buddhas, which is the place where the monks under the mountain regularly go up to the mountain to retreat and meditate.
According to the Yixian Zhi manuscript, written in the 1930s, "The Eight Buddhas are located in the northeast branch of the Emei Temple, also known as the Hundred Buddha Caves and the Hundred Buddhas Mountain... Emo Mountain is fifty miles northwest of the state, with cliffs overlooking the south, commonly known as WhiteFace Mountain... Half of the mountain has a cave named Hundred Buddhaswa... There are seventy-two Buddha statues in the temple, all made of porcelain... Emei Temple Hundred Buddhas Wa Ci Buddha in the northwest of the county fifty-five miles behind the Emei Temple. Hundred Buddhas Cave or Hundred Buddhas Cave or Hundred Buddhas Mountain, Eight BuddhasWa, mountainside chiseled stone tiger, there are eight Great Compassion Buddhas, Seventy-two Small Compassion Buddhas, and built a pavilion on the mountain, which contains a statue of Three Colored Ci Guanyin, which was later stolen by the Bang people to sell abroad, and now there are three in Britain, and the People of Bi Bang think that Tang Sancai Ciyun (Note: Ci is porcelain). In addition, according to the inscription "Monument of Longmen Temple on Baiyu Mountain" that rebuilt Longmen Temple during the Qianlong period, Longmen Temple was built in the Tang and Song Dynasties and was rebuilt during the Ming Jiajing period. In the eighth year of Yongzheng, this area was included in the Qing Dynasty Mausoleum, and the Temple's Buddhist Hall, Auxiliary Hall, Tibetan Scripture Pavilion and Bell and Drum Tower were all renovated and renovated. However, this important inscription does not mention the caves on the mountain. Therefore, finding the road between the temple and the cave became the key. Perhaps the evolving technology of aerial remote sensing can help us unravel this mystery in the near future.
These statues of Luohan, which represent the highest achievements of ancient Chinese realism, are now scattered in major museums in the East and the West. They may have been high above the Temple of China, or they may have been abandoned in the wilderness. Yet, no matter what, these arhats still stood quietly, watching with compassion the millennia of beings in this world.