Guanxiu

CHINA, Zhejiang, Jinhua; Tang dynasty to Five Dynasties

Originally named Jiang Deyin, Guanxiu was a monk, calligrapher, painter, and poet from Lanxi, Jinhua. Ordained at the age of seven under Chan Master Yuanzhen at He’an Temple in Zhejiang, Guanxiu was known to have photographic memory and would recite 1,000 words of the Lotus Sutra daily. After he was fully ordained, he practiced meditation at Wuxieshan for ten years, and studied in various temples around Hangzhou and Suzhou.
Between 901 and 903 of the Tang dynasty, Guanxiu fled to the Shu Kingdom to avoid war. There, he met Emperor Gaozu (reigned 907–918) of the Former Shu Kingdom, from whom he received much support and was conferred the title Master Chanyue. Collection of Chanyue, comprised of 30 scrolls and an appendix was compiled by his disciple, Tanyu according to his instructions.
Guanxiu set the precedent for the Chan painting style. Known to be an expert in painting arhats, his depictions were usually that of unkempt figures or eccentric Indian monks with thick eyebrows, large eyes, high noses, raised forehead, and slender necks. His works, which included silk paintings, scrolls, and stone carvings, were widely replicated. In calligraphy, he was skilled in seal, clerical, and cursive scripts, also having created his Jiang script which was comparable to that of Huaisu, another famous monk calligrapher.
The stone carvings of the Sixteen Arhats at Confucian Temple in Zhejiang were replicated from the original stele inscriptions by Guanxiu at Shengyin Temple. Other replicated works include Arhat, which is currently kept at the Nezu Museum in Tokyo, Japan; and Fenggan, Hanshan, and Shide, which is kept at the Fujita Museum of Art in Osaka, Japan. His most famous work is the Sixteen Arhats, a Northern Song dynasty (960–1127) replica currently kept at the Museum of the Imperial Collections in Tokyo, Japan.