Foji

CHINA, Anhui, Huangshan; Qing dynasty

Originally named Ye Qutan, and also known as Sanhua Daoren, Foji was ordained as a monk at Guyan Temple. Said to be well-traveled, he was fond of Zhejiang and resided in Lingyin Temple on West Lake in Hangzhou.
Foji excelled in seal carving, poetry, and calligraphy. His seal work entitled No Greater Joy Than Having No Worries is one of his most noteworthy Buddhist seal engravings. The proportionate and evenly spaced characters, carved in seal scripts, are framed within a square on the seal’s surface. Deftly incised in two columns, the characters appear white on a red background; seals carved as such are known as “bai wen” (white character) seals.
His other works are featured in the famous Book of Seals of Feihong Hall, a catalog of seals compiled by Wang Qishu. The collection, which comprises hundreds of works by famous seal engravers, took 30 years to complete.