Liu Yuan

CHINA, Tianjin; Yuan dynasty

Liu Yuan, also known as Bing Yuan, was a sculptor from Baodi of Jizhou (present day Baodi, Tianjin). He was initially a Daoist practitioner, but later served in various positions in the imperial court, where he was active in contemporary sculpture production for over 50 years, spanning the four reigns of the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368).
Liu originally learned to sculpt from Qi Daolu, but he eventually followed Araniko, a talented artist from Nepal who traveled to Tibet and China to build Buddhist structures. Therefore, Liu combined Tibetan sculpting techniques with traditional Chinese style. He created several vivid Buddhist sculptures for famous temples in the capital. In 1270, he joined Araniko’s team to build Huguo Temple in Beijing. Also skilled in creating sculptures using dry lacquer, gold-coated clay molding, and bodiless dry lacquer methods, the sculptures of the Ming (1368–1644) and Qing (1644–1911) dynasties were greatly influenced by his works.
According to Records of Paintings and Sculptures of the Yuan Dynasty, Liu sculpted the Four Heavenly Kings inside the main temple gate of Qingta Temple in Nanjing in 1317, and the Four Heavenly Kings, Vairocana Buddha, Manjusri Bodhisattva, and Samantabhadra Bodhisattva at Xiangshan Temple in Henan the following year. Unfortunately, all of these sculptures have been lost. Additionally, he created a large number of sculptures in various places around China. Among them, Twenty-Eight Mansions and Twelve Zodiac Deities in the Jade Emperor Temple in Shanxi are still well-preserved.