The legend of the Five Hundred Arhats

The five hundred arhats of Hanyang Guiyuan Zen Temple are all in a variety of shapes, and all of them are beautiful. There is a flood every year, all the arhats are submerged in the water, but the water is back to look at the Arhats, but still one by one are good.

The arhats of Guiyuan Temple, the blisters are not bad, this has a source:

In that year, Guiyuan Zen Temple was built to make 500 arhats, and two craftsmen were invited from Huangpi County to make clay sculptures. These two men are father and son, but also master and apprentice, they have taken this life.

Arhat music came from the country of Tianzhu, it is said that there are only two sets in the whole of China, one set in Zhejiang Tiantong Temple and one in Hunan Zhusheng Temple. The old plastic craftsman traveled through mountains and rivers to Zhu Sheng Temple, and painted the Arhat spectrum one by one, and brought it back before starting the statue.

It is easy to make a statue, but difficult to convey a spirit. The plastic craftsman is not willing to follow the gourd, he wants to mold the various expressions of the arhats, which can be difficult! Guiyuan Temple is surrounded by the countryside, farmers farming, resting, crossing the road or lying in the shade of the trees to sleep, the old craftsmen are one by one to see, remember in mind, and cleverly into the arhats of the attitude. This is not enough, sometimes, he also found the nearby children, deliberately amused them to play, play, carefully observe and ponder, even they dug each other's ears, buckled the heart of the naughty look are also in mind one by one, molded in the body of the Arhats, the "six children play Arhats" is heard to be molded in this way.

Plastic clay is easy to deform, but also easy to damage, how can Qianqiu hundred generations spread? The old plastician tried many methods but failed.

Once, he saw a painting ware from Fujian Province, and inquired about the method of production, in accordance with that practice, with hemp wool, cloth, raw paint and Guanyin soil mixed into the material, the molded clay layer by layer, after drying, water melt mud, mud water drained, hollow arhat made. The water is not wet, the fire is not bad, it is very strong, and it is vivid and lifelike, almost like real people.

The old plastic maker for plastic arhat vomit all the effort, did not wait for plastic finished and died, his son will follow his father's business, and then plastic. His craft is also very good, has been molded to 499, suddenly in his heart, think of this many arhats, which one does not have the father's effort? The old man should also be put here for posterity to leave a memorial, so the old plastician was molded into the 500th arhats.

So people say that when they burn incense to arhats, one arhats and one pillar of incense are exactly 500; But if one, two, three, four... Number of arhats, there are only four hundred and ninety-nine, you see God is not God!