Gu Kaizhi and Waguan Temple
As an outstanding painter in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Gu Kaizhi was regarded as one of three excellent painters in the Six Dynasties together with Lu Tanwei and Zhang Sengyao. According to the evaluation of people in old days on these three forerunners in the circle of paintings: “Zhang has an insight into the flesh of paintings, Lu has an insight into the bone of paintings and Gu has an insight into the spirit of paintings. Gu is the best in his miraculous application of painting skills.” As it is said, Gu Kaizhi was very attentive while doing painting. He built a tower in his residence as his painting-studio and never went upstairs via a ladder to do painting unless it was a fine day. Once up there, he would take away the ladder to prevent his wife from going upstairs.
In the second year under Xingning reign in the Eastern Jin Dynasty (364 A.D.), construction of Wagua Temple started at Xiaochanggan. Monks went around to raise money since it was a huge project. Gu Kaizhi living at Wuyi Lane promised to donate one million Yuan, but people at that time did not believe that he had such a big amount of money. When the construction of the temple was completed, he got into the temple and shut himself up without any contact with people for over 100 days, painting a mural portrait of lay Buddhist Wei Mojie on the western wall of the big hall in the temple. With the painting completed and before eyes were added, he said to monks: “The visitor who sees this Buddhist protrait on the first day is supposed to donate 100000 Yuan, the visitor who sees this Buddhist protrait on the second day is supposed to donate 50000 Yuan and the visitor who sees this Buddhist protrait on the third day is supposed to donate according to his/her own will.” When the portrait was made public, shining brilliantly all over in the temple, visitors vied with one another in donating money, resulting in one million Yuan as expected. This mural portrait of Wei Mojie as a lay Buddhist came off and disappeared in the Tang Dynasty. When visiting Jinling (Nanjing) in the late Tang Dynasty, famous poet Du Pu specially went to Waguan Temple on the southern bank of the Qinhuai River, wishing to admire the mural painted by Gu Kaizhi. At the time of his visit, this mural mostly came off. Having learnt that there was a drawing of this mural at Xuba Lost Property Site, he went there for a look and wrote a poem in praise of it: “I was once hungry for seeing this mural and felt in despair while looking for it. The shadow of the tiger-head and the golden millet leaves an unforgetable impression on me for its wonder”. The so-called tigger-head described in the poem is another name of Gu Kaizhi while the golden millet stands for Buddha which refers to Wei Mojie.
In the second year under Xingning reign in the Eastern Jin Dynasty (364 A.D.), construction of Wagua Temple started at Xiaochanggan. Monks went around to raise money since it was a huge project. Gu Kaizhi living at Wuyi Lane promised to donate one million Yuan, but people at that time did not believe that he had such a big amount of money. When the construction of the temple was completed, he got into the temple and shut himself up without any contact with people for over 100 days, painting a mural portrait of lay Buddhist Wei Mojie on the western wall of the big hall in the temple. With the painting completed and before eyes were added, he said to monks: “The visitor who sees this Buddhist protrait on the first day is supposed to donate 100000 Yuan, the visitor who sees this Buddhist protrait on the second day is supposed to donate 50000 Yuan and the visitor who sees this Buddhist protrait on the third day is supposed to donate according to his/her own will.” When the portrait was made public, shining brilliantly all over in the temple, visitors vied with one another in donating money, resulting in one million Yuan as expected. This mural portrait of Wei Mojie as a lay Buddhist came off and disappeared in the Tang Dynasty. When visiting Jinling (Nanjing) in the late Tang Dynasty, famous poet Du Pu specially went to Waguan Temple on the southern bank of the Qinhuai River, wishing to admire the mural painted by Gu Kaizhi. At the time of his visit, this mural mostly came off. Having learnt that there was a drawing of this mural at Xuba Lost Property Site, he went there for a look and wrote a poem in praise of it: “I was once hungry for seeing this mural and felt in despair while looking for it. The shadow of the tiger-head and the golden millet leaves an unforgetable impression on me for its wonder”. The so-called tigger-head described in the poem is another name of Gu Kaizhi while the golden millet stands for Buddha which refers to Wei Mojie.
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