Arhats, Chan Lineages and Reconfigured Icons: Layered Image Programmes at a Song Cliff Carving Site.

Abstract: This talk draws on a chapter from my forthcoming book to revisit my earlier interpretations of the cliff carvings at Erfo Temple in Laitan, Chongqing. It is a rare surviving large group of Chan Buddhist sculptures in China and offers important evidence for the material culture of Chinese Buddhism. The construction of these carvings was carried out in three stages. In the first stage, a monumental seated Maitreya statue was carved overlooking the confluence of three rivers. It represented the pure land world of Maitreya’s descent. The second stage saw the creation of groups of sculptures of Chan masters and arhats, centred on Dharma transmission. Also produced were images of salvation, including Kṣitigarbha, Guanyin in the Sengjia style, alongside a number of Pure Land niches. These statues brought together the ideas of Chan lamp-transmission and arhat Dharma-transmission. They illustrated monastic stories, promoted the path of sudden enlightenment, and advocated the combined practice of Chan and Pure Land as well as the bodhisattva ideal of liberating sentient beings. In the third stage, attendant bodhisattvas and thousand Buddha images were added around the main Maitreya Buddha. These additions reinforced teachings on bodhisattva practice and hopes for the Buddhist world of the future. Designed and completed separately in three stages, the site finally took shape as a Buddhist monastic center dedicated to Dharma transmission, salvation, and rebirth in the pure land. It highlighted Southern Chan teachings and arhat beliefs of the Bashu region, with strong local characteristics.

Recent systematic archaeological work at Laitan Erfo Temple has provided new material evidence for existing arguments regarding statue chronology and physical remains. Building on these observations, this study examines how the cliff carvings from different phases, through adaptation and reconfiguration, creatively shape Erfo Temple’s sophisticated Buddhist ideological system. It reveals the distinctive regional Chan characteristics of these rock carvings, and further considers the role of arhats within Chan thought and practice in the Song dynasty.

Bio: Lina Fan received her PhD in art history from Tsinghua University, Beijing. She is associate professor at Central University of Finance and Economics, and currently a visiting scholar in Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Cambridge. Her research focuses on Buddhist art and material culture, as well as theories and connoisseurship of ancient Chinese calligraphy. She is co-author of From

Elegant Treasures to the Mobile Museum: the Connoisseurship, Collection and Business of Chinese Ancient Calligraphy (Guangdong Education Publishing House, 2018), which was selected as one of the “China’s Good Books” by the China Society of Book Review. Her long-standing research addresses arhat imagery, examining arhat sculptures, murals and other remains from Buddhist monasteries of the Song through Qing dynasties, with a related monograph forthcoming.