Arhats

In particular Guanxiu is known for his depiction of the eighteen arhats particular to Chinese Buddhism. Chinese artists had been depicting them with great expressiveness and power since the sixth century, however Guanxiu's interpretations are often seen to have captured another dimension. A set of sixteen arhats is preserved in the Japanese Imperial Household Collection. This collection bears an inscription dated to 894. It states Guanxiu began the set while living in Lanxi, Zhejiang province.

Legend has it that the arhats, or "Luohans", knew of Guanxiu's expert calligraphy and painting skills, and so appeared to the monk in a dream to request that he paint their portraits.

The paintings depicted them as foreigners having bushy eyebrows, large eyes, hanging cheeks and high noses. They were seated in landscapes, leaning against pine trees and stones. An additional theme in these paintings were that they were portrayed as being unkempt and "eccentric" which emphasizes that they are vagabonds and beggars who have left all worldly desires behind. When Guanxiu was asked how he came up with the depictions, he answered: "It was in a dream that I saw these Gods and Buddhas. After I woke up, I painted what I saw in the dream. So, I guess I can refer to these Luohans as 'Luohans in a dream'." These portraits painted by Guanxiu has become the definitive images for the 18 Luohans in Chinese Buddhist iconography, although in modern depiction they bear more Sinitic features and at the same time lost their exaggerated foreign features in exchange for more exaggerated expressions. The paintings were donated by Guanxiu to the Shengyin Temple in Qiantang (present day Hangzhou) where they are preserved with great care and ceremonious respect.

The Chan Buddhist tradition of painting sought to express the immediacy and intensity of the artists intuition as well as to record moments of truth in the form of Buddhas or arhats. Even by the end of the Tang Dynasty Chan painters were practicing wildly eccentric works, which unfortunately have only survived through contemporary descriptions. His depiction of the arhats exhibit an exaggeration of features that borders on perversity, this style is typically Chan. The paintings display an emphasis on the arhat's skeletal bodies, and bony faces, as well as the incredible age of the sages.

According to Max Loehr, Guanxiu's arhats represent the physical embodiment of Buddhist persecution in eighth-century China. This persecution nearly obliterated the Buddhist establishment. The tormented faces are depicted as if the arhats themselves were survivors of the death and destruction. In Chinese painting the themes of pain, suffering, and death are depicted rarely outside of Buddhist art.

生平

貫休出生於詩書官宦人家，七歲時便在和安寺出家。曾為吳越武肅王錢鏐所重，貫休有詩賀之：「貴逼身來不自由，幾年勤苦蹈林丘。滿堂花醉三千客，一劍霜寒十四州。萊子衣裳宮錦窄，謝公篇詠綺霞羞。他年名上凌煙閣，豈羨當時萬戶侯」。錢鏐傳令貫休將「十四州」改為「四十州」，才許相見。貫休不肯改，說：「州亦難添，詩亦難改。閒雲野鶴，何天不可飛耶！」遂拂袖而去。中和元年(881) ，離開江東，流亡到荊湘一帶。中和四年左右，返婺州主持戒壇。

乾寧三年至荊南，節度使成汭很禮遇他。天復元年成汭欲貫休授書法，貫休推說：「此事須登壇可授，安得草草而言！」，成汭聞言大怒，命人押送出荊州。天復三年（903年）入蜀。至益州，受前蜀王建所禮遇，「過秦主待道安之禮」，王建為貫休建龍華禪院，署號禪月大師或稱呼得得來和尚。

貫休精通詩畫，辛文房曾盛讚貫休：「天賦敏速之才，筆吐猛銳之意，昔謂龍象，蹴踏非驢所堪，果僧中之一豪也。」尤其聞名於繪畫羅漢，「胡貌梵相，曲盡其態」。《宣和畫譜》說貫休羅漢「狀貌古野，殊不類世間所傳，豐頤蹙額，深目大鼻，或巨顙槁項，黝然若夷獠異類。」相傳其「真本在豫章西山雲堂院供養，……迎請祈雨，無不應驗。」一說米芾的字師法貫休。有詩文集《西嶽集》傳世。晚年居唐山十四年。與齊己、皎然皆以詩聞名，並稱為「唐三高僧」，後人編纂《唐三高僧詩集》。乾化二年（915年）以八十一歲圓寂於前蜀。

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