Page 160 - Christie's Hong Kong Important Chinese Works Of Art May 30 2022

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A VERY RARE BRONZE FIGURE OF 宋/元 銅降龍羅漢像
XIANGLONG LUOHAN 銘款：信士馬洋同妻余氏鑄造

SONG-YUAN DYNASTY, 13-14TH CENTURY
來源:
The luohan is cast seated with his legs pendant; his left hand is
holding an alms bowl with a coiled dragon on top, and his right arm 台北私人舊藏，2003年入藏（傳）
is raised, holding a pearl in his right hand. The slightly tilted head
looks towards his left hand; his face cast with exaggerated facial 展覽:
features with a broad, hooked nose and large bulging eyes under 《Footsteps of The Buddha》，紐約蘇富比，2013年9月3-23日，
flame-like eyebrows. He is wearing an Indian-style robe exposing 圖錄圖版9號
his right shoulder and large rotund belly. The lower half of the
robe gathers in swirling folds around the knees and terminates in
curling edges, and is decorated with a band of incised clouds around
the collar and a four-clawed dragon in the lower central recess. It is
inscribed on the lower back with a dedication ‘xinshi Ma Yang tong qi
Yushi zhuzao’ (cast by devotee Ma Yang and his wife nee Yu).
29Ω in. (75 cm.) high
HK$3,500,000-5,000,000 US$450,000-640,000

P R O V E NAN C E :
A private collection, Taipei, acquired in 2003 (by repute)
E X H I B I T ED :
Footsteps of The Buddha, Sotheby’s New York, 3-23 September 2013,
Catalogue, no. 9

The current figure of luohan is holding an alms bowl with a coiled dragon
on top in his left hand, while in his raised right hand he is holding a pearl,
as if taunting the dragon with it. These attributes help to identify him
as the seventeenth of the Eighteen Luohan: Xianglong Luohan (Dragon-
taming Luohan). It is cast in a very eccentric and animated style that is
the hallmark of early Luohan sculptures.
The identity of Xianglong Luohan is disputable, since it is not rooted in
Buddhist scripture, and was added to the Sixteen Luohan prescribed
in Nandimitravadana by Chinese worshipers. Su Shi identifies him as
Nandimitra, the author of Nandimitravadana, while monk Zhipan in the
Southern Song Dynasty argues that he is Mahakasyapa, one of the
principle disciples of Buddha Sakyamuni, an identification later adopted
by the Qianlong Emperor in the 18th century. Although Xianglong
Luohan is not recorded in Buddhist scriptures, the story of a dragon-
taming monk can be traced back to Sakyamuni himself, as he was said
to have performed a miraculous act of taming a dragon (naga, also
‘serpent’) and confining it in his alms bowl when he tried to convert the
nonbeliever Uruvilakasyapa.

此尊羅漢左手持缽，其上蟠一龍，右手高舉持一珠子，似乎以之與龍相戲，
據此推測其為十八羅漢中的第十七尊者 – 降龍羅漢。鑄造風格生動特異
而古意盎然，具有早期銅造像的特徵。降龍羅漢其人為何，佛經中未有
記載，而為中土信眾於《法住記》所記載十六羅漢上，附會而得，因此歷來
各家看法不一。蘇軾主張其為慶友尊者，即《法住記》作者；南宋志磐則
謂為摩訶迦葉，釋迦牟尼之十大弟子之一，十八世紀乾隆皇帝亦承襲志磐
論點。雖則降龍羅漢不見於經籍，但是佛經中卻常見沙門降伏毒龍的故事，
最早的一例便是釋迦牟尼自身。據載世尊曾為了感化優樓頻羅迦葉皈依，
(inscription 銘文) 顯神通以佛缽收伏一條毒龍（naga，亦可譯為‘蛇’），為此類故事的濫觴。

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