Xunyi Stone Carvings

Xunyi Stone Carvings

　　Xunyi stone carvings have been famous since ancient times. Wan Zhengyin, from WanjiaChuan in Dimiao Town, Xunyi County, has loved fine arts, clay sculpture, and carving since childhood. He first tried making clay figures, then moved on to creating Buddha statues using local sandstone. He traveled to most of the Buddhist temples across the country, photographing numerous vivid, lifelike, and diverse images of various Buddha and Bodhisattva statues; he also consulted references such as "The Complete Collection of Chinese Stone Carvings Through the Ages" and "Illustrated Guide to Chinese Buddhist Imagery." The three-dimensional figures filling his mind made him restless. The readily available stones from his hometown inspired his creativity, and the unassuming rocks in his hands were transformed into lifelike works of art. The Buddha, Bodhisattvas, Guanyin, arhats, stone lions, stone horses, stone sheep, stone beasts, and stone niches he carved could be so realistic that even national-level cultural relics experts found it hard to distinguish them from the real thing.