Waguan Temple

[1] In the biography of Zhu Fatai, who greatly expanded the temple, the area was originally used to create urns for the dead whose remains were disposed of in the public burial ground.

[3] With this background, Waguan Temple was built under the sponsorship of Emperor Ai of Jin, originally composed of a stupa and a hall.

[4][5] By the end of the Eastern Jin dynasty in AD 420, Waguan had become one of the most ornately decorated temples and was known for its "three triumphs": a four-foot and two-inch tall jade statue of the Buddha from Sinhala (Sri Lanka),[6] sculptures of Buddha by the sculptor Dai Kui (Andao), and a painting of Vimalakirti by Gu Kaizhi.

[8][9] Gu Kaizhi's painting gained notoriety from a likely untrue story in which he promised to make a huge monetary donation (1,000 taels of silver) to the temple; the monks dismissed him as a braggert because Gu was extremely poor, but his mural painting of Viamalakirti proved to be so spiritually inspiring that individuals who saw it began making large financial contributions to the temple.

[16] A 16th century conversation with Wang Shizhen, Ming dynasty poet, writer, artist and litterateur, at Waguan Temple was recorded in the Jinling suoshi.