Qǔjiāng

Qujiang lies in the river country of northern Guangdong, south of the Nanling Mountains. On the banks of Caoxi stands Nanhua Temple, one of the great centres of Chan Buddhism. The Sixth Patriarch Huineng taught here for many years, and his association with the monastery made it a revered place for later generations. In the eleventh century donors including merchants, craftspeople and monks supported the carving of a group of wooden arhat figures for the temple. Through the Ming and Qing, the monastery continued to be a focus of religious life and remembrance of Huineng's teaching.