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Guo Quan
Early Tang sutra copyist, known only for an official copy of the Vinaya commentary Shanjian lu in regular script
A desk holds an unrolled sheet bearing three bold black ink strokes, with a rack of many brushes above it, a stone ink slab and ink stick, a porcelain bowl, a red lacquer box, a dish of red seal paste and a paperweight; a small seated figure shows through a round window onto bamboo.
Also known as Sutra Copyist Guo Quan
Guo Quan was a sutra copyist of the early Tang about whom nothing else is known. His copy of the Shanjian lu, a commentary on monastic discipline, written in regular script and now in the Palace Museum, Beijing, is dated at the end to the tenth day of the twelfth month of the Zhenguan 22nd year and lists Zhao Mo as supervisor and Yan Liben as chief supervisor, showing that it was an officially organised copy. The hand follows Yu Shinan and Chu Suiliang, steady and evenly structured, and has left behind the older conventions of Six Dynasties sutra copying. The Ming connoisseur Zhan Jingfeng recorded it as written by imperial command. It carries colophons by Zhao Mengfu, Feng Zizhen, Ni Zan, Dong Qichang and others.
Life and times
Dates Dates unknown; copied the Shanjian lu in the twelfth lunar month of Zhenguan 22 (late 648 or early 649)