羅漢 [py] luóhàn [wg] lo-han [ko] 라한 rahan [ja] ラカン rakan ||| luohan is the abbreviation of aluohan 阿羅漢, the Chinese transcription of the Sanskrit arhat, the name for those who achieve the highest realm of spiritual attainment in the practices of the so-called Lesser Vehicle (xiaosheng 小乘 ), tradition of Buddhism. Once this realm is reached, all vexation ceases, and one is released from the cycle of rebirth and enters nirvana. However, according to the Cheng weishi lun 成唯識論, a translation by the eminent monk Xuanzang 玄奘 (ca. 600-664) of the Vijñaptimātratā-siddhi-śāstra (659), the arhat has attained the realm of perfect understanding beyond learning reached in all three vehicles (Skt. yāna, Ch. sheng 乘): the śrāvaka (shengwen 聲聞), the pratyeka (pizhijia or yuanjue 縁覺), which comprise the Hinayana, and the Bodhisattva (pusa 菩薩), which comprises the Mahayana, the so-called Greater Vehicle (dasheng 大乘). Therefore, arhat is another name for Buddhahood as well as one of the ten appellations for the rulaifo (tathagata buddha 如來佛). [For Buddhist technical definitions, see under 阿羅漢]
          According to the earliest sutras, Śākyamuni originally had only four great arhats remain in the world to propagate the dharma, one for each of the four directions, east, west, north, and south, but later sutras gradually added to these until there were sixteen, most of whom still lacked specific names. It was not until the early Tang era when Xuanzang brought back sutras from India and translated the Nandimitrāvadāna (Fa zhuji 法住記) (654) that people first became acquainted with the names and exploits of the sixteen arhats. It was then that Chinese monks generally began to venerate the sixteen lohans 十六羅漢 and that pictures and statues representing them dressed in a wide variety of Chinese monks' attire appeared continuously and in great numbers all over China. For example, Wang Wei (701-761) is recorded to have painted forty-eight pictures of the sixteen lohans, and paintings of them by Lu Lengjia (active ca. 730-760) and others became famous throughout the Tang empire. Statues of the sixteen lohans made then for the Yanxiadong (Clouds and Mist Grotto) in Hangzhou were praised throughout subsequent ages. Beginning with the Song era, representations of the sixteen lohans gradually ceased to enjoy such popularity as a subject in Buddhist sculpture, but painters still often painted pictures of them through the end of the Ming era, including Li Gonglin (ca. 1049-1106), Liang Kai (early thirteenth century), Zhao Mengfu (1254-1322), and Chiu Ying (ca. 1494-ca. 1552).
          Beginning with the Five Dynasties era, veneration for lohans flourished, and in painting the number depicted increased to eighteen 十八羅漢. When Su Shi (1037-1101) was exiled to Hainan Island, he once saw a Shiba luohan tu (Picture of the Eighteen Lohans) by the Five Dynasties era painter Zhang Xuan (active ca. 890-930) of the Former Shu kingdom (907-925), which inspired him to compose a Shiba daluohan song (Hymn to the Eighteen Great Lohans). Later, at the Baolin si he saw another such painting, which prompted another composition, Zi Hainan gui guo Qingyuanxia Baolinsi jingzan Chanyue suohua shiba daluohan (Returning from Hainan, I Stopped by at Baolin Temple in the Qingyuan Gorge to Pay My Respects to The Eighteen Great Lohans¡¨ by the Monk Chanyue). Both of Su's compositions describe the appearance and provide the names of the eighteen lohans, with Qingyou 慶友 and Bintoulu 賓頭盧 the two additional figures. After this, the eighteen lohans became an increasingly popular subject in both sculpture and painting. At temples statues of them were placed on the east and west sides of Daxiong baodian where they served as guardians for figures of Śākyamuni or of the Past, Present, and Future Buddhas.
          Five Hundred Lohans 五百羅漢 is a collective name often mentioned in sutras, where it is sometimes identified with the five hundred bhikṣus (五百比丘) and the five hundred (shangshou). Many legends concerning the five hundred also exist, for example, in the Fahua jing Wubai dizi shoujipin (The Five Hundred Disciples Undergo vyākaraṇa 授記 [the Buddha's foretelling when each one shall Enter Nirvana]) section of the Fahuajing (Lotus Sutra), the Sheli fo wen jing, where it is told that after King Fushamiduolou destroys Buddhism, the Five Hundred Lohans reestablish it. The Fa zhuji records that each of the sixteen lohans is responsible for a certain territory of operations and that each has a staff of subordinates, five hundred lohans being the elementary unit. Also, it is said that after the parinirvāṇa of Śākyamuni, Mahākāśyapa 迦葉 together with five hundred lohans made the first collection of the scriptures at Rājagṛha 王舎城. At the time of King Aśoka, five hundred lohan monks and five hundred ordinary (凡夫, i. e. still unenlightened), monks assembled en masse to chant the Buddha's teachings. During the Fourth Council 第四結集 at the time of King Kaniṣka, five hundred lohans also assembled to compose the Da piposha lun 大毘婆沙論. "Five hundred" in such narratives surely stands for "several hundred" and does not signify a definite number. Also, none of these accounts provide individual names for the five hundred lohans. We know that it was during the Tang era that the five hundred lohans were first represented in China. According to the Wudai minghua buyi (Supplement to Famous Paintings of the Five Dynasties Era), the prominent Tang era sculptor Yang Huizhi made figures of the five hundred lohans for the Guang'ai si in Hunan prefecture, which is the earliest known occurrence of sculptures of the five hundred lohans in China. During the Five Dynasties era veneration of the five hundred lohans became very popular. For example, the King of the Wu-Yue state (907-978), Qian Liu, had bronze statutes of the five hundred lohans made for the Fangguang si on Mount Tiantai, and, in the first year of the Xiande era (954), Chan master Daoqian received permission from Qian Zhongyi, then King of Wu-Yue, to move sixteen statues of the Buddha¡'s disciples from the base of Thunder Peak Pagoda to the Jingci Temple and to have a Five Hundred Lohan Hall built there--both sites in Hangzhou, the Wu-Yue capital. In the second year of Yongxi era of the Northern Song (985?), statues of five hundred sixteen lohans were made and placed in the Shouchang Temple on Mount Tiantai. In fact, during the Northern Song era, veneration of the five hundred lohans became increasingly popular, and throughout China many temples had halls constructed to hold statues of them, sparing no expense. Grottos to contain groups of the five hundred also began to appear, for example, the one hundred sixty-eighth cave at Dazu, Sichuan, which comprises the Dafo an, where the central wall and two side walls had lohans carved all over them.
          However, these places where the five hundred lohans were represented all failed to provide names for them. According to an entry in the Baoke congbian, juan 15, in the guisi year of Dahe era (933?), Dade chongyi composed Wu Longxing si Chongfu yuan wubai luohan bei (Five Hundred Lohan Stele at the Longxing Temple, Chongfu Sub-temple, in Wu [Xuanzhou]), each identified with an individual name, but this stele did not survive. For a slightly later period, the Jinshixubian, juan 17, contains a copy of a stele inscribed in the fourth year of the Shaoxing era of the Southern Song (1134), which Gao Daosu, who was a yuanwailang in the gongbu, had composed by collecting all available Buddhist writings and abstracting from them the names of five hundred lohans. This stele was erected in the Qianming Temple at Jiangyin--the renowned Jiangyinjun Qianmingyuan luohan zunhao bei (Stone Inscription of the Venerable Names of Lohans at the Qianming Temple of Jiangyin Commandery). Although this is the earliest such record of the names of the lohans known in China, it is just a list of "venerable names" (zunhao)--no illustrations of the lohan figures themselves were engraved. However, from this time on, all temples that had five hundred lohan halls constructed and all painters who made pictures of them named the lohans according to this list. During the Chongzhen era of the Ming, Gao Chengyan had the Qianmingyuan luohan zunhao bei engraved again, and his son, Gao Youji, had it re-engraved a second time and copied into the Jiaxing zang, where it is contained in case (han) 43. However, it still only contains the names of the lohans.
          Still during the Southern Sung era, someone compiled a collection of illustrations and produced a wood block edition of a Luohan tulu (Catalogue of Pictures of Lohans)--the first known illustrated catalogue of the lohans. This work was reprinted from new wood blocks in the sixteenth year of the Chongzhen era (1643). Although no copies of this work now survive, it was reprinted again from a new set of wood blocks in the fifty-second year of the Qianlong era (1787)--the Qianming yuan wubaishiba aluohan tulu (Catalogue of Illustrations of the Five Hundred Eighteen Lohans From the Qianming Temple), under the direction of Abbot Dache, an eminent priest of the Qianlong era. The Qianming yuan or Luohan si is located in present-day Shifang district, Chongqing, Siquan. First built in the Song, it fell into disrepair during the Yuan and Ming era but was rebuilt in the seventeenth year of the Qianlong era (1752), and some time after that statues of the five hundred eighteen lohans were made, after the illustrations in the Ming edition of the Luohan tulu. The temple was destroyed during wartime Japanese air raids and was rebuilt in 1945, new statues filling the Lohan Hall once again.

[Dictionary References] Naka1401b ZGD1257d Iwa821 Ina-Z275 JE231a/257 Yo525 ZGo13-P332 DFB [Credit] rjlynn(entry)

阿羅漢的簡稱。見阿羅漢條。

陳義孝編, 竺摩法師鑑定, 《佛學常見辭彙》

arhan, arhat; worthy, worshipful, an arhat, the saint, or perfect man of Hīnayāna; the sixteen, eighteen, or 500 famous disciples appointed to witness to buddha-truth and save the world; v. 阿.

A Dictionary of Chinese Buddhist Terms, William Edward Soothill and Lewis Hodous

arhan, arhat; arihat, arhattva, arhanta, dakṣiṇīya, dākṣiṇeya, śrāvaka, sthavira .

佛教漢梵大辭典

P. 2920

羅漢 (luó hàn) 　“a saint”(a transliteration of skt.arhat)

{《漢語大詞典》8.1052b(唐代)} ; {《大漢和辞典》9.32d(大智度論)} ;

Dharmarakṣa: {72c8}

{K.56.12} arhanta-

Kumārajīva: {L.10a7} 阿羅漢

Dharmarakṣa: {84c29} 其藥樹木 稍漸長大 是爲羅漢 諸漏盡者(v)

{K.131.1} arhat~

Kumārajīva: {L.20b11} 聲聞

Dharmarakṣa: {85a16} 縁斯之行 當得佛行 此諸羅漢 如是無異(v)

{K.131.12-}

Kumārajīva: {not found at L.20b23}

Dharmarakṣa: {94b6} 一切道父 而覺了之“賢等事辦 今得羅漢”(v)

{K.197.12} arhat-

Kumārajīva: {L.27a28} 阿羅漢

Dharmarakṣa: {94b7}

{K.198.1} do.

Kumārajīva: {L.27a28} do.

Dharmarakṣa: {95b22}

{K.200.1-}

Kumārajīva: {not found at L.27b23}

Dharmarakṣa: {107c25}

{K.279.4} arhanta-

Kumārajīva: {L.37b24} 羅漢

A Digital Edition of A Glossary of Dharmarakṣa translation of the Lotus Sutra by Seishi Karashima, 1998