During the Ｒenshou era of the Sui Dynasty, the monks who were familiar with Buddhist classic and actively surrounding Emperor Wen in the capital area helped to shape and formalize the burying system of Renshou Sarira. This article tries to synthesize archaeological data and textual evidence and investigates the iconography and artistic style of stone Sarira containers popular in the capital area, which are represented by the one from Shende Temple. The author argues that thesimianbashu character of iconography should represent the nirvana process of Buddha and his four nirvana virtue, or known as "chang, le , wo, and jing". In addition, this container combines Chinese traditional concepts about orientation and the iconography of Buddhist deities to represent the worldview of Buddhism. The delicate artistic style also demonstrates a fusion of the decorative style from stone funeral furniture and Buddhist memorial steles.
