I remember that Fudan University professor Qian Wenzhong, a disciple of Ji Xianlin, a master of traditional Chinese culture, once said in "Hundred Schools Forum" that Budai monk was a monk from the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms to the Northern Song Dynasty. His real name was Qi Shi, and he was open-minded. Strange and carefree, it is said that he left a verse before his death: "Maitreya, the true Maitreya, incarnates in tens of billions, showing himself to people all the time, but people don't know it." From then on, the world regarded him as the reincarnation of Maitreya Buddha. Born into a Brahmin family in ancient India, he was born in the same era as Buddha Sakyamuni. He studied under Buddha and died before him. It is said that Sakyamuni Buddha once predicted that after the death of Maitreya Buddha, he would ascend to the ninth heaven to preach sermons to the gods. It would not be until 5.66 billion years in the future after Sakyamuni Buddha's death that he would be reborn in the human world and inherit Sakyamuni Buddha. The mantle of the Buddha of Nifo. Therefore, Maitreya Buddha is also called the Future Buddha. Then the current statue of Maitreya Buddha with the image of "a big belly that can tolerate things that are difficult to tolerate in the world, and a smile that always makes people laugh at the ridiculous people in the world" was built by the people of the Song Dynasty based on the appearance of the Budai monk. Before Budai Monk, Maitreya Buddha was very thin and slender. You can look for many gilt statues of Maitreya Buddha left in the Northern and Southern Dynasties