Liurong Temple

Liurong temple is an ancient temple with a long history and world famous in Guangzhou. Temple Pagoda towering, verdant trees, cultural relics. Liurong temple, with Liurong flower tower as its characteristic symbol, was rated as one of the top ten tourist attractions in Guangzhou in 1997. As early as the Southern Song Dynasty (420-479), the original site of Liurong temple has been built with a Buddhist hall, which is called baoguangjun temple in Guangzhou. In the third year of Liang Da Tong (537), master Tanyu of neidaochang was ordered to return to Guangzhou for the relic. He drowned in baoguangjun Temple because of illness. He wrote that he would like to live in this temple. He got the imperial edict and built the relic tower. The relic was collected from overseas. In the first year of Yonghui of Tang Dynasty (650), the relic tower showed the auspicious image. With the help of the local officials at all levels, the Baolun monk rebuilt the pagoda. In November of the second year of Shangyuan Dynasty (675), the famous poet Wang botu passed through Guangzhou. At this time, the relic pagoda of baoguangjun temple had been renovated. Monks and laymen all admired Wang Bo. They told him about the history of the temple and the cause of the pagoda repair, and asked him to write a stele. Wang Bo happily wrote: "the relic pagoda of Fubao Guangjun temple is a Taoist priest in three years of Liang Datong Master Tanyu's establishment is still divided into relic and blessing It's also the year of 650, when you suddenly see the divine light in the Pagoda: the jade forest shines brightly, the golden mountain is full, and you come and go like a cloud of electricity; you spit out the flame and flow the essence, and you turn to the Han dynasty like the stars; you tilt your capital to look up together, and you overflow with Guo. " In the east of Huata, there are more than 10 ancient steles, such as Shanmen, Maitreya hall, Tianwang hall, Weituo hall, Su Dongpo's portrait and stone carvings with six banyan. Tashi for the main hall, 14 meters high, covering an area of 300 square meters. It contains three large statues of Buddha, which were cast in brass in 1663, the second year of the reign of Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty. Each Buddha is 6 meters high and weighs 10 tons. It is the largest existing ancient bronze statue in Guangdong Province. On the south side of the main hall, shuotang is rebuilt. There are liuzu hall, Guanyin hall, sengshe Zhaitang, Gongde hall and Sutra Pavilion in Rongyin garden.

Liurong Temple

Liurong temple, located on Liurong road in Guangzhou, is an ancient temple with a long history and famous at home and abroad. Temple Pagoda towering, lush trees, cultural relics, history left many celebrities footprints. Liurong temple was named after Su Dongpo's inscriptions for the temple.

Liurong temple, together with Guangxiao temple, Hualin temple and Haichuang temple, is known as the four major Buddhist forests in Guangzhou. Like the flower Pagoda in the temple, Liurong temple has always been praised by people. In addition to its historical status, it is as famous as Guangxiao temple. It is known as "Guangxiao is passed on by tree, Jinghui (another name of Liurong Temple) is shown by pagoda".

Liurong temple is characterized by "Liurong flower pagoda". It used to be a Buddhist temple. Together with Haichuang temple, Guangxiao temple, Hualin temple and Dafo temple, it is known as the five major Buddhist forests in Guangzhou. In 1983, it was determined by the State Council as the national key Buddhist temple in the Han area.

Liurong temple was rated as one of the top ten tourist attractions in Guangzhou in 1997.

Historical evolution

The temple was built in 420-479 A.D. (Southern Dynasties and Song Dynasty), and it was called "Guangzhou baozhengwei Temple".

In 537 A.D. (the third year of Liang Datong), master Salman Tanyu invited the Buddha's relic from Funan (Cambodia) to Guangzhou. With the permission of Emperor Wu of Liang Dynasty, he built the relic tower in front of the main hall of baozhengwei temple.

The pagoda is a quadrangular six story Wooden Pagoda with Buddhist relics buried under it. Inside and outside the pagoda are painted with illustrations of Buddhist scriptures, which is called "Buddhist relic pagoda of chicibao solemn Temple".

In 650 ad (the first year of Yonghui of Tang Dynasty), after more than 100 years of wind and rain erosion, the beams and columns of the pagoda had been damaged. One day, the relic tower of auspicious light emerged, shocked the people of Yangcheng, believers flocked to view.

Li Sui, the governor of Shiguang and Shao, invited Shi Mou, the prefect of Guangzhou, and general Mingwei to visit Li Gong, the governor of Panyu. They went to the temple to pay homage to the exhausted Baolun monk and discuss the construction of the relic pagoda. After careful organization and construction, the relic tower has been renovated and reappeared its majestic posture.

In the spring of 675 A.D. (the second year of Shangyuan reign of Emperor Gaozong of Tang Dynasty), Wang Bo left his hometown Longmen, Jiangzhou (now Hejin, Shanxi Province), went south to Jiaozhi (now Vietnam) to visit his father (whose father Wang Fuchou had been appointed Jiaozhi commander for many years), and arrived in Guangzhou in November. At the same time, there was a Dharma Assembly in baozhenguang temple. At the request of the monks, he wrote down a three thousand character inscription "stele of relic tower of baozhenguang temple in Guangzhou".

In 917 A.D., Liu Gong, the king of the South China Sea, declared himself Emperor, and his name was Dayue. His capital was Guangzhou. In the following year, he changed his name to Han (known as the Southern Han Dynasty in History), and his name to qianheng, and promoted Guangzhou to xingwangfu.

The monarchs of the Southern Han Dynasty believed in Buddhism. Baoguangjun temple was renamed Changshou temple. As a place for the nuns of Liu's clan, the pagoda was still called the relic pagoda. Every time they ascended the pagoda during the Shangyuan and Mid Autumn Festival, they lit candles and hung lanterns (called "saiyue lanterns") to symbolize a good harvest.

In 971 A.D. (the fourth year of Kaibao in Song Dynasty), the Southern Han Dynasty was destroyed. Changshou temple and relic pagoda were destroyed by fire, and they were annihilated for more than 100 years.

In 988 ad (the first year of Duangong in Northern Song Dynasty), the temple was rebuilt, and a bronze statue was cast based on the real body of the sixth ancestor of Caoxi. The temple was rebuilt and completed in the second year of Duangong, so it was renamed "Jinghui Temple". At that time, there were six ancient banyan trees in the temple, and the folk had the name of "Liurong Temple", but at that time, it was just "a common name, not a temple name".

In 1086 (the first year of song and Yuan Dynasty), monk Dechao, the abbot of Jinghui temple, raised money to rebuild the relic pagoda. He discussed with the former chief bookkeeper of Baoji County, Fengxiang County, Lin Xiu, a native of Nanhai County, and Wang Qu, a believer of the county, about the rebuilding of the relic tower. According to the inscriptions of "Fangjing Yuanquan, staggering inverted scenery" and the folk saying of "ring ancient well nine", they found the old pagoda base and rebuilt the pagoda. At that time, they excavated the Buddhist relics hidden in the pagoda built by Liang Dynasty, which were still buried.

On June 3, the fourth year of Shaosheng (1097 A.D.), the pagoda was completed, and the monks invited Zhao Shuang, the Song Emperor's uncle and the governor of Kangzhou (today's Deqing, Guangdong Province), who often came to the temple to worship Buddha, to write a book, the story of rebuilding the pagoda of Jinghui temple in Guangzhou. The new pagoda is made of brick and wood. It is octagonal in shape. It has nine layers in appearance and 17 layers in dark. Inside and outside the walls of each layer, there are niches for Fengxian to rob thousands of Buddha statues, so it is called "Thousand Buddha pagoda".

In 1100 A.D. (the third year of Yuanfu in the Northern Song Dynasty), Su Dongpo, a great writer of letters, returned from Hainan Province. When he passed Guangzhou to visit the temple, he wrote inscriptions for the temple at the request of Daocong, a monk of the temple. He saw six banyan trees in the temple, which were covered with green shade, tangled in roots, and extraordinary momentum. He gladly wrote the word "six banyan".

In 1358 (the 18th year of the Yuan Dynasty), the relic pagoda was rebuilt, and a 9.14-meter-high copper pillar of Thousand Buddhas was cast. The pillar body is engraved with 1023 Buddha statues and the pagoda of Xiangyun heavenly palace. Together with the flame pearl on the top of the pagoda, the three-tier jiuxiao plate, the nine tier wheel, the one-tier double dragon plate, and eight iron chains, it forms a 5-ton pagoda temple.

In A.D. 1373 (the sixth year of Hongwu in Ming Dynasty), half of the temple area was converted into yongfengcang. Since then, the mountain gate has been changed to the East, and the temple area has been gradually reduced. Six ancient banyan trees are also located outside the temple because of the cutting of the temple (the original Jinghui temple is quite large in scale, covering a very wide area, with the mountain gate facing south, "stretching for more than two Li").

In 1375 (the eighth year of Hongwu in Ming Dynasty), the temple monk Yujian and other monks rebuilt the damaged pagoda hall at the end of Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of Ming Dynasty, and built juehuang hall at the east of the pagoda (it was the main hall for 600 years, but it was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution).

In 1395 (the 28th year of Hongwu), Jinghui temple was once merged into Xichan temple, and the bronze statue of the sixth ancestor was later moved to Xichan temple.

In 1411 (the ninth year of Yongle in Ming Dynasty), Jinghui temple was rebuilt. The monks carved a wooden plaque with the word "Liurong" in Su Dongpo's ink and hung it on the gate of the temple. Since then, Jinghui temple is also called Liurong temple, and the relic tower is called Liurong tower. Since then, it has been rebuilt in Zhengtong, Jiajing, Wanli, Tianqi and Qianlong years of the Qing Dynasty (Liurong pagoda has been rebuilt in the early Qing Dynasty. It is also known as "flower pagoda" because of its "red, green, white and yellow eaves and beautiful scenery".

In 1856 (the sixth year of Xianfeng in Qing Dynasty), the top of the tower fell to the ground due to typhoon.

In 1874 (the 13th year of Tongzhi), the Qing Royal Family allocated a large sum of money from the coastal defense funds to repair.

In 1875 (the first year of Guangxu reign of Qing Dynasty), after the temple was built in Xiantong reign, the thousand pagodas were rebuilt and completed, and a record of rebuilding the pagodas of Liurong temple was written.

In 1900 (the 26th year of the reign of Emperor Guangxu), the Qing court ordered tiechan, the abbot of Liurong temple, to be the Minister of monks in Guangdong.

In 1912 (the first year of the Republic of China), the national government abolished the monk official system and established the Guangdong Buddhist Association (the site of the association is Liurong Temple). In May of the same year, Dr. Sun Yat Sen resigned his temporary presidency and returned to Guangzhou. Tiechan organized Guangdong Buddhist circles to hold a grand welcome meeting in Liurong temple to support the national revolution. Dr. Sun Yat Sen wrote a book entitled "freedom, equality and fraternity" and presented it to Liurong temple.

In 1913 (the second year of the Republic of China), monk tiechan led his four disciples to welcome back the bronze statue of Huineng, the sixth patriarch of Xichan temple in qiaokan for hundreds of years, and built the sixth patriarch hall for worship. In addition, four banyan trees were planted (two of the six ancient banyan trees survived: one at the back of Dongpo jingshe and Fuquan new street; the other at the old Pingnan palace in the east of the temple) They also built banyan Pavilion, Dongpo jingshe, Caoxi Faru memorial archway, and collected the scattered stones of Taihu Lake.

Experience earthquake

In 1915 (the fourth year of the Republic of China), there was an earthquake in Guangzhou, which cracked the inner wall of the tower and the copper pillar of Thousand Buddhas. (from 1915 to 1935, seven earthquakes were recorded in Guangzhou, two of which occurred in 1915 and 1918 respectively.)

In 1921 (the tenth year of the Republic of China), the municipal government in Liurong Temple East

Chinese PinYin : Liu Rong Si