Hualin Temple

Hualin temple is just at the foot of Ping mountain. It was built by the prefect of Fuzhou to pray for the peace of the country during the reign of Qian, the king of Wu and Yue. However, after several years of spring and autumn, only the main hall remains. Later, it was rebuilt many times in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and the mountain gate, left and right side halls and veranda were added. However, its main components are still millennium old. It is the oldest wooden building in the South of the Yangtze River in China.

The construction technique of Hualin temple is unique in the wooden architecture of Tang and Song dynasties in China. Through the research of experts and scholars in China and Japan, it is found that the main hall of Hualin temple has a great influence on the architectural style of Kamakura period in Japan, such as the big Buddha like and Tiansi like.

Hualin Temple

Hualin temple is located in xilaizheng street, Xiajiu Road, Liwan District, Guangzhou city. It was built in 527, the eighth year of Emperor Wu of Liang Dynasty. Hualin temple is the cultural exchange place between China and India of Bodhidharma, the founder of Chinese Buddhism, and the first of the four Buddhist forests in Guangzhou.

Hualin temple was formerly known as "Xilai nunnery". Following master's instructions, Dharma came from the west to promote the wonderful purpose of Zen Buddhism. During the ordinary years of Emperor Wu of Liang Dynasty, he arrived at the North Bank of the Pearl River (now Xiajiu Road) outside Guangzhou city from the sea and "built grass for nunnery" with painstaking efforts. In the 12th year of Shunzhi (1655), the main hall was built for the first time, followed by the Pavilion Hall and pangcha room, and the "Xilai Temple" was changed to "Hualin Temple". With an area of 30000 square meters, Hualin temple is composed of five hundred arhat hall, relic tower, Dharma hall and other buildings. In the hall of five hundred Arhats, in addition to offering the three treasures Buddha, there are also clay statues of five hundred Arhats with different expressions, including a wooden statue of Marco Polo, an Italian traveler.

In March 1963, the people's Committee of Guangzhou announced that the Hualin temple was a "cultural relic protection unit" in Guangzhou.

geographical position

Hualin temple is located in xilaizheng street, north of Xiajiu Road, Xiguan, Guangzhou, near Xiajiu pedestrian street, Kangwang Road, Guangzhou.

Historical evolution

In 526, the seventh year of emperor Liangwu of the Southern Dynasty, Dharma, an Indian monk, followed his master's instructions and came from the west to promote Zen Buddhism. He arrived at the North Bank of the Pearl River (now Xiajiu Road) outside Guangzhou city from the sea and built Xilai nunnery to practice hard and spread Buddhism.

After the completion of Xilai nunnery, it was repaired many times in Sui, Tang, song, yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, and was rebuilt into brick and wood structure many times. After more than 1100 years of construction, in 1654, the abbot of the nunnery, Zen master Zongfu, raised money to expand it. He added a Zen room, a monk's room and a great hall. He also opened up a courtyard, planted trees and introduced flowing water. He built a large Buddhist jungle with an area of 30000 square meters, and renamed Xilai nunnery Hualin temple.

After Zen master Zongfu, his disciple monk centrifugal continued to build and worked hard for nearly ten years. As a result, Hualin Temple became one of the four Buddhist forests in Guangzhou.

In the 40th year of the reign of Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty (1701), the hall of relic was built in Hualin temple with seven stone relic towers.

From the 25th to 29th year of Daoguang (1845-1849), master Zhiyuan, the abbot of Hualin temple, was ordered to return from Hangzhou Jinghui temple to build 500 Luohan hall. According to relevant historical records, the scale of the 500 Arhats hall in the early Republic of China was very grand and magnificent: the hall was in the shape of a field, the gate was separated from the left and right, and the King Kong with a height of more than Zhang entered directly from the gate. There were three treasures of Buddha in the North shrine, patios on both sides of the center, and five hundred Arhats in the corridor. The statues of Arhats were life size, with different expressions of happiness, anger, sadness and posture. One of them was a statue of the Yuan Dynasty coming to China The archetypal statue of Marco Polo, an Italian navigator. There is also a 4-meter-high and 1-ton bronze Ashoka Pagoda in the hall.

In the early years of the Republic of China, the veranda of Hualin temple were demolished and changed into civilian houses, and only 500 Luohan halls were left. The five hundred Arhats are magnificent in body, posture, expression and character. They are all alike. They can be seen in meditation or in games. Their actions and actions show the character of the characters. It can be said that they are ingenious. Among them is a statue of Marco Polo, an Italian traveler. In front of the 500 arhat hall, there is a seven story white marble relic tower built in 1701.

During the "Cultural Revolution", the Hualin temple was devastated, the original Buddha statues and many Arhats were destroyed, and the Ashoka pagoda disappeared.

In the late period of the founding of the people's Republic of China, the party and the government carried out religious policies and allocated special funds for temple maintenance for many times.

In 1963, the municipal government announced the temple as a key cultural relics protection unit.

In 1965, baishita was moved to Lanpu Park in Guangzhou. When the pagoda was moved, a set of Buddhist relic boxes was found in the center of the pagoda base, which had four layers of stone, wood, copper and silver. There are three scarlet letters "sarizi" on the cover of the outer stone box. The cover of the copper box is engraved with the words "Hai Jinghe, the abbot of mengqiu Hualin temple in Xinsi, Kangxi, Qing Dynasty". Inside the box are pearls, amber and agarwood. The silver box is also engraved with lotus and dot patterns.

Since 1986, the occupied houses have been gradually recovered and repaired.

In 1989, 500 Luohan hall was the first to open to the outside world.

In 1994, the white stone pagoda was moved back to Hualin temple from Lanpu, and placed at the north end of the temple, opposite to the temple gate. Despite more than 300 years of disaster, the white stone pagoda is still well preserved and elegant.

In 1996, the relic, originally hidden in the relic tower, was returned to Hualin Temple by the Municipal Bureau of landscape architecture.

Temple layout

Hualin Temple faces east from the west, with two stone lions and two stone drums on each side of the gate. The stone forehead of the mountain gate is engraved with the four words "Hualin Chan Temple", and the stone pillars on both sides are engraved with a couplet: "Huayan world view, one hundred thousand Buddhas, forest long Jiushan hidden five hundred should be true." There are star rock pagodas at both ends of the mountain gate, and a row of bungalows on the south side. There is a Gongde hall inside. Next to the Gongde hall are the primordial Dharma hall and the five hundred arhat hall, which makes the layout of the temple form a small-scale Sino Indian style architectural complex.

Sarita

In 1701, Yuanhai, the abbot of Hualin temple, built a Relic Hall and a refined relic Pagoda in order to offer the Buddha relic. The pagoda is made of white marble from Zhaoqing seven star rock. It is seven meters high and has seven layers on six sides. Each level and even each stone is bound with green lead. The structure of the pagoda is solid, and the shape of the pagoda is elegant. Each side is carved with exquisite patterns. It can be called the best stone carving art in Lingnan. In 1924, part of the Hualin temple was bought and rebuilt, and the relic tower was left in the center of the front street of Hualin temple. In 1965, it was moved to Lanpu, Jiefang North Road. When the base of the pagoda was demolished, a quadruple treasure box containing 22 Buddha relic was found in the crypt. From 1994 to 1996, the relic pagoda and 21 Buddhist relic were returned to the temple, becoming the treasure of Hualin temple.

Five hundred arhat Hall

Five hundred arhat hall is the main hall of Hualin temple. In front of the gate of the five hundred arhat hall, there is a King Kong Li Tu guarding the gate with a high eaves, a King Kong pestle in hand and a powerful face. The stone forehead of "five hundred arhat hall" is suspended above the gate of the hall. The stone pillars on both sides are engraved with a pair of couplets: "to prove Bodhi's mind, to present the truth, and to ascend to the view of freedom happily." There is a smiling Maitreya Buddha in the gate of the temple. Behind the Buddha is the great general Wei Tuo. At the north end of the hall, there are three great Buddhas: Sakyamuni Buddha is in the middle, tshi Buddha is on the left and Amitabha Buddha is on the right. The west wall of the hall is dedicated to the Tibetan king. On the east wall of the hall is a wooden statue of Avalokitesvara, opposite to the king of Tibet.

Five hundred arhat hall gate south, from the gate to the north end of the San Bao Buddha, for the north-south axis. On both sides of the East and West are the cloisters. On the base more than 1 meter high, 500 Arhats are worshipped. The original statue was destroyed in the "Cultural Revolution" and disappeared. The new Buddha statue was re sculpted in 1997 with reference to the "500 Arhats" in the reign of Emperor Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty and relevant materials. The workmanship is very fine. The material of the statue is high-quality sandalwood. It was first carefully carved by Zhejiang craftsmen, and then bought from Chaozhou, Shantou, Fujian, Hubei and other places hemp cloth, putty, raw lacquer and other materials. The project was completed in December 1997 through more than 10 processes, such as jointing, trenching, mounting cloth, plastering, polishing, painting and gilding. The new arhat statues are dedicated on the platform, and dozens of arhat statues are closely arranged on the viaduct on the east side of "wonderful and solemn".

Dharma Hall

The Dharma hall was rebuilt in the 1990s to commemorate the ancestors of Dharma. The hall faces south from the north. There is a pair of woodcut couplets on the stone pillars in front of the hall, which reads: "the Eastern Zen preaches wonderful methods, and the Western Baodian opens up Hualin", praising the early ancestor Damo's spreading of religious culture in China from the West. On the white stone foundation in the middle of the north wall of the hall, there is a statue of Bodhidharma, which is like an Indian monk, wearing a cassock, sitting on his left leg and bending his right foot. There are two carvings on the East and west walls of the hall, which narrate the legendary stories of Dharma's eastward journey to China, such as "facing the wall for nine years", "crossing the river with a reed" and "only walking on the old west".

History and culture

The origin of the temple's name

Bodhidharma, an Indian monk, traveled to the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean to preach in China. After three cold and hot days, he finally came to Guangzhou in 526, the seventh year of emperor Liang Wu of the Southern Dynasty. The temple built by Dharma after his arrival in Guangzhou is called "Xilai Temple", which is the first holy place for him to spread Buddhism in China. Because he is a monk from the Western Buddhist country, people call the place where he first landed "the first place from the west", and regard him as the first ancestor of Chinese Zen. More than a thousand years later, people still retain the titles of "the birthplace of Xilai" and "Xilai nunnery"

Chinese PinYin : Hua Lin Si