GaoMin Temple

M í n temple is the first of the eight famous temples in Yangzhou, and together with Jinshan Temple in Zhenjiang, Tianning Temple in Changzhou and Tiantong temple in Ningbo, it is known as the four forests of Chinese Zen Buddhism. Emperor Qianlong visited here six times.

Gaomin temple is the representative of Linshui temple in Yangzhou. The first floor and the first pavilion are all built strangely and hidden skillfully. The mountain light and haze are just right, and the Sanskrit morning bell touches people's heart. The canal outside the temple has smooth ripples and microwave waves. The temple is reflected in the lake, with white clouds and blue sky, beautiful, quiet, bright and smart.

Gaomin temple is famous for its "sitting meditation", also known as "sitting incense", that is, sitting meditation is based on incense. The existing ancient buildings in the temple include the old Chan hall, the chanting hall, the Sutra collection building, the Jade Buddha Hall, the West Tower, the water shelf Pavilion and the squatter house.

GaoMin Temple

Gaomin temple, located at the Sanchahe estuary at the intersection of the ancient canal and Yiyang River in the southern suburb of Yangzhou City, is a national key protected temple. It is one of the eight famous temples in Yangzhou in Qing Dynasty.

Gaomin temple, together with Jinshan Temple in Zhenjiang, Tianning Temple in Changzhou and Tiantong temple in Ningbo, is the four thickets of Zen Buddhism in China. It is not only famous in China, but also has far-reaching influence on Southeast Asian countries. In 1983, the Religious Affairs Bureau of the State Council officially listed Gaomin temple as one of the key temples in China.

Historical evolution

It is said that gaominsi temple was founded in the Sui Dynasty, and its name was changed. It was rebuilt as a palace in the early Qing Dynasty. According to legend, Gaomin temple was founded in the Sui Dynasty. It was revived and abandoned many times, and its name changed several times. It was rebuilt as a palace in the early Qing Dynasty. In 1651, Wu Weihua, governor of the two rivers, planned to build a seven level pagoda on the banks of the three branches of the river to relieve floods, which was called "Tianzhong tower".

Eleven years (1654) autumn tower, Fuyu tower left camp built Sanshou three, is the "tower temple.". In 1699, Emperor Kangxi visited Yangzi three times and found the tower in the sky collapsed. He wanted to issue money to repair it and pray for the Empress Dowager. Cao Yin of Jiangning weaving and Li Xu of Suzhou weaving advocated the contribution of salt from Huaihe River and Huaihe River, greatly renovated and expanded the pagoda temple. In 1703, Emperor Kangxi made four tours to the south. He once climbed the Tianzhong Pagoda in the temple and looked at it from the top of the pagoda. He felt like he was in the sky, so he named it "GaoMin Temple". The following year, the emperor made the inscription of Gaomin temple, awarded the golden statue of Tathagata, a pharmacist in the inner palace, and built the Golden Buddha Hall and the imperial stele Pavilion in the temple. Later, Cao Yin was equal to the west of the temple to create a palace, which was several times the size of the temple.

During the fifth and sixth Southern tours of Kangxi and the first Southern tour of Qianlong, they all stayed here.

Prosperous period

In the middle of the Qing Dynasty, Gaomin temple had a large scale, with many famous monks, reaching its peak. In the 36th year of Qianlong reign (1771), the Jincha pagoda was damaged by a hurricane. It was restored by salt merchants in the Huaihe and Huaihe rivers, and the top of the pagoda was closed the next year.

In the 24th year of Daoguang (1844), the pagoda collapsed again. Since then, it has not been rebuilt, and Gaomin temple has declined. In Xianfeng, both the temple and the palace were destroyed by fire. Since the reign of Tongzhi and Guangxu, although the monks were determined to build the temple, it was only on a small scale, and it was difficult to restore the old view. Until modern times, eminent monks came to Gaomin temple, abbot of Guoguo for more than 30 years. They expanded the temple, straightened out the temple rules, strictly enforced the religious contract, and broke up the scripture confession. They only took Zen meditation and enlightenment as their goal. Thus, they became famous in the world. They were also known as the four jungles of Zen together with Jinshan in Zhenjiang, Tiantong in Ningbo and Tianning in Changzhou Fourth Avenue.

Cultural relics in the temple

After the founding of the people's Republic of China, Gaomin temple was one of the reserved temples. There were often hundreds of monks, but there were also twists and turns. During the cultural revolution, all the Buddhist statues were destroyed, all the cultural relics and magic weapons were copied, and the monks were expelled from the temple.

Later, it was used for other purposes, the temple was rebuilt arbitrarily, and the main hall was demolished in 1975. In 1980, the monks of the former Gaomin temple asked to return to Buddhism. In 1983, Gaomin temple was approved by the State Council as one of the key temples in the Han area. The government allocated millions to move out of the occupied units and invited master Delin, the former deputy director of GaoMin Temple Affairs Committee, to return to the abbot.

Main building

Today, the temple gate is inlaid with Kangxi's handwritten "imperial edict to build GaoMin Temple", white jade and stone. The existing buildings include the old Chan hall, the chanting Buddha Hall, the Sutra collection building, the Jade Buddha Hall, the West Tower, the water Pavilion and the squatter house.

In 1990, a new Zen hall was built, 18 meters high, with a non equilateral octahedral nearly circular structure, with a construction area of 365 square meters. It has a magnificent appearance and a spacious interior. It integrates the ancient and modern architectural features. It was built with an investment of 500000 yuan by Mr. Chen Hongchen of Hong Kong. Master Wei Jing, the abbot of Guanyin Temple in Myanmar, presented one sitting Jade Buddha and one horizontal Jade Buddha to the ancient temple. The main hall, which was completed in June 1996, is 40 meters long, 33 meters wide, 30 meters high and covers an area of 1320 square meters. There are also Tianwang hall, Abbot's room, Fatang, ruyiliao, Yanshou hall and xihuayuan to be built. The former famous temple landscape will continue to recover, and Gaomin temple will become an important place for religious activities and tourist attractions in Yangzhou.

architectural composition

The temple is a Linshui temple. Its architecture is lively and light, which forms a tortuous and deep space. It is elegant and implicit. In fact, it is the residential and garden style of Buddhist architecture, and the secular style gradually replaces the religious mystery.

The newly-built Chan hall, the existing old Chan hall, the chanting Buddha Hall, the Sutra library, the West Tower, the water Pavilion Pavilion, and the squatter house all have their own terrain. They are high and low, and enjoy the natural interest. The buildings on the first floor and the pavilions are all built strangely and skillfully. The mountain light and haze are just right. The canal outside the temple has smooth ripples and microwave waves. The temple is reflected in the lake, with white clouds and blue sky. The beautiful, quiet, clean and smart scenery is beyond comparison? The main hall restored in Gaomin temple is completely built in the way of a royal palace, with a height of 30 meters and an area of 1320 square meters. The base of the pavilion is a granite xumizuo, which is very heavy. The palace is magnificent, with carved beams, painted buildings and painted gold hooks. The Buddha and Bodhisattva statues in the main hall are more unique in shape and arrangement. Usually, the Zen temples are the Sakyamuni Buddha in the middle, with two disciples, the elder venerable Kaya and the young venerable Ananda, serving as escorts.

Rebuild the palace

Gaomin temple had a unique way when old monk Delin rebuilt his temple. Among them, Sakyamuni Buddha is still holding a lotus. This is the story of following the Sutra. Because Sakyamuni Buddha once held flowers to show to the public, only the eldest disciple, master JIAYE, with a smile, can have the Buddha's saying: "I have the vision of Dharma, the wonderful mind of Nirvana, the reality has no phase, the subtle Dharma, and give orders to mahagaya." Since then, Zen began to pass down. There are 88 Buddhas standing behind the statue, two of them are disciples. The young one is muqianlian, who is called "the first of supernatural powers"; the old one is xubodhi, who is called "the first of Jiekong". The three statues are made of clay and covered with gold.

The 18 Arhats on the East and west sides are made of colorful sculptures, which are vivid and full of personality. They are like Buddhas but not Buddhas, monks but not monks. They are literate and martial, old and young. The happiness, anger, sadness and their personality characteristics of the characters are portrayed delicately and vividly. They are full of rich flavor of life. They are completely secular Buddha statues. In addition, master Wei Jing, the abbot of Guanyin Temple in Myanmar, presented one standing Jade Buddha and one lying Jade Buddha, which added a lot of luster to the ancient temple.

Ancient and modern status

As an old saying goes, "Gaomin incense is on the legs of Jinshan mountain, and Shengai Sanjiang is on Tianning Temple", which just shows that this branch of Jingxiang in Gaomin ancient temple has a far-reaching spread. Gaomin temple is famous for its "sitting meditation", also known as "sitting incense", that is, sitting meditation is based on incense.

Under the leadership of old monk Delin, GaoMin Temple rebuilt a unique Zen hall. The hall is 18 meters high and has a non equilateral octahedral nearly circular structure. Inside and outside are Zen benches with eight Buddha statues in the middle. When sitting in meditation, everyone can see a Buddha statue facing himself.

It is said that Emperor Kangxi visited Yangzhou to admire the Daofeng of Gaomin temple. He also went to the Zen hall to "sit incense" to join in the fun. Because of the memory of playing with his concubines in the imperial garden of the Forbidden City, he lost his time and was underestimated by the master Weina on duty. He went down to his seat and played three incense boards in person, so the emperor could bear to continue to meditate. Later, Emperor Kangxi complained to the abbot, and the abbot wrote two warning cards. Since then, Kangxi really understood the lofty and transcendent temperament of Zen.

Brick, wood and stone pagoda

Yangzhou is a region with many towers. Due to different materials, there are stone tower, brick tower and brick wood mixed tower; the appearance is round, square, six sided and eight sided; due to the differences of geographical environment and historical development, there are many kinds of tower shapes, such as single-layer, dense eaves, pavilion style and Lama style. The Tianzhong pagoda of Gaomin temple has been built, with 9 floors, 72 meters high and octagonal shape, for 72 jade Buddhas.

In the Qing Dynasty, someone once praised the Pagoda: "the pagoda has one layer of lights, and the lights go straight up into the sky. The first and second lights turn red, showing the clear Hibiscus across the water. Ten miles and five miles light still see, star faintly sparse forest It is true that the tower is magnificent, but after all, there are poems but no tower, which can only make people think of the ancient. Now we are rebuilding the old relics and adding the old system, which is very gratifying.

Related allusions

In a dream of Red Mansions, there is no mention of the specific city where Jia's house is located, but only about Duzhong and Shenjing. Most of the descriptions in the book are about the scenery in the south of the Yangtze River. In addition, on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, the imperial concubine of the Yuan Dynasty took a boat several times to visit her relatives, but the North could not take a boat at this time. Therefore, the prototype of Grand View Garden has always been controversial, including the north and the south.

Some people who hold the view of "northern theory" hold that Prince Gongqin's residence in Beijing is the archetype of Grand View Garden, but Prince Gongqin's residence appeared after Cao Xueqin's death. Some people also prove that Beijing Yuanmingyuan is the archetype of Grand View Garden, but as a royal garden, its architecture is not the same as Grand View Garden

Chinese PinYin : Gao Min Si