Fahua temple in Huzhou

Fahua temple in Huzhou

Fahua temple is located in the south of Taihu Lake tourist resort

It is also the east foot of Bian mountain, the main peak of South Taihu Lake, also known as "Baique Temple". It is one of the Buddhist temples with the longest history and the most far-reaching influence along the Taihu Lake. It is said that Bianshan is a holy mountain, formerly known as Fenghuang mountain, in which there is Wang Qi. In the early years of the Qin Dynasty, Huzhou City belonged to Wucheng county. The first emperor of Qin heard from somewhere that "Wucheng mountain is the son of heaven". Because Phoenix belongs to birds, he ordered to cut off the neck of the mountain and just opened a river from the mountain to break the king's spirit. Ten years later, Xiang Yu, the overlord of Chu, took refuge in this Bianshan mountain, where he fought against Qin and overthrew the Qin Dynasty. Although Xiang Yu did not become an emperor, after 770 years, at xiaruo temple at the West foot of Bian mountain, an emperor, Chen Wu Di and Chen Baxian, finally emerged, which Qin Shihuang never thought of. He would not have thought that 70 years before Chen Baxian became emperor, the eastern Piedmont of Bian, where he had cut off his neck, led to a Baique mountain because of a trace of bhiksuni. This is just the sign of "the son of heaven is born in Wushan".

Basic introduction

Fahua temple is located in the south of Taihu Lake tourist resort

It is also the east foot of Bian mountain, the main peak of South Taihu Lake, also known as "Baique Temple". It is one of the Buddhist temples with the longest history and the most far-reaching influence along the Taihu Lake. It is said that Bianshan is a holy mountain, formerly known as Fenghuang mountain, in which there is Wang Qi. In the early years of the Qin Dynasty, Huzhou City belonged to Wucheng county. The first emperor of Qin heard from somewhere that "Wucheng mountain is the son of heaven". Because Phoenix belongs to birds, he ordered to cut off the neck of the mountain and just opened a river from the mountain to break the king's spirit. Ten years later, Xiang Yu, the overlord of Chu, took refuge in this Bianshan mountain, where he fought against Qin and overthrew the Qin Dynasty. Although Xiang Yu did not become an emperor, after 770 years, at xiaruo temple at the West foot of Bian mountain, an emperor, Chen Wu Di and Chen Baxian, finally emerged, which Qin Shihuang never thought of. He would not have thought that 70 years before Chen Baxian became emperor, the eastern Piedmont of Bian, where he had cut off his neck, led to a Baique mountain because of a trace of bhiksuni. This is just the sign of "the son of heaven is born in Wushan".

Development history

Baique mountain was formerly known as Shidou mountain. It is said that in 487, a nun named Daoji lived here and recited the Dharma Sutra day and night for 20 years. And whenever the Taoist Scriptures, there is always a group of white sparrows around, like in worship, listening to the Dharma, but also 20 years. The local people revered it as supernatural, so they renamed it Baique mountain. After the death of the Taoist trace, her disciples hid her spiritual bones in a treasure niche and buried them behind the mountain house where she often read scriptures, covered with bluestone slabs. Who knows, after a few years, a green lotus suddenly emerged from among the green stone slabs, which was very miraculous. People believed that Daoji was the incarnation of master Guanyin, so they built a "real body hall" at her burial place.

Architectural features

There is nothing special about the building structure of this temple, but the land it occupies is extraordinary. The legend just told happened here. Under the altar in the middle of the hall is the original niche where the God nuns were buried. A green lotus grows from the green stone slab below. The Buddha sitting on the altar is Guanyin Bodhisattva. This Guanyin Bodhisattva is different from other temples. It is decorated with beautiful ladies, like a beautiful princess. In fact, she is really a princess of a prince. People worship her as Guanyin Bodhisattva because of a solemn and stirring folk myth.

Historical allusions

It is said that Xiao Yan, the emperor of Liang Dynasty, highly praised Buddhism. When he became emperor, he built temples everywhere. When he heard about the story of jishenni at Baique mountain road in Huzhou, he was very surprised. Shengjia paid homage in person, and ordered local officials to build fahua temple at Baique mountain. The reason why it is named fahua temple is that Daoji recited the fahua Sutra every day to commemorate it. At the same time, there is a special rule that the fahua temple can be served by monks and nuns, monks in the front and nuns in the back, and the true body hall is only provided by the bhiksuni. This year was 522, the third ordinary year of Emperor Wu of Liang Dynasty. From then on, the fahua temple and Zhenshen Hall of Baique mountain became famous and became a major ancient temple in the south of the Yangtze River. People used to call it Baique temple.

There was a general named Pojia under Emperor Wu of Liang Dynasty. Because of his loyalty and outstanding military achievements, he was deeply trusted by Emperor Wu and regarded as a brother. When Emperor Liang Wu became emperor, he appointed Pojia the king of Miaozhuang, who was in charge of the imperial court's Imperial Army, and the power was transferred to the government and the opposition. Yude, the princess of King Miaozhuang, was the same year as king Miaozhuang. She was always charitable and generous. They have no sons, only three daughters. The eldest is Miaoshu, the second is Miaoyin, and the third is Miaoshan. When the three daughters grow up, King Miaozhuang chooses sons in law for them. The eldest daughter and the second daughter obey their parents' will. Miaoshu recruits a civil servant and Miaoyin recruits a military general. Only Miaoshan, who is 19 years old, disobeys his parents' will and refuses to get married. Instead, he goes to fahua temple in Huzhou to become a nun. At the beginning, the head of the temple always thought Miaoshan was extraordinary and refused to accept it. However, Miaoshan was very resolute. When the nun couldn't persuade her back, she sent her to work as a slave in the kitchen to cook for more than 500 monks and nuns, trying to scare her away. Poor Miaoshan is golden at home. How can he stand such torture. When the Kitchen God saw that Miaoshan was in trouble, he immediately played the role of the Jade Emperor. The Jade Emperor immediately ordered the Dragon King of Taihu Lake to lead the spring of Qinglian ancient stream to the kitchen, and ordered the animals in the mountains to send firewood and the birds to send vegetables. In this way, Miaoshan was at ease in the temple.

Besides, when King Miaozhuang learned that his third daughter had become a nun in fahua temple, he was very angry and thought it was insulting. So he sent two generals Zhu and ye to lead the imperial army to set fire to fahua temple and coerce his daughter to go home. Seeing that the fahua temple was about to be destroyed, Miaoshan could only pray for God's blessing. In his emergency, he smoked a bamboo hairpin, scratched his tongue and bled blood, and sprayed it into the air. In a moment, it rained red and the fire died out. When King Miaozhuang heard about it, he became very angry. With his father and daughter's feelings gone, he tied Miaoshan to the execution ground and beheaded him. At this time, the Buddha appeared. As soon as the executioner raised his knife, a golden light came and broke the sword. The king of Miaozhuang ordered that Miaoshan's throat be twisted with bowstring, which resulted in Miaoshan's death. At this time, suddenly a tiger roared into the execution ground, grabbed Miaoshan's body and ran into the pine forest. Under the treatment of Taihu Dragon King and other immortals, Miaoshan finally revived, ate the peach sent by the queen mother, and then went to Xiangshan in Changxing County to practice stealth. Nine years later, King Miaozhuang had a bad disease, and his treatment was ineffective, and he was on the verge of death. By this time, King Miaozhuang had already repented. He hated that he had killed his own daughter and got this retribution. One night, I suddenly dreamt of a miracle doctor. The miracle doctor said to him, "if you can repent, you can still be cured, but you must use your relatives' hands and eyes to cure the disease.". After waking up, King Miaozhuang called his eldest daughter Miaoshu and second daughter Miaoyin to take their hands and eyes for treatment. Where are the two daughters willing to follow? They say that it's not enough for the father to be old and faint and kill one daughter. Do you want to kill the whole family. The king of Miaozhuang looks up to heaven and sighs. He misses Miaoshan, the third filial daughter. So King Miaozhuang sent someone to Xiangshan to ask for the medicine. The fairy leader, without saying a word, cut out his eyes on the spot, then cut off his wrist and asked someone to take the medicine. King Miaozhuang took his hand and eyes, and soon recovered, so he went to Xiangshan to thank the immortal. As soon as we met, we knew that the immortal was the third daughter Miaoshan. She had no hands or feet and was covered with blood. With tears in his eyes, the king of Miaozhuang knelt down to heaven and earth, praying for the restoration of Miaoshan's hands and eyes. In an instant, there were thousands of golden lights in the sky, and thousands of hands and eyes grew on Miaoshan. From then on, King Miaozhuang respected Buddhism and Taoism, and under the persuasion of miaozhan, he devoted himself to cultivating goodness. Later, he resigned the throne and led his family members and trusted generals to practice in Xiangshan. This is the legend of Avalokitesvara.

Because of the spread of two myths and legends in fahua temple, it is particularly attractive to Buddhist believers, especially the faithful men and women in southern Jiangsu and Northern Zhejiang. At ordinary times, there is also constant fragrance. The folk believe that white sparrow is the place where Guanyin Bodhisattva became a monk, and Putuo is the place where Guanyin Bodhisattva got the right way. Those who believe in Guanyin Bodhisattva have to go to Baique and Putuo to offer incense to the mountain.

Address: Changling mountain, Changxing County, Zhejiang Province

Longitude: 120.0104309511

Latitude: 30.946981103579

Chinese PinYin : Hu Zhou Fa Hua Si