Guoqing Temple

Guoqing Temple

Guoqing temple is located in Chengguan Town, Tiantai County, Taizhou City, Zhejiang Province. It was built in 598, the 18th year of emperor kaihuang of Sui Dynasty. It was originally named Tiantai temple, and later renamed Guoqing temple after "if the temple is completed, the country will be clear". The temple covers an area of 73000 square meters.

Zhiyue, an eminent monk of the Sui Dynasty, founded Tiantai Sect in Guoqing temple, which is the birthplace of Chinese Buddhism sect,

The influence is far from home and abroad. Jianzhen once paid homage to Guoqing temple when he went eastward. After returning home, he built Yanli temple in birui mountain, Japan, and founded Tiantai Sect in Japan. Later, he respected Guoqing temple in Tiantai Mountain, Zhejiang Province as his ancestral court.

The existing building of Guoqing temple was rebuilt in 1734. Guoqing temple in Tiantai, Zhejiang Province, together with Lingyan temple in Jinan, Qixia Temple in Nanjing and Yuquan temple in Dangyang, are known as the four unique temples in China.

There were many famous monks in the temple, including master Tang Yixing, Hanshan, Shide, monk Jigong, master Konghai, founder of dongmi and master zuicheng, founder of taimi.

In 2006, Guoqing temple was approved as the fifth batch of national key cultural relics protection units by the State Council.

Historical evolution

The article of "Jingde Guoqing Temple" in the second chapter of temple gate of Chicheng in Jiading of Southern Song Dynasty is hereinafter referred to as: "in the north of (Tiantai) County, 10 Li. Old name Tiantai, Sui kaihuang 18 years for Seng zhiyijian. First of all, he practiced Zen here, and the dream told him: "if the temple is completed, the country will be clear.". Daye was renamed Guoqing. The so-called "Yingyun Temple" in Li Yong's "Ji" is also true. In Tang Huichang, it was abandoned. "

Guoqing temple was built according to the style painted by Zhiyi, the founder of Tiantai Sect. After Zhiyi founded Tiantai Sect, he wanted to build a temple as the formal ancestral court of Tiantai Sect. However, due to limited funds, construction was delayed. In his dying letter to the king of Jin, he said, "if you don't see the temple, you'll die.". Yang Guang, king of Jin Dynasty (later emperor Yang of Sui Dynasty), was very moved after reading the book, so he sent Sima wanghong to supervise the construction of Guoqing temple. The newly built Guoqing temple is located on the hillside in front of Bagui peak, about 100 meters behind the main hall.

In huichangzhong of Tang Dynasty (about 845), the original temple was destroyed by fire and immediately rebuilt.

In 851, Liu Gongquan, a famous calligrapher of the Tang Dynasty, inscribed on the stone wall behind the temple six characters of "the temple of Qing Dynasty in Greater China", which are still clearly recognizable.

During the 880 years from Tang Dynasty to Yongzheng Dynasty, Guoqing temple was destroyed by fire or storm, but it was destroyed and built repeatedly. Each time the temple was rebuilt, the scale of the temple developed, and its position moved down to the plain area at the foot of the mountain.

However, from the analysis of the sentence "the last place of collection is Shiquan, which is called Xizhang spring" mentioned by Li Wen in his article "a brief account of visiting Tiantai", we can see that Xizhang spring was at the last place of the temple at that time. So it shows that Guoqing temple has been moved to the present site at the latest in Ming Dynasty.

In 1734, Guoqing temple was completely renovated.

In the turbulent period of the cultural revolution in the late 1960s, Guoqing temple was destroyed again.

In 1973, Zhou Enlai ordered the restoration of Guoqing temple to be completed before 1975, and allocated 300000 yuan. At the same time, a large number of precious Buddha statues and magic weapons were transported to the temple from Beijing.

In 1984, Tiantai Buddhism Research Society (now Tiantai Mountain Buddhism College) was re established.

In 2006, Guoqing temple was approved as the fifth batch of national key cultural relics protection units by the State Council.

Architectural pattern

Guoqing temple is an official building built in the early Qing Dynasty, Maitreya hall and Yuhua hall are single eaves Xieshan, Daxiong hall is double eaves Xieshan, Sansheng hall, Luohan hall and Zen hall are typical southern hall buildings, miaofe hall, abbot building and yingta building are a combination of Chinese and western.

More than 600 ancient buildings are arranged along four north-south axes, which are divided into five vertical axes: Maitreya hall, Yuhua hall, Daxiong hall, pharmacist hall, Guanyin hall; fangshengchi, Zhonggulou, Juxian hall, abbot building, Sansheng hall, miaofe hall, Jialan hall, Luohan hall, cultural relics room, etc In the center of the hall is a bronze statue of Sakyamuni in the Ming Dynasty. The West axis is Anyang hall, Sansheng hall, Luohan Hall (cultural relics room) and miaofe Hall (upstairs is the Sutra Pavilion). East axis is Juxian Hall (monks restaurant), abbot building and yingta building. The second East axis is Li Ke hall, Da Che hall and Xiu Zhu Xuan. Behind the back wall of the statue, there is a group of Cihang Pudu sculptures centered on the statue of Guanyin. On both sides of the hall are 18 Arhats carved with nanmu of the Yuan Dynasty. The buildings outside the mountain gate, such as Sui tower, hanshiting, Zhaobi, fenggan bridge, Zhaobi and Guoqing temple, are arranged along the terrain. None of them are parallel or perpendicular to each other. They are naturally scattered everywhere, but they are harmonious. As soon as you enter the east facing Mountain Gate, turn into the central corridor. On both sides of the corridor are yellow low walls only 1.7 meters high, behind which are dense bamboo forests. It forms an ancient building complex with 28000 square meters of construction area, 73000 square meters and more than 8000 houses.

Main buildings

Tower stele

On the hillside behind the main building complex of Guoqing temple, there is a stele pavilion with double eaves and square stones in the gloomy pine forest. On the forehead of the pavilion are written four gold characters "farru Qianqiu", and three rectangular stone tablets are arranged in the shape of Pinzi in the pavilion.

In the center of the monument is the "Tiantai wise master praise monument". The pedestal is 0.86 meters high, 0.86 meters wide, 1.86 meters long, 2.6 meters high, 1.26 meters wide and 0.11 meters thick. Long inscriptions and poems praise the wise master, the creator of Tiantai Sect. Youlian's monument is "the most clear master's poem monument given away by all the guests". The monument is slightly lower than the monument of the wise. The monument on the left is "the most clear master Tiantai Defa spirit trace monument", which is the same size as xingman monument. On the back of the three monuments is Yamada Shidi's homage to the white, written in May 1982. The long Japanese text bears in mind the ancestors of takazu and prays for the eternal friendship between China and Japan. On the left side of the tablet Pavilion of "Fa Ru Qian Qiu", there is an ancient spring surrounded by a stone column, which is engraved with the word "Xizhang spring". It is said that song monk Pu Ming was sitting here for meditation. Because it was inconvenient to get water in the temple, he said with Xizhang: "there should be a spring here!" That is, there is spring water gushing out, so it is named.

Sui Mei

Guoqing temple has a Sui Mei plant, which is planted by Zhang an guanding, a famous monk of the Sui Dynasty and the fifth ancestor of Tiantai Sect, on the right side of the main hall. According to research, Sui Mei has a history of more than 1300 years, and is one of the three oldest plum trees in China. About its legend, modern poet Deng Tuo's poem "Ti Mei" written to Sui Mei is the most vivid: cut the first branch of the east wind, half curtain shadow sitting on the poem. Don't need powder green color, most remember the rooftop meet.

Sui pagoda

Sui tower is located in Tiantai Chengguan town 6 miles northeast. In the 18th year of emperor kaihuang of Sui Dynasty, Yang Guang, king of Jin Dynasty, built the gratitude tower to report the wisdom master's acceptance of Bodhisattva Precepts. It was damaged in the Tang Huichang legal disaster and repaired in 1128, the second year of Jianyan in the Southern Song Dynasty. With a height of 59.4 meters, a side length of 4.6 meters and nine levels on six sides, it is one of the highest ancient pagodas in Zhejiang Province. It is a hollow pavilion type brick and wood structure. The eaves and brackets were destroyed by fire, forming holes around.

Later generations strengthened the foundation of the tower, paved steps around it, renovated it, and listed it as a provincial cultural security unit. The Sui tower is unique in construction. Except for the brick wall and the carved Buddha statue, there is no usual pointed tower head on the top of the tower. Standing inside the tower, you can see the blue sky directly.

Abbot building

The abbot building is located in the center of the eastern part of the Guoqing temple complex. It is a two-story house with seven rooms. In front of it is a "gathering hall" (Zhaitang, a place for monks to eat), and behind it is a reception tower (hotel in the temple). There is a square stone courtyard in front of the building.

There are three eight immortals tables in the middle of the Abbot's building. There are three rows of tea table wooden chairs and stools on both sides. Above the tables, there is a big red gold plaque with "Hongzhan TIANTAIZONG" on the top. Under the forehead, there are ink portraits of wise masters written by famous painters Shao Yu and Prince Wu. Next to them are some famous paintings and calligraphy. This is where Guoqing Temple receives Chinese and foreign guests.

Buddism godness Guanyin Temple

Adjacent to Xizhang spring, a new Guanyin hall with double eaves, Xieshan and cocked brackets is built. It is located behind and above the main hall. The Guanyin hall is about 15 meters long and 12 meters wide. In the center of the hall, there is a wooden statue of Guanyin with thousands of hands and thousands of eyes. On both sides, there are 32 incarnations of Guanyin.

Xia Jingshan, Mr. Yang MAOCI, Ms. Wu Meiying and others donated 150000 yuan to build the temple. On October 29th, 1983, a grand opening ceremony and a law conference were held.

Thanksgiving tower

Baoen pagoda is located in the west of Guanyin hall. It was built in September 1985. It is about 3 meters high. The top of the pagoda is made of brass and red copper tiles. It shines in the sun. The body of the pagoda is rock recording. In front of it is the name of the Lotus Sutra in Japanese,

On the other three sides, the Scriptures are inlaid with gold characters on a black background. The base of the platform is also paved with rock.

The Sutra building was built with 10 million yen donated by Japanese lotus believers. The reason why the pagoda was built in Guoqing Temple of Tiantai Mountain is that Tiantai Mountain is the most prosperous spiritual site where the missionary master (the most clear master of the Japanese monk) once studied abroad. The Buddhist monks of rilian respect Tiantai master (the wise master) very much, and firmly believe that the origin of the Dharma Sutra is Guoqing Temple of Tiantai, which shows the deep meaning of "repaying kindness with gratitude".

Seven Buddha pagoda

Chinese PinYin : Guo Qing Si