Haichuang Temple

Haichuang Temple

Haichuang temple, located between Tongfu middle road and Nanhua Middle Road, Haizhu District, Guangzhou, is famous for its quiet environment and beautiful gardens. Haichuang temple covers an area of 19700 square meters.

Haichuang temple, formerly known as "Qianqiu Temple" in the Southern Han Dynasty, was renamed "Haichuang Temple" in the late Ming Dynasty. In the early Qing Dynasty, the temple was expanded on a large scale and became the top of Guangzhou's "four jungles".

In August 1993, Haichuang temple was designated as a key cultural relic protection unit in Guangzhou.

historical origin

In the Southern Han Dynasty, there was Qianqiu temple, which was later abandoned as a folk house and became Guo's garden in the Ming Dynasty. At the end of Ming Dynasty and the beginning of Qing Dynasty, guangmou and Chiyue raised money from guolongyue to build a Buddhist temple. According to the Buddhist scripture "Haichuang bhikkhu devotes himself to the Prajna paramita Sutra to become a Buddha", they named the Buddhist temple Haichuang temple. Haichuang temple is not only a place to carry forward Buddhism, but also one of the tourist attractions in Guangzhou. There were eight scenic spots in the temple, namely "ancient temple Shenyun, Pearl River night moon, flying spring Zhuoshi, sea sun blowing Xia, Jiangcheng night rain, Shideng conglan, Zhuyun Youzhong, Huatian Chunxiao".

In the early 1990s, Haichuang temple was restored. Today's Haichuang temple is magnificent, with cornices and roofs, a vast net area, and more than 30 monks. The three bronze Buddhas in the main hall are more than ten meters high, which are called the third Buddha, namely the past, present and future Buddha. In the past, the Buddhas were the Buddhas of Kaya, Sakyamuni and Maitreya. After reconstruction, the four heavenly kings are majestic and lifelike, with the highest height and volume of temples in Guangdong Province.

Suffer a catastrophe

It was established as Henan Park in 1932 and renamed haizhuang Park in 1933. During the Anti Japanese War, the facilities in the park were destroyed by the Japanese aggressors. After the victory of the Anti Japanese War and after liberation, the park was repaired many times. During the cultural revolution, Haichuang temple was devastated, cultural relics and historic sites were destroyed, and all kinds of Buddhist statues and other fine arts were not spared.

In March 1993, Haichuang Temple began to resume normal religious activities, and invested nearly 10 million yuan to rebuild the main hall, the heavenly king hall, the pagoda hall, the free life pool, the seven storey monk's house and the comprehensive platform of the Sutra Pavilion.

In 1997, a new stone pagoda named Baoyan pagoda was built on the east side of the open space in front of the main hall.

Folklore

For thousands of years, Haichuang temple has experienced many calamities and frustrations, but many legends and anecdotes have been handed down.

Without Haichuang temple, there was Eagle Claw orchid first

Haichuang temple is located on the west side of Haichuang park. There are many hundred year old trees in the park, including three bodhi trees over 300 years old. It is said that these trees were planted by natural Zen master from Guangxiao temple in 1642. It is worth mentioning that the oldest famous wood in the temple is the eagle claw orchid planted in the Ming Dynasty, which is less than Zhang high and has a history of 400 years.

It is located on the west side of the South Gate of the park and is planted on a hexagonal stone pier. According to the Qing Dynasty literature, "there is a cluster of trees in Haichuang temple, which is called Eagle Claw orchid. Its branches are like eagle claws, and its flowers have six petals. They are not found anywhere else, and they are also of different species." In modern times, it is famous for its green leaves, flowers and fragrance. Eagle Claw orchid was originally planted in Guojia garden in the late Ming Dynasty. It was even older than Haichuang temple. Therefore, there is a saying that "before Haichuang, there was Eagle Claw". It turns out that a tragic story happened under the lush Cymbidium tree.

Related allusions

In the late Ming Dynasty, Guo Longyue, a rich man, lived in this area. His garden was actually the site of Qianqiu temple in the Southern Han Dynasty. Guo Longyue has a violent nature. One day, he suspects that his maidservant Lan Xiang has stolen his jade clasp. He tortures Lan Xiang for several days in a row, which damages her body and mind. To show her innocence, Lan Xiang jumped into the well and killed herself after worshipping the Bodhisattva. Two days later, Lan Xiang's body was found. In order to protect his reputation, Guo ordered his family to seal the well and not allow them to talk about it again. Every night, everyone in the Guo family dreams of Lan Xiang: some say that she rose from the well and flew away as a dragon; others say that she watered the flowers in the garden every night. People's comments made Guo Longyue extremely frightened and simply asked people to fill up the well

After a while, a cymbidium tree grew up on the well. Later, the tree grew more and more luxuriant and soon began to blossom. Guo was frightened when he saw the eagle claw orchid. Later, the cymbidium tree grew stronger and stronger, but Guo Longyue's family declined day by day. Finally, Guo Longyue died of a violent disease. In the early Qing Dynasty, a monk came here and built a Buddhist house beside the back garden, and wrote the word "haizhuang" on his forehead. What do you mean? It turned out that Haichuang temple was named after the classic enemy of "Haichuang bhikkhu devotes himself to learning Prajna paramita Sutra to become a Buddha".

The top four jungle cities in Guangzhou's history

After the vicissitudes of Qianqiu temple, Lanyuan temple and Haichuang temple in the Southern Han Dynasty, in 1666, Chi Yue, a monk, did not get official funding to build the main hall.

The hall is 35 meters wide and 7.5 meters high. It also built a dizang Pavilion in the right corner and cast a big iron bell. In the following year, great efforts were made to build the Sutra Pavilion, Tianwang hall, Weituo hall, Jialan hall, etc. And the Sutra Pavilion is more magnificent than the main hall. The pavilion is 45 meters wide, with Biwa and Zhuyu, and it invades the sky and the Han Dynasty.

Since then, congguan, Xichan, Jingkong, Songxue, Wuxian, huachan and other halls have been built here, as well as 23 other buildings, such as monk houses, pavilions and palaces. In addition, the Buddhist hall and zhunti hall built in the early period were changed into the guest hall, surrounded by the corridor.

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Layout structure

At that time, Haichuang temple, with its large scale and numerous temples, was the top of the four Buddhist forests in Guangzhou, worthy of its name. This is evidenced by the eight sceneries of Haichuang recorded in the "Ding Jian Bei" engraved in the reign of Emperor Kangxi: Huatian Chunxiao, ancient temple Shenyun, Pearl River Moon breaking, Feiquan zhuoxi, hairi chuixia, Jiangcheng night rain, Shideng conglan and zhuguan Youzhong. Later, Haichuang temple was called the grand and solemn Lingnan grand temple in Yangcheng ancient notes.

The 18th century was the heyday of Haichuang temple. The scale of the temple was more than three times that of the present one. Because the temple is adjacent to the Pearl River in the north and wansongling in the south, and has beautiful scenery and elegant environment, it was set up as a tourist area for foreigners in the 11th year of Jiaqing period of the Qing Dynasty (1806), which was the first time for Guangzhou to develop a tourist area for foreigners.

Haichuang Temple began to decline in the late Qing Dynasty. Since the beginning of the Republic of China, there were only Tianwang hall, Daxiong hall and Ta hall left in the temple.

Sixteen Arhats

There are 18 Arhats in most Buddhist temples, but only 16 Arhats are rare. As it happens, there are only 16 Arhats in the temple. Why? Here is an anecdote: one day, monk Jigong passed by Haichuang temple and saw that the abbot of the temple regarded himself as an eminent monk and looked down upon anyone. Then he intended to tease him. Ji Gong turned into a crazy monk, dressed in ragged clothes, carrying two cloth bags to the temple.

When the abbot saw this, he was very disgusted. He only let him stay one night and drove him away the next morning. Ji Gong is crazy. He puts two rotten cloth bags on the main hall and says he wants to go to Nanhua temple in Shaoguan. Please ask the abbot to help him carry his luggage. After hearing this, zhongzeng burst into laughter, and the hall was shaken by curses and shouts. The abbot said angrily, "madman, I don't know how to praise you. If you have the ability, ask Luohan in the main hall to help you carry your luggage." Jigong then went to the hall and cried out: "according to the order of the abbot of the temple, I'd like to invite two Arhats to show up and carry my luggage to Nanhua temple in Shaoguan." As soon as the words came to an end, two Arhats jumped out of the hall, picked up two rotten cloth bags and went north with Ji Gong. Suddenly the abbot and the monks were terrified, and the abbot fell on the ground and kowtowed. Ji Shang immediately showed his golden body, stood on the cloud, pointed to the abbot and said, "great monk, if you practice hard and put down your airs, you can achieve good results." The abbot fell on the ground and did not dare to raise his head. Later, he had no face to go down in the temple room and traveled to other places.

After the two Arhats flew away with Jigong, they did not return to Haichuang temple. Today, the original 500 Arhats of Nanhua temple in Shaoguan have become 502, while the original 18 Arhats in haizhuang temple in Guangzhou have only 16.

main hall

At present, the three great Buddhas in the main hall are more than 10 meters high, which are the third Buddha. Like other Buddhist temples, there are still four majestic and lifelike statues of heavenly kings in the East, South, West and North. On the east side of the open space in front of the main hall is the newly built stone pagoda called Baoyan Pagoda in 1997. There are stone railings around the pagoda, which are hexagonal in plane, lotus base, octagonal gourd top, and iron bells hanging from the eaves.

Today's Haichuang temple has lost the quiet, solemn and mysterious atmosphere of the old temple, but the landscape remains the same. Here, the ancient trees are towering, the trees are shady, and the river breeze is blowing, which makes people relaxed and happy. In addition to the eagle claw orchid described above, there are three ancient bodhi trees, one inside the north gate of the temple, the other southwest of the heavenly king hall, and the other Southeast behind the main hall. It is said that the three bodhi trees were planted from the original bodhi trees in Guangxiao temple. The temple and the park complement each other. It not only preserves the ancient temple style, but also presents the magnificent garden landscape.

Buddhist relics

Located on Liurong Road, one of the four Buddhist jungles in Guangzhou, it is a famous scenic spot with a long history, a collection of Buddhist cultural relics. Liurong temple was built in 537, the third year of Datong of Liang Dynasty

Chinese PinYin : Hai Zhuang Si