Longxing Temple, Chengdu

Longxing Temple is located at the north entrance of Pengzhou City, Sichuan Province. It was built in 337, the third year of Xiankang in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. It was first named as "Dakong Temple". In 558, Zhigong Zen master expanded the temple. In 691, it was renamed as "Dayun Temple". In 718, it was called "Longxing Temple". In the fifth year of Huichang (845) of emperor Wuzong of the Tang Dynasty, the temple was abandoned as an idle place. In March of the next year, Emperor Wuzong died and Xuanzong succeeded to the throne. In the second year of Dazhong (848), he predicted that Zen master would rebuild Longxing Temple. In the 1940s, the temple covered an area of more than 80 mu, with four main halls, several auxiliary halls, more than 100 statues, more than 100 permanent monks and more than 150 houses. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, the king of Myanmar presented a jade Buddha, the king of India presented the sariko "Beiye" and the state of Japan presented the Tripitaka. The ancient temple is famous for the sari pagoda of Sakyamuni Buddha.

brief introduction

Longxing Temple is located at the north gate of Chengguan, Pengzhou City, Sichuan Province. It was first built in the third year of Xiankang in the Eastern Jin Dynasty (the third year of Longxing Temple in Pengzhou City, Sichuan Province). It was originally named "Dakong Temple" in the second year of Yongding of Emperor Wu of Liang Dynasty (558). Zhigong Zen master expanded the temple. In the second year of Tianzhi of Empress Wu Zetian (619), it was renamed "Dayun Temple". In 718, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty issued the imperial edict "Longxing Temple". Wuzong of the Tang Dynasty abandoned the temple in the fifth year of Huichang (845). In March of the next year, Wuzong died and Xuanzong succeeded. In the second year of Dazhong (848), it was predicted that Zen master would rebuild Longxing Temple. Longxing Temple has always been famous for its large number of eminent monks. It is known as the "seven Buddha resort" and enjoys a good reputation in Western Shu. In the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Indian Buddhist monk tutucheng, Gongguo master of Liang Chaozhi, Wuda master of Tang Dynasty, Daoyin master, foreknowledge master of Five Dynasties, Yuanwu master of Song Dynasty, Zhizhong Yitian master of Ming Dynasty all settled in the temple. Since the Tang, song, yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, longtianhuyou has enjoyed a long and prosperous fragrance. At the end of the civil liberation war in 1949, senior generals Liu Wenhui, Deng xihou and pan Wenhua of Sichuan and Kang provinces gathered in the scripture collection building of Longxing Temple, declared a peaceful uprising and electrified the whole country, thus avoiding a bloody battle. During this period, the monks of Longxing Temple did a good job in logistics service and provided accommodation for 28 days, which contributed to the success of the uprising. Longxing Temple was the first to set an example of patriotism and love religion in the temples of the state of Jin. Therefore, the temple is not only famous in the religious circles of Sichuan, but also a famous revolutionary memorial resort. By the 1940s, Longxing Temple, covering an area of more than 80 mu, had four main halls, including the heavenly king hall, the hall of the three great scholars, the hall of the great hero, and the Sutra library. There were many auxiliary halls, surrounded by red walls. The rockery behind the temple was towering and the ancient trees were towering. The layout of the temple is regular and reasonable, the style is simple, the corridor is connected, exquisite and elegant. Longxing Temple, with more than 100 monks, is a standard ten square jungle on the plain of Western Sichuan. It is also a big temple for preaching. There are jade Buddha presented by the king of Burma in the late Qing Dynasty, relic and shell leaf Scripture presented by the king of India, and Tripitaka (these precious cultural relics are now in the Municipal Cultural Management Office) presented by Japan. The ancient temple is famous for the relic pagoda of Sakyamuni Buddha.

Cultural treasures

The most precious one in Longxing Temple is the relic pagoda, which is located in front of the temple. It is one of the only 19 relic pagodas left in China. The ancient pagoda has a couplet: "the swing pagoda passed on Ayu, and the jungle of the Five Dynasties knew it by itself" to record its events. Baotashi temple was built in 406, the second year of Yixi reign of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. It was originally a wooden tower built by Tanmo Chuiyi (Zen master Zhixi), a Buddhist monk from Tianzhu. In the Five Dynasties, it was rebuilt into a brick tower with dense eaves. The tower is built with green bricks and square. It has 17 levels of dense eaves, 35 meters in height and 68 horns with horseshoe bells. It is one of the oldest pagodas in China. Before the Ming Dynasty and the early Qing Dynasty, the pagoda split from top to bottom and fell to the northeast corner. In 1923, the southern half of the pagoda collapsed, leaving only the northwest corner. It became "the first wonder of Pengzhou". In 1944, master Neng Hai was invited by Pengzhou Zhengcheng monks to lecture at Longxing Temple. Seeing that the pagoda was incomplete and ominous to the state and religion, he proposed to rebuild it, which won the support of people from all walks of life. He set up a Preparatory Committee for the reconstruction of Pengzhou Longxing relic pagoda in Manjusri courtyard of Longxing Temple The company's achievements shine. This action shocked the citizens in the city. People came to watch the light of the Buddha first, which made the four disciples more confident in building the pagoda. Neng Hai Shi went to India in person to visit the Bodhi hall in Calcutta to get the sample of Vajra Buddha pagoda. In 1948, he started construction on the east side of the ancient pagoda to build the sample pagoda. He was able to lead the monks to build towers in the mountains 50 miles away by burning and transporting green bricks. In 1949, the project was completed and stopped for some reason. It was rebuilt after the "Cultural Revolution". In the summer of 1985, it was installed with a copper top and decorated. The base of the tower is 15 meters square, the main tower is 25 meters high, and the four corner tower is 8 meters high. There are 844 statues of Buddha and Bodhisattva in the niches on the surface of the tower. Inside the tower, there are Buddhist scriptures, statues, pictures, utensils, etc. which are exquisite and magnificent. President Zhao Puchu wrote the name of the pagoda "Longxing relic pagoda", and the tenth Panchen Erdeni wrote "Sakyamuni Buddha without auspiciousness in the South" in Chinese and Tibetan characters, which were printed on the base of the pagoda. The pagoda has been listed as a key cultural relic under protection in Chengdu. One of the surviving parts of the dilapidated Dragon Temple Pagoda nearly collapsed in 1981 due to the cracking of its foundation.

Rescue and protection

In order to save the cultural relics of the motherland, protect the history and culture of Buddhism, and fulfill the long cherished wish of Neng Hai Shi, mages Qingding, Kuanlin and Longlian proposed to raise funds to rebuild the pagoda. In April 1993, the "Sichuan Provincial Committee for the reconstruction of Longxing relic Pagoda in Pengzhou" was established in the Manjusri monastery in Chengdu, which was strongly supported by the provincial, municipal and county religious bureaus and Buddhist associations at all levels. With the help of the four Buddhists at home and abroad and all walks of life, the pagoda has been built for four years. Now the tower is 81 meters high. The height of the four corner towers is 27 meters, the tower base is 30 meters square, and all of them are reinforced concrete. There are 1080 bronze and jade Buddha statues in the pagoda niche. The style is similar to that of Calcutta Pagoda in India, Weizhen Bashu and Xiongguan Shenzhou. On the inner wall of the pagoda and the exhibition room on the fifth floor, the deeds of arhat, Bodhisattva and Sakyamuni Buddha Yinghua are displayed. Clay sculptures, wood carvings, stone carvings, embroidery, gilding, color books, Thangka and other forms of artistic expression are used to decorate the wall of more than a thousand rain corn in an exquisite and orderly manner, majestic and brilliant. What's more valuable is that the exhibition room also displays dozens of early Chinese stone Buddha statues excavated during the construction of the tower and the excavation of the foundation. According to the inscriptions, they are made in the 5th year of Datong (533), 11th year of kaihuang (591), 1st year of Jiushi (700) and 1st year of Jinglong (707) of the Tang Dynasty by Emperor Wu of the Liang Dynasty. They are simple and exquisite, and have high artistic value.

There are seven ancient pagodas on the land of 1427 square kilometers in Pengzhou City, whose levels are all odd, which is related to the theory of yin and Yang in ancient China. Many images and activities of Buddhism also use odd numbers to express the meaning of quietness, heaven or auspiciousness. Therefore, it is customary for the tower to be built in a single layer, with seven levels as the standard layer, because there is a saying that "saving one's life is better than building a seven level pagoda". Longxing Temple Pagoda has 17 storeys, which is the most ancient pagoda in China.

Longxing Temple is a national key cultural relic protection unit. It stands on the central axis in front of the heavenly king hall in Longxing Temple in Pengzhou City. It shows the magnificent momentum of early Chinese Buddhism and the superb skills of the working people. It's a 41.5-meter-high square brick tower with dense eaves. It's a wonderful landscape with the old tall city walls and tall cypresses. In the works of poets and painters, its image often appears, which brings people artistic enjoyment. Visitors from other places come here to see its style.

It is said that Asoka king of the Peacock Dynasty in the ancient Indian state of mogatuo? After Sakyamuni died more than 200 years ago (about 272-226 BC), he divided the relic into 84000 pieces and built 84000 pagodas around the world on the same day for worship. Among them, 19 relic pagodas have been built in China, and Yizhou has four. Longxing Temple is one of the oldest pagodas in the world. In the 1930s, ye Jilan, who wrote "why the broken pagoda of Pengxian County in Sichuan didn't completely collapse" (published in Oriental Magazine, Vol. 25, No. 17, published in the 17th year of the Republic of China), claimed that Longxing pagoda was built in King Mu of Zhou (947-928 BC). In 1878, when LV tiaoyang, a native of the Qing Dynasty, majored in Peng county annals, according to the August of the first year of Xianfeng, there was a man who stole the rosefinch on the top of the tower, holding a copper bell at the mouth of the finch. On the top of the bell was engraved Jiazi Nian Zhi Gong, who was made on the 18th roof, and his younger brother Huang's jiuniangshi. He also found that the eaves and horse tongue of the tower had the word "Datong 2nd year". From then on, it was designated as the beam tower. After the collapse of the southeast and southwest corners of the pagoda on February 14, 1923, a large number of castings were obtained. Under the lotus seat of a Buddha statue, there was the inscription "Xiao yanzao, Yizi (i.e. disciple) in the second year of Datong"; there was also a bronze casting, with a square watch in front, a gold shop below, and the words Datong on the edge of the gold shop. Therefore, it is believed that the ancient pagoda was built by Emperor Wu of Liang Dynasty, and there is also a folk saying that Emperor Wu of Liang Dynasty built it by gambling with the famous monk Baozhi Zen master overnight.

In recent years, architecture and Archaeology experts Zhang Yuhuan and Lin Xiang have successively made field investigations. Based on their hollow tubular structure, architectural style and brick shape, and combined with literature argumentation, they believe that it was built in the Dazhong period of Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty (847-860 years), while the brick, eaves horse, rosefinch bell and other relics of the Liang Dynasty's Dakong temple were used in the construction of the tower.

Because Longxing Temple Pagoda is built on the soft alluvium of plain, the yellow mud with low bonding performance is used when repairing the pagoda. The bricks are tomb bricks with different specifications, lengths and thicknesses. There are patterned bricks such as geometry, coins, couplet walls and yunfen of Han Wei and Six Dynasties, and precious patterned bricks of Sui Dynasty

Chinese PinYin : Cheng Dou Long Xing Si