Chongming Temple

Chongming Temple

Chongming temple, located at the eastern foot of Holy Buddha, 15 kilometers southeast of Gaoping City, is commonly known as Langgu temple. On May 26, 2001, it was announced as a national key cultural relics protection unit by the State Council.

Historical origin

Chongming temple, located in the north to the south, has two courtyards. It was founded in the fourth year of Kaibao (971) of the Northern Song Dynasty and has been repaired many times. The existing buildings include the mountain gate, the middle Buddha Hall, the back hall, the bell and Drum Tower, the East and west side hall, and the two verandas. The middle hall is built in the early Song Dynasty, the back hall is built in the Ming Dynasty, and the rest are relics of the Qing Dynasty. Zhongfo hall, located in the center of the courtyard, is vigorous, simple, steady and magnificent.

Inscriptions

According to the existing inscriptions in the second year of Chunhua in the Song Dynasty (1991), the temple was founded in the Kaibao period of the Northern Song Dynasty before the promulgation of the song "zaozao FA Shi". The hall is three rooms wide, six rafters deep, with a single eaves and nine ridges on the top. The top is covered with tube board cloth and tiles, and painted with glass. In many places, the hall follows the Tang system, with no pubaihang on its capitals.

Dougong seven shop, double copy double under the high, high for the batch of bamboo, high tail pressure in the four rafters burden skin. There are five pavilions in the Bujian Dougong, double copy and steal the heart. There are no luodou and Zhidou in the lower part, which is the same as the East Hall of Foguang temple in Wutai Mountain in Tang Dynasty. The beams in the hall are built in a clear way, and a pair of "broken beams" are used. The structure is peculiar, which is the unique creation of folk craftsmen, which has a high practical significance in the history of architecture.

The broken beam is made up of two short beams with equal diameter and length. The "broken beam" is supported under the middle seam with a bundle. The two ends are supported on the rear end of the front and rear eaves column bucket arch, and the gravity of the tail cover is balanced on the front and rear eaves column. This architectural feature is the unique creation of the ancient craftsman's material design: small village and big use.

Layout structure

The three halls, with seven pavilions, are far-reaching beyond the eaves, surpassing the Wanfo Hall of Pingyao Zhenguo temple in the Five Dynasties. Its architectural style is ancient. The middle Buddha Hall of Chongming Temple follows the style of the Tang Dynasty and has a unique structure. It can be said that it is a unique flower in ancient Chinese architecture and has high architectural art value.

Daoguang years

Daoguang's Xiuwu County annals Jinshi annals records two ancient steles about Chongming stone. One is the stele of wuliyuan Chongming Temple (hereinafter referred to as Zhangwan stele) written by Zhang Wan, the Minister of rites of the Yuan Dynasty in 1350, and the other is the stele of rebuilding wuliyuan Chongming Temple (hereinafter referred to as Hetang stele) written by He Tang, the Minister of rites of the Ming Dynasty in 1534 According to He Tang's stele, "there is Chongming temple in the southwest of Tun, which is also built by Zen master Hou Gong." both steles believe that the founder of this temple is Zen master Hou. Cho Chan Master, CHO Chan Master (510-585), was born in Jianye (now Linzhang County West of Hebei Province) of Wei and Qi dynasties. He is the earliest recorded Buddhist monk and the second ancestor of Shaolin Temple in Chinese history.

In the seventh year of Tianbao (557) of the Northern Qi Dynasty, Zen master Hou built more than 20 temples along the Taihang Mountain and built the first RenWang temple on the Tianmen Mountain, which is today's Baijiayan temple. According to Zhang Wan's stele, the seal inscription of the stele is "Bai Yan Chongming Temple stele, the lower courtyard of Da Huguo RenWang Temple". It is known that the Chongming temple in wuliyuan is the lower courtyard of Bai Jia Yan temple, and the temple was built in Tianbao period of the Northern Qi Dynasty.

According to the calculation, Chongming temple has a history of more than 1450 years.

After the completion of Chongming temple, because it is located in the middle of the county and Baijiayan, and it is the only way for the county to go to Baijiayan. Therefore, no matter good men and women or literati and poets, they all go to Baijiayan first to Chongming temple or worship Buddha, or take a rest. Because of the excellent scenery here, Chongming temple has become a famous temple and scenic spot. Zhang Wan's stele says that it "bears Taihang and bows to song, connects Sumen and Baiquan in the East, Jishui and Pangu in the west, with elegant atmosphere, numerous people and things, and beautiful water and bamboo. In the afternoon beside the village, Daocheng vegetable garden, chickens and dogs are familiar with each other. Therefore, it's a place of great talent to join hands with scholars, to visit, and to be famous in huaiwei." The Tang stele records that it "bears Taihang in the north, Baiquan in the East and Lixu in the sea toad palace in the West. In front of the palace, there is a spring gushing out. On the side of Xialiu temple, it is also a resort of gaining city.".

Reconstruction period

Chongming temple has been repaired on behalf of the emperor, and there are clear records: during the Zhizheng period, the abbot monk renovated because of his capital and his whole life. He was born in Hanoi and became a monk in tianshengyuan of Hanoi. He was born in Qinghua and was a younger martial brother of yingzi. After his death, he succeeded as the abbot of the temple. This revision was written by Zhang Wan, a doctor in the Ministry of rites, who was also the editor of the Academy of national history.

During the Chenghua period of the Ming Dynasty, monk Xiangjun and his disciples Miaochun and Miaoqing rebuilt the temple, which was recorded by Yang Hui, the then governor of Henan Province; in 1523, the local elder hang Jian and his son hang biaoZhou donated 100 liang of silver and local believers, and the abbots Guangjian and Qingying presided over the reconstruction. It took two and a half years, and was completed in October of the fourth year of Jiajing There are three blue halls and six Eastern and Western abbots. He Tang, the right servant of the Ministry of rites at that time, wrote a record of this renovation.

In addition, according to Daoguang's Xiuwu County annals - Temple attachment, Baijiayan temple was once abandoned, and its monks all lived in Chongming temple in wuliyuan. This shows that the scale of Chongming temple was prosperous at that time. However, during the reign of Daoguang, although the temple had a "victory of flowers, trees, bamboo and cypresses", its walls were decadent and there were few monks.

It is not known whether it was rebuilt afterwards. In 2001, according to the memories of the local old people, the people of wuliyuan village drew a sketch map of Chongming temple in the period of the Republic of China. Reading the map, we can see that there was a mountain gate, five East and West corridors, three middle Buddha Hall, five big Buddha Hall, a bell tower in the southeast of middle Buddha Hall, a Guanyin hall in the east of big Buddha Hall, a basement in Guanyin hall, and five East and West halls, Finally, there are eleven monk rooms. According to local people's legend, although no one has been cleaning the beams of the main hall of the temple for many years, there has never been any dust in the temple.

According to Hao Xiaoju, a disciple of wuliyuan who is now in charge of the collection, the temple was completely demolished during the Japanese puppet period and used to build the village's turrets and blockhouses.

In the early 1960s, the state strengthened the construction of primary medical and health institutions. Wuliyuan commune built a commune health center on the abandoned site of the former Chongming temple, and the inscriptions of the original temple were scattered everywhere. After the Third Plenary Session of the 11th CPC Central Committee, the religious policy was implemented, and local believers began to plan the reconstruction of Chongming temple.

In the late 1990s, the believers raised money to buy the backyard of the township health center as a place for tranquilizing the gods, and the original stele relics were gradually recovered, including the famous Buddhist sutra building of Zunsheng in the Tang Dynasty and the stele of Lu Qian in the Northern Song Dynasty.

Related allusions

The origin of the Buddhist canon

According to Daoguang's Xiuwu County annals, Jinshi annals, the Zunsheng Sutra building on the top of Chongming temple in wuliyuan is a Tang Dynasty stele, but neither the inscription nor the date of carving are recorded. Under Hao Xiaoju's identification, I found the head, body and block of the building one by one for identification. The head of the building is about 60 cm high and 80 cm in diameter. There are Buddhist figures carved around it. The lines are smooth and the shape is exquisite. The building is octahedral column shape, each side is about 30 cm wide, the height of the building is about 1.4 meters, and the diameter is about 80 cm. The eight sides are engraved with characters, which are divided into two parts: the preface and the text. The block is square, about 1.2 meters long and about 20 cm high, with eight micro grooves in it, which coincides with the block. I can't find the time of carving in the text of the building, but there are materials written by wuliyuan believers, which record that the building was built in the third year of chuigong (687) in the era of Empress Wu Zetian of Tang Dynasty, but I don't know its origin and dare not jump to a conclusion. However, only in the Tang Dynasty can the Buddhist sutra building be found, and it is recorded in the county annals. It is certain that this building was built in the Tang Dynasty.

The main text of the Sutra is divided into two parts. The preface of the Sutra records that in the first year of Tang Yifeng (676), Indian Brahman monk Buddha poli was enlightened by Manjusri Bodhisattva and went west to get the Sutra. After six years of hard work, the sutra was finally obtained from India in the second year of Yongchun (682) and brought back to Xijing, which was translated into Chinese. After that, the Sutra quickly spread among the people. As for the origin of "Buddha's top is superior to tuoroni", Sakyamuni said in order to save the son of Shanzhu, who is about to face a short life, suffering from animal body and hell. One night, after enjoying all kinds of pleasures such as the garden of heaven, Shanzhu emperor suddenly heard that he was about to suffer a lot of sufferings, including that he was about to die in seven days, and the situation after his death was extremely miserable: first, he suffered from seven return animals and hell, and then, although he was able to escape from hell and live as a human being, he was born in a poor family, and he was born in a poor family A body without eyes. Hearing this, Shanzhu was greatly frightened, so he asked for help from Tiandi Shi. However, there was no way to save him. Instead, he turned to Sakyamuni. At the request of the emperor, Sakyamuni taught the way of salvation, that is, "the Buddha's head is superior to the toroni.". The emperor of heaven explained the Dharma of this dharma and its acceptance to the son of heaven. He not only escaped death, but also was able to stay away from the suffering of all evil ways, live in Bodhi way, and prolong his life. According to Liu Shufen's article "the Sutra of Zunsheng and the establishment of Zunsheng scripture", one of the greatest characteristics of this sutra is to help both the living and the dead, especially emphasizing the function of "Zunsheng" to break the hell. From then on, we can know the two nicknames of "Zunsheng Tuoni" by Sakyamuni. This sutra is also known as "clearing away all evils, Buddha's top exalting dharoni" and "auspicious can clear away all evils"

Chinese PinYin : Chong Ming Si