Shaolin Temple

Shaolin Temple is located at the foot of wurufeng, Songshan Mountain, Dengfeng City, Henan Province. It is the ancestral hall of Chinese Zen Buddhism, a well-known Buddhist temple in China, and the birthplace of Shaolin martial arts. Today's Shaolin Temple is famous not only for its ancient Buddhist culture, but also for its exquisite and practical Shaolin martial arts. "Chinese Kung Fu is amazing, and the Kung Fu of the world comes from Shaolin" is a good name for Shaolin Kung Fu.

Shaolin Temple was founded in the 19th year of Taihe in Northern Wei Dynasty (495). In order to settle Batuo, an Indian monk who came to teach Hinayana Buddhism, Emperor Xiaowen Yuan Hong built a temple in Shaoshi mountain of Songshan mountain. Shaolin Temple was very large in its heyday. Unfortunately, in 1928, Shi Yousan, a warlord, burned Shaolin Temple and destroyed all the main buildings such as Tianwang hall and Daxiong hall. Only the mountain gate, Lixue Pavilion, thousand Buddha Hall and so on are left. The main buildings we see now are all rebuilt later.

Since the movie "Shaolin Temple" was broadcast in the 1980s, Shaolin Kung Fu has become famous all over the world. Nowadays, it is very difficult for ordinary tourists to watch the martial arts performances of Shaolin monks in Shaolin Temple. Tourists can go to the Shaolin martial arts museum about 700 meters east of the Shaolin Temple to watch the Shaolin Kung Fu performance with the Shaolin Temple package ticket (100 yuan). Each performance lasts about half an hour.

Shaolin Temple

Shaolin Temple, the birthplace of Chinese Zen and Chinese Kung Fu, is now a world cultural heritage site, a national key cultural relic protection unit and a national AAAAA tourist attraction. It is located at the foot of wuru peak of Songshan Mountain in Dengfeng City, Zhengzhou City, Henan Province. Because it is located in the dense forest of Shaoshi mountain in the hinterland of Songshan Mountain, it is called "Shaolin Temple". Founded in the 19th year of Taihe in the Northern Wei Dynasty (495), it was built by Emperor Xiaowen at the northern foot of Shaoshi mountain in Songshan Mountain, which is opposite to Luoyang, the capital city, in order to accommodate his respected Indian monk Batuo. Shaolin Temple often occupies an area of about 57600 square meters. The current abbot is Shi Yongxin, the 47th and 33rd generation ancestor of Cao Dong.

Shaolin Temple is a famous Buddhist temple in the world. It is the ancestral hall of Chinese Buddhism. It occupies an important position in the history of Chinese Buddhism and is known as "the most famous temple in the world". Shaolin is famous for its continuous development of Shaolin Kung Fu. It is said that Shaolin Kung Fu is the best in the world.

In August 2010, the historical buildings in tiandizhong, including Shaolin Temple, Chuzu temple and talin, were listed as world cultural heritage by UNESCO.

Historical evolution

Shaolin Temple was founded in the 19th year of Taihe in the Northern Wei Dynasty (495). Tuobahong, the emperor of Xiaowen, was built at the northern foot of Shaoshi mountain in Songshan Mountain, opposite Luoyang, the capital city, to settle Batuo, an Indian monk who came to teach Hinayana Buddhism.

In the first year of Yongping (506), Indian eminent monks lenamati and bhutti Liuzhi successively opened a translation hall in Shaolin Temple, and set up a scripture translation hall in the West Tower of Shaolin Temple to translate scriptures. After that, Huiguang carried forward the four division doctrine in Shaolin Temple. After many generations of development, later generations finally formed the four division doctrine.

Bodhidharma, the 28th generation of Sakyamuni Buddha, came to Shaolin Temple in the third year of Xiaochang (527) of emperor Xiaoming of the Northern Wei Dynasty. On the basis of Batuo's creation, he gathered a wide range of believers and taught Zen. In the third year of Tianping of emperor Xiaojing of the Eastern Wei Dynasty, he passed on the Dharma to Huike. From then on, Zen spread in Shaolin Temple.

During the peak period of Buddhism development in the northern and Southern Dynasties, Emperor Wu of the Northern Zhou Dynasty adopted the proposal of reducing monks in Yuansong temple, the Sanwei temple. In the third year of Jiande (574), Emperor Wu of the Northern Zhou Dynasty banned the spread of Buddhism.

In 580, Emperor Jing of the Northern Zhou Dynasty restored Shaolin Temple and renamed it Zhihu temple.

Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty worshipped Buddhism, changed Zhihu temple into Shaolin Temple, and granted Shaolin Temple 100 hectares of land. With other rewards, Shaolin Temple became a large temple with 100 hectares of fertile land and huge temple property.

In the early Tang Dynasty, the thirteen monks of Shaolin Temple were rewarded by Emperor Taizong for their contributions to the Tang Dynasty. They were granted a thousand hectares of land and a water mill, and called Shaolin monks Seng soldiers. From then on, Shaolin Temple became famous all over the world and was known as the first famous Temple in the world.

By the Tang and Song Dynasties, Shaolin Temple had more than 14000 mu of land, 540 mu of temple base, more than 5000 pavilions, and more than 2000 monks. The Zen sect founded by Dharma flourished in the Tang Dynasty and was the largest sect of Buddhism in the Tang Dynasty.

After the failure of Qingli new deal in the third year of Qingli (1043) of song Renzong, those who paid attention to the empty sect began to set up the Chan yuan in Bianjing (now Kaifeng).

Around the eighth year of Yuanyou (1093) in the Northern Song Dynasty, master Baoen carried forward the style of Cao Dongzong in Shaolin Temple, and eventually made Shaolin Temple "change the law into Zen".

At the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty, Shizu ordered monk Fuyu to be the abbot of Shaolin and command all the monasteries in the area of Songyue. During the period of Abbot Shaolin, monk Fuyu founded the bell tower and Drum Tower, added the galleries and storehouses, and monks gathered here to perform martial arts and worship Buddhism.

During the Jiajing period, Japanese pirates attacked China's coastal areas, and Shaolin monks made great contributions to resist Japanese pirates. Therefore, the government renovated the temples on a large scale, and Shaolin temple also enjoyed the privilege of exemption from food duty granted by the government. Since then, Shaolin monks have been enlisted by the Ming government at least six times to participate in the war, and have made many contributions. Therefore, the imperial court has set up steles for Shaolin Temple many times, and established Shaolin Kung Fu's authoritative position in Chinese martial arts.

In 1704, Emperor Kangxi wrote two plaques to Shaolin Temple (originally hung in Tianwang hall, later moved to the Mountain Gate) and Baoshu Fanglian (originally hung in Daxiong hall, later burned by fire).

In 1735, Emperor Yongzheng personally read the temple plan, approved the plan, rebuilt the mountain gate, and rebuilt the thousand Buddha Hall. The cost of the renovation and reconstruction of Shaolin Temple reached 9000 Liang.

In 1750, Emperor Qianlong visited Shaolin Temple and stayed in the Abbot's room at night. He wrote many poems and plaques.

In the early years of the Republic of China, there was a civil war between the revolutionaries and the Beiyang government, and the Shaolin Temple suffered many wars.

In the first year of the Republic of China (1912), monk Yun songhenglin, a monk of Dengfeng County, was elected as the head of Shaolin security regiment by local gentry. He bought guns, organized security regiments, and trained combat skills to maintain local order.

In the autumn of the ninth year of the Republic of China (1920), Henglin led the militia to fight with bandits, and dozens of villages around the temple were able to live and work in peace and contentment, known as the living Buddha of Shaolin.

The People's Republic of China

After the founding of the people's Republic of China, especially since the new religious policy was promulgated by the government in the 1980s, with the opening-up policy of the state and the arrival of the global multicultural era, Shaolin Temple has inherited and carried forward its unique fine tradition, successively restored the Zen hall, and held the seventh intensive Chan festival every year. Collecting and sorting rare ancient books, Shaolin Temple Sutra pavilion has been listed as the national key protection unit of ancient books, and has published many works, such as the complete book of Chinese Buddhist medicine and the Chinese Musashi.

After the end of the cultural revolution, Shaolin Temple was repaired and rebuilt. The existing buildings, including the famous Daxiong hall and the facing stone of Damo, are all antique buildings. However, some places such as the ancient martial arts training ground, talin and some stone carvings are still ancient relics.

In 1997, Henan Shaolin Temple Industrial Development Co., Ltd. was officially established.

Since 2001, Ciyun Temple in Gongyi, Donglin temple in Xingyang, Yongqing temple in Dalian and Chaohua temple in Xinmi have gradually become the lower house of Shaolin Temple. As of March 2016, there are 17 lower houses of Shaolin Temple (see the "lower house of Shaolin" catalog for the detailed list, among which Kunming Shaolin temple is jointly managed by four temples in Guandu ancient town, collectively referred to as "Kunming Shaolin Temple")

On March 22, 2006, then Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Shaolin Temple to watch Shaolin Kung Fu performance. He was the first foreign head of state to visit Shaolin Temple in Shaolin history.

In 2009, Shaolin Temple established the company to build the first Shaolin Temple and the overseas Shaolin cultural center headquarters

On August 1, 2010, the 34th World Heritage conference was deliberated and approved by UNESCO, and the historical buildings in heaven and earth (Shaolin Temple (Changzhi, chuzu'an, talin), three que (Taishi que, Shaoshi que, Qimu que), Zhongyue temple, Songyue temple tower, Huishan temple, Songyang academy, and star watching platform) were listed as world cultural heritage sites.

In 2011, Shaolin Temple took the lead in major schools and established Taiwan's first martial arts school in Miaoli County.

On February 23, 2015, Shi Yongxin, the abbot of Shaolin Temple, paid a check of about 4.162 million Australian dollars < I (about 20.405 million RMB) < / I to the mayor of shoerhevin, NSW, to settle all the land purchase money. The project plans to build an Australian branch of Shaolin Temple.

Layout structure

Shaolin Temple is often built on the North Bank of Shaoxi River in Dengfeng, Henan Province. From the mountain gate to the thousand Buddha Hall, there are seven courtyards with a total area of 57600 square meters. It mainly includes Chang'an, talin and chuzu'an. From south to north along the central axis, the buildings that are often hospitalized are Shanmen, Tianwang hall, Daxiong hall, sutra Pavilion (Dharma Hall), Abbot's courtyard, Lixue Pavilion and Thousand Buddha Hall. In addition, there are talin in the west of the temple, Chuzu nunnery, Damo cave and ganlutai in the north, erzu nunnery in the southwest and Guanghui nunnery in the northeast.

There are more than 10 ancient pagodas around the temple, such as Tongguang Buddhist pagoda, Faru Buddhist pagoda and fahua Buddhist pagoda.

Main building

Chinese PinYin : Shao Lin Si