Yuquan Temple

Yuquan Temple

Yuquan temple is located in the east foot of Yuquan, 12 kilometers southwest of Dangyang city, Hubei Province, with a central scenic area of 8.9 square kilometers. It is said that during the Jian'an period of the Eastern Han Dynasty, monk Pujing settled here. In the Southern Dynasty, Emperor Xuan of Liang Dynasty called Yuquan "fuchuanshan Temple". In Sui Dynasty, it was changed into "Yuquan Temple". The main hall of Yuquan temple is the largest ancient building in South China.

In front of the hall, there are more than ten large iron cultural relics of the Sui Dynasty; on the side of the hall, there is a stone portrait of Guanyin, which is said to be the handwriting of Wu Daozi, a painting saint of the Tang Dynasty. The existing Yuquan iron tower is of great value to the study of ancient Chinese metallurgical casting, metal anticorrosion, construction method, architectural mechanics, casting and carving art and the history of Buddhism.

Yuquan temple is one of the ancestral halls of Tiantai Sect

With Guoqing temple in Tiantai, Zhejiang Province, Lingyan temple in Jinan, Shandong Province and Qixia Temple in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, it has been known as "four wonders in the world" and "three famous mountains of Chu"

. In 1982, Yuquan temple and iron tower were listed as national key cultural relics protection units.

Historical evolution

In 218, the 22nd year of Jian'an in the Eastern Han Dynasty, monk Pujing built a monastery in Maowei and meditated.

In 559, Emperor Xuandi of Liang Dynasty built fuchuanshan Temple (today's Yuquan Temple).

During the kaihuang period of the Sui Dynasty, monk zhikou, the founder of Tiantai Sect of Buddhism, officially founded Yuquan temple here.

In Tang Dynasty, beizong Shenxiu, the Zen master, came here from Dongshan Temple of Huangmei to carry forward the Zen Buddhism.

In the Song Dynasty, empress Mingsu of emperor Zhenzong of the Song Dynasty expanded Yuquan temple and changed it into "Jingde Temple", which is known as "the crown of Jingchu jungle".

In the early Ming Dynasty, the name of "Yuquan Temple" was restored.

During the Wanli period of Ming Dynasty, the emperor of Ming Dynasty granted the plaque of "the first jungle of Jingchu".

In 1983, it became one of the first batch of temples to be opened to the outside world.

In August 1985, as a place for Buddhist activities, Yuquan temple was handed over by the cultural relics department to the Buddhist community for management and use. In the temple, monks set up a "Management Committee of Yuquan temple in Dangyang county" to manage the affairs of the temple, and master Mingyu presided over it.

In 1987, Yuquan Temple restored the ten square jungle system. Master Mingyu was promoted to abbot and appointed the corresponding deacons according to the jungle system.

On June 17, 2014, master Kim yuedo, general Minister of the general affairs department of Tiantai Sect of South Korea, and his party visited Yuquan temple in Dangyang. Master Kuan Wu, abbot of Dumen temple, and master Yuquan Temple accompanied the Korean master to visit Yuquan temple. They exchanged views on the site selection of the Sino Korean Tiantai Sect friendship and peace Monument and reached a consensus.

Architectural pattern

Feng Shui

The temple is backed by the Fu Chuan mountain, which can be called Xuanwu. The stream in front of the mountain gate can be called Zhuque. The double bridges on the stream can gather Qi and stop Qi. The whole temple is surrounded by mountains and water, with negative Yin embracing Yang, forming a pattern of four spirit beasts in line with the celestial phenomena. Facing the cold current in the northwest, facing the stream, the temple accepts the cool wind in the southeast, and the mountain gate faces the East with good light. The small mountain range with eight characters raised behind the temple alleviates the threat of mountain torrents to the temple.

Architectural pattern

The main buildings of Yuquan temple are arranged on an east-west axis. From east to west, there are three major buildings: Tianwang, Daxiong and Pilu halls. The Northern Song tower and sanyuanmen archway across the river from Tianwang hall deviate from the axis to the south. All the three buildings are palace style. In contrast with the central axis building, the north and South wings of the ancillary buildings, the volume of each hall entrance is reduced accordingly, and the gray tube tile used in the central axis building is not used, but the small green tile is used. Decorate the wall with ink painting instead of heavy color. In the south wing of the building, there are three groups of deep courtyard: Xichan hall, Tibetan Scripture building and Tuju hall. It is a place for recuperation, reading and meditation. The North Wing building is a group of garden style buildings with flexible layout. The lecturing platform, banzhou hall, dongchan hall, Dashi Pavilion (destroyed), Yuantong Pavilion, and Songzi nunnery are located in the mountains.

Main buildings

Tianwang Hall

Tianwang hall is the first building on the central axis. It faces east in the West and has a wide square in front of the door. There are seven rooms in width and three rooms in depth. Except for the tall central gate, one garden gate is opened in each room and the box office is opened in the south room. The wall is 5 meters high; the roof is made of single eaves hard Hill grey tiles; the Yunlong mosaic and TunJi Dagou on the main ridge are all grey pottery products. It is a common practice for local houses in Western Hubei that the beams in the hall are of wooden structure. All the statues in the hall are remodeled in modern times. On the obverse of the Ming Dynasty, the statue of Maitreya's incarnation is a sitting statue of a monk in a cloth bag, white marble. Behind Maitreya, there is a sculpture holding a pestle in hand. The statue of Wei tuotian, who is now the general of heaven, is covered with gold helmet and armor. He holds the pestle in his left hand and leans on the ground. His right hand is inserted into his waist. His left foot stands slightly forward, facing the main hall. In the north and south of the temple of heavenly kings, there are four statues of heavenly kings. The Tianwang hall was built at an unknown time and has been rebuilt many times since the Ming Dynasty. In 1990, the local finance of Dangyang city allocated funds to overhaul the Tianwang hall.

Pilu Hall

The hall of Pilu hall is the hall of Dharma, also known as the lecture hall. It is the place for the assembly of Buddhist dharma conversion. It is the main building next to the hall in the temple. The lobby is five rooms wide and three rooms deep. Under the eaves hung a plaque above Pilu, which was inscribed by Wang Renzhong. In the center of the hall, a Buddha is worshipped. Around the Buddha's seat, 500 Arhats sitting in the niche, and another statue of holding a fan to help the Lord. The hall has been rebuilt for several times, forming a small green tile roof with two slopes of water hard mountain, and the structure is simple. There is a small gate to Guanyin hall on the south wall of the hall. There is a statue of Guanyin with thousands of hands and eyes in the hall. There is a small patio in the hall and a small rockery in the patio. Pilu hall was overhauled many times in Qing Dynasty. In 1965, the State Administration of cultural relics allocated 40000 yuan for restoration, and in 1975, it was repaired again.

Upper Hall

The upper hall is connected with the North gable of Pilu hall, with the west facing east and the big patio in the middle. On both sides of the first entrance gate of the upper hall, the south room is for the incense burning master, and the north room is for the almsgiving master. Through the patio, it is the second entrance. It is three rooms wide, and the three rooms are connected. There are no columns in the middle. It is commonly known as the hall. There are mahogany seats on the north and south sides of the hall. It is the place where the abbot and the eight Hall master discuss affairs. Behind the hall is the Abbot's building, which is three rooms wide. Downstairs is the Abbot's room and the reception hall. Upstairs is the exhibition room, where famous people's calligraphy and paintings are hung and precious cultural relics such as Zhenshan eight treasures are placed. The upper hall is the most exquisite place in the temples of the Qing Dynasty. It was burned by fire during the Anti Japanese War, and now only remains.

Buddism godness Guanyin Temple

Guanyin hall, also known as tunzhu Pavilion, is behind Pilu hall. In 1679, the governor of Sichuan Lake Cai Yurong and the garrison Liu Hanchen donated a large statue of Guanyin Bodhisattva. On the platform in front of the hall, there are two iron cauldrons and one iron censer of the Yuan Dynasty. Around them, there are fruit trees and ornamental trees such as peach, apricot, pomegranate, grapefruit and Podocarpus. Guanyin hall is five rooms wide, with two entrances. It is separated by a patio. There are enclosed houses on both sides. There is a closed wall outside the hall, which is very quiet. Guanyin hall and its wall collapsed after 1960. Only one iron cauldron of the Yuan Dynasty, weighing 3000 Jin, remains at the site.

Peak of the Heavenly Emperor

Yuhuangding, also known as Yuhuangge, is located in the back of the sky. It has five wide faces and two entrances. There is a patio between the two entrances. The first into the single eaves Xieshan small green tile roof, the second into the double eaves hard hill small green tile roof. Second, the Buddha and Bodhisattva statues are worshipped downstairs, and the statues of Lei Gong and Shan Mu Niang are worshipped upstairs. In the late Qing Dynasty, there was Koizumi on the south side of Yuhuangding. Monk Zuyin once built a stone chamber near the spring. During the Anti Japanese War, the Yuhuangding building collapsed and the spring dried up.

main hall

The main hall is located behind the Tianwang hall. The two halls are connected by Danchi and Qingshi corridor. The building has a height of 21 meters, a width of 40 meters, a depth of 30 meters, a height of 0.4 meters, and a construction area of 1253 square meters. There is a spacious platform in front of daxiongbao hall. In the south, there is a thousand year old ginkgo in the Tang Dynasty. In the north, there is the only remaining big pagoda cypress in the Ming Dynasty. Under the trees are iron casting tools of all ages. There are three layers of columns on the platform, namely, 24 porch columns, 24 eaves columns and 24 gold columns. The 72 columns are all made of Phoebe. They are made of tenon and mortise structure. There are 154 Dougong in the hall, which are divided into two types: inner trough and outer trough. There are 91 ceilings, each of which is 0.05m thick and 1.66M square. They are pasted with mineral colors. The types of color paintings are Huozhu, Yunlong and Lianhe. The edges of colors are outlined with pine smoke and ink. The roof is a double eaves Xieshan gray tube tile roof. The main ridge is 1.3 meters high. It is made of more than 40 pieces of gray pottery patterns. On both sides, there are five high relief dragons. The Tangji big kiss on both sides of Zhengji is 1.8 meters high, which is a typical official architectural modeling technique in Ming Dynasty. Zhao Puchu, the former president of the Buddhist Association of China, wrote a plaque on the eaves of the temple called "sage Daochang". There are three xumizuo side by side in the hall. The statue in the middle is Sakyamuni Buddha, which is 8 meters high. Amitabha is worshipped on Xumi seat in the South and pharmacist Buddha in the north. Under the north and South gables of the hall, there are nine statues of Luohan, all in sitting posture. In addition, in the northwest corner of the hall, a sitting statue of the Bodhisattva of the Tibetan king in the copper placer is worshipped, and in the northeast corner, an iron bell of the nether world is installed.

Daxiong hall was built in 593, the 13th year of kaihuang reign of Sui Dynasty, and rebuilt in successive dynasties. From 1982 to 1984, funded by the State Administration of cultural relics, the project was overhauled.

Yuquan tower

There is a Yuquan iron tower on the ground of yumaigang in Qinglong mountain, north of the three garden gates in front of Yuquan temple. The original name of the iron tower is "Buddha's Tooth Relic tower", commonly known as "Lengjin iron tower" and "Thousand Buddha's Tower". In 1061, it was buried by Emperor Gaozong and empress Zetian of Tang Dynasty

Chinese PinYin : Yu Quan Si