Nantai Temple

Nantai Temple

Nantai temple is located at the foot of Ruiying peak, Nanyue District, Hengyang City, Hunan Province. The altitude here is more than 600 meters, and the average temperature in summer is 28 ℃.

Historical evolution

In 742, monk xiqian came from Qingyuan mountain in Jiangxi Province to build an nunnery on the east stone of the temple. He was called "stone monk" at that time. At the foot of Ruiying peak, he expounded the Zen style.

Buddhists from all over the world come here to listen to their scriptures. The number of Dharma disciples is increasing, so the Nantai temple is constantly expanding. From the late Tang and Five Dynasties to the Song Dynasty, when Zhu Xi and Zhang Xi sang in Nanyue in the third year of Qiandao (1167), they came to visit the temple. The temple was already a "pavilion with a stable scale" and had the grand occasion of "Tianji Yaotai". During the Hongzhi period of the Ming Dynasty (1488-1505), did the monk come here from Xinyang? He lived in Shiyan, ate wild vegetables and dressed in hundreds of knots. Nanyue squires were moved by his hard work and donated money to help him build an nunnery. During the reign of Emperor Qianlong of Qing Dynasty, the temple was in disrepair for a long time, and the tiles and rafters were broken and collapsed. The unworthy monks took the opportunity to divide the temple property and built private nunneries in the west corridor of Nanyue temple. They called themselves "new Nantai Temple" and "old Nantai Temple".

Buddhist tradition

At the end of Qingguang period, monk Danyun, the abbot of Zhusheng temple, had a wonderful view with his disciples. He saw the authenticity of new and old Nantai, and decided to revive the Zen style of Nantai. In 1890, the governor of Sichuan Province and monks Fucheng, Danyun, and mo'an found the stele of "Jianxiang pagoda" and the stone plaque of "Nantai Temple" in the thorny place. They vowed to do their best to repair the temple and revitalize Nantai.

After 14 years, they finally raised more than 18000 yuan. The reconstruction project started in 1899 and completed in five years. A magnificent blue brick and tile Buddhist temple stands on the top of Nanyue Mountain, and has become a famous Buddhist temple in Chinese Buddhism. After the completion of the Nantai temple, the 42nd generation of the founder of the stone monk and the founder of the caodong patriarchal clan of Japanese Buddhism, the eminent monk Shuiye or Xiao, led a delegation of Japanese Buddhist rituals to Nantai temple in 1907. He brought more than 5700 volumes of the iron eye monk's imitation of the Ming version of the Tibetan scriptures and 32 Buddha statues of Bayes to the temple. At that time, it was known as a great event in the world. Since then, Nantai temple has become a place for cultural exchanges between China and Japan.

Unfortunately, during the cultural revolution, some of the Sutras in Nantai, known as one of the four treasures of Buddhist scriptures in China, were burned, and some were sent to paper mills for recycling and pulping. All the Buddhist scriptures and ink treasures have disappeared, all the Buddhist statues and cultural relics have been destroyed, and all the monks have left the temple to go to the countryside. After the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee, Nantai temple was fully restored. In 1981, Huang zhangren and Ouyang Yu, overseas Chinese living in Thailand, donated a gold-plated bronze Buddha statue to the Sutra house to add luster to the ancient temple.

Reconstruction and expansion

In 1984, Nantai temple was officially returned to the monks by the government. In 1987, after he invited master Baotan to Abbot Nantai temple, he became the winner of the famous temple and was revived by Fayun. In order to revive the Zen style of Nantai, monk Baotan led the monks in the temple to move bricks and tiles, plant vegetables on the walls, and believe in virtue both inside and outside the province and abroad. Tens of thousands of people converted to the temple. The four disciples and Shanxin generously supported the restoration and reconstruction of the temple. First of all, more than 4 million yuan was invested in the construction of temples and monasteries, the purchase of Buddhist scriptures, Buddhist implements, and the sculpture of Buddha statues. In addition, the mountain gate has been rebuilt, the Zhicheng pagoda and Laogong pavilion have been built, and the auspicious heavenly daughter.

In 1996, the temple invested another 3.5 million yuan to build a 49 meter high "Diamond relic pagoda" to serve as a place for worshipping Buddha relic and collecting Buddha's statues of Beiye. The newly-built Nantai temple is surrounded by pines, fir and maple trees. It is verdant and green, with shade on the ground and breeze on the face.

More than 20 meters high, the Metasequoia crassifolia, straight into the sky, feathery needles, dancing, overlooking the peak, clusters of blue peaks such as snails, mountains winding like a dragon leaping. Just as Zhang Juzheng, the Prime Minister of Wanli year of Ming Dynasty, said in his poem, "a pillow of lonely peaks, I don't know that I am on the top of the green mountain. The chime of the cold birth bell is clear at the beginning, and the moon is full at the beginning. Zhu dream with the phase out, feel the heart does not light a light. Tomorrow morning, I'll look for Zhuling Road, and I'll walk all over Ziyun

There is a couplet on the facing stone column of the nine steps: "Dan Dang Qi'er peak, the shadow of Xiang Han mountain can be seen from a low view; the clouds are nine thousand feet away, and the moon is on the circle of Zen heart." Entering the main entrance with the right forehead of the "Nantai Temple", a sitting statue of Maitreya with bare chest and belly is facing.

Behind the shrine of Maitreya is the statue of Weituo, the God of Dharma protection. Wearing armor and holding a magic wand, the statue stands tall. On both sides of Maitreya hall, there are four painted statues of heavenly kings, about three meters high, commonly known as the "four great vajras". Some of them hold lutes, umbrellas and swords in their hands, while others hold green dragons and silver mice in their hands to perform their natural duties. Later, the common people called the four heavenly kings "wind, tune, rain, Shun" by their different law enforcement tools.

main hall

Adjacent to Maitreya hall is the main hall of Nantai temple. In front of the hall is a Danlong, planted with Podocarpus and Magnolia. There are three Buddha statues in the hall, sitting on the Golden Lotus platform with eight treasures. The golden light shines on the eyes, and the wonderful appearance is solemn. In the center is Sakyamuni Buddha, on the left is pharmacist Buddha, and on the right is Amitabha Buddha. The Buddha statue is about three meters high, with a plump face, a kind and dignified face, each favoring his right shoulder, and a good eye drooping. The whole hall appears extremely solemn and quiet. On both sides of the hall, there are 18 clay sculptures. In the resplendent shrine, the Bodhisattva "Yangzhi Guanyin" sits upright, holding willow in his right hand and white jade bottle in his left.

The statue of Avalokitesvara is exquisitely shaped, with crescent brows, slightly open eyes, loving face and incomparable peace. Guanyin Bodhisattva about waiters good money, Dragon Girl two like, virginity, pure and lovely. In the temple, there is a 49 meter high seven level pagoda, standing majestically on the top of Cuiwei. The towering diamond relic pagoda has also been completed. There is a couplet of pagoda in the book of the main gate: "Hengsha plunder has accumulated so much that it will meet the relic and futu, the auspicious holy land of Yongzhen. The Vajrayana is widely used in hufutian It's a famous mountain. The Zen style of Nantai revives in the prosperous times. Through the pagoda tombs, there is a big stone slope, the slope is round, mutual ridge, people can not go up. So later generations chiseled hundreds of stone steps, like a ladder on the cliff, so it was named "tianshengdeng".

In the Ming Dynasty, Zhang yuanbian once engraved three characters of "Jin Dao Po" on the slope stone. Under the stone ladder, there is a cliff hanging with iron chains on the cliff. There is a "Jinniu stone" beside the stone slope, which was once printed with Jinniu footprints. In the autumn of the tenth year of Zhengde (1515) of the Ming Dynasty, Xia Liang, the capital of mountains, carved a poem on the stone cliff of Jinniu, saying: "the hand beckons the Yellow Crane, the foot steps on the back of Jinniu. Zhu world nobody knows, Baiyun has been treating each other for a long time.

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Related allusions

During the reign of Liang Tianjian (502), Haiyin, who was nearly 90 years old, once argued with Huisi, the third patriarch, and they were "happy and harmonious". They broke the old situation of Taoist unification of the Heng Mountain, created a new Buddhist temple in Nanyue, and the law was prosperous. Especially after Zen entered Nanyue, Huai rang, Xing Si and FA Si Xi Qian, the disciples of Huineng, the sixth patriarch of the founder of Nanyue, all took Nanyue as the center of their activities.

From south to north, they spread Buddhism all over the world, as far as Japan and Korea, and became the most famous Nanyue and Qingyuan legal systems of Zen: xiqian passed on Buddhism to Weiyan, Weiyan passed on Yunyan Tansheng, Dongshan passed on good price, and Caoshan passed on to Benji, forming the famous caodong sect. Another pulse of Dharma is Daowu, which is spread to Longtan, then to Deshan, and finally to Xuefeng. Xuefeng gate is divided into two branches: one is Yunmen Wenyan, the founder of Yunmen sect; the other is xuansha Shibei, the founder of Luohan Guichen, the founder of Qingliang Wenyi, the founder of fayan sect. From Nanyue and Qingyuan, they were divided into five schools, namely, Fuyang, Linji, caodong, Yunmen and fayan, and two schools, namely, Huanglong and Yangqi. This is the "five families and seven schools" of Southern Zen.

Because these five schools all belong to the Southern Sect of Huineng, the sixth patriarch, they are called "one flower and five leaves" in the history of Buddhism. The "five leaves" all come from Nanyue, and the Dharma pulse propagates both inside and outside the sea. Buddhists are all over the world, so it is known as "five leaves flowing". From the end of Tang Dynasty, Five Dynasties to Song Dynasty. This "five leaf" Dharma apprentice's many, causes the time person to praise: "faces the relief to face the world, Cao Dong Cao half day". Therefore, the gate of Fuyan Temple presided over by huairang is inscribed with "the court of the world", and the gate of stone in sinantai temple is engraved with "the source of the law of the world". Nantai temple is the ancestral hall of caodong, the source of Cloud Gate and FA Yan. It has three religious performances, Buddhas and dragons.

Since the rise of Danyun and miaojian, the ancient temple of Nantai has been singing in Sanskrit, enjoying a flourishing incense and Buddhism. Buddhists from Japan, Korea and Southeast Asia frequently come to Nantai temple to worship their ancestors. In China, Buddhists also came to Nantai to study Zen or to live in temples for meditation.

During the period of the Republic of China, master Jing'an, a famous poet monk in modern times, and Taoist monks, who were called "babutoutou", all came to Nantai temple to teach and spread Buddhism. In addition to Jing'an's preaching in Nantai, some famous modern monks, such as Lingtao, juzan and Mingzhen, led the monks of Nantai temple to participate in the "Nanyue Buddhist and Taoist Salvation Association" during the Anti Japanese War, and participated in the Anti Japanese and national salvation movement.

Abbot of the temple

Nanyue Buddhist and Taoist Salvation Association was founded in May 1939 under the call of the United Front Policy of the Communist Party of China. Baosheng, abbot of Shangfeng temple, is the president; kongye, abbot of Zhusheng temple, Wuzhen, abbot of Nantai temple, Zhike Youyuan, abbot of Dashan temple and Liu Guangdou, abbot of Sanyuan palace, are the vice presidents; Yanwen is the head of training unit, juzan is the head of propaganda unit

Chinese PinYin : Nan Tai Si