Huacheng Temple

--Huacheng temple was built by monks in the fifth year of Long'an in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. It was built in the early years of Tang Dynasty and was surrounded by mountains. It is the main temple of Jiuhua Mountain. It has the longest history and is also the Taoist temple of dizang Bodhisattva.

--The temple is located in the center of Jiuhua street, the food and lodging base of Jiuhua Mountain. On both sides of the temple are small shops. The crescent pond in front of the gate is said to be a free pond hidden in the earth.

--The main building of Huacheng temple is arranged along the central axis, with four entrances. The most beautiful one is the main hall. When you enter the main hall, you must look up at the roof. The colorful "Jiulong opera beads" carved on the caisson are art treasures.

--In the courtyard corridor of the temple, there are calligraphy and paintings showing the landscape of Jiuhua Mountain. Among them, the blood Sutra of Huayan, written by the flawless monk of Ming Dynasty, stabbed his tongue with a needle and stained his tongue with blood, can't be missed.

Huacheng Temple

Huacheng temple is the founder of Jiuhua Mountain. It has the longest history. It is also the Bodhisattva Taoist center in Tibet. It is the "total jungle" of Jiuhua Mountain Temple. In 401, the fifth year of Long'an in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the monk Bei Du once built an nunnery here. During the reign of Tang Zhide (756-758), it was rebuilt and named Huacheng temple. "Huacheng" originated from the Buddhist stories in Fahuajing.

geographical environment

Huacheng temple is located at the foot of Yunshan mountain in Jiuhua Mountain area, Qingyang County, Anhui Province. Jiuhua Mountain is one of the four famous mountains of Chinese Buddhism. It is the Bodhisattva's Taoist center in Tibet. There are 78 temples in the mountain. Among them, Huacheng temple and other nine famous temples are listed as the national key Buddhist temples in Han areas. Huacheng temple is built in a high mountain basin, facing Furong peak in the south, Baiyun Mountain in the north, Dongya mountain in the East and Shengguang mountain in the West. It is surrounded on all sides like a city. In ancient times, it was called "Yulian surrounded by inner and outer peaks".

The yuanhuacheng temple, which was first built in 757 ad, has disappeared. The existing temple gate and Sutra house were built in the 16th century, while the main hall and back hall were rebuilt in the 19th century. In addition to the four wall brick wall and tile roof, the interior of these buildings is of wood structure. All columns, beams, purlins and rafters adopt the traditional method of mortise and tenon and wedge each other without a nail. On the lintel, Dougong and crossbeam are engraved with phoenix play peony, lion rolling Hydrangea ball, and flowers and plants patterns, giving heavy color. In particular, the caisson in the middle of the main hall is stacked layer upon layer. Nine wooden golden dragons circle and dance around the huge pearl in the center, with auspicious clouds and auspicious bats interspersed in it. Now the abbot monk Chang Ming.

Historical evolution

Huacheng temple is the Kaishan temple and general forest of Jiuhua Mountain. It is said that in 401, the fifth year of Long'an in the Jin Dynasty, Tianzhu monks built their houses here as an nunnery. During the Kaiyuan period of the Tang Dynasty, the monks lived in tanhao, and the temple was called "Huacheng". In the second year of Jianzhong (781), Chizhou governor Zhang yanzou asked the imperial court to move the old amount of "Huacheng" to the temple. In 794, when Jin qiaojue passed away at the age of 99, the monks regarded him as the incarnation of the Bodhisattva of Tibet, and the city of incarnation was turned into a Taoist temple of Tibet. At the end of the Southern Song Dynasty, the abbot monk Guangzong was later called "Guanchuan Zen master". From the Yuan Dynasty to the beginning of the reign (1321), the abbot Seng Zhen Guan was later called "Wu Xiang Chan Master". In 1391, the abbot Seng Zonglin and FA Jian were expanded into a jungle. In 1435, Buddhist monk Fuqing (No. Yunyan), who lived in Linggu Temple in Nanjing, returned to Huacheng temple, the abbot of Jiuhua Mountain, because of his old age. He rebuilt Daxiong hall, sutra collection hall, grandmaster hall, King Kong hall, heavenly king hall and Galan hall, and expanded dongxuliao house. After that, dugang, fayan and Faguang expanded the Buddhist Pavilion, abbot, veranda, dizang hall and stone steps to form xixuliao house. In 1569, Huizhou businessman Huang Longding donated money for renovation. In 1603, the abbot Seng Liang went to Beijing, and the imperial court gave him purple clothes. In 1681, the governor of Chizhou, Yu Chenglong, rebuilt and added "Juhua building", and the East-West two orders (also known as two palaces) seventy-two squatters. Huacheng Temple became "the crown of Jiuhua temples" and became the general forest. From the 42nd to 44th year of Emperor Kangxi's reign (1703-1705), he ordered three times to send his family to Jiuhua to offer incense, silver and "Jiuhua Holy Land". Qianlong 31 years (1766) granted the Royal Book plaque "fantuo PuJiao". Xianfeng seven years (1857) temple was destroyed, only the library. In 1890, abbot monk Lun FA and believer Liu Hanfang raised money to rebuild the temple.

In 1926, Shi Rongxu founded the Jiuhuashan Buddhist College in Jiangnan. In 1955, the people's Government of Qingyang County rebuilt the temple. In 1968, the whole temple was destroyed. In 1981, the temple was rebuilt and turned into "Jiuhua Mountain historical relics museum", displaying more than 1800 cultural relics. The temple covers an area of 3500 square meters. On September 8, 1981, the people's Government of Anhui Province designated Huacheng temple as a key cultural relics protection unit. In 1983, the State Council approved Huacheng temple as a key Buddhist temple in China.

The origin of the name

The name of Huacheng temple comes from two sources, one is real and the other is empty. In fact, Huacheng temple is located on Jiuhua street. Jiuhua street is a incense market formed by the prosperity of incense in the past. It has gradually developed into today's Jiuhua street, with row upon row of houses, mostly two-story buildings, streets and alleys running from east to west, streams flowing under the street, murmuring and murmuring, like a string singing across the bank, a tranquil paradise. The Baisui palace, Zhiyuan temple and Dongya temple are all located in Jiuhua street. Huacheng temple is high across the basin at the top of the mountain, with its back against Baiyun Mountain and its south facing Furong mountain. The East Cliff dominates in the East, Shenguang mountain rises and falls in the west, tiger shaped peaks surround in the north, and four mountains surround the city, just like "high mountains and flowing water have their own sky". Once people enter here, it is just like the inner city, so it is called Huacheng temple. It is said that Sakyamuni once went to the countryside to preach with a little Shami. The mountain was heavy and the road was blocked. The little Shami was thirsty and hungry, and he was unable to move forward. So Sakyamuni had to point to a city and let the little Shami go to huazhai in order to move on. This is the story of "Buddha refers to Huacheng" in Huayan Sutra. Taking the intermission of "Hua Yi Cheng Guo" on the way forward, the monks named the first temple in Jiuhua Mountain Huacheng temple in order to continue to improve. There is a temple in Dangtu City, Anhui Province, also known as Huacheng temple. It was built by the Sun Wu regime during the Three Kingdoms period in the third century and named after the city of Chengguo. Li Bai's inscription on the bell of Huacheng Temple refers to this Huacheng temple.

Cultural heritage

Huacheng temple has been used as Jiuhuashan historical relics museum. The square in front of Huacheng temple has the site of "Niangniang tower" and a well in the middle. There are two legends about the goddess tower. Out of Huacheng temple to the south, you can get to zhantan forest. Later, the temple went through maintenance and reconstruction. The existing temple has four entrances, solemn and orderly. The last entrance is the Sutra house, which collects 6777 volumes of the Ming version of the Sutra. It is very precious to this day. Huacheng temple has suffered many fires in the past dynasties. Most of the existing buildings were rebuilt in the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty, but the Sutra collection building was built in the Xuande period of the Ming Dynasty. Huacheng temple has been set up as Jiuhua Mountain Museum of historical relics. The Buddhist relics and some treasures of the temple, which were previously preserved in the west side of Yueshen hall, have been moved for centralized exhibition. Among them are the handwriting of Emperor Kangxi and Emperor Qianlong, the legendary monk's boots worn by the king of Jindi Tibet and the seal used, the rock red porcelain and blue porcelain bowls of the song and Yuan Dynasties, as well as the Yangon gold pagoda model and Sanskrit Baya Sutra and other cultural relics introduced from Myanmar.

architectural composition

Huacheng temple is a courtyard building with four entrances. The first entrance is Lingguan hall, with a depth of 16.5 meters, a width of five rooms, two small wells and wing rooms on both sides. The platform base is 3.7 meters higher than the plane. The second entrance is Tianwang hall, which is 20 meters wide and 20.5 meters deep. It has an open hall, a falling patio, and a corridor on both sides of the East and West. The caisson above the hall is surrounded by a circle of picture boards. It is in the shape of stars. The structure is rigorous and the shape is exquisite. Its base is 1.5 meters higher than that of the first entrance. The third entrance is the main hall, 20.5 meters deep. Above the lintel of the hall are water lattice. On the beams of the hall, there were plaques inscribed by Chongzhen, the last emperor of Ming Dynasty, Kangxi and Qianlong of Qing Dynasty, which were burned to ashes during the ten years of turmoil. The front of the hall is built with white marble. There are three caissons in the main hall. They were built in 1889. Eight flying dragons are carved in the octagonal part of the caisson, and a dragon and a ball are added at the top of the caisson to form the "Dragon Ball". Nine intertwined dragons look at each other from head to tail. The dragon's head reaches to a spider in the middle. The dragon is vivid, and the pearl is radiant. There is a couplet in the hall, which is "willing to let the hands of Buddha hang down and touch the heart as flat as the heart". Although the shapes of the Buddha statues are different, they never have the shape of two hands drooping. The couplets are neat and easy to understand, praying for the power of the Buddha to make people fair. The last entrance is a three story Sutra library, 20 meters high and 14 meters deep. Its platform is 2.7 meters higher than the main hall. It was built in the Ming Dynasty.

Collection of landscape

Huacheng temple is located in Jiuhua street, facing a round square. There is a crescent shaped lotus pond in the middle of the square, which is called crescent pond. It is said that it was the dizang releasing pond of that year. There are four entrances in the front and back of the temple, including hall, main hall, backward entrance and Sutra collection. The four entrances are gradually raised along with the terrain, and the structure is natural. Inside the hall, there are horizontal plaques of "Jiuhua Holy Land" written by Emperor Kangxi and horizontal plaques of "fantuo PuJiao" written by Emperor Qianlong. At the head of the back hall is a horizontal tablet written by Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty. The original big bell of Huacheng Temple weighs about ten thousand jin, but it has been destroyed in the war. The existing Hongzhong weighs more than 2000 Jin and is more than ten meters high. This clock is exquisitely cast, with excellent volume and melodious sound quality. You can hear a clear and pleasant sound when you tap it with your hand. If you hit it with a mallet, the sound of the urn will be loud and loud. It will reverberate slowly in the valley from near to far. Whenever the red sun goes down to the west, the white clouds return to the Xiu, and the Whale will clang slowly. That's it

Chinese PinYin : Hua Cheng Si