Xifeng Temple

Xifeng Temple

Xifeng temple is located in the west of keluotuo village, Yongding town, Mentougou District. It faces Jietai Temple and Tanzhe Temple in the South and northwest. Xifeng temple was built in Tang Dynasty. It was named Huiju temple at the beginning. It was called Yuquan temple in Yuan Dynasty. Yingzong Zhuqi town was granted the title of "Xifeng Temple". There are more than 30 existing Shanmen hall, Tianwang hall and two chamber cloisters. In the first year of the Ming Dynasty (1436), it was rebuilt and named "Xifeng Temple" by Yingzong Zhuqi town. There is an ancient ginkgo tree in the temple. It was planted in Yuan Dynasty. It is more than 1000 years old. It is called "king of hundred fruits". The height of the tree is nearly 40 meters, and the body is more than 8 meters around the tree, supporting a huge crown. The underground palace of Zaiying, the second son of Prince Gong, was built here and is still well preserved.

brief introduction

In Yongding town, Mentougou, Beijing, Xifeng temple, which has a history of hundreds of years, now belongs to the land and resources training center. When you go to this quiet Xifeng temple to explore the historic sites in the west of Beijing, you can find eight sceneries of Xifeng: Ancient rattan in spring, ancient trees in summer, ancient steles in autumn, underground palace springs in winter, Longtou dangerous pass in the East, Nanshan Reclining Buddha in the south, and Xifeng temple in the West There are Xifeng ancient road and Beipu lettering in the north.

Underground spring

Xifeng temple has not only ground cultural relics, but also underground cultural relics -- the underground palace of Zaiying, the second son of Prince Gong in the late Qing Dynasty. During the reign of Emperor Guangxu in the late Qing Dynasty, Prince Gong stayed in Jietai Temple in the west of Beijing for ten years in order to take refuge from illness. During this period, Prince Gong invested in the renovation of Jietai Temple and established a close relationship with the monks of Jietai Temple. In order to thank Prince Gong, the abbot of Jietai Temple presented Xifeng temple in the lower courtyard to Prince Gong as a cemetery. After Prince Gong died, the imperial court gave him a cemetery in Changping. Yi and his family were mostly buried in Changping. Later, it became the cemetery of Zaiying, the second son of Prince Gong. The underground palace is built at the back of the Tathagata hall. The steps behind the hall hide the door of the underground palace. To the East is the towering ancient ginkgo tree.

The underground palace was opened in the 1950s and later renovated. At present, it is the only royal Beile underground palace open in Beijing. The underground palace faces south and is made of large bluestones. Its depth is more than 5 meters, its width is about 6 meters and its height is about 5 meters. The underground palace is very strong. The coffin bed is the same width as the tomb chamber, with a white marble texture and a depth of 3 meters. In front of the coffin bed is the Shenhe River, which is the same as the width of the tomb. There is a stone bridge on the Shenhe river. There is a clear spring in Shenhe River, which is inexhaustible for many years. The water depth changes slightly with the age. In recent years, drought year after year, the surrounding springs dried up, streams cut off, but the water in Shenhe river did not reduce.

After excavation by tomb robbers, the underground palace is now empty. The only wonder is that the dark spring is still flowing. Although the water temperature in winter is close to freezing point, goldfish can still be seen swimming through it from time to time.

Longtou dangerous pass

From the entrance of keluotuo village near shimenying, you can see a grass in the north of the village

Lush wood, abrupt and round hilltop, this is the dragon head hilltop in the history books. The head of the dragon stands at the entrance of Xifeng Temple valley. The villagers believe that it is the dragon head, and the villagers believe that it is the holy mountain. They never move any plants on this hilltop. There is also a beautiful legend about the stone dragon: in ancient times, the streams here were rich in water and sweet in water. One day, there was a drought, and a dragon was thirsty. When he came here to drink water, the stream was drained, and the dragon was held to death. The body of the Dragon turned into a mountain, which was called Longshan. Because it produces high-quality stone, also known as Shilongshan.

To the east of longtougang is the alluvial plain of Yongding River, and to the West are continuous mountains. An ancient road connecting Hebei, Shanxi and Inner Mongolia from the capital passes under longtougang. This ancient road is also the only way from the capital to Tanzhe Temple and Xifeng temple. Since ancient times, this area has been a must for military strategists and the last pass from the southwest mountainous area to the capital.

At the beginning of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, in 912, Li Cunxu, king of Jin, sent General Zhou Dewei to recover Youzhou. Liu Shouguang, who occupied Youzhou, ordered general Shan Tingfen to fight with ten thousand people. He met Zhou Dewei at longtougang, and Shan Tingfen was captured by Zhou Dewei. This is the famous battle of longtougang in the early Five Dynasties. Now the sink and mortar on longtougang may be left by the soldiers guarding the pass in ancient times.

In the early period of Northern Song Dynasty, Taizong of Song Dynasty was ready to recover Youzhou. Song Qi, Minister of Song Dynasty, wrote a letter to Taizong, proposing to attack the Liao army in this way. During the war of resistance against Japan and the war of liberation, many battles took place here. The revolutionary army and the people defeated the enemy's attack many times and achieved brilliant results.

Nanshan Reclining Buddha

The mountains around Jietai Temple and Xifeng temple are called Ma'anshan. The mountains to the south of Ma'anshan are called liuguoling in ancient times, and the highest peak is called blissful peak. Standing in the third courtyard of Xifeng temple, looking south, on the top of liuguoling in the direction of blissful peak, the mountain is like a giant Buddha lying on his back in the mountains and in the sea of clouds. The head contour of the reclining Buddha is clear, and the proportion of forehead, brow bone, jaw and neck is well proportioned. The huge body is slightly uplifted, and the lower part of the body is covered by the ancient ginkgo trees in the hospital, leaving people with imaginative space.

Xifeng temple was built at an unknown time. Experts speculate that Xifeng temple may have a history earlier than Jietai Temple. First, the ancient ginkgo tree is more than 1800 years old and may have been planted in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, which is older than all the cultural relics of Jietai Temple. Secondly, Xifeng temple had a ancestral hall in Ming Dynasty to worship the ancestors of Xishan, which may be inherited from the old system of Xifeng temple. The ancestor of Xishan should be the earliest Buddhist ancestor in Xishan area, and the place where he worships Buddhism should be Xifeng temple. The above two evidences show that although Huiju Temple (the predecessor of Xifeng Temple) was the lower house of Huiju Temple (the predecessor of Jietai Temple) in the Tang Dynasty, Huiju temple may have been founded earlier than Huiju temple. It is also possible that it was Xishan ancestors or successors who saw "Nanshan Reclining Buddha" from Xifeng temple that developed Jietai Temple.

Ancient rattan and cypress

Walk along the mountain road beside the farm dream garden in keluotuo village, and you will soon get to Xifeng temple. It is far away from Jietai Temple and Tanzhe Temple. It was built in the Tang Dynasty and was initially named Huiju temple. It was called Yuquan temple in the Yuan Dynasty. Ming Zhengtong first year (1436) reconstruction, Yingzong Zhuqi town granted the amount of "Xifeng temple.". In the late Qing Dynasty, the temple was once the family temple of Prince Gong Yi, the younger brother of Xianfeng.

There are three courtyards here. As soon as you enter, you can plant many flowers and trees on the platform created by the mountain, which makes you feel fresh. Entering the second entrance from the temple of heavenly king, there is an ancient rattan wrapped with Cypresses in front of the temple of Tathagata treasure. This is a hundred year old vine and a green ancient cypress. The ancient vine is attached to the ancient cypress. In spring, the purple vine flowers are covered with emerald branches. They are intimate and natural.

The wisteria and cypress of Xifeng temple are not recorded in ancient books. The diameter at breast height of the ancient cypress is more than 40 cm. Because of the winding of the ancient rattan, it is no longer long and thick. It is said that it has a history of more than 200 years. Its stems are curly and coiled like dragons leaping. There are more than 40 stems with a diameter of more than 5 cm, and the natural shading area is more than 50 square meters. Purple butterfly flowers are elegant and elegant. During the period of full bloom, the rattan flowers were brilliant and elegant.

The ancient trees are full of shade

The oldest living cultural relic in Xifeng temple is the tall ginkgo tree in the courtyard. It's in the middle of the second entrance courtyard. It's nearly 40 meters high, 734 cm in circumference, and covers an area of about one mu. Standing on the top of the mountain three kilometers away, you can still see its upright posture. This ancient ginkgo tree is the tallest one in the west of Beijing. It is also the oldest, the thickest, the most luxuriant and the most fruity one. It is known as the king of trees. This ginkgo has a history of more than 1800 years. It was planted in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, more than 100 years earlier than Tanzhe Temple, the earliest temple in Beijing.

Ginkgo biloba is a female plant, with short and thick trunk, tall crown, strong lateral branches, multi-layer distribution, cylindrical tree shape, luxuriant branches and leaves. Every summer, it has many fruits, and strings of them hang upside down, like pearl grapes. Dense branches and leaves have been down to the ground, the shade under the tree is very cool. There is a smaller male on the west side of it, which is its pollination tree. According to the literature, for quite a long time, ancient ginkgo was pollinated by male plants in Jietai Temple two kilometers away.

Now the ancient ginkgo trees are full of vitality, and the annual fruit harvest is hundreds of Jin, and the harvest year can reach thousands of Jin. In some years, the fruits and branches are too dense, which will crush the branches. In 1980, a huge branch broke off and broke a stone tablet under the tree. A few years ago, a huge branch on the west side was broken and many branches were broken, but the ancient ginkgo tree is still full of vitality.

The ancient ginkgo tree in Xifeng temple is the oldest, the thickest, the most leafy and the most fruity one in the west of Beijing.

Ancient rhyme of remnant stele

In the autumn of 2003, the expansion project of Xifeng temple land and resources training center was completed. In the process of expansion, the leaders of the training center cherished the cultural relics of the ancient temple. They moved the three remnant steles stored outside the hospital to the hospital and placed them on the lawn in front of the ancient ginkgo tree. In contrast to the green grass and the beautiful flowers and trees, the old stele has become one of the eight sceneries of Xifeng temple.

Of the three steles, two were erected in 1439, the fourth year of emperor Yingzong's reign, and the other was erected in 1570, or a year or two later.

The three remaining steles in Xifeng Temple record the history of Xifeng temple from Tang Dynasty to Ming Dynasty for more than 800 years. It has been more than 500 years since the stele was erected, especially the ancient charm.

Beipu

Chinese PinYin : Xi Feng Si