Flower temple

Flower temple

Flower temple is located near Huashen Avenue, Yuhuatai District, Nanjing city. It is one of the ancient villages in Nanjing. The flower temple in Ming Dynasty was once a royal garden.

The southern suburb of Nanjing is famous for its numerous flowers and trees in history. In the Ming Dynasty, Zheng He brought back a lot of flower seeds from his voyages to the West. The seeds were distributed in Niushou mountain, Tiexin bridge and other places. Up to now, the name of the flower temple of Tiexin bridge has been more than 100 years.

brief introduction

Nanjing flower temple is located near Huashen Avenue, Yuhuatai District, Nanjing city.

On the west side of ZIJINGHUA Road, there is a huashendu bridge connecting the two ends. Under the bridge is huashenhu lake. On a stone tablet beside the lake, the words "since the Ming Dynasty, the capital was set up, and the gardeners from all over the world gathered here to cultivate precious flowers for the Royal family, which was extremely prosperous for a time". It shows that huashentemple village was once a royal garden in history. Many people in the village know that after Zhu Yuanzhang established his capital in Nanjing, in order to make his palace decorated with flowers all year round, he ordered people to find a place to cultivate flowers for the palace. The hilly area more than two kilometers outside Zhonghua Gate in the south of the city was selected because of the suitable soil, climate and terrain. This is the later huashenren village. However, at that time, the village of huashentemple was not named, but a base for the supply of flowers for the imperial palace.

history

Nanjing has Huashen lake and Huashen temple. The southern suburb of Nanjing is famous for its numerous flowers and trees in history. During the Ming Dynasty, Zheng He brought back many kinds of flowers and seeds from his voyages to the West. The seeds were distributed in Niushou mountain, Tiexin bridge and other places. Up to now, the name of the flower temple of Tiexin bridge has been more than 100 years. For many years, "peach blossom party" has been held every spring when flowers are in full bloom, which is similar to the ancient women's day. According to Xu, there are also places named after single flowers in Nanjing, such as chrysanthemum terrace, hualugang, tulip Road, Bauhinia Road and Yulan Road Out of Zhonghua Gate, on the west side of Ningli Road, you will notice a series of roads named after flowers. But it has nothing to do with the flower god. A flower temple built here in the Qing Dynasty. The former site of the flower temple is no longer available. In an article entitled "the earliest Yuhua village", Ying Yang of Nanjing said that the former site of the flower temple is next to the Flower Temple Primary School. Su Hongquan, an expert in literature and history, found records about the flower temple in Jiangning County annals. The county annals said that the flower temple was built in the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, covering an area of about 5 mu. There is a main hall and more than 10 auxiliary halls in the temple, where more than 100 flower gods are worshipped, mainly for three headed and six armed Bodhisattvas. In the square outside the temple, there is the most magnificent "phoenix stage" in the south of the city. Every year, on February 12 of the lunar calendar, Baihua's birthday, she sings opera here for three days. There are two wells behind the stage. Whenever singing, the water reflection and resonance at the wellhead make the actors' voice particularly pleasant. At that time, it was called "double well lining sound". The flower temple also has the birthday of Baihua on February 12 and the birthday of chrysanthemum on September 16. In the past two days, flower farmers have come to worship incense and Buddha, praying for the blessing of the flower god.

Since Zhu Yuanzhang assigned the task of planting flowers to their ancestors, the villagers of huashentemple village have been living on flowers for generations. The flower temple is famous for the cultivation of five traditional fragrant flowers, namely, brandy, jasmine, Zhulan, gardenia and Daidai. There are also eight families of flower farmers, Rui, Xu, Mao, Zhai, Yin, Xia, Wang and Li.

Later, although the flowers could not be supplied to the Imperial Palace, the flower farmers in huashentemple village established a brand in Nanjing city. During the Qing Dynasty, the city began to smoke tea with fragrant flowers, and the girls in the city also took it as a fashion to insert a flower on their hair braids. During the period of the Republic of China, the flowers in the flower temple are still very famous. Later, in 1952, during the period of resisting U.S. aggression and aiding Korea, the flower farmers of huashentemple also donated money to buy a plane to support the front line.

With a history of more than 150 years, Nanjing's time-honored "halal Ma Xiangxing restaurant" is made its fortune in the flower temple.

Ma SIFA was the founder of "Ma Xiangxing restaurant". During the Xianfeng Period of the Qing Dynasty, Ma SIFA fled from Mengxian County in Henan Province to Nanjing. When he first came to Nanjing, he didn't think he was born. He set up a stall on the roadside of the flower temple to sell porridge and other food. Most of his customers were flower farmers who went to the city to sell flowers in the morning. At that time, soldiers of the Taiping army often went to his stall to eat porridge. Ma SIFA's porridge stall was called "Ma Huihui rice stall".

After Ma SIFA's death, his son Ma Shengxiang inherited his father's business and ran it for many years. After he had savings, he opened a restaurant named Ma Xiangxing. After the revolution of 1911, Ma Xiangxing restaurant moved to Mishi street outside Zhonghua Gate, later to Gulou, and then to Yunnan Road in 2003.

From the day when it became the Royal Garden, the flower temple had an indissoluble bond with flowers. The colorful flowers not only brought income for the flower farmers, but also made this area a famous scenic spot. Although huashentemple village is gone, the tradition of planting flowers in huashentemple village has been preserved by some people, and some people have begun to operate as companies. A home art company and a flower and Seedling Company are continuing their ancestral business for more than 600 years. Many people here have been planting flowers for generations. Nowadays, many people have their own flower bases, and they also have their own stores in flower markets such as Andemen. "A lot of people buy flowers from the flower temple, and the flower temple is also a brand." In addition to the supply of their flowers to Nanjing market, some surrounding provinces and cities also come to wholesale.

From Ningnan Street Office of Yuhuatai District, we learned that huashentemple village had not existed for more than ten years. At the original site of the village, the reporter saw many modern residential quarters and factories, wide roads, cars coming and going, and flowers dotted on both sides of the road from time to time. Today's "flower god Jingyan" does not have so many flowers. Walking in this area, people can still feel the indissoluble bond between here and flowers. The road here is named after flowers, the road teeth are flower patterns, and the piers, bridge railings and bridge body are also carved with flowers. On the Huashen ferry bridge, there are four graceful "four seasons Huashen" on both sides.

In 1983, the Nanjing Municipal Bureau of landscape architecture, together with a number of media in Nanjing, held a big vote to select the "new Jinling 48 scenes", among which the "flower god Jingyan" was listed as one of the flower temples.

Bus flower temple stands beside the gate of Yuhuatai middle school on ZIJINGHUA road.

geographical position

Address: Linhu Road, Peking University campus, No.5, Yiheyuan Road (near boyata tower)

Longitude: 116.31184

Latitude: 39.99138

Chinese PinYin : Hua Shen Miao