Xiyuan

Xiyuan

Suzhou Xiyuan temple is located at 18 Xiyuan lane, Liuyuan Road, changmenwai, Suzhou. It is also called Xiyuan temple. Founded in the Yuan Dynasty to Yuan Dynasty (1264-1294), Guiyuan temple has a history of 700 years. The existing building is rebuilt in the Qing Dynasty. The 500 Luohan hall in the temple is one of the four largest Luohan halls in China and is a cultural relic protection unit in Jiangsu Province.

Brief introduction to temples

Xiyuan temple was founded between the Yuan Dynasty and the Yuan Dynasty (1264-1294) and was named Guiyuan temple. It has a history of 700 years. At the end of Jiajing (1522-1566) in the Ming Dynasty, when Xu Tai, the Minister of Taipu temple, built the East Garden (today's Liuyuan garden), he rebuilt the declining Guiyuan temple into a house garden, named the west garden, which was about the middle of the 16th century. After the death of Xu Taishi, his son Xu rongsheyuan became a temple, which was named retro Guiyuan temple. In 1635, he invited Maolin lawyer of Baoguo temple to be abbot. In order to carry forward the "law sect", he changed his name to jiechuanglu temple, commonly known as "Xiyuan Temple". The name reflects the principle of building a temple with high tree discipline, which is based on discipline and based on law. Thanks to the efforts of Maolin lawyer and later generations of abbots, Xiyuan Temple became a Taoist center of the law school, and the Dharma association was very popular, and it was listed as a famous temple in the south of the Yangtze River. Unfortunately, in the tenth year of Xianfeng in the Qing Dynasty (1860), it was destroyed by war, leaving only the decaying walls and luxuriant weeds. During the reign of Emperor Guangxu, Sheng Kang, the governor of Zhejiang Province, together with the gentry of Wujun County, proposed the restoration of Xiyuan temple. Rong Tong, the abbot of zizhulin temple, and his Tu Guanghui were invited to take charge of the work. Master Guanghui has been working hard since he assumed the great responsibility. He begged all sides to rebuild JieChuang temple. From the age of 43 to 73, in the past 30 years, the main hall, Guanyin hall, Luohan hall, Tianwang hall, release pool and supporting facilities of Ansheng have been built successively. When the scale of the whole temple has been basically formed and the internal statues have been completed, it is the 15th year of the Republic of China (1926). Master Guanghui revived the temple and made great contributions. Xiyuan Temple once again became the first temple of Wumen.

Since the 1960s, Xiyuan temple has been listed as a cultural relic protection unit in Suzhou City and Jiangsu Province.

historical background

Master Mingkai went to Xiyuan temple in 1956 and was elected director of the temple Affairs Committee. In 1962, the abbot system was restored, and master Mingkai was the abbot of Xiyuan temple. Until April 1994, he presided over the work of Xiyuan temple for 38 years. He is also the president of Jiangsu Province and Suzhou Buddhist Association. From 1970 to 1980, master Mingkai made a comprehensive arrangement, registration and cataloging of the collected books. Master Anshang further classified and made cards. Through the efforts of the two masters, more than 60000 ancient scriptures collected in Xiyuan temple were preserved.

Protection maintenance

In order to better protect this famous temple in the south of the Yangtze River, when the religious policy was implemented in 1980, the main hall, Tianwang hall and living quarters were repaired. Then, in 1986, the Buddhist statues in the temple were fully covered with gold. Among them, 500 Arhats were also covered with glass niches. About 5000 grams of gold was used, and the total cost was more than 600000 yuan. In addition, Master Sheng Yi of Baolian Temple donated 250000 pieces of gold foil. By 1991, the kitchen, upper rooms and ancestral pagoda had been rebuilt at a cost of nearly 500000 yuan. Especially in recent years, the whole temple has been almost completely overhauled. The uneven pits between the temple and the main hall have been replaced with granite floors, covering an area of more than 2000 square meters. In addition, the steel tube guardrails in the past were all replaced with stone railings, and the balustrade pillar was decorated with relief lotus petals.

Address: Southeast Bailuyuan

Longitude: 109.101699969

Latitude: 34.215040000002

Chinese PinYin : Xi Yuan