Kong Xiang Temple

Kong Xiang Temple

Kongxiang temple, formerly known as Dinglin temple, also known as Xiong'ershan temple, is located at the foot of Xiong'ershan in Xili village, Shaanxi county, Henan Province, 53 km away from Sanmenxia City. It is a national cultural relic protection unit. Xionger mountain is 885 meters above sea level. It is adjacent to the Yellow River in the north, Funiu Mountain in the south, Luoyang in the East and Xi'an in the West. Luosan Expressway passes through the foot of the mountain with convenient transportation and pleasant scenery. It is not only a famous Buddhist holy land at home and abroad, but also a desirable tourist resort. In history, Xiong'er mountain has dense forests, brilliant flowers, gurgling water and singing birds.

brief introduction

Kongxiang temple is located in Xili village, Shanxian County, more than 50 kilometers east of Sanmenxia City. According to the records of Shaanxi county annals, kongxiang temple is a Buddhist holy land built at the same time as Baima temple. It is one of the earliest temples in China and has a history of more than 1900 years. In 536 ad, Dharma, the first ancestor of Zen, was buried here after his death. For thousands of years, kongxiang temple has become one of the best places for Buddhist believers in China and even the world to recall Dharma and promote the spirit of Zen. In its heyday, the temple was large-scale and full of incense. It was once known as the "four famous temples" in Central China together with Songshan Shaolin Temple, Luoyang Baima temple and Kaifeng Xiangguo Temple.

According to the inscriptions, kongxiang temple, formerly known as Dinglin temple, is known as "the holy land of Shanjun and the name of the world". The main buildings along the central axis are Mountain Gate (Tianwang Hall), reception hall, Daxiong hall, Dharma hall and Sutra Pavilion. In the south, there are South monastery, Dharma tower, Dharma mausoleum, corner tower and bell tower. In the north, there are North monastery, Drum Tower, sutra Pavilion and Abbot's room. The layout of the temple buildings is rigorous and orderly, showing a "quiet ancient temple, famous temple, majestic palace around the jade fence". Cigarettes are broken, pines and cypresses are gloomy, and purple bells are hanging. The opening of Fanmen is a magnificent landscape of "jinrongxian, Dongtianfudi and extraordinary environment".

The "eight wonders" and "four wonders" on the mountain are famous all over the world. The eight wonders are: dragon mouth spray, earth bridge horizontal rainbow, bottomless bright moon, Damour bronze Buddha, tall building bell, iron salary gruel, Chun Bao Cui Bo, Han Dynasty pine forest; four great wins are: Tibetan soldier cave, Zhuxin spring, eight immortals temple, Gongsun Zan Tibetan armor.

Architecture

Bodhidharma pagoda is Bodhidharma's pagoda. It was built by master Ji'an in 538 ad, about 1500 years ago. The pagoda is a seven level brick Pagoda with a two-story base. The pagoda is octagonal in shape, with a height of 12 meters. There is an arched window in the southwest. There are brick flower patterns on the waist of the upper base, two on each side, a total of 16. The existing damota was rebuilt on the original site in the 28th year of Hongwu in Ming Dynasty (1395 AD). The old people in the nearby village said that the reason why damota was able to survive was that the bricks on the body of the tower were incomplete and could not be used to build houses.

The statue stele of Dharma was built in the same year as the pagoda, with a height of 1.2 meters and a width of 0.5 meters. In the middle of the stele, the Standing Statue of master Dharma is engraved in a single line, with vivid image, auspicious light on the head, wide robes and big sleeves, simple conception and fluent pen. On the upper right side of the stele, a verse is engraved, which reads: "the purpose of sailing to the west is different from Jinling language. Shaolin is good at facing the wall, but bears only have shoes. " This paper summarizes the journey of Dharma in China.

There is also a stele written by Emperor Liang Wu. The title of the stele is "Ode and preface to Bodhidharma", which was established in the second year of Liang Datong. The inscription was written by Liang Wudi of the Southern Dynasty, praising the great achievements of Bodhidharma. The tablet is carved with a pattern of two dragons playing with pearls. The dragon is a four clawed dragon. The dragon's head tilts upward toward the inner side. The forehead of the tablet is engraved with five characters: "long live the emperor". The inscription has 17 lines and 68 characters. At the beginning of the text, there is "a parallel preface to master Bodhidharma's ode", followed by "Liang Datong's second birthday, which was made on December 15", and at the end, there is the words "heart sending disciple Hong Yuan Shi and He Shan Tongli". The inscriptions are regular script, with thin and beautiful fonts, and pay attention to the composition.

Historical evolution

In history, kongxiang temple has become one of the four famous temples that can keep pace with Shaolin Temple, Baima temple and Xiangguo Temple. People have compiled many myths and legends for it, and a ballad has been widely spread in the local area: "the dragon's mouth blows fog on the top of the mountain, the earth bridge lies and the rainbow rises nine days. The moon at the bottom of the well appears day and night, and the staff, peach and golden shoes return to the West. High rise Hongzhong sound hall, iron salary cooking porridge kitchen water Huan. Chunbao green cypress Millennium Mao, the Han Dynasty pines forever This song gives Dinglin temple a mysterious color. According to legend, the bell tower of Dinglin temple is three stories, several feet high, which is the highest building in the temple. People can climb the building from bottom to top, so it is also called "corner building". It is said that long ago, when Yongji people in Shanxi Province and Shanzhou people in Henan Province boasted about their hometown buildings, Yongji people exaggerated the height of Yingying tower in Pujiu temple and said: "there is a tower in Shanxi, seven or eight feet away from the sky." Shanzhou people said: "there is a corner building in Henan, half of which is inserted in the cloud." Shanxi people did not believe it. They went to Dinglin temple and sighed: "the most in the building." Legend has it that there is a magic iron bell hanging on the corner upstairs, two meters high and 1.5 meters in diameter, which can transmit sound directionally. When a huge bell is sounded, its sound can reach the emperor's Jinluan hall all the time. Therefore, there is a saying that "when a monk rings the bell and reaches the capital, it will disturb the emperor and make him restless". In the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, kongxiang temple was looted and destroyed seriously. The main existing relics are: a Dharma tower and ten stone tablets. Among them, there are two most significant steles: one is the Southern Dynasty Dharma stele, namely the Southern Dynasty Liang Wudi's "Ode to Bodhi Dharma Master" stele; the other is the Dharma statue stele, which was set up in the first year of Wei Yuanxiang? 538 ad. in the center of the stele is the standing statue of Dharma Master, with auspicious light on the head, wide robes and sleeves, single line engraved, vivid image, and four verses on the upper right side: "what's sailing from the west?" This paper summarizes the life of master Dharma.

Kongxiang temple is located among the trees. When you enter kongxiang temple, the mysterious feeling of "winding paths lead to seclusion, deep flowers and trees in Zen house" arises spontaneously. Because master Bodhidharma, the forefather of Zen Buddhism, was buried here, many emperors and generals came here to worship Buddhism, and literati and poets danced and chanted.

The newly unearthed Tang Dynasty stele "table of Fenyang King's temple" in kongxiang temple is 120 cm high, 60 cm wide and 15 cm thick. There are 26 lines and 44 words in total. The head of the stele is round, and the double line seal script is "the temple table set by the king of Fenyang". The monument was erected in September of the 12th year of Dazhong in Tang Dynasty (858 AD). The monument was erected by the descendants of Guo Ziyi, the king of Fenyang. The main idea of the inscription is that when Guo Ziyi calmed down the an Shi rebellion, he went to the Kong Xiang temple to worship the Dharma relics, and vowed that if Dharma Chan Master blesses and calms down the rebellion, he would ask the imperial court to give him special honor. Sure enough, nine years after the Anshi rebellion was put to an end (November 772), Guo Ziyi wrote to the imperial court and asked to reorganize the temple. Half a year later, the imperial court granted "master Dharma's posthumous title Yuanjue, the temple's forehead is the temple of empty phase, and the tower's forehead is the tower of empty view..." According to this, Dinglin temple was renamed kongxiang temple, which was granted by Emperor Li Yu of Tang Dynasty, and Dharma was added as "Yuanjue" Zen master, and Dharma tower as "Kongguan tower".

The excavation of Fenyang wangzhisi Biao is still of great historical value for the study of the history of Buddhist culture and the origin of Zen. It also provides more precious material materials for the study of the rise and fall of Buddhist Zen and kongxiang temple, the relationship between Guo Ziyi and kongxiang temple, and the geographical evolution of kongxiang temple. In the third year of Tang Tianbao (748 AD), Guo Ziyi was ordered by the emperor to rebuild the kongxiang temple, and he was the chief supervisor himself. After the completion of the project, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty named Dharma "Yuanjue" and Dharma tower "Kongguan". After the Tang Dynasty, the kongxiang temple was mostly repaired and expanded. The main buildings in the temple include Mountain Gate, Tianwang hall, Daxiong hall, Qianfo hall, Shuilu hall, Baiyi Guanyin Pavilion, etc. in the south there are Dharma tower, Dharma hall, corner building, North and South monasteries, etc. there are more than 400 Temple houses, covering an area of more than 50 mu. About 50 meters southwest of the temple, there is a famous Pagoda Forest in western Henan, covering an area of more than 30 mu, with more than 400 large and small pagodas. The layout of the temple is neat, with many ancient steles, morning bells and evening drums, and cigarettes.

The temple has also been repaired several times in the past dynasties. It can be found that the Damo hall and some temples were rebuilt in the 28th year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty (1395 A.D.), the Damo hall was rebuilt in the fifth year of mingjingtai (1454 A.D.) and the "great monument of Bodhidharma Yuanjue" was erected, and the corner building was rebuilt in the 42nd year of Jiajing in the Ming Dynasty (1563 A.D.). The kongxiang temple was rebuilt twice in the 11th year of Kangxi (1672 A.D.) and the 11th year of Yongzheng (1733 A.D.), and then it was repaired several times in the reign of Qianlong and Daoguang. However, in the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, temple houses were demolished one after another, and kongxiang Temple gradually declined. After the founding of the people's Republic of China, the only remaining "Damo pagoda" and "Damo stone carved stele" in kongxiang temple have been listed as the key cultural relics protection units in Sanmenxia City, and the "Liangwu emperor's writing stele" has been listed as the key cultural relics protection units in Shaanxi county. The municipal and county cultural and cultural relics departments have repeatedly invested to repair and reinforce the "Damo pagoda", making this precious cultural relic on the verge of collapse well preserved.

The story of Dharma

The death of Dharma

Kongxiang temple is the burial place of Honghan, the great master of Dharma, who was the first ancestor of Buddhism. The ancient kongxiang Temple used to be the holy land of Buddhism, but now it is still a splendid cultural holy land. According to the records of Shanzhou in the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, when Buddhism was introduced into Shanzhou in 58-75 A.D. (Yongping period of the Eastern Han Dynasty), kongxiang temple was built more than 1900 years ago. It is a Buddhist holy land at the same time as Baima temple, the first ancient temple in China. Kongxiang temple is the burial ground of Bodhidharma, the forefather of Zen. It is famous for Bodhidharma's sacrificing his life to seek Dharma and creating Zen Buddhism. according to

Chinese PinYin : Kong Xiang Si