Brief introduction of Kaiyuan Temple in Quanzhou Brief introduction of Kaiyuan Temple in Quanzhou

Kaiyuan Temple in Quanzhou is a characteristic temple with a long history, and the incense has always been quite strong. Attracting a large number of citizens and surrounding tourists to visit every day. You can learn about the beliefs and wisdom of ancient people in southeast China and pray for peace. Let's introduce it in detail below.

Master Hongyi wrote: This place was called the Buddhist Kingdom in ancient times, and the streets were full of saints.

Introduction of Kaiyuan Temple in Quanzhou

Kaiyuan Temple in Quanzhou, Fujian Province, is the largest Buddhist temple in Fujian Province. The overall scale far exceeds that of Nanputuo Temple at the gate of Xiamen. Li Shutong, a strange man in the Republic of China, became a monk here and finally died in Quanzhou. On the east side of the Daxiong Hall of Kaiyuan Temple, there is Master Hongyi Memorial Hall.

Kaiyuan Temple is the first in China in three aspects:

1. The East-West Stone Pagoda built in the Song Dynasty is the tallest stone pagoda in China.

2. There are -24 flying musicians carved on the wooden bucket arch of Daxiong Hall, with exquisite shape and rare wooden structure;

3. The manna ring altar in Kaiyuan Temple, Jietai Temple in Beijing and Zhaoqing Temple in Hangzhou are also called the three ring altars in China.

Beautiful temple roof

Legendary construction story of Kaiyuan Temple

Kaiyuan Temple was first built in the second year of Zhenguan in Tang Dynasty, when it was named Lotus Dojo. Hammer Gong (65438+ 10, 685-65438+2, 688) is the title of Tang Ruizong Li Dan, but Zong Rui has no real power because Wu Zetian actually manipulates state affairs. Generally counted as the title of Wu Zetian).

Because of the title of Tang Xuanzong, the husband of Yang Guifei, the grandson of Wu Zetian, it is called Kaiyuan. When Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty flourished Buddhism, there was a Kaiyuan Temple in every state in the country. At that time, there were 120 kaiyuan temples in China.

Quanzhou Kaiyuan Temple combined several surrounding temples built in the period of Wu Zetian into one, becoming the largest one in the Kaiyuan Temple series at that time. It was once as famous as Baima Temple in Luoyang, Lingyin Temple in Hangzhou and Guangji Temple in Beijing.

As for the initial construction of Kaiyuan Temple, there is a folklore:

Huang Shougong, the sandalwood owner of Kaiyuan Temple in Quanzhou, was an official in Quanzhou that year (in other words, Huang Shougong was the earliest sericulture pioneer in Quanzhou). He became a rich man with 360 farms. A monk named Zen Master Kuanghu begged Huang Shougong to build a temple, but Huang Shougong refused. Zen master Kuang has been working hard for a long time.

There is still a Shawn Ku with a history of 1300 years, covering an area of 80,000 square meters.

Huang Shougong said to Zen master Kuang Hu, "If you want our land, just wait for the mulberry trees in my backyard to blossom. I will give it to you. " Zen master Kuang left happily.

The next day, Zen master Kuang Hu came again and said to Huang Shougong, the mulberry tree in your backyard has a lotus flower. Please enjoy them. Huang Jianhua was very unhappy and wanted to kiss the preface. The monk disappeared without a trace.

That is, the public is infected for three years without healing, and mulberry trees bloom for three years.

Gong lamented: This monk is very human. Look for it on every street.

The monk suddenly came. Male Bai Yue, the order has been placed, and I don't know how much it costs.

Beautiful carved beams and painted columns

Monk: One cassock is enough. Known. Monks have been throwing robes for a long time, and Huang Shougong offered to build a temple in the shadow of 360 villages. Since the second year of Zhenguan in Tang Dynasty (686), Lotus Temple, Xingjiao Temple and longxing temple have been built successively (renamed Kaiyuan Temple in the 26th year of Kaiyuan (738)).

Because purple clouds often cover the ground (another way of saying it is that after the main hall of the temple was built, "purple clouds covered the ground" suddenly fell from the sky, resulting in the grass in front of the temple being unable to reproduce 1300 years. The masterpiece Ziyun was unveiled at the mountain gate. The land of Kaiyuan Temple was donated by Huang Shougong. There is a Tan Yue Temple in the temple dedicated to Huang Shougong, and Huang Shougong and his descendants are honored as the masters of Tan Yue.

The reason why there is such a story is probably because the location of Kaiyuan Temple was originally Sangyuan. At present, there is still an ancient mulberry tree with 1300 leaves.

The existing building was rebuilt in the Ming Dynasty, with double eaves leaning against the mountain, 20 meters high, nine rooms wide and six rooms deep, covering an area of 1.388 square meters. These stone pillars and columns have different shapes, such as begonia, concave hexagonal column, panlong column and square column. There are a pair of hexagonal diabase eaves columns engraved with ancient Hindu myths on the back porch of the main hall. There are 73 stone carvings of lions and sphinxes on the platform in front of the main hall, which have a strong carving style of ancient Greece and India. They were transferred from the destroyed Hindu temples when Kaiyuan Temple was rebuilt in the Ming Dynasty. The furnace bucket between the stone pillar and the shop is lotus convex, and the roof truss is stacked with heavy beams, which is exquisite and delicate.

This hall is dedicated to Five Dhyani Buddhas, which is the standard form of Tantra.

The most distinctive feature of the hall is the wooden bucket arch at the junction of two rows of stone pillars and truss beams. Twenty-four flying musicians, some with musical instruments and some with Four Treasures of the Study, danced lightly between the beams. In Buddhism, it is called "Jialing Pinjia", which means Miao Yin Bird.

Different from the flying image in Dunhuang, the flying here has wings, and these wings are not only decorations, but also the support points of the vault. The mechanical principle of architecture and the aesthetic principle of art are skillfully combined. These flying musicians combine China's flying, Indian Miao Yin birds and European angel plastic arts, which are rare in wooden buildings.

Rare woodcarving flying musician in China

Two stone pagodas over 40 meters high are the only stone pagodas in China.

The main buildings are distributed on the north-south central axis, and from south to north are Ziyunping, Shanmen Tianwang Hall, Baiting Hall, Baiting Hall, Daxiong Hall, Ganlu Tanjie and Tibetan Classics Pavilion. Tan Yue Temple and Zhunti Zen Forest are on the east side of Daxiong Hall, and Gongde Temple, Zunsheng Temple and Shuilu Temple are on the west side.

Zhen Guo Tower and Renshou Tower stand on the east and west sides of the lobby.

The East Tower stands on the east and west sides of the main hall, about 200 meters apart. It is the most important attached cultural relic of Kaiyuan Temple.

The East-West Stone Pagoda built in the Song Dynasty is still the tallest ancient stone pagoda.

The East Tower, named Zhen Guo Tower, was originally a five-story wooden tower, which was built in the sixth year of Tang Xiantong (865). It was changed to grade 13 during the jubilee of the Northern Song Dynasty. In the third year of Southern Song Dynasty (1227), Baoqing was converted into a seven-story brick tower. The existing building is a granite stone tower rebuilt from the second year of Jiaxi in the Southern Song Dynasty to the tenth year of Chun (1238- 1250). It has a five-story octagonal building, which imitates a wooden pavilion and is 48.27 meters high. There are four doors and four niches on each floor, which are interchanged layer by layer, and there are guardrails on the eaves. The center of the tower is octagonal, and the beams are connected with the tower. The external wall is embossed five times from top to bottom 16 Buddhist figures. The base of the tower is Mount Sumi, and each of the eight corners is carved with a statue of Lux. There are 40 stone carvings at the waist, including 37 Buddhist stories.

Inside the manna ring altar, the flying on both sides is very exquisite and beautiful.

This pagoda is called Renshou Pagoda in the west. It was originally a seven-story wooden tower built by Wang Jian in Fujian in the second year of the Five Dynasties (9 16), and was named the Infinite Life Tower. It was changed to a brick tower in Xichun period of the Southern Song Dynasty, and now it is renamed. The existing stone pagoda was built in Shaoding and Duanping years of the Southern Song Dynasty (1228- 1236), with a height of 45.06 meters. Except for 40 birds, flowers and animals carved on the mountainside of Xumi Mountain, its shape is roughly similar to that of the East Tower. Of the 160 characters of the two towers, only 44 are from China.

The East Pagoda is the tallest pair of stone pagodas in China, which has withstood an earthquake of magnitude 8. As the tallest pair of stone pagodas in China, the East Pagoda and the West Pagoda have become the symbols of Quanzhou, a famous historical and cultural city.

Donors who eat in the worship hall in front of the Ursa Major Hall.

Travel advice:

1. There are few scenic spots in Quanzhou, and the gate of Kaiyuan Temple is on the West Street in Licheng District, Quanzhou.

West Street is the most prosperous street in Quanzhou with a history of thousands of years. Many famous snacks and ancient buildings are in this area;

You can enter from the west gate.