Fuzhou Xichan Temple and Xichan Litchi

Located at the foot of Yishan in the western suburb of Fuzhou, Xichan Temple is one of the five Buddhist forests in Fuzhou and a national key temple. On the pillars of the gate of the ancient temple, a couplet is engraved: the official script was handed down to the Song Dynasty in the Four Dynasties, and the bells rang in the ancient Tang Dynasty. This is a couplet written by Zhou Lian in Qing Dynasty, pointing out that Xichan Temple is an ancient temple in Tang Dynasty, which is planted with ancient lychees from Song Dynasty.

During the Northern and Southern Dynasties, Taoist Wang Ba once lived here to practice Dan. Every year when he is hungry, he sells Dan medicine for rice to help the people. Later, Wang Ba died of taking medicine, so people built a temple in his former residence, named Letou, to commemorate him, and finally abandoned it.

According to the Records of Three Mountains in the Song Dynasty, the observation in the Tang Dynasty made Li Jingwen recruit new monks. The temple has a history of 1300 years.

Under the shadow of pine trees and litchi trees, the Buddhist temple fasting hall shows its own garden art and the charm of Buddha.

There are 36 buildings in Xichan Temple, including Tianwang Hall, Daxiong Hall, Fatang Hall, Sutra Pavilion and Guanyin Pavilion, covering an area of 7.7 hectares. The best thing is that the Jiuqu Bridge in Fangshengchi has a garden pattern similar to Jiangnan, and you can enjoy the scenery on the arch bridge. Litchi trees of different sizes are reflected in the lake of Taying. Stone carvings show that there is a Mingyuan Pavilion near Song Li, which is the place where famous artists have invited to sing.

During the Kangxi period of Qing Dynasty, there were 400 or 500 litchi trees in Xichan Temple, and there was also a litchi monograph "Xichan Litchi Spectrum" in Xichan Temple, which was rare in China and even in the world. In 1930s, Yu Dafu visited the Xichan Temple in Fuzhou, praised the branches and wrote a poem: Chen Zifang Hong did it for munching, and this trip was really for litchi.

Today, there are two litchi trees with Song E's signature, and new branches are still growing on the old stems, covered with green leaves, just like a chitose man wearing colorful clothes. The word "Song You" is a small handwriting of calligraphers.

Xichan Temple has always been famous in Fuzhou. If litchi is very big, its nucleus degenerates to the size of soybean, so Fuzhou people call it "eating litchi". Litchi is called "Lilac Branch" in Cai Xiang's monograph in Song Dynasty, and Xichan Temple also has high-quality varieties such as dish washing and winning the championship. What's more interesting is that Lichen Temple litchi, located near 26 degrees north latitude, was listed a few days earlier than litchi produced near 25 degrees north latitude! For thousands of years, the custom of moving mountains has been circulating. In Song Dynasty, Cai Xiang praised litchi in Xichan Temple: the scenery of litchi trees occupied the whole summer, and the lotus leaves were odorless. At present, more than half of the hundreds of trees in the temple are grafted and propagated by Song Zhezhi. Their fruits are thick, small in kernel, sweet and sour. Whenever litchi is picked, it will attract a large number of good men and women to taste it.