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. It has always been full of incense, attracting a large number of citizens and surrounding tourists to visit every day. You can learn about the beliefs and wisdom culture of ancient people in southeast China, and you can also 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.

Brief 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 the 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 a memorial hall for Master Hongyi.

Kaiyuan Temple ranks first in China in three aspects:

1. These two stone pagodas were built in the Song Dynasty and are the highest existing stone pagodas in China.

2. The wood carving arches in the Hall of the Great Hero-24 beautifully sculpted flying musicians, which are rare in wooden structures;

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

Beautiful temple roof

Legendary construction story of Kaiyuan Temple

Kaiyuan Temple was founded in the second year of the Tang Dynasty, when it was called Lotus Dojo. Vertical Arch (685 1 month -6881February) is the title of Li Dan in Tang Ruizong, but Zong Rui has no real power because Wu Zetian actually manipulates state affairs. Generally counted as the year number of Wu Zetian).

It is called Kaiyuan because of the year number of Tang Xuanzong, the grandson of Wu Zetian and the husband of Yang Guifei. When Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty promoted Buddhism, Kaiyuan Temple was built in all the state capitals of the country. At that time, there were at most 120 kaiyuan temples in China.

Quanzhou Kaiyuan Temple combined several surrounding temples built during the Wu Zetian period 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:

Tan Yue, the owner of Kaiyuan Temple in Quanzhou, was an official in Quanzhou (in other words, Huang Shougong was the earliest sericulture pioneer in Quanzhou). He became very rich and owned 360 estates. A monk named Zen Master Kuanghu asked Huang Shougong to build a temple, but Huang refused. Mad Tiger Jackson went back and forth and worked diligently for a long time.

There is also a Shawn Ku 1300 years ago, covering an area of 80,000 square meters.

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

The next day, Zen master Kuanghu came again and said to Huang Shougong, the mulberry tree in your backyard is blooming with lotus flowers, please enjoy it. Huang Jianhua was very upset and wanted to brush the preface. The monk drifted away without a trace.

If the male is infected and does not heal for three years, the mulberry will bloom for three years.

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

The monk suddenly came. Gong Bai said, the order has been issued, and I wish it, but how much is unknown?

Beautiful carved beams and painted columns

The monk said, one cassock is enough. Make a public commitment. The monk threw his robe for a long time, with the shadow of 360 villages, and Huang Shougong offered to build a temple. Since the second year of the Tang Dynasty (686), Lotus Temple, Xingjiao Temple and longxing temple have been built successively (renamed Kaiyuan Temple in 738 in the 26th year of Kaiyuan).

Because it is often covered by Ziyun (another thing is that after the main hall of the temple was built, it suddenly began to rain, which caused the grass in front of the temple to fail to reproduce for more than 300 years. The great book Ziyun appeared at the mountain gate. The land of Kaiyuan Temple was donated by Huang Shougong, and Tan Yue Temple was built in the temple to worship Huang Shougong's position. Huang Shougong and his descendants were worshipped as masters of Tan Yue.

The reason why there is such a story is probably because the location of Kaiyuan Temple used to be Sangyuan. At present, there is still an ancient mulberry tree 1300 years ago in the temple, which now covers an area of nearly 80,000 square meters.

Kirin wall next to mulberry garden

The Tang-style flying in the Hall of the Great Heroes is rare in the world.

The main structure of Kaiyuan Temple in Quanzhou, which we see now, was formed in the Song Dynasty and has been repaired since then. The present buildings were mainly built in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

Daxiong Hall was built in the second year of Zhenguan in Tang Dynasty. It is said that when the temple was built, there was a "Ziyun Gaidi", also known as Ziyun Hall. Because there are 100 stone pillars in the temple (six pillars are subtracted from the mess inside), it is also called Baizhu Hall.

Daxiong Hall, called Ziyun Hall in ancient times.

The existing building was rebuilt in the Ming Dynasty, with double eaves and resting mountains, with a height of 20 meters, a width of nine rooms and a depth of six rooms, covering an area of up to.

1388m2. These stone pillars and foundations have various shapes, such as begonia, concave hexagonal column, dragon column and square column. There are a pair of hexagonal diabase eaves columns engraved with ancient Hindu myths in the back porch of the main hall. In front of the main hall, there is a waist-girding part of Mount Sumi, including

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A stone sculpture of a lion and the Sphinx, with a strong carving style of ancient Greece and India, was transferred from an abandoned Hindu temple during the reconstruction of Kaiyuan Temple in the Ming Dynasty. The stone pillars and the paving furnace are lotus-shaped, and the roof truss is stacked with heavy beams, which is beautiful and exquisite.

This hall is dedicated to the standard system of Five-Party Buddhism and Tantric Buddhism.

The most distinctive feature of the temple is the wood carving bucket arch at the junction of two rows of stone pillars and truss beams. There are 24 flying musicians, some holding musical instruments and some holding Four Treasures of the Study, dancing lightly between the beams. In Buddhism, it is called "good spirits and good products", which means strange birds.

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

Rare woodcarving flying musician in China

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

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

Zhenguo Tower and Renshou Tower stand on the east and west sides in front of the main hall.

The East-West Pagoda stands in front of the main hall, facing east and west, 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 Zhenguo Tower, was originally a five-story wooden tower, which was built in the sixth year of Tang Xiantong (865) and changed to a thirteen-story tower during the Jubilee of the Northern Song Dynasty. In the third year of Baoqing in the Southern Song Dynasty (1227), it was converted into a seven-story brick tower. The existing buildings are from the 2nd year of Jiaxi in Southern Song Dynasty to the 10th year of Chun Dynasty (1238- 1250).

The rebuilt granite stone tower, with five octagonal floors and imitation wooden pavilion, has a total height of 48.27.

Meters, four doors and four niches on each floor, interchanged layer by layer, with guardrails on the eaves. The octagonal center of the tower is solid, the beam of the tower is connected with the tower body, and the outer wall is embossed with 16 Buddhist figures from top to bottom, and the bottom of the tower is a sumeru, 8.

Every corner is carved with a statue of Lux, and there are 40 stone carvings at the waist, including 37 Buddhist stories.

The interior of the Mana Ring altar is exquisite and beautiful, with flying flowers on both sides.

The west tower is called Renshou Tower. It was originally a seven-story wooden tower built by the king of Fujian in the second year of the Five Dynasties (9 16). In the Xichun period of the Southern Song Dynasty, it was changed into a brick tower. Existing for the Southern Song Dynasty Shaoding and Duanping years (1228- 1236

The reconstructed stone tower is 45.06 meters high, and its shape is roughly similar to that of the East Tower, except that 40 flowers and birds are carved at the waist of Xumishan Mountain. Only 44 of the reliefs of Two Pagodas 160 are from China.

Dongxi Pagoda is the tallest stone pagoda in China. It survived the earthquake of magnitude 8 and still stands. As the tallest pair of stone pagodas in China, the East West Pagoda has become the symbol of Quanzhou, a famous historical and cultural city.

The benefactor of the worship hall in front of the Ursa Major Hall.

Travel advice:

1, the whole scenic spot in Quanzhou is not large, and the gate of Kaiyuan Temple is located in West Street, Licheng District, Quanzhou.

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

3. You can enter from the west gate and exit from the south gate of Kaiyuan Temple, and then you can visit the celebrity snack street on the West Street and various former residence sites;

4. The easternmost part of West Street is Quanzhou Bell Tower; To the east is East Street, and there are three famous Chinese hamburger shops on the head.

5. The intersection with Dongjie Street is Zhongshan Middle Road, and the top of Zhongshan South Road is Tianhou Palace and Dejimen;

6. Going to Tianhou Palace will pass by Wenfu Temple, and there will be a Quanzhou Nanyin performance next to Wenfu Temple at 7: 30 every night;

7. Muppet performance: No.24 Zheng Tong Lane, near Zhongshan Road, every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday at 4: 00-5: 00 pm;