Visit Longhua Temple

On the afternoon of the 14th day of the first lunar month of the Gengyin year, after participating in the search for Changchun Temple organized by netizen Sailor 002 of the Wuhan version of Hanwang Humanities, netizens Tianfeng, Yirenxing, the Lake Guardian and I took the opportunity to visit the southern slope of Snake Mountain. This is a wish that netizen Li You had as early as last year’s National Day holiday. When we walked into Longhua Temple, we found two very precious stone tablets on the left side of the Main Hall. We carefully identified the writing on them and analyzed the age of the tablets. Judging from the inscription, one of the tablets dates from the Hongzhi period of the Ming Dynasty, while the reverse side dates from the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty. On another stele, the words "Preface to the Pavilion of Prince Teng" and "Prince of Tang" can be discerned. At this time, some pilgrims came over and told us bitterly. As early as the second year of Chenghua in the Ming Dynasty (1466), Wang Ding, an eunuch of the Ming Dynasty, carved out a pure land at the southern foot of Snake Mountain in Wuchang due to his mother's illness, and gave it a plaque to the Longhua Temple. In the 13th year of Chenghua and the 13th year of Hongzhi, the temple was continuously renovated and expanded. By the 15th year of Hongzhi, the temple had five Buddhist halls, three Guanyin halls, three Tianwang halls, and mountain gates, one bell tower, and 48 east and west corridors. There are 264 couplets in total. The Buddhist hall is majestic, with solemn treasures, carved bridges, and surrounded by cypress and bamboo trees, eventually becoming a large jungle. During the Shunzhi and Guangxu years of the Qing Dynasty, the temple was rebuilt several times, making it one of the large temples in Wuchang City. The thirty-eighth chapter of the late Qing Dynasty's famous book "The Scholars", "My aunt rides on a dragon to be her son-in-law, and the monk who knows the guest pulls a horse to recognize my godmother" describes Longhua Temple in this way: Let's say that this Wuchang provincial capital is famous for being a Longhua Temple. This Longhua Temple is located in Binyang Gate, which is a huge jungle. It is said that it has been used for thousands of years. In the middle of the temple is a "Mahatma Hall" dedicated to Sakyamuni. In addition, there are Guanyin Hall, Luohan Hall, Zhaitang, Guest Hall, Zen Hall, Monk Room, and Ququwan Bay. There is also a sperm room, specially designed to receive female guests. Because Longhua Temple is a scenic spot in Wuchang, civil and military officials from all over the city come here to rejoice in their free time, and even passing tourists from all over the country come here because of its reputation.

Master Taixu, a famous Buddhist monk in modern times, wrote in his autobiography: "In April 1993, both Wuchang and Guangzhou came to invite me to give lectures. Wuchang had already invited Li Futing and others from Yinchen and Yuanbai. More than a hundred people initiated an expansion of public lectures and set up a hall for me in Longhua Temple, which could accommodate an audience of three to four hundred people. I then went to Wuchang with Xingbai to welcome him. "In May of the eighth year of the Republic of China, Taixu taught the theory of faith at Longhua Temple and published the "The Theory of Faith".

Longhua Temple originally covered an area of ??6,000 square meters and was a dojo for bhikshunis and nuns. In 1954, the nuns in Wuchang responded to the government's call and carried out self-help through production. By 1958, the great monk of Longhua Temple gave the temple to 172 bhikshuni from 72 small temples. During the day, she goes out to give birth, and at night she goes back to the temple to live a religious life. Later, the temple buildings and land were repeatedly occupied. After the Third Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, religious policies were implemented, and Longhua Temple took back the occupied properties and land. At that time, the land area of ??the house was still more than 6,000 square meters, and there were more than 100 nuns living there. Longhua Temple once collected a large number of historical relics, such as the three iron Buddhas cast during the Chenghua period of the Ming Dynasty, the naturally occurring divine dragon wall, and a large number of ancient stone inscriptions, rabbit stones, cat stones, etc., but they have all been lost.

The rights and interests of Longhua Temple were infringed upon in 1994 after the reform and opening up. Some people, driven by economic interests and for their own selfish interests and regardless of my country's religious policies, demolished the Shanmen Tower of Longhua Temple, the wooden Tianwang Hall of the Qing Dynasty, the island of the Ming Dynasty, and the nuns' housing, and transformed them into commercial and residential buildings. Only one main hall was left, and a seven-story residential building was built that was extremely incongruous with the temple. Now someone is blowing the wind again, wanting to demolish the existing main hall and residential buildings and move them to Jiufeng. This wind blows, making the nuns restless. The mountain is not high, but it is famous if there are immortals. The huge Snake Mountain cannot accommodate a small temple. Yes, Snake Mountain is famous because of the Yellow Crane Tower, but if Longhua Temple exists, from a tourism perspective, the best option is to make it bigger and stronger. In early 2008, Wuchang’s plan of “Building a Famous City on Two Axis and Five Areas” stated that it was necessary to create an artistic conception of the Snake Mountain natural ecological section of “seeking seclusion, visiting greenery, and building upon layers of mountains”, focusing on repairing the natural mountain, restoring mountain forest vegetation, and creating a natural ecology. , Optimize the viewing tour route, build an urban forest full of wild interest and rich cultural heritage, retain the functions of Longhua Temple, and create an artistic conception of "ancient temples hidden deep in the mountains".