The Legend of Yanghe Temple in Qingzhou

There is an ancient temple site in the east of Beiyanghe Village in Qingzhou. The temple is named after the village: "Yanghe Temple." It used to belong to Shouguang County, and was assigned to Qingzhou after liberation. According to the Records of Shouguang County in the 22nd year of the Republic of China, there is a "Yanghe Hall" 40 miles west of Shouguang City, which was built in the Youth Room of Song and Li Dynasties (10 14).

In the Ming Dynasty, Dong Tuxi, the capital of Zheng Dening, invested in reconstruction and re-established rules and regulations. The villagers erected a monument and rebuilt it, and invited Liu and Liu Chengfu to write a book to remember major events. There are more than 30 words of inscriptions in Guangxu period, which stand in the ruins of temples. Judging from the outline of the existing ruins, Yanghe Temple has dozens of houses, covering an area of more than ten acres, and it was a famous temple with great regulation and influence in the surrounding areas at that time. The ancient temple lasted for nearly a thousand years, during which it was repaired many times and still existed in the middle of Qing Dynasty. Later, due to social changes, temples gradually declined, first abandoned and then demolished. In the late 1970s, a remaining stone Buddha head was found in this site. Because of the historical background at that time, the Buddha's head was built as a stone into the wall of the house. In recent years, villagers found a rectangular bluestone (which has been collected by the author) when building a vegetable shed in the old temple site. From the appearance, this stone should be an ancient door pillow stone with exquisite paintings carved on it. By comparing the relevant data, the door pillow stone is indeed a relic of Yanghe Temple. From the research point of view, this stone carving should be of great value to textual research on the evolution of the ancient temple, and it is a rare material evidence.

The stone carving is 55 cm wide, 45 cm high and 22 cm thick. Decorated with flowers on three sides, engraved with 32 words on the front, with a diameter of 3 cm. It has obvious characteristics in the Song Dynasty. Full text of stone carving:

Family wealth is convenient for future generations. Lucky cities and happy people will be passed on to future generations. Song Xiang the mason.

Today, the Yanghe Hall no longer exists, so we can only refer to its traces, but there are many folk stories about it.

At that time, there were many monks in Yanghe Temple, and there were many great monks in the temple. According to legend, on a winter morning, the abbot of the temple suddenly fell ill at dawn, and the monks were anxious but helpless. In desperation, some people said that they would go to the city to ask a doctor to buy medicine. At this time, the young monk who had lived away for a long time said, "You take good care of Master, and I will go to Shouguang City to get the medicine at once." The monks said, "Go and come back quickly, so as not to delay." The young monk said, "Don't worry, I won't miss breakfast when I get the medicine." Everyone thought that running back and forth for dozens of miles would be a scud. The monk took the silver and hurried on his way. Monks take care of the abbot and cook. The steaming rice was just out of the pot when suddenly the temple door rang and the monk came back. Everyone was surprised when they saw it, but because they were busy treating the abbot, the monks had no time to think about it. Shortly after this incident, after the abbot recovered from his illness, the young monk went out for alms again. One night a few years later, everyone woke up and saw a young monk standing in his room, covered in snow, for many days. Someone asked him, "There are stars all over the sky outside. Where did the snow come from?" The young monk said, "When I was eating in Hebei last night, I saw that it was snowing heavily and the weather was very cold. I rushed back to the temple overnight because I couldn't find a suitable place to live. " The monks were all surprised after hearing this, thinking that the nearest place in Hebei to Qingzhou is probably hundreds of miles away!