Kaiyuan Temple is located on West Street, Fengze District, Quanzhou City. The temple was founded in the second year of Chuigong of the Tang Dynasty (686) and was originally named Lianhua Daochang. In the Song Dynasty, there were more than 100 branches. In the 22nd year of the Yuan Dynasty (1285), it became the Kaiyuan Wanshou Temple. The temple was burned down at the end of the Yuan Dynasty and rebuilt during the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty. The main existing temples were built in the Ming and Qing dynasties. It covers an area of 78,000 square meters. The central axis from south to north is: Ziyun Ping, Shanmen (Tianwang Hall), Baiting Pavilion, Main Hall, Manna Altar, and Sutra Pavilion. There are Tanyue Temple and Zhunti Zen Temple in the east wing; Gongde Hall and Shuilu Temple in the west wing; Zhenguo and Renshou stone pagodas are placed on the east and west sides of the worship pavilion in front of the Main Hall.
Introduction to Attractions
There is also Kaiyuan Temple in Quanzhou City, Fujian Province. It is a national key cultural relic protection unit. It is located on West Street, Licheng District, Quanzhou City, Fujian Province, China (outside the former Xicheng City). It was founded by Huang Shougong in the second year of Emperor Wu of the Tang Dynasty (686) and has a history of more than 1,300 years.
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Real scene of Kaiyuan Temple
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Quanzhou Kaiyuan Temple is an important cultural relic on the southeast coast of my country and the largest Buddhist temple in Fujian Province. Kaiyuan Temple is located on West Street in the urban area. It was built in the second year of Chui Gong in the Tang Dynasty (AD 686). It was originally named Lianhua Temple and was later renamed Xingjiao Temple and Longxing Temple. In the twenty-sixth year of Kaiyuan of the Tang Dynasty (738 AD), Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty ordered each state in the world to build a temple and named it after the year, so the name was changed. Kaiyuan Temple is 260 meters long from north to south and 300 meters wide from east to west. It covers an area of 78,000 square meters and is only one-tenth of its original size. In the heyday of the Song and Yuan Dynasties, there were 120 monasteries and thousands of monks.
In 1950, the government allocated funds for renovation. In 1960, the Bai Pavilion and the Main Hall were rebuilt. In 1973, the government allocated funds to rebuild the east and west corridors. After 1989, it accepted donations from overseas Chinese and successively rebuilt the Main Hall, Shanmen and Zhunti Zen Temple.
In 1961, the Fujian Provincial People's Committee announced it as the first batch of provincial cultural relics protection units. In 1982, the State Council announced it as the second batch of national key cultural relics protection units.
Historical legends
Huang Shougong, the master of Tanyue of Kaiyuan Temple in Quanzhou, was the son of Emperor Xuanyuan and the descendant of the Xiong family. According to the "Jiangxia Ziyun Huang Family Dacheng Genealogy", Huang Shougong was the 112th descendant of the first ancestor of the Huang family. He was born in 629 AD and died in 712 AD. Huang Shougong became an official in Quanzhou (it is also said that Huang Shougong's family grew mulberry and raised sericulture, making him the earliest pioneer of the mulberry and sericulture industry in Quanzhou). He became extremely wealthy and owned 360 villages. A monk named Zen Master Kuang Hu asked Huang Shou for land to build a temple, but Huang refused to give it. Zen Master Kuanghu then came and went in the morning and evening, and he was diligent as time went by. Huang Shougong said to Zen Master Kuanghu: "If you want my land, wait until the mulberry trees in my back garden bloom with lotus flowers. I will give you the land." Zen Master Kuanghu left happily. The next day, Zen Master Kuanghu came again and said to Huang Shougong, the mulberry tree in your back garden has bloomed lotus flowers, please go and admire them. When Huang saw the flowers, he was quite uneasy and wanted to brush his words. The monk drifted away without a trace. The male fell ill and did not recover for three years. The mulberry tree bloomed continuously for three years. The Duke (note: Huang Shougong) sighed and said: This monk is very human. It's posted on every street looking for it. The monk suddenly arrived. Gong worshiped and said, "The preface has been made, so it is what I want, but I don't know how much land I want?" The monk said, one shadow of cassock is enough. Promise it. The monk threw his cassock for half a day, and three hundred and sixty villages of Kaiyuan Temple were shaded. Huang Shougong dedicated the land to build the temple. Starting in the second year of Chui Gong of the Tang Dynasty (AD 686), the Lotus Temple, Xingjiao Temple, and Longxing Temple were built successively (in the 26th year of Kaiyuan of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, in 738 AD, it was renamed Kaiyuan Temple). Because purple clouds often cover the ground everywhere (it is also said that after the temple's main hall was built, "purple clouds" suddenly fell from the sky, causing the grass in front of the temple to be unable to reproduce for more than 1,300 years. This historical unsolved case became the subject of UFO ruins discussion in "UFO Exploration" magazine in 1992), and the two characters "Purple Clouds" were posted on the mountain gate. The land of Kaiyuan Temple was donated by Huang Shougong. Tanyue Temple was built in the temple to enshrine Huang Shougong's position and honor Huang Shougong and his descendants as the masters of Tanyue.
Temple Attractions
Baiding Pavilion
Cross the mountain gate and arrive at Baiting Pavilion.We can see the east and west towers rising from the ground and the spacious and bright east and west corridors symmetrically arranged on both sides, and our location is on the central axis of Kaiyuan Temple. Buddhism has been introduced to our country for more than a thousand years, has flourished in China, and has been integrated with Chinese culture. The layout of Kaiyuan Temple highlights the characteristics of ancient Chinese buildings with the south facing and the central axis as the main focus.
The large stone court in front of the worship pavilion is a worship court where "no grass grows", which is used for worship and activities by officials and people of ancient and modern times. On the 26th day of the lunar calendar, this place is crowded with people and chants, giving it a scene of the Buddhist country of Quannan. Perhaps it is because there are no admission tickets on this day that it attracts many tourists to visit on this day. On both sides of the stone courtyard are eight large banyan trees, which are between 200 and 800 years old. Their shadowy and tangled roots add to the quiet and solemn atmosphere of Kaiyuan Temple. Under the tree, there are 11 ancient sutra buildings, small stupas, and two stupas of different styles from the Tang, Song, and Ming dynasties. There is also a stone-carved silk burning furnace over 3 meters high in the courtyard. The cover button is carved with a squatting Suan Ni, and the furnace body is carved with flags, dragons, auspicious clouds, lotus petals, creepers and other patterns. On both sides of the silk burning furnace, there are two square stone towers from India donated by Liu Sanniang in Nanxiang, Quanzhou in the 15th year of Shaoxing in the Southern Song Dynasty (1145 AD). On the towers are engraved the story of Prince Sachu who sacrificed his life to feed a tiger, which is a trace left by Hinduism in the Southern Song Dynasty.
Tianwang Hall
The mountain gate of Kaiyuan Temple is also called the Tianwang Hall. It was built in the third year of Chuigong reign of Wu Zetian of the Tang Dynasty (687 AD). It has been destroyed and rebuilt after several fires. The existing building was built in the 14th year of the Republic of China (1925 AD). Please take a look at this stone pillar first: it is slightly thinner at the upper and lower ends, thicker in the middle, and is shuttle-shaped. Its scientific name is shuttle pillar. According to research, it is the stone pillar style of the Tang Dynasty. It is very old. There is also a wooden couplet hanging on the stone pillar, "This place was called the Buddhist Kingdom in ancient times, and the streets are full of saints." This was written by Zhu Xi, a great Neo-Confucian scholar in the Southern Song Dynasty, and written by Master Hongyi, a eminent monk in modern times. It is a true portrayal of Quanzhou, an ancient city with strong religious and cultural features. Sitting on both sides of the Heavenly King's Hall are the Secret Vajra and the Brahma King arranged according to the rules of Buddhist Tantric Buddhism. They have angry eyes and raised chests, and are very majestic in appearance. They are quite different from the four king kongs sculpted in ordinary temples. Some people jokingly call them the "Two Generals of Hum and Ha".
Sutra-Depository Pavilion
After the altar, there is the Sutra-Depository Pavilion, which is known as the "Hundred Treasures Tower". This was originally the Dharma Hall, which was built by monk Lu Liu Jianyi in the 22nd year of the Yuan Dynasty (AD 1285). It had been renovated many times during the Yuan and Ming dynasties. In the 14th year of the Republic of China (AD 1925), Monk Yuanying rebuilt it into a two-story pavilion with a cement imitation wood structure. The downstairs is now a place where monks chant sutras and worship Buddha. The upper floor houses more than 3,700 volumes of various versions of sutras. Wang Shenzhi, the founder of Min in the Five Dynasties, was on the throne and dominated the Fujian territory. It was purely by chance. Therefore, when he became the Queen of Min, he became associated with the Buddha, developed great faith, made great vows, took refuge and upheld it, and sought psychological balance. He successively gave up millions of dollars to build the main hall and other buildings, and collected 10,000 taels of gold and silver, ground them finely into clay, and asked Master Yiying of Kaiyuan Temple to write two gold and silver Tripitakas. There are still fragments of pages on the second floor. There are also the Lotus Sutra written with blood by Master Ruzhao of the Yuan Dynasty and the Bayeux Sutra in Tamil. They are precious Buddhist classics in our country. In addition, the Sutra Pavilion also preserves cultural relics from the prosperous Tang Dynasty to the Republic of China. Among them are 32 large and small Buddha statues, Bodhisattvas, Arhats, heavenly kings, and generals of jade, copper, porcelain, and wood from various dynasties. The calligraphy and wooden couplets of famous calligraphers such as Zhang Ruitu of the Ming Dynasty and modern eminent monk Hongyi are also collected here. The hall on the first floor also collects 12 square bells from the Southern Song Dynasty. Among them, the particularly valuable one is the iron bell that was "publicly owned in the suburbs of Lukang" in the 17th year of Daoguang's reign in the Qing Dynasty (1837 AD). The bell has the inscriptions of 46 merchants in the suburbs of Lukang that did business with Quanzhou. It is a valuable material for studying the economic history of Taiwan and Quanzhou.
