Xiaoyu Baby has never been a simple girl. After Yunluo left Sihai City, this cold and beautiful beauty did not go to work, but invited Koala to go to Yangzhou to play together. This is really a very strange thing, although it is not strange at all that Yan Chenyu has Koala's phone number.
Koala agreed without much hesitation, and the two beauties went to Yangzhou together. Both of them were smiling sweetly, as if they were good friends. It was as if neither of them had come to Yangzhou alone with Yunluo before. Girls are so unpredictable. If Yunluo was still here, she would have been extremely depressed.
In the northern suburbs of the ancient city of Yangzhou, Shugang Mountain stretches like a sleeping dragon. The world-famous Daming Temple, a thousand-year-old temple, stands majestically on the middle peak of Shugang Mountain. Daming Temple is not just a Buddhist temple, but should be considered as the "Daming Temple Scenery Appreciation Area".
It consists of five parts: temple ruins, Qiling Pagoda, Jianzhen Memorial Hall, Immortal Old Hall and Xiyuan Fangpu. It is a rare tourist attraction in China that combines garden scenery, cultural relics and religious buildings. It is a national cultural treasure with rich historical and cultural connotations.
Since its establishment, Daming Temple has been known as "the first scenic spot in Yangzhou". Daming Temple was first built during the reign of Emperor Xiaowu of the Southern Song Dynasty, so it was called "Daming Temple". Over the past 1,500 years, the name of the temple has changed a lot. In the first year of Renshou in the Sui Dynasty, Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty, Yang Jian, celebrated his 60th birthday. He ordered the establishment of 30 pagodas in 30 states across the country to enshrine Buddha's bones and relics. One of them was built in Daming Temple, called "Qiling Pagoda".
The tower is nine stories high and magnificent, and is known as "the most unique tower in China". Because the temple is named after the tower, it is also called "Daming Temple" and "Qiling Temple". Because Daming Temple is west of the Sui Palace and Tang City, it is also called "West Temple".
In the first year of the Tianbao reign of the Tang Dynasty, the abbot of Daming Temple, Master Jianzhen, preached and gave precepts here before he sailed to Japan. The temple became famous all over the world and became an important ancient temple in the history of Sino-Japanese Buddhist cultural relics. In the third year of the Huichang reign of the Tang Dynasty, the nine-story Qiling Pagoda was burned down by fire. Later, monks raised funds to rebuild it, but it was repeatedly ruined.
During the Qingli period of the Northern Song Dynasty, Ouyang Xiu, the governor of Yangzhou, built Pingshan Hall. During the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, Wu Xiu, the governor of Yangzhou, rebuilt Daming Temple. In the 12th year of Chongzhen, Yang Renyuan, the imperial censor of the grain transport, rebuilt it again.
During the prosperous reign of Emperor Kangxi and Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty, Daming Temple was expanded to become the first of the eight famous temples in Yangzhou. In the 30th year of Emperor Qianlong's reign, Emperor Qianlong visited Yangzhou and was very unhappy to see the word "Daming" on it, so he wrote "imperial title Fajing Temple" in his own handwriting.
In the third year of Emperor Xianfeng's reign in the Qing Dynasty, the temple was destroyed by the Taiping Rebellion. After that, Daming Temple was rebuilt several times and gradually expanded in size. The current temple was built by Fang Junyi, the salt transport envoy of Liangzheng during the Tongzhi period of the Qing Dynasty.
The temple was completely repaired and the Buddha statues were gilded. Daming Temple was completely renovated. In order to welcome the statue of Master Jianzhen back to Yangzhou from Japan to visit his relatives, it was renamed "Daming Temple". On the way, we passed a Yangzhou painted boat archway, and behind the painted boat was a hotel.
Yan Chenyu and Koala walked up a gentle stone staircase of 100 steps. In front of the square in front of Daming Temple, they saw a solemn and elegant archway. The archway was built to commemorate the Qiling Pagoda and Qiling Temple. It has four pillars and three columns, and a stone foundation underneath, looking up like a canopy. On the south side of the middle gate, there are four characters in seal script: "Qiling Ruins".
On the back of the archway, there are four characters in seal script: "Fengle Famous District". This is because this place used to belong to Fengle District of Dayi Township. The seal scripts on both sides are written by Yao Yu, the salt transport envoy during the Guangxu period. The structure is neat and the font is majestic. The pair of stone lions sitting in front of the archway are particularly eye-catching. The stone lions are carved according to the specifications of the royal gardens. The shape is vigorous, with upright heads, squatting bodies, and straight waists. The front paws are flat, looking proudly into the distance.
This pair of stone lions is an ancient relic of the famous Chongning Temple in Yangzhou. They were moved here in the 1960s. On the east wall outside the mountain gate, facing south, there is a stone carving with five characters "The First View in Huaidong" in large script. The stele was erected during the Yongzheng period of the Qing Dynasty. It was proposed by Yangzhou prefect Gao Shiyao to use the words of Qin Shaoyou, a famous poet in the Song Dynasty, praising the scenery of Daming Temple, and the characters were written by Jintan calligrapher Jiang Heng.
During the Northern Song Dynasty, Yangzhou belonged to the jurisdiction of Huainan East Road. The famous writers Su Zhe (Ziyou) and Qin Guan (Shaoyou) visited Daming Temple and wrote poems to express their feelings. The last line of Qin Shaoyou's poem is: "If tourists talk about the beauty of climbing, it must be the first view in Huaidong." Since then, the Daming Temple scenic area has been famous as "the first view in Huaidong".
In the Qing Dynasty, Emperor Yongzheng wrote a couplet for Daming Temple: "Ten thousand pines and the moon shine together, and the five night winds follow the sound of Zen." Emperor Qianlong wrote a couplet: "The wonders of Huaihai open up a quiet place, and the mountains and rivers are in harmony with the distant mind."
On the wall of the west courtyard in front of the temple is a stone inscription with the words "The Fifth Spring in the World", written by Wang Yi of Jintan and erected by Wang Ligeng of Xin'an. On the wall of the east corridor of the north courtyard of Qingkong Pavilion on the east side of Daming Temple is an inscription of the Heart Sutra in seal script by Deng Shiru, a famous calligrapher of the Qing Dynasty, which is a rare treasure of seal script in China.
When writing this Heart Sutra, the 61-year-old Deng Shiru lived in a mountain temple for more than a month, bathing and eating vegetarian food every day, and personally supervised the engraving to show his detachment from worldly affairs. This stele is exquisitely engraved and has a vigorous style. It is Deng Shiru's first masterpiece. On the south wall of the east corridor of the Great Hall, there is also a stone carving of Deng Shiru's seal script: "How can there be an article that shocks the whole country, and a swordsman who carries books to the ends of the earth." It is also a rare stone carving of Deng Shiru.
Different from other temples, the mountain gate hall of Daming Temple also serves as the "Heavenly King Hall". The three characters "Daming Temple" on the main gate were carved by Zhao Puchu from the "Longzang Temple Stele" of the Sui Dynasty, and the characters are full of ancient style.
Yan Chenyu and Koala entered the door and there was a seated statue of Maitreya Buddha in the south, holding a cloth bag in his left hand and a Buddhist rosary in his right hand. Buddhism says that he will become the "future Buddha" after Sakyamuni's Nirvana. On both sides, there is a couplet written by Zhu Yuanzhang, the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty: A big belly can accommodate things that are difficult to accommodate in the world; a kind face always smiles, laughing at the ridiculous people in the world.
Standing behind Maitreya is the guardian deity Skanda. He holds up Mount Sumeru in his left hand and presses the "demon-subduing pestle" with his right hand. He protects Sakyamuni while he preaches the Dharma, and is therefore called the guardian deity in Buddhism.
On the east and west sides of the main hall are the Four Heavenly Kings, namely: Dhritarashtra in the East, who holds a pipa and can protect the country; Virūpākṣa in the South, who holds a sword and can increase people's good roots.
The Western God of Vision, holds a jewel in his left hand and a dragon in his right hand. He is able to observe with a calm eye and protect the people. The Northern God of Wealth, holds a silver mouse in his left hand and an umbrella in his right hand. He is able to protect the people's wealth and blessings.
Yan Chenyu and Koala came out of the north gate of the Heavenly King Hall and saw a wide courtyard with towering ancient trees and lingering incense. There were century-old cypress trees on the east side of the courtyard and century-old boxwood trees on the west side. At the north end there was a slope about 2 meters high with 15 stone steps along the slope.
In front of the Main Hall there is a three-legged, two-story, hexagonal pagoda-shaped tripod. The front of the tripod is engraved with "Daming Temple" and the back is engraved with "Wannian Tripod". It is inscribed with "Established in the autumn of 1981 by Abbot Nengqin and two orders of monks".
The main hall faces south and has a three-layered hip roof, gray tile roof, and hollow ridge. A mirror is embedded on the top of the ridge, with the words "good weather and good harvest" carved on the front and "peace and prosperity" carved on the back.
This saying comes from Buddhism, which means that the Buddhas and gods in the Mahavira Hall and the Heavenly King Hall shoulder the important task of protecting the peace and prosperity of the world. Brackets are set around the upper, middle and lower eaves to make the eaves protrude and form flying eaves. A horizontal plaque with the words "Mahavira Hall" hangs under the middle eaves. There are hard-roofed corridors in front and back, with 24 door panels on the inner eaves, and a door in the middle of the back wall to connect to the backyard.
The hall is solemn, with sutra pillars and instruments. The Sakyamuni Buddha sitting on a lotus platform in the middle is honored as "Daxiong". On both sides of the Buddha are Kasyapa and Ananda, two of his ten great disciples. After the Buddha's death, Kasyapa presided over the first gathering of Buddhist believers on Mount Vulture Peak; Ananda is the Buddha's cousin, smart and wise, good at memory, followed the Buddha for 25 years, and wrote down the Buddha's teachings on the leaves of the palm tree, which became the Buddhist scriptures.
To the east of the Buddha is Medicine Buddha, who is in charge of the "Eastern Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss"; to the west is Amitabha Buddha, who is in charge of the "Western Paradise".
Like other temples, behind the altar is a group of clay sculptures of "Sea Island Guanyin". Guanyin is the chief Bodhisattva in the Western Paradise. She can save people from all sufferings in the world, and is therefore called the Bodhisattva of Great Compassion.
There is no mistake in the poem, post, content, and read the book on 6, 9, and bar!
On both sides of the altar are the statues of the Eighteen Arhats. All the Buddha statues in the hall have been renovated, shining with golden light and solemn appearance. There are many monks in Daming Temple, incense is constantly burning, and tourists are flocking in. Every New Year's Eve, the temple holds a bell-ringing event, and guests from home and abroad gather to pray for peace and happiness.
The two-story, five-bay, single-eaved, hard-roofed Sutra Library is an important part of Daming Temple. It has a spacious hallway and a roof with "Dharma Wheel Always Turning" inlaid on the roof and "Peace and Prosperity for the Country and the People" inscribed on the roof. The plaque on the Sutra Library was inscribed by Zhao Puchu.
Yan Chenyu and Koala passed through the octagonal gate of the "Wenchang Aoqu" and saw a three-story, three-room, single-eaved hip-and-gable pavilion standing in front of us on the east side of the Daming Temple courtyard. A plaque with the words "Pingyuan Tower" was hung on it.
This building was first built by Wang Yinggeng, Shaoqing of Guanglu Temple, in the tenth year of Yongzheng's reign in Qing Dynasty (1732). The name of the building was taken from the "Shanshui Xun" by Guo Xi, a painter of Song Dynasty: "Looking at distant mountains from nearby mountains is called Pingyuan".
During the Xianfeng period, the tower was destroyed by war. During the Tongzhi period, Fang Junyi, the salt transport commissioner of Lianghuai, rebuilt it and added the inscription "Pingyuan Tower". He also wrote a couplet: "Two golden dots help to arouse the inspiration for reciting poems while drinking; the twin peaks are now towering and beautiful, and thousands of pine trees bring in the sound of waves outside the railings." The couplet is powerful and very apt in describing the scenery outside the tower.
Pingyuan Tower has three floors, with exquisite construction, and a courtyard with bamboo and rocks. It is now the abbot's room. To the north of Pingyuan Tower is Qingkong Pavilion, which is now the exhibition room of Jianzhen's deeds.
Yan Chenyu and Koala entered the courtyard in front of the building. On the horizontal plaque in the courtyard were engraved the words "Yinxin Stone House", which was inscribed by Emperor Daoguang for Tao Shu, a Jinshi in the Jiaqing period.
Tao Shu lived by the Dongting Lake. There was a square stone in the pond in front of his house that looked like a seal, so it was named "Yinxin Stone". Tao Shu followed his father to study since he was a child, and his study was on the north bank of the "Yinxin Stone", so it was named "Yinxin Stone House".
The lush and precious tree next to the Yinxin Stone House is the Yangzhou flower - the magnolia, which is over 300 years old and is the oldest and largest magnolia in Yangzhou. (Want to know more exciting updates about "He Came from the End of the World"? Open WeChat now, click the "+" sign in the upper right corner, select Add Friends to add a public account, search for "", follow the public account, and never miss any updates!) (To be continued..)