Minhou County is located in the east of Fujian Province, southwest of the provincial capital Fuzhou City, the famous "Xuefeng Chongsheng Zen Temple" is in the Village of Xuefeng, Dahu Township, Minhou County. "Chongsheng Zen Temple" has an extremely important position in the history of the development of Zen Buddhism, its founding ancestor Yi Cun Zen Master is a famous monk in the history of Chinese Buddhism, and the two sects of Cloud Gate and Dharma Eye in Chinese Zen Buddhism are from his disciples, which have a far-reaching influence in the history of Buddhism. Chongsheng Temple, also known as the "first jungle in the south", is a national key temple of Buddhism in Han areas.
Xuefeng Mountain was originally named "Elephant Bone Peak", spanning the four counties of Minhou, Luoyuan, Gutian and Minqing, because there was still snow in the summer months of the mountain, so it was renamed "Xuefeng".
This temple was founded in the eleventh year of Tang Xiantong (870 AD), during the Song Dynasty, the temple was named "Xuefeng Chongsheng Zen Temple", and has been used to this day. In the heyday of Xuefeng Temple, there were three main halls, three Zen halls, and seven halls in the temple, and there were more than 1,500 monks.
This is the famous "Chiba Po Lotus" of Seopongji Temple, this flower is difficult to flower, sometimes waiting for years or decades. The Chiba Lotus is considered a Buddhist relic, usually appearing when the Buddha speaks or displays miraculous powers, and is recorded in many Buddhist texts. We were so fortunate that we could witness it with our own eyes in the year we went. [Thank you]
This is the first time in my life that I have seen "Chiba Po Lotus", which is particularly rare.
The temple has a mountain gate, a bell and drum tower, a daxiong treasure hall, a hall of worship and other buildings.
Ascend the high steps and come to the backyard.
Here is the "Yicun Zushi Pagoda", which is the flesh pagoda of the Yicun Zushi, built in the second year of Liang Kaiping (908 AD) of the Fifth Dynasty.
Next to it is the "Dharma Hall"
There is a peony garden behind the temple, which is also a rare peony garden in Fujian Province, but unfortunately, when we went, it was winter, not the season when peonies were in full bloom, and we could not see the king of the flowers of this country.
The architecture here is obviously very different from our minnan, no longer a red brick dovetail house, but a gray house with a high saddle-like gable.
To the right of the peony garden there is a small quaint courtyard
When we went there, we heard that there was an old mage in the "Liuxiang Hall" who retreated here all year round
The temple has tall, dense trees
A few hundred meters southeast of Xuefeng Temple, there is the famous "Dead Wood Temple", which was built in the eleventh year of Tang Xiantong (870 AD). There is a dead wood in the nunnery, 3.32 meters high, 7.13 meters in circumference, hollow belly, which can accommodate more than ten people, and it is said that this place was the perch of the ancestors of Yi Cun when they first came to Xuefeng.
A huge lotus pond in front of the DeadWood Temple
Leaving Xuefeng Temple, we continued to see Minhou Yongxiangcuo. Passing by the market, I saw that the incense for sale here was more than two meters high, the longest incense I had ever seen. [Laughs]
Pass by the "White Sand Theater". Loved the old building with the Doric columns of the Greek temple. It reminds me of the old cultural palace in Xiamen, but unfortunately it has been demolished now, and I don't know if the "Baisha Film Theater" is still there.
Yongxiang Yongfencuo was founded in xinpo village in Baisha Town, Minhou, and was built in the first year of the Qianlong Dynasty (1736) and took 59 years to complete. Yongfen and Yongxiang are a pair of brothers. The first five of the houses were built by Jiang Yongxiang. The building is 5 wide and 5 deep, with a bucket-style wooden hanging hilltop, an intermediate hall, symmetry between the left and right, and the official room and the lower room are all available. There are ladders on both sides of the main seat, which are separated by earthen walls to facilitate ventilation and fire prevention. The last two of the houses were built by Jiang Yongfen, and the architectural style is similar to the first five, except that the layout of the attic, study and garden on both sides is more flexible and free than the main seat. (The above information is excerpted from the Internet)
Yongxiang Yongfencuo is arranged vertically, and there were originally seven of them, as well as ancillary buildings such as study rooms, boudoirs, pavilions and gardens. When we went there, it was quite badly damaged, and we don't know if there is a repair today.
But in some details, you can still see the glory of the past
Zoom in close and take another shot
The screen in the middle hall is missing
The wood carvings were also badly damaged
Wood carvings are faintly visible on the wooden doors
Fortunately, I was interested in the old things, walking along the mottled outer wall, walking around the ancient house, slowly savoring the vicissitudes.
The wooden keel on the wall was exposed
Yongxiang Yongfencuo still has some mysteries that cannot be solved. The first mystery is that the ancestors of the Jiang clan have been farmers for generations, and Jiang Yongfen and Jiang Yongxiang are also farmers, and they do not know where the huge amount of money to build such a huge "mansion" comes from. The Jiang family tree does not mention anything about the Jiang mansion here, and the descendants of the Jiang clan cannot say why. The second mystery is why the Jiang family brothers built the "mansion" in the "deep mountain"? How did those huge building materials get into the mountains? It is said that the amount of stone used in Yongfen Yongxiangcuo is very amazing, and the area of paving with stone is 5,000 square meters. The zenith and steps are laid with flat stone strips, and the longest stone strips are each 6 meters long, 80 centimeters wide, 30 centimeters thick, and weigh 3 tons.
There are some things that we can't guess, the old house is there, naturally there is a reason for it, and I and other mortals just need to appreciate it!