Built in 307 AD and now about 1,700 years old, the temple is located on the western outskirts of Beijing and has undergone many name changes.
During the Tang Dynasty, it was changed to Longquan Temple, which was extensively renovated during the Kangxi Dynasty of the Qing Dynasty and named after Xiuyun Temple. But this temple has a very high status in the eyes of Beijingers, and the people call it Tanzhu Temple.
This temple is inconspicuous among the many temples in the mainland, and the area is not large, but there are armed police standing guard at the door, what is its superiority?
The most cattle temple, built ever
Tanzhu Temple is built on the top of the mountain, sitting north and facing south, surrounded by nine peaks. The overall layout moves with the mountain, and at the time of construction, the shrine was the main building, in the center.
In later developments, the Qing Dynasty's expansion project was the largest, with a courtyard built on the left and right sides on the basis of the middle, and extended along the road.
According to legend, Tanzhu Temple was established in the Jin Dynasty and Tang Dynasty, but there is no record of the structure of the temple, and in the Jin Dynasty, there are few records, which is a huge building that needs to be built for ten years.
During the Ming Dynasty, the Japanese Zen master Arrived in the Central Plains during the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty, and Ming Chengzu Zhu Di appointed him as the abbot of Longquan Temple and spent a huge amount of money to repair the temple. In the spring of the first year of xuande pengshen at the end of the Ming Dynasty, he entered Yanjing, and on the right side of Longquan Temple, built a district of the temple, which was used to decorate the main hall of the temple.
Later, in the sixth year of Daming Zhengde and the tenth year of Yu Hongzhi, Dai Company Li came to Tanzhu Temple, and the monk said: "There is an ancient temple called Longquan here, which is very old. "Dai Gong asked the imperial court for a bounty with the grain he had accumulated, so that the palace and hall would be renewed.
Since the Kangxi Dynasty, the emperors and harem concubines of the Qing Dynasty have also had a good impression of the Tanzhu Temple, and some buildings have also been renovated, and with the fame of the Tanzhu Temple, the various incense societies and donations of the people have also increased, and some of the deeds of folk donations have been inscribed.
During the Republic of China, Tanzhu Temple basically maintained the style of the late Qing Dynasty. It's just that there are a lot of temples whose names and roles have changed. In 1956, Tanzhu Temple was taken over by the Beijing Garden Administration and has become a tourist attraction in Beijing. From the beginning of the founding of the country to the present, in fact, there have been great changes.
Tanzhu Temple, a royal temple
The most important turning point in the fate of Tanzhu Temple was the Tang Dynasty. During the Wu Zetian period, Huayan Zen master, with the assistance of Zhang Renxian, the governor of Youzhou, expanded the temple and renamed it Longquan Temple. When Emperor Wuzong of Tang "destroyed the Buddha", the temple was destroyed, and it was not until the fifth generation and the later Tang Dynasty that the temple regained its prosperity.
In the first year of the Jin Dynasty, Emperor Jin Xizong came here to worship the Buddha and funded the construction of a large Wanshou Temple. Jin Zhangzong also came here to admire birds, and built a small temple in his residence, named "QueEr'an".
In the thirteenth century, Kublai Khan's daughter Miaoyan prayed to the Buddha statue every day to atone for her father's sins, and year after year, her feet left deep footprints on the ground. After the death of Princess Myoyan, she was buried in the tower in front of the temple and built the 18-meter-high Myoyan Master Pagoda.
In the early Ming Dynasty, Yao Guangxiao, who assisted Zhu Di in plotting to seize the throne, once resigned his official post and went to Tanzhu Temple to devote himself to cultivation, and Zhu Di personally went to Tanzhu Temple to visit the deceased. Later, Empress Xiaocheng of Emperor Xuanzong of Ming, Empress Dowager Cisheng, the mother of Emperor Shenzong, all invested a lot of money in Tanzhu Temple.
In the Qing Dynasty, the Qing government attached great importance to the Tanzhu Temple, and the three generations of emperors Kangxi and Qianlong came here to visit.
In particular, Kangxi and Qianlong, several times funded the restoration of Tanzhu Temple, and I personally lived in the temple, it can be said that Tanzhu Temple developed to its peak, and Yongzheng gave a large number of his own ink treasures to Tanzhu Temple.
The Qing Dynasty attached more importance to the Tanzhu Temple, and Kangxi went to the Tanzhu Temple three times, and personally sent the Zhenhuan monk to preside over the Tanzhu Temple, and was appointed as the "Barrister", and allocated 10,000 taels of treasure silver to repair the temple. In the thirty-sixth year of the Kangxi Dynasty, he gave Xiuyun Temple and personally wrote "Xiuyun".
Yongzheng, who has never been out often, also went to Tanzhu Temple to worship the Buddha. The Qianlong Emperor liked to travel in the mountains and rivers, inscriptions everywhere, he also followed his grandfather to the Tanzhu Temple, each time he would get a rich reward, but also sent plaques, couplets, utensils, etc., Qianlong twenty-six years, he also gave a golden amulet, and walked in with the abbot.
Under the influence of the former emperor, the empress dowagers and princes and ministers went to Tanzhu Temple to worship and tour, and together with the monks, they participated in meditation and recited scriptures. The Yanqing Pavilion, Liubei Pavilion, and Palace on the east side of Tanzhu Temple were all built to welcome the emperor and the empress, so Tanzhu Temple was called "the first temple under the heavens".
And the locals call the Temple "Unbearable"! According to the custom of the Qing Dynasty, Tanzhu Temple was the territory of Wanping County, but Tanzhu Temple was dismissive of Liupin officials. During the Guangxu period, a new county order went to Tanzhu Temple to "worship the mountain", but the abbot refused to show up, but only sent a Zhike monk to deal with it.
After the fall of the Qing Dynasty, Tanzhu Temple re-established relations with the warlords, and Zhang Zuolin and Wu Peifu were also honored as guests. Every time Wu Peifu celebrates his birthday, every second day of the third month of the lunar calendar, the old monks will personally come to the door to congratulate. After Wu Peifu's death, the abbot of Chunyue, Wu Peifu, personally went to Tanzhu Temple to preside over the thirteen confessions for him.
Armed police stand guard, guarding treasures
There are many treasures in Tanzhu Temple, one of which is a stone fish hanging in front of the Dragon Palace on the west side of the Guanyin Hall. It hung under the eaves of the Dragon King Hall and struck with a crisp sound.
The stone fish is one meter and five meters long and weighs one hundred and fifty kilograms, because there is a metal component in the stone, so the sound is very pleasant, and it is said that the stone fish is the treasure of the South China Sea Dragon Palace, and the Dragon King dedicated it to the Jade Emperor.
Every year there is a great drought, a plague outbreak, His Majesty the Jade Emperor descends a stone fish, the monks hang it in the Dragon King Hall, there are thirteen stone fish, each representing the drought of a province, which province has a drought, there will be a place where it will rain. It is rumored that people who are sick, when they have headaches, knock on the stomach of fish, can be cured.
Another piece of excellence is the large copper pot of Tanzhu Temple. On the east side of the Hall of Heavenly Kings, there is a room with a large bronze cauldron with a diameter of 1.85 meters in the kitchen. This is the "small pot" used by monks for cooking, while the other two large pots are more than three meters wide and more than two meters deep.
The magic of this pot is that it can separate the sand from the rice when cooking, and all the sand will fall into a groove in the pot, which is the so-called "no leakage of rice". Legend has it that Tanzhu Temple once had the saying of "three thousand monks, nameless monks", "come without refusing, go without staying", which shows the large capacity of this pot.
Another gem is the Millennium Almond Tree, which is located in the Pilu Pavilion behind the Daxiong Treasure Hall, in front of the pavilion is a courtyard, in the courtyard planted two strange trees, an "imperial tree", more than forty meters high, four meters in diameter, need to be surrounded by six people, it is said that this is a relic of the Liao Dynasty, on which is engraved the imperial seal of Ganlong.
It is said that whenever the emperor of the Qing Dynasty ascended the throne, new branches would grow at its roots and gradually merge with its branches. Every time an emperor dies, a branch is broken, and more than a thousand years have passed, and the branches are leafy and full of vitality, which is a rare treasure.
Later, the ancients planted a ginkgo tree in the west, named "Peiwang Tree", which was more than thirty meters high and later known as "Gongsun Tree".
To the east, there is a pavilion called Liubei Pavilion, and inside the pavilion hangs a horizontal plaque inscribed by Qianlong himself "Xingting Pavilion". Spring into the ditch, through the curved sink out, the cup pavilion inside the groove width of about 10 cm, legend has it that the ancients put the wine cup in the pool, the wine glass drifted with the water, sitting in different places to drink a glass of wine.
In Beijing, there are five places each in the Forbidden City, Zhongnanhai, Yuanmingyuan (original site), Tanzhu Temple, and Gongwangfu. Among them, the Tanzhu Temple LiuBei Pavilion and the Zhongnanhai Water Sound are the most famous.
Another piece is the structure of the roof of the Daxiong Treasure Hall, and the two huge glass cat kisses in the middle are particularly conspicuous. The "partridge" is one of the legendary nine dragons used to build houses that prevent fires.
According to legend, this temple has no foundation, only a deep pool called "Sea Eye", and there is a dragon in the pool, which comes every day to listen to the sermons of Huayan Laozu.
One day, Tanlong wanted to open a mountain to build a temple, and after a rainstorm, the waterhole became a large open space, and Tanlong drilled out of the water and hid in the waterhole of the back mountain.
On the spine of this treasure hall, a "bird's kiss" is carved, which is vivid and lifelike, as if it is about to take off. Such decorative structures are rare in ancient Beijing architecture and Chinese temple architecture, and it is the first time I have seen such a delicate and magnificent "partridge kiss" decoration in Tanzhu Temple.
Depending on the level of the building, the higher the animal, the greater the number. In China, only the sacred beasts on the roof of the Taihe Temple in the Forbidden City can have ten.
The size of the animals in Tanzhu Temple is seven, which is only lower than the rank of Tiananmen Square, the same level as the imperial palace. The number of animals in Tanzhu Temple and Lama Temple is seven, indicating that the status of Tanzhu Temple is very high.
Tanzhu Temple has a large number of historical relics, and many people come to visit. Here is a poem written by the Emperor of the Qing Dynasty at Tanzhu Temple. In terms of temple construction, Tanzhu Temple was founded more than 1,700 years ago, is the first Buddhist temple in Beijing, and the legend of "Tanzhu Temple" and "Beijing City" is spread in folklore.
Tanzhu Temple has many precious cultural relics, and in order to protect the antiquities, there are armed police guarding here.
Historical development, architectural evolution
Politics and religion influenced each other, with rulers relying on religion to consolidate power, while religion relied on the power of the imperial court to develop and develop.
The Buddhist school has a great influence on the construction of monasteries, and although each sect has the same lineage, the practice methods, precepts, etc. are different, so the required building area will also be different.
Huayan monk founded Tanzhu Temple, founded Huayan Sect, after the rise of Zen Buddhism, Tanzhu Temple gradually developed into a Zen temple, to the Jin and Yuan dynasties, Buddhism attaches great importance to it, Princess Yuan Miaoyan became a monk in Tanzhu Temple.
The Qing Dynasty learned the lessons of the Shunzhi Emperor and changed Zen Buddhism to Vinaya, and added buildings such as altars during this period, making the Xilu area more perfect. After the Republic of China, the promotion of freedom of belief had an impact on the sects of Tanzhu Temple, and also had a certain impact on the construction of the temple. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Tanzhu Temple was used as a tourist attraction, and in addition to religious activities, facilities for tourists were also added.
The evolution of the architectural form of Tanzhu Temple is a clear historical context. Tanzhu Temple has undergone many wars and reconstructions in the wars of the Jin And Tang Dynasties, the Song Liao, and the Jin Dynasty.
In the Yuan and Ming dynasties, it was gradually valued by the imperial court, and successively repaired and expanded, initially forming the basic structure of Buddhism, with the archway, the mountain gate, the Hall of the Heavenly King, the Hall of the Great Treasure, the Three Holy Temples, and the Pilu Pavilion as the center.
During the Kangxi Dynasty, the large-scale expansion of the Temple increased, and the number of palaces in the east and some buildings in the west also increased. In the middle of the Qing Dynasty, the Great Temple of Compassion, the Anle Longevity Hall, the West Guanyin Cave and other buildings were built successively to expand the scale of the temple.
During the Republic of China, the layout of the temple did not change much, but it was constantly being repaired. In the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, Tanzhu Temple was used as a school building, and its architectural function also changed, but due to the cultural relics protection policy at that time, the main body of the building was preserved, and staff dormitories were built at the foot of the mountain.
Now Tanzhu Temple is managed by the garden department, as a national scenic spot, due to the needs of tourists, many architectural functions have changed, but the main structure of the building has been preserved, which is a valuable ancient cultural relics of the mainland.
The core of the ancient Tanzhu Temple was a Buddhist road halfway up the mountain, and the initial construction was not large, so the living routes did not occupy the main position, and later a western sermon area was built as the main auxiliary road.
During the Kangxi Dynasty, the imperial palace was greatly expanded, and the living area was expanded several times, and the main building of the East Road was composed of royal activity routes, maintaining a certain degree of independence and safety from the Buddhist and lecturing roads.
In the middle of the Qing Dynasty, in addition to improving the overall layout of the temple, buildings such as the Tiger Cave, the Anle Longevity Hall, and the Compassion Temple were built outside the main body of the temple, which were located outside the main gate, separated by the east and west gates, and the roads were relatively independent and had different functions. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, temples were the main tourist resources and sightseeing routes were the mainstay.
end
Temples have always been holy places, and those who come here pray for blessings, or for other reasons, bless peace. Nowadays, mainland temple tourism is booming.
Temple tourism has also become an indispensable part of the mainland tourism industry, but in a temple on the mainland, there are armed police guards 24 hours a day, there are heavily armed police patrols in turn, and there is an endless stream of people who go to Tanzhu Temple every day, which is why people here say that his status is relatively high. In Beijing, there is also a famous saying: the first is called Tanzhu Temple, and the second is called Beijing.
It can be seen how high the status of Tanzhu Temple in the minds of old Beijingers is. The armed police were also sent because the state sent armed police to protect cultural relics in the dormitories and not let the thieves succeed, so it sent armed police to garrison.
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Shen Anyang. Historical development and influencing factors of Tanzhu Temple[J].Ancient Garden Technology, 2019(03):60-65.