The wind blows a little cloud, scattered into spring rain.
Sprinkle on pine Berlin, green onions are desirable.
Hold this cold exercise, the hand is empty.
No one in the valley comes, who is with the twilight?
- Song Chesong, "Ancient Yi"
【Location】Located in the west foothills of Lushan Mountain, Jiujiang City, Jiangxi Province, Donglin Temple, 16 kilometers north of Jiujiang City, 50 kilometers east of Lushan Guling, because of its location in the east of Xilin Temple, so it is called Donglin Temple.
【Temple History】Donglin Temple was founded in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, is one of the temples with a very long history on Lushan Mountain, and is the birthplace of the Pure Land Buddhism (known as the Lotus Sect). Donglin Temple carries the peak of the incense burner, next to the waterfall flowing down, the forest is luxuriant, the smoke clouds are infested, and the stream is babbling. No wonder that Hui Yuan said with relish in "A Brief Notes on Lushan" about the natural environment near Donglin Temple: "The north bears heavy fu, and the front belt has a double stream." The mountain on its back has a dragon shape on the left and a truncated base on the right. There is a sweet spring gushing out below, cold and warm and cold and hot phase change, profit and decrease through water and drought are not different, find its source, from the dragon shouye. Facing Gao Cen, there are strange trees, unique to the forest surface for dozens of zhang; Below it is like a layer of floating butcher, where the white gulls fly, and where the mysterious clouds enter. In the southeast, there is the incense burner mountain, the lonely peak is alone, and the air cage is on it, and it is like a cigarette, and the white clouds reflect outside, which is different from the peaks. ”
Huiyuan (334 – 416 AD) was the founder of Donglin Temple. Huiyuan, surnamed Jia, a native of Yanmen Loufu, Shanxi (near present-day Ningwu, Shanxi), built a lotus society (also known as the White Lotus Society) in Donglin Temple in Lushan in the fifteenth year of the Eastern Jin Dynasty (390 AD), with as many as 123 monks and people living in the land. In front of the statue of Ah Yata Buddha, they made a vow to pray the Buddha Samadhi alone, and lived together in the Western Pure Land, and asked Liu Weimin to write the Wenle Stone to become the founder of the Pure Land Sect of Buddhism. Donglin Temple White Lotus, called "Qinglian Hua" in ancient times. At that time, according to the shape of the Pure Land lotus pond described in the Buddhist scriptures, Huiyuan excavated the east and west ponds in front of Donglin Temple to plant white lotuses, and used lotus to conceive hearts, and then named it White Lotus Society. Hui Yuan has been exceptionally intelligent and studious since childhood, not only familiar with Confucian classics, but also proficient in the study of the old Zhuang Taoists. He became a monk at the age of 21 and studied under Gen-la Shi Daoan, who followed him for 25 years.
He immersed himself in the Buddhist scriptures, and pursued the fusion of Confucianism and Buddhism as one, strongly advocating that "the inner and outer ways can be combined", and also said that "although the way is different, what is returned ~ also", "if there is a sect in the meeting, a hundred schools of thought are the same". At the age of 24 (358 AD), Hui Yuan first appeared on the altar to give a lecture on the Prajna Sutra, and the Buddhist teachings were so profound that the audience could not understand them. So he re-explained it with the terms and concepts of the old Zhuang Taoist learning, and those who heard it were relieved. This method of interpreting Buddhist scriptures came to be known as "Geyi" and was widely used in the process of translating Buddhist sutras and commenting on sutras, becoming the cornerstone of sinicizing Buddhism. Huiyuan's master, Master Shi Daoan, specially allowed him to read the Confucian classics and the book of Lao Zhuang, and exclaimed: "Those who make the Dao flow to the eastern kingdom are far (Huiyuan)!" ”
In front of Donglin Temple, there is a clear stream that flows back from south to west, called Tiger Creek. The Huxi Bridge was built on it in the style of a stone arch bridge. It is said that Huiyuan "can't send guests to the Huxi Bridge", and if he crosses the bridge, the divine tiger on the back mountain will roar. One day, Huiyuan talked with Tao Yuanming and Lu Xiujing about Confucianism, and the three of them talked hand in hand, happy and forgetful, but unexpectedly after crossing the Huxi Bridge, the divine tiger on the mountain roared and roared, and the three looked at each other and laughed. This literary tale, known as "Tiger Creek Three Smiles", has been passed down to this day. It is said that when Huiyuan built the Divine Fortune Treasure Hall, he lacked the materials to build and was depressed. One night, the mountain god Tuomeng told Huiyuan: "This place is secluded enough to inhabit Buddhas." "Early the next morning, I saw a pool emerge from the flat ground, and a steady stream of Nanzi good wood flowed from the spring in the pool, and Hui Yuan built the Divine Fortune Treasure Hall with these woods.
【Historical value】There is a "Smart Spring" in front of Donglin Temple. Smart Spring was originally called "Gulong Spring". It is said that Hui Yuan arrived in Lushan and prepared to choose a place to build a temple, but he did not know where to go. So Hui Yuan knocked on the ground with his rod here, and said, "If you can dwell, let the decay spring be pumped." After speaking, the clear spring then gushed out. Later, in the year of great drought, Hui Yuan recited the Lotus Sutra by the spring to pray for the arrival of Ganlin, and saw the divine snake coming out of the spring, and heavy rain poured in, which is the origin of the name of the ancient dragon spring spring. Jiangzhou thorn Shi Yin Zhong Kan came to the temple, and talked with Hui Yuan about the "I Ching" by the spring. Yin Zhongkan was erudite and eloquent, and Hui Yuan especially admired his eloquence, so he said: "Jun's argument is so spring", and since then Gulong Spring has been renamed "Smart Spring".
Nowadays, visitors are interested in Smart Spring and make wishes every time they throw coins, making it a cultural landscape.