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Lotus Ancient Temple and tomb of The Eight Sages of Chaozhou in the Song Dynasty

author:The view of Shanwan in the big tide

Lotus Ancient Temple is 17 kilometers north of Chengcheng In Chenghai City, in the territory of Lotus Town (Fifteen Townships), in the southern foothills of Lotus Mountain, next to The Anhuang Highway in the west of Zhanglin Road, near the hot spring resort, with smooth traffic, many monuments, and quiet and spectacular. The temple was originally built by Zhang Kui, one of the eight sages of Song Chaozhou, and was founded by his descendants in the 26th year of the Yuan to the 26th century (1289 AD), and rebuilt in the 12th year of Qing Jiaqing (1807 AD). It was rebuilt in 1937. It was rebuilt in 1985. On December 3, 1992, it was announced as a cultural relics protection unit by the Chenghai Municipal Government. It was approved for registration in 1988 and expanded in 2000. The original temple is a courtyard-style layout, for two entrances, double flower lane, hard hilltop civil structure bungalow, construction area of about 1000 square meters. The main hall is three rooms wide and deep. There is a relief "Fish Palm Stone" on the front cheng, and there is a stone carving of the "Kaishan Standing Stone" on the east slope until the 25th year of the Yuan Dynasty (1289 AD). On the east side of the temple is the "Kaiyuan Temple Hongjing Monk Kai Zhenyuan Gong Pagoda". There is an ancient well 10 meters northwest, the spring water is clear and sweet, the swimming fish can be counted, and the stone is carved with "ancient stone" and "guanquan". There is a silver tree on the south slope of the temple, which is said to have been planted when the temple was built, and although it has been solemn for seven hundred years. Not far from the tree, there is a large stone trough where the monks washed rice from the temple in the past, which is 2.8 meters long, 0.22 meters wide and 0.55 meters high. Inside the temple there is the tomb of Zhang Kui, and there is also a Floating Tu Pagoda of the Qing Dynasty.

Lotus Ancient Temple and tomb of The Eight Sages of Chaozhou in the Song Dynasty
Lotus Ancient Temple and tomb of The Eight Sages of Chaozhou in the Song Dynasty
Lotus Ancient Temple and tomb of The Eight Sages of Chaozhou in the Song Dynasty

Inscriptions erected by the Zhang clan and so on. Zhang Kui (張夔), also spelled Bo'an (Chinese: 张夔), was born in Longyan City, Haiyang County (named after the longan tree planted on the banks of the Han River, later changed to Longcheng, now a fifteenth township in Chenghai District). In the seventh year of the Northern Song Dynasty (1117), he served as a member of maoming zhi county. Some of the lawbreaking gentry bought off his close associates and tried to bribe him, but he was unmoved, convicted the gentry, and dismissed him from his post. The gentry spread rumors slandering him, and Taishou arrested the close officials to retry the case. Zhang Kui took the case file to meet with TaiShou and refused to reason urgently, and finally clarified the facts of the case and returned his innocence. Therefore, he was called the first Qingjie official of the Southern Central Counties and promoted to Lianzhou Tongju. Later, Zhang Kui was promoted to Zhizhou (知州) in Xinzhou (新州, in present-day Xinxing County, Guangdong Province), and when he was in office, he was in charge of the Xingxing School, donating money to engrave and print the Four Books and the Five Classics, and giving them to local children; Water conservancy was also built to store water in Zhupi, and the local people called the built Pi "Zhang Houpo". At the age of 70, he returned to his hometown and died in the twenty-seventh year (1157) of shaoxing in the Southern Song Dynasty.

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