Posted ByChina7day
Shaolin Temple was founded in the 19th year of Taihe in the Northern Wei Dynasty (AD 495) by Yuanhong, the emperor of Xiaowen, in order to settle down the Indian monk Batuo and build a foundation on the mountain. Because it is located in the dense forest of Shaoshi mountain, it is called “Shaolin Temple”. In the third year of Xiaochang in the Northern Wei Dynasty (A.D. 527), Bodhidharma, the 28th generation of Sakyamuni, arrived at Shaolin temple for three years, and first passed on Zen, which had a great influence. Therefore, Shaolin Temple is called “the Zen ancestral hall” by the world Buddhism, and develops rapidly on this basis, especially after the thirteen stick monk rescued Li Shimin in the early Tang Dynasty, it has been highly valued by the Tang Dynasty, and won the reputation of “the best temple in the world”.
Today’s Shaolin Temple is not only famous for its ancient and mysterious Buddhist culture, but also for its superb Shaolin Kungfu. “Chinese Kungfu tops the world, and the world’s kungfu is out of Shaolin.”. This is the birthplace of Shaolin martial arts, which is also recognized as the authentic School of Chinese martial arts.
Shaolin Temple scenic area includes the main tourist attractions of Shaolin Temple, such as often hospitalized, Tallinn, chuzu’an, erzu’an, damodong, Shifang temple, martial arts museum, etc.
1.Shaolin Temple Cangzhuyuan
Shaolin Temple is the core of Shaolin Temple. It is the place where monks and deacons conduct Buddhist activities. The total area is more than 30000 square meters, which is a seven step building. Now the first thing we see is:
Mountain Gate: the mountain gate is the gate of Shaolin Temple. This is a building of Qing Dynasty. It was renovated in 1975. The word “Shaolin Temple” on the forehead of the gate is written by Emperor Kangxi of Qing Dynasty. There is a square seal of “the treasure of Kangxi imperial pen”.
The stone lions on both sides of the steps of the Mountain Gate hall are carved in the Ming Dynasty, which not only shows the style of Buddhism, but also symbolizes the evil and auspiciousness of the town. On both sides of the mountain gate are the East and West stone houses built in the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty.
You see, in the niches of the temple of the mountain gate, the Maitreya Buddha with big belly is also called welcome Buddha. He is kind-hearted and welcomes you with a smile. We call Maitreya Buddha “a dignified and solemn mountain gate that enjoys the world’s shining light, and laughs and welcomes people’s blessing of bliss.”.
At the back of the shrine in the Mountain Gate hall is the Bodhisattva Weituo, known as the Dharma protector. It holds a Vajra treasure pestle to protect the safety of the three treasures of Buddha, Dharma and monk in the temple.
We can see that there are many steles on both sides of the Mountain Gate corridor, known as Shaolin Temple stele forest, which are all famous original steles since the Tang and Song dynasties. To the east of the forest of Steles is the former site of Ciyun hall, which is now the Stone Gallery of Shaolin Temple. It not only records the rise and fall of the temple, but also has high research value in history, sculpture and art. There are 108 stone inscriptions in the forest of Steles and the stone Gallery of Shaolin Temple.
The western part of the tablet forest is the hammer spectrum hall, which has 42 corridors in one week. It shows the origin, development, practice, elite routine, national defense function, monks and soldiers, martial arts activities and so on by using clay sculpture and wood carvings, etc., displaying 14 sets of 216 hammer images in Shaolin Temple. There are sitting meditation, running Sutra around Buddha, Baduanjin, Xiaohong boxing, Dahong boxing, Liuhe boxing, Tongbi boxing, Luohan boxing, Zhaoyang boxing, practicing basic skills, thirteen stick monk saving the king of Qin, Xiaoshan monk holding the commander on the March, yuekong master Ping Japanese invaders and laymen disciple practicing martial arts. As the saying goes: five minutes in hammer spectrum hall, you can practice Shaolin skill by comparing these statue postures.
We now see that it is the second time to build the Tianwang palace. The original building of the Tianwang palace was burned by shiyousan in 1928. It was rebuilt in 1982. The two vajras outside the hall were called “hum” and “ha” generals. Their duty was to protect the Buddha Dharma. Inside the hall are four great kings of heaven, also known as the four great King Kong. Their duty is to inspect the good and evil deeds of all living beings, to help the poor and the needy, and to bless the world. According to the characteristics of the combination of the four heavenly kings, people mean “good weather”.
The hall of Mahavira is the central building of the temple and an important place for monks to carry out Buddhist activities. Like the hall of heavenly king, it was burned down by shiyousan, the warlord, in 1928. It was rebuilt in 1985. The hall is a five room, double eaves and mountain style building. In the center of the hall, there is the Buddha of the present world — Sakyamuni Buddha, the Buddha of the past on the left — the pharmacist Buddha of the Oriental pure glass world, the Buddha of the future on the right — the Amitabha Buddha of the Western Paradise. In the hall, there are eighteen Arhats in the East and West gables and GuanShiYin in the back wall of the screen wall. The difference between the Mahavira Hall of Shaolin Temple and other Mahavira halls is that there are standing statues of Bodhidharma and King Jinaro, known as the founder of the stick technique of Shaolin Temple. In addition, there are two big pillars in the middle of the hall and the Kirin statue, which indicates that Zen Buddhism is completely Chinese Buddhism.
The buildings on both sides of the front of the Daxiong hall are the second floor of Bell and drum, the southeast is the bell tower, and the southwest is the drum tower. The original buildings were destroyed in 1928 and rebuilt in 1994. They are the fixed buildings of the temple. We often say “morning bell and evening drum” is a signal of monks’ daily life and Buddhist activities.
The East and west sides of the Sutra pavilion are the East Chan hall and the West guest hall. The East Chan hall is a place for monks to sit and meditate. The West guest hall is now a place for guests.
The Abbot’s room is the place where the abbot of Shaolin Temple (that is, the abbot) lives, lives and administers. On September 29th, the 15th year of Qianlong’s reign, Qianlong stayed here when he visited Songshan mountain. The bell on the east side of the Abbot’s room door was cast in the Yuan Dynasty. This clock can only be struck in case of an emergency and can serve as an alarm.
Da Mo Pavilion is also called Li Xue Pavilion. In the shrine, there is a bronze statue of Dharma sitting in the shrine, with the second ancestor Huike, the third ancestor sencan, the fourth ancestor Daoxin and the fifth ancestor Hongren on both sides. The four characters of “snow imprinted heart pearl” hanging in the palace are the imperial titles of Emperor Qianlong. There is another moving story about Da Mo ting. According to the Buddhist scriptures: when Dharma came to the Shaolin Temple, a Chinese monk, the divine light, followed him. He asked for Dharma’s advice modestly and was rejected by Dharma. The divine light was not discouraged. Dharma sits on the face of the cave, and the divine light stands behind him. Dharma goes back to the temple to take care of Buddhism. The divine light also follows the temple. The divine light takes good care of Dharma and is inseparable. Every move of the Zen master, Xinyue oral, so day after day, year after year. One winter night in 536 A.D., Dharma sat in Dharma Pavilion and settled down. The God light was still standing outside the pavilion. Then there was a heavy snow in the sky. The snow covered the God light’s knees. The God light still put his hands together and did not move. The next morning, after Dharma opened, he saw the God light standing in the snow and asked him, “what are you doing standing in the snow?” God light replied, “please teach me the true dharma.” Dharma said, “I will pass it to you, unless it’s red snow.”
The magic light understood the meaning, drew out the sabre and cut off his left arm. The blood immediately turned red and white snow, and Da Mo was moved. So he passed the cloister magic instrument to the magic light as the proof of the transmission, and named it “Huike”. This is the source of the idiom story of “the true story of the mantle”. The story of “seeking Dharma with broken arms” has also been handed down by the Zen family. At the same time, in order to commemorate the second ancestor Huike who set up snow and broke his arms to seek Buddhism, people also called “Da Mo Pavilion” as “Li Xue Pavilion”.
To the east of Da Mo Pavilion is Manjusri hall, which is dedicated to Manjusri Bodhisattva. Now, please follow me to visit the highest Hall of Shaolin Temple, which is also the most precious hall.
Qianfo Temple Qianfo temple was built in the Ming Dynasty. It is the last building of Shaolin Temple, also known as Pilu Pavilion. It is more than 20 meters high and covers an area of more than 300 square meters. It is the largest Buddhist temple in the temple. In the shrine, there is a plaque of “FA Yin Gao ti” hanging on the shrine of Pilu Buddha (the Dharma body of Sakyamuni Buddha), which is the imperial book of Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty. In the East, northwest and three walls of the temple are the Ming Dynasty The 500 large-scale color paintings of Pilu in the Luohan Dynasty, painted by unknown painters in the Ming Dynasty, are of exquisite meaning and bold design with high artistic research value. From the ground, we can see that there are 48 pit stands in four rows on the bottom of the brick paving in the hall. They are the foot pit sites where Shaolin monks practice boxing and martial arts over the years. From these foot pits, we can see that Shaolin Kung Fu is extraordinary.
To the east of the Thousand Buddhas hall is the Guanyin hall, also known as Chupu hall, which is dedicated to the great man in white, the Guanyin Bodhisattva. On the wall of the temple is the boxing Manual of Shaolin Temple drawn in the middle and late Qing Dynasty.
To the west of the thousand Buddha Hall is the underground hall. In the middle of the hall is the king of Tibet. To the south of the king of Tibet is the defense elder, to the north is the monk Daoming. To the north and south of the hall, the walls are painted with “ten hall Yanjun” and to the west is painted with “twenty four filial piety”.
2 Shaolin temple tower forest
The Pagoda Forest of Shaolin Temple is the tomb of eminent monks of Shaolin Temple of all ages, with a total area of more than 14000 square meters. In 1996, the State Council announced it as a national key cultural relics protection unit. There are more than 240 stone tombs of Tang, song, Jin, yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties in Tallinn, including 2 pagodas of Tang, 2 pagodas of song, 10 pagodas of Jin, 46 pagodas of yuan, 148 pagodas of Ming, and the rest are unknown pagodas of Qing and Song dynasties. The Pagoda Forest of Shaolin Temple is the largest and most numerous ancient pagoda group in China. The tower height here is generally less than 15 meters, ranging from level one to level seven. The height, size, level and shape of the Ming pagoda are determined by the Buddhist status, Buddhist attainments, number of Buddhists, prestige, economic status and historical conditions.
The famous pagodas in Shaolin temple include: the fawan Buddhist pagoda in the seventh year of Zhengyuan period of Tang Dynasty (791 A.D.), the ordinary Pagoda in the third year of Xuanhe period of Song Dynasty (1121 A.D.), the West Tang Pagoda in the second year of Zhenglong period (1157 A.D.), the tanran stone Pagoda in the eighth year of Wanli period of Ming Dynasty (1580 A.D.), the other shore Pagoda in the fifth year of Kangxi period of Qing Dynasty (1666 A.D.), the ju’an elder pagoda built from the Yuan Dynasty (post) to the fifth year of Yuan Dynasty (1339 A.D.) 。 Tallinn is a precious treasure for studying the history of ancient architecture, sculpture, calligraphy, art and religious culture in China.
3.The first ancestor temple of Shaolin Temple
Now I’d like to give you a brief introduction of Chuzu temple, which is located under the wuru peak of Shaolin Temple. On the hillside behind the temple, it was built by the descendants of Dharma to commemorate the face wall of Dharma. Covering an area of 7760 square meters, the main hall of chuzu’an is a typical wooden structure in the Song Dynasty, and now it is a national key cultural relics protection unit. Now we take a cableway to visit erzu temple.
4.Erzu Temple of Shaolin Temple
Erzu temple is located on the Baoyu peak of Shaolin Temple. It is the highest building of Shaolin Temple and built by Huike. It is also called Nan’an because of its north-south confrontation with chu’zu temple. It is said that Huike, the second ancestor, had a rest here after the snow broke.
5 Da Mo cave of Shaolin Temple
Damo cave is located on wuru peak in the northwest of Shaolin Temple. The cave is about 7 meters deep, 3 meters high and 3.5 meters wide. From 527 to 536 A.D., Damo faced the wall for nine years, and finally became the true fruit, the first Zen, and became a great creation in the history of Buddhism. There is a ten square one built in Ming Dynasty. There are many stone carvings left by celebrities of all ages on the rocks on both sides of the cave.
6.The ten square Temple opposite.
On the South Bank of the Shaoxi river opposite Shaolin Temple is the stone Buddhist temple, which was built in the seventh year of Zhengde (1512). It was rebuilt in the tenth year of Shunzhi in Qing Dynasty. It is the place for the monks to stay. It collapsed in 1958 and was rebuilt in 1993. The newly-built ten square Buddhist temple is different from the past. It is a new set of Buddhist Buddhist scenes – the five hundred arhat hall.
Ten directions are the top and bottom of four corners.
Si Zheng: there are four single eaves Xieshan style temples in the East, West, South and North.
Four corners: there are four distinctive scenic circles in spring, summer, autumn and winter.
It is one of the main tourist attractions of Shaolin Temple.