Passing through the stone alley of the ancient town of Qiao Feng, or standing at the bridge head of Qiao Feng Bridge, you can see Hanshan Temple with blue tiles and yellow walls is located among the green trees, with towering pines and cypresses and a winding path. Zhang Ji, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, passed by Hanshan Temple and wrote the poem "Sleeping by the Maple Bridge": "On a frosty night, the river winds sleep, Hanshan Temple outside Gusu City, and the bell rings at midnight to the passenger ship." Poems and bells have been handed down for thousands of years, so Hanshan Ancient Temple is famous all over the world.
Hanshan Temple is located in Qiao Feng Town, 5 kilometers west of Suzhou. It was built in Tian Jian during the Six Dynasties and the Liang Dynasty (502-5 19) and has a history of over 400 years. Formerly known as "Miaoliping Mingta Courtyard". During the Zhenguan period of the Tang Dynasty, it is said that the famous monks Hanshan and Picked came here from Tiantai Mountain and changed their names to Hanshan Temple. During the period of 1000, Hanshan Temple was destroyed by fire for five times (seven times), and the last reconstruction was in Guangxu period of Qing Dynasty. Hanshan Temple was once one of the top ten famous temples in China in history. There are many historical sites in the temple, including the stone carvings of Zhang Jishi, the stone statues of Hanshan and the inscriptions of Wen Zhiming and Tang Yin. The main buildings in the temple are Daxiong Hall, Xiandian Hall (Piandian Hall), Tibetan Scripture Building, Monument Gallery, Bell Tower, Fengjiang Building and so on.
Temple landscape
The main hall of Hanshan Temple is five rooms wide, four rooms deep and12.5m high. Rest on the top of the mountain with a single eaves, fly to worship the ridge and stretch according to the angle. There is a bronze tripod on the fireplace in the center of the terrace. The word "serious" is cast on the front of the tripod, and the word "tempered into steel" is written on the back. There is a religious legend here: once in China, a monk and a Taoist argued to see whose classics could stand the fire. Buddhists put the Diamond Sutra into a bronze tripod fire, and the Buddhist Sutra was safe and sound. In order to praise this past, this figure was carved on a tripod as a souvenir.
On the mast of the temple, the plaque of "Daxiong Hall" is hung high, and on the court column in the hall, there is a couplet written by Zhao Puchu: "The Buddhist land is solemn for more than a thousand years, Hanshan Temple outside Gusu City; Hundreds of people are on alert, and the tide floats in the middle of the night. " The tall Xumi Mountain is carved from white marble, crystal clear and white. On the seat, An Feng released the golden Buddha statue of Muni Buddha, with a kind face and a serene expression. On both sides of the wall are eighteen pure iron gold-plated arhats cast during Chenghua period of Ming Dynasty, which were moved from Wutai Mountain, a Buddhist holy place.
The back of the Buddha statue is different from other temples. It is dedicated to Hanshan stone carvings in the Tang Dynasty, not Guanyin on the island. This portrait was written by Luo Pin, one of the Eight Eccentrics in Yangzhou in Qing Dynasty. It is bold and bold with a pen and smooth lines. In the picture, Hanshan's right hand points to the ground, talking and laughing; Chest out and abdomen in, and listen happily. Both of them were sent out by the head, which was embarrassing.
Hanshan Temple is characterized by Hanshi Hall. This temple is located in the Tibetan Scripture Building, and the story of Journey to the West is engraved on the roof, which is the image of the Tang Priest's master and disciples returning from the West, and the theme is very consistent with the meaning of the Tibetan Scripture Building. The statue of Hanshan and the picker stand in the temple. Hanshan holds a lotus branch, picks up a clean bottle, puts on clothes, bares his chest and shows his breasts, and laughs and fights, which makes him look festive and lively. According to legend, Hanshan and Pickup were reincarnated from Manjusri and Pu Xian, and were later named Harmony Two Immortals by the emperor, which are symbols of harmony, auspiciousness and celebration. Both Hanshan and Pickup are fond of reciting poems. Hanshan has Poems of Hanshanzi, which is simple, natural and easy to understand. There is a saying that "Hanshan poets are better than reading classics", and later generations have collected poems. On the back of the statue picked up by Han He, there is a stone carving engraved with the statue of Guanyin with a thousand hands, which is engraved with the seal script "Today's Thousand Hands Eye" of Suzhou champion in the Qing Qianlong period. There are 27 pieces of "King Kong Prajna Paramita Sutra" written by Zhang Jizhi, a calligrapher of the Southern Song Dynasty, embedded in the left and right walls of the temple. This Diamond Sutra is a book he wrote in pursuit of his dead father. It is vigorous and Gu Zhuo, and it reveals heroism. The inscriptions by Dong Qichang, Bi Maokang, Lin Zexu, Yu Yue and others are * * * eleven stones, which are colorful and have their own merits.
There is a double-eaved hexagonal pavilion on the south side of Buddhist scripture building, which is a bell tower that returns in the name of "Midnight Bell". As for the saying "midnight", there have been many lawsuits in history. Ouyang Xiu in the Northern Song Dynasty thought Zhang Ji's poems were good, but it was not the time to ring the bell at midnight. Fan Chengda in the Southern Song Dynasty synthesized the arguments of Wang Zhifang and Ye Mengde in Wu Junzhi, which proved that the monk temple in Wuzhong really had the custom of ringing the bell in the middle of the night, which was called "setting the night bell". Such as Bai Juyi's poem: "Under the pine shadow in the new autumn, after the midnight bell." Gu Yu's poem: "If you know your harem partner, listen to Lushan Mountain at midnight." Wen ting yun Shi: "when you are idle, you think hard, and there is no midnight clock in the window." It is the midnight bell that poets in the Tang Dynasty heard everywhere. Since then, the debate has gradually subsided.
The ancient clock in Hanshan Temple today is no longer the Tang clock mentioned in Zhang Jishi's poems. Even the big clock rebuilt in Jiajing period of Ming Dynasty is gone. One said that at that time, "in case the weather changes", the pin was melted into a cannon; It is said that it has flowed to Japan, such as Kang Youwei's poem: "The bell crosses the sea to the east, and the Hanshan ancient temple is cold." To this end, Japan has also made great efforts to find it, but in vain, leaving an eternal mystery. Today's big clock was built by Chen, Governor of Jiangsu Province in the thirty-second year of Guangxu reign (1906). The giant clock is more than one person high, and it takes three people to hold it outside, weighing two tons. The bell is loud and melodious, and the echo is like thunder.
When a monk rings a bell, knocking 108 has two main meanings. One is that there are 12 months, 24 solar terms and 72 waiting days (five days is a waiting day) every year, which adds up to exactly 108. Ring the bell l08 to indicate the end of the year, which means to say goodbye to the old and welcome the new. Second, according to Buddhist legends, mortals have 108 kinds of troubles a year. When the bell rings 108 times, all people's troubles can be eliminated. Every year on New Year's Eve, Chinese and foreign tourists gather in Hanshan Temple to listen to the bell of 108, bid farewell to the old and welcome the new in the melodious bell, and pray for peace.
Related legends
The origin of the name of Hanshan Temple
According to legend, during the Zhenguan period of Emperor Taizong (627-648 AD), there were two young people, one was Hanshan and the other was Picked up. They have been demanding friends since childhood. When Hanshan grew up, his parents engaged him to a girl who lived in Qingshan Bay. However, the girl has long fallen in love with pickup trucks.
By chance, Hanshan finally knew the truth of the matter, and suddenly he felt like knocking over a five-flavor bottle, sour, bitter, spicy, salty and astringent, but without a trace of sweetness. He is in a dilemma. what should he do ？ After days and nights of painful thinking, Hanshan finally figured it out. He decided to fulfill the marriage he picked up. He resolutely left his hometown and went to Suzhou to become a monk alone.
Ten and a half months have passed, and it is strange that I have never seen Hanshan, because such a thing has never happened. One day, he couldn't help missing him, so he strolled to Hanshan's house. I saw a letter left for him on the door. When I opened it, it turned out that Hanshan advised him to marry the girl as soon as possible and wished them happiness. Only when I picked it up did I suddenly realize that it was very uncomfortable to know the reason why Hanshan ran away. He knows that his friend's wife can't be bullied, so he deeply regrets Hanshan. After much thought, he also decided to leave the girl and set off for Suzhou to find Hanshan and convert to Buddhism. It was summer, and on the way to Suzhou, I found a beautiful lotus flower blooming in the pond by the roadside. So I swept away my days of boredom and felt relaxed and happy, so I picked one and took it with me for good luck.
After trekking in Qian Shan, Pickup finally found his good friend Hanshan outside Suzhou, and the lotus in his hand is still so bright, fragrant and dazzling. Hanshan was very happy to see the pickup truck coming. He quickly greeted the pickup truck with a grate box filled with toxic food in his hands, and the two of them smiled knowingly at each other. Now there is a stone tablet in Hanshan Temple, engraved with the pattern of "Harmony and Two Immortals", which is said to be the scene of the reunion of these two good friends after a long separation. In the past, there were portraits of people who proposed marriage by hanging axes in Suzhou folk customs, and door gods were posted on the doors of many places in Jiangnan during the Spring Festival. There are two people in it, one holding a bamboo grate box and the other holding a lotus flower, smiling at each other and looking cute, which is commonly known as "harmonious two immortals". It is said that it also originated from this wonderful legend.
It is also said among the people that "Hehe Erxian" incarnated as Hanshan in order to enlighten the lost world. Even because "Hehe" met happily here and became the abbot, the name of the temple was changed from "Miaoliping Pagoda" to "Hanshan Temple". Because the idea of "harmony" is deeply rooted in people's hearts and Zhang Ji's poem "Hanshan Temple outside Gusu City" is widely circulated, although the name of the temple was changed to "Fumyoji" in the Song Dynasty, people still used to call it "Hanshan Temple". From the end of the Yuan Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty, Hanshan Temple was robbed five times, but it has been rebuilt since then, which shows the position of Hanshan Temple in the hearts of people of all dynasties. And until now, the Buddha statues enshrined in Hanshan Temple are still collected from Hanshan Mountain, which shows that the idea of "harmony" advocated by them has become an important part of the excellent traditional culture of the Chinese nation.
Legend has it that Pika later crossed the ocean to preach in Japan, which is separated only by water in the east, and established the Pika Temple in Japan. It seems that "harmony without difference" has long warned the Chinese and Japanese people to "harmony" and "harmony" and not to meet each other. Because of this, Japanese friends especially like Hanshan Temple in China. Yes, peace, cooperation, friendship and development are the main theme and the strongest sound in the world today!