Ten Thousand Buddhas Hall and Kongshui Cave

Ten Thousand Buddhas Hall and Kongshui Cave

Ten Thousand Buddhas Hall and Kongshui Cave is a national key cultural relics protection unit.

Ten Thousand Buddhas Hall is a national key cultural relics protection unit, located above Kongshui Cave, facing east with its back to the west. It was first built in the fifth year of the Dali era of the Tang Dynasty (770 AD) and is the only surviving hall of the ancient temple at Kongshui Cave. Originally named the Ten Thousand Buddhas Dragon Spring Treasure Hall, it is commonly known as Ten Thousand Buddhas Hall because the hall houses the "Assembly of Manjushri, Samantabhadra and Ten Thousand Bodhisattvas." The existing building is a reconstructed structure from the Ming Dynasty. Its arched gate is topped with a stone plaque inscribed with regular script reading “Great Dali Relic — Ten Thousand Buddhas Dragon Spring Treasure Hall,” dated “Reconstructed in the spring of the Ji Chou year, Wanli reign, Great Ming.” The current building is a beamless hall with a hip-and-gable roof, measuring 13.72 meters in width (three bays) and 8.5 meters in depth (one bay). The front and side walls of the hall are inlaid with stone reliefs titled “Assembly of Ten Thousand Bodhisattvas,” stretching 23.8 meters in length and 2.47 meters in height, composed of 31 rectangular white marble carvings. The central relief depicts the scene of Shakyamuni preaching. Surrounding the main theme are layered carvings of ten thousand bodhisattvas, worshippers, and attendants. There are approximately ten thousand Buddha figures in the reliefs, bearing an inscription noting the “fifth year of the Dali era,” making it a treasured piece of Tang Dynasty relief art.

Kongshui Cave is located at the foot of Yunmeng Mountain in Hebei Town, Fangshan District, to the northwest of Beijing. With an opening to the northeast, clear spring water gushes from the cave and flows eastward into the Dashishi River. In front of the cave, brick and stone piers were built along the mountain slope, with an arched opening in the center through which the spring water flows beneath, clear to the bottom. The arch surface of the cave is built with stone, featuring a carved beast head in the middle and two dragons on either side. The arch is constructed from flat blue stones, resting on a foundation of strip stones. Approximately 40 centimeters above the water surface, the side foundations project inward with two-tiered platforms about 20 centimeters wide, wide enough to accommodate half a foot. According to the early Republican-era book "Miscellaneous Notes from Liulichang," there was originally a stone gate at the cave entrance, “with water flowing beneath it and a stone beam laid across. Standing and looking down, the depths were dark and could not be fully seen.” Today, the stone gate is gone, and the stone beam is also lost or incomplete.

Kongshui Cave is a famous historical cave, frequently recorded in historical texts throughout the dynasties. The cave walls still preserve Buddhist scriptures carved during the Sui and Tang periods, cliff carvings, and inscriptions from the Jin Dynasty, making it of great historical and cultural research value.

In ancient times, Kongshui Cave was also called “Dragon Spring” and was a renowned site for rain prayers in the Youzhou region. From the “Stele for the Reconstruction of Longquan Dali Chan Temple”: “During the Tang Dynasty under Emperor Xuanzong, when rainfall was irregular, people prayed here, and their wishes were always fulfilled.” Through secular tales and literary embellishments, the millennia-old legend originating from the “Commentary on the Water Classic” eventually became a myth. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, against the backdrop of the ancient myth of exploring the cave with torches, “Fairy Boat of Kongshui” became one of the Eight Scenic Spots of Fangshan.

The Ten Thousand Buddhas Hall was built on the pier at the outlet of Kongshui Cave. It was established during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty (713–756), originally named Longquan Temple, later renamed Dali Chan Temple. The existing Ten Thousand Buddhas Hall is a three-bay beamless hall with a hip-and-gable roof, built in the late Ming Dynasty. The door lintel is inlaid with a stone plaque surrounded by relief-carved lotus petals. Inside the hall, the “Assembly of Ten Thousand Bodhisattvas” inlaid on the front wall and the lower parts of the two side walls is 23.8 meters long and 2.4 meters high, made up of 31 rectangular white marble reliefs. It is a representative work of Tang Dynasty relief art. Ten Thousand Buddhas Hall and Kongshui Cave is one of the early carving sites of the Fangshan Stone Scriptures and holds an important position in the study of “Fangshan Stone Scripture Studies.” It is a municipal-level key cultural relic protected site in Beijing.

Location

Wanfo Village, Hebei Town, Fangshan District, Beijing

Further Reading:

· Fifth Batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units