Jiuhua Mountain Hundred-Year Palace

Jiuhua Mountain Hundred-Year Palace

Hundred-Year Palace of Jiuhua Mountain is a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

Hundred-Year Palace is located on Mokong Ridge (also known as "Chaxiao Peak") of Jiuhua Mountain. Originally named "Zhixing Hermitage" and also known as "Wannian Chan Temple," it is one of Jiuhua Mountain’s “Four Great Monastic Complexes,” along with Qiyuan Temple, Dongya Temple, and Ganlu Temple. Hundred-Year Palace is also the second relic hall on Jiuhua Mountain, enshrining the preserved body of Master Wuxia. According to the inscription in front of the temple, during the Ming Dynasty’s Wanli period, a monk named Haiyu from Wanping, Hebei, also known as Master Wuxia, traveled from Mount Wutai to Jiuhua Mountain. Seeing that the nine peaks here resembled a lotus, he built a thatched hut for preaching at Zhixing Pavilion on Mokong Ridge, naming it "Zhixing Hermitage." "Initially residing at Zhixing Pavilion on the Eastern Cliff, he noticed the appearance of a turtle and snake guarding the Lion Mountain on both sides, so he decided to settle there." Master Wuxia survived for years on wild fruits, abstaining from cooked food, and used his tongue blood mixed with gold powder to copy the "Avatamsaka Sutra" (Flower Garland Sutra) over twenty years, completing all 81 volumes, which are preserved intact to this day as a first-class national cultural relic. Master Wuxia passed away in the third year of the Tianqi era (1623) at the age of 110, and was posthumously known as the "Hundred-Year Elder." Before his death, he instructed his disciples to open the urn three years later. They placed his body in a lotus position inside the urn. Three years later, coinciding with the visit of an imperial envoy Wang who came to the mountain to offer incense, a night light was seen. Together with Wuxia’s disciples, he opened the urn and found the master sitting in the lotus position, his body incorrupt, his face unchanged from when he was alive. The disciples then gilded the body to protect it, enshrined it in the hermitage, and reported it to the imperial court. In the third year of the Chongzhen era (1630) under Emperor Sizong of Ming, Master Wuxia was bestowed the title of "Responsive Body Bodhisattva," with the inscription "The Greatest Joy Is Doing Good," and his relics’ stupa was named "Lotus Treasure." In the same year, Wuxia’s disciple, Monk Huiguang, built a Buddha hall, ordination hall, abbot’s quarters, and accommodations for monks, transforming the hermitage into a temple, "with its monastic structures now fully established." Because Wannian Temple was built to commemorate the Hundred-Year Elder, Master Wuxia, it is also called "Hundred-Year Palace."

In the 56th year of the Qing Kangxi era (1717), the temple was destroyed by fire and was rebuilt in the 60th year (1721) by the then abbot, Monk Sancheng. In the 19th year of the Jiaqing era (1814), it was renovated by Abbot Dening. In the 6th year of the Daoguang era (1826), it was repaired again, expanded in the 19th year (1839), and renamed "Wannian Chan Temple," becoming a "Ten Directions Monastery." The preserved body of Master Wuxia was also moved into the hall for enshrinement. In the 3rd year of the Xianfeng era (1853), it was destroyed in war but was later restored. In the 5th year of the Guangxu era (1879), Monk Bao Shen presided over its reconstruction and went to Beijing to request a set of the Buddhist Canon. At the end of the Guangxu era, it suffered another fire but was extinguished in time, preventing major losses. The preserved body of Wuxia, the golden seals and jade stamps bestowed by Ming emperors, and the "Blood Sutra" all remained intact. Ordinations were held in 1917 and 1932. From 1931 to 1953, the abbots Changdi, Juizhen, Wuguang, and Xinmiao served successively. In 1982, the Jiuhua Mountain Administrative Office renovated the temple. In 1983, the Buddha statues were remade, and the preserved body of Master Wuxia was repainted and regilded. In 1987, statues of the Three Tathagatas, Eighteen Arhats, Maitreya Buddha, and Skanda were added. In 1995, a new Hall of Five Hundred Arhats was built, housing 500 arhat statues seated at 1.3 meters tall. Currently, Hundred-Year Palace covers a construction area of 2,500 square meters and is a nationally key Han Buddhist temple.

Hundred-Year Palace is a typical example of the residential-style temples of western Anhui. The five-story building integrates the mountain gate, main hall, relic hall, storage rooms, dining hall, monks' quarters, guest rooms, and even the latrine (eastern toilet) into one unified structure, without separate individual buildings. From a distance, it resembles an ancient castle reaching toward the sky. This architectural style is very rare among existing temple buildings in China. The layout of Hundred-Year Palace makes full use of the downward slope from south to north, with floors ascending step by step, forming a winding, profound, and grand labyrinth-like structure. Viewed from below the main entrance, the main hall appears only one story high, while the side rooms on the east side are two stories, with a total height of just 10 meters. But from the back door, the eastern wall rises to 55 meters, spanning five stories. The rooftop is a complete traditional southern Anhui-style four-slope roof with an inner courtyard. Not far below the temple is a hillside pavilion for resting. Inside the pavilion originally stood a statue of Maitreya Buddha in a "universal joy" pose. Since Buddhist scriptures say Maitreya resides in Tusita Heaven, the small pavilion is titled "Tusita Courtyard," almost as if the pavilion serves as the temple’s gate.

Passing through the hillside pavilion, about a hundred steps lead to the mountaintop. Above the stone-vaulted Mahavira Hall entrance (which also serves as the mountain gate), a vertical plaque hangs with the temple name written in regular script: "Imperially Commissioned Wannian Temple, Court-Granted Hundred-Year Palace," penned by Li Yuanhong, President of the Beiyang Government. In front of the temple gate, symmetrical side rooms line both sides, with a rectangular open space in the middle. The walls are inlaid with more than ten stone tablets from the Yongzheng and Qianlong eras of the Qing Dynasty, including poetic inscriptions, records of bestowed Buddhist canons, temple renovations, and donations of "merit." The scripts include Wei stele style, regular script, large characters, and small clerical script. The row of side rooms on both sides function as the kitchen and storage areas. Several rooms on the east side, built along the cliff, house an ancient bell, known as the Bell Room. The bell is made of bronze, weighing about 2,000 jin (approximately 1,000 kg), with raised inscriptions and decorative patterns on its surface. This bell is also called the "Yomotsu Bell." The monk ringing the bell chants the inscribed text while striking it, continuously and tirelessly, day and night. The main hall is 19 meters wide and 14 meters deep, featuring a "Nine Dragons Playing with a Pearl" caisson ceiling. The shrine inside the hall is built on a 4.5-meter-wide, two-zhang-high rock. At the center sits Shakyamuni Buddha on a lotus throne, with Manjushri Bodhisattva riding a blue lion on the left and Samantabhadra Bodhisattva riding a white elephant on the right, surrounded by the Twenty-Four Devas. This layout is rarely seen elsewhere. A side door from the main hall leads to the relic hall on the same floor, where the gilded preserved body of Master Wuxia is enshrined. The monk wears a lotus crown, dons a crimson kasaya, has a head size similar to an average person, but his body has shrunk to that of a child, sitting upright on a lotus seat. This golden body has been exposed to air for over 350 years and remains incorrupt. It is said that Jiuhua Mountain originally had seven gilded preserved bodies, six of which were destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. Wuxia’s body was hidden in a cave by a monk and thus survived.

The four floors of the main hall contain massive rocks embedded within, with boulders integrated into the architecture. The harmony between rock, building, and mountain peak is ingeniously crafted, leaving visitors in awe.

Protected area: 20 meters outside the foundation walls of the temple.

Construction control zone: 200 meters east, west, and north of the protected area; 200 meters south to the southern wall of the Hall of Five Hundred Arhats courtyard.

Further reading:

· Seventh Batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units

Jiuhua Mountain

Jiuzi Rock

Qiyuan Temple of Jiuhua Mountain

Diaqiao Hermitage

Huacheng Temple of Jiuhua Mountain

Relic Pagoda Hall

Changshou Hermitage

Sandalwood Forest Temple

Sandalwood Grove

Tiantai Temple

Tianzhu Peak Scenic Area of Jiuhua Mountain

Huixiang Pavilion

Dragon Hermitage

Little Tiantai

Tianchi Hermitage

Huatian Temple