Yuetaan Nunnery

Yuetaan Nunnery

Yuetaan Nunnery is located at No. 21 Tongcheng Road, Hefei City. According to the *Hefei County Annals*: “Yuetaan Nunnery, situated inside the southern gate, was renovated in the 45th year of the Kangxi reign (1706), with a stele inscribed by local resident Huang Jihui. The old records state it was built during the Tang Dynasty.” It was originally a fairly large Buddhist nunnery, facing south with its back to the north, and located east of today’s Tongcheng Road. The complex had four sections: the mountain gate, main hall, Guanyin Hall, and monastic living quarters. The first section, the mountain gate, had four rooms and originally housed the two guardian statues, Heng and Ha; the second section, the main hall, had six rooms and originally enshrined three major Buddhas—Sakyamuni, Bhaisajyaguru, and Amitabha; the third section, the Guanyin Hall, also had six rooms and originally featured statues of three bodhisattvas—Guanyin, Manjushri, and Samantabhadra; the fourth section, the monastic living quarters, had four rooms. Each section had side rooms on both sides, totaling more than thirty brick-and-wood flat-roofed structures.

Before liberation, the nunnery was bustling with incense offerings. But later it fell into gradual disrepair—the mountain gate and main hall were converted into residential houses, while the bells, drums, and stone tablets were destroyed. Several nuns and monks, including those with the surnames Kong, Tang, Shen, and Zhu, passed away one after another, and the monastic living quarters were demolished. Today, only two rooms of the Guanyin Hall remain, housing a shrine dedicated to the Goddess of Mercy, currently overseen by nun Jiehui.

Though small, Yuetaan Nunnery is somewhat famous, which is why worshippers continue to visit in an unbroken stream. Moreover, the Zen-flavored couplet at its entrance—“The moonlight is bright, the meditative heart serene; the pond’s reflection clear, all forms empty”—causes literati and refined scholars to pause and recite, creating yet another unique scene. When first built, Yuetaan Nunnery was located in the outskirts of the city. In those days, it was surrounded by dense woods, slender bamboos, lush grass, shimmering clear waters, and few human traces. The most beautiful time was when the moon rose—the moonlight interplayed with the pond’s reflection, vividly recreating a hermitic Zen realm like “birds roosting by the pondside trees, monks knocking on doors under the moon.”

With the passage of time, Yuetaan Nunnery has gradually become “immersed” in the secular world. But the stories of Yuetaan Nunnery continue to unfold new chapters amid the hustle and bustle of traffic, karaoke bars, and taverns: every summer, the nuns provide free boiled water to passersby at the entrance; an orphan was able to attend the affiliated elementary school for free, and Yuetaan Nunnery became her home. She made the Buddhist monastery her family, and the nuns her kin... Since last autumn, my interactions with Yuetaan Nunnery have suddenly become much “closer.” This is because my young grandson started attending the affiliated elementary school, and while waiting to pick him up each day, I often gaze at Yuetaan Nunnery amid the secular world, reading that Zen couplet, and find myself filled with boundless reflections.