Baiyun Nunnery

Baiyun Nunnery

Baiyun Nunnery was once a renowned ancient temple. Its ruins are now located on the eastern bank of Zhigou’s eastern ditch, southeast of Xitian Village, Daiyuan Village, Fanji Township, in our county. According to the Mengcheng County Annals, this temple served as the eastern gate of the ancient Altar City (the former Beimeng City). Local legend has it that there was once a woman surnamed Liu who married into the Dai family. Not long after her marriage, her husband passed away, and she remained chaste, vowing never to remarry. Her maternal family built Baiyun Nunnery for her, where she took monastic vows. Since the Dai family was a prominent local clan with 18 estates, Baiyun Nunnery also became the family temple of the Dais, hence it was also called “Dai Tang Temple.”

The original construction date of the nunnery is unknown. According to memories of elderly locals, between the mid-Qing Dynasty and before the Anti-Japanese War, it was renovated three times; the last renovation was managed by Tian Laojie from Xitian Village, Dai Dianxian from Daiji, and Ma Liren from Maqiao—respected local scholars and gentry.

The nunnery had front and rear halls, built with bricks and tiles. Its design was solemn and classic, featuring carved beams and painted rafters, resplendent and magnificent, embodying the quintessential style of traditional Chinese architecture.

The rear main hall had three rooms, with a central projection. Two bright red-painted pillars stood on bluestone drum bases. The roof was covered with mandarin duck tiles, and the eaves featured hanging tiles shaped like ox tongues. The dragon ridge was adorned with dragon-patterned tiles forming a “two dragons playing with a pearl” motif; at the center of the ridge sat a small temple atop a temple (“temple upon temple”), housing a statue of Jiang Ziya, referred to as the “god above gods.” On either side of the small temple were two small monkeys, with dragon heads at the ridge ends and wind-fire mountain decorations on the gables. The hall enshrined a statue of Guanyin Bodhisattva holding the Red Boy in both hands, behind which lay a “Mountain of Babies” covered in clay figurines, along with a closed small temple. On the altar were an incense burner and a pair of candlesticks, while an eight-immortal table in front held a set of purple clay teaware. In front of the table on an octagonal brick floor was a round meditation mat for worshippers. A large drum, about the thickness of two people embracing it, hung from the eastern beam. The eastern room housed statues of Dou Zhen’ge and his wife, along with attendants. The western room served as the living quarters for the old monk.

The front main hall also had three rooms, similar in style to the rear hall but slightly shorter, lacking a central projection, with a lightning rod installed on the ridge. At the very center of the hall stood a statue of the Eastern Peak Emperor with attendants; the eastern room housed a statue of Lord Guan, with Zhou Cang holding a large saber and Guan Ping presenting a seal standing on either side, and the eastern gable also featured a statue of Huang Tianhua; the western room contained iron statues of the Three Officials and accompanying iron deities.

There were two smaller side halls, much lower than the front hall. A small door on the eastern wall of the front hall connected to the side halls. The western room served as the main entrance passage, with the words “Baiyun Nunnery” inscribed in bold, powerful gold characters on the white-painted lintel, written by Tian Ren, a Qing Dynasty scholar. Stone steles stood on either side of the corridor walls. The eastern room was named “Three Righteous Hall,” housing statues of the Ox King, Earth God, and Wealth God, with ghost and judge attendants.

The east corridor had six sea-blue rooms. The southern three served as guest rooms for monks, Taoists, nuns, traveling merchants, beggars, and others seeking lodging. The northern three had in the center a statue of the Divine Physician Hua Tuo with attendants; the northern room held a large red horse and a pageboy, while the southern room was the dormitory for young monks.

The west corridor had four thatched rooms; the southern two were cowsheds and hay storage, while the northern two were the kitchen and millhouse.

A brick wall was built in the main courtyard, with a large round gate at the center dividing the space into two smaller courtyards. The front courtyard had no facilities. The rear courtyard’s eastern side had a large pine tree, an iron incense pavilion with a circular umbrella top, pointed finial, and a tripod-like base with two ears and three legs resembling a ding vessel, as well as a large iron bell suspended from a wooden frame. On every first and fifteenth day of the lunar month and during festival evenings, when all was quiet, monks would strike the bell forcefully dozens of times, the sound carrying over ten li.

Outside the main gate, five large locust trees stood in a row like guards. Southeast of the road was a stone well with cool, sweet spring water.

Particularly noteworthy were the murals in the nunnery—all exquisitely executed, whether in fine brushwork or freehand style. The eastern wall of the rear hall featured the “Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea”; the door lintel of the southern wall depicted “Journey to the West”; and the screen on the bamboo partition in the western room portrayed the “Four Seasons of Peaceful Flowers and Birds.”

The eastern wall of the front hall showed a “Dragon,” beneath which was painted the “Three Heroes Battle Against Lu Bu”; the western wall featured a “Tiger,” under which was illustrated the “Five Sacred Mountains Returning to Heaven”; the rear wall depicted “Liu Bei Taking a Wife in Eastern Wu”; the front wall’s door lintel showed “Su Wu Herding Sheep.” The eastern wall of the side hall depicted the “Rising Sun,” with a red sun rising in the east and rays of light spreading everywhere.

Temple fairs were held annually on the sixth day of the second lunar month and the ninth day of the ninth lunar month, said to be the birthday and death anniversary of Hua Tuo, lasting one to three days. In peaceful and prosperous years, entertainment included bangzi opera, flower-drum opera, acrobatics, soul-snatching operas, and peep shows; superstitious activities featured fortune-telling, physiognomy, Buddhist and Taoist sermons, and sect recruitment; gambling activities included bird racing, pitch-pot, dice, and mahjong. Around the nunnery, food vendors and small merchants offered all kinds of goods. Many devout worshippers came on foot or by horse or carriage specifically to offer incense. Some prayed to Hua Tuo for medicine due to illness; others sought divine healing when their seriously ill children failed to recover through medical treatment. Occasionally, those who recovered would dedicate their children to the temple as young monks if poor, or if wealthy, hold three grand operas when the child turned twelve, parading the child around the temple three times riding backward on a donkey, then having the old monk drive the child out of the temple with a broom to symbolize “returning to secular life.” Women who had difficulty conceiving or had daughters but no sons came to the temple to “tie a child.” Most others came just for the excitement, with thousands crowding shoulder to shoulder in lively commotion. Endless rows of black and white tents surrounded the nunnery. In front of the gate, wandering monks and beggars held out small baskets, pleading for alms. The altars of Hua Tuo Hall and the rear hall held large baskets supervised by monks, where worshippers freely dropped donations.

This nunnery belonged to the same Buddhist sect as the Upper and Lower Temples in Tancheng Market, Basha Temple in Baisha Market, and Qushui Temple in Caoshi Market. After the deaths of the eminent monk Sheng Linwu and his disciple Tian Xinfang, both were buried in the nunnery’s monastic cemetery. The nunnery owned 120 mu of temple land. After the imperial examination system was abolished in the late Qing Dynasty, a school was established here.

After the founding of the People’s Republic, Dai Tang Primary School was established here, and all the statues were destroyed. After the Cultural Revolution, it was converted into a junior high school.