Jian'ou Guangxiao Temple

Jian'ou Guangxiao Temple

Jian'ou Guangxiao Temple is a cultural heritage site protected by Jian’ou City.

Jian'ou Guangxiao Temple

Jian'ou Guangxiao Temple----One of the famous Buddhist temples in Fujian, originally named “Nanshan Guangxiao Temple,” located about 1 kilometer south of Jian’ou City. Nestled at the foot of Tieshi Mountain and beside the Jianxi River, it is one of the oldest, largest, most serene, and uniquely scenic ancient monasteries in Fujian, renowned both domestically and internationally as a sacred site for sightseeing and worship.

Guangxiao Temple was first built in the second year of the Yongding era during the Chen Dynasty of the Six Dynasties period (558 AD). During the Tang Dynasty, it was called “Longxing”; in the Northern Song Dynasty, it was known as “Jingde,” “Tianning,” and “Wanshou.” In the seventh year of the Shaoxing era of the Southern Song Dynasty (1137 AD), it was renamed “Baoying Guangxiao Chan Temple.” The temple was destroyed during wars in the late Yuan Dynasty, rebuilt in the Hongwu era of the Ming Dynasty, burned down in a fire during the Jiajing era, and reconstructed again in the Wanli era. Later, it underwent two more expansions during the Kangxi and Guangxu eras of the Qing Dynasty, and was also repaired in the 14th year of the Republic of China. To date, it has a history of over 1,430 years.

The temple covers an area of 91 mu. The entire complex stretches 242.3 meters in length and 161.2 meters in width, divided into three architectural groups: the Hall of Heavenly Kings, the Mahavira Hall, the Guanyin Hall, and the connecting corridors on the east and west sides, forming an enclosed main architectural cluster. The Hall of Sangharama, the Patriarchs Hall, the Dharma Hall, the Meditation Hall, the Ancestral Hall, the Scripture Repository, the Abbot’s Quarters, the Incense Kitchen, the Dining Hall, the Monks’ Quarters, and the Guest Hall are interconnected with partition walls along the two side corridors. Each section is separately walled off, also forming the Eastern Mahavira Hall and Western Side Buildings cluster.

The Mahavira Hall features a double-eaved hip-and-gable roof with a post-and-lintel structure. Its ceiling is constructed using exposed beams and planks, standing 15 meters high, spanning five bays in width and six in depth, covering approximately 1,000 square meters. The interior column grid adopts the Yuan-style method of reducing columns, with each column having a diameter of 0.6 meters and bases made of ancient Qing-style mirror-patterned stone. The Hall of Heavenly Kings is about 500 square meters, and the Dharma Platform is around 660 square meters, with a stone stele in front over ten feet tall. The halls are built with nanmu (phoebe nanmu) timber structures, and the Buddha statues are exceptionally large and towering. Among the monasteries in Fujian, this temple stands out as the best, especially considering that a timber structure of such scale and magnificence made entirely of nanmu is not only rare in Fujian but also among the few nationwide.