Caoshan Temple

Caoshan Scenic Area

The Caoshan Scenic Area is a national AAAA-level tourist attraction.

The Caoshan Scenic Area, located in Chenfang Village, Fenggang Town, Yihuang County, is about 8 kilometers from Yihuang County’s urban center. With a planned area of 9 square kilometers, its main attractions include Caoshan Baoji Temple, Caoshan Nongchan Town, and Caoshan Cultural and Creative Block. The tourism layout follows the “One Fist Five Fingers” concept: the core tourism area is centered around Caoshan Temple, surrounded by five major functional zones — the Nongchan Town Resort Area, Caoshan Buddhist Academy Study Zone, Health and Wellness Zone, Forest Ecotourism Area, and Distribution Support Function Zone. In January 2018, the Yihuang Caoshan Scenic Area was rated as a Jiangxi Province 4A-level tourist attraction by the Jiangxi Provincial Tourism Development Commission.

Commonly known as Caoshan Temple, Caoshan Baoji Temple is an ancient temple in the Jiangnan region with a history of 1,200 years. It is a renowned and historic temple comprehensively recorded in three major Chinese classics — "Cihai," "China Tourism Culture Dictionary," and "Religion Dictionary." Nestled within the lotus-petal-shaped Caoshan Mountain, located 12.5 kilometers west of Yihuang County, the temple covers an area of 52 mu, with over 400 mu of forested mountain land.

Caoshan Temple was first built during the Xiantong era (870–873 AD) of the Tang Dynasty by Master Benji, a disciple of the Qingyuan lineage of the Southern Mountain Zen School in the Chan (Zen) Buddhism tradition. It is the ancestral temple of one of the five major schools of Chinese Zen Buddhism — the Caodong School.

Originally named Heyu Mountain, Caoshan is surrounded by peaks that resemble layers of lotus petals, with the temple situated right in the middle, like the pistil of a lotus flower. The mountain directly facing the temple is called Gongyang Mountain, which resembles a bowl filled with vegetarian offerings presented to the bodhisattvas. Opposite Gongyang Mountain is Tiger Mountain, and to its right is Dragon Mountain. Together, they form a dragon-and-tiger formation, enclosing the lotus-petal-like surroundings around Caoshan Temple. This layout positions the temple upright in the central open space, facing Gongyang Mountain, creating a natural grand Buddhist altar.

According to the "China Tourism Culture Dictionary": The founding master, Benji, had the secular surname Huang and the given name Yuanzheng, with the dharma name Benji. He was originally from Putian, Fujian. At the age of 19, he became a monk at Lingshan in Fujian, and received full ordination at the age of 25. He studied under the eminent Master Liangjie of Dongshan in Yifeng, Jiangxi, and later came to Yihuang to propagate the teachings. His presence at Caoshan led to “a flourishing of Dharma assemblies, gathering scholars in great numbers, making the Dongshan lineage especially prominent there,” gaining fame across the land and becoming known as the “Caodong School.” As one of the five major schools of Chinese Zen Buddhism, Caoshan Baoji Temple is revered as the ancestral temple of the Caodong School.

Multiple editions of the Yihuang County Annals from the Song, Ming, and Qing dynasties, as well as the Religion Dictionary, record that to this day, there are over a thousand temples and tens of millions of followers of the Caodong School across China, Japan, Southeast Asia, and Korea. Historical records state that in the 16th year of the Jiading era of the Song Dynasty (1207 AD), Japanese monk Dao Wu (also known as Master Chengyang) came to China to study Zen. He studied under the 13th patriarch of the Caodong School, Master Rujing, for three years, receiving both Dharma transmission and robes before returning to Japan. There, he established Eihei-ji Temple as the foundational site for spreading the Caodong teachings. The lineage flourished, and today, it has over 8 million followers and more than 15,000 temples.

Master Benji preached at Caoshan for 31 years, with over a hundred disciples and thousands of followers. He passed away in 901 AD and was buried in Fengxing Pit west of the temple at the age of 62. In 1743, Emperor Yongzheng of the Qing Dynasty posthumously honored him as “Dingzang Yuanzheng Chan Master.” His stupa was restored in 1983.

In the backyard of Caoshan Temple stands a thousand-year-old ginkgo tree, so large that it takes five people to encircle its trunk. It is as old as the temple itself and was personally planted by Master Benji. It has witnessed the temple’s many trials and tribulations. The ginkgo was once struck by lightning and scorched, but since 1982, when Caoshan Temple began its revival, a new era of restoration for the ancestral temple commenced. Miraculously, many new branches sprouted from beneath the ginkgo tree and have since grown over 10 meters tall, even sprouting new growths from the old bark.

After the early Qing Dynasty, the temple gradually declined. By the Republican era, only some halls and a few Buddha statues remained. By 1969, all the structures were destroyed. It wasn’t until 1982 that Caoshan Temple saw a revival and entered a new era of restoration for the ancestral temple. Starting in 1999, over 20 white marble Buddha statues were brought in from both domestic and international sources, making it the Jiangxi temple with the most comprehensive collection of jade Buddha statues.

As early as 1985, the provincial government listed Caoshan Baoji Temple and Master Benji’s stupa as one of the first batch of scenic spots in the province. In August 1994, the county government approved the opening of Caoshan Temple to the public.

In October 2003, the Yihuang County Government invited Venerable Master Xinliang, a member of the National Buddhist Association Council, to serve as the abbot of the temple. Master Xinliang attracted devout lay patrons such as Yang Zhao, Chairman of the Hong Kong Rising Group, to support Caoshan Temple. They pledged financial, material, and human resources to aid in the temple’s reconstruction, aiming to establish it as a Buddhist center focused on Zen teachings along with tourism. Currently, exploration, planning, and design work for the temple’s reconstruction, commissioned by the Hong Kong Rising Group and carried out by the Shanxi Ancient Architecture Conservation Research Institute, has been fully completed. The teaching building and dining hall have been constructed and put into use.