LianGuo Temple

LianGuo Temple

LianGuo Temple is a cultural tourism attraction.

LianGuo Temple is located in Chenlou Village, about 25 li north of the county town. It is the only building in the village that seems to have some ancient charm, as well as the largest structure in the village. Villagers say that every year on the eighth day of the fourth lunar month, grand operas are performed here, with both performers and audiences coming from the surrounding 48 villages. The area of LianGuo Temple also happens to be exactly 48 mu (approximately 3.2 hectares)—it seems there is some special connection between the temple and the number 48.

Why is it “48” and not some other number? This goes back to the pond in front of LianGuo Temple.

Legend has it that there was once a vast lake surrounding Chenlou Village, known as Fenghu Lake, formed by silt deposits after the Yellow River changed its course. In ancient times, the daughter of the Divine Farmer (Shennong) once planted LianGuo fruits in the pond while wearing a white dress. The following year, the pond was covered with blooming lotus flowers, filling the air with fragrance and heavy with fruit—hence the name LianGuo Pond.

It wasn’t a mythical god, but a real person who linked the number “48” with LianGuo Temple and LianGuo Pond, ensuring their legacy through the ages. That person was Chen Yao. Chen Yao’s father was Chen Kang, one of the seventy-two disciples of Confucius. According to the Chenlou Village genealogy, Chen Yao was born in the 32nd year of King Jing of Zhou (488 BC) and was already proficient in the Six Arts at a young age. After his father’s death, Chen Yao inherited his teachings and continued to educate students at the lecture platform. The genealogy refers to him as a “great scholar of the region,” who devoted his life to scholarship without entering government service. He farmed the land, earned widespread academic acclaim, and attracted students from all directions who came to study under him.

In 426 BC, there was a famine in the Huaiyang region, and countless people died of starvation. On the eighth day of the fourth lunar month that year, Chen Yao personally led villagers to gather LianGuo fruits from the temple and distributed them to residents of the surrounding 48 villages, helping them survive the crisis. Later, in memory of Chen Yao’s “LianGuo benevolence,” the villagers spontaneously built a memorial shrine north of the LianGuo Pond, naming it the “LianGuo Shrine.” From then on, every year on the eighth day of the fourth lunar month, villagers from the neighboring villages would gather here for large-scale worship ceremonies.

The transformation of the “LianGuo Shrine” into “LianGuo Temple” occurred after the Han Dynasty. A shrine is for ancestral worship, while a temple is a place for Buddhist activities. No one in the village can clearly say which Han emperor ordered the Chen Commandery at the time to change the “LianGuo Shrine” in Fangting into the “LianGuo Temple.” It is said that since then, LianGuo Temple became the most significant Buddhist site in the region.

The story of the number “48” and LianGuo Temple continued into the Ming Dynasty. It is said that Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty—who was believed to have been blessed by Fuxi—not only extensively renovated the Taihao Mausoleum but also allocated 4,800 guan directly from the national treasury and acquired 48 mu of land to expand LianGuo Temple to its current size.

Although the Maitreya Buddha and the Mahavira Hall still remain at today’s LianGuo Temple, the morning bells and evening drums, along with the monks, are long gone. However, every year on the eighth day of the fourth lunar month, villagers from near and far still gather here spontaneously to sing and dance, commemorating the ancestors of the Chen family who once saved the people here.

Source: Huaiyang Government Website