Qianjiang Jintai Temple

Qianjiang Jintai Temple

Qianjiang Jintai Temple is a cultural tourism attraction.

Jintai Zen Temple is located in Zhangjin Town, Qianjiang City, which is honored as one of the "Top Ten Strongest Towns in Hubei Province." This place is rich in natural beauty and resources, boasts outstanding people, simple and kind-hearted folk customs, and thrives with Buddhist culture. For generations, the diligent, kind, and wise people of Zhangjin have toiled and lived on this land. While regarding this land as their physical homeland, they also see Jintai Temple, built upon this soil, as the spiritual home where their true nature can return — a place to rest both body and mind, and to nurture wisdom and life.

According to the "Jingzhou Prefecture Records," Jintai Temple was first built during the Tang Dynasty. Historical records describe it as having "a hundred zhang of lush woods and a thousand slender bamboos. Red hues divide the sunlit pagoda, green vines embrace the cloud-like halls." These vividly depict the temple’s unique natural and cultural landscapes. Another account states: "The platform rises three thousand zhang high, with nine halls, eighteen towers, and a total of two hundred fifty monk dwellings... The halls and towers are interlinked in splendid disorder, with carved beams and painted rafters, magnificently resplendent, exuding grandeur and might!" This documents the temple’s former prosperity. Research indicates that since its founding, Jintai Temple has been a center for teaching and transmitting the orthodox Linji lineage of the Southern Sacred Peak (Nanyue). Since the late Southern Song Dynasty, the temple has produced eminent monks such as Juekong, Dao’an, Kongti, Dazhi, and Beihua, who exerted profound influence on the development of Chinese Chan (Zen) Buddhism. From then on, Jintai Temple became a renowned Chan monastery celebrated throughout Jingchu.

Time flows endlessly, and worldly affairs are ever-changing. For over a thousand years, Jintai Temple has experienced a history full of cycles — of rise and fall, destruction and revival. Particularly during the 1970s, amid chaos and upheaval, the temple suffered utter devastation: halls were torn down, Buddha statues smashed, sacred texts burned, and monks and nuns driven away. In the following thirty-plus years, this thousand-year-old ancient temple fell into desolation — "no more bells or chimes, the ground covered with rubble, brambles everywhere, an utterly barren scene."

Fortunately, after the Third Plenary Session of the 11th CPC Central Committee, governments at all levels placed great importance on rebuilding Jintai Temple. The Party and government leaders of Qianjiang City and Zhangjin Town issued multiple important directives and provided tremendous care and support in terms of manpower, materials, and funding. As the saying goes, “Dharma does not arise alone but depends on conditions.” In the spring of 2001, responding to the government’s commission and the heartfelt invitation of monastic and lay followers, Venerable Master Honggui, a distinguished alumnus of the 1994 class of Wuhan Buddhist College and a council member of the Hubei Buddhist Association, was enthroned as the abbot of Jintai Temple. With a worthy master taking charge, the monastic and lay communities were filled with reverence. Inspired by the master’s profound vows and his dignified, virtuous presence, virtuous individuals gathered from near and far, uniting in friendship and kinship. They widely planted seeds of merit and reaped fruits of blessings and wisdom. In just three short years, structures such as the mountain gate, the Heavenly King Hall, the Guest Hall, and the monks’ quarters were constructed, with costs totaling nearly two million yuan. According to the overall plan, restoration will soon begin on the Bell Tower, Drum Tower, Great Compassion Hall, Kṣitigarbha Hall, Medicine Buddha Hall, Vairocana Hall, Chanting Hall, Dining Hall, Meditation Hall, and Dharma Hall. A significant amount of funding is needed, and we rely on the generous contributions of eminent monastics, patrons, and benefactors from all directions to support this virtuous endeavor. No good deed is wasted, no merit goes unrewarded. The names of all benefactors will be engraved on stone tablets in the temple, ensuring lasting remembrance and immortalizing their kindness.