Nantai Temple

Nantai Temple

Nantai Temple is a cultural relic protection unit of Hunan Province.

Nantai Temple

Dating back to the Qing Dynasty, it is located on Mount Nanyue in Hengyang City, Hunan Province. This temple complex is known as the “Source of Dharma under Heaven.”

According to the Qing-era Chronicles of Mount Nanyue, the temple was founded during the Tianjian era (502–519) of the Liang Dynasty in the Six Dynasties period by the monk Haiyin. A stone inscription of the characters “Nantai Temple,” written by Haiyin himself, can be found beside the temple. It is one of the Five Great Buddhist Monasteries of Mount Nanyue. In the second year of the Tang Dynasty’s Tianbao era (743), the Zen Master Baizu Xiqian (also known as the Stone Monk) resided here and established it as a sacred practice site. Later, he composed the Grass Hut Song and the Kinhin Keki, which played a certain role in easing internal conflicts within Buddhism at the time. Xiqian’s disciples went on to establish the Caodong, Yunmen, and Fayan schools, which spread widely across the land. Hence, Nantai Temple earned the title “Source of Dharma under Heaven.” The Japanese monk Dōgen once came to China in pursuit of the Dharma and received precepts from Rujing, the 13th-generation Dharma descendant of the Caodong school. Since then, Nantai Temple has been regarded as the “ancestral temple” of the Japanese Caodong school, and “Ancestral Tribute Delegations” often visit Mount Nanyue.

In the 29th year of the Guangxu reign during the Qing Dynasty (1903), the Japanese monk Meixiao claimed to be the 42nd-generation Dharma descendant of Xiqian and came to Mount Nanyue to pay reverence at the ancestral stupa. Five years later (1907), he donated a set of the Iron Eye Edition of the Buddhist Canon, a finely bound edition with silk covers comprising over 5,700 volumes. This canon was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. Nantai Temple features a mountain gate, front hall, Mahavira Hall, abbot’s quarters, as well as meditation halls and ancestral halls. The main gate bears the plaque “Nantai Chan Temple,” while the mountain gate is hung with a sign reading “Ancient Nantai Temple.” The current structures date back to the Qing Dynasty, built with brick and wood and covered with small blue tiles. There is also a stone inscription of “Sakyamuni Buddha” written by the Song Dynasty scholar Shi Manqing, as well as the Xiangxiang Pagoda (the tomb of Xiqian).

On July 24, 1956, the People's Committee of Hunan Province designated it as a provincial-level cultural relic protection unit, with the serial number 40.