Guangchuan Temple in the southern part

Guangchuan Temple in the Southern Region

Guangchuan Temple in the south is a cultural relic protection unit of Sichuan Province.

Guangchuan Temple is located in Guangchuan Village, Shiquan Township. It was built in the ninth year of the Chongzhen era of the Ming Dynasty (1636) and consists of a quadrangle-style temple complex with a front hall, rear hall, and left and right wing rooms. The front hall is five bays wide (22.5 meters) and 11.3 meters deep; the rear hall is five bays wide (23.8 meters) and 12.5 meters deep. The left and right wing rooms are each two bays wide (7.8 meters) and 6.28 meters deep. It covers an area of 1,397 square meters. It was constructed under the supervision of the great preceptor Zhichang (also known as Huichue).

Originally, Guangchuan Temple was composed of four main parts: a memorial archway, a stage, a front hall, and a rear hall. In the 1870s, the memorial archway, stage, and front hall were destroyed, leaving only the rear hall. The beams and pillars of this hall are particularly thick and robust, giving the building a majestic and solemn aura. On either side of the courtyard, there is a flower stand. At the center of the left flower stand stands an old redbud tree, while the right one contains an old osmanthus tree. At the center of the floor in the main room of the rear hall lies a resonant stone—when stamped on with the foot, it emits a sound resembling a drumbeat. In front of the temple gate is a well. Whenever it rains heavily and the well overflows, the resonant stone inside the rear hall becomes damp. The distance between the well and the resonant stone exceeds 100 meters—could there be an underground passage?

On the central beam of the main room of the rear hall there is a square patch, seven feet long and four inches wide. According to the temple caretaker, the central beam holds a celestial scripture inside. Bandits once tried to pry open the patch with an iron rod, which snapped on its own; when they used a rope to pull at it, the rope also broke spontaneously.

Legend has it that one night, an old monk in the temple dreamed that a centipede emerged from the well in front of the temple and came before him, saying: “I have become a dragon in this well. Tomorrow I will return to the sea. You must bless me tomorrow and offer me kind words. Without your blessing, I cannot ascend to immortality. Should you refuse to bless me and ruin my thousand-year effort, I will become enraged—not only destroying your temple but also bringing disaster to the local people.” Waking at midnight, the old monk thought: Buddhism values compassion and the salvation of all beings. Helping both the centipede who had practiced diligently for a thousand years and the local people avoid disaster would be the very goal of the Dharma. He immediately rose, lit a lamp, burned incense, beat the drum, and chanted scriptures to help liberate the centipede’s spirit. Just as dawn broke, thunder roared, rain poured down, and a red light surged up from the well, circling the temple three times before flying eastward. From then on, the weather remained favorable, and the people prospered.

Ren Weizhang, a high-ranking commander of the Red Fourth Army, was born in a farmhouse near Guangchuan Temple. It is said that on the day he was born, a yellow dragon and a green dragon flew down from the back mountain—the green dragon soared into the high sky, while the yellow one landed on the home of the Ren family. The old monk, witnessing this, knew that something great would come from the Ren household. He gifted the family eggs to celebrate and urged them to raise the child well, as he would grow to achieve great things. Later, Ren Weizhang joined the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army and became the commander of the Independent Division of the Red Fourth Army. He was later executed during Zhang Guotao's “purge campaign.” Tragically, this commander—who struck fear in his enemies—met his end not at the hands of the enemy, but by those of his own side.

Protected Area: The temple site extends 30 meters east to the road, 10 meters south and west, and 5 meters north to the south wall of the village committee.

Further Reading:

· Eighth Batch of Sichuan Provincial Cultural Relic Protection Units