Shuiyuan Temple

Shuiyuan Temple

Shuiyuan Temple is located on a field opposite Kuichang Village in Taiping Township, Jiangkou County, 18 kilometers from the Golden Summit. It faces Mount Fanjing to the north and covers an area of 10 mu. Legend has it that when first built, the temple had two courtyards, front and back, both quadrangle-style, surrounded by earthen walls, with elaborately carved beams and painted rafters, making it a grand and imposing structure. However, it was destroyed in wartime chaos. In the first year of the Guangxu reign (1875), the monk Longcan oversaw the reconstruction of one main hall and two wing rooms, which were smaller in scale than the original temple. After the liberation, the temple was converted into a school and burned down in a fire during the 1970s. Shuiyuan Temple is one of the most important temples among the Forty-Eight Major Temples of Mount Fanjing, enjoying greater prosperity, property, and influence than some even of the imperial monasteries. It served as a vital stop for pilgrims from Hunan and Hubei traveling up the Yuan River to worship at Mount Fanjing, often regarded as the eastern gateway to the sacred mountain. As it lies along the busiest ancient path to Fanjing, the temple attracted large numbers of pilgrims who came to worship and stay overnight. The phrase “Pilgrims from three prefectures gather here annually like swarming ants,” recorded by Qing dynasty writer Xu Yin in his "Record of Mount Fanjing," refers precisely to this site. The resident monks here are all nuns, and a significant proportion of the visiting pilgrims who lodge here are women, hence the nickname “Shuiyuan Temple women.”