Nanhua Temple

Nanhua Temple

Nanhua Temple is a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

Nanhua Temple is located on the banks of the Caoxi River, 22 kilometers southeast of Shaoguan city. It was here that the Sixth Patriarch Huineng founded Chan (Zen) Buddhism, making it the ancestral home of the Chan sect. In 1983, Nanhua Temple was among the first group of temples designated as key Buddhist temples by the State Council.

Chan Buddhism is a unique Chinese creation and a typical example of sinicized Buddhism. Indian Buddhism has only Dhyana (meditation studies), not the Chan sect. It is said that Bodhidharma came from India to the Northern Wei Dynasty and introduced a new method of meditation. He passed his teachings to Huike, who then transmitted them to Sengcan, then to Daoxin, and later to Hongren. After Hongren, the teachings split into two branches: Shenxiu propagated in the north and established the Northern School, while Huineng taught in the south and founded the Southern School. The Northern School under Shenxiu gradually declined, whereas Huineng’s Southern School, promoted by disciples such as Shenxiu and supported by the imperial court, gained the orthodox status within the Chan sect. As a result, it became the mainstream of Chinese Buddhism, and Huineng is regarded as the actual founder of the Chan sect. Since there were six generations from Bodhidharma to Huineng, traditional accounts refer to Bodhidharma as the “First Patriarch” and Huineng as the “Sixth Patriarch.”

After the founding of the Chan sect, its influence continued to expand and evolve, giving rise to five major schools—Caodong, Yunmen, Fayan, Linji, and Weiyang (collectively known as the “Five Houses”)—which flourished like diverse blossoms. These schools not only replaced other domestic Buddhist sects but also spread abroad. By the 9th century, they had been introduced to Korea; by the 12th and 13th centuries, they reached Japan, where they became the dominant form of Buddhism. Later, Chan Buddhism spread from East Asia to Southeast Asia and even to Europe and America. Today, a large number of foreign Buddhists visit Nanhua Temple every year to pay homage to its ancestral home.

Nanhua Temple was originally built in the first year of the Tianjian era during the Liang Dynasty of the Southern and Northern Dynasties (502 AD). Historical records state that in that year, the Indian eminent monk Zhiyue Sanzang traveled north from Guangzhou and passed by Caoxi. There, he “cupped water to drink and found its fragrance extraordinary,” “looked around at the surrounding mountains, whose peaks were uniquely beautiful,” and noted that the area “resembled the precious forest mountain of the Western Paradise.” He then proposed building a temple there. In the third year of Tianjian, the temple was completed. Emperor Wu of Liang bestowed upon it the name “Baolin Temple.” It was later renamed successively as “Zhongxing Temple” and “Faquan Temple.” By the first year of the Kaibao era of the Song Dynasty (968 AD), Emperor Taizong of Song decreed the name “Nanhua Chan Temple,” which has been retained to this day.

The current layout of Nanhua Temple was reconstructed in the 23rd year of the Republic of China (1934), funded by Li Hanhun, then director of the Northwestern Guangdong Pacification Office, and presided over by the renowned eminent monk Master Xuyun. The project took ten years to complete, resulting in 243 newly built halls and shrines, and a renewed sacred site. The temple's architecture today features a symmetrical layout along a central axis. Entering through the main gate, one encounters, in sequence, the Caoxi Gate, the Liberation Pond, the Baolin Gate, the Heavenly King Hall, and the Mahavira Hall. The three gold-plated Buddha statues inside the Mahavira Hall stand 8.13 meters tall, and the hall’s walls are adorned with as many as 500 colorful clay arhat sculptures—all considered artistic masterpieces.

In the Sixth Patriarch Hall, the true bodies of the Sixth Patriarch Huineng, Master Hanshan, and Master Dantian are enshrined. On the left and right walls, twenty-nine newly inlaid stone tablets depict illustrations of twenty-nine eminent disciples of Huineng, including Nanyue Huairang, Baizhang Huaihai, Weishan Lingyou, Yangshan Huiji, Linji Yixuan, and Yunmen Wenyan, with inscriptions from Chan Buddhist scriptures. Behind the temple to the right lies the Zhuoxi Spring (commonly known as the Nine-Dragon Spring), which flows year-round with clear, cool water. Legend says that the Sixth Patriarch Huineng often washed his kasaya here. Su Shi once composed an inscription titled “Inscription of the Zhuoxi Spring.” In front of the spring stand nine trees known as “living fossil plants”—dawn redwoods. One of them reaches over 40 meters in height and, according to experts, is the tallest dawn redwood in the world, with an age of over 500 years. Nanhua Temple currently houses over 300 national first-class protected cultural relics, including the true body of the Sixth Patriarch, imperial edicts from the Tang, Yuan, and Ming dynasties, an imperial golden-threaded Thousand Buddha kasaya, the Qing Dynasty edition of the “Tripitaka,” and an iron-cast statue of Guanyin.

Throughout history, Nanhua Temple has attracted numerous visitors due to the lofty status of Huineng in the history of Chinese Buddhism and philosophy. The great Song Dynasty literary figure Su Shi expressed deep longing in a poem to a friend: “The fragrant water tells me it’s the mouth of Caoxi; with clear eyes, I gaze upon the robe of the ancient Buddha. If I do not form a karmic bond with Nanhua, where else can my soul truly rest?” Wen Tianxiang, a national hero of the Southern Song Dynasty and author of the timeless line “Since ancient times, who has not died? Let me leave a loyal heart to shine in the annals of history,” also wrote the heartfelt and moving poem “Gazing Toward Nanhua”: “Traveling nearly a thousand li northward, lost and forgetting east from west. Step by step, I arrive at Nanhua, hurried as if in a dream. How many worlds does Buddha transform? Suffering, too, is the same as mine. All forms return to extinction; only emptiness is eternal. Smiling at the waters of Caoxi, I sit before the pines in the breeze.”

In modern and contemporary times, many notable public figures have also visited the temple, drawn by its fame:

In 1924, while Sun Yat-sen was busy with political and military affairs during the Second Northern Expedition in Shaoguan, he still visited the temple with Tan Yankai, Liu Chengyu, Xu Shiyin, and others. He donated silver dollars to the temple and instructed that every blade of grass and tree be cherished, and that the cultural relics be preserved for future generations to admire.

Address: G106 (Beijing-Guangzhou Railway), Qujiang District, Shaoguan City

Type: Temple & Historic Site

Recommended Visiting Time: 2–3 hours

Phone: 0751-6501014

Official Website: http://www.nhcs.cn/

Opening Hours: 8:00–17:00

Ticket Information: Door Price: 20.0 RMB

Chengdong Community: Chengdong Community……  Chengdong Community Detailed Information++

Further Reading:

· Fifth Batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units