Kaihua Lingshan Temple

　　Lingshan Temple was first built in the third year of Emperor Renzong's Huangyou reign during the Song Dynasty (1051 AD). The original temple complex featured buildings such as the Thousand Buddha Pavilion, Ksitigarbha Hall, Jingzhao Hall, Yuantong Pavilion, Bell Tower, and Drum Tower. In 1934, the Kaihua Buddhist Studies Society was established at the temple site, where the 13th patriarch of Chinese Buddhism, Master Yinguang, personally came to promote Buddhist teachings. Reconstruction of Lingshan Temple began in 1995, with a planned total area of 150 mu and an investment of 15 million yuan. Development projects include the Mahavira Hall, Heavenly King Hall, Western Trinity Hall, Bell and Drum Towers, and Lingshan Guesthouse. Over 5 million yuan has been invested so far. The statues inside the halls are lifelike, and the pathways and railings in the courtyard are all stone carvings. The scale ranks first in western Zhejiang, and the temple is currently applying for provincial key management status. Kaihua County, Zhejiang Province, is located on the western border of Zhejiang (longitude 118°01′–118°37′, latitude 28°54′–29°30′), under the jurisdiction of Quzhou City. It sits at the junction of three provinces and seven counties—Zhejiang, Anhui, and Jiangxi—and is the source of the Qiantang River, the mother river of Zhejiang. It borders Changshan County and Chun’an County; Wuyuan County, Dexing City, and Yushan County of Jiangxi Province; as well as Xiuning County of Anhui Province. The county was established in the sixth year of the Taiping Xingguo era of the Northern Song Dynasty (981 AD), boasting a history of 1,025 years.

　　The area features majestic mountains, lush forests, and temples tucked away in the landscape. The thousand-year-old Lingshan Temple is nestled near Shaohua Mountain. The temple was initially built during the Northern Wei Dynasty, with a history of over 1,500 years, and has been called "Lingshan" since the Tang Dynasty. Located between Henan and Hubei provinces, it is one of the officially constructed temples, with a history of over 1,200 years. The original Xinyang Lingshan Temple was built by a princess of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, Li Longji, in 713 AD. After her passing, the emperor visited to offer incense and designated it as a “national temple.” Legend has it that during the Tang Dynasty, a local magistrate resigned from his post, became a monk, and traveled all the way to India to study Buddhist teachings. After completing his studies, he returned to Lingshan Temple to spread the Dharma. During the Northern Song Dynasty, under Emperor Renzong’s reign, Master Lingran petitioned the emperor. Since the Empress Dowager was a devout Buddhist, the emperor approved three years’ worth of public grain (27,000 taels of silver per year) for the temple’s reconstruction. The temple was renovated again in the second year of Yuanyou (1087 AD), and a stele by the Ming Dynasty figure Zhang Zhongjian documents this. In the second year of the Yuan Dynasty’s Yanyou reign (1315 AD), the temple was rebuilt once more. By the eighth year of Zhiyuan (1349 AD), Chen Dayong served as the abbot. In the third year of the Ming Dynasty’s Hongwu reign (1370 AD), Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang visited the temple to offer incense, conferred the title of “Golden Splendor Chan Master” upon the resident monks, renamed the temple “Shengshou Chan Temple,” and personally inscribed its plaque. He also bestowed the temple with “half an imperial procession,” golden melons, axes, and other ritual instruments. The roof of the temple was adorned with dragon heads and phoenix tails, earning it the name “Imperial Temple.” In the seventh year of Xuande (1432 AD) during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong, additional Buddha halls and bell and drum towers were built. In the seventh year of Hongzhi (1494 AD) during Emperor Xiaozong’s reign, three white stone Buddha statues and a set of arhat statues were created, completed by the winter of the second year of Zhengde (1507 AD) during Emperor Wuzong’s reign. In the 51st year of the Kangxi reign (1712 AD) during the Qing Dynasty, Monk Guoying returned from studying in India with a carved statue of Sakyamuni in sapphire stone and eighteen arhat statues, and oversaw another renovation of the temple. After the Jiaqing era, successive repairs were made. During the Republic of China period, frequent wars and banditry led to more destruction than restoration, leaving the temple in ruins with broken steles and desolation. According to records, the monks of Lingshan Temple belonged to the Linji school of Chan Buddhism. The temple complex comprised six sections: Jinding (also known as Shaohua Mountain), the Main Temple, Central, South, North, and Mafanggou, with over 160 halls originally. At its peak, the temple attracted up to 300,000 pilgrims annually. The architectural layout was meticulously structured, with the six main halls arranged along a central axis in a terraced formation following the mountain’s slope. Currently, there are six front halls, three ancestral halls, five great Buddha halls, three dharma halls, five immortal worship palaces, and five five-star halls—totaling 30 halls. Each of the six main halls houses various Buddhist and Taoist statues: the Joyful Hall enshrines Guan Yu, the Ancestral Hall enshrines Bodhidharma, the Great Buddha Hall enshrines Sakyamuni, the Dharma Hall enshrines arhats, the Immortal Worship Palace enshrines the Eight Immortals (both upper and lower), and the Five-Star Hall enshrines the Jade Emperor and Kui Xing. This reflects a blend of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism. Lingshan Temple enjoys considerable prestige in India and Southeast Asian countries. In 1962, during his visit to China, Indian Prime Minister Nehru expressed a desire to visit the temple, but it did not happen due to transportation limitations at the time. During the Cultural Revolution, all Buddha statues were destroyed, and the Jinding halls were completely demolished, with only the four characters “Shengshou Chan Temple” surviving. The current temple gate plaque was inscribed by Zhao Puchu, former president of the Buddhist Association of China.