Changzhou Qingliang Temple

　　　Qingliang Temple is located at No. 22 Qingliang Road in downtown Changzhou. The temple was first built in the first year of the Zhiping era of the Northern Song Dynasty (1064), originally named Bao'en Ganci Chan Monastery, and was destroyed in the late Yuan Dynasty. In the first year of the Yongle era of the Ming Dynasty (1403), it was relocated to its current site and renamed Qingliang Temple. It was later renamed Duanming Temple but was again destroyed during the Taiping Rebellion. Between the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty and the Republican era, Master Jingbo and his predecessors successively rebuilt over 300 structures including the Mahavira Hall, the Heavenly King Hall, the Scripture Depository, the Dharma Hall, and the Meditation Hall. The main buildings are situated along the central axis, among which the Scripture Depository is a three-story wooden structure with a flush gable roof, using high-quality materials and standing grand and tall. The temple still preserves a fragmented stele erected in the eighth year of the Zhengtong era of the Ming Dynasty (1443) by Hu Ying, Minister of Rites, titled “Record of the Buddha Hall of Bao'en Ganci Temple.” After 1958, Qingliang Temple was successively occupied by five factories and schools, and the Buddhist statues were gradually damaged. Starting in 1982, the government invested heavily to relocate the factories and schools within the temple grounds. After restoration, it was opened to the public as the Changzhou Museum in 1984. It is now a provincial-level cultural relics protection unit.