In December 1934, a letter was published in the 12th issue of Shanxi Buddhism magazine. The sender of the letter was monk Huicheng, a monk from Sansheng Temple in Hedong Village, Jiexiu. The recipient was Master Likong, then president of the Shanxi Buddhist Association.

The Destruction of Sansheng Temple

—A story led by a letter

Chen Quan

In December 1934, a letter was published in the twelfth issue of Shanxi Buddhism magazine. The sender of this letter was monk Huicheng, a monk from Sansheng Temple in Hedong Village, Jiexiu, and the recipient was Master Likong , then president of the Shanxi Buddhist Association.

Monk Huicheng introduced in the letter that he was given the precepts of Master Yu Likong at Xingtang Temple in Hongdong, two years ago when he wrote the letter. He was the apprentice of Master Likong. After receiving the precepts, Huicheng came to Sansheng Temple, Sanli Quanquangou, Hedong Village, southeast of Jiexiu City, and followed Zen Master Leming in the temple to learn Buddhist rules and scriptures, etc.

There is a gangster named Lan Yuan in Hedong Village. When he saw Zen Master Ming’s clothes were neat, he felt that this monk must be rich. He suddenly had bad thoughts in his heart, and threatened him with bad words and wanted to blackmail some money. Seeing that the situation was wrong, Zen Master Leming was unhappy, but he still advised him to do good deeds with good words and not to cause trouble. Seeing that Lan Yuan could not achieve his goal, he cursed and raised his hand and beat him. Seeing that the situation was wrong, the monk Huicheng in front of him quickly stepped forward and helped Ming say something nice. Although Lan Yuan had delusions in his heart, he was alone after all. After a few days, he took Liu Pi, a gangster from the village, and others to the temple to commit crimes. First, they beat Zen Master Ming and snatched and found dozens of dollars in . Later, I heard that the monk Zhengyin who lived in the temple had just donated hundreds of dollars outside. I was overjoyed and pushed the monk Zhengyin into the well and drowned, looting all his money.

It is a bright world, a Buddhist holy land, and a life-threatening death for money is really outrageous. Monk Huicheng quickly ran to the village to report the case to the village chief of Hedong Village. After hearing this, the village chief disagreed and said to Huicheng: "These are just monks and wild Taoists. What do we care about? None of you monks and monks can do good things, let them go to life or death!"

The village chief protects Liu Pi and Lanyuan so much, kills and robs, destroys the temple, and also attempts to plunder the temple property. Monk Huicheng had no choice but to report it to the district mayor. At this time, Jiexiu implemented a district and village system. Hedong Village is under the jurisdiction of the fifth district, and the district government is in the nearby Longfeng Village. Huicheng hurriedly reported the case, but unexpectedly, the district mayor and the village mayor were venting their anger and ignored it at all. Huicheng had to report the matter to the county. Unexpectedly, the county magistrate did not make the decision for the monk. Instead, he believed the village chief and removed Zen Master Ming’s order!

"Pending order" refers to some monks who receive precepts in Buddhist temples. In order to understand and seek Buddhism, they often travel around, visit temples, and learn about the virtues of monks. They stayed in a wandering Buddhist temple, which was called "pending orders". Just like the "temporary residence permit" in modern society. Now that the government has removed all the Zen Master Ming’s orders, there are naturally no monks in the Three Saints Temples.

Monkey Huicheng has no idea. When he came, he was fine. After a long time of surrender, he couldn't even go back to the temple! He had no choice but to escape to Wenchang Pavilion outside the east gate of Lingshi County. Not long after, Huicheng heard that after Zen Master Leming was driven out of the temple, he had to stay in the village to beg for a living, and he had no place to settle down. It was so pitiful. I also heard that the Hedong village chief led people to sell the cypress in the Sansheng Temple for hundreds of dollars, and the bricks, tiles, wood and stones in the yard below the Jiangshou Temple for hundreds of dollars. You know, this temple property was recruited and created by monks and has nothing to do with the village! Now that monks are being driven out, temple products are being sold, and incense is completely cut off, where can we go? In desperation, Huicheng had to turn to Master Likong for help.

This Master Likong has a common surname, his name is Chongyuan, and he is from Zhaocheng, Shanxi Province. In February 1927, he converted to the seat of Master Miaofang, the abbot of Xingtang Temple in Hongdong County. In August 1932, he received the precepts of monks. His Dharma name was Changyi and his Dharma name was Likong. After liberation, he served as the director of the Chinese Buddhist Association and vice president of the Shanxi Buddhist Association.

The greatest contribution of this Likong master is to protect "Zhaocheng Jinzang".In the spring of the 31st year of the Republic of China (1942), the Japanese army wanted to steal the "Jinzang" from Guangsheng Temple. Likong learned about this and immediately found the anti-Japanese base area, Yang Zesheng, the county magistrate of Zhaocheng, and planned to try to transfer it to prevent accidents. After being reported to the head of the Taiyue Military Region, he transferred the "Jinzang" to a safe area. Only after liberation did this national treasure be transported to the Beijing Library for collection.

Why did Monk Huicheng think of Master Likong? Because Master Likong has a connection with the spirit stone. In 1924, Master Qiu Likong was also a civil official. He served as the district mayor and county assistant in Renyi Town, Lingshi County. In May 1927, he helped the local monk print the "Gypsum Mountain Chronicle".

So, why did the Three Saint Temple in Hedong have such a miserable situation? In fact, as early as the late Qing Dynasty, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom launched a large-scale Buddhist scheming, and the "confiscated temple property and promoted education" were popularized nationwide, and the Emperor Guangxu issued an edict to nationalize temple real estate. After such a three-round sweeping across the country, Buddhism in China had fallen into a state of collapse. As the Republic of China period entered the Republic of China, Buddhism continued to be criticized, strictly controlled and cracked down. At this stage, Buddhism also encountered important problems. Some temples have huge real estate, and the monks have become a food-profit class, which violates the doctrine and accumulates wealth, aggravates social conflicts; some monks themselves have fallen, and the image of Buddhism is awkward; some monks have too low quality, and most of them have made a living... and so on, internal and external troubles have caused the fall in Buddhism and the Buddha is covered in dust.

At that time, many social elites and intellectuals despised monks and Buddhism very much, and evaluated monks Taoist priests " is just some open scammers, decent beggars, disguised blood-sucking insects, and obstacles that prevent the wheel of the times ". Many lay Buddhists generally believe that: " The monastic community is aborted people in society, a profit-sharing player in society, a cool blood animal that does not produce, a backward person in the crowd, etc. ." The various problems that exist in themselves are like dominoes that push Buddhism to a desperate situation, and the social status of monks and Buddhism plummeted. Therefore, the loss of Buddhism and the loss of temples are social problems, not the patent of a certain social movement.

In contrast, monks also boast about the situation mentioned in the letter. Why do the money raised by others know? Why are monks' clothes noticed? These all violate the rules of " Five Views ". Don't talk about monks, even ordinary people should pay attention to it at all times.

This letter was only seen in Buddhist magazines a year later. What is the follow-up situation? I didn't find a conclusion. In the chaotic times, all faiths were lost. As the president of the Provincial Buddhist Association, Li Konggui was powerless, so he had to use the magazine he owned to sigh at Kong and leave this passage for us to taste it!

Some time ago, I went to the red base of the former residence of Martyr Han Qiming in Hedong Village to study, and sat in the yard to ask about Quanquangou in the east of the village. Everyone knows it. I asked Sansheng's again, no one knew. When I arrived at the scene, weeds were overgrown, there were no springs or temples, and even no bricks or tiles or any relics. Looking up, it was a farmhouse...

Author profile

Chen Quan, born in 1972, works at Jiexiu Sports Center, Vice Chairman of Jiexiu Writers Association, and a special researcher at the Chinese Language Research Center of East China Normal University.