Ju Xi (Associate Professor of School of Sociology, Beijing Normal University)
From October 17 to 21, 2020, the School of Sociology of Beijing Normal University and the Center for Historical Anthropology of Sun Yat-sen University jointly organized the "Going to Beijing to Find Temples" field workshop. Twelve people from different backgrounds Scholars in the field visited three mountains and five peaks and traced the alleys of the inner city to understand the social history of the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties from temple activities and their ruins.
This field workshop is divided into five themes: "Five Summits and Incense Meeting", "Ancient Roads and Mountain Climbs", "Temple by the Waterside", "Temple and Daily Ritual Life", and "From Imperial Monk to Artistic Monk" ". Workshop members examine a theme every day, hold discussions in the field, and constantly compare it with research experiences in other parts of China. They think about Chinese society under the sun and reflect on dynastic history from the streets and corners. This article is a summary of the investigation and discussion of this field workshop. Due to space limitations, The Paper·Private History is published in three parts.
The morning of October 19th: Jingxi Ancient Road
On the morning of October 19th, a group of 13 people from the workshop set off from Haidian District, Beijing, and took a minibus to Miaofeng Mountain. First arrive at the Jingxi Ancient Road, not far from Miaofengshan Town.
Jingxi Ancient Road is the collective name for the ancient roads in the middle and upper reaches of the Yongding River west of Beijing. It can be traced back to the mountain roads and Yongding River corridors blazed by ancient ancestors during their migrations. After the Yuan Dynasty, it was gradually A criss-crossing network of ancient roads has been formed. The ancient roads in Mentougou are more than 100 kilometers long, with a large number of historic sites, inscriptions and Guancheng ruins preserved on both sides. Under the leadership of local staff, the workshop members walked along the ancient trail to Niujiangling Guancheng. This place was once a military fortress in the west of Beijing. Since ancient times, there has been an endless stream of horse caravans, military traffic, business travel, and people going to incense all have to pass through it. Although Guancheng is now in ruins, the gate still stands on the ridge.
Qingjia went to the palace, and the distant village came out of Guanshan (a distant view of Niujiao Ridge)
In the antique hexagonal stele pavilion on the east side of Guancheng at Niujiao Ridge, there is the "Forever Free Husband Junction Stele" erected in the 42nd year of Qianlong's reign in the Qing Dynasty (1777). ", the inscription records that "the countryside in the west of Beijing has thick rocks and thin fields, and the people here live in kilns. As soon as the husband is sent, the family laments the difficulty of life. It is far away from Beijing, and the journey back and forth is unbearable." In the eighth year of Yongzheng's reign (1730), Ruan Gong, an official of the Wangpingkou Inspection Department, reported the sufferings of the villagers to the county magistrate. The county magistrate reported to the court and approved the exemption of men from labor here, and received the emperor's approval. Wang Ping, Qi Jia, and Shi Gang were all exempted from official duties.
Passing through the culvert entrance, there are two stone tablets on the hillside beside the road to the west of Guancheng, both of which are replicas. The one to the west is the "Forever Fufu Junction Monument" mentioned above in the 42nd year of Qianlong's reign in the Qing Dynasty, and the one to the east is the "Reconstruction of Xishan Road Monument" in the 11th year of Tongzhi in the Qing Dynasty (1872). This stele records the situation in the tenth year of Tongzhi, when heavy rains caused disasters and roads were washed away, but the people's good deeds were used to rebuild the roads. It can be seen from the inscription that those who donated money to build the road at that time were mainly commercial shops in Sanjiadian and Liuliqu villages, indicating that this ancient road was the economic lifeline of the coal merchants.
Focusing on these two stone tablets, Zheng Zhenman extended to the problems of local finance and officials after the reform of the One-whip Law in the Ming Dynasty. In the early Ming Dynasty, the labor service was borne by special personnel, usually rotating in units of Lijia. In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, this system gradually evolved into a tax-deductible system, and the labor service became a hired service. However, due to local financial difficulties, after the Qing Dynasty, local temporary corvee work often required hiring workers from Yanglian Bank. The reforms between the Qianlong and Jiaqing reigns of the Qing Dynasty stipulated the use of Yanglianyin, which in turn made it more difficult to settle husband's wages. All these factors have resulted in the inability of all the handymen to be converted into tax money. In short, the reform of civil servants is a long and complicated process, and the situation in each region is different. For example, the Jiangnan region, where water conservancy projects are often built, has undergone great changes. The reform in Fujian is centered on the four major civil servants, while in the western Beijing region where people's livelihood is difficult. This may have led to the emergence of the "Eternal Free Husband Junction Monument" in the 42nd year of Qianlong's reign. It is therefore necessary to supplement and revise the discussion of institutional history from the perspective of people's lives in specific time and space.
There is also a Guandi Temple to the west of Guancheng, with three main halls and three side halls on the left and right. The year of its construction is unknown.It is reported that in ancient times, mule and horse caravans would visit the Guandi Temple when passing through Niujiao Ridge to pray for a safe journey. It is also said that a stone statue of Sister Yang was enshrined in this temple. Some people say that the statue of Sister Yang was invited by the people of Taoyuan Village to be enshrined in the Empress Temple in East Taoyuan Village. It no longer exists today. In the early years of the Republic of China, the Guandi Temple was destroyed. The current temple was rebuilt on the original site in Shuiyuzui Village in April 2012. The temple looks almost new, has less incense, and is mainly used for tourism.
The afternoon of October 19th: Miaofeng Mountain
Miaofeng Mountain is about 40 kilometers northwest of Fuchengmen, Beijing, with an altitude of 1291 meters. It is the main peak of Yangshan branch of Xishan Mountain. Starting around the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty, Miaofeng Mountain began to become famous as a pilgrimage site for Bixia Yuanjun. By the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, it had become the center of the belief in Bixia Yuanjun, the "Old Lady", in Beijing, Tianjin and even North China. , known as the "Golden Summit", its incense is so strong that it exceeds the five summits. After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, the Miaofeng Mountain Incense Society declined gradually, but gradually recovered in the 1980s. It is now one of the largest pilgrimage sites in North China. During the temple fair held on the 1st to 15th day of the fourth lunar month every year, there are about hundreds of civil and military incense festivities to offer incense to the top, and there are thousands of scattered pilgrims every day. The Miaofeng Mountain survey carried out by Mr. Gu Jiegang and others in the 1920s is considered to be the beginning of the field investigation of modern Chinese folklore. Since then, research results on Miaofeng Mountain have emerged one after another, and it is also known as the holy land of Chinese folklore.
Photo of Jinding Miaofeng Mountain
Under the guidance and explanation of local staff, the teachers visited the Huiji Temple complex. Huiji Temple is commonly known as the "Empress Temple". There are eight temples in the courtyard. The main hall is the Inspiration Palace, which is dedicated to Bixia Yuanjun, the main god of Miaofeng Mountain. On the left side are the Spotted Empress and the Descendants Empress, and on the right are the Eyes Empress and the Send-off Empress. The east side hall is dedicated to Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva, and the west side hall is the Medicine King Hall. On the east side, from north to south are Yuelao Hall, Guanyin Hall, and Three Churches. On the west side, from north to south, are Wang San Nai Hall, Wenchang Hall, and tourist shops. In the forest of steles under the Huiji Temple, most of the steles were erected by the incense society in recent years, and the old stone steles are missing. Walking along the incense road to Jiangou Village, there are two temples, the Silly Buddha Hall and the Lingguan Hall, but unfortunately the doors are closed and cannot be visited. During the half-day trip, the topics of interest to everyone in the workshop were roughly as follows:
The Folklore Movement and South China Studies
As Liu Zhiwei emphasized on various occasions, the academic pursuit of "South China Studies" can be traced back to multiple origins, 20 The Chinese folklore movement that began in the 1920s is one of them. In 1925, commissioned by the Chinese Studies Customs Investigation Committee of Peking University, a group of five people including Gu Jiegang, Sun Fuyuan, and Rong Geng conducted a three-day inspection of Miaofeng Mountain in Beijing. Their investigation report was compiled and published as "Miaofeng Mountain" in 1928. . In 1927, Mr. Gu Jiegang established the Folklore Society at Sun Yat-sen University and founded the "National Sun Yat-sen University Institute of Linguistics and History Weekly" and "Folklore" weekly. In 1929, Gu Jiegang, who was already teaching at Sun Yat-sen University, returned to Beijing and conducted the second organized investigation of Miaofeng Mountain with Wei Jiangong, Bai Dizhou and others. The investigation report was later published by Sun Yat-sen University's "Folklore" Weekly as "Incense Investigation in Miaofeng Mountain" Published under the title "Special Account". This tradition created by Mr. Gu Jiegang has profoundly influenced the history, anthropology and folklore majors of Sun Yat-sen University, Xiamen University, Peking University, Beijing Normal University, etc. Most of the people in this workshop have direct origins with it.
Liu Zhiwei emphasized that the Chinese folklore movement that began 100 years ago called out the slogan of "building a history for the whole people." This is the belief that "South China Studies" has always adhered to, and it is also the purpose of this workshop: standing on the To understand the people from their standpoint and break the sage-centered history, we adopt a multidisciplinary approach. The ultimate goal is to explore how to understand the entire society from the lives and desires of the people.
Group photo in front of the Monument of the Folklore Movement
The empress of Miaofeng Mountain is illuminated from a distance but not the near
"The empress of Miaofeng Mountain is illuminated from a distance but not from the near" is a common saying widely circulated in the western region of Beijing. Many scholars have heard and noticed this sentence in the past, but they usually understand it as an explanation of the efficacious degree of Bixia Yuanjun.But in fact, the area in western Beijing where Miaofeng Mountain is located had its own temple fair. Before the 1950s, the villages in western Beijing held incense fairs and offered incense to the top of Jiulong Mountain, Baihua Mountain, Beiganggou and other empress temples scattered throughout the country. Each temple has its own stable incense fair circle. For example, the Jiulongshan Temple Fair is co-organized by the Thirteenth Village in Mentougou, the incense fair in Baihuashan comes from the Fifty-Eight Village at the junction of Mentougou and Fangshan, and the Beigou Port is five kilometers outside Wangpingkou. , pilgrimage sites in six villages. These village incense gatherings do not go to Miaofeng Mountain to offer incense. Perhaps this is the meaning of the saying "The Empress of Miaofeng Mountain shines far away but not close up".
Take the Jiulongshan Niangniang Temple as an example. It was built by raising funds from the kiln owners and kiln workers in the Mentougou area. It was also a sacred place jointly respected by the coal industry in the Mentougou area in the old days. Before the 1940s, the Jiulongshan Empress Temple held a temple fair on the first day of May every year. The coal kilns in Mentougou also began to close their kilns and cease production at this time. It was not until the Empress returned to Luan on the first day of September that the coal kilns resumed production. According to the investigation records of Liu Tieliang and others, “During the temple fair, the statue of the Empress must be carried out from the Jiutian Empress Temple in the circle gate with a very grand ceremony, walked through the seven-mile mountain road, and sent to the Empress Hall on the top of the mountain for placement. On the way, various incense festivities with the Mentougou Thirteenth Society as the core followed closely, performing performances to the empress along the way. The people in Gouli called this event "sending the empress to escape the summer heat". After the temple fair is held, all coal kilns in Mentougou must stop production, and the masters of each kiln will do the last work, and the last one will leave the kiln and seal the well, which is commonly known as "going down the mountain". On the first day of September, the organizers of the temple fair will send people and drivers to meet again. Together we went to the Jiulong Mountain Empress Temple and took the small statue of Jiutian Xuannv Empress in the Empress Temple to the Jiutian Empress Temple behind Longfengpo Village. At this time, each kiln started kiln production, commonly known as 'going up the mountain'" ("Chinese Folk Customs" compiled by Liu Tieliang Cultural Chronicle·Beijing Mentougou District Volume", Beijing, Central Compilation and Translation Press, 2006, p. 212).
Different from these more "local" temple fairs, although Miaofeng Mountain is located in Mentougou, the incense fairs it attracts mainly come from "internal and external" - that is, Beijing city inside and outside. After the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, Tianjin merchants became an important force in offering incense in Miaofeng Mountain. This further strengthened the ability of the Miaofeng Mountain Empress to "shine far away", but it did not change the temple fair pattern of the local villages in Mentougou.
Xiangtou other than "civil and martial arts"
In addition to the "wuhui" for martial arts performances and the "wenhui" for charity, there is also a type of Xiangtou organized by "xiangtou" on Miaofeng Mountain. "Xiangtou" is also called "the most fragrant one", which is a type of shaman. The common incense heads in Beijing serve the "four gates" (foxes, snakes, hedgehogs, and weasels, four animals considered to be "fairies"), and are possessed by people who have magical powers. In the article "Four Gates" written by Li Weizu under the guidance of Yang Kun in 1941, he conducted a relatively detailed investigation of Xiangtou's top-burning incense. According to his records, although Xiangtou is divided into sects and has clear organizational relationships, they The places where people regularly go to the mountains to offer incense are roughly the same, and Miaofeng Mountain is the most important one.
After the temple is opened on Miaofeng Mountain on the first day of April every year, Xiangtou will organize his faithful men and women to go to worship together. Some incense heads go to the families related to them to persuade them to make donations one month before the date of incense burning. People who are cured by the incense heads often not only donate money and money, but also go to the mountains to worship with the incense heads in order to fulfill their vows. It is said that several Xiangtou from Tianjin donated money to build the Silly Buddha Hall and maintain it over the years. To this day, Tianjin Xiangtou still brings believers to the Silly Buddha Hall every year to add incense and help charity. Grandma Wang’s Palace is also a must-go place for these incense heads. This is because Grandma Wang is in charge of the four immortal families in the world. Nowadays, during temple fairs, you can still see worshipers leading the worshipers to thank Grandma Wang, or even possessed witches standing in front of the gods. Where do these incense sticks come from? What are their social relationships and roles in the local area? What are the similarities and differences between the incense sticks they organize and the civil and military incense sticks? What kind of social action does the incense sticks constitute? These are all questions worthy of further inquiry. .
Ancient Incense Road in Miaofeng Mountain
October 20: Temples and Daily Ritual Life
In the article "The Ritual Life of a Bannerman Family in Beijing in the Early Years of the Republic of China - Reading Thoughts from an Anonymous Diary", Zhao Shiyu outlines a bannerman family in Beijing. Relations with community temples. The owner of the diary often goes to Longfu Temple and Huguo Temple for shopping and entertainment, but the purpose is not to burn incense and worship gods. His mother once burned incense and saluted in front of the Celestial Mother of Miaofeng Mountain from afar, and some family members who had passed away visited the Dongyue Temple for mourning. The three temples with which his family had the closest ties: Fangjia Hutong Baiyi Temple , Fatong Temple Hutong Jingyin Temple, Biandanchang Dafo Temple, and Tuer Hutong Zengfu Temple, which had come to his home for charity, were all Within two or three alleys from his home. Following the traces of the daily ritual life of the diary owner, the workshop also visited the four temples with which he often interacted, as well as other temples in the area.
Visiting the temple on October 20 (using the 1937 Beijing city map as the base map)
Visiting the temple on October 20 (using the 2020 remote sensing satellite image as the base map)
Biandangchang Dafo Temple and the Banner People’s Separation
Banner People Writing a Diary The family lives in a pole factory, and the Dafo Nunnery is a neighbor to his family. According to Zhao Shiyu's research, the Dafo Nunnery should have been in contact with this family for a long time, and soon they had more direct contact because they moved to the pole factory. Even during the move, the Buddha's shrine enshrined in his family was enshrined in the Dafo Nunnery. Inside the nunnery. The entire Biandangchang Hutong is now the compound of an air force unit in Beijing. This may be due to the fact that the original public buildings were taken over as a whole during the Qing Dynasty.
The owner of the diary moved into the Biandangchang Hutong where the Xianghuang Banner was located, which triggered a discussion about the living conditions of the banner people in the inner city during the Qing Dynasty. Qiu Yuanyuan introduced Liu Xiaomeng’s research on the banner people in Beijing. After the Eight Banners entered Beijing, they implemented a policy of dividing the Banner people and the inner city became the exclusive residence of the Banner people. However, the life of the banner people is inseparable from the people. Since the early years of Kangxi, people have been pouring into the city. Among them, doing the dormitory house business is one of the earliest and important ways. The grain and rice received by the bannermen every month cannot be eaten directly. They need to be shelled in a mortar house. However, the bannermen themselves cannot do business, let alone the rice milling technology, so they can only leave it to the people to open a mortar house to handle it. By the Kangxi period, a large number of dormitory houses had appeared in the inner city, and gradually gained tacit recognition. In the middle and late Qing Dynasty, the economic strength of the Han people who opened Qifang became stronger and stronger. They even took over Qifang and turned it into shops, and even loaned money to Qidian. With the increase in the number of civilians in the inner city, the coexistence of banner people and civilians has also increased the complexity of Beijing's urban management, such as the jurisdiction of Shuntian Prefecture, the differences in management systems inside and outside the city walls, etc., all of which have brought problems that are different from other cities.
Baiyi Temple, Zengfu Temple and Temple Charity Associations
Baiyi Temple in Fangjia Hutong is the temple that has the closest relationship with the diary owner’s family. The female family members can stay in the nunnery for ten days and often participate in the charity meetings organized by the nunnery. They should be active Participated in religious activities in the temple. In 1908, nun Fa'an, who was originally from Daxing, Beijing (now Dongcheng District), began to serve as the abbot of Baiyi Temple. In 1911, she bought the Zaojun Temple in the Guozijian Hutong in the north and added many ritual objects to the two temples. During the Republic of China, Baiyi Temple had approximately 27 Buddhist halls, 15 monk rooms for nuns to live in, and 29 houses for rent. In addition to various kinds of religious objects, there are also various treasures in the temple such as official vases from the Qianlong period, official kiln porcelain Buddhas, agarwood Nanhai statues and other treasures, which are enough to show that Faguang and his successors have strong financial resources. The nuns in the temple also have a high status in the Buddhist community. It is said that when the last abbot passed away in the temple, many people came to the temple to chant sutras for her salvation, condolences and salutes. These are the reasons why Baiyi Nunnery can hold charity gatherings and stay with female relatives.
Unlike Baiyi Temple, Zengfu Temple, another place where the diary owner came to invite charity gatherings, is not a little-known street temple, with only one front hall and three north halls. However, since the Guangxu period, Zengfu Temple has become the lower courtyard of Nancheng Chongxiao Temple. The monks of Chongxiao Temple also serve as the abbot of the temple. Therefore, the monks of Zengfu Temple will come to the diary owner to post posts and persuade them to join the Chongxiao Temple. Goodwill.It was a common practice in the Qing Dynasty for famous temples and temples to set up lower courtyards in the capital as their "offices in Beijing". Through these lower courtyards in the city, monks from various temples could often move around the mansions of famous families, which not only helped them make alms and donations, but also It also helps them mediate with all kinds of people, form a close network of interpersonal relationships, and use this as a platform to carry out various social activities.
Most of the existing temple ruins have been transformed into large courtyards.
Jingyin Temple
Fatong Temple and Jingyin Temple are called two temples. In fact, they are integrated into one. Hereinafter, they are collectively referred to as Jingyin Temple. The owner of the diary is an old neighbor and friend of Jingyin Temple, and has a financial relationship with the temple monks. In the Ming Dynasty, Jingyin Temple had eunuchs who often lived in the temple to burn incense. In the 44th year of the reign of Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty, Liang Jiugong, the chief minister of the imperial court, and Li Yu, the emperor's Dahari Zhuzi, donated ten hectares of incense land. In addition to donating to Jingyin Temple, Liang Jiugong also donated money to rebuild Xianying Temple on Niangniang Temple Street in Dongba. These two temples are called Buddhist temples, but they are both closely related to Bixia Yuanjun. Xianying Temple is commonly known as Niangniang Temple. Some people think that it may be the east top of the "Five Tops" of the capital. Jingyin Temple is the site of the " Zhuozhou Madonna Incense Society". At the beginning of the 18th century, the Simen Wang family of Gulou Old Street organized hundreds of believers (mostly women) to establish this incense association and go to Zhuozhou every year to offer incense. After getting older, a monument was erected in the 42nd year of Kangxi as a record. Zhao Shiyu mentioned in the article that the only birthday recorded in the diary of this bannerman was the birthday of Bixia Yuanjun. The mother of the diary owner burned incense and saluted in front of the Celestial Mother on the evening of April 15th. Perhaps the relationship between this banner family and Jingyin Temple is also related to the activities of the Chaoshan Incense Association in the temple.
Prime Minister Wen Temple
Prime Minister Wen Temple is a special temple dedicated to worship Wen Tianxiang. Wen Tianxiang was captured to Dadu in the 16th year of the Yuan Dynasty, and was killed in Chaishi on the 9th day of December in the 19th year of the Yuan Dynasty. The original site of Wen Tianxiang Temple was the Army and Horse Division where he was imprisoned. The temple was built in the 9th year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty. . In 1947, the Prime Minister Wen Temple was renamed the Zhongmartie Temple and was managed by the Daxing County Public Property Custody Committee. In 1951, the Prime Minister Wen Temple, together with its neighbor Shuntianfu Confucianism School, was used by the Fuxue Hutong Primary School, but the Daxing County Temple Property Management Committee still had the responsibility to take care of it. Responsibility to protect. Zhao Shiyu recalled that he attended classes here when he was in elementary school in 1967. Since classes were suspended for one year in 1966, he went directly to the second grade after enrolling. The main hall is used as a classroom, with the blackboard in the west and the students in the east. The crooked-neck jujube tree that "will not rest until it points to the right" is outside the classroom window. By 1979, the Prime Minister Wen Temple was listed as the second batch of key cultural relics protection units in Beijing. In 1984, it was renovated and opened to the public. The history of the Prime Minister Moon Shrine being used as an elementary school came to an end.
Taking a group photo under the jujube tree that "will not stop until the other side is pointed"
Nan Xincang
The last stop of today's itinerary is Nan Xincang. Nanxincang was one of the royal warehouses of the Ming and Qing dynasties. In the ninth year of Yongle, 300,000 migrant workers were recruited to dredge the rivers of the Yuan Dynasty and carry out water transportation, so that grain from the south of the Yangtze River could be continuously transported to the north. To this end, buildings including the south were gradually built in Tongzhou and Beijing. Many grain silos, including the new one. In the Qing Dynasty, grain transportation from the south to the north was still implemented, and official warehouses were still flourishing. The main buildings of the warehouse in each hospital are: black block, gantry, official hall, supervisory duty station, official duty station, department room, lobby, watch room, alarm tower, Jitong warehouse, Taicang hall, well, gate, warehouse temple and land Temples, etc., but only some of the temples have been preserved to this day.
The morning of October 21st: Zhihua Temple
Beijing Zhihua Temple is one of the few Ming Dynasty wooden structure buildings existing in Beijing. It is also the first Beijing temple to enter the field of vision of modern Chinese researchers. In 1931, Liu Dunzhen, then director of the Department of Architecture at Nanjing Central University, conducted surveying and architectural history research on Zhihua Temple. In the autumn of the following year, he completed the article "Investigation of the Tathagata Hall of Zhihua Temple in Peking". In 1952, the Ancient Chinese Music Research Laboratory of the Central Conservatory of Music conducted a systematic survey of Beijing music in Zhihua Temple and formed three volumes of interview records "Beijing Music in Zhihua Temple (1) (2) and (3)", which were mimeographed in 1953. Finished manuscript.The two field surveys were of pivotal and pioneering significance in the academic history of Chinese architecture, religion and musicology. Since then, the study of Zhihua Temple has also become one of the hot issues in Chinese academic circles, and is clearly divided into two main fields: Architecture Scholars and religious historians study the royal architecture and religious art of the Ming Dynasty through the architecture and statues of Zhihua Temple; while music scholars study Chinese folk music through the Kangxi music scores and performances by artistic monks preserved in Zhihua Temple. But the question is, why do the monks of Zhihua Temple, whose temple architecture and sculpture art have obvious royal characteristics, make a living from folk music?
In front of the Tathagata Hall of Zhihua Temple
In fact, the monks in Zhihua Temple have an obvious process of being demoted from the upper-level monks to the bottom of society. In the Ming Dynasty, the abbot of Zhihua Temple always served as a senior monk official in the Senglu Department. The existing wheel collection and Tripitaka in the temple are the result of continuous imperial gifts. Until the early Qing Dynasty, it was still the practice for the abbot and head monk of Zhihua Temple to record the seal. During the Shunzhi period of the Qing Dynasty, the eleventh generation abbot of Zhihua Temple was dedicated to cultivation. He was also the master of monk registration and the abbot of Wanshan Hall in Xiyuan. He not only held the highest power in the Buddhist world, but also had a close relationship with Emperor Shunzhi. Zhihua Temple is not only the place where monks from Hebei and other places come and go to the capital, but also organizes a large number of monks to participate in royal funerals. This is why the Buddhist confessional rituals of Zhihua Temple integrate the characteristics of North China folk music and are the best in the capital. However, during the Yongzheng and Qianlong dynasties, the emperors continued to attack Zen monks represented by Muchen Daobin, which directly affected Zhihua Temple. It was not until the seventh year of Qianlong's reign that Shen Tingfang petitioned Emperor Qianlong to destroy Wang Zhen's statue. In the eighth year of Emperor Qianlong's reign, Emperor Qianlong ordered that three monks including Chaoshan be punished, and Zhihua Temple eventually fell apart. Around the 40th year of Qianlong's reign, Zhihua Temple had been split into four small temples, and the inheritance of Linji Sect was basically cut off. It completely entered the folklore, and even in the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, the temple monks were among the "four great monks of wine, sex, wealth and fortune" He became a low-level monk who made a living exclusively by praying, repenting, and performing funeral rituals. After the life of the temple fell into despair at the turn of the spring and summer of 1930, the monks sold the Ming Dynasty caisson and other cultural relics in the temple to American businessmen. Finally, the two caissons were preserved in the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Nelson Museum in the United States. Colleagues of the
workshop believe that compared with other temples, the buildings and cultural relics of Zhihua Temple are relatively well preserved, but there are still a large number of residents living around the temple, occupying the buildings that originally belonged to the temple. So when and how did these residents move in? Why can the main part of Zhihua Temple be kept relatively intact despite a large number of people staying there? Why is Zhihua Temple not completely transformed into a complex like other Beijing temples? When did Beijing’s temples begin to become complex? It is generally believed that the "Cultural Revolution" period caused great damage to temples, but what we see from Zhihua Temple is that the impact of the chaos and poverty of the 1930s was even more serious. These questions triggered further discussions among the workshop members in the "Landscape Living Room".
(In the writing of this article, we received great help from Ye Weiqi, a master's student from the School of Social Sciences, Zhang Zhe, an undergraduate, and Liu Jiayue, an undergraduate from the School of Liberal Arts, Beijing Normal University. We would like to express our gratitude!)
Editor in charge: Yu Shujuan
Proofreading: Liu Wei
