Longshan Temple, anciently known as Samantabhadra Hall, also known as Tianzhu Temple, commonly known as Guanyin Hall. It is located at the foot of Longshan Mountain in the north of Xingcuo Village, Anhai, so it is named Longshan Temple. It is a famous thousand-year-old temple in Quannan and is listed as one of the key Buddhist temples in the country.
According to legend, there was a huge camphor tree in the place, which covered the ground with thick shade and shining brightly at night, and people at that time admired it. During the Eastern Han Dynasty, a monk named Yiji Sand thought it was a strange tree, so he asked a craftsman to carve it into a Thousand Hands and Thousand Eyes Guanyin Bodhisattva. During the Emperor Tai period of the Emperor Yue of Sui Dynasty (618-619), the temple was built to worship. It will be rebuilt in the third year of Tianqi (1623).
Zhang Ruitu plaque
Longshan Temple was built in the 23rd year of Kangxi reign of the Qing Dynasty (1684) by Marquis Shi Lang and others of Jinghai. It was expanded in the 57th year of the reign of Emperor Kangxi, and was repaired later. Since the 1980s, the abbot Zen Master Kaici has adhered to the praise of his ancestors' will, and the director Yan Chengbiao and others have helped him, and spent more than 20 years to restore the new era. The temple faces north and south, consisting of a release pond, a mountain gate, a bell and drum tower, a front hall, and a worship pavilion. The temples, kitchens, and Zen rooms on the east and west sides are lined up one after another, sparse and orderly. The total area covers 4250 square meters. The entire temple gives people a deep and open feeling.
Master Hongyi’s plaque written by
Release pond is located in front of the temple and is built with the temple. The mountain gate has towering brightly on both sides. On a large stone tablet embedded in the wall erected by Su Yan, a Jinshi of the Wanli period in the Ming Dynasty, in front of the courtyard, the four big words "Longshan Treasure Land". There are countless reliefs engraved on the surrounding walls, carefully crafted. There is a sandalwood on the top of the bell tower on the left side of the courtyard, and an ancient bell weighing thousands of pounds is hung. The ancient bell is simple in shape and is engraved with the four words "Tianzhu Zhongfan" in the vigorous and powerful regular script. "Tianzhu Zhongfan" is one of the eight scenic spots in Anhai.
Thousand Hands Thousand Eyes Guanyin Bodhisattva
The front hall is five rooms wide and two rooms deep. Two stone lions are erected in front, and above the door is a gilded plaque "A piece of Ci Cloud" written by the abbot Shi Kaici. The couplet on the front eaves of the stone pillars says: "There is a six-inch body that opens the Han Dynasty, and thousands of hands are prepared to help Fujian." A flame bead is carved in the middle of the ridge, and a pair of green dragons on both sides run towards the beads, indicating that the two dragons grab the beads, causing a rain of waves and rain, and reducing the pressure and auspiciousness of fire. Four huge clay-shaped Vajras are enshrined in the hall. On both sides of the front hall and the back yard, the long corridor is connected. The East Gate worships the Lord of the Lord, and there is a couplet in front of the niche: "Follow the family according to law to maintain the affairs of the temple and guard the Longshan Mountain." The West Gate worships the ancestor Bodhidharma, and the inscription on the front of the niche is "The secret sign of the fingers of not passing on the word, and the heart of the emptiness and nature are empty."
The main hall is the center of Longshan Temple. It covers five rooms wide and has three rooms deep. It is 11.3 meters high and has an area of 493 square meters. Red eaves and red walls, flying eaves overlap, and a five-story small pagoda is carved in the middle of the roof. A pair of porcelain carved dragons face the pagoda, taking the two dragons to protect the tower, which means to suppress evil and absorb auspiciousness. The three main gates of the hall are lined up side by side, and the gilded plaque of the "Yuantong Treasure Hall" is hung at the upper end of the middle door. There is a pavilion in front of the hall called the Temple of Heaven, which is a place where good men and women who enter incense are decorated with incense tables.
In the Qing Dynasty, a pair of octagonal openworked radiant green stone dragon pillars were arranged, standing on the left and right. The stone dragon leaned over and circled down, but its head was tumbling upward, like a swelling cloud, with a flying spirit and lifelike life. A pair of dragon claws with scales and armor overlapping each other, holding out a chime and a drum, and gently tapping it with thin iron bars. The chime sounds the chime, the drums convey the sound of the drums, and the shapes convey the sounds, which are very resonant. Such a masterpiece of stone carving craftsmanship is worthy of being a unique masterpiece of stone carving in southern Fujian.
The furnishings in the hall are particularly brilliant. Above, a great calligrapher of the Ming Dynasty and a native of the town, hangs high above the plaque written by Zhang Ruitu, a native of the town, "Word and Eyes", and a wooden carved Thousand-Hand Thousand-Eyes Guanyin is enshrined in the niche platform in the middle. The statue of Guanyin Buddha stands on the stone lotus platform. The total image is 4.2 meters high, wearing a flower crown, and a sitting Buddha is carved in the middle of the crown. There are many small Buddha heads wearing flower crowns, layered into hats. Qianshou Guanyin has a round face, elegant eyebrows, and a dignified and kind look. Below the shoulders, the hands are bent and arched against the chest, and 1,008 hands are stretched upward or forward on both sides. Each hand carved a sharp eye and held a variety of items. The entire standing statue, more than two meters high, is carved so complex that it is both subtle and clear. There are 1,08 kinds of hands, with different postures, none of which are similar, and they spread in a semicircular shape on both sides, like golden light radiating, setting off the golden Buddha statue, making the subject more radiant.The exquisite carving and ingenious shape are breathtaking, fully expressing the unique ingenuity of ancient Minnan wood carving art. Over the past thousands of years, after countless hardships, this Buddha statue has been preserved safely. It is indeed a miracle. It is now listed as a provincial cultural relics protection unit.
The apse hall is the Main Hall, a double-eaved hip-mounted building. The golden body of Sakyamuni, more than 100 feet high, is enshrined in the middle of the hall.
Longshan Temple also contains many famous calligraphy works and original works: the front door couplet "Why did you hate shackles and love for the new and dust are endless? As expected, five hundred hands and eyes save the drowning and help the dangers and the endless Buddhist teachings" are the original works of Junyuan, the huge plaque under the northern eaves of the hall "Shaolong Buddha Seed" is the original works of Master Hongyi; there is a plaque written by Zhao Puchu on the Temple of Heaven; and the original works of Zhu Xi of the Song Dynasty "Pubic Palace", the plaque written by Prime Minister Li Wenzhen and the juren Ke Conghuang; and so on.
Longshan Temple is majestic and macro, with a long history and a far-reaching influence. Since the Tang and Song Dynasties, the incense of Anhai Longshan Temple has spread overseas with the footsteps of Anping merchants. Especially prominent in Southeast Asia, Taiwan and other places, there are more than 200 temples of the same name in Taiwan alone, the most famous of which are Lugang Longshan Temple and Mengjia Longshan Temple in Taipei.
Longshan Temple is famous overseas for its magnificent scale, extraordinary momentum, rigorous layout, wonderful structure and ingenious sculpture art. At the same time, her hundreds of spirits spread all over Taiwan are like the monuments of the children of Quantai that developed the treasure island of Taiwan, becoming one of the important bridges to strengthen the relationship between Quantai.
