The history and culture of the Grand Buddha Temple in Rong County

The inscription on the mountain gate of Dafo Temple is "Dafo Zen Temple", named after the stone Buddha. It is located in Dongshan, 1 kilometer away from the suburbs of Rong County. It was built in the Tang Dynasty. The Grand Buddha Temple is majestic, with smooth clothing patterns, kind-hearted eyebrows and graceful charm. It is a masterpiece of the unique ingenuity of ancient artists and working people. It is an artistic treasure of Chinese stone carvings. It is known as "the Leshan Giant Buddha is majestic and the Rongxian Giant Buddha is beautiful". , the Rongxian Giant Buddha is famous in China for its beauty. After the carving of the Buddha was completed, a temple was built to protect it. According to the "Collection of Ancient and Modern Books", there were "ten floors of the temple, forty-seven feet high and fifteen feet wide". "The old temple gate reached the bank of the current stream." ". It can be seen that it was magnificent at that time, but it was destroyed and repaired several times later. The existing temple was built during the Jiaqing and Daoguang years of the Qing Dynasty. 1. The Qianlong version of "Rong County Chronicles" records: "The Great Buddha Mountain is located one mile away from the east city. The Tang Dynasty people carved the Great Buddha, which is in line with the mountain. The ten-story hall is forty-seven feet high and fifteen feet wide. Today the Buddha statue is majestic, and the banquet inscriptions stand vertically. , lost in the smoke and grass for a long time."

2. The Jiaqing version of "Rong County Chronicles" records: "Dafo Mountain, one mile southeast of the county, is like a cliff. In the eighth year of Yuanfeng in the Song Dynasty, Monk Chunde recruited people to build it. Because the mountain is a large Buddha statue, it was built in the seventh year of Yuanyou. According to old records, the temple was built with ten floors, forty-seven feet high and fifteen feet wide. It has been forgotten now, but the Buddha statue is majestic and fifteen feet tall. It has been exposed for many years. In the 16th year of Jiaqing, the county magistrate Xu Yuan ordered the monks to gather Zhijue and others to raise funds for repairs. The stone was used as the top and the decoration was spectacular."

3. Guangxu's "Rongxian Chronicle" It contains: "In the 21st year of Daoguang reign, the county magistrate donated money to continue the repairs. The people of the city donated money to help, and the star has not returned to its original state, which is quite spectacular." 4. The fourth volume of "Rongxian County Chronicles" of the Republic of China records the mountain range: "The double intersection hugs the city and is the Big Buddha Mountain. It was 8 years after Song Yuanfeng excavated it and Yuan Yuanyou built it. The Buddha is 36 feet high, as high as the mountain. Lu You's poem on Dongshan says: "The old man is busy with time, and he is strong and weak. He is a minister of the country. What's the point of death? It's better to send troops out of Qinghai than to call the guests to come and move the spring breeze." , and you can see the blue sky blooming thousands of miles away. "There is a Xiaotai in the middle of the mountain." There are no hermits in the ruins of the Xiaotai. The top of the mountain is a wall, like a fortress. The cliff is called Zhenru, and there are Zhenru Temple and Yisheng Pavilion at the bottom. "

5. Records of the Society in the Records of Rong County in the Republic of China. : "The Great Buddha Temple is also called Dongshan in Lu You's poem. According to the stele of Kaihua Temple in the Tang Dynasty, there was a Great Buddha Hall in ancient times. Today's giant statue is on Zhenru Cliff in the eastern suburbs. In the 18th year of Yuanfeng in the Song Dynasty, the monk Chunde carved the statue into the rock and completed it in the 7th year of Yuanyou. The old Zaijia Hall was 47 feet high and 15 feet wide. It was later destroyed. In the 10th year of Jiaqing in the Qing Dynasty, monk Longhui of Mount Emei returned from Nanhai and saw the Buddha statues lying bare. In the 20th year of the reign of Emperor Daoguang, Xu Yuanjuan, the county magistrate, repaired the Buddha's roof. In the 21st year of Daoguang's reign, Gui, the palace supervisor, built the Zen room and the abbot's temple gate, and the work was completed in the 21st year of Daoguang's reign. In the early days of Guangxu, a monk asked for the "Complete Collection of Northern Tibetan Scriptures", and Li Xiangguo Hongzao of Gaoyang inscribed the "Tibetan Scripture Tower" on the list. In the fourth year of the National Revolution, Zhao Xi wrote a poem: "Abolish the Tower." The literature has not been collected for a long time, and the poems written in the Song Dynasty were on several floors, and the Sima family was seen with a cold eye, and Sun Deng was inspired by Hongxian Shi."

6. Volume 13 of "Rong County Chronicles" of the Republic of China. Historical records record: "Big Buddha Cliff, in the eastern suburbs, was called Dongshan in the Song Dynasty. In the eighth year of Yuanfeng, monk Chunde carved the statue, and it was completed in the seventh year of Yuanyou. The cliff is called Xiaotai, and Li Tao inscribed the wall. In the old records, it was called "Xiaotai Tour Appreciation" '. The opposite side of Xiaotai is called Lotus Terrace, and it is called Luohan Cave in the Song Dynasty. ', the south is called Longtou Mountain, and the pagoda is called Zhennan Pagoda. In the old records, it was called "Longtou Pen". However, in the Qing Dynasty, the palace supervisor Gui carved a statue of Bodhidharma on the cliff of the Buddha, which was a masterpiece."

7. The fifteenth volume of "Rong County Chronicles" of the Republic of China records: "In the eighth year of Yuanfeng of Shenzong, Seng Chunde chiseled the Dongshan Buddha statue,...The Buddha statue was completed in the seventh year of Yuanyou of Zhe Zong. According to Tongjian's annotation, in the Kaiyuan period, Seng Haitong Yudu At the intersection of the three rivers of Jiang, Moshui and Mengshui, a large statue of Maitreya was carved into the mountain. It is more than 360 feet high and has a seven-story pavilion with no river ears. The statue is carved for Sakyamuni Buddha, not Maitreya. ” 1. It was named Kaihua Temple in the Tang Dynasty and later called Dafo Zen Temple.

2. After reconstruction in the Song Dynasty, it became very large, and the temple gate reaches the bank of the current stream. From the eighth year of Yuanfeng to the seventh year of Yuanyou in the Song Dynasty, monk Chunde raised money to build the Rong County Giant Buddha. After completion, the Rongxian Giant Buddha is decorated with gold and dazzling. The ten-story temple is magnificent. Indeed, as Zhao Xi praised: "Rongzhou will not let Jiazhou be better, but it will lose the sound of Lingyun Fengshui."

3. The temples were destroyed by war in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties.

4. Rebuilt during the Jiaqing period of the Qing Dynasty.

"In the 10th year of the Jiaqing reign of the Qing Dynasty, Longhui, a monk from Mount Emei, returned from the South China Sea. When he saw the Buddha statues lying exposed, he cut off the grass and built a nunnery." It might just be a simple job of removing weeds. "In the 16th year of Jiaqing in the Qing Dynasty, Xu Yuan, the magistrate of the county, ordered the monks to convene Zhijue to raise funds for the construction. The stone arch was used as the top, and the decoration was spectacular." It can be seen that at that time, a stone arch was built on the top of the Buddha statue (it still exists today), and the stone arch was added to the top of the Buddha statue. The Buddha statue was decorated once. "In the 21st year of Jiaqing in the Qing Dynasty, the palace supervisor Gui repaired the Zen room and the abbot's temple door, and carved Bodhidharma's work." There are halls, Zen rooms, dormitories for sleeping, rooms for storage, and kitchens for incense.” This renovation should be about adding some ancillary facilities around the Buddha. Later, there were repairs and expansions. Due to terrain restrictions, the temple could only lean on the mountain; retreat from the mountain gate, and spread out to the left and right with the Big Buddha as the center. It mainly consists of the Main Hall, Guanyin Hall, Ksitigarbha Hall, Bodhidharma Hall, Arhat Hall, It is composed of sutra collection building, abbot's room, Zen room and other halls. Looking at the Zen forest from the bottom of the mountain, you can see ancient temples scattered in a patchwork manner. In the 21st year of Daoguang reign of the Qing Dynasty, Nemesis donated money to repair the repairs. In the second year of Tongzhi, he applied for the imperial edict and extended it, all with official power. In the early days of Guangxu, a monk named Qingbei Tibetan Complete Sutra was inscribed by Li Xiangguo Hongzao of Gaoyang. There is a list in the middle of the mountain. Xiaotai." According to this record, from the Daoguang to Guangxu years after Jiaqing, some minor repairs and additions were made to the Rong County Giant Buddha area. At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, the incense in the temple was extremely prosperous. Devotees from neighboring prefectures and counties, either going up to Mount Emei or down to Mount Baoding, had to pass through Rong County to see the Giant Buddha.

5. Before and after liberation, the temple fell into disrepair and was damaged. In 1935, troops were stationed in the Great Buddha Temple and the cultural relics were destroyed. In 1943, County Magistrate Huang Xilian presided over a renovation. During the Cultural Revolution, the Giant Buddha suffered unprecedented man-made damage.

6. After the "Cultural Revolution", the state allocated special funds to comprehensively repair temples and plant trees. The whole temple covers an area of ​​20,000 square meters, with a construction area of ​​2,000 square meters. All of them are ancient buildings or antique buildings. In July 1980, the Sichuan Provincial People's Government re-announced the Rongxian Giant Buddha as a provincial cultural relic protection unit. In 1981, the County Cultural Management Office was established, and the Rongxian Giant Buddha was placed under formal management. Finance departments at all levels and provincial and municipal cultural relics departments allocate funds to repair the Giant Buddha and the Giant Buddha Temple, which lasted two years and cost 215,000 yuan, so that the Giant Buddha Temple has begun to take shape on a tourist scale. In 1987, the Mahavira Hall, which had become a dilapidated building, was demolished. In 1988, the construction of the Big Buddha Protective Building began, the arches were reinforced and extended, and the Foguang Pavilion was built on the arches. The entire project lasted 2 years and cost 1.25 million yuan. So far, the Rongxian Giant Buddha has been more effectively protected and utilized. In 1998, experts from the Sichuan Provincial Institute of Archeology were hired to formulate a protection plan for the restoration of the Buddha body in Rong County. The budget for this maintenance project was 1.5 million yuan. Due to the shortage of funds, only a restoration plan was made and will be implemented later. In 2000, 4.2 million yuan was invested in the first phase of the reconstruction and expansion project of the Big Buddha Temple. The foundations including the Xinshan Gate Hall, Xinshan Gate Square, stone staircases and wing rooms on both sides were completed. The Xinshan Gate faces the Big Buddha, allowing tourists to better view it. The majestic and dignified appearance of the Buddha. In 2004, the Provincial Cultural Relics Bureau allocated special funds to complete the improvement project of the drainage system of the Big Buddha. Shengtan rain shelter pavilions were built on both sides of the mountainside of the Big Buddha Tower, the dangerous cliffs on the sides of the Big Buddha were renovated, and the drainage ditches of the Big Buddha were cleaned, dredged, and expanded. etc., so that the drainage of Rongxian Giant Buddha is smooth and further better protected.