Buddhism was introduced to China in the period of Emperor Hanming in the East, and the first Buddhist temple in the Han Dynasty-Baima Temple was built in Luoyang.
Buddhism has been widely welcomed in China since it was introduced to China in the period of Emperor Hanming in the East. Over the past two thousand years, Buddhism has been continuously integrated with Taoism and Confucianism in China, forming a Chinese Buddhism with distinctive China characteristics, which has become the spiritual pillar of rulers in past dynasties. Buddhism has spread and developed in China for nearly two thousand years. Temples, pagodas, grottoes and giant buddhas have been repeatedly abandoned and built, and many Buddhist buildings have been handed down from generation to generation.
Grottoes such as Longmen Grottoes in Luoyang, Yungang Grottoes in Datong and Maijishan Grottoes in Tianshui are all national treasures. There are Leshan Giant Buddha, Rongxian Giant Buddha, Longmen Giant Buddha, which are well-known at home and abroad, and of course, Mengshan Giant Buddha to be mentioned in this article.
Mengshan Giant Buddha has been lost in the world for more than 600 years since the Kaihua Temple where it was located at the end of Yuan Dynasty. How did you finally find it?
To be sure, Mengshan Giant Buddha was excavated during Tianbao period of Northern Qi Dynasty, but the time of excavation is controversial. Yongle Dadian, Taiyuan Annals and Taiyuan County Annals recorded that the Mengshan Giant Buddha was excavated in Tianbao period of Northern Qi Dynasty (559 years), while the Ming Jiajing edition of Taiyuan County Annals and the Ming Chenghua edition of Shanxi Tongzhi recorded that the Mengshan Giant Buddha was excavated after the completion of Kaihua Temple, that is, Kaihua Temple was earlier than Mengshan Giant Buddha, and the excavation time of the Giant Buddha was different from the construction time. However, although the excavation time of Mengshan Giant Buddha is controversial, there is no doubt that it was built by the Giant Buddha in Tianbao period of Northern Qi Dynasty.
In the second year of Tianbao in the Northern Qi Dynasty (559), the Kaihua Temple in Levin, Wen Xuandi in the Northern Qi Dynasty was built at the same time or soon, and the Mengshan Giant Buddha was excavated. After the Eastern Wei Dynasty and the Western Wei Dynasty were replaced by the Northern Qi Dynasty and the Northern Zhou Dynasty, the Northern Zhou Emperor Yu Wenyong destroyed the Buddha, but the Northern Qi Emperor believed in the Buddha. Therefore, Buddhism in the Northern Zhou Dynasty was greatly damaged.
Buddhism flourished in the Northern Qi Dynasty. Therefore, the Mengshan Giant Buddha, as the representative work of the Northern Qi open-air giant Buddha, has very important historical value. Kaihua Temple, where Mengshan Buddha is located, is particularly valued by future generations because it is a royal temple in the Northern Qi Dynasty. At the beginning of Renshou in Sui Dynasty, in order to protect the giant Buddha, a new Buddhist pavilion was built in Kaihua Temple and renamed Jingming Temple.
Historically, Tang Gaozu Li Yuan, Tang Gaozong Li Zhi and Wu Zetian, the late Tang Emperor Li Keyong and the late Emperor Gaozu Liu Zhiyuan all came here to worship Buddha. Taiyuan County, where the Mengshan Giant Buddha is located, as the land of Longxing in the Tang Dynasty (Tang Gaozong went to war), was paid more attention by Tang Gaozong. In the second year of Tang Xianqing (657), Tang Gaozong Li Zhi and Wu Zetian visited Bingzhou, and went to Kaihua Temple to worship Mengshan Buddha. Before they left, they gave a lot of jewels, possessions and clothes.
(Tang Wuzong destroyed Buddha and Kaihua Temple)
A special emperor appeared in the history of the Tang Dynasty. In history, it formed a combination of "Three Chivalrous Cases" with Tuoba Tao, the Great Emperor of Northern Wei Dynasty, Yu Wenyong, the Emperor of Northern Zhou Dynasty, and Chai Rong, Zhou Shizong, who is famous for destroying Buddhism. This is Tang Wuzong, the most powerful one who destroyed Buddha in the Tang Dynasty. In the fourth year of Huichang (844), Tang Wuzong launched a massive campaign to destroy the Buddha, and Kaihua Temple was not spared. The Buddhist temple was completely destroyed, and the Jingming Temple where Mengshan sheltered the Buddha was demolished, exposing the Buddha to the wind and rain.
It was not until the second year of the Tang Dynasty (895) that the Shatuo people occupied the Hedong of Bingzhou and were later named Emperor Taizong Li as Emperor Wudi. After Li Keyong defeated the Mengshan Giant Buddha, they ordered the reconstruction of Kaihua Temple. Five years later, the temple was built. Later, it was rebuilt and expanded by Liu Zhiyuan, Emperor Gaozu, and the scale of Kaihua Temple reached its peak, with hundreds of monks.
Kaihua Temple was destroyed by the war at the end of Yuan Dynasty, and only one Buddhist pagoda is left. Although there is no history of the disappearance of Mengshan Buddha, it is generally believed that Mengshan Buddha was destroyed at the same time as Kaihua Temple. In the eighteenth year of Hongwu (1385), Kaihua Temple was rebuilt by Zhu Gang, the third son of Zhu Yuanzhang, the Ming emperor of Taiyuan, San Francisco, and renamed as Hokkeji. However, the Mengshan Giant Buddha experienced a military disaster at the end of the Yuan Dynasty and was never heard from again. After more than 600 years, the giant Buddha never saw the light of day again.
(Look at Mengshan Giant Buddha again)
1983, Taiyuan conducted a census of geographical names, and Wang Jianni, a worker from Taiyuan who participated in the census at that time, rediscovered the Mengshan Giant Buddha. The discovery of the giant Buddha is very dramatic. It turns out that there are many place names with temple characters in Mengshan, Taiyuan. Shanxi has always been a prosperous province of ancient Buddhism. Among the four famous Buddhist mountains in China, the only one located in the north is Wutai Mountain, which we are very familiar with, located in Shanxi.
In the census, Wang Jianni found a very strange place called Dadu Cliff. After his on-the-spot investigation, combined with Taiyuan local chronicles, it was finally found that Dadu Cliff was actually the chest of Mengshan Giant Buddha. Unfortunately, the head of the Buddha had been lost, and the exposed chest was 15.75 meters high, and it was buried in the earth and stone below the chest, with a thickness of tens of meters.
The cliff top behind the Buddha statue is flat, and there are also traces of ancient buildings stretching for about 500 meters. This unexpected discovery finally brought the Mengshan Giant Buddha, which had been lost for more than 600 years, back to the light. Although the head of the Buddha statue has disappeared, the body of the giant Buddha remains intact. This national treasure open-air giant Buddha has been carefully restored by cultural relics workers arranged by Taiyuan Municipal Government, and its head has been installed to make it complete and welcome Buddhists all over the world with a brand-new look.
In 2008, the restored Mengshan Giant Buddha Scenic Area was opened to the public. After thousands of years of vicissitudes and suffering from war, this giant Buddha finally saw the light of day and welcomed Buddhists all over the world with a brand-new look. Mengshan Giant Buddha represents the peak of the manufacturing technology of Buddha statues in the Northern Qi Dynasty. It is one of the few giant open-air buddhas in the Southern and Northern Dynasties in China. It has high historical value and can be regarded as a national treasure.