Zen ancestral hall: a brief introduction to the development history of Shaolin Temple July 65438+July 7, 2007 Buddhist Online Shaolin Temple is located at the west foot of Songshan Mountain in Henan Province. Located in Dengfeng County, Songshan Mountain belongs to the Funiu Mountain Range, stretching nearly 100 kilometers from east to west, and is one of the five mountains in China. There are seventy-two peaks, and Fengfeng is famous. Taishi Mountain is in the east, with 36 peaks such as Taibai, Wang Du and Yunv. Shaoshi Mountain in the west is expected to have 36 peaks, including Luoluo, Luohan and Wanwan. The main peak is Ji Junfeng, with an altitude of1492m, lying like a giant in the Central Plains. There are 72 monasteries in Songshan successively. There are the oldest Weiyue Temple Tower in the Northern Song Dynasty in China, the earliest Zen temple Shaolin Temple, the grand Tallinn, the most famous stargazing platform in the Yuan Dynasty, the most valuable historical materials of the Three Musts of Han Dynasty (Taishi, Shao Shi and Qimu Pagoda), the magnificent Zhongyue Temple, the quaint and elegant Songyang Academy and the verdant and quiet Wang Dafa Temple. Shaolin Temple faces Shaoshi Mountain and is backed by Wuru Peak. According to historical records, the first abbot of Shaolin Temple was a Hinayana Buddhist monk named Posto. In the 20th year of Yuan Hongtai, Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty (496), he trudged from ancient India to China and was worshipped by devout Buddhist Emperor Xiaowen. Because Barto likes seclusion and seclusion, Emperor Xiaowen built a temple for him in the deep forest under Shaoshi Mountain, named Shaolin Temple. Batuo received 100 disciples in the temple and translated the classics he brought. After Postoto's death, there was no custom of sending lanterns to meet sects, and his disciples were scattered around to preach. Decades later, Shaolin Temple became the base of Mahayana Buddhism. At the end of the Southern Dynasty, after three years at sea, Dharma came to China to promote Mahayana Buddhism. He preached in Guangxiao Temple in Guangzhou and was later received by Liang Wudi. Liang Wudi thinks that he built many temples, wrote many scriptures, made many statues of monks, and accumulated a lot of merits, while Dharma said that he had no merits, and all he did was "promising things", not real merits. When they were lovers, Dharma crossed the river with a five-leaf awn reed, entered Wei, came to Songshan Shaolin Temple and founded Zen. The Zen he preached did not attach importance to Hyunri, but advocated the "wall view" of meditation, and realized the Zen theory by meditating while holding one's breath. This simple cultivation method is naturally easy to popularize, which makes Zen become the mainstream school of Buddhism in China, while Dharma is regarded as the ancestor of Zen in China. Tang Daizong was awarded the title of "Jue Yuan Zen Master". Because the Mahayana teaching advocated by Dharma was an innovation of the old Zen method popular in China at that time, the struggle was fierce. After the death of Dharma, his disciples formed the Southern Sect headed by Huineng and the Northern Sect headed by meditation. There is not much difference in doctrine between the North and the South, but in practice, the North advocates "gradual enlightenment", the South advocates "epiphany" and advocates "putting down the butcher's knife and becoming a Buddha". After more than ten years of disputes, in Tang Dezong, Nanzong finally replaced Beizong. Since then, Shaolin Temple has been the teaching center of Nanzong. Hounan Sect is divided into five parts, namely, Yunmen, Fayan and Luyang, among which Cao and Linxi have the greatest influence. After the early Yuan Dynasty, Shaolin Temple took Cao Dongzong as its real name, which has continued to this day. Shaolin Temple was destroyed once and burned twice. Abandoning children occurred in the period of Emperor Wu of the Northern Zhou Dynasty. At that time, the number of Buddhists in China accounted for half of the residents, which affected production and harmed the interests of the royal family. So in the third year of Jiande (574), Emperor Wu of Zhou ordered the banning of Buddhism and Taoism. Shaolin Temple was abandoned and monks were sent back to their hometown. At the beginning of the 7th century, Shaolin monks got strong support from the Tang King for their meritorious service in the Battle of Li Shimin and rebuilt Shaolin Temple. By the Song Dynasty, more than 2,000 monks had gathered in the temple, with more than 5,000 temples and pavilions, covering an area of 36 hectares and nearly 10,000 volumes of Tibetan scriptures, which was known as the "first temple in the world". During the Yongzheng period of the Qing Dynasty (1723-1735), the emperor set fire to the temple and put the Shaolin Temple in the fire. After Qianlong, it was rebuilt. 1928, warlord Shi Yousan set fire to the famous brake. The fire caused serious losses. The fire lasted for five days and nights, leaving only two or three rooms in the courtyard, and countless precious cultural relics such as classics and musical instruments were burned to the ground. After liberation, it was renovated many times and gradually restored to its original appearance. At present, the temple has seven entrances with a total area of over 30,000 square meters. Large-scale, there are often hospitalized, early ancestral halls, two ancestral halls, three ancestral halls, Tallinn, Ganlutai, ancestral halls, Nanyuan and other ancillary buildings. The mountain gate is a hall, with three rooms wide, carved ridges and colored tiles, and lifelike kissing animals. It was built in the 13th year of Yongzheng (1735). The horizontal plaque of Shaolin Temple on the door was originally hung in Tianwang Hall, but it was moved here after the fire, and the book was written by Michelle Ye, the holy father of Qing Dynasty. There is a statue of Maitreya Buddha and a statue of Wei Tuo's protector in the temple. There are more than 30 inscriptions of Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties on both sides of the back porch of the mountain gate, which is a famous "forest of steles" in Shaolin Temple. Among them, the Tang Dynasty Tiantai Imperial Poem Monument written by Wang Zhijing, the Xi 'an Monk Monument written by the Japanese monk Yuan Shao in Yuan Dynasty, the Two Traces of Spirit written by Sakyamuni in Ming Dynasty, the Pure and Stupid Monk Monument written by Shaman Deshi in Fusang Garden, the first mountain carved by calligrapher Mi Fei, the Tian Yan Dao Gong Monument written by Dong Qichang in Ming Dynasty and the Imperial Book Monument written by Qing Ganlong. Among them, the Guanyin tablet of Su Shi in the Northern Song Dynasty and the Gong Yu tablet of Zhao Mengfu in the Yuan Dynasty are the best. The second courtyard is Tianwang Hall. This hall, together with the Jin Si Tibetan Scripture Pavilion and the Sanxin Daxiong Hall, was destroyed and has now been rebuilt, containing four statues of heavenly kings. The Hall of the Great Heroes in Sanjin was rebuilt on 1986. The pillars in the temple are carved stone lions, which are over 1 m high. Before and after the site of the Tibetan Classics Pavilion, in addition to the Jin Dynasty iron clock weighing 5.5 tons on the Bell Tower site, there are also 1.75-meter-high Tibetan Wang Tie statues and stone tablets cast in the first year of Hongzhi in the Ming Dynasty, with Kinnara Palace and Dongke Hall in the east and Liuzu Hall and Xike Hall in the west. The abbot's courtyard is located in the fifth courtyard, which is the first building that survived after the mountain gate fire. In the middle is the abbot's room, where abbots and monks lived in previous dynasties. In the 15th year of Qianlong (1750), Emperor Li Hongceng stayed here, so it was once renamed as "Long Ting". Standing at the entrance of the abbot's room, looking south at the main peak of Shaoshi Mountain, there is a huge stone lying on the hillside, about 10 square meter. Whenever it rains and clears up in summer, the direct sunlight radiates strange brilliance on the stone, which looks like a snowflake from a distance, so it is called "clear snow in Shao Shi" and is one of the eight scenic spots in Zhongyue. Out of the abbot's room, there is a glazed Buddhist temple named "Fa Tang" and "Li Xuege" on the high platform. It is said that Hui Ke, the second ancestor of Zen Buddhism, broke his arm in Li Xue. Hui Ke, a little Confucian scholar, read widely, learned from Laozi and Zhuangzi, became a monk, and studied Sanzang Neijing. About 40 years old, I met Dharma, traveled to Luoyang in Songshan and worshipped him as a teacher. When Dharma closed the door and ignored it, Hui Ke waited outside. It was nine cold days, and the snow was knee deep. Hui Ke stood motionless in the snow. The next day, Dharma was still not allowed to enter the house, so Hui Ke cut off his left arm and presented it to Dharma as a sign of sincerity. The Dharma only gave him a kapok stand and a alms bowl as proof of the Dharma. The allusion of "mantle fax" comes from this. A bronze statue of Dharma is enshrined in the niche in the pavilion. Hanging in the pavilion is the horizontal plaque of the Qianlong Imperial Book "Snow is a natural pearl". The east wall outside the pavilion is inlaid with the Guanyin statue and Guanyin praise of Su Shi published in Jin Dynasty, the portrait of Hui Ke, the second ancestor carved in Jin Dynasty, and the three-character stone carving of "Fantasy Platform" in Siming Zuo in Ming Dynasty. On the other side of Li Xueting is Pilu Pavilion, also known as the Thousand Buddha Hall, which was rebuilt in the late Ming Dynasty. The bronze statue of Pilufo in the niche of Ming Dynasty. There are large colorful murals on the east, west and north walls of the temple-five hundred arhats. It is 7 meters high and covers an area of over 330 square meters. Its scale is rare among similar murals in China. Five hundred arhats have a strange shape and are divided into 35 groups, each of which expresses a story. It is said that the color changes every few years. The whole three-layer picture adopts the technique of heavy color flat painting, cinnabar and black are harmonious, and the outline is rough and powerful Simple lines and smooth brushwork. The East Wall is a jade statue of Amitabha carved in Ming Dynasty. There are 48 pits on the ground 20 cm deep in the temple, which is said to be the foot pit site of Shaolin monks practicing boxing and martial arts. The west wing of the Thousand Buddhas Hall is the Dizang King Hall, and the east wing is the White House. A bronze statue of Guanyin in white clothes is enshrined in the White Clothes Hall. Three walls in the temple are painted with colorful murals, all made in the late Qing Dynasty. Both the north and the south are painted with the movements of monks and nuns practicing boxing and martial arts with weapons, so the Thousand Buddhas Hall is also called the Boxing Hall or the Hammer Hall. On the gable in the north, there is a picture of Monk Zhan Ju directing the boxing match between monks and nuns. There are two traditional stories at the northern end of the back wall: "Thirteen Monks Save the King of Tang Dynasty" and "Capturing General Zheng Wang Renze alive". There are dragons and tigers painted on both sides of the shield. Manjusri rides a green lion in the northeast and southeast corners, and Pu Xian rides a white elephant. One kilometer northwest of the temple is the Chuzu Temple. This temple is mainly built to commemorate Dharma, the ancestor of Zen Buddhism, who went up the mountain to practice. Buddhist nun has a mountain gate, a hall of great heroes and a thousand Buddha caves. The main existing buildings are one hall, two pavilions and a thousand Buddha pavilions. The main hall was built in the seventh year of Xuanhe in the Northern Song Dynasty (1 125). Wooden beams and buckets are typical Song Dynasty styles and masterpieces of existing wooden structures in Henan. The beams and columns of the main hall are composed of 16 stone columns and curved logs. The figures carved on the column, such as samurai, Youlong, dancing phoenix, flying sky, peony playing phoenix, crane playing lotus and so on, have exquisite craftsmanship and vivid expressions, which reflect the level of painting and carving skills in the middle Song Dynasty. There is an ancient cypress in the southeast of the main hall, which is said to have been planted by Huineng, the sixth ancestor of Zen Buddhism, commonly known as Mabai. There are more than 40 stone tablets of calligraphers in the Song Dynasty in the two pavilions behind the temple. There is a "Dharma Cave" in Wuru Peak not far from Chu Zuan. In front of the cave stands a double-column single-hole stone workshop carved in the thirty-second year of Wanli (1604). There is a "side wall stone" in the cave, which is said to be caused by Dharma sitting on the side wall for nine years. Buddhists regard this as a treasure, but it has been destroyed by fire. The second ancestral temple is located on the bowl peak. There are several halls and stone tablets in the temple, and there are three generations of ancient cypresses and brick towers outside the temple. There is a huge stone in the south of the temple, which is called "Shijie Lotus". According to legend, it is the place where Hui Ke recovered his broken arm, and it is called "Handrail Platform". There are four springs in front of the temple. Although it is close at hand, the taste of water is different. It is said that Hui Ke had difficulty in fetching water when he was recovering. When Dharma learned about it, he clicked it a few times with Zhang Xi, and the spring water gushed out where he ordered it, so it was called "Zhuoxi Spring". There is also a heart-seeking platform in the south where Hui Ke passes. 300 meters west of the temple, there is a grand ancient pagoda group, which is the burial tomb of eminent monks, abbots and great monks of past dynasties, covering an area of about1.4000 square meters. * * * There are more than 250 brick pagodas and stone pagodas in Tang, Song, Jin, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, which are the largest pagodas and tombs in China. From the first floor to the seventh floor, the tower has four, six and octagonal floors, as well as cylinders or cones, both hollow and solid, and most of the towers are engraved with inscriptions. Tallinn is an important material for studying masonry buildings in China.

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