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Lingyin Temple |
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Lingyin Temple |
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　　 The name of Lingyin Temple or Soul's Retreat Temple comes naturally from its quiet surroundings. With deeply forested hills on three sides, the temple is really a hideaway. It is the largest and most resplendent temple in Hangzhou.
Built during the Eastern Jin Dynasty some 1,600 years ago, the temple was ruined and rebuilt many times over the centuries. It has recently taken on a completely new look showing the original splendour. In the Hall of the Heavenly King seated in the centre is a statue of Maitreya, the fat-bare-bellied Buddha with a smiling face. The walkway from this hall to the main hall, which contains the famous statue of Sakyamuni, founder of Buddhism, is paved as though carpeted with green flagstones. The magnificent 19-metre-high statue is seated on a lotus flower amidst great red pillars and murals of a hundred cranes. Carved of camphor wood and gilded in gold, one foot of the statue measures 1.8 metres. Behind Sakyamuni is a colourful group-sculpture of 150 Buddhas representing an episode from the Buddhist scriptures. Another remarkable work of art is a sculpture of a Bodhisattva on the back of a whale on waves of the sea. Tourists know Chinese appreciate browsing among the scrolls on which are copied poems and couplets. One narrated of the celebrated litteratus and calligrapher of the Northern Song Dynasty Su Dongpo (1073-1101 ) handling a case while he was Prefect of Hangzhou . The story tells about the owner of a fan shop who was charged with non-payment of a debt. The accused explained that he could not pay because he had not been able to sell his wares owing to continual rain and cold weather. Su Dongpo took up his brush and painted such attractive pictures on twenty of the shop-owner's fan that they ,sold immediately, enabling the man to pay his debt at once. This story, true or not historically, indicates how deeds performed in the people's interest are cherished. The Peak That Flew Here The Peak That Flew Here directly faces Souls' Retreat Temple. In about 326 in the Eastern Jin Dynasty (317-420), a Buddhist devotee came from India and insisted that this hill, 168 metres above sea level, resembled exactly one in his own country. He asked when it had flown to Hangzbou. To fortify his claim he said that the hill had a white monkey in a cave there. When recognized as The Peak That Flew Here. The bill is smaller and has more bizarre rocks and caves than those around it. It is also cut off from the other hills by a winding valley in which a stream flows. It is different too in having rocks of limestone rather than ,sand stone, as do the other hills.
One large cave in the hill can accommodate several hundred people. Continuing erosion has gradually produced cracks in the roof letting in daylight.
On The Peak That Flew Here are over 280 ancient stone sculptures dating between the 10th and 14th centuries (Five Dynasties, Song and Yuan dynasties). These are important examples of ancient sculptural art south of the Yangtze River.
Daoji
Daoji (1130-1207), commonly known as Ji Gong ( Master Ji, Living Buddha Ji Gong), was a Buddhist monk during the Southern Song Dynasty in China. He was born with the name of Li Xiuyuan. Dao Ji was also called Hu Yin (Recluse from the Lake) and Elder Fang Yuan (Square Circle). Dao Ji was a monastic in the Linji Ch'an school.
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