The Temple of Bright Filial Piety is located on the northern side of Guangxiao Road in Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province.
The Temple of Bright Filial Piety is the oldest temple of Guangzhou city. The site of the temple was originally the residence of Zhao Jiande, the third generation descendant of Zhao Tuo, who was king of
the Southern Yue Kingdom in the Western Han Dynasty (206BC-8AD). During the period of the
Three Kingdoms (220-280), an official named Yu Fanbei from the Wu Kingdom came to Guangzhou city. He lectured here and cultivated a garden and grew many Pingpokezi (a kind of plant) in it. People at that time called the garden Yuyuan or Kelin. Later, the Yu family gave in charity a land to the temple and named it the Zhizhi Temple. In the Eastern Jin Dynasty (317-420), an Indian monk known went to Guangzhou city to expound Buddhism. He built five new halls there. In the first year (676) of the Yifeng reign of the Tang Dynasty (618-907), a dignitary monk name Huineng was initiated into monkhood under the bodhi tree in front of the temple altar. He set up the Zen Buddhist and was accordingly called the sixth master of the Zen sect. The name of the temple experienced several changes and in the 21
styear (1151) of the Shaoxing reign it was finally settled as the Temple of Bright Filial Piety by an emperor of the Song Dynasty (960-1279).
The Temple of Bright Filial Piety was one of the four biggest jungle areas in Guangzhou City, and it takes up an area of 30,000 square meters. Towering old trees shelter the temple, and nearly 20 halls and other buildings built in the past years stand side by side in a certain order. The main buildings include the Great Hall, the Sixth Ancestor Hall, the Sakyamuni Hall, the Samgharama Hall, the King of Heaven Hall, the Jiafa Tower and two iron towers, etc.
The construction of the Great Hallwas started in the first year and completed in the 5thyear (397-401) of the Long'an reign of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. Later it was rebuilt several times. The extant one was constructed in the 11thyear (1654) of the Shunzhi reign of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). The main hall is 35.36 meters wide and 24.8 meters long with double-eaved gable and hip roof, bearing the architectural features of the Tang and Song dynasties. On the stone base in front of the hall there are two 4.95-meter-high stonestructures with simple style. They are octagonal and have seven storeys with niches carved in each storey. Southeast to the hall there is anotherstructure calledDabeizhuang. It was built in the second year (826) of the Baoli reign under Emperor Jingzong of the Tang Dynasty. It is 2.19 meters high. On its eight sides of the structure is carvedtheDabei Incantationin regular script. This stone monument was the oldest among all the extant monuments in the Temple of Bright Filial Piety, and its specific age can be traced via such word information like the incantation. The plane of the monument assumes an octagon. Under the monument there is a base carved with images ofwarriorson each side. On the head of the monument is a cover, beneath which an arch supports the cover.
Behind the Great Hall there are two iron towers standing on both sides, they are by far the oldest towers in China.
The iron tower in the east was built with the donation from Liu Chang, the last emperor of the Southern Han Kingdom the 10thyear (967) of the Dabao reign of the Southern Han during the Five Dynasties Period (907-960). The tower is tetragonal and has seven storeys with a height of 7.69 meters. The plane is a square. It has a stone pedestal wholly cast out of iron. More than 900 niches in total were cast around the body of the tower with a small statue of Buddha in each niche. The lifelike statues were made with delicate technics. When completed, the tower was coated with gold powder, and thus calledTujin Qianfo Tower(a thousand Buddha coated with gold powder). Beneath the tower is an iron base in the shape of a lotus carved with Flying Dragons in the fireball and Ascending dragons and descending dragons with flame and three valuable beads.
The iron tower in the west was cast in the 6thyear (963) of the Dabao reign of the Southern Han. It is the oldest iron tower that has the exact known time. It is similar to the iron tower in the east, but has only three storeys because of the damage caused by a house explosion during the War of Resistance against Japan. It is also carved with a thousand statues of Buddha. In the center of each side there is a big niche with a sitting Buddha in it. Delicate and elegantFlying Apsarases,Warriors,and other patterns were carved beneath the eaves and on the pedestal of Buddha statues.
The Sixth Ancestor Hallwas rebuilt in the 31styear (1692) of the Kangxi reign of the Qing Dynasty. It is 5-bay wide and 4-bay long, with single-eaved gable and hip roof. The flat bases of the pillars in the temple were made of black stone into exquisite lotuses of several layers. They are relics of the Song Dynasty. After having publicly lectured Buddhism, initiating and propagandized the tenets of the Zen Buddhist sect in the Temple of Bright Filial Piety, the Sixth Ancestor Huineng transformed the Zen Sect into a major sect of Zen Buddhism. This temple was built to memorize him. There is a 2.5-meter-high sitting statue of the Sixth Ancestor in the temple. To the east, there is a stele corridor in which steles of the Sixth Ancestor and other inscriptions were housed. These steles are important cultural relics for study on the Sixth Ancestor and the Zen Buddhist Sect.
The Jiafa Tower is in front of the Sixth Ancestor temple. It was made of stones, sands and bricks, is 7.8 meters high, octagonal, and has seven storeys. Eight niches with small statues of Buddha in them are in each storey. After Huineng had become the Sixth Ancestor of Buddhism, the abbot of the temple dared to bury his hair in the earth under pipal tree, and erected this tower and monument to memorize him. This pipal tree together with other two Kezi trees in the Temple of Bright Filial Piety has lived for more than a thousand years. Beside the tower there are steles with statues of the Sixth Ancestor andBodhidharmamade in the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368).
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