Honghua Temple in Huangshi is a cultural tourist attraction.

Huangshi Honghuasi

geographical position

Honghua Temple is located in Orient Mountain, Tieshan District, Huangshi City, Hubei Province.

Brief introduction of temples

Honghua Temple is located in Orient Mountain, Tieshan District, Huangshi City, Hubei Province. Orient Mountain is not very famous, at least much less famous than Daye. This place, which is famous for producing high-quality iron ore, is an important base for Zhang Zhidong to handle the Westernization Movement recently. However, the origin of the name of the Oriental Mountain is unique. According to legend, Dong Fangshuo once traveled here to give lectures on alchemy, and later generations named this mountain the East. Some people think that Sun Quan set up Wuchang County in the Three Kingdoms period, taking this mountain as the eastern boundary of Wuchang County, hence the name Orient Mountain. There are eight scenic spots here: Lingquan Xizhuo, Immortal Walking in the Sun, Pine Tree Hanging upside down, White Lotus Flourishing, Iron Bull Lying Lazy, Zhou Shi High Support, Zen Watching the Moon, Daodong Ting Yun.

Temple history

Honghua Temple, located at the top of the East Mountain, belongs to Lin Ji School of Zen. In the first year of Yuanhe in Tang Xianzong (806), Gao Zu Decong and the monk Mazu swam here, saw the sea of clouds and the sky, and was moved by it, so he went to build a house. In the second year of Yuanhe, Zhao Decong and Chun Li attended the ceremony, which was extremely long. They gave the Dharma name a seal of wisdom and a golden bowl of purple clothes, and named the mountain temple "Baofeng Zhao Ti". Orient Mountain Buddha's name originated from the monk's wisdom seal. The emperors of Song, Yuan and Ming dynasties summoned the abbot of the temple and gave it the name, which became a tradition (in the ninth year of Emperor Dazhong's Xiangfu in Song Dynasty) and in the second year of Yuan Dynasty (1296). timur followed the example of the former emperor and summoned the twentieth abbot, An Shan, and the imperial book gave the temple the name "Hua Chan". In the second year of Chenghua in Ming Dynasty (1466), Ming Xianzong Zhu summoned the 29th abbot, Grain Rain, and named him Dajue Zen Master. The imperial book gave the temple the name "Honghua", which can be described as "once every emperor and courtier". Ming Xianzong gave the name "Honghua Temple", which has been in use for 539 years. During this period, in order to avoid Qianlong Li Hong, the word "safflower" was changed, and then the name of Honghua Temple was restored.

Temple pattern

Follow the mountain road to the top of the mountain and see a stone ladder road, which is about 7 or 8 meters wide. Climbing the stairs, a big archway stands out, and the striking Chinese characters of "Three Chu First Mountain" on the archway come into view. This is the entrance of Honghua Temple. The mountain gate, also known as the new three gates, is built by a palace-style glazed tile archway, which is divided into two floors: the main building and the side building. It is like a double-eaved temple. In the main building of the archway, there are eight red paint eaves columns with a height of about 10 meter. On the two pillars in the middle of the main entrance, there is a couplet inscribed by Master Chang Ming, "Three Chu trees are strong in Kyushu, and five are sent to Dongshan". On the lintel of the second entrance of the main building, there is a gold plaque with a red background inscribed by Pu Zhao, named "Honghua Temple". The ancient ginkgo tree in front of the mountain gate is said to have been planted by monk Yin Zhi himself. After thousands of years of wind and rain, it is still flourishing, witnessing the vicissitudes of the temple.

Entering the mountain gate, there is a stone bridge tunnel and a release pool surrounded by white jade railings on both sides. The rockery in the pool is exquisite, and the clear water reflects people. The overall structure of Honghua Temple follows the unified pattern of Buddhist temple architecture. The main axis is selected to be built along the mountain. Mountain gate, release pool, Ursa Hall, etc. Built in turn, there are temples, Buddhist temples, zhaitang and other auxiliary buildings on both sides of the central axis. After the current abbot, Master Zhengci, was promoted to the throne, both sides of the central axis of Honghua Temple were greatly expanded. The newly-built 1 0,000 square meter two-story flat-topped single-eave glazed tile guest room on the south side of the east bell tower is opposite to the construction of the legal document circulation office on the south side of the west drum tower. Ruyiliao is built on the east side of the mountain, and the abbot building, comprehensive building and sitting room are built on the west side. A 200-meter-long Buddhist cultural corridor will also be built on the northeast hillside of the temple. So far, Honghua Temple has a total construction area of more than 20,000 square meters, with 22 halls and doors. There are four lower temples in the temple, namely Fazang Temple and North Temple, which are located on the Oriental Mountain and surround Honghua Temple, and Gokurakuji in Moon Mountain in Huangshi and Cihu Temple in Qinglong Mountain.