Fortune telling outside Tanzhe Temple

[Reprinted] Tanzhe Temple (1) | Go to Tanzhe Temple

1700 years ago, Tanzhe Temple was founded, creating a long history of Xishan area as the first choice for royal temples. 800 years ago, the Yuan Dynasty was built under the great influence of Tanzhe Temple, which laid the foundation for Beijing to be the political center city of China and the 800-year-old imperial capital. Therefore, there is a saying that "Tanzhe Temple comes first and Beijing is behind".

At the end of last month, I came to Beijing from Fuzhou and Wuhan to make a wish in this oldest temple. Of course, it is my duty to accompany me. It happens that I haven't been there for nearly 20 years. By the way, I saw the 400-year-old magnolia and lilac flowers of the Second Bridge, as well as the ten famous scenes of Tanzhe Temple in this season and during the day: Qianfeng Gongcui, Diange Nanxun and Yuting Liubei.

Tanzhe Temple is surrounded by nine peaks, and the peaks in front of the temple are like giant screens. As the saying goes, "there is a photo in front, a brace in the back, and a hug in the left and right", which describes its geographical location. The temple is built on the mountain, which is magnificent. The hall goes up step by step, with uneven levels arranged layer by layer and surrounded by high walls. Ancient trees towering inside and outside the temple, flowing water in front of the temple, stupas like forests, bamboo forests into the shade. Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty praised this place: "The scenery of famous mountains is not inferior to Wutai Mountain." .

Climb a few hundred meters from the parking lot to a platform. You can see a mountain gate surrounded by ancient trees and a temple built by mountains facing south. There is a bare dwarf tree on the east and west sides of the platform. Although ugly, it is protected by a white marble fence. Is this a Zheshu named after the Zheshu in front of Tanzhe Temple and the Longtan behind it? Now Longtan has dried up because there is no water vein, and Zheshu has been stripped of its bark because of a rumor that "bark can cure female infertility".

I wonder if this plant in the east is the surviving Zheshu.

Maybe this one in the west is also Zheshu? In front of the tree is the monument of "Prosperity and Harmony" of Tanzhe Temple 1700 ceremony established in 2007.

Adjacent to Zheshu in the east is a tall white pine with smooth white branches like a layer of Bai La, which stands among many houses and extends upward. The pine leaves are dense and orderly, like a monk in the sun.

In front of the memorial arch of Tanzhe Temple, a pair of stone lions are magnificent, with two Gu Song trees on the left and right. The trunk is coiled like a dragon, and the twigs and needles are as dense as umbrellas, so it is called "Panlong pine" and "Wolong pine". The branches and leaves of two Gu Song plants are close together, covering the archway like a green canopy.

Panlongsong: The trunk is covered with knots, but the tree doesn't grow. It looks like a black dragon that stands upright and bends upwards, so it is called Panlongsong.

Wolongsong: The branches are tortuous until several people are afraid of their land and the pillars are leaning against their elbows. The canopy is like an umbrella cover, with a large shade area. Because of its shape, it is called "Wolong pine", and because it looks like a huge sunshade, some people call it "umbrella pine".

There is a three-bedroom, four-poster wooden archway outside the mountain gate, with the inscription "Cuizhang Danquan" on the front.

The plaque on the back is "Xianglinsao Pure Land"

In front of the mountain gate is a deep ditch, two feet deep, which is the natural barrier of Tanzhe Temple. The original spring in the ditch ran past, but now it has dried up. There is a single-hole stone arch bridge above the deep ditch facing the mountain gate, named Huaiyuan Bridge, which is 7 meters wide and 9 meters long. There are four pillars on both sides of the bridge. Huaiyuan Bridge is simple and vigorous, beautiful and firm. Although it has been hundreds of years, it is still in use. Outside the bridge is the mortal world, and after crossing the bridge, it enters the Buddhist country in the west. Therefore, this bridge is also called "Fan Jie Bridge".

The whole gate of Tanzhe Temple is completely masonry structure, and it is a "beamless hall" without beams. In the middle is a white marble, blue gold carving and dragon horizontal plaque, and the word "Jianyun Zen Hall" in regular script is an inscription by Kangxi in Qing Dynasty. The gold plaque on the black background of Tanzhe Temple was inscribed by Mr. Zhao Puchu.

Tanzhe Temple was built in the first year of Yongjia in the Western Jin Dynasty (AD 307), and the original name of the temple was Kafka Temple. In the thirty-sixth year of Kangxi, Emperor Kangxi visited Tanzhe Temple for the second time, which was named "Jian Peijun Yun Xiu Temple". However, because there is Longtan behind the temple and Zheshu on the mountain, people have always called it "Tanzhe Temple".

Entering the mountain gate, the blooming magnolia, dark green Gu Song, solemn red walls and blue sky and white clouds form a bright picture.

Magnolia in Beijing is out of season, but it is flourishing here.

Inside the mountain gate is the bell and drum tower, and on the east and west sides are the Temple of Heaven and the ancestral temple. The center of the Galapagos Temple is dedicated to the king of Persia. On the left is Prince Ruotuo, and on the right is a lonely old man. These three are the earliest defenders of Buddhism. On both sides of the temple, there are also eighteen Galatians who protect the Buddha. The ancestral hall is dedicated to Buddhism, the ancestor of Zen Buddhism, and Huineng, the sixth ancestor, and Huaihai, which formulated the Baizhang Purity Rules. The temple of Galatia is being repaired, but the ancestral temple is not open.

The east side of the mountain gate is between the north room and the west room, which used to be the kitchen in the temple. There are three big copper pots in the kitchen, which are used for cooking, cooking and porridge. The largest copper pot is used to cook porridge, with a diameter of 4 meters and a depth of 2 meters. It can put 10 stone in one cooking. At the peak of Tanzhe Temple, there were more than 1000 monks, and at ordinary times there were only three or five hundred. Although monks are poor and don't pay much attention to food, with so many mouths, even simple meals are not so good. Cooking a pot of porridge in this super cauldron requires 360 kg of millet, 800 loads of dry wood, 16 hours, and it is not a problem to solve the problem of eating for thousands of people. Because the bottom of the pot is thick and stewed slowly, it is really a veritable "porridge". The porridge cooked is thick, fragrant and delicious. At the bottom of the cauldron, there is a sand container the size of a small bucket. It turns out that 10 glutinous rice is not only difficult to cook, but also super troublesome to wash. In order to solve this problem, monks specially installed a "sand container" when customizing the cauldron. Every time they cook porridge, with the constant stirring of rice porridge, sand grains will automatically sink into the "sand container" due to gravity, which is equivalent to automatic "rice washing". Therefore, there is a saying in the cauldron of Tanzhe Temple that "the hourglass rice does not leak". More interestingly, every time he washes the pot, the monk has to climb the ladder to scrub in the pot. If you are not careful, you will have a "rice soup bath" in the pot. Now the two big copper pots are gone, leaving only a small wok in the temple.

Minimum wok diameter 1.85m, depth1.1m.

The pit of the big copper pot is more than ten feet deep, and the monk who burns the fire has to go up and down the pit through the steps. There is a white marble plaque above the kitchen eye, engraved with the words "Tanzhe Temple". At that time, the old abbot of the temple was afraid of the fire in the temple, so he carved this stone tablet, embedded it above the stove mouth and burned it every day. It is said that this can protect the temple from fire, and at the same time remind the monks who burn the fire to be careful with fire to prevent fire.

Back to the courtyard of Tianwangtang from the East Cross Hospital, it was full of smoke.

Photographs are not allowed in Tianwang Temple, but the potbellied Maitreya Buddha and other four heavenly kings stand behind the protector Wei Tuo.

Looking in from the outside of the temple, I vaguely saw Maitreya with a big belly and a smile.

The little boy from Fuzhou is making a wish silently.

Dedicated to a blessing lotus lantern.