What is the Guo Shan Temple in old Beijing like?

In the early years, on the sixth day of the sixth lunar month, there was a "hanging prayer meeting" in Guo Shan Temple. On that day, monks will hold a ceremony to worship Buddha and recite scriptures, so it is also called "hanging scriptures". When the weather is fine, the monks will move all the scriptures out of the Tibetan classroom, spread them one by one on the long table in the courtyard, open them and support them with dials to make them ventilated and exposed to the light to prevent moisture and insects. All the cassocks, robes and hats are hung in the yard to dry.

At that time, in addition to washing elephants in the moat, residents in the south of the city would go to Guo Shan Temple to watch the sutras on the sixth day of the sixth lunar month. As a result, a temporary market was formed in front of the temple, some offering scriptures and "good books", some offering "ice water" and summer medicine, and some selling incense sticks and various mascots. In the market, "scholars and women gather and the sun shines." However, visitors to the temple to burn incense are limited to men, and women are not allowed to enter the temple.

On this day, Guo Shan Temple in Beijing not only held a sutra hanging ceremony, but also held many arhat activities to predict good or bad luck. Later, the number of scattered scriptures decreased. By the end of the Qing Dynasty, there were no scriptures to do, and only one day was held according to the old practice.

In the early years, there was a mysterious legend in Guo Shan Temple: Once upon a time, there were two butterflies living in seclusion in the temple. From Qingming to Mid-Autumn Festival, whenever the sun sets, butterflies dance and fly around the courtyard, avoiding people. If tourists greet them with their hands and shout "Old Road", butterflies will fly in at once, flying freely, feeling lingering and reluctant to leave. People think it is the incarnation of butterfly lovers.

It is said that at that time, there were copies of the Preface of Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty and poems and songs of the Song Dynasty in the temple, which were later borrowed and returned, and their whereabouts were unknown.