A Brief Introduction to the Inscription of the Incense Festival in Dongyue Temple

Historically, Dongyue Temple is famous for the largest number of inscriptions in Beijing, but there are always different opinions on how many. The reason is that there are a large number of inscriptions scattered in the main courtyard, the East Gallery, the West Gallery and the North Courtyard, but most of the inscriptions on the east and west sides of Daizongbao Hall are arranged irregularly, and the age of the inscriptions spans 600 years, so the previous statistics are different and there are many doubts. Dongyue Temple was completely restored in 1997, and the stone tablets that were knocked down and smashed and buried in the ground during the Cultural Revolution were rediscovered, which once again promoted the research of stone carvings.

After sorting and proofreading, it is found that there are as many as 163 stone tablets in Dongyue Temple. The earliest is the tombstone of Zhang Liusun in the second year of Yuan Dynasty (65,438+0329), and the latest is the Luban Hui tablet in front of the new Luban Temple in the thirty-first year of the Republic of China (65,438+0942). Not all of them are stone tablets, but some are from the first year of Qianlong. Its total number far exceeds the previous record of 140 (see Appendix Catalogue of Inscriptions of Dongyue Temple for details). Most of the inscriptions are concentrated in the East and West Forest of Steles. According to the map of the inscription position drawn by 1963, it can be seen that the positions of the tablet points of the incense clubs in the forest of steles are basically symmetrical, but the number of the east forest of steles is obviously more than that of the west forest of steles.

Of the 65,438+063 known stone carvings, 65,438+035 are monuments erected by various incense associations. Dongyue Temple is a "children's temple" with no more than a dozen Taoist priests. Organize Dongyue Temple Club, and all incense clubs will contribute. Compared with the donation from the incense club, the government's annual regulations for repairing temples are insignificant. Pet-name ruby unprecedented Dongyue Temple Fair was held entirely under the organization and management of Zhuxiang Fair.

There are generally two kinds of incense parties: Penny's Club and Wushu Club. Cultural associations believe that temples and pilgrims are the main services, while military associations focus on performances and entertainment. The inscriptions on Dongyue Temple are all made by the Cultural Association. As for the Dongyue Temple Wushu Association in history, it has always been a mystery to us.

Pilgrims who go to Dongyue Temple to burn incense often have to do divination first, set up a monument in the temple to choose an auspicious day, and invite court officials, scholars or abbots to write books in the temple to record their good deeds, and announce the names of the congregation, even the deceased congregation, in the shade and side of the monument in order to be immortal. If the meeting has been established for a long time, in order to prevent people from slacking off, rectify the rules of the meeting and warn future generations, we will continue to rectify the incense party, or re-erect the monument, or add inscriptions or titles below, in the shade and on the side of the monument before re-carving it. Those incense clubs with a long history, sufficient funds and numerous societies have set up monuments many times. For example, Chen Chen's old club is different from the 11th year of Yongzheng (1733), the 5th year of Qianlong (1740), the 27th year of Qianlong (1762) and the 39th year of Qianlong (1774). All the incense parties are good and United, and the two sessions are about to open.

* * * Monument, just like the six-year plan (1867), is erected by the White Paper Festival and the Flower Festival. At the same time, there are two monuments of Xianghui. For example, in the White Paper of Cao Laohuguan, the congregation erected two monuments of the same size in March of the seventh year of the Apocalypse (1627). Of course, not all incense parties have enough strength to decide a stone. I believe that there are many incense sticks that are sincere and do not seek promotion or stone signing. Therefore, there is every reason to speculate that the number of incense clubs in Dongyue Temple in history should far exceed the existing inscriptions.